Chapter 979: Another Layer
The two altars represented two different fates. Huang Yin and Han Fei placed their hope on Shen Luo, hoping that this talented player would help eliminate one wrong choice. Shen Luo was nervous as he wandered between the two altars. Finally, he stopped before the altar with the closed doors.
"I pick the altar that looks normal."
"Okay, we'll pick the other one."
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"We can't put all the eggs in one basket."
The three stood before different altars and reached out their hands. After Shen Luo touched the normal altar, a colorful butterfly pattern appeared on his skin. The patterns overwrote each other and became a giant wing under the altar's influence. The room was taken over by the wings. Shen Luo's eyes changed as memories that didn't belong to him entered his mind. At that moment, Shen Luo was like the Butterfly Han Fei killed. The two were basically created from the same mold. The wings closed around Shen Luo. Then the altar before Shen Luo slowly opened to suck the man into it.
The colorful patterns turned the altar beautiful and ethereal. The altar seemed to contain the world's blessings. It was the real heaven.
In contrast, the altar Han Fei and Huang Yin chose had a dying God. The figurine radiated death. When Han Fei and Huang Yin touched the altar, both of them were consumed by the despair inside the altar. Their souls felt like they were about to be torn apart. They could hear crying. The altar before them expanded. Their bodies involuntarily moved towards the gap in the door. God inside the altar was tortured until it lost its mind. It would kill anything that came close to it. The colorful blood had dried up. Only despair remained in the shell of the figurine. The almost-decapitated head slowly moved to look at Han Fei. At that moment, all the imprints left behind by the previous black box owners on Han Fei triggered. The complicated ghost tattoo dyed Han Fei's body red.
The trapped God sensed familiarity in Han Fei. Even though it had lost its mind, it could tell. The presence was too familiar because it was left behind by its family. The pressure on Han Fei and Huang Yin weakened. The figurine reached out toward Han Fei.
Weapons punctured his limbs, and colorful blood drenched his body. His world was always colorful, even if the colors came from his veins. Han Fei tried to move forward even though he knew the entity before him was very dangerous.
Han Fei used Soul-depth Touch. He could see a child inside the figurine. The child wore colorful children's clothes. He always had a good impression of the world. He was a ghost but had a gentle acceptance of humanity. He was born in the night but was embraced by a pair of large hands to send him into the sun. He had a childhood he never thought he would until the hands left, and his world became dark again.
"Is he Fu Sheng's child? Fu Sheng has once brought him to live in the real world?!" Han Fei wanted to know more, but the nightmare was collapsing. At that moment, the paper plane No. 2 gave him flew into the altar. After making their choices, Han Fei and Huang Yin fell deeper into the nightmare.
If layers 1 to 5 were the surface nightmare, Han Fei and Huang Yin were at the final layers. They were close to the altar, and Dream would not hold back anymore.
Han Fei and Huang Yin returned to the building with the grey mist, but Shen Luo was gone.
"Was that the 10th layer?" Han Fei looked up the stairs. He was closer to the altar.
"Han Fei, I have bad news." Huang Yin's face was pale.
"What is it?"
"After we made a choice, I heard the system. I didn't have the time to see it until now." Huang Yin opened the menu. "I glanced at it earlier and realized I had triggered a hidden mission."
After clearing the tenth layer, Huang Yin's menu changed slightly. It had a faded pattern on it. "The content... Take a look yourself."
Han Fei looked at Huang Yin's menu. There was a new colorful mission hint—You've triggered Grade A Hidden Mission, Perfect Life. This is the game's current most difficult mission.
Mission Requirement: Your life is not perfect because someone has stolen your life. I hope you will kill Player 0000, Han Fei, before others.
Mission Rewards: One Grade A Talent, Increase three levels, awaken one random persona, the method to leave the game, and the hint to the location of the game's black box.
Han Fei sucked in a cold breath. For normal players, their biggest desire was to quit the game; for the big guilds, the black box was more important than their lives. For example, Absolute Truth was built for the sake of finding the black box. The legendary box represented the original share of Immortal Pharma and the secret behind the giant's biotechnology.
