CH 505

There was a door hidden behind the mirror. The room behind the door had no light, it was like a dying heart. The doctor stood at the door. Behind him were all the creepy smiling faces. All the missing faces were probably stored in this room.

“You can only enter this door 3 times per night. The face I made is hidden in the mirror. After destroying it, everyone’s connection with it will be broken and the innocent will be free.” Blood messages appeared in the mirror. The doctor pointed at himself and he was the first to enter the room behind the mirror. The room with the faces closed on its own after the doctor entered it. Han Fei and his neighbors stared at the door.

“Brother Youfu, do you think we can trust this doctor? Even though he is Auntie Lee’s husband, he is already dead, do you think he still remembers things from his life?” Ironman was worried. “Would he turn on us in the room? Perhaps he is preparing a trap in there as we speak.”

“He won’t do that.” Auntie Lee shook her head when she heard Ironman, “He is not a bad person.” Auntie Lee believed her husband or else she wouldn’t have searched him for 20 years.

“The doctor knew that after he left, the faceless woman would torture his patients so he hesitated to leave. From that, it appears like he’s not a bad person.” Han Fei had a very good eye. He had encountered many locals in the cryptic world. Some ghosts would expose their evil more directly.

After waiting for a full minute, the room with the faces opened again. The tall doctor walked out of the room covered in blood. All the wounds on his face were torn open and his body weakened. Most conspicuously, a black Life Thread emerged from his back. The thread bound around his heart like a snake. Doctor Yan walked out silently. The clinic became less oppressive. The doctor had given it his all but he still couldn’t leave. “I can’t get free, this is my punishment.” The blood appeared on the mirror shards and then the doctor wiped it away. Seeing his failure, the faceless monsters wilted. Their sewn-on expressions were squeezed together. Nothing was worse than having hope extinguished.

“Let me try.” Han Fei was about to walk ahead when a hand stopped him. “I’ll scout ahead.” Xu Qin walked into the room before Han Fei could say anything. Xu Qin was worried that the doctor might do something so she decided to enter the room first. She would look ahead and then tell Han Fei what to be careful of. Of all his neighbors at Happiness Neighborhood, Xu Qin was the most unique. She was not a ghost but a Curse Amalgamation. Normal measures that would be effective on ghosts would be useless on her. The door closed and the red figure disappeared. Xu Qin didn’t hesitate at all. When everyone came to their sense, the door was already closed. Auntie Lee looked at the door and Han Fei. She touched Han Fei’s arm. “You are lucky to have found her. Don’t let her slip away. Treat her well and your luck will become your bliss.” Then Auntie Lee turned to the doctor, “I can’t tell the difference between the game and reality now but I still think you need to treat her well. There is nothing more painful than separation.” The 3 players assumed they were still in a game but they didn’t know that Han Fei treated the locals of the cryptic world more than mere NPCs. “I understand.”

Xu Qin was in the room longer than the doctor. 10 minutes later, a crisp sound came from inside the room and then the door opened. Xu Qin walked out with her head lowered. Blood slid down her chin. Han Fei hurried over. He noticed there was a new wound on Xu Qin’s pretty face. The wound almost cut her eyes. But after she left the room, the wound started to heal. Seeing Han Fei run over, Xu Qin lifted her head. The blood made her more beautiful and dangerous.

“There is an exceptionally beautiful face in that mirror, be careful not to get your soul stolen.” Xu Qin wiped away her blood and told Han Fei.

“I won’t.” Han Fei studied the blood beading on Xu Qin’s fingers. “Because I’ve seen the world’s most beautiful face.” The anaconda slithered out of Xu Qin’s feet and then crawled to bind around Han Fei. It slithered about as if trying to tie the two together.

Ironman and Yan Tang looked at this in shock. “One can play the game this way?” Ironman was willing to try. He glanced at the faceless bride beside him and he was immediately sent flying by the faceless groom. “I haven’t even said anything!”

Han Fei ignored them. There was only one last chance to enter the room that night. Han Fei pushed open the door of human faces and walked into the room. The room was dark. Han Fei walked forward, the room was larger than he thought. He walked for a distance and then tripped over something. He landed on the ground and he noticed there was a mirror embedded into the ground. The mirror surface was like a lake. Once he touched it, the surface would even ripple. “This is the mirror?”

Han Fei looked at the mirror. He saw no beautiful face but only himself. “Everyone will see a different thing?” Han Fei had never seen his real smile before, he wondered how that would look like. Han Fei remembered the doctor said that he had created a smiling face inside the mirror. “Perhaps I can use this mirror to see my smiling face.” Han Fei loosened his face muscle, he tried to recall happy things to reveal a smile. When he was recalling his past, other than his reflection, the mirror surface started to show other things. Those were Han Fei’s happy memories. Inside the dark room, 7 pale figures sat on the couch with Han Fei to look at the static on the television; The room was lit up by a warm glow. The wooden dining table was covered with meat. Xu Qin licked the blood from her lips as she slowly approached; Inside a rental filled with talismans, a boy sat on an urn and cried. No one was willing to be his friend until Han Fei squatted beside him to ask him for a game of hide-and-seek. Every scene in the mirror was scary but they were the happiest memories for Han Fei. He couldn’t tell if he was crazy or the world was crazy. He wanted to smile. All the happy memories were moving but he couldn’t smile sincerely.

