“When I was jobless, I missed working every day; but now that I have a job, I wish I could rest more often. Unfortunately I have both morning and night shifts, I can’t even have a normal break.” Han Fei was an actor in the morning but at night, he could be a security guard, a patrol teacher, a convenience store boss or even a midnight butcher.
Gulping down a glass of water, Han Fei put down the book and started his physical training. Ever since he started Perfect Life, Han Fei’s lifestyle became so healthy that it didn’t match that of a normal youth.
At around 11 pm, Han Fei gave Huang Yin another call. After making sure Huang Yin was ready, Han Fei climbed into the gaming hub. In the past few days, Han Fei felt like he was going to the executioner whenever he entered the game, he had even prepared his will, but this time, the pressure was conspicuously smaller.
Time ticked by. When the large virtual screen in the sky changed, Han Fei also put on the gaming helmet. There were only 24 hours left until the official OB of Perfect Life. Blood descended and Han Fei’s consciousness arrived at the bloody city.
While his consciousness descended, he saw a red figure not far away. The ‘person’ was hugging an old man’s head, guarding beside an altar. ‘The Singer? He’s still there?’ When Han Fei exited the game last time, he already saw the Singer, he was surprised to find the spirit to still be there when he logged in this time.
Opening his eyes, Han Fei found himself at the location where he logged off last time. He pushed open the bedroom door and walked into the negotiation between Hua Kui and 2 guards from Building 4. Hua Kui said that he had survived at Building 4 for years, so with his experience, he was most suitable to take the post of lead security guard at Ziggurat.
“Han Fei?” After interacting with the tenants from Happiness Neighbourhood, they found out about Han Fei’s real name too. “When did you enter the house? I remember there was no one in that room.”
“How is the situation in the neighbourhood now?” Han Fei sat on the couch and asked. The 3 guards answered one after another, it was clear who the lead security guard here was.
“After the altar at the underground crumbled, the shell of the black cocoon started to crack. Even though it still radiates black mist, the mist is not thick enough to envelope the entire Ziggurat, it can barely supply the neighbourhood to heal itself.” Hua Kui was in a clean security guard uniform, he looked quite spirited. The group walked out of the room. After a day of recovery, Building 4 had almost rebuilt itself. The blood vessels left behind by the Butterfly were made into nutrients by the tenants and fed into the building.
“Butterfly is dead, so we need a new manager.” Hua Kui began with clear hint, “In terms of power, the jumper woman from Building 1 is the strongest but she doesn’t have the plan to take over the manager’s post, she spends most of her time just being crazy; in terms of personality and intellect, I believe you’re the most suitable candidate.” The two other guards nodded vehemently. They had a good relationship with Han Fei. If Han Fei became the new manager, at least their safety could be guaranteed. Furthermore, they also approved of Han Fei’s style of management.
Han Fei led the team of guards and walked down the corridor. The tenants that they ran into greeted them warmly, it was hard to imagine that they were in the cryptic world. Even a small neighbourhood in real life might not have a community as close-knitted as this.
Han Fei took out Firefly’s phone. After Firefly was resurrected, his phone became Han Fei’s item. The phone looked normal, but after the system’s appraisal, Han Fei realized this was a rare Grade F cursed object. It was called the Phone of Death Chat Group. If one wanted to obtain this cursed object normally, one had to join the death chat group and survive among the group of ghosts, the difficulty was high. However Han Fei’s soul accidentally crawled into Firefly’s body and allowed him to gain the approval of all the ghosts, making it easy for him to acquire this cursed object. Han Fei had edited the name of the chat group into Ziggurat’s Tenancy Right and Tenant Support Group.
In the chat group, Han Fei asked everyone about their plans for the future. He stressed that the neighbourhood belonged to everyone, every tenant was the manager and he hoped they would participate more often in the management of the neighbourhood.
At the other locales, everyone fought crazily for the manager’s post but here, Han Fei voluntarily shared his power with others. For the cryptic world, this might be the first step to bring about big changes. Thanks to the chat group, communication between the tenants was easy. When Han Fei was away, the tenants worked together to clean the Ziggurat. They collected the traces and Death Curses of the Butterfly and tallied them in the chat group.
Going through the chat history, Han Fei noticed a few noteworthy things.
