My Healing Games

Chapter 978 The Blessings of the Successive Owners of the Black Box

“Fu Sheng made so many helmets, and each one seems to have been used.” Han Fei took off the number one helmet, almost dropping it with his strength. “The inner wall of the helmet is severely damaged. These solidified fragments should be flesh and blood. Who did Fu Sheng give this helmet to?”

Han Fei was eager to know which unlucky fellow had been targeted by Fu Sheng, just like him.

“Some of the helmets can still be opened normally, and there seems to be something inside. Do you want to try?” Du Jing looked at Han Fei with a kind expression, though she herself was also very curious.

"I..." Han Fei wasn't even afraid of hatred, but he had a deep psychological trauma from the game helmet of unknown origin.

After much hesitation, Han Fei decided to give it a try.

He lay on the operating table, holding the heavy helmet No. 1, connected all the wires, and slowly put on the helmet after all the indicator lights came on.

The world before him was pitch black, there was nothing there. Han Fei felt as if he were locked in a room without light. He didn't know how big the room was, or what the purpose of building it was.
Han Fei stretched out his hands but couldn't touch anything, though he could vaguely hear someone whispering.

That sounded like unconscious ramblings in a dream; it was hard to hear clearly.

Han Fei walked toward the direction from which the sound came. There seemed to be another person in the darkness, standing facing Han Fei. He could see everything about Han Fei, but Han Fei could not see him.

"Fu Sheng? Old Building Manager?" Han Fei tried to call out to the other party, but the dark figure remained unmoved. He stood still and stared at Han Fei. Although he did not move, no matter how Han Fei moved forward, he maintained a distance between them.

This distance allows Han Fei and the shadowy figure to see each other, but they can never touch each other.

A few minutes later, worried that something might happen to Han Fei, Du Jing pressed the switch to exit the "game".

"What did you see?"

"In a completely dark room, there stood a dark figure. He didn't harm me, he just kept watching me." Han Fei was a little confused: "Was he Fu Sheng? Why didn't he say anything?"

"How about we try some other helmets?"

"Okay." Han Fei gradually grew bolder and successfully overcame his fear of gaming helmets.

With the help of Du Jing, Han Fei tried wearing almost all the game helmets, except for a very few that could not be started. Each game helmet contained a dark room with a familiar yet unfamiliar dark figure standing in the room.

"There's only one helmet left." Han Fei went to the back of the shelf and took out the last game helmet from the metal box. The helmet looked brand new, and its number was ninety-nine.

After the wiring was connected, Han Fei lay flat on the operating table, and his consciousness quickly entered a mental room.

"what?"

Unlike the previous dark rooms, the ninety-ninth mental room was blood red. Han Fei felt as if he had been drawn into the brain of some "person".

“Since you have come here, it means that I have been completely destroyed and all traces have been erased; it also means that you have gained the approval of all ghosts and monsters and passed the test of all the shrines…” Fu Sheng’s voice came from not far away. Han Fei looked up and saw a dark figure standing next to the huge experimental table.

His body and face were erased, leaving only a blurry shadow.

"This is an 'Easter egg' I created. It's a little surprise I left for you, a way to slip through a loophole in fate before I became unspeakable." The shadowy figure stared at Han Fei, yet seemed to be looking at something else entirely. It wouldn't communicate with Han Fei, only uttering pre-set words.

"To get this far, you must have suffered a lot, brushed with death countless times, and endured both physical and spiritual pain."

“I know how difficult it is for you, because even I, who gave you the gaming helmet, harbored ill intentions. I tried more than once to resurrect myself in your body, but judging from the current outcome, I have failed.”

"For me, this ending is really a bit hopeless, but people like us are already used to despair."

The dark figure stepped forward and stopped beside Han Fei. He stared at Han Fei, as if he were staring at everything he had hoped for.

“We’ve never really talked properly, I’ve never asked for your opinion, and I even took it upon myself to give you the secrets of God, making your already painful life even darker.”

“I thought of many things to apologize for and fantasized about changing my fate, but in the end I did nothing.”

"Actually, I really hope you don't follow in my footsteps. You should go to farther places and see more scenery."

"The future is in your hands. You are the most special one among all the owners of the black box. Everyone thinks you can open the last layer of the black box."

The blurry-faced black figure continued walking towards Han Fei. He collided with Han Fei, as if entering Han Fei's soul and never leaving again.

"Disappeared? Disappeared the instant I touched it?"

As Han Fei remained puzzled, the blood-red room darkened, and one by one, shadowy figures erased by fate approached him. All of them had embraced the deepest despair, yet all of them forever held onto hope.

They left no trace in this world; their blurry shadows seem to be nothing more than symbols.

After the first dark shadow entered Han Fei's body, one after another dark shadow brushed past Han Fei and disappeared completely.

Han Fei stared blankly at everything. Those dark figures seemed to be the previous owners of the black box. They appeared before Han Fei and disappeared behind him. Everyone was doing their last bit of effort, trying to give Han Fei something.

The black box in the back of his head was gently opened, revealing both redemption and destruction. As it went deeper and deeper, various auras began to emerge from Han Fei's body. He seemed to have become the successor chosen by all the previous owners of the black box.

The ghostly markings on his body became incredibly complex and intricate, resembling the most tragic, magnificent, and exquisitely beautiful painting in the world.

The pitch-black room vanished, and sunlight seemed to stream into my heart.

Han Fei removed helmet number ninety-nine and tried wearing other game helmets. All the shadows in the mental rooms disappeared.

"Only the most desperate people possess the black box, but every owner of the black box uses the gentlest way to preserve all hope and pass it on to the next successor."

Han Fei sat on the blood-stained operating table. After receiving help from the previous owners of the Black Box, they would completely disappear, leaving no trace in the world. It would be as if they had never existed, and no one would remember them. Even Han Fei only knew Fu Sheng.

