My ‘Healing’ Game
Chapter 355: Nightfall Begins (4000)

Chapter 355: Chapter 355: Nightfall Begins (4000)

The Chairman of Eternal Life Pharmaceutical had also encountered this music box 14 years ago, which Li Xue’s teacher confirmed to be the same one.

Knowing the past of the music box, the phrase written beneath it feels extremely ironic.

The songs from the music box didn’t bring emotion and happiness to others, instead, it turned into a monster spreading misfortune.

Nobody knew what exactly happened to the songs, as all the changes remained a mystery.

All the people related to the music box were dead, and with the deceased’s relatives giving up proactively, the case had come to nothing.

The reason why Teacher Li Xue remembered so clearly was that he memorized all the homicide cases in Xinhu over the past two decades in order to identify the crimes committed by Butterfly.

This elderly gentleman was also extremely special, with virtually no information about him available online. However, the captain of the Xinhu criminal investigation team would lower his stance and treat him with great respect upon meeting him.

He didn’t have a specific position, and few people knew about his past. Han Fei now only understood one thing: the old man had been consumed by his battle with Butterfly his entire life, determined to drag Butterfly down with him even in death.

After getting what he wanted, Han Fei didn’t stay long. After dealing with the police’s questions, he left with the psychological auxiliary treatment device.

Tonight was Soul-returning Night, and he cherished every second before darkness fell.

Back at Jin Jun’s place, the veteran paparazzo Jin Jun was discussing celebrity gossip with Zhuang Ren. Jin Jun was astounded upon learning Zhuang Ren’s true identity, never having imagined he would meet the once "King of Bad Movies"—Zhuang Ren—in his lifetime.

Jin Jun wanted to dig some gossip from the old-timers out of Zhuang Ren. Since Zhuang Ren might still rely on Jin Jun to enter the game, he did not refuse and unintentionally gave Jin Jun a great gift.

The seemingly upright elder had a wild private life. Jin Jun, like a hound scenting its prey, had eyes that gleamed while focusing on Zhuang Ren.

"You two seem to be having a good time?"

"Brother Han, you’re really my lucky star. You’ve done me a huge favor this time." Originally intending to help Han Fei, Jin Jun turned out to be the biggest beneficiary and became even more firmly on Han Fei’s side.

"It’s no matter of help; we’re friends." Han Fei took out the psychological auxiliary treatment device and gestured for Zhuang Ren to come over. Following the instructions, he connected all the wires and then had Zhuang Ren put it on, "Don’t feel pressured; up next, you’ll find yourself in a room that will change according to your mental state. Relax and don’t fight against it."

Han Fei was very worried that Zhuang Ren might not be able to use the psychological auxiliary treatment device, and he kept his eyes on Zhuang Ren.

The indicator light turned on, the device started normally, but what happened next was different from the manual. Before Han Fei could start the psychological guidance, Zhuang Ren directly entered deep therapy. It felt as if his consciousness was being drawn to the virtual world created by the Smart Brain.

"What did the Chairman of Eternal Life Pharmaceutical do to Zhuang Ren’s brain?" Han Fei looked at the destroyed emotion healing device in the black box and pondered.

Zhuang Ren’s consciousness was different from normal people, seemingly specially marked. This method of marking the soul was beyond Han Fei’s comprehension.

Indeed, Han Fei, who lived at the bottom of the Old City District, never had the chance to interact with the latest and greatest technologies of the age. He only occasionally heard some highly advanced terms on the internet.

"When will Director Zhuang wake up?" Jin Jun was also anxious. He still had many questions unanswered, as digging gossip and sensational news is something that people always enjoy, regardless of the era.

"I don’t know either." Han Fei now only hoped that nothing unexpected would happen to Zhuang Ren.

After eating something at Jin Jun’s house, Han Fei decided not to waste any more time and took out the Death Building Game to play from the black box.

Jin Jun, watching the two "weirdos" in his living room, dared not speak up or ask questions, staying quietly to the side as if he were the guest.

Entering Death Building Number Four again, Han Fei felt like taking on the creator of the Death Building Game. He went directly to the Gate God to trigger a dialogue.

To his surprise, the Gate God seemed to be an NPC with memories; he remembered Han Fei’s previous visit. The conditions he offered to Han Fei were different, trying his best to tempt him, hoping Han Fei would help.

