The man with the club tattoo collapsed in his pool of blood. He looked at Han Fei with unwillingness. This was such a perfect and crazy plan. However, it failed due to Han Fei’s appearance. Most of their subordinates at Zone A were sacrificed to ghosts. They felt despair for the first time. “He’s born on the same day as God…”
Brother Chou’s soul was still inside the boy. He was the only living criminal. Han Fei stepped on Brother Chou’s original body and held the nightlight as he came to the boy. The Executioner stood on his left, and Wu Chang stood on his right. The two Large Lingering Spirits followed him.
“Little boy, you’ve stolen the clothes my mother made for me.” Han Fei pressed the boy’s head. He used Soul-depth Touch and shone the starlight into the man’s brain. The ugly soul had nowhere to run. Even the prettiest skin couldn’t hide that ugliness. Brother Chou’s soul was like a pool of rotten mud. Everyone he saw would eventually be swallowed by the mud and slowly die from suffocation.
“The stronger he’ll be as he dominates more bodies.” Han Fei knew Brother Chou’s power. He had awakened his power five times. His followers had taken up part of Hope City. This criminal worked with ghosts to sacrifice humans to the evil God and kill everyone who knew the truth and dared to resist him. Eventually, all the survivors thought he was a good person. Han Fei didn’t kill Brother Chou. He wanted to try to use this man’s power to save the living specimens. Han Fei trapped Brother Chou’s soul inside the greed abyss. Han Fei pulled back the black mist. The fish swam back into the abyss. The girl didn’t attack the weakened Han Fei. She seemed to have taken the abyss as her second home. Han Fei had no idea how No. 2 healed her, but he didn’t have the time to think about these things now. When the mist dissipated, his legs wobbled, and he fell into the pool of blood. His mental corruption was impossibly high. Another person would have lost his mind. Thanks to the healing persona, Han Fei maintained the last shred of rationality.
“Can you let him call you mom one more time? Your child is trapped in despair and numbness. Only you can awaken him.” Han Fei reached towards the blood pool. Ghost Mother didn’t move away this time.
“You shouldn’t have come here.” The healing starlight cleansed many misunderstandings. The boy moved slightly. His eyelids opened. His two hollow eyes stared in one direction. He wanted to open his eyes not to see the colorful world but to see his parents.
“Gao Cheng, you’re indeed all grown up now.” Ghost Mother’s voice echoed in Han Fei’s mind. She dragged her wounded body out of the blood pool. She resisted the intense pain to hug Gao Cheng. “I’ve never blamed you. Both of you are my children. If possible, I wish to take the pain on your behalf…”
Ghost Mother’s lips were torn apart. Cursed blood splattered everywhere. She was being punished by God but she didn’t let go. She touched Gao Cheng’s head. The boy in the abyss heard his mother. He stood up, reached out his hands, and stumbled forward. Han Fei’s starlight guided the boy. However, before he could hand the body over to the boy, Ghost Mother’s body was collapsing. God’s curse was triggered. Ghost Mother was torn apart. If this continued, she might die before the boy. As if sensing her pain, the boy stopped. There was nothing more despairing than this.
Han Fei sighed. He pushed God's Mother away. If completing this mission would cause permanent damage to Ghost Mother, then he’d give it up. Gentle people would group up in hell to make the city a better place. Han Fei paused like the boy in his mind. He slowly backed away from Ghost Mother. “I should go now. Next time we meet, I’ll help you cleanse the curse.”
Ghost Mother’s attitude was clear. She still treated Gao Cheng as her child. She used her action to prove that. Even though her body collapsed, she wanted to give her children power. There was no more selfless love than a mother’s love.
“When you came to find me in private earlier, you were injured by God’s curse, and now you were even more injured. You don’t need to worry about me. Look after yourself and wait for me to come back.” Han Fei relayed Gao Cheng’s message. The boy and Han Fei looked at Ghost Mother for one last time. As he left, Ghost Mother gave tossed something to Han Fei. “Notification for Player 0000. You’ve gained the unique altar item, Key to Room 601.” Ghost Mother hoped for Han Fei to go to this room.
Han Fei held the key and nightlight as he entered the corridor. The whole six floors was filled with cursed items related to Gao Xing, including missing person’s posters related to him. Coming to the end of the corridor, Han Fei opened the door to Room 601. There was a light floral fragrance. The room was filled with flowers. This room belonged to Ghost Mother. Han Fei couldn’t imagine such a clean room existed deep inside Zone A. Smelling the familiar flowers, the boy’s expression changed too. They came to the center of the room and saw the note on the table. The pages were filled with gentleness. The many different kinds of flowers and different colors formed the shared memory between Ghost Mother and Gao Cheng. A blind child used the senses of smell and touch to understand the beauty of the world and the growth of life.
Han Fei’s arms raised. When he touched the notebook, all the words became magical power and entered his mind. The note recorded the many things Ghost Mother had done, every achievement Gao Cheng had since he was young. Ghost Mother had sacrificed a lot, but she had no regret. She was always there for Gao Cheng. The despair-filled eyes had other emotions. The boy’s clothes gained colors. His mother had been protecting whether it was in the past or now.
A missing person’s poster fell from the wall and floated into the wall. Then, more posters crawled in like bugs. The faces on the posters were scary. The flowers wilted, and the fragrance became stench. In the end, only a blank notebook remained. The last room was dominated by Ghost Mother. However, Gao Cheng had received Ghost Mother’s message.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve completed the altar hidden mission—Gao Cheng’s Wish with the lowest completion rate. You can pick one of the three following as a reward.
