To avoid being out of step with the world, Ying Yu changed the subject.
He first synchronized his game progress. Perhaps because all the players from his batch, except for the college student, were dead, his instance difficulty was now the same as the second batch of players.
Zhou Qi’an was about to eat. While mixing the sauce and rice in his meal box, he thought for a moment and said, “There seem to be two people from your batch in the special ward.”
Before he finished, he realized something.
Those sent to the special ward were fully “cultivated” patients. For a player, being “cultivated” was not a good thing.
He changed his tune and asked, “Do you need me to find some medicine for you?”
Ying Yu and the college student had been in the ICU and spent so long in the greenhouse; they must have been infected too.
Ying Yu refused. “The extract from the Xiankelai can alleviate it.”
The Xiankelai could put monsters to sleep and had medicinal value, but its flaw was that it created dependency. Over time, its effect weakened, requiring larger and larger doses.
Finding medicine was too time-consuming and not cost-effective. It was better to just clear the instance.
Besides, it didn’t seem like any of the patients here could be cured.
Ying Yu divided a full tube of the extract into several portions, giving one to each of them for use in emergencies like infection.
“Don’t overdose.”
Zhou Qi’an had personally seen the terror of the doctor who was force-fed an overdose, so he nodded.
After taking the test tube, he looked at Ying Yu with sympathy.
Despite doing everything right, he was almost killed by a group of god-tier awful teammates. His luck was truly terrible.
Ying Yu had no intention of holding a grudge. “The dead are the most important.”
Zhou Qi’an lowered his eyes.
Ying Yu had mentioned killing patients in their dreams to delay his own entry into the instance. He wondered if those patients included other players.
But he agreed with Ying Yu. Since they were already dead, it was best to let it go.
Zhou Qi’an brought up the main quest.
Their current instance difficulty had been synchronized, but the quest hadn’t. Only the orderlies in the special ward had the quest to find Zhang Xiuxiu.
“Do you know anything about this Zhang Xiuxiu?”
Ying Yu and the college student both shook their heads. They didn’t even know about Dr. Z.
Of course, besides someone like Zhou Qi’an who had swapped lives on the very first day, no one knew about Dr. Z.
Ying Yu suddenly asked, “You said earlier there are a total of twenty-two patients in the special ward?”
“Not counting the one we brought up, that’s the number.”
Zhou Qi’an used the chopsticks in his hand to roughly sketch two faces on the lid of the meal box. “These are the two who had a special reaction when I mentioned the Mona Lisa.”
With just a few simple lines, the expressions were quite vivid.
Ying Yu glanced at them. “They were indeed players once.”
Zhou Qi’an nodded. “We can rule out rooms eighteen and nineteen.”
Ying Yu took out a pen and paper from his personal inventory and drew four more pictures. Though not as lifelike as Zhou Qi’an’s, they were still very expressive.
“These four can also be ruled out. I saw them during a dream intersection, and the names on their wristbands were not Zhang Xiuxiu.”
Zhou Qi’an raised an eyebrow. Now they only had to choose from sixteen.
The college student stood aside awkwardly, lowering his head in shame. “My mind is a mess. I don’t remember anything.”
Zhou Qi’an waved his hand and continued thinking about the quest. “From this, it seems entering a dream is more efficient than opening doors directly.”
Opening doors might lead to danger every time, whereas a dream intersection would only involve one high-risk environment.
Ying Yu had achieved great results in the dream.
Hearing this, Ying Yu shook his head. “Only patients can enter the dream, and in the dream, all patients enter a convalescence world.”
Zhou Qi’an listened with curiosity.
“The Xiankelai Hospital in the dream is different from what we see now.”
“…Patients from different departments recuperate in different areas. I only once accidentally entered the activity area for patients from the special management department, and I almost died there.”
At this point, Ying Yu frowned slightly. “After waking up, I couldn’t remember anything about the convalescence environment, only information about the patients themselves.”
Zhou Qi’an thought quietly for a moment. Unable to come up with anything, he decided to focus on eating.
Since Shen Zhiyi hadn’t spoken for a long time, he couldn’t help but glance over.
