Blue Mountain Psychiatric Hospital 12

Qi Chanyang sighed and pulled a notebook from his System Inventory, handing it to him. "Here. Go tear up some paper and play."

Xie Fangcheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "I really did kill him."

Qi Chanyang humored him. "Mm-hm. Go play."

With that, he turned back to continue discussing the clues with Gu Shanshan.

Xie Fangcheng sighed to himself. These days, nobody believed you when you told the truth.

After going through the materials again, Gu Shanshan and Qi Chanyang still found no additional useful clues.

"All we can be sure of right now is that the hospital is conducting human-modification experiments," Qi Chanyang analyzed. "A level-one instance isn't supposed to be that difficult. Normally, I'm strong enough to handle most NPCs. But Han Qi and Ge Juan are both far stronger than I am, and there's also a Director we haven't seen. So this instance must be cleared by gathering clues."

Gu Shanshan added, "There should also be a balance of power between the NPCs. When the restroom NPC came out, it didn't attack me. It attacked Patient No. 4 first. At the same time, Patient No. 4 stopped attacking me and turned to attack the restroom NPC instead."

Qi Chanyang agreed.

Ge Juan was absolutely not as strong as a normal level-one instance NPC should be. This game had a low survival rate, but it wouldn't leave players with no way out at all.

And there was that unidentified NPC that had killed the security guard...

At the thought, Qi Chanyang instinctively turned to look at Xie Fangcheng first.

The guy was actually sitting there, bored out of his mind, folding something out of a sheet of paper he'd torn off.

Qi Chanyang's heart softened again.

The kid didn't look that old, probably just college age. It was normal for male college students to be a little chuunibyo, a little unhinged.

He hadn't held them back since entering the game. He was a bit frivolous, irritating, and annoying, but all in all, he was a fairly well-behaved newbie.

Look at him now. Qi Chanyang had just told him to tear up paper and play, and he obediently sat there tearing paper. He really was rather...

Qi Chanyang's gaze shifted to the trash can.

He closed his eyes, then opened them.

Several strips of torn paper lay in the trash can.

Qi Chanyang: "..."

Qi Chanyang roared, "Xie Fangcheng! What the hell are you doing?!"

Startled by the roar, Xie Fangcheng held up the folded frog in his hand, utterly baffled by the sudden anger. "I'm folding paper."

Qi Chanyang's pointing finger trembled as he indicated the trash can, sounding drained. "You... threw away trash?"

"Oh, I needed a square to fold this, so I cut off the parts that didn't fit."

Fuck!!!

Qi Chanyang dashed to the trash can and pulled out the paper strips.

But it was too late.

A familiar, dangerous presence was gradually drawing near.

Ge Juan!

Every possible plan flashed wildly through Qi Chanyang's mind.

But even the best plan required the strength to carry it out.

Escaping Ge Juan himself wouldn't be a problem, but he definitely couldn't take two other people with him.

Xie Fangcheng was quick on his feet. Maybe the kid could still escape with his life.

But Gu Shanshan...

Qi Chanyang pressed his lips together and looked at Gu Shanshan, who was still completely unaware.

His grave expression startled Gu Shanshan, and she unconsciously sat up straighter.

"What's wrong, Brother Qi?"

Qi Chanyang opened his mouth.

This time, there really was nothing he could do...

The dangerous aura at the door slowly drew closer, step by step, until it finally stopped outside.

Knock, knock, knock.

A knock sounded at the door.

Qi Chanyang took a deep breath. Before he could even arrange a strategy for what came next, Xie Fangcheng, who was closest to the door, had already risen, crossed the room in two strides, and flung it open.

Holding her bucket, Ge Juan stood in the doorway. Half her face had been splashed with sulfuric acid and was covered in raw red scars. Her eyes stared fixedly at the person who opened the door, and her expression slowly froze.

Ge Juan: "..."

Xie Fangcheng said in surprise, "Huh? What a coincidence."

