Chapter 245: The Adopted Child

Crime scene cleaning, after participating in so many murders, Han Fei was very familiar with this work. Even if a professional officer came with high tech devices, it would be hard for them to find any problem. “Respect a man and he will respect you back. You are butchers of the living and I am the butcher of butchers.” Han Fei replaced the black cloth over the basin. Studying the reconstructed room and satisfied that there was no more mistake, he left with his friends. It was like they were never there to begin with.

The malice and negative energy inside Uncle Lee were consumed by the black snake while Uncle Lee’s mask and keys were confiscated by Han Fei. After leaving the basement, Han Fei hurried to Uncle Lee’s place. Since the cunning old man was already dead, why not repurpose his affects to better benefit the living? Han Fei searched through the place for anything useful, for the first time, it felt like he was actually playing a game.

Uncle Lee’s room contained many surprises. Han Fei found many bottles of blood under Uncle Lee’s bed. After giving the snake a taste, they realized the blood was sedimented with heavy negative emotions. Opening the cap and one would hear the horrified screams of the living. The 6th persona was twisted and dark, he liked to torture others. He probably collected all of the despair and pain and poured them into these bottles. Han Fei had no idea why number 6 collected these bottles, perhaps it was to satisfy his twisted needs. In any case, they were useful to help Weep heal quicker.

With the snake blinking eagerly on, Han Fei handed all the bottles to Weep. When he was dropped into the blood pool by the pig-faced monster, Weep was forced to face his most dreaded memory. Initially, the despair from his childhood was the support holding up his frail body but now the boy had changed. Weep had been running away from his past, attempting to use time to mellow out the pain. However, what time did was freeze the pain, it did not go away. Time locked Weep in the past. Even though he was now under greater pain from before, the time that held him back was shattered. He walked over the broken pieces and was growing at enormous speed. After he drank the infused blood, the presence coming out from Weep became chillier. He was collecting various kinds of despair and then transmuting and coalescing them into a singular object. When he succeeded, Weep would have another breakthrough.

‘Before entering the Cattle Alley, Weep’s cries could affect every soul within 10 metres radius, now the range has increased to 15 metres. If he continues to get stronger, the range will only get bigger and bigger.’ Han Fei was reminded of the Singer, the ghost’s song could cover thousands of metres. All the spirits who heard its song would shiver in fear. ‘Weep has huge potential. Perhaps he’ll become an Unmentionable like the Singer one day.’

While Weep was consuming the despair, Han Fei continued his search. The old man’s home was quite untidy. There were expired drugs everywhere. The clothes inside the cupboard were moldy. A scent of death permeated the room. “What’s this?” Han Fei found a wrinkled picture inside one of the clothes pockets. The picture featured a tiny, malnourished-looking boy. The boy was shy before the camera. He had long hair and extremely pale skin. His arms were abnormally grown. On the back of the picture was the boy’s name and date of birth. However, the thing that grabbed Han Fei’s attention the most was the note, Family.

‘Isn’t number 6 just a sub persona of Spider, why would he have a picture like this? Is this Spider’s actual family?’ Han Fei continued to look and he found an adoption paper and a lot of written notes inside a hidden panel at the depths of the cupboard. The handwriting on the notes was different from Number 6’s, if anything, it looked more like the writer’s handwriting. ‘Uncle Lee stole the writer’s adoption record? Why would he do that?’

As he continued to read, Han Fei noticed a lot of info on the record was covered up with a red pen. The empty margins were filled with words like death, sin and murder.

On the few pages of the adoption record, Han Fei noted many different handwritings. There were proclamations that the writer wanted to murder the orphan but the other personas appeared to have accepted the orphan and treated him as family. ‘The writer wanted to kill his own adopted child? Why?’

Han Fei knew that before the Spider died, he had adopted a child. After Spider’s death, it was the child who donated Spider’s brain to Immortal Pharma. Thinking back, Han Fei couldn’t understand why Spider would choose to adopt a child during the last moments of his life. At the time, he was in a deep duel with the Butterfly. Adding a new family meant that he would have a new weakness for Butterfly to exploit. ‘Or it was not the Spider who decided to adopt the child, but another persona controlled by the Butterfly?’

By now, Han Fei had already obtained much information. He could confirm that among the 9 different personas of Spider, there was one or more which had been controlled by the Butterfly. With Butterfly’s ruthless nature, they would not hesitate to turn Spider’s personas against himself.

‘I should pay attention to Spider’s adopted child, he’ll be a break in the case!’ After turning the old man’s place upside down, Han Fei found nothing else useful. This old man was different from the female chef, he was not targeted by the Butterfly. His desire for murder and cunning was his own. In other words, he was the darker side of Spider’s personality, the kind of person Spider despised the most.

After taking the adoption papers and picture with him, Han Fei returned the room to its original state. Then, they regrouped at Xu Qin’s place. After briefing Xu Qin and Weep with some details, Han Fei quitted the game at the corner of the bedroom. The blood world solidified and Han Fei removed the gaming helmet. His bloodshot eyes looked quite scary. The sun was coming up. Han Fei worked the kinks out from his muscle. Each movement brought him intense pain. The injury he suffered in the game was so real that Han Fei found the lack of pain quite disorientating in real life. He subconsciously kept his left hand close to his chest, like the bone was still broken.

His head felt heavy and tiredness overwhelmed him. Han Fei stared at his simple gaming device and was reminded of the gaming hub he spotted at Huang Yin’s home. Out of habit, he pulled out his phone to check his bank out and then he sighed. The royalty from Twin Flowers hadn’t arrived, and the salary from Thriller Novelist wasn’t there either. Currently, he had around 200000 RMB in his account, most of which came from the police reward money. ‘The most luxurious gaming hub costs around several millions, that’s enough to buy a house in the old city. That is not something affordable by the common people.’

The explosive advancement in technology also brought with it many hidden dangers. It was like an iceberg floating at sea. Everyone was in awe of the majesty above water but selectively ignored the suffering of the general public who was underwater necessary to keep the iceberg afloat.

With the amount in his account, buying real estate was out of question. Making friends, finding love, these didn’t interest him either. His only focus now was to survive in game and his only material desire was to purchase a multi-purpose gaming hub so that he could game for a longer session.

Lying in bed, Han Fei realized the cryptic world had its positive traits too. At least, the houses there were practically free, as long as you didn’t mind the murders and potential haunting.

After a quick rest, his body didn’t feel so painful anymore. He only slept for an hour before he was woken up by the alarm. Before his brain kicked in, his body already climbed out from bed and headed into the bathroom. At 8.30 am sharp, Han Fei arrived downstairs. Li Xue and one other plainclothes were already waiting for him by the cruiser. For the police, Han Fei was one of the biggest lures to catch the Butterfly. They protected him to get close to the Butterfly.

“Li Xue, did you guys find any concrete evidence regarding a relationship between Spider and Butterfly?” Han Fei did not rest inside the car. Even though he was an actor, the questions he asked were those from a detective.

“Temporarily, we have nothing. All the files on Spider have been demolished.” Li Xue looked at Han Fei’s dark circles. “Did you not have a good rest yesterday night?”

“I had a very long nightmare.” Han Fei gave an excuse and then pushed with another question. “Did you know that Spider had once adopted a child? If possible, I would like to meet him.”