The College student quickly sensed that something was wrong. A vague white shadow was approaching. Just as he was about to rub his eyes to get a clearer look, from behind, a nurse with immense strength had already stepped forward and brutally dragged Ying Yu off Zhou Qi’an’s back.
Zhou Qi’an did not struggle with her. Since a special scene had been triggered, as long as he survived the treatment, there would be a chance to leave. Mr. Si had left his post at the gate and specifically come to inform the neurologist, clearly to target him.
As long as the targeting was strong enough, the others would still have a chance to escape.
The doctor moved his fingers slightly, and more nurses came up, almost in a manner of abduction, forcing them to move forward down a corridor with cold walls on both sides.
After walking for about seven or eight minutes, the group was taken to the treatment area.
“Aaaahhh.” A heart-wrenching scream came from the treatment room next door.
“I was wrong, I was wrong—”
Sharper and sharper screams came from a treatment room a little further away. It wasn’t just wailing; it was accompanied by sobbing, as if the patient was experiencing something even more desperate than physical torture.
Shen Zhiyi faintly guessed something. The look in his eyes as he looked at Mr. Si was like looking at a few kilograms of cold meat already on the chopping block.
Without any room for negotiation, the four were taken to separate treatment rooms.
There was no smell of disinfectant in the air, and for the time being, no scent of flowers.
The moment the door opened, Zhou Qi’an quickly scanned the room. The structure of the treatment room was very simple, with only a bed and a machine. The metal edges of the bed were covered in a lot of dried, filthy blood, and one could imagine the scene of patients digging their nails into the metal crevices, their flesh torn and bloody.
There was similar filth on the floor tiles. The color of the bloodstains was slightly lighter, and it seemed to be mixed with other transparent liquids.
For a moment, Zhou Qi’an could only think of saliva and tears.
When dealing with patients, the nurses had the strength of nine oxen. Before being forcibly pushed down onto the hospital bed, Zhou Qi’an consciously lay down.
The nurse skillfully tied the restraints on him, even tighter than for a normal patient.
Before long, the doctor came over, pushing a machine half a person’s height. The sound of the wheels rolling on the floor was very loud. The doctor revealed half his face from behind the machine, his voice making one’s hair stand on end.
“The brain is a person’s second soul. The reason why most patients lose control during the transformation process is because their endurance is too poor.”
“Unfortunately, the hospital does not value our neurology research, only knowing how to invest in the intensive care unit.”
The doctor was starting the machine. It was a machine similar to a cerebral circulation comprehensive therapy instrument, but its structure looked more complex. He attached one end of the electrode pads to Zhou Qi’an’s temples and the sensitive areas of his scalp. “…As long as the pain is repeated, tolerance can be improved. This is the same principle as drug resistance.”
As his voice fell, he directly pressed the power button.
The electric current stimulated his body, causing slight convulsions.
The nurse assisted, bringing in several pots of blooming cyclamen. The stimulation from the fragrance of the flowers alternated with the electric current, a mixture of release and pain. He had to gasp for breath, desperately trying to get fresh air.
This state lasted for less than a minute. Zhou Qi’an’s consciousness began to become hazy, and he gradually sank into a half-real, half-false dream.
[Current treatment time: 00:29:33]
For the first time, Zhou Qi’an almost ignored the prompt.
When the system prompt descended, he was standing on a narrow path. A monster with beast claws pounced from above, and its claw was about to directly pierce his body—
The pain of his body being torn apart was real, but no blood flowed out.
“A dream…”
Zhou Qi’an had a clear understanding of this.
The lingering fragrance of flowers brought on a familiar dream.
In the distance, his mother and superior lay on the ground… His brain was in extreme pain. Amidst the sharp pain, his memories were actually flowing backward, towards an earlier point in time.
This process of a reverse progression of time nodes almost made one want to directly sever their own cranial nerves to end the pain.
In reality, his wrists were struggling, and deep red friction marks had already appeared. A small piece of skin had been rubbed off, yet the person involved was completely unaware, instead sinking into an even deeper dream.
The figures lying in the pool of blood disappeared, and the fog in his mind seemed to have been forcibly peeled back a little.
The scene detached from the company and went to a strange place. Zhou Qi’an couldn’t see his surroundings clearly, only feeling that it was very familiar. In the distance, he saw a young man talking to people.
This time he was very sure that it was a younger version of himself.
The faces of the people standing opposite the young man were also unclear, but it was obvious that they were very familiar with each other.
“We finally won the opportunity to participate in designing an instance. Why did you propose to the game to create a holy relic?”
The taciturn man on the other side also spoke up at this moment. “A player who possesses a holy relic will pose a threat to our status when they arrive in the new world.”
“Exactly. We didn’t have such conditions back then! I don’t agree,” the woman was also unhappy.
