CH 356

The fire at Xin Lu intelligent city soon became a hot topic. Many people started to question Deep Space Tech’s photon computer for allowing this to happen. As the core of the intelligent city, the photon computer was a mechanical god in many people’s minds. It had already impressed the world once when it monitored the construction of the intelligent city and there was no accident. However, just as Perfect Life was going to go online, something happened at the intelligent city which was fully controlled by the photon computer and the damage was concentrated at the location where the most important data for Deep Space Tech and Immortal Pharma was stored.

There were already plenty of people who had a negative opinion of Perfect Life, they believed that this game would negatively impact the real world and it carried many questionable morality problems. However, the real reason was because these people hated the parent companies behind Perfect Life. Deep Space Tech and Immortal Pharma brought about technological revolution and biological revolution, a lot of jobs had been replaced by AI. Many people lost their jobs and were forced to adapt to this new era. If they ever slowed down, they would be cruelly abandoned by the cogs of advancement. This explosion at the intelligent city was like a present from heaven for these dissidents.

Many opposing and questioning voices surfaced on the internet. Some even had started a petition to boycott Deep Space Tech and Immortal Pharma.

After the explosion, Han Fei stood beside the window and glanced at his phone. In less than one hour, the related hot topic had garnered national attention. The speed could only be described as scary. But that was not all, while the fire was being put out, someone who claimed to be a former employee of Immortal Pharma started to expose the many strange events that happened during Perfect Life’s CB. When Han Fei saw the identity of this employee, he found it difficult to calm down.

The whistleblower was Feng Ziyu. He shared everything he had collected on the Ziggurat, including the video and audio recording of his colleague who had gone insane. Han Fei saw most of the videos for the first time as well. The mad employee said confidently that Immortal Pharma’s director’s will had been tweaked; he also revealed that the director had hidden a big secret inside the deleted map. The Ziggurat map couldn’t be recovered in the surface world but traces of it could still be found in other hidden maps. Han Fei scanned through the videos quickly because he knew they wouldn’t be online for long. Of all the videos, there was one that caught Han Fei’s attention.

The mad tester stood alone inside an empty office. He addressed the camera under the table. “I know there is something wrong with that neighbourhood, it is not a technical problem, not something that can be eliminated by deleting its files. I can only attempt to eliminate it the most direct way. A game should just be a game, when the game exceeds the definition of a game, it cannot be a good thing. I will be the first to uphold these rules but I will not be the last. If I die in the game tonight, those of you watching this video, please…” At this point, the man’s expression suddenly changed. His mouth opened and closed but he made no sound. Then several seconds later, the man suddenly looked at the camera. His lips split open to reveal a creepy smile, “Those before the camera, please try your best to survive.” The video ended there, it felt like it had been purposely cut short.

“This video should be taken when the tester first got into the game, it recorded how the man had gone insane.” Han Fei thought about it. Feng Ziyu had gone missing so the person who used Feng Ziyu’s identity to release this info was probably Butterfly or Butterfly’s disciple but why would they do something like this at such a crucial moment?

“Does it want to stop the OB of Perfect Life? But why?” Han Fei thought about it and believed the Butterfly merely wanted to muddle the water to hide its real intention. “Even though Butterfly has not personally murdered anyone, it is always accompanied by death. This is going to be yet another bloody night.”

Different from the explosion at intelligent city, Feng Ziyu’s expose couldn’t get much traction before it was suppressed by an invisible force. The video Han Fei was watching froze as well. “The two companies have made their move?”

Han Fei looked at the information which was being wiped away and a thought bubbled up in his mind, ‘Could the Butterfly’s real target be Immortal Pharma? It used Feng Ziyu’s material to mess up their footing and then take advantage of this opening to come after the company’s other employees?’ Han Fei immediately took out his phone to call Li Xue, he couldn’t tell how many times he had called her that day. He shared all of his worries with Li Xue and reminded her that Butterfly might cause a massacre that night and they had to be careful.

Han Fei hadn’t finished talking when Jin Jun shouted from the living room. The man hurried to Han Fei’s side, pointing at his phone like he had discovered something crazy. After hanging up, Han Fei turned to Jin Jun’s phone. The first hot topic had been replaced by Immortal Pharma’s director’s will and the second hot topic was the easter egg for Perfect Life’s first OB, the third was the news about the fire at the intelligent city, and how there was no injury.

As if to suppress the negative voices, Deep Space Tech pushed forth an activity that they had been preparing for a long time. The content and scale of the activity was so huge that it shocked everyone who saw it.

This was the first time Immortal Pharma released the video recorded by their director before he passed away. He poured his heart and soul into Perfect Life. The old man in the video didn’t look ill. His eyes were gentle as he looked at the camera, it was like he was talking to his kids. The old man talked about his anticipation towards Perfect Life. His own life was filled with regrets so he wanted to build a place where all the regrets could be rectified. The whole video was extremely long, the old man only shared his will near the end.

He hoped that the players who entered the Perfect Life could help him search for a black box inside the game, the box contained his lifetime regret. If someone could find the black box and help him fulfill that regret, he was willing to give his share of Immortal Pharma’s company stock to that person.

There was no big conspiracy or big secret in the old man’s will. This was just an old man reminiscing about his past and talking about his hope for the future.

The video instantly garnered the attention of many people. No amount of advertisement was going to match the allure of company stock. Immortal Pharma’s former director had set up his own foundation to help with charity and medical research, the fund needed to run his foundation was merely a yearly bonus from the director’s company stock. If a normal person could inherit the man’s stock, then he would be deified immediately!

