What exactly happened last night?
Tang Yu sat on the hard door-panel bed, the makeshift bed creaking beneath him. He was draped in a torn, ragged curtain that barely counted as clothing.
His entire posture and expression resembled a stunned little potato, or more accurately, a particularly golden potato with fluffy yellow hair, looking lost and confused as if someone had unplugged his brain.
“What exactly happened last night?” he repeated in a dazed voice. “Did some unknown enemy force sweep across the land while we were all asleep? Did people get hurt? Why is there so much stuff scattered everywhere on the ground?”
He blinked, staring blankly at the chaos around him, “I swear, when I woke up this morning, I really thought everyone here was dead.”
Silence. Nobody answered him.
All around him, the other players, some standing upright with stiff backs while others sat weakly on whatever surface they could find, wore the exact same pale and horrified expression. Their faces had lost every trace of color.
They looked like a group of survivors who had just crawled out from a battlefield that they did not remember being in.
Around seven in the morning, they had been violently awakened by the scream of the short haired woman who happened to be the first person to open her eyes.
And the moment the others woke up, they instantly realized that the room they had used as a resting place last night had completely changed. It had transformed in a way no one could explain.
This room was originally the staff break room of the hospital. It used to contain a few tables and chairs along with some miscellaneous furniture. Later, after the player renovation team searched the area, they stripped it clean and left only a row of wooden doors laid together like makeshift beds, resembling a strange and uncomfortable dormitory.
Yet now, without anyone noticing anything during the night, everything had been altered.
Dark red blood stains splattered everywhere. They coated the walls, smeared across the floor, and even stained the torn curtains hanging around them.
Several players who had been sleeping closest to the outside wall woke up to a heavy iron scented smell clinging to their faces and even lingering in their breath, as though they had inhaled blood itself while sleeping.
The door was damaged. It looked as though someone had kicked it open with great force.
The walls were dented and cracked in multiple spots as if something incredibly strong had smashed into them repeatedly.
It was undeniable that some extremely fierce and violent battle had taken place right here. This battleground was the very room where they had all been peacefully asleep.
Yet nobody heard anything.
Nobody sensed anything.
Even the player who was supposed to be on night duty mysteriously fell asleep without warning, and the others who were already asleep slept so deeply that not even a world ending disaster could have woken them up.
If the ghosts had wanted to kill them, there would not even be the chance to stand up again. There would be no waking up.
They would have died in complete silence and complete ignorance, right on these makeshift beds.
The chilling realization sent a bone deep shiver through every player, striking fear straight into their hearts.
Terrified and trembling, Wang Yicheng started counting everyone with a stiff face and clenched jaw.
Ghosts do not bleed.
With such a terrifying amount of blood everywhere in the room, it was certain that something had happened to at least one person.
When they first woke up, several players had panicked and ran outside with hands covering their mouths because they tasted blood in their mouths. A few players immediately gagged and vomited right outside the room.
They needed everyone to return for a headcount. Without gathering everyone, they could not confirm who was alive and who was gone.
“Captain, Cao Guoqing is missing.”
“Sun Yang is also gone.”
More voices followed, each filled with rising panic.
One scream after another filled the tense air.
The missing individuals were all relatively quiet and unremarkable players, the type who rarely drew attention.
Cao Guoqing was the middle aged man who had been shouting loudly the previous evening.
Sun Yang was a timid novice player who had only survived one dungeon before. He was a thin and quiet young man who always stayed quietly in the group without saying much.
If they had not exchanged names when forming exploration teams earlier, most players might not have remembered the names of these two missing individuals at all.
Tang Yu frowned deeply. “Qi Yu is missing too. But he left me a note saying he will be back soon.”
“What did you say?” Wang Yicheng spun around, absolutely shocked. Clearly, he never expected that Qi Yu, who had been performing even better than most veteran players, would vanish as well. “What kind of message did he leave?”
Tang Yu silently handed him a small piece of paper.
On the note was written:
[It is the middle of the night and I am a little hungry because the system is punishing me by not letting me eat. So I am going to find some midnight snacks. I will be back soon. If you wake up and do not see me, please do not assume I died.
From Qi Yu]
Everyone stared at the note.
