Han Fei opened his eyes and noticed he was lying inside a clean room. Beside his bed was a doll that resembled Xu Qin. This looked like Minghun.
“You’re awake? I thought you would sleep longer.” The voice of leader One came from the balcony. His head was bandaged, and an unlit cigarette dangled on his lips.
“Where am I?”
“The center’s special ward. We have applied it for you.” The leader put away the cigarette and walked to his bed. “It has been two days and two nights since the Deep Sea Aquarium investigation. I represent all the surviving members to thank you. Without your help, more of us would have died, and I wouldn’t have returned.” The reticent man said a lot this time.
“Compared to that, I should thank you for pulling me back from the edge of death.” Han Fei’s mental corruption was very high, but he was much better now.” Hearing that, the man shook his head. “It wasn’t us who saved you. It was yourself and a student from your class, the kid without his legs.”
“No. 2?”
“Yes.” The leader nodded. “The kid was courageous. He fed you the Lingering Spirit’s hearts.” “And then?”
“I don’t know the details because he didn’t let anyone enter the ward. You are a good teacher. Every student came out to help you once they knew you were in trouble.” The man placed a sign beside Han Fei’s bed. “You’ve investigated the Strange Building, confirmed Pure Hatred’s identity, killed a normal Pure Hatred, and assisted in the retreat of all the teams. You’ve gained 50000 contribution points.”
“All of us worked together to kill the Pure Hatred. Am I getting too much point?” Han Fei turned to look at the report. However, he noticed that the point he got was negative.
“I was not done. To save you, we’ve exhausted five Lingering Spirits’ hearts, and two of them are extremely rare. Considering your contribution, the director decided to charge you 10000 points each.” The leader pointed at the other numbers. “Other than that, your students took away a lot of cursed items and medicine in the name of saving you. Therefore, your debt is a lot.” When Han Fei saw the negative 200000 points, his mind cleared. That was probably what No. 2 expected.
“The director removed the small change for you.” The man kindly reminded Han Fei.
“If you don’t mind me asking, how much contribution point do you normally get from one mission?” Han Fei didn’t like owing people stuff. Of course, if he couldn’t repay the debt, then it was another story.
“Normally, it’s around 1000. Only those members who have contributed a lot could get up to ten thousand in a mission.” The man knew what Han Fei was thinking and smiled. “You can pay up slowly. The center needs you and will not urge you to pay up.”
“I guess that’s the only choice.” Han Fei couldn’t move his body yet. He gritted his teeth. “Can I see my students? Bring No. 2 to me. He’s the most cunning.”
“Earlier, you said he’s the cleverest.” The leader pressed the button beside the bed and had the nurse tell the students of Class Seven that their teacher had awakened. While waiting for his students to come, Han Fei looked at the leader’s head. “What’s the power of your persona? How did you manage to be alive after you’ve been trapped inside the pure Hatred’s eye.”
“I have the self-sacrifice persona. Every time I make my move with the understanding that I might die.”
“Self-sacrifice persona?” Han Fei heard that for the first time.
“My persona will be activated whenever I’m cornered. If I can escape, then my persona will become stronger. If the opposite happens, you’ll never see me again.” The man shrugged like this was nothing important.
“Your persona has awakened seven times, so that means that you’ve sacrificed yourself seven times already. However, you were saved every time?” Han Fei didn’t expect this.
“Yes, the way everyone awakens their persona is different. I need to sacrifice myself to get stronger.” The man’s eyes dimmed. “Team one has the highest fatality rate. I don’t suggest anyone join my team.” There was a knock that interrupted their conversation. “Come in!”
The door opened, and the doctor led the nurses into the room. No. 5 carried No. 2 on his back. The doctor did the final examination on Han Fei, and the two students stayed quietly to the side.
“Your physique is much better than normal. It appears to exist for this tragedy.” The doctor said with admiration. “I wish to open you up to see how you’re made up.”
“Doctor Wang, please watch your words.” The leader of Team One tapped the doctor on his shoulder. After the examination was over, he led the doctors and nurses out of the room so that only the two students remained.
“Have a nice chat. I’m going to have a cigarette break.” The team leader left. He wasn’t interested in the secret between Han Fei and his students.
“Tell me. How did you cure me?” Han Fei looked at No. 2. He couldn’t tell what he was thinking. The boy seemed to exist in another dimension.
“It sounds like you’re angry about the 200000 debt.” No. 5 picked up the apple and peeled it. “Why are you acting like a kid?”
“The items were mostly used on you. You need to submerge into your consciousness and sense the changes to your persona.” No. 2 looked at Han Fei with anticipation. “At first, no one has any hope for you, but you have surprised us.” Han Fei followed No. 2’s instructions. The greed abyss had doubled in size. The negative emotions at the aquarium morphed into a black river and slowly flowed through the abyss. A weak Pure Hatred was trapped there.
“Notification for Player 0000! Greed persona has reached another awakening. Your endless ambition burned Pure Hatred. Your maximum number of ghosts has increased to 17!
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve trapped Pure Hatred with black flame—the abandoned Xiao Yu (Little Fish).
