My Iyashikei Game-Novel

464 Sacrifices

‘No wonder the Ten Fingers have failed even after 10 years. Their aim is to take over the altar and they will never be able to do that.’ This memory world was left behind by the altar owner and his trace could be seen everywhere. Everything that happened here was his regret. The appearance of the altar had changed the owner’s life, it turned him into an Unmentionable; in other words, the tragedy happened to the altar owner because of the altar. To gain the owner’s approval, the only way was to rectify his regrets and becoming the altar owner was one of his biggest regrets.

“I think I know what to do now.” Han Fei grabbed the hilt tighter.

“You… better be careful.” The man felt like he had wasted his words on Han Fei. Han Fei was a very self-reliant person, he even saw a trace of the devil on Han Fei. “Killing is not going to solve any problem. If you have the chance, you can try to enter my brother’s room. There are two monsters trapped inside his house, a monster with mouths called Truth and a monster with eyes called Conscience.” As if Han Fei might become a monster scarier than his big brother, the man voluntarily exposed his brother’s weaknesses. After he uttered his brother’s secret, 10 times more hair gushed out from the man’s mouth. He had touched some kind of taboo.

“The two monsters are afraid of fire! Find them! Find out why my brother became like this, you need to stop yourself from walking his path or else you’d be bound by the altar and lose everything important in your life!” The black hair tore open the man’s mouth and drowned him. Han Fei tried to save the man but he almost got swallowed by the black hair. He barely escaped from the bedroom.

Looking at the pictures around the house, Han Fei picked up the frame on the ground. “Boss Gu’s brother has also mentioned the monster called Truth, this verified the hint given to me by the tenant in Room 13. Looks like I need to go there to take a look.” Han Fei gained valuable information from the man. He needed to find out how the mall boss slowly became deranged so that he could avoid doing the same thing when he inherited the altar.

A bad person who had a violent tendency could be educated and influenced to become a good person that fitted the general morality. An innocent moral good person could slowly spiral into sin. In Han Fei’s era, there was a branch of psychology which studied this, it was called psycho-psychology. Han Fei happened to know this field because he believed he had been studied by experts in this field before.

Han Fei had encountered many bad people and even pure evil like Butterfly. These humans without conscience had something in their psychopath that triggered them.

After leaving the man’s house, Han Fei rushed to River Head Building 1. As Han Fei walked through the neighbourhood streets, Han Fei noticed something. River Head building 1 to 9 formed a circle, it looked like a well. “There is a manmade lake in the middle of the neighbourhood, the water is siphoned from the river.”

Han Fei took a detour to head to the lake. Before he even got near, he had a bad feeling, the lake represented misfortune and death. Han Fei had felt the same thing before on the night he sent Wang Pingan home. When he passed by the river, he was very afraid. It was like the slowly moving river would eventually swallow everything, including one’s memory.

‘The surrounding of the lake is covered with cameras, what are they watching? They’re afraid that people might come fishing? Or afraid that people might steal from inside the lake?’ Han Fei walked along the lakeside to reach Building 1. There were 2 teams of patrol here. The moment Han Fei got close, he was stopped. No one could get close to the mall boss’ house without permission. One had to prepare an appointment to visit the mall boss. Han Fei didn’t think it was wise to barge in so after some consideration, Han Fei turned to leave.

He would rescue the pictures from inside the well and save the old man’s family before he made his next move. ‘This world is already mutating, I need to gather more allies.’

Han Fei exited the gate and found Wang Pingan. The man wore Han Fei’s jacket and was watching a fight between stray cats. “Brother, have you dropped off all the white rice?”

“I did. You were right, they are a family of good people.” Han Fei swapped his jacket back with Wang Pingan. He placed the rucksack inside the delivery box and only kept the smaller items on himself. After he was done, he rode the bike and rushed towards the mall. When Han Fei was about to arrive at the mall, he returned the bike to Wang Pingan and told him to go home to rest while Han Fei rushed to Exit C.

Even in the morning, the mall was rather deserted. There were not many customers. Most of the shops were closed and the doors had signs that said, ‘For Rent’.

“The boss’ business is getting worse, no wonder he is so desperate.” The borrowed fortune would eventually run out, after all, it didn’t belong to him in the first place. When Han Fei entered the mall, his expression and presence changed. Even the injury on his leg worsened. He limped. The customers all evaded Han Fei, afraid that Han Fei might trip and fall on them.

“Why are you so late?!” Zhu Wei was angry when he saw Han Fei. “Did you know we were robbed yesterday night?” Han Fei was very familiar with people like Zhu Wei. Once they had a little power, they would shout at the people underneath them. His subordinates were tools for him to vent his anger.

“When I was at the shop yesterday, everything was fine.” Han Fei didn’t care about Zhu Wei. He didn’t even look at the man as he walked forward.

“What kind of attitude is that?” Zhu Wei grabbed Han Fei. “Your superior told you to come immediately. Look at the time now!”

“If you don’t let go, I’m going to call the police.” Han Fei pointed at his injured leg. “You are the manager, not the boss, so don’t use that tone with me.”

“I need to watch my tone when I’m talking to you?” Zhu Wei was so angry that his flabby cheeks shook. However, he couldn’t do anything to Han Fei because the 2nd hand shop was run by the mall boss and technically Zhu Wei had no right to manage its employees.

