Lu Yuan opened his eyes.
A blinding light shone directly into his pupils, forcing him to close his eyes again.
"Where am I?"
Just like anyone who had just woken up, this question popped into his mind.
And the next second, he remembered the answer.
"Oh, right, I'm still in the 'Game'."
【Ark】.
That was the name of the 'Game' Lu Yuan spoke of.
It was a virtual reality game, the kind where you could bring your consciousness into the game as long as you entered a Game Pod. Long, long ago, this type of game appeared in the settings of various novels and anime.
And about 100 years ago, this kind of game truly emerged, and in a very short time, it occupied almost 99% of the game market, becoming almost the only game in the world.
Lu Yuan, naturally, was one of the players of this game.
In his still-dizzy memory, he remembered he was grinding a Single Player Instance called 【Horror Hospital】, but just as he reached the halfway point, a severe pain hit the back of his head, and he lost consciousness. When he woke up, it was like this.
Recalling this, he must have been sapped from behind by someone.
"What the hell," Lu Yuan muttered unhappily, then narrowed his eyelids, leaving only a tiny gap.
This way, he could barely see the surrounding environment.
This was a Room similar to an 'Operating Room', but whether it was the dirty walls or the crude shadowless lamp overhead that even had dried bloodstains on it, it definitely did not meet the standards an Operating Room should have. Moreover, in the corner of the Operating Room, there was a machine that looked out of place in this Room. The machine looked like it was piled together from various scrap parts, its volume occupying an entire wall, and he had no idea what it was for.
As for Lu Yuan himself, he was currently tied up, but not to an Operating Table; he was tied to a Chair, with both his hands and feet firmly fixed, and even his Head could only barely turn left and right. This image made him subconsciously think of those miserable characters in movies waiting for Interrogation and torture.
And behind him, quite fittingly, the sound of metal clashing rang out from time to time. It was not hard to guess that there must be someone right now, in his blind spot, fiddling with some gadgets that made one's scalp tingle.
A sense of fear welled up in Lu Yuan's heart involuntarily. Although he knew these were all virtual, it was hard for anyone not to be scared by the scene before them. So he hurriedly recited 'I am in the game, I am in the game' a few times, which barely suppressed the panic in his heart.
Then—
"Hey, let me go!" Lu Yuan mustered his courage and shouted.
Following this shout, the guy in his blind spot clearly froze for a moment because those faint metal friction sounds stopped.
Immediately after, a few unhurried Footsteps approached him. A person finally appeared in Lu Yuan's Line of Sight.
It was a bloodless and gaunt face. The White Coat no longer showed its original color; oil stains and blood were mixed messily on it, and the Hair was a mess. Rather than a Doctor, it was more like an employee of a Slaughterhouse.
This person shifted away the shadowless lamp that was shining down diagonally from above, and a pair of bloodshot, red eyes stared straight at Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan swallowed his saliva and hurriedly threw a Skill called 【Detect】 at this person.
This Skill could Inspect the attributes of a person or Thing within a certain range; almost all Players would learn this Skill.
Soon, Lu Yuan obtained the Information about this person.
【Name: Mad Doctor】
【Type: Humanoid】
【Rank: Normal】
【Level: 12】
【Introduction: This is a Doctor with some mental problems. You should be able to determine this the moment you see him, so there is no need to communicate with him too much. Take him down, then take the Experience Points you deserve and get lost!】
Lu Yuan couldn't help but freeze for a moment: "A—a Minion?"
Clearly, this guy was just a normal hostile Minion, the kind commonly known as 'Experience' fodder. However, this creepy entrance, this Operating Room converted into a torture chamber, plus this insidious attribute of sapping people from behind—no matter how you looked at it, this guy didn't seem like a normal enemy.
Whatever. Although he was a bit puzzled, Lu Yuan's body was not idle. He had been struggling to break free from the restraints on the Chair from the very beginning. Upon learning that the opponent was just a Minion, he struggled even more unscrupulously, making the Chair creak and groan.
"Hmm, it seems your spirit is still quite good," the Doctor suddenly said. The Voice sounded like an axle that had been rusted for over a decade turning again.
Lu Yuan wouldn't pay any attention to the opponent and continued to shake his body fiercely.
"Don't waste your energy. People much stronger than you haven't managed to break free before, so you definitely won't either," the Doctor reminded him, seemingly out of kindness.
"Huh?" Lu Yuan was stunned again: "Before?"
"Yes, before. I have tied up 27 people in total, but the Experiments all failed, so you need to keep it up."
Lu Yuan was Dumbfounded. He easily caught those unsettling words in the other party's speech, such as 'Experiment', 'failed', and 'keep it up'. However, he had no time to think about what these words meant. He just wanted to break free from the restraints on his body immediately, while also cursing the creator of this Instance hundreds of times in his heart.
As for the Mad Doctor Minion, seeing that Lu Yuan didn't respond to him, he didn't get angry either; he just swayed and left Lu Yuan's Line of Sight. And when he returned again, he was holding a bottle in his hand.
Immediately after, he reached his fingers into the bottle, dipped them in the Liquid inside, and began to smear it on Lu Yuan's forehead.
"Damn it! What are you doing!" Lu Yuan cursed.
"Oh oh~ don't be Nervous," the Doctor Comforted: "It's just a little salt water."
"Why are you smearing salt water on my Head?!"
"This~ of course, it's so that when the electricity passes through later, the current passing through your Head can be a bit more uniform," the Doctor replied calmly: "You know, if the current is too concentrated, it might get charred..."
"Current? Charred?" Lu Yuan's Mind buzzed. He finally understood; he was tied to an Electric Chair!
"Bas—bas—bastard! Let me go!" He let out a loud shout, his words stuttering, and his body exerted all its strength, shaking wildly. However, just as the Doctor said earlier, he simply couldn't break free.
After struggling like this for a while, Lu Yuan suddenly came to his senses.
"Uh, what am I being Nervous about? Aren't I in the Game?!"
Perhaps the scene was too horrific, and Lu Yuan was so scared that he forgot this point for a moment.
He breathed a sigh of relief secretly and hurriedly pulled up the game menu in his thoughts, then pressed the 【Exit Instance】 button. As the name suggested, this option allowed Players to exit the game anytime, anywhere. Of course, exiting halfway would also incur some corresponding penalties, such as losing Experience Points or Money, but Lu Yuan was truly terrified by this Instance. He couldn't care about that now; he just wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.
However, after he clicked 【Exit】...
Nothing happened.
"What the hell?!" Lu Yuan muttered in his heart, then clicked Exit again.
But everything around him remained unchanged. He was still tied to the Electric Chair, the light overhead still reflecting his horrified face, but that Huge machine piled up by the wall had started operating at some point, and all kinds of signal lights were flashing wildly.
The Doctor looked back at the pile of machines, then looked at Lu Yuan. On that creepy face, a harmless smile bloomed, which was very incongruous.
"Don't waste your effort. You can't get out."
✦✦✦