My Healing Games

Chapter 907 You and I are both lonely ghosts

On a blood-red night, the gentlest child killed everyone.

In that room where adults couldn't see, on that experimental table where personality tests were repeated, in that box where the devil was kept.

Sometimes, it is the survivors who suffer the most.

Think about it carefully, which requires more courage: death or survival?
Having endured all the misunderstandings and slander, swallowing the pain, and embracing despair with open arms, the gentlest child became the most hysterical madman.

He kept laughing, laughing incessantly, but the children he killed knew that he had never been happy again since that night.

Number Two put down the last piece of the puzzle, creating a face that looked very much like Han Fei's. However, it was certain that the person in the puzzle was not Han Fei, because the person had a genuine, gentle smile on their face.

"No need for sympathy or other useless emotions, let's dye the night of the shrine world red."

Unlike the other children, Number Two's brain was preserved, allowing him to survive in this way, becoming a living, unspeakable being. While the other children hesitated, his hand had already reached for the river of fate.

"Number Three, come with me into the city."

From the shadows in the corner of the room, a child with a very low profile emerged. He was ordinary-looking, so plain that he had no distinguishing features.

Upon seeing the child, Number Four instinctively stepped back and made way for him.

Child number three carried child number two on his back, pushed open the door of the small house, and walked on the streets of Hope New City.

The crowds were bustling, neon lights illuminated their faces, and advertisements played in the shops along the roadside. It was just like the real-life Shanghai, the Shanghai before the disaster struck.

Those who only look at the bustling night market might think that Hope City is indeed the hope of all survivors, but beneath the glamorous surface, this city hides another side that is unknown to most.

At the end of the revelry and noise was another neighborhood. Number Three carried Number Two across the main road and into the alley next to it.

This is the middle level of Hope City. Unlike the outer areas, there's no need to worry about being attacked by ghosts or monsters. Of course, you won't enjoy the privileges of the inner city either. This is where the lower and upper levels meet, where all sorts of survivors struggle.

The surrounding houses gradually changed, becoming no longer bright and clean, and the walls began to fall apart, covered with filth and all sorts of messy patterns.

The amount of garbage on the road gradually increased, and a faint stench of decay wafted in the air, as if the corpses had been stored for too long and had started to stink.

In the same city, the differences between two neighborhoods can feel like two different worlds, which may be a characteristic of human beings.

"Oh!"

The wooden door opened, and a gaunt old man was roughly thrown out. After landing, ignoring his muddy body and bleeding wounds, he quickly got up and, like a dog, clung to another person's leg.

"Don't kick me out! I'll find a way to get the money. Please let me stay one more night! If I go back to the outer city, I... I'll die!"

Tears welled up in the old man's eyes, his expression was distorted, and he looked somewhat terrifying.

"Go away!"

A leather boot kicked it open, and then the wooden door was slammed shut.

The old man pounded on the door and cried for a while. He was very weak, with needle marks on his arms and blackened bandages wrapped around his stomach. Blood would seep out when he moved around violently.

It seems that some of his organs have been removed, and he doesn't have long to live anyway.

"You can't treat me like this! I've given you everything! Please save me! Let me stay one more night!"

Number Three carried Number Two past the old man, ignoring his cries and shouts. The old man seemed completely oblivious to them.

The deeper you go into the alley, the more dark scenes you see. People live in a city called hope, but they seem to have become accustomed to the darkness and are used to living in the shadow of unspoken rules.

Waving away the swarming flies, Number Three and Number Two stopped in front of a shop at the corner of the alley.

The pale red light shone on the road, making the shop signs look somewhat eerie.

"Hope Pharmaceuticals..."

This is a pharmacy, but there's no doctor inside, nor any shelves displaying medicines. The "medicines" here don't seem to refer to drugs in the usual sense; rather, they represent something else entirely.

Number Three rang the table bell on the counter. A dozen seconds later, the dark curtain was lifted, and a greasy face peeked out from behind it.

He was a middle-aged man wearing an eye patch. His body was somewhat uncoordinated, with his left shoulder higher than his right, and his stomach was uneven, with some parts protruding and others sinking down, as if his organs had been rearranged.

