WTNL Chapter 143

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Ping An Asylum
Chapter 143: Interesting. Would a snake ever feel lonely?

In the” Integrity First” the live broadcast room:

[Huh, this?!]

[How can this be? I thought Edward was already dead!]

[I have a feeling that this Ping An Asylum is different from what I remember, but I can’t quite put my finger on what’s wrong…]

[Aaaaah, help! What has happened during this time? I really want to know!]

At the moment Wen Jianyan saw Edward, he was so shocked that he almost stopped breathing. 

The last time they met, Edward had slit his own stomach with the tip of an axe and took his last breath in front of him. Yet, not much time had passed, and this guy was now bouncing back in front of him…

What on earth is going on?!

His lips tightened, his pupils contracted, and his astonished gaze remained fixed on the blond man not far away, his mind in chaos and unable to make sense of it.

Feeling the gaze from the outside, Edward, trapped in the glass cage, looked back.

His hair was disheveled, his beastly body was tense, and shadows filled the grooves between his muscles.

“What did that snake in a white coat do to you, darling?”

The madman snarled, revealing sharp, white teeth, his voice teetering on the edge of frenzy.

Dr. Reese had a faint smile on his lips, standing to the side, his white coat perfectly neat and tidy. Compared to Edward, who was not far away, he could be considered civilized, elegant, and refined from head to toe, representing the elegance and enlightenment of modern civilization.

He spoke with a gentle tone:

“Edward, be polite. All of this is for your recovery; it’s part of the treatment.”

These words were high-sounding, as if they came from a doctor genuinely concerned about his patients.

“—And this includes understanding the changes in interpersonal relationships among patients.”

Dr. Reese raised his hand and gently placed it on Wen Jianyan’s shoulder.

The eerie sensation of the rubber glove landing on his skin without any hindrance made Wen Jianyan shiver involuntarily, and he turned to look at Dr. Reese.

The other’s face was refined and rational, and under thin, transparent lenses were his cold green eyes.

For some reason, a sinister premonition slowly rose in Wen Jianyan’s heart.

“Seeing him, you seem quite surprised,” Dr. Reese said.

Wen Jianyan pursed his lips and didn’t answer.

“You thought he was dead, didn’t you?” The snake smiled and leaned in, his fingers following the young man’s tense shoulder and ending up at his lips. “Under your inducement?”

“…”

Wen Jianyan’s breath caught for a moment.

In that moment, he suddenly realized something and looked at Edward.

Under the glass cover, Edward had already fallen completely silent, contemplating the scene in front of him, with a hint of an unknown darkness in his light blue eyes.

The doctor casually turned around and examined the changes in the heart rate monitor, raised an eyebrow, and said with a hint of insinuation: 

“Look, there are still changes.”

He pulled a long strip of white paper in front of Wen Jianyan and pointed out a noticeable disturbance on it. With a sly smile and a meaningful tone, he said, “It seems you really like my final image.”

Wen Jianyan’s body tensed slightly.

Dr. Reese let go of his hand, and the long white paper rolled down:

“Unfortunately, sometimes data is not everything.”

He raised his hand to touch Wen Jianyan’s forehead, and lifted his eyelids to observe, his movements skilled and calm, and the smile on his lips slowly grew: “The symptoms are typical of sympathetic nervous system excitement.”

Sympathetic nervous system excitement can lead to dilated pupils, sweating, an increased heart rate, and gastrointestinal spasms. In simple terms… it’s nervousness and fear.

“When you saw his body, were you afraid?” 

Dr. Reese withdrew his gaze from Edward and turned to look at Wen Jianyan.

The other party leaned closer, and through his thin lenses, Wen Jianyan could see those cold, burning green eyes. His breath quickened, but the other party’s voice remained elegant and calm. “When you saw him alive, were you disappointed?”

He raised his hand, pinching the young man’s chin, and the fingertips of the glove pressed against his lower lip, watching those soft, plump lips being squeezed and deformed.

