As Jiang Yan followed behind Tao Shi and Cao Youfeng, they moved along the pipe that transported green liquid, heading against its flow. The air was thick with the pungent scent of disinfectant and blood, mixed with a trace of the salty, oceanic stench. Scattered across the ground were human organs and pieces of flesh, all illuminated by the eerie green light, each in varying states of preservation.
Some were intact and fresh, as if they had just been torn from a living person; others were already decomposing, covered in dark blotches and leaking yellowish fluids.
Jiang Yan furrowed his brows, thinking that these specimens were inferior to the goat-headed hunters in the previous dungeon.
At that moment, 663 displayed the game’s total leaderboard:
Ding!
663 Panel:
Game Player Leaderboard
Game Real NPC Leaderboard
Overall Game Ranking
Overall Popularity Ranking (Including Player and Real NPC Subcategories)
Jiang Yan clicked through each one, the sheer volume of names making his head spin.
Noticing Jiang Yan’s impatience, 663 spoke up: "If you're just looking for your own rank, you can scroll to the bottom. New players are ranked higher than you."
Jiang Yan showed no interest in his ranking. "Can I search for people?"
"Who do you want to search for?" 663 asked.
"Yu Xiu."
663 was silent for a moment before replying, "You can search, but many players’ IDs aren't their real names, like the number one player on the leaderboard, 'Spade,' or the number one real NPC, 'Best Actor.' If Yu Xiu's game ID isn't his real name, then it won't show up."
Jiang Yan said, "Search anyway."
663 Panel: Ding! Searching for related players...
Jiang Yan's bunny slippers were dirty and worn. He followed Tao Shi and Cao Youfeng step by step.
No related user found.
"Ba-chi."
The bunny slippers stepped on an eyeball on the floor, making a slight popping sound.
663: "See? Many players' IDs are not their real names."
"Some are self-chosen, some are guild codes, and others are nicknames given by other players. Over time, those nicknames often sound more natural than their real names, so the main system just adopts them."
This was expected by Jiang Yan. That person always liked to pick strange IDs for himself, so it was unlikely that he would use his real name in this game.
However, he didn’t know whether Yu Xiu entered as a real NPC or a player. If it was as a player, it would be easier to search. But if he came in as a real NPC, the situation would get more complicated.
A strange sense of laziness rose within Jiang Yan.
Not many people in this world would care about their ex’s life like this. For the first time in twenty-five years, he felt like he might actually be a kind person.
The dirty bunny slippers left wet, circular marks on the floor, sticky with the eyeball fluid from earlier.
Tao Shi watched Jiang Yan walk past, noticing the marks he left behind, but also his expression. Jiang Yan didn’t show any fear or disgust from stepping on the organs, and in fact, he seemed lost in thought. On closer inspection, there was even a faint smile on his lips.
A strong sense of unease rose in Tao Shi’s heart.
Jiang Yan’s behavior in this dungeon was clearly abnormal. The guild had previously shown footage of Jiang Yan in the "Sheep’s Forest" dungeon. In that footage, Jiang Yan appeared beautiful, lazy, and somewhat clever, but not too much, like a little cat swatting at its owner’s hand. His attitude toward players and NPCs was friendly.
Overall, he seemed like a real NPC with good psychological quality and luck. If he were a bit more ambitious, it would be hard to get into the top ten of the Game Real NPC Leaderboard, but reaching the top fifty would be no problem.
He was an all-around excellent game participant.
But in this dungeon, from the moment Jiang Yan entered, something felt off.
He remained unfazed when facing the body parts in the warehouse, calm when about to be judged by the system NPC, and cold toward other players and real NPCs.
As Li Yun said—he had too many emotions.
Which one of these was his true nature? Or was it... none of them?
The warehouse was much larger than they had imagined, a maze-like structure made of shattered glass and concrete with several twists and turns.
The salty smell of the ocean mixed with faint traces of soil indicated that they were probably underground.
"Seems like they’ve dug out the entire hospital," Cao Youfeng commented as they walked.
The warehouse was silent, even the sound of footsteps echoed in the stillness. The sound of running water from the glass pipes made one's scalp tingle.
"I wonder what kind of water this is. Is it formalin, or something with a strange color?" Cao Youfeng said.