Before he could finish, Ge Juan spun around and ran for it, not even having time to grab her bucket.

Qi Chanyang was shocked, furious, and overjoyed all at once. "Fuck!!"

Xie Fangcheng, too: "Fuck!"

Still patting his chest in relief at having survived, Qi Chanyang said, "She ran that fast?!"

Xie Fangcheng poked his head out. Ge Juan was already nowhere to be seen in the corridor.

He said regretfully, "She ran that fast..."

The emotional whiplash left Qi Chanyang without the energy even to curse.

He collapsed back onto the bed and watched Xie Fangcheng, still standing at the door and looking expectantly down the hall.

A thousand words reached his lips and became one hollow, floating sentence. "Are you fucking in league with the NPCs?"

This kid was so close to No. 9. He was friendlier when he saw NPCs than when he saw players.

Most importantly, having this guy as a teammate was just like dealing with an NPC. It was fucking deadly!

Gu Shanshan finally realized what had just happened.

She let out a breath, then frowned. "But why did she run?"

Seeing that Ge Juan wouldn't be coming back, Xie Fangcheng sighed and wondered aloud, "Yeah, why did she run?"

Qi Chanyang realized it then, too. "She ran because she saw you, right? You don't know why?"

Xie Fangcheng was even more confused. "How would I know?"

He couldn't remember ever dealing with that NPC.

Maybe he had dealt with her, though. These NPCs ran faster than the next; if he'd only hit her once, it really wouldn't have been easy to recognize him.

But her bucket was still outside the door.

Under the watchful eyes of the other two, Xie Fangcheng went over and carried the bucket into the room.

Qi Chanyang: "..."

Holding the bucket, Xie Fangcheng looked inside and gave a surprised little sound.

Qi Chanyang thought there might be an important clue in it and asked, "What is it? What's in the bucket?"

Xie Fangcheng pulled out a rag. "There really is a rag in here."

Then he pulled out another one. "Two."

"..."

Qi Chanyang checked the time. "All right, enough nonsense. I'm going to keep looking for clues."

He took a deep breath and gathered tremendous courage before saying, "Xie Fangcheng, you're coming with me."

It didn't look like Gu Shanshan triggered any killing rule by herself in the ward. But with the two of them here... especially this kid, it felt as though he could draw NPCs over at any moment.

Xie Fangcheng had no objection. "Sure."

The corridor remained pitch-black. With dawn approaching, it seemed even more deathly silent.

Before leaving, Qi Chanyang turned to instruct Gu Shanshan. "I'll still come up once every fifteen minutes. If you run into an NPC you can't handle, prioritize staying alive and wait for me to come back. Don't worry. You probably haven't triggered a killing rule yet, so NPCs won't..."

Click.

Qi Chanyang felt a sudden blaze of light behind him.

Expressionless, he turned around. Xie Fangcheng was leaning against the wall, his right hand having just switched on the corridor lights.

"Can you just settle down for once?!" Qi Chanyang roared.

"Huh? I can't turn them on?" Xie Fangcheng went along with it and switched the lights off again.

Qi Chanyang: "..."

Gu Shanshan gave him a worried look.

Qi Chanyang forced a smile. "I'm fine."

Then he closed the door and turned away.

Qi Chanyang's uncontrollable shouting echoed through the corridor. "Can you take this game seriously? Do you know the rookie death rate in this game is ninety percent? ... My Cow Stomach is for storing clues! Not for carrying your rags!"

The shouts and footsteps gradually faded into the distance.

......

First floor.

After coming downstairs, Qi Chanyang had regained the demeanor of a cautious veteran player who had cleared six instances.

He turned to ask first, "Do you still have that Broken Shadow Man item I gave you?"

"Yeah." As he spoke, Xie Fangcheng rummaged in his pocket for a while and took out the token.

Qi Chanyang nodded.

"I'll take you to the reading room. Wait for me there."