Dr. Reese’s voice became lighter, and in his low whisper, there was a terrifying fanaticism: 

“When enticing others to commit suicide, do you get excited?”

“…”

Wen Jianyan slightly narrowed his eyes and looked at Dr. Reese from beneath his long, dark eyelashes.

He suddenly smiled, and the tension and fear from before disappeared without warning, like thin remnants of snow under the sunlight.

Wen Jianyan calmly said:

 “Thank you for the psychological profiling and treatment you’ve provided me. I wonder if you’d like to hear my thoughts about you.”

Dr. Reese squinted his eyes, not answering.

“In the statistics of professional killers, both doctors and psychologists rank highly. Obviously, a high level of education, a rich medical background, and counterintelligence knowledge make for the perfect camouflage.”

Wen Jianyan stared at him with deep, amber eyes.

“Rather than getting your hands dirty, you prefer to watch. You’re not a killer or a butcher. You don’t like blood on your hands, and you don’t enjoy violence. No… what excites you is something entirely else. You prefer to lurk in the background, being a manipulative scoundrel. You enjoy watching humans go mad under your guidance. It thrills you and makes you addicted… You can’t quit this addiction, can you?”

“You conduct experiments on humans, messing with their minds.”

Wen Jianyan’s gaze inexplicably swept toward Edward, and his gaze lightly passed over the scars left on his chest.

“Unfortunately, electroconvulsive therapy doesn’t work well on a big guy, does it?”

“Let me think… why did you bring me here?”

Wen Jianyan’s lips curled slightly, and his gaze seemed to possess a terrifying penetrative power. “You saw my conversation with Edward in the corridor, didn’t you? Did you think you spotted a kindred spirit?”

“Interesting. Would a snake ever feel lonely?”

“Do you consider yourself highly intelligent? Superior to others?”

Wen Jianyan laughed. His lips curled upward, revealing a brilliant and gentle smile, but his words were sharp and venomous:

“No… You are a hypocrite, a coward, a voyeur, and a pervert with erectile dysfunction. Cowardly, lowly, craving to find your own kind, yet dreading their existence… Do you think I’m like you?”

The young man leaned in, gazing into the man’s cold, green eyes, and smiled gently. “You guessed wrong.”

“…”

The false smile on Dr. Reese’s face had unknowingly faded little by little.

However, he didn’t seem angry; instead, he appeared quite excited. 

His gaze moved inch by inch down Wen Jianyan’s restrained body, filled with greed, desire, aggression, and a desire to invade.

“I apologize; I retract my final diagnosis of you.”

Wen Jianyan’s gaze swept down, and he suddenly smirked maliciously. “It seems there’s more than one deviant patient here, isn’t there… Doctor?”

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[…F*ck, f*ck, f*ck!]

[Aaaaaah, I don’t know why, but I can’t say anything dirty!]

[This-this-this… I-I-I… Help, so treating a pervert is best done by being even more perverted!!]

[‘Goddamn… Is this strength? I’m so impressed…]

【Door opening card (Difficult level prop in Fantasy Amusement Park Instance) has been activated】

With a “creek,” the cage restraining the mad dog opened.

The next moment, everything spun out of control, and primitive, savage power invaded the clean and tidy space without warning. Tables were overturned, and instruments were destroyed.

Order and chaos began to battle.

Wen Jianyan laughed.

The relationship between Edward and Dr. Reese was far from harmonious, not only because they were both at the Ping An Asylum as a doctor and a patient but also because Dr. Reese was an outright sadist and control freak. His therapy on Edward was undoubtedly more malevolent than on himself, and he had subtly mentioned this during their recent “psychological profiling.”

“Crack!”

A crisp sound of bones breaking sounded as he expertly dislocated his thumb joint.

Wen Jianyan’s brow remained motionless, but his face paled for a moment.

He pulled his wrist out of the belt loop and quickly undid all the restraints on himself, turning his head to look at the two figures fighting behind him.

