CH 481

The mall was the first building Han Fei owned. With the help of the altar and Mirror God, he could sense all the souls inside the mall. Han Fei emptied himself and tried to connect with the building. Souls of varying strength drifted through the mall. Most of them were fixed to the shelves, only one red resentment was madly dashing about.

“Ten Fingers is not in the mall. He purposely left 9th Finger behind.” There was a connection between all the Ten Fingers. They left behind 9th Finger. If 9th Finger could kill Han Fei, then good; if 9th Finger was killed, they would find another solution.

“It is as I expected, Ten Fingers became a Pure Hatred not because of the strong resentment within him but he is extremely cruel. He step on the others and slowly grew from normal merchandise into a Pure Hatred.” Mirror God shook his head. “This type of Pure Hatred is hard to kill, but don’t worry, one day I will kill him and make him vomit out everything he has taken from me.”

“Such a waste. I wanted to trade using Ten Fingers’ soul and see how much it weighs.” Han Fei touched the altar. He revealed a smile similar to the figurine inside. Han Fei took out the phone Drake left for him and called everyone from the tenancy committee to enter the mall. After doing that, Han Fei touched the altar again, he wanted to find Weep and the female streamer at the mall. The mall had the same layout as the one in the memory world, but the one in the cryptic world was scarier and darker. Most of the shelves were filled with strange objects. Just paper dolls alone, there were more than 100 types. There were some ‘valuable’ at the mall but Ten Fingers had taken them all when he left. “But the leftovers are enough to last my neighbors for a long time.”

Han Fei looked for a long time when he finally sensed Weep’s presence on the 6th floor, near the furniture section. It just so happened that 9th Finger was running that way. “Why doesn’t he leave directly and run upstairs? Is something hidden there?” Without any hesitation, Han Fei and Mirror God gave chase.

When they exited the underground storeroom, Han Fei reunited with his neighbors. They were worried about Han Fei. Mirror God went to chase after 9th Finger while Han Fei found Zhuang Wen and used the last wish on her. The flame of greed burst from the altar. Zhuang Wen howled in the flames. But after a while, Zhuang Wen stopped. Her split souls were joined back together and rationality shone in her eyes. The key part was her rotten heart was reborn in flames. After the flame of greed disappeared, a weak black flame of hatred burned in her heart.

“Notification for Player 0000! Friendliness level with Zhuang Wen increases by 10, you are now officially friends.” Zhuang Wen’s soul which was tortured by the Butterfly was healed. The presence from the altar weakened immediately. It was a Grade 3 Altar but it looked weaker than Han Fei’s Grade 1 altar.

Zhuang Wen didn’t go on rampage anymore, at least she wouldn’t accidentally kill Han Fei. Zhuang Wen flew to help Mirror God. When Han Fei and his neighbors reached the 6th floor, 9th Finger only had a head left. The Large Lingering Spirit was nothing compared to the 2 Pure Hatreds.

“Don’t haste to kill him.” Han Fei stopped Mirror God. Han Fei moved through the furniture zone and found an old urn among a shelf for the discounted items. As he opened the urn, crying echoed through the 6th Floor. When Han Fei saw the boy in the urn, he sighed in relief. He carried the urn and used Soul-depth Touch to hug Weep. Han Fei was really worried about him. The weeping boy was brought out of the urn. The despair around him twisted.

“Notification for Player 0000! Friendliness with Medium Lingering Spirit, Weep increases by 20! He sees you as his closest friend, he trusts you unconditionally, do not disappoint him.” Weep’s father was his killer and he was fearful of his father. He lived in endless despair. After helping the other neighbors escape, Weep stayed inside the mall and fell into darkness again. Despair fed on his heart. But the ending this time was different. When Han Fei opened the urn, the boy cried for real. But his tears were different from normal tears.

A man carried a crying boy out from a ceremonial urn at midnight, it looked scary but it touched the ghosts around them. Holding Weep by his hand, Han Fei walked towards 9th Finger. He wanted Weep to take revenge himself but Weep told him that the red dress had decided to tail Ten Fingers after she realized he had been weakened. They left the mall together. Ten Fingers grabbed something from the mall and that something was very important to the red dress.

“The red dress should be waiting for us.” Han Fei took out Rest in Peace and questioned 9th Finger. However 9th Fingers only knew that his brothers had headed towards the hospital. Han Fei believed the man would rather die than tell them the truth so he fulfilled his wish. The group brought 9th Finger to the underground altar and Han Fei used the altar’s power for the first time. The black cloth fell and the doors opened. The scale in Mirror God’s right eye swayed and then the flame of greed consumed 9th Finger.

“Soul Trade activated, please pick from one of the 3 options.

“1 Finger: This finger contains resentment, it can greatly improve the power of a Medium Lingering Spirit. However, the spirit will be affected by the resentment inside the finger and there is a chance they might lose their mind.

“EXP.

“Afterlife Karma +5.”

