Chapter 35: The Landlord's Legacy
"Iris models, leg models, hand models, lip models... This twisted killer took the most beautiful parts of the victims and pieced them together to create the eighth corpse. Is this what the killer meant by 'transforming into a butterfly'?"
There is still an eighth victim in the human puzzle pattern, but the face and key parts of the body belong to the other victims. The police conducted various tests and found that there was no information about the eighth victim in the citizen database.
No name, no past, no trace left in this technologically advanced online world, yet they were killed. This was perplexing and unsettling.
"We can find information about the other seven victims online, but nothing about the eighth victim. The police haven't released any information related to the eighth victim..." What puzzled Han Fei even more was that when he was doing the task of watching TV, a monster appeared behind him, and that monster had the faces of only seven victims.
"Could it be that the eighth victim is the monster itself?"
Han Fei wanted to uncover the truth. Living in the haunted house and accompanied by the victims, he could clearly feel their pain and despair.
Whether it was for seeking revenge for the deceased or for his own survival in the game, he had to do his best to catch the killer.
The situation in the haunted house was extremely eerie now. As the only living person, Han Fei hid under the covers in his bedroom. Outside in the living room, several figures faced away from him, watching the TV without any images. It seemed like all these "people" were waiting for something to appear.
"What are they waiting for?"
The darkness had reached its peak, and the entire apartment building, along with the outside world, seemed to be becoming even more abnormal.
Sounds of nails scratching against the walls, the motion-activated lights in the hallway suddenly turning on, wooden boards on the windows slowly cracking—it was as if insects were crawling outside the dilapidated apartment building.
However, no matter what changes occurred outside, those figures remained facing away from Han Fei, until it was three in the morning.
The images on the TV gradually became clear. In the pitch-black living room, five brutally murdered people sat on the sofa, facing the TV as if they were searching for something through it.
What were they searching for?
Han Fei peeked out from the gap in the blanket and saw that the patterns on the TV were becoming clearer. The five figures in the TV were the five victims of the human puzzle pattern, and the TV showed their appearances at the time of their brutal deaths.
Each body was incomplete, with no trace of blood on their pale faces. Their pale pupils jumped in their eye sockets.
"What are they searching for?" Han Fei's heart grew increasingly uneasy, and his gaze shifted to the TV.
Upon careful observation, in the corner of the screen, he saw the half-open door of his bedroom and even caught a glimpse of his own eyes peering through the gap in the blanket.
"Am I also in the TV?"
The ghost in the TV revealed its gruesome appearance, and the current scene seemed to reflect the true state of the haunted house.
Looking at those lifeless faces and those eerie eyeballs, Han Fei lost even the courage to look away.
"Could they be searching for me?"
Han Fei had just seen himself on the TV, and the child sitting at the end of the sofa stood up. He leisurely walked towards the TV, as if he had noticed something unusual.
"Is it my fate to be haunted by children?"
It was now three o'clock, and in five minutes, Han Fei's task would be completed. He had to hold on no matter what.
To avoid being discovered, he didn't even plan to look outside anymore. He curled up completely under the covers, waiting for the system's prompt.
"No matter what, I have to hold on for five more minutes. Come on! Even if all of you are standing outside now, even if you want to kill me, I will delay enough time for five minutes!"
The temperature in the haunted house continued to drop, and Han Fei's heart pounded. He didn't know if the ghosts had entered, and he even prepared himself for the bedside to be crowded with ghosts.
The time passed agonizingly slowly for Han Fei. Even the seconds felt infinitely stretched.
Opening the attribute panel, Han Fei focused on the exit button in the corner of the panel. But just then, he heard a door opening. This time, it seemed that the other party had entered his room directly.
"Wait until I leave alive, and I will definitely find the killer for all of you! Living under the same roof, I'll come to chat and pass the time with you at night, and during the day, I'll burn incense for you. Give me a chance, my family."
Han Fei was so nervous that he started to babble, as he had never experienced anything like this before.
"Attention, Player No. 0000! The sleep task of the beginner mission is complete! You have gained one free skill point and received the mission reward—The Landlord's Key."
