WTNL Chapter 22.2

Fukang Hospital
Chapter 22.2—The first underground floor: Mortuary

The already narrow room suddenly felt much more cramped with three people squeezing in. The air was murky, icy cold, and stagnant. Whether it was an illusion or not, the temperature here seemed even lower than outside, practically biting cold.

Wen Jianyan inconspicuously glanced down at his phone screen.

[Complete the first basement floor patrol task within two hours.]
[Completion: 92%]

Stay calm, stay calm; it’s almost over!

Wen Jianyan looked down and made a checkmark in his notebook: “Zhang Hua, 24 years old—”

His voice got stuck in his throat, unable to go up or down.

He stared intently at the small booklet in his hands, his lips pressed into a pale line, his expression cold and solemn.

Su Cheng noticed something was wrong: “What is it?”

Wen Jianyan slowly raised his head, opened his mouth, and only made a sound two seconds later:

“There… should be two corpses here.”

Now, Su Cheng and Qi Shen’s faces also turned pale.

Qi Shen stammered: “No, no, no, that can’t be, right? Is it, is it a recording error?”

He shook his head in disbelief: “Or maybe someone has already—”

Suddenly, a soft sound came from outside the door.

“Jingle.”

…

Ahhhhhhhhhh I fuck your second great-uncle, biological father, and ancestors ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Wen Jianyan’s pupils contracted, his soul practically frightened out of his body.

The next second, a familiar voice simultaneously rang in Su Cheng and Wen Jianyan’s ears.

[Congratulations to the streamer for triggering the scene: Hide and Seek]
[Occurrences: Three times]
[Hiding countdown: 01:00]
[Do not stay in one place for too long.]

“Jingle.”

The sound became clearer, seemingly slowly approaching in their direction.

Wen Jianyan had triggered similar scenes before, and this time he immediately reacted, beginning to map out a route in his mind.

The third morgue was the innermost. To get to the other morgues, one had to pass through the narrow corridor outside, which highly risked colliding with that slowly approaching sound. In that case, the most suitable hiding place was only right here—

Wen Jianyan sprang up and pulled open the doors of the cold storage units:

“Quick, get in!”

This morgue had exactly four cold storage units. With the three of them, they could just fit perfectly.

Qi Shen’s face was as pale as paper: “You, you’re joking, right?”

The corpse cold storage unit, only large enough to fit one person lying down, gaped open, exposing a pitch-black cavity that seemed to be silently staring at him.

Wen Jianyan’s voice was urgent: “Do you have any other ideas?”

[Hiding countdown: 00:42]

“Jingle.”

The sound of the bell outside drew even closer.

Compared to being caught by whatever corpse was outside, climbing into a corpse cold storage alone suddenly became the more acceptable option.

With a look of facing death head-on, Su Cheng bent down and squeezed into a cold storage unit.

Wen Jianyan turned to Qi Shen: “Quick!”

“…”

Qi Shen swallowed hard, seemingly having finally made up his mind, and crawled in, his hands and feet trembling.

[Hiding countdown: 00:06]

Wen Jianyan closed the doors of their cold storage units at top speed. By this time, the bell sound from outside was already close at hand, terrifyingly clear through the thin layer of wall.

Gritting his teeth, he swiftly crouched and ducked inside, using his palm to catch the cold storage door and cleverly pulling it shut with the momentum of his dive!

“Clack.”

The cold storage unit closed.

[Hiding countdown: 00:00]

Total darkness before his eyes.

The temperature inside the cold storage was extremely low, so cold it made his teeth chatter. A strong smell of formalin lingered at the tip of his nose, and the iron walls on all four sides oppressed his chest and limbs. Only the sound of heavy, erratic breathing could be heard in his ears.

Aside from that, only an unnerving dead silence remained.

Wen Jianyan held his breath, fearfully listening to the movements outside.

[Searching countdown: 01:00]

“Jingle,” “Jingle.”

The sound of footsteps scraping against the floor echoed outside the unit door, accompanied by waves of crisp bell sounds, exceptionally chilling.

Time ticked by second by second, feeling so long it almost induced despair. The dark, heavy air pressed down on him, practically suffocating in such a confined space.

An unknown amount of time passed.

The bell sounded, and footsteps gradually faded away.

[Searching countdown: 00:00]
[Hiding countdown: 03:00]

This time, there was a three-minute hiding time.

Wen Jianyan pushed open the cold storage door, jumping out almost the exact second the voice faded. On the other side, although Su Cheng was a beat slower, he also crawled out.

The third morgue was completely empty.

Even including…

That corpse that was originally lying on the iron table; only a white sheet remained draped over it, one end trailing to the ground, still swaying slightly.

Wen Jianyan felt a surge of cold air shoot straight to the top of his skull.

He stepped forward quickly and yanked the NPC Qi Shen out of another cold storage unit: “We can only hide in a place once; next time, we’ll be found.”

Qi Shen was so terrified his face was blank, seemingly having lost the ability to struggle or speak.

Wen Jianyan didn’t care. He and Su Cheng took one side each, dragging the weak-kneed Qi Shen and walking briskly outwards, hurrying through the corridor and running into the second morgue.

Just like before, they repeated the process.

After stuffing Qi Shen into a cold storage unit, they each found a unit and hid inside.

[Searching countdown: 03:00]

This time, the bell sounds wandering outside the unit doors had become two, echoing in the vast space.

[Searching countdown: 00:00]
[Hiding countdown: 10:00]

For the third time, the hiding time increased to ten minutes.

