When Zheng Li heard the familiar voice on the phone, she started to scream uncontrollably. She clawed at her head. The bandage Han Fei just applied started to bleed again. “I didn’t tell anyone! Go away!” She appeared to see things Han Fei couldn’t. She looked at the empty room and screamed wildly.
Han Fei could sense that Zheng Li’s body temperature was dropping. As he spent more time with Zheng Li, the room in his eyes started to change too. Blood leaked down the gap in the roof, invisible hands turned over the blanket, and the invisible monster was hiding in the girl’s room, waiting for her to come home.
Normally, Han Fei wouldn’t feel fear but his heart was moved by an unknown force. Wu Chang and the Executioner were standing beside him, but there appeared to be a layer between them. No matter how Han Fei tried to summon them, they didn’t move. “The fear is spreading!” The fear that originated from Zheng Li’s heart was like a disease. Everyone who got close to her would slowly be dragged into the unknown illusion. “The director knows human nature. He starts with the weakest link. He uses them as the opening and has fear spread from within the group.”
Han Fei tried to trigger the greed persona, but something unexpected happened again. His consciousness was isolated. He couldn’t communicate with the personas in his mind or contact the ghosts in the greed abyss.
“I get it now. This Pure Hatred’s power doesn’t target the physical body. The moment I stepped into the ghost territory, he has been trying to attack my consciousness. My mind is isolated from my body. The director’s power should be to manipulate one’s consciousness.” The third Mental Hospital was Xin Lu’s best mental institute. It had many treatment methods for mental issues. Han Fei should be the main patient because when he came last time, he led Shang Nv away.
“Pure Hatred can’t be underestimated.” After Han Fei understood that, he felt his back getting heavier. He turned back to look and saw black flowers growing on Zheng Li’s body. She kept expanding. Her beautiful face was now leaking with blood. The flowers that grew out of her body wanted to crawl into Han Fei’s body, so he had to put her down. “The black flowers should be the plague. If I want to save Zheng Li and the others, I need to deal with the director.”
Han Fei planned to leave. He tried to pull back the Executioner and Wu Chang, but their forms faded away. They were also struggling against something. He could hear Han Fei but couldn’t see him. In the end, they disappeared on their own. Screams still came from other sides of the building, but Han Fei didn’t go over to them. “I need to stay away from others so I won’t be affected by the black flowers.”
The more determined a person, the longer they’d hold out. The fear would multiply until they focused on a person. Han Fei had made the decision to carry everyone’s fear and find the exit!
He looked out the window. The opening made by the woman was closing up. Han Fei suddenly heard scuttling from above. A spider, the size of a palm, was dangling beside the door. Its body was larger than normal, but the scariest thing was that it had a human head.
“Whose fear is this from?”
As more people fell to fear, more scary things would appear. Han Fei didn’t stop. He touched his pocket to feel the paper plane given to him by No. 2, Rest in Peace, and the paper doll. They were all gone.
“This director’s power sure is disgusting.”
The atmosphere turned tense. Han Fei was about to move when he heard No. 2 in his heart. “Move forward, enter the corridor and move down. After you pass by the third seventh floor, go into the second room on the left.” Even though he had no paper plane, No. 2 appeared to have anticipated this. The bloody writing on the paper plane morphed into No. 2’s voice and directly rang out in Han Fei’s soul. “No matter how powerful the director is, he shouldn’t be able to mimic No. 2’s voice.” Han Fei ran away from the human-headed spider and down the dark corridor. The dirty corridor was smothered with black, sticky liquid. Many gory pictures adorned the walls. The patients grabbed the doctors to give them treatment. Han Fei memorized most of the paintings on the wall. He raced downward but appeared to have entered another loop. There was no first floor. He ran from the ninth floor to the second floor and then back to the ninth floor again. The only difference was the paintings became gorier, and the surgeries became crueler. There were fewer doctors.
“What does this mean?”
The screaming became more intense. There were voices Han Fei was familiar with. The center was prepared but not for this. The director’s power was so much stronger than a normal Pure Hatred. When Han Fei passed by the seventh floor for the third time, he suddenly changed his director. He ran into the second room on the left. Behind the pure white door was a ward that was changing. The blood on the wall faded away. The ward was protected by some kind of power and Han Fei witnessed it.
“What is this?”
As the room changed, a doctor suddenly appeared. He was holding a black box. When it sensed Han Fei’s presence, the thing inside the box appeared to come alive.
“Stop!” Han Fei punched the doctor. The doctor was caught by surprise. He raised the box to block. Han Fei’s punch cracked the black box, and a wounded head fell out. The normal face was enveloped by some kind of emotion, and the face was smiling.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve discovered the happiness persona. This persona came from a patient at the mental hospital and it has been pulled out by the director.”
