Chapter 32: Nothing but Lies

“Brother Huang, other than the Easter Egg left behind by the passed founder, are there any other strange stories about this game? I’m more interested in those.”

“If you’re really that curious, you should visit the game forum. There are plenty of threads discussing that but most of them are just rumors.” Huang Yin said with derision, “I saw one of the threads claimed that there are many surefire ways to see ghosts in game. The poster listed out a series of guides, like going into the midnight theme park at 00.00 am and push open the door in the centre of the maze and you’d enter another world; going to the Funereal Street during twilight and you’d encounter living paper dolls; entering Chat Room 444 at 4 am, and you’d run into dead players. I have been playing daily and I spent hours lurking in Chat Room 444 and I haven’t seen a single ghost yet!”

“Indeed, some of these do sound like urban legends.” Han Fei said with an innocent look.

“Thankfully most of them sound so ludicrous that you’ll be able to tell their authenticity easily but there some that had successfully fooled others. For example, there are rumors going around that the game has a cryptic world and there is a Dark Version to Perfect Life and so on.”

“Cryptic world?”

“Do you still remember the tester who butchered a whole neighbourhood? After he was apprehended, he claimed he ran into ghosts. The game brought him to a sinister world filled with the dead and the game told him to kill all the NPCs to escape.” Huang Yin said with plain disbelief. “Yes, there are players who imagine their perfect life as an adventurer and the game would send hostile NPCs to help them level up but to have come up with something as preposterous as that tester, it was never heard of and since. Regardless, many testers believed him and they started to search for this cryptic world.”

“In other words, this cryptic world is supposedly a place filled with malicious ghosts?”

“Do you think such a place would exist in this game? Perfect Life is an Iyashikei game. Unless the developers themselves do not know about this cryptic world, why would they leave such a dangerous element in their game to ruin their own reputation?” Huang Yin shook his head. “As Perfect Life’s CB progresses, less and less people believe in this cryptic world.”

“So it was all the tester’s own imaginations?”

“No one really knows, perhaps his mind just snapped that day. Even though he did not murder any actual people, due to his actions in game, he was determined by the citizenry system to be Moderately Dangerous. He is currently staying at Xin Lu Asylum’s Critical Case Zone for rehabilitation treatment.”

‘Xin Lu Asylum…’ After memorizing this location, Han Fei changed the topic. “Brother Huang, thank you for showing me around today. I still have other things to do so I’ll have to leave for now.”

“Brother, even though we’ve just met, I feel like I’ve known you forever. I haven’t had such a satisfactory chat in a long time already.” Huang Yin was a chatterbox but clearly not everyone in his life could stand his nags… well, at least not until Han Fei’s appearance that is. To gain more information, Han Fei dissected Huang Yin’s every word carefully before he responded. He was the perfect listener.

“Perhaps it’s because we have the same hobby. After Perfect Life enters OB, I’ll see you in game.” Han Fei took out his phone to add Huang Yin’s contact. Due to the pressure brought on by Perfect Life, Han Fei’s social ability had improved tremendously.

“Sure, once you party up with me, I’ll show you how to trigger some extremely rare missions with excellent rewards. You’ll be glad to have befriended a CB player.” Huang Yin leaned close to Han Fei and continued when he was sure no one was around, “In fact, during the test, I have discovered a hidden mission that only has a 1 percent chance of triggering. We can attempt it together during OB.”

“Are hidden missions… that rare?” Han Fei asked with blinking innocent eyes.

“Of course! Hidden missions are stuff of legends, to have triggered one is like winning the lottery. So don’t you go around telling people I’ve found one!”

“Okay, thank you, Brother Huang.”

After leaving the convention centre, Han Fei hurried to Xin Lu Asylum. From his perspective, the tester probably did arrive at a world filled with malicious ghosts. When he reached the asylum, Han Fei used many methods but he failed to glean any information about the tester. He eventually was chased out by the nurse. From the nurse’s tone, he was not the first person to hear about this urban legend and come to seek attendance with this mysterious tester. Most of them were probably players of Perfect Life. Like Han Fei, they wished to find out more about the cryptic world through this tester but they were all chased away by the hospital staff. Facing the wrathful gaze of the nurse, Han Fei had no choice but to return home.

On the way back, he stopped at a shop for dinner. After having his body cured by delicious food, Han Fei was ready to go home to have his soul ‘cured’.

Even though only several days had passed since his first gaming instance, he no longer had the initial fear and anxiety. Han Fei himself was surprised by the speed with which he had adapted.

He read some books, analyzed some cases, memorized details about the victims and did some physical training. Han Fei connected all the wires, put on the gaming helmet and laid in bed at midnight.

“Welcome to Perfect Life where you are free to choose your own perfect life!”

The blood receded. Han Fei opened his eyes to darkness. He was sitting at the corner of his in-game home. “The wall clock shows that it’s midnight. The time in game is perfectly in line with the time outside in real life.”

Han Fei took a deep breath. As he was about to crawl up from the ground, the robotic voice suddenly came. “Notification for Player 0000! Your New Player Period of Protection is over! New Player Missions, Take a Shower and Sleeping (incomplete) will be substituted! Are you going to give up the New Player Missions? Be mindful of your choice because they will not return after being substituted!”

“There’s a New Player Period of Protection?” Hearing the announcement, Han Fei was dumbfounded, “I’ve almost lost my life so many times and you’re telling me I was actually still in the New Player Period of Protection? Then just how much more dangerous things will get from now on?”

Before Han Fei decided what to do, he heard a loud bang. He got up hastily and looked through the wooden gaps on the window. Looks like a human body was dumped from upstairs.

‘Jesus, the welcoming ceremony is getting more and more creative with each new instance.’

Han Fei had no idea what happened upstairs but he was sure it was nothing good.

“Notification for Player 0000! Your New Player Missions will be substituted! Will you give them up permanently?” The voice pressured Han Fei to choose but in reality, there was not really much choice. At least the New Player Missions would occur inside this room, but who’d know what kind of objective would be required of Han Fei for the new missions? In any case, Han Fei believed the new missions would be indefinitely harder.

Seeing as the New Mission Players slowly grayed out, Han Fei gritted his teeth and accepted both missions at once.

“Player 0000 has accepted the Grade G New Player Mission—Sleeping!

“Warning: After failing New Player Mission, the mission will not disappear but each failure will increase the mission’s difficulty slightly!

“Mission Requirement: Please close all the lights in the room and get into bed within the next 5 minutes. No matter what happens, you must not leave the bed in the subsequent 3 hours.

“Player 0000 has accepted a Grade G New Player Mission—Take a Shower!

“Take a Shower (New Player Mission): Whenever you shower at night, you always have this feeling that there’s someone else in the house.

“Mission Requirement: Before 4 am arrives, use in-game items to clean your face, head and body. Your combined hygienic activities have to last longer than 20 minutes.”