“Zhu Wei, the shop that I work at has already lost so many employees, how long do you think I will last?” Han Fei tapped Zhu Wei on his face. “I have nothing to lose now so you better watch yourself.”

It was just one night but Han Fei had become completely different. Yesterday night, he was lucky to survive the altar owner’s illusion. He knew yesterday was a big turning point for the altar owner. He experienced his father’s betrayal, endless torture and was dying. He started to actively embrace darkness.

Dragging his tired body, Han Fei walked past Zhu Wei and opened the 2nd hand shop door. Inside the shop, there were several large men, they were the mall boss’ bodyguards. ‘Just how many bad things he has done that he needs so many bodyguards?’

Once Han Fei entered the shop, several eyes landed on him. The bodyguards glared at him like he was something dangerous.

“All you do is to stand there?” Han Fei glanced at the merchandise on the ground and the tipped-over shelves. “Can’t you help clean up this place?” Han Fei wanted to say something more when a cough came from deep inside the shop. Han Fei turned to the cough and saw the boss standing beside the altar. The black cloth was on the ground and the altar was heavily damaged. The symbols inside the walls had all been wiped away and the altar doors were smashed. Boss Gu stood facing away from Han Fei. His focus was fully on the altar. Seeing the boss so vulnerable, Han Fei had the urge to take out Rest in Peace and gave his boss a quick release.

“Boss, did we suffer a lot of loss?” Hearing Han Fei’s voice, the man slowly turned around. He stared into Han Fei’s eyes and then asked, “Have you seen God before?”

Han Fei didn’t expect this question. He slowly shook his head.

“I haven’t seen God before either. However, I heard that once you have placed enough sacrifice on the sacrificial table, God will appear. People in the past liked to use animals like cows, pigs and goats to sacrifice to the Gods. I’ve tried them but I failed each time. Then I realized the most important thing is to have a sincere heart. As long as you are sincere, no matter the animals you put on the table, the Gods will hear our voices.” Boss Gu caressed the broken altar and appeared to mumble to himself.

Han Fei initially didn’t notice the problems in the boss’ words until he realized something. In the memory world, he had encountered several people and their names all had the Chinese characters of animals. It was like the boss was hinting that these people were all sacrifices. Once they were placed on the sacrificial table, God would appear.

“I treat my employees as family but who would have thought the normally harmless little lamb [sounds like Fei Yang in Chinese] would lead the wolf into the room.” The mall boss didn’t show any emotions and his tone was even but he exuded a very cold presence. It was true that the boss treated his employees like his family because his employees ended up in the same place as his family.

“I don’t get it.” Boss Gu slowly walked towards Han Fei. “Why do you think he needed to steal from the shop?”

Han Fei had a feeling there was a hidden meaning behind the boss’ words. “Boss, what has Fei Yang stolen? From what I see, all the valuable items are still here.”

“It doesn’t matter what he stole. The important part is when he had that bad idea in his mind, he had already strayed from the good path.” Boss Gu’s phone rang. He answered it before Han Fei. “Boss, we’ve searched River Head, they are not here. They are probably in other parts of the city,” The voice said through the phone. Boss Gu appeared to purposely let Han Fei hear this.

“I don’t care about the method, find him before nighttime.” Boss Gu gave the order and the man obliged. The two continued their conversation but Han Fei was unaffected. Ten Fingers wouldn’t let Fei Yang go that easily unless he was already a dead body.

After hanging up, Boss Gu stared at Han Fei. Then he took out an envelope from his pocket. There was 5000 RMB inside. “Before I can hire a new employee, I need you to look after the shop. You can stay here and I will pay you double.”

“Okay.” Han Fei accepted the envelope. “Thank you boss.”

“I should be thanking you for helping me at this time of need.” Boss Gu and Han Fei smiled. “I will try my best to find a new replacement as soon as possible.” Boss Gu said and prepared to leave. When he was at the door, he stopped. “Right, from today onwards, try not to go down to the storeroom at night.”

“Okay.”

As the boss and his bodyguards walked away, Han Fei placed the money envelope under the counter. “I can’t spend this man’s money too carelessly.”

Han Fei started to clean up the shop. In the morning, there were no customers. There were passing mall goers who would point and whisper at the shop. Some said the shop was cursed and all the employees would have a bad end. With this rumor, no one dared to come into the shop. The other employees at the mall didn’t come to help Han Fei either. Han Fei worked alone like he was abandoned by the whole world.

He worked until dusk. As Han Fei lifted up the heavy shelf, suddenly the door opened. “This is such a coincidence. You work here?” A familiar voice said and a pair of hands grabbed the other side of the shelf. Han Fei lifted his head and saw Lin Lu in white fur coat enter the shop. She looked at Han Fei in surprise.

“Lin Lu?” Han Fei looked at the woman. She was pretty and lively. Her skin was as fair as the sun. Whenever she was around, the darkness would be chased away. “I’m surprised that I’d run into you at the mall. Speaking of, why were you taken hostage by those two gangsters earlier? Did you owe them money?” Lin Lu rambled nonstop. However, Han Fei didn’t find her annoying. If anything, he relaxed listening to her.

“They are my friends.”

“You are friends with those two gangsters?! Wow, that’s unexpected.” Lin Lu helped Han Fei clean up the shop and chatted with Han Fei. However, Han Fei was distracted. He kept glancing to the door because the bell that should chime whenever a customer entered or left the shop didn’t sound when Lin Lu walked into the shop earlier.

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