Gu Zhan returned to the ward and immediately knocked on the wall.
Sure enough, he was pulled into the wall by the little girl as the familiar darkness engulfed him.
The moment he entered the wall, the ward door was pushed open with a loud bang! The head nurse, realizing she had been tricked, rushed in.
Unfortunately, the ward was already empty.
The head nurse searched inside and out several times before finally leaving in anger.
【That was close, just two or three seconds! He almost got discovered!】
【If he got caught by the nurse, it would be over!】
【I still can’t understand why he hit the nurse.】
【…I also can’t figure out how he had the guts to do that.】
【This newcomer... is either crazy or reckless.】
In the wall space, the little girl had been waiting for a while. When she saw Gu Zhan return, she rushed over, “Where’s Xiao Hong?”
Gu Zhan took out the doll, and the little girl jumped up, wanting to grab it, but Gu Zhan didn’t give it to her; he just silently stared at her.
The little girl knew what he wanted. This person was really hard to deal with. He had just given her candy! She reluctantly pulled out a card and handed it to Gu Zhan, saying, “Here’s the answer. Can I have Xiao Hong now?”
Only then did Gu Zhan give her the doll.
It was still early, and he wasn’t in a hurry to leave. Using a sliver of light from the corner, he bent down to look at the answer.
Seeing that he had completed the task and wasn’t leaving, the little girl, holding the doll, couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you scared? It’s my first time seeing someone finish a task and not hurry to leave.”
It wasn’t that no one had come in before, but most just took the answer and left. No one dared to linger in this place.
Gu Zhan didn’t lift his head and replied, “You can’t even take the doll from the nurse's room. What can you do to me?”
The little girl: “…”
The little girl immediately felt frustrated, hugging the doll and retreating to the corner.
There were quite a few questions, and they became increasingly twisted... even the famous train track question came up.
And the answers were pretty twisted too.
Could this kind of question test if a person’s mental state was stable and normal?
Gu Zhan flipped the answer card over, and at that moment, the little girl suddenly said, “It’s dinner time.”
Gu Zhan: “…”
As soon as she finished speaking, Gu Zhan's vision blurred, and he came out from the dark space in the wall.
The lights in the ward were a bit glaring. Gu Zhan squinted his eyes and pocketed the answer the little girl had given him.
Soon after, Wen Ge and the others returned.
Wen Ge entered the ward without even looking at Gu Zhan, clearly holding a grudge for the earlier refusal.
A strange atmosphere spread through the ward. Most people stood next to Wen Ge, and Gu Zhan, not knowing what was going on, found himself isolated.
This time, Wen Ge didn’t talk to Gu Zhan—this newcomer was so inconsiderate that he had to show him a lesson to make him obedient.
They hadn’t had much time to chat when footsteps came from outside.
The head nurse was coming.
The ward door was once again pushed open with a loud bang. The flimsy door shook after hitting the wall and probably wouldn’t hold up for long.
She didn’t look at anyone else but fixed her gaze on Gu Zhan, grinning maliciously, “Someone intruded into the nurse’s break room. He’ll be punished in the punishment room for confinement.”
Upon hearing this, all the players were in an uproar.
Everyone looked at each other in confusion, wondering who was so bold as to intrude into the nurse's break room and get caught.
Wen Ge asked, “Who?”
The head nurse pointed directly at Gu Zhan.
Gu Zhan remained indifferent and asked, “What evidence do you have?”
“Evidence?” The head nurse seemed to have been waiting for him to say that, her malicious grin widening, “There are cameras in the nurse's break room. Didn’t you think of that?”
Gu Zhan really hadn’t thought of that.
He had carefully observed the internal structure of the nurse's break room and hadn’t noticed any cameras.
“Come here!” The head nurse demanded sternly.
Through previous experiments, Gu Zhan was certain that she was human. However, she displayed an unnatural strength and recovery ability, capable of pinning players against the wall with one hand. Even after taking a full hit from Gu Zhan, she only fainted for a few minutes…
Clearly, confronting the head nurse directly was not a viable option—at least not head-on.
Gu Zhan followed the head nurse.
As he walked away, the expressions of the others grew even stranger.
For some reason, they felt that this newcomer was not on the same wavelength as them…
Someone asked Wen Ge, “What should we do? This newcomer keeps getting himself into trouble. Should we help him?”
“Help him?” Wen Ge raised an eyebrow, “The number of questions for the assessment is fixed. If he scores points, you have to give up some of yours. Do you think your score is enough to share?”
