The clown seemed to believe him without the slightest suspicion.
“Even if you want to, you can’t walk for this long. That’s enough for today.”
“My precious.”
“Come here.”
He stretched out one hand toward him.
A long time passed before You Li finally turned around.
His movements were stiff.
If someone looked carefully, they would notice the faint resistance hidden within them.
However, because his rehabilitation had left his walking naturally unsteady, that reluctance wasn’t especially obvious.
He stopped in front of the clown, who was standing there with his arms spread open.
His movements were painfully slow.
Almost sluggishly, he bent down.
Just as he was about to sit in the clown’s embrace, he suddenly paused.
“I forgot to take my biscuits.”
The clown picked them up for him.
“Do you want to eat them now?”
You Li accepted them.
Then he straightened back up and began nibbling at the biscuits one small bite at a time.
He had no appetite.
He did not want to eat.
But he had no choice.
He could only continue eating while meaninglessly dragging out the time.
After finishing the biscuits, he said that he wanted some bread.
After finishing the bread, he slowly sipped at the apple juice.
He almost thanked the clown out of habit.
Then, after thinking about it for a moment, he remembered that over the past several days he had never once thanked the clown.
So he swallowed the words back down.
How could he possibly keep the clown occupied for at least an hour?
“I want cake.”
You Li looked directly at the clown as he spoke.
He tried to force tears to gather in his eyes.
At first, he had only intended to pretend.
He had merely wanted to deceive him.
Yet the emotions bottled up inside his heart finally found an outlet.
The fake tears quickly became real ones.
The clown skillfully wiped away his tears.
“If you cry, then you don’t get any.”
You Li slowly held back his tears.
He said nothing.
He simply continued looking at him.
Before leaving, the clown also gathered up all of the rubbish left behind from You Li’s snacks, tidying the hospital room once more.
Having learned from what had happened before, You Li did not leave immediately.
He sat quietly on the hospital bed for a while.
Only then did he push open the hospital room door.
He even held his breath before daring to look outside.
The corridor was silent.
There wasn’t a single person in sight.
The clown wasn’t there either.
During the past several days, while the medication had left him muddled and confused, it seemed the clown had truly lowered his guard around him.
You Li was still wrapped in the clown’s white lab coat.
He hadn’t taken it off.
He still remembered the instructions the clown had given him when he draped it over his shoulders.
His walking remained somewhat clumsy.
Supporting himself against the wall, he slowly made his way toward the corridor where he had encountered the other players earlier.
Although…
Only two players remained in the dungeon now.
One of them was himself.
The other was the one whose name he could still remember.
Chen Shuang was still alive.
The twin tailed girl’s death had been far too gruesome.
Regardless of how anyone might judge her character, after Chen Shuang had left with the others, she still returned once every NPC had gone.
When You Li arrived, she happened to be collecting the twin tailed girl’s remains.
There were no proper conditions for handling a corpse inside the dungeon.
So called collecting the body merely meant that Chen Shuang had picked up the twin tailed girl’s head, placed it back onto her neck and wrapped the two together with a hospital gown to hold them in place.
But to You Li…
None of that was visible.
All he saw was Chen Shuang crouching on the floor, reaching out and touching empty air, as though she were doing something incomprehensible.
So You Li slowly walked over as well.
Looking down at the smooth, spotless floor, his eyes were clearly open.
Yet he could see absolutely nothing.
In a quiet murmur, he repeated,
“I saw her finish signing the form.. and leave together with the nurse.”
“I heard her say that her family was coming to pick her up after she was discharged.”
“Is she still here?”
Chen Shuang cautiously raised a hand and waved it in front of You Li’s eyes.
“You… can’t see her?”
You Li replied, “I can see. My eyes are perfectly fine.”
Chen Shuang fell silent.
“She’s right here.”
“She’s at your feet.”
You Li slowly closed his eyes.
He crouched down and stretched out a hand.
Suppressing the fear inside him, he tried to reach forward.
Yet he couldn’t stop the image he had witnessed only moments ago from resurfacing in his mind.
He was afraid that his fingers would touch something cold and sticky.
He was equally afraid that they would touch nothing at all.
Taking a slow, steady breath, he cautiously reached toward the floor.
There was nothing.
Nothing at all.
You Li spoke honestly.
“I didn’t touch her body.”
He continued,
“I thought the medicine had made my brain deceive my eyes.”
“I thought she was still here but I simply couldn’t see her.”
“But… it doesn’t seem to be like that.”
“The brain can also simulate the sense of touch.”
“It can make me believe that I haven’t touched anything.”
