WTNL Chapter 21 [Arc 2]

Fukang Hospital
Chapter 21: Congratulations to the anchor for clearing the Lucky E Stigma!

Wen Jianyan returned to that transparent room once again.

Surrounded by intense light, countless large and small cameras encircled him, like prying eyes.

[The next live broadcast will begin in five minutes.]

It was this familiar voice again, the familiar countdown.

Wen Jianyan had thought he would be more used to it, but seeing this bizarre scene still made his heart tremble.

No progress at all…

He sighed, forcefully suppressing his uneasy emotions, and looked down to open his live broadcast interface.

There were two items in his backpack.

[Xiao Jie’s Tooth (Hard-level item from the Decai Middle School instance) Effect: Summons Xiao Jie’s hair to block damage for one minute]

[Mr. Mirror (Epic-level item from the Decai Middle School instance): Effect: ?]

According to the information Wen Jianyan had gathered during this period, items collected from instances that were Hard-level or above could be brought out and traded and could even be used in the next instance. If Decai Middle School hadn’t already been closed, making buying and selling its items too conspicuous, Wen Jianyan would have sold them long ago.

The apple seedling above the backpack was lush and green.

[Apple Seedling: LV1]

[Flower of Breaking Illusions: Developing]

[Fruit of Lies: Developing]

Wen Jianyan looked at the point balance in his account.

Mm, not bad, very abundant.

As long as these points could be brought in, he wouldn’t be in such a sorry state as last time. He might even be able to comfortably…

Before Wen Jianyan could finish this thought, the lively voice of the little assistant rang in his ears again:

“The amount of points an E-rank streamer can bring into the instance is: 1000 points. Please spend sparingly and strive to survive!”

Wen Jianyan: “…”

Great, converted, that’s only enough for ten minutes of survival time.

Are you deliberately jinxing me?!

His fists hardened.

He gritted his teeth and asked, “What if the streamer upgrades?”

The little assistant answered in a formulaic voice: “After the streamer upgrades, although the instance difficulty will increase accordingly, the point allowance that can be brought into the instance will also increase!”

“A small tip: Only points settled from viewership numbers can upgrade the streamer level. Points obtained from tips and completing tasks do not count towards this!”

“…”

Truly covering all bases, leaving absolutely no loopholes.

You guys are way too good at doing business.

Outside the transparent walls, countless small, grid-like rooms hung in mid-air. The streamers confined within them assumed various postures. Some rested their eyes with composed expressions, leaning against the partitions; some scrutinized their live broadcast interfaces like Wen Jianyan; others looked terrified and bewildered, forcefully slapping the grids and letting out silent screams.

It was like a frame-by-frame absurd comedy shrunk to the size of a cube.

A blood-red countdown floated on the wall.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

[Welcome to the Nightmare Live Broadcast Room. The next live broadcast will begin immediately.]

A deeply emotional female voice rang out:

[Our motto is—Entertainment to Death!]

Something was shaking.

A muffled vibration came from his side, like the crunching sound of tires rolling over small pebbles.

Wen Jianyan frowned and opened his eyes.

He found himself sitting on an old bus. The dizzying smell of engine oil floated in the air, and the seats and sunshades were filthy. The lighting was dim, and he could vaguely see other people sitting on the seats not far away.

“Are you alright?”

A concerned female voice came from the side.

Wen Jianyan turned his head and saw a girl wearing a blue and white dress with a bob cut sitting next to him, looking at him with concern:

“Carsick?”

“Yeah, a little.”

Wen Jianyan nodded, cooperatively holding his head slightly, revealing a pale, weak smile.

As he spoke, he raised his eyes and inconspicuously swept a glance over the interior of the bus.

The bus was half full, probably holding less than twenty people.

It was impossible for all these people to be streamers; it must be a mix of NPCs and streamers.

Some streamers were easy to spot, for example, those dressed overly out-of-place and fashionable, or those with truly extraordinary expressions—either too nervous and terrified or too calm and composed.

But there were also some people who were hard to distinguish from their appearance whether they were streamers or NPCs.

Like Wen Jianyan, for instance.

The clothes he wore into the instance this time were plain black trousers and a white dress shirt, a classic, timeless outfit, making it difficult to judge which faction he belonged to based on his attire.

After looking around, Wen Jianyan quickly spotted Su Cheng, who had entered the instance with him.

The other party was currently sitting in a window seat, his back to Wen Jianyan, seemingly looking out the window.

After confirming the other party’s location, Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze and fumbled in his bulging pocket. His fingertips touched something cold and heavy, like a cell phone.

He took out the phone and glanced at it.

Not bad, a smartphone.

The battery was full, but there was no signal.

