Han Fei entered several rooms and what he saw was startling.
All the rooms had the same layout and each cupboard had a boy trapped inside it. From the pictures, the Butterfly's selection criteria were simple.
The boy had to be cute and good-looking to match the aesthetic standards of his parents. Secondly, the boy had to be happy when he was alive.
The pictures inside the cupboard recorded the boy's transformation step by step. From human to monster, he only needed one cupboard.
'The Butterfly is doing this just to vent his hatred?'
The pictures on the cupboards symbolized the Butterfly's twisted hatred. There was also jealousy in the hatred but Han Fei had a feeling things were not that simple.
The Butterfly's special power was related to nightmares. He could enter a living person's nightmare and then use the nightmare to influence reality.
When certain conditions were met, he could even drag a living person's consciousness into the cryptic world through the nightmare.
This power was very scary. The Butterfly's ability to obtain this power was related to his childhood.
When Han Fei accepted the Soulless Night Mission, he received a system notification. There was a brief description of the Butterfly's past.
In the process of being dumped by its biological parents, the hatred and resentment in its heart seemed to have reached an unimaginable level. Its consciousness fell into a nightmare, and it encountered something special. That was when its change began.
There was one less abused child in the world, and one more nightmare that grew wings of flesh and blood.
All the cupboards on the 4th floor of the Ziggurat trapped a boy. The butterfly inflicted its own pain on the innocent, filling the children's minds and consciousness with its own hatred. Then what happened to Han Fei was what he saw earlier.
When the children reached their limit, their consciousness would shatter to form new nightmares and merge with the cupboards.
'The Butterfly keeps creating new pain and nightmares, he appears to be able to extract power from them.'
Han Fei turned to look at the boy next to him. The boy who could move freely on the 4th floor still had an innocent and confused expression on his face. He was holding Han Fei's hand naturally.
The boy's palm was as smooth as milk. His face was flawless. This boy formed a stark contrast to the children inside the cupboard who had turned into monsters.
To be honest, Han Fei already had murderous intent towards this child. He remembered clearly that when he entered the first bedroom, it was because of this child that the boy inside the closet turned into a nightmare.
Such a cute pair of hands but who knew how many murders it had committed in the corner.
"I'm almost done with the rooms on the fourth floor, but I don't think your house is on this floor."
Han Fei came to the corner of the corridor. The staircase that led to the next floor was blocked by a black partition.
There were some strange patterns on the baffles. They didn't look like metal or wood. They looked like the shell of something.
A faint sense of death was mixed in the gray fog, drifting out from the cracks of the baffles. The source of the sense of death was still deeper underground.
Unable to take the stairs, Han Fei could only take the boy back to the elevator.
The boy had some resistance toward elevators. He seemed to hate enclosed spaces, as if he had some kind of psychological trauma.
Holding the boy's hand, Han Fei forcefully led the boy to the elevator.
Compared to when it left, fine red patterns appeared on the walls of the elevator. Accompanied by the sound of the wheels turning, the old-fashioned elevator began to descend.
Basement five, basement six …
It was like the elevator was sinking into the deep sea. The sense of suffocation intensified and the elevator cabin started to twist like it was being squeezed by something.
No one knew how many floors there were in the Ziggurat. Han Fei stared at the number on the screen but his mind was occupied by something else.
If every cupboard on every floor was hiding a boy, then how many children's consciousness had the Butterfly tricked into the Ziggurat over the past decade?
Based on that alone, the Butterfly could not be forgiven.
The elevator slowed down. When the number on the screen dropped to -7, the elevator cabin started to distort. Blood seeped out from the cracks like wet red paint. As it flowed, it coagulated.
"Bang!"
The elevator shook. Just as Han Fei felt like he was about to suffocate, the elevator finally stopped.
The doors opened to both sides. The black fog carrying the sense of death surged into the elevator.
The male student shielded Ying Huo and Lai Sheng. All three of them were affected by the black fog. A trace of death appeared in their eyes and the Death Curse on them showed signs of being triggered.
"My head feels like it's going to explode. We can't go any further."
Gritting his teeth, the male student held Ying Huo and used his body to shield Lai Sheng. Even when he was alive, he had not taken care of anyone like this.
"I don't know how to make this elevator go up. If you can't go any further, then wait for me on this floor." The male student did not know how to answer Han Fei. How could a living person survive in such a horrible environment?
Han Fei held the boy's hand as they walked out of the elevator. At least on the surface, the two did not look that different, like the black fog did not affect them at all.
It was like the boy was born in the black fog, he had gotten used to everything. Han Fei, on the other hand, was shocked by the blood letters that popped up on his back. The ghost story 'blessing' left behind by Jin Sheng was helping Han Fei resist the black fog.
Han Fei had no idea how long he could hold on, he just wanted to get as close to the truth as possible.
The 7th floor was much bigger than the 4th floor. There were obvious patterns on the walls. The underground structure of the Ziggurat was not made of bricks but something that looked like a cocoon.
