Han Fei entered a few other rooms and everything he saw was equally terrifying. All the rooms had the same layout and a boy was trapped inside every dresser. From the pictures, the standard the Butterfly used to select the boys was very simple.
The boys had to be cute, or at least matched the beauty standard of its monstrous parents; and the boys had to have a blissful life before they were captured. The pictures inside the dressers recorded the changes to the boys, only a dresser was needed to turn a human into a monster.
‘Why is the Butterfly doing this? Just to vent its hatred?’ The pictures in the dressers contained Butterfly’s hatred and in that hatred, Han Fei sensed jealousy but he believed things were not that simple. Butterfly’s talent had to do with nightmares, it could enter a living human’s nightmare and then through the dream, started to influence its target’s reality. After a certain condition was met, the Butterfly could drag its target’s consciousness into the cryptic world. The talent was extremely scary and Butterfly’s childhood played a huge role in cultivating this talent in him.
When Han Fei accepted the Night of Resurrection mission, he received a few hints about the Butterfly’s past. During the process of having its body dumped by its biological parents, the hatred and resentment within its heart appeared to reach an unimaginable height that its consciousness fell into nightmares. It encountered some unique things and its transformation started then. The world lost a tortured child but gained a nightmare with flesh and wings.
All the dressers in the 4th floor basement had a boy trapped in them. Butterfly duplicated its pain on these innocent boys, to have its own hatred fill up the boys’ brain and consciousness until the boys reached their limits and their consciousness would shatter and become a part of the dressers.
‘Butterfly is producing endless pain and nightmare, it seems to derive power from them.’ Han Fei turned to look beside him. This boy could run freely through the 4th floor basement, his face was filled with innocence and loss. He very naturally held onto Han Fei’s hand. The small hand felt smooth as a baby’s skin. His face was flawless and cute, forming a great contrast to the boys Han Fei saw inside the dresser.
Actually Han Fei already thought about killing this boy. He remembered when they entered the first bedroom, it was this boy who caused the trapped kid inside the dresser to burst into a nightmare bubble. Such a cute boy but he had murdered so many people in the corners no one could see.
“We’ve visited all the rooms on this floor, I don’t think your home is here.” Han Fei came to the corner of the stairwell. The steps that led underground were blocked by black boards. The boards had strange patterns on them. The boards didn’t look metallic or even wooden. They looked like the shell of some strange creature. Black mist squeezed out between the boards, the origin of the mist was hidden deeper underground. Since the stairwell was off limits, Han Fei brought the boy back to the elevator.
The boy was resistant to the elevator, he seemed to have claustrophobia. Han Fei held the boy’s hand and coaxed him into the booth. Compared to when they arrived, red patterns now adorned the elevator booth’s walls. As the old axle creaked, the elevator started to move downwards.
The underground 5th floor, 6th floor… The elevator booth appeared to send them deep into the sea. The feeling of suffocation grew and the booth started to cramp like it was being squeezed. No one knew how deep this place would go. Han Fei looked at the number on the panel and wondered about something else. If every floor had rooms filled with boys inside dressers, just how many boys Butterfly had mutated at the Ziggurat? Just on that point alone, Butterfly deserved to die.
The elevator slowed down. When the number on the screen turned to negative 7, the booth was already irregular in shape. Blood leaked out from the gap. They looked like drying red paint.
Bang! The booth shook. Just as Han Fei thought he was not able to breathe, the elevator finally stopped. The elevator doors opened and the black mist rolled into the booth. The male student guarded Firefly and Lai Sheng. The 3 of them were affected by the black mist. Death appeared in their eyes and their Death Curses were slowly being triggered.
“I feel my brain breaking, we can’t go any lower.” The male student gritted his teeth as he supported Firefly and used his body to block Lai Sheng, he never cared so much about others when he was alive.
“I don’t know how to make this elevator go up. If you can’t come with us, then better wait inside the elevator.” Han Fei’s words stumped the male student. ‘How did a living person manage to survive in this environment?’
Holding the boy’s hand, Han Fei walked out from the elevator. On the surface, neither of them looked like they had changed. It didn’t appear like the black mist affected them. The boy was born in the black mist so he had gotten used to it. Red characters appeared on Han Fei’s back. The ‘blessing’ left behind by Jin Sheng helped him block the black mist. Han Fei had no idea how long he could resist the black mist, he desperately needed to get close to the truth as soon as possible.
