In the convalescence dream, patients from the special inpatient department were active in the outpatient building. As a patient newly transferred to the twelfth floor, the female patient had not appeared in the outpatient department before, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t come.
“I was originally here for convalescence,” Zhou Qi’an kept brainwashing himself.
Over and over again, the short journey of a dozen meters felt incredibly long. Zhou Qi’an’s lips were tightly pursed. He had almost completely forgotten to breathe, until the wheelchair successfully went up the ramp and moved on level ground again. The main entrance was right in front of him. Only then did he begin to breathe at an extremely slow frequency.
He knew those flesh-mound monsters were still staring at him. Any slight movement could make them charge over.
Zhou Qi’an dared not relax for a moment.
It wasn’t until he truly entered the outpatient building that he seemed to have used up all his strength and let out a long sigh of relief.
The push handles were covered in sweat.
After making a slight turn and confirming that he was in the bushes’ blind spot, Zhou Qi’an stood up.
His legs were still a bit stiff. He managed to take two steps forward and finally regained the feeling of normal walking. The ATM was right ahead. It was in the state it had been in before he entered the dream, moved aside and placed crookedly, revealing that familiar secret door.
As Zhou Qi’an walked over, his foot suddenly slipped.
With excellent balance, he managed to stabilize himself after a waltz-like spin.
“Is there water?”
Not just on the ground, but at the entrance of the secret passage, there were obvious water stains on the smooth, cold tiles, and even on the ceiling. Zhou Qi’an boldly touched the inside of the door, and his palm came away covered in a strange, sticky liquid.
“Could it be the elephant seal?” His heart skipped a beat.
Patients from the regular inpatient department wouldn’t just be near the self-service restaurant or the convalescence hot spring. Within the first floor, they had no fixed location. The ceiling height in the outpatient building was very abnormal, proving that the elephant seal occasionally moved between different areas.
This damned 5.5-star instance!
The thought had just formed when an unnatural sound of wind came from not far behind him.
Misfortunes never come singly. It wasn’t just from one corridor; a noise also came from the other side.
Whoosh.
The sound gradually became clearer. Something was approaching.
Whoosh, whoosh whoosh, more sounds of wind came.
The smell of blood in the air grew stronger. A blood-colored shadow loomed from behind. Zhou Qi’an whipped his head around, his expression instantly changing. Blood faces!
The blood faces that had chased the players in the previous convalescence dream seemed to have been lying in wait nearby all along. They were almost linking together.
Zhou Qi’an tried to show his wrist, but the speed at which the blood faces floated over did not slow at all.
The hospital wristband could fool ordinary patients, but it couldn’t deceive the perception of these things at all.
“Crap.”
Running outside was definitely not an option.
If he rushed out now, the flesh-mound monsters at the entrance would definitely notice the abnormality and block his way. There was no space on the first floor to deliberately take a detour and shake off the blood faces. All places, including the stairwell, were blocked by blood faces, cutting off all his escape routes.
The only thing left… was the secret passage in front of him.
However, the elephant seal might be inside.
The secret door was now slightly opening and closing, its opening possessing a super elasticity, as if inviting him into a trap.
If he went in, he would have the elephant seal in front and the blood faces behind, truly at a dead end.
The腥 (fishy) wind was getting closer. There was no time to hesitate.
Zhou Qi’an didn’t try to directly rip off the patient’s wristband to leave the dream. This time, with the female patient’s help, it was already a case of favorable timing, location, and people.
If it still didn’t work, he was likely going to perish in this instance.
“I’ll take a gamble.”
Zhou Qi’an narrowed his eyes.
“This is an instance that emphasizes cooperation.” The Whaler’s Association had already used this point to screw them over several times.
The key for players to clear the level was high-level cooperation.
His own path was blocked, but that didn’t mean there was no way to break the deadlock.
Zhou Qi’an closed his eyes and rushed into the crisis-ridden secret passage. Although he didn’t like to pin his hopes on others, just like during the baptism at the Huagu city church, in a setting that required inside and outside cooperation, he had no choice.
He could only gamble.
If he lost the gamble…
His death-substitution item wouldn’t rest in peace even as a ghost.
The secret passage was several times wider than when the blood giant had appeared. The moment Zhou Qi’an rushed in, he took a deep breath.
He trusted his judgment.
And he trusted Shen Zhiyi.
————
Outside the Cyclamen Hospital, in the wilderness.
Han Li had been following the main group for a while. The initial feeling of ease and joy passed, and ahead was still an endless wilderness.
A sense of panic from the barren plains rose in her heart, but it quickly dissipated.
“Anyway, the staff is leading the way.” There was no question of getting lost.
The sun was blazing. The further she walked, the more tired she became. Han Li felt as if her legs were filled with lead.
“Slow… slow down a bit.” She really couldn’t hold it in anymore and called out to the teammates and Mr. Si in front.
The injuries on her body would only heal after she completely exited the instance. Having just gone through a life-and-death struggle in the greenhouse, how could she have the strength to walk such a long way?
No one responded to her. Everyone was walking forward in silence.
“Wait for me.” Han Li tried to catch up, but her legs became increasingly difficult to move. That inexplicable sense of panic grew stronger. Her teammates were clearly right in front, yet she couldn’t catch up no matter what.
Han Li tried to walk faster, and the people in front also walked faster. A constant distance was always maintained between them.
Cold sweat dripped continuously from her forehead. Under the blazing sun, every thought was exceptionally difficult.
“Wait for me!” Her second shout was almost a cry.
