“Feng Zhouzhou, are you fucking a crow’s mouth or something?!” Gu Hua was in so much pain he nearly passed out.
The smell of blood attracted the monster patients in the ward.
All the monsters turned their heads in unison toward Gu Hua, the sounds of swallowing and hungry growls deafening.
Gu Hua froze, standing motionless on the spot.
Thump-thump-thump—
His heart raced, almost leaping out of his chest.
A sense of death loomed over Gu Hua’s head. His features twisted in fear, terror shredding all reason, leaving his mind blank.
The Players watched the suddenly agitated monster patients, trembling with fear, each worried for their own safety.
The ward fell so silent you could hear a pin drop.
Wen Shi abruptly kicked Gu Hua toward a nurse pushing a cart past them.
Crash—
Gu Hua knocked over the cart, sending medicines, IV tubes, iodine, and everything else scattering across the floor.
The nurse’s gentle face instantly contorted, her killing intent surging.
“Nurse, his hand is broken. He’s a patient,” Wen Shi said calmly.
As an NPC in the Instance, the nurse’s duty was to care for patients.
Now that Gu Hua had become a patient, the nurse naturally had to follow the rules.
“Come with me.” The nurse took a deep breath. “I’ll take you to Dr. Xu to stop the bleeding.”
Fear of the nurse outweighed their instinct to devour.
The Aberrations that wanted to swallow Gu Hua scrambled back to their beds in a panic.
Gu Hua looked at Wen Shi in astonishment, a mix of emotions swirling inside him, and shot the other a grateful glance.
If not for Wen Shi, he’d have become the monsters’ meal by now.
“Brother Wen.” Feng Zhouzhou, still shaken, gave a thumbs-up. “You’re so smart.”
Understanding the rules, using the rules.
The rabbit cast an admiring look at Wen Shi.
The mute made a hand gesture no one could understand.
Wen Shi responded politely, though his attitude remained distant. “We’re all Players. Working together to survive these few days is more useful than suspecting each other and fighting among ourselves.”
Hearing this, the nurse wanted to curse.
Boss, you’re a wolf leading Players in a game of Werewolf—who could possibly outplay you?
“The expert is truly the expert.” Feng Zhouzhou watched Wen Shi feed medicine to a wolf-headed patient and said with relief, “You’re so kind-hearted, you’ll definitely survive and leave this Instance.”
Brother Wen is good, so good!
Wen Shi glanced at the naive fool. His hand had just reached into the wolf-headed monster’s mouth.
The patient suddenly went berserk, snapping its jaws shut to bite off his hand.
Wen Shi moved with extreme speed. Expressionlessly, he broke off two of the monster’s canine teeth and shoved them down its throat.
The monster patient writhed in pain, its clothes bursting open as eight hands sprouted from its abdomen.
The pain had triggered its mutation.
“Eat.” Wen Shi stuffed the medicine into its throat.
The mutated monster patient swallowed the medicine with tears in its eyes, glaring viciously at Feng Zhouzhou.
It had been controlling itself just fine before Feng Zhouzhou spoke—it hadn’t mutated!
The moment the other opened their mouth, it lost control.
Wen Shi withdrew his hand and said to Feng Zhouzhou with exasperation, “Thanks for your ‘blessing.'”
What a jinx.
Feng Zhouzhou’s smile looked uglier than a cry.
They spent the entire day trembling with fear.
Night fell, and the Players gathered in one room, filled with suspicion, each keeping to their own corner.
8 p.m.
If they couldn’t figure out who left last night by 8 a.m. tomorrow, they’d all be wiped out.
“The nurse said the person who left at 10 p.m. last night was a man,” Gu Hua began. “Shen Shushu is automatically ruled out. Yesterday, I, Feng Zhouzhou, and the mute stayed together, so we can vouch for each other.”
Shen Shushu had originally been with Gu Hua and the others.
Unfortunately, she suddenly got her period and went back to her room to get a sanitary pad.
By the time she wanted to stick together with everyone for warmth, it was already ten o’clock, so she had to stay alone in her room.
Everyone looked at Wen Shi.
“Yesterday, it was the big shot who was on duty,” Feng Zhouzhou raised her hand. “The nurse told me. If you don’t believe me, you can go ask the nurse.”
Now, only the Lop Rabbit, whose true face had not been revealed, remained.
After being suspected by Wen Shi of being the Dungeon Boss, the Lop Rabbit went to a room alone.
“It wasn’t me!” its voice was rough.
“Who can prove it?” Wen Shi said coldly. “We don’t even know if you’re male or female.”
The Lop Rabbit jumped three feet high in anger. “Wen Shi, you can’t take revenge just because I suspected you were the Dungeon Boss.”
It wasn’t that Wen Shi was taking revenge—the instance was his, and the Lop Rabbit was indeed suspicious.
Besides the Lop Rabbit, there was one more person.
Wen Shi glanced at Shen Shushu.
That person had caused so many patients in the clinic to mutate, so Wen Shi naturally wouldn’t let them off.
“The one hit by the stick jumps the highest. I think it’s you,” Gu Hua said, his left arm bandaged and hanging in front of his chest. “If we don’t find the culprit by eight o’clock tomorrow morning, we’ll vote. Whoever gets the most votes dies.”
This was no different from sentencing the Lop Rabbit to death.
Its body swelled into a three-meter-tall giant rabbit, baring its teeth. “Fine! If you won’t let me live, then none of us will!”
“Hua-ge, Rabbit-ge, don’t get worked up. Let’s take it step by step,” Feng Zhouzhou hurriedly tried to mediate.
Both the human and the rabbit snorted coldly.
