After finishing breakfast, it was an intense experience for those who ate, but at least they managed to complete the main task set by the system for the day.
As for the identity of the killer of "Player Qiu Yang," there was still no conclusion, and the players didn’t care much about it.
What they needed was to survive, accumulate more points, and get what they wanted.
As for the killer of Qiu Yang, the system hadn't required them to come to an immediate answer, giving them six more days to investigate.
Even if they couldn't figure it out, it would only mean losing points for a side quest.
The next two days were spent with players eating, taking medicine, and besides a few players disappearing each day, things remained relatively calm.
---
Day Three.
[Dungeon: "Jianshe Road Private Hospital", Dungeon Progress: 35%]
[Game Rules: Survive for 7 days in the hospital]
[Total Players: 14, Current Survivors: 9]
[Real NPCs: 3, Uncontaminated NPCs: 3]
Jiang Yan woke up to the sound of the main system's announcement. The sunlight filtered through a small window and fell on him, his long eyelashes fluttering as his blue eyes glistened.
Beneath him was a stiff hospital bed and his soft, black-haired "husband."
Jiang Yan turned over, and the monster, watching his beloved wife sleep soundly on top of him, started to bubble from its pitch-black, viscous body.
A cry from the hallway outside the hospital room broke the peaceful atmosphere, causing Jiang Yan to furrow his brows.
"What’s going on?" Jiang Yan asked impatiently, rubbing his eyes.
"They're dead," the monster replied, its voice carrying a hint of sadness. It then used its tendrils to comfort its wife. "Don’t worry, Yan Yan, you won’t be harmed."
Jiang Yan was tightly bound by the tendrils, the head with a paper mask rubbing gently against his neck, affectionate and longing.
For a moment, Jiang Yan felt a sense of confusion, as if they really were a loving couple.
"Do your S-rank dungeon system NPCs all feel this real?" Jiang Yan asked, feeling the sensation and turning to ask 663.
663 responded smugly, "Ensuring the most realistic gaming experience for players is our game’s mission!"
"Some real NPCs, after being contaminated, become fuel for system NPCs, while others become permanent system PCs, staying forever in the dungeon," 663 explained. "And to ensure the most immersive experience for players, all NPCs are modeled after real people."
"Real people? These things are modeled after real people?" Jiang Yan coldly pulled the tendrils that had snuck under his hospital gown out of his body.
This earned a discontented but helpless groan from the monster beneath him.
"Yes," 663 replied cryptically. "Real people."
Jiang Yan was already used to 663's annoying tone and couldn't be bothered to argue further.
He turned on his "husband" again, and the monster softened its body. Jiang Yan felt as if he was sinking into soft cotton, enveloped in the monster’s dark body.
—
Outside the hallway, a group of players gathered at the door of a hospital room.
A strong, acrid smell of disinfectant mixed with the scent of burnt flesh came from inside the room. A charred body was curled up on the hospital bed, and from its twisted posture, it was clear that the person had died in immense pain.
However, despite the battered walls of the room, which bore marks of age, there were no signs of a fire in the entire room.
Yet this player had been burned to death—burned to death in a room that hadn’t even been touched by fire.
[Player: You Cheng, eliminated.]
"Ah!!" A player knelt at the door of the room, crying out in grief over their fallen comrade.
The surviving players gathered at the door. With the addition of some powerful players from the Dawn Guild and the Valen Church, there were only 8 left.
The player kneeling on the ground was crying uncontrollably, while the others watched with unreadable expressions.
"This is such a boring script," Cao Youfeng yawned. "Burned to death in a room without fire, how ridiculous."
Li Yun, however, looked alarmed: "Yesterday, the player drowned in a room that wasn’t flooded... burned to death in a room without fire... drowned in a room without water... No warning at all."
Li Yun silently clenched his fists, his nose filled with the lingering scent of disinfectant and burnt flesh, making his stomach churn.
Cang Rou, the nurse, passed by the players standing at the door and entered the room.
She calmly observed the patient on the bed while recording the patient’s basic information, then comforted the player crying on the floor: "In a hospital, it’s very normal for people to die of illness."
"Die of illness?!" The player kneeling and crying incredulously looked up, "You’re saying he died of illness? He was burned to death!"
Cang Rou calmly glanced at the information in her hands and continued playing the role of a competent nurse: "Patient 76, Shi Yin, diagnosed with tuberculosis and schizophrenia. This room wasn’t on fire; the burning is just your illusion."
Shi Yin quickly stood up: "No! He was definitely burned! Everyone can see this body was scorched!"
Cang Rou didn’t answer his question and simply said: "Remember to take your medication."
Afterward, she dragged the corpse from the bed out of the room.
The charred body scraped against the rough floor as it was moved. The hair on the corpse was mostly burned off, leaving only a few sparse strands, and some blackened tissue had fallen to the ground.
"Make way." She said to the players standing at the door.
The group of players, including Tao Shi and others, stepped aside.
As Cang Rou dragged the corpse through the crowd, Tao Shi smiled and asked: "Nurse, where do we go after we die?"
He wasn’t referring to this “patient,” but to "us."
Li Yun shuddered, the situation was too unpredictable, and no one knew how they would die in the next second.
Seven days to survive... and this was only the third day.
Cang Rou gave Tao Shi a glance and said: "Go take your medicine. The hospital will make sure to treat every patient."
She fluttered her long lashes and added: "Recently, there’s been some trouble outside, so patients and medical staff can’t leave freely. Don’t forget to take your medicine."
[Ding! Triggered real NPC Cang Rou.]
[Cang Rou’s key line: Don’t forget to take your medication.]
After saying that, Cang Rou left, dragging the corpse without looking back.
Cang Rou finished speaking and left, dragging the body without turning back.