Wen Jianyan left his hiding spot. He looked up at the second morgue before him, and his scalp instantly went numb.

All the cold storage unit doors before him were wide open, exposing their hollow, pitch-black interiors.

Every single one was completely empty.

The corpses they had previously pushed in and locked away had all vanished into thin air.

Su Cheng’s face was also the color of gold foil, but having survived the baptism of an instance once before, his emotions were temporarily stable. However, Qi Shen to the side was on the verge of a breakdown, burying his head deep in his arms and mumbling something under his breath.

Wen Jianyan didn’t have time to waste words on him.

He hauled Qi Shen up: “Let’s go to the next room.”

Just like the second one, all the cold storage doors in the first morgue were wide open. The cold, bluish-white light spilled down from overhead, like invisible nooses tightening around their necks.

After stuffing Qi Shen into a cold storage unit together, Su Cheng hid in a unit near the corridor.

Taking advantage of the remaining time, Wen Jianyan took a few steps forward—

The elevator and stairs were not far away, looking practically like a glorious gate of life waving at him.

He sighed, withdrew his gaze, and was just about to walk toward a unit facing the outer corridor.

As he passed by the cold storage unit where Qi Shen was hiding, Wen Jianyan’s footsteps involuntarily paused. He froze, turning his head to look in the direction the sound came from.

The morgue was dead silent.

Through the thick iron door of the unit, he could faintly hear the contents of the other party’s vacant mumbling:

“Sister, sister, sister…”

[Searching countdown: 10:00]

Lying in the cold storage unit, Wen Jianyan turned on his phone, staring thoughtfully at the lit screen before him.

Sister?

Is that the corpse that disappeared from the third morgue? If so, what does Qi Shen, as her younger brother, know? Is this high-difficulty quest issued by the system—to save the NPC Qi Shen—just to increase the difficulty, or are there other considerations?

Outside the cold storage unit, bell sounds and footsteps echoed one after another. Wen Jianyan could almost vividly imagine the terrifying scene of countless pale corpses wandering through the morgue.

Just then, a harrowing scream rang out from outside:

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh—”

…It was Qi Shen.

Wen Jianyan froze slightly.

Judging by the direction and distance, the sound likely came from the third morgue.

Then, through the iron door, he heard the bell sounds and footsteps all pause, followed by all the footsteps beginning to move again, chasing towards the source of the sound, gradually moving away from the first morgue—

At the same time, the system notification chimed in his ear: [Ding! The high-difficulty side quest is about to fail!]

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Sigh, it failed as expected.]

[To this day, it seems no streamer has successfully completed this quest in Fukang Hospital. Truly worthy of being the only high-difficulty side quest in a C-rank instance…]

[Sigh, it’s mainly because there’s really no other way. They already stuffed him in a safe place, but the NPC Qi Shen just had to court death and run out. What streamer could stop him.]

[But the streamer is already very strong. I remember the survival rate in the Fukang Hospital underground morgue is super low, right?]

[Yeah, under the circumstances just now, the fact that the streamer could react immediately and hide in the cold storage, that reaction speed is truly badass.]

[Although he didn’t complete the high-difficulty side quest, surviving is already great. Although the morgue is highly difficult, I remember the rewards are truly rich…]

While the viewers were discussing animatedly in the live broadcast room, suddenly, with a soft “clack,” the cold storage unit Wen Jianyan was in was pushed open from the inside.

Following that, the young man carefully poked his head out.

“…”

The live broadcast room fell into dead silence.

[???]

[??? The time isn’t up yet, right?]

[It’s not!]

[What is the streamer coming out for now! Courting death?!]

After confirming there were no corpses standing guard outside the unit, Wen Jianyan nimbly slipped out of the cabinet and dashed towards the elevator.

The viewers were even more confused:

[Ah? What is the streamer trying to do?]

[I can’t understand anymore…]

[The third round of hide-and-seek is about to end, is he suddenly trying to run now or what?]

Wen Jianyan was seen charging towards the elevator with a clear goal—

To the independent power switch nearby.

With a “click,” the power to the entire morgue was cut off, and his surroundings instantly plunged into pitch-black darkness where he couldn’t see his own fingers.

[No way, no way? Does the streamer actually think this is the last instance?]

[I concede, this instance is full of corpses; they don’t rely on light sources to move.]

[Is this streamer going to make it…]

After cutting off the power, Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

He opened the voice memo app on his phone.

And tapped play.

The next second, the familiar “jingle” “jingle” sound emanated from the phone.

The comments section fell silent for a moment: […]

After a few short seconds, the comments section finally sprang back to life.

[Fuck. (Tipped 50 points 5)]

[Fuck. (Tipped 100points)]

[…I finally know what the streamer is trying to do. (Tipped 100 points)]

[??? What? Am I the only one who’s completely lost? Could a kind soul please explain?]

[Here I am, the kind soul is here. Basically, the streamer didn’t want to give up on the high-difficulty side quest, so he’s preparing to go save the NPC.]

[The things in the morgue are corpses, not ghosts. Ultimately, they are dead people, so their way of identifying friend or foe is the same as when they were alive: either by hearing or seeing. Now that the streamer has cut the power, they are left with only one method—]

[Understood! Thank you kind soul!]

[!!! I get it too! Holy crap!]

[So, after playing an NPC to scam the living in the last instance wasn’t satisfying enough, this dog scammer is now preparing to play a corpse to scam the dead?]

__

Author’s Note:

Unwarranted association:

Pass it on, a famous streamer in a certain live broadcast room came out of the closet three times in ten minutes (bushi)

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