Life Game In Other World
Chapter 566: Fireworks Tree, Silver Flowers (Super Long - , Pleading for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 566: Chapter 566: Fireworks Tree, Silver Flowers (Super Long Chapter, Pleading for Monthly Votes)

The current situation differed slightly from what He Ao had anticipated; the number of patients detained in this hospital surpassed his estimates.

At the moment, the two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were gathering the surrounding crowd, but because there were too many people, there was a chaotic scattering of startled and unsettled individuals everywhere.

These people swarmed around the building, and getting back to the entrance he had used to come in was by no means an easy task.

He Ao’s gaze returned to the collapsed ruins of the building, where the souls that had just helped him, imprisoned here, stood atop this tomb-like wreckage, watching him.

They waved lightly at He Ao, their bodies transforming into pure shadow, dissipating into the pitch-black night sky.

They had long been dead, but only now could they truly pass away.

He Ao watched as their ethereal souls vanished, his figure retreating further into the darkness.

Personnel from the Federal Bureau of Investigation would only increase in number; he needed to leave this place as soon as possible.

The psychiatric hospital was surrounded by tall walls, and atop the walls was a three-meter-high electrified fence, seeming to offer only the entrance he had used to come in.

If it came down to it, his only choice would be to see if he could scale the wall to get out.

Breaking through the wall would create too much noise and draw attention, and there was the possibility of property damage.

This was unlike the situation inside the building, where he had acted to save those imprisoned patients, a brave act of righteousness.

It conformed to the definitions of "Necessary Emergency Acts" within Vitland City’s laws.

Under Vitland City law, an act performed to prevent or mitigate an assault on one’s own or the public’s life, property, or other rights, when they are being threatened, is called a Necessary Emergency Act.

Losses incurred due to a Necessary Emergency Act can be exempt from civil or criminal accountability.

Although Federal law does not have a clear definition of Necessary Emergency Acts, almost every major city has its corresponding regulations.

However, different cities have minor differences in their definitions of such acts, but the underlying logic is largely consistent.

Moreover, due to the presence of cults and exotic beasts, the Federation’s definition of such acts is actually rather lenient.

For instance, He Ao’s act of trying to save others, thwarting a ritual that could sacrifice others, and preventing further harm to human life resulting in an accidental building collapse, can generally be deemed a Necessary Emergency Act.

In Vitland City, there have even been similar precedents for this.

While Federal law may not have specific regulations regarding Necessary Emergency Acts, it has in fact acknowledged their existence through various precedents.

Therefore, within the Federal legal system, He Ao’s recent actions were completely legal, and he was not responsible for the building’s collapse.

However, if he were to break through the wall without any danger or necessity for a brave act, it could potentially lead to an accidental property dispute. Given the wall’s robustness, it must have been expensive, possibly constituting property damage.

So breaking directly through the wall was not an option.

He Ao looked around, searching for a suitable point to climb over the wall; its total height was about thirteen meters, plus the three-meter electrified fence, a height that wouldn’t pose much of a challenge for C-level physical abilities.

What He Ao needed to find was the right spot to scale the wall so that he would land on the street outside, not in the adjacent factory area.

Meanwhile, his gaze was also searching for another figure.

Among those souls who had just waved at him before disappearing, the soul who first warned him to hurry—head held high—was not among them.

When bound by the Array, these souls were constrained by terrible thoughts, lacking the ability to communicate, able to understand only some basic words,

but now with the Array shattered, without suppression, He Ao might attempt to communicate with them.

The soul holding its head high resembled someone from Jess’s memories,

and as He Ao’s eyes scanned the surroundings, not far from him in the dim night, a figure was waving at him.

In the eyes of a Terrorist, the night was as clear as day.

Although the figure was distant from He Ao and cloaked in darkness, he could clearly see the face of the waving shadow.

It was indeed the soul that held its head high.

At that moment, his body, like the other souls, was rapidly fading.

Noticing that He Ao had seen him, the soul immediately waved at He Ao and then turned, drifting deeper into the night.

It seemed he wanted He Ao to follow him.

He Ao turned to look at the lights ignited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in the distance and, after a brief moment of contemplation, quickly followed.

That soul seemed to know that its time was running out, so it moved with incredible speed.

He Ao pursued it, and in the blink of an eye, the two of them had run along the wall for a hundred meters.

Eventually, the soul stopped next to a desolate patch of overgrown weeds.

It appeared that no one had been here for a long time, visited only by the cold moonlight and the drifting seeds borne by the wind.

He Ao pushed aside the weeds to reveal a rusty little door.

The door seemed to have been unused for ages, its cracks blocked by orange-red rust that had fused the doorframe and door together.

The door wasn’t locked, and there was only a thick steel bar laid across behind it, serving as a bolt that fastened the iron door in place.

