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Han Fei smiled at the collector. He took out Xu Qin’s pig’s heart and munched on it. Big Sin blocked Han Fei from the collector. Its maw was right above the collector’s head. This guaranteed Han Fei’s safety and threatened the collector. Han Fei liked this.

“I feel like you’re lying.”

“I’m telling the truth!”

“If you want me to trust you, eat half of this heart.” Han Fei used Xu Qin’s curse and Big Sin’s Soul Poison to create this cuisine. The collector knew the situation he was in and his eyes flashed with resentment, but he had no other choice.

“Stop struggling. The more you do, the quicker you’ll die.” Han Fei touched the collector’s soul. It reeked of the stink of money. “Not even a unique citizen. How disappointing.”

“I can give you everything in this room. Can you spare my life?” The collector was regretful. He had no idea such a scary monster would be hiding in the outsider Zhang Shu led in. The main reason was Han Fei was too good of an actor.

“I’m not a person who likes to kill. If you help me, I’ll help you undo the curse ten days later.” The most dangerous kind of people were those who had nothing to lose.

“Okay. I’ll bring you to find the Night Police now.” The collector walked out of the room with Han Fei. When Zhang Shu saw them, he thought they had completed some kind of deal. He came to ask for a reward from the collector. He rubbed his hands and fawned endlessly. The collector stabbed a sharp white blade into Zhang Shu’s stomach. The collector was very fast. He always had the white blade on him. If Han Fei were careless, he would end up like Zhang Shu.

“How can you mistreat our customers? This is your punishment.” The collector pulled out the knife. The blade still looked unblemished. The collector was not strong, but his blade was very special. After Zhang Shu died, the collector turned around to smile, “This annoying thing is finally dead. He was the one who mistreated you earlier, right?”

The collector killed someone from Rusted Stairs just like that. Han Fei had a new understanding of the building. They walked through the Dark Alley to avoid the crowd. They stepped over the dead bodies and came to the corridor where the merchants gathered on the tenth floor.

“Many residents from other floors are gathered here due to the safety of the tenth floor. This place became lively because of it.” The collector planned to lock the door that led to the Dark Alley, but a rotten bone stuck was stuck in the door gap. He kicked the bone away. “Since some have a good life, others have to pay for their happiness. The existence of the Dark Alley is to protect everyone. If you’re not a prey here, you can have a very good life.”

“What a realistic place.”

Han Fei avoided many troubles with the collector as the leader. They finally stopped before Room 000109. The place was a bar.

“Most Night Police will hide in the forbidden zones because they have any enemies, but the Night Police you’re looking for is very special. He likes crowds and will sometimes stay here for the whole day. When he runs out of drink money, he’ll return to the forbidden zones to salvage sellable items. Some of my collections came from him.”

They walked through two doors and a long corridor before they entered the bar. The bar was quite special. There was a large iron cage placed in the middle of the dance floor. The cage was slathered with blood. Something was kept inside there before. The dim lights swung. All sorts of people sat on the old couch. Each of them held a glass that carried red wine.

“Give me five of your worst wine.” The collector walked to the bar and whispered.

“You are as stingy as ever.” The bartender was the bar owner. He hid in the small room behind the counter, and no one could see him.

“Shush!” The collector was afraid and quickly explained to Han Fei. “No matter what, we have to try the wine here. The wine here is famous. Many people from other floors will come here to get the wine.”

“Is this really wine?” Han Fei studied the blood wine in the dirty glasses.

“Even though no one knew how the wine is made, it does carry wine’s fragrance. It’s good for the body too.” When the collector chatted with Han Fei, a small window behind the bar opened. A mutated arm covered in scars and curses placed the glasses on the bar counter. “Your drinks are ready.” No one could see the bartender. Only one arm and his voice could be discerned.

