After obtaining the Ziggurat Guard profession, this was the first time Han Fei ran at full speed. It felt like something had been pumped into his legs, the more despairing he felt, the faster he’d run; and the faster he ran, the greater the despair which imbued his heart. ‘The talent of this side profession is quite useful, maybe I’ve lost out from not making it a main profession.’ Even dragging an adult, Han Fei’s speed didn’t slow down. In fact, he had even passed the woman. He ran as fast as he could but the one who suffered was the middle-aged man. His face bumped against many clothes and his face was tainted by blood.
“Eventually we’ll be caught up, does the bloody clothes monster have any weaknesses?” Han Fei shouted at the woman, the latter didn’t answer because running already took away all of her breath.
When he listened closer, the bloody clothes monster seemed to be saying something. The mouth was patched with cloth, when it spoke, there was only a black hole.
“I am you… Save, save me.” A croak escaped from the monster’s lips. Han Fei was about to turn around when the woman shouted at him, “Don’t listen to it! Close your ears!”
“Mom, mommy… So painful, my neck is so painful.” The woman had just warned Han Fei when a child’s voice came from a piece of clothes beside them. Hearing that, the woman slowed. In just that fraction of a second, her exposed ankle was dragged and pulled. Her body tipped forward. The woman looked at the approaching ground with panic. A slender arm reached out from a set of children’s clothes. It was followed by a boy who had a large head. It smiled innocently while its long arms latched onto the woman’s legs like some kind of stubborn vines. The children’s outfit stuck to the woman’s calves, preventing her from running. “Mommy, mommy, don’t go…”
The woman didn’t even recognize the boy. She quickly took out her fruit knife and stabbed at the creature. She was ruthless and quick. She didn’t care even if she had hurt herself. It was with this fortitude that she managed to survive until now. In other words, the survivors inside the closet all had blood on their hands. The fruit knife did no damage to the children’s clothing. She nicked off a small patch but it was soon stitched together by fabric. The boy cried and refused to let go. At the same time, a dark red shadow appeared behind the woman. Blood and flesh stitched together with fabric. It slowly opened its sleeves to welcome the woman with its deadly embrace. “Come try on these new clothes, you’ll love it!” A chilly voice came out from the clothes. The bloody clothes monster enveloped the woman!
Blood swam over her vision. All of the clothes inside the dresser seemed to come alive, her eyes filled with despair. She struggled but it was to no avail. The bloody clothes slowly closed around her. Her vision narrowed like her life was fading away. ‘With my death, they should be able to escape. Hopefully that man will live up to his promise…’
The spirit that kept her going for so long started to loosen. Fatigue came from every part of her body. The woman’s skin started to scar with horrible burn wounds. She didn’t notice any of these, at the last moment of her life, all she could think of was her son. She would never forget about her son.
“Rest in peace!” The closing red suddenly opened a crack. The bloody clothes that the fruit knife was unable to cut, was easily sliced through. The woman saw an arm branded with ghost tattoo reach into the clothes and then she was dragged out by a powerful force. She recovered her vision and clambered up from the ground. She immediately grasped the chance and ran away from the injured bloody clothes monster.
‘My blade appears to be incredibly effective against these monsters inside the dresser.’ When Han Fei made the cut, he also made this observation. When the blade touched the bloody clothes, the threads made from sin would instantly melt. The bloody clothes monster probably didn’t expect this as well. Red threads sprouted out from its black mouth and the face patched with fabric filled with shock and fear.
“Rest in Peace’s blade is made from humanity, none of the monsters inside Butterfly’s closet appear to be able to face humanity face on. Butterfly who toys with humanity probably didn’t expect that one day humanity would morph into a blade sharper than even hatred and sin!’ While the bloody clothes monster was still in shock, Han Fei charged at it. He didn’t plan to let the creature escape, the less who knew about Rest in Peace’s secret, the better.
“Nine Lives!” Activating the ghost tattoo, Han Fei took out the paper doll and planned to give it his all. Rest in Peace was sharp but Han Fei was just a normal person. His level 13 body was fragile and was extremely prone to danger. Therefore, every time he battled, it was like a dance on the high wire. Either his enemy or himself would be heavily injured. There were common everyday items inside the closet like fruit knives and cleavers but these blades were unable to harm the bloody clothes monsters, they were the ultimate predator inside the dresser.
But now the monster felt threatened by Han Fei. It noticed a strong presence of curse coming from Han Fei. Consumed by anxiety, its first reaction was to run. To find one singular bloody clothes among a maze of them was difficult, however, incidentally, Han Fei had the hide and seek talent. With extreme observational skill and memory, he memorized all the details about the monster and chased after it. The Patrol talent of Ziggurat Guard came in useful again. Han Fei tore off a piece of the doll and shoved it into the woman’s pocket and then he chased after his prey without looking back. Like a shark who had smelled blood, he was not going to let his prey go.
“Hey! Stop chasing after it!” The woman wanted to stop Han Fei but the latter soon disappeared from her sight. Staring at the bloody clothes around them, the woman crouched beside the middle-aged man. The happiness from having just escaped death dissipated. She knew it was practically impossible to reunite after being separated at this place.
“How could he be so rash?” The woman stood there. Han Fei was reliable but the half-dead uncle was a burden.
“Where is him?” The middle-aged man’s thought mirrored the woman’s. After Han Fei left, his hope was extinguished immediately.
“I have no idea, we’ll wait for him here.” The woman looked around with caution. About 10 minutes later, the clothes around them swayed. As she held up the fruit knife, Han Fei walked over holding a set of bloody clothes. The security uniform was drenched in blood but Han Fei wasn’t injured.
