My Healing Games

Chapter 481 Taking Over the Department Store (4000 views, requesting monthly votes)
Hidden within those jewel-like eyes is an unbalanced scale, swaying back and forth as if weighing the weight of the soul.

Guided by the man, Han Fei took the eyeball to the West District and entered the basement before the world of his memories collapsed.

The unlit basement changed the fate of the shrine's owner, and it was there that he chose to submit to the shrine.

As Han Fei descended the steps, he opened the iron gate and saw the familiar mirror.

He took out the Rebirth Knife, using the light of humanity to dispel the darkness, and slowly walked to the mirror.

The mirror, stained with blood, was quite dirty, so Han Fei wiped it clean little by little with his sleeve.

As the mirror surface became clean, the person in the mirror gradually became clearer.

A familiar face appeared in the mirror. His left eye hadn't been gouged out, his ear wasn't injured, and his stomach was normal. It was just that he seemed to be trapped inside the mirror, unable to get out.

"I can't believe you actually succeeded." The man in the mirror could feel his world of memories collapsing. He gently placed his hand on the mirror surface: "That well trapped everything within me. I thought I would never be able to get out."

“I’ve seen you before, and I seem to remember your name…” Holding the eyeball, Han Fei’s missing memories were slowly returning. When his hand touched the mirror, a name slipped out: “Mirror God?”

"Go ahead and call me that if you want, but there are no gods in this world, only unspeakable ghosts." The Mirror God looked at Han Fei with disbelief in his eyes. After his original body left the well, he had actually learned to smile before Han Fei.

"Without God, how could there be shrines in the deeper world?"

"The shrine merely gathers people's emotions together, just like the well that trapped the original body. Originally, that well was just an ordinary well, but somehow it became a wishing well. People's greed accumulated in the well water, and they even built a shrine for it, ultimately causing it to become an extremely ominous thing." The Mirror God touched the cold mirror surface: "He abandoned me and locked me in the mirror. Although he became unspeakable, he sealed himself forever in that well of greed. We are all unable to break free of our bonds and have all lost our freedom."

The world of memories is crumbling, and the Mirror God reveals his past, which he is unwilling to mention: "Fu Sheng, the former building manager of Happiness Community, killed my original self and made me the new owner of the shrine and the manager of the department store. I stayed in the department store to take in homeless ghosts until I met Ten Fingers."

“I took him in out of kindness, but all I got in return was utter betrayal. From that moment on, I lost all hope in goodness and understood why the original body abandoned me.” The Mirror God looked at Han Fei: “I also began to kill, slowly walking into the abyss. I am no longer satisfied with staying in the mirror. I will do everything I can to get out and take back this shrine.”

"When I was going crazy, a fragment of Fu Sheng's memory escaped from the depths of the city. He lost completely, and his memories were shattered."

“He took me back to Happiness Community and promised me that someone would help me reclaim the shrine. Then I met you.”

"To be honest, I wanted to kill you the first time we met because I saw a reflection of my past self in you. I hated my former self and was filled with hatred. At that time, I thought hatred was a kind of power, but now I have a new idea."

The Mirror God revealed his entire past. Han Fei had never imagined that this earliest resident of Happiness Community would possess such unspeakable humanity.

"This world of memories is about to collapse. I'll take you away." Han Fei placed the shrine's owner's right eye in front of the mirror. Long ago, the shrine's owner, whose left eye had been gouged out, opened his right eye and looked in the mirror like this, vowing to take revenge, even if it meant becoming the most evil ghost.

Time has passed, and now the shrine's owner's right eye is looking at the mirror once again.

To allow Han Fei to enter the shrine, the Mirror God sacrificed himself. In the end, he and Han Fei entered the shrine's memory world together. Han Fei began to experience the past of the shrine's owner, while he continued to be himself, silently bearing the price of forgetting for Han Fei to prevent him from getting lost in the memory world.

Holding the eyeball, Han Fei made his first wish: to bring the Mirror God out of the world of memories.

The figure trapped in the mirror was reflected on the right eye.

"Snapped!"

The mirrors in the basement, stained with dirt, were all shattered, and Han Fei's right eye was also gone. He looked up and found an ordinary-looking man standing in front of him.

He looked just like the owner of the shrine, except that his right eye was like a sparkling gem, and there was a scale in his pupil.