Firstly, after Butterfly exploded Dresser 4444, there were certain transformations to all the dressers in Ziggurat. Even though the main pathway between nightmares and the cryptic world had been ruined, there still remained some kind of special connection between the two dimensions. Without Butterfly to control it, if someone got lost in their nightmare, they might be lucky enough to push open the dresser to the Ziggurat and have a chance encounter with Han Fei. Of course, the chance of that was very low.
The male student and Laughing All Day led the tenants to collect all the fragments of the remaining altar at Ziggurat. For the locals of the cryptic world, the altars were something that needed to be protected, even the fragments had to be carefully guarded. Han Fei was an atheist but he wasn’t going to provoke the ‘God’ inside the altar because of it. From his known information, only the Unmentionable had the power to build their own altar. In other words, each altar represented an Unmentionable.
“We should keep these altar fragments, some of us might use them in the future.” During the final battle, Butterfly used the power inside the altar. It even nurtured its heart inside the altar, this proved that the evolution from Pure Hatred to Unmentionable had everything to do with the altar.
Through the chat group, Han Fei found Laughing, the female livestreamer, and Wei Youfu at the top floor. After the Butterfly disappeared, the temporary managers at Ziggurat were Laughing and the female streamer while Wei Youfu and Xu Qin represented the Happiness Neighbourhood. The tenants from these two neighbourhoods normally wouldn’t encounter each other but due to Han Fei, they had approved of each other’s existence. At least they wouldn’t turn to aggression at first glance.
“Looks like you’ve already gotten to know each other, there’s no need for introductions then.” After Han Fei entered Butterfly’s former room, he realized the atmosphere inside the room was rather awkward. The weakened Wei Youfu leaned on the couch, Laughing scratched his chin and looked out the window. In the living room, the female streamer and Xu Qin sat face to face, one was fluffing her red dress, the other sharpening her table knives.
Perhaps because this was Butterfly’s former room, the room was particularly eerie and dark. The temperature was also lower than outside.
“Even though the Butterfly is gone, it also brought the black mist away with it. The neighbourhood will not return to its previous state.” Laughing shattered the awkwardness in the room. “Our enemy in the past was the Butterfly but in the future, we’ll have to face all sorts of different scary existences, perhaps even other Unmentionables.”
Pulling back the curtain, the group looked out. Ziggurat had 24 floors, it was the tallest building in this area. However, down the distance, there were other buildings which were much higher. Han Fei’s group was merely occupying a small corner of the cryptic world. They weren’t close enough to witnessing the full scale of the darkness.
“To face the potential danger, I suggest cooperation.” Wei Youfu’s face was pale and his body was transparent, “Just like how Happiness Neighbourhood’s Building 1 and 2 came together, we needed to gather all the scattered forces, that is good for everyone.”
“I agree. Ziggurat now only has Zhuang Wen, a single Pure Hatred but she is completely incommunicable. If she suddenly decides to go on a rampage, we’ll have a hard time controlling her.” Laughing was telling the truth. In the past, he was dominated by the Death Curse, every day his mind was filled with how to fight and survive. But after meeting Firefly and Han Fei, he started to consider his future. “There is another thing that I have to tell you.” Laughing said after a long pause. “I have a feeling that something big is about to happen. The monsters near the neighbourhood suddenly became more active, that is very abnormal.”
“Being on full defensive will only intensify our fear, we need to venture out to explore more locales.” Han Fei didn’t sound like a newbie level 15 player at all. “I know the Singer’s general location. He has been heavily injured by the Butterfly and the black mist, now is the perfect time to approach him.” After Han Fei said that, everyone was silent as they stared at Han Fei. The Singer was an Unmentionable, just talking about them could be cursed. But here, Han Fei was openly discussing how to approach one.
Bringing up the map in his mind, Han Fei pointed out the window. “The Singer is on the street just outside the Ziggurat. The previous manager at the Happiness Neighbourhood calls the place Ancestral Hall Street.”
Laughing had a dry cough and began hesitantly, “Are you sure about this?”
“One of the main reasons I entered Ziggurat is to find the previous manager from Happiness Neighbourhood. His altar and memory fragments have all been taken by the Singer so I have to find him.” Han Fei believed the Singer was one of Fu Sheng’s 3 children so he should know more about Fu Sheng.
“I understand that but there is a whole level of Pure Hatred between us Lingering Spirit and the Unmentionable. After the Pure Hatred is reborn in the black flame, they are delineated into 3 more subcategories, faded red, red and deep red. Even if the Singer is injured, he is not someone any of us Lingering Spirits can handle. Even someone as powerful as the Butterfly had to rely on the altars and the black mist to force the Singer back.” Despite his name, Laughing was actually quite a negative person.
