After removing the gaming helmet with some difficulty, Han Fei opened the gaming hub door. His shoulders and arms were involuntarily shaking. Pinpricks of pain still came from the back of his head. Han Fei’s hands covered his heart. He still needed time to acclimatize to real life. Things still looked bloody red in his mind. He kept reminding himself that he was no longer in the game. Han Fei forced himself to stand up and pull back the curtains.
The rays of the rising sun showered on him, it finally chased away the influence of the cryptic world. After all, that world was forever without a sun.
“It’s great to be alive.”
The virtual screen hung in the sky. The number 2 on it was eye-catching, it was getting closer to the OB of Perfect Life. “I’ve already killed the Butterfly in Ziggurat, I wonder if people in real life would feel that impact or not.” Butterfly was the ghost from nightmares and its influence could be felt in real life through the people it had controlled, like Meng Changan and Teacher Ma from Yi Ming Private Academy. These two should only be the tip of the iceberg.
Han Fei worked his body and realized the pain was still lingering. Then his stomach grumbled noisily. Opening the fridge, Han Fei heated some food and then gorged himself on them. He discovered with some surprise that his appetite had gotten bigger, like rapid consumption could bring him joy. His digestive power had been improved as well.
“How come I have this urge to eat meat?” For the sake of emergency, Han Fei stored a week-worth of food in the fridge but he finished half of it that morning. “It feels like my physical constitution has gotten better than before, if I ran into any more fugitives, they wouldn’t be able to escape from me now.”
After he had his fill, the pain from the back of the head receded. Han Fei took out his phone to call Li Xue. “Sister Li, did the police manage to capture the Butterfly yesterday night?”
Li Xue probably hadn’t slept through the night. Her voice was hoarse and she sounded tired. “Well, your guess was correct. Yesterday night might be Butterfly’s final hurrah. We captured 17 suspects who might be related to the Butterfly. They came from different walks of life and 9 of them had Butterfly tattoos. We’re now interrogating them at the station.”
“17 suspects? Is the Butterfly among them?”
“Not sure, but after all the suspects with the Butterfly tattoo knew that they couldn’t escape, they started to mutilate themselves, it was like they were hypnotized.” Li Xue revealed the information that the public like Han Fei was allowed to know, “After our interrogation, we realized that most of the suspects don’t know each other. They made their moves on the same day because they heard a voice in their nightmare.”
“A voice in the nightmare?”
“We now suspect Butterfly’s real identity is a hypnotist or someone who is very familiar with the human psyche. It is powerful enough to take advantage of nightmares to influence a person. The suspects we captured all had the same nightmare.” The police’s investigation direction was very clear. It was only a matter of time until they found the truth but Han Fei was not optimistic.
The Butterfly was maybe just a sign of human beings beginning to see the other world. Yesterday night might be a normal night for most people at Xin Lu, no one saw the events that happened in the dark and its ripple effect.
“Yesterday night, other than yourself and Huang Yin, Butterfly also targeted a few other places like Deep Space Tech’s R&D Centre, Xin Lu’s Crematorium, Xin Lu’s Fourth People Hospital and the rest. We will pay special attention to these locales while they’re trying to figure out their connection. If you have any idea, feel free to tell me.” Li Xue believed Han Fei had an unnatural instinct and he had proven helpful to the cases.
“Before the Butterfly is captured, I will assist the police fully, but I hope that you’ll also ensure my safety.” After Han Fei ended the call, he called Huang Yin. The call only rang once before it was accepted, “Han Fei, are you alright? Did you run into any danger?”
Hearing Huang Yin’s voice, Han Fei sighed in relief, “The Butterfly who has been torturing us died in its nightmare yesterday night. Brother Huang, we’ll have to look forward after this.”
“Look forward?”
“I’ll explain it further in person. Furthermore I have a new member to introduce to you.” Han Fei had his own plan. After a quick clean up, he left his home. He first arrived at Jin Jun’s place to find a crying Zhuang Ren. Then he led Zhuang Ren to Xin Lu’s intelligent city. Due to the fire and chaos at the intelligent city yesterday night, there were roadblocks everywhere. Han Fei managed to get through the inspection with Li Xue’s help. Finally they arrived at Corner Coffee. When Han Fei and Zhuang Ren got upstairs, Huang Yin was already there.
