My ‘Healing’ Game
Chapter 435: Is Despair Just Beginning? (5000)

Chapter 435: Chapter 435: Is Despair Just Beginning? (5000)

"The task is completed?" Han Fei, having been warmly invited by Wang Ping’an’s father, had now arrived at their home, where he sat on a somewhat worn-out sofa, holding a teacup in his hands.

In the kitchen, the old man busied himself cooking with Wang Ping’an, while Han Fei took the opportunity to start reviewing his attribute panel.

The rewards given by the homecoming task far exceeded Han Fei’s expectations. The title of Good Person could slow down the rate at which his mood value dropped, an ability which was crucial. With the title of Good Person, he could now leave the mall for short periods at night.

Apart from the Good Person title, the homecoming task brought Han Fei another surprise, which was the experience gained after completing the task.

The tasks in the Master of Shrine’s Memory World were different from those in the Deep World, lacking clear level divisions, but the experience awarded was comparable to that of an F-level hidden task.

Because Han Fei had chosen both sides of the Black Box, the difficulty of gaining experience increased dramatically. With his current level, completing G-level tasks wouldn’t allow him to level up, but F-level and E-level tasks were hard to come across, which is why he was still only level sixteen.

"I can level up by completing a large number of random tasks in the Master of Shrine’s Memory World!"

Leveling up was the most direct way to improve attributes, and with Han Fei’s hidden profession as the Midnight Butcher, each level up would provide a certain enhancement to his physical strength.

Previously, he couldn’t even escape from the pursuit of regret, but now he could chase down ordinary Grudges, which showed the benefits of an increased Physical Strength Attribute.

"Not all Shrine Random Tasks have the same difficulty, and ones with higher difficulties should award more Experience Value!"

Looking at his attribute panel, Han Fei figured that he should be able to level up after completing three to four more random Shrine tasks.

His gaze moved, and before closing the attribute panel, Han Fei quietly opened his item bar.

Having entered the Master of Shrine’s Memory World, Han Fei subconsciously neglected the existence of the item bar; the rules of this world seemed to intentionally downplay external items, the Master of Shrine’s memory did not want any foreign items to change anything here.

"Only one item can be taken out?"

Without much thought, Han Fei chose the Blood-colored Paperman, which brought him a sense of security.

After confirming his choice, something surprising happened for Han Fei.

The Paperman, originally the height of an adult, changed shape. When Han Fei took it out of the item bar, it had shrunk to the size of a palm and the blood color had completely faded away, with no trace of dark energy to be felt.

"Is it because my mood value is slowly recovering that I can’t see the true appearance of the Paperman?"

The palm-sized Paperman was exquisitely made, its face identical to Xu Qin’s, not resembling a paper figure at all but more like a piece of folk art.

The kitchen door opened, and Wang Ping’an, having removed his motorcycle helmet, walked over with a silly smile, holding a cup of hot tea in his hands.

Without drawing attention, Han Fei discreetly put away the Paperman close to his body, and then got up to greet Wang Ping’an.

"You just stay there! Let Ping’an come over and thank you himself," the uncle said while grasping the edge of his wheelchair, a sincere smile on his face, "There are still many good people in the world. What’s your name, young man?"

"Han Fei."

"Good name, it must have been given to you by someone cultured," the old man said as he pushed the two remaining apples in the fruit plate towards Han Fei, "It’s quite late, why don’t you wait until daylight to go back?"

Wang Ping’an had heated the leftover food in the kitchen, setting it all out on the table; the old man was also quite enthusiastic: "Ping’an always comes home late, so I always save some food for him. Come and join us for a bite."

"Then thank you both," Han Fei was actually quite hungry, having only had a bowl of rice porridge in the evening.

Without any ceremony, Han Fei and Ping’an picked up their chopsticks and started eating. In such circumstances, even leftovers tasted really good.

The old man looked at Han Fei and Wang Ping’an with a smile full of happiness, "Ping’an hasn’t brought friends home for a long time. This kid is different from other children; he learns slowly, but he’s truly kindhearted. After my accident, he started delivering food to support the family, working late every day. I know he’s often bullied outside, but he never tells me, always comes home with a foolish smile, acting like a child."

