Images of memory appeared in Han Fei’s mind. The monster inside the cubicle appeared to be the elder’s biological son. It became like this after drinking too much well water.
Han Fei rammed through the door into the cubicle. He was so passionate that the monster didn’t expect it. Han Fei ignored the monster’s rejection and jumped into the room. The cubicle had no tiles. In the center of the house was an open grave.
“There’s a grave next to the guest room? This vacation place is quite special.” The black mist exuded out of Han Fei. The monster felt that something was wrong. Its body shrunk, and it morphed into a pool of water and into the grave. “What a quick runner!” Han Fei knelt beside the grave and poured the mist into the hole. “Wu Chang, Du Niao, go down to take a look!” The underside of the grave was connected to an underground river. The web was so complicated that even the two ghosts couldn’t track the monster. However, they did find something else. Wu Chang pulled out some rotten clothes.
“These clothes should belong to the victims. The ghosts would drag people into the cubicle at midnight and then drown them underwater. I woke up too early and prevented that.”
Han Fei looked through the clothes. Other than some normal clothes, there were uniforms from the Old Folk’s Home. They had the name Immortal written on them.
“Does that mean they’re related to Immortal Pharma too? Is Gu Yang Tian Nian Old Folk’s Home also a part of Immortal Pharma? Why would their uniform be here?” Han Fei hadn’t heard of this place in real life, and the police had no file on them either. While Han Fei was thinking, Du Niao picked out a medicine vial from the clothes. Wiping away the grime, it showed two pictures inside. One was taken before the tragedy. Thirty-plus young people stood other. They appeared to be fresh graduates. Everyone was smiling, and their eyes shone with anticipation for the future. Someone used special medicine to write down the date on the back of the picture. It was the date when Perfect Life was released.
Then, Han Fei took out the second picture. Thirty-plus elders stood before the old folk’s home. Their eyes were dull and dim.
Comparing the two pictures, Han Fei noticed something scary. The elders had the same facial structure as the teens in the first picture!
“Something’s not right! The first picture was taken on the day Perfect Life was released. That was a few months before the tragedy. The tragedy was only about a decade ago. How could these young people age so fast?”
The people at the old folk’s home might not be actual elders.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve discovered Grade F Mission—Bottle of Mercy. You’ve triggered a random mission—Ah Nian.
“Ah Nian (Random Mission): My name is Ah Nian. I’m trapped on the same day. Time is like a cage. Please help me.
“Mission requirement: Enter Gu Yang Tian Nian Old Folk’s Home’s security room and find Ah Nian.”
The mission hint proved Han Fei’s earlier suspicion. The Village of Longevity was indeed related to Gu Yang Tian Nian Old Folk’s Home.
Han Fei covered the hole in the grave and exited the guest room. He was in ghost territory. The time flow within the village was different from the outside. It was just strange.
“The grave buries the old man’s son. This family must know something.”
The kitchen door shook. The bamboo basket that the woman carried over trembled. The giant rats put on the cocoons and stood on the stove. They were mimicking the villagers.
“Where is the old couple hiding?” Han Fei entered the building again. Han Fei found a coffin inside the couple’s bedroom. He thought back to the beginning, and he could confirm before the old lady came to answer the door, she was sleeping inside the coffin.
“Why would a living person sleep inside a coffin?” Han Fei opened the coffin lid. There was pair of red clothes and a black-and-white picture of a family of five. The old couple didn’t age. Their son and daughter-in-law didn’t turn into monsters either.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve found the Grade G Item—Clothes of the Dead.
“Clothes of the Dead: After you put this on, you have a chance to gain the villager’s approval, but you have to pay the corresponding price, like staying in this village forever.”
“Is this the uniform for the villagers here?”
Han Fei sat beside the coffin and took out the document the center had on the Village of Longevity. All the messengers who were sent here would continue the communication, but they would never leave the village. The Village of Longevity had that kind of magic that would make outsiders stay here permanently.
“Does one really have longevity staying here?” Han Fei didn’t stay in the house. He exited the yard. The village was eerie at night. However, Han Fei couldn’t pinpoint the problem.
“There has to be a Pure Hatred since there’s a ghost territory nearby. Where is it hiding? How come none of my ghosts can sense its location?”