Han Fei also wanted to help, but there were no options to do so in the game.

Forcibly exiting the game, Han Fei triggered a warning for the second time. He was curious about what would happen after the third warning.

After the second warning, the clothes on Han Fei’s game character had completely turned blood red. When he returned to the Gate God, he found the gate god on the door dismembered, with its head missing.

Han Fei tried to trigger the dialogue again, but as he approached, his game character was instantly killed by the Gate God.

The Death Building Game had finally aligned with the Death Building of the Deep World, and it seemed Han Fei no longer had the chance to trigger the third warning.

"I always feel like there’s an invisible hand in the Death Building Game, maintaining the operation of the game, just like the Manager in the Deep World. The pair of bloody eyes I saw after triggering the warning must belong to the Manager."

Han Fei remembered those blood-red eyes, and if he encountered a similar gaze next time, he would easily recognize it.

Unable to trigger the third warning, Han Fei began to seriously explore Building Number Four, hoping to discover more clues.

After several hours had passed, Han Fei found some useful information in the Death Building Game.

Building Number Four was different from other residential buildings; there was a basement, and the staircase leading to the basement was locked behind an iron door.

The "Monsters" in red were unique to Building Number Four. Ordinary residents seemed to be unable to see them, and interacting with them required a special ritual.

Han Fei had seen a child dressed in a bear pajama among the red Monsters, who must be the child from the Closet World of that woman. He hadn’t forgotten his promise to the woman, and within his capacity, he also wanted to help them reunite mother and child.

After repeatedly dying in the Death Building Game, Han Fei made another discovery: with each death in the Death Building, more Death Curses would appear within it, a very peculiar phenomenon.

With each death, the difficulty of the game increased, something Han Fei had not anticipated before.

"The Death Building mini-game is constantly evolving, collecting more ways to die and Death Curses. Could this be hinting that the Death Building in the Deep World is also becoming more terrifying by collecting deaths?"

When playing games, time always flies by quickly.

Before they knew it, the sky outside the window had darkened, and at seven in the evening, just as Han Fei and Jin Jun were about to forcibly unplug the power, Zhuang Ren finally woke up from the deep psychological treatment.

Through the transparent panel of the treatment device, Han Fei saw Zhuang Ren’s face, full of wrinkles.

"What did you see? Why did you only just wake up?"

"I was trapped in a room, which seemed to be constructed based on my own superficial consciousness; all memories turned into some sort of imagery." Zhuang Ren removed the treatment device, his face still showing fear: "I saw my eldest daughter turn into a handsome adventurer, my second daughter became a clingy cat, and my wife used her skeletal body to build the main structure of the home."

"Isn’t that quite heartwarming?" Han Fei knew a few of the basic functions of the psychological auxiliary treatment device, one of which was to interpret and analyze the user’s superficial consciousness to construct their own consciousness room.

"The key point... my room was awash with blood, blood everywhere, and the room kept expanding as if it had no boundaries. I simply couldn’t control my room, and gradually, things that don’t belong to my memory began to appear within that blood!" Zhuang Ren spoke as if he had swallowed a piece of ice, his words carrying a chilling tone: "It seems there are others’ memories hidden in my mind!"

"During these hours, you haven’t been just building a subconscious room, have you?" Han Fei remembered the manual stating that building a room should only take three to five minutes at most, but Zhuang Ren, on just the first step, had spent nearly five hours.

"Yes," Zhuang Ren nodded.

"What did you see in that blood-colored room?" Han Fei tried his best to make his words sound warmer, as Zhuang Ren’s current state seemed very odd, tense, and fearful.

"People, those about to die and those already dead, their limbs everywhere, endlessly extending and filling my room, and still expanding." Zhuang Ren covered his head with both hands, the mere thought of that scene terrifying him: "It felt like I wasn’t in a room but standing at the source of a Blood Sea."

"The source of the Blood Sea?" When Han Fei used his Soul-summoning Ability, he also had to pass through a Blood Sea; he wasn’t sure if there was any connection between the two: "Did you try to communicate with those who were not yet dead? Ask them for their names and past? You would also want to figure out whose memories were forced into your mind, wouldn’t you?"