All players: “…”
Their minds collectively went blank.
The comment Qi Yu had left was so elegant and ridiculous at the same time that no one knew what to say in response. Their brains seemed to stop working for a moment.
In a dangerous and deadly instance like this, what exactly was he trying to do by running off alone in the middle of the night? Was he seeking death on purpose? Just yesterday he looked like a perfectly normal person. He was sharp, intelligent, and quick witted. Yet last night he suddenly behaved like this instead…
Had he been bewitched? Enchanted? Possessed? Clearly something was wrong.
After racking their brains and feeling thoroughly confused, the players finally left the room and searched the surrounding area. Before long, they spotted several faint bloody drag marks near the entrance of the room.
However, these marks only extended a short distance before they abruptly ended, as if someone had carefully wiped the rest clean and erased all signs of what had truly happened.
Aside from Qi Yu, who left behind his baffling note as if nothing was wrong, the other two players were very likely already dead. The overwhelming blood splattered across the room probably came from their bodies.
Out of the most basic sense of camaraderie and morality, the group wandered throughout the hospital, hoping to find their remains or any sort of trace. A few rooms on the first floor still remained sealed shut.
These were rooms previously identified as extremely dangerous, likely containing ghosts that could instantly kill anyone who opened the door. They were clearly marked and absolutely not to be opened lightly.
Naturally, everyone also silently and unanimously chose not to mention the second floor at all. The terrifying ghost that had almost burst out from the stairwell the previous night had already traumatized them deeply. Nobody would choose to go upstairs unless they had absolutely no other choice.
Thus, everyone resumed their tasks like yesterday.
Tang Yu continued whispering privately to Qi Wenyu about Qi Yu. Unlike the others who assumed Qi Yu had gotten himself killed, Tang Yu firmly believed Qi Yu was still alive.
“Last night I clearly saw him taking food out of his backpack,” Tang Yu whispered confidently.
“Besides chocolate bars, he also had small cakes. They smelled amazing. I even checked secretly. There was enough food in there to last him comfortably for two days. There is no way he ran out because he was hungry.”
“I suspect he discovered some extremely important clue or accidentally activated a hidden side quest,” Tang Yu continued seriously.
“Huang Mao, keep your eyes sharp and look closely at everything. If you see any clue he might have left behind, like Qi Yu’s backpack or shoes or anything else, tell me at once. We will follow him together. I have a feeling the key to clearing this mission might lie with him.”
“Alright,” Qi Wenyu nodded with exaggerated gangster-like bravado. “If we run into other players who try to fight us for it, do we need to clear the field?”
Tang Yu: “…”
“There is no need for that. Let us go quietly and earn rewards without stirring trouble.”
If they did something that reckless, they would be instantly ganged up on by everyone here. He could not afford that.
Contrary to Tang Yu’s dramatic assumptions, Qi Yu was not trapped somewhere because he found a crucial clue.
He was learning how to become a good medical assistant.
A gentle male nurse.
What kind of inhuman character setting was this supposed to be?!
Qi Yu took a deep breath. His hand trembled slightly as he held the basin, trying very hard not to shout in frustration. He soaked blood soaked towels in the water and scrubbed them until they were finally a bit cleaner, then poured disinfectant into the basin so they could soak longer.
After taking the cleaned clothes out again, he asked in a strained voice, “Doctor Xie, when will you finally finish?”
He wanted nothing more than to go back to his normal gaming life and act like a regular player again!
That rotten man Xie Shao had forcefully dragged him here to work as unpaid labor. He even declared that Qi Yu could not leave until all the ghosts here were taken care of.
Qi Yu had been forced to leave Tang Yu an excuse note, and now he had no idea how he would explain any of this when he returned.
Hearing him speak, Xie Shao smiled with a bright and annoyingly satisfied expression. “Not yet, Xiaoyu. As my assistant, you must be patient.”
He looked over Qi Yu’s attire and let out a regretful sigh.
“You did not wear the clothes I prepared for you. I even got you a hospital uniform. I specifically picked a pink one because I knew you would look adorable in it.”
Qi Yu responded with only two emotionless syllables.
“He he.”
