WTNL Chapter 34

Fukang Hospital
Chapter 34: Blood is the best medium

Soon, the Red Team met up on the first floor.

Wen Ya, Li Zongze, and the other two had shockingly pale faces. Kong Laoliu huddled at the very back, rubbing his still-livid wrist with lingering fear. The atmosphere among them was extremely oppressive, with frustration and anger pooling deep in everyone’s eyes.

Cheng Mi looked up at the four stepping out of the elevator and greeted them coldly, “You’re down?”

Wen Ya bit her lip, avoided his gaze, and let out a low “Mm.”

“Look on the bright side. In a hunting instance, if the Black Team loses, they die. If the Red Team loses, although they return empty-handed, they get to keep their lives.”

Cheng Mi let out a huff of laughter: “It’s just that, it really sounds terrible when word gets out.”

His voice carried an undisguised tone of mockery, making all four opposite him lower their heads.

Indeed.

Their main mission was to hunt down the Black Team, while the Black Team’s main mission was merely to survive. So even if their mission failed, their lives were not in danger. This was why hunting instances were considered highly lucrative with low risk.

In such hunting instances, although the instance wouldn’t give them a complete green light just because they were the Red Team, the tilt in resources was still very obvious. In hunting instances, the Red Team almost never lost.

Yet this time…

All of them gritted their teeth in resentment.

They were all the next generation of streamers being heavily cultivated by major guilds, yet they had crashed and burned in a hunting instance, vainly wasting the opportunity the guild had fought for them, and returning empty-handed in the end…

It was too humiliating.

“But don’t worry too much.”

Cheng Mi changed his tone, drawing out his words: “However… I do have a method here that might turn defeat into victory.”

“What?”

The four opposite him were startled, raising their heads and looking straight at him in disbelief.

Cheng Mi narrowed his eyes slightly and said slowly:

“What I know is that we aren’t the only ones the opposing Black Team Captain has offended.”

The four opposite him were not entirely shocked by this conclusion.

—Honestly, with the way the opposing Black Team Captain played, it would be a miracle if he didn’t offend people.

Moreover, the main reason Oracle was the number one guild was that they had poached almost all the streamers with precognitive Talents. Precognitive Talents were exceedingly rare. In instances, if a team had such a streamer, the survival rate of the entire team could be vastly increased.

Since Cheng Mi made this deduction, he must have his own basis for it.

“And then?” Li Zongze took a step forward, his tone urgent and hopeful: “Do you have a way?”

“I have an item that can summon ghosts and monsters karmically entangled with the target. It should be able to reverse our defeat.”

Cheng Mi gritted his teeth, saying somewhat unwillingly:

“Actually, before you guys came down, I already tried it, but…”

“But…?”

“It failed.” Cheng Mi sighed: “I don’t know what kind of instance the other party went through last time, but all the ghosts and monsters he had karmic entanglements with were completely jumbled together. And buried deep within them was a terrifying power beyond my imagination…”

A flash of apprehension crossed his eyes:

“That power was simply too strong. To be precise, I have never heard of such a powerful ghost or monster existing in Nightmare.”

Cheng Mi took a deep breath, looking at the few people in front of him: “It would be great if you had anything left behind by the opposing streamer on you. If not, then our Red Team will have to start a grid search throughout the instance, looking for all the places the other party has stepped on. Otherwise, there is no way to succeed.”

Kong Laoliu seemed to remember something and abruptly widened his eyes: “Oh, speaking of which, I think I might have—”

“…What?” Cheng Mi was overjoyed.

Kong Laoliu took out a dagger from his backpack. The blade of the dagger was barbed, looking exceptionally sharp and terrifying. On a small edge of it, a bit of un-dried fresh blood remained.

While fleeing, the young man had used the blade to cut the ropes on his wrists. Although his movements were skilled and swift, he still unavoidably suffered a small cut. The bleeding wasn’t much, so it only left a shallow layer of blood on the dagger, and it had been mostly wiped off by now.

“It’s just that I basically wiped off most of the blood on it,” Kong Laoliu said with some regret.

