521 Who is the Ghost?
“The Mafia game?” The orphans clearly had not played this before. They looked at Han Fei with curiosity.
“The rules are simple. I will write down the roles of human, ghost, and medium on different papers. Everyone will have to close their eyes after lights out. The ghost will make the first move, he will kill a person every night. After the ghost chooses who to kill, the medium can check a player’s identity to see if they’re the ghost or not. After the light comes back on, everyone will open their eyes. We’ll then enter a voting phase, the majority wins. Humans win if the ghost is captured and ghost wins if every human is killed.” Han Fei explained. The oldest boy was instantly intrigued. This was much more interesting than paper houses.
“Of course, the greater the number of players the better. You should gather the other kids who want to play.” Han Fei looked around the room. “Where’s the little girl?”
“She… has returned to the dorm to sleep.” The boy shoved his hand into his pocket. Han Fei saw strands of hair between his fingers. “She’s very tired, we shouldn’t disturb her. I’ll find other kids for you.” As the boy turned to the door, Han Fei’s eyes slowly moved to the bloody cardboard houses. “It’s best I destroy such a disgusting place.” Han Fei scrolled up his menu. When the boy exited his hiding spot, Han Fei received the notification.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve played the 3rd game with the children, you’ve obtained the reward—Clue 3.
“Clue 3: The child you’re looking for wears white shoes and is hiding in one of the rooms.”
A mental problem, a bad child in everyone’s eyes and he wears white shoes while hiding alone inside one of the rooms. The clues were very specific, Han Fei could eliminate most of the kids, so he didn’t need to hold back anymore.
The oldest boy left the room. It was not his first time here. He ran towards a specific room. The boy’s footsteps were light as he rushed down the corridor. As he passed the doors, he leaned on the doors to listen. He made sure there was no sound before he continued to move. “Those two rooms are the director’s office and the nurses’ breakroom. We can play as loud as we can but if we wake them up, there will be bad consequences.”
They turned the corner and the boy led Han Fei into another room. The door creaked. The black room door was pushed open and the dim light shone on the boy. “Stop pretending to be asleep. Come play games with us.” The room was the orphan’s dorm. More than 10 children slept in one room. There was no window and the place stunk. The room was like a sealed black can.
“Wake up now!” After Han Fei entered the room, the oldest boy closed the door and then opened the only light in the room. The dim light shone on the children’s faces. When he saw the kids, Han Fei’s expression shifted. Most of the children had deformities, some of them couldn’t even get out of bed on their own. The light chased away the darkness and woke the kids from their dream.
The confused faces looked at the door. When they saw the oldest boy, they immediately woke up. Their eyes filled with fear. These kids were often bullied by the boy.
When he saw a few kids were still wrapped under their blankets, the boy yanked their blankets off and even kicked one of the children off the bed. The other kids were used to this. The bullied kids acted strangely. Even though they were afraid, they bit their teeth and closed their mouths, they didn’t dare to make any sound. If they made any sound and attracted the nurses, they would be in for worse punishment. The oldest boy looked at the kids with glee. He planned to beat the kid up further but he was stopped by Han Fei. “Does bullying those weaker than you bring you joy?”
“I know you pity them but no child in this room deserves pity.” The boy smiled wickedly. He grabbed a boy by his feet. “You might think I’m awful but I’m not the worst. This boy killed his parents. His parents loved him but he poisoned them. And this kid…” The boy kicked at a short and fat boy beside him. “He cut off the safety rope of the window cleaner and ended the innocent man’s life. Right, do you remember the girl who almost killed us? She pushed a girl prettier than her into the fireplace.” The boy cackled. “Do you think they need pity? Everyone here wants you to die. This place is the home for the incurable. The smaller they are, the more venomous they’ll be.” He pointed at the kids and described everything that happened to them. An adult’s sin was often premeditated, but a kid’s sin was pure. Education could lead them to the right path but a lack of education meant that the kids became worse and worse.
Han Fei felt something was not right with this orphanage and now he understood why. The orphans here were all representations of sins. The oldest boy woke everyone up and forced them to gather. The dorm had 30 plus beds but only 14 were occupied.
“This is all?” None of them was the child Han Fei was looking for. He observed their feet and everyone’s shoes were light red.
“Including the 3 of us, there are 17 players. 1 will be the host and the rest can all participate.” Han Fei pulled the boy with the doll out from behind him. “You can be the host for the first round.” Standing amidst the group of strange children, Han Fei patiently explained to them the rules of the mafia game. The boy with the doll would host the game so he wouldn’t play. Then Han Fei took out 16 pieces of white paper of the same size from his inventory. “I will write down the roles of human, ghost, and medium on these 16 papers. You can’t tell the others your identity or the ghost will kill you.” After all the kids understood the rules, Han Fei wrote down humans on all 16 papers and then he jumbled it before everyone. He told each of the kids to pick. “I’ll repeat again, the goal of the ghost is to kill every human and the goal of the human is to find the ghost. The medium can check anyone’s identity. Of course, the ghost can pretend to be the medium. The game rules are very simple but if you go against the rules, you’ll die.” For the kids, this was more exciting than their normal games. “After a player is killed, the paper with their identity will be destroyed. When there are only humans or ghosts left on the field, the host will announce the winner.”