The young man smiled. “We can just set restrictions, for example, only those who are pure and good can use it. That way, no one can use it, right?”
“…At the same time, it can help us gain some favor with the game. A holy relic that no one can use, yet can deter monsters and create a sense of crisis. It’s beneficial to the game’s home-field dominance.”
“…Of course, the holy relic can also reasonably help us increase the overall difficulty of the game.”
The silent man was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then suddenly clapped his hands and laughed. “As expected, you have the best brain among us.”
The young man hid the other thoughts in his eyes and said nonchalantly, “Then I’ll go write the report. We can submit it together later.”
This was not the first time Zhou Qi’an had seen these people with blurry faces.
The last time he was stimulated by the Ghost Market manager, a scene about the Whaling Association appeared in his mind. Even though he couldn’t see their faces clearly, the feeling they gave him was the same.
“Holy relic…”
So this weapon was prepared for himself from the very beginning? To fit the 100% affinity setting in the skill description.
Obviously, the Whaling Association was not very familiar with this characteristic of his.
The Ghost Market manager said that when he met him, he was going in reverse. The holy relic should have been a preparation before the reversal.
Time was moving forward again…
It hurt so much.
He saw the young man writing the report with a cold expression, like a machine without emotions, slowly making his plans.
“I’ve already cleared it once. The game won’t let me enter a low-star instance again.”
Starting from three stars, but once he lost the power of an evolver, it was impossible for the game to let him enter a four-star instance from the start. The most likely would be a three-and-a-half-star instance.
“I have to find a way to place the holy relic in the most difficult three-and-a-half-star instance.”
The rest would be left to the game. Under layers of conditions, it would definitely be able to match him with it.
Emotion and courage alone were not enough. He also needed to have power from the very beginning to better protect the people around him.
“The game will inevitably keep putting me in the most difficult instance of the same star level.”
“I also have to find a way to add a setting in one of the instances that can pull relatives in.”
The young man’s well-defined hand gripped the pen again, and finally wrote two words: Human Nature.
The game loved to test human nature. Using this point, perhaps he could give ordinary people a chance to enter the instance.
The moment the young man put pen to paper, Zhou Qi’an was almost frozen from head to toe. The scene of players calling their parents in the school instance replayed in his mind over and over again.
Amidst the intense neuralgic pain, all the fragmented pieces slowly formed a large net.
At the top of the net was an invisible hand controlling it. The owner of that hand came from his past self.
Under the net, his present self was climbing with difficulty, following the veins bit by bit.
In the treatment room, the doctor stood aside, admiring the young man’s pained expression.
The budding of loose memories broke through the earth, impacting the sealed power. Zhou Qi’an’s fists were clenched extremely tightly.
Fortunately, he had always lacked that immersive feeling and could still maintain a brief period of lucidity.
From beginning to end, he had been watching everything from a bystander’s perspective.
The medical report from the previous instance showed that his brain was paralyzed. When Ying Yu mentioned that one floor corresponded to one department before entering, Zhou Qi’an immediately became vigilant. The experience of being forcefully stimulated by the Ghost Market manager before, where he almost died of pain, was still fresh in his memory.
So, seizing the last bit of time, before opening the safety door, he used the Dream Pen to hypnotize himself: My brain is not paralyzed.
The two opposing hypnotic forces resisted each other, and the resulting effect slowed down the recovery of his memory.
Zhou Qi’an’s eyes opened hazily during the treatment. His scattered thoughts gradually gathered, and in the end, only one thought remained: he had to escape from this place quickly.
…
At the door of the treatment room, Mr. Si was waiting like a family member, not leaving for a single step.
Except that this waiting was a happy one.
Brain treatment would repeatedly and deeply dig out all of a person’s painful memories.
For a second-run player, whose memory and power were sealed by the game, recovery was only a matter of time in this kind of excavation. The game would absolutely not tolerate a factor that broke the data balance. At that time, everything Zhou Qi’an had would…
“Zero, zero, zero!”
He mimicked a computer voice in a malicious joke.
At the same time, he glanced at the other treatment rooms. All the players could go to hell.
In one of the rooms that Mr. Si had quickly glanced over, Shen Zhiyi, who was also lying on a hospital bed, still had a calm expression.
The nurse and doctor thought this person was dead. The doctor even kindly asked, “Is there anything you can’t get over?”
His blood-red eyes looked over. The excessive calmness for a moment made the doctor feel a chill down his spine.
Ignoring the presence of the NPC, Shen Zhiyi squinted his eyes.
“Qi’an might not be able to make it…”
Even if he did, he would suffer greatly.