Through the clutter of instruments, Dr. Reese’s cold and fanatical green eyes stared directly at him, but he couldn’t break free from Edward’s onslaught.

Wen Jianyan grinned, flashed him a middle finger, and insulted him with a clear and mocking tone:

“Idiot.”

Afterward, he turned around, skillfully and deftly disappearing into the darkness like a fish slipping into the water, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

***

In his ears, the cold mechanical voice of the system resounded.

【Ding! Congratulations to the anchor for completing the task: Leave the treatment room alive.

Reward points: 500】

After escaping from the treatment room, to prevent being pursued and to avoid being seen by other nurses and attendants, Wen Jianyan decisively activated his invisibility prop.

He needed to get away from the vicinity as quickly as possible to prevent reentering the “inner world.” He didn’t want to be transported back to that treatment room—the territory of that monster—again when the bell rang again.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, raised his hand, and with a “crack,” he relocated his dislocated thumb joint. His expression contorted slightly in pain, and he couldn’t help but gasp.

Damn.

It really hurt.

He exchanged for bandages and painkillers, securing his wound, and then took strides forward.

This was a golden opportunity.

Due to his restricted “patient” status, Wen Jianyan hadn’t found a chance to get a glimpse of the full picture of this instance. But now, he had not only escaped Dr. Reese’s supervision but also avoided the nurses who were tracking him. There was no better time to roughly understand the situation and rules of this dungeon.

Wen Jianyan made up his mind and walked quickly in the direction he remembered from his earlier journey.

—On the way to being transported here, he distinctly recalled passing by a duty room.

Soon, he found the duty room following his memory.

Wen Jianyan successfully retrieved a set of nurse’s uniform from it and put it on.

Although it felt a bit loose, after fastening all the buttons, he looked presentable and flawless.

After putting on the nurse’s uniform, the identity card attached to his wrist gradually transformed into a semi-transparent style, and the text on it changed.

[Identity Card]

Name: Wen Jianyan
Age: 24
Occupation: Nightmare live room’s contracted anchor
Related Plot: Admitted to Ping An Asylum for inpatient treatment due to intellectual disabilities and sexual deviation (the nurse’s identity at Ping An asylum has been obtained).

Wen Jianyan was somewhat surprised.

He didn’t expect that even though the difficulty of this instance was not low, the transition for the anchor’s identity card would be so lenient…

In previous instances, like “Decai Middle Middle School,” the transition for identity card occurred only after gaining recognition from NPCs. But in this instance, simply changing clothes was enough.

This was truly unexpected for Wen Jianyan.

He tentatively deactivated his invisibility prop, and the nurse, who was now wearing the uniform, walked past him without a second glance, completely failing to recognize that a few minutes ago, their current colleague was a mental patient.

“…”

Wen Jianyan raised an eyebrow.

Regardless, it was quite convenient.

He confidently walked into the nurse’s station and started searching around.

In just a few minutes, he found quite a haul.

An electric baton, a map, and all the essentials.

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Hahaha! The anchor’s traditional entertainment skill is back on air!]

[If you can’t beat them, join version 2.0 and put it into testing!]

[In fact, the Ping An Asylum instance allows anchors to use the uniforms of other staff for cover. After all, if you remain a patient, you have very limited mobility. However… sigh.]

[??? Can the person up front stop speaking in riddles? What are you sighing about?]

[Well, how to put it, opportunities and risks always go hand in hand.

In this instance, only medium-risk and high-risk patients create the inner world, and the scope of the inner world is limited. These patients are essentially kept securely in the underground levels. Occasionally, they might be thrown into solitary confinement rooms, and their frequency of allowed free movement is quite low. This is essentially designed to limit their interaction with the anchors.

In short, if anchors continue to operate with the identities of patients, they encounter a limited number of dangerous patients, and the encounters aren’t frequent. Although the activity space for this identity is small, it’s, in a way, a form of protection. However, if they change their identity…]

[! So, if you switch to the role of a nurse, does that mean you have a broader activity range, more tasks, and a higher chance of interacting with high-risk patients?]