Even Jin Jun who was already living comfortably had his eyes turned red after watching the video. Not only him, everyone who knew the news would be affected by it. Greed was human nature, a suitable amount of greed could compel hard work but overwhelming greed could only bury someone. Han Fei felt only chill seeing the exploding discussion.

The black box was in his brain. He instantly was reminded of an image where he was detained by mechanical arms and a saw was going to cut open his brain while many people looked on. The people had gotten rabid. Han Fei looked through the director’s video again and again, he knew the director was lying. No one knew what was inside the black box. Fu Sheng’s siblings hadn’t been able to open the innermost layer of the box. Han Fei was the one who knew the truth but he couldn’t share his truth because that would only put a target on himself.

‘Immortal Pharma would already know about the content of the video but they have been holding it back. In other words, they have attempted to find the black box themselves. They sent in plenty of their own employees during Perfect Life’s CB, some of them were probably there just to look for the black box.’ Han Fei had no idea why Immortal Pharma would choose to release the director’s will at this time. Perhaps they wanted to use this as a way to promote Perfect Life further; or they had run into some incident where they were forced to reveal this secret.

Han Fei couldn’t understand the decision making process of a big company, he only knew that he couldn’t let a third person find out he had the black box. The fire at intelligent city had been doused but the fire within the player base had just been ignited.

The giant monitor covered the night sky. The giant 3 entered Han Fei’s sight and he felt an oppressive feeling that he never felt before. It was like the number was not only counting down the time to Perfect Life’s OB but also counting down his life.

‘It’s time for me to make my move.’ Han Fei called Zhuang Ren in the room. To ensure that he wouldn’t summon anything else, Han Fei asked for details like Zhuang Ren’s date of birth, and other information. After he memorized everything, Han Fei carried the black box and left Jin Jun’s home. Walking down the old city street, Han Fei stayed close to the walls and shadows out of habit. Many habits he gained from the cryptic world stayed with him, sometimes, the line between the real world and cryptic world blurred. ‘I only wanted to find a mini game for relaxation, how did I end up putting my life on the line?’

When Han Fei was an extra, he wished to win the lottery, perhaps then he would not feel so pained whenever he ordered something expensive to eat. But now that he really had something priceless in his head, he couldn’t feel happy but felt even worse than when he was just a small extra.

Han Fei arrived home at around 10 pm. He was about to head up the stairs when an expensive car parked next to his apartment suddenly switched on its headlights. Han Fei’s eyes chilled and his muscles tensed. In that few seconds, he already formulated several ways to quite literally dodge from this problem. The air froze but the car didn’t charge towards him like Han Fei expected. Instead the car window rolled down and a well manicured hand reached out from inside, holding a cigarette between the fingers. The man’s hand had on an expensive watch and there was something tattooed at the back of his arm.

The car door on the other side opened and a handsome young man walked out. “What’s wrong? You’re kicked out after a few days of working with Director Zhang? I heard that you have been banned from the set? You poor thing. Director Zhang is after all an influential director, I guess he can dump you whenever he feels like it.” The young man was handsome but his tone was sharp and annoying.

“Ah Cheng?” Han Fei knew this young man. Twin Flowers’ original main character was supposed to be Ah Cheng, Han Fei only took his place after Ah Cheng walked away from the set.

“To be honest, I sympathize with you. A person has died on set, and someone has to take the fall. You’re the youngest and most inexperienced of the cast members, so the scapegoat has to be you.” Ah Cheng sounded indignant on Han Fei’s behalf. “I consider us to be friends. I have an opportunity that I wish to offer you, you really should take it.” Ah Cheng looked at Han Fei, he was desperate to see the begging on Han Fei’s face because he knew that Han Fei was ‘abandoned’ by Director Zhang. Many people in the business were talking about how unlucky Han Fei was.

“You think we’re friends? You need to go for a mental check up.” Han Fei shook his head. Ah Cheng was born with a silver spoon and had not faced any real challenge since he started his job as an actor. Ah Cheng was not a bad person, he just didn’t know how to use his brain. To put it simply, Han Fei wouldn’t waste time trying to summon Ah Cheng to the cryptic world because he didn't even qualify.

Han Fei picked up the black box and prepared to leave. Ah Cheng looked back with embarrassment. The car door opened again. The middle-aged man at the driver’s seat finally spoke. “Han Fei, do you remember me?”

Han Fei did find the voice familiar. He turned around to study the tattoo on the man’s arm. After realizing it was not a butterfly, Han Fei turned and continued to walk away.

“When you were at the company, I saw the potential in you. If you’re willing to come back, we’ll pour all the company resources on you.” The middle-aged man pointed at the decrepit neighbourhood, “I’m sure you won’t mind moving to a better place, right? You must be yearning to escape from poverty. We can sign the contract now and I will wire you the contract money tomorrow.”

Han Fei ignored the man. ‘Escape from poverty? You have no idea how much money I’m carrying in my head.’

Han Fei entered the staircase and was about to continue up when he saw two officers in full get-up guarding outside his door. They were experienced officers. They hid in the blind spot and made no sound.

“Gentlemen, what are you doing here?”

“Something doesn’t feel right tonight. Before those two arrived, many people have already come here looking for you. Some of them you know, most of them you don’t. We suspect Butterfly’s people might be hidden among them and they might come after you tonight.” Han Fei was a key informant, his house was heavily monitored.

Han Fei was touched knowing that the law enforcement would do so much for him so that he could game in peace.