"Uncle, rest assured, from now on I’m Ping’an’s friend," Han Fei swallowed the food in his mouth. He noticed his mood value had recovered to forty-five.

Since Wang Ping’an’s home could restore mood value, then this place might become a frequent stop in the future.

Placing a hand on Wang Ping’an’s shoulder, Han Fei spoke righteously, "Ping’an, if you run into any trouble while delivering food in the future, come to the second-hand supermarket in the mall to find me, and I will definitely help if I can. But remember, you mustn’t enter the store casually; it’s not very safe inside."

Wang Ping’an couldn’t stop nodding, although it was unclear if he truly understood Han Fei’s words.

After a full meal and drink, Han Fei’s mood value successfully recovered to fifty.

Honestly, he was concerned about Huang Li’s safety, but he simply lacked the ability to walk home at night.

As soon as he left Wang Ping’an’s home, his mood value would start to drop, and he would have to thread his way alone through those terrifying streets and alleys while being on guard against the boy’s father.

Just thinking about it made Han Fei feel anxious, and the safest option seemed to be to wait until it was almost dawn before leaving.

The elderly man wasn’t in great health and had gone to bed early, while Han Fei used some psychological therapy knowledge he had learned previously to roughly understand Wang Ping’an’s condition through playing games.

He tried to communicate with Wang Ping’an to gain his trust further.

At four in the morning, when the sky was getting bright, that extremely terrifying night was slowly fading away.

"Ping’an, before you go to work, be sure to lock the doors and windows and be safe!"

After giving these instructions, Han Fei hurriedly left Wang Ping’an’s home and sprinted towards the shopping mall.

"I hope Huang Li is alright. If something happened to her, I could end up being the last employee of that store."

Running on the road, Han Fei noticed that after daybreak, the speed at which his mood value decreased when going out was very slow, which was good news for him; at least he could explore farther places during the day.

The sound of rushing water reached his ears as Han Fei arrived at the broken fence again, clearly remembering that someone had been following them last night.

Slowing down, Han Fei took out his phone to start recording; he needed to preserve evidence.

"Why are there only mine and Wang Ping’an’s footprints?" Han Fei squinted his eyes as he noticed that someone had cleaned the area, part of the footprints were cleared, but that person wasn’t professional and accidentally also cleared some of Han Fei’s footprints in the process.

"The fabric on the fence gap is the same as the little boy’s. If the man hasn’t moved the body, it is very likely that the boy is buried here!"

The fragments of the little boy’s clothing were in Han Fei’s pocket, which was crucial evidence.

"Should I go down and check?" Han Fei hesitated for a moment: "Forget it, it’s better to go back to the store first. I always feel uneasy being out alone..."

He backed away, but at that moment, Han Fei heard the sound of hurried footsteps!

"Someone’s here!"

He didn’t have time to look back, and his first instinct was to leap forward and dodge!

A sharp knife pierced his outerwear, almost stabbing through his lower back.

Rolling on the ground, Han Fei quickly repositioned himself. He rose swiftly on the shallow bank and then looked behind him.

The knife’s edge came at him again, accompanied by a cold breeze.

"I knew you were lying to me. Did you see something? You must have seen something!"

The voice of a middle-aged man reached Han Fei’s ears, his tone was gnashing, his face distorted.

He was wearing a duckbill cap, a dark jacket, and half a muddy mask was sticking out of his pocket.

This man had been to the second-hand supermarket before, and it was he who wanted to buy back the boy’s toy yesterday!

"You really killed your own child and wife!"

There was no point in feigning ignorance anymore; the boy’s father was a madman, who had swung his knife directly at Han Fei without being entirely sure of the situation.

"Well, you know quite a bit!" The man was tall and stout. He wielded the sharp knife and lunged at Han Fei again, his movements were shockingly fast, not at all like an ordinary office worker.

As he dodged with all his might, Han Fei’s pupils slowly narrowed; defense was definitely not his strong suit.

Forced to retreat, his shoes soaked by the river water, they had reached the riverbank in the midst of their rapid movement.

The ground was uneven, and Han Fei finally caught a moment where his opponent misstepped. He immediately closed the distance and counterattacked!