"So one of your eyes is also problematic. No wonder you always had Firefly carry you when you were still in the mirror." Han Fei thought back carefully and realized that whether it was going to the Death Tower or coming to the department store, it was always the one-eyed Firefly carrying Mirror God.

These seemingly insignificant details had been overlooked by Han Fei before.

After rescuing the Mirror God, Han Fei turned back and headed towards the department store.

In the collapsed world of memories, only two buildings remained: a department store and a hospital.

Having lost everything, Boss Gu was covered in wounds. He was pushed into a well by those who had died unjustly.

The owner of the shrine stayed in the hospital room, accompanying his mother through her final moments.

The torrential rain had long since stopped, and the sun had fully risen. This alienated city and its distorted memories finally melted away together in the light.

One by one, the figures disappeared, and Boss Gu turned to ashes in the well. The last scene of the memory world was frozen on the shrine owner.

He held his mother's hand, leaned over the hospital bed, and there was no regret in his eyes.

Seeing this touched Han Fei deeply. It was as if he had broken free from some kind of binding shell, and the system's voice rang in his mind.

"Attention Player No. 0000: Under the influence of the shrine master's flawed personality, your Master Acting Skills have been successfully upgraded to Level 2."

Once any skill reaches the master level, further improvement becomes extremely difficult, requiring the completion of specific tasks or the attainment of special insights.

Han Fei's experiences in the world of memories, though they were other people's past, still deeply influenced him.

In less than thirty days, he became stronger inside and developed a unique and indescribable aura.

When I opened my eyes, the light seemed like an illusion, and the boundless night returned before my eyes.

The chilling aura seeped into his bones, but strangely, Han Fei did not feel uncomfortable. Instead, he felt like a fish back in water, able to breathe freely.

Almost out of sheer instinct, Han Fei immediately opened the attribute panel. When he saw the exit button light up, he almost burst into tears.

"I survived! I really survived!"

In the distance, shelves were being overturned, and a huge black shadow emerged from them. His body was covered in tattoos of human heads, nine of which were stained with blood.

Han Fei was overjoyed beyond words. He even wanted to give his enemy a big hug and share that simple happiness.

A misty aura emanated from the depths of his soul, and the black shrine behind him trembled with every breath Han Fei took. The entire shopping mall seemed to have some inexplicable connection with him, as if anyone who harbored murderous intent towards Han Fei within the mall would be plagued by misfortune and constantly cursed.

But none of these are the most crucial points. Han Fei, who can quit the game at any time, dares to provoke even the unspeakable. What are the other ghosts and monsters compared to him?
If you give him an always-on exit button, he'll dare to declare war on the entire Deep World.

"You have nine blood-red human head tattoos on your body. It seems you are the Nine Fingers who did not enter the world of the shrine."

With his stamina at 32 points, Han Fei activated the ghostly markings on his body, releasing a cloud of yin energy. He stared at the nine-fingered giant's body but did not choose to retreat.

Nine Fingers had been observing Han Fei ever since he appeared, his gaze frequently drifting toward the shrine. Whenever he had the thought of attacking Han Fei, an ominous premonition would arise in his heart.

After confirming that Han Fei posed no threat, Nine Fingers pushed over the shelf next to him and took out a strange knife made entirely of human bones from behind.

The face tattoo on its arm emitted a shrill howl, a curse was injected into its body, and the nine fingers picked up the pieced-together bone knife and smashed it towards Han Fei.

It wasn't a chopping motion, it was a smashing motion!

His speed was astonishing, completely disproportionate to his massive body. By the time Han Fei made a dodging move, the bone knife had already slammed into the ground next to Han Fei.

The vicious curse seemed to crawl on the ground like countless tiny black insects, smashing a huge crater into the once intact floor.

With a slight twitch of his eyelids, Han Fei sheathed his sword, turned, and ran.

"I apologize for disturbing you; it was my presumption."

Even after reaching level nineteen, he was still far from being able to deal with large-scale vengeful spirits; at most, he could only handle medium-sized vengeful spirits.

For a living person to kill a medium-sized vengeful spirit is actually a remarkable achievement.

After running a few steps, Han Fei suddenly realized that the other party was not chasing him.

He turned his head to look, and it seemed that Nine Fingers was unable to lift the bone knife on the ground.

"what's the situation?"