Han Fei looked at the options. He eliminated afterlife karma, since he could earn that in real life why pick it now? “The Finger can improve the power of a Medium Lingering Spirit and I have many friends who are on that level. People like Weep and Drake but it comes with a dangerous side effect. Ten Fingers might sense it too.” After some deliberation, Han Fei chose the EXP. He wanted to see how much EXP a Large Lingering Spirit could bring. The flame and 9th Finger disappeared. According to the system, Han Fei had earned basically half of the EXP from a normal Grade F Mission.

“I need around 9 Grade F Mission to go from level 19 to level 20. If I don’t do any mission, I need 18 Large Lingering Spirits to gain the equivalent EXP?” Han Fei wanted to kick the altar before him but considering his own figurine was inside, he changed his mind. “Is this because I chose to open the black box from both ends? It’s doubly hard for me to gain level compared to Fu Sheng who only picked one side?” Han Fei had a feeling that his situation was different from Fu Sheng but he had no evidence. “When I find Fu Sheng’s memory fragment next, I need to ask for an explanation. I can’t let him slip away again.”

Han Fei calculated the time. Even though it had been days in the memory world, time didn’t pass that much in the cryptic world. The memory world was a frozen place in time. It was more like a temporal cage.

Han Fei led his neighbors to check out the mall. If he found something valuable, he would give them to his neighbors. In the past, this mall was only used by Ten Fingers but now Han Fei shared it with his neighbors. Resentment, yin energy, paper dolls, Han Fei had no use for them so he gave them to his neighbors. “I need to watch myself before I get used to shopping in the afterlife.”

Han Fei wanted to do more shopping when Laughing who stayed at Ziggurat sent a message. “A few people entered Ziggurat. They look like wandering spirits or perhaps something else. They came out of the room where Butterfly died in.” Before the mall was taken down, the Ziggurat was Han Fei’s base. Laughing was worried so he immediately contacted Han Fei.

“Wandering spirits?” Han Fei suspected they might be players.

“Not only that, the monsters from the plastic surgery hospital are seen wandering deeper into the mist.”

“Understood, we’re coming back now.” Now that the mall was stabilized, Han Fei only needed to leave Mirror God behind to guard this place.

“We’ve already saved Weep, the next location, the plastic surgery hospital.” Han Fei’s plan didn’t change. He was slowly taking down this area. Leading his neighbors leaden with many items, Han Fei was about to leave the mall when Mirror God appeared beside him. “Han Fei, can you do me a favor?”

“What is it?”

“Do you remember the drowned boy from the memory world? Your first customer at the 2nd hand shop.” Mirror God whispered. “The boy’s father killed Wang Pingan’s father and when he was burying the body, Wang Pingan and I walked into him. We tumbled together and I accidentally killed the man.” Han Fei remembered this clearly. “In reality, Wang Pingan took the blame for me. After his father died, he lost his mind. The police decided he was the killer. I could have told the truth but I was captured by the gangs from the western city as I journeyed to the police station. After that, I fell into darkness.”

“You mean Wang Mingan might still be alive?”

“Yes.” Mirror God nodded. “If you find him, help him.”

“Okay.” Han Fei led his neighbors through the alley and returned to Ziggurat. Han Fei found Laughing and asked him for updates. “We are certain that some of the wandering spirits have entered Ziggurat but beyond the spirits, there are other weird things.” Laughing pointed at the room where Butterfly’s dresser was. “We have cleaned this area and there shouldn’t be any monsters nearby anymore. The wandering spirits and unknown things charge into the mist after they escaped from the dresser.”

“But I couldn’t sense them in the mist. Did they escape to another area?”

“The closest is the hospital, perhaps they have escaped there.” Laughing shrugged. “For some reason, all the wandering souls were very excited. I was confused. What was so exciting about a city covered in permanent darkness?”

“Perhaps that’s their kink.” Han Fei had his neighbors check the area connecting Ziggurat and the hospital. If possible, he wanted to save the wandering souls. Han Fei had done everything he could. The extremely dangerous altar inheritance mission had drained him fully. After bidding farewell to his neighbors, Han Fei found a quiet room and logged out. The blood froze the world. Han Fei saw a blood sea gushing towards Ziggurat from the horizon.

“I…” A voice came from behind him. The bloody person behind him only said one word. Han Fei’s consciousness was pulled away. He wanted to remove the helmet but he realized he was too weak. It was more than physical exhaustion. Han Fei fainted inside the gaming hub.

After who knew how long, Han Fei felt the pain coming from all parts of his body. He moved his limbs and removed the helmet.

“My physique is already better than most but even so, it’s not good enough.” His skeleton felt like breaking. Han Fei had no idea why he was so tired. Han Fei crawled out of the hub and chugged down a big bottle of water. He crawled to the fridge and grabbed the cans of meat. After eating a lot of meat, Han Fei felt better and his brain was no longer that painful.

“The inheritance mission sure is hard.” Sunlight cut through the curtains, it was already noon.

Han Fei looked at the empty meat cans that littered the ground. He licked his lips. “Why do I fancy meat so much? Is it because of Xu Qin? But these non-cursed canned meats don’t taste that delicious. Something is missing in them.”