Outside the door, a nurse zombie stood pushing a transport cart identical to the one Qin Guan was using.
Upon seeing the man who had inexplicably taken over her job inside, she was first struck by a wave of panic, then tilted her head in confusion.
“Ga?”
Qin Guan deliberately pulled his mask up higher on his face and gave a subtle nod, appearing perfectly calm on the surface, while his other hand was already pressing the close-door button relentlessly.
Just as the nurse was struggling to process what exactly was going on, Lu Chuan, as if to deliberately ruin everything, popped his head out from behind and flashed her a wide grin.
Nurse: “!!!”
Though she didn’t recognize Qin Guan, Lu Chuan’s notorious reputation in this psychiatric hospital was known to all.
Seeing that the most detested patient in the entire hospital wasn’t staying put in his room, the nurse immediately bared a vicious face and let out a piercing shriek.
The shrill, ear-splitting sound echoed repeatedly through the narrow corridor, spreading farther and farther. Several nearby nurses who had been wandering listlessly heard the noise and, as one, abandoned whatever they were doing, turning their heads in unison toward the source.
Qin Guan’s expression changed drastically.
The nurses’ lips split open, their mouths stretching wider and wider until they consumed their entire faces, revealing rows of densely packed, grotesque fangs running from their upper palates down to their throats.
They all turned to look this way in perfect unison, countless fanged faces swiveling toward the two men.
The mechanical broadcast rang out at the most inopportune moment.
“Escaping patient located on the third floor! Repeat! Escaping patient located on the third floor!”
“Nearby nurses, please return the patient to the ward immediately!”
At the mechanical female voice’s command, the nearby nurses collectively let out shrieks loud enough to pierce eardrums, surging out from every corner and rushing toward them like madmen.
Qin Guan’s face turned as cold as ice; he wished he could turn around and slap Lu Chuan across the face.
At that moment, however, the greatest threat to him was not the horde of nurse zombies surging from afar, but the relatively frail-looking nurse responsible for pushing the transport cart right in front of him.
She didn’t look particularly bright and was smaller in build than the others, but she was the closest. If she lunged forward and triggered the automatic sensor, preventing the elevator doors from closing…
The consequences would be unimaginable.
Seeing the little nurse lurching toward them, Qin Guan didn’t even think. He yanked the IV pole out of Lu Chuan’s abdominal cavity and hurled it at the monster rushing at him!
Nurse: ?
Lu Chuan: ?
The IV pole traced a perfect arc through the air and, just before the elevator doors closed, struck the little nurse right on the head like a massive, resounding flick, sending her tumbling to the ground with a “biu.”
IV pole: double kill.
The elevator doors closed, and the car continued its descent.
Lu Chuan glanced at Qin Guan’s tall, aloof figure, then looked down at his own abdomen, which now had a gaping hole.
From it, several streams of blood were gushing out merrily, looking exactly like a small fountain.
“…It’s a bit cold,” he said tactfully.
Qin Guan showed no sympathy whatsoever. “You won’t feel anything once you’re dead.”
Lu Chuan obediently shut his mouth.
The elevator continued to descend. Qin Guan stared at the slowly changing numbers on the electronic screen, an inexplicable wave of irritation welling up in his chest.
Meanwhile, Lu Chuan on the other side still refused to behave. Out of nowhere, he said, “After you leave, everything here will go back to the way it was.”
Qin Guan frowned. “What?”
“Back to the way it was. That dean who was eaten down to half his body will grow back strong and whole again, and I’ll return to Ward 63, waiting to be discovered by the next group of people.” Lu Chuan chuckled.
“Everyone here has been modified, including me.” Lu Chuan knocked on his own head. “The dean planted a hypnotic suggestion deep in our subconscious. That’s how he manages this entire psychiatric hospital.”
“This story has already repeated itself countless times. Many people have come here before, but none of them… were as interesting as you.”
“I’m very curious about the world you come from.”
When he said this, especially when he said the word “curious,” Lu Chuan’s tone was remarkably stiff, as if expressing a normal human emotion was something extraordinarily difficult for him.
Qin Guan looked down at him from above, weighing the cadence of every sentence, scrutinizing every inch of sincerity in him.
What did he mean by that?
This guy… not only retained his memories from every instance, but he even knew about the existence of the Filth Room?
After all, the “Grotesques” in a normal instance not only had their memories reset with every instance reset, but they would also never realize that they were “inside an instance.”
But Lu Chuan… seemed different from the ordinary “Grotesques.”
A thick fog obscured his reasoning layer by layer, and the sense of strangeness in Qin Guan’s heart grew ever stronger.