"I asked, and those half-dead people only repeated four words—’Fu Sheng’ and ’Eternal Life.’" Zhuang Ren sat on the sofa, seemingly devoid of all strength: "I’ve never done anything outrageous in my life; the extra stuff in my head must be related to the treatment device given to me by the Chairman of Eternal Life Pharmaceutical! Why would he do this?!"

"Don’t panic just yet, it might not necessarily be a bad thing."

"Han Fei, you haven’t seen that scene, you don’t know the horror and shock. My subconscious room is full of dead people I don’t know and those about to die, they seem to all be hidden inside my head!" Zhuang Ren’s hands gripped tighter, pulling at his scalp: "Eternal Life Pharmaceutical is a company aiming for eternal life; there are two research directions regarding eternal life, one is physical eternal life, which is almost impossible, and the other is consciousness eternal life. Every unique consciousness is its own soul, and those people I saw in my mind seem to be the consciousness of failed experiments! Really, I feel like I’ve heard about this, but I can’t remember who said it."

"Consciousness eternal life?" For a bit player like Han Fei, the concept of consciousness eternal life was far too remote; even if such a technology existed, he would not qualify to use it.

"I have heard about this before, Eternal Life Pharmaceutical originally pursued extending human lifespan and conquering all the mysteries of the brain. Later, Deep Space Technology approached them, and the two giants began collaborating on research for consciousness immortality," Jin Jun had heard similar news. "In their eyes, the human soul has already been materialized."

What Zhuang Ren and Jin Jun said greatly affected Han Fei. If what they said was true, then the Chairman of Eternal Life Pharmaceutical, who could hide his own memory in Zhuang Ren’s subconscious, could just as well take over Han Fei’s consciousness and become the new master of his body.

Han Fei suddenly shivered; he remembered something a scientist had said many years ago—The degree of prominence of a phenomenon has already made my hair stand on end, that is our humanity has far fallen behind our scientific and technological achievements.

"Butterfly has always been trying to get Zhuang Ren into the Death Building, probably to get the memories hidden in Zhuang Ren’s subconscious."

Many scattered pieces suddenly came together at this moment.

Zhuang Ren’s wife and daughter were locked in room 4144, where they used a God Statue holding Fu Sheng’s Memory Fragments to perform a soul-summoning, hoping to draw Zhuang Ren into the same room as well.

The wife and daughter corresponded to Zhuang Ren; the God Statue corresponded to the memories in Zhuang Ren’s mind that did not belong to him.

To get what she desired, Butterfly had gone to great lengths.

"It seems I really can’t just take Zhuang Ren into Deep World recklessly; I have to be cautious." Glancing at the clock on the wall, Han Fei walked over to Zhuang Ren, "After midnight tonight, you’ll wear the Auxiliary Treatment Device and stay inside, confronting that part of the memory."

"Will this allow me to see my family?" Zhuang Ren’s face changed. "Could it be that my family has also been turned into Memory Fragments? And buried within the ’corpse pile’?"

Shaking his head, Han Fei was about to say something when a sudden noise came from a direction outside the window.

It sounded like something had exploded. Although it was very far from them, the sound was still very clear.

The three men hurried over to the window and saw flames soaring into the sky from the Smart District.

"Something happened in the Smart District?" Xinhu Smart City District was a monument of modern urban construction, entirely controlled by a Smart Brain. Normally, not even traffic accidents occurred there, yet something unexpected had happened today.

The fire lit up the night sky, and the adjacent continuous virtual screens were also affected. The giant number "3" was distorted in the firelight.

In just half an hour, the internet was flooded with videos and messages. The fire had started in the information database jointly managed by Deep Space Technology and Eternal Life Pharmaceutical, which stored a large amount of material related to "Perfect Life."

"With only three days left until the game launch, why did this have to happen now?" Jin Jun was a devoted fan of "Perfect Life"; only in that virtual world could he completely relax without worrying about being recognized by fans of various celebrities.

The fire burned for an hour before being extinguished, and Han Fei watched the flames the entire time. Looking at the billowing fire, he remembered the night he got his gaming helmet; the entire street selling those helmets had been engulfed by a massive fire.

"It’s gotten dark, and tonight is Soul-returning Night. It’s probably time for Butterfly to make her move, right?"