Capítulo 2: Chapter 2 Harmonious Neighborhood Relations
"'Perfect Life' is a game that can nourish the soul and soothe the mind, a healing-type game for leisure. It features situations that make one smile knowingly, the warmth of everyday life, and we aim to bring all players positive power with hope and happiness as the main themes…"
Time slipped away minute by minute, until at 23:59, that synthesized mechanical voice from the depths of his brain abruptly stopped.
"Now, you can choose your own Perfect Life."
The hard, icy ground stimulated his facial nerves as Han Fei slowly opened his eyes and found himself lying in a strange room.
The room was roughly seventy square meters, the furniture was covered with dust, and the walls were blotchy, some spots stained with blackish-red.
"My head hurts, feels like there's a hole in the back of it."
A faint musty smell wafted into his nostrils, allowing Han Fei to perceive his surroundings clearly.
Hearing, sight, smell, touch—this game wasn't much different from the real world.
Sitting blankly on the living room floor, Han Fei gazed at the empty, chilly room.
The architectural layout of the house and the furniture inside still retained a style from decades ago, covered everywhere with dust as if it hadn't been lived in for a long time.
"Is this my home in the game?"
Massaging the back of his head, Han Fei stood up from the floor, "Looking at the game description, this is a Healing-type simulation of life game; an open-world with no fixed gameplay. I can work hard to level up and improve my attributes, or I can collect money to splurge and enjoy, even pursue a virtual girlfriend and have virtual kinship and love."
As he was considering what to do next, Han Fei suddenly heard a knock on the door from outside.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Walking to the other side of the living room, Han Fei opened the security door and the dim light from a voice-controlled lamp poured inside, dispelling the chill and loneliness.
"Young man, you must be the new tenant, right?"
A kind and friendly voice came from outside the door, where an elderly lady with a benevolent face and silver hair stood in the hallway cluttered with various items.
"Today is New Year's Day. Granny made dumplings at home, come over and eat with us, a festival should be lively and bustling."
In modern urban life, everyone is very busy, and neighbors may not talk to each other for weeks. Han Fei had never encountered a situation like this where a neighbor invited him to their home for a meal during a festival.
"I'd rather not, I don't want to trouble you," Han Fei had become reticent since he was dismissed from his company, and he wasn't very keen on interacting with others.
"My son and daughter-in-law are working away from home, it's just me and my grandson at home. I've cooked a lot of dishes; it'd be a waste if they're not eaten."
Granny looked at Han Fei as if she were looking at her own child, each of her words felt like the warm sunlight in the morning.
"Dumplings symbolize overcoming the hardships of the past year and bringing wealth and happiness; eating them can dispel a year's bad luck. It's tough for a young man like you to struggle alone outside, come have some hot dumplings to warm your stomach."
The elderly lady invited him repeatedly. In reality, Han Fei would probably find various excuses to decline, but after all, he was in a game, and the old lady might just be guiding him for a quest.
Nodding his head, Han Fei picked up a big bunch of keys from the living room coffee table, walked out of the room, and helped the elderly woman towards the stairs.
"Granny, watch your step, walk slowly."
The hallway was cluttered with junk and garbage, the iron railing was rusting, and the walls were plastered with many small advertisements and children's graffiti.
This place resembled an old neighborhood from over a decade ago; such neighborhoods had become incredibly rare with the rapid advancement of technology.
The elderly woman led Han Fei down one floor and stopped in front of room 1031.
The numbers on the wall, painted in blood-red, were somewhat blurry; she coughed lightly and opened the door of room 1031.
The rich aroma of meat drifted out from inside the house, making Han Fei swallow saliva and peek inside.
There were no lights on in the elderly woman's home, just a few candles lit on the dining table.
"The fuse blew, and the repairman probably hasn't come over because he's off for the holiday."
"Granny, let me handle it. I used to change them myself whenever a fuse blew at home," Han Fei didn't treat the elderly woman as a game NPC; he himself didn't know why, maybe because she felt as real as an actual person.
"Be careful, the spare fuses are in the drawer," she instructed before going into the kitchen, where her stewed meat seemed to have cooked thoroughly.