“It doesn’t matter.” Cheng Mi took the dagger: “As long as his blood was once on it, even if you wiped it completely clean, this dagger can still be used.”

He smiled, his eyes flashing with the light of certain victory:

“In Nightmare, fresh blood is the best medium.”

“Especially if the ghost on the other side has also been tainted with his blood, the success rate is one hundred percent.”

After leaving the fifth floor, Wen Jianyan didn’t take the elevator.

The elevator was simply too conspicuous and easily blocked, whereas the fire escape stairs were the best choice.

His steps were brisk, his eyes slightly narrowed, and a faint smile hooked his pale lips. His expression was lazy and relaxed, carelessly humming an untuneful melody.

Before an instance ended, all hidden items could not be stored in the system backpack. Only after an instance concluded would the hidden items collected within that instance become usable items, stored in the system backpack for the streamer to use at any time.

In other words, the discoverer of a hidden item might not necessarily be the final, true beneficiary.

As long as the instance hadn’t ended, it was still anyone’s game.

Wen Jianyan guessed that this was likely one of the methods the Nightmare live broadcast room used to increase conflict within instances and enhance the viewers’ viewing experience.

After all, only with suppression and contention would there be more thrilling and bloody internal conflicts.

Just like now.

He lowered his head, his gaze landing on the small jar containing the bizarre infant corpse in his hand.

According to the system prompt just now, this Epic-level hidden item was “the most crucial ritual core in this instance.” Linking this with other keywords in this instance—”Obstetrics and Gynecology,” “Infant Spirits,” “Mother of the World”…

Although he hadn’t grasped the full picture of the entire instance yet, Wen Jianyan already had a rough guess in his mind.

He shoved the jar into his jacket pocket, tapped in the air, and opened the live broadcast interface.

Although he had mental expectations, upon seeing the viewer count in the top right corner, Wen Jianyan was still severely shaken.

[Online Viewers: 58,735]

Approaching sixty thousand!

Truly amazing!

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room, just as the notification that the streamer opened the bullet comments popped up, the density of the comments instantly increased by more than five times!

[Ahhhhhhhh the streamer opened the bullet comments!]

[Mommy Mommy! Mommy come trick me quickly! (Tipped 50 points)]

[First time seeing the Black Team getting the upper hand in a hunting instance, ahhhhhh just for this I have to call you awesome!]

[Black Team is awesome! Black Team FTW! (Tipped 100 points)]

[Black Team is awesome!!! (Tipped 100 points)]

The surging bullet comments made Wen Jianyan feel a bit overwhelmed for a moment.

“Alright, alright, everyone is exaggerating.”

The young man’s eyes curved. Although he was still in the same outfit, the bloodstains on his white lab coat had dried, appearing a dull rusty red under the lights, but his temperament had become completely different from before.

Gentle and harmless, approachable.

Like a poisonous candy wrapped in a gently woven sugar coating. Knowing it’s fake and lethal, yet one can’t help but willingly be deceived. This dangerous sense of a knife hidden in a smile and the stark contrast almost caused one’s heart to stop.

“Thank you for liking me, I love you all too.”

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[…………Holy crap. (Tipped 100 points)]

[Ahhhhh I originally thought I would only swoon for the refined scum pervert doctor type, but I actually can’t handle this gentle and doting type at all, what’s going on!]

[It’s over, knowing he’s lying to me, but I still can’t control my hands, what do I do if I just like this? (Tipped 100 points)]

[But he said he loves me! (Tipped 100 points)]

[But he said he loves me! (Tipped 200 points)]

“What are you guys talking about?”

Wen Jianyan smiled, blinked at the screen, his expression suddenly turning serious: “I wasn’t lying just now.”

The next second, after a brief silence, the comment section was once again flooded by a wave of “Ahhhhhhhh”.

Wen Jianyan’s background point tips instantly doubled again.

Ah, happiness.

Wen Jianyan contentedly closed the comment section and opened the system shop.

At some point, that lush apple seedling had shot up another segment.

[Apple Seedling: LV 1]

[Flower of Breaking Illusions: 0/1 Developed]

[Fruit of Lies: 1/1 Matured]

A line of small text popped out: [Apple Seedling has met the upgrade conditions]

[Upgrade?]