"Attention, Player No. 0000! Due to a slight increase in difficulty in the beginner mission, an additional mission reward has been added—The Landlord's Three Cigarettes."
"The Landlord's Key (Grade G Blood Red Item): After the landlord's death, the spare key in the building disappears. It's unclear whether it was stolen by someone or borrowed by a ghost."
"The Landlord's Three Cigarettes (Grade G Blood Red Item): After the landlord's death, his three children offered three cigarettes at his memorial altar."
Hearing the voices in his mind, Han Fei let out a long sigh of relief. When he saw that the exit button was already lit up, he instantly felt relieved.
"Life is truly full of ups and downs. My nerves must be as tough as steel by now. There are no setbacks in reality that can knock me down anymore."
Han Fei subconsciously looked at his inventory, as all mission rewards would be stored there first.
"All the rewards from the beginner missions have the words 'the landlord' in them. It seems like the game intends for me to become the new landlord?"
"It seems completing all the beginner missions still has meaning. Even that string of 'Landlord's Keys' could be useful in the future. The initial hints from the system were indeed correct — completing all the beginner missions will help me better understand this world."
Han Fei was glad that he hadn't given up on the beginner missions. The rich rewards from the sleep task made him determined to complete the bathing task as well.
"The three beginner missions should correspond to three rewards related to the landlord. The ring can sense ghosts, the key can open doors to other rooms... I wonder what the reward for the bathing task will be?"
Humans are naturally greedy. Now that Han Fei knew he could exit the game at any time, he decided to take another big gamble. "I can complete the bathing task before four o'clock in the morning. I'll strive to obtain all the rewards from the beginner missions!"
Slowly lifting the corner of the blanket, Han Fei saw Wei Youfu standing at the doorway of his bedroom. He used his body to block the view of the other ghosts.
"When did he appear?" Recalling Wei
Youfu's time of death, Han Fei wasn't too surprised. He watched Wei Youfu's back and suddenly felt that Youfu was different from the other ghosts in the room.
While the bodies of those ghosts were mutilated, Wei Youfu's body remained intact, at least superficially.
"It seems that Youfu didn't harbour any malice towards me from the beginning. That sets him apart from the other ghosts. Could he still retain some memories and humanity?"
There is still an eighth victim in the human puzzle pattern, but the face and key parts of the body belong to the other victims. The police conducted various tests and found that there was no information about the eighth victim in the citizen database.
No name, no past, no trace left in this technologically advanced online world, yet they were killed. This was perplexing and unsettling.
"We can find information about the other seven victims online, but nothing about the eighth victim. The police haven't released any information related to the eighth victim..." What puzzled Han Fei even more was that when he was doing the task of watching TV, a monster appeared behind him, and that monster had the faces of only seven victims.
"Could it be that the eighth victim is the monster itself?"
Han Fei wanted to uncover the truth. Living in the haunted house and accompanied by the victims, he could clearly feel their pain and despair.
Whether it was for seeking revenge for the deceased or for his own survival in the game, he had to do his best to catch the killer.
The situation in the haunted house was extremely eerie now. As the only living person, Han Fei hid under the covers in his bedroom. Outside in the living room, several figures faced away from him, watching the TV without any images. It seemed like all these "people" were waiting for something to appear.
"What are they waiting for?"
The darkness had reached its peak, and the entire apartment building, along with the outside world, seemed to be becoming even more abnormal.
Sounds of nails scratching against the walls, the motion-activated lights in the hallway suddenly turning on, wooden boards on the windows slowly cracking—it was as if insects were crawling outside the dilapidated apartment building.
However, no matter what changes occurred outside, those figures remained facing away from Han Fei, until it was three in the morning.
The images on the TV gradually became clear. In the pitch-black living room, five brutally murdered people sat on the sofa, facing the TV as if they were searching for something through it.
What were they searching for?
Han Fei peeked out from the gap in the blanket and saw that the patterns on the TV were becoming clearer. The five figures in the TV were the five victims of the human puzzle pattern, and the TV showed their appearances at the time of their brutal deaths.
Each body was incomplete, with no trace of blood on their pale faces. Their pale pupils jumped in their eye sockets.