“But just now, my hand passed straight through empty air and touched the floor directly.”
“So it wasn’t my brain deceiving me.”
“It’s more like…”
“…she and I have been completely separated into two different worlds.”
“She has remained there forever.”
“Even though we’re clearly still occupying the same space.”
Chen Shuang instinctively asked,
“You took the medicine too?”
The moment those words left her mouth, a faint sound drifted over from somewhere in the distance.
Chen Shuang immediately made a decision.
“Dinner time is almost over.”
“Those NPCs will be coming back very soon.”
“Let’s find somewhere safe first.”
At once, You Li remembered the white lab coat draped over his shoulders.
He felt that even if someone saw him wearing it, he probably wouldn’t be in any real danger.
Still, just to be safe, he followed Chen Shuang into the recreation room.
From the deepest corner behind the bookshelf, Chen Shuang retrieved the medicine she had hidden for treating external wounds.
The claw marks on her arm were deep.
Even now, they still hadn’t completely healed.
As she applied the medicine, she said,
“I should thank you.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever dare imagine again that there would actually be a day when a dungeon boss delivers medicine to me.”
You Li froze for a moment.
“The clown brought you the medicine?”
Chen Shuang wrapped fresh bandages around her arm.
“You didn’t know?”
You Li shook his head.
Speaking honestly, he said,
“My brain was completely messed up from the medicine these past few days.”
“I only became clear headed again today.”
“I slipped out just now because I wanted to ask whether you’d found any clues about clearing the dungeon.”
“You don’t have to worry.”
“I won’t stay here for very long.”
“I’ll leave before he comes back.”
“I won’t drag you into this.”
Chen Shuang’s expression became impossible to describe.
“No…”
“What exactly did you take?”
She had assumed he had been doing relatively well.
She had never expected that the boss had practically turned his brain into mush.
“The medicine.”
“I took the medicine.”
You Li frowned deeply as he tried to recall it.
“But…”
“I think my medicine was a little different from hers.”
The side effects he experienced were far too severe.
Drowsiness.
Mental confusion.
Emotional detachment.
Sluggish thinking…
Yet the condition of the twin tailed girl after taking the medicine seemed completely different from his.
There was only one thing they had in common.
The world they saw appeared to have returned to normal.
You Li carefully described every negative effect he had experienced after taking the medicine.
He spoke in great detail.
But the more Chen Shuang listened, the more disbelief filled her eyes.
“You took it on the very day I was injured?”
“The woman she got killed was obviously lying to her.”
“That medicine was suspicious the moment you looked at it.”
“How many people has that doctor already treated to death?”
Chen Shuang vented everything she had been holding back.
“How could anything he prescribes possibly be good?”
“With a record like his, if this were the real world, he’d be nothing more than a black hearted doctor.”
“He’d spend eight lifetimes in prison and still wouldn’t get out.”
In short,
Not even a dog would believe him.
“She was simply driven into a corner.”
“There was no one else left to test it on, so she had no choice but to try it herself.”
“Otherwise, she wouldn’t have died such a horrible death.”
“You didn’t actually believe what that middle aged woman said back then… did you?”
You Li parted his lips.
Not a single word came out.
After hearing her say it, even he felt that he had been rather foolish.
Instead, Chen Shuang said,
“Your family must have protected you very well.”
You Li froze for a moment.
After a long pause, he quietly replied,
“I don’t have a family.”
Chen Shuang immediately realized she had said the wrong thing.
“…Sorry.”
Then she added,
“If you make it into the next dungeon, don’t trust other people’s words so easily anymore.”
“Whether they’re human or ghosts is one thing.”
“But even humans can speak like devils.”
“Besides…”
“That medicine came from the dungeon boss.”
You Li wanted to say that the medicine the doctor had prescribed for him actually seemed to have some effect.
At the very least…
His physical stress reactions had become much milder.
His post traumatic stress symptoms had eased considerably.
He had even learned how to walk again.
But seeing how distrustful Chen Shuang was of doctors, looking as though she wished the doctor would drop dead on the spot,
He held the words back.
After struggling for quite a while, he merely asked,
“…Can I see the medicine the doctor prescribed for you?”
Chen Shuang took it out.
“This one?”
It was a small white bottle.
There was no brand.
No instructions.
Not even a single word printed anywhere on it.
It was simply an ordinary white bottle filled with pills.
At first glance…
It looked unbelievably fake.
You Li paused.
He remembered the large medicine bag he had received, stuffed full of different medications.
He wanted to say something.
In the end, however, he said nothing.
