A full half a minute passed before Shen Zhiyi could come back to his senses. The soft, long hair of the person beside him flowed through the gaps between his fingers, each strand tickling his heart.
He remained stiff and motionless, as if any slight movement at this moment could awaken Zhou Qi’an and shatter this beautiful dream.
After a long while, it was only when the abnormal body temperature seeped through the layers of clothing that Shen Zhiyi finally moved again.
He sighed softly and reached out to tidy the other’s messy hair.
If this instance hadn’t been designed by the Whaler’s Association, judging from the outcome, Shen Zhiyi might have given it a five-star rating. But after factoring in the elements of the designers and Zhou Qi’an being tormented to the point of sickness, the ten-point instance was now minus one, making it negative nine.
The missing negative eleven points would have to be filled with the blood of the Whaler’s Association.
The shadow was speechless.
The shadow calmly recalculated; it seemed to be negative infinity.
In the dim corridor, this scene fell upon the eyes of the others, and their expressions varied.
Muge, the young man, and the others watched without a care, oblivious to the ambiguous atmosphere in the air. Players were generally drawn to the strong. Androgynous beauty, extreme calmness and wisdom, and a hint of cruelty—when these factors were combined in one person, it was normal for anyone to be moved.
Ying Yu directly ignored the mortal world’s matters of love and went alone to the window, gazing at the inpatient building on the other side, using some means to investigate the situation inside.
Only the college student was considering the most practical problem: what if Brother Shen found out about the affair between Brother Zhou and Mu Tianbai?
He was trembling with anxiety.
Without the sun, it was impossible to intuitively feel the passage of time from the color of the sky. As everyone waited with a slight sense of anxiety, a heavy rain began to fall outside.
The wind howled and the rain poured. The smell that drifted in through the window cracks was thick with the inextricable stench of blood and rot.
Ying Yu put away his special binoculars. “Someone has come out of the inpatient building.”
The college student quickly went over to take a look. “It should be Dr. Z.”
At this time, if a human-form NPC were to walk out so brazenly, it could only be Dr. Z.
After speaking, the college student was suddenly stunned.
The light outside was very poor. After the power in the morgue building was turned off, relying only on the bit of light projected from the inpatient department, he should have had difficulty seeing the situation below clearly under normal circumstances. Yet he could accurately identify the woman’s facial features.
Was this a benefit of his body’s evolution?
Before he could think about it in detail, there was a movement behind him.
Zhou Qi’an, who had been asleep for a while, was awakened by the sound of the rain. His eyes held a trace of daze. Suddenly, he realized something and leaned back slightly, seeing clearly the person he was leaning on.
One of Shen Zhiyi’s arms was still tightly wrapped around him.
The college student on the side was desperately winking, mouthing the words: Think of Brother Shen, think of Brother Shen!
Brother Shen would be quietly shattering to pieces outside.
Zhou Qi’an was speechless.
What is all this?
The college student was making faces, his features rising and falling like mountain ranges. It was hard for even Shen Zhiyi to ignore. He gave him a deep look, then retracted his gaze.
The high fever had not yet subsided. Zhou Qi’an began to cough lowly after waking up. The viral contamination from Dr. Z herself was much stronger than that of ordinary patients. Even drinking the extraction liquid could not stop the itching that was spreading through his body.
He coughed until his face was flushed. His peripheral vision caught Shen Zhiyi’s tightly furrowed brow, and he waved his hand. “I’m fine.”
Looking at it from another angle, this was also a good thing.
The deepening infection had not attracted any medical staff. Without even looking, he could predict that the entire inpatient department had gone through a round of bloodbath.
Zhou Qi’an coughed until his face was red, but a sense of endless lingering fear and relief welled up in his heart.
His mother’s and superior’s appetite was but a drop in the ocean compared to Dr. Z’s.
Could it be that the Taisui flesh also had different grades? No, the Taisui in the instance was clearly more powerful. He was still more inclined to believe that his mother had eaten processed Taisui flesh.
