My ‘Healing’ Game
Chapter 226 The Butcher’s Knife

Chapter 226: Chapter 226 The Butcher’s Knife

The black giant python coiled next to Han Fei’s leg. It felt as if it had received Han Fei’s praise, and though its body was very weak, it happily shook its tail.

The female butcher in the alley hadn’t gone far, so Han Fei didn’t dare to speak more, listening quietly to the sounds outside the door.

He completely exhaled only after the heavy footsteps and the strong stench gradually faded away.

"Survived."

Clutching the limp body of the black giant python, the man and his pet relied on each other in the perilous Beast Alley, and they both thought of Xu Qin simultaneously.

"Based on the information revealed by the barber, Xu Qin should still be in Beast Alley. Maybe I could bump into her somewhere."

The image of Xu Qin appeared in his mind, and Han Fei felt less afraid. He reached into his item bar and took out the blood-colored paperman, whose face, identical to Xu Qin’s, slowly turned toward a certain spot.

The blood-colored paperman must have sensed Xu Qin’s actual location. Xu Qin once poured her own blood on the paperman, imbuing her curse into the paperman’s body.

"First, I need to deal with the wound, and then go look for Xu Qin. Once I meet up with Xu Qin and the other neighbors, if we encounter a pig-faced monster alone, we might try to take it down."

Barely getting up from the ground, Han Fei leaned against the wall, looking around. Only now did he have the chance to take a good look at the room.

The black giant python had encountered who knows what after he had logged off; finding this broken house was quite fortunate.

The shattered bluestone bricks were full of congealed bloodstains, but maybe due to the "fertilizer" being plentiful, the yard was overgrown with weeds and some plants Han Fei couldn’t recognize.

Passing through the courtyard and pushing open the dilapidated wooden door of the hall, the small room showed no signs of life, with only a wooden coffin catching the eye.

The coffin, placed in the center of the room, had its lid chopped up by knives and axes, and while it contained no body, it was haphazardly filled with many bloodstained clothes.

"A clothing tomb?"

The bloodstains on the clothes had turned black; the owners of the clothes must have been dead for a long time.

Han Fei wanted to continue searching, but his physical condition didn’t allow him to delay any further.

"Come, help me with this; bite onto this end of the thread."

Han Fei hid in the innermost part of the room and then took the suture needle and thread from the item bar that Huang Ying practiced skills with.

Recalling the method introduced in the video, his powerful memory helped him remember all the details. He had practiced on corpses before in Happiness Residential Community, so he wasn’t too panicked.

Biting on a piece of clothing, Han Fei’s hands were steadier than most doctors’, as he was stitching on his own flesh, after all.

In ten minutes, with the help of his small pet, Han Fei completed the simple suturing.

The stitches on the wound were crooked and looked somewhat horrifying, but at least the bleeding had stopped.

"The bleeding stopped, but my hand bones are dislocated, what should I do now?"

Han Fei tore his clothing, then found branches in the campus to simply immobilize his left hand.

After everything was done, he just lay next to the coffin, his face completely devoid of color.

"The food made by Xu Qin can quickly restore blood volume, along with other special effects. After I find her this time, I must have her make more. I need to carry it with me."

In Deep World, Han Fei’s body healed much faster than in reality, and he hadn’t fully understood the rules of this world yet.

Ever since starting the game, he had been on the run, striving to survive, without any time to experiment with other things.

Resting a bit in the decrepit room, Han Fei still felt unsafe hiding inside. In just a few minutes, he had heard footsteps outside the door twice.

Perhaps a pig-faced monster was lurking nearby at this very moment.

"The doors in Beast Alley are like ornaments to those pig-faced monsters; they can come in whenever they want if they wish to. The people who originally lived in the rooms were probably killed by them as well."

Seeing the state of the room, Han Fei slowly got up from the ground and reached his functioning right hand into the coffin.

Underneath the bloodstained clothes lay a family genealogy marked with red crosses, with every name crossed out, which seemed rather spine-chilling.

"Does each name represent a living person?"

On the last page of the genealogy, Han Fei found the only name that was not crossed out—Wang Sheng.

"Could this be the name of that boy from the garbage heap?"

He tried to put the genealogy into the item bar, and to his surprise, he succeeded immediately, with a system prompt echoing in his mind.

