Special Inpatient Department.
The photos pasted on the doors on both sides grew increasingly vivid. In the gloomy and silent long corridor, the only light during the day came from the fluorescent tubes overhead. At this moment, the light shone on everyone’s face, and each face, twitching, appeared slightly distorted.
After Shen Zhiyi dropped his bombshell, Ying Yu reminded everyone, “Check the mission.”
The other players immediately looked at their control panels. After the main mission, a few words had been added at some point:
[Kill Dr. Z — Seal the Heart (Sun)]
The sun?
Everyone, including Han Li, thought of the abnormally bright daylight in the dream.
They subconsciously wanted to look outside, then remembered the corridor had no windows. However, everyone clearly remembered the environment they had run back from; there were signs of an impending storm.
Muge realized there was something wrong with this mission objective.
Previously, the main mission had always been something they had to figure out by piggybacking on other clues. This time, the game specifically added a new item for them, which was clearly unusual.
More importantly, there was no sun outside at all right now.
Mu Tianbai advocated pushing the doors. The only purpose of pushing the doors was one thing: to wake up the patients.
“It can only be sealed in the dream,” Muge said, her face grim as she realized something.
After speaking, she looked at Shen Zhiyi, who remained noncommittal.
Unlike the others, after being pulled into the dream by an irresistible force, Shen Zhiyi had quickly discovered the problem with the sun. In the dream, he could see it even more clearly: the sun was a virtual image projected from near the pharmacy.
However, no matter how much he tried to hypnotize himself, he quickly woke up, without any time to do anything.
In the moment before waking, Shen Zhiyi saw the patients of the inpatient department. There were pregnant women sunbathing on the benches, flesh-mound monsters moving in the bushes… The instance wouldn’t include superfluous elements; these were undoubtedly sources of danger that the players had to face.
Among all the patients in the inpatient department, the most troublesome were not the pregnant women or the flesh-mound monsters.
It was the elephant seal and Dr. Z.
With Qi’an’s intelligence, his absence from the wilderness meant he must have chosen to remain in the dream.
“Cooperation from inside and out,” Shen Zhiyi said coldly.
The person inside seals the sun, and the people outside draw the fire. This was the way out.
The young man had been knocked out once before, and his neck was still sore. Hearing this, he said in a daze, “But we don’t need one person per door…”
He swallowed the rest of his words upon meeting the killing intent in the blood-red pupils of Shen Zhiyi’s eyes.
He knew when to back down. If he said another word, his fate would not be a good one.
The reason Shen Zhiyi had saved these people was that he saw they still had their uses.
Otherwise, with his own power sealed, trying to kite a group of monsters alone could easily lead to mistakes.
Ying Yu shared the same view. Without wasting words, he said directly, “I’ll push the door with the elephant seal with you.”
The elephant seal was the most difficult to deal with. After the instance’s difficulty had increased, it was unknown what kind of power it would possess in reality.
He roughly drew a floor plan, detailing when each person needed to push a door and where to lure the patient, to prevent the patients from swarming together later and causing a chaotic scene.
“I’ll push the door of patient number ten,” Han Li said with a grave expression. She understood the priorities and showed her stance.
The insistence on pushing the doors was based on the premise that Zhou Qi’an was still in the dream.
The players showed no suspicion on this point. Based on Zhou Qi’an’s outstanding performance earlier, no one would think he would actually die in the wilderness swamp.
“We can only gamble,” Han Li said helplessly.
Releasing a large number of patients from the special inpatient department would definitely attract the nurses. Attacked from both sides, the players couldn’t play hide-and-seek in the building forever. They believed it wouldn’t be long before they were caught.
They could only gamble that Zhou Qi’an would succeed in the sealing before misfortune befell them.
Soon, everyone had chosen a door.
With not enough people, the university student had to take on the task of pushing a door alone. Ying Yu lent him two items.
“Ward nineteen.”
He directly assigned the door to the university student.
Wards eighteen and nineteen housed a batch of players who had entered at the same time. Compared to the original patients who lived here, they were a bit easier to deal with.
Everything was arranged. There was no time to fuss over the details.
Shen Zhiyi took a final look at the shadow entity, which seemed eager to push a door as well, then retracted his gaze and said, “Since there are no problems, let’s begin.”
