My ‘Healing’ Game -
Chapter 453: Equivalent Exchange, Using the Soul as a Bargaining Chip
Chapter 453: Chapter 453: Equivalent Exchange, Using the Soul as a Bargaining Chip
Standing on the wooden table on the seventh floor, with the abyss right behind him, Han Fei had no place to run, no place to hide.
After entering the Master of the Shrine’s Memory World, it was the first time he had been pushed to such a point.
Shadows rose like the tide, intent on submerging his lone island, the only place where he could touch the moonlight, and soon the mall would be devoid of light, stripped of all that was bright.
"I know you have also encountered such things, but if nothing changes, the tragedy will continue anew, and this curse shall break by no one’s hand."
Pain slashed at his legs like cuts, as fingers soaked with blood clung to the edge of the table, and bugs crawling out from that rotting skin gnawed at Han Fei’s legs.
In the darkness lurked too many horrors, and even after so long in the Deep World, Han Fei was still unable to describe the monsters in the mall—how grotesque and bloody they were.
"Have you all gone mad?"
Han Fei could sense that all the shadows in the mall were imperfect; they were incomplete, lacking much in body or soul.
Some had no brains, their skulls filled with sawdust; some had acquired exquisite cooking skills but only cooked with people; and then there were the countless indifferent and selfish patrons of the fifth-floor deli, who, though retaining human appearance, possessed neither human hearts nor warmth.
"What in the world has happened to you?"
The colorful ribbons of the mall overhead had turned to black hair, and enormous eyeballs watched Han Fei, the only conscious person there.
But when the whole world becomes monster-ridden, lucidity becomes a sin.
Darkness encroached, madness spread, and Han Fei was forced another step closer to the edge of the table, toward the railing on the seventh floor!
"Boom!"
The sound of a bell echoed through the darkness-swathed mall, as if it were the tolling of a bell from the Underworld.
Leapers standing in the atrium on the first floor slowly dispersed, their expressions becoming profoundly devout; an old man with sawdust-filled skull knelt down, hands clasped in front of him, forehead pressed to the ground; next to him stood a sweet-looking girl, tall, but seemingly mentally deficient, with a dull expression, ropes binding her arms and legs to resemble a marionette; and a drunken man, his body covered in mud and his clothes entwined with long hair.
"Boom!"
Another bell tolled, and blood oozed from the giant hanging banners of the mall. As the bloodstain solidified into blackness, those massive banners, like vast swathes of dark cloth, began sliding down slowly!
"Boom!"
As the black cloth fell, a dark Shrine appeared on the first floor of the mall.
The Shrine, supremely solemn and intense, subjugated all darkness—no shadow dared to gaze directly at it.
In the dull tolling of the bell, the Shrine’s dark wooden doors creaked ajar, screams and moans ceased, and from behind those doors, imprisoned arms reached out.
As if a world entirely composed of arms had blossomed like a flower, and amid the sea of palms, an arm etched with human faces slowly extended from the deepest part of the Shrine.
The faces on the skin morphed into Han Fei’s, and as the hand rose, all darkness surged toward Han Fei!
The mall trembled, Han Fei’s world crumbled, and his soul and consciousness were seized by that hand, an invisible power drawing him ever closer to the abyss!
Unable to resist, when one is utterly shattered, all words become superfluous, no one could save him, all persuasion and comfort futile—perhaps at this moment, death became the only exit.
He shuffled his feet, stepping on the railing’s edge, his body slowly tilting, about to fall along with the world!
The hand from the Shrine clutched Han Fei’s heart, pierced his skull, its sin-soaked, bloody fingers stabbing viciously into his soul.
"Boom!"
The bell’s toll shook souls to their core, and just as Han Fei felt he was about to be dragged into the Shrine, a part of his memory in the Brain Sea split off by itself.
Whether it was a subconscious decision or his three souls had their own ideas, the voluntarily split memory, carrying all his misfortunes and negative emotions, broke from his Brain Sea and slammed into the palm of that hand.
A malevolent, cold Soul was seized by the arm painted with human faces, and with each mournful bell, the evil Soul Split plunged in Han Fei’s stead from the seventh floor!
Han Fei watched with his own eyes as another self fell, his gaze full of malevolence and madness—instead of being taken, it seemed he embraced all the darkness and despair with open arms.
"The Shrine has taken one of my souls!"
Han Fei made no deals with the Shrine, yet the trade was forcibly completed.
The sinister soul was grasped by countless hands, torn apart in frenzy, and assimilated into the boundless darkness within the Shrine.
The world, grotesque and sick, continued to metamorphose, and countless arms from the Shrine reached out in every direction, all the shadows too terrified to look up.
As the Shrine’s attention shifted from Han Fei for a moment, a faint click suddenly came from his embrace.
Looking down, Han Fei discovered the child puppet hidden in his pocket was full of cracks, the puppet’s face was crying, and its hand pointed to Han Fei’s left.
Turning left, a thin arm stealthily reached out from the darkness, grabbed Han Fei, and pulled him from the grasp of the countless shadows.
"Uncle, keep running to the left," a familiar voice whispered beside his ear. At that moment, it seemed the Shrine at the center of the mall realized something was amiss, as its myriad arms swiftly climbed upwards once again.
At the last possible moment, Han Fei didn’t dare to hesitate, running crazily towards the left.