Han Fei stared at the patterns, he thought they looked familiar. 'The patterns on the walls are similar to the patterns on the cocoons. Could it be that the whole Ziggurat is a cocoon? But why would a cocoon radiate such a terrifying aura of death? '
If the aura of death buried under the Ziggurat was able to trap the Unspeakable Song, then the thing that radiated the aura of death had to be an Unspeakable existence as well!
'The Ziggurat is just a Grade E map, the presence of hatred is already ridiculous enough. There shouldn't be any Unspeakable existence here.' The system had its own criteria for grading missions, even if there was a discrepancy, it would not be too big.
Touching the patterns on the wall, Han Fei pushed open a door next to him.
The layout of the room was the same as the 4th floor underground. All the rooms were built according to the same person's memory.
Entering the bedroom, Han Fei looked at the large armoire. Before he got close, he heard soft cries and cries for help coming from inside the armoire.
Han Fei raised a brow. He had seen many armoires before but most of the boys inside had lost their senses. They could not even express their pain much less communicate.
Han Fei pushed the armoire open. Thick black fog drifted out from the armoire that was filled with dirty clothes. When the fog and stench dissipated, a wounded hand reached out from inside the armoire.
"Kill me, I beg you, please kill me."
The voice inside the armoire was pleading for death. He appeared to have given up on struggling.
"Don't panic, can you hear me?" Han Fei saw the boy inside the armoire. His eyes appeared to be stuck together due to being closed for too long. His face was severely deformed, one could barely make out the shape of a human.
'A voice? I've never heard a voice like this before. ' The boy had a maturity that did not match his age. He waved his hands and was about to say something when the boy behind Han Fei ran over.
The little boy who followed Han Fei ran over. "This little brother can talk?"
The innocent tone came from the boy's heart but when the boy's voice was heard by the boy inside the armoire, the boy broke down instantly.
He seemed to know what was going to happen to him. He yelled at the armoire, "Go to the lowest floor! I beg you, you have to destroy the heart there! The heart that's already dead! Only by destroying it can we all be saved … "
Black blood gushed out from the boy's mouth. His relatively healthy ears and mouth were blocked by the blood. He could not say anything.
"The heart …"
The already wounded arm drooped weakly. The boy inside the armoire was sucked into the armoire in the blink of an eye. All that was left inside the armoire were his old pictures.
'The lower the floor, the stronger the consciousness of the boy trapped inside the armoire?'
Han Fei silently put away the pictures inside the armoire. No one would be able to guess what he was thinking from his expression.
If others saw him now, they might think he was lamenting the death of the boy inside the armoire but in reality, he was simulating how to kill the boy next to him in his mind.
His mind worked quickly. In a short period of time, Han Fei came up with more than 10 plans but whenever he wanted to make a move, the arm where the Great Sin was hiding would prickle with pain. It seemed to be telling him that if he made a move now, he would be the one to die.
'What is going on with this boy? Is he Butterfly's childhood? Oh well, no matter what, he does not appear to have any intention of killing me. '
Han Fei explored the entire B7 floor. The children trapped here confirmed his earlier speculation. On average, the children on the 7th floor were stronger than the children on the 4th floor. This strength was on a mental and spiritual level. The black memory that appeared after their consciousness dissipated was scarier than a normal child's.
'If that's the case, there might be more children that I can communicate with further underground.'
Hope rekindled in Han Fei's heart. He had the male student lead Ying Huo and Lai Sheng to the 7th floor while he and the boy continued to descend.
Unable to quit the game, Han Fei had been cornered. He had nothing to lose, so he was not afraid of anything.
'Before obtaining Perfect Life, it's not that I haven't thought about death but now that I'm teetering on the edge of life and death, I'm starting to feel nostalgic for the human world.'
Holding the boy's hand, Han Fei looked at the slowly closing elevator door. If he continued to descend, he might really die but he still chose to do so.
'Now is the best chance. The manager's soul has not returned yet. The only thing I need to face is this child. '
The Butterfly was on a completely different level from Han Fei but Han Fei was very good at leveraging power.
In real life, the Butterfly was being hunted down by the police and its main consciousness was being held back by Huang Yin. Theoretically speaking, the Butterfly should have been able to deal with the Unspeakable because the backup he left at the Ziggurat was more than enough to deal with the Unspeakable. However, he did not expect Han Fei to really attract the Unspeakable's voice.
The number on the elevator screen kept changing. The elevator creaked under the pressure. When the number dropped to -9, the black fog appeared to have turned into a sea.
Not even the trace of the Soul Chaser could be seen on this floor. There was only the presence of death around him, a presence so thick that it could not be dispelled.
The elevator felt like it was being squeezed by an external force. The edges of the elevator warped. Han Fei who was inside the elevator did not fare any better.
The bloody words left behind by Jin Sheng were breaking one by one. The prophecy appeared to have been forcefully rewritten by the presence of death.
Han Fei's body felt like it was sinking. The presence of death soaked his organs, surged into his brain and crawled into his eyes.
His eyes that were always glowing were slowly turning blood red. The presence of death appeared to be transforming Han Fei's body.
