622 Fate
Strange floats moved along the rails. The floats carried different nightmares before disappearing under the sun. With the aid of technology, the parade was stunning.
“Every float is intricately designed. They represent Fu Tian and Fu Sheng’s memory. Fu Sheng has been forgotten by humans, so these floats repeat the parade for him.” Han Fei, who knew the truth, could see the meaning behind some of the floats. For example, there was a float with 31 balloons of children's faces and a black house. It should represent the 31 children at the orphanage. There was an actor in a teacher’s outfit and a black mask on the float. He sang ancient operas and caressed the human head balloons. He was playing either Fu Sheng or Fu Tian. There was another float designed like a mourning hall. An empty death portrait was placed in the middle. Before the portrait stood three actors, the eldest brother wore a black outfit, the second sister wore a red coat, and the youngest brother looked the most normal.
The old lady said Fu Tian designed all the floats. However, Fu Tian was dead. Han Fei was probably the only person left who knew the meaning of these floats.
“The world is changing. I wonder how many more times I can witness the parade…” The old lady held the fence. Her muddled eyes contained complicated emotions, “After Fu Tian’s death, his children and shareholders took over the company. This theme park is bleeding money. The permanent parade might not be as permanent anymore.”
“That is such a shame. Fu Tian had spent a lot of effort to design this theme park.”
“It’s not that serious. He built this theme park to wait for someone. Once that person arrives, this theme park will have finished its goal.” The old lady’s eyes moved away from the parade to Han Fei. “Is Fu Sheng real? Can you tell me more about him?”
“Yes, I should be the only person in this world who can still remember him. This theme park was built for him. He also once owned Immortal Pharma.” Han Fei thought for a while. “I don’t agree with his philosophy, and I don’t think he’s perfect. But he has protected many people.”
“I believe… such a person did enter my life before.” The old lady turned back to the leaving parade. “I thought I had forgotten everything, but I had a dream the night before. It was a very strange dream. My mother was still alive in that dream. All the despair I have experienced changed. I was still old, but I was happy. The dream felt very real.”
“Dream?” The night before was when Han Fei did the altar mission. Wang Pingan also had a dream after Han Fei completed the altar mission at the Midnight Mall. The cryptic world appeared to be connected to dreams.
Han Fei probed, “You dreamed about Fu Sheng?”
“Not only Fu Sheng but also Fu Tian and… you.”
The sun slowly rose. Sunlight swallowed the strange parade. All the nightmare dissipated under the light. Only the iron rails remained. The parade dispersed. A few workers, including Tao Tao, walked towards Han Fei.
“Mr. Han, I’m sorry, but we just received notification from above. The theme park will be completely close to the public from today. Please cooperate with us. This way, please.” The workers moved Han Fei away from the old lady. When they tried to remove Han Fei, the old lady spoke again. She pointed at the iron rails and said, “This park is designed by Fu Tian. He has named everything here. For example, these rails that the floats run on. It is fixed to the ground, and no one can change it. It is called fate.”
Han Fei frowned. He wanted to talk more with the old lady, but the old lady moved back to the fountain. The sun covered the theme park. The old lady sat on the bench and looked at everything silently. After Han Fei left, the old lady studied the two health bracelets on her wrist.
The new one was a test bracelet given by Immortal Pharma to the new drug testers. The other bracelet looked worn, and it appeared to be the first prototype of the health bracelet. The bracelet carried a special meaning for the old lady, so even if it was outdated and broken, she kept wearing it.
“Fu Sheng, Fu Tian…” The old lady touched the old bracelet. The old bracelet glowed. After she keyed in a string of complicated numbers, the two messages left inside the bracelet showed up.
Sender, Fu Tian—When memories coincide, the fixed fate will ripple. The person should have arrived at the theme park. After my death, please help me kill that person no matter what. He is the despair of the whole world, the nemesis of virtual immortality. He is humanity’s biggest tragedy. You have to kill him and destroy him!
Sender, ???—Perhaps no one remembers me now. But luckily, that person will eventually arrive at the theme park. He is the answer to everything. I hope you can help me help him. He will walk on this park further than I did. He would visit the places I hadn’t been to.
The two messages carried completely different meanings. One of them was the dying message of the old lady’s good friend, Fu Tian, and the other came from an unknown person.
“I can’t tell if there’s another person, but I can remember clearly it was not Fu Tian who put this bracelet on me.” The old lady couldn’t come to a decision. She touched the bracelet, and everything returned to normal.
…
Han Fei didn’t expect to run into Du Jing’s daughter at the theme park. He was even more surprised that the old lady had dreamed about him.
“Is the cryptic world connected to human dreams? Wang Pingan has dreamed about me before. The Butterfly could use the dream world to leave the cryptic world. So where exactly is the cryptic world?”
Perfect Life uploaded human consciousness to the virtual space, and its final goal was virtual immortality. One of the biggest reasons Perfect Life could be developed was due to the black box. Fu Sheng once owned the black box and had entered the cryptic world.
“I should focus on taking down the theme park before exploring the rest of the cryptic world.” Han Fei had once opened the map given to him by the system. His explored area was just a very small part of the cryptic world.
Han Fei turned around and was stunned to see a clown standing at the fence. The clown smiled his red, grimy smile at Han Fei. “It’s him again?”
Han Fei rushed to the fence, but when he arrived, the clown disappeared. Only a human head balloon remained. Han Fei retrieved the balloon. The face was crossed out with red paint. Beside the cross was the number, 11. “The clown is from the orphanage? He’s No. 11?”
Before Han Fei could confirm his thought, the balloon suddenly burst. The red dust inside the balloon spread everywhere, and a small paper note fell out. “The person who killed you will want to kill you forever. Even if you can’t die, he’ll kill you again and again. Hehe.”
The message was like a ransom note. The letter was cut from different sources.
“Someone wants to kill me?” Han Fei put away the note. He took the taxi and left. When Han Fei returned to the old city, he realized his neighborhood was swamped. Only then did he realize how popular he was.
“The livestream from yesterday gained me a lot of new fans. As my influence grows, my voice can reach further.” Han Fei had been collecting strength. One day, his fame and influence would aid him a lot.
Han Fei logged into his social media account. He had millions of private messages. Without a team, he couldn’t reply to all of them. Yesterday night, seven actors joined the livestream. None of them had released a statement. Only Tang Yi had stated openly that everything was scripted. The netizens obviously didn’t buy that. However, since all the actors didn’t say anything, they couldn’t do much.
Han Fei didn’t plan to say anything either. He always focused on his work. He checked his bank account. Tang Yi had given him the agreed fee and also some extra as ‘livestream bonus’. The bonus, which was seven digits, shocked Han Fei. He didn’t think it would be so lucrative.
“How much afterlife karma can I get from these?” Han Fei saved a small portion for himself and planned to contact Xin Lu Police to donate the rest to those who really needed it.
Li Xue, who got his call, was stunned. She was shocked by Han Fei’s sudden wealth and also his choice. Han Fei had a very good image among the law enforcement. Everyone only had praises for him. Han Fei naturally didn’t tell them it was to earn afterlife karma. He stressed that he was doing this because he empathized with the victims and wanted to help their families.
The taxi didn’t return home but drove to Xin Lu Police Branch. After multiple interactions, Han Fei had a very strong bond with Xin Lu Police. They had absolute trust in him. The worry about him becoming a supercriminal disappeared.