The kid in front of him was infuriating, but Qi Chanyang absolutely didn't want to watch him die.

The reading room should be empty. Qi Chanyang could look for clues on his own first, stash Xie Fangcheng in the reading room, and come pick him up after he was done.

For example, there was the unmarked room beside the cafeteria. Qi Chanyang vaguely sensed something inside, but he couldn't tell what it was.

Taking Xie Fangcheng along in a situation like this could easily put both of them in danger.

If he left him in the reading room, Xie Fangcheng could use the Broken Shadow Man to hold things off if something happened. It would buy a little time for Qi Chanyang, who was also on the first floor, to get there.

That way, neither task would interfere with the other.

Xie Fangcheng was still asking, "Aren't I coming with you to look for clues?"

Qi Chanyang felt like a kindergarten teacher trying to placate an older class of children, and he had to find a way to fob him off. "Your English is good. Go look for clues in the reading room."

Xie Fangcheng frowned, sighed, and agreed with obvious reluctance. "Sigh. Fine."

Qi Chanyang had been angered into a bizarre calm.

Once they reached the reading room, Qi Chanyang looked it over first. Only after finding nothing unusual did he leave.

Xie Fangcheng stretched, sat in a corner, casually picked up a book, and began to read.

Qi Chanyang didn't notice that the high glass window in the wall between the reading room and the badminton court was open. Before long, a head poked in from the badminton court, staring down unblinkingly at the person sitting on the floor as drool dripped continuously from the corner of its mouth.

"Meat... meat..."

Dizzy from reading, Xie Fangcheng spotted it and his eyes lit up.

"There's nothing I can do about this. It's not that I'm not looking for clues properly. This is obviously an 'unexpected situation.'"

With that, Xie Fangcheng picked up his stick.

In high spirits, he greeted the head. "Hi, Little Nine!"

No. 9's mutation had progressed too far, and he had completely lost his reason. His whole face kept flicking out its tongue like a snake, and his pupils had become vertical slits.

"Meat... eat meat..."

Xie Fangcheng opened the door and walked out.

......

Meanwhile.

Qi Chanyang used the master key to open the door beside the cafeteria.

He froze when he entered.

This was a room that seemed as though it should never have existed in this hospital.

It was roughly two hundred square feet. The walls were painted pink and decorated with cartoon pictures.

A bed stood against the wall, its pillow and duvet cover both a delicate pink.

There was a desk beside the bed, its surface neatly arranged with books and school supplies.

Qi Chanyang had a vague guess.

He walked to the desk and casually picked up a book.

A familiar name was written on its cover.

Liu Hanyue.

This was Ge Juan's daughter's room.

Qi Chanyang couldn't help frowning.

Judging from the way the room was used, someone had clearly lived here for at least a year.

Would a normal mother bring her daughter to live long-term in a hospital? Especially a psychiatric hospital?

What exactly had happened?

Qi Chanyang began going through the books and notebooks on the desk.

They were all textbooks, all fifth-grade textbooks.

The little girl named Liu Hanyue was still an excellent student. Qi Chanyang found some test papers on her bookshelf, and nearly all had perfect scores.

The girl was exceptionally talented. Not only did she get good grades, Qi Chanyang also saw sheet music on her shelf, along with several certificates for winning first place in piano competitions.

As he kept flipping through them, he found one of her Chinese-language test papers.

Liu Hanyue, who usually earned nearly perfect scores, had received only a little over fifty points on this test.

Qi Chanyang turned to the last page.

Essay: Your Mother.

In the black grid of the essay section, Liu Hanyue had written in childish handwriting: I don't have a mother.

No mother?

Wasn't Ge Juan her mother?

Qi Chanyang frowned, swallowed the test paper into his Cow Stomach, and continued searching for new clues.

Just then, he vaguely heard a ding. Before he could react, pain shot through his foot.

He looked down.

A pair of eyes was staring at him.