Who would have processed it for her?
A long, powerful hand was still gently patting his thin back, patiently helping the young man catch his breath. When Zhou Qi’an looked up and saw Shen Zhiyi, a thought quickly flashed through his mind…
Could it be him?
He knew so much about ghostly beings, and his age was beyond imagination. If one were to say Shen Zhiyi knew how to process Taisui flesh, Zhou Qi’an wouldn’t find it strange at all.
There were too many people around right now. After they got out, he would have to confirm this himself.
Suddenly, the foundation of the entire building trembled. Plaster fell from the ceiling above. The shaking sent a cold sweat down everyone’s spine.
Zhou Qi’an lost the last of his sleepiness.
Shen Zhiyi helped him up, glanced in the direction of the window, and said without looking too closely, “It’s the elephant seal fighting with someone.”
Zhou Qi’an’s prediction from a while ago was correct. Having relied on the convalescence dream to suppress her appetite for so long, upon waking, Dr. Z’s demand for food was beyond imagination. The mutated elephant seal, weighing thousands of pounds, was like a mobile meat burger in Dr. Z’s eyes.
Ying Yu spoke up, “Go up a few more floors.”
With the elephant seal’s size, its fighting could very well affect the third floor. As he spoke, a tail with immense power swung over, smashing the walls of the entire floor to pieces. A few remaining flesh-mound monsters took the opportunity to slip in. Everyone quickly moved to a higher point, and the young man even put away his lighting tool.
The fierce wind howled into the building.
Zhou Qi’an’s expression hardened. The morgue was no longer as impregnable as before. The flesh-mound monsters had been completely unable to enter this place before.
After a disheveled run up to the eighth floor, the college student’s barely healed wound showed signs of reopening. He said, “Why don’t we throw some bombs or something down there?”
Han Li’s expression was priceless upon hearing this. How long had it been? How did the naive goody-two-shoes from before now talk about bombs all the time?
Zhou Qi’an rejected this suggestion.
They couldn’t be sure of the elephant seal’s intelligence yet. A single careless move could very well lead to the elephant seal and Dr. Z joining forces to target them first.
“You can’t be reckless when clearing an instance. You have to be steady. Safety first.”
Zhou Qi’an made his plans with a solemn voice. He looked at Wangcai. “Dr. Z is the final boss, after all. The elephant seal has little chance of winning, but she will inevitably be seriously injured. Once she’s injured, you use the decoy card to disguise yourself as Mr. Si and draw her fire.”
Mr. Si, having eaten the Taisui flesh, was now Dr. Z’s number one enemy. As long as he went out, he would immediately attract her attention.
Zhou Qi’an then looked at Muge and the young man. “The moment Dr. Z is distracted is the perfect opportunity for you to launch a sneak attack!”
And I’ll be focused on safety first.
Muge, the young man, and Wangcai were speechless.
The corner of Muge’s mouth twitched. She looked at the others who hadn’t been named, including Zhou Qi’an. “Then what about you guys?”
“You are the first wave. If you fail, we will go up. A Dr. Z who has been sneak-attacked by you again will be even more heavily injured. There’s no reason for us not to succeed.”
A “you,” and a “we.” The distinction was crystal clear.
Zhou Qi’an’s tone was serious, and his planning was methodical, so much so that Muge had to replay it in her mind several times to confirm that the plan was really that shameless.
And Shen Zhiyi’s praise was written all over his face. “This time, it’s foolproof.”
Muge was speechless.
So if a few of us die, it doesn’t count as a failure, right!
The plan was ultimately decided this way. After all, they really hadn’t contributed much in the instance before.
With the main mission at its most critical moment, no one had any more complaints.
After waiting for a while longer, when the commotion outside had quieted down a bit, everyone went downstairs again.
Zhou Qi’an gave his protective suit to Han Li and had her walk in front to clear out any flesh-mound monsters they might encounter.
Her electric skills could be released from a distance, so taking care of a few roadblocks was no problem.
