Chapter 100.1 Crimson Sunset Expedition
The too ordinary Li Nan felt ignored by the true spirit. Meanwhile, Wen Shi had been keeping track of the time. A dose of tranquilizer could calm the brain monster for ten minutes, but almost nine minutes had already passed by.
It was time to escape.
As people around prepared to leave, Song Yan cautiously mentioned the topic of transformation, fearing that the true spirit might have forgotten.
The true spirit didn’t reply. Their eyes seemed to be looking at a foolish mortal.
Wen Shi gave a light cough. “You have to get hold of the Divine Evolution Potion first.”
Hearing that, Song Yan responded with a disappointed “Oh.” He had previously believed things could be achieved in a straightforward manner.
Having also reaped the benefits, Wen Shi politely waved to the true spirit, “Goodbye.”
Quietly adding in his mind: It’s best not to see them again in the future.
After speaking, he swiftly turned around, getting ready to meet up with the mini octopus and Grandma.
“Boss, wait up.” Song Yan disregarded the secretly observing true spirit, and trailed closely behind him like a tail.
Players always had the motto “delay leads to change.” Faced with the sight of them all rushing to escape, the true spirit remained silent.
For a few seconds, he silently watched as Song Yan chase after Wen Shi, and then he left that space.
Wen Shi couldn’t spare thoughts about the true spirit’s state of mind. Staying alive was paramount. He needed to find a way to exit the instance first and then plan for the future step by step.
Not even two or three minutes after running, the membrane surrounding them began to riot once again. With the prior experience in mind, Li Nan adeptly used the tranquilizer on the bloody muddy ground beneath his feet, restoring temporary calm.
The teenager had a natural curiosity for things related to devouring. Looking at the monster’s inner wall, he didn’t experience the same nausea as a normal person would. Instead, he studied it meticulously.
“It would be better if we were on the outside of it.”
Maybe there was a way to sever a limb and absorb it.
Since he had inquired earlier about whether it seemed like they had ended up in the monster’s belly, Wen Shi knew the other hadn’t come up with a good idea. Now he was warning, “Don’t eat anything recklessly.”
In the midst of their run, Li Nan reminded, “The system named this thing ‘brain monster’. Perhaps its core is its brain.”
The possibility of devouring the body from the outside didn’t exist.
The teenager’s interest waned upon hearing this. He always wanted to devour something to fill the void that couldn’t be replaced by his original self.
Just as Wen Shi had mentioned earlier, the highest difficulty challenge had already been completed in the operating room. The threat posed by the brain monster was not daunting. The flashlight’s beam extended, illuminating the area, and the group could see normal off-white tiles.
Ignoring the repulsive blood mud between the tiles, the instant of setting foot on level ground brought a reassuring sense of stability, prompting a sigh of relief.
Returning along the original path to the first junction, Wen Shi didn’t spot the figures of the mini octopus and the old lady around. If the mission was successful, the mini octopus would surely have come to find him first. It had been almost two hours since his surgery, and if everything went smoothly, they wouldn’t have taken this long.
Wen Shi retrieved the blueprint again, getting ready to check the area where the Evolution Potion was stored.
In passing, he glanced at Li Nan and Yu Xingzhou. “Should we split up?”
Li Nan raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to explain the reason.
Curious, Wen Shi asked, “Aren’t you going to hunt shadows?”
Subconsciously, he was more inclined to choose the Shadow Hunt quest, just like Li Nan and Yu Xingzhou.
Understanding the misunderstanding, Li Nan explained calmly, “I chose the Evolution Potion.”
Everyone, including Song Yan, paused at that revelation.
Li Nan didn’t understand what puzzled them. “My shadow and I had an agreement beforehand. We both chose the Evolution Potion. After all, once a direct hunt starts, no one can claim to be entirely sure of victory. Stepping back ensures survival for everyone.”
From a perspective of benefits and risks, choosing the Evolution Potion was the most reasonable.
Wen Shi’s expression grew slightly complicated. Generally, transforming one’s body wouldn’t hold much significance for a top-tier person. It couldn’t compare to the all-around improvement gained from devouring shadows.
Since they had come this far, going back with a lackluster ability was far from ideal.