Wen Jianyan froze slightly.

This speed was much faster than the last instance. Not only had the Fruit of Lies matured, but even the apple seedling had met the upgrade conditions.

Although he hadn’t yet figured out the operating mechanism of this apple seedling, after roughly two instances, Wen Jianyan had a general guess in his mind: the growth speed of the apple seedling was definitely related to “lies.”

Quantity? Quality? Or the number of people fooled?

Or are they all connected?

This, Wen Jianyan couldn’t be sure of.

Perhaps he would need to do an experiment later to see.

Wen Jianyan stared at the word [Upgrade?] on the screen, reluctantly glanced at his remaining point balance in the background, gritted his teeth, finally steeled his resolve, and cut off his hesitation—

Upgrade it is!

That group of fooled streamers would definitely not take it lying down. Not only did they have points and items accumulated over multiple instances, but they also had the resources of a major guild backing them up. Wen Jianyan wasn’t sure if they still had any trump cards they hadn’t played yet.

Points can be earned again if lost, but if a life is lost, then everything is gone.

The second after he made his painful decision, the string of point numbers in the top right corner began to decrease rapidly.

Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands…

Wen Jianyan felt his heart bleeding.

This was his ‘wife-saving fund’ that he had accumulated for so long! All gone!

Finally, the point decrease stopped.

Only ten thousand points were left in his account, and this included the five thousand that were already in the account.

The corner of Wen Jianyan’s eye twitched, feeling a heartache beyond words, but he could only grit his teeth and console himself—

At least it’s a bit better than having not a single penny left like last time, right?

Right then, unfamiliar footsteps appeared from the bottom of the stairs not far away. The footsteps were suppressed very low, but they were very hurried, seemingly rushing upwards hastily.

Wen Jianyan’s heart skipped a beat.

He swiftly closed the live broadcast interface, flashed towards the temporary emergency exit next to him, and hid inside nimbly and skillfully.

Soon, under the dim light, flickering human shadows were cast on the walls of the stairwell, rapidly approaching upwards at this moment.

There were many footsteps, sounding like more than one person.

Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes, turning slightly sideways to look.

Soon, the face of the leading person appeared under the light. Short black hair, a refined and proper face, looking vigilant and cautious.

It was Su Cheng.

A familiar Mohawk guy followed closely behind him, looking exceptionally conspicuous in the dim light.

Wen Jianyan breathed a sigh of relief and stepped out from his hiding place.

Su Cheng was badly startled by the sudden appearance of a figure. The conspicuous white lab coat on the other party made his vigilance instantly spike to its peak, and he subconsciously reached into his pocket to grip an item tightly.

But the next second, an overly familiar voice rang out:

“It’s me.”

“…”

Su Cheng froze, and the hand gripping the item slowly relaxed.

The young man stepping out of the shadows was undeniably the Black Team Captain Wen Jianyan, who had split up with them from the very beginning.

“…You scared me to death.”

Su Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, his shoulders slumping as if a heavy burden had been lifted.

The Mohawk guy was even more emotional, almost moved to tears: “Boss! You’re finally here! When I heard the Black Team surrendered earlier, my heart almost stopped from fright, wuwuwu thank goodness, thank goodness.”

Wen Jianyan looked at Su Cheng, raising an eyebrow:

“It seems you grasped my meaning right away, not bad.”

After all, with the ghost babies by his side, as long as it wasn’t facing that monster on the third floor, basically everything else wasn’t a huge worry.

Earlier on the fifth floor, Wen Jianyan chose to surrender mainly for three reasons.

First, he was, after all, one against four. Even with the ghost babies protecting his life, the opposing side still had numerous items in their hands. Wen Jianyan wasn’t sure if his freedom of movement would be restricted, so it was better to lower their guard first, then wait for an opportunity to escape.

Second, although he obtained the Epic-level hidden item on the fifth floor, he hadn’t found the key down to the second basement level yet. After losing the hidden item, the Red Team would definitely be most eager to go to the second basement level to find a way to turn the tables. Taking the key cut off their escape route.

