My Healing Games

Chapter 32: All Ghost Stories Are Lies
"Brother Huang, besides the Easter eggs left by the late founder, are there any other strange rumors in this game? I'm quite interested in those."

"If you're really curious, you can find tons of information on any game forum, but most of it is just rumors," Huang Ying said dismissively. "I even saw a post that seriously analyzed how to see ghosts in the game. It listed several points, like entering the Night Paradise at midnight and pushing open the central room of the maze to see a door to another world; entering the Funeral Street alone at dawn and having a chance to encounter talking paper figures; and encountering ghosts in chat room 444 at four in the morning. I play the game every night and chat in chat room 444 every day, and I've never seen a ghost!"

“Indeed, many ghost stories are just hoaxes.” Han Fei tried his best to present a simple and honest expression.

"These rumors are obviously false. There were some rumors before that sounded so real that they fooled a lot of beta testers, such as the existence of a deep world in the game, or a dark version of 'Perfect Life'."

"The Deep World?"

"Do you remember that tester who slaughtered an entire neighborhood? After he went mad, he kept saying he saw ghosts in the game, that he ran into a place full of vengeful spirits, and that all the NPCs in the game had to be killed." Huang Ying also looked incomprehensible: "Although there were instances of players killing NPCs during the initial testing, someone as insane as him is unprecedented. Many beta testers believed him, which is why they started searching for the Deep World."

"So, the Deep World is a place full of vengeful ghosts?"

"Could such a place even exist in a game? Don't forget that 'Perfect Life' is a game designed to heal humanity. Unless even the game operators and developers are unaware of this deeper world, they would never allow such a dangerous element to exist in their game." Huang Ying waved his hand: "As the game continues its closed beta testing, fewer and fewer people now believe that a deeper world exists in 'Perfect Life'."

"That makes sense. So it's the problem with that beta tester?"

"No one knows the exact reason. Maybe he was suddenly stimulated by something. Although he did not kill anyone in reality, because of his outrageous behavior, he has been judged as a moderate danger by the citizen system and is now being held in the intensive care unit of Xinhu Mental Hospital for psychological correction treatment."

"The intensive care unit of the New Shanghai Mental Hospital..." After noting down the name of the place, Han Fei stopped talking about it: "Brother Huang, thank you for showing me around today. I have something to do, so I'll be leaving now."

"Brother, I feel like we've known each other for ages. It's been a long time since we've had such a pleasant conversation."

Huang Ying was a chatterbox, but the people around him didn't seem willing to listen to him until Han Fei appeared.

In order to get more information, Han Fei would carefully consider every word Huang Ying said and then respond. He was simply the best listener.

“Maybe it’s because we share common interests. Let’s meet in the game when ‘Perfect Life’ is officially released.” Han Fei took out his phone and added Huang Ying’s social media account.

Under the pressure of the game "Perfect Life", Han Fei's interpersonal skills have made new breakthroughs.

“Okay, I’ll take you to do the rarest missions with the best rewards, and show you the strength of beta testers.” Huang Ying approached Han Fei and said when no one was around, “I also discovered a hidden mission during the test with a trigger probability of only one percent. We can do it together when the game is officially released.”

"Hidden quests...are they rare?" Han Fei looked like a complete novice when it came to gaming.

"Of course! Hidden quests are all things you've only heard about in rumors. To stumble upon one is incredibly lucky. Don't be silly and tell anyone that you know about hidden quests!"

"Okay, thanks, Brother Huang."

Han Fei left the game exhibition hall and prepared to go directly to the Xinhu Mental Hospital. From his perspective, the tester had likely really entered a world full of vengeful ghosts.

He rushed to the mental hospital, but Han Fei tried every method he could to find out any information about the tester.

He was later kicked out by the caregiver. Judging from the caregiver's tone, it seemed that there were many people like him before, and they were used to it.

Most of those who came to inquire about the news were players of "Perfect Life". They thought the same as Han Fei: to find the deeper world through the testers, but unfortunately, none of them found anything.

As night fell, Han Fei had no choice but to give up.

After enjoying a good meal alone at a restaurant, Han Fei returned home to begin healing his "soul."

Although it has only been a few days, he is no longer as fearful and anxious as he was at the beginning. This change in mindset surprised even himself.

Read books, study, analyze cases, memorize all information about the victims, and exercise.

It wasn't until midnight that Han Fei connected all the cables, put on his gaming helmet, and lay down on his bed.

"Welcome to the Perfect Life! Now you can choose your own perfect life!"

As the bloodstains faded, Han Fei opened his eyes. It was pitch black all around him; he was sitting in the corner of the haunted house.

"The clock on the wall is exactly at midnight; the time here is exactly the same as in reality."

Han Fei took a deep breath. Just as he was about to get up from the ground, the system's cold notification sound suddenly rang in his mind.

"Attention Player 0000! The newbie protection period has ended! The newbie quests - Taking a Bath and Sleeping (incomplete) will soon be replaced! Please carefully consider whether you want to permanently abandon the newbie quests!"

"The newbie protection period is over?" Han Fei was completely dumbfounded when he heard the voice in his mind: "I almost lost my life several times, and you're telling me this is still the newbie protection period? How dangerous will it be outside after the newbie protection period?"

Before Han Fei could recover, he heard a loud bang. He hurriedly got up and peered through the crack in the window. It looked like a corpse had just been thrown down from the building.

"Goodness? They just dump the body like that?"

Han Fei didn't know what was happening upstairs, but he was certain it wasn't anything good.

"Attention Player 0000! The newbie quests are about to be replaced! Do you want to permanently abandon the newbie quests?"

The system's voice kept pressuring Han Fei to make a choice, but in reality, he had no choice at all. The beginner mission was at least in this room, but the replacement mission might be different, and the difficulty might increase dramatically.

As the newbie quests gradually turned gray, Han Fei gritted his teeth and accepted two newbie quests at the same time.

"Player ID 0000 has accepted the G-level beginner quest—Sleep!"

"Note: The quest will not disappear after you fail, but the difficulty will increase slightly after each failure!"

"Mission requirements: Please turn off all the lights in the room, lie down on the bed in the bedroom within five minutes, and do not get out of bed for three hours no matter what happens."

"Player ID 0000 has accepted the G-level beginner quest—Take a Bath!"

"Taking a bath (beginner quest): Every time you take a bath at night, you always feel like there's another person in the house."

"Task requirements: Before 4:00 AM, use game props to clean your body, face and head. The total cleaning time must be no less than 20 minutes."

(End of this chapter)