"Her name is Dottie. She's someone Lekong and I rescued from a psychiatric hospital this past year," Carly sighed, closing Dottie's unyielding eyelids. "If I had known this would happen, she would have been better off staying in the asylum."
[Established interpersonal relationship with story character 'Dottie', plot points +3]
Richard received the notification for the plot points, and the veins on his forehead couldn't help but throb.
How could a dead person establish an interpersonal relationship with him?
Then, Richard remembered that the deceased Louis family from pet sematary could also establish relationships with him. A jolt like electricity ran through his heart as he activated Spirit Vision again. Only then did he see a blue spiritual entity floating over Dottie's corpse. It was a sphere of light without a form, but it wasn't hard to confirm it was the soul of the recently deceased Dottie.
Richard had an epiphany: 'I see. As my personal understanding progresses and my concept of life and death expands, the skill panel's ability to collect plot points changes accordingly. No wonder I didn't receive death notifications for Axel, Mick, and Lekong like I did for Tommy H. before.'
In Richard's current worldview, although a person's physical body might die, there was a probability they would transform into another form after death. Therefore, to him, physical death wasn't death in the truest sense.
Eleven and Hopper questioned Carly about the circumstances that led her here. Carly, already on the verge of a breakdown and having given up on herself, laid everything out.
It turned out that during one of Carly's team's revenge missions, they found a box of dusty documents in the home of a target named Remiel. They thought it would contain information about other surviving members of The Lab, so they took it back to study. However, upon opening it, they discovered it wasn't just identity records of other lab members; it also recorded many other anti-human taboo research experiments similar to Hawkins Lab.
One of the research bases documented in clear detail was right here—an orphanage supported by the Bobby Consortium named 'Orfan,' a play on the word 'orphan.' They received orphans under the guise of an orphanage. On the surface, the place had a high adoption rate, but in reality, the adopted orphans were taken to a certain part of the orphanage for taboo experiments. Every orphan here was a test subject.
"What? This is an orphanage?" Hopper looked around, recalling their experience getting here. This was clearly a toy manufacturing plant.
Carly explained, "I don't know what happened either. I only know Remiel's documents said a serious accident occurred at the orphanage, after which it was abandoned. The latest documents said that a month ago, people from the Bobby Consortium wanted to revisit the orphanage to see if any valuable data remained. To their surprise, they found it had turned into a toy factory. Those who went in to investigate never came out again."
Speaking to this point, Carly couldn't help but press her forehead in pain. "I initially thought there might be living test subjects here. But after arriving, I realized they are all test subjects who have gone mad and turned into monsters. They have no human nature left and are full of hostility toward all intruders, slaughtering them brutally. I finally understand what that 'accident' back then really was. By the time we realized the danger here, we were already too deep in. There was no way back."
"Does your ability not work on them?" Richard asked.
Carly lowered her head and said incoherently, "There are too many of them... I can only control one target... I was far too arrogant."
Richard understood. Watching Dottie's soul hover around Carly, he asked, "Was it a large, blue, furry plush toy that attacked you?"
Carly nodded silently. "That monster was too violent; the illusions I created couldn't control it."
"We've already dealt with it," Eleven said, placing a hand on Carly's shoulder. "Don't worry, we've avenged you."
"Revenge..." Carly smiled bitterly. For now, she didn't want to think about those things anymore. She had once been immersed in the pleasure of eye-for-an-eye vengeance; revenge was the meaning of her life. She thought she had nothing left to lose because she felt she no longer had a family. Only after witnessing the tragic deaths of her teammates did she realize they had long since become like family in her heart.
If she really wanted to seek revenge without any burdens, her revenge should have been a solo endeavor from start to finish. Forming a team wasn't so much about taking in fellow outcasts to seek revenge together as it was about her being unable to bear the loneliness and being afraid of walking the path of revenge alone.
She realized she had been a hypocrite, constantly proclaiming how firm her creed of revenge was and telling Richard, who didn't understand her, not to interfere in her 'business.' Now she knew how naive and laughable her thoughts actually were.
Richard had warned her a year ago, but she had ignored those potential threats.
"Let's go together. Living on with your sins is the only way to atone for your dead teammates. If you don't live on, they died for nothing." Richard kept his Spirit Vision active. He felt the surrounding atmosphere changing and had a bad premonition. He didn't want to waste words comforting Carly, so he went straight to the point to give her a reason to stop moping.
Eleven's powerful psychic senses also felt something. Her skin crawled. Hearing Richard's words, she chimed in, "Chade is right. Regardless, let's get out of here first."
Hehehe... Suddenly, Richard heard a burst of eerie girl's laughter echoing throughout the toy factory. The sound was like the wind, passing through corridors, brushing against walls, and rushing into the room.
Yet, despite being loud enough to linger in the air, it seemed that no one present except Richard could hear it.
Richard realized that this opponent was likely a powerful vengeful spirit. To put it in terms a compatriot would immediately understand, the girl making this laughter was an existence akin to a Ghost King.
A chilling resentment, monstrous and fierce, permeated and enveloped the entire toy factory. It was likely no less than the collective malice of the group of vengeful spirits in Richard's basement.
Next, Richard heard a scream. He looked toward the sound and saw Dottie's spiritual body being grabbed by a small, dark-blue hand. Dottie struggled desperately but couldn't escape. Then, a giant azure eye appeared on the wall. The eyeball shifted from staring at Dottie to Richard. Upon discovering that Richard could also see it, it suddenly curved into a smiling eye.
Richard's heart tightened because he saw that the reflection in that eye wasn't his own figure, but a young girl in a pure white hospital gown. Her hair was disheveled, revealing two rows of sharp teeth. She mouthed silently: "Let's play hide and seek."
At that moment, everyone saw Richard suddenly speak to the empty wall: "Hide and seek isn't fun. How about I teach you a new game?"
Both the people present and the invisible ghost were momentarily stunned by his words.