Han Fei wanted to stop this, he had no interest in building an altar, but it was already too late. The figurine inside the altar was like a snowman left under the sun. As its size slowly dwindled, the cracks on its body healed and the face became more and more like Han Fei. The nose, eyes, mouth... the figurine looked just like Han Fei, the only difference was the Han Fei portrayed by the figurine was laughing madly.
Han Fei had never shown a laugh like that in real life, not even his Evil Soul would laugh so madly. ‘The crazy laughter from the red orphanage in my mind is influencing me!’
The things that Han Fei worried about finally happened. After Butterfly drew out his souls, it activated the deep red memory in Han Fei’s mind. Even though the Butterfly had been vanquished, the memory it triggered didn’t recover to its previous state.
“Warning! Building an altar will summon misfortune and tragedy! After the altar is destroyed, the player will be permanently injured!
“Warning! Building an altar requires a lot of sacrifice… Forcing the building of one will heavily injure the player!
“Warning! After the altar has been successfully built, the player will always be traceable by Unmentionables! Please consider this carefully!”
The warning from the system didn’t stop. Han Fei’s scalp was numb but he couldn’t do anything. ‘Don’t just warn me! Tell me how to stop this!’
After the figurine took on Han Fei’s appearance, Han Fei’s Life Points started to drop until it stopped at 1 Life Points. The worst thing was normally a player’s Life Points would slowly recover on its own, but now Han Fei noticed no matter how many Life Points he recovered, it would immediately be absorbed by the altar and he would drop back to 1 Life Point.
What concept is having 1 Life Points? It meant that Han Fei would die from a touch by a spirit. Han Fei stared at the wooden splinters on the edge of the roughly-made altar and the red threads around him, he didn’t dare to move too recklessly.
Due to the talent of Midnight Butcher, the lower Han Fei’s Life Points, the better his physical capability and the sharper his senses. He could feel clearly that the altar was building some kind of connection with him. Noticing the strange behavior of Han Fei, all the neighbours actively surrounded Han Fei in the middle, just in case he was attacked from something in the dark. Han Fei wanted to open his mouth to warn the others, but he didn’t really understand what had happened. He decided to wait for the system notification to finish first.
The old altar had changed. The appearance didn’t change, but the strange words, curses and marks on the inside walls had disappeared. No one dared to move. Everyone stood in the middle of the hall.
Soon an hour passed. The Song from the black coffin suddenly disappeared and a fleeting cackle drifted out from the altar. Everyone present heard the laughter. They knew it was Han Fei but strangely enough, it also felt like it didn’t belong to Han Fei. Han Fei wouldn’t laugh like that.
“Notification for Player 0000! As the Guardian Spirit of Yi Ming Street, you’ve successfully built your own altar!
“Han Fei’s altar: Unknown object
“Definition of Unknown Object: Object that has never appeared or has appeared for the first time in the darkest night.
“Players under level 15 cannot build an altar successfully so the anomaly makes this an unknown object.
“Altar Level: 0
“Please increase the altar level to 1 as soon as possible. Before the altar reaches level 1, it will continuously exhaust the player’s Life Points. After the altar is raised to level 1, it will unlock all of its basic ability! Behind every altar hides the eyes of an Unmentionable, every altar corresponds to the power of an Unmentionable!
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve successfully peeled back the black cloth on the altar and obtained the approval of the figurine inside. You’ve unlocked your character’s hidden attribute, reputation!
“Reputation Points: 34.
“Raise your reputation to 100, to satisfy the lowest requirement needed to level up the altar!
“Obtaining friendliness from nearby citizens can indirectly increase your reputation; Earning hatred and anger from the nearby citizens also provides a chance to increase your reputation.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve successfully built an altar. You’ve unlocked your character’s hidden attribute, Afterlife Karma!
“Afterlife Karma: 80
“Helping others from the dark has a chance of gaining Afterlife Karma. You can exhaust Afterlife Karma to level up the altar!
“Leveling up the altar requires the player to have 100 Reputation and 100 Afterlife Karma!”
When Han Fei saw all the notifications, he was stunned. The altars were related to the Unmentionables. Without even realizing it, Han Fei had taken a huge step in his life but this step appeared to have brought him closer to hell. “Before the altar is leveled up, it will continue to exhaust the player’s Life Points? Meaning if I don’t raise the altar to level 1, I will permanently be in the state of having 1 Life Points?” In this cryptic world where murderers, ghosts and madmen roamed freely, even with his neighbours protecting him, Han Fei didn’t feel safe at all. After all, the moment Big Sin woke up and decided to come and ‘cuddle’ with Han Fei, Han Fei would die on the spot. “Looks like I better stay away from Big Sin before the altar levels up.”
Han Fei tried his best to calm down. Han Fei didn’t dare to eat Xu Qin’s food anymore. Xu Qin’s food indeed could help recover his Life Points but they also contained curses. Now was not the time to take risks, even though Han Fei’s luck was always not bad.
“Notification for Player 0000! Grade F Mission, Ancestral Hall Street has been completed! You’ve completed the task of repairing the altar, you obtained 3 free skill points!