[Yes, that’s correct. In fact, the death rate in this Ping An asylum has never been very high. If you act as an ordinary patient, complete missions, and accumulate points, your chances of surviving are quite high.]

[No wonder the exploration rate for this instance is so low, but the survival rate isn’t too low. So, that’s the reason!]

Wen Jianyan opened the map and quickly scanned the information stored in his memory.

The Ping An asylum had a substantial area. The main building formed a semi-circular structure with a central lobby, two wings for patient wards, and four free activity rooms evenly distributed in the eastern and western buildings. This explained why all the anchors weren’t present in the free activity room where Wen Jianyan was located.

The hospital was equipped with various facilities, including patient wards, nurse stations, various treatment rooms, laboratories, a communal nursing room, a laundry room, a shower room, free activity rooms, an open playground, and even a small chapel inside.

Wen Jianyan’s gaze slowly descended and settled on the lower part of the hospital, beneath the last floor. He frowned.

—The underground levels, just like the upper ones, also housed patient wards, but their labels seemed scarce.

Strange.

At that moment, a call came from behind him.

“Hey, it’s time to deliver meals to the patients.” A nurse waved at Wen Jianyan. “Come quickly.”

The task bar was refreshed.

【Elementary Task Released: Deliver meals to patients in the regular ward】

【Intermediate Task Released: Deliver meals to patients in the first underground ward】

【Intermediate Task Released: Deliver meals to patients in the second underground ward】

***

Inside the treatment room.

Dr. Reese stood in a room in shambles, his glasses slightly askew, his once-neat white coat now disheveled. There were specks of blood on him, and his throat bore a deep gash, as though torn by sharp teeth.

For the first time, he had been peeled away from his veneer of civility.

Dr. Reese glanced at the nearby door.

The door seemed to have been smashed from the inside, with one side hanging precariously on the hinges, emitting creaking sounds.

The ground was covered in chaotic footprints in blood.

The mad dog had suffered a severe injury, but it probably wouldn’t take much time for it to recover.

Dr. Reese lowered his gaze, and his long, delicate fingers idly toyed with a surgical knife, traces of fresh blood still visible on its blade. The reflective surface of the blade mirrored his indifferent face and the slowly healing wound on his throat.

The reason that the mad dog recovered so quickly from his near-death state wasn’t due to the doctor’s medical skills.

His not dying from having his throat bitten open wasn’t a miracle either.

In the reflection of the surgical blade, one could see a dense shadow deep within Dr. Reese’s throat, slowly mending the damaged tissues. Underneath the fresh blood, the wound was gradually becoming smooth again.

The doctor set the surgical blade aside and rose to his feet, unhurried.

—Compared to that brainless dog, he was very attentive to his own body.

As someone highly sensitive to evil and spiritual powers, he gradually became aware that he belonged to a terrifying and vast force.

As time passed, this feeling became clearer.

Dr. Reese coldly curled his lips, revealing a chilly and disdainful smile.

They were originally one entity, but that foolish creature clearly failed to realize this. It had even caused him to lose his true prey.

Since that was the case…

He calmly took a step toward the toppled cabinet that had been knocked down. From it, he retrieved the tools for blood extraction and expertly tied them to his pale, slender forearm.

The silver needle pierced his skin, drawing blood tainted with glistening shards and dark shadows into the syringe. The blood was viscous, eerie, and filled with sin and madness.

Dr. Reese raised the syringe, shaking it slightly under the light. He narrowed his eyes, his icy green eyes revealing a faintly ecstatic and thrilled smile.

Driven by his primitive and savage desires, his fingertips trembled involuntarily, and the blood throughout his body boiled.

A voice whispered in his ear…

Create more lunatics.

More brothers, more minions, and more tentacles.

Let everything descend into madness; this was his mission.

In order to capture another poisonous snake, he was willing to set traps and cast an intricate net.

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