Vegebun’s gaze froze as she stared at one corner. Her face turned pale and cold sweat poured. The cat hid behind the door. However, the bedsheet moved on its own, and her fingertips touched something. Black rain hit the window pane. Fear enveloped Vegebun. She screamed and fell. She crawled away from the bed. Her back was to the wall. Vegebun grabbed her cat. She stared under the bed nervously. The side of the bedsheet started to sway again. She held her breath as she stared at the bed. The thing under the bed was coming out!
Her heart pounded, but then everything returned to normal. It felt like her mind was playing tricks on her. The black rain outside the window poured harder. Vegebun didn’t dare to stay. She hugged her cat and ran to the living room. “We need to leave!”
Vegebun was about to get to the door when she heard the familiar cat’s meow again. She lowered her head, and her cat had not moved. The meow came from somewhere else. She turned to her bedroom. The bedsheet was moved back, and a man poked his head from under the bed. He kept making this cat noise. Vegebun was so scared that her legs weakened. The man’s body appeared to be missing bones. He crawled out of bed and landed on his limbs. He crawled to the living room!
There was a knocking outside the door. Seaglass Cat was calling Vegebun’s name. Vegebun immediately reacted, and she opened the door. “Run!”
Vegebun held her cat with one hand and grabbed Seaglass Cat with another. She pulled her friend to leave.
“What did you see?”
“Run! He’s coming after us!”
“But there’s no one in your house!” Seaglass Cat pressed Vegebun’s shoulders. “Calm down! You’re scaring your cat.” Vegebun slowly calmed down. She looked at her cat in her arms. The bloody scars were gone, but she had a few cat scratch marks on her arms. When Vegebun relaxed, her cat immediately jumped away like it was scared.
“Did you hallucinate?” Seaglass Cat helped Vegebun back into her house. She even entered the bedroom and looked under the bed. There was nothing.
“Impossible.” Vegebun was very fearful. “I saw a man hiding under my bed. His body is like a cat's. I touched his face! Yes, I touched his face! It was very cold!”
“Vegebun, listen to me. Currently, something is wrong with Perfect Life. Many players have faced similar problems.” Seaglass Cat hugged Vegebun to give her friend support. “It’s all fake. It’s the negative emotion from the game. It’s enlarging the fear in your memory.”
“The fear in my memory?” Vegebun was confused.
“Do you have any fearful memory related to cats or beds?”
Erm…” Vegebun thought for a while, and then her face paled. “I lived with my grandma when I was young. One day, I was out playing hide and seek with my friend. When I passed a cemetery, I saw a wounded old cat.”
“And then?”
“Out of sympathy, I brought it home. But I hid it under my bed because I was scared that my grandma would scold me. The cat was old, and it understood human habits. It made no sound. But I realized that it kept watching me like it was trying to copy me.” This happened a long time ago, but Vegebun still felt afraid thinking about it.
“It’s alright. Keep on going.” Seaglass Cat held Vegebun’s chilly hands.
“After a week, the old cat died under the bed. I started to have a fever. When grandma found out everything, she had someone chop my bed and make it into a coffin. The cat was placed inside and then burned. Back then, my parents were away for work. My grandma brought me to the hospital. She stayed by my side through the night. Then, she started to scold me once it was past 1 am. The nurse said that I was suddenly better after she scolded me for two nights.”
“Your grandma wasn’t scolding you but the old cat.” Seaglass Cat poured a glass of water for Vegebun. Before Vegebun took the glass, she kept wiping her hands. “What are you doing?”
“The black rain stained my hands, and it’s stinky, but I can’t wipe it away!”
“Black rain?” Seaglass Cat looked out the window. “It’s raining, but the rain is no different from normal.”
“Look closer!” Vegebun stood up to point out the window. “The rain is black! It’s like dirty blood!”
“Only people who are affected can see the black rain?” Seaglass Cat didn’t argue with Vegebun. She called Huang Yin and told him everything. After Huang Yin ended the call, he told Seaglass Cat to bring Vegebun away. Huang Yin was panicking too. Strange things started to happen after dark. The taxi driver realized there was a white cloth under his seat. He bent down to look when he heard the door open. When he looked up, a passenger was in the backseat. The man wanted to go to a burning site. The driver started the car with confusion. Someone outside shouted angrily at him. Why wouldn’t he take any passenger since his cab was empty?