“Where is the bloody clothes monster?”
“This is it.”
“You’ve killed it?” The woman and middle-aged man looked at Han Fei with disbelief. A normal looking security managed to kill the bloody clothes monster?
“I was merely the aid, I didn’t deliver the killing blow.” Han Fei took out the paper from the woman’s pocket, the paper was part of the paper doll. Han Fei managed to find his way back because of it. “There is lingering resentment on these bloody clothes and they dominated and animated the clothes. I’ve already destroyed the resentment inside this particular set, it has been ‘cleansed’.” Han Fei tossed the bloody clothes to the middle-aged man, “It still has the monster’s lingering presence. You should be able to fool others with it. That will help you survive here.”
The middle-aged man hesitated but after he heard it could improve his survival chances, he immediately put the clothes on.
“Come on, the longer we stay here, the more dangerous it’ll be.” The secret of Rest in Peace hadn’t been exposed but Han Fei already felt the danger closing in. After walking for some time, they finally reached the spot mentioned by the middle-aged man. It was a pile of clothes, rotting and decaying.
“When I woke up, I saw these clothes, so I hid inside them…” The middle-aged man looked quite scary wearing that bloody clothes, provided that he didn’t speak.
With a frown, Han Fei studied these clothes. He noticed they were more ‘dead’ compared to the surrounding clothes. It was like their consciousness had fully been sucked away. ‘The Butterfly probably dropped the middle-aged man here among the trash heap. That means that the channel to Feng Ziyu’s room might be near, after all, no one would have gone a long distance just to take out the trash.’ Han Fei silently picked apart the pile of clothes, he wanted to see if they were hiding anything. The 3 of them worked together. Half an hour later, they found a half-open door deep inside the pile. When they saw the door, 3 of them were stunned.
“A pyjamas with bear prints…”
“Feng Ziyu’s shirt?”
“My child’s school uniform?!”
A piece of clothing was wedged between the gap of the dresser door. All 3 of them saw the clothing but it appeared differently in their eyes!
“No! That should be fake! The clothes are merely reflecting what we want to see!” Han Fei immediately caught onto the trick. After a temporary lapse, the woman held herself back. Only the middle-aged man stumbled towards the dresser door. “Even my child is in here?! The damn bastard, how could they go after innocent children?!” The middle-aged man said angrily. When he was about 1 metre away from the door, the door suddenly opened on its own!
There was no exit beyond the cupboard door, but a giant mouth!
The clothes that they saw was not really a clothes but actually a red tongue. Bad breath and hatred gushed out from the mouth. The red tongue bound around the middle-aged man’s waist and swallowed him whole. “There is a mouth inside the dresser?” The middle-aged man was too stunned to resist. Han Fei sliced at the long tongue immediately. But as he got close, several more tongues extended out from the mouth, they were like tentacles. Han Fei was too weak to fight them back. His body lost balance and he was sucked into the mouth alongside the middle-aged man. The blackened teeth were stuck with rotting fabric. Waving his fingers, Han Fei tried to pick out the cigarette from his inventory and rummaged through his pocket for the lighter. The middle-aged man beside him was flummoxed. ‘At a time like this, you decide to smoke?’
Holding onto a tooth, the middle-aged man cried for help while Han Fei was dragged deeper into the darkness. Pain came from all over his body. While he fell, Han Fei finally found the lighter. He tried to light it and the occasional sparks brightened his surroundings. Inside the mouth’s stomach, human faces lined the ‘intestines’. They looked at Han Fei emotionlessly. When Han Fei brushed past them, they bit at Han Fei’s flesh. ‘Just what kind of monster is this?!’
The intestine narrowed. Han Fei was squeezed. The lighter failed and the wounds on his body increased. ‘Do I need to quit now? But I’ll just return back to this place next time!’
The wounds bitten by the human faces started to darken, it contained some kind of soul poison. The middle-aged man was already unconscious from one bite but Han Fei was still clear-minded after so many bites. ‘The human faces purposely avoided the arm where Big Sin’s pattern is. They are probably victims of the Butterfly so they have an instinctual fear of anything that is related to the Butterfly.’
Han Fei gritted his teeth and put away the last cigarette. He adjusted his posture and stuck Rest in Peace into the wall of the ‘intestine’, and then he shoved his arm with Big Sin’s pattern into the wound. Holding onto the flesh and human faces, Han Fei stopped himself from falling. The wall started to shake. The human faces crawled towards Han Fei. More wounds appeared on his body and his Life Points dropped. Suddenly words appeared underneath his skin. The words told a complete ghost story and the main character was Han Fei himself. The story carried a unique power, the destined tale was moving towards a different direction.
When the ghost story was triggered, Han Fei’s arm started to bleed. Sharp spikes with deep misfortune pierced through Han Fei’s skin like something was trying to crawl out from the blood pattern on his arm. When Han Fei entered Ziggurat, Big Sin disappeared. Now Han Fei realized it had morphed into the blood pattern and hid inside his arm. In a way, Han Fei was similar to the tenants at Ziggurat, but they had Butterfly’s pattern while he had Big Sin’s pattern.
Big Sin hadn’t reacted to anything before this. But as Han Fei approached death, the excited Big Sin finally awakened from its slumber. It wanted to be by Han Fei’s side to accompany his master to welcome death. Han Fei’s Life Points dropped and the blood pattern on his arm became more vibrant.
When the Life Points dropped beyond a certain point, Han Fei’s Midnight Butcher talent was activated. The sense of pain was eclipsed as his physical ability tripled. His eyes turned red and the animal instinct within him was released.