"The message was indeed sent by the system. Does this mean Dream has almost taken over the super computer?" Huang Yin and the other players were wrapped inside the grey cocoon.
"Dream mobilizes all the players. Even if only 10 percent believes it, you're in a lot of danger." Huang Yin was worried. "You can leave the game if you want, but you're staying behind to save others. But in the future, you will be attacked, humiliated, and insulted by the very people you want to save."
"Dream is trying to pit the players against me. I can't fall for its trick." Han Fei calmed down. "I've been through all kinds of slander campaigns. When you insist on doing something right, you'll be misunderstood."
"I worry Dream still has other tricks." Huang Yin turned off the menu. He didn't think Dream was that vicious, but now he fully believed Dream could replace the supercomputer in the real world.
"We need to speed up." Han Fei's plane fell into the altar. He wanted to get another from No. 2, so he left the building with Huang Yin.
"After leaving the mist, my menu is back to normal, and the mission is gone." Huang Yin was shocked.
"It looks like Dream needs the grey mist to interrupt the system." The situation was not optimistic for Han Fei. The grey mist was spreading, and soon, it would cover the main hub.
"Are we going to stop exploring?"
"Shen Luo will stay here. We'll explore further into the hospital altar." Han Fei looked up into the sky. The sky was darker than before. Han Fei and Huang Yin returned to the base. They had just entered No. 2's room when they saw the document on the ground. Various info on the nightmare was stored in No. 2's brain. His expression was severe.
"Why did you come back?" No. 2 didn't like to be interrupted.
"The plane you gave me fell into the altar. There's a God trapped inside that altar." Han Fei told No. 2 everything he saw. The child studied Han Fei, and his eyes shifted.
"Fate has changed. You two can't enter the nightmare together anymore. You'll explore the next nightmare alone." No. 2 bit his finger and wrote down something on Han Fei. "The presence on your body is attracting something inside the altar. He has something to tell you."
"I suspect the trapped Unmentionable is one of Fu Sheng's three children. I'm Fu Sheng's heir. Perhaps I can save it."
"You make your choices. I can only help you find the special nightmares." No. 2 weakened after he finished drawing the pattern. "When you enter the altar the next time, fate will guide you to the trapped Unmentionable. There's a chance you can directly enter his nightmare."
"The Unmentionable's nightmare?"
"I don't know what you'll run into, but the nightmare will be very dangerous." No. 2 folded another bloody paper plane. "Keep it well. It might save you, but it will also expose my existence."
"Thank you." Han Fei bid farewell to Huang Yin and ran to the hospital. Dream had taken over the system. This was very threatening to Han Fei. Han Fei entered the hospital and walked up the stairs.
After clearing the tenth layer, he could sense the altar's presence clearly.
"There are eleven altars in the main hub. Do I need to clear the eleventh layer to reach the altar?" Vertigo returned. "Is this the eleventh layer?"
Han Fei opened his eyes. There was darkness around Han Fei. He felt very cold. His heart was weak, like he'd die at any moment.
...
The villagers of the Grave Village were very happy. The villagers received a lot of money.
"Village chief, everyone is preparing for the celebration. Why do you look so sad?" Ah Da came to the village chief's home with two jugs of wine. He limped because he was born with defects.
"I'm just tired." The chief was white on the head, but he didn't look deformed.
"It's time to go, chief. Everyone is waiting for your speech!" Ah Da dragged the chief out of the room and towards the center of the village.
Grave Village was of average size. Most of the villagers here were deformed. A horrible stench wafted through the air. Dirty water flowed on the ground. Trash was encased into the walls.
The villagers laughed as they greeted the chief. Then, they hurried to the village center.
This was a big day. Everyone would go to worship the ghost in the grave.
Grave Village was called Grave Village because there was a ghost buried there. The ghost was said to be the first ghost in the world.