550 Change?
After a long time, Fu Sheng finally walked out of the small room. He might run into many scary, disgusting things, but at least he found the courage to face them. Fu Sheng didn’t stop to talk to his family. He walked past Han Fei and disappeared down the corridor. Han Fei pulled back his gaze to look at his wife after Fu Sheng left. His eyes were filled with excitement. Things were happening faster than he thought.
His wife smiled. She was really happy for Han Fei. The family was improving. The days of bliss were coming. “You should head to work, or you’ll be late.” His wife reminded.
“You should buy more ingredients today. I’m going to cook a feast to celebrate!” Han Fei was in a good mood. He carried his bag and headed towards the company. ‘My wife’s hatred towards me is decreasing, Lee Guo Er no longer wants to kill me, Teacher Liu’s impression of me is complicated, but at least she doesn’t wish me dead anymore.’ Han Fei felt quite accomplished. Just as he was about to drown, he grabbed a piece of driftwood.
Han Fei immediately headed to the storeroom when he reached the company. He was hoping that Shen Luo somehow managed to find his way back.
‘No one’s here. It looks like they are really in trouble.’ Han Fei thought back to Da Yu’s attributes. Before the world mutated, a normal NPC wouldn’t be able to harm the players, so they probably ran into ghosts. ‘They ran into ghosts in the middle of the day. In a way, Shen Luo is quite beloved by the ghosts.’
Han Fei entered his office. Instead of gaming, he started to research supernatural-related news.
Han Fei gained the title Good Samaritan after completing the first altar mission. He could gain a large amount of EXP when he did good things. It was much easier to gain EXP in the memory world than the cryptic world. Han Fei wanted to level up and explore the city’s secret before his body failed him. Han Fei started with cases five years ago. He took out his phone and came up with a murder board. This had become his instinct. He was very familiar with it. He didn’t look like a game designer at all. As Han Fei looked deeper, he realized that even though this city had a low crime rate, it was far less peaceful than it appeared. There were many missing people every year.
‘This is Fu Sheng’s memory world. The ability of the police depends on Fu Sheng’s impression of the police. I can’t rely on them.’ Han Fei jotted down all the crime scenes. Based on his wealth of ‘detective’ experience, he marked down a few dangerous zones.
‘Compared to the theme park, more murder cases occurred around the hospital. If I connected all the crime scenes, they would form the shape of a blooming flower. The plastic surgery hospital sits in the middle of this flower.’ Han Fei exchanged this information with Wu San. These players also started to look into strange stories and cases. Some of them entered this memory world earlier than Han Fei, and they had been to many places. Based on these players’ descriptions, many murder scenes were different day and night. Some of the players had gone missing when exploring haunted houses.
‘Looks like I should visit these places during the day.’ Han Fei sat in his seat and pondered. He had seen six ghosts so far, the car accident ghost, the female student at the school, the old headmaster, and the three ruffians at the rooftop. They could be Han Fei’s aid, but they wouldn’t listen to Han Fei. To approach them, Han Fei needed Fu Sheng’s help.
‘Everything circles back to Fu Sheng. If only I could unlock his heart and find out what really happened.’ Han Fei was writing in his notebook when the office door opened. Lee Guo Er and Brother Fake Plant walked in. “That Octopus is too much. I so wish to punch him.” Brother Fake Plant was fuming. When he saw Han Fei, he ran over to complain, “Leader, you have to stand up for us.”
“What happened?”
“Our game’s plot has been decided. We have worked overtime to come up with all the proposals and designs, but when we went to the programmers and art team, they told us that the company suddenly decided to focus all the resources on Immortal. Octopus has stolen all the resources CEO Zhao has given us away.” Brother Fake Plant was annoyed. He worked under Fu Yi, so when Fu Yi was demoted, he was demoted too. Finally, their new project was warming up. Octopus was back to make things difficult for them.
“Our indie game wouldn’t even take up much resource. Octopus is clearly trying to corner us.” The other team members were angry too. They were loyal to Fu Yi, and if the game were popular, they would get a lot of year-end bonuses.
“I can do the modeling, art design, and animation.” Lee Guo Er was originally part of the art team, but for some reason, she moved to work for Fu Yi.
“The five of us can’t do much. The development period will take too long.” Brother Fake Plant frowned. “Here, I thought we could turn things around, but people don’t even want to give us a chance.” If Han Fei didn’t do anything, the game would definitely be left in development hell. At least in Fu Yi’s limited life, he wouldn’t see the game produced. Han Fei was about to say something semi-inspirational when the system sang, “Notification for Player 0000! You’ve triggered an altar mission—the last game.
“The Last Game: He didn’t realize that Immortal became his obsession from that moment on. It was carved in his mind and became part of his soul.
“Mission Requirement: Before death, complete your last game.”