"Probably some special fluorescent agent added," Jiang Yan replied.
"But what's the purpose of this?" Tao Shi furrowed his brows. He was feeling a bit irritated, though he couldn't pinpoint why.
"To looks cool."
"?"
Seeing the confused expressions on the two of them, Jiang Yan said matter-of-factly, "Don't you think the human body parts floating in this glowing green liquid look cooler than the ones floating in regular formalin?"
He had more to say, but he kept it to himself. This was a horror game, after all, and the change in color was likely just to enhance the players’ experience.
[Huh? Would the main system be that shallow?]
[But for a moment, I can't think of any other good reason.]
[Impossible! The main system can’t be this trivial!]
[Probably, this liquid looks like formalin, but it has some special effect.]
[Jiang Yan still doesn’t know enough. He should learn from the big shots!]
Tao Shi rubbed his chin and thought for a moment, "You know, you might have a point."
[???]
Tao Shi continued walking, speaking as he went, "Based on my understanding of this garbage system, it often likes to add random, useless things in places where they don’t make sense."
663: "... Do you all think this is boring?"
Jiang Yan reassured, "No, I think it’s pretty cool too."
663: "...."
Finally, they reached the end of the warehouse, standing before a massive gray iron door, adorned with a large statue of Jesus.
The door was about five or six meters tall, and the Jesus statue above it was equally enormous. But unlike the usual image of Jesus being crucified on the cross, here, the god’s neck was tied with a hemp rope, clearly broken, and a piece of bone protruded from the back of his neck.
In the eerie green glow, the god's face was sorrowful yet serene, his arms still outstretched as if embracing the world.
"Is this... a god?" Cao Youfeng muttered. "This hospital seems to have been a church before. So, are these medical staff and the director all heretics?"
"Not quite," Tao Shi mused, shaking his head. "If this were a god, the god’s face wouldn’t be so sorrowful and calm. If it were heretics, they would have depicted the god as a demon. They definitely wouldn’t have carved such a beautiful mural here.
"It seems like the god willingly died for the people."
"Probably a misunderstanding or the sculptor didn’t know much about theology, so he got it wrong," Jiang Yan said indifferently.
"Religion always has many branches. These people probably thought the god was hanged to death," he continued. "Do you guys believe in gods? For someone like me, an atheist, whether a god was nailed to the cross or hanged, whether they died or still had some life left, doesn’t really matter."
"So is it possible that the sculptor thought, 'Well, it’s all death anyway, what difference does it make? No one’s going to see it down here in the basement, so just carve it this way'?" Jiang Yan said.
Tao Shi and Cao Youfeng exchanged glances.
[It feels like every time Jiang Yan speaks, he ruins the atmosphere.]
[But strangely, I think he’s actually right!]
[What the heck? Didn’t he ever work in a client-servant situation? If the client asks for the god to be nailed to the cross, and you carve them hanging, are you asking to not get paid?]
[Don’t even get me started! In the game, we don’t talk about the bitter realities of working in the real world.]
Seeing the two of them fall silent and stare at him, Jiang Yan explained, "I’m just a mentally disturbed househusband. You guys can just ignore my nonsense."
"Do we need to go in?" he asked, looking at the door. "I don’t even know what time it is. My husband’s probably waiting for me to come home for dinner."
Cao Youfeng said, "We’ve come all this way. How can we not go in and take a look?"
"Ding!"
[Item: Medical Bandage]
A few white bandages flew out of Cao Youfeng’s sleeves and struck the massive iron door, making a loud "bang!"
The huge, sturdy door instantly opened a small crack.
"Bang!"
Then came another hit.
The whole warehouse began to tremble.
Jiang Yan looked at the bandages on Cao Youfeng, noticing how soft and delicate the white strips seemed, just like those medical bandages from a pharmacy. But with so much power behind them...
663 explained, "System items, although they come with a set initial rank, the power they unleash ultimately depends on the user. A level F player with an S-tier item might only be able to use its C-level power."
"On the other hand, a level S player wielding an F-tier item can still exert A-level power."
"The medical bandage in Cao Youfeng’s hands was originally a C-level item, but now, in his hands, it’s functioning like an S-level item."
Jiang Yan looked at his own item bar. "So, what about mine?"