“Dream…” The daylight shone on his skin, with some sunlight dancing on Shen Zhiyi’s shoulder. The grayish-white eyes hidden beneath his blood-red pupils glinted. “I’m very good at dreaming.”
After the meal, the group decided to go back upstairs.
With the password for the dedicated elevator, anyone could theoretically sneak into the special management department. But the consequences of being discovered by a nurse were unthinkable. Furthermore, if danger arose, they would most likely be targeted by the NPCs first.
Ying Yu’s stance was clear: they still had to go up.
He needed a certain amount of Xiankelai for extraction.
Once he stopped using the flower liquid, the infection would spread rapidly. If he were forcibly sent back to the intensive care unit in his current state, his chances of survival would be slim.
Zhou Qi’an: “How many more days can you last?”
“About a day and a half.”
Zhou Qi’an was stunned. The other man had acted so calm that he had assumed there were at least three or four days left.
“It seems we must find a way to locate Zhang Xiuxiu immediately and start the main quest.”
There were now two methods: opening doors and entering dreams.
Zhou Qi’an still preferred entering the dream, as it would be more efficient. But a practical problem stood in their way: how could players who weren’t patients enter the dream?
He looked at Shen Zhiyi. This person wouldn’t say he was good at dreaming for no reason.
Their eyes met, and Shen Zhiyi nodded slightly.
He didn’t particularly care if Ying Yu and the college student lived or died, but Shen Zhiyi knew that Zhou Qi’an wanted to get an item similar to the [Health Pouch] from Ying Yu to restore rationality to his mother and his boss.
“I can send you to the dream node, but I can’t guarantee your safety.”
Under the game’s rules, Shen Zhiyi’s limit was sending them near the activity area for patients from the special ward within the dream.
Zhou Qi’an raised an eyebrow. This ability was more incredible than he had imagined.
Now was not the time for investigation. He repeated a line Shen Zhiyi had said in the school instance: “I enjoy killing in dreams.”
Zhou Qi’an seemed to have another plan. He whispered a few words to Shen Zhiyi.
After listening quietly, Shen Zhiyi materialized a black rose in his hand. Like a brooch, the rose was fastened to the chest of his sweatshirt.
Unlike before, the rose did not wither immediately.
“Crush it when you need to enter the dream, and I will feel it,” Shen Zhiyi reminded him. “You must use it in a public area outside of the wards.”
At the same time, he slipped something else to Zhou Qi’an.
Last time they returned from Fengshui Village, he and Zhou Qi’an had each chosen a prop from Ying Yu.
At that time, Zhou Qi’an had chosen the novice protection period, so Shen Zhiyi had taken the death-substitute item. Normally, if he tried to give the item away, it would definitely be refused. Now, he had finally found his chance.
Shen Zhiyi became assertive; if Zhou Qi’an wanted to enter the dream, he had to take the prop.
The college student couldn’t hear their conversation and was simply puzzled by Shen Zhiyi’s expression. He asked Ying Yu, “…What is he so proud of?”
For a rare moment, Ying Yu also had no answer.
…
In the time it took to eat a meal, the commotion upstairs seemed to have subsided.
The elevator was supposed to go directly to the eleventh floor, but for some reason, Shen Zhiyi chose the ninth. After the elevator stopped, Shen Zhiyi glanced at the college student, signaling for him to follow.
The college student’s legs went weak for no reason. The last time they met, Mu Tianbai didn’t have such a strong, oppressive aura.
Zhou Qi’an was about to say something when he heard Shen Zhiyi say, “I know what I’m doing.”
Seeming to realize that his own words weren’t very credible, Shen Zhiyi was about to say more, but Zhou Qi’an lowered his head, looked gently at his own shadow on the ground, and extended his pinky finger in a pinky-promise gesture. “Supervise him well, okay?”
“!!!”
Having successfully made Shen Zhiyi supervise himself, Zhou Qi’an continued with Ying Yu on the elevator to the special ward.
The moment the doors opened, a woman with disheveled hair rushed in.
Zhou Qi’an almost lost control and nearly skewered her with his fishing fork.
The woman who rushed in was also startled. After steadying herself and confirming she wasn’t mistaken, Han Li took a small step back when she saw someone else with Zhou Qi’an.
