“Boss, a Specter broke into the clinic yesterday.”
A bloody hand wrote a line of words on the wall.
Wen Shi nodded. “Understood.”
This was a left hand, neatly severed at the wrist.
It belonged to the clinic’s nurse.
The nurse wrote: “Last night, the invading Specter, under the pretense of being on duty, killed a female Player.”
“Did you find that Specter?” Wen Shi asked.
As one of his few employees, the nurse was quite capable herself.
How strong exactly, Wen Shi wasn’t sure. Whenever he went to cause trouble for the neighbors, it was the nurse who guarded the clinic.
The patients were most afraid of the nurse giving injections.
Well…
The nurse’s “needle” was the hammer in her hand.
The first strike weighed eighty jin, the second one hundred and sixty jin, the third three hundred and twenty jin, the fourth six hundred and forty jin…
Anyway, Wen Shi had never seen a patient who could withstand ten strikes from the nurse.
Sometimes, when encountering troublesome patients, Wen Shi would let the highly motivated nurse, who aspired to become a doctor, practice on them.
For such patients, it was hard for the nurse to cure them, but easy to “cure” them to death (by hammering them to death).
A line of bloody words instantly appeared on the snow-white wall: “I ate it.”
Wen Shi frowned. “Didn’t I tell you not to eat random things?”
The bloodstains on the wall twisted and contorted, looking exceptionally furious.
“That old pervert lifted my skirt!” The bloody hand scratched a grating sound on the wall: “I… I couldn’t take it!”
Wen Shi forbade the clinic’s employees from eating non-mutated patients and foreign Specters.
Eating Specters without permission would incur his punishment.
Although consuming these could enhance their strength,
it would cause them to lose their sanity.
The stronger they became, the harder it was to control the urge to devour other Specters, and the closer they drew to their most primal, bestial nature.
When that bestial nature overwhelmed their humanity, and the instinct to devour crushed their reason,
they would transform from humans into Specters.
“Hmm… well eaten.” Wen Shi naturally had to stand up for his own employee. “Go get a shot of Detoxification Agent. Don’t mutate.”
The Detoxification Agent was a medicine developed by Wen Shi. It was extremely precious and specifically used for patients who had just begun to mutate, with remarkable effectiveness.
What he didn’t know was,
the Detoxification Agent that flowed out from the clinic had already been bid up to five million Points per dose on the outside.
A Player completing an F Rank Instance could earn between 20 to 50 Points.
Even completing an S-Class Instance would only yield 10,000 to 12,000 Points.
Five million Points was simply an astronomical price.
“Boss, here are my arrangements.” The severed hand wrote on the wall:
“Today, 5 Players are needed to assist with daily tasks.”
Rule 2: Due to too many patients and too few staff, Players can help doctors clean the clinic and care for patients in exchange for accommodation and meals.
Now only six Players remained, and the task quota was only 5.
The remaining Player, unable to complete a task, would have nowhere to sleep.
After 10 p.m., while others were asleep, they would be in a nightmare.
These rules were not set by Wen Shi.
Rather, they were rules generated by the Instance itself.
Wen Shi could make minor adjustments within the scope of these rules.
“Still using the random selection method?” The bloody characters twisted in the air, forming words.
Wen Shi nodded.
The five fingers of the bloody hand moved like nimble feet, hopping onto the windowsill and returning to the nurse’s hand.
The blood on the wall also gradually faded, leaving behind a patch of white.
Wen Shi stood by the window, gazing toward the neighbor’s place.
The female neighbor was dead, and inside the apartment was a chaotic mess. Even during the day, clattering noises could be heard.
Wen Shi decided to take the night watch himself and then investigate the neighbor’s apartment.
Outside the door.
A corpse lay on the ground, its belly slit open and its internal organs completely hollowed out.
Crimson blood flowed from Room 205 all the way to the stairwell.
A terrifying trail of blood was dragged along the path, as if blood was gushing from the ground—horrifying, chilling, and spine-tingling, enough to make one’s scalp crawl.