"What are they searching for?" Han Fei's heart grew increasingly uneasy, and his gaze shifted to the TV.
Upon careful observation, in the corner of the screen, he saw the half-open door of his bedroom and even caught a glimpse of his own eyes peering through the gap in the blanket.
"Am I also in the TV?"
The ghost in the TV revealed its gruesome appearance, and the current scene seemed to reflect the true state of the haunted house.
Looking at those lifeless faces and those eerie eyeballs, Han Fei lost even the courage to look away.
"Could they be searching for me?"
Han Fei had just seen himself on the TV, and the child sitting at the end of the sofa stood up. He leisurely walked towards the TV, as if he had noticed something unusual.
"Is it my fate to be haunted by children?"
It was now three o'clock, and in five minutes, Han Fei's task would be completed. He had to hold on no matter what.
To avoid being discovered, he didn't even plan to look outside anymore. He curled up completely under the covers, waiting for the system's prompt.
"No matter what, I have to hold on for five more minutes. Come on! Even if all of you are standing outside now, even if you want to kill me, I will delay enough time for five minutes!"
The temperature in the haunted house continued to drop, and Han Fei's heart pounded. He didn't know if the ghosts had entered, and he even prepared himself for the bedside to be crowded with ghosts.
The time passed agonizingly slowly for Han Fei. Even the seconds felt infinitely stretched.
Opening the attribute panel, Han Fei focused on the exit button in the corner of the panel. But just then, he heard a door opening. This time, it seemed that the other party had entered his room directly.
"Wait until I leave alive, and I will definitely find the killer for all of you! Living under the same roof, I'll come to chat and pass the time with you at night, and during the day, I'll burn incense for you. Give me a chance, my family."
Han Fei was so nervous that he started to babble, as he had never experienced anything like this before.
"Attention, Player No. 0000! The sleep task of the beginner mission is complete! You have gained one free skill point and received the mission reward—The Landlord's Key."
"Attention, Player No. 0000! Due to a slight increase in difficulty in the beginner mission, an additional mission reward has been added—The Landlord's Three Cigarettes."
"The Landlord's Key (Grade G Blood Red Item): After the landlord's death, the spare key in the building disappears. It's unclear whether it was stolen by someone or borrowed by a ghost."
"The Landlord's Three Cigarettes (Grade G Blood Red Item): After the landlord's death, his three children offered three cigarettes at his memorial altar."
Hearing the voices in his mind, Han Fei let out a long sigh of relief. When he saw that the exit button was already lit up, he instantly felt relieved.
"Life is truly full of ups and downs. My nerves must be as tough as steel by now. There are no setbacks in reality that can knock me down anymore."
Han Fei subconsciously looked at his inventory, as all mission rewards would be stored there first.
"All the rewards from the beginner missions have the words 'the landlord' in them. It seems like the game intends for me to become the new landlord?"
"It seems completing all the beginner missions still has meaning. Even that string of 'Landlord's Keys' could be useful in the future. The initial hints from the system were indeed correct — completing all the beginner missions will help me better understand this world."
Han Fei was glad that he hadn't given up on the beginner missions. The rich rewards from the sleep task made him determined to complete the bathing task as well.
"The three beginner missions should correspond to three rewards related to the landlord. The ring can sense ghosts, the key can open doors to other rooms... I wonder what the reward for the bathing task will be?"
Humans are naturally greedy. Now that Han Fei knew he could exit the game at any time, he decided to take another big gamble. "I can complete the bathing task before four o'clock in the morning. I'll strive to obtain all the rewards from the beginner missions!"
Slowly lifting the corner of the blanket, Han Fei saw Wei Youfu standing at the doorway of his bedroom. He used his body to block the view of the other ghosts.
"When did he appear?" Recalling Wei
Youfu's time of death, Han Fei wasn't too surprised. He watched Wei Youfu's back and suddenly felt that Youfu was different from the other ghosts in the room.
While the bodies of those ghosts were mutilated, Wei Youfu's body remained intact, at least superficially.
"It seems that Youfu didn't harbour any malice towards me from the beginning. That sets him apart from the other ghosts. Could he still retain some memories and humanity?"
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