“This is the new member?” Huang Yin looked like he hadn’t slept in days.
“This is Zhuang Ren, he is a very famous horror film director. He used to live in the same neighbourhood as the Director of Immortal Pharma.” Han Fei invited Zhuang Ren to sit down beside Huang Yin. “The director left something with Zhuang Ren, namely the director appeared to have left some of his memory in Zhuang Ren’s mind.”
“Memory implantation? Immortal Pharma could accomplish that so many years ago?” Huang Yin treated Zhuang Ren with respect. Since he was invited here by Han Fei, then there had to be something special about him.
“The technology should be more complicated than we can possibly imagine. In any case, I just want the two of you to meet today. In the future, there should be many things in Perfect Life that you two will have to pursue and accomplish.” Han Fei stood before them and said seriously.
“The two of us?” Huang Yin and Zhuang Ren were shocked.
“When Perfect Life enters OB, there will be a surge of new players, one or two lucky players might fall into the cryptic world. To prevent those accidents, we need to be prepared, be it in the surface world or cryptic world.” Han Fei shared his plan, “Zhuang Ren temporarily can’t normally log into Perfect Life so he’ll handle the things in real life...”
“I have a question.” Huang Yin voiced his opinion, “Can this gentleman be trusted?”
“His daughter is trapped in that world, helping us is helping himself.” Han Fei had the power of Spirit Farer but he could only use it a limited amount of time every night. Therefore, he decided to recruit Zhuang Ren. He would help reunite the man with his family. At the same time, Han Fei hoped that meant Zhuang Ren would be willing to do some favors for him.
“Then what do you need from me?” Huang Yin asked.
“Your responsibility will be heavy.” Han Fei’s expression was severe. “I need you to compete with millions of players to be the best player in Perfect Life.”
“Best player?”
“The player with the most powerful influence, largest force, and greatest strength, a player that can manipulate the storyline of the main plot!”
“I don’t think I can do that!” Huang Yin waved his hands. “I’m just a casual player. During the CB, I spent my days renovating my house and farming. The most out-of-line thing that I had ever done was to invite the female nurse home to watch a movie with me. But before she arrived, you already summoned me away.”
“You managed to defeat the Butterfly, what else can’t you do? I used to be a casual player too but look at me now.” Han Fei used himself as an example. The other security guard tried to befriend the tenants while Han Fei had taken over the managerial role at Ziggurat. “Without a push, you’ll never know your true potential.”
“But I really don’t think I can do this!” Huang Yin almost cried. “I might be able to compete with 100 people but not millions of them!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll support you from behind, I will pour the resources from the other world into you.” Han Fei had opened both ends of the black box, he had chosen the most difficult path. To aid his future, he needed to control the surface world as soon as possible, that way when the channel appeared between the two worlds, he’d be ready.
“Perfect Life’s OB might bring in a new era but no one can tell for sure if it’s going to be for the better or for the worse, all we can do is to push it towards the positive.” Finally Han Fei managed to convince Huang Yin.
“Okay, I’ll try my best.”
“Since we’re on the same page, we’ll start the preparation tonight.” Han Fei shared his ideas with Huang Yin, he needed Huang Yin to branch out from many directions. Before OB started, Han Fei needed him to send everything useful to the cryptic world.
“No problem.”
“There’s one more thing. I remembered you said that the first official event after OB is related to Happiness Points?” Han Fei remembered Huang Yin telling him that.
“I think so… yes.” Huang Yin had a bad feeling.
“I will send you into the darkness 12 hours before the OB to lower your Happiness Points as much as possible. When the first game ranking appears, we’re going to send your right to the top.” Han Fei shared his plan, “Having an early lead will be crucial to us.”
“Do we really have to do this? I mean I feel like my Happiness Points are quite low already. I also feel like I’ve gotten quite immune to fear and despair.” Huang Yin tried to persuade Han Fei. “Other than that, I keep having nightmares lately. My heart is stronger than before, and scares might not be able to lower my Happiness Points anymore. Yes.”
“No worry, I’ve just learned a new skill called Cursed Words, it can greatly lower a target’s resistance. The weaker the target, the greater the effect.”
“Curses?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be careful about it.” Han Fei signaled for Huang Yin to not worry. “Leave the dirty work to me, all you have to do is to enjoy the admiration from others. Of course, the process might be slightly painful.”