The deceased was a fashionably dressed young woman.
The Players gathered around the corpse exchanged uneasy glances, their hearts cold with fear.
“Wah… this definitely isn’t an F Rank Instance. It must be S-Class, or even SS-Class!”
Little Red Riding Hood’s face was deathly pale, her delicate features twisted in terror:
“Two people died in a single day. I don’t want to play anymore, I don’t! I want to leave this Instance!”
Little Red Riding Hood was an American who often ordered takeout. Her real name was Shen Shushu.
She wore a red cloak and looked sweet and adorable, just like Little Red Riding Hood from fairy tales—utterly charming.
Shen Shushu was tall. Even Xu Jie, who stood at 1.9 meters, was only half a head taller than her.
“Shut up!” Gu Hua glared at everyone, displeased.
What gentlemanly manners, what ladies first, what protecting the weak and vulnerable—none of that existed for him.
His philosophy was survival of the fittest. All Players were competitors, and he was a pure warrior fueled by hatred.
Shen Shushu glanced at him timidly and instinctively hid behind the college student who called herself ‘Lady Wan,’ trembling like a giant Arctic rabbit.
“Brother Hua.” Lady Wan’s real name was Feng Zhouzhou, one of only two newbie Players:
“She’s a girl, and it’s her first time seeing such a bloody and terrifying scene. It’s normal for her to be scared.”
“Get lost, all of you.” Gu Hua said coldly, “Do you even know who she is? She might just be a serial killer pretending to be innocent. If you’re weak, shut up!”
Feng Zhouzhou instantly backed down.
Shen Shushu shook her head innocently, tears dripping down her cheeks.
The two huddled together, shivering and seeking comfort in each other.
Even the veteran Players, who were accustomed to death, were shaken by such a gruesome sight.
“Two Players dead in just one day.” The lop-eared rabbit wearing glasses said gravely, “We need to reassess the Instance’s rank.”
His voice, in stark contrast to his cute appearance, was deep and rough.
“Reassess my ass!” Gu Hua sneered, “I’ve been in SSS-Class Instances before. What’s there to fear?”
Shen Shushu and Feng Zhouzhou immediately looked at Gu Hua with admiration.
“Oh, so impressive.” Xu Jie said with a smile, “Then how did your eyeball explode?
And your finger… oh, another one broken. How… fitting.”
Gu Hua was left speechless.
If you don’t know how to talk, then just shut the hell up.
Seeing Xu Jie emerge from Room 208, the veteran Players, wary of his identity as the Dungeon Boss, fell silent, though their fear and resentment toward him remained.
“By the way, what about the Player in the suit?” Feng Zhouzhou looked toward the mute among the Players, hoping for an answer from him.
The mute: “…”
“The mute says he’s definitely dead.” Gu Hua chuckled, “He lived in Room 208. I saw him yesterday…”
Mid-sentence, Gu Hua abruptly stopped talking.
Wen Shi had screwed him over badly!
Last night, he had almost exhausted all his Artifacts just to drive the Mosquito Monster out of his room. Otherwise, he would have been the one dead!
The mute quickly shook his head, unsure whether he meant he didn’t know the details or that Wen Shi wasn’t dead.
“Dead?” Feng Zhouzhou and Shen Shushu squatted on the ground, trembling even more violently. “Three deaths in one night?!”
The atmosphere instantly grew heavy, the surrounding air seeming to solidify.
An F Rank Instance with no apparent danger, yet three battle-hardened players died in a single night—the horror of it was self-evident.
The shadow of death hung over everyone like the Sword of Damocles, pressing down on them until they could hardly breathe.
“Are you so sure he’s dead?” Xu Jie asked with a smile.
Gu Hua snorted coldly. “If he isn’t dead, I’ll cut off my head and give it to you to kick around!”
He had personally seen Wen Shi enter Room 208.
But early this morning, it was Xu Jie who emerged from Room 208.
Wen Shi walked out of Room 208. “Go ahead, I’m watching.”