Now, the steel bar was also almost completely corroded together with the door.

He Ao turned back, looking at the soul standing beside him.

At this moment, the soul had already dissipated a lot, leaving He Ao little time to attempt communication.

The soul must recognize him, having shown him kindness, and his own guesses had likely not been mistaken.

He Ao hesitated for a moment, then softly asked, "My father, is his soul still..."

Hearing this, the soul looking up paused for a moment, its murky eyes flickering with confusion on its twisted face. It seemed surprised that He Ao had initiated conversation and also seemed to fall into some sort of recollection.

In the end, it said hoarsely, "Your father... he’s different from us... his soul... didn’t remain..."

Upon hearing this, He Ao’s body stiffened slightly, and he watched the soul closely, softly saying, "Thank you."

This soul before He Ao had once crossed paths with Jess in his memories.

This person was probably older than Jess’s father and had been the chief consultant of the chemical plant that preceded the mental hospital, before Jess’s father arrived.

Later on, he became Jess’s father’s assistant and had once visited Jess’s home during a New Year.

Jess’s father seemed intent on keeping his family away from all matters concerning the chemical plant, so after that visit, Jess had never seen that ’consultant’ again.

Neither was this consultant listed among the casualties of that explosion.

After his father passed away, Jess had also recalled this once-met consultant and had someone look for him.

But the outcome wasn’t as hoped, according to the last pieces of information Jess collected, the consultant disappeared after the explosion – alive, he was seen no more, dead, his body was never found.

Now, it seems that after killing Jess’s father, the Mysterious Person immediately captured this consultant and eventually made him one of the ’patients’ of the repurposed mental hospital.

Jess’s father’s soul not remaining was actually something He Ao had anticipated.

Jess’s father knew too much, and given the Mysterious Person’s caution, he wouldn’t leave such a severe threat – not even a fragmented soul.

A faint glow enveloped the consultant’s soul before He Ao, a sign of its imminent and final dissolution, about to return to eternal tranquility.

His soul was incomplete, and judging by the eagerness of the other souls to cooperate with He Ao, being bound by the Array and maintaining such an incomplete state was not a comfortable matter for them.

He Ao didn’t have much time, so he needed to ask a few more critical questions.

Locking his gaze on the fading figure, He Ao contemplated for a moment before asking again, "The Arrays in the hospital, were they set up by my father?"

"Some of them were,"

As the soul gradually thinned out, the murkiness in its eyes started to clear bit by bit, and it strained to straighten its head to look at He Ao, "You must believe in your father, he was a respectable man."

The insubstantial body began to turn fully transparent. The consultant of Jess’s father, now existing in soul form, took one last look at the piled ruins, then averted his gaze back to He Ao, inspecting his cheeks,

"You have grown to be just like your father, and it seems you have gone even further than he did. Perhaps you can achieve what your father never did. He mentioned you to me many times when he was alive, all he hoped was for you,

"To be cautious on the road ahead."

His figure completely turned into an illusion, with a relieved expression appearing on his twisted face for the first time.

This thin shadow, like a dandelion blown away by the wind under the cover of night, dissipated into the silent darkness.

Be careful on the road ahead.

He Ao reached out, brushing his hand over his clothes to touch the pendant on his chest, as he watched his father’s friend recede into the distance.

Then he turned around, clamped the wooden box under his other arm, and with his free hand, grasped the steel bar that was barring the door. His arm muscles bulged as he lifted with force.

Accompanied by a slight but piercing friction sound, the thick, rust-fused steel bar was slowly raised.

He Ao tossed the steel bar aside, placed his hand on the iron gate’s handle, and pushed backward with all his might.

The gate swung open with a loud tremor, and the red rust fell like raindrops.

A remote alleyway appeared before his eyes.

This seemed to be the back door used for transporting materials or disposing of waste when this area was still a factory, a place known only to the internal staff.

He Ao looked back at the ruins of the factory under the night sky.

The answer from Jess’s father’s ’deputy’ was simple, basically confirming He Ao’s earlier conjectures.

’Some’ Arrays were arranged by Jess’s father, which proved that Jess’s father had indeed been researching these Arrays and had achieved results.

At the same time, the answer also clarified another issue: Jess’s father only completed a part of the Array, while the rest was completed by others.

Aside from Jess’s father, probably only the Mysterious Person and his hired research team had the capability and access to the information on this project.

From He Ao’s analysis of the overall structure of the Array, the foundational structures that built the skeleton likely were arranged by Jess’s father; these Arrays were seamless, evidently refined over a long period.

Whereas, the ’patches’ on the wooden box, as well as those Arrays taking Souls and life as a sacrifice, were likely additions by the Mysterious Person.

The quality of these parts of the Array wasn’t bad, but compared to the main Array, a clear difference could be discerned.

