649 Enemies and Friends
“Stop him, Han Fei!” Lee Guo Er shouted to awaken Han Fei. The ghosts would explode in power at midnight. Furthermore, they were trapped inside a small space. Other than the ghost driver, her teammate was going out of control too.
Han Fei’s body trembled. His eyes bulged, and his veins popped. He looked scarier than the driver. The driver looked deranged, but Han Fei looked like he had been possessed by some high-level demon.
The clock on the dashboard stopped. Time paused at 00.01 am. This time appeared to carry some special meaning. At that moment, the world would enter a time that belonged to the ghosts. Only those affected by ghosts would be brought into this extremely long moment in time.
“I need to go to Blue White Tuition Center. There is a sea of flowers there. I need to fetch my son!” The driver’s hands appeared welded to the steering wheel. Lee Guo Er was worried that he might yank the whole wheel out. Through the rearview mirror, Lee Guo Er saw two crazed men. Distracted by them, she didn’t even notice the changes happening to the car.
The light at the top of the roof flickered. Small moths started to gather around it. The moths had strange patterns. They were like ash and smoke rising from the fire.
The roof started to crack and strands of hair leaked through the gaps. The seats became sticky and wet. The passenger’s body kept sinking. Lee Guo Er took out her modified stun gun. However, it was useless against the anomalies happening inside the car.
Lee Guo Er suddenly felt something touch her calves. It was like there was a rat scurrying inside the car. Lee Guo Er wasn’t that afraid of rats. She kicked around. But when she lowered her head, she realized it was not a rat but a hand reaching out from underneath the backseat!
There was a broken ‘man’ crawling out!
Lee Guo Er turned up the stun gun. The device sparked as she stubbed it into the man’s arm. A normal person would have fainted from this electrocution. However, the arm was not affected at all. It grabbed Lee Guo Er’s calf. Lee Guo Er felt a giant pull. Her head knocked into the back of the front seat.
Lee Guo Er came eye to eye with the human head under the seat. The face was twisted. The eyes were filled with hatred and envy towards the living. He wanted to drag Lee Guo Er underneath the seat to accompany him.
“Han Fei! Kill them with your knife!” Lee Guo Er’s stun gun was useless. Her only hope was Han Fei. Han Fei had started to regain his rationality. He took out Company. After the hole was torn open on the black cloth of memory, his fear of everything dwindled drastically. He stabbed the knife at the recording cam inside the car.
“Is it the time to care about the car cam?” The sound of bone-cracking came from Lee Guo Er’s calf, and she screamed.
“I’m sorry. That was a professional habit.” After Han Fei ruined the car cam, he smashed the driver’s walkie-talkie before he placed the knife on the driver’s neck. “Stop the car now!”
“I have to go and fetch my son. Something bad will happen if I’m late. I can’t stop!” The driver turned to look at Han Fei. He was beginning to lose his human form. Han Fei knew it was pointless to converse. He pressed down. The driver’s neck bled. The driver was still alive even though he had lost his mind. He was more like a zombie, controlled by something. The driver’s neck was about to be severed, but neither the driver nor Han Fei’s expression changed. The driver completely ignored the pain. There was only madness in his eyes.
Han Fei was frightened by his own actions. It didn’t feel like he would mind killing. To make things worse, he felt like he had done this often. When the knife cut through skin and blood oozed out, he felt a sense of familiarity.
Lee Guo Er’s scream came from the backseat. The driver kept on accelerating like he was trying to crash into one of the buildings. At that moment, Han Fei’s instinct kicked in again. The blade cut through the bone. He decided to keep the driver’s soul as Company.
The blood splattered on the window. The driver’s expression slowly returned to normal as life departed his body.
“I need to get to Blue White Tuition Center. My son is planted inside the blue-white secret garden. He is waiting for me among the flowers…” The driver mumbled. Han Fei took over the steering wheel and stepped on the brake. After he killed the driver, he heard that voice in his mind again, “Player 0…” He couldn’t hear the rest. He had caught the rhythm in it. Whenever he did something or made a choice, the sound would appear. ‘I’ve killed many things, but I do not feel guilty at all. Is it because I’m mentally twisted, or I only kill those who deserve to die?’ Han Fei tightened his grip on the knife. ‘That’s right. My knife will only kill sinners.’ The car hadn’t stabilized. Han Fei opened the car lock and jumped out.
Lee Guo Er’s only teammate abandoned her. Her heart fell to the abyss.
The blade smashed through the window. The black moths scattered, leaving behind ashy dust. Han Fei yanked the backdoor open. Without saying anything, he jumped at the human head hidden under the backseat. He cut through the pale arms.