"Player number 0000, please note! You have successfully found a mission item—Wang Family Genealogy!"

"Wang Family Genealogy: The existence of this genealogy proves that Beast Alley was once inhabited by many living people. Figuring out how Mortal World Alley turned into Beast Alley may help you escape from here."

The system’s prompt was abrupt, and Han Fei didn’t know what use the genealogy might have; he could only stow it away for the time being.

Walking around the house, Han Fei noticed an abundance of scratch marks from fingernails on the walls of the side room.

Mixed with bloodstains, the marks on the earthen walls gave the impression that someone who had lost their mind had been confined in the room, attempting to scratch their way out even if it meant digging until their fingers bled.

"It seems that the rooms in this alley have no windows built; each room is like a sealed, independent box. Once the door is closed, whatever happens inside remains unknown to those outside."

Upon entering the side room, the view dominated by scratch marks felt even more intense, and the small room overflowed with despair and pain.

"Was it a person or a monster that was locked in here?"

There were no intact pieces of furniture in the side room; Han Fei frowned as he searched through the bloodstained, tattered remains for anything useful.

When he looked under the bed, his pupils instantly shrank.

In the most inconspicuous corner beneath the bed, there lay a hand that had been chopped off at the wrist.

The hand emitted a strong stench, and the skin had turned black, yet even so, its five fingers were still tightly gripping a broken Boning Knife.

"A knife?"

In Beast Alley, knives were very special items; all the knives in this hidden map seemed cursed, all of them horrific Curse Items.

"Could this be an ownerless Curse Item?"

Han Fei was very bold. He took out the Blood-colored Paperman as a precaution and then had the Black Giant Python pry out the hand from under the bed.

The python, reluctant, reached towards the blackened hand; as it touched the hand, its hefty body jerked violently, as if it had been stimulated by something.

Looking plaintively at Han Fei, the Black Giant Python adamantly refused to go near the hand again.

"Aren’t you supposed to eat anything?"

After comforting the Black Giant Python, Han Fei, enduring intense pain, touched the knife with his already dislocated left hand.

His reasoning was simple: since his left hand was already semi-useless, the worst that could happen was it becoming completely useless, as long as his good right hand was not affected.

As his fingertips slowly approached, Han Fei had intended to use the system’s Identification Skill to see if the knife was still usable. But the moment his fingers touched the Boning Knife, it felt as though dozens of arms had fiercely seized his brain.

The pain, indescribable and striking directly at the soul, made Han Fei feel as if his consciousness was about to be torn apart.

He wanted to withdraw his arm, but his body had already lost control, and he couldn’t even perform this simplest of movements.

Even with all his strength, all he managed was to pry his eyes open.

In the room filled with scratch marks, amidst the fear and pain of the side room, at this very moment, stood six bloodied Residual Souls.

Their faces were grotesque and their bodies mutilated; part of their souls was imprisoned in the Boning Knife.

"The knives in Beast Alley imprison souls."

Those pairs of arms sought to tear Han Fei apart; they had long lost their sanity.

"Men, women, the elderly, and children—they seem to be a family? Could they be the original residents of this room?"

Faced with a life-and-death crisis, Han Fei didn’t hesitate; he immediately took out the genealogy from his Item Bar.

The tattered Wang Family Genealogy fell to the floor, flipping open to a certain page, and the attention of the six Residual Souls was slightly diverted by the genealogy.

Seizing that fleeting moment, Han Fei scanned the Residual Souls and suddenly noticed that one of them bore a striking resemblance to the female corpse in the garbage heap.

"Wang Sheng! I saved Wang Sheng!"

With a gable, Han Fei shouted with all his might.

The excruciating pain transmitted to his brain softened a bit, and the six Residual Souls pounced on him, as if trying to discern something from Han Fei’s body.

A few seconds later, the six irrational Residual Souls ceased harming Han Fei, passed through his consciousness and body, and then returned into the Boning Knife once more.

At the same moment, the system’s notification echoed in Han Fei’s mind once again.

"Attention player number 0000! You have discovered a damaged Curse Item— the Knife!"

"Knife (Damaged, Grade G Curse Item): This knife once slaughtered a family of six; originally, it was a knife meant for annihilating a household."