Yu Xingzhou shared the same thoughts.
As it turned out, the leader of the largsest guild adhered to the Doctrine of the Mean. On closer thought, it seemed true. Li Nan was willing to sacrifice some benefits to ensure a safer passage through this standalone instance.
At this moment, the words of the true spirit suddenly echoed in everyone’s minds: He’s too ordinary.
Li Nan: “……”
He didn’t know what these people were thinking, but it surely wasn’t something good.
Wen Shi looked at Yu Xingzhou again, who had chosen the Shadow Hunt quest, rendering the Evolution Potion useless for him as well.
After a brief pause, Yu Xingzhou said, “I’ll go with you guys.”
This sudden arrival of collective consciousness brought even stranger expressions to everyone’s faces.
Yu Xingzhou remained calm. “It’s just a precaution. The two underground floors can only be reached by elevator, especially this current floor we’re on. So far, we haven’t encountered any security personnel.”
Wen Shi mentioned the incident with the surveillance cameras being destroyed.
“Real-world thinking still applies,” Yu Xingzhou reminded him, “In a building, if the cameras are down and you’re a security guard, your first check is going to be where valuable items are stored.”
Pausing briefly after speaking, he let Wen Shi provide a more detailed account of his earlier experience. Once he finished, Yu Xingzhou spoke again, “Your thinking is correct. A necessary condition for theft is to disable the cameras. In this instance, night shift security guards might not directly patrol this area, but that doesn’t mean they won’t take any action.”
Wen Shi thought of a possibility. “Are you suggesting they might be lying in wait?”
Like staking out the elevator entrance on the first floor.
Damn, that was really malicious.
“We’ll know if we try.” They weren’t far from the elevator’s location now. Yu Xingzhou approached the elevator.
The hospital elevator didn’t automatically return to the ground floor after a set time. It was still parked on the underground floor.
Yu Xingzhou pressed the button for the fourth floor and stepped back out. The elevator went up, and from the numbers displayed nearby, during its ascent, it paused briefly on the first floor.
Unless a player or a shadow happened to be taking the elevator there, it was likely that the goat-headed security guard would be waiting. If they saw any signs of upward movement, they would press the button to stop it.
Song Yan’s expression wasn’t great. “When we came down, there were definitely no guards.”
Yu Xingzhou wasn’t surprised. “The underground floor is a special area. I’m afraid the moment we entered here, we were labeled as thieves.”
Whether this speculation was true couldn’t be confirmed now, but being cautious was never wrong.
Yu Xingzhou’s plan was clear. He suggested following the main path while also exploring if there were any other exits on the underground floor that led directly outside the hospital.
“Let’s go together then.” Wen Shi led the way at the front, following the route marked on the blueprint.
No one was joking around anymore. Their expressions gradually grew serious. The closer it got to the final moments, the less room there was for relaxation.
“There’s a mark.” Halfway through, Li Nan noticed an eye pattern on the wall. It was quite intricately drawn, capturing the phoenix-eye shape and even the proper curve at the corner of the eye.
Wen Shi figured out the source of the mark.
It must have been left by Big Eye. Even if others wanted to leave trap markers, they wouldn’t have chosen an eye as the symbol. The reason for leaving this mark was probably to prevent the maze here from being as alive as the first underground floor. With both the mark and the blueprint as dual references, they could at least have a better idea of what to expect.
Currently, the direction indicated by the mark was mostly aligned with the blueprint, but at about one-third of the way, the route changed. Up ahead was a fork, and according to the blueprint, they should head west.
However, the peculiar thing was that there were now marks on both the left and right paths.
Li Nan said, “Just pick either one.”
Since they had no clues, there was no need to waste time.
The decision was left to Wen Shi. He was probably the only one among them with a guaranteed luck value, even though luck often led to rather unfortunate outcomes. At least he was alive.
Wen Shi pondered briefly. “Choosing the east seems luckier than choosing the west.”
Song Yan supported this unconditionally, nodding in agreement. “Going west just sounds too bleak.”
After walking less than two hundred meters to the east, the flashlight suddenly went out. Li Nan remembered that his phone had two bars of battery just a few minutes ago.
