Horror Game Designer-Chapter 661: Han Hai

Every city had people who were abandoned. They might have innate physical or mental disabilities, or they were tricked by fate. Perhaps they stood across from Immortal Pharma. Gao Ming checked the dreams of some of the patients. Most of them were taboo game players. Immortal Pharma promised to treat them, trapped them in the sunless cabin, and turned them into homes for the ghosts. The patients were innocent, and the ghosts that were lured from the inner world were also innocent. They had to cooperate and occupy the human body to survive. Immortal Pharma was the culprit.

“It’s okay. You’ll have your home in Han Hai.” The Blood City had to be rebuilt. Gao Ming had made the decision to keep those abandoned by the real world and the inner world. He’d construct a shadow city that only existed in the nightmare. No. 2 could see Gao Ming’s ambition. He didn’t stop him but showed admiration. Compared to the world’s saviours, Gao Ming’s grey moral compass suited him more.

The black dog opened seven hidden rooms. Both ghosts and humans were sent into the torture room. Everything went smoothly. Immortal Pharma had a lot of Lingering Resentments as defense. They posed no threat to Gao Ming.

“Be careful. This is very much unlike No. 0. He has something else up his sleeves.” No. 2 was familiar with the enemy. “This lab on the sea is one of the three most important labs for Immortal Pharma. There can’t only be Lingering Resentments. Don’t be careless.”

Gao Ming nodded. When he entered the bottom cabin, he had already opened his torture room. Gao Ming stepped on the water and came to the end of the corridor. Before him was an expanse of darkness. The smell of medicine and sea water filled the air. The sound of water echoed around them. There were big fishes swimming in the dark. For a moment, Gao Ming felt like he had returned to the winter lake in the manor nightmare. Following No. 2’s directions, Gao Ming keyed in the codes to switch on the lights.

The lights bloomed and exposed the dirtiness and sin in the cabin to the guests. Even Gao Ming’s breathing skipped a beat. A nutrient tank the size of a football field was set in the middle of the cabin. It was like a large aquarium, but it was filled to the brim with humans. It was unclear how long they had been in there. Their skin was different from normal humans. Their limbs were pierced by tubes. While maintaining their lives, the tubes joined them to the device in the centre of the tank. The scene was absurd. It looked like many octopi were squeezed at the bottom of the tank. Each tentacle was attached to a human brain. Gao Ming narrowed his eyes. He saw many familiar faces in the tank. Many of the investigators he encountered in Han Hai were there!

Gao Ming scanned the crowd before his eyes landed on a middle-aged man.

“Wan Jie…” He didn’t think they’d reunite in this situation. Wan Jiu was pierced by eight tubes. His eyes were closed, and his body was coloured by scary ghost tattoos. He was barely alive. He was surrounded by other human bodies. He should be one of the cores for this meat tank.

“This is a crucial component in Project Han Hai. No matter what you see in Han Hai, it is a giant meat can like this in real life.” No. 2’s tone shone with pity. “Most of the people in the cans are volunteers. They wanted to be pioneers and had no fear of the danger. Unfortunately, they became No. 0’s toys.”

“What can I do to save them?” Gao Ming met some of the investigators at Han Hai. Some of them, like the captain of Team One, were strong and reliable. They could be good allies.

“Their consciousness has been sent into Han Hai. Everything here is merely to maintain their physical bodies. If you touch them casually, you might ruin their physical bodies.” No. 2 said. “We need to split up. One team will borrow the device here to return to Han Hai to explain the situation to these people so they’ll cooperate. The other team will stay here and find the right time to initiate the recall program. Then, we’ll have a chance to save them.”

Gao Ming didn’t say anything.

“You better make a decision. When No. 0 realises something is wrong here, it’ll be too late for us to do anything.” No. 2’s voice didn’t change. However, he suddenly realised the chains had curled around his consciousness. “You sure are careful.”

“It’s not me. You’re selfish.” Gao Ming had discussed this with Fu Shu before and parsed through the investigators’ nightmare memory. “The first batch of investigators sent to Han Hai cannot return. This path here only goes one way.”

No. 2 said endless truth but mixed in one lie. He was willing to help Gao Ming return to Han Hai, but he was unwilling to go with Gao Ming.

“We don’t know each other for long, so it’s normal for you to be reserved around me. However, I need your full cooperation.” Murky water mist leaked out of Gao Ming. Zhang Ding, who only had a head left, appeared wrapped in human skin. Most times, he could only trust his allies. “Tell me how to enter Han Hai.”

No. 2 showed no emotional fluctuation when another powerful ghost appeared to aid Gao Ming. “I think you’ve misunderstood. There might be other paths within Immortal Pharma, but I personally built this path with the world’s saviours. I am the most familiar with this path. That is why I brought you here.”

“Don’t waste my time. How do you use this machine?”

“Calm down. I have to warn you about certain things.” No. 2 became serious. “At first, this path could travel both ways. The investigators could return at any time. However, No. 0 cooperated with unknown forces to wipe away the traces of the world’s saviours to expand his dominion. Can you understand me?” Worried that Gao Ming wouldn’t understand him, No. 2 added, “We can use this edited path to figure out the power mastered by the Unmentionables behind No. 0. Other than that, I have to tell you something. The defence here is ridiculously weak. No. 0 wouldn’t make such a newbie mistake. This means that he is absolutely confident that no one who has seen the secrets can leave this place alive.”

No. 2 finally entered the main topic. “Immortal Pharma’s brain realm development technology is very mature. They can send people’s consciousness into the dream with ease and create a game similar to the taboo game there. However, to push human consciousness deeper into the nightmare and closer to the inner world, they still require additional aids, like Dream’s altar.”