Having skirmished in the Deep World for so long, Han Fei’s actions were incredibly ruthless.

With a single chop of his hand, he aimed directly at the man’s Adam’s apple, and as the man’s neck was almost deformed, Han Fei locked onto the other’s arm, his fingers almost piercing into his flesh.

Each move was lethal, with Han Fei’s attacks aimed straight at the vital points, resembling not the brawls of street ruffians, but the precision of a professional assassin carrying out a mission.

The man was much more muscular than Han Fei and stronger too, but he felt a hint of fear in front of Han Fei, as the young man disguised as an innocent rabbit seemed genuinely intent on killing!

"Bang!"

It took all of the man’s strength to break free, but in the process, his knife tumbled onto a rock.

At that moment, the knife was slightly closer to Han Fei. If he weren’t confident in his skills, he might have immediately scrambled for the knife to defend himself.

But reality was just the opposite; the man, who was further from the knife, dashed quickly towards it as if holding the knife was the only thing that could make him feel safe.

As the man made his move, Han Fei closed in instantly. Without so much as a glance at the knife, he clenched his fist and delivered a heavy blow to the man’s jaw.

As the man was bent on grabbing the knife before his eyes, Han Fei’s knee, which had been readied for this moment, crashed into the man’s body.

The man let out a wail. Disregarding the knife, he scrambled and ran off.

Han Fei wasn’t ready to let him escape and pursued him closely.

After escaping for about a dozen meters, the man was tripped by something on the ground and tumbled down from the river bank.

Water splashed as Han Fei shed his coat, ready to jump into the river and continue the chase, but standing on the bank, he noticed the man’s body sinking rapidly. It seemed as though toys in the depths of the river were grabbing the man’s hair and clothes to keep him submerged.

Ripples spread out as Han Fei watched the man sink bit by bit into the depths.

"How deep is this Shahe?"

The slowly flowing river water gave Han Fei a sensation of death and misfortune; he was deeply reluctant to stay by the river.

"Is that man dead?"

The shallow water soaked into his shoes, bringing a piercing chill. As Han Fei retreated, he caught sight of the thing that had tripped the man.

It was a child’s puppet toy, muddy all over, appearing to be from the same series as the puppet in the shop whose head had been removed.

"Player number 0000, please note! You have completed a Shrine Random Task—Toy. You have successfully helped the boy redeem his toy."

"The Master of Shrine’s regret has been mitigated by ten percent! You have received a large Experience reward! A Special Item—Toy has been acquired."

"Toy (A Special Item from the Shrine, cannot be removed from the Memory World): When he disassembled the child’s ’toy,’ he never imagined that, from that day on, he, too, would become a ’toy’ in the child’s eyes."

"The function of this item is unknown, some changes may occur after dark."

"Player number 0000, please note! You have completed a Shrine Random Task and have earned one opportunity to open the Item Bar. You may select an item to bring into the Master of Shrine’s Memory World."

Hearing the system notification, Han Fei opened the Item Bar and, after a moment of thought, took out a bladeless knife.

"Once I complete another Shrine Random Task, I’ll be able to level up. Everything seems to be going in the right direction, so why do I have this ominous premonition?"

The day was slowly brightening, and pedestrians began to appear on the distant streets.

Not daring to linger there, Han Fei quickly left the riverbank and ran back to the mall.

It was now a little past five in the morning, the mall had not yet opened for business, and there seemed to be no one around.

Han Fei quietly pushed open the store door, and as the ding-dong bell rang, hurried footsteps came from deep within the shop.

Before long, Huang Li appeared in the store, rubbing her eyes. Her hair was a mess and her face bore the marks of her pillow.

"You’re finally back!" As soon as she saw Han Fei, Huang Li instantly perked up, "On your first day of work, you were gone for several hours! I thought something terrible had happened to you! I was scared to death!"

"Sister Huang Li, I went to deliver the food to the delivery guy and ended up encountering some issues— I’m really sorry," Han Fei looked over Huang Li. There was nothing unusual about her; apparently, nothing terrifying had happened after he left last night.

"It’s okay this time, and I won’t tell the boss, but this better not happen again!" Huang Li spoke sternly but she still took good care of Han Fei, "Did you roll around in the mud or something? How did your clothes get so dirty?"