“Hold my hands!” Han Fei reached out towards Lee Guo Er. Lee Guo Er was stunned. In her memory, there was someone like this who had abandoned everything to save her too. The two figures were so similar that they were overlapping. After Han Fei saved Lee Guo Er, he jumped into the car to deal with the ghost in the backseat.
“Be careful of the roof!” Lee Guo Er fell to the ground. She didn’t hesitate and stood up to help immediately. The two worked perfectly in tandem. The black hair fell. Human faces appeared on the roof. They appeared to be sucking the blood flowing out of the driver. While Han Fei dealt with the ghost in the backseat, Lee Guo Er used the chance to drag the driver’s body out.
Lee Guo Er’s idea was good, but she had problems with execution. The driver’s legs were stuck against the seat. The man appeared to have grown to join with the car.
“This is bad!” Lee Guo Er noticed blood vessels start to appear on the car's surface. This hearse was changing. Lee Guo Er reached into her bag and took out a knife. She saw through the driver’s legs without hesitation. Her knife couldn’t harm ghosts, but it could easily dismember a dead body.
Before the threat of death, Han Fei and Lee Guo Er tried to aim for the highest score. Blood slid down the glass window. The sweet face looked gory and scary. Lee Guo Er used ten seconds to drag the driver out of the car. The small vessels that connected his legs to the taxi had been severed. The human faces at the rooftop screamed angrily but it was pointless.
Han Fei also managed to kill the human head after a long struggle. The taxi was slowly returning back to normal. Han Fei collapsed in the backseat and gasped for air. He looked at the many knife marks, and he shivered.
“Now is not the time to rest. We need to leave.” Lee Guo Er, covered in blood, stood up. She sounded even. She was more like a serial killer than Han Fei.
“Why should we leave? It’s not easy for us to get our own ride.” Han Fei patted the cushion. “A secondhand hearse.”
“You’re going to use this haunted vehicle?” Lee Guo Er frowned, “What if the ghosts return? It’s too dangerous!”
“No. 11 said that he was willing to help because I had completed one of his wishes. In other words, as long as we complete these ghosts’ regrets, they might help us.” Han Fei sat up. “I don’t know who our real enemy is. For the sake of security, we will treat all of them as enemies. We need to find a way to kill the theme park owner and the game masters.
“However, we can’t do that on our own. We need to borrow other people’s power.
“Most players won’t help us, so we have to turn our hope elsewhere.
“Since the theme park wants us to capture ghosts, then it means that they don’t like ghosts. Perhaps we can work together with the ghosts to take down the theme park.” Han Fei, in the black suit, sat at the back. He just killed a ghost. He exuded this indescribable presence.
Lee Guo Er stared at Han Fei and wiped the blood from her cheeks. She turned to the side and asked, “What is your exact plan? Can you communicate with ghosts?”
“We’ll take this slow. This hearse is a good start. We will start by getting to know the ghosts and then try to figure out how to help them.” Han Fei had no idea why but he felt like he was very experienced in this.
“It sounds crazy.” Lee Guo Er wanted to say no, but somehow, she said, “Fine, we’ll give it a try. The paper on the backseat has info about the driver.” Lee Guo Er turned to deal with the driver’s body. Han Fei examined the taxi. He memorized the details from the paper and then found a lot of notes and a phone left behind by the driver at the driver’s seat. The driver’s son died in a fire. Unable to accept the truth, the man went insane. The man’s phone contained many conversations about the supernatural and ghosts. He often shared urban legends too.
A few weeks ago, a stranger with a fully black profile picture added the driver as a friend. The stranger told the driver many methods of resurrection. From that moment onwards, the driver slowly became the devil’s puppet.
“This is the real killer. He has caused those passengers’ death.”
Han Fei clicked on the man’s profile. The name was a series of question marks, and the introduction was only a single sentence, Who are you?
It was like he could predict Han Fei would read this message.
“There’s no clue at all.” Han Fei stared at the black profile. It felt like he was looking into the darkness. No one knew what was there.
“The person probably has no idea the driver has been killed. I can disguise as the driver to communicate with him.” Han Fei looked through the record between the driver and the black profile. Han Fei found out the locations for the driver’s ritual. All the passengers’ bodies were hidden there.
“This is going to be a busy night.” Han Fei put away the phone and went to help Lee Guo Er.
“After we comfort the souls inside the car, we’ll have our own car.” Han Fei was very happy. Having a vehicle was very important in this crazy town.
“Can you not sound so happy when you are dealing with a dead body?” Lee Guo Er rolled her eyes. They worked together to clean up the dead body.
“We should go to Perfect Life Hotel to warn the other gamers. We’ll try to find medicines and tools. Then, we’ll come back.” They hopped into the car after dealing with everything.
“It feels weird driving this car.” Lee Guo Er shoved the driver’s legs under the passenger seat and drove into the night.