Yin energy slowly began to gather in the open space in front of the shrine, and a figure appeared in the mirror that had been shattered in front of the shrine.

His fingers gripped the blade of the bone knife as he slowly emerged from the shards of mirror scattered on the floor.

"Mirror God!"

The curse on the bone knife couldn't harm him at all; only the killing intent deep within Nine Fingers' heart could cut through his skin, but he didn't care at all.

The scales in the right eye swayed slowly, as if the Mirror God was preparing to place the Nine Fingers' soul on the scales.

Nine Fingers, its eyes filled with murderous intent, flashed with unprecedented terror. It abandoned the arm holding the knife and fled frantically backward.

Han Fei was stunned by what he saw. He hadn’t expected the Mirror God to be so terrifying after stepping out of the mirror, especially since the other party was merely an unspeakable human nature.

He threw the arm and bone knife that Nine Fingers had discarded toward the shrine. As they approached the shrine, the yin energy, killing intent, and curses attached to them were all absorbed by the shrine.

"Mirror God? You've always been this strong?" Han Fei was now somewhat afraid to approach Mirror God.

“I inherited the original’s memories and eyes, and possess his special abilities, but these abilities require the help of the shrine to be used.” The Mirror God did not find a substitute, but he found himself and finally successfully stepped out of the mirror: “With the original’s abilities, I should have strength in this mall equal to hatred.”

"Equivalent to hatred?" Han Fei suddenly felt like he'd found a powerful patron: "Now we don't have to be afraid of ten fingers anymore!"

"Don't trust me too much." Mirror God smiled wryly. "All my power comes from my right eye, so my weakness is also very obvious, which is my right eye. In addition, I haven't fully adapted to this power yet, so I might not be able to win if I rashly fight against the Ten Fingers."

"It's alright, I still have another wish I haven't used." Han Fei had already decided which one to choose when he saw the mission reward; he wanted to heal the wounds in the soul of Zhuang Wen, the ghost who jumped off the building.

Zhuang Wen possesses strength that is infinitely close to hatred. She failed to transform into hatred, but she just happens to meet the conditions below hatred. If the wounds on her soul can be healed, she might be able to break through again and become true hatred.

When Han Fei has two people harboring hatred, the entire deadlock can be turned around.

"All ten fingers that entered the shrine's memory world were stabbed by me with the Rebirth Blade. They should be at their weakest now. We can't let this opportunity slip by."

Originally, the strongest in the department store was Ten Fingers, but in the memory world, in order to seize the shrine, Ten Fingers not only devoured his own companions, but also completely broke the seal on his own body.

He tried his best, but unfortunately he still couldn't gain the shrine's approval through brute force. In the end, after clearing a path for Han Fei, he was pierced through the chest by Han Fei.

Ten Fingers was forced to leave the world of memories. Of course, Han Fei kept his promise and killed Boss Gu, avenging Ten Fingers.

“Ten Fingers is very cunning. Knowing him as I do, I estimate he will leave the department store immediately after the shrine goes out of control.” Mirror God gestured for Han Fei to place his hand on the shrine to formally establish a connection with it: “Your immediate priority is to complete the final ritual and become the sole master of this shrine.”

With the help of the Mirror God, Han Fei touched the shrine at the deepest part of the warehouse. His fingers were drawn to the shrine by a force, and the connection between him and the shrine deepened. The two were then bound together by an invisible rope.

The shrine's door slowly opened, revealing a strange statue inside—a person trapped in a well.

When the divine gate opened, he saw Han Fei. A flame containing boundless greed surged from the statue, burning the well and burning himself as well.

The statue's appearance changed in the fire of desire, its eyes revealing madness, its face bearing a hysterical smile, and it finally transformed into the image of Han Fei laughing wildly.

"Attention player number 0000! You have successfully obtained a level 3 damaged shrine and can now use the abilities granted by the shrine."

"Attention Player 0000! The shrine level cannot be upgraded until it is repaired!"

After the ritual was completed, Han Fei discovered that he could sense all the ghosts entering the department store. Those resentful creatures would form a faint bond with him as soon as they stepped into the store, and if they dared to take goods from the shelves, that bond would begin to deepen.

"None of the goods in this mall have price tags, but they all have hidden prices. It's practically a rip-off! Luckily, it's mine now..."

(End of this chapter)