CH 726

Han Fei moved very fast, but the girl’s arms were still stuck in the black mist. She looked at the rapidly spreading black capillaries under her skin and the confusion in her eyes dissipated.

“We’ll start the sixth round of voting now.” The magician walked to the girl. He wanted to hold the girl’s hand, but he was slapped away by Han Fei. “Are you not ashamed of hypnotizing a child?”

“I’ve never forced anyone to do something they don’t want to. If you don’t trust me, you can ask her to make a choice yourself.” The magician touched the doll on his clothes. Then, he told the girl gently, “Come. I’ll protect you to the end. The children are our future and hope.”

There were two emotions in the girl’s eyes. Han Fei who looked scary stood to her left; and the tall and handsome magician stood to her right. The contrast was clear. In normal life, the choice would be easy. The girl held the doll the magician gave her. As more black capillaries popped on her skin, she didn’t make any choice and shrank back into the corner.

The wife was also in a deep conflict. She had recognized Fu Sheng. Now that the hotel boss was dead, she had to pick one between Han Fei and Fu Sheng. The one she didn’t pick would die. She had considered forming a group of three, but there was a big problem. No matter whom she chose, one of the other two had to vote for the other. Would they trust each other enough to do that?

The remaining guests had their own ideals. When faced with different choices, no one could be absolutely perfect. The sixth round of voting started. To everyone’s surprise, it was the fugitive who cast the first vote. He was determined to stick with Mad Laughter and the scriptwriter.

Mad Laughter, who appeared to have the most support also, cast his vote. When he dropped his vote, he glanced at the scriptwriter. The scriptwriter, who followed Mad Laughter unconditionally, hesitated.

After casting his vote, Mad Laughter whispered something to the fugitive with a smile and returned to his spot. The scriptwriter noticed all these too. As before, he wrote down Han Fei’s name and dropped the paper into the black box.

After that, Han Fei walked to the black box. After he ensured the black mist disappeared from the girl’s arm, he voted for his wife.

The magician followed behind Han Fei. He focused on the girl, but the girl didn’t respond to him. Slowly, the smile on the magician’s face froze. The power he held over the girl was shattered by the black mist. The worm crawled to his shoulder. The magician wanted to say something to the girl, but Han Fei moved to block him. The situation was turned upside down after the hotel boss died.

The black rain flooded the hotel. The water level rose. The furniture and dead bodies floated on the surface. The first victim came closer to the guests. The strange black mist spread on the girl’s arms. The magician’s face darkened. He glared at Han Fei and resisted the urge to swing his fist. He turned to the worker instead. “Your grandfather was right. We should work together.” The magician was very good at changing faces. He could appear trustworthy to anyone.

“Okay. I hope we can survive until the end.” After the hotel boss died, the worker’s emotions dampened. He became an extreme pessimist. After the worker promised the magician, he didn’t waste time. He took out the paper, scribbled something, and tossed it into the black box. It took only a few seconds. The voting was done before the magician could react.

“It’s your turn.” The worker didn’t return to his spot after he finished voting. Instead, he moved down the corridor.

The magician took out the pen and paper hesitantly. The fact that the worker agreed so readily made him suspicious. The others stared at the magician as he moved to the black box. When everyone’s attention was on the magician, the worker reached his hand into his pocket. He slowly retreated to the wall. When someone noticed something was wrong, the worker suddenly charged down the corridor!

He pulled out his hand that held a black key. He opened the hotel boss’ room, rushed into it, and locked the door.

“Stop!” The other guests rushed over and kicked at the door. The reinforced door held for quite some time before it collapsed. When they entered the room, they saw the worker kneeling on the ground. Before he was an old box brimming with books. The books were not published. They were made from guest memories.

“What are you and the boss planning?”

“How many things you’re hiding from us?”

“So you are the killer!”

The worker didn’t even respond to the accusations. His face was filled with despair. He didn’t even have the energy to speak. He placed one of the books on the ground and turned it to the last page.

The ending was written by the boss—the last survivor will become the new hotel owner. They’ll never leave. They’ll run this hotel, waiting for the new batch of survivors and for the new game to start.

“So this game is a hoax?! No one can leave? We’re destined to die here!” The scriptwriter didn’t expect this. This meant that the hotel boss had participated in this game before, and he survived until the end.

“Even in the deepest despair, there will be wandering starlight. You and the hotel boss must have hidden something from us!” The magician turned over the book. One of the books was called Despair. It was missing two pages.

“Based on the torn parts, the note we found in the back of the victim’s head came from this book!”

“There are two pages missing. So the rules aren’t complete! We only saw one page!”

“Speak! What is the real rule?”

The worker finally took out the other page from his pocket.

“All the souls are equal. You’ll decide who shall be me.

“Place your vote in the black box. The guest with the lowest vote will become part of the black mist.”

These two still reflected the known rules. However, there was an additional sentence on the page hidden by the worker.

“The guest with more than one-third of the votes will become the new me.”

The guests stared at the sentence. If they knew this beforehand, perhaps there wouldn’t be a slaughter.

“More than one-third? Meaning at least 4 votes among 10 people?” It was hard to satisfy this second condition. The chance of it was almost zero. The guests couldn’t vote for themselves. So they had to get the support of four other people. Four people had to die so that one could survive. The hotel boss knew how hard this would be, so he didn’t plan to run the game normally. He just wanted to train the worker as the next boos.

“So this is the real rule.” Despair appeared on everyone’s faces. It was hard for one person to sacrifice themselves, but to have four people sacrifice for the same person? It was impossible.