“Wait, besides me, there’s one more person—Xu Jie,” the Lop Rabbit returned to its normal size. “I know a bit about medicine. The prescriptions he gave the patients were all wrong. After three days of observation, I’m sure he’s not a doctor. He’s impersonating the Dungeon Boss.”
Wen Shi raised an eyebrow. The Lop Rabbit was observant and somewhat clever.
“If he’s not the Dungeon Boss, then who is?” Shen Shushu held her head in her hands, racking her brains. “The patients didn’t mutate from taking the wrong medicine either. The monster patients with mild symptoms have already returned to human form from the medicine he prescribed today.”
“Don’t forget the nurse. With her around, there’s definitely no problem,” the Lop Rabbit said gravely. “From the start, I suspected the Dungeon Boss was hiding among the Players, secretly pushing us along to satisfy his twisted pleasure of watching us kill each other.”
Although its reasoning was flawed, the conclusion was correct.
However, Wen Shi was also passively hiding among the Players.
After all, the Divine Official had impersonated him from the start and even tried to kill him.
“Don’t change the subject,” Gu Hua said coldly. “First, you suspect Wen Shi, then Shen Shushu. Oh, now you’re suspecting Xu Jie. I think you’re the Dungeon Boss. Last night, you went out and staged this whole act, then made us fight among ourselves. Vote him out! Vote him to death! Feng Zhouzhou, Mute, Shen Shushu, if you’re my friends, vote him out!”
Gu Hua, the troublemaker, jumped out and started arguing fiercely with the Lop Rabbit.
It wasn’t that he believed Xu Jie was the Dungeon Boss.
Xu Jie was full of anomalies.
Someone had to die by eight o’clock tomorrow morning, and a scapegoat had to be pushed forward.
Gu Hua didn’t want to die, and the Lop Rabbit was suspicious, so this was the only way he could save himself.
Wen Shi admired Gu Hua’s ability to stir up trouble.
Wen Shi’s ears hurt from the noise. As he stepped outside, he saw Xu Jie.
Xu Jie leaned against the wall as if boneless, spinning a broken knife. His cold, stern face was hidden in the shadows, making it impossible to see his expression.
“Wen Shi, do you also think what Droopy-Eared Rabbit said is right—that I’m not the Dungeon Boss?” Xu Jie asked.
Wen Shi felt this wasn’t the place to talk and led Xu Jie to a corner by the wall. “I don’t know.”
“Hey, your distrust hurts me more than killing me would.” Xu Jie put on a wounded expression.
Wen Shi said calmly, “Droopy-Eared Rabbit made a reasonable point, but Dungeon Bosses are inherently unpredictable. Maybe you deliberately left a flaw to make us Players turn on each other. Who can say for sure?”
If you hadn’t rushed in pretending to be me, the Players wouldn’t have turned on each other.
Things had become so complicated, beyond Wen Shi’s expectations.
“Regardless, my feelings for you are real.” Xu Jie suddenly took Wen Shi’s hand and pressed a Short Blade into his palm. “Your Scalpel is sharp, but its lethality is still lacking. This Short Blade has been with me for a long time—it can cut through all evil. I’m giving it to you as a token of my affection. I swear on my life in this Instance that I’ll ensure you leave here safe and sound.”
Wen Shi’s heart trembled, his heartbeat uncontrollably quickening. It felt as if an invisible thread had sprouted from his heart, stretching to Xu Jie’s Heart, tying two strangers together, intimately connected.
Touching his racing heart, Wen Shi felt unfamiliar with this sensation—somewhat… joyful, a genuine, heartfelt delight and happiness.
Wen Shi’s emotions had always been stable; he couldn’t form emotional bonds with strangers in such a short time. Even the nurse who had always followed him, Wen Shi treated her only slightly better than his patients.
Xu Jie asked anxiously, “What’s wrong?”
They were very close, almost nose to nose. Wen Shi caught the scent of shower gel on the man, and his entire face instantly flushed red. His breathing grew rapid and disordered; the dopamine released by his brain gave Wen Shi an unfamiliar sense of happiness.
“My heart races whenever you get close.” Wen Shi’s ears twitched slightly. He tucked the Short Blade into the back of his waistband and gently pushed Xu Jie away. “Someone’s coming. You should go.”
Xu Jie looked at the refined and handsome Wen Shi, feeling utterly captivated.
Any Dungeon Boss would be burned upon touching a Dagger, but Wen Shi felt nothing, proving he was just an ordinary Player.
As he turned to leave, Xu Jie had already confirmed who the Dungeon Boss was.
“Mutual Affection is sweeter than forced love.” Xu Jie felt as if he were radiating the cloying scent of romance.
Three seconds later, Shen Shushu emerged from the room:
“Wen Shi, I have menstrual cramps. Can you accompany me to the ward to get some medicine? I accidentally left it there while caring for a patient. It’ll only take five minutes.”
The people inside were still arguing.
Only Wen Shi was available.
“Alright.”
During the day, Shen Shushu had been caring for the patient Xu Jie had prescribed a lethal dose of cephalosporin with alcohol. Wen Shi had switched the cephalosporin for other medication.
As soon as the two entered the ward, the female patient who had returned to normal during the day suddenly mutated.
Shen Shushu screamed repeatedly, terrified, scrambling around in panic, and in her confusion, she even shut the door. She quickly hid behind Wen Shi, whimpering.
“Stop whimpering.” Wen Shi grabbed Shen Shushu’s hand, exerting force in his palm and twisting it until it broke. “A grown man, pretending to be a weak, helpless woman? Did you enjoy causing chaos last night?”