The phone screen could be unlocked with his fingerprint. After unlocking it, a message immediately popped up on the screen:

[ID Card]

Name: Zhao Chengyi

Age: 23

Occupation: Intern Nurse at Fukang Private General Hospital

Related Plot: Not yet unlocked

[Initial survival time allocation in progress…]

“Hold on a little longer; we should be there soon.”

The girl clearly misunderstood his intention in taking out his phone. She fanned Wen Jianyan with her hand and comforted him, “I didn’t expect Fukang Hospital to be so far from the city center either… Sigh, but what choice do we intern nurses have? What else can we do?”

Wen Jianyan turned his head to look at the female NPC next to him and smiled slightly:

“Thanks, I feel much better.”

Under the other party’s focused gaze, the girl’s cheeks flushed slightly, and she averted her eyes a little: “I-it’s nothing, we’re all classmates.”

Wen Jianyan leaned in slightly, his smile deepening: “Since we still have some time before we arrive at the hospital, why don’t we chat for a bit.”

With the start of the broadcast, the “Integrity First” live broadcast room began to liven up.

[Ohoho! The dog scammer is turning on his charm again!]

[Damn it, why am I not the one being coaxed for information by wife? I want to be the one being hit on too!]

[Hahahahahaha am I the only one who noticed? The streamer’s identity this time is an intern nurse. It’ll be hard for him to coast by pretending to be an intern this time!]

[Exactly, I can’t help but suspect the live broadcast room deliberately put him in this instance to take revenge for last time.]

[Beautifully done!]

[Compared to watching the streamer casually clear the instance, I want to see him crash and burn more hahahahahaha!]

Soon, the bus jolted slightly, its speed gradually decreasing until it finally came to a stop.

Accompanied by the hoarse, ear-piercing sound of the handbrake, the bus swayed to a steady halt.

The driver at the very front turned around. His face looked exceptionally stiff and rigid under the light. He stared fixedly at everyone in the bus with murky eyes:

“We have arrived at Fukang Hospital. Everyone, get off.”

The NPCs and streamers in the front row stood up first and got off the bus one after another.

Through the dust-covered bus window, Wen Jianyan looked out.

It was already getting dark, and the surroundings were pitch black and silent. Looking out, aside from a winding dirt road, the area was practically desolate. The headlights of the bus were the only light source in the darkness.

A hospital with a modest footprint loomed before them. The old-fashioned building looked exceptionally dilapidated. The ghastly white paint peeled off the walls, revealing the earthy black structure beneath. The external signage also appeared mottled and blurred, but it was enough for Wen Jianyan to make out the text on it—

[Fukang Private General Hospital]

The dimness all around made this old hospital look particularly eerie.

Just as the crowd was getting off the bus one by one, a person suddenly lunged forward. He turned and rushed towards the driver, staring at him with bloodshot, crazed eyes. His pale fingers tightly gripped the driver’s arm, and despite the other’s resistance, he persistently reached for the steering wheel:

“No, no no no… I-I don’t want to go in!”

He seemed to be babbling nonsense due to extreme nervousness: “I beg you, drive, I-I-I don’t want to get off! I don’t want to get off!”

Judging by his studded pants and trendy mohawk, this person should be a streamer, and likely a rookie entering an instance for the first time.

Many streamers were already used to this sight, merely casting a brief glance before getting off the bus.

A few NPCs approached with concern, offering both comfort and persuasion, seemingly truly believing that he was just reacting so exaggeratedly because he wasn’t used to intern life.

The driver was even more impatient: “Hurry up, hurry up, get off quickly, don’t waste my time. My job is just to drop you off, I don’t care about the rest.”

Finally, the struggling and shouting rookie streamer still got off the bus.

The bus bumped along and drove away behind them, leaving only a trail of raised dust.

He huddled alone at the very back of the group, his pale face lowered, muttering something to himself, looking terrified and afraid.

Soon, a woman in a nurse’s uniform walked out from the hospital.

She had a gaunt figure, deep wrinkles on her face, and appeared to be around fifty years old. Her eyes were sharp and cold, and a nameplate was pinned to her clothes.

Xue Mingyan, the head nurse of Fukang Hospital.

“Why are you so late?” She lifted her thin, shriveled eyelids, her cold gaze sweeping over the sluggish crowd before her, frowning in disgust: “Hurry up, go change your clothes. We are short-handed. If you waste any more time, believe it or not, I’ll put a black mark in your internship records!”

Xue Mingyan waved her hand as if shooing flies, pointing them in a direction: “It’s on the first floor, go!”

Inside the locker room, nurse uniforms matching their sizes were already prepared.

