To find out the true identity of the Butterfly, Han Fei not only pondered the words on the wall, he planned to memorize every single word.
When he was halfway done, the living room door was pushed open and Xu Qin walked in.
"We've lost a few living people in the building, things are not looking good. We need to find a way to get the masks and leave this place."
"Do we have to use masks to leave?" Han Fei was confused. "The meat factory at Cattle Alley has been destroyed, the rules here should have changed."
"The manager of Cattle Alley is a mystery, he is the one who sets all the rules. As long as he is still alive, we have to obey his rules." Xu Qin brought up the most important point, all the unique buildings in the cryptic world had their own manager. Before the manager died, they controlled everything inside the building. They were the ones who made the rules and also the ones who enforced them.
"No one knows who the manager is?"
"No one has seen him before. In other words, no one has survived after knowing who he is. That goes to show how scary he is." Xu Qin voiced her concern. "To be able to control such a large area, the manager of Cattle Alley must be very powerful."
"Understood, what should we do next?"
"We'll go to the author's room first. If we can't complete the mission, then we'll have to deal with the person who gave us the mission." Xu Qin was very direct. There was a unique charm about this woman.
The three crept out of the room. With Xu Qin leading the way, they avoided all the traps along the way and arrived at one of the rooms on the 4th floor.
"This is the author's room?"
Pushing open the door, Han Fei was stunned when he saw the scene inside the room.
The author's room in the cryptic world was different from the one in real life. On the walls, inside the cupboard, on the study table, there were butterfly specimens everywhere.
The author appeared to have collected all kinds of butterflies from all over the world into specimens and kept them in his room.
In real life, the author's room did not have anything related to butterflies but it was different in the cryptic world. It appeared like all the important clues were kept in the cryptic world by the author.
'Looks like the author has predicted that the Butterfly will erase everything related to it.' In reality, the Butterfly was even more thorough. They not only erased all traces of their existence, they killed everyone who tried to investigate their secret.
Only in the cryptic world could Han Fei see the author's real room and see the real him.
The author's pen name was Spider, but there was nothing related to spiders in his room. Instead, it was filled with books and specimens related to butterflies.
His research on butterflies had reached a state of obsession. Not only was he investigating butterflies, he was also looking for things that looked similar to butterflies, as well as legends and ghost stories related to butterflies.
"Seeing this, do you think the owner is an entomologist?" Xu Qin followed Han Fei into the room. "Don't be fooled by his appearance. The owner's occupation and daily life have nothing to do with the Butterfly. He started his madness at a certain point."
Standing in the middle of the room, one could see the beautiful patterns on the butterfly's wings wherever one looked. However, after looking at it for a long time, one would feel an inexplicable sense of disgust and horror.
The patterns on the wings were like evil eyes, peering into the hearts of the living.
After searching the living room, Han Fei entered the study. When he pushed open the door, he was shocked again.
The walls of the room were painted with some kind of pattern. Standing in the middle of the room, it was like being wrapped in a giant butterfly's wings.
The dreamy wings gave Han Fei a sense of suffocation. He could not imagine how the author managed to work at this place.
'The House of the Butcher is Spider's heart, these patterns should be materialized from something inside the author's heart.'
Han Fei rummaged through the drawers and drawers. After a long time, he noticed something strange.
The author's room was filled with various books but none of them were his own.
'The people in this building appear to know the author but none of them know his pen name is Spider. This is weird.' Lifting his head to look out the window, Han Fei noticed another anomaly.
Where the wind chime hung in the author's window in real life, there was something that looked like a talisman hanging in this room.
Han Fei stepped on the chair to remove the talisman. When he accidentally touched the ceiling, he realized a part of the ceiling had been hollowed out.
Exerting his strength, Han Fei tore down a plank covered with paint, and the corpses of butterflies fell from above.
'Just how many butterflies has he killed?'
Among the pile of butterfly carcasses, Han Fei found a handwritten manuscript.
"Notification for Player 0000! You've discovered the Hidden Mission Item — Unnamed Hope (Incomplete). "
The manuscript had no name and no table of contents, it was more of an essay than anything else.
Han Fei blew the butterfly wings off and flipped through the manuscript.
'I don't know when it started but the world in my eyes has changed. I've recorded everything that I see. This is real life but after reading it, everyone says it's just a story.'
'Perhaps you're curious about what I've seen? Well, it all started from a dream … '
The first half of the manuscript was similar to the 8th persona. The butterfly appeared in the dream and tried to enter reality through the author.
However, unlike the 8th persona, the butterfly never managed to kill the author, be it in the dream or in real life.
He escaped from the butterfly again and again and even tried to kill the butterfly in the end.
After constant contact, the author slowly discovered one thing, the butterfly was real. It came from the deepest corner of the dream and that corner appeared to be connected to a world filled with despair and pain.
It appeared in the form of a butterfly but behind the butterfly's wings, the author could see the shadow of a person.
Initially, the author suspected that the butterfly was like him, a person who could see another world but as his interactions with the butterfly increased, he started to waver. The butterfly appeared to have flown out from that world filled with despair and pain.
Han Fei felt like he was getting closer to finding the true form of the butterfly. When he read the manuscript, he even memorized it.
At the end, when Han Fei was most engrossed in the manuscript, he suddenly realized the second half of the manuscript had been torn away. Someone appeared to have been here before he did.
'Only the other personas could have found this place, who could have taken away the rest of the manuscript?'
Han Fei was presented with two choices, kill everyone to find the first draft or share this secret with all the other personas inside the building.
"How about it? Any clues? "Xu Qin pointed at the mask on her face. Han Fei instantly understood what she meant.
"I don't think we'll be able to find the author anytime soon, we'd better come up with another plan."
The manuscript was the mission item identified by the system. Han Fei placed it into his inventory. He took one last look at this room that was covered in butterfly wings before following Xu Qin to the 6th persona's room.
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