663 immediately interrupted, "The best your item can do in your hands is a D-level effect, and that's already a sign of the system’s favor toward you."
Jiang Yan: "...."
663’s tone turned more serious. "This is an S-level dungeon, Jiang Yan. A D-level item here is practically a child's toy."
"If you’re looking for someone here, relying on luck and a D-level item is not going to cut it."
"Besides, there will always be players dying in this game, and there will always be new players entering. In the real world, you have police to help you search. Here, it’s going to be a lot harder to find someone."
"I only need to know that he’s still alive," Jiang Yan replied.
"Alive?" 663 chuckled softly.
"My little ancestor, there are many ways to live in this game. It’s unclear whether someone is living like a normal player or NPC, or if they’ve been corrupted into a system NPC to serve as a boss in the game."
Jiang Yan didn’t seem to care at all. "If that person can be trapped by this game, then all players in this game have no chance of completing it."
"What if they choose to stay themselves?"
Jiang Yan froze for a moment.
"You haven’t found him in the real world, have you?" 663 said, a hint of schadenfreude in its tone.
"This game is full of people who are disappointed with the real world, willing to stay and become the main god’s right-hand. Based on what you know about the person you’re looking for, do you think they would want to stay in the real world?"
"I don’t even sense your desire to return to the original world, Jiang Yan."
663’s words seemed to echo in Jiang Yan’s ears, like a monk chanting scriptures.
On the other side, Cao Youfeng’s medical bandages repeatedly struck the iron door.
With every crash, the heavy door shuddered, and with each powerful impact, the soft white bandages forced the door open.
Jiang Yan was about to say something to 663 when the scene in front of him caused him to freeze. "This is..."
Behind the iron door was a large laboratory. In the center of the lab was a massive spherical glass container filled with the same glowing green liquid. Dozens of glass pipes were attached to the container like tendrils.
The whole glass container resembled a model of a disease-infested world.
Beneath the spherical container, there was a group of people in white medical uniforms, standing in strange postures—legs bent as if in a horse stance, arms stretched wide above their heads. They resembled a group of frogs.
At that moment, all of them were with their eyes closed, their expressions peaceful and tranquil. Even the loud noise from Cao Youfeng smashing the door didn’t seem to affect them.
The laboratory was eerily silent. Aside from the soft sound of running water, there were no other sounds, not even the slightest hint of breathing.
Cao Youfeng took a tentative step into the room. "Are... they still alive?"
Jiang Yan observed the interior of the laboratory. Unlike the human organ museum outside, this lab looked more like a data library.
The walls were lined with shelves packed with books and documents. Behind the large glass container was a regular computer desk with a modern multimedia display, and next to it was a round conference table.
It was clear that this was likely the hospital's data room or meeting room.
"You really are lucky," Tao Shi said with a smile. "We’ve searched the entire hospital for days and found nothing related to the dungeon."
"We just wanted to talk to you for a bit, and now we’ve accidentally stumbled into the hospital’s 'data room.'"
"What luck," Tao Shi muttered enviously.
The three of them entered the iron door one after another.
"Bang!"
As soon as they crossed the threshold, the iron door automatically slammed shut behind them.
As they passed by the group of medical staff, all posed like frogs in front of the glass container, Jiang Yan closely examined them. Their skin texture, bone structure, and hair didn’t seem fake.
However, if they were alive, there was no trace of life in them at all.
“Bang! I bet they’ll definitely move,” Tao Shi said to Jiang Yan.
“Boss! I found a file,” Cao Youfeng called out from the desk.
Tao Shi walked over, with Jiang Yan leisurely following behind.
“Whose file is it?” Tao Shi asked.
“Yu Xiu,” Cao Youfeng replied.
The system panel displayed the following information:
System NPC: Yu Xiu, Ethnicity: Asian
Identity: Son of the hospital director
Backstory: At the age of 25, Yu Xiu was sacrificed to the deity by his father, the hospital director. After death, Yu Xiu, whose mind was already unstable, turned into a vengeful spirit. Due to his lingering attachment to his wife, he escaped from the underworld and stayed by her side.
Jiang Yan glanced at the file. For the first time, his face showed a slight reaction. He raised his eyebrows and let out a cold laugh.
“Heh.”