An unknown force was squeezing her chest. The feeling of suffocation made Han Li dizzy.
“I’m… injured, I can’t… can’t walk…”
As her voice fell, Han Li seemed to have discovered something, and her pupils trembled violently.
Everything she had experienced before resurfaced in her mind. They had gone through a life-and-death struggle in the greenhouse. She was also covered in wounds. In the end, it was Zhou Qi’an who set the fire to end it all.
“That’s not right!”
This sequence was simply impossible.
If she had been seriously injured during the process, she should have been sent for emergency treatment long before Zhou Qi’an set the fire.
Why did she have no memory of being sent for emergency treatment?
Further thinking was simply impossible. The world went dark. Han Li had realized it too late; she could no longer breathe.
From deep within the ground, an invisible pulling force was dragging her down.
Just before Han Li was about to completely lose consciousness, in the darkness, another force suddenly came to her aid. The force squeezing her chest was invisibly reduced a lot, and a huge force pulled her up in the opposite direction.
The tearing pain made Han Li cry out.
“It’s… tearing apart.”
My god, she felt like she was really going to be torn apart.
A full minute passed before the heart-wrenching pain subsided.
Han Li gasped for breath. When she opened her eyes again, she was lying on her back, facing the sky. There was no sun, only gloomy clouds covering the sky above the wasteland.
All the illusory memories shattered bit by bit the moment she opened her eyes. She couldn’t help but knock on her head, and finally remembered. Not long ago, they had gone to the secret passage together. Then… then while going up the winding stairs, her consciousness seemed to have spun into a daze along with the stairs.
“An illusion, or a dream?”
Whichever one it was, it didn’t matter. The thought that she had actually been unconsciously fleeing the instance filled Han Li with a strong sense of lingering fear. Her whole body was shaking.
She quickly sat up. When she saw the strange black shadow not far away, she was startled again.
The black shadow flashed past and quickly disappeared. Another cold voice came: “Don’t waste time.”
It was Shen Zhiyi. He was standing nearby, clearly having been awake for a long time, yet he had no presence at all. His blood-red eyes were coldly watching Han Li.
Not far away, the university student was also there.
The university student was also covered in cold sweat. He said to Han Li, “It was this Mr. Mu who saved us.”
Han Li was stunned for a moment.
She belatedly realized she was covered in mud. Behind her was a swamp, and in the mud, skulls were unwillingly staring in this direction.
She had almost drowned in the swamp earlier.
“I…”
Just as Han Li was about to speak again, the strange black shadow from before appeared again, its ethereal arm carrying a young man.
The black shadow casually threw the person on the ground. It didn’t run out again.
Not long after, a sound came from the wasteland on the other side.
Ying Yu and Mu Ge were walking over. Mu Ge’s condition looked even more serious than the already injured Ying Yu. There were traces of blood at the corners of his mouth and in his eyes, as if he had been scratched by something.
The university student and the others were saved by Shen Zhiyi. These two had mainly saved themselves.
Ying Yu glanced around.
…Everyone was here, except for Zhou Qi’an.
He was not surprised by this. The first thing Ying Yu did after waking up was to confirm that Zhou Qi’an had not appeared in the wilderness at all.
At this moment, Shen Zhiyi suddenly spoke: “It will be dangerous if we stay away from the hospital for too long. We must rush back at the fastest speed.”
The university student looked up in surprise. In his impression, Mu Tianbai was very cold. Actively saving people was already strange, and coming up with a plan was even stranger.
“But…” He was about to say that Brother Zhou hadn’t been found yet.
“Go back first.” It was Ying Yu who interrupted him. The latter, for some unknown reason, was actually agreeing with Shen Zhiyi.
The white bones in the swamp showed signs of crawling out at any moment. As time passed, the outside area felt more and more ominous. More white bones emerged from the mire. It was hard to imagine how many people had died here before.
The players all used acceleration items and rushed madly towards the hospital.
Behind them, the dark clouds in the wilderness grew denser. Muffled thunder rumbled within the clouds, and a torrential downpour could burst forth at any moment.
The white bones completely crawled out of the swamp, one by one, assembling into a great army of bones, crazily surging in pursuit.
The players ran even faster.
Shen Zhiyi: “Go to the special inpatient department.”
The players he rescued subconsciously followed his instructions while running.
They returned to the mission map without any major incidents.
The Cyclamen Hospital looked as it did when they first arrived at the instance, with a faint mist lingering around. As they rushed into the inpatient building and went to transfer to the dedicated elevator, Mu Ge and Wang Cai couldn’t help but feel a surge of emotion.
What a good person.
He actually told them the elevator password for free and even proactively took them to the special inpatient department.
Finally, they arrived at the special inpatient department!
The adrenaline rush from escaping death was stimulating. Amidst the feeling of being moved, a voice with no room for negotiation suddenly spoke:
“Each of you choose a door and push it open.”
Push a door? Push what door?
Everyone subconsciously looked around. On both sides of the corridor were the rooms of the patients from the special inpatient department.
Their expressions changed drastically. They looked at Shen Zhiyi in disbelief. Could he be telling them to push open these patients’ doors?
What a joke. Not to mention the others, one of the doors housed the extremely destructive elephant seal.
“Push the doors.” When Shen Zhiyi spoke the second time, his tone was a command that could not be refused, and his eyes were filled with a chilling coldness. “Wake these patients up.”
Qi’an was still in the dream.
If the patients woke up.
The sources of danger in the dream would be much fewer.