After going downstairs without any major incidents, they finally arrived back at the main hall. They each found cover and carefully observed the situation outside.
When they went upstairs earlier, they had turned off the lights in the morgue. They could only rely on their evolved eyes to barely watch the battle outside. The elephant seal, which had been terrifyingly formidable before, now had a chunk of flesh missing near its incisors, its tooth roots clearly visible. The land, after all, was not like the bottom of the lake where it was in its element.
The elephant seal’s massive body was slightly bent. A third of its thick back, both skin and flesh, had been gouged out. The pain made it twitch crazily on the ground, but the blood flowed even faster with the convulsions.
Not far in front of it, Dr. Z’s apple-shaped face, which had been somewhat cute, now showed a hint of ferocity due to a wound that exposed the bone.
Dr. Z and Zhou’s mother had one thing in common: no matter how powerful they were, they had not yet completely shed their human species.
Being human meant it was easier to bleed, get injured, and die.
With the wound on her face and half an arm bitten off, Dr. Z was in extremely poor condition.
After confirming the situation outside, Zhou Qi’an, who was peeking from behind the ruins, made a gesture. “You’re up.”
His tone was so righteous that the three who were about to set off almost stumbled.
In terms of ability to break a deadlock, Zhou Qi’an was stronger. But when it came to things like kiting monsters and positioning, the veteran players were far more skilled than him.
Wangcai slipped out through a hole in the wall created by the fighting on the other side. He walked forward quickly for a distance, then directly selected Mr. Si’s identity and activated the decoy card.
At the same time, Dr. Z seemed to sense something and immediately looked over.
Behind a broken wall of the morgue building, Zhou Qi’an witnessed this scene and relaxed slightly, a look of satisfaction flashing in his eyes.
It took Dr. Z a few seconds to notice when Wangcai slipped out, which was enough to show that her current state was worse than it looked.
Ahead, under the dim light, the loathsome figure of a rabbit-headed monster appeared so unexpectedly in Dr. Z’s eyes.
“It’s… you.”
The woman’s mouth was full of flesh that did not belong to her. As she spoke, bright red juice dripped down from between her teeth and the corners of her mouth.
Wangcai got goosebumps from her stare.
The woman was staring at his stomach, or rather, his belly. He could sense this with precision, as if the next moment she would rush up and disembowel him.
What on earth had Mr. Si done? As a staff member, why did he incur so much hatred from the boss?
Not the next moment, but the very next second, Dr. Z’s slender figure was like a sharp blade. In her rapid pounce, her sharp nails went straight for Wangcai’s stomach.
Strike while the iron is hot.
Muge and the young man seized the opportunity. With the help of acceleration items, they each took up their equipment and charged at Dr. Z.
The closer they got, the more pleasantly surprised they were to find that the boss had more wounds than they had imagined. One of her shoulder blades was completely caved in, a gift from some kind-hearted monster.
Though it was supposed to be a three-person squad, with the momentum now in their favor, Ying Yu and Han Li also took action.
Dr. Z, who was charging forward, felt a jolt of electricity, and her arm went numb. She whipped her head around.
In an instant, all their trump-card items were used on her.
Dr. Z hurriedly moved to counter.
Suddenly, the lights in the morgue turned on. The abrupt brightness made Dr. Z flinch for a moment. The Rubik’s cube floating in mid-air accurately shot out a red light, and a bloody hole was opened in the woman’s neck.
“Chance!” Seeing that Dr. Z was injured by Ying Yu’s cube, Han Li, almost over-drafting her energy, further released electricity at Dr. Z’s wound. Muge and the young man held nothing back either; one swung his blade at her head, while the other used an iron chain to try and entangle Dr. Z.
From behind, Wangcai also landed a vicious killing blow.
Zhou Qi’an, who was staying out of the battlefield, stood by the switch, praising the durability of the morgue’s public facilities.
He had tried turning on the lights earlier just to see what would happen. He never expected them to actually turn on, despite the dilapidated state of the place.
