Zong Jiu handled the situation with complete sincerity.
Not only did he appear sincere—he even voluntarily handed over the clue connected to the S-rank prop.
Though he claimed Zhuge An had already taken the prop itself, a clue was still a clue. As a result, the veterans’ attitudes toward him softened considerably, and they tacitly accepted him back into the group.
Once the matter concerning Zong Jiu was settled, Messiah quickly resumed command and proposed abandoning the wards for the night in favor of a full exploration of Basement 2, regardless of the upcoming room inspections.
Before anyone could truly challenge the plan, all dissenting voices were suppressed.
But how reliable was the plan, really?
Most of their conclusions were still based entirely on speculation pieced together from the nursing staff’s behavior by He Jianlan and Messiah.
Even though opposition had been forcefully shut down earlier, whispers still spread quietly among the newcomers after the plan was finalized.
Under pressure from the veteran trainees, the newcomers had naturally split into factions.
Some had already committed themselves to clinging desperately to the veterans for survival.
Others were far more self-interested, constantly weighing profit against risk.
And now, it was precisely those opportunistic newcomers who began speaking up.
“It’s already ten-thirty…”
One of them hesitated.
“If we go down to Basement 2 now, isn’t that way too dangerous?”
Everyone understood the unspoken rule of horror instances:
Nighttime was death territory.
The probability of supernatural events skyrocketing after dark.
Not slightly.
Overwhelmingly.
“There are so many of us,” another newcomer whispered nervously. “Can His Holiness really protect everyone?”
“And didn’t you all say Basement 2 was extremely dangerous? Then why are we deliberately walking into it?”
“Exactly. Honestly, staying in the wards feels safer.”
“Some people already took the medicine too. They’ll probably collapse soon anyway.”
Messiah frowned faintly.
“I won’t force anyone who doesn’t want to go.”
“But based on veteran experience, tonight carries an extremely high risk.”
“The third day will almost certainly become the turning point of this instance.”
“And I strongly advise against acting alone.”
Still, the newcomers hesitated.
None of them wanted to commit first.
After a brief silence, Messiah sighed softly and relaxed the crease between his brows.
“Very well.”
“Those willing to accompany me to Basement 2, gather at the stairwell in ten minutes.”
“As for those remaining behind…”
“I’ll leave a blessing enchantment on everyone staying in the wards.”
The newcomers immediately brightened.
Even veterans knew how valuable one of Messiah’s blessing enchantments was.
It was essentially equivalent to a single-use defensive special item.
The temptation was enormous.
Even several lower-ranked veterans began wavering.
“Honestly… why don’t we stay too?”
One veteran frowned.
“It’s only the second day.”
“And Messiah will return eventually anyway, right?”
“So why risk our lives?”
“We can just stay in the wards and wait for the results.”
“Exactly. This instance is already bordering on S-rank difficulty.”
“At this point surviving is enough. Who still has the energy to chase dangerous opportunities?”
Most of these mid-tier contenders had entered Thriller Trainee lured by the enormous rewards, full of confidence.
But after personally experiencing a near-S-rank horror instance—
They were terrified.
The newcomers didn’t fully understand what an S-rank-level instance implied.
The veterans understood all too well.
And now, the temptation to retreat had finally surfaced.
From the side, Zong Jiu watched coldly.
The sudden acceleration of time had exposed every crack in Messiah’s tightly constructed temporary alliance.
“Jiu-ge, you’re amazing.”
Sheng Yu chattered happily beside him.
“You cleared all suspicion off us so easily.”
Then he lowered his voice.
“So what now? Are we following the Holy Son to Basement 2?”
“Otherwise?”
Zong Jiu glanced sideways at him.
“What, are you scared?”
“A little,” Sheng Yu admitted while scratching his head awkwardly. “But if Jiu-ge isn’t scared, then I’m not either.”
Of course you aren’t scared.
Not after how smoothly you handled murder and corpse disposal.
Zong Jiu answered lazily,
“Then we’ll follow them.”
“If we die, we die together.”
“At least mass burial means nobody gets lonely.”
Everyone nearby: “…”
The livestream comments exploded again.
[HAHAHAHA this guy is killing me.]
[Seriously, when he stays quiet he looks like some elegant painting, but the second he opens his mouth he becomes unbelievably funny.]
[He deadass asked Zhuge An who Zhuge Liang was earlier. I thought he was mocking Rank 3 on purpose.]
[Forget that—they’re about to enter Basement 2. I honestly don’t know if this E-rank survives the night.]
What nobody realized was that after Zhuge An’s departure, Zong Jiu’s livestream had surged all the way to second place beneath Messiah’s.
For a completely unknown newcomer, it was an absurd achievement.
Soon after, the group split apart.
