491 Kitten
Compared to Ironman, Yan Tang felt like he belonged here. In real life, he was a very impressive person but due to his childhood incident, he had very few friends. As he grew up, he became more reclusive and arrogant. His arrogance was to hide his inability to fit in. He didn’t belong to any circle and he didn’t want to dumb himself down to fit in.
He was clever, observant, and smart but he was aloof, cold, and arrogant. His words were often cutting. Before he started Perfect Life, he was always alone, he also didn’t think he’d get any friends. But everything changed since yesterday night. Ever since he entered this city covered in darkness, he realized every cell in his body was trembling but he couldn’t tell if it was from fear or excitement. He had to communicate with his teammates to survive. Yan Tang felt his heart filling up. He now had teammates and a goal.
Yan Tang moved his eyes away from Ironman to look at Han Fei. The man appeared to represent the secret of this world. His existence was itself a mystery. Yan Tang never saw anyone better than him but he had actual respect for Han Fei. He believed that if he made Han Fei angry, the latter could easily dispatch their whole team. Yan Tang was never wrong when it came to his bad predictions so he followed Han Fei’s orders obediently.
“Did you find anything?” After Yan Tang picked up Ironman, the two walked towards Han Fei to look at the dismembered body.
“There is a black thread around the body’s heart. Once you cut it, the body will collapse into pieces.” Han Fei used Rest in Peace to pick up the thread. It was filled with strange characters. The thread was called Life Thread. It was something unique to the hospital zone. Most of the Animated Regrets and Small Lingering Spirits were bound by Life Threads and controlled by Large Lingering Spirits and Pure Hatreds.
“It’s a good thing that they came after us. This means there’s a higher chance for them to expose themselves.” Han Fei put the knife away and turned to study the fridges. “Freezers, refrigerators and ‘ice sculpture’…” The art was the bodies inside the freezers. Their bodies were frozen in the last moment of their lives. The dead bodies became the hotel owner’s collection and he made them into a gallery.
“I thought art galleries are supposed to be glamorous. This is my first time attending an art gallery, I didn’t expect it to be like this.” Ironman carefully moved away from the freezers. Opening the freezer was like trying for lottery but if you won, you lost.
“What kind of art is this? This is just a perverse hobby of a group of mad people. They see cruelty as beauty and see pride in that. This is sick!” Han Fei kicked the freezer down. A body that held a hotel room key fell. The black blood in his body gathered at the heart to form a Life Thread.
“Life Thread can control ghosts but ghosts are needed to make Life Threads. The resentment of a ghost is twisted together to form a thread.” Han Fei carefully observed the making process and then sliced through the thread. When the Life Thread snapped, the frozen body collapsed. Before his body shattered, he appeared to smile at Han Fei. The black characters on the Life Thread disappeared. A bit of light dissolved into Rest in Peace.
“Huh?” Han Fei noticed that whenever Rest in Peace severed a Life Thread, it would absorb something from it. Perhaps it was the little humanity left in the victims. “Looks like not all ghosts could be made into Life Threads. They have to have a bit of humanity in them still.”
For the locals of the cryptic world, humanity was their shackles but also the most precious thing in their souls. For survival, most had given up on their humanity, only a small part still hung on to them. But their persistence wasn’t rewarded. Instead they were hunted by stronger ghosts and their humanity was made into Life Thread. After Rest in Peace slaughtered the Butterfly, it upgraded to a Grade E item. Han Fei had been wondering how to level up the blade further and the Life Threads provided the perfect opening.
The blade had rescued Han Fei many times. Most recently, the humanity inside the blade had helped Han Fei push the altar owner out of the well. Rest in Peace was Han Fei’s most important item.
Han Fei’s eyes glowed. He forgot that he was there to save people. He gripped the blade and walked at the front of the group with Xu Yin. He used his passive Hide and Seek to its maximum. Waving the blade, Han Fei hummed a children’s ditty…
Ironman looked at the dead bodies chopped by Han Fei and then at the man who was humming happily. Han Fei didn’t look like he was a player, he looked more like a ghost looking for survivors inside the freezers.
Ironman nudged Yan Tang. “Do you think… It’s possible that he’s the real hotel owner?”
“I don’t think so but I wish to become someone like him.” Yan Tang chased after Han Fei.
“Is it just me? I’m the strange one?” Ironman was clouded by self-doubt. When he saw the freezers around him, he quickly chased after the group.
If there were police in the cryptic world, the hotel owner would have called them already. He had spent a lot of effort to produce his ice sculptures but a madman infiltrated into his property to destroy his work. The man didn’t steal, he only came to destroy the artwork.