As if he would ever wear a pink nurse outfit just to entertain this lunatic.
What a pervert!
They were currently on the second floor of the hospital, in the inpatient ward.
This area originally belonged to Song Qing. Although now, that claim needed quotation marks. Last night, despite his round and swollen stomach, Song Qing had tried to fight Xie Shao and ended up brutally beaten instead.
Now he was resting in his exclusive ward, recovering pitifully. Xie Shao had temporarily taken over his domain.
Thinking about that scene, Qi Yu could not help glancing into Song Qing’s room. Something must have happened to Song Qing after arriving here. Not only did he die, but even his ghost was acting extremely abnormal.
Last night, after Song Qing got so furious that he nearly exploded, his stomach suddenly ballooned like it was filled with air.
His eyes turned completely blood red, and he lost all reason, becoming a crazed ghost desperate to bite and tear people apart.
After being beaten into submission by Xie Shao, the ghost continued to roar wildly, mouth gaping and eyes full of terrifying madness. The expression it wore looked like an animal craving human flesh in the most disturbing way imaginable.
Qi Yu saw the ghost’s eyes turn almost jade colored from hunger before Xie Shao finally pierced its swollen stomach with a medical needle, releasing all the trapped air and forcing it to calm down.
Its condition was clearly extremely abnormal. Qi Yu initially thought Song Qing’s stomach had simply bloated from rage, but after coming upstairs, he discovered that all the ghosts and patients here were behaving strangely.
Xie Shao stood beside a bed, examining a female patient and gently instructing her about post treatment care. The patient nodded obediently, and the others waiting in line also sat politely, quiet and well behaved, like actors in a hospital commercial promoting the most ideal patient ward environment.
Yet every single one of them was a ghost.
Their eyes were all bloodshot, and they looked dazed and lost. Only after Xie Shao punctured their swollen ghostly bodies with a needle did they regain a small bit of clarity.
Seeing the worn restraint straps on the bed, Qi Yu frowned unconsciously.
“What exactly is happening here?” he asked quietly.
“Do you want to know?” Xie Shao asked with a gentle yet unsettling smile. He took the towel from Qi Yu, wiped the patient’s wound, and after confirming that all the patients were stable and would not suddenly go berserk, he stood up and led Qi Yu out of the ward.
“If you want to know, you can try to please me and coax me,” the voice carried a lazy charm, playful yet dangerous, like silk brushing across the mind. “Maybe I will just give in and tell you all the secrets hidden inside this hospital.”
Qi Yu: “…”
Qi Yu stared at him in silence for a moment before speaking, unable to hide his disbelief.
“Seriously? Just because you are a game boss, does that mean you do not need to have principles anymore? I clearly remember you telling me in the previous dungeon that you could not directly reveal details to me. You said the game would punish you if you did.”
“Yes, that is true,” Xie Shao sighed softly, his tone dripping with a mixture of helplessness and flirtation. “But sometimes, what can we do about it? A man’s judgment becomes foggy when he is near someone he likes. Feelings cloud the mind, cloud all sense and logic.”
Qi Yu: “…”
Unable to respond, Qi Yu fell into speechless silence. He truly had no words left. Xie Shao made it sound so casual, so smooth, as if falling in love and breaking rules in a deadly supernatural dungeon was the most natural thing in the world.
Qi Yu could only reach for the towel beside him, the one that had been used moments ago to wipe blood from a patient’s wound. The cloth was heavy with the dark red stain of fresh blood.
“Give me the towel,” he said calmly, controlling his expression with effort. “I will go wash it again.”
He paused for a moment, then added in a tone that mixed curiosity and mild sarcasm, “Speaking of this, I really did not expect that ghosts would bleed. Earlier, I saw Song Qing get beaten half to death, but not a single drop of blood came out of him. Was his skin just ridiculously thick or something like that?”
“Yes,” Xie Shao replied with absolute seriousness, nodding as if Qi Yu had asked the most reasonable question in the world.
“Song Qing is always obsessed with his bizarre experiments. He never succeeded in killing himself, but he did manage to make his body so tough that hitting him hurts my hand more than it hurts him.”