There was nothing to hesitate about. The decision was made quickly. Shen Zhiyi slowly closed his eyes. In an instant, starting from around his body, all the light seemed to be swallowed up. The world’s colors were forcibly stripped away. The doctor could only see blurry black and white shadows in his eyes.
The shadow in the corner gradually swam back to its main body. A terrifyingly dark aura instantly enveloped the hospital room, and layers of sealed power began to be released from his body.
Shen Zhiyi was very clear that once his power was completely unsealed, the game would immediately lock onto his existence.
Of course, before that, he would first blow up the neurology department, crush the brains of all the NPCs, and the crisis would naturally be resolved.
The price was that he would probably be asleep for a very long time.
But it didn’t matter. When Qi’an had completely evolved and the Heart of Nightmare returned to its main body, they would have another chance to meet again.
The cold aura covered the surrounding cyclamen with layers of frost, and the flowers withered rapidly. With less than half of his power unsealed, the aura that leaked out was already making the doctor and nurse want to flee for their lives.
Suddenly, Shen Zhiyi seemed to feel something and reined in the unsealing progress a little. “Hmm?”
The shadow temporarily separated again. Shen Zhiyi turned his head, his gaze seeming to want to penetrate the wall and look in a certain direction.
Through several thick walls, he felt the aura of his own kind.
In the dark corridor.
Mr. Si was still pacing back and forth. “Hurry up and recover your memory.”
Some dissipated energy had already floated out of Zhou Qi’an’s treatment room, representing the simultaneous unsealing of memory and power.
Mr. Si, who was waiting for good news, became more and more excited. The next moment, however, he suddenly turned his head to look at treatment room number two.
Treatment room number two had actually erupted with a terrifying negative energy first.
“What’s going on?”
Except for Zhou Qi’an, who carried the holy relic, Mr. Si hadn’t paid much attention to the other players.
He inexplicably had a bad feeling. The instance had made enough mistakes recently. Any more mistakes, and it would be easy for him to be suspended.
Mr. Si was about to check the situation in treatment room number two where Shen Zhiyi was, when the next moment, an even bigger commotion came from treatment room number three. In the blink of an eye, darkness enveloped everything. An indescribably cold aura, like an opened floodgate, poured out completely in just a few tenths of a second.
Treatment room number three.
The electrode pads were working actively. Under the continuous stimulation, the College student’s face was completely devoid of blood. His eyes gradually became empty, and the color of his eyeballs was also changing.
“Heh…” A strange sound squeezed out of his throat. It was not a sound a human could make.
His formerly gentle aura seemed to have been washed clean by the electric current. In its place was an almost bottomless aura of destruction.
When others lost control, there was at least a gradual process. The College student here went straight to the top in one step.
He was the weakest of all the patients. After being sent to the treatment room, the doctor’s dark eyes never left him.
As a neurologist, the doctor loved to watch as a patient’s memories were forcefully dug out bit by bit, and then they would scream, in pain… It was a taste far superior to hyperthymesia. All the memories that had faded over time or due to self-protection mechanisms would all erupt.
The sudden emotional flood was enough to crush a person’s will.
The lights overhead flickered continuously. The negative energy in the room was so thick that it dripped.
“You…”
Feeling that something was wrong, the doctor who was enjoying himself instinctively wanted to retreat, but was first grabbed by the throat by a cold hand.
Pain.
But he couldn’t say where it hurt.
The doctor belatedly lowered his head. The next moment, he saw the most terrifying scene of his life. “No—”
When Mr. Si rushed in, the doctor’s body was melting like ice cream. Starting from his lower body, his liquefied flesh and blood splattered on the ground bit by bit. The remaining bit of skin tissue fell to the ground and quickly disappeared.
The doctor was thus forced to watch his own dissolution while still alive.
At this moment, the College student’s temperament was completely opposite to his usual self. He was a veritable executioner. Hearing the sound, he looked towards the door and a strange smile appeared on his pale face.
Mr. Si’s expression changed drastically. His body acted before his mind could think, and he rushed forward to try and stop the circulation machine.
His arrival startled the nurse. Her body regained a little mobility, and she screamed and rushed out.
No one paid any attention to the fleeing nurse. Mr. Si’s two terrifying eyes were fixed on the College student.
“It’s you, it’s actually you!!”
The moment the machine was turned off, Mr. Si’s expression was colder than ever before. The exaggeratedly red corners of his mouth were pulled back. It was because he had stolen a bite of its flesh back then that he had offended the other party, which led to him being stripped of the ‘Mao’ surname, and his power and wisdom were greatly reduced.
Staring at the seemingly innocent face in front of him, Mr. Si spat out two words from his three-lobed mouth with resentment: “Taisui.”
…
The nurse screamed all the way, making a huge commotion.
One wall away, the doctor treating Zhou Qi’an shivered inexplicably.