Those returning to the wards left immediately.
Those descending to Basement 2 headed for the stairwell.
Meanwhile, Zong Jiu casually observed Messiah distributing blessing enchantments while mentally organizing everything Zhuge An had told him.
He didn’t care in the slightest about sharing the clue.
Without enough context, the others still wouldn’t understand it.
Even Zong Jiu himself had only pieced things together after combining his knowledge of the original novel with Zhuge An’s deductions.
The “free meal ticket” had given him remarkably comprehensive information.
The ciphertext.
The alternate dimension.
The key.
Everything revolved around dimensional traversal.
According to Zhuge An’s deductions, the so-called “alternate dimension” was actually a fragment of spacetime severed from reality thirty years ago.
The military base originally built on this site had once conducted time-travel research during wartime.
Then an accident occurred.
The dimensional rupture tore the facility out of normal time, trapping everyone inside forever.
Years later, a mental asylum was built atop the same location.
But the fractured pathway between dimensions remained.
The system had actually provided enough hints from the beginning.
The main mission was:
Survive for three days.
But in reality, according to Zhuge An’s conclusions—
The moment midnight struck on the third day, every patient in the asylum would be dragged into the alternate dimension like meat thrown into a den of beasts.
The “key” allowed traversal through time.
As long as someone obtained the key and jumped to any temporal point beyond those three days, they could achieve a perfect clear.
But if they obediently waited until the third day as instructed by the mission—
Death would be the only outcome.
While everyone else had still been fumbling blindly for clues, Zhuge An had already solved the core mechanism of the instance.
And now, thanks to him, Zong Jiu practically had the answer sheet in hand.
Honestly speaking, he felt like applauding Zhuge An.
Which was why he had graciously gifted him all the blame in return.
At this point, Zong Jiu could easily recite the key and become the second person to clear the instance.
There was absolutely no need for him to accompany Messiah into Basement 2.
But—
He suspected Zhuge An had left without taking the S-rank prop.
Back then, Zhuge An had departed far too hastily.
And the urgency was likely connected to the “prophecy” he mentioned.
Zong Jiu didn’t particularly care about prophecies.
He never believed in fate anyway.
What interested him was danger.
Survival points.
And the possibility of stealing an S-rank prop for himself.
Before obtaining the key, he had already been reckless enough.
Was he supposed to become cautious now?
Impossible.
If life didn’t become exciting enough to risk death, then what was the point?
What kind of magician feared danger?
Besides—
Digging out hidden moles while farming survival points sounded like a pretty solid career path.
A group gathered at the stairwell leading to Basement 2.
Darkness yawned beneath them.
Even the stairs were barely visible.
“Your Holiness—I got the lamp!”
He Jianlan hurried over carrying a swaying oil lamp.
Zong Jiu immediately recognized it.
It was the same lamp carried by the nurse during room inspections.
He had even seen her bring it into Basement 2 before.
He Jianlan had clearly stolen it somehow.
Messiah visibly relaxed.
“Good.”
Then he raised his priest staff once more, placing blessing enchantments onto the remaining participants.
Warm golden light spread briefly across their skin.
“This blessing can block a single fatal attack,” Messiah explained tiredly.
“We’re out of time. Let’s move.”
After time suddenly skipped ahead by ten hours, the flow of time itself had become unstable.
And now they had chosen to deliberately violate room inspection rules.
Night patrols would intensify.
If they were caught—
Death was almost guaranteed.
Everyone stared into the abyss below and inhaled sharply.
“I’ll lead,” Qin Ye said.
Dark claws rapidly spread from his fingertips as coarse gray fur erupted across his arm.
The blessing of the werewolf granted partial transformation.
This was Qin Ye’s trump card.
Everyone else quickly arranged themselves into formation.
Messiah, as the healer, remained protected in the center.
Meng Tianlu guarded the left flank.
He Jianlan took the right.
Zong Jiu and Sheng Yu stayed toward the rear edge of the group.
Meanwhile, the trainees who had decided to remain upstairs lingered nearby, preparing to head back to the wards once the others descended.
Then—
The clock hand jumped forward again.
Without warning.
Straight from eleven…
…to midnight.
Cold terror exploded through the group.
It was no longer Day Two.
The Third Day had begun.
The final phase.
The true nightmare.
The livestream exploded.
[HOLY SHIT I nearly had a heart attack.]
[THAT NURSE’S FACE—]
[Time accelerated again. They’re doomed.]
Panic instantly broke the formation apart.
Several people fled back toward the wards upstairs.
The moment they rushed inside—
CLANG.
The doors locked behind them.
At night, the asylum sealed itself shut.
Once room inspections began, nobody could leave.
“LET ME OUT!”
Jiang Yuan slammed against the door furiously.