The windows slammed open from the wind. The black rain doused the floor. The building was swaying. The only internal sanctuary was consumed too.

“We’ll continue with the voting. At least there’s a chance if you become the next boss.” The magician cast his vote and placed the black box beside the woman. The wife looked between Han Fei and Fu Sheng. She was reminded of the promise between Fu Sheng and the magician, so she voted for Han Fei. Her vote disappeared. Everyone was nervous. There was no telling who would disappear next.

The wall clock was consumed by water. The ticking of time was replaced by thunder.

When the lightning crossed the window, the magician suddenly poked his fingers down his throat. He glared at the girl and the worker with venom. The mist rolled out of his mouth. “You two!”

At the same time, the waiter looked at his mist-covered hands. Then, he glanced at the woman. “You didn’t come for the previous 99 times, so how did you manage to arrive this last time? Everything in memory is illusory. But you are real in my brain.”

The waiter sighed lightly. He had predicted this. When the magician tried to kill the woman, the worker clashed with the magician. Both the magician and the worker didn’t vote for each other. They knew each other too well. The black mist consumed them. The mute girl didn’t die. However, it was unclear whether it was Fu Sheng or Dream who voted for her.

The wind blew open the windows. Wooden chips and stones fell from the roof. The cracks spread on the wall. The wooden staircase was swept away by the flood. The guests couldn’t return to the first floor. The hotel was literal an abandoned boat.

There were six people left in the second-floor corridor. Han Fei and the wife were on the left; Mad Laughter, the scriptwriter, and the fugitive stood at the right; the girl squatted at the corner. The black box was placed in the middle. The lightning flashed, and everyone could see all the survivors’ faces.

“Let’s start the seventh round.” The scriptwriter was Mad Laughter’s ardent supporter. He held the paper with Han Fei’s name, covered the wound on his heart, and put his vote into the box. No one else moved until the walls crumbled, and the second floor wasn’t safe anymore.

“Self-sacrifice or to survive…” The fugitive touched his heart. After a long hesitation, he made a choice. He placed the paper he prepared into the black box. The girl did the same thing. The girl didn’t communicate with anyone. Everyone saw her as a tool, but Han Fei was the exception.

“Why are there so many choices in life? There’s only the illusion of choice. In the end, every choice will lead to the same pain.” The wife also cast her vote. Four people had voted. Only Han Fei and Mad Laughter were left. The two stood at opposite ends of the corridor. The thunder roared. The lightning and thunder crashed. The rain pelted this sinful hotel.

“I’m curious. How did you find this building? I’ve taken all the memories related to the maze and personality fighting. I’ve taken even your identity as the black box owner. So how did you get here?” Mad Laughter stood before Han Fei with the black box between them.

“In this memory world, there are two black box owners. It was the previous owner who showed me the way.”

“So it was Fu Sheng? He’s a real conflicted character.” Mad Laughter picked up a ball of paper and placed it above the black box. “Which one of us do you think will win?”

“It should be me.”

“Why?”

“Because I have a friend called Huang Yin.”

“Is that your only reason?”

“At least I have a friend. But you have no one but me.” Han Fei looked at Mad Laughter’s handsome smile. Even though he knew it was a disguise, he didn’t expose Mad Laughter. He hadn’t seen himself smile before, so this was quite a unique experience.

“Do you think we are friends?”

“If we’re the only two left, I’ll vote for you. I will not have you suffer all the pain so that I can hoard all the hope.”

Han Fei and Mad Laughter looked at each other and then let go at the same time. The paper in their hands fell into the black box. Something different from before occurred. The box started to crack. Then, the box started to absorb the mist and rain outside the hotel. Several seconds later, the scriptwriter and the fugitive fell to the ground. Black mist crawled out of their blood vessels. The smile on Mad Laughter’s face became exaggerated. The smile became a cackle!

The deeper the despair, the thicker the black mist. Mad Laughter opened his arms. He was fighting the mist. While the scriptwriter and the fugitive were drawn towards the black box, he was still standing there.

The scriptwriter was Spider, who entered the memory world with Han Fei. He was the one who left behind all the scripts. He recognized the real Han Fei when Han Fei saved the girl.

The fugitive was Ghost. He planned to have Han Fei be the new Ghost, and only the real Han Fei would know that the butcher’s knife was inside his heart.

The mute girl was Little Eight, but something had happened to change her.

The last was the wife. She was the key person. If not for her, Han Fei would have been killed in the first round.

During the seventh round of voting, all four of them chose the real Han Fei. Even though Han Fei had become a monster, they could still recognize him.

Actually, Mad Laughter had already noticed this when the scriptwriter cast his vote. The scriptwriter wrote down Han Fei’s name, but his expression was clearly different from before.

The black box had more cracks. All the despair in the world rushed over to this one object. Mad Laughter couldn’t stand it much longer. His body slowly moved toward the black box. When he passed Han Fei, his half-corroded face looked at Han Fei.

Mad Laughter cackled. His eyes reflected Han Fei. “There’s one more thing I have to tell you. Our trade is for you to save me and for me to help you delay the theme park managers. That’s all.”

“It’s fine. Consider the face a thank you for giving your last vote to Little Eight.”

Han Fei had been trading votes with his wife. Other than Mad Laughter, everyone else voted for Han Fei. Therefore, there was only one explanation that Little Eight was not consumed by the black mist. Mad Laughter had given his vote to the mute girl.

“I see myself in her. We’re both made into despair-soaked keys.”