Monsters were even more particular about the food chain than humans. The moment the negative energy leaked out earlier, the temperature in treatment room number one, which was affected, dropped sharply. The cold air cleared Zhou Qi’an’s mind a lot.
His muscles were still trembling slightly from the electric current. Zhou Qi’an managed to turn his head and vaguely saw the door being opened.
“What are you running around for?” The white coats on this floor were all very irritable. The doctor grabbed the crazed nurse.
A different expression finally appeared on the nurse’s traditionally numb face:
“Medical malpractice… medical malpractice is killing people!”
The air in the treatment room fell silent for a short time.
The white coat ran to the next door to check the situation. While the nurse was distracted, Zhou Qi’an tried to bend his knuckles, bit by bit regaining his senses. The painful memories from before had caused him to struggle a few times, and the restraints had loosened a lot.
When Zhou Qi’an tried to continue to exert force, a burning pain came from the friction on his wrist.
In an instant, the knuckles of his clenched fist began to turn white. Zhou Qi’an pulled hard, and the restraint on one hand was snapped.
Snap.
The nurse noticed something and, the moment she turned her head, with a crisp “thud,” her head was knocked sideways by the staff.
His wrist felt like it was broken. Zhou Qi’an’s face was pale as he tore off the electrode pads and other restraints, and sat on the edge of the bed, his head spinning.
The nurse, who had been hit by a staff, was actually not dead. She held her cervical spine with both hands and slowly twisted her head back into place.
Even so, she kept repeating one sentence: “Medical malpractice…”
Who was making a scene?
Shen Zhiyi, or Ying Yu?
His head hurt too much. For the time being, he couldn’t think about more complex problems.
A thousand words were on the tip of his tongue, but they turned into a single curse, “…Damn.”
As expected of the neurology department. The skull was comparable to titanium alloy. The nurse wasn’t even dead after being hit by his staff.
He couldn’t be bothered to deliver the finishing blow. He didn’t know what was happening outside. It was even more chaotic than the intensive care unit.
After regaining a little mobility, Zhou Qi’an ran out.
He remembered that the doctor had just gone in the direction of the next door, so Zhou Qi’an first went to push open the door of the treatment room opposite, to avoid bumping into him.
The first push didn’t open it. On the second try, the moment the door opened, two white figures were standing inside.
It was the doctor and nurse from treatment room number two.
Zhou Qi’an gripped his staff tightly, but found that these two were completely out of it, both staring blankly at the hospital bed.
The temperature in this treatment room was also very low.
Zhou Qi’an followed the line of sight of the medical staff and looked over. His expression suddenly became wonderful.
He saw Shen Zhiyi half-sitting on the edge of the bed, his head slightly bowed, continuously connecting electrode pads to his head on his own. His other hand was nonchalantly placed on the machine’s button, continuously skipping levels to increase the intensity.
The electric current circulating in his body far exceeded what a human body could bear. Shen Zhiyi merely frowned slightly, completely unconcerned.
He was still in deep thought.
…It was the smell of Taisui.
Shen Zhiyi came to a judgment much faster than Mr. Si. From the aura leaking from the side hospital room, the College student was at least a Taisui clone.
“Strange.”
He actually hadn’t recognized it at all.
Even the game couldn’t have blinded his perception to this extent. The electric current from the brain treatment machine was crazily stimulating his nerve endings. Shen Zhiyi calmly analyzed, “Unless I hypnotized myself.”
He was very sure he had made a deal with Taisui and had asked for two pieces of purified Taisui meat, but he had no impression of the reward part.
“Taisui wouldn’t make a clone for no reason.”
The terrifying thing about cognitive blinding was this, not to mention it was stacked with a self-hypnosis buff. Everyone could see that something was wrong with the College student, but in everyone’s impression, the College student was always just the College student.
Even when reason had judged that there was a problem, everyone still took this fact for granted.
His fingertips kept tapping the red button on the machine. The intensity was already at its maximum, but it still wasn’t enough. Shen Zhiyi raised his head with a slight impatience. “Bring ten more machines.”
Connect them all to him.
The moment Shen Zhiyi raised his eyelids, a familiar figure came into view.
Zhou Qi’an was standing next to the medical staff, looking at this place with a complicated expression. After a long while, he slowly uttered a single word, “You…”
Are you here for physical therapy?
__
Author’s Note:
Mr. Si: …one card almost played three king bombs.
Regarding the previous introduction of Taisui, it is moved here:
[Second Place: Taisui
Danger Level: ???
Ability: Unknown, known for its mystery. Players have never seen it. Rumors about Taisui first came from the gossip of instance staff. It is said that Mr. Si offended Taisou and was stripped of his Mao character fate.
The other Mao rabbit staff are all called Mr. Mao, only he can only use other titles.]
