Han Fei played the Perilous Tower not only to help Zhuang Ren but also for himself.
He had triggered the Soul Chaser Mission in the cryptic world, he needed to see the Soul Chaser behind him to survive.
Normal methods would not allow him to see the Soul Chaser so Han Fei placed his hope on the Perilous Tower.
The previous missions were similar but before Zhuang Wen finished the fusion, Han Fei carried her child into Room 1144.
'This is a dead end.' Zhuang Ren was getting more and more confused by Han Fei's actions but he did not dare question him directly. The comedian before him appeared to be well-versed in the art of war. Every step he took seemed to have a deep meaning behind it.
Triggering the dialogue with Madman 1144, Han Fei led Zhuang Wen's child into the armoire. Traversing through the world of blood red clothes, Han Fei ran in the direction of his memory.
Even with his superhuman memory, Han Fei still got lost in the armoire twice.
After the third time, he finally found another door in the world of the armoire.
Estimating the time, when Zhuang Wen caught up, Han Fei opened the door.
A giant mouth appeared behind the door. Black and red tongues curled around Zhuang Wen's humanoid body like tentacles and dragged her into the armoire.
Han Fei's mission was complete. He hid himself and observed from afar.
The enraged Zhuang Wen shattered the teeth in the giant mouth and tore off its tongue. Then she jumped into the armoire.
Han Fei waited for a long time but Zhuang Wen still did not come out from the armoire. He controlled his character to enter the armoire as well.
He slid down the 'esophagus' and found the broken door deep inside the monster's' stomach '. Han Fei signaled for Zhuang Ren to take a closer look. Then he pushed the broken door open.
The familiar layout and furniture made Zhuang Ren unable to move his eyes away. His murky eyes widened and his heart that had been dormant for years started to race.
Han Fei controlled his character to leave the armoire. Different from the cryptic world, this bedroom was filled with blood red footprints, there were adults' and children's.
'They thought you were the one who died, they even placed your picture in the brazier.' Han Fei controlled his character to move closer to the corner of the armoire. He obtained a mission item from the brazier — Picture.
The person in the black and white photo was Zhuang Ren. The back of the photo was densely packed with the steps to summon the spirit. Some of the preparatory measures were enough to make people feel uncomfortable.
"M-my family lives here?" Zhuang Ren's hand kept rising and falling. He wanted to reach for the controller but he was afraid that he might accidentally kill his character.
Like a child, he stood up from the sofa and paced nervously in front of the TV. "What's outside that door? Did they prepare this portrait for me? I … "
Zhuang Ren was a little incoherent. He had played the game to his death for decades, and slowly, he himself had lost hope. He only saw it as a way to escape.
Who would have thought that one day, Han Fei would really find traces of his family in the Ziggurat. The feeling was indescribable.
"Things may not be as beautiful as you think. What you see is only a new nightmare." Han Fei pushed open the bedroom door. The living room was filled with bloody footprints and all the furniture was covered in black curses.
The room looked like a haunted house but the architectural style and furnishings were similar to Zhuang Ren's memory. It gave him a strange feeling of being torn apart.
Han Fei controlled his character to open the door to his second daughter's room. Before he entered, the living room door was pushed open. The background music changed. It was different from the music of the characters in the real world, it did not sound like something a living person should hear.
"They should be here soon."
Han Fei had his character hide behind the door. Then he and Zhuang Ren stared at the game screen.
Soon after that, a woman holding a statue of a god entered the living room. Behind her were two other girls.
They did not seem to notice the strangeness of the room. They treated this place as a normal world and started a conversation about the spirit summoning in the living room.
Zhuang Ren stood next to the TV. His arms were shaking involuntarily.
His family was still wearing the clothes they wore on the day of their deaths. It was as if they were still living on that day, the morning of their departure.
The death of his family was a huge blow to Zhuang Ren, it ruined him. From middle age to old age, he was stuck in that shadow for decades. He gave up on his job and cut off his social circle. Because of that, he became an abnormal person.
