Chapter 22 - 22 22 This Child Insists on Visiting Our Home

22: Chapter 22 This Child Insists on Visiting Our Home 22: Chapter 22 This Child Insists on Visiting Our Home Han Fei knew that the old lady was not telling a story, what she spoke of were events that had happened to herself. The kinder a person was, the more unease and torment they felt in their hearts after doing something that went against their conscience. This guilt would become a disease, entrenched at the bottom of their heart, causing a faint pain whenever it surfaced. Looking at the old woman’s present state, Han Fei didn’t know what to say. The human heart is complex, even those who live kindly might become accomplices to evil. The old woman was not in good health, she clutched at her chest and did not continue speaking. In the conversation with Meng Shi just now, Han Fei had noticed another very important point. The elderly in the game seemed to have no memory of their own death, which was strange. The victims of the fourth floor Human-body Puzzle had their despair and pain from before death etched into their bones, they were frantic and irrational, forgetting many things, but not the fact that they were brutally murdered. On the contrary, the old lady, Meng Shi, on the third floor was just the opposite; she was kind and compassionate, still remembered what happened during her lifetime, but had forgotten the fact that she was dead. Both were deceased, Han Fei suspected that the reason for this difference was related to the state they were in at the time of death. Those who were tortured to death, filled with resentment and pain, would also become crazy in the game. And as for someone like the old lady, whose cause of death had another hidden aspect, she managed to retain her sanity; perhaps at the time of her death, she harbored little hatred, only regret and remorse. The specific reasons were still unclear to Han Fei, the game was full of unknowns for him, and he needed to investigate step by step. “Attention player number 0000! Level G ordinary task ‘Listen and Accompany’ has been completed! Meng Shi’s friendliness increased by ten!” “Attention player number 0000! Meng Shi’s friendliness has reached the standard! Congratulations on earning Meng Shi’s friendship! Now you have learned how to get along with neighbors amicably!” Han Fei scrolled to the end of the Attribute Panel, where a new Life Chart had appeared, and Meng Shi’s name was now listed under the neighbors section. “Meng Shi (Slightly Regretful): The old woman has a kind heart, she felt she owed the world and many people, a personality of the dedicating type.” As he stared at the character information, Han Fei was puzzled, “What does the ‘Slightly Regretful’ mean following the old woman’s name?” He tried touching the words ‘Slightly Regretful’ on the Attribute Panel, and a cold synthetic voice appeared in his mind. “Most of the normal inhabitants of this world harbor some regrets, it could be an obsession, an irretrievable past, or a knot in the heart that they cannot let go.” “Regret is divided into three levels: slight, very, and extreme. Different levels of regret manifest in different ways.” Hearing the voice in his mind, Han Fei became even more puzzled, “Does this mean NPCs are divided into three levels? No, the system only mentioned that most of the normal residents of this world live with regret, but in this Underworld, there are ghosts and a large number of abnormal people! They must have a different classification system.” Having gained Meng Shi’s friendship, Han Fei knew the classification of normal residents, but to find out the classification of ghosts and abnormal people, he would probably have to first earn the friendship of a ghost or an abnormal person. The three hours passed quickly, and Han Fei put on the Jade Pendant given to him by the old lady and went to the door. The finger wearing the ring still felt bursts of cold; Han Fei knew the child had not gone far and was still lingering near the door. “Granny, I reckon that child might keep guarding the doorway. I’ll open the door to lure him away first, then you must immediately go to Chenchen’s house across the street. Do not hesitate,” Han Fei was quite worried about the old lady, who, after all, was over seventy years old and not very mobile. “Alright,” determined to save her grandson, the old lady was ready to risk it all. “I’ll count to three and then I’ll open the door, you must wait for the kid to follow me before coming out.” Han Fei first pulled out the large bunch of keys from his pocket, held the security door key in his hand, “Get ready!” “One, two, three!” The security door swung open, and Han Fei charged out like an arrow. Once he entered the hallway, his fingers immediately froze, and the sound of a child’s crying reached his ears. Looking back, he saw a ghostly pale child crawling on the stair steps! Han Fei took three steps at a time; when he reached the fourth floor, he felt a sudden heaviness on his back. “Has it climbed onto my back?!” The chilly sensation spread from his back to his neck and then his cheeks. Han Fei didn’t dare to get distracted and hurriedly inserted the key into the lock. He desperately turned the key, eyes fixed on the door! As the chill swept across his cheek, just as the security door was about to open, the ghastly pale face of the child peeked out from his shoulder and stretched in front of him! The two faces were only a few inches apart, Han Fei’s hair stood on end from fear. Anyone else would’ve probably gone mad from fright, but he clenched his teeth and managed to open the security door under these circumstances. His neck was constricted, deformed, making breathing difficult. The child was trying to push Han Fei down the stairs, while he, with a mindset of fighting to the death, rushed into the house. He fell to the ground, and the child that had been choking him now sat on his shoulder, its cold little hands covering his eyes. The eerie crying invaded his mind; Han Fei couldn’t afford to think too much and directly crawled toward the bedroom in the deepest part of the Haunted House where the Monster had disappeared. The slight increase in Physical Strength from the last level-up became pivotal; he successfully reached the bedroom door, desperately pounding on it. The door lock trembled; this Haunted House seemed to have not been this lively in a long time. “Wei Youfu!” The dust-covered bedroom door finally burst open, a gust of cold air blew out from within, and the small hands covering Han Fei’s eyes slowly loosened. Only then did Han Fei see seven figures, their backs to him, sitting by the bed in the farthest bedroom of the Haunted House. The room was like a cold storage, pitch-black and bone-chilling cold. At that moment, Han Fei did something even the ghosts hadn’t anticipated; he, with the child still seated on his shoulder, crawled directly into the bedroom and even casually closed the door behind him! In the pitch-black darkness, the child’s cries became even sharper, Han Fei couldn’t see anything and was shivering violently. He kept muttering, “This kid just wants to find someone to play with, he wants friends, and I thought to myself, we have so many friends at home, he surely must be happy.” As soon as the pressure on his shoulder lifted, Han Fei didn’t hesitate even for a second, immediately opened the bedroom door and dashed out. The child on his back had vanished, Han Fei realized that the child’s crying had been left inside the bedroom. He collapsed on the ground, breathing a long sigh of relief, “That scared me to death.” When the child had been choking his neck, he truly thought he was going to die. After checking the bedroom door to ensure it was properly shut, Han Fei ran towards the living room, “The task to find Chenchen is still not complete. I hope no mishaps have occurred at Granny’s.”