The scenes on both sides retreated at high speed, and the door to the emergency exit on the seventh floor of the mall appeared in front.
Without any hesitation, Han Fei threw himself toward the outside!
But the next second, his face turned completely pale; there were no stairs or steps outside the emergency door, just an empty Abyss!
The Master of Shrine’s everything was trapped inside the mall; the labyrinth had no exit, with death being the only end.
As his body fell downwards, at the moment the sensation of weightlessness kicked in, an old arm reached out from the other side of the Abyss.
Grasping the arm with all his might, Han Fei looked up to see darkness scattering around like snowflakes falling from the sky.
The scenes his eyes beheld gradually became consistent, and a face full of wrinkles came into his view.
Pain radiated from all over his body as Han Fei’s eyes widened in horror, half of his body hanging off the seventh floor’s railing, his right hand dangling downward, and his left hand tightly clutching a slender arm.
"I almost died."
Having regained his senses, Han Fei grabbed the railing and pushed himself up; he stepped onto the edge of the seventh floor and climbed back over the railing.
Lying on the ground, Han Fei gasped for breath, only now finding the time to take a good look at the elderly woman beside him.
The old lady’s face was full of wrinkles, and beside her lay a tattered cloth bag containing a blood-red sweater.
Even though Han Fei was now safe, the old lady still held onto his wrist, unsure if she was too scared to let go or worried that Han Fei might do something foolish again.
Neither of them could speak for a long time until Han Fei was the first to break the silence.
"Granny, thank you."
Han Fei thanked the old woman, but she still seemed somewhat out of it, shaking her head continuously as if Han Fei’s earlier state had reminded her of her son.
During his final days, her son seemed to have exhibited many abnormal behaviors as well.
"I won’t go near the railing again, you can be assured," Han Fei tried to get the old woman to let go, but without using force, he couldn’t pry her fingers away.
Unable to get the old lady to let go and with the seventh floor being too dangerous, Han Fei could only slowly help the old lady up, then let her hold onto his wrist as they made their way downstairs together.
"Granny, how did you happen to be here?" When they reached the first floor, the old lady finally came out of her shock, and Han Fei tried to communicate with her.
"I came to donate clothes, my son’s sweater from when he was seven. But there was no one in the store... a child said you were on the seventh floor; he was soaking wet, and he led me to you..." The old woman’s hands trembled, and only after reaching the first floor did she finally let go of Han Fei.
"It was that kid who came to buy toys that helped me," Han Fei took out a child’s puppet from his embrace, covered in cracks, as if it would completely fall apart with a single squeeze.
"These customers who come to my store may be the hope for me to break the situation."
Opening the door to the Secondhand Store, the old lady, just as before, ran to the fake Shrine on the first floor, muttering to herself, then handed the cloth bag over to Han Fei.
"Granny, this Shrine is actually..." before Han Fei could finish his sentence, the old lady walked away, trembling, not looking back as she left the store and disappeared into the night.
Every night the old lady would come, do a good deed, and then leave.
She held onto the belief that after completing a thousand good deeds, her son would return, but in reality, the Shrine she worshipped at was a fake.
"There must be many people like her, all deceived by the Boss of the mall," Han Fei looked at the dense wounds on his left hand, and thought of the Soul he had just lost, "I must make everyone see the true face of the hypocritical Demon that is the Boss of the mall!"
Sitting behind the counter, Han Fei opened the Attribute Panel; he had already escaped the Master of Shrine’s Illusion when he saw the old woman’s face, immediately receiving a system prompt.
It was just that half of his body was still hanging outside of the seventh floor, and he had no time to look at it then.
"Player ID 0000, please pay attention! You’ve completed the Shrine Random Task – Illusion."
"You did not acclimate to the Illusion as I requested, but you found a way to live that doesn’t exist. You accomplished something I did not; perhaps what you left me is the correct answer."
"The Master of Shrine’s inner regret is now compensated by forty-five percent! You’ve earned a significant amount of experience rewards! You’ve gained an opportunity to trade with the Shrine without any cost!"
"Be careful! Using your Soul as a bargaining chip, you have now earned the chance to speak, but trade is always equitable! Please consider the price of your Soul carefully before you speak."
Having narrowly completed the task, Han Fei realized he was gradually approaching the core of this world – the Shrine.
After completing the task "I" in the West City District, he’d earned initial recognition from the Shrine, and now he had gained another opportunity to use the Shrine. All the tasks were progressively drawing him in, tormenting him into a Devil, yet also shaping him more and more into the Master of the Shrine.
"It seems my Soul of Evil has been taken by the Shrine. Without its help just now, I couldn’t have broken free from the Illusion," Han Fei leaned on the counter, uncertain of the price of the Soul of Evil and uninterested in trading it. He was determined to release the Residual Soul from the Shrine.
"It seems there is a terrifying entity residing in the Shrine. Can the Soul of Evil come out intact after entering?"
Actually, this Illusion task had brought Han Fei many implicit benefits. It allowed him to see the various fears inside the Master of Shrine’s heart and also to meet other employees of the Secondhand Store, possibly finding the Boss’s weaknesses from them.
Having overcome the Illusion, Han Fei no longer intended to continue honest work. He was ready to fight back, using everything to expose the hypocritical façade of the mall’s Boss.
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