The 7th floor basement was much larger than the 4th floor. There was a clear pattern on the wall. The blocks that formed the walls on this floor were not bricks but something that resembled a cocoon. Han Fei studied the pattern and felt like they looked familiar. ‘The pattern on these walls is similar to the pattern on the human cocoon. ‘The whole Ziggurat is a cocoon? Why would a cocoon radiate such a scary black mist?’
The black mist that emitted from underground was able to entrap the Singer, so the thing inside the cocoon must be at least an Unmentionable too!
‘Ziggurat is just a Grade E map, the fact that it has a Pure Hatred is gross enough, there shouldn’t be an Unmentionable.’ The grading of the mission by the system was based on a fixed pattern, there might be some variations but it shouldn’t be that huge. Touching the pattern on the wall, Han Fei opened one of the doors. The layout of the room was similar to the one on the 4th floor basement, like the rooms for the whole underground were constructed from one person’s memory.
Han Fei strode into the bedroom and spotted the huge dresser. Before he got closer, a light weeping and pleading voice came from inside the dresser. Han Fei raised his brow. All of the kids Han Fei encountered inside the dressers were already insentient. They couldn’t even express their pain, much less communicate.
Opening the dresser, black mist rolled out from the small space covered in dirty clothes. When the smell and mist dissipated, a wounded arm reached out from the pile of clothes.
“Kill me, please kill me.” The voice inside the pile was begging to die, he had given up on the struggle.
“Please don’t panic, can you hear me?” Han Fei finally saw the boy in the dresser. His eyes were glued together. His face was deformed, he looked barely human.
“Who is there?” The boy had maturity beyond his years. He waved his arms as he was about to say something when the boy following Han Fei ran over. “This little brother knows how to speak?” The boy asked the question in his mind with an innocent town. However, when the boy in the dresser heard the voice, he broke down immediately. He knew the ending waiting for him so he shouted loudly, “Go to the lowest floor! You have to destroy the heart there! The dead heart! Only by destroying it can we be saved…”
Black blood burst out from the boy’s mouth. The blood glued around the boy’s mouth and ears. He couldn’t speak anymore. “Heart…” The wounded arms dropped. The boy was instantly absorbed by the dresser. Only his pictures remained.
‘The further down we go, the stronger the consciousness of the boys trapped inside the dresser?’ Han Fei quietly put away the pictures from the dresser. Based on his expression, one wouldn’t be able to tell what he was thinking. People might think he was lamenting the boy’s death but in reality, he was postulating how to kill the boy beside him. His brain spun. In a short amount of time, Han Fei came up with around 10 scenarios, but as he was about to put them into action, the arm where Big Sin hid would jolt with pain, as if telling Han Fei, he would die if he did that. ‘What is up with this boy? Is he Butterfly’s childhood? O well, no matter what, at least he doesn’t mean to kill me yet.’
Han Fei walked through the entire 7th floor basement. The boys trapped here verified his thoughts. The boys here were stronger than the ones on the 4th floor, both mentally and physically. The balls of nightmare that they formed after their consciousness shattered were also scarier than the ones on the 4th floor basement.
‘Perhaps I’ll be able to find children I can fully communicate with the deeper I go.’ Han Fei’s heart lit with hope. He had the male student guard over Firefly and Lai Sheng in the corridor of the 7th floor basement while he went deeper underground with the boy. Unable to quit the game, Han Fei had nothing to lose. ‘Before obtaining Perfect Life, I did think about death but being in touch with death daily does make you appreciate life a lot more.’
Holding the boy’s hand, Han Fei looked at the slowly closing door. He might die if he descended further but he still chose to do it. ‘Now is my best opportunity. The manager still hasn’t resurrected, the only thing I need to face now is this boy.’
Butterfly was immensely more powerful than Han Fei but Han Fei had many aids on his side. In real life, Butterfly was being pursued by the police and its main consciousness was dragged down by Huang Yin. However, Butterfly should have nothing to fear from Han Fei. The guards Butterfly left behind at the Ziggurat were good enough to deal with the most powerful Lingering Spirits but Han Fei somehow brought an Unmentionable to the Ziggurat.
The number on the panel kept changing. The booth creaked like it was about to break. When the number reached negative 9, the black mist was like a sea. There was no trace of Soul Chaser on this floor, there was only Death. The booth’s walls were dented like they had been smashed in from external force. Han Fei wasn’t faring too well either. The story Jin Sheng left on him was being forcibly removed and edited by the black mist.
A heavy pressure fell on Han Fei’s body. Death suffused every cell in his body, like it was transmuting him. The red characters left by Jin Sheng were unable to stop the black mist. After they shattered, they morphed into red chains and crawled into Han Fei’s body, as if locking around his heart.
