A grayish, rotting hand gripped the scalpel, resting against Jiang Yan's beautiful neck. With just a gentle stroke, this angelic-looking boy would bleed profusely and be dragged into hell.
This was a hospital, and as a doctor, he had the right to pull any patient into hell.
Jiang Yan stood frozen in place.
Behind him was a figure wearing a tattered white coat, their lower limbs twisted like a pretzel, flesh hanging loosely from the bones, like an ill-fitting garment draped over a skeleton. From the body, the sound of bubbling soap could be heard.
The scalpel pressed against Jiang Yan's neck, its sharp blade already cutting into his skin, bright red blood seeping from the wound.
On the gaming forum, the spectators began to gasp in shock.
At that moment, Jiang Yan resembled a beast in a coliseum, with the "warrior's" blade poised dangerously close to his throat.
The doctor, whose lips had disappeared due to excitement, split his face in a grin as he spoke to the disobedient patient, “It’s against hospital regulations; the activity hours for patients in infectious and psychiatric departments are after 8 AM.”
“It seems your condition is quite serious… you need treatment.”
With that, he unceremoniously slashed the scalpel across Jiang Yan's neck!
[Oh my God!!]
[!!!!]
[Another one dead…]
[What an idiot! Truly an idiot!]
[Great! The Dawn Guild just recruited a new member yesterday, and now he will be gone.]
[Sigh! Might as well have recruited Shi Yin!]
“——!”
“Wh…” The tattered doctor and his twisted colleagues stared incredulously at the scene before them.
The scalpel glided across the patient’s pale, slender neck, yet it did not create the expected gruesome spectacle of blood and flesh.
The patient stood motionless, a faint scratch marred his neck, merely a line of blood.
Jiang Yan calmly turned his head. He glanced at his item bar, which displayed "In Use"—
【Item—“Zhang San” Card】
【Function: The cardholder is an “escapee” blessed by the gods.】
Escapee?
Jiang Yan raised an eyebrow. Did that mean he could defy the rules?
He looked at the card adorned with a rose-colored sunset, a gift from Yu Xiu.
At that moment, the doctors and nurses accompanying Jiang Yan were frozen in shock. The doctor with the scalpel slowly pointed at Jiang Yan, stammering, “You’re sick… you need treatment… let’s sedate you…”
As he spoke, his hand seemed to drop as if it had suddenly lost its strength.
His "colleagues" behind him remained motionless.
Nearby, a red-cloaked female ghost watched the scene, twisting her head with a “crunch” as if breaking chopsticks.
[???? What’s happening?]
[No idea?]
[Whoa… how is he still alive?? Amazing!!]
[Did the main system bug out again?]
[Is Jiang Yan some kind of virus invading the main system? Why does the main system always have bugs when he’s around?]
...
[Fun fact: Jiang Yan was nicknamed “The Luckiest Guy in the Last Instance”!]
[Jiang Yan is incredible!!! How did he survive this?!]
[The scalpel has already cut his neck! Why didn’t it sever an artery??]
[Is it because of the item? Look at the color of Jiang Yan's eyes; it seems to have changed.]
Jiang Yan surveyed the now-motionless “medical staff.” Due to the item’s effect, his eyes had transformed from a watery blue to a sky-like azure. He slightly raised his eyebrows and turned to continue toward Tao Shi’s hospital room.
At that moment, the long-awaited announcement from the main system echoed:
【Instance: “Private Hospital on Jianshe Road,” Progress: 20%】
【NPC Jiang Yan: Escape Progress 10%】
Inside the hospital room, the players were left stunned.
Jiang Yan?
“Is it that Jiang Yan? Could it be we have another with the same name among us?” A suited man accompanying Shi Yin in the instance asked.
Shi Yin silently clenched his fist, disdainfully responding, “Who knows? Probably just another bug from the main system.”
That guy looked like he wouldn't survive half a day in the instance. The fact he hadn’t been taken to the operating room last night was already lucky for him. How could he have any escape progress?
“True, even you have no clue in this instance,” the suited man replied.
“Of course! That worthless guy wasted our good group discussion time this morning!” Shi Yin’s brows furrowed, his face showing annoyance and disbelief.
He had heard of Jiang Yan before. The series of bugs in the main system during “The Sheep’s Forest” instance had caused quite a stir, and he had been there to witness it.
