Shen Zhiyi hadn’t expected Zhou Qi’an to come out so soon, and the hand holding the electrode pads froze in mid-air.
The room fell into a dead silence.
Just as everyone was quiet, the nurse whom Zhou Qi’an had struck with his cane chased after them from behind. She was still holding various colored power cords. Seeing Zhou Qi’an standing motionless, she turned her head with a creak.
She revealed a ferocious smile. “It’s treatment time. Why are you running?”
No one paid her any attention. Gradually, the nurse realized the atmosphere in the treatment room was off.
Zhou Qi’an silently shifted half a step to the side.
Without any warning, the nurse saw Shen Zhiyi, who was covered in electrode pads, had turned the intensity to the maximum, and had aggressively demanded even more.
“…” There was one more person in the silent crowd.
The nurse, feeling a little inadequate, hid the few wires in her hand behind her back.
After a long moment, it was Zhou Qi’an who spoke first, his gaze falling on Shen Zhiyi with some concern. “Are you okay?”
Is your brain okay?
The familiar voice brought Shen Zhiyi back to his senses. He composed himself and casually plucked off the wires on his body. “It’s nothing.”
Zhou Qi’an was standing very close to the NPC, but Shen Zhiyi wasn’t worried about his situation.
A bit of his own power still lingered in the room, and the monster that had entered would subconsciously be unable to cause trouble.
“It’s that stupid college student who’s in trouble.” Shen Zhiyi casually slung mud, changing the subject with extreme naturalness. “He did something, I don’t know what, that affected these monsters.”
But thanks to him, having someone to take the fall, the game didn’t notice him right away.
“Let’s go see.” He took the initiative to get up.
Ignoring the trembling doctor and nurse in his own treatment room, Shen Zhiyi passed the nurse from Zhou Qi’an’s room and suddenly flicked his finger. The residual power instantly coiled around the power cords, wrapping them back around her bluish neck.
With a light clench of his fist, the nurse’s head was severed by the wires.
A second before tightening his fingers, Shen Zhiyi had already closed the door, blocking the spattering blood.
Other NPCs didn’t matter, but the monster from Zhou Qi’an’s treatment room had to die.
In the hallway, Shen Zhiyi calmly listed the college student’s strange behaviors. The places where the electrode pads had been stuck showed no marks on his skin.
Zhou Qi’an listened with a mixture of belief and doubt. He could tell from the college student’s luck that something was off, but they weren’t in the same treatment room. How did Shen Zhiyi know the NPCs were affected by him?
Filled with deep questions, the two arrived outside another treatment room.
Zhou Qi’an’s footsteps paused.
The door was ajar, and a foul, fishy smell wafted out from the gap. The next second, when he pushed the door open a little more, his pupils constricted slightly.
The scene inside the treatment room was extremely bloody.
The college student’s eyes were tightly shut, his face pale as he lay half-collapsed on an instrument. Not far away was a pile of rotten flesh and blood. The pool of blood was still bubbling, and floating on its surface were a fleshless skull and a doctor’s name tag.
Mr. Si was currently incomparably furious, nearly smashing a huge hole in the lab. “Damn it, why, why!!”
It wasn’t even this angry when it lost its vehicle.
Amidst the shouting, Zhou Qi’an pulled his gaze away from the horrifying pile of flesh, not understanding what had provoked Mr. Si. “Has the rabbit gone mad?”
Shen Zhiyi knew everything clearly.
Although the college student’s identity was completely exposed, the game hadn’t punished him. Seeing the current situation, it seemed the game had even forcefully helped him lose consciousness.
The so-called supreme fairness of the game’s operation was, in the end, biased.
Taisui was different from all other monsters; it was the foundation of the game. Many high-star instances were built upon its flesh. The power players gained from evolution was a gift from Taisui, and in return, the flesh and blood of dead players became Taisui’s best nourishment.
Shen Zhiyi even suspected that its ability to create an avatar to enter the real world was a result of the game turning a blind eye.
Taisui didn’t have the ability to blur reality and dreams; under normal circumstances, its avatars couldn’t leave the instances.
And Mr. Si had offended Taisui, resulting in being stripped of his Mao character fate, so naturally, he was resentful.
Zhou Qi’an knew nothing of these intricacies. The earlier stimulus had nearly made his head explode, and even now, every nerve would throb with pain from time to time. But he hadn’t forgotten his purpose; his mind was currently focused on the mission and saving people.
Taking advantage of the fact that the medical dispute hadn’t subsided and Mr. Si was still in a frenzy, he immediately rushed forward to grab the college student and run.
Just as he hoisted the person up and turned, he came face to face with bloodshot, furious eyes. Zhou Qi’an’s throat moved, and he braced himself to charge out.
Mr. Si wasn’t guarding this door, so there was no reason for it to attack a player.
