CH 438

“Even if your heart stops, you can live here forever…” Han Fei’s eyes flew open. He sat up in bed and his clothes were soaked in cold sweat. ‘I fell asleep so easily? Why?’ Checking his character profile, Han Fei noticed that his mood points had returned to 60, which meant he could venture out already.

‘Sleeping can only raise my mood points back to 60. Now that I think about it, I haven’t really felt the feeling of joy in this memory world yet.’ Rubbing his heavy head, Han Fei changed into a dry set of clothes. ‘How long have I slept? It feels like my memory is blurred, have I forgotten something?’

Pulling back the curtains, the sky outside was already dark. Han Fei had slept through the afternoon. ‘I was probably too tired.’ After some cleaning up, Han Fei entered the kitchen and cooked the last bit of rice into porridge. ‘If I can survive tonight, I need to buy some food to store at home. Also I should visit the owner’s mother at the hospital, perhaps I can get some clues from her.’

At 9 pm, Han Fei changed into his uniform and walked to the door. Han Fei left early because he didn’t want to walk around the town at midnight. It was rare to find a worker who loved his job as much as he did. As he opened the door and stepped out, the robotic voice came, “Notification for Player 0000! Your hunger points is 20, your physical condition is good, your mental condition is rather disappointed, your mood points is 60, do you want to leave?”

“Yes.” The system notification woke Han Fei up immediately. He was inside the altar owner’s memory world, he needed to be more cautious. ‘The system will remind me every time I leave the house. The system has become more understanding and chatty when we’re inside the memory world… Wait, is the voice really the voice of the system?’ Han Fei stood at the door. He knew that he couldn’t rely on the system notification to keep himself conscious. This was only the second day. If one day the system disappeared or if it had forgotten to remind Han Fei of certain things, Han Fei might get lost.

‘This should be the hardest mission I’ve ever attempted.’

Han Fei left his room and walked down the corridor. Many sounds entered his ears, the sound of the television commercial, the argument between couples and children being scolded. The sounds comforted Han Fei, it was like he had been living there for a very long time already. ‘Am I being acclimatized by the owner’s memory? But I have not died, why would I have this feeling? Is it because I have fallen asleep? However, if I don’t sleep, my mood points will decrease and my physical condition will be affected, in the end, I’d die too.’

Han Fei reached the staircase. He glanced up at the 3rd floor. All the sounds disappeared between the 2nd and 3rd floor, it felt like the stairs leading to the 3rd floor also led to another world. Han Fei took the steps one by one. When he arrived at the door of Room 13, his mood points started to drop again.

‘O well, I should focus on work for now.’ When Han Fei left the rental building, his breathing was ragged, he had no idea why he was so afraid. He turned back to look, one of the windows on the 3rd floor didn’t close shut. Two hands grabbed the edge and half a face peeked out from behind the window. 2 hollow eyes stared at Han Fei. A piece of paper was slid through the window gap. The mouth opened as if talking. After some hesitation, Han Fei picked up the paper and unfolded it. The paper was painted with dark symbols. Han Fei turned it around and realized a statement was written on the back in uneven handwriting—you will die too.

‘Is this a curse or a warning?’ Han Fei placed the paper inside his pocket. He turned and walked out from the neighbourhood. When he reached the first alley, the homeless man was still there. He smiled when he saw Han Fei and then he said, “Good people will have good karma.”

“Good people will have good karma.” Han Fei replied casually but when the homeless man heard him, the smile on his face stopped immediately. He pulled his wooden box and hid at the corner. ‘What is wrong with what I said? Or did he see something on me?’ Han Fei didn’t let go of this detail. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get anything valuable from the homeless man. The limping dog kept barking at him. “Your dog is quite feral.” Han Fei remembered that the dog had never once barked before this.

Han Fei stopped wasting time and entered the 2nd alley. The houses on the side had no lights so they looked deserted. ‘2 alleys, the small garden and cement bridge…’ Han Fei already memorized the route. Like last time, he wanted to walk around the garden but then he noticed with shock that the boy from Room 7 was sitting on the swing alone. The boy had his blue school bag, and his clothes were muddied. He appeared to be talking to someone but there was no one around him.

“Hey!” Han Fei shouted at the boy outside the garden, “It’s already dark, you should go home! And not stay outside on your own!”

When the boy heard Han Fei, he quickly whispered behind gun as if worried that Han Fei might see his friend. Then he ran over to Han Fei carrying his large school bag. His face was sweaty and his clothes were muddy, it appeared like he had just gone to the river bank to play. “Uncle, please don’t tell my father about this.”

“Do you know what time is it now? Why are you still outside?” After Han Fei knew the boy was Ten Fingers’ child, he paid him extra attention.

“My father wanted to cure my mother so he chased me out. He told me to stay outside until 10 pm.”

“Even so, you shouldn’t go to those dangerous places!” Han Fei helped wipe away the mud from the boy’s face. “By the way, what kind of sickness your mother has, I don’t think I’ve seen her before.”

“Mother hasn’t left the house for years already. She always sleeps in the bedroom. She doesn’t speak. It’s like she cannot wake up from her sleep.”

“Then how do you normally talk to your mother?”

“Father would lock the bedroom door before he goes to work, I can only see mother after he comes home.” The boy’s words shocked Han Fei. He suspected the boy’s mother was already dead.

“No matter what, you shouldn’t wander about all alone. You need to be more careful. Only by being alive can you protect the people you want to.” Han Fei knew he was being a little more severe than he needed. After he let the boy go, he glanced towards the small garden. The swing was swaying as if inviting him to play. “This world is becoming more and more absurd.”