The deliveryman was tired after a whole day of work. Suddenly, it rained. The rain was black. He held the last delivery he had. He called the number, but there was no answer. He looked up, and on one of the balconies, a woman was waving and shouting at him. The deliveryman rushed up the stairs and slipped. The delivery box fell, and a lot of black hair poured out. Before the man could recover, he saw a woman in the corridor, waving at him…
Huang Yin rubbed his forehead as he received the reporters. “Now, even those who have used the therapy machines developed by Deep Space Tech are being affected. How many tricks does this ghost have?” At first, those things were just hallucinations, but from Han Fei, Huang Yin knew that eventually, these things would become real!
The Unmentionables joined forces not to take down the city but the whole world.
“The speed of mutation is too fast. I need to contact Han Fei.” Huang Yin called Han Fei, but he couldn’t get through.
…
Han Fei took the taxi back to the old city. It was just late evening, but the sky was already dark. Dark clouds gathered above Xin Lu, and then it rained. Han Fei saw the black rain falling on him. He stopped and looked up into the sky. Endless darkness was about to bury the whole city.
“Has the night arrived sooner?”
Han Fei ran into his neighborhood, ignoring all the anomalies. He opened the door to his house. Using the cooking skills trained in the cryptic world, he made a big meal. He placed many chairs around the dining table. Han Fei served everything and took the main seat. He looked at the empty seats and talked to himself. “I don’t care if you’re real or not. Since you’re here, then you’re my guests. But if you misbehave, you’ll be the one on my dining table.”
Han Fei was the only person in the house, but he had made a tableful of dishes. He didn’t care if his ‘friends’ had eaten. Han Fei enjoyed the meal a lot. Before he entered the gaming hub, he checked all over his house and finally checked his phone. No one called him. He checked his messages. Everything was fine. Then, Han Fei clicked open his album, and the strange picture was deleted. “Someone has touched my phone.”
Han Fei had once discovered a special picture in his house. The person snapped the picture of Han Fei when he was gaming. The picture was gone, but there was a new note in the note app.
“The day’s name is Night. Day is crying, and Night is laughing. When Night leaves, he will return Day the laughter.”
The rain fell harder. The black rain hit the windows. Han Fei was dulled by this rain. It felt like he had never left the game.
“If I can’t stop the garden owner and Dream, this city will turn into a cryptic world.” Han Fei could understand Fu Sheng’s choice, but he couldn’t pick the same path. “Perhaps I need to work extra hard to bring light to both worlds, but if no one is willing to do that, how will we have a brighter future?” Han Fei put on the gaming helmet.
Blood fell. Han Fei felt his back lighter, like someone had taken part of his burden away from him.
“I wonder who is so unlucky.”
Han Fei returned to the skyscraper. Han Fei had left for a whole day, so many things might have changed already. Han Fei summoned Big Sin before he opened the door. Darkness, rot, rust, and grim instantly pulled Han Fei back into focus. Han Fei touched the ground. Evil Soul didn’t react. He looked through his inventory, and No. 2’s brain fragment was still there. Han Fei took out the fragment, and the flesh around him started to gather. Several minutes later, the director appeared before Han Fei. After Han Fei placed the fragment inside the director’s body, Evil Soul’s eyes opened.
“This is not fun. I feel like my body has been cut into pieces.” Evil Soul’s eyes were cold. “After you leave, it seems like I’ll go into slumber too.”
“Why? Do you want to kill and replace me?” Han Fei narrowed his eyes.
“You need to stop hanging out with that Evil Soul. He’s affecting you too much.” Evil Soul looked behind Han Fei. His expression was strange, but he didn’t say anything. “Where’s everyone else?”
“I’ll bring you to them.” Evil Soul’s flesh melted into the ground. He left Han Fei in a Mausoleum on the 25th floor. Ji Zheng and the others were hiding there.
“Are you alright?” Han Fei sighed when he realized no one was injured.
“Something big is happening over the 50 floors. The elevators have not stopped moving.” Ji Zheng held the boy’s hand. After he stopped drinking and shaved his beard, he looked so much younger.
“Is it still the same? The dead bodies are transported, and then their heads explode?”
“No. They die in many different ways now.” Ji Zheng took out the pictures he had taken. “The Night Police are killing Dictators, Deathborns are killing everyone, Taboos are running wild, and new Pure Hatreds have entered the building.”
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