Hopefully, after they lured the patients away, everything would go smoothly in the dream.
…
“To hell with this 5.5-star instance, ahhhh!”
In the dream, Zhou Qi’an, who carried the hope of sealing the sun, was running frantically like Kuafu chasing the sun.
But unlike before, his forward dash carried a hint of uncertainty.
The passage was covered in slippery slime. It was like a magnified sewer pipe. Every time he lifted his shoe from the ground, it came with a stringy effect, nearly causing him to fall several times.
In the past, escapes were always toward a path of life. But this time…
Zhou Qi’an could already smell the fishy scent of water. The lighting item he had bought for a hundred points flickered as he ran. All the light was completely blocked by a massive dark shadow at a certain point ahead.
A liquid smelling of rot mixed with a hint of flowers dripped from the ceiling.
Where the light disappeared ahead, a behemoth turned its body with a huge movement.
Its exposed, deformed teeth were already moving up and down. Crocodile skin was still stuck between its teeth, and bloody foam mixed with the viscera of aquatic creatures dripped onto the ground with its saliva.
The distance between them closed infinitely as Zhou Qi’an ran. Seeing food voluntarily delivering itself to its door, the elephant seal opened its mouth wide and its body sprang into a U-shape. It had overcome the usual clumsiness of elephant seals on land; its speed was astonishingly fast, its serrated teeth snapping toward Zhou Qi’an.
“White sash.”
Using the white sash to block the elephant seal’s line of sight, Zhou Qi’an narrowly avoided the terrifying bite.
In that moment of dodging, the blood faces from behind caught up.
They didn’t dare to snatch food from the elephant seal, but that didn’t stop them from enjoying the sight of a living person being eaten. As Zhou Qi’an dodged, one of the blood faces stretched out, its flesh separating and becoming long and thin, directly wrapping around his slender calf and pulling hard.
Zhou Qi’an fell to the ground, just in time to see the elephant seal’s astonishing teeth.
It opened its mouth wide and swooped down from above, roaring as it tried for a second time to tear apart the prey at its lips.
A slender cane vertically blocked the elephant seal’s terrifying bite, one end firmly pressed against its lower jaw.
Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. They were not in the same weight class at all. The weight from the elephant seal was almost threatening to crack the cane.
“This instance is definitely targeting me!” Zhou Qi’an cursed internally.
Normally, he could have solved this directly with his sacred artifact, but now he was being suppressed.
He had the hospital wristband, which he couldn’t tear off to complete the mission. He had the sacred artifact, but he couldn’t use it for fear of being taken to the ICU.
His frustration was at its peak!
In the time it took to curse, his head was almost bitten off.
The white sash acted again, nimbly blocking the elephant seal’s vision.
Zhou Qi’an took the opportunity to strike the flesh wrapped around his calf with his cane. As he broke free, he ran past the elephant seal through the only gap between it and the side wall, his back scraping painfully against the surface.
The blood faces floated over, blocking his exit.
Just as Zhou Qi’an was almost face-to-face with an arrogant blood face, an invisible ripple spread through the air. One of the faces vanished with a swoosh.
“!”
The sudden disappearance startled the adjacent blood face.
Zhou Qi’an’s throat moved, and he murmured, “Some faces, they just dissipate as they go.”
Before he could react, the elephant seal behind him twisted its thick body. A long, barbed tongue flopped out before its teeth. After its mutation, the black barbs on it were sharp enough to tear a person’s skin.
This time, the elephant seal was in a semi-prone position, occupying almost the entire width of the passage, making it difficult to run.
Zhou Qi’an could only press himself further against the wall, trying to poke the long, black-red, foul-smelling tongue with his cane.
“Please don’t burst.”
He felt this thing was even more toxic than the flesh-mound monsters. It would likely cause an instant infection.
Gripping the cane with both hands, just as he was about to thrust, with a swoosh, just like the blood face, the elephant seal also vanished on the spot.
“…” Zhou Qi’an’s raised arms froze slightly. Some seals, they just dissipate as they go.
Every so often, one of the blood faces in the air would disappear. Their features, unnaturally widened in surprise, looked somewhat comical.
“It’s Shen Zhiyi’s group in action,” Zhou Qi’an was now completely sure of the answer.
Regaining his footing, he didn’t hesitate, seizing the opportunity to continue running forward.