All the players stood silently, watching her graceful figure disappear into the distance. The only sounds that filled the hallway were the sharp click of high heels against the floor and the dragging of the corpse across the ground.
Once her figure vanished from sight, the new players began to lower their heads, quietly sobbing.
Shi Yin, who had lost a comrade, broke down and cried uncontrollably.
In a deadly game like this, having a comrade to face life and death with is crucial. In moments of danger, humans instinctively activate a "group survival" mode—it's a primal urge encoded in our DNA.
Thus, most players eagerly sought to join “guilds” not only for protection from more experienced players but also to have comrades to fight alongside. So, the death of a comrade is often unbearable.
The newer players were crying because they couldn’t see any hope for breaking free.
Every day, they saw fellow players dying in bizarre ways, without any clear explanation—no ghosts, no psychopaths, and no useful tools.
At this point, they would have preferred a horde of monsters to suddenly appear in the hospital, at least then they would have a chance to fight.
But right now, it felt like there was only one option: wait for death. Wait until the eighth day, when dawn would arrive.
[What... is going on? I initially thought that "Jiang Yan’s husband" would be the one to kill everyone.]
[Same here... I thought the medical staff would start killing the patients, but the staff hasn’t appeared much these last two days.]
[I’m glad it wasn’t my turn to play this scenario...]
[I used to think the "Horde of Ghosts" mode was terrifying, but now I think it’s less scary than this. At least you can fight back in that mode.]
Li Yun tried to calm himself down. He observed the veteran players around him, all with calm expressions. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, his hand trembling slightly.
No! There must be a way!
He was sure he had overlooked some detail, or else these veteran players wouldn’t be so composed.
How could top-ranked players in the game just sit idly by and wait for death?
Tao Shi, who had been relatively calm, smiled and said to Li Yun, "Your mental fortitude is quite good."
Li Yun smiled back, "I believe we've missed something. These medical staff must be doing something behind our backs."
"Don’t focus on the medical staff," Tao Shi's gaze darkened. "Didn’t the system mention a side mission earlier? Find the dungeon boss."
Li Yun froze.
The other players looked at Tao Shi, puzzled.
The young man with gray-blue hair stood out in the dim, decaying hospital hallway. Tao Shi never minded sharing his thoughts with newer players.
He continued, "Perhaps, we should focus on the players among us."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the other players gasped in surprise.
The old hospital intercom once again echoed through the halls, playing that familiar nursery rhyme:
"The big rabbit fell ill, the second rabbit took a look, the third rabbit bought medicine, the fourth rabbit boiled it, the fifth rabbit died, the sixth rabbit picked it up, the seventh rabbit dug a hole, the eighth rabbit buried it, the ninth rabbit sat on the ground crying, and the tenth rabbit asked, 'Why is he crying?'
The ninth rabbit said, 'The fifth rabbit went and never came back!'"
Yes! The murderer of the fifth rabbit had yet to be found! The killer of Qiu Yang was still hiding among them!
Although the side quests in the dungeon, "Find the Dungeon Boss" and "Find the Killer of the Fifth Rabbit," were separate tasks, it was clear that the killer was among them!
At that moment, Li Yun's pupils contracted.
If his memory served him correctly, each of these high-tier players in front of him held an "Animal Persona Card."
If... it was them...
Cao Youfeng, with one of his eyes and half of his face bandaged, gave a faint smile. "Yes, that’s right! So Cang Rou’s key clue was telling everyone to take their medicine properly!"
Then his voice grew slightly darker. "After all... people with mental issues might forget that they’ve killed someone."
—
The last slivers of light from the day faded, and patients had finished their dinner as per the hospital’s rules, making their way back to their rooms.
The hallways were filled with patients moving toward their designated floors, shuffling like decaying corpses.
Indeed, the hospital wasn't only occupied by the few players currently in the scene. Apart from Jeff Hunter who had appeared in the cafeteria earlier, there were many other patients. However, these patients were like low-level NPCs, having no real significance.
Tao Shi and Cao Youfeng had managed to get Jiang Yan’s room number from the medical staff, and after finishing their meals, they wandered towards Jiang Yan’s room.
Cao Youfeng walked with his hands behind his head, chuckling lightly. "Telling everyone to take their medicine properly? The quality of these new players is really poor. They can't even grasp the key clues."
"They're new after all!" Tao Shi casually remarked. "You shouldn’t mislead them."
"Even if I don’t mislead them, they still wouldn’t understand." Cao Youfeng responded.
"Are you trying to out-crazy Su An?" Tao Shi glanced at him.
Cao Youfeng smiled and then asked, "By the way, boss, what are you looking for Jiang Yan for?"
Tao Shi casually replied, "Haven’t seen him in a couple of days. Miss him."
Cao Youfeng: "...."
The big boss was quite the joker.
[Indeed, Jiang Yan’s character had really been well-crafted]
[Isn't that right? While the others are terrified, and NPCs like Cang Rou and Ding Wanyu are running themselves ragged, he's been lounging in his room for two days.]
[Seriously! He doesn’t even bother to wander around and earn some performance points for himself!]
When they arrived at Jiang Yan’s room, Tao Shi raised his hand to knock on the door, but before he could, the door was suddenly slammed open with a loud "bang!"
A pair of pale, slender legs appeared before them. Before they could react, a black tentacle swiftly grabbed the legs and pulled the person back into the room!
With another loud crash, the door was slammed shut.
Then they heard muffled, angry curses from inside, followed by heavy breathing: "Bastard! Let go of me!"
"Yan Yan, be good! Take it off, husband will give you a bath!"
"Get off!"
Tao Shi: "Uh... maybe we came at the wrong time."
Hearing the noise from inside the room, Cao Youfeng gave a sly smile and said, "Is he roleplaying in the bathroom? What a terrible luck?"