The scene before Han Fei’s eyes was incredibly familiar. He had seen similar architecture in the depths of his own mind.
Things from the dream appearing vividly in front of him, evoking a very peculiar feeling.
Reaching out to touch the wall, Han Fei’s soul seemed to be drawn in, involuntarily walking forward, as if he originally belonged here, as if this place was his home.
On the dilapidated walls were paintings of windows, all of which were open. Outside were the sights of all seasons, flowers, birds, fish, insects, drizzling rain, falling snow, another beautiful world.
Many children had wandered by the windows, as for them, hope was still hidden beyond.
Walking down the long corridor, Han Fei opened the classroom door. In the book corner d by kind people were books that had been worn out from flipping, with various texts carved on the desks, and some cute patterns stuck on them.
"Thirty seats, missing one..."
Han Fei still remembered his surprise when he first saw Kuangxiao outside the Blood-colored Orphanage. He slowly walked to the spot where Kuangxiao once stood.
The place originally meant for a desk was replaced by an old air conditioner.
"The orphanage in my mind doesn’t quite match this place." Han Fei grabbed the arm of a staff member, nervously asking, "You mentioned earlier that Laboratory No. 1 is a one-to-one replica based on a certain orphanage. Tell me where in the company I can find the information about that orphanage!"
Of the first batch of thirty-one children, all except Kuangxiao and Number Two died on Blood-colored Night, but Eternal Life Pharmaceutical did not give up. They found a second batch of children, many of whom are still alive today, like Liuli Cat and Qiangwei.
"I’m just in charge of handling the waste, how could I know such a secret?" Glancing at the Slaughter Saber in Han Fei’s hand, the staff member seemed to feel a bit impolite and quickly added, "All of the information related to Laboratory No. 1 is classified as top secret, personally handled by the company’s top executives. Those who truly know the secrets can be counted on one hand."
Han Fei didn’t make things difficult for that staff member, pondering silently, "Both Number Two and I were part of the first batch of children involved in the personality experiment. Eternal Life Pharmaceutical must have achieved some results, hence willing to take a great risk to reconstruct Laboratory No. 1 underground, aiming to recreate something."
Looking into the distance, Han Fei was more curious about why the three major crime organizations and Gao Xing’s main body, upon entering Eternal Life Building, chose to come here first.
What did they want to acquire from Laboratory No. 1? Is there a connection between Laboratory No. 1 and the outbreak of Disaster?
With these questions in mind, Han Fei continued to investigate.
Laboratory No. 1, rather than being abandoned, was more completely preserved; it should be considered a forbidden zone on the ninth underground level.
According to what the staff member disclosed, the top executives of the company would personally take the elevator here, entering Laboratory No. 1 alone. No one knows what they do inside, everyone just sees them sometimes bringing snacks, meals, and toys down, but when they leave the laboratory, those things are all gone.
Now Han Fei was very suspicious that someone lived inside Laboratory No. 1 all along, never having left.
Leaving the classroom, Han Fei saw a shredded picture book in the narrow corridor, filled with images of deranged little characters, all painted in blood-red colors.
Gradually, a trace of blood scent emerged in the air, and some memories deep in Han Fei’s brain were triggered as scenes surging from the Blood-colored Orphanage flashed past, piercing his head.
Involuntarily, he moved forward, but the interior of the orphanage felt increasingly complex, with forked paths leading to a medical room, a reading room, an entertainment room, and a dining room ahead.
His gaze fell on the signs on the wall, and Han Fei stood still, his body trembling slightly as if having a sudden episode.
The staff member beside him was too scared to move, sticking close to the wall, wanting to run but not daring to.
No one could understand how Han Fei felt now; it seemed as though he stood at a turning point of fate, where the ordinary-looking passageways before him led to different endings.
The aroma of food wafted from the dining room; a pungent bloody scent emerged from the medical room, and bloody stains were even more apparent on the floor leading to the entertainment room.
"How could there be blood?" The staff member was clueless, his expression filled with surprise.
"Which path did that batch of ’goods’ take?" Han Fei’s voice was subdued and terrifying.
