Wearing earphones, and humming a song, Zeng Haicheng happily logged into the game. He had a feeling this would be the happiest day of his life. Ever since half a year ago, Zeng Haicheng had been preparing for Perfect Life. He was attracted by everything he saw in the promo, the pure bliss and healing were everything he was looking for.
Even though he made the request many times, he failed to get into CB. However, that didn’t stop Zeng Haicheng from becoming a loyal fan of Perfect Life. Like many gamers, he believed Perfect Life would be a game which would change the world. This game had become more than just a form of entertainment, it would herald the approach of a new era.
The virtual city before him would become a second reality, a heaven built for humanity. Before logging into the game, Zeng Haicheng did his best but he couldn’t even imagine the goodness within Perfect Life. There was grandeur in heaven that couldn’t be described. Bringing his barely suppressible ideals and excitement, he created his character, set up his profile and picked his spawn point at random. Then he couldn’t wait to open the door that would lead him to ‘heaven’.
“Planet Happiness, here I come.”
Fresh blood crawled on the broken wall, thick capillaries protruded from the ground. Many different dressers were tipped over in the room. Through the open dresser doors, he could see many blood-soaked clothes.
The earphones fell to the ground. The crisp sound mimicked the sound of his heart breaking. He rubbed his eyes once and then twice.
‘Yes, it is real.’
The feeling of authenticity promised by the company was brought to live. They had done it. The feeling was even more real than reality.
His Adam’s Apple trembled. Zeng Haicheng felt like he should say something but he didn’t even have the courage to open his mouth. It was so cold like he was deep underwater.
“Is this my perfect life?” To play this game, Zeng Haicheng had requested a day off work. He worked overtime for the past 3 months just for this day. He spent his days either at work or online looking for everything related to Perfect Life.
He knew the importance of the early stages of the game. Not one second of the newbie stage should be wasted. He had even planned out the route for him to level up. After he got a random talent that was not bad, he entered the game, but the things he saw confused him. He was indeed playing Perfect Life, but it also felt like he wasn’t.
‘Is it because I’ve randomly picked my spawn point? Where is this place…’ Zeng Haicheng looked around but he couldn’t tell where he was. He tried to move forward to explore. Instantly the smell of decomposition, blood and mold drilled into his nostrils at the same time. The feeling was hard to describe, like someone had punched him on his nose. After a few dry heaves, he covered his mouth. He then realized his palms were covered in cold sweat.
‘Real, this game is much too real.’ Holding his breath, Zeng Haicheng tried to move deeper into the house. ‘Based on the information on the official website, this house should be my newbie room, the base for the earlier stages of my life…’
His eyes moved around. When he saw the thing in the centre of the living room, he was frozen to the spot. His lips convulsed and cold sweat made his bangs stuck to his forward. At the spot where the bedroom connected to the living room was a giant monster covered in spines! It looked like a porcupine but also a beetle!
The worst was it was chewing on the internal organs of some kind of large animal!
Zeng Haicheng’s brain stopped working. This was no longer a problem that he could solve. His whole body was shaking. Before he started the game, he planned to strike gold overnight, and then girls, jets and mansions would be waiting for him. But after he entered the game, he had only taken 3 steps. But those 3 steps had exhausted all of his courage in life. ‘Is it a problem with my spawning point? Yes, that has to be it!’
He started to move backwards but suddenly he heard footsteps coming from the corridor. The sound was strange. It sounded like something was being dragged, there was also crying. One of the footsteps even moved on the walls and ceiling.
‘What should I do now?’ The footsteps were approaching, their destination was here!
With his heart almost escaping from his chest, Zeng Haicheng decided to crawl back into the dresser he came out from. The heavily cracked doors couldn’t be closed fully so the man curled up at the corner.
Soon the living room door opened. The temperature dropped and figures radiating misfortune and terror filtered into the room.
Holding his hands over his mouth, Zeng Haicheng honestly thought he was about to faint. The oppressive feeling was crushing his lungs. The room was too dark for him to see the new arrivals clearly, Zeng Haicheng only knew that there were more and more people inside his newbie room!
After all the figures had gathered, a young man walked out from within them. He stopped beside the dresser before walking towards the ghastly monster in the living room.
…
Han Fei gathered all the ghosts who could help him deal with the Singer and they came to Room 4044. The moment he pushed the door open, Han Fei and the tenants at Ziggurat realized there was ‘someone’ new inside the dresser, but no one said anything about it. They moved silently through the darkness, guiding Han Fei to Big Sin.
Seeing Big Sin, which had grown much larger, Han Fei hesitated for some time before he reached out to pet Big Sin’s head gently.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve been affected by Soul Poison with intense death, please seek treatment immediately!” When Han Fei’s palm turned black, he received the other system notification.
“Notification for Player 0000! Your Grade G Curse-type pet, Big Sin has metamorphosed to Grade F.
“Big Sin (Grade F Curse-type Pet): With incomparable personal charm and nurturing effort, you’ve gained Big Sin’s loyalty!
“Loyalty: 80 (It is now unwilling to part with you, you’re the first person whom Big Sin loves so much)
“Hidden Talent 1: Soul Poison (Its body possesses intense poison that can burn souls and ignite hatred.
“Hidden Talent 2: Necrophagus (Blood, dead bodies can help it grow and recover quickly)
“Hidden Talent 3: Natural Selection (Feeds on Butterfly. All its power will be doubly effective when going against Butterfly-type curse or spirits)
“Hidden Talent 4: Omen (Can attack the weak points of the spirits. Can sensitively pick out the scent of death, likes to stay around people who are about to die)
“Hidden Talent 5: Possession (Can make a target fall into nightmares. In the nightmare, target will be tormented by fear and illusion)
“Hidden Talent 6: Demonic Pest (Feeding on altars, biting divines, stealing the sacrifice, it is viewed by the eyes behind the altars as a demonic pest. It can use all the negative emotions. Its growth speed will no longer be constrained by any altars, however, close contact with any altars might anger the eyes behind the altars, causing irreparable consequences.”
After going through life and death with Han Fei, Big Sin’s loyalty moved from 50 to 80. It had fed on half the heart in the underground altar. Its original 4 talents had improved and it gained 2 new talents. It was harder for pets to gain talent than players, Han Fei hadn’t even heard of a pet with 6 hidden talents before.
‘A player like Brother Huang who has 3 talents is already extremely rare, but my pet has 6 hidden talents.’ Han Fei checked the system notifications again and again. He honestly thought this was crazy. Big Sin was only a Grade F pet, there was still plenty of space for it to grow. Thinking about the black cocoon underground that was as large as a valley, Han Fei’s anticipation for Big Sin surpassed the anticipation he had for Huang Yin.
Leaving Big Sin to chew on the heart, Han Fei and the other ghosts slowly turned around to stare at the dresser.
“This shouldn’t be. Theoretically speaking, the chance of this should be very low…”
