Xu Jie swiftly grabbed Wen Shi’s hand and, in the same motion, drew a short blade from behind his waist, slashing at the blood vessels.
The moment he struck, dense clusters of blood vessels descended from above like the hanging roots of a banyan tree, wrapping him into a cocoon within two or three seconds and dragging him into the darkness.
“Not a patient of the clinic.” The nurse swung her hammer fiercely at the blood vessels reaching toward her.
The vessels recoiled slightly in pain.
Then, like a flash flood, they surged into the basement, instantly engulfing the nurse.
Three seconds later.
A flash of silver light pierced through the crimson sea. The sharp short blade cut through with unstoppable force, slicing horizontally and vertically. The writhing blood vessels burst open, spraying blood that condensed into a chilling, bone-piercing blood mist.
“Get lost!”
The dense blood vessels squeezed Xu Jie’s handsome face out of shape. He kicked away the obstacle in front of him, took a long stride with his legs, and his tall figure broke free from the restraints—only his strong, sinewy hand remained deeply trapped.
The veins on Xu Jie’s hand bulged as he yanked outward with force.
Wen Shi’s handsome face nearly brushed past Xu Jie’s nose.
The scalpel in his palm sliced through the air.
The monster that had opened its bloody maw above Xu Jie’s head was instantly beheaded, dissolving into blood mist.
“Are you okay?” Xu Jie’s knuckled hand gripped Wen Shi tightly.
Wen Shi shook his head.
When the Specter had dragged him in, he had intended to end it with a single strike.
But Xu Jie had recklessly charged in, disrupting Wen Shi’s plan, forcing him to plunge a scalpel into the Specter’s heart instead.
This Divine Official was more ruthless than he had imagined.
He had practically sliced the Specter’s head like fish fillets, blood splattering everywhere.
Fortunately, Xu Jie had shielded Wen Shi.
Not a single drop of blood landed on Wen Shi.
“What a fierce Specter,” Xu Jie murmured.
Wen Shi: “Isn’t your Instance supposed to have you as the fiercest and strongest? Can’t even control this? Are you incompetent?”
Xu Jie: “I was itching for a fight, so I deliberately let it out for practice.”
He was plenty capable.
Wen Shi: “…” You’re really putting on a show now.
Xu Jie stared in the direction where the Specter had vanished, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
The Specter that attacked them was likely S+ grade.
This small F Rank Instance was filled with danger and anomalies at every turn.
The Dungeon Boss had to be at least SS+ Rank.
If he caught it, he’d scatter its ashes to the wind.
Xu Jie decided to start guarding Wen Shi from now on.
Someone this good-looking.
Shouldn’t be killed off by the Dungeon Boss.
The Specters invading the clinic were growing stronger, making it urgent to resolve the issue with the neighbor.
After the Specter died, the blood vessels instantly shriveled up, leaving only the nurse who had been hammering away like playing whack-a-mole.
“Ahem.” Xu Jie cleared his throat. “Uh, take care of that.”
He pointed at the female Player’s corpse.
The blood-soaked nurse strode over to Xu Jie, swinging her large hammer and slamming it hard at his feet, snarling, “Don’t you have hands? Lazy as a cow or horse with too much shit and piss—get lost, you hag!”
If not for Wen Shi’s presence.
Her hammer would have already smashed Xu Jie to pulp.
The corner of Wen Shi’s mouth lifted slightly.
“It’s good for a girl’s mammary health to vent her temper,” Xu Jie said sheepishly, rubbing his nose. “Sis, you go rest. I’ll handle it.”
The nurse stormed off angrily.
After dealing with the female Player’s body, Wen Shi tried to shake off Xu Jie.
But the other clung to him like a stubborn plaster.
He wanted to retrieve the female neighbor’s head from the medical waste bin to intimidate the Specter next door but found no opportunity.
He could only secretly message the nurse to do it for him.
