Leveling up wouldn’t heal Han Fei’s wound but after he added all the attribute points to stamina, his recovery speed did increase. With the additional stamina reward from the title, Undying, Han Fei’s current stamina was at 24.
It was hard for players in Perfect Life to raise attribute points, each point was precious. To have such a high stamina at level 15, Han Fei would be the only one. The increase in stamina improved his speed, strength, fighting ability, and recovery speed.
“Notification for Player 0000! The main mission requires you to disrupt the ritual but since you’ve gone beyond that by killing the Butterfly, the Ziggurat has lost its manager! You’ve activated Ziggurat’s Manager Mission!
“Ziggurat’s Manager Mission: Please find the missing altar and figurine at the Ziggurat in the next 7 days. Gain the approval of the memory fragment inside the figurine and become Ziggurat’s new manager!
“After completing this mission, your talent and manager power will become more powerful!
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve cleared the Ziggurat Map! The title of Yi Ming Street’s Guardian has leveled up! Friendliness level with all the ghosts who have been affected by Death Curse increases by 1!
“Killing the Butterfly makes you the scariest presence in this area. Now you can attempt to open all the altars in this area! If you’re mad enough, you can build your own altar.
“Notification for Player 0000! Your professional resume has been updated!
“After joining the security at Ziggurat, during your internship period, the number of tenants lowered by 90 percent, the overall scale of the neighbourhood downsized by 90 percent. After attempting so many jobs, perhaps you’ve made the discovery that you might not be suitable for service-type professions.”
Han Fei sighed after he read through all the system notifications. He felt better after the system confirmed that the Butterfly was dead. With regards to the monster that came out from the black cocoon underground, that was a problem for the future.
The exit button was glowing but Han Fei didn’t hurry to leave, there were many things for him to do. Taking out the phone Firefly left for him, Han Fei compared the ID inside the chatgroup and the surviving tenants at Ziggurat. Most of the people in the chatgroup heeded Han Fei’s warning and went into hiding, so while there were many injuries, not many perished.
“Ziggurat has been heavily destroyed, we’ll need everyone’s help to rebuild this place.” With Spider and Zhuang Wen backing him, no one dared to challenge Han Fei. The brawl almost flattened Ziggurat. First, the Evil Soul controlled the senior monster to go on a massacre, then the Singer went berserk, finally the Butterfly activated all the Death Curse. Those who survived this ordeal had to be quite strong.
Han Fei made a quick calculation, among the original Ziggurat tenants, other than Zhuang Wen, there were 3 remaining Large Lingering Spirits, the red dress, the amalgamation of every spirit in Firefly’s chatgroup and a Soul Chaser whose face was covered in wounds.
When the other Soul Chasers jumped into the altar to cleanse themselves, this Soul Chaser stood to the side to observe Han Fei and Feng Ziyu, he appeared to be the tester that massacred the whole neighbourhood many years ago. However, under Butterfly’s torture, he was no longer human, but a monster who had committed many sins.
“Thank you for the hints when Butterfly sent you to collect my souls.” With the protection of the tenants from Happiness Neighbourhood, Han Fei approached the man, “Can you tell me your name?”
The Soul Chaser looked at the unconscious Feng Ziyu and he shook his head. “I’ve already forgotten everything in my past. You’ve killed the Butterfly so you’re now the new manager. I will help you guard the altar underground to pay penance for my past sins.” Finally the Soul Chaser sighed. He apologized to Feng Ziyu and turned to jump down into the altar.
The 3 Large Lingering Spirits were friendly with Han Fei so the other tenants didn’t dare to do anything to him.
The merchant from Building 1 also survived. He lost an arm and a leg but even so he was still carrying a box of paper money with his remaining hand. Han Fei had a feeling his desire for money had helped him survive. Beside the merchant was the bride and the 2 guards from building 1. The bride initially approached Han Fei to get something from a room in Building 4. Now the room was leveled. The 2 guards didn’t dare to approach Han Fei. They looked at Han Fei with admiration and respect. Han Fei had taken the role of security guard to new heights.
The original rules had been broken for the new rules to be set up. The strong spirits returned to their rooms, the weaker spirits stayed beside Han Fei. These included the guard Hua Kui, the woman who found her son and Feng Ziyu’s unlucky neighbor. Feng Ziyu’s neighbor did try to jump into the ray of light to return but his physical body had perished in real life, he couldn’t return anymore. These people didn’t have much power but it was because of that, they retained their humanity and emotions. Han Fei couldn’t stay in the cryptic world forever, so they would come in handy to help rebuild Ziggurat. “The cryptic world is filled with scary ghosts and monsters, you’ll find it hard to survive if you leave this place, in that case, why don’t you stay here?”