Instead, he only murmured,
“…My medicine seems to be a little different from yours.”
Chen Shuang said,
“But both of you experienced hallucinations.”
You Li nodded slightly.
“…Maybe they were hallucinations.”
Chen Shuang continued sharing the information she had pieced together.
“I have a theory.”
“Let’s divide this dungeon into three stages.”
“For example…”
“In the first stage, the only life threatening danger comes from the hospital’s abnormal methods of treatment.”
“But even if we refuse treatment altogether, nothing actually happens to us.”
“So that stage is the safest.”
“The second stage…”
“The danger comes from the clown hunting the players.”
“And from the dungeon NPCs after they’ve mutated.”
“Right now…”
“I’m still in the second stage.”
“But you’re already in the third.”
“You took the medicine.”
“You began seeing hallucinations.”
“You can no longer distinguish real danger from false danger.”
“The level of risk has increased yet again.”
“The unknown is the most terrifying thing of all.”
“You have no way of knowing whether the person standing beside you is holding a knife…”
“…or a pen.”
“You don’t know whether, in the next second, they’ll hand you the pen…”
“…or use the knife to cut off your head.”
You Li looked slightly puzzled.
“But why would the hospital’s medicine make us hallucinate that we’ve returned to the safest first stage?”
Chen Shuang replied,
“If taking the medicine isn’t the solution…”
“…then how are we supposed to find the original doctor and get him to issue our discharge certificates?”
What exactly was the method for clearing this dungeon?
How were they supposed to obtain a discharge certificate?
“Just…”
“…how are we supposed to get discharged?”
No matter how much Chen Shuang thought about it, she couldn’t figure it out.
The dungeon had reached a point where it seemed to have become a completely hopeless dead end.
It was evening now.
The golden light of the setting sun streamed through the only window in the recreation room that wasn’t sealed shut with iron bars.
For some reason, You Li’s attention was drawn toward it.
He suddenly spoke in a quiet voice.
“In the real world…”
“…I also have a psychiatric illness.”
“On the day I entered the dungeon…”
“…I had just finished completing my discharge procedures.”
“I had stayed in the hospital for a very, very long time.”
“I had finally reached the day when that course of treatment came to an end.”
“As I walked along the road, I kept wondering how much longer it would take before I got home.”
“That day was evening too.”
“But the sky was already very dark.”
“I wasn’t paying attention to the traffic.”
“I was only counting how much longer it would be until the traffic light changed.”
“And then…”
“…the car accident happened.”
Chen Shuang immediately said angrily,
“How is that your fault for not watching the road?”
“It was obviously the driver who ran the red light and ignored the traffic rules!”
Only after saying it did she suddenly realize something.
“…Wait.”
“Weren’t you suffering from amnesia?”
You Li’s thoughts were still somewhat slow.
“…I think…”
“…some of my memories have come back.”
He spoke softly.
“But most of them are still very blurry.”
“I can’t remember them very clearly.”
“The truth is…”
“…on the day I was discharged, I wasn’t actually cured.”
“For people with psychiatric illnesses…”
“…it’s very difficult to recover completely in a short period of time.”
“Because even after you’re treated…”
“…the illness can relapse.”
“It keeps coming back again and again.”
“The first time…”
“…it might only require a few months of medication.”
“The second relapse…”
“…might mean taking medicine continuously for two or three years.”
“Then the third.”
“The fourth.”
“And after that…”
“…I’ve lost count of how many times it has relapsed.”
“Perhaps…”
“…without even realizing it myself…”
“…I’d already reached the point where I would have to take medication for the rest of my life.”
“But how could a patient possibly spend their entire life living inside a hospital?”
“I have a life of my own too.”
“I want to go outside and live happily like an ordinary person.”
“I don’t want to spend my whole life in a hospital, undergoing one strict form of treatment after another.”
“I’ve been hospitalized and discharged many times.”
“After each relapse, once that stage of treatment came to an end, the doctor would issue me a discharge certificate.”
“Once they confirmed that my condition had improved, that I no longer had self destructive tendencies and that I’d developed the will to save myself, they would decide whether I could be discharged.”
You Li spoke softly, his eyes lowered.
“Inside this dungeon, every treatment method the hospital offers carries danger.”
“So… could it be that it’s actually trying to make us save ourselves?”
“Could the method for clearing the dungeon lie within ourselves?”
Chen Shuang followed his train of thought.
“So… we have to prove to the doctor that we’ve recovered?”
“No…”
“We have to prove that our mental state has improved?”
“But how are we supposed to prove something like that?”
She frowned.
“There aren’t any challenge stages or trials.”
