“Anyway, just hearing about it makes me feel like this whole thing is unreliable. I suspect I might never be able to get out,” the monster said with a bitter smile.
“…” Chen remained silent.
Digging around from somewhere, the monster pulled out a necklace and handed it to Chen, saying solemnly,
“Please take this and help me deliver it to my family living in Monsoon Port. Tell them about my situation.”
Chen’s expression was grave, and he did not speak.
Just when the monster thought Chen was going to refuse, Chen spoke up: “You should at least give me the address. How am I supposed to find them if I only know it’s in Monsoon Port?”
“Oh, right, right, right! The address is No. 114, Area C, Fourth Settlement, Monsoon Port.”
After finishing, the monster remembered something else, dug into his pants pocket again, and pulled out a water gun from who knows where.
“This is for you. It’s an item left behind by a previous Wanderer. I collected it, so consider it a token of my gratitude.”
After taking the water gun, Chen stored it in his system inventory.
(He pretended to put it into his backpack) Then, he checked the system item detection.
“Object 19: water gun. Can only fire liquids. Will not be corroded. Stable effect.”
“The water gun can slightly enhance the properties of the liquid and fire it out. Even if you fill it with almond water, it can still have a certain effect on Entities. If you fill it with strong liquids like kerosene or Pain Liquid, the damage will increase. Different liquids mixed inside will not react, but they will separate due to differences in density. P.S.: Do not fill it with urine.”
Chen scoffed, though it was unclear what he meant to express.
After bragging for a while longer, the monster stated that he didn’t want to hurt anyone anymore.
Once he finished this job, he would go straight into deep sleep.
“Huh? You’re sure you can just go into deep sleep?”
“Yes, I can choose to fall into an endless sleep and wake up only when a certain opportunity arises,” the monster said helplessly.
“Make sure you remember to deliver the item for me!”
“Alright.” Chen didn’t say anything more.
After laying out the meat, sure enough, a wave of dizziness washed over him, and Chen couldn’t help but close his eyes.
When he opened them again, the monster and the infinitely long Stairwell had vanished.
He was back in the first-floor Stairwell where he had first entered.
The backpack, which according to the note was supposed to only be usable in the Stairwell, had not disappeared.
Chen decided to treat it as spoils of war and took it with him.
He moved quickly to the second floor.
Sure enough, where there had previously been a wall, a door had appeared at some point.
A red cross symbol hung on it.
He pushed the door open and walked in.
A blinding light shone out, making it impossible for Chen to keep his eyes open.
After slowly adjusting to the light, Chen saw the scene before him: an empty, fully functioning Hospital. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Why did he call it fully functioning?
Because what lay before him was exactly the appearance of a normal Hospital floor, and Chen could hear the bustling, noisy sounds of a Hospital.
But Chen couldn’t see a single person.
Walking forward a bit, sure enough, there were constant sounds of conversation and calling numbers along the way, just like a real Hospital.
What on earth was going on?
Was this the interior of the Field Hospital?
Then, full of confusion, Chen saw a familiar folded note at the reception desk.
“No way, there’s a second level?” Chen was stunned.
He checked it, and the note read:
“If you open this note, a new scenario will be triggered. The entire Hospital will be activated. You must escape the Hospital’s ‘purification’ and successfully be discharged.”
“You can also choose not to open it. If you do, you will find a new note after walking a bit further.”
Heh!
Trying the same trick again?
This time, Chen had learned his lesson.
He didn’t touch the note and put it back in its original place, then began to explore the second floor of the Field Hospital.
Sure enough, after walking about a hundred meters forward, in an inconspicuous corner, Chen found the second note.
It read:
“If you open this note, a new scenario will be triggered. The entire Hospital will be activated. You need to join the Hospital and become a member of the staff.”
“You can also choose not to open it. If you do, you will find a new note after walking a bit further.”
Huh?
I can even match into the opposing faction?
Something wasn’t right.
Still not opening it, Chen continued his carpet search.
During this time, Chen found several medical instruments like syringes and scalpels, as well as some drugs of unknown origin and unknown description.
Their only commonality was that they were all detected by the system as:
“Warning: Using this item will cause the Assimilation Level to decrease.”
Holy crap, there’s such a good thing? The source of this chapter is g.com.
When things are abnormal, there must be a demon.
Chen didn’t believe he could find such good things on this level.
“System, check it again.”
“Warning: Using this item will cause the Assimilation Level to decrease.”
“Current Assimilation Level: 75%.”
After coming out of the Stairwell, this value had risen slightly, but after arriving on the second floor, the increase stopped.
“System, will using this thing really lower the Assimilation Level?” Chen asked.
“Warning: Using this item will lower the Assimilation Level.”
The system’s cold voice rang out.
Fine, the system is in autopilot mode now.
Trying to pick out a Band-Aid from the pile, Chen attempted to stick it on his hand.
“Assimilation Level decreased. Current Assimilation Level: 74%.”
It really worked!
Out of caution, Chen didn’t continue using them.
It was like taking medicinal pills in ancient times; if he used them to a certain extent and caused some kind of qualitative change, he would be in trouble.
Besides, his current skeleton form didn’t significantly hinder Chen’s movements anyway.
Chen had already discovered that the Assimilation Level only affected him at the very beginning; after passing 30%, Chen couldn’t feel any impact at all.
He would just treat it as having a limited-time skin change.
Discarding the second note, Chen continued his search.
In a corner ward quite far away, Chen found the third note behind the curtains inside.
“If you open this note, a new scenario will be triggered. The entire Hospital will be activated. At this point, you can neither escape the Hospital nor join it; instead, you need to find the core inside the Hospital and destroy it.”
“You can also choose not to open this note. If you do so, you might find a hidden note whose contents will change everything.”
“A third perspective?” Chen was becoming more and more curious.
The content of these three notes was very clear; they were intended to give Chen three different game starts.
He hadn’t expected the small Field Hospital to actually have this kind of plot development.
Chen was a bit curious about what was behind these notes.
But more confusion stopped his impulse to open this note; he wanted to find the hidden note first before making a decision.
In the Hospital’s Morgue, Chen found this hidden note.
Feeling the cold atmosphere all around, Chen couldn’t help but shiver.
This was also the only place on the entire second floor of the Field Hospital where Chen hadn’t heard any bustling noise.