Before Han Fei could react, the smiling head disappeared. The ward stopped changing, and Han Fei’s mental corruption became even worse. “This ghost territory is made up of different personas. Have I just discovered one of its foundations?” He wanted to ask the doctor, but once the black box cracked, the doctor screamed, and his body burned into a pile of ash. The doctors here were bound to the black box. Once the black box they guarded was destroyed, they would be killed. The Pure Hatred did this to prevent the doctors from stealing from him.
“Go out the door! Don’t use the staircase and find the elevator. Stay inside the elevator! Wait for the next doctor!” No. 2’s voice appeared in Han Fei’s mind again. He immediately opened the ward door. Once he stepped out, water splashed everywhere. Han Fei fell into a dark swimming pool. “Why would there be a swimming pool here?” Underneath the water, a large ball of shadow was forming. A body floated on the water's surface. It appeared to be the body of someone from Team Nine. “Everyone’s fear has been triggered. This place will become more dangerous.” Han Fei tried his best to swim, but he couldn’t get away. The shadow underwater was always faster than him. The more he tried to escape, the closer the shadow was. When Han Fei turned around again, something touched his face. He looked, and the body had floated behind him. The hair wanted to wind around his neck. “His great fear has something to do with water. The exit is probably somewhere he’ll never go.” Han Fei looked around. The pool appeared to have expanded. The more afraid he was, the further the edge would be. “There’s no ladder near the edge. Is it the exit under the pool?” There was crying, and the body’s face slowly moved. Something was trying to crawl out. Han Fei didn’t hesitate anymore. He took a deep breath and dived underwater. The bodies floated to the surface. Han Fei followed the bodies. He saw a bloodred number behind the shadow. There was a closed elevator door underneath the pool. “I’m experiencing everyone else’s nightmare. I can only find the exit by escaping another person’s nightmare.”
Han Fei swam into the shadow. He heard many strange voices and images that terrified the member. The incident also happened at a pool. Several brutes stripped him and threw him into the pool. Then they poured the worms and snakes he hated into the pool. The fear turned into a nightmare.
“Thankfully, I’m not scared of these.” The worms were not as disgusting as Butterfly. Snakes were so much kinder compared to human evil. Han Fei reached the underwater elevator. He pressed the button, and the number on the panel changed. About ten seconds later, the door opened, and Han Fei fell into the elevator.
Han Fei gasped for air and even dry heaved, but his clothes were perfectly dry. The pure white elevator slowly closed. Han Fei sat in the corner. He could confirm this was the hospital elevator because of the smell of medicine. “No. 2 had me wait in here for another doctor, but what if a scary thing enters the elevator?”
Han Fei slowly stood up. He didn’t know where to go, so he stayed in the elevator. The elevator moved to the third floor. The door opened, and an elder entered the elevator. A hanged man rode on his shoulders.
“Kid, why are you looking at me like that?” The old man massaged his neck. He felt very sore there lately.
“Sir, you look so young. I bet you’re not even 60 yet.” Han Fei said casually, like he couldn’t see the ghost.
The elder hissed. “I will have my 50th birthday next year. If you don’t know how to speak, just keep quiet.”
“Sir, you have an eye for people. I do have social anxiety.” Han Fei didn’t show any fear even if the hanged man leaned close to his face. He continued to chat with the elder.
Soon, the elevator stopped on the fifth floor. With the cries of children, a pregnant woman entered the elevator. Behind him followed a deformed child with a large head.
“Baby, you have to be obedient. You can’t be like your ugly big brother. He created trouble and finally fell into the lake. How troublesome was he.” The woman was in a good mood, like a huge problem had been solved.
“Fell into the lake?” Han Fei glanced at the boy from the corner of his eyes. His clothes were soaked, and his skin was bloated.
“That happened a few months ago. They still can’t find his body.” There was no sadness in the mother’s tone.
The elevator stopped on each floor, and more strange patients entered. Everyone had ghosts following them, but no one appeared to be able to see the ghosts. Han Fei was very calm. He chatted with everyone. The atmosphere was light and peaceful.
Suddenly, the elevator stopped on the ninth floor. A center member stood outside. The elevator was so packed with ghosts that the member couldn’t even see Han Fei. He wanted to escape using the elevator, but the elevator gave him such fright. He was so scared that his face was twisted. He screamed and turned to run!
After that, the atmosphere instantly turned cold. The patients and ghosts stared at the center member. Their mouths opened and closed, repeating the same thing as they chased after him.
“Don’t be afraid!” Han Fei wanted to save the man, but No. 2 told him to stay inside the elevator. “There’s no time.”
The door closed, and the elevator moved. It opened on the 11th floor. A doctor entered with a black box. Behind him was a bloody corridor.
“What kind of persona would it be this time?”
The doctor was confused when he saw Han Fei inside the elevator, but he still entered it.
Just as he was about to press the button, he felt a chill run down his spine. The panel reflected Han Fei’s creepy smile.
“The elder told me to be quiet, so I won’t waste time talking to you.”
He strangled the doctor and smashed him into the door. He forced the black box open.
