My Iyashikei Game

The death tapes were taken from the perspective of the ghosts, but they warmed Han Fei’s heart. He saw the version of himself that he had forgotten. He felt embarrassment and some bliss. These were emotions he had never experienced before.

Han Fei lay on the doll’s legs. Han Fei descended into his mind enveloped by curses. The giant butterfly raised a storm in his brain. It wanted to tear open Han Fei’s brain so that it could escape with the maze tattoo.

It needed one’s memory and past to weave a nightmare. The butterfly was cornered by the curses. It vented all its anger on the biggest crack on the curtain. The pain at that moment was very familiar. It felt like his brain was being torn apart, and someone did that some time ago to place something inside his head. The butterfly with the maze tattoo was one of the more important forms of Dream. Its giant body was soaked with the colors of the whole city. With each flap of its wings, the dream dust would raise a storm in his mind.

Han Fei didn’t resist the invasion of this butterfly. He wanted to use this most vicious creature to slice open the chains of fate.

“I should be able to remember them this time.” The giant butterfly crawled into the gap in the curtain. Han Fei didn’t stop it and asked the paper doll to inject all the curses into his brain. He wanted the evil curses to follow the butterfly to enter his most precious memory.

That was a place where it touched the soul. It was a place where one’s past and feelings were hidden, and the foundation of one’s self. However, Han Fei poured curses into it. This showed how much he trusted the paper doll.

Han Fei couldn’t see what was behind the curtain. However, he could see the cracks getting larger. Bleeding despair oozed out, dying the mind red. Memory fragments flowed out with the blood. Han Fei saw segments of his past life. “What have I experienced?”

He encountered ghosts and monsters more often than he had the time to eat. He was constantly running for his life after midnight. The intermittent memories helped Han Fei remember many things. There appeared to be four kinds of memory. One was from the dull morning, two was from the horrifying night, three was a vision within others’ past, and four was a mysterious red.

“Han Fei in the morning is quiet and introverted, but Han Fei at night is crazy and mad. But which one is the real me?”

Butterfly was good at playing with people’s hearts. His talent was to weave one’s despair and memory. To escape from Han Fei’s brain, he gathered the most despairing and painful memories behind Han Fei’s memory curtain. Its intention was to make all the pain and despair explode to fully destroy Han Fei, to make him into a puppet submerged in despair, but it had no idea Han Fei was waiting for this moment too. The darkest memory burned in Han Fei’s mind like a flame. All the painful pasts morphed into a fire and burned at Han Fei’s soul. His nerve winced with pain. Han Fei’s consciousness was like a single boat in a large storm, slammed endlessly by pain and despair. Just as he was about to capsize, the tape left behind by the seven ghosts gave him strength. Concern, friendship, family, and company, were things that didn’t exist in his mind initially. However, as he watched the tape, Han Fei realized he was not alone. Even in the deepest despair, there were people who were willing to be there for him. His closed eyes started to tremble. Han Fei could feel the paper doll touching his head. The seven ghosts in the tape looked at him with concern. The torn soul obtained the energy to persevere. This warm energy was called hope.

“I will not disappear just like that! There’s a reason for my existence. No matter what happens in the future, at least for now, there are people who care about me. For them, I will never choose to give up!” Han Fei’s head was about to split open, but his soul growled angrily. He was never so certain in himself before. “I have my own family, friends, and lover. They are the ones who made me unique in this world. No one can replace me!”

The memory was destroyed by despair. Under the red sea of memory, there was an isolated red orphanage!

The butterfly gathered all the negative emotions in Han Fei’s brain, but it still couldn’t do anything to the orphanage behind the barrier. It was cornered. It decided to amplify Han Fei’s negative emotions and charged at the orphanage. The butterfly knew that the orphanage was the foundation of Han Fei’s consciousness. Once the orphanage was destroyed, Han Fei would be destroyed.

The rust on the gate started to fall. The butterfly flapped its wing to raise a storm of negative emotions. It directed the storm at the orphanage. The orphanage door opened at that moment!