“How old are you, Wen Shi?” Xu Jie asked while examining the specimen. “I’m 27.”
Even though he was a Monster who had lived for who knows how many years, he insisted he was 27.
Wen Shi looked at the specimen floating in the huge glass jar. “24.”
He couldn’t remember his exact age either.
For as long as he could remember, he had been twenty-four.
“Let me ask you something. If a woman is three years older, she’s like a gold brick. What about a man who’s three years older?”
Xu Jie kept one hand behind his back, gripping a card in his palm. If he sensed the Dungeon Boss, the card would grow warm.
He had walked the entire way without sensing anything.
It seemed the Dungeon Boss wasn’t in the basement.
Wen Shi: “Sorry.”
Xu Jie: “…”
Sometimes he wished Wen Shi would lick his mouth—he was sure it would be poisonous enough to kill him.
“Doctor Xu, there’s a patient,” a nurse in clean clothes said gently. “If you don’t get to work soon, the patients are going to burst the clinic.”
When Xu Jie arrived at the consultation room, he realized this was meant literally.
The patient who had been brought in was like an inflated balloon, his belly nearly filling the entire consultation room.
The thin abdominal skin was almost transparent, revealing tiny Blood Vessels and clearly visible internal organs.
It was still expanding.
The belly was about to hit the ceiling.
Xu Jie was stunned. “Why even send him to the hospital? Just wheel him straight into the crematorium.”
“Doctor Xu, are you really a doctor and not a Butcher?” Wen Shi glanced at the furious family members, utterly speechless.
Disguised as a Player, his assigned task was to serve as Xu Jie’s assistant.
The other Players each had their own tasks.
Gu Hua was tasked with caring for the patient who had bitten off his finger.
Xu Jie cleared his throat and had the family members send the patient into the examination room, then closed the door.
Everyone else was shut out.
Wen Shi took out his phone to watch the surveillance feed from inside the examination room.
On the screen, the continuously expanding patient transformed into a Monster.
Xu Jie stood still for a moment, as if waiting for something, then took out a Short Blade and punctured the patient’s belly, which had swollen to a diameter of five meters. In the blink of an eye, he slit its throat.
From the moment he struck to the Monster’s death, it took only three seconds.
“Boom—”
A deafening explosion echoed from the examination room, shaking the floor.
The Monster’s belly had burst.
Red, white, and multicolored sticky fluid splattered everywhere.
Xu Jie, who had somehow produced a black umbrella to shield himself, remained completely untouched by the mess.
He had deliberately killed the Monster.
According to the Instance rules, the family would only go after the real doctor, not him, the fake one.
The scene on the surveillance feed made Wen Shi realize what Xu Jie was planning.
Unfortunately.
His Authority was just a little too extensive.
“What’s going on?”
“That explosion sound… Could it be our son exploding?”
“Impossible. This doctor is renowned and highly skilled. Our son will definitely survive.”
“What if the doctor suggests replacing his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, or kidneys? We don’t have the money!”
“If it comes to that, we’ll have to use our daughter’s organs. It’s not like she’s a boy anyway. I’m not favoring sons over daughters—I just want her to contribute something to the family, to have some value. Daughters are outsiders.”
“…”
Wen Shi raised his eyes and coldly glared at the two extremely biased elderly couple, his expression darkening bit by bit.
Was a daughter’s life not a life?
Just then, the door was abruptly pushed open and then shut again.
“The patient was brought just in time. Otherwise, he would have died on the way,” Xu Jie said with a smile.
The elderly couple stepped forward to ask, “How is he now?”
Xu Jie cleared his throat. “He died in there.”
The elderly couple felt as if struck by lightning. They pushed open the ward door, saw their son’s tragic death, and screamed hysterically. Their voices grew increasingly strange, soon turning into beast-like roars.
Driven to the peak of fury, their faces twisted grotesquely, their bodies deformed, and they lunged violently at Wen Shi.
Xu Jie froze in shock.