Blue Mountain Psychiatric Hospital 9

The reading room was pitch-black. The door opened soundlessly, then quickly shut again.

Qi Chanyang leaned against the bookshelf by the door, gulping down silent breaths.

Hiding in a room was hardly a good option. When Qi Chanyang had fled the cafeteria just now, he had been forced to brush past the NPC Ge Juan and had nearly been caught.

But there was no helping it. Qi Chanyang could not run any farther.

After fleeing the cafeteria, he had run up to the second floor, and the NPC had followed him there.

Qi Chanyang ran back down from the second floor. Though he had clearly been outside her line of sight, she had still followed him down with unerring precision.

He had been marked.

Luckily, he was faster than the NPC. That was the only reason he could keep circling around without getting caught.

But Kicking Rabbit consumed an enormous amount of stamina. If this kept up, who knew when it would end?

Qi Chanyang gripped Gift of the Whale Fall and exchanged for a stamina potion from the system shop.

He could only give it everything he had!

He knew perfectly well that he was absolutely no match for this NPC, but Qi Chanyang had no intention of throwing his life away either.

He opened the bottle of stamina potion and tipped it back, draining it in one go. Then he went to the bookshelf at the far end, sat down quietly, and waited for the medicine to take effect.

Soon, that hair-raising sensation came over him again.

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone knocked at the door.

"Hello. Do you need cleaning?"

Qi Chanyang said nothing, feeling his stamina slowly return.

The NPC at the door ran out of patience. After knocking once more, she raised her chainsaw.

The chainsaw's buzzing reached him. Soon, the reading room door was sawed open.

Ge Juan's voice came through with a clarity that made it seem as though she were speaking right beside his ear.

"Hello. Where are you? Do you need cleaning?"

As she spoke, she walked inside, turning her head stiffly. Half her face had been burned with sulfuric acid, and she stared straight at Qi Chanyang's hiding place as she slowly approached, carrying a chainsaw and her red plastic bucket.

Now!

Qi Chanyang pressed himself against the wall and kicked hard.

Kicking Rabbit activated. He launched himself from the ground like an actual rabbit, braced off the wall and shot straight toward the ceiling. Like a shadow, he skimmed across the ceiling over Ge Juan's head, then darted out of the reading room at top speed.

First floor.

Second floor.

...Third floor.

Qi Chanyang stood at the third-floor stairwell. He hesitated for only an instant, then gritted his teeth and charged upward.

While evading Ge Juan's pursuit earlier, Qi Chanyang had passed the stairs to the third floor countless times. He had vaguely seen an eerie red glow spilling down from them and heard something pacing back and forth overhead with heavy thuds.

There was no other choice. If he kept dodging between the first and second floors, he would eventually run out of stamina and get caught.

He might as well take a gamble on the third floor.

Even a newcomer like Gu Shanshan had dared bet on the NPCs killing each other. Of course he could too...

Out of the corner of his eye, Qi Chanyang spotted the first room by the stairwell.

Its door was open...though it probably could not be shut in the first place. It was a steel door, yet it was covered in dents as though something had slammed into it again and again. The lock was gone as well.

In the particularly hellish red light of the corridor, Qi Chanyang's system-enhanced eyes could clearly make out the room's interior.

It had probably once been an operating room. Now the operating table was twisted like a pretzel and tossed into a corner like scrap metal, while the hospital bed beside it had been crushed flat against the floor...but none of that was the important part.

The entire room looked as if it had been washed in blood. The ceiling, the walls, even the windows were covered in congealed blood, as though the place had been painted with it.

Only the cabinet in the corner remained intact.

There had to be something inside...

Qi Chanyang instinctively wanted to search for clues, but suddenly shuddered from head to toe.

Ge Juan was about to catch up!

He could only hurry down the corridor, watching the rooms he passed from the corner of his eye. The more he saw, the more terrified he became.

The third floor was clearly where the NPCs operated. There were operating rooms and conference rooms; Qi Chanyang even saw a sign for the Director's Office.

Qi Chanyang had not personally experienced how strong these NPCs were, but he could vaguely sense that Ge Juan, who was chasing him from behind, was the strongest, with Han Qi next. He Xin was about as strong as No. 1 before he took the medicine.

Dealing with just one No. 1 had nearly cost him his life. What kind of terrifying monster could throw its weight around so freely on the third floor?

The room making noise not far ahead drew closer and closer. As Qi Chanyang quickly passed it, he took a moment to sense inside, but detected no dangerous NPC there.

Was it something like the cafeteria bats? Individually weak, but living in a group?

With that thought, Qi Chanyang twisted open the door to the adjacent room that was making noise and slipped inside.

It looked like a storage room. Box after box was piled inside, all draped in red velvet cloth.

As if they sensed a living creature enter, the things in the boxes kept making rasping, huffing noises, like starving dogs eager to devour the meat before them.

The sight of a room full of boxes made Qi Chanyang's scalp prickle. He stood with his back pressed tightly to the wall.

Just then, the muffled thumping next door stopped.

At the same time, Qi Chanyang sensed a dangerous presence approaching, and clear footsteps sounded in the corridor.

It was Ge Juan.

Qi Chanyang clenched his teeth, praying that the monster capable of sweeping through the third floor would run into Ge Juan. Only if the two NPCs both suffered losses would he have a chance to escape alive.

His prayer seemed to work. In the silent corridor came the creak of a door opening.

From the room next door?

But immediately afterward, Qi Chanyang heard a familiar voice.

"Huh? So you're here?"

...Xie Fangcheng?!

No. If it were Xie Fangcheng, how could he be so calm in front of an NPC???

Was it No. 9?

That could not be right. That careless, punchable tone was unmistakably Xie Fangcheng's. Just overhearing it was enough to make someone furious.

No. 9 did not imitate him that well.

What was going on?

The corridor was deathly silent.

Qi Chanyang pressed himself to the door and listened carefully to the sounds outside, his thoughts a complete mess.

It should...be No. 9, right?

If it were Xie Fangcheng, the NPC would attack him.

But had No. 9 evolved enough to imitate even his tone? It sounded far too much like Xie Fangcheng!

Why was there no movement in the corridor? Why was the NPC, who kept asking whether anyone needed cleaning, not saying anything either???

If it really was Xie Fangcheng...could Ge Juan's killing rule be that she had to kill the target player before she could kill another player? Was that why she had not attacked after seeing Xie Fangcheng?

How else could this situation be explained?

The next second, Qi Chanyang confirmed the identity of the person outside first.

He heard "Xie Fangcheng" speak at the door. "Hey, got a rag in that bucket? Lend it to me."

Fuck!

That train of thought. Xie Fangcheng, all right!!

He could not wait any longer!

Qi Chanyang flung the door open.

At the door, Xie Fangcheng held a stick. Without the slightest hesitation, he was about to walk over to Ge Juan, his hand nearly inside her bucket.

What the hell was wrong with this newcomer?!?!

Even if Ge Juan's killing rule was unusual, how did this guy dare talk to an NPC so directly???

Qi Chanyang grabbed his arm. With Ge Juan watching and his heart pounding wildly, he burst out with the greatest strength of his life, seized Xie Fangcheng's arm, and practically flew to the stairwell, dragging him straight downstairs.

Xie Fangcheng watched helplessly as the NPC he had been thinking about day and night grew farther and farther away. "Hey!...Sigh."

Qi Chanyang raced all the way back to the first floor. Panting hard, he could not help roaring in the corridor.

"What the hell are you doing? Do you have a death wish??"