“Besides, he’ll definitely have a low sanity value after two punishments. We all saw it—once the sanity value drops to zero, he’ll go crazy and be taken away by the NPC… Are you sure he’ll come out of the punishment room as a normal person?”
Once he said this, the person immediately didn’t dare to act.
The only girl present frowned, feeling that Wen Ge seemed to be deliberately isolating the newcomer.
But she didn’t dare to say anything. Wen Ge was already the invisible leader among the players, and she feared that if she spoke up, he would target her too.
—
“Go in!”
Gu Zhan didn’t expect that the punishment room the head nurse referred to was actually the place where he had previously injected the medication.
It was the place he had always wanted to enter.
【Well, what a coincidence.】
【This is hilarious. After searching high and low, he found it without any effort.】
【What’s this? I thought I was punishing you, but in fact, I’m rewarding you.】
The head nurse pushed Gu Zhan into the punishment room, thinking it was the greatest punishment for him. She smiled smugly and forcefully slammed the door shut with a loud bang.
Gu Zhan: “…”
Perhaps the noise from the door slamming was too loud. The cabinet door he had previously helped close shook and fell, revealing a skull that had been hiding inside. The skull froze for a moment before realizing that the person standing at the door was Gu Zhan, quickly retreating deep into the cabinet.
【Hilarious! Even the monster is scared of him.】
【I’ve never seen a scene like this before. It’s so interesting!】
Skull: Damn it, how is it him again?
Gu Zhan: “…”
He tried to explain to the skull, “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Skull: “…” Who are you talking to? There’s no one here!
Gu Zhan walked up and pulled the skull out, “She locked me in here.”
Skull: !!!
Who asked you?!
Help! I’ve been kidnapped again, and no one is here to manage this!
The scene the head nurse had envisioned was of Gu Zhan being locked in the punishment room, surrounded by severed heads, living in fear all night, without food, and too scared to sleep. The next day, he would emerge from the punishment room feeling exhausted, hungry, and tired.
In reality, however, Gu Zhan had taken all the patient records, arranged them by number, and spread them out on the floor.
He spent the entire night pressing the severed heads and body parts against the records, identifying each one to see if it matched any of the entries.
Surprisingly, they all matched perfectly.
However, the numbers of the body parts in the ward were all very low; after number 400, there were none left.
Incomplete; there were still many missing in between.
Gu Zhan asked, “Where did the others go?”
The skull could only creak its jaw up and down; it couldn’t speak, and simply nodding or shaking its head was a feat.
“…”
Gu Zhan checked all the records once more and selected a few he needed. After maintaining one position for a long time, his body became very stiff. Once he gathered the records, he began to pace around the room, observing.
The head nurse had mentioned that there were surveillance cameras in the nurse's station, but when Gu Zhan went over, he didn't see any.
From the surface, there didn’t appear to be any surveillance in this place either.
If there were, where would they be installed?
He searched the room carefully and eventually discovered a pinhole camera in the corner.
Once he found this clue, more were revealed.
Not only was there one in the corner, but also behind the sockets, on top of cabinets, on the surgical table… even on the shadowless lamp.
The cameras were everywhere.
It was already deep into the night, and there were only a few viewers left in the livestream.
Having been locked in a room for so long, everyone was mentally exhausted and barely awake. However, upon Gu Zhan’s discovery, a chill ran down their spines, and they were suddenly alert.
【He found it out!!】
【Looking back now, it’s really terrifying. When he discovered there were so many cameras in this place, I got goosebumps all over.】
【I’m getting goosebumps right now too.】
【Could he be the first newcomer to discover the truth in this instance?】
As the bullet comments discussed, Gu Zhan continued to think.
A hospital wouldn’t need this many cameras.
What kind of place was this?
After thinking hard without any answers, Gu Zhan gave up. He was starving and had not slept all night; his body was fatigued.
The head nurse seemed to have no intention of letting him go, so Gu Zhan took out the last few candies from his pocket, popped them in his mouth for some sugar, cleared off the clutter from the surgical table, climbed onto it, and began to sleep.
【……】
【I thought he was going to make a shocking discovery, but instead, he just gave me a performance of sleeping on the spot?】
【Whatever, guys. The head nurse must be furious after being knocked out, and we don’t know how long she’ll keep him locked up. I can’t hold out any longer, so I’m going to sleep.】
【Sleep, sleep, and hope when he wake up, he’s still alive.】
As the main character fell asleep, the popularity of the livestream began to decline slightly.
But it didn’t matter; Gu Zhan didn’t care.
---
Gu Zhan slept deeply.