“And that doctor looks like he’d be happiest if every single one of us just died.”
“Trying to prove anything to him is basically asking to be killed.”
“But the discharge certificate is in his hands.”
Chen Shuang reflected on herself seriously.
“And besides…”
“I’m already optimistic enough, aren’t I?”
She flashed You Li a broad smile that revealed all eight of her front teeth.
“Should I just smile more?”
“Would that be enough?”
You Li looked completely at a loss.
“…I don’t know either.”
Chen Shuang let out a relaxed sigh.
“At least we’ve got a new direction to investigate.”
“Now we just need to figure out how to return to the first stage and find the doctor.”
You Li nodded.
“I can’t stay with you any longer.”
“The clown will come looking for me.”
“It’s almost time.”
“I need to…”
“…find somewhere to hide.”
Chen Shuang answered decisively.
“If either of us finds any clues, we’ll look for an opportunity to leave them in the recreation room.”
“The other person will come and find them.”
After agreeing on their plan, You Li left the recreation room.
The truth was…
He had no idea where he should hide.
He could only hope that, if he continued walking along the corridors, he would happen to avoid whatever route the clown took while searching for him.
Still wrapped in the oversized white lab coat that nearly reached his ankles, he leaned against the wall and slowly made his way forward, one step at a time.
His gait remained unsteady.
He moved at the pace of a snail.
His legs, which had only just begun rehabilitation, simply couldn’t support such a long walk.
He had completely forgotten about the surveillance camera mounted overhead.
Its tiny red recording light continued blinking steadily.
Frame after frame.
From above, it silently recorded every step of the young man’s path, following his movements without pause.
Then,
You Li ran straight into the doctor.
He had been walking with his head lowered, staying close to the wall.
His movements were slow and sluggish.
Only when he had reached the doctor’s side, just one step away from walking directly into him, did he finally notice the figure standing before him.
Realizing it belatedly, he slowly lifted his head.
“…Doctor?”
His mind struggled to react.
He already knew that the doctor wasn’t a good person.
He was another dungeon boss.
Almost instinctively, You Li took a step backward.
He unconsciously held his breath, his body tensing.
The doctor stepped forward as well.
“What are you doing here?”
He glanced at his wristwatch.
“Going outside isn’t permitted at this hour.”
“You should be in your hospital room.”
Being questioned first, You Li had no choice but to answer.
“I…”
“I came to ask the doctor for a discharge certificate.”
He hesitated before asking,
“…Why are you here?”
The doctor shifted his gaze slightly.
“You’re standing in front of my consultation room.”
You Li turned toward the nearby door.
He stared blankly at it before giving a quiet acknowledgment.
For some reason…
He suddenly felt as though he had become the unreasonable one.
Instead…
The doctor’s long absence now somehow seemed perfectly natural.
The doctor pushed open the consultation room door.
“Come in.”
As he spoke, he pulled a sheet of paper from the desk.
“Your treatment hasn’t been completed yet.”
“Are you certain you want to apply for a discharge certificate?”
You Li had never imagined obtaining a discharge certificate could be this easy.
It was so close.
Right before his eyes.
Close enough that he could reach out and touch it.
Even knowing there was a very high chance this was a trap…
He still couldn’t stop staring at it.
The doctor sat down.
Picking up his fountain pen, he asked suddenly,
“Did you take your medicine today?”
For a brief moment, You Li’s expression went completely blank.
His eyes remained fixed upon the discharge certificate.
He watched as the doctor calmly wrote his own name onto it with the pen.
When You Li failed to answer, the doctor continued,
“So you haven’t taken it?”
“Take your medicine first.”
The doctor set down his pen and walked over to the medicine cabinet, selecting the medications You Li was supposed to take.
He poured a cup of warm water.
“Do you still remember how to take your medicine?”
Returning to the desk, he picked up his fountain pen once again.
The nib hovered above the paper.
You Li hurriedly nodded.
“I remember.”
The doctor’s pen began moving once more.
“Then take it.”
“Even after you’re discharged, you’ll still need to continue taking your medication according to the prescribed course.”
You Li hesitated as he looked at the medicine on the table.
Every name printed on those medicine boxes was familiar to him.
Aside from their side effects…
Every single one truly was medication used to treat his psychiatric illnesses.
He couldn’t help looking toward the doctor, who remained leaning over the desk, completely focused on writing the discharge certificate.
Slowly…
A seed of self doubt began to grow inside him.
Had he misunderstood the doctor?
The medicine really did seem to be helping him.
His PTSD was improving.
His legs were recovering through rehabilitation.