As the black mist permeated into his body, three major changes could be seen on Han Fei. Like the boys inside the dressers, his physical body started to mutate. The 3 mutated areas represented 3 different Death Curses. Han Fei had no idea when he was cursed. He tried to pinpoint where the pain came from.
The capillaries near his heart bulged. A character for Death surfaced but the character was blocked by Jin Sheng’s chain, it was unable to enter Han Fei’s heart.
Then it was Han Fei’s arm. The bones in his palm crushed and mutated until the point where Big Sin was hiding. The first 2 curses were blocked by Jin Sheng and Big Sin, but nothing intercepted the last Death Curse. A horrible pain came from the back of Han Fei’s head, it felt like someone was trying to inject a nail into his brain. He couldn’t see what was happening back there but he had a feeling someone was messing with his memory.
“Before you enter the Ziggurat, I’ve already cursed you. You will die if you enter the Ziggurat!” A stranger’s voice echoed in his head. Everything Han Fei had experienced was touched by death and lost their light. His life that became more colourful after he gained Perfect Life was dropped back into a despairing blackness. Han Fei’s consciousness dipped into the sea of despair as the elevator!
The elevator booth was slowly pressed out of shape by Death and it was happening to Han Fei’s consciousness as well. He was unable to breathe or even move his finger. He felt like he was being crushed.
Red blood flowed out into his black mind. Initially there were only 1 or 2 drops but slowly his mind was dyed red.
“Finally, I can see it?” The stranger’s voice appeared to hide in the Death Curse. “After removing the constraints of kindness and sin; after removing the chains of childhood memories, let me see what is hidden inside your brain!” The strange voice said in desperation. The 3 Death Curses exploded at the same time, intending to crush Han Fei’s mind and body. Han Fei’s memory was now 90 percent black. But that last 10 percent refused to blacken no matter what. That part of his memory was already red, every scenario from that memory was dripping with blood.
Under the pressure of the Death Curses, a laughter echoed out from the red memory. Initially the voice was small but it eventually grew louder and more unhinged.
When all the blood red memories were pieced together, the bloody fragments formed an old orphanage where a laughing madman was trapped! No one knew what he had experienced, but he kept laughing and laughing.
“So this is the real you? Let me help you remove your fake mask and let us see if we are the same kind of people! Let me see if you are qualified to be the vessel for my resurrected soul!”
The number on the panel changed swiftly and the space inside the booth became smaller and smaller.
Han Fei’s surface memory had all turned back. The laughing madman was waiting for something but no matter how deep the Death Curses branded into the mind, they were unable to break through the orphanage where the madman was.
The deep red was already beyond the blackness of death. The Death Curses blasted at it but they were unable to even get away with a single figment of Han Fei’s most important memory.
The voice inside the Death Curses became agitated. They fought inside Han Fei’s brain until the black memory started to ripple and lights resurfaced in Han Fei’s grey life.
His first time talking with Wei Youfu, seeing Little Eight growing flowers in the neighbourhood, helping Meng Changxi capture Meng Changan, helping Ying Yue take her revenge on Ming Mei, destroying the meat packing plant at Cattle Alley… The bright spots in Han Fei’s memory glowed in the dark.
Han Fei regained some rationality in his mind. His arms waved blindly around until his fingers gripped something firm!
“Rest in Peace!” The brilliant blade was like a burning flame. It cut through the sea of black mist. Then without any hesitation, Han Fei used the blade to cut at the back of his head where it was the most painful. The blade slashed through something but Han Fei felt no pain.
Instantly light burst in Han Fei’s memory. The mind corrupted by darkness was slowly taken back by the red blood. The stranger’s voice in the Death Curses disappeared. It failed to take over Han Fei’s brain but instead had released some of the blood red memory in Han Fei’s mind.
The terrifying guffaw came from the deepest part of Han Fei’s mind and it echoed in Han Fei’s ears like there was a maddened version of himself standing behind him.
Han Fei’s eyes flew open. The corners of his eyes were bleeding as he looked around. The elevator was no longer retaining its shape. The boy collapsed on the ground. Death spots appeared on his previously cute face. The elevator had stopped. But Han Fei had no idea which floor he was on because the panel had died.
He looked out the gap in the elevator doors. The ground covered in red flowers had the shattered shells of a giant cocoon. The cocoon had the imprint of a human face, it carried the deepest resentment. The black and grey mist that surrounded the Ziggurat emitted from these giant cocoon fragments.