The high fever seemed to have subsided a bit. Zhou Qi’an was feeling refreshed and invigorated. The frustration of being suppressed and almost dying in the dream was finally gone.
To prevent the elephant seal from having a final burst of energy, he never stepped out of the morgue building.
Rainwater and blood splattered in together. After a dazzling series of attacks, in the curtain of rain, a figure fell vertically backward to the ground.
In her struggle, the desire and greed on her pale half-face still had not dissipated. “Give me…”
Dr. Z stretched out her arm. Even though the decoy item’s effect had worn off, she still stubbornly stared at Wangcai’s stomach. “Give it back to me…”
Give her back the Taisui flesh.
The throes of death made the feeling of hunger even more intense.
“Hungry, so hungry, give me meat…”
“Give me!”
Towards the end, the woman actually bit off her own tongue and began to chew and swallow it raw.
Wangcai’s expression was one of utter horror, looking even worse than when he was forced to fight the woman earlier.
His mouth was filled with a mixture of blood and flesh from various NPCs. The blood and meat all clogged his throat. As he swallowed, the woman tilted her head back and wailed in pain, exhaling a cold, gloomy breath.
In the end, Dr. Z actually choked to death.
This terrifying scene made the players involuntarily step back. The word ‘hungry’ echoed in their ears for a long time. It was only when the system’s prompt descended in the cold wind that everyone gradually came back to their senses.
[Final Main Mission — Kill Dr. Z has been completed]
[Five-and-a-half-star instance Cyclamen Hospital has been cleared]
[Clearance reward of 24,444 points has been sent to your backpack]
Hearing the instance’s level from the mechanical voice again, everyone couldn’t help but exchange glances.
Unlike the false joy of clearing the level in the dream, the feeling at this moment was indescribable. Perhaps it was because the instance level had changed, but this instance was filled with malice, as if it had never intended to let anyone walk out alive from the start.
Their joy of survival was far greater than ever before.
[Experience gained in this game: 30,000. Use all for personal evolution?]
For the first 5.5-star instance, both the points and the experience awarded by the game were incredibly generous. Zhou Qi’an directly chose to evolve completely.
[Enhancement in progress, please do not close the panel]
[Enhancement complete]
[Blood Vessels (Evolution Complete): You now possess a complete psychic physique.
Special Psychic Physique: The player can judge the intensity of yin energy by physical perception alone, and has a certain probability of seeing fragments of a deceased person’s life experiences through their relics.
Note: Unlike other psychic bodies, existing bonds give you a chance to see spirits that have already passed.]
Zhou Qi’an frowned. Spirits that have already passed? Does that mean souls that had originally disappeared?
[Limbs (Advanced Evolution State): Strength increased by 7% on the original basis.
Vocal Cords (Intermediate Evolution State): Mom no longer has to worry about you using a voice changer to switch to a female voice.
Heart (Intermediate Evolution State): After repeated stimulation, it is about to awaken. Get ready to be flustered.]
[Friendly reminder, among the first-level organs, only your brain has not been developed. Why not?]
“This expressive ability…” Zhou Qi’an had a look of disgust. The game must have taken night classes from Shen Zhiyi.
He didn’t believe the game was kindly reminding him. The difficulty of evolving the brain was definitely not simple. But even knowing it was a trap, he had to jump in. Only first-level organs could drive the evolution of some other organs; the reverse was not true.
Next instance, it was time to increase his brain capacity.
There was no sign of the sky brightening again. The sound of footsteps came from the distance.
Clearing a 5.5-star instance had everyone on edge. Even though they knew it was the safe settlement time, everyone immediately raised their guard.
The college student had sharp eyes. “It’s Mr. Si.”
As Mr. Si approached, the expressions of the several players who were immersed in joy changed slightly.
Hearing Zhou Qi’an mention Mr. Si was one thing; seeing him with their own eyes was another. Unlike the closed beta players, after the game’s public launch, the staff were officially responsible for guiding the players. So, the public launch players had almost all met Mr. Si in the novice village.