The man's eyes lit up when he saw the two children enter, and he became even more excited when he saw that the second child had no legs.

"welcome."

Looking at the two people, the middle-aged man seemed to be valuing the goods more than looking at customers.

"I sell three kinds of medicine here: one is a life-saving medicine that can bring safety, one is a medicine that can help others, and the last one is a special medicine that can bring hope."

Leaning over the counter, the middle-aged man looked down at the two children and asked, "What medicine do you want?"

"Is there any medicine that can stop people from suffering and being bullied?" Number Two turned to look at the black curtain. He wasn't here to buy medicine, but to find someone.

"Yes! But it's quite expensive." The middle-aged man limped and lifted the curtain, gesturing for the two children to go inside.

After Number Two and Number Three entered the inner room, he quietly went to the entrance of the pharmacy, closed the door, and hung up a sign that said "Closed for Business".

The pharmacy was a dirty and messy courtyard. Number Two and Number Three, led by the man, left through the back door of the courtyard and entered another room without windows.

The room was filled with candles made from special oils, and in the center of the room stood a clay sculpture covered with a black cloth.

"When disaster strikes, many diseases spread throughout the world. Everyone lives in fear and anxiety. Fortunately, you live in Hope City. The bigwigs in the core area have produced a cure-all medicine." The middle-aged man stood behind a candlestick, the flickering candlelight casting a somewhat terrifying shadow on his face. "However, my medicine is not cheap. You will need to exchange it for something of equal value."

He pulled out several dirty cards from under the clay sculpture covered by a black cloth: "Sacrificing your soul to an unknown god can grant you short-term protection and cure curses on your body; giving your organs to a big shot in the inner city can earn you money and cure poverty; selling yourself and undergoing dangerous experiments can grant you power and prevent you from being bullied anymore. These are the medicines I sell in my shop."

Each card represents a medicine, and also a choice.

“Then let us sacrifice our souls.” Number Two reached out and lifted the black cloth, revealing a faceless clay sculpture.

“Okay, this is definitely the right choice. I’ll go make preparations now.” The middle-aged man looked at Number Two, who had no legs, and assumed that he had previous experience in buying “drugs”, so he did not suspect anything.

Shaking the bell in his hand, the secret door to the cellar opened, a strong stench wafted out, and the sound of chains echoed from underground.

Not long after, a pair of skinny arms appeared carrying a tray, and a child who had been modified multiple times emerged from the cellar.

His eyes were gouged out, his legs were bound with chains, and his originally normal body was left with permanent trauma due to continuous surgical modifications, turning him into an ugly deformed child.

"Hurry up! Stop dawdling!" The middle-aged man's attitude towards the boy was extremely bad; beatings and scoldings were probably the norm.

The boy's body trembled with fear as he placed the offerings from the tray on the candlestick. Just as he finished and was about to flee back to the cellar, the chains binding his legs were stepped on by the third child.

The unremarkable Number Three stared at the boy's face, then pulled a notebook from his pocket. It contained the names of hundreds of children, more than seventy of whom had already been crossed out.

"Found it." Number Three silently put away his notebook and smiled at Number Two.

“If you are interested in this child, you can take him away after the sacrifice is complete.” The middle-aged man had a malicious smile on his face. “Alright, let’s begin the sacrifice now. Extend your arms and follow my instructions.”

The middle-aged man took out a knife covered in congealed blood from behind the clay sculpture. The boy was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground, his eyes filled with terror.

"The false god's past is too shameful to bear. No matter how many tragic and desperate fates he collects, he cannot find any solace in them." Number Two glanced at the middle-aged man, who seemed to be controlled by some kind of power. His expression was ferocious and cruel. Then, he plunged the knife directly into his own chest!
His hands were frantically chopping at his own body, a very bizarre scene.

"Who would have thought that a deity would hide a fragment of its soul within the body of a child from the lowest rung of society?" Number Three squatted down in front of the boy: "What's your name? When did you go blind? Where are your family members? What's the thing you regret most?"

Number Two and Number Three knew that a part of the spirit of the deity was hidden in a child in Hope City. The questions raised by Number Three plunged the child in front of him into even greater panic.

(End of this chapter)