His memories were gradually returning.
His mental state was becoming increasingly stable.
Was the doctor’s anger toward him before…
Simply because he had refused to take his medicine?
The doctor’s pen came to a stop.
“Why aren’t you taking it?”
You Li’s breathing suddenly caught.
“I’ll take it.”
“I’ll take it.”
He reached toward the medicine boxes.
One by one.
He opened every single box.
He pushed every blister pack out until all of the pills lay before him.
It was as though…
As long as the doctor finished writing the discharge certificate…
He was willing to do absolutely anything.
The doctor’s pen continued writing.
“We’ll still need to conduct one consultation to confirm your condition.”
“Then I’ll speak with your family.”
“Once we’ve reached an agreement, you’ll sign your name at the bottom.”
“After that…”
“…you’ll be discharged.”
The fountain pen had almost reached the final line.
You Li swallowed the pills one after another.
He drank the warm water steadily.
Only after the cup was completely empty did a wave of dizziness wash over him.
His hands began to lose their strength.
He blinked several times before finally managing to locate the edge of the desk and carefully set the empty cup down.
“I…”
“…sign…”
“…the pen…”
The doctor turned the discharge certificate toward him.
He placed the pen beside You Li’s hand.
Crookedly and clumsily, You Li reached for it.
The side effects of the medicine had already begun to take hold.
His head was spinning.
Yet he still persisted.
With painstaking care, stroke by stroke, he slowly wrote his own name at the bottom of the page.
After he finished signing his name, the last bit of tension in his entire body finally melted away.
The pen slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor.
The doctor seemed to stand up and walk over to his side.
“Next, we need to carry out an examination.”
“Be good.”
“Don’t struggle.”
A faint sense of unease slowly crept over You Li.
Instinctively, he resisted.
“I won’t go…”
“I’ve already signed it.”
“I can be discharged now.”
“I can leave.”
“…Where are you taking me?”
Wasn’t the examination for filling out the paperwork supposed to be done right here?
Without warning, the lower half of his face was covered.
A hand firmly sealed over his mouth and nose, muffling every sound he tried to make.
“Mmph… mm…”
Half conscious already, You Li no longer had any strength left.
His fingertips could only weakly rest against the doctor’s arm, the arm pressing tightly over his face, as he feebly tried to pull it away.
But his consciousness grew blurrier and blurrier.
The doctor seemed to lift him from the chair, half dragging and half carrying him into his arms.
Then…
He began walking out of the consultation room.
Just before he completely lost consciousness and drifted into a deep sleep, You Li could only vaguely make out the doctor’s final words beside his ear.
“It’s alright.”
“It’ll all be over very soon.”
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
Somewhere, a translator stares dramatically into an empty coffee cup. ☕
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · I have amnesia (1)Chapter 2 · I have amnesia (2)Chapter 3 · I have amnesia (3)Chapter 4 · I have amnesia (4)Chapter 5 · I have amnesia (5)Chapter 6 · I have amnesia (6)Chapter 7 · I have amnesia (7)Chapter 8 · I have amnesia (8)Chapter 9 · I have amnesia (9)Chapter 10 · I have amnesia (10)Chapter 11 · I have amnesia (11)Chapter 12 · I have amnesia (12)Chapter 13 · I have amnesia (14)Chapter 14 · I have amnesia (14)Chapter 15 · I have amnesia (15)Chapter 16 · I have amnesia (16)Chapter 17 · I have amnesia (17)Chapter 18 · I have amnesia (18)Chapter 19 · I have amnesia (19)Chapter 20 · I have amnesia (20)Chapter 21 · I have amnesia (21)Chapter 22 · I have amnesia (22)Chapter 23 · I have amnesia (23)Chapter 24 · I have amnesia (24)Chapter 25 · I have amnesia (25)Chapter 26 · I have amnesia (26)Chapter 27 · I have amnesia (27)Chapter 28 · I have amnesia (28)Chapter 29 · Desert Highway (1)Chapter 30 · Desert Highway (2)Chapter 31 · Desert Highway (3)Chapter 32 · Desert Highway (4)Chapter 33 · Desert Highway (5)Chapter 34 · Desert Highway (6)Chapter 35 · Desert Highway (7)Chapter 36 · Desert Highway (8)Chapter 37 · Desert Highway (9)Chapter 38 · Desert Highway (10)Chapter 39 · Desert Highway (11)Chapter 40 · Desert Highway (12)Chapter 41 · Desert Highway (13)Chapter 42 · Desert Highway (14)Chapter 43 · Desert Highway (15)