My ‘Healing’ Game
Chapter 353: Warning After the Collapse of the Death Building Game

Chapter 353: Chapter 353: Warning After the Collapse of the Death Building Game

The increasingly intense smell of blood wafted through the elevator cab, which was overgrown with large patches of mold, as people dressed in red surrounded Han Fei in the center.

"What will happen if I don’t go down?"

The elevator stopped on the fourth floor, and as time passed, the bodies of the red-clothed figures began to spread like tree branches injected with blood. Their veins and hair entwined, pushing against their skin and starting to crawl along the elevator walls.

If Han Fei were to stay any longer, it seemed he would be left with only one path—death. So he controlled his game character to walk out through the crowd.

After he left the elevator cab, the silvery-gray elevator doors slowly closed, and he could see a group of red-clothed figures standing with their backs to him through the crack.

Soon the elevator doors shut completely, and the numbers on the display began to change rapidly.

Han Fei had thought the numbers would stop at "1," but to his surprise, the display showed a negative number, and the elevator plunged all the way down to the negative 18th floor.

"Does this elevator lead underground?"

After finally reaching the fourth floor, Han Fei didn’t want to waste the opportunity. He ran directly to room 4044 and secretly observed the door.

The 4044 room in the game on the fourth floor was different from Deep World; the Gate God on the door panel was whole, its head not severed.

"I want to see what kind of face this Gate God has."

Han Fei remembered all the key locations and quietly approached the door of room 4044. As he stared intently at the screen to get a good look at the Gate God, the one in the game suddenly blinked.

Its head seemed to move, yet it seemed not to move. Han Fei couldn’t quite describe the strange sensation, but he felt a chill run down his spine.

Sitting back down on the couch, Han Fei looked at the screen again and finally realized what was off.

The Gate God in the Death Building Game seemed to be watching him, not the character he was controlling in the game, but Han Fei himself through the television screen.

"What kind of technology is this?" Han Fei didn’t know whether it was an Easter Egg or a trap, so he tried pushing the door to room 4044. At the same time, a dialogue appeared on the game screen.

"Would you be willing to help me bring my head back?"

With no prompt or warning, this dialogue box popped up even though there wasn’t a single NPC in sight.

"Is the Gate God speaking?" Han Fei clicked on the dialogue box, and an even more bizarre scene unfolded. Behind the dialogue box appeared three options, but all three were the same—unwilling.

"Room 4044 is the closest to room 4444. Bring my head back, and I can help you end this never-ending nightmare."

"To enter room 4044, you must do something for me. Whatever choice you make, you will ultimately return here."

The dialogues inside the dialogue box kept changing, but the options remained all unwilling, as if it was a fixed event that could not be changed.

"The evil you see must surely be evil, but is the benevolence you see truly benevolent? You’re too close to ’divinity.’ You should walk behind ’the divine’ and look at their silhouettes, to see how their ’Divinity’ shines and how sullied their humanity is. Help me, and I can tell you those Unspeakable secrets."

As he read the content in the dialogue box, Han Fei was somewhat tempted. ’Unspeakable’ represented a special level in Deep World, and the Gate God’s words hinted at something more.

"The Headless Gate God must want its head back. Next time I log in, maybe I can use this to buy some time."

After hesitating for a moment, Han Fei didn’t make a choice; he didn’t like following paths laid out by others. But if he didn’t make a choice, the game would get stuck on this screen.

After trying repeatedly for a long time, Han Fei memorized the face of the Gate God and then chose to forcefully quit the game.

As he pressed the button on the controller, the game screen turned pitch black in an instant, and all the graphics disappeared.

"What’s going on? I’ve been playing for decades, but I’ve never encountered this before. Is there a problem with the TV?" Zhuang Ren walked towards the television with a look of surprise on his face.

"Don’t go over there! I think I’ve triggered something."

A few seconds later, a pair of bleeding eyes appeared on the pitch-black TV screen, flickering in and out of sight as if greatly constrained, unable to escape from within the television.

Shallow blood tracks, centered on the pair of eyes, slowly started to crack and spread outwards, fine threads of blood quickly covered the entire TV screen, seemingly trying to tear open something.