Standing on a stool, Han Fei replaced the fuse, turned on the main switch, and the warm light brightened the dark little house.
"Player number 0000, please note! Level G common task of replacing the fuse has been completed; Meng Shi's friendliness increased by five; fostering harmonious neighborhood relations is the first step towards a perfect life."
A cold, mechanical synthesized voice came from deep within Han Fei's mind: "Task system activated, beginner's task updated. Completing the beginner's task will help you quickly understand everything about this world."
Listening to the unfamiliar voice in his mind, Han Fei saw an attribute panel appear before him, but before he could take a closer look, an elderly woman emerged from the kitchen carrying a pot of fish soup.
"The fish soup is just ready, drink it while it's hot." The old woman, smiling, placed the fish soup on the dining table, then walked to the bedroom door and unlocked the iron lock on it, "Chenchen, come out and eat."
A moment later, a small boy, about five or six years old, walked out of the bedroom, his head bowed as if he was sulking with the old lady.
"You start eating; I still have a few dishes to prepare." The old lady opened the refrigerator, taking out half a frozen chicken from the top shelf: "It's been a power outage for so long, hasn't it thawed yet?"
She put the frozen chicken into a small basin and casually placed it on the dining table.
"Granny, don't make so much food; we can't finish it all."
"It's rare to have guests over; I have to make more, or the meat in the fridge will spoil." Warm and kind-hearted, the elderly lady's busy figure in the kitchen reminded Han Fei of his own family members.
When he was very young, New Year's at home was also always this lively.
The scent of meat wafted into his nostrils, and the freshly cooked fish soup steamed aromatically, the misty fragrance making Han Fei somewhat dazed as his memories seemed to overlap with the virtual game.
The dim light illuminated the cabin; the sounds of pots and pans came from the kitchen, the square box television played commercials, and a faint smell of fireworks seemed to disperse the indifference of this unfamiliar city.
"Perhaps these simple joys are what life itself is all about."
Life will always have its dark periods, and if one stops moving forward out of fear of the future, they will be trapped in the dark forever.
Han Fei picked up a soup ladle and served bowls of fish soup for himself and Chenchen.
The milky white fish soup gave off an enticing aroma, and Han Fei gently blew on the bowl a few times to cool it.
Just as he was about to taste the fish soup, he caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye of the child across the table lifting his bowl of fish soup above his head.
"What is this child trying to do?"
Before Han Fei could react, the child smashed the bowl full of fish soup onto the ground!
"I refuse to eat anything taken out of a coffin!"
Spurt!
Hearing the child's words, Han Fei spat out a mouthful of fish soup that he had just sipped.
A coffin?
The ceramic bowl shattered on the floor, and the fish soup spilled everywhere. Hearing the noise, the old lady hurried out of the kitchen, "Chenchen! What are you doing?!"
"Everything you make comes out of a coffin!" declared the boy, who looked only five or six years old, his eyes full of blood vessels.
"What nonsense are you talking?" worried that the boy might get burned, the old lady ran to the dining table without even untying her apron.
"The building chief said only coffins have dead people!" The boy broke free from the elderly woman's grasp, threw the half-frozen chicken he had just taken out of the refrigerator onto the floor, then ran towards the bedroom.
"Come back here!"
The elderly woman also entered the bedroom, leaving Han Fei alone in the living room holding a bowl of fish soup.
"Terrifying kids." Han Fei muttered as he set down the ceramic bowl. He found a broom and dustpan behind the door and wanted to help the old lady clean up, but as he was about to gather the frozen chicken from the floor, he suddenly remembered something.
The child had said he wouldn't eat anything taken out of a coffin, but Han Fei had clearly seen the old woman take the half-frozen chicken out of the refrigerator.
This was normal, but if combined with what the child later said, the building chief had told the child that only coffins contained dead people.
Why would the child think of the refrigerator as a coffin? Could it be that their household's refrigerator was hiding a corpse?
Huh?
Realizing this, Han Fei froze. This didn't seem like the unfolding of a healing-type game!
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