“Go,” he urged Shen Zhiyi.
The brain treatment had affected Shen Zhiyi somewhat; he had been expressionlessly pondering the details of that long-ago transaction.
Hearing Zhou Qi’an call him, his expression softened slightly.
“Forget it.”
He wasn’t too interested in matters concerning Taisui anyway. The goal of obtaining Taisui’s flesh to save someone had long been achieved. He was only willing to think more about it because Zhou Qi’an had contact with the college student.
Shen Zhiyi looked at Zhou Qi’an with a hint of pity in his eyes. Knowing that his memories were obscured, only able to see glimpses through a fog now and then—it must be an awful feeling.
You must… be in a lot of pain.
The two were on completely different wavelengths.
Seeing the person not reacting, only his eyes moving, Zhou Qi’an paused his steps and waved a hand. “Buddy, wake up. Let’s go.”
The mad rabbit’s death glare felt like needles on his back.
Once the neurology staff re-established order, escaping would be much harder.
The first thing Shen Zhiyi did upon snapping back to reality was to pull the college student from Zhou Qi’an’s shoulder and continue carrying him like a chick.
This corridor only had treatment rooms one, two, and three. Room four, where Ying Yu was, required crossing a small public area to the first room on the opposite side.
The walls on both sides of the corridor were now covered in a layer of frost. The medical staff they encountered on the way moved with much more stiffness, but as the frost melted, their bodies slowly began to ‘thaw’.
Zhou Qi’an’s expression darkened. It was hard to imagine that the source of all these abnormalities might be the college student.
He quickened his pace.
The cold wind billowed his nurse uniform as he walked. Zhou Qi’an tried not to think about the memories that were suddenly surfacing, but the moment he relaxed even slightly, countless angry questions would appear in his mind… along with a crowd of faces whose features he couldn’t see clearly, but whose eyes glinted with deep resentment.
By the time Zhou Qi’an gritted his teeth and forced himself to concentrate, he found they had already reached room four.
Painful wails came from inside. Zhou Qi’an’s hand, about to push the door, slowed slightly.
The scream was quite robust; it didn’t sound like Ying Yu.
He cautiously pushed the door open, and a sharp gaze immediately swept over him.
A nurse lay collapsed to the side. Ying Yu was sitting in the doctor’s chair, his posture refined and elegant. His naturally serious temperament made him look even more suited to a white coat. Ying Yu had one hand clamped on the doctor’s jaw, who was writhing on the hospital bed like a maggot. “No, don’t.”
Zhou Qi’an: “…What’s this all about?”
Ying Yu didn’t let go. He turned slightly to the side and squinted upon seeing the newcomers.
Despite the change in hairstyle and voice, he still recognized Zhou Qi’an’s identity at a glance.
It was also then that Zhou Qi’an saw clearly what was in his hand: a transparent bottle containing a bright red liquid.
“I made some extractions from the Xiankelai,” Ying Yu said. “The medical staff here have some immunity to the floral scent, but they can’t resist ingesting the nectar.”
As he spoke, he coughed lightly a few times.
The time in the dispensary had clearly taken a huge toll on his body.
Ying Yu’s mind and body always seemed separate. The wound on his back seeped blood as he coughed, but his thoughts remained clear. Without needing a reminder from Zhou Qi’an, he spoke first, “The stairwell is just ahead.”
Except for the special floors, the stairwell doors for other departments were not locked.
Clearly, they all had the same idea: they had to leave this floor first.
No one wasted any time, and they all hurried out.
Ying Yu coughed continuously along the way. As they were about to reach the stairwell, two medical staff members were standing nearby. The chaos hadn’t reached this area yet. Seeing unfamiliar faces, they immediately started to approach.
“Get them!”
Ying Yu: “Turn left and take the elevator.”
These two doctors were not affected by the yin energy and wouldn’t be easy to deal with.
Shen Zhiyi wasn’t sure if the game’s will had departed and didn’t want to cause more trouble for now. He reached the elevator first, pressed the open button, and looked back. “Qi’an.”
Zhou Qi’an sprinted over in a flash.
The doctors’ shouts attracted a nurse, and three NPCs were in hot pursuit behind them.
Ying Yu’s injury hadn’t healed, but he used an acceleration prop to compensate for his physical weakness.
The old elevator opened sluggishly. The moment Ying Yu got in, the doctors outside were still a few meters away, but they covered that distance in almost a single step.
At the last moment, the elevator doors險險地 closed just in time. With a loud bang, the car shook up and down; the impact from outside was terrifying.
The enclosed space created an unprecedented sense of security.
The regular elevator couldn’t reach the special patient rooms. Shen Zhiyi directly pressed the button for the first floor, and the elevator began a smooth descent.
Clearly feeling that they were leaving the neurology department’s domain, Zhou Qi’an’s tense body relaxed a little.