In the real world, he rarely fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He was sensitive to sound; any slight noise would wake him up. He was also particular about his sleeping environment; it took him two to three days to adjust to a new place.
Even when he did manage to sleep, it wasn’t very restful; he often had dreams and would wake up easily.
But here, he fell asleep without dreams, without waking.
When he naturally woke up, he even felt disoriented, as if he didn’t know what day it was.
It was great; that app hadn’t lied to him. He had said he couldn’t find the life he wanted in the real world. The app promised him that signing a contract with it would allow him to have the life he desired.
It seemed to be true.
Gu Zhan turned over and sat up on the surgical table. Coincidentally, at that moment, the head nurse arrived at the punishment room door with some people.
Having been in this hospital for so long, receiving batch after batch of patients, she had never encountered anyone as bold as patient 707, who had dared to knock her out!
She had made up her mind to teach him a lesson by deliberately locking him up for a night and a half day.
She wanted to see his expression of sheer terror as he suffered inside.
Not only did she want to see it; she wanted to show it to the other players as a warning!
“Before going for lunch, I’ll bring your companion with me.”
Watching the patients obediently line up in the hallway, the head nurse felt a sense of accomplishment. She scrutinized each person’s expression, watching as fear and dread appeared on their faces whenever she looked at them.
Good; it should be like this.
“He’s been in there for a night; I wonder how he’s doing.” The head nurse’s tone was filled with feigned sympathy, “I really hope he can hold on.”
Beside her, the players led by Wen Ge looked serious. They didn’t actually know what Gu Zhan had done, but based on the head nurse’s reaction, things didn’t look good for him.
Oh well, in this game, with one less newcomer, there was one more chance to clear the level.
They were prepared to see Gu Zhan’s corpse.
However, at that moment, some strange comments appeared on the bullet screen.
【He’s awake.】
【When the door opens, it’ll drop your jaws.】
【?? When did this livestream room get so many people?】
【They must have come to see Wen Ge; maybe they just arrived. Let me introduce the situation: Wen Ge is close to discovering the truth of the instance.】
【Pfft, you just arrived; you’re the one who came to see that dog Wen Ge.】
【What’s wrong with you guys? I just give you guys a proper introduction why are you insulting people? Did Wen Ge offend you?】
【I’ve been in this livestream room since the beginning; do I need you to introduce anything?】
【They must be players who came over from other channels, right?】
【Impossible; from yesterday to today, all players were together; there weren’t any separate channels.】
【No, wait… there’s one person who wasn’t with everyone.】
【707?】
【How could that be? He might already be dead.】
【You’re the one who’s dead; your whole family is dead. Just wait and see.】
【?? Are you sick? Can you speak properly?】
【Oh? So Wen Ge’s dog can speak properly? Doesn’t Wen Ge only know how to bark?】
【……】
Just then, the head nurse opened the door to the punishment room. She looked forward with anticipation, but the scene inside left her utterly dumbfounded…
Gu Zhan had just woken up and was still sitting on the surgical table. He didn’t know where he had gotten a deep green cloth to use as a blanket, which was now layered and piled on the bedside, half of it already on the floor.
As he noticed the door opening, he was not surprised at all. Instead, he rubbed his brow and murmured, “Hmm… Is it dawn?”
He appeared completely dazed from sleep.
The head nurse: “…” This was not what she had imagined.
Others: “…” This was also not what they had imagined.
Only the viewers who had rushed overnight from Gu Zhan’s livestream to the main instance’s livestream were delighted.
【Hahaha, I’m dying of laughter; the NPC’s expression is something I could laugh at for a year!!】
【I knew it; opening the door would surely bring surprises! It was worth my wait of a day and a night!】
【?? What’s going on? Isn’t this the punishment room?】
【Why hasn’t he been punished? Did the NPC give him a pass?】
【Give a pass? How could that be? What if he’s just exceptionally powerful and subdued the monsters?】
【??????????】
“You…” The head nurse was perplexed, looking suspiciously around. The cabinets were all neatly in place in the punishment room, but why… was this patient not scared at all, nor did he show any signs of going insane?
Why?!
As an NPC, the head nurse couldn’t comprehend the concept of sanity points for players.
But she knew there were terrifying things in this room, and just going in there two or three times would drive a person mad.
This was already patient 707’s second time in the punishment room; why had he not gone insane yet?
But Wen Ge noticed that this patient, 707, not only hadn’t lost sanity points but seemed to have even regained some after a good night’s rest!
He couldn’t understand; why hadn’t the monsters come out to scare him?
Or was it that this punishment room really had nothing inside?
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