Holding his glass, the collector looked around. “Come with me. The regulars are inside. They don’t like to be disturbed.” The collector drank the wine and avoided the customers in the living room to lead Han Fei to an inner room. The lights became dimmer. The place smelled of rot.

“Dear reporter, someone is looking for you. Answer his question, and I’ll pay for your drinks for another week.” The collector said a string of numbers. That appeared to be the Night Police’s name.

Han Fei turned to look. There was a middle-aged man lying on a tattered bed by the corner. He carried a professional camera in his arms. His eyes were round and bloodshot like he hadn’t slept for a long time.

“Stop playing dead. I’ve helped you so many times, so you should help me.” The collector was halfway through when the Night Police raised the camera at him. The camera seemed to have the power of curses. The collector immediately shut up and forced a smile. Han Fei basically grew up ‘eating’ curses. He walked to the bed. When he saw the Night Police’s face, Han Fei immediately felt he looked familiar.

“I think I’ve seen you on television before.” Han Fei tried to think back to the old cases he had studied, but no name came to him. “Were you once a reporter?”

The Night Police didn’t answer. He turned his head away to reveal the many sinful names on the back of his neck—Xu Fucai, Snake Head, Fu Ming…

“A Sin Seeker?” Han Fei waved for the others to leave. When he and the reporter were the only ones left, he asked, “When did you arrive here? How did you get here? Was it through the murderer’s clubhouse’s mirrors or other channels?”

The word, murderer’s clubhouse caused the reporter to frown, but he still ignored Han Fei. It felt like he thought it was beneath him to converse with anyone inside the skyscraper.

“If I say I have a way to lead you out of this place, will you cooperate with me? I am a Sin Seeker too.” Han Fei’s short statement contained a lot of info. The reporter slowly turned back around. He stared at Han Fei’s face and studied the light in his eyes. “There’s no Sin Seeker in this building. Only bad and worse people.”

“That’s not true. As long as I’m alive, there’s at least one good person in this building.” Han Fei sat on the bed. “You give me a different presence from the others. We came from the same place. We were the same kind of people.”

“But soon, you’ll become like me. I can see your ending. You want to die, but you can’t.” The reporter finished the wine. “There is only one piece of advice I can give you. Accept the devil in your heart and become the person you hate. That’s the way to suffer the least.”

“You didn’t persist because you didn’t have the way to leave this building. Your hope was worn away and despair accumulated before crushing you.” Han Fei held the blood wine. He had no interest in trying it. “The biggest difference between us is that I know the way out. So no matter what I experience, my hope will never go out.”

“You’ve been saying that. But if you know how to leave this place, why are you still here?” The reporter said with impatience. His voice was changing too. When his emotions fluctuated, his face became demonic.

“I can give you a glimpse to prove that I’m not lying to you. But before that, I need you to tell me everything about you, including your name, history, and how you got here.” Han Fei could still use his Resurrection. If that failed, he could summon Huang Yin. He missed Brother Huang too.

Influenced by Cursed Words, the reporter hesitated. Then, he said, “My name is Ji Zheng. I was a reporter at Xin Lu Radio Station. I was not a man of justice. No one was tuning into normal programs, so I wanted to change. I turned my focus on strange cases.

“Investigation, expose, I sent many bastards to jail.

“My name grew, but I was targeted too.

“Several weeks later, I got a tip that Immortal Pharma was torturing children at its orphanage. I initiated a half-year-long investigation. The final result was shocking. Immortal Pharma’s orphanage wasn’t only torturing the kids, but they were also performing drug tests on them. It was crazy.

“At that time, all I wanted to do was to save those kids, even if it meant fighting Immortal Pharma. It didn’t matter if I died.”

Han Fei was anxious hearing the story, “And then what happened?”

“I forgot.” The reporter pointed at his head. “Someone placed a worm inside my head. It is chewing on my memory. I can’t even remember who put the worm there. I can only remember that they were laughing madly, and that the room was filled with flowers that looked like human heads.”