The scene before him reminded Han Fei of the time he had performed soul-summoning; whenever he used the soul-summoning ability, the system’s attribute panel would be covered with blood silk, and then it would split down the middle, as if forcibly tearing open a Ghost Gate Pass.

"It’s too similar. Just how many secrets are still hidden within this game?"

Han Fei had long stopped considering "Perfect Life" as just an ordinary game. With the existence of the Black Box, this game was intricately linked with reality, blurring the lines between the real and the virtual, breaking down barriers between the human brain and computers, and in a special way, mingling life and death.

Nobody knew what secrets the Black Box held within; its numerous previous owners had never succeeded. Han Fei was still far from unlocking it. However, just the things he had encountered while progressing were enough to overturn his understanding.

He had a premonition that he was slowly lifting the veil of the world, seeing a reality never before witnessed.

The TV screen quickly filled with blood silk, the crimson eyes fixating on Han Fei, and finally, they burst open, the blood mist forming into a sentence—this is the first warning; death may come after three warnings.

The bloody text soon vanished, and the pitch-black game screen showed no further changes.

"Three warnings? When I try to tell others about the Black Box and Deep World, the Black Box in my Brain Sea also issues similar warnings to me. If the three warnings are fruitless, the Black Box will explode in my brain, causing brain death."

Arm propping up his cheek, Han Fei narrowed his eyes.

"The Death Building Game was made by the Chairman of Eternal Life Pharmaceutical when he was young. The Black Box in my head was a gift from the Chairman’s brother. By the time I received it, the Chairman of Eternal Life Pharmaceutical had already been dead for some time. Is it possible that although the Chairman is deceased, he had attached his consciousness onto the Black Box? Or maybe he’s hiding within a layer of the Black Box?"

Han Fei was just speculating, with no concrete evidence. He felt that as a minor comedy actor, it was hard to contend with a giant like Eternal Life Pharmaceutical.

"The Fu Sheng brothers were the previous owners of the Black Box. I’ve seen the Building Chief’s memories, and they did indeed exist. But Zhuang Ren says he’s never seen the Chairman’s brother, and that the Chairman often talked to himself. I’m very curious about what kind of relationship they had? Was one conquering the Deep World while the other expanded the real world? One in consciousness, the other in reality?"

Looking at the pitch-black screen, Han Fei put down the game controller: "Among the brothers, one could see the future, but is that future he saw truly the future? Will the world necessarily develop in the direction he foresaw?"

Han Fei didn’t think so, particularly not after he managed to open two sides of the Black Box at the same time—something the Fu Sheng brothers had probably not anticipated.

"It’s better for me to walk my own path."

Unplugging the power, Han Fei forcefully rebooted the Death Building Game, and everything that had just happened seemed like an illusion.

The game character reappeared in the Happiness Residential Community, surrounded by a warm and harmonious scene, the only discrepancy being the game protagonist’s clothes soaked in fresh blood.

"The game character has changed!"

Han Fei didn’t continue playing; he leaned back on the sofa and silently watched the game character. He felt that the Death Building mini-game was very similar to a Manager’s task in Deep World.

Death after death, restart after restart, the game character’s memory might also keep getting lost. If it weren’t manipulated by someone, it would have long forgotten everything and become just an NPC within the game.

"Does being manipulated allow one to go further? Since the game is made by the Chairman of Eternal Life Pharmaceutical, is he trying to tell me that it’s easier to maintain oneself as a pawn?"

Looking at the blood-stained clothes of the game character, Han Fei smiled carelessly: "From the time I entered the Film Academy until now, I’ve been a supporting actor for so many years. Now that I’ve finally stepped into the spotlight, how can I allow myself to be manipulated again? Since the Black Box was given to me, it’s mine."

"Han Fei, perhaps... it’s time to meet my family?" Zhuang Ren felt he had been ignored all this time. This time, he walked directly in front of the television, blocking Han Fei’s view: "As long as I can just glimpse my family from afar, not to mention the Death Building Game, you can have this house and my inheritance."

Seeing Zhuang Ren’s determination, Han Fei couldn’t well continue playing, especially since he had already gotten what he wanted.

"Fine." Han Fei stood up, turned off the game, and placed the controller in the Black Box next to him, which contained videos and the Emotion Healing Device: "You put the game in here too, I’ll take the box away later."