He casually flicked his wrist in demonstration, and as he did so, he smoothly avoided letting Qi Yu take the towel. It was an effortless dodge, subtle yet intentional.
The thick towel remained firmly in his grasp, pressed lightly against the long, narrow wound on his palm, concealing the fresh injury beneath it.
“It is time to send you down,” Xie Shao murmured, voice dipping low, almost intimate, “Before you leave, do you not want to give me a passionate kiss?”
Qi Yu immediately answered, his expression cold and unyielding. “No.”
“Hmm, so indifferent,” Xie Shao sighed theatrically, eyes curving with teasing disappointment. “Then I suppose I must give you something tempting in exchange.”
He slowly stepped back, two steps echoing lightly, then leaned lazily against the wall at the top of the stairs. With his free hand, he pulled out a folded newspaper, and with a graceful flick, he waved it in front of Qi Yu, as though presenting treasure.
“Do you want to see a newspaper article that recorded the strange rumors circulating in this hospital at that time? A rare little piece of truth, carefully preserved.”
He tilted his head, voice dropping in seductive mischief, “Push me against the wall, give me a kiss, and I will give myself to you, all of me, okay?”
Xie Shao leaned against the window beside the staircase, looking like an unruly prince basking in the world. The gentle morning sunlight streamed through the dusty glass and poured over him, softening the dangerous edges of his striking beauty.
The contrast between light and shadow made him appear almost unreal, like a vision from a fever dream.
Only then did Qi Yu truly notice. Xie Shao’s eyes were phoenix eyes, long and narrow, with the outer corners rising in a graceful arc, as if drawn with the finest brush. There was arrogance there, and seduction, and an unexplainable charm.
Those eyes were dark and bright, deep like a night sky untouched by light pollution. When Qi Yu looked closer, he thought he could see it clearly. It was as though countless stars had been scattered inside them, shimmering faintly, holding secrets, temptations, and danger within their depths
He suddenly felt a little tempted, a faint spark of interest flickering in his heart.
They were wandering around the first floor of the building. The players had already split into their own small groups and were scattered here and there, trying their hardest to uncover any useful clues or information. Each group moved cautiously, speaking in low whispers, tense and alert.
Tang Yu led Qi Wenyu along the corridor in a very relaxed manner. To an outsider, he looked like an elderly man taking a slow, leisurely walk to enjoy the morning air.
His posture was casual, his expression calm, and his steps unhurried. It was the kind of annoying, carefree attitude that could make others feel as if he had no worries at all.
However, beneath that appearance, he was secretly working. He was intentionally wandering around so that he could trigger his item picking skill.
When this instance had begun, he had managed to pick up a few useful items. At first, he had been quite proud. But then, for some reason, luck seemed to abandon him and he started losing money again and again, one item after another vanishing from his inventory.
Tang Yu was completely dissatisfied with this outcome. He refused to suffer losses. He was determined to pick up more items and replenish everything he had lost, to restore his sense of balance and dignity as a proud collector.
Yet the longer he walked, the stranger he felt. He could not find a single prop. Nothing glittered, nothing shimmered, nothing hinted at hidden value. Instead, a faint and unsettling feeling began to creep up his spine. Something was not right.
Yesterday, they had opened several rooms that were clearly haunted. Everyone remembered how no one dared to close the door to the doctor room, because it felt like shutting that door meant sealing themselves inside with something horrifying.
Every door had been left wide open to create a sense of safety. Yet now, all those doors that had been deliberately kept open were quietly closed again, as if someone had come through in the middle of the night and shut them one by one with eerie calm.
Tang Yu frowned slightly and reached out to poke Qi Wenyu in the back.
“Yellow Hair, I have a feeling that something big is coming. A real storm is brewing,” he murmured in a low voice. “It feels extremely dangerous.”
The blond man blinked blankly, entirely unaware of any change in atmosphere.
Question marks practically floated above his head. He wanted to respond, Maybe you just miss Brother Qi too much? Perhaps you are overthinking this. You are nervous, that is all.
However, before he could even open his mouth to offer that soothing yet half joking remark, a panicked voice cut through the hall like a knife. A figure rushed over at full speed, panic visible in every frantic movement. The player held a hospital record sheet in trembling hands and practically stumbled toward Wang Yicheng.