“Reward 1: Gao Cheng and Gao Xing are twinflowers. Their fates are intertwined. You can choose to unite with Gao Xing’s real-life memory. When you have fully become Gao Cheng, there’s a chance for you to use part of the altar’s power and fight for the memory world’s control with God.
“Reward 2: Retain Gao Cheng’s real life and promise to help him kill God. Gao Cheng’s friendliness level +10!
“Reward 3: Gao Cheng has shed all defense against you. You can choose to sacrifice it to God. There’s a very high chance you’ll get partial control of the altar.”
“Lowest completion rate?” Normally, Han Fei might need to face Ghost Mother alone, but Brother Chou’s group influenced his mission progress. Han Fei didn’t make an immediate choice.
The boy had complicated emotions. He knew that his mother didn’t blame him, but he also knew that if this continued, his mother would die. They returned to the bloody pool, and Ghost Mother was gone. The ghosts in the building ushered Han Fei to leave. Other Pure Hatreds were coming. The weak light shone on Han Fei as he left. He finally chose reward two.
“The meaning of our hard work is so that our future can be better. The best ending for me is for you to reunite with your mother.” Han Fei stopped hesitating, and he heard the system say that his friendliness level with Gao Cheng had increased. “I’ll help you kill God.”
Han Fei found the two Hope City survivors. Han Fei got into the black truck with them. Everything on the truck was evidence. The inside of Hope City was severely corrupted, and they needed to be excised. Driving the truck, Han Fei returned to Zone C without issue. As he appeared within the territory of the center, the members were ready to fight. This was a blatant taunt for someone to drive a truck with the Evil God’s symbol into Hope City.
Han Fei had already contacted the people from the center.
“Stop! I’m one of you! I’m Gao Cheng, the leader of Team 13 from the Tragedy Investigation Center! This is my document!” Han Fei stopped the car and walked down. He was so weak that he almost fell. Seeing him like this, the patrols didn’t dare to come closer. Many ghosts liked to possess familiar people and then ambush them.
“Is it Gao Cheng? But I remember he rode a bike when he left, and he didn’t even carry a bag with him.” One patrol looked at the black truck and the bloodstain on it. There was also the evil God altar. Who would come back with these things from a daily mission?
“Move away! The coordinates are correct!” The members of the center ran over. Tou Qi led the group. He rushed to Han Fei. “Gao Cheng, wake up! You haven’t even recovered from your last injury. Why did you leave the base again?”
“There are two Hope City police in the truck. Hope City is in trouble. I need you to bring them to meet the director.” Han Fei was helped up. He held his head. “Do you have ghost blood?”
“I’ll bring you over now!” “Do you have ghost blood…”
The black truck was driven away by the center. Everything on it was Han Fei’s winnings, but they had to be examined first. Han Fei and the two survivors were led to the conference room. The three shared their tales with Li Xue and the other management people. Everyone’s face was grim. They didn’t expect Hope City had been so corrupted from within.
“The evidence on the truck has been inspected. We can confirm that the three of them are telling the truth.” Xue Ba entered the room and handed the document to Li Xue.
“Zone A is the most dangerous zone at Xin Lu. These people can move through there freely?”
“Hope City has more than 60000 people. We need to handle this carefully. We can’t cause panic, but we can’t let these bastards go either.”
After a long discussion, Li Xue made the final decision. “Collect all the evidence. Protect the two survivors. Tomorrow, I’m going to Hope City myself.”
“You’re going?” The others were shocked. “Director, the current investigation into Zone C is at its critical moment. We need you at the center.”
“There are more than one or two people who are dealing with ghosts. Some of them might even be managers at Hope City. Catching them won’t be easy.” Li Xue inherited her teacher’s spirit. “Gao Cheng will stay. The meeting is adjourned.”
After everyone left, Li Xue sat down beside Han Fei. “There’s something else you didn’t report, right?”
“How did you know?”
“You seem to have that bad habit.” Li Xue looked into Han Fei’s eyes. “Tell me. What did you encounter this time?”
Han Fei didn’t know what Li Xue experienced in the tragedy, but she seemed to be able to see through Han Fei’s acting. Han Fei didn’t hide anything from Li Xue. He told her about Gao Xing, Gao Cheng, Ghost Mother, and Brother Chou.
“You’ve gained the full trust of Gao Cheng’s memory that you brought out of Deep Sea Aquarium? Now, you want to help him deal with the Unmentionable?” Li Xue thought about it and said, “I have a suggestion, but I wonder if you’ll hear it.”
“Tell me.”
“Since you didn’t choose to unite with Gao Cheng, then you can find another way for him to use his power.” Li Xue pushed Brother Chou’s info to Han Fei. “The fate of the boy in your brain and the Pure Hatred eyeballs at the aquarium are connected. You said that their eyes had been swapped, and their memories are bound together. We can use that and this criminal’s dominating persona to try to get the boy to take over the eyeball Pure Hatred.”
Han Fei was stunned. “You can use other people’s power like that?”
“You can discuss it with the leader of Team Ten. There’s a power difference between humans and ghosts. We can live until now because we know how to use the different powers of persona.” Li Xue stood up to arrange all the evidence. The door suddenly opened. The leader of Team One entered, holding a black box.
“Where are you going?”
“To clean up the bugs at Hope City. When they receive the report that their subordinates are missing, they will be on edge. So I plan to go there now.” Li Xue accepted the heavy black box and left.