“Okay, we already know the rules. Let’s start.” The oldest boy urged. He stood at the corner and sneaked a look at his paper. When he saw the content, he didn’t look that satisfied. The kids sat according to their bed number and the game officially started.
“Lights out.” The boy with the doll was the host. He went to switch off the light in the dorm.
“Ghost, please open your eyes.” Han Fei took out Rest in Peace and slunk to the oldest boy. He had played 3 games with the boy already, he didn’t need him anymore. When Rest in Peace touched the boy, it became so sharp. It tore through the boy’s soul. The boy had harmed many people.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve killed an orphan inside the orphanage. With the murder of each orphan, the chance of the nurses and director awakening will increase by 1 percent, the chance of you finding the target child will lower by 1 percent.” Han Fei frowned when he heard the system notification. He wanted to use this game to clean up the small ghosts but he needed to change his plan now. ‘I can’t murder them so I’ll have to turn them against each other.’ When the glow of the blade disappeared, Han Fei noticed a boy was staring at him. The boy didn’t follow the rules. Han Fei returned to his seat and the boy with the doll continued, “Medium, please open your eyes.” The boy waited for a long time and no one responded. So he continued, “It’s morning. The person who died yesterday night is No. 24.”
The orphans looked at the spot where the oldest boy sat. They didn’t look worried, they were relieved. The boy was the biggest bully. They had to heed his orders or they’d be ostracized. The bully was finally dead.
“I-I saw him kill the boy yesterday night!” The boy who didn’t close his eyes during lights out pointed at Han Fei. “He’s the ghost!”
After the boy said that, all the kids turned to look at Han Fei. Facing the room of twisted faces, Han Fei shook his head. “I’m the human, you’re the ghost.” Well, he was not wrong. Han Fei was indeed human and the kid was the ghost.
“You killed him! I saw it!”
“Based on the rules, only the ghost and the medium can open their eyes at night. If you’re human and you saw me at night means that you have broken the rules; if you are the ghost, then you are trying to frame me so that the others will vote me out; if you’re the medium, then yes, you might have seen me kill the boy but the problem is, I’m the medium.” Han Fei challenged the boy. “So which of the above situation is true?”
Violating the rules would mean death and death in this game was permanent. There was no restart. The boy stammered. Han Fei pointed at a kid beside him. “I checked you yesterday night and you’re a human.” The kid nodded...
“Only the medium can check the other players’ identity and there is only 1 medium. The ghost will do his best to kill the medium.” Han Fei pointed at himself. “If I fail to survive the next night, then you should know who to vote out next.” With Han Fei directing the conversation, most kids thought the boy who broke the rules was the ghost. Therefore, after the voting phase, everyone turned to the boy who was voted out. Their gaze slowly changed. Someone stood up to close the light. The moment the darkness descended, the children charged at their target. The voted boy didn’t even have the chance to scream before his soul was torn apart. In the end, only his tattered red shirt and a pair of light red shoes remained of him. Staring at the shirt, Han Fei noticed something. The number on the back of the shirt was also 024.
‘The oldest boy’s number is 024 and this boy’s number is also 024?’ Han Fei looked at the children beside him. “Are all your numbers 024?”
“Yes, because we’re at Orphanage 024. But we each have our name, only the director’s favorite can be called 024.” The child explained. “The director’s favorite was the oldest boy who was killed. He had been helping the director.”
‘024 is the white shoes’ number but all the children here are 024 and they are all evil. Do they represent the white shoes’ sins?’ Han Fei was confused because this orphanage filled with darkness was defined by the system as the White Orphanage. The color white should have a significant meaning here but ever since Han Fei entered the orphanage, he had not seen anything white.
‘A white orphanage covered in darkness?’ When a person’s sin started to run rampant, his kindness would be locked up.
“Let us begin the next round.” With Han Fei’s Piped Piper talent and masterful acting, the kids were led around by him. When only a few players remained, Han Fei quietly stood up. When the boy with the doll called for lights out, Han Fei led the boy and left.
When he played the game, Han Fei managed to withdraw out of the children the location of the orphanage’s most hidden room. He didn’t plan to stay after that. Han Fei walked down the corridor to the director’s office. The most hidden room was inside the director’s office.
He pushed open the door. There was a white door on the floor of the office. The door was conspicuous among the black and old office.