Han Fei was about to go to the house of the village chief when he encountered a ray of dim light. A few youngsters in hiking outfits entered the village. They looked very lost as they wandered aimlessly around the village. Han Fei followed them for a while, but they discovered Han Fei soon. “Who is behind us?”
The flashlight shone its light on Han Fei. The visitors hug each other in fright.
“I’m also here to seek refuge. I accidentally entered this village. Everything was fine in the morning, but every villager is gone at night…” Han Fei used his acting to convince the visitors.
“We reached here one week ago. The sun never came up after night fell. We have been trapped in the dark ever since.” The only female visitor said. She felt sorry for Han Fei.
“You’ve been trapped in the dark and can’t escape?” Han Fei thought about the random mission he had just accepted. It was about someone called Ah Nian, who was trapped on the same day.
“Yes. We tried walking toward the exit, but the path all led back to the village.” The leading man was about 2 meters tall. He was clearly the leader.
“Have you investigated the old houses? Do you find anything weird?” Han Fei was suspicious. The village was part of the ghost territory. How could these visitors survive for more than a day? If they were not incredibly lucky, then they were lying.
Han Fei wanted to go closer to observe, but he just took one step when the two male visitors looked at him with hostility. They were worried that Han Fei would mean them harm.
“We’ve examined all the houses here. We didn’t discover anything.” The leading man frowned. “However, the well outside the village is worth checking. There are voices coming from the well, but when we came to check it, there was nothing inside the well.”
“The well?” Han Fei was curious. “Can you bring me there to take a look?”
“Okay.” The man agreed. They led the way while Han Fei followed. Perhaps Han Fei imagined it, but when the visitors turned around, one of them smiled.
The man said the well was on the other side of the village. The plant there was very bushy and covered all the starlight. The visitors moved very past. They led Han Fei deep into the forest. There was an old temple there, and the well was beside the temple.
“Listen. Can you hear voices from the well?”
“No. I can’t hear anything.” Han Fei had very sharp senses, but he only heard the bugs.
“Come closer.” The visitors surrounded Han Fei. They nudged him closer to the well. “Can you hear it?”
“Come closer.” The leading man stood beside Han Fei. His hands pressed on Han Fei’s shoulders. The visitors looked nervous. However, Han Fei suddenly stopped. “You’re not planning to push me into the well, are you?” He turned around and smiled at the few visitors. “You can’t even lie to yourself. How can you lie to me?”
The blade shone in Han Fei’s hands. Instantly, the arms on Han Fei’s shoulders fell. The visitors’ wounds didn’t bleed, but dust fell out instead. They were shocked by this sudden change. They turned and ran. Of course, Han Fei wouldn’t let them go. They returned to the forest, and the visitors appeared around a big tree. “Where are they?” Han Fei climbed up the tree and found several large human cocoons wrapped up in layers of leaves.
“This is large enough to consume a person.”
The cocoons had patterns that looked like tree rings. They appeared to have grown with the tree.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve discovered the Longevity Cocoon. The ghosts who appeared after three mutations can live in the cryptic world and real-life at the same time.” Han Fei used Rest in Peace to cut the giant cocoon open. A humanoid monster that had a beating heart fell out. He looked like one of the male visitors.
“These creatures led living humans to the well and then sacrificed them.” After leaving the cocoons, the humanoid creatures died. These unique creatures mutated out of the tragedy. They were similar to the flower of resentment.
Han Fei returned to the temple. Han Fei opened the heavy door. He looked at the rows of plaques on the table. This temple served not God but a pure black box.
All the ancestors’ plaques were placed around the black box like they were fighting for something inside the box. Other than that, Han Fei noticed something. Everyone on the plaque had the surname, Fu. They had the same surname as the founder of Immortal Pharma, Fu Sheng.
“Is this village another experiment by Immortal Pharma? They use children to reconstruct the possibility of personas. They were also using elders to discover the limit of the human body.” Han Fei looked at the black box in the middle. Han Fei didn’t think he’d see the black box in Gao Xing’s altar world.
“Could there be secrets related to the black box at Gu Yang Tian Nian Old Folk’s Home? Gao Xing knew this secret, so he managed to turn his fate around from a boy at the bottom layer to the nightmare of the whole city?” The three Strange Buildings were the foundation of this world. The two kids switched their eyes at Third Optometrist Hospital, and they saw each other one last time at Deep Sea Aquarium. Gu Yang Tian Nian Old Folk’s Home was probably where their fates diverged.