He watched as this NPC, raised like a pet and completely silent for the first five days, suddenly became a “Judge” on the last day.
What an opportunity; if it had been him, his score would have skyrocketed!
Yet, Jiang Yan hadn’t even completed a personal task! How could the Dawn Guild even consider keeping a useless person like him?
The thought of being a standout newcomer while losing to some useless guy made Shi Yin feel itchy with rage.
The Dawn Guild? He wasn’t even interested in joining!
Shi Yin patted the suited man who had followed him into the instance, “It’s fine; I’ve passed a similar rules-based instance before. I’ll definitely get you out.”
After waiting for a while without hearing any announcement about the main system's bug report, their expressions turned sour.
“This Jiang Yan…” the suited man expressed, surprised, “Did he really stumble his way into 10% progress?”
Shi Yin’s expression darkened instantly, sneering, “Let’s see how he dies later!”
Meanwhile, on the forum, players watched Jiang Yan stride confidently down the corridor, all stunned by his miraculous escape just moments ago.
[No way! How is he still alive? The NPC had a knife at his throat!]
[And he violated the rules; in a rules-based instance, breaking the rules means certain death. How did he withstand the system's NPC?]
[It must be an item… It has to be an item, right? Look, his eye color has changed!]
[What kind of item can block a system NPC? Not even Ding Wanyu’s plague doctor could do that, right?]
[Maybe it’s an offensive or defensive item? I remember that one of Tao Shi's items is offensive.]
[What I’m more curious about is why his mental strength suddenly spiked? This increase is too exaggerated!]
[It’s really too exaggerated. From being last in mental strength, He is now risen to rank 50.]
[What?! Jiang Yan's mental strength is now ranked 50?!]
[Holy shit! I thought he was extraordinary back in “Sheep's Forest”!]
[Yan Yan is amazing!!]
[There's still blood flowing from his neck; it hurts to see! Boohoo… But it feels so thrilling.]
[??? Something's off with you.]
[Is this… appropriate?]
Behind them, the tattered doctor and nurses hung limply in place, while the twisted body of a woman in red on the ground froze for a second, then quickly crawled forward to closely follow Jiang Yan.
“When did you realize its purpose?” 663 asked Jiang Yan with curiosity.
“I guessed in this direction the moment I entered this instance,” Jiang Yan’s eyes faintly glowed a bluish hue in the dim, mottled hallway, as if hiding two blue jellyfish from the deep sea.
They looked beautiful but were glowing to hunt.
“When you said you didn’t know its purpose, I became certain of my thoughts,” Jiang Yan replied.
“Why?” 663 asked, puzzled.
The real-person system began to take a significant interest in its seemingly beautiful but weak host.
Initially, he thought Jiang Yan was merely a pretty vase; with that person supporting him, this game was no different from a “haunted house” at an amusement park.
However, Jiang Yan’s performance in the last two instances made him feel that this beautiful host might not be as weak as he imagined.
Looking at the panel in front of him showing Jiang Yan’s mental strength skyrocketing to rank 50, he was even surprised by his “talent.”
He knew that the character settings in the instance projected onto the players and NPCs; Jiang Yan now was a mental patient who hadn’t taken his medication.
It wasn’t strange for someone’s mental strength to surge under extreme circumstances; the few players with high scores and rankings in mental strength in today’s games all had glorious tales of surging strength in desperate situations and turning the tide.
But when the one whose mental strength surged was his host, who was too lazy to eat and didn’t want to chew more than a couple of times, 663’s curiosity was piqued.
“A fugitive allowed by the gods,” Jiang Yan murmured, “Since he’s a fugitive, he naturally exists in violation of the rules, and being allowed by the gods means the cardholder will not be punished for breaking the rules.
“And you can’t possibly not know the purpose of the ‘item.’ You are my personal system, not an audience watching my performance. Even if this ‘item’ is something you don’t understand or aren’t familiar with, your duty should be to check its purpose and inform me, your host, as soon as possible, rather than saying it seems useless.”
“So, as my personal system, why did you conceal the ‘item’s’ function from me? Is it because the ‘item’s’ description states it is ‘allowed by the gods,’ not ‘approved’ or ‘released’?”
“Since it is allowed, it naturally can’t be made public, so it makes sense that you, as my personal system, haven’t explained the ‘item’s’ function to me.”
