Living alone in a rental house in the Old City District, Han Fei's first task after coming home from work was to turn on the television. He didn't actually watch it; he just listened to the noise to prevent the room from feeling too eerily quiet.
After living alone for so many years, his "home" had never been this "lively" before.
Seven ghosts sat on the sofa watching TV, and as they watched, another person appeared. No one broke the serenity, and it actually felt quite harmonious.
Now that he could exit the game at any time, Han Fei's courage had reached new heights. He wanted to get closer to his roommates and find clues related to the murderer from the victims.
In the old square box television, the memories of the deceased were replayed continually, and Han Fei imprinted every detail into his mind.
As it neared four in the morning, if he didn't go and complete the bathing task soon, that beginner's task would probably count as a failure.
Han Fei looked at the clock on the wall and silently stood up at 3:50 AM, walking alone towards the bathroom.
"Never mind, I must try it, gathering all the rewards from the beginner's task will definitely benefit me."
Upon entering the bathroom, Han Fei didn't turn on the light. He recalled the requirements for the bathing task, "I need to use in-game items to clean my body, face, and head, and the total cleaning time must not be less than twenty minutes."
"Perfect Life" was essentially a simulation game about life, so it set something as ordinary as bathing as a task. Han Fei wasn't too surprised, although he also knew that it couldn't just be a simple bath.
After checking around, Han Fei realized the bathroom door lock was broken, making it impossible to lock.
"Can't lock the door?" Han Fei frowned, but he quickly adjusted his mindset, "Fortunately, the task doesn't require undressing to bathe."
Turning on the shower, Han Fei stood under the stream of water while wearing clothes and holding a kitchen knife.
The cold water washed over his body, making his clothes stick to his skin, an uncomfortable feeling enveloped him.
"This game really has recreated every detail."
After half a minute of cold water, Han Fei noticed that the completion rate of the washing task in his taskbar was still at zero percent.
Once his body was soaked, he looked towards the vanity counter, where there were shampoo, face wash, and shower gel.
"Bathing in a haunted house near four in the morning sure feels different. No matter how high the water temperature is set, it feels chillingly cold inside."
He tried squeezing some shower gel onto his body, and at that moment, the completion rate of the bathing task finally began to slowly increase.
"So this is what it feels like to bathe with clothes on, in the game you really can try many things you haven't done in real life."
Han Fei was slowly realizing something, a normal "Perfect Life" game would have various restrictions, but the "Perfect Life Game" he was playing had no constraints. No one would restrict him, and as long as he could survive, he could try to do anything.
This place could be a hell of human nature or a blood-red heaven; everything depended on how he chose.
The water gradually became hotter, and a thin mist rose in the bathroom. Han Fei remained highly focused.
After he finished washing his body and was preparing to wash his hair, the previously closed bathroom door suddenly opened by itself.
"Who came in?"
He peered towards the living room. The TV was still displaying a warm picture, but the seven victims sitting on the sofa had vanished.
The water temperature was getting higher, but Han Fei felt colder and colder.
The air in the cramped bathroom seemed to solidify, nearly suffocating Han Fei as he looked towards the mirror veiled in mist.
In the vanity mirror, besides Han Fei, there were seven other figures.
He dared not turn around as he stared fixedly at the mirror.
From behind Han Fei in the mirror, Wei Youfu slowly emerged, his hand writing on the surface of the mirror.
At the same time, text began to appear on the misty exterior of the mirror—"That child is about to appear, help her."
This was Han Fei's first time communicating with a resident of the Haunted House. He looked at the text on the mirror, staring at Wei Youfu standing beside him inside the mirror, suddenly feeling a strange sensation.
In the reality outside the game, he was assigned the role of Wei Youfu, and at this moment, he was just a mirror apart from the deceased he was to portray.
While his heart still instinctively felt fear, there was also another emotion taking shape beside his fear.
It wasn't sympathy, nor was it pity. He looked at the seven anguished and desperate victims in the mirror, as if he saw his former self.
Lifting his arm, Han Fei's fingertips touched the mirror surface.
A chill entered his brain, and he slowly nodded, "I can help her."
After he finished saying this, Wei Youfu gave Han Fei a simple smile, then his head and neck began to bleed, with horrifying wounds emerging.
His body was violently disassembled right beside Han Fei, like a puzzle that had been smashed apart.
Blood splattered on the pristine bathroom walls. Han Fei had never experienced anything so horrific; he did not even know if it was water or blood washing over him.
What was even more chilling was that Wei Youfu was just the first one.
After Wei Youfu's body had been dismembered, came Amay, Cui Tianci, Cui Caixi...
Bright blossoms of blood bloomed in the cramped bathroom; the world inside the mirror had turned blood-red, unspeakable even by the standards of Mortal World or Hell, while Han Fei felt as though he had fallen into an ice cellar, uncontrollably shivering.
Water dripped down his cheeks, blood flowed horizontally in the mirror.
Han Fei had already closed his eyes. The brutality and fear were incomparable to any horror film, the piercing sense of reality was like a sharp sword brutally stabbing into Han Fei's heart.
Once the seven victims' bodies were completely dismembered, the flesh and blood in the mirror seemed to gain its own life. Despair, resentment, and pain formed black threads, beginning to reassemble the scattered limbs.
This seemed to be what the killer had once done, and now Han Fei felt as though he was standing right at the crime scene.
Flesh was treated like a puzzle, life threaded together by resentment, creating an ugly, mad, and terrifying monster reborn within the bodies of the deceased.
The monster's body grew larger as the anguished and contorted faces of the seven victims gradually emerged. They all lost their sanity, howling and screaming madly; the room was littered with their severed limbs and broken arms.
The scene in the mirror was too gory, yet Han Fei forced himself to watch, remembering the words left by Wei Youfu. He had to help the child who was about to appear.
"The seven victims couldn't be doing this without reason. They are disassembling and reassembling in front of me, they must want me to see something!"
The veins bulged, flesh was devoured, the monster touched the ceiling, yet its body was still expanding.
As the monster grew, Han Fei finally made a discovery at the position of the monster's heart.
Inside the monster's body, he saw an unfamiliar face.
That face—he had searched all information related to the Human-body Puzzle case and had never seen it before, nor had the police ever released any information related to that face.
"Is she the eighth victim? Is she the final piece of the puzzle?"