Han Fei swallowed back his words. He had no idea that Fu Yi’s last game would become Fu Sheng’s regret. Fu Yi’s last game was called Immortal. The company that the siblings built after they were grown up was called Immortal Pharma. There had to be a connection there. ‘Perhaps in Fu Sheng’s mind, Fu Yi’s evil nature has to do with that last game.’ Han Fei needed to finish this game for himself and his family. “Everyone, don’t panic. I’ll talk to CEO Zhao now. For now, try to make contact with the marketing department. Have them release our game promo and info to test the market.” Han Fei stood up. He had no idea he would be making a horror dating sim inside an Iyashikei game. Han Fei went to find Zhao Qian. “CEO Zhao, our game seems to run into some problem.”
“Our?” Zhao Qian put down her phone, files and looked at Han Fei.
“That’s right. We make games to make money so that our lives can improve.” Han Fei sat down before Zhao Qian. “Immortal is like an endless hole where we need to feed it money constantly. As a gaming company, we should have this kind of flagship game, but the problem is the quality of this game might be affected because the new lead designer is useless.”
“You’re still hung up over the demotion? You do understand that I wasn’t the one who made that decision.”
“I know, so I wish to use this indie game to prove myself.”
“You’re very good at your work, so you don’t need to prove yourself.” Zhao Qian dropped the files before Han Fei. “Do you really think Octopus is that powerful to be able to convince all the departments to focus on developing Immortal?”
“Is there another reason?” Han Fei picked up the files to read. He was not that familiar with the company admin, but he had a feeling he had offended someone. “But I don’t think I’ve stepped on anyone’s toes.”
Hearing that, Zhao Qian rolled her eyes. “Stop acting so innocent. You should know what you’ve done.”
Han Fei smiled sadly and shook his head.
“Then I’ll help you jog your memory.” Zhao Qian lowered her voice. “Recently, you haven’t replied to Du Zhu’s calls and haven’t gone out with the managers to accompany the clients. What happened to you?”
Han Fei was very clever. He grasped the situation immediately. “It’s Du Zhu?”
“Based on how you’re acting recently, those who didn’t know the truth would think you’re a good man who is loyal to your wife.” Zhao Qian said sarcastically. “You know Du Zhu. You should be familiar with her personality.”
“I think I get it now.” Han Fei read through the files. He didn’t understand many things. He decided to study company management after he left the cryptic world.
“Certain people rely on games to find the rush they cannot feel in real life, but for certain people, real life is the game that can bring them the greatest rush. You should know this better than I do. After all, you decided to make the right choice back then regardless of my objection.” Zhao Qian was older than Fu Yi. She could already see Fu Yi’s ending.
“I can understand the target on my back, but my team is innocent.”
“Du Zhu doesn’t care if they’re innocent or not. If you want to change this, then you have to talk to her in person.” Zhao Qian pointed at the phone. “She just called me to ask about the recent happenings at the company.”
“I understand.” Eventually, he would have to face this woman. Han Fei stood up and asked, “Can you tell me where she is now?”
“She is having something done at Perfection Plastic Surgery Hospital. She seems to be in a good mood.” Zhao Qian’s eyes darkened with disappointment.
“I’ll go see if I can make her change her mind.” Han Fei put down the files and left. After Han Fei exited her office, Zhao Qian’s face was dark. She couldn’t focus and turned out the window to stare at the company entrance.
Han Fei returned to the office and signaled everyone to put down their work. “I need you guys to come with me. We’re going to meet a client.”
“Meet a client?” Brother Fake Plant was confused. He touched his balding head and looked at the mirror. “I have to go too?”
“Yes.” After Han Fei knew Du Zhu was at the hospital, he decided to go meet her. This was the perfect chance for him to scope out the hospital. However, it was too dangerous for him to go alone, so he wanted to bring along Lee Guo Er. Lee Guo Er wouldn’t let anything happen to Han Fei because she wanted to keep Han Fei for herself. However, Han Fei was worried that if he only brought Lee Guo Er along, she might ambush him on their way there. So he decided to bring everyone.
“Since the other departments won’t cooperate with us and we can’t proceed, just consider this a field trip to relax.” Han Fei grabbed his coat and signaled for everyone to follow.
“Leader, do I look okay?”
“Yes, you look quite young, about 30 plus.”
“But I just had my 28th birthday a few days ago…”
“I was only kidding.” Han Fei led the way. He was going to visit the most dangerous hospital.
When Han Fei went downstairs, Zhao Qian moved to the window. The disappointment in her eyes deepened. “I thought you’ve changed, and God wanted to give you another chance. After all, you have two kids.” Her eyes were fixed on the entrance. Soon Zhao Qian saw the well-dressed Han Fei leave the company. “This man can’t be helped. I mustn’t pity this kind of bastard…” Zhao Qian made a decision. The disappointment in her eyes morphed into hatred, but at that moment, she saw the other employees who trailed behind Han Fei. Han Fei was not going to meet Du Zhu alone. To avoid a misunderstanding, he brought his whole team with him.
Zhao Qian’s pretty eyes settled on Brother Fake Plant’s shining head. Her hatred changed into confusion. Her conviction was shaken again. “He’s not going alone? Has he really changed?”