They had been running for their lives. Now, finally having a chance for a normal conversation, he looked at Ying Yu.
Ying Yu’s gaze, however, was fixed on Shen Zhiyi.
Zhou Qi’an blinked and made the introduction, “Mu Tianbai.”
Ying Yu looked at Shen Zhiyi for two more seconds, a contemplative look flashing in his eyes, but in the end, he didn’t say much and began to recount his experiences after entering the instance.
“I got screwed by the rules in the morgue.”
It was about what they had expected, but the situation Ying Yu encountered was even worse.
“Among the people who entered with me, several players found clues to hidden items at the same time. Banking on the fact that the instance difficulty was low at the time, they started to fight amongst themselves like crazy.”
Not long after the corpse-herding mission was activated, the mission difficulty had already risen to four stars. The other half of the players were still frantically taking on side quests. Even so, among the players doing the corpse-herding mission, some wanted to backstab others.
Ying Yu usually teamed up for instances to avoid such “wonderful” teammates, but this time it was an unconventional forced entry, so there was no chance to avoid it.
“You should have seen the statue outside the dispensary.”
Zhou Qi’an nodded.
Ying Yu took out a new pair of glasses from his backpack and put them on. “While trying to escape, I accidentally discovered some information carved under the sculpture.”
Seeing their names and birth characters, he knew Zhou Qi’an would soon be forcibly pulled into the instance as well. Before completely losing consciousness, Ying Yu made some arrangements to delay the other’s entry.
Zhou Qi’an had suspected this early on and asked curiously, “How did you delay it?”
“By killing patients.” The gaze behind Ying Yu’s lenses sharpened. “The dreams of the Xiankelai patients sometimes intertwine, and it’s easier to kill them in their dreams than in reality. With patients constantly having ‘accidents’, there’s naturally no need for orderlies.”
Supply and demand determine the market.
By thoroughly applying this principle, he was able to successfully delay the time.
“…” Zhou Qi’an’s lips moved. He almost let out a “holy hell.” He couldn’t believe Ying Yu had discovered such a pattern.
And not only discovered it, but during his time unconscious in the greenhouse, he had done quite a bit of killing.
Even Shen Zhiyi glanced over.
Ying Yu’s expression remained placid. “From what I can see, the ordinary inpatient wards and other departments are like a primary cultivation ground, equivalent to C-grade. If cultivated well, they are transferred to the tenth floor. If further cultivation is successful, they can be transferred to the special patient rooms and become A-grade. Average ones become B-grade.”
“…If a player is severely injured or dies, they are taken to the ICU as raw material. As long as they survive, they can also be secondarily cultivated.”
Zhou Qi’an summarized: “There are two special channels: pay up, or get beaten up.”
Ying Yu looked at him.
Zhou Qi’an said, “I paid to fast-track a patient to A-grade and followed them up.”
Ying Yu was silent for a moment. “How much?”
“Five hundred thousand for one spot.”
“…” This time it was Ying Yu’s turn to be silent.
As the elevator neared the lobby, the silence was finally broken by the college student, who was waking up for the second time. In a daze, he felt a numbness in his back. He struggled to lift his head and saw Shen Zhiyi at first glance.
But his vision suddenly blurred. The other’s silhouette seemed to change visibly. When he rubbed his eyes and looked again, the college student’s face was filled with astonishment. “Mu, Mu Tianbai!”
He was instantly wide awake.
They had a brief encounter at the Jinxiang Building; he never thought they would meet here again.
Shen Zhiyi released his grip.
His feet back on the ground, the college student steadied himself against the elevator wall, his head throbbing. Broken fragments of memories uncontrollably surfaced in his mind. He anxiously scratched at the metal surface, his breathing growing more and more rapid.
The college student suddenly hit his own head, as if trying to shatter the images further.
But a few scattered memories from the dream stubbornly resurfaced. In that nightmare, it seemed he had… he had personally crushed a doctor to death.
The college student quickly looked down at his hands; his fingernails were caked with stinking blood and gore.
“I…” No matter how slow he was, he realized something was wrong.
The more he recalled, the more real everything from the dream became. The college student’s heart was about to leap out of his chest. The questions that had long piled up in his heart forced him to ask, “Did I… kill someone, no, kill an NPC?”
Ying Yu raised an eyebrow.
From the sound of it, it seemed he had single-handedly taken care of a medical staff member.
Seeing no one deny it, the college student nearly collapsed to the floor.
Who was he?
How did he kill an NPC?
The more he pondered these two questions, the more violently his body trembled.
Just as he was at a loss, a golden fishing fork lit up the elevator car.
Without concealing its sharp aura, Zhou Qi’an held the fork, endured his headache, glanced at the college student on the floor, and said suddenly, “Don’t forget, you are the only one who can touch the Holy Artifact with your bare hands.”