"The delivery guy’s father’s wheelchair fell onto the shallow bank of Shahe, I helped him lift it out."

"You’re indeed a kind person, but sometimes being too kind isn’t good either," Huang Li sighed and didn’t blame Han Fei further, "You should go home and get some rest. Tonight, you’re on the night shift alone."

"Alright." Han Fei glanced inside the store, "Sister Huang Li, nothing happened in the mall last night, right? Those two security guards didn’t give you a hard time, did they?"

"No, after those two came down from the third floor, they’ve been acting weird and sneaky, wandering around the mall all the time and didn’t even come over here," Huang Li stretched herself lazily.

"Just be careful, those two security guards might do something. Maybe you should lock the shop door before you go to sleep," Han Fei didn’t trust those two security guards. Coupled with what Huang Li had just said, he suspected that something might have already possessed the security guards.

"It’s fine, there are surveillance cameras all over the shop, they wouldn’t dare."

"Okay then." After saying this, Han Fei left the second-hand store. Walking through the mall corridor, he always felt as if someone was watching him from behind.

Maintaining a normal pace, Han Fei didn’t turn his head until he was about to leave through the C exit of the mall, and that’s when he saw those two security guards standing side by side at the second-floor railing, their faces unnaturally pale.

The sky outside was already bright, and the pedestrians on the road were gradually increasing. Han Fei didn’t continue to stay in the mall but headed towards his home instead.

After staying up all night, his physical condition was getting worse, and his mood was starting to drop; he had to get some rest soon.

He crossed the stone bridge, skirted the abandoned small park, went through two alleys, and Han Fei made it back home.

Opening the door, a musty smell hit him, but Han Fei was already used to it.

As he stepped inside and closed the door behind him, the system notification appeared again.

"Player 0000, please note! You’ve successfully made it through the first night, your diary has been updated."

"My diary has been updated? But I haven’t written anything?" Han Fei opened the refrigerator door, took out that notebook, and when he turned to the latest page, he found new lines of extremely scribbled handwriting.

"Today I found a new job. It’s all night shifts, which frees up my daytime so I can do part-time jobs elsewhere."

"The new job isn’t hard, I’ve already got the hang of it. It’s just that, the mall at night is a bit scary."

The content of the diary was about minor trivial matters, but the handwriting became more and more sloppy, as if the writer was under great mental stress.

"I’ve memorized the location of all items and learned the prices by heart. Since childhood, my mom told me to be responsible, yes, she also told me to be a good person because good people will get good karma."

"I helped a delivery guy, I didn’t let him be bullied by the security guards, I meant well, I truly did it all out of good intentions, but why? Why did it turn out like this? I didn’t want this! I really did not! Someone save me, please! I only wanted to help, so why did it end up with killing? He died, I saw it with my own eyes, the knife pierced his chest, he wanted to kill me!"

The handwriting towards the end of the diary was distorted and the words were incoherent, as if the writer had gone mad.

Seeing the last few lines of the diary, Han Fei’s face also darkened.

This diary wasn’t written by him; it must be the memories of the Master of Shrine.

Everything was as Han Fei had expected. The Master of Shrine had helped the delivery guy, but instead of immediately taking the delivery guy home, he waited a long time and found that the father wasn’t coming, and the phone was unreachable; only then did he take the delivery guy home.

When they passed the shallow bank, they found the old man’s wheelchair, went down to check, and accidentally encountered the boy’s father.

Without saying a word, the boy’s father wanted to silence them, and in the fight that ensued, the knife fell and ended up closer to the Master of Shrine.

He picked up the knife to defend himself but accidentally stabbed the boy’s father in a vital spot, causing him to fall into the Shahe river.

The only witness and proof of the entire incident was none other than the simple and foolish Wang Ping’an.

"I didn’t touch that knife last night, but the end result was still the boy’s father getting killed. It seems that there are some key points in the Memory World that can’t be changed," Han Fei thought, his hands slowly clenching into fists. If the key points of the memory couldn’t be changed, how was he supposed to make up for the regrets of the Master of Shrine, and in this deepest despair, grasp the only glimmer of hope.