Now, Mr. Si gave them a completely different feeling. His eyes, red to the point of being black, were exceptionally strange.
“Congratulations on clearing the instance.”
Mr. Si’s lips stretched into a grin. He was in a surprisingly good mood, but his gaze carried a hint of coldness when it swept over the college student.
The college student subconsciously hid behind Zhou Qi’an.
Mr. Si sneered at the sight, then turned and led everyone away.
Zhou Qi’an narrowed his eyes. According to the head-swapping game the game had implemented at the incubation base, it was very likely that the staff members were once players themselves.
A normal person who ate the Taisui flesh would go mad and become strong, but for Mr. Si, it might have other uses, such as ensuring his personal consciousness would not dissipate and be assimilated.
Walking in the darkness, the rabbit was in high spirits from his good fortune.
This instance had unlimited potential. By making good use of the swamp outside and the resentful bones of the dead elephant seal, there was still room for it to be upgraded to six stars. Perhaps it could become the first six-star instance operator.
Just as he was thinking, the sky lit up.
…It was forcibly lit up.
Rumble, rumble.
The silence of the night was completely shattered.
Thick smoke rose into the air. Accompanied by a few roars, the inpatient building was engulfed in flames.
The wildly dancing, blazing flames easily illuminated half the sky. The night wind fanned the flames, causing them to shoot even higher into the sky. Sparks spread to some explosives nearby. On a stormy night, it was impossible to tell if the loud bangs were thunderstorms or explosions.
Mr. Si’s smile instantly vanished. He whipped around.
At the same time, Ying Yu pushed up his glasses, the college student’s eyes widened, Shen Zhiyi looked over with a smile, and Han Li had an “I knew it” expression.
They were all looking at one person.
In the intersection of their gazes, Muge suddenly found the long-lost answer.
“Map-wiper, don’t tell me you’re the map-wiper?!”
In this instance, not only was there a sacred artifact holder, but also a map-wiper? Muge’s expression changed slightly. Someone had once posted a thread speculating whether these two were the same person, but it hadn’t caused much of a stir.
Zhou Qi’an was speechless.
Why are you looking at me! I’m just a weak patient with a high fever, okay?
“It… was… not… me,” Zhou Qi’an took a deep breath, practically gritting out the three words.
The fire had started spreading from the pharmacy’s location. He was in the morgue building; how could he have had time to set a fire?
The rotting cyclamen burned in the flames, releasing the most authentic and foul smell. Inhaling it into his lungs, Zhou Qi’an couldn’t help but start coughing again.
There were still some living patients in the inpatient department frantically running out. In the terrifying flames, the torrential rain had strangely stopped.
Without rain, the fire burned even more fiercely.
After one of the figures got out of the main entrance, unlike the other patients who were hastily evacuating, she held a torch high and walked this way.
As she got closer, the firelight illuminated the face of Dr. Z, who had died with her eyes open.
“Dead, finally dead,” the female patient looked at the corpse with a gleeful gaze. After examining it for a long while, she specifically knelt down, and with her five fingers formed into a claw, she forcefully snapped the corpse’s throat. The blood on her hands seemed to make her feel more comfortable.
Withdrawing her hand from the shattered blood vessels, the female patient only looked at Zhou Qi’an.
She stood up, thought for a moment, and handed the torch to Zhou Qi’an.
The sky after the rain was a mix of two colors. The female patient was silent for a moment, then said, “You are a good person.”
Leaving only that brief sentence, the female patient turned and, like the other fleeing patients, she began to walk towards the endless dark world outside. Her slender body looked empty in the night wind, her scattered hair almost merging with the darkness.
The sudden rain had just stopped, and the night wind was bleak.
Zhou Qi’an watched the female patient’s retreating back until she had walked all the way out of Cyclamen Hospital. He turned his head, and Mr. Si was staring angrily at him, holding the torch high.
“…”