Zhou Qi’an looked outside the elevator but saw no danger.
After taking several deep breaths, Han Li, still shaken, got to the point:
“While you were gone, we randomly pushed open the door to room eight. The patient woke up as soon as we went in.”
As if recalling a disgusting image, she dry-heaved twice before describing it. “The patient’s body dissolved directly and reformed into a bloody mouth that bit at us. Then we quickly tried to push open the door to room nine, and the same thing happened.”
Zhou Qi’an was reminded of the meatball monster from the clinical nutrition department. It seemed that fully cultivated patients could easily separate their flesh from their walls.
“What about the other two people?”
Han Li looked a bit embarrassed. “I ran the fastest.”
Her electricity skill had come in very handy.
Zhou Qi’an was silent for a moment. “Did you see the names on the patients’ wristbands?”
Han Li felt guilty. “The wristbands were rolled up in the bloody mud.”
If she had been any slower, she might have lost her life. How could she have the courage to dig through living, writhing bloody mud?
Seeing she had more to say, Zhou Qi’an nodded, indicating she could speak freely.
“You asked me to keep an eye on those two for anything unusual. I tried everything, but I couldn’t find any problems.”
Han Li hesitated. “But there’s one thing I’ve always found strange.”
Footsteps came from behind her. She quickly lowered her voice and spoke rapidly.
“Oh?” Zhou Qi’an was thoughtful.
Han Li said no more as the footsteps behind her grew closer.
Soon, the young man walked over, cursing in a strange tone, “You run pretty fast.”
Seeing the two people in the elevator car, the young man immediately became vigilant, first trying to determine if Ying Yu was a human or an NPC.
Zhou Qi’an didn’t explain and walked out.
When he saw A Ling arriving afterward, his gaze slightly hardened.
Han Li had previously mentioned that when the instance first gathered, the fog was thick, and everyone, including A Ling, was discussing how long it would take to get out of the fog.
A Ling had even complained that she had been waiting in the fog for several hours.
In the end, it was another player who mentioned hearing multiple cicada chirps, speculating that the chirps might represent the number of players and that the instance would only start when everyone had arrived.
With A Ling’s powers of observation, if she had truly waited for several hours, it was impossible for her not to have noticed this pattern, unless she hadn’t arrived that early at all.
Was she deliberately trying to obscure her entry time?
Han Li coughed lightly, hinting that Zhou Qi’an had been staring at A Ling for too long.
Not only did Zhou Qi’an not look away, but he intensified his gaze. He walked directly toward A Ling, his rare hair color swaying slightly.
The distance between them was now minimal.
A Ling frowned, looking at him with some vigilance.
His bangs cast a faint shadow over his forehead. Zhou Qi’an’s lip color was slightly darker than usual. “I now suspect you’re here to harm me.”
Han Li choked on her own saliva on the spot.
There was only one suspicious detail. Under normal circumstances, shouldn’t one slowly probe and observe in secret before reaching a conclusion?
Why did he suddenly go for a direct, full-on confrontation?
The out-of-the-blue statement made A Ling laugh in anger. “What are you talking about?”
Zhou Qi’an joined her, also smiling silently.
A moment later, he slowly rolled up his sleeves. When he had forcefully broken free from the restraints in the treatment room, his arm had been deeply cut, and it hadn’t fully healed yet. With just a little force, the wound began to seep blood again.
“Come,” Zhou Qi’an grabbed A Ling’s wrist with incredible speed. His face was full of smiles, but his eyes were frighteningly cold.
“Dip your finger in my blood.”
Seeing this behavior, anyone who didn’t know better would think he was possessed by a vengeful ghost. The young man was about to intervene but was blocked by Ying Yu.
Zhou Qi’an stared at A Ling without moving. “I’ll say a word, you write a word. If I’ve misunderstood, I’ll return the items and points from our previous deal. Five hundred thousand nether coins in exchange for you writing a few words. Not a bad deal, right?”
Beside them, Han Li’s eyes suddenly widened, as she had clearly remembered something.
Initially, she was the one who had called Zhou Qi’an to go to the hospital.