The bloody words left behind by Jin Sheng seemed to be unable to stop the presence of death. But at the last moment, the words morphed into a thin chain that crawled into Han Fei's body. It appeared to lock onto his heart.
When the presence of death seeped into his body, three spots on Han Fei's body started to change. He was now like a child trapped inside a closet.
The three lesions represented three different Death Curses. Even Han Fei himself had no idea when he was afflicted with the curse.
His brain tried to remember but the pain was already coming from the three spots.
The veins around his heart bulged. A shallow word for death appeared but the word was blocked by Jin Sheng's chain. It could not crawl into Han Fei's heart.
Then it was the arm where the Great Sin was hiding. His palm lines twisted into the word 'death'. His bones were slowly broken. It started from the tip of his finger until it reached the spot where the Great Sin was hiding.
The first two Death Curses were temporarily blocked by Jin Sheng's curse and the Great Sin but the last Death Curse was completely unaffected.
Pain came from the back of Han Fei's head. It felt like a nail was trying to pierce through it. He could not see what was happening at the back of his head but he could feel his memory being disrupted.
"Before you entered the Ziggurat, I have already placed a curse on you. The content of the curse is that you will die once you enter the Ziggurat!"
A strange voice appeared in his mind. Everything that Han Fei had experienced in the past was tainted by the presence of death, there was no light at all.
After coming into contact with Perfect Life, his mind that was filled with vibrant colors returned to the darkness of despair.
Han Fei's consciousness fell into the deep ocean along with the elevator!
The elevator continued to deform under the pressure of the presence of death. Han Fei's own consciousness was swallowed by the darkness in his mind.
He could not breathe, he could not even move his fingers. Han Fei felt like he was about to be crushed into pieces.
Red blood started to leak out of the darkness in his mind. Initially it was just one or two drops but slowly it turned into a pool of red.
"Is the thing that I cannot see finally about to appear?" The strange voice appeared to be hidden inside the Death Curse. "Now that the shackles of good and evil have been removed, the shackles of your childhood memories have been removed, let me see what is hiding inside your mind!"
There was urgency in the voice. The 3 Death Curses erupted at the same time, trying to crush Han Fei's consciousness and body.
Ninety percent of the memory in Han Fei's mind had turned black but the remaining ten percent could not be changed. The memory that was buried deep inside his mind was completely red, every scene was dripping with blood.
Under the pressure of the Death Curse, a laugh came from the red memory.
Initially it was very soft but slowly the laughter grew louder and louder. It became uncontrollable and crazed.
All the blood red memories were pieced together. The dripping blood formed an old orphanage and trapped inside it was a madman who was laughing madly!
No one knew what he had been through, they only knew he was laughing, laughing madly.
"Is this the real you? Let me help you remove the mask of hypocrisy, let me see whether we are the same kind of person or not? Let me see whether you have the right to become my body to recover my soul or not! "
The number on the screen of the elevator was changing rapidly. The space inside the elevator became smaller and smaller, and the presence of death started to activate the Death Curse.
The black surface of his mind pressed down. The madman seemed to be anticipating something but no matter how hard the Death Curse branded itself into his body, the orphanage that the madman was trapped in could not be broken.
The deep red was even darker than the black of death.
The Death Curse tried again and again but it was unable to seize the most important piece of memory from Han Fei's mind.
The voice hidden inside the Death Curse became more agitated. The two sides were locked in a stalemate. It was not until the black memory in Han Fei's mind started to ripple and the light in Han Fei's dark life began to shine.
The first conversation with Wei Youfu, he saw Little Eight taking care of the flowers in the human world, he helped Meng Changxi capture Meng Changan, he summoned Ming Mei's soul into the Happiness Neighbourhood to hand her over to Ying Yue, he jumped into the meat factory at Cattle Alley and picked up the knife with the rest …
The memory dots increased and they glowed inside the black mind.
Han Fei's chaotic mind finally recovered a trace of consciousness. His arms waved in the air and his 5 fingers gripped something with all his might!
"Rebirth!"
The blade glowed like a burning flame. It sliced through the sea of death. Without hesitation, Han Fei aimed the blade at the most painful spot on the back of his head.
The splendor scattered, as if something had been cut open, but he couldn't feel any pain.
The memory dots in Han Fei's mind increased. The black mind that was contaminated by the Death Curse was slowly replaced by red.
The strange voice inside the Death Curse disappeared. It did not fully occupy Han Fei's mind but it released the blood red memory from Han Fei's mind.
The laughter came from the depths of Han Fei's mind but it echoed in Han Fei's ears. It felt like there was another laughing version of him following behind him.
Opening his eyes, Han Fei's eyes were bleeding. He looked around.
The elevator was in shambles. The boy was collapsed to the ground. Livor mortis had grown on his originally cute face.
The elevator had stopped. There was no number on the display so Han Fei had no idea which floor he was on.
He looked out from the open elevator door. The ground covered in red flowers was littered with broken pieces of a giant cocoon.
The broken pieces were carved with human faces. They carried the deepest malice. The black fog that enveloped the entire Ziggurat came from these broken pieces.
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