The hallway was terrifyingly quiet, only the sound of Jiang Yan's footsteps and the rustling of the torn clothing and skin of the red-clothed woman behind him echoed.
The dirty, damp concrete floor scraped against the woman’s crawling body, and the already rotting skin left large patches of soft, rotten flesh and meat scraps, along with a light yellow, thick liquid.
[There’s another one!!!]
[Yan Yan! There’s another one behind you!!]
[Baby, turn around!]
[Yan Yan hasn’t taken his medication today; he seems fearless.]
[No, think positively; this kid usually doesn’t seem to fear much either.]
“You’re much smarter than I imagined,” 663 sincerely praised, lightly chuckling, “I think I understand why you are an allowed existence by the gods. I’m glad you’re my first host.”
Hearing the last sentence, Jiang Yan couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.
But his current state was that of a person with problems who had run out without medication, his mind a chaotic mess, like a kaleidoscope with countless fragments piled together, making it hard for him to think of the incongruities in 663’s words.
Finally, he arrived at Tao Shi’s hospital room. The corridor was terrifyingly dim, and the mottled walls, with their green paint chips and chaotic graffiti, suggested it was a place not touched by sunlight.
After stopping, the red-clothed woman crawling behind him also halted. At this point, her lower abdomen was a mess of red and yellow, with murky yellow fat oozing from her body, sticking to her bluish-purple chin.
Jiang Yan casually glanced at her, then knocked on the rusty iron door in front of him.
“Who’s there?” Tao Shi’s voice came from within the room.
The voice sounded like Tao Shi’s but wasn’t quite right; it sounded like a man but also somewhat like a woman deliberately lowering her voice.
Jiang Yan frowned; he even sensed an inexplicable excitement in the tone, as if he had been waiting for him for a long time.
“It’s me, Jiang Yan,” he replied expressionlessly.
“You’ve broken the rules!” The other’s voice became completely excited, and now Jiang Yan could hear it more clearly; the voice coming from within didn’t sound human.
It rather resembled some unknown creature imitating human speech.
[It’s not Tao Shi! Where’s the boss?! Where did the boss go?!]
[The boss is in Cao Youfeng’s hospital room! That bandaged middle-schooler!]
[You’re the middle-schooler with bandages! What do you know?! That’s Cao Youfeng!]
[Did Jiang Yan not hear it???? This obviously isn’t a human voice.]
[I don’t know; maybe he hasn’t taken his medication and can’t think straight?]
[Oh my God, Yan Yan, let’s go back! We should take our medication before wandering around again!]
Jiang Yan had naturally heard it; he silently tightened the note Li Yun had given him in his pocket and asked, “Was this note something you asked Li Yun to give me?”
“Yes!” The voice inside responded excitedly, “Did you see it?”
At that moment, the woman who had been following Jiang Yan suddenly seemed to be startled; she clutched her head and let out a horrific scream.
The scream echoed throughout the main building, piercing through the brain like a buzz and causing a sharp pain.
It seemed that whatever was inside couldn’t take it anymore either; with a loud bang, the rusty hospital door was flung open.
In that instant, the woman slipped through the wall like an eel.
When Jiang Yan turned around again, he only saw a small piece of red fabric and the fat and flesh remnants left on the ground.
Before Jiang Yan could react, a black tentacle angrily wrapped around his waist, pulling him into the hospital room.
The next second, he fell into a soft, cotton-like substance.
Before Jiang Yan could come to his senses, several tentacles had already bound his hands and feet, and the buttons of his hospital gown were roughly torn open.
The black tentacles coiled around his pale body, wrapping from his beautiful shoulder blades to his front, with the tips of the tentacles climbing up to Jiang Yan’s chest.
Jiang Yan’s entire body trembled with stimulation, and only then did he see the thing in front of him clearly.
The face behind the paper mask bore an expression like graffiti, and his husband was now starting to pull off his pants.
“Is it because of Yan Yan’s new friend that you’ve been neglecting me?” he said, while freeing a tentacle to lightly flick Jiang Yan’s bottom.
[Is this… something we should be watching?]
[What the hell… This thing can’t be serious about wanting…?]
[Although, it seems like it is Jiang Yan’s husband.]
[This is the first time I feel that being an NPC is more dangerous than being a player.]
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