Every day, he played the game with a sliver of hope. He had been waiting for this day. Now that the day had come so suddenly, he was not even mentally prepared for it.
Han Fei's finger lightly touched the character on the TV screen. All his fingertips could feel was the screen's coldness and hardness.
"I've found them …"
The family in the haunted house did not seem to notice the horror around them. They discussed the spirit summoning ritual. They wanted to summon the 'dead' Zhuang Ren back to reunite with them.
The conversation played on the TV screen. A normal person would not be able to understand how Zhuang Ren felt. He really wanted to give up everything to reunite with his family.
"My family is inside the Ziggurat. I've found them, is it time for me to wake up from my dream?" Zhuang Ren sat on the ground. "Actually, I know I can't live with them anymore, I will never be able to enter this mini game. Thank you for helping me fulfill my wish, now I really have no more regrets. "
Zhuang Ren, who had been acting crazy, had a complicated expression on his face. He seemed to have regained his sanity.
His family was trapped inside a mini game, that was impossible. He just did not want to face the death of his family, that was why he kept playing the game. He wanted to escape the pain, to give himself a false hope in a life of despair.
Now he had found his family inside the Ziggurat but all he touched was the cold TV screen.
He had fulfilled his life's wish but he had also lost his last hope.
Zhuang Ren who sat on the ground suddenly felt very sleepy. He wanted to take a good sleep, hopefully he would never wake up again.
"You've persevered for decades, don't you think it's too early to give up now?" Han Fei's voice was like a bucket of cold water splashed on Zhuang Ren's face, it woke him up instantly. "This Ziggurat is a prophecy from the chairman of Immortal Pharma. Your family is not inside this mini game but they do exist because I've seen them with my own eyes."
Zhuang Ren's eyes finally moved away from the TV screen. "You've … seen them?"
"You have no trust in me but do you not trust the chairman of Immortal Pharma? The man closest to God will not lie to you. "Han Fei continued to control his character. He had worked so hard to reach this stage, he was not going to give up so easily.
"If you can let me see them again, I'm willing to pay any price!" Zhuang Ren crawled up from the ground. Determination shone in his bloodshot eyes.
"I've told you the terms but there's one more thing I need to tell you. You might have to pay with your life to see your family. Think about it." Han Fei did not rush Zhuang Ren. He continued to play hide-and-seek with Zhuang Ren's wife and daughter in the small room.
Zhuang Ren hesitated for a long time before he turned to enter the bedroom.
Half an hour later, Zhuang Ren returned to the living room, dragging a black box behind him.
When he saw the black box, his eyelids twitched. He had seen similar boxes before.
When he bought the gaming helmet for Perfect Life, it was placed inside a black box like this!
"The video that I showed you earlier is not complete. That is my biggest secret." Zhuang Ren opened the black box and took out a videotape. He switched on the projector in the living room and inserted the tape into the player.
The video sped up until a certain point. Zhuang Ren zoomed in. "This is the footage of the female actor being violated on set. Pay attention to the mirror at the bottom left corner, at the 16th second."
The mother in the video was the horror movie actress. She appeared to be possessed. She mumbled to herself as she walked deeper into the set.
When he passed a corner, he was grabbed by a black shadow. Han Fei had seen this scene before.
But the most important scene was the next. The female actor was calling Zhuang Ren's name but the face that flashed across the mirror at the bottom left corner was not Zhuang Ren but the chairman of Immortal Pharma!
However, the man in the mirror was completely different from his usual self. His eyes were filled with evil, he was like the reincarnation of a demon.
'The Butterfly is the chairman of Immortal Pharma?' Han Fei's eyes widened.
He continued to watch. The female actor's voice turned into a scream. She was in extreme pain like her body was about to be torn apart.
Just as she was about to be killed, there was the sound of a door opening. Then a man's voice said, "Take on my little brother's appearance and move into the house in my memory. Do you think you can fool me like that?"