One black box after another was opened, but Han Fei's mind was still a black box, and he still didn't know what was inside.

"Han Fei, what did you see?" This was the first time Du Jing had ever seen Han Fei with such a complicated expression.

"Everyone is clearly the most desperate person, so why do they still firmly believe in the existence of hope?" Han Fei took off his game helmet and gently placed his hand on it.

“I don’t know either, but I think that’s just the kind of person you are.” Du Jing smiled as he looked at Han Fei as if he were looking at his own child. “No matter what the final result is, I think you have done a great job. If it were someone else, they probably wouldn’t be as good as you.”

“That’s true. Fu Sheng is still hesitating in the small building at level eighteen, while I’ve already turned to hatred…” Han Fei looked at the room with some nostalgia: “At first, I regarded him as the mystery of the whole world, but later I found out that he gave me the key to becoming a god a long time ago.”

Du Jing observed everything Han Fei did in the room, and she saw the shadow of another person in Han Fei: "Let's go, you are still young, it's not time to dwell on the past."

After leaving Lab Zero, Han Fei brought up another matter: "Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals has the world's number one biotechnology. Could you help me make a special gaming pod that allows a still-active brain to enter 'Perfect Life'?"

“We tried something similar a few years ago. The equipment is readily available, so technically it’s not difficult for us. It’s just that entering the game now requires access to Deep Space Technology, and we also need the identity information of that brain.” Du Jing led Han Fei directly to another laboratory.

“The owner of that brain and I participated in the same batch of personality experiments. His number was number two. If there are no problems, I will bring him here today.” Han Fei desperately needed the brainpower of the non-human number two.

"You've participated in the personality test just like me?" Du Jing seemed reluctant to let too many outsiders know about the personality test. After a pause, she said directly, "I'll help you with the quota and equipment, but you can't tell anyone else about this."

"Don't worry, I'm tight-lipped." Han Fei and the staff of Yong Sheng Pharmaceuticals drove away in a specially made truck. They took Number Two's brain to Du Jing's laboratory, where several expert teams worked together to try to send Number Two's consciousness into the "Perfect Life" game.

While the expert team was busy, Han Fei was not idle either. Following the clues given by Zhang Mingli, he arrived at a street in the old city.

The buildings here still look the same as they did decades ago. Although they look old, they give people a unique sense of warmth.

Counting the house numbers, Han Fei stopped in front of an apartment building with a yard.

The courtyard was filled with flowers, and several elderly people were playing cards at the entrance. The pace of life here was slow and comfortable.

Upon arriving on the third floor, Han Fei gently knocked on the door, and a middle-aged woman dressed simply came out.

She is actually much older than she looks.

The woman had a gentle appearance and gave a very kind first impression, but deep pain and sorrow were hidden in her eyes. She seemed afraid that her bad mood would affect others, so she never showed it.

"Are you Xuan Xiaoxiao?" Compared to the woman in the nightmare, she had matured a lot, and Han Fei didn't recognize her at first.

"Hmm." The woman nodded, puzzled.

“Look closely at me. Don’t you feel like you’ve seen me in a dream before? What I’m about to tell you is very important to you.” Han Fei pointed to his face.

The woman frowned. She felt that Han Fei's words were very impolite and thought that Han Fei was just a handsome lunatic.

She stared at Han Fei as he was about to close the door, when suddenly she felt that Han Fei's face was indeed very familiar; she seemed to have seen him in some special dream!
“I was in the same car as Zhang Mingli at the time. He was injured, and I drove him to you.” Han Fei only wanted to reveal his identity, but as soon as the name Zhang Mingli came out, the woman’s emotions, which she had been hiding, could no longer be contained.

Once the woman had calmed down, Han Fei continued, recounting everything about Zhang Mingli to prove he wasn't a fraud: "I can take you to see him, but right now, in the 'Perfect Life' game, you can't back out. After you log in, you might be temporarily..."

"It's alright." The woman hurriedly ran into the house, came out with a passbook and several bank cards (these old-fashioned payment methods are rarely used anymore): "This is all my savings, it should be enough to buy a game, right?"

"Aren't you afraid I'm a scammer?" Han Fei glanced at the woman's house, which was simple, clean, and cozy. There were many photos of her and her students on the walls. This female teacher had sponsored many students. "I still have the game equipment for 'Perfect Life' at home. I can give you a set. I will try to get you login access as soon as possible."

After obtaining the woman's consent, Han Fei took her to the Immortal Lab and arranged for her game pod to be placed near number two, so that if the woman was unable to exit the game, she would be taken care of by someone.

After finishing his work, Han Fei went to the police station. He was Teacher Li Xue's last student, and even though the police were very busy, someone would take care of him.

By informing the police about the existence of the eleven decision-makers of the Nightmare Shrine, Han Fei obtained two more access slots through the police. He also inquired about the information he had sent to the police that morning.

It is said that the data brought out from the shallow world has attracted great attention from the police and deep space technology departments, and relevant departments are studying it overnight.

As time went on, the situation in Xinhu became very unstable. Four million players were trapped in the game, and more and more brain-dead patients were appearing. Their families lived in constant fear and anxiety.

Public opinion has been manipulated by malicious individuals, leaving Deep Space Technology and Immortal Pharmaceuticals in an extremely passive position. The spiritual paradise they have painstakingly built has become a death prison, an outcome that no one can accept.

The longer it drags on, the greater the possibility of collapse becomes. The top executives of several major companies and the new Shanghai managers haven't had a good night's sleep in a long time.

Han Fei could also clearly feel the chill. Only a few days had passed, but the nights in Xinhu had become deserted, and there were far fewer cars on the road after nine o'clock.

(End of this chapter)