“After the Singer recovers, he will definitely come back for us. Do you want to deal with him now or later?” Han Fei didn’t fear the Unmentionable in the cryptic world that much since he could log off at any time. In fact, he had escaped from the Singer multiple times already. The Butterfly had injured the Singer, with the Unmentionable’s personality, he would come back to take revenge. With the current power level of the tenants at the Ziggurat now, they wouldn’t be able to survive a visit from the Singer.
“Okay, give us a time and we’ll go with you to Ancestral Hall Street!” Laughing finally made a decision.
“Then we’ll make it tomorrow night. The longer we drag this out, the greater the Singer can recover himself.” Han Fei wanted to deal with the Singer because according to the system’s manager mission, to officially become the manager at Ziggurat, he had to recover the altar and Fu Sheng’s memory fragment. Furthermore, Fu Sheng did say that Han Fei would be able to open more layers of the black box if he found more memory fragments. Han Fei wanted to know what was inside the black box.
After ironing out all the details, Han Fei led everyone from Happiness Neighbourhood and the unconscious Feng Ziyu away from Ziggurat, after all this was not their home. Walking down the streets with his neighbours and friends, no one dared to find trouble with them. ‘Now this feels more like an Iyashikei game.’ Han Fei looked down the streets shrouded in darkness and the buildings covered in Yin energy, ‘As I visit more places, I will bring hope to more of the locals.’
Han Fei returned to Yi Ming Private Academy. After he told them about his adventures at Ziggurat, Han Fei gained another bout of approval. After getting permission from all the staff and students, Han Fei decided to do something important. He opened the door of one of the classrooms and used his manager talent—Spirit Farer.
The blood red doors of hell slowly opened and Han Fei chanted Huang Yin’s name. At 2 am that night, the test server for Perfect Life would be shut down. Han Fei had to drag Huang Yin into the cryptic world before he was forced out from the game. The blood sea raged. When the doors of hell closed, a cowering figure appeared at the corner of the classroom.
“Brother Huang, I’ve prepared these 2 classrooms for you to place all your items and mission objects.” Han Fei pulled Huang Yin up from the ground.
“This is not my first time here but I still feel so discomfited being here.” With his back against the table, Huang Yin looked carefully around. The tables and chairs were toppled over in the dark classroom. Faces of children would occasionally appear on the classroom window.
“You better hurry to unload all of your stuff.” Han Fei urged, “We have something else more important to do later.”
“Speaking of which, what is your connection with the headmaster of this school? How come they allow you to use their spaces so freely?” Huang Yin already filled up a classroom with the items last time.
“This is the power of connections.” Han Fei helped Huang Yin arrange the stuff. The road to level 50 for Huang Yin was paved. Other than mission objects, Huang Yin also collected all the rare items available to beta testers. Since the save files would be wiped after OB, these valuables were not worth much to the other players.
Extremely rare antiques, weapons, legendary food and medicine, rare items and skills, there were even land contracts and business contracts. In a way, Huang Yin had gone far beyond what was required of him. After a long time, Huang Yin studied the filled classroom and he felt satisfied. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, he reached for the shoulders of the person beside him. He said with pride, “Actually I’m quite excited about the OB now. The best player of Perfect Life, it has a ring to it.”
When Huang Yin didn’t get a reply, he turned to look to his side. His arm was on the shoulders of an old man. He was wearing the guard uniform of Yi Ming Private Academy. A mountain of ghosts pressed down on him, the ghosts were all looking at Huang Yin.
“Kid, I haven’t seen you in days but you look more refreshed and rejuvenated.” As Huang Yin screamed and raced out from the classroom, Han Fei who hid behind the door stared at Huang Yin and used his Grade E active skill—Cursed Words for the first time.
“You are very cowardly, a flickering wind and you’d break down. You are afraid of darkness, small spaces. You like to overthink and scare yourself, you don’t even dare to use the toilet on your own…” Whenever Han Fei said something, black curlicues like Death Curse would appear on Huang Yin’s chest. The cursed words bound around Huang Yin’s heart and amplified his sense of fear.
Hearing the echoing screams, Han Fei knew the skill had been successful.
To prevent Huang Yin from being injured, he led the scary tenants from Happiness Neighbourhood to trail behind Huang Yin, to protect him from the dark.