Strictly speaking, in comparison, these patches were somewhat inferior in technique.

This raises a core question: why wouldn’t Jess’s father, with superior skills, help the Mysterious Person complete the other parts of the ritual?

He Ao didn’t pose this question out loud, but Jess’s father’s deputy gave him an answer with his next words.

He told ’Jess’ to trust his father.

What kind of man was Jess’s father?

In Jess’s memories, his father was kind, gentle, unorthodox, and always ready to help others.

The character of Jess’s father greatly influenced Jess’s upbringing and was one of the key factors shaping Jess’s own kindness.

Would such a man arrange an Array that sacrificed the lives of others, that imprisoned their Souls?

Even if those sacrificed were homeless wanderers who could die in any corner without anyone caring.

Even if the Mysterious Person had behind him an elite team of Lawyers, widespread corporate relations, capable of neatly covering up this cruel act without any consequences.

Even if the Mysterious Person offered a huge reward.

He Ao didn’t know what the real situation was.

But in Jess’s memory of his father, he was definitely not one to arrange those Arrays.

Jess’s father, although not rigid, and actually quite adaptable, always had a clear ethical boundary when it came to his actions.

The words of the deputy just now were for He Ao to trust the man Jess remembered as his father.

And if the man in Jess’s memories was consistent with reality.

Then the core conflict between Jess’s father and the Mysterious Person was laid bare.

At that time, research into the Array may have hit a bottleneck, and the Mysterious Person had tried to forcibly push through with sacrifices, but was met with resistance and refusal by Jess’s father.

In the process, Jess’s father likely rallied some allies and formed an opposition against the Mysterious Person.

And Jess’s father must have had a certain charisma.

After all, the deputy who had been tortured during his life and turned into a damaged Soul was still willing to help ’Jess,’ the son of an old friend, even after more than a decade, and even when his will was barely coherent.

In this process, Jess’s father must have caused significant trouble for the Mysterious Person, forcing him to abandon the idea of conducting sacrifices.

At last, the Mysterious Person resorted to an unexpected tactic, permanently settling Jess’s father’s fate and constructing the mental hospital to their own design.

However, the Array was never completed and could only continue in a state of perpetual life sacrifice.

Over these past decades, who knows how many skeletons have been forever buried beneath that beautiful garden.

Jess’s father once tried to stop all this but failed.

Without force or influence, and no matter how intelligent, he was merely a scholar who lived in a world of order.

He Ao withdrew his gaze from the vast ruins.

This place had been where Jess’s father spent the last moments of his life, struggling valiantly, a place that forever claimed his life.

Perhaps he had foreseen his own inevitable end, but he did not retreat.

He Ao turned and walked into the alley.

And gently closed the door behind him.

The blossoming Ghost Flowers swayed in the quiet, windy night.

——

"The person wasn’t caught? The building collapsed? The patients and staff were all rescued? They were driven out by an evil spirit before the building collapsed? A nurse is missing? Alright, alright, no problem, thank you for your hard work."

In front of the villa’s swimming pool bathed in moonlight, a man in casual clothes hung up the phone. He turned and looked at the figure sitting by the pool edge, gazing up at the bright moon in the sky, "Boss, the target got away again."

"Everyone in the hospital is alive?"

The figure did not turn back but asked calmly.

His voice was flat and ordinary, devoid of any distinctive traits.

"Alive, but the ’nurse’ we sent to manage the hospital is missing," said the man in casual clothes softly.

"Alive..."

The figure by the pool murmured to themself while fixating on the moon.

"Boss, is there a problem?" asked the man in casual clothes, puzzled.

"In fact, in this world, there are methods by which the soul of a Higher Being can descend into another body, taking control of it," said the Boss, lowering their gaze to the surface of the pool.

The moon’s reflection rippled across the shimmering water.

"Are you saying Jess is dead?" the man in casual clothes was startled. "And now a powerful Higher Being is controlling Jess?"

"I used to think that,"

The figure slowly stood up, turned to face the man in casual clothes, "but I don’t think so anymore."

The man in casual clothes, staring at that all-too-familiar yet never before seen face, was slightly dazed, "You believe Jess hasn’t changed? But he showed completely different methods than before."

"Contamination and frustration can change a person’s nature,"

The figure looked up at the moon again, "He must have conducted some ritual in that alley, gaining some power, and also bearing the taint of that power. Unfortunately, I still do not know, who the Great Being he made a deal with is."

Thunderous noises rose to the sky—it was fireworks from a nearby mall.

——

Click—

Sitting on the bus, He Ao closed the pendant in his hand and turned to look out the window.

Underneath the tranquil night sky, twinkling fireworks slowly soared, bursting into a dazzling array of chrysanthemums in the night sky.

The Mysterious Person was very intelligent and knew many esoteric secrets.