“Mission completion rate is more than 90 percent, you obtained additional reward—Ancestral Hall.
“Ancestral Hall: Ancestral halls are places where people mourn their ancestors, but in your ancestral hall, you will be mourning yourself. As Lingering Spirits and Animated Regrets enter your ancestral hall, there’s a chance for you to gain reputation and afterlife karma.”
The system wanted the player to repair the altar and not build the altar, but in a way, building an altar was repairing the altar. The difference was the figurine inside the altar had been swapped for another ‘God’.
“I have no idea an altar can be taken over just like that!” Han Fei shared a look with himself inside the altar. It felt weird to see that even though he was only 20 plus, he was already being mourned on a sacrificial table. It was also inexplicably terrifying. He knew the thing inside the altar was not himself, or rather, it was not the version of himself Han Fei wished to be. Han Fei lowered the black cloth over the altar and then turned to the Mirror God, “What… do you think I should do now?”
Mirror God at Building 1 and the Phantom Dog at Building 2 were the earliest tenants at Happiness Neighbourhood. They knew many things.
“Altars have special meaning in this city. Theoretically speaking, you shouldn’t be able to build your own altar.” The Mirror God knelt inside the mirror. This was the first time Han Fei saw the Mirror God come so close to the edge of the mirror and look so confused. “It’s a good thing that you’ve built an altar, this will help you evolve into an Unmentionable in the future, but…”
“But what?”
“You’ll need to be dead to reap that benefit. First you have to die and then slowly make your way to become an Unmentionable, am I right?”
Han Fei couldn’t disagree with the Mirror God. He was reminded of Fu Sheng, the previous building manager. Fu Sheng had his own altar, but in reality, other than Fu Sheng’s younger brother, no one knew about his existence, it was like he was dead. On top of that, Han Fei had the testimony from Zhuang Ren. He knew that the CEO of Immortal Pharma grew up alone, Zhuang Ren had never seen Fu Sheng before. The combination of these two clues ignited a possibility in Han Fei’s mind.
Noting how silent Han Fei was, the Mirror God added, “Of course, all the altar possesses at least 1 power of the Unmentionable. If we serve this altar well, perhaps you’ll gain a new trump card.” Mirror God stayed inside the mirror but he knew the altars very well. He must have experienced a lot before he was stuck inside the mirror.
“I guess that’s all I can do now.” Han Fei didn’t hide the requirement to level up the altar. He needed to reach level 1 as soon as possible to stop the permanent drain of his Life Points. He saw the altar as a monster from the cryptic world. When there was no sacrifice, it would consume the player’s Life Points to sustain itself.
The neighbours tried to mourn the altar but Han Fei’s Afterlife Karma didn’t budge. Looks like this hidden attribute wouldn’t be so easily raised.
Ancestral Hall Street was at the fringe of Ziggurat, this place was quite dangerous. After a quick discussion, the group split into 2 teams. The tenants from Ziggurat would take the music box and continue to search for the Singer while the tenants from Happiness Neighbourhood would escort Han Fei back to the Ziggurat to ensure his safety.
Skipping a meeting with Big Sin, Han Fei tried to understand more about his two new unlocked hidden attributes at the Ziggurat. He decided to visit the Ziggurat’s remaining tenants one by one. Using the experience he had from his own counseling sessions, Han Fei walked into the tenants’ hearts. He could feel their despair and identify their obsession. During this process, Han Fei was indeed touched by the tenants’ past and he became sincere in helping them to complete their last wishes.
Communication, counseling, promises, Han Fei was more like a travelling psychologist than a player in the cryptic world. He tried to save the ‘monsters’ who were trapped in this maze, to help them find their most authentic selves. Han Fei used 8 hours to get to know all the remaining tenants at Ziggurat. This included the reason for the businessman’s greed, the red dress’ last wishes, as well as the people who had died without a whimper in the Death Chat Group.
He memorized everyone's past. He would try to find traces of these people back in real life. After 8 hours, Han Fei’s Afterlife Karma increased by 2 points. Why the increase? Han Fei had no idea.
“Afterlife Karma normally means doing good things in good life so that one would be repaid in kind after death. Does that mean I’ll have to do more good things in real life?” Helping the victim’s family was a good thing, capturing the culprit to bring justice to the dead was also a good thing. Han Fei thought about it, if that was really the case, then his Afterlife Karma mostly came from solving cases.
“I’ll find out more after I return to real life.” After saying goodbye to everyone, Han Fei chose a safe room to log out. His consciousness rose. When blood froze the city, he could sense clearly there was a blood capillary that came out from his chest which was connected to the altar at Ancestral Hall Street.
His eyes wandered. Inside a building in the area next to the Ziggurat, the Singer was hugging the old man’s head, staring at Han Fei silently.
“What is the meaning of this? The Singer has been using this method to lure me to him? What is it that he wants?”
Opening his eyes, Han Fei removed the gaming helmet. His mind was filled with the last gaze the Singer directed at him.
“He appeared to be crying…”