Was it because of his status as the hidden boss, or…?
But regardless of the reason, Qin Guan knew very well in his heart that he had best not have too much contact with this bizarre man.
After all, the very first of the seven cardinal rules for surviving in the Filth Room stated:
“Grotesques” are unique, extremely dangerous entities within the Filth Room. They are cruel and deceitful. If possible, avoid conflict with them at all costs.
No matter how unusual this man’s behavior, it could not change the fact that he was a “Grotesque.”
On the other side, Lu Chuan paid no mind to Qin Guan’s wariness and simply spoke his own thoughts while looking into his eyes.
“I want to make a deal with you.”
“I can guarantee that I won’t kill you, and I can even help you escape from here.”
“The condition is that when you leave, you must take me with you.”
Qin Guan found the notion absurd. “What?”
A Grotesque boss trying to ask a player to take him out of an instance? Did this guy even hear the nonsense he was spouting?
As if seeing through Qin Guan’s thoughts, Lu Chuan gave a mischievous smile, baring a few sharp canines. “You’ll agree.”
Qin Guan frowned deeply as he scrutinized the man, his intuition telling him things were not that simple.
Sure enough, right at that moment, the elevator car gave a slight shudder.
With a “thud,” something seemed to land on top of the car.
Then came a second sound, a third…
Thud, thud, thud…
Lu Chuan’s smile deepened. In the depths of his pupils, a thread of crimson faintly swirled. “Oh my, they’ve caught up.”
More and more heavy objects crashed onto the elevator roof in rapid succession. At the same time, the frantic sound of nails scraping against the ceiling came from above.
It was… the nurses.
Those monsters had not given up their pursuit of the two men. Instead, they had torn open the floor doors with their nails and leapt down the elevator shaft one after another, landing on top of the car.
They clawed with their nails, bit with their fangs, using every means possible to tear open the sheet metal.
The elevator shook violently. Qin Guan had to grip the handrail tightly to keep his body balanced.
A piercing alarm blared. The elevator, overloaded, abruptly jammed between the first floor and the first basement level. But the stacked horde of monsters kept leaping down from above, the mounting weight making the cables groan agonizingly, threatening to give way at any moment.
The sheet metal of the ceiling had already been torn open into a large hole. A grotesque face peered in, like a child opening his beloved can of tuna.
“Found him, found him, found him…”
An excited shriek rang out. Every nerve in Qin Guan’s body was pulled taut, his adrenaline soaring.
On his ear cartilage, the three black earrings clinked together rapidly.
As the gap in the ceiling grew larger and the elevator’s swaying became more violent, Qin Guan gritted his teeth and reached up for his earrings.
It seemed he had no choice but to…
But right at that moment, a solid arm reached past him and pried the elevator doors open with absolute strength. The elevator was currently stuck between the first floor and the first basement level, both sides pitch black.
Behind him, Lu Chuan had somehow stood up as if nothing had happened, as if that entire pile of muscle relaxant had been nothing but counterfeit goods.
Qin Guan was shaken and looked up at the other man.
In the flickering light, Lu Chuan’s eyes were startlingly bright, carrying an expression Qin Guan couldn’t read.
“Go.”
Lu Chuan pointed at the pitch-black gap between floors.
Overhead, the endless horde of zombies piled on. The cables creaked and groaned in agony, ready to plummet at any moment.
There was no time to think. Qin Guan decisively leapt through the gap, landing steadily on the first basement level.
When he looked back, the countless nurses’ claws had already torn through the ceiling and were desperately reaching for the man, while Lu Chuan stood a short distance from the elevator, looking over at him from afar.
That instant, Qin Guan’s heart tightened. For reasons even he could not explain, he barked at the man sharply.
“Come down!”
The man lowered his eyes to look at him, utterly unmoved. The pale light cast an indistinct shadow across his face. If one ignored his identity as a Grotesque, his current appearance was so handsome it looked fit for a fashion magazine.
“If they can’t find their target, they’ll keep chasing.”
“Once you’re out of the elevator, go straight down the corridor. No matter what happens, don’t look back. Keep going until the end, and there will be stairs leading to the next floor.”
Qin Guan’s breathing grew ragged.
Lu Chuan looked at him for a long while, then suddenly smiled.
“The person you’re waiting for… I’m a little jealous of him.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a burst of bright sparks suddenly exploded inside the elevator, and flames blazed up fiercely. The ceiling was finally torn open by claws, and countless nurse zombies poured down from above, engulfing the man’s figure in an instant.
On the other side, the cables finally could no longer bear such a massive weight and snapped. With the dense horde of zombies, Lu Chuan plunged roaring into the depths below!