"Fu Sheng, why are you so persistent? I can help you destroy the deeper layer … "
"I don't need a ghost's help."
Zhuang Ren turned off the player. "We were filming at Ewha Neighbourhood, the set was the building where the chairman of Immortal Pharma used to live. Initially, when I saw the man in the mirror was the chairman of Immortal Pharma, I was shocked but the more I thought about it, the more I thought about it."
"Did the people from Immortal Pharma come to see you?"
"The second day after I discovered the human face in the mirror, the chairman of Immortal Pharma personally came to see me. I thought he would ask for a high price to buy back the tape, but he did not mention anything related to the tape. He only said a few words." Zhuang Ren thought about it for a long time before he continued, "At the time, his eyes were filled with pity. He even said something about the future that has been decided, no one can change it."
"That's all?"
"He asked me if I had played the Ziggurat game. I told him no. Then he gave me this black box and told me to only open it when my emotions were extremely unstable."
"Do you know what was inside the black box?"
"I opened it on the second night after my wife and daughter's death. Inside the box was a secondhand emotion therapy device." Zhuang Ren took out something that looked like a gaming helmet from the box. Compared to Han Fei's gaming helmet, this thing was more like a simplified version.
Han Fei accepted the device. The parts fell and the inside of the device was burnt. "Did you do this?"
"I can't remember. After I put it on, I was knocked out by the electric current. When I woke up, it was already broken." Zhuang Ren sat on the black box. He really could not remember what happened at the time.
"Can I borrow this to study?" Han Fei had a feeling that the reason the Butterfly could not enter Zhuang Ren's dream and bring him into the cryptic world was related to this device.
If he could get to the bottom of this, he could give one to Huang Yin in the future.
"Of course, I have no use for this thing anyway."
"Through these things, I might be able to get to know Immortal Pharma's chairman and Fu Sheng better." Han Fei placed the broken device inside the black box. He signaled for Zhuang Ren to go take a shower and change. "We'll go to the building where Immortal Pharma's chairman used to live. Then I'll figure out a way to bring you to meet your family."
"Really?" Zhuang Ren's bloodshot eyes lit up a little.
"You just have to wait in your best condition." Han Fei did not dare summon Zhuang Ren into the cryptic world. He had to get to the bottom of the Butterfly and Fu Sheng's goal before he made his decision.
While Zhuang Ren was in the shower, Han Fei continued to clear the Ziggurat. However, probably due to his preoccupation, he was soon killed by the ghosts at Apartment 4.
'I still have plenty of time today, there's no need to rush.' Han Fei took out his phone to call Jin Jun. The veteran entertainment reporter still had an empty Perfect Life account.
After greeting the man, Han Fei put down the game controller. He walked out from the room and headed to the building at the innermost part of Ewha Apartments.
After Immortal Pharma bought this building, they sealed it up completely. It was surrounded by a 2-meter-tall iron fence. There was also an AI alarm system and a 24-hour surveillance system.
The security was tight but since Immortal Pharma's chairman had passed away, the guards had already left.
Han Fei climbed over the iron fence easily. Following the recording on the tape, he arrived at the 4th floor.
It was in this room that Zhuang Wen's mother was assaulted.
'Looks like I'll have to learn lockpicking in the future.' The skill book that Huang Yin sent to the underworld included lockpicking so Han Fei had a basic understanding of the structure of a lock. Unfortunately, he did not have the right tools and the opportunity to practice it was hard.
Using the baton, Han Fei used brute force to pry open the old door.
He shook the door to listen to the sound. 'In the tape, before Fu Sheng spoke, there was a very soft sound of a door opening. What kind of door did he open?'
Entering the room, Han Fei tried one by one before stopping at the closet in the bedroom.
The sound of the closet door opening and closing was very similar to the sound in the tape.
Looking inside the closet, Han Fei noticed a large amount of dried blood stains. The blood stains formed the outline of a door.
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