“Captain! Something has happened! Something serious!”
Everyone turned at once. Confusion and dread filled the air.
What happened? What now?
“I was checking the hospital records… and I found something. I found…” The player gasped heavily, breathing as if he had sprinted through a nightmare. His eyes were wide open, filled with terror, as if he had just looked straight at something that should not exist.
“I discovered that the record sheet, which was originally completely blank, has filled in by itself.”
“It actually wrote names on its own.”
He swallowed hard and continued with trembling lips,
“It says the names of Cao Guoqing and Sun Yang. And the check in time recorded on the sheet is today.”
As soon as those words fell, an icy gust burst into the outpatient hall, blowing the damaged door wide open. The wind roared in a cold whirl, brushing against their faces like frozen fingertips.
Only then did the players notice that the faint, thin mist that had earlier hovered lightly over the courtyard had thickened dramatically without them realizing. It had crept forward silently, spreading like a living thing, until it now blanketed the area right outside the entrance.
At such a close distance, even someone with extremely severe nearsightedness would be able to see the vague, eerie shapes moving within the fog.
They were surrounded.
The players froze.
This realization washed over them like an icy tide. Every hair on their bodies stood up and a cold shudder rippled through their spines, shocking them to the core.
Terror settled into their bones like ice.
✦ ✧ ✦
Cresvynia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
The translator has survived another chapter. Please reward them with coffee. ☕
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Enter the GameChapter 2 · Pick a roomChapter 3 · DeadChapter 4 · AtticChapter 5 · ResponsibleChapter 6 · A bamboo BasketChapter 7 · DiaryChapter 8 · Song QingChapter 9 · Sent to HospitalChapter 10 · Second CopyChapter 11 · Leaking InformationChapter 12 · Special Prop!Chapter 13 · Doctor GhostChapter 14 · Store RoomChapter 15 · Psychiatry HospitalChapter 16 · Things of PastChapter 17 · Second FloorChapter 18 · He’s adorableChapter 19 · You Like Him?Chapter 20 · Kiss meChapter 21 · Group women’s clothing PlayChapter 22 · Where’s my Skirt?Chapter 23 · Wife of Murder Doctor….Chapter 24 · Go to Third floorChapter 25 · You must find me!Chapter 26 · See you in the next dungeonChapter 27 · VideoChapter 28 · Player ForumChapter 29 · Two women vying for one manChapter 30 · The Giant WolfChapter 31 · A Kind and Benevolent FatherChapter 32 · Preparing the change clothesChapter 33 · Red Heart FruitChapter 34 · In what ways do I fall short of him?Chapter 35 · KissChapter 36 · Bald performanceChapter 37 · The Prince Has ArrivedChapter 38 · Prince Song QingChapter 39 · Should we…Chapter 40 · A Kiss of True LoveChapter 41 · BanquetChapter 42 · Snow White KingChapter 43 · KingChapter 44 · I miss you so much!Chapter 45 · LeavingChapter 46 · Wanting to See HimChapter 47 · Resource Type InstanceChapter 48 · The Banquet BeginsChapter 49 · KissChapter 50 · Full-Dive Virtual RealityChapter 51 · Everyone Is a LiarChapter 52 · MegaphoneChapter 53 · Dragon???Chapter 54 · Fire DragonChapter 55 · A powerful Fire DragonChapter 56 · Want Some Barbecue?Chapter 57 · The Characteristics of the GameChapter 58 · A little DragonChapter 59 · Searching for her sonChapter 60 · We’re Going to Tear Up the HostageChapter 61 · Mountain CollapseChapter 62 · DiscussionChapter 63 · Digging for Crystals?Chapter 64 · Making Money Selling LiquorChapter 65 · A KissChapter 66 · I’m the Best LookingChapter 67 · Ghost Ship 101Chapter 68 · Has the Competition Begun Yet?Chapter 69 · LotteryChapter 70 · First PlaceChapter 71 · The Sea Monster ArrivesChapter 72 · CooperationChapter 73 · The Man in the MaskChapter 74 · WarChapter 75 · The Players’ RevengeChapter 76 · ReturningChapter 77 · The End