The third and most important point was that the other Black Team members had been separated from him for too long. The number of Red Team members had been increasing, and the enemy situation they faced was definitely the most perilous.

Wen Jianyan wasn’t sure if his teammates had been caught, so he had to rely on the Red Team’s internal communication channels to find out. This was the only way to determine whether he could just slip away, or if he needed to continue his disguise and wait for an opportunity to rescue his teammates.

Su Cheng cast a glance at the teary-eyed Mohawk guy beside him, the corner of his mouth twitching, and said dryly:

“…Haha, just intuition.”

—The intuition of a former victim.

He sized up Wen Jianyan’s current attire from top to bottom, asking with some confusion, “But what is this…”

Qi Shen seemed to suddenly notice something. He cried out in surprise, staring at the nameplate on Wen Jianyan’s white lab coat: “Ah, isn’t this my sister’s name!”

…I almost forgot about that.

Wen Jianyan’s eyelid twitched. He looked down at the white lab coat he was wearing:

“Ah, about this, the situation is quite complicated…”

Qi Shen suddenly realized, and he decisively interrupted the other party:

“Say no more.”

He gazed at the young man before him, a trace of emotion flashing deep in his eyes, and said slowly: “I understand.”

The Mohawk guy: “?”

Su Cheng: “…”

You understand my ass!

Qi Shen remembered something and took out his phone from his pocket: “By the way, returning this to you.”

Wen Jianyan took the phone: “Thanks.”

The two exchanged a smile. The atmosphere between them had quite a feeling of mutual appreciation between brothers-in-law.

The Mohawk guy: “??”

Su Cheng: “……………………”

I don’t even want to point out the absurdity anymore.

At this point, he seemed to suddenly think of something and spoke up, breaking the bizarre atmosphere before them: “By the way, speaking of which, we also ran into an acquaintance of yours on the way. She’s also the one who helped us successfully escape from the Red Team’s encirclement.”

Wen Jianyan froze: “…What?”

Acquaintance?

What acquaintances could he have in this instance?

With so many people squeezed into the narrow section of stairs, it was indeed difficult to see everyone clearly.

Su Cheng stepped aside, making some room.

A girl with a bob cut standing at the very back of the group revealed a shy smile to Wen Jianyan, waving at him: “Hi, classmate, we meet again.”

It was actually… Cheng Mei?

A clearly surprised expression appeared on Wen Jianyan’s face.

The Mohawk guy chimed in at this moment: “I didn’t expect to run into her again after splitting up on the third floor either. When we were blocked on the second floor earlier, if it weren’t for her, it really would have been hard to escape the encirclement…”

Yes, during the first round of patrols, Cheng Mei and Mohawk guy were assigned to patrol the third floor together.

The others might not have a concept of it, but Wen Jianyan had fought his way from the first basement floor to the fifth floor all by himself. Based on his personal experience, the third floor Obstetrics and Gynecology Department was the most perilous floor in the entire Fukang Private General Hospital instance.

If he hadn’t found a way to use the ghost babies to counter the rules, Wen Jianyan wouldn’t even be confident he could survive.

…Yet, as an NPC, after being separated from the group for so long, Cheng Mei was actually completely unharmed?

A sense of incongruity rose in his heart.

Wen Jianyan’s face remained unchanged, and he smiled at the other party: “Seeing you safe sets my mind at ease. Let’s go, let’s leave here first, it’s probably not very convenient to talk in the stairwell.”

Saying that, he turned around and led the way out of the emergency exit.

Using the movement as cover, Wen Jianyan unlocked his phone with his fingerprint and opened the Nightmare APP background.

[Optional Side Mission Updated: Find the intern nurse from the previous patrol on the third floor]
[Completion Status: 1/3]

Wen Jianyan abruptly turned off the screen, gripping the phone tightly, his fingertips turning slightly white from the force.

The temperature around him seemed to plummet instantly. A fine layer of cold sweat broke out on his back, the chill seeping into his skin through his damp clothes.

When he found the Mohawk guy, the completion status changed from 0/3 to 1/3. But the number didn’t change at all after seeing Cheng Mei. This could only prove one thing.

This person in the team…

Was not Cheng Mei.

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