Han Fei tried to initiate a communication but he got no reply. He pulled up the menu. As he fixed his eyes at the exit button, he searched through the bedroom for clues. He checked the dresser, the pillows, the bed. When Han Fei reached for the bedside table, he felt a stinging unease coming from his back. Turning his head around, Han Fei noticed all the dolls inside the bedroom were staring at him. The dolls assumed different postures, some laid on the ground, others leaned against the wall, but all of their heads were turned towards Han Fei.
The eyes, which were made from buttons, plastic and metal, appeared to reflect pain and despair. Even for Han Fei, who had been through a lot, the experience of being stared at by a bunch of dolls inside an inescapable room was hair-raising. He pinched himself hard on his arm and then answered with a perfect smile, “I believe there is a misunderstanding here. I feel sorry about what happened to you, I want to punish those who have hurt you. I am not just saying that, I really want to help you take revenge! And return to you the justice you deserve!”
To make his argument more persuasive, Han Fei took out the doll with Ying Yue’s name out from his inventory. When he did, the temperature in the room almost dropped to freezing point and the ring around his finger chilled.
“You shouldn’t torment yourself anymore. The real culprits are the ones who have hurt you.” Before the girl went berserk, Han Fei slowly eased the nail out from the doll. He plucked the paper with Ying Yue’s name and birthday date off, folded it and placed it gingerly inside his pocket. He stood up to leave the princess room. Han Fei entered the adjacent bedroom to grab the woman’s diary and the child’s sketch pad. He tore out a few pages from the sketch pad. He folded a simple paper doll out of them. Then he wrote down Ming Mei’s name on the back of the doll.
The house of dolls stared quietly at Han Fei, even the ghost had trouble understanding Han Fei. Han Fei raised the nail which was previously stuck in Ying Yue’s doll and pierced it harshly through the paper doll with Ming Mei’s name. “This whole family has committed terrible sins, we shan’t let them get away. It is only fair that they should have a taste of what they’ve put your through!”
And then Han Fei tore out a few pages from the woman’s diary and folded another paper doll. “Can you tell me the woman’s name? Please let me help you!”
The nail was removed from Ying Yue’s doll and now it was drilled through the doll which carried the name of the person she hated the most. The chill in the room eased. The dolls still kept their eyes on Han Fei but the venom in their eyes was mainly gathered around the paper doll he was holding. Han Fei sighed surreptitiously in relief, his plan to distract Ying Yue was working.
The temperature slowly rose back to normal but the chill from Han Fei’s ring kept increasing. The scariest ghost in this house was coming. Without any fear, Han Fei faced the house of dolls sincerely, “Please, let me help you.”
Perhaps because she had not met this kind of neighbour before, Room 1084 began to change. The previously closed closet swung open a gap to reveal a blood red eyeball. But that was just the beginning, behind the bookshelf, between the sheets, beside the curtains, even the eyes on the portraits started to blink. The eyes inside the house winked open, the thing in slumber was awakening.
The chill from the ring already surpassed the level yielded by Han Fei’s 9th floor neighbour. But to Han Fei’s consternation, the chill was still rising. When the cold was at its thickest, all the eyes began to bleed. At the same time, the robotic voice uttered, “Notification for player 0000! You have successfully triggered Grade G Hidden Mission—The House of Eyes!
“The House of Eyes (Grade G Hidden Mission): Find Ying Yue and leave Room 1084 alive.”
There was no time limit and the mission goals were direct. This latest hidden mission was distinct from all the hidden missions Han Fei had encountered in the past.
Han Fei felt suffocated as more eyes blinked opened inside the house. The power balance between them was too one-sided. Ying Yue was close to claiming Han Fei’s life just by announcing herself. ‘This is the type of ghost that lives on the 8th floor? Then just how scary the ghosts on the 9th floor can be?’
With no place to hide, Han Fei powered forward to continue the mission. ‘This mission is split into two parts. The system wouldn’t have arranged them this way for no reason. To leave this place alive, I need to first locate Ying Yue.’
The ghost had fully awakened while Han Fei was just starting his mission. The bleeding eyes stared at Han Fei. A girl’s cries rose from a corner of the room and then it reverberated all throughout the house!
‘What does this mean? Are these echoes of Ying Yue’s past tears?’ The helpless weeping tore at Han Fei’s heart. He could hear a girl calling for help underneath the cacophony. ‘With the inability to see, Ying Yue’s world was shrouded in darkness. She was surrounded by malice and antagonism, so it is only natural that she would cry for help and hope for someone to come to her rescue.’
Han Fei extended his hand. He tried to use the landlord’s ring as a compass to find the girl’s location. Unfortunately, while the ring could sense supernatural presence, it could not pinpoint their exact location. ‘Ying Yue should be inside the princess bedroom because the chill is strongest here. Perhaps, she is hiding inside one of the dolls!’
However, there were too many dolls inside the room. Han Fei had no other option but to squat down and inspect the dolls one by one. When he picked up a large puppy plushie, Han Fei noticed it was much heftier than the others. Pulling down the zipper on the back, Han Fei discovered an arm covered in tape inside it. When he saw the arm, the first thing that came into Han Fei’s mind was an entry from the woman’s diary-- “15th Jan, Ming Mei wants to get a pet but Ying Yue is allergic to animal fur, how much more different can they be? But I love them equally.”
‘Ming Mei wanted to get a pet but she couldn’t because of Ying Yue’s natural allergy. The woman wouldn’t be crazy enough to blame Ying Yue for something that she could not control, right?’ Han Fei sucked in a cold breath, he realized he shouldn’t underestimate the darkness in people’s hearts. After all, there was a reason why an arm was found inside a pet dog’s plushie. ‘Could this be the way the woman expressed her rancor towards Ying Yue? She chopped the girl up into pieces and stuffed them into animal plushies?! That is sick…’
With trembling fingers, Han Fei sought out all the animal plushies. Then he undid all the zippers. This was the one time Han Fei hoped that he was wrong.
Pulling off the tape carefully, inside the room dotted with eyes, Han Fei slowly pieced together a girl whose eyes were forever closed.
PSA: You can now use the keyboard buttons to navigate between the chapters. Press left for the and right for the .
Thanks to Reki for helping me with the script.
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