The names of Zhou Qi’an and two others were written under the elephant seal sculpture there, which was the root cause of them entering the instance. From what he was saying, did he suspect A Ling did it?
Of course, Zhou Qi’an couldn’t draw a conclusion from one small detail, which was why he had to test it.
Right now, someone wanted to seize his Holy Artifact, and someone else wanted his life. The two motives were mixed together, making it hard to judge.
“The first word is the ‘Zhou’ in ‘zhou er fu shi’ (cycle).”
Zhou Qi’an’s gaze was exceptionally sharp.
Anyone who touched the sculpture would be pulled into the instance. Assuming A Ling arrived around the same time as them, she had likely used her own player ID to force a remote match, which was how she delayed her entry for a few days.
When everyone was gathered before, any random probing would have been counterproductive.
Now that Ying Yu had been found and the other players were still working as orderlies in the general inpatient department, what was there to probe?
Just ask directly.
A Ling’s expression remained impeccable.
Zhou Qi’an’s gaze slowly shifted downward, finally glancing at the wrist he was holding. “Sister, your pulse is getting faster and faster.”
“Ah…” Zhou Qi’an’s smile deepened. “It just got a little faster again.”
While Zhou Qi’an was manually checking heart rates upstairs, Shen Zhiyi was busy with other matters in the neurology department.
The college student’s legs went weak as soon as he arrived, but they quickly straightened up again.
“Why is there no one here?”
It had been a few minutes since the two of them exited the elevator. Currently, there was only sound coming from a location farther away, near the safety door, where it seemed medical staff were cleaning up the mess in a treatment room.
The college student didn’t dare to peek around the corner, judging only by the sound.
Shen Zhiyi, on the other hand, walked directly around the corner and, as if to make sure he was seen, suddenly clapped his hands lightly.
Before long, the sound was immediately caught, and a huge figure turned sharply to look in their direction.
The college student couldn’t help but look, his face aghast. He quickly pressed the elevator button again. “It’s Mr. Si!”
The elevator doors were on this floor and opened quickly, but Shen Zhiyi showed no intention of getting on.
The college student was about to tell him to run when Shen Zhiyi finally spoke. “You can go up now.”
“?”
Shen Zhiyi repeated it impatiently.
Meeting those blood-red eyes, the college student wisely swallowed all his questions and chose to cooperate.
As the elevator doors slowly closed, Mr. Si happened to walk over.
Seeing the college student again, the rabbit’s face no longer showed indignation. Its feigned peace was like a fragile porcelain surface, hiding a terror that could shatter at any moment.
It didn’t rush into the elevator but instead looked at Shen Zhiyi, vaguely sensing a familiar yet strange feeling from him.
During the brain treatment, the room this person was in also had an inhuman, sinister energy leaking out.
An ordinary player would have long been terrified from being stared at by a staff member.
Shen Zhiyi’s face remained indifferent from beginning to end. After a long moment, he uttered a few words: “Do you know about the Whaling Association?”
Mr. Si’s contemptuous expression was answer enough: What association? What nonsense.
Its sharp claws were itching for action. Only fresh blood could quell its terrible mood for the day.
“If you don’t know, go ask.”
The commanding tone completely infuriated Mr. Si.
Before it could make a move, Shen Zhiyi said calmly, “If you don’t get the coordinates of this association, that stupid college student will go and report you for secretly releasing the greenhouse patients.”
A gatekeeper who lost two patients, abandoned his post, and caused a disturbance in the neurology department would never be able to clear his name.
The fact that no one from the hospital had come out to hunt for Ying Yu and the college student proved that Mr. Si was desperately trying to cover up this fact.
The NPCs in the instance didn’t have a natural filter for staff members. Once they confirmed he had privately released patients, they would act directly. If a fight broke out, Mr. Si would most likely be dismissed from his post.
Unlike a suspension, a staff member who lost their official position would pay a huge price.
Mr. Si laughed in extreme anger at these words. If the college student reported him, he would be captured on the spot and thrown back into the greenhouse. That was a suicide mission.
As he laughed, his expression changed.
He thought of the college student who had just taken the elevator up. That idiot was actually capable of such a self-sacrificial act.
Both his main body and his avatar were despicable beyond measure.