Wen Jianyan pulled the curtain shut, then reached into his pocket and took out his phone. The last line of the text message still read:

[Initial survival time allocation in progress…]

It seemed that only when the plot was officially triggered, like when he made eye contact with Xu Yuan in the dorm room last time, would the initial survival time be allocated to his own account.

This at least indicated that streamers should still be safe during this period.

Right then, Xue Mingyan’s impatient voice came from outside the door:

“Are you done yet?”

Wen Jianyan snapped back to reality: “Coming right away.”

He replied loudly while lowering his head, his hands swiftly undoing his buttons. The collar of his shirt fell open, revealing a slender collarbone. Under the dim light, his skin was so white it seemed to glow. His chest and abdomen were firm, and beautiful muscle lines were faintly visible as he moved.

The sudden fanservice caused the live broadcast room to instantly blow up, all the viewers howling with excitement.

[Whoa?! The streamer has a great body.]

[Ahhhhhhh he’s showing skin! So satisfying to watch, thanks! (Tipped 50 points)]

[Holy crap, these muscle lines are too beautiful, is the streamer really not considering crossing over to the beauty section?]

[Quick quick quick, keep going keep going, this is what we paying viewers should be seeing! (Tipped 100 points)]

Wen Jianyan was completely unaware of the trends in his live broadcast room.

He changed his clothes at top speed. The blue nurse uniform assigned by the hospital was quickly pulled down, completely covering the young man’s beautiful body lines. The firm chest, the narrow waist, the blindingly white skin, all vanished in the blink of an eye.

The comments section was full of wails.

[Ahhhhhh nooooo, why does the streamer change clothes so fast, I haven’t seen enough!]

[Take it off again child, I really haven’t seen enough!]

[It would be great if the streamer could change his streaming direction, become a skin-showing beauty streamer, I would definitely pay for it!]

Wen Jianyan shoved his phone into his pocket, pulled open the curtain, and walked out.

The nurse’s station at Fukang Private General Hospital wasn’t very large. The dirty walls were painted white on top and green on the bottom. There were a few old desks, chairs, and cabinets, looking a bit cramped after more than ten intern nurses squeezed in.

A wall clock hung above, its hands moving slowly, emitting a ticking sound.

—It looked like it was a little over ten minutes to 10:00 PM.

Su Cheng stood not far from Wen Jianyan, but the two hadn’t greeted each other from beginning to end.

Before entering the instance, Wen Jianyan had warned him not to reveal that they knew each other inside the instance, otherwise, they could easily be figured out and targeted with specific strategies, just like Kong Shixing in the last instance.

After all, with Wen Jianyan currently carrying the hatred of several people, aside from ghosts and monsters, he also needed to be on guard against other streamers at all times.

“By the way…”

The girl who had struck up a conversation with Wen Jianyan on the bus earlier came over and asked with concern:

“How are you feeling now? Still dizzy?”

Earlier on the bus, Wen Jianyan had already coaxed quite a bit of information out of her.

This girl was named Cheng Mei. She was a classmate of this ID card of his, and was also an intern nurse sent to Fukang Hospital.

She was a local. Although she had never been to the suburbs where the hospital was located, she had vaguely heard rumors about Fukang Hospital.

It was said that this place was a bit eerie, that many strange things had happened in the hospital, and the mortality rate was absurdly high. This led to a scarcity of patients, and very few people were willing to come to Fukang Hospital for treatment. As a result, the place gradually fell into ruin. But unexpectedly, they suddenly wanted to take in a batch of intern nurses this time.

“Maybe it’s because there’s a sudden increase in patients?”

Cheng Mei guessed.

Wen Jianyan nodded thoughtfully: “Perhaps.”

While the two were talking, Xue Mingyan walked into the duty room. She clapped her hands, and the previously buzzing room immediately quieted down. Pairs of eyes—terrified, uneasy, or ignorant and innocent—looked over.

Under everyone’s gaze, Xue Mingyan cleared her throat and began to lecture the intern nurses before her.

From the hospital rules to internship discipline, grade distribution, and so on and so forth…

Finally, three minutes later, she stopped her speech.

Xue Mingyan picked up her cup to wet her throat and began to get to the point: “Although today is your first day of internship, Fukang Hospital is short-handed. So tonight, you will all participate in the night shift patrol. Work hard, no slacking off, understand?”

She raised a bony finger, pointed to the clock, and continued:

“The first round of patrol starts at 10:00 PM and ends in two hours. Gather back on the first floor, and then I will assign you the next round of patrol tasks.

You can go to your respective floors now to familiarize yourselves. If a patient rings the bell or needs something, you must get there as soon as possible. If there’s an emergency you can’t handle, come to the nurse’s station to find me. Did you hear me?”

“Yes…”

“Understood…”

Sparse replies rang out.