Han Fei took the long detour to reach the cement bridge. When he saw the gurgling river in the dark, he had the urge to jump into it. ‘Focus, I need to get to work!’ Han Fei ran past the bridge and arrived at Entrance C. He glanced at his character profile, his mood points had dropped to 55.

As he entered the mall, Han Fei saw the male guard from the night before—Lee Daxing. “Oh, you’re still alive?”

“You’re the one who is working at a dead man’s shop, so you’d die before I do.”

After they greeted each other, they went off to work. Han Fei entered the 2nd hand shop. Huang Li was talking to a young employee. The employee didn’t finish the work so they had to work overtime. Perhaps because Han Fei had arrived, Huang Li lowered her voice to give the young employee face.

“What’s wrong?” Han Fei believed that scolding was not going to solve anything, especially in this world.

“A new batch of stock just arrived. The boss wants us to have them organized before tomorrow morning but this kid was too lazy, he didn’t even check on the stock in the storeroom!” Huang Li was angry, “I have already worked 2 long nights already, I thought I could finally rest but it looks like I’ll have to stay for overtime again tonight!”

“Sister Huang, there were too many customers this morning, I didn’t have the time.” The employee argued, “I’ll go arrange it now, you won’t have to work overtime.”

“I’ll go with you. This is the perfect chance for me to get to know the storeroom.” Han Fei stood beside the young employee. Han Fei was the kind of employee bosses would love.

“I guess that’s the only way.” Huang Li stayed at the counter to go over the accounts. Han Fei followed the young employee through the employee staircase to the underground storeroom. This underground storeroom was adjacent to the mall’s warehouse, there was only a wall between them.

“Hey, newbie.” The young employee was more at ease around Han Fei, probably because they were about the same age. “Why did you come here to work the nightshift? Not that I want to scare you, but you better be more careful at night. This place is not clean.” As they walked, the young man whispered to Han Fei, “The old man who trained me just died not too long ago. He died inside the shop, it was very scary.”

“I have no choice, I need the money.” Han Fei smiled shyly.

“The salary for the nightshift is indeed higher, it’s about twice the salary we get for doing the dayshift but not everyone can do the nightshift.” The young man took out his phone. “We should add each other as friend, the name’s Fei Yang.”

“You’re making me worry. Can you tell me more details so that I can be more prepared?” Han Fei took out his phone. As he added Fei Yang as his friend, he tried to draw out more information.

“The boss forbad us from talking about these things, I think it’s mainly because he doesn’t really understand what’s happening either. Just remember that you shan’t fall asleep after midnight, do not stay inside the shop, and it’s best to sit near the door. If there’s anything strange, just run out immediately.” Fei Yang warned Han Fei seriously.

“I can’t sleep? But when I was here yesterday night, Sister Huang just woke up from a nap and she seems fine.”

“Have you not noticed…” Fei Yang stopped before continuing in a careful tone, “how strange has Huang Li been recently?”

“What do you mean?”

“The old man who trained me was also acting strangely before he died. His personality, tone and mannerism, it was like he was a different person.” Fei Yang’s fingers tightened. It was clear that he was nervous and afraid, “Anyway, we should get to work.” Fei Yang really did end the topic then. He focused on his job and stopped chatting with Han Fei. They moved the new batch of stock and categorized them. They worked for 40 minutes before Fei Yang escaped using the excuse that he needed to catch the last bus. Huang Li was angry when she found out. She wanted to call Fei Yang back but Han Fei stopped her.

After learning how to do the accounts and memorizing the categorizing standards for the stock, Han Fei told Huang Li to go rest, he’d do the rest on his own. A person’s ability was limited. Huang Li worked the nightshift yesterday night and she had the dayshift this morning, she was already very tired.

“You’re so much better than that kid. The boss must have done many good things to have hired a good employee like you.” Huang Li was visibly drained. “I’ll leave the stock in the storeroom with you. But if you can’t finish it, it’s fine, I’ll explain to the boss tomorrow.”

“It should be fine.” Just as Han Fei said that, the robotic voice announced, “Notification for Player 0000! You’ve triggered a random mission—Organize the storeroom!

“Organize the Storeroom: You need to organize the storeroom before dawn and price all the souls.”

Han Fei thought arranging the storeroom would be something inconsequential but now he didn’t dare to put his guard down anymore. ‘The storeroom also contains the owner’s regret?’

Leaving Huang Li, Han Fei entered the storeroom with the account book and inventory list. This time, his mood points started to drop. ‘It appears like whenever there’s a ghost, my mood points will drop and the speed it drops is related to the strength of the ghost.’ Han Fei moved around the storeroom, opening the old boxes and bags. He priced the items based on the standards used by the shop. After about an hour, Han Fei’s mood points dropped to 42. The surroundings felt very quiet. The mall above him had no footsteps or sound of people talking, it was like he was left stranded in the world. ‘With the good person title, the decrease rate for my mood points is lowered. Does that mean that without that title, I wouldn’t even be able to survive the second night?’

Han Fei arranged the stock and labeled them with prices. He placed them on the shelves in the storeroom. He moved quickly but even so he couldn’t organize so much stuff in a short amount of time. When his mood points dropped to 30 plus, Han Fei decided to leave the storeroom for now. But as he turned, the lights in the storeroom went out. The darkness descended and Han Fei took in a cold breath. He could hear his heart beating in his chest. His mood points started to plummet.

He tried to make his eyes get used to the darkness. Han Fei had memorized the location of all the shelves, he retraced his steps and managed to escape without bumping into anything. However, when he was about to enter the employee staircase, he noticed the door was locked!

“Even if your heart stops, you can live here forever…” A voice spoke. It sounded like it came from his brain but also from deep inside the storeroom. It was calling for Han Fei.

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