The bell chimed. Blood flooded out of the orphanage. The laughter of 31 children appeared at the same time.

The butterfly wanted to escape, but it was too late. Deep inside Han Fei’s memory was a sea of blood. Butterfly thought the orphanage was hiding amidst the sea of blood. The reality was the orphanage was the source of the endless blood!

The person who was originally trapped inside the orphanage had disappeared. A broken butterfly wing remained at the spot where he was. Sensing the presence of its kin, the giant butterfly was scared. It could read people’s memory and have read the death process of that other butterfly. The madman escaped from the orphanage after he killed that butterfly. Most of his persona was still hidden inside the orphanage, but a part of his consciousness had escaped.

The memory filled with blood and murder swallowed the butterfly. The giant red waves crashed into the memory curtain. The sea of blood inside the orphanage was released. The lock on Han Fei’s memory loosened. Many memory fragments were carried out. The laughter of children echoed in his mind. Han Fei saw the faces of 31 children and the inhuman treatment they were given. However, these children were just the tip of the iceberg. They represented the ones chosen from a larger group of children. There were so many of them. Most of the children collapsed in endless pain. Only one of them managed to survive until the end based on his healing personality. The persona that was defined as perfectly non-hostile picked up the knife on the last night of the test and personally ended the pain and despair of all the children before he went insane. The bloody night covered everything. Han Fei, who was protected by the curses, looked at these fragments. He was using this method to accept his past.

The two separated personas started to conflict after Han Fei’s memories had been wiped. Both personas wanted to take over the main body. “Which one is the real me?” The blood-red memory from the orphanage consumed everything, including Han Fei’s original experience and the colorful butterfly. The butterfly dissolved into bubbles and the maze tattoo scattered in Han Fei’s mind. The center of the map pointed at the deepest part of Han Fei’s soul. The spot where even consciousness couldn’t reach seemed to be hiding a black box. No one knew why it was there, and no one knew what was inside the box. But it seemed to contain the answer to the maze.

“Han Fei! Han Fei!” The summons echoed in his ears, but soon they were overwhelmed by the laughter of children. Han Fei tried his best to protect his consciousness from dissolving into the sea of blood. He tried to latch onto the voices that called to him. His life used to be all red, but now he had people he was concerned about and was unwilling to part with.

“Han Fei! I remember you! You are a player like us!” An unfamiliar male voice said, “Wake up! F is temporarily held back. Qiang Wei wants me to tell you that this is just a game! You’re inside a game! In real life, you are a very good actor. Your name is Han Fei!”

The man connected Han Fei’s memory to real life. All the cracks on the memory curtain joined together. As it tore apart, Han Fei felt the lock in his brain open. The blood waves carried most of Han Fei’s memories and flooded his mind!

“Notifications for Player 0000! You’ve reached Stage Nine. One last stage is left!” A robotic voice came from near the black box deep inside the maze. However, Han Fei didn’t have the energy to care about that then. His consciousness floated among the sea. Endless memory fragments flowed into his mind. Some of them were his, some he had no impression of, but the most terrifying thing was the person who escaped from the orphanage had taken part of Han Fei’s memory with him!

“I see. He is also me, the persona that has the healing personality.” A healing personality could heal others, but he couldn’t heal himself.

The brilliance in the memory shielded Han Fei’s consciousness. Other than pain and despair, there were many joys in his memory too. It was these things that supported him and ensured that he always had hope.

“So he has been staying in the sea of blood alone…”

Han Fei was different from the man who escaped from the orphanage. No matter how rocky the waves were, the kindness and beauty in his memory protected Han Fei until he was used to everything. “So I am no longer alone anymore…”

The curses pulled Han Fei’s consciousness out. Han Fei opened his eyes.

His eyes were filled with madness, but this madness was different from the Mad Laughter. It was peaceful, quiet, and filled with perseverance.

“I remember it now!”