"I don’t know! I only delivered them to the door of Laboratory No. 1, they didn’t let me inside!" The staff member was genuinely panicked, as Han Fei’s state was very unstable, seemingly on the verge of losing control.
Closing his eyes, the blood-colored memories in Han Fei’s brain gradually overlapped with the present scene, prompting him to head first toward the medical room.
Aside from the medical room, the other rooms in the orphanage were very simple, but the medical room was spacious, fully equipped with various tools—movement therapy devices, language therapy devices, cognitive therapy devices, sensory integration training equipment, etc. It seemed like the children in this orphanage often got injured, beset by various strange ailments, hence the professional medical room.
His gaze swept over the equipment, finally resting on a blood-soaked cognitive therapy machine, which someone had just used. The evaluation results remained on the screen—cognitive function normal.
Seeing the conspicuous bloody handprint on the therapy machine, and the cognitive normal evaluation, Han Fei inexplicably thought of Kuangxiao.
On Blood-colored Night, Kuangxiao, under conditions of normal cognition, witnessed all the children’s deaths and ultimately became a Madman.
"Is someone trying to recreate Blood-colored Night?"
This thought had barely formed when Han Fei heard a heavy object fall within the medical room’s inner section.
Opening the inner section’s door, Han Fei and the staff member’s expressions froze.
A young woman, about Han Fei’s age, lay on the isolation bed. She wore a simple dress, had light makeup on, and was listening to headphones.
At first glance, she seemed merely asleep, but the blanket over her abdomen was stained with blood, and her body was exceptionally cold.
"This person isn’t a researcher from the lab; they brought her in from outside. I thought at the time she was a relative of someone here, but I never expected..." The staff member couldn’t continue speaking because he noticed Han Fei’s complexion was extremely poor.
"Liuli Cat? Would she die here?" Han Fei recognized the woman on the bed as one of the children from the second batch of those participating in the personality experiment, "All children who were part of the personality experiment are targets of Gao Xing!"
Running out of the medical room, Han Fei visited other rooms of the orphanage.
In the pile of toys in the entertainment room lay a corpse; an adult lay killed in the dormitory while those hiding beneath the dining room counter were found, the corpse wedged into the cabinet door
More and more corpses appeared within the orphanage, and more blood flooded Han Fei’s eyes.
Blood-colored Night happened once more, but this time all those killed were adults; the second batch of children who had participated in the personality experiment had grown up, yet they couldn’t escape this fate—this seemed to be their existence’s meaning, their destiny.
One by one, corpses were discovered. Among them were people Han Fei knew, and some he had never seen before. All the bodies shared a common characteristic—a shard of a mirror was embedded within their wounds.
"Led by Gao Xing, the three major crime organizations joined hands with the top of Eternal Life Pharmaceutical, gathering all the surviving children here, reawakening the most terrifying memories in their hearts."
The further Han Fei walked into the orphanage, the more abundant the blood stains, everything turning blood-red.
The staff from the Waste Processing Center covered his nose and mouth, eyes wide with shock, closely following Han Fei.
Han Fei, walking ahead, was in a very special state; fragments of his memory and the scene before him continued to align, integrating some of Kuangxiao’s terrifying experiences into his mind, their memories and souls gradually merging.
Back to back, dependent on one another, supporting each other, they slowly began to understand one another.
He lifted the body from the floor, staring at the hollowed-out brain and chest, the corpse’s physique was very similar to his own.
Might this corpse be me, at the very back of Laboratory No. 1?"
Han Fei himself hadn’t been targeted by the members of the three major crime organizations.
The slight deviation between what Gao Xing most anticipated and reality led the three major crime organizations to overlook Han Fei, mistakenly focusing their efforts on the player deemed most ’Lucky’, who possessed a portion of Dream’s Will by sheer accident.
"The last person Gao Xing wanted to find was me, but then the slightest divergence led the three major crime organizations to inadvertently focus heavily on someone else. Yet, they didn’t notice me at all, hopefully... they won’t succeed, I hope..."