Chapter 4: Strange Development

As mentioned earlier, before starting the game, Han Fei did attempt to find its reviews online. Positive reviews dominated most parts. Many CB players praised this game as a reincarnation of a man-made heaven. It manifested humanity’s imagination of nirvana. At the time, Han Fei did imagine the life he’d lead inside the game. He would have many friends, and had no worry for money anymore.

Again, imagination proved more beautiful than ‘virtual’ reality. At that moment, Han Fei was cowering inside the tattered covers with a cleaver, while training his laser focus on the electric wall clock. The clock’s paint was peeling at parts. The smell of mould hung in the air like a horrible stench. It was now 2 am in the morning!

The new player mission, sleep had started for a while already. The room was quiet, there was no accident. Han Fei started to ease into complacency. Even though the granny’s warning was scary, at the end of the day, this was supposed to be an Iyashikei game. No matter how horrid one’s life was, Han Fei could not imagine the definition of anyone’s happy daily life being related to crazy murderers and supernatural hauntings. After another 10 minutes, Han Fei gradually relaxed since nothing changed. 

In fact, he started to get a little bored. With nothing else to do, he opened his character profile to study it. ‘I have faith this kind of high-quality game will gain immense popularity after it enters OB, I should earn as much EXP as I can now. If I get good enough, I might even make a nice side income out of this.’

Name: Han Fei

Clearance ID: 00000

Level: 1

Profession: None

Intelligence: 6 (An umbrella term for all mental-related categories and abilities. This includes the player’s memory, thoughts, emotions, mental acuity, cleverness, stability, experience and knowledge)

Stamina: 4 (An umbrella term for everything related to physical strength)

Charm: - 10 (Charm is a subjective concept; everyone has their own unique charm)

Luck: 9 (The higher the value, the luckier the player will be)

Malice: 0 (Guess how malicious human being can be)

Sanity Value: 100 (Under the influence of various internal and external environments, as well as self-adjustment, a player’s mental state will not remain unchanged forever. When the stimulus crosses over a certain threshold, the player will be forced offline. To put it simply, this is a parameter used to measure the player’s state of mental health. The lower the value, the easier madness can claim the player)

Life Points: 100 (When one’s Life Points reach zero, the player will die. Warning, each player only has one life at a time, all saved data will be cleared and restarted after death)

Talent: Resurrection (Unknown level talent. Unknown effect. A small percentage of lucky players will gain an innate talent during character building)

Skill Tab (The skills obtained by the player will be showcased here): Intermediate Acting, Beginner Cooking

Personality: None (The brilliant uniqueness of humanity. Obtaining different types of personalities will greatly improve your perfect life)

After going through the character profile, Han Fei was confused. He had no idea when his character was built and how it mirrored his real-life counterpart so closely…

‘Is the gaming account tied to my citizenry information? Or is it due to facial recognition? More over each character only has one life in game at a time, and all saved data will be cleared after every death, that is quite a harsh set up.’ For the sake of an easy gaming experience, many recent games lowered their overall difficulty but this game took the opposite route. The game was incredibly realistic, after death, one would lose everything one had in life. ‘Looks like I’ll have to be more careful. This building I’m in is not so normal, I need to move out as soon as I can…’ 

Before Han Fei’s attention moved away from the character profile, a sudden sound travelled into his ears without warning. Narrowing his eyes, Han Fei pounced up in bed like a cat. ‘I’m the only person in this house so what made that noise?’ The sound was not particularly loud but it was amplified by the overall silence of the night. Therefore, Han Fei heard it clearly. Gripping the cleaver, Han Fei’s eyes scanned around him. His eyes had gotten used to the darkness. He studied all the furniture in the bedroom. The room itself was old, combined that with the boarded-up windows, it lent an overall oppressive feeling to its tenant. Initially, Han Fei was not affected much by it but the longer he stayed there in the darkness, the more uncomfortable he felt.

‘Could there have been a death in this house before? The old lady warned me from taking advantage of the cheap rental. Usually an early death in the house would lower the rental price…’ 

Creak… While Han Fei’s nervous mind conjured up horrible thoughts, the strange noise returned once more. Holding his breath, Han Fei scanned the darkness in the living room. All the furniture took on a sinister outline in the dark like they could come alive at any moment. ‘Where did that sound come from?’ His pupils darted everywhere before it landed on the bathroom door. His pupils narrowed and his heart started to palpitate. 

Creak… Han Fei saw clearly the door handle of the bathroom door move!

‘Impossible! I checked the bathroom before I switched off the lights, there was no one in there!’ The air around him seemed to freeze. Han Fei did not even dare to blink. The lock of the bathroom door was the kind used in old houses. The two sides of the lock were jointly-connected so it meant that once someone turned the handle from the inside, the handle would turn also on the outside. ‘The granny told me to lock the bathroom door. Does that mean that she knew something was hiding inside it?’ 

Drowsiness dispersed immediately. He wasn’t this focused even during his university entrance exam. The electric clocked ticked loudly. Time passed by slowly. At 2. 44 am, the bathroom door handle creaked again. 

The thing locked inside the bathroom seemed to get angrier. Its movement was less elusive. Inside the empty room, the bathroom door handle wiggled up and down! Creak! Creak! Creak! 

The vibration of the door grated at the man’s nerves. Han Fei stared fixedly at the mop nudged against the door handle. As the vibration quickened, the mop slid down little by little. Soon a small crack opened on the bathroom door. Unknown terror sheltered within the darkness. A heavy silence blanketed the room. After a long second, five deathly pale fingers reached out from inside the gap. A slender arm grabbed at the mop that blocked against the door handle. 

‘What in the world is that?!’ Cold sweat drenched his back. Han Fei’s limbs were chilled. He knew he was inside a game but his instinct told him to escape as soon as he could. The mop was removed. The door swung open soundlessly like it was blown open by a draft. The lights were still off and there was nothing inside the dark maw of the bathroom. For all appearances, everything that happened earlier seemed like an illusion. 

‘The door opened inwards but the shoe rack in front of it still remains unmoved. This means that the thing probably has not come out.’ Holding onto the cleaver for dear life, Han Fei’s attention was drawn fully to the shoe rack. Sweat glided down his face and his heart pounded noisily. Han Fei was on high alert but no other sounds came from inside the house. ‘Is the thing still inside the bathroom?’ 

The corner of his eyes swept the living room. Earlier Han Fei had memorized the location of all the furniture. As his eyes scanned past the living area, Han Fei’s heart squeezed. There was an additional blob of shadow that had appeared right next to the couch that sat in the middle of the living room!

‘There was nothing next to the couch earlier, I’m sure of that!’ His heart almost jumped out of his throat. Han Fei played this game to relax and search for the simple joys in life. This was definitely not what he signed up for so he decided to quit the game. ‘No matter what the hell you are, I’ll be safe from you once I exit this blasted game!’ 

Opening the menu, Han Fei found the option to quit the game. But the option was now greyed out. After clicking it multiple times, the real devastating scene appeared.

“Warning! You will have to play more than 3 hours and complete at least one mission before you can exit from the game!” The robotic voice caused Han Fei’s eyes to twitch. His heart almost stopped. 

‘I can’t quit?!’ The iciness nipped at his nerves. When Han Fei exited the menu, he noticed the shadow that was by the couch had already moved to the bedroom door. From this closer distance, Han Fei realized the shadow was actually a person squatting on the ground!