Han Fei was always good to his allies. He assigned everyone 3 rooms but the condition was that they had to keep their rooms clean. After assigning everyone their job, Han Fei requested his neighbours from Happiness Neighbourhood to look after Feng Ziyu. This former Immortal Pharma employee planned to clear Perfect Life with Han Fei but now he had become a spirit in the cryptic world and couldn’t go ‘offline’ anymore.
Spider’s eyes shone with admiration as he saw Han Fei deal with everything. He valued Han Fei, not because Han Fei had killed the Butterfly but more because Han Fei had managed to forge Rest in Peace at Cattle Alley and became the last ‘midnight’ butcher. Spider placed his hope on Han Fei, he had a feeling Han Fei would be able to accomplish the things he failed in the past.
After Han Fei was done dealing with everything, Spider walked towards Han Fei. Spider himself looked normal but the 8 shadows behind him were imposing. “I’m surprised that the scene from Butterfly’s nightmare would come true. I thought no one would be able to win the Butterfly. Counting you, there are 3 people who have defeated Butterfly in this world.”
Han Fei didn’t dare to stay too close to Spider. The Spider was extremely powerful, if he intended to harm Han Fei, the latter wouldn’t even have the time to log off.
“Don’t worry, my power is not so easily used.” Spider plucked on his red web. “I know yin energy and negative emotions won’t work on the Butterfly so I used guilt and penance to weave this web. Only then the Butterfly would be trapped in it.”
“You’ve been hiding all along inside the talisman? So who was the Spider that I met at Cattle Alley?”
“That was my heart.” The Spider smiled. “If I didn’t remove my heart, how could I manage to fool the Butterfly?”
“What do you plan to do next? Continue to stay at Cattle Alley?” Spider would be an incredible ally for Han Fei. He switched on the button for masterful acting in his mind and channeled all of his psychological training to try to persuade Spider to stay.
“My heart will stay at Cattle Alley to pay penance for my sins.” Spider didn’t give Han Fei the chance to speak. He stared at Rest in Peace. “This world is far more complicated than we thought. I don’t know what kind of path you’ve chosen for yourself. I met an old man that said he would save everything but in reality he was only trying to save himself. I hope you will not follow in his footsteps because it will only lead to a dead end.” Spider suddenly stopped talking as if he had touched on the subject of an Unmentionable.
After a long time, Spider continued, “This area was safe due to the black cocoon and the black mist, but now that the black mist has dissipated, you’ll have to be careful.”
“This area is not safe anymore?” Hearing that, Han Fei didn’t know how to react. He thought the danger was already over.
“Yes, so you shouldn’t stay at the same place for too long. If you don’t venture deep into the darkness, the darkness will still come to consume you.” Spider took out another talisman from his pocket. This talisman looked similar to the one before but it was made from blood web. “If you run into mortal danger, you can open this.”
When Han Fei touched the talisman, the robotic voice said, “Notification for Player 0000! You’ve obtained Grade E 1-time consumable—Spider’s Talisman.
“Spider’s Talisman: Only by opening it can you tell what’s inside.”
“Thank you.” Han Fei put away the talisman. He wanted to say something more but when he looked up, Spider had already walked away.
“Looks like he didn’t plan to hide inside the talisman this time.”
Han Fei sighed. Spider was too clever, ‘people’ like him always had their own idea. After Spider left, Han Fei stayed with his neighbours from Happiness Neighbourhood. Then he used Resurrection on Zhuang Ren. After sending Zhuang Ren back, Han Fei found a corner and quitted the game.
The city shrouded in darkness turned red. Han Fei realized the exit image was rather similar to the blood red scenes he saw from his suppressed memory. At the very last moment, Han Fei saw a pair of frosty eyes staring at him not far from Ziggurat. The person was carrying a broken altar, with an old man’s head inside. ‘Is that the Singer?’
The world spun. When Han Fei opened his eyes, he was back in the real world. He was about to remove the gaming helmet when sharp pain came from the back of his head. His heart raced with angina pain.
He held his hands over his head. Han Fei could hear maddened laughter in his mind. He only recovered after a long time.