A low, cold voice interrupted his internal cursing. Shen Zhiyi said calmly, “Within three minutes, I want all the information on the Whaling Association.”
“…”
Motherfucker.
…
After entering the password, the college student carefully switched to the dedicated elevator to go up, afraid of running into a nurse on the way.
The journey was peaceful.
The college student breathed a sigh of relief.
Downstairs had become chaotic in a way he couldn’t comprehend. Mu Tianbai was actually staying alone in the neurology department and had deliberately provoked Mr. Si.
The moment the doors opened, a voice as soft as a cloud floated over.
“You’re not going to write?” The pale light of the corridor fell on Zhou Qi’an’s face, exuding a heart-pounding aura. “Three minutes. In the first minute, I will break your arm as a sign of your silent agreement. In the second minute, my friend will make a move. In the third minute, they will beat you until you have internal bleeding, attracting a nurse to send you to the ICU.”
The young man standing to the side frowned.
Now anyone could see something was wrong.
It was just writing a word, and someone else’s name at that. It couldn’t bring any harm to herself. Why would she hesitate to easily get back several thousand points and a prop?
Could it be true, as the jellyfish-head said, that A Ling was here to kill someone?
A Ling had invited him to team up for this instance. They had cooperated more than once in the past, and before coming, A Ling had never said they were going to deal with anyone.
A Ling’s eyes were downcast, her expression unreadable.
Knowing she hadn’t given up struggling, Zhou Qi’an glanced in the college student’s direction and smiled. “Look, another one of my friends has arrived. Now it’s four against one.”
It was finally his turn to gang up on someone.
The college student looked completely lost.
What was the situation here now?
Zhou Qi’an’s smile was icy.
A Ling’s silence was already the answer: she wasn’t here for money, she was here to kill him.
Using two groups of people to attack him at once—the Whaling Association had used this trick last time. But a tactic’s value lies in its effectiveness, not its novelty. The existence of Zhao Sanxun and the others was equivalent to Chen Su and her group, meant to distract him.
The elevator doors suddenly opened again. It was Zhao Sanxun and Ke’er.
“Quite lively.” Zhao Sanxun walked at the front.
In the morning, before A Ling made the deal with Zhou Qi’an, she had secretly given Zhao Sanxun a communication prop. Although he didn’t understand her intention at the time, he had just received a message giving him the password to the dedicated elevator.
Looking at the current situation, A Ling had fallen out with Zhou Qi’an.
Great news!
“Today is a good day.” Zhou Qi’an spoke first with a smile, stealing the line that belonged to Zhao Sanxun.
He didn’t seem surprised that A Ling had deliberately stalled for time, using a sound-proofing prop to secretly contact Zhao Sanxun and the others.
She was outnumbered. She was a smart woman who left herself a way out. If he were in A Ling’s shoes, he would have done the same.
A Ling finally looked up again, her gaze meeting Zhou Qi’an’s, and said as if nothing had happened, “Why don’t we all focus on the mission first?”
Zhou Qi’an blinked. “Sister, I’m the kind of person who wants it all.”
He wanted the mission, he wanted to pay them back in kind, and he wanted those with ill intentions to shine their brightest in the end.
With that, Zhou Qi’an gave a pure smile and directly snapped the black rose pinned to his chest.
A Ling immediately took a small step back. She had always felt that this rose was very strange, but the situation had not allowed her to investigate.
Zhao Sanxun also thought it was some kind of prop and took a step back as well.
Downstairs, in a place they couldn’t see, a shadow gradually stretched and grew, its area expanding from one floor to the elevator, and then infinitely extending toward a wider space, the top floor… the lobby…
In an instant, the black shadow had almost enveloped the entire inpatient building.
A Ling’s expression changed slightly. “What did you do?”
The smile on Zhou Qi’an’s lips widened.
Shen Zhiyi had told him to snap the rose when it was time to enter the dream, and now was the most opportune moment.
“I’m taking you all to a good place. Otherwise, why would I have wasted so much time talking nonsense with you?”
With so many people here, it would be a shame to leave them outside. It was better for everyone to go into the dream together.
Zhou Qi’an had already thought of how to make the most of these people in the dream.
