CH 450

‘I never would have thought this hammer is part of the altar owner’s imagination. In other words, he must have fallen for the boss’ trap on the first night and opened the altar.’ Han Fei still remembered what happened yesterday night. He almost opened the altar but at the last minute, he picked up the tool hammer to smash his pinkie and that woke him up. ‘Just how many things in the memory world are made up? Do I need to use them to rectify his regrets?’

Until now, Han Fei still didn’t quite understand the nature of the missions. For example, he really didn’t want to kill Lin Lu; for example, he didn’t want to abandon the hammer even though he knew it was fake.

“Open it, you don’t have much time left. Everything you need is inside the altar. Open it and you will become your best self and all your desires will be satisfied.” The voice entered Han Fei’s right ear again. Han Fei turned to the shielded altar. Shapes of human faces kept appearing under the black cloth. The lights in the basement started to flicker. Whenever it did, the human faces would change. Sometimes it was an old man, other times a woman or a child.

Han Fei’s words had angered the ‘divine’ inside the altar. As the lights kept flickering, the black cloth united with the darkness around it. It kept growing like a beast that came from hell. ‘I wonder what will happen if I use this hammer constructed by the goodness within the altar owner to smash at the most evil object in his memory.’ Raising the hammer, Han Fei planned to swing it. This world was too painful, destroying it might be a type of salvation.

Just as the hammer was about to connect with the expanding black cloth, the sound of falling came from inside the mall. The sound appeared to trigger some kind of the altar owner’s memory. The lights stopped flickering and the altar returned to normal.

‘The woman from the dressing room has returned?’ Placing the hammer in his pocket, Han Fei grabbed the stock from the shelf and prepared to leave. However, when he walked up the stairs, Han Fei discovered the hammer in his pocket had disappeared. He turned around and saw that the hammer had returned to its original place. It leaned against the altar, offering a second choice to those lured by the altar.

‘It can’t leave the storeroom?’ Han Fei was quite disappointed but he soon got over it. He restocked the shop and then walked out from the store with his flashlight. Fei Yang said the guards didn’t come to work so Han Fei was alone at the mall. Han Fei switched on the flashlight and headed towards the source of the sound. Soon he realized his mood point started to drop.

Han Fei suppressed his curiosity and returned to the shop lest he ran into any danger. However, at that moment, his left ear heard Lee Daxing greeting him and his right ear heard teeth crunching on bone and meat. Han Fei turned to the sound. The guard that Fei Yang said didn’t come to work that day was standing in front of a restaurant at the corner of the 5th store. He carried something in his hands and his face was incredibly white.

“Lee Daxing?” The distance between them wasn’t that far, depending on the way one decided to cross that distance. ‘Why is he standing alone on the 5th floor without any light? What is he doing there?’

The flashlight cut through the darkness and Han Fei got a better look at the man. However, the flashlight, which just had its battery changed, suddenly frizzed out and the light dimmed. Before his mood point dropped to zero, Han Fei rapidly retreated. He ran at the top of his speed. But after he ran for several seconds, he noticed the shops around him still looked the same. Using the last energy from the flashlight, Han Fei turned to the 5th floor. Lee Daxing was already gone. Han Fei swung the flashlight about, looking for Lee Daxing among the large mall.

Soon his left eye captured the man again. Lee Daxing in his guard uniform dragged something large and stood at the door of the 3rd floor elevator. When he saw Han Fei, his pale face broke into a smile. His mouth split open and all of his teeth were red. Bone chips stuck between his teeth. Lee Daxing waved at Han Fei. He was running over to Han Fei and at that moment, Han Fei’s flashlight died. The surroundings dipped into darkness.

“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve triggered a random mission—Illusion.

“Illusion: Before one dies, one might see many different types of illusions. If you are killed by those illusions, you might really die.

“Mission Requirement: Overcome the illusions, get used to the illusions.”

Han Fei was startled when he heard the system notification but he soon snapped out of it. By this moment, the altar owner should have lost his mind already. The endless waves of stimuli caused him to break down and various illusions shattered his humanity, turning him into a monster. If Han Fei didn’t want to be consumed by the illusions and follow the path of the altar owner, then he would have to overcome the illusions!

This was a crucial night. Whether he could continue to remain himself depended on whether he could survive this night or not. ‘This mission has no time limit so if I can’t overcome the illusions, all the illusions will become real and the memory world will mutate into a scarier place.’

Han Fei had no idea how different the world would be between a normal person and a mental patient but he was certain his worldview was definitely different from the altar owner. This was his 4th day inside the memory world. If things went out of control, Han Fei had no confidence he could survive the succeeding days. No matter what, he had to get used to the illusions and complete this mission. ‘The more one is afraid of something, the more one’s brain will highlight it.’ Han Fei tried to run back to the 2nd hand store for one last time. After making sure he couldn’t, he gave up on that idea. Han Fei had his eyes get used to the darkness. He placed his hand inside his pocket and voluntarily moved towards Lee Daxing. ‘You are the first to appear and should be the weakest presence at this mall. You might be an illusion but I have the confidence to defeat you.’

Han Fei only took 2 steps when he felt someone tap him on his shoulder. Han Fei turned around but there was no one there.

“Is it you? Is it really you…” The chilling voice sounded beside Han Fei’s ears. When he turned around again, Lee Daxing was already standing before him. The guard’s face had no color at all. His head was half-lowered and more than half of his eyes were just white. Han Fei stopped moving, he remembered the man should be on the 3rd floor.

“Daxing, don’t you have to work tonight?” Hiding the hilt inside his sleeve, Han Fei glanced at the man’s neck.

“Work, work…” Lee Daxing slowly raised his head. The white in his eyes slowly spread, his head trembled and he raised his hands. “I remember it now, I am working but my colleague has disappeared. I am looking for him, but I can’t find him. Look, look…”

Lee Daxing said as he grabbed at his shirt. His fingernails punctured into his skin and he tore his stomach open. “See, he has gone missing!”