He himself could use the Holy Artifact, most likely because of the [Kinship 100%]. If those memories were correct, then from the very beginning, he had been using the rules to play a word game.
But the college student could actually touch the Holy Artifact itself.
The college student’s head snapped up at his words, as if he had regained a little strength.
His reaction time was unique. He belatedly noticed that Zhou Qi’an’s voice was different from usual; like his appearance, it had an androgynous quality.
“Voice changer,” Zhou Qi’an explained impatiently.
Bathed in the familiar light of the Holy Artifact, the college student gradually calmed down.
His greatest panic stemmed from the scene of killing the NPC in his nightmare. He couldn’t remember the specifics, only vaguely feeling that he had crushed the doctor’s neck.
The desire for slaughter that boiled in his blood had not yet completely subsided.
But having been through a few game instances, a moment of calm thought told him that whoever he killed wasn’t a good person anyway.
The college student struggled to his feet. Under Zhou Qi’an’s encouraging gaze, he gently gripped the metal handle of the fishing fork. This was the proof of their kindness.
“Brother Zhou, in this game, we’re both good people, rare good people at that!”
He even stammered a little as he spoke. He hadn’t fully adapted to Zhou Qi’an’s current androgynous style.
Beside them, Shen Zhiyi, who had been mostly silent, suddenly had a change in expression.
Good person.
The keyword became a lever that pried open his obscured cognition, lifting the last veil left by the brain treatment.
He remembered the payment Taisui had demanded for their deal.
It was a region covered in terrifying flesh and blood. In a deep trench filled with shadows, countless blood threads extended out. The being below did not show itself, manipulating the blood threads from within a dense fog. At the other end of the threads was a newly formed human body.
“It’s just two pieces of flesh. I don’t mind giving them to you.”
The echo from the abyss filled the heavens and the earth.
“I heard the game is releasing a Holy Artifact. A stupid rabbit is actually trying to use it to get revenge on me.”
A blurry, terrifying phantom suddenly appeared in the fog. Its appearance turned the entire sky blood-red. “Only the purest and most benevolent can use the Holy Artifact. That thing… I want to play with it too.”
“Help me hypnotize this flesh avatar. Make him born with a conscience, know good from evil, and understand compassion.”
Memories of the past completely resurfaced, and Shen Zhiyi’s expression turned colder and colder.
That was the most difficult hypnosis he had ever performed in his life. After saving the person and rushing back, it took him a full six months to barely brainwash an avatar into a “good person.”
After that, he fulfilled his final promise to Taisui and hypnotized himself to forget the matter.
Thinking of this, Shen Zhiyi raised his eyes chillingly. Ahead, the college student was still wiping away tears, the imprinting effect making him naturally reliant on Zhou Qi’an.
At that moment, the two were holding the Holy Artifact together, exchanging words like “too kind” and “great person.”
The scene was shocking to the eye.
The elevator reached the first floor. It was close to mealtime, and a food cart could be seen in the distance.
Zhou Qi’an was a bit hungry. Before that, he planned to go to the ordinary ward where the female patient had been to change his clothes. The sweat-soaked nurse uniform clung to his body, attracting too much attention wherever he went.
Ying Yu and the college student also went to the washroom. Shen Zhiyi went to get food alone, and they all agreed to meet back in the ward.
When Shen Zhiyi returned, he saw Zhou Qi’an continuously rubbing his temples, seemingly trying to alleviate his headache.
The smell of food amplified his hunger.
Shen Zhiyi: “Eat something.”
Just then, the college student walked in, water dripping from his hair. He had lost a lot of weight in just a few days.
The college student was still uneasy. Under Shen Zhiyi’s cold gaze, he held his breath and ran to Zhou Qi’an to confide, “Brother Zhou, I’m a little scared… I know this isn’t the time to dwell on it in an instance, but my memory has serious problems.”
He was most worried about messing up at a critical moment and dragging others down.
Zhou Qi’an’s hand, which was rubbing his temples, paused. He glanced at him. “It’s fine.”
A few strands of blue hair flowed through his fingers. The young man tilted his head slightly, his posture for a moment having the lazy air of a dolphin sunbathing.
“My memory has problems too. My mom’s does, and so does our boss.”
For example, the part about eating Taisui’s flesh—those two most likely didn’t remember it.
At the Ghost Temple, the boss had also said himself that he didn’t remember if he had been intimate with anyone; his mind was just full of work.
Shen Zhiyi subconsciously tried to find common ground with Zhou Qi’an. “My memory also has some errors.”
Although his were self-inflicted.
The college student was stunned. Were memory problems so common now?
Ying Yu, who entered last, fell silent.
Great. It made him seem like the abnormal one.
__
Author’s Note:
Zhou Qi’an: Who among us modern people doesn’t have some memory problems?
Ying Yu: …I don’t fit in with this world.