Xue Mingyan narrowed her eyes, scanned the intern nurses before her, and began to assign tasks: “You, you, and you, and you, go to the second floor.”

“You three, stay with me on the first floor.”

“You two, go to the fourth floor.”

Her gaze turned towards Wen Jianyan’s direction, her sharp gray eyes narrowing slightly behind her glasses: “You, and those two next to you, go to the first basement floor.”

Soon, the patrol floors for all intern nurses were assigned.

Cheng Mei and two others were assigned to the third floor, while Wen Jianyan, Su Cheng, and another NPC were assigned to the first basement floor.

After the floor assignments were complete, a familiar voice rang in the ears of all streamers:

[Survival Time Allocation Complete.]

“This instance is a normal time-limited instance, duration is nine hours.

(Surviving from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM constitutes clearing the instance)”

Then, after repeating the method for streamers to acquire points, the voice said passionately: “The audience is God, popularity is everything! Please fight for your live broadcast room!”

Wen Jianyan and the other two walked forward along the dimly lit corridor.

He took out his phone and glanced at it.

The blood-red countdown had already begun.

Good heavens, the initial survival time this time was actually a full hour!

Wen Jianyan froze slightly.

It tripled!

Compared to nine hours, it was still a drop in the bucket, but after experiencing the hellish twenty-minute start last time, seeing this incredibly normal initial survival time actually made him feel a bit touched for some reason.

[Not bad, not bad, although the initial survival time is still not much this time, at least it’s not twenty minutes!]

[Congratulations to the streamer for clearing his name of having E-rank luck!]

[But the persona of the ‘crash and burn’ streamer hasn’t collapsed. After all, the E-rank luck crashing and burning is also a form of crashing and burning!]

[Anyway! Congratulations, how moving!]

The corridor was deep and empty. The doors of the wards on both sides were all tightly closed. It was pitch black inside, not letting out a single sound or sliver of light, like silent eye sockets staring fixedly at the newcomers.

The smell of disinfectant permeated the air.

On the mottled, fading walls to the side hung recommendation photos of the doctors. Under the dim light, their smiles were all identical, even the curve of their mouths being very similar, appearing exceptionally blurry and hollow.

The footsteps of the three people echoed in the corridor. The further they walked, the stronger the invisible, spine-chilling pressure became, making their hearts sink and their spines freeze.

“Um… so how much longer do we have to walk?”

The temperature in the air gradually grew colder. Su Cheng shivered uncomfortably and asked.

“Didn’t the head nurse just say? There’s a dedicated elevator to the first basement floor.”

The NPC answered obliviously as he walked forward, seemingly completely unaware that they were walking away from the crowd: “Don’t worry, it should be just up ahead.”

Soon, the three people turned the corner of the corridor. Not far ahead, under the ghastly light, a mottled, old elevator door appeared before them. It looked a size larger than normal elevators and presented a dull iron-gray color under the light, inexplicably giving off an extremely heavy, oppressive feeling.

A sign hung above it: [Special Elevator, Keep Out]

Wen Jianyan stepped forward and looked at the map posted on the wall. It marked the architectural layout of the entire Fukang Hospital:

Fifth floor: Director’s Office and Conference Room

Fourth floor: Operating Rooms

Third floor: Obstetrics and Gynecology Ward

Second floor: Radiology Department and Archives

First floor: Lobby, Emergency Ward

His gaze moved down inch by inch, and the ominous premonition in his heart was gradually fulfilled—

First basement floor: Morgue

Wen Jianyan: “……………………”

The massive iron-gray elevator doors in front of them stared at them coldly, as if silently radiating a chilling aura.

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[So this is the kind of special elevator it is!!]

[Dedicated to corpses, lol.]

[I remember during the first round of patrol in this instance, the first basement floor had the highest mortality rate. Basically, very few streamers sent down there could come back up alive.]

[Amazing, to think it’s such a dangerous place. I feel like my previous guess was a bit off. Wait guys, I’m gonna go check the survival times in other streamers’ live broadcast rooms.]

[I’m going too, I’m going too.]

[Take me with you!]

[I’m back. I saw some initial times of two hours and three hours on my end.]

[I also just came back from next door; there’s even one with five hours over there, that luck is too good.]

[This side is also three hours.]

[And this one…]

Soon, the viewers who had scattered to other live broadcast rooms returned. After comparing the survival times of all the streamers in the instance, everyone fell into silence:

[…]

Well, it seems the congratulations earlier were truly a bit premature.

So…

In the end, you still have the least amount of time!!!!

__

Author’s Note:

The persona of the ‘crash and burn’ streamer has crashed back into place!!

Wen Jianyan: “…”

Thank you; I’ve already put on my mask of pain.

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