However, inside the mirror, Han Fei’s reflection was different. He floated on the happiness of the memory and his lips curled upwards. When he smiled, the world covered in darkness didn’t appear that despairing anymore. The smiling faces appeared from all directions. The smiles recorded their happiest moments. Perhaps they were not the prettiest but at least the happiness would provide them with the energy to keep pushing forward. The memories flowed into the reflection and Han Fei felt a push from behind.

He landed on the mirror surface and his body fell into the mirror. Endless memory floated around him before they entered his mind. The smiling faces made him lose himself. No one would reject happiness and joy. Han Fei had been walking in darkness but at that moment, he felt everyone’s joy. This was the emotion he missed, something he had not experienced before. Happiness was different for everyone. The faces represented different happiness. As they infiltrated Han Fei’s mind, the painful memories went into hiding, and despair sank. All the sadness dissipated. Han Fei’s mind was slowly occupied by outside memory. The smiling faces pieced together in his mind to form a woman’s face. Her face couldn’t be described with words, the closest adjective was perfect.

The smiling face fell deep into Han Fei’s mind. Her smile was gentle. Seeing her smile was the happiest thing in the world. Han Fei’s happy memories were invoked. The face melted into the memories. She belonged to Han Fei, nothing could stop her. The sea of memory turned golden. No one could turn away from the sun. She slowly took over Han Fei’s mind until she saw the hidden thing under the sea.

At the bottom of the pain and despair, there was a blood-red orphanage. It didn’t fit Han Fei’s memory. Or rather, all the memories in Han Fei’s were like a happy illusion, only the orphanage was real.

The woman’s smiling face didn’t stop. She carried the warmest smile to approach the building. Laughter came from inside the orphanage. The woman morphed into a full person. She pushed open the orphanage gate. The redness on the floor made it difficult for her to move. She tried to bring happiness into the orphanage but the moment the smiling faces entered the orphanage, they would dissolve. The woman tried her best but she only reached the middle of the courtyard. She looked at the toys around her. She bent down to touch them. She was trying to find happiness left in the toys. As long as there had been smiles here, she could manipulate them. Her talent should be emotional manipulation. Her fingers touched the broken wooden horse and she saw the knife marks on the toy. There was nothing happy about the toy. Instead, her finger was cut.

She continued to move forward with the most harmless smile. She walked past the courtyard and came to the door of the first building at the orphanage. Her palm fell on the black door. She had to push hard to open the door.

There was a small classroom. There were 32 schoolbags on the table. And each schoolbag had a manjusaka growing out of it. Children’s laughter echoed inside the classroom and the woman smiled. She slowly retreated but the door had closed. The laughter inside the classroom started to change, it went from happiness to madness. The maddening laughter melted together. When the woman wanted to escape, a hand grabbed her smiling face. The 5 bloody fingers pressed on the world’s most perfect face.

Without any pity, the hand tore off the perfect face like it was waste paper. The warm smile dissolved into individual smiling faces. They tried to fly out of the orphanage but no one could leave. Among the smiling faces, one of them opened her eyes. Her gaze was different from others. It was filled with coldness and endless hatred.

With a smile on her lips, when she opened her eyes, she shot at the classroom window. The window came closer and closer. The hatred in her eyes burned. Just as she was about to escape, a manjusaka pierced through her cheeks and it grew out of the classroom on her behalf. The thin petals slowly opened and the blood dripped into the red soil.

A ghastly wound appeared on the woman’s perfect face and it started to crack. She screamed with hatred but the hands reached for her and she was slowly shredded. The maddening laughter echoed inside the orphanage. The happy memories were shredded by the owner of the laughter and dumped on a schoolbag. The manjusaka that stopped the woman grew from this bag. The bag had no name but it had a code number, 031.

The woman’s face was absorbed by the flower on the bag. The lingering hatred dissolved into the wind and blew out the window. It blew past the red building and fluttered the red petals on the ground. Before the wind of memory disappeared, a bloody petal flew out of the high wall of the orphanage. As the petal left the orphanage, a new memory appeared in Han Fei’s mind.

This was a blood-red memory. There was no image but there were voices etched into his soul.

“This is a catastrophic misjudgment. Everything related to the Blood Red Night has to be sealed!”

“Should we tell Fu Sheng?”

“If my brother finds out, he will stop us.”

“What about the only child who survives?”

“Bring him back and deal with him.”

The memory ended. Han Fei opened his eyes. He realized he was laying on the ground and mirror shards were all around him.

“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve completed Grade F Hidden Mission, Mirror Clinic. You’ve found a smiling version of yourself in the mirror. Obtained 3 skill points.

“Since you’ve not only found the mission target but have also dispatched of her, you obtain double EXP and the highest hidden mission reward—Smiling Mask.

“Smiling Mask: Charm -3, Luck +1. Those who like to smile won’t be that unlucky.

“Warning! This mask contains the cheek of a Pure Hatred. When you gather all 5 masks, you will obtain a Grade E Special Item.”