Outside the small window, the nurse only smiled eerily.
Then—
She placed the key into her mouth.
And swallowed it whole.
Her lips split wider.
Too wide.
Not human.
A grotesque maw lined with blood-slick fangs stretched toward the glass.
Jiang Yuan staggered backward in terror and immediately slapped a cinnabar talisman onto the window.
The talisman ignited instantly.
The flames spread violently.
Which meant one thing:
The thing outside possessed overwhelming Yin energy.
Jiang Yuan had very few talismans left.
But survival mattered more.
As the nurse’s face peeled away inside the fire with an inhuman shriek, relief flooded through him.
“Crazy ghost bitch…”
His entire back was soaked in cold sweat.
After calming himself for half a minute, Jiang Yuan shakily stood.
The corridor outside was silent.
Pitch-black.
Like a tomb.
The nurse had already locked the doors.
Meaning he would remain trapped here alone all night.
Jiang Yuan pressed himself against the wall carefully.
The talisman should temporarily repel Yin entities.
But this was still nearly an S-rank instance.
That safety wouldn’t last long.
Veteran instinct screamed at him not to relax.
Slowly, he reached for the light switch.
And in the darkness—
He touched an ice-cold hand already resting on it.
Many people fled upstairs like Jiang Yuan.
But even more followed the main group into Basement 2.
Metal stairs thundered beneath frantic footsteps.
The deeper they descended, the darker the world became.
Under the trembling oil-lamp glow, Basement 2 finally emerged.
Rust.
Mold.
Rotting walls dripping with water.
The corridor looked almost identical to Basement 1—
Except for the mutilated corpses scattered everywhere.
Then someone accidentally knocked over the oil lamp.
CRASH.
Darkness swallowed everything instantly.
“Split up and run!”
Messiah reacted immediately.
“Don’t get caught!”
Chaos erupted.
Nobody could distinguish friend from foe anymore.
People shoved each other desperately while searching for hiding spots.
Everyone scattered.
Meanwhile, compared to the others, Zong Jiu remained astonishingly calm.
Not only did he intentionally lose Sheng Yu in the confusion—
He even casually slipped into a nearby ward and crouched behind the door to observe.
Several seconds later, the frantic footsteps outside faded.
Then came another sound.
A dragging noise.
The same one he and Zhuge An had heard in the washroom before.
They had entered the alternate dimension.
The dimensional prison frozen thirty years in the past.
Darkness flooded the corridor.
Something dragged itself slowly across the concrete floor outside.
Occasionally the sound stopped.
Then another noise followed immediately after.
A head rolling across the floor.
A brief scream.
The wet spray of fresh blood.
Each sound marked another captured trainee.
Somewhere farther away, several veterans seemed to be attempting a breakout toward the upper floors.
Meanwhile, Zong Jiu simply crouched calmly behind the door, almost entertained.
At this point—
He was fairly certain he knew the identity of the second mole.
Throughout the first two days, only isolated individuals had been dragged into the alternate dimension.
Under normal circumstances, gathering everyone together and thoroughly exploring Basement 2 would’ve been the safest strategy.
Unfortunately—
Someone had subtly guided the entire group in the wrong direction from the very beginning.
Misleading.
Obscuring clues.
Manipulating everyone through trust and authority.
And the cleverest part?
He never acted suspiciously.
He played the benevolent savior perfectly.
With only a few gentle words, everyone willingly followed him.
The least suspicious person…
…was often the most suspicious of all.
Honestly, if Zong Jiu were Messiah—
He’d probably be laughing internally right now.
Look at them.
A bunch of gullible fools walking willingly into slaughter.
The dragging footsteps drew closer.
Closer.
Only a few meters away now.
Zong Jiu stretched lazily.
The side mission was essentially complete.
And he had already entered Basement 2.
Time to leave.
As he yawned and prepared to recite the key—
His hand suddenly brushed against something cold and metallic.
A watch.
Zong Jiu’s pupils contracted.
He slowly looked up.
Behind gold-rimmed glasses, a pair of amused eyes gazed down at him.
“Oh?”
The man’s voice was low and velvety.
“Look what I caught.”
Warm Darjeeling tea mixed with steamed milk—
That was what his voice sounded like.
Smooth.
Dangerous.
“Hmm?”
“A disobedient little kitten sneaking around after curfew?”
A sharp sting pierced Zong Jiu’s neck.
The heavy smell of disinfectant flooded his senses.
Only then did he realize—
Dr. Chu had already been standing inside the room before he entered.
Waiting patiently for prey to walk into the trap.
His vision rapidly blurred.
The white-haired young man struggled to stay conscious.
But before darkness swallowed him completely, only one thought remained.
Goddammit.
The ship really capsized this time.