“Little Fish: She is God’s last friend, a puppet God made for himself. She has the same experience as God!
“Little Fish’s power: Illusion of Memory (Blur the lines between reality and illusion to make souls go lost.
“Attached power: Abandonment (Strip a part of the target’s soul and body to force them to abandon their most precious thing. It can be memory, faith, or even life.
“Ghost territory (The influence is 100 meters): After the ghost territory is activated, all the souls within the 100 meters will be affected. They will lose the power of resistance, and the Pure Hatred’s ability will get stronger.”
Pure Hatred with black flame was very strong. Han Fei was lucky because his ambush was successful. He managed to kill the girl before she could use her black flame.
“Notification for Player 0000! Healing persona has become stronger! To heal others, you have to heal yourself first.” The starlight was stronger than before. All the negative emotions were suppressed inside the greed abyss, so they didn’t affect Han Fei that much. A new balance appeared in his mind. Healing persona appeared harmless, but it would grow with the greed persona.
“My persona appears to have gotten a bit stronger.”
“A bit?” No. 5 placed the peeled apple beside Han Fei’s lips. “Earlier, you helped to heal everyone. After your incident, everyone in class used their power to share your burden and improve your power.”
“Even though some of the children might not want to admit it, we are a unit.” No. 2 sat beside the bed. His voice was very mature. “The persona of the thirty children matches your persona. The only explanation I can think of is you’ve once healed every one of us. That is how I explained it to everyone.” Even though the students had caused Han Fei to get into heavy debt, his heart was warm, like the children had finally accepted him.
“Then should I thank you?” Han Fei ate the apple. “I’m 20000 in debt, but it feels like I’ve gained something. Is that the art of speech?” No matter what, Han Fei’s injury did pull him closer to the children. Han Fei’s two personas became stronger too.
“Take some rest. Don’t worry about us. After you recover, you should feel the improvement clearer.” No. 2 told Han Fei some other things and left. This memory world was more dangerous than any of the ones Han Fei had experienced. Due to the presence of Class Seven, the pressure on Han Fei was a lot smaller. Han Fei had the doctors prepare a lot of meat. With the doctors and nurses looking on in shock, he gorged himself on the food. That night, Han Fei could walk already. After Li Xue knew about this, she summoned the core members of the group to discuss the next step of the plan. Han Fei was wheeled to the conference room. When he passed by that special wall, two new names were added to it. When the team leader carried them out of the eyeball, they were already dead. When Han Fei arrived, everyone was already there.
“The initial investigation of Deep Sea Aquarium is completed. The dating rating is tragedy.” The details on the eyeballs Pure Hatred were placed on the table. Xue Ba explained it to everyone, “With our current power, we have no chance of killing it.”
The room was silent. Then, Li Xue turned to Han Fei. “Teacher Gao, did you discover anything at the aquarium? I heard that you claimed something from the water at the last moment and distracted the Pure Hatred on your own.”
“I’ve told you that there’s something called Unmentionable that’s stronger than Pure Hatred. This eyeball is part of the Unmentionable’s memory.” Han Fei didn’t bring up Gao Cheng and Gao Xing’s names. “The other kid’s memory was submerged in the aquarium. I saved it and kept it in my greed abyss. When I recover, I should be able to find God’s weakness. Then, it shouldn’t be too hard to deal with the eyeballs.”
The conference room was suffocating after finding out about the eyeballs, but Han Fei gave them hope.
“Then, we’ll do it your way. You don’t need to participate in any mission temporarily and focus on recovery. If you need anything from the evidence department, just take it. We’ll talk about the debt later.” Li Xue gave Han Fei a lot of special clearance. The other core members didn’t say anything. Han Fei earned this with his life. The meeting soon ended. Before Han Fei fully recovered, the center stopped any investigation into Deep Sea Aquarium. They changed their target to the black building, Xin Lu’s Third Mental Hospital. Han Fei was very familiar with this place. The Pure Hatred at the hospital was the reason why the school was a farm. Before the official investigation, many preparations needed to be done.
Han Fei returned to the ward and tried to communicate with Gao Cheng’s memory in real life. His consciousness jumped into the greed abyss and stood on the Flower of Resentment. He looked for the boy. The thin boy had his eyes gouged away. His shoulders shivered. When the starlight shone on him, his shadow was a strong young man. The shadow radiated greed and cruelty.
“The boy is Gao Cheng’s memory in real life and the shadow should be Gao Cheng’s memory fragment in the altar world.” A complete person was made up of many things. Body, memory, emotions, consciousness, soul, shadow and boy were all part of Gao Cheng.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve obtained Grade D Altar Item, Gao Cheng’s memory. You’ve triggered the hidden mission—Gao Cheng’s wish.
“Gao Cheng’s Wish: In the years of being tortured, there’s only one thing that’s supporting him. He wants to see his beloved family again and ask her whether she still loves him.
“Notification for Player 0000! This mission is a core mission! It’ll decide the path of fate! After completing the mission, Gao Cheng might fully combine with you! You will decide his everything!”