Han Fei was not in a hurry to leave as he cut through the Life Threads. He enjoyed this very much. Even his teammates started to be afraid of Han Fei. After all, what kind of player would go searching for dead bodies? Han Fei didn’t seem like he was doing any mission, he was doing this because he liked this. Nobody could escape Han Fei’s eyes as he sliced through the Life Threads.
The group easily reached the center of the gallery. The surrounding was stacked with freezers. Many circuit lines crisscrossed on the ground. The dark gallery appeared to be welcoming them.
“My husband had been here? He was being shown these things?” Auntie Lee breathed out in disbelief.
“You husband is the doctor in the second painting, I doubt there are so many artworks when he died.” Han Fei consoled the woman. “These have been collecting for a long time. There are no rules in the hidden maps so you can see sin run rampant.” Then Han Fei turned to the mountain of freezers and a smile lit up his face. “I don’t know how he created the endless loop but as long as I continue to cut through the Life Threads, his power will weaken, and eventually the hotel owner has to come out to face us.”
There was a small stage in the middle of the gallery. The stage had a surgical table. It came with all sorts of equipment. The hotel owner probably spent his time here to sew the bodies into shapes that he preferred. “The owner has spent so much time creating the artworks in the freezer, he is one crazy lunatic too.”
Walking onto the stage, Han Fei pulled off the white cloth of the surgical table. A man covered in knife wound lay on the table. When Han Fei saw the man, his eyes narrowed. He saw the picture of this man in the lobby of the first floor. The man was the hotel’s first owner and the person who built Wen Hwa Beauty Hotel. Han Fei raised Rest in Peace when Xu Qin suddenly moved to guard him.
At that same time, the man on the table opened his eyes. Endless souls crawled into the man’s body through his wounds! The Yin energy was so intense that it broke the surgical table!
With accompanying screams, the man stood up. Black Life Threads reached out of his wounds to bind around his body, turning him into a puppet. His skin was torn open and souls collided inside his body. The man pleaded, “Please kill me!”
The man pleaded as he charged at Han Fei and Xu Qin. He was very fast. Black, nasty blood poured out of his wounds. Xu Qin nudged Han Fei away and she used her knives to cut through the man’s arm. Curses crawled into the man’s skin. He screamed in pain but he couldn’t control his body. From the new wound, another Life Thread peeked out and the man became faster. Xu Qin fought with the puppet man while crying echoed in the gallery. In the dark shadows, strange figures appeared. Holding Rest in Peace, Han Fei’s brain spun. ‘The hotel boss was placed on the surgical table. He originally used the table to cut up and ‘sculpt’ his victims but he was now one of the victims. The only reason to apply the same torture on the man was that the new owner was once the first owner’s victim.’ Han Fei thought of all the paintings he had seen and then remembered the woman’s voice on the phone. ‘Be it the receptionist or the cleaner, they have the same voice.’
The first owner was just a puppet. To break this endless loop and become the hotel’s new manager, he had to kill the real culprit. Han Fei even suspected that this whole hotel only had one ghost and the rest were just its puppets.
“Boss, your partner is very strong…” While Han Fei was thinking, Yan Tang and Ironman were in awe. Xu Qin fought head-on with the first owner. The red figure stepped on endless curses, she was gorgeous and deadly. The players thought Han Fei was already the top player but the real boss was actually the woman in red. She was the reason Han Fei was so fearless.
“The hotel owner is distracted, now is the time to make our moves. Come and help.” Han Fei stared at the Life Threads that gushed out of the wounds. After the Life Threads left the man’s body, they would slither upwards into the dark ceiling.
“The real culprit is using the threads to control the first owner. The culprit should be on the other end of these threads!” Han Fei and the players climbed on the freezers. They saw the Life Threads slither through the ceiling of the gallery. There was a black cloth there.
“The real culprit is behind the black cloth?” Han Fei turned to look at the stage. Xu Qin had left many wounds on the first owner and had severed his arms but it was pointless. The black threads continued to grow out of the man’s body. The man’s broken body attacked Xu Qin continuously. “If this continues, Xu Qin might be injured too.”
Han Fei stopped hesitating. “Ironman, you are the strongest. I need you to help me up to cut through that black cloth.”
“Be careful. The black cloth is bulging, I suspect something is hiding there!” Ironman was on the highest freezer, he was ready.
Light gathered in his hands. Han Fei stared at the spot where the Life Threads gathered. He imbued Xu Qin’s pet into his ghost tattoo. When Yin energy consumed him, Han Fei charged forward. Han Fei stepped on Ironman’s shoulder and activated the Ghost Tattoo. He slashed at the black cloth at the ceiling!
A beast growls echoed inside the gallery. The tattoo on Han Fei burned to form a giant cat monster!
Ironman felt his shoulders were about to break. He stared at the fire in the sky. “That is the kitten he mentioned?!”