Without the elephant seal and most of the blood faces, the crisis from the special inpatient department was almost cleared.
The few remaining blood faces that briefly followed were no threat. At full speed, Zhou Qi’an quickly pulled away. Standing before the winding upward staircase again, this time the sunlight filling the secret passage had a strange black tint.
The black sunlight shone on the spiral staircase, yet it wasn’t the color of night. With the help of his lighting tool, Zhou Qi’an could see strange patterns in the light.
Ascending along the light, he couldn’t help but get goosebumps.
After dozens of turns, then hundreds of turns, Zhou Qi’an fought off dizziness and quickened his pace.
“Finally…”
He felt he was almost there, just one or two more corners… Just as he was thinking, his steps came to an abrupt halt at the next turn.
At the very top of the stairs, a woman was squatting like an animal.
Her physical strength was exceptionally vigorous, giving the illusion that she could scale walls and walk on roofs.
Zhou Qi’an had seen this slightly round, youthful, apple-shaped face before. In the last dream, the players had almost mistaken her for Zhang Xiuxiu.
“Dr. Zhang,” Zhou Qi’an said, looking at the single character visible on the patient’s wristband.
The woman blocked the path, not denying it. Her pair of black-and-white eyes held a cruel innocence, looking down on the young man below.
Zhou Qi’an’s expression gradually became grave.
The final mission was to kill Dr. Z. Now that she was within reach, he could perfectly well stab her with his fishing spear.
“…A trap.”
He didn’t believe Dr. Z would be so easy to kill.
With no choice, Zhou Qi’an could only rush up. Dr. Z was also moving. She didn’t attack, but simply seemed to be always out of reach.
“Hehehe…”
The corners of the woman’s mouth turned up. She was laughing, laughing incessantly. The laughter entered his ears, making his entire heart tremble. Laughter, crying, and coughing were always the three most contagious forms of expression. Inexplicably, Zhou Qi’an wanted to laugh along.
As he couldn’t help but curve his lips into a smile, the woman who had been at the top of the stairs a second ago suddenly became a black shadow.
The laughter made Zhou Qi’an’s reaction half a beat slow. His body hit the wall as he dodged.
“Hehehehe…” The woman was hanging on the wall, her long fingernails stained with beads of blood.
A sharp pain came from his neck. Without looking down, Zhou Qi’an could feel a line of blood being drawn from his neck to his collarbone. If it had been any higher, his carotid artery would probably have been pierced.
The woman’s nails seemed to be poisonous. The area from his collarbone to his chest was going numb.
The laughter was still echoing, like the most delicate cyclamen petals, making one relax and become intoxicated.
Zhou Qi’an took a deep breath. This must be one of Dr. Z’s abilities. She could spread it through the most common sounds, achieving an effect similar to an illusion.
The laughter was not just spreading through his ears, but also his eyes, his brain, and even seemed to be spreading through the wound.
An itch started in his internal organs.
The figure above reached for his neck again.
His limbs had a mind of their own. Zhou Qi’an found that he couldn’t generate any thought of harming the woman with a weapon. He couldn’t even use his will to control the white sash.
Facing the pouncing black shadow, Zhou Qi’an, unable to control any weapon, trembled. There was only one last thing he could use.
In the next breath, his hair abruptly changed from all black to all blue.
The woman in mid-air was slightly stunned, briefly stopping her laughter.
Anyone, in the middle of a fight, would be subconsciously startled if their opponent suddenly switched their entire hair color with one click.
Less than a second was more than enough time!
Zhou Qi’an seized the opportunity to use his dagger, swiping forcefully at the woman’s abdomen.
Not a single drop of blood was spilled. A terrifying scene occurred. Every piece of flesh on the woman’s body seemed to be alive. The moment the cut was made, before the dagger could go deeper, a chunk of her abdominal flesh actually plopped off.
The piece of flesh that fell to the ground was still writhing like a maggot.
The woman’s main body had instantly retreated to a safe distance.
Zhou Qi’an’s scalp tingled. Thankfully, he hadn’t used the sacred artifact.
It seemed all of Dr. Z’s flesh could be used like a lizard’s tail to escape. If that was all, it would be one thing, but the empty space in her abdomen roiled with flesh, healing in the blink of an eye with her super-strong regenerative ability.
“…”