Yu Xingzhou took out his phone and checked. It was also a black screen. In the darkness, his voice held a touch of desolation. “It’s probably a rule restriction, not allowing this area to be illuminated.”
Song Yan asked, “Should we switch paths?”
Wen Shi shook his head, realizing he couldn’t see and spoke out, “No need to switch.”
The mini octopus and the others likely initially followed the western path, but for some reason, they later took a different route. Worried that he might run to the wrong path unknowingly, they hastily left a mark pointing eastward.
Otherwise, there wouldn’t be marks on both sides.
At the moment the flashlight went out, each person held onto the clothing of the person next to them, guarding against anything creeping in from the darkness. Just to be safe, every three to four minutes, they would count themselves again.
Yu Xingzhou said, “Blueprints don’t lie. If the Evolution Potion is stored on the west side, then the east side is probably an escape route.”
As if confirming his words, a faint green light appeared above when they continued forward—an indicator of a safe exit.
Seeing this, Wen Shi felt a slight relaxation in his shoulders. It was a good sign.
It indicated that the mini octopus and the others were on a relatively safe path.
Following the direction of the little green figure, the group turned into another corridor.
At some point, the teenager had transformed, his hearing becoming unusually acute. “There’s crying.”
He picked up intermittent cries, sharp and thin, enough to send shivers down the spine, more unsettling than the sound of nails scraping a blackboard.
The smell of blood in the air had somewhat faded. Every so often, they encountered glow-in-the-dark signs. The posture of the little green figure on the signs perfectly mirrored everyone’s feelings at the moment—wishing to run as fast as they could.
With every step forward, the source of the crying drew nearer. Without light, Wen Shi’s blueprint was of little use. He gradually fell from the first in line to the second. Judging by time, it was almost time for the next round of counting. Wen Shi had always been the first to count, and this time was no different. “One.”
“One.” Song Yan clung tightly to his clothing.
A few seconds passed, and it fell silent. Song Yan ventured, “Three?”
“……”
Wen Shi’s heart skipped a beat. Song Yan was behind him, and he himself was holding onto someone’s clothing in front of him, yet that person didn’t show any intention of counting.
Song Yan: “What about three, three…”
“To hell with three, just run!” Wen Shi skipped any investigation into what Song Yan was holding onto and kicked forward while pulling Song Yan, sprinting into the darkness ahead.
The quiet corridor only echoed with breaths and heartbeats. Wen Shi tried to figure out when the others had disappeared. It was just a few minutes ago that he had heard the teenager speaking.
Following the glow-in-the-dark signs, they turned a few corners. The long-lost light finally appeared again. The lighting was the same as the hospital corridor, with a bluish-purple glow, resembling the stiff body of a deceased person.
Wen Shi slowed down and finally glanced back.
The area behind them was only dimly lit, with nothing special about the tiles and the floor. Wen Shi’s gaze finally settled on the green figure of the safe exit.
Accumulating points wasn’t easy, and with the absence of the teenager beside him, Wen Shi eventually initiated his transformation. Utilizing the cat’s night vision ability, he observed the details further. Surprisingly, the green figure was made of glass, with a faint glint on its surface. After staring for a while, an eerie illusion formed—a feeling that this figure wasn’t escaping, but rather capturing someone.
A green figure from behind was approaching this way, mirroring the posture of the small figure, but its speed wasn’t particularly fast.
Could it be that it was also letting them go like the goat-headed security guard?
Wait.
Wen Shi quickly dismissed this thought and muttered to himself, “Mud Bodhisattva.”
With this aura, he had a 70% chance of avoiding encounters with creatures related to mirrors. The glass-like little figure fell into the same category of creatures.
Song Yan beside him kept shouting “three,” and Wen Shi realized something was off. He could only use the simplest and most direct approach, giving him a harsh kick.
“Hiss—” In pain, Song Yan’s scattered gaze regained a hint of clarity.
While holding onto him, Wen Shi walked backward cautiously, keeping a close eye on the footsteps of the green figure behind them, to prevent any sudden movements.
The Mud Bodhisattva’s aura only provided partial protection. The green figure didn’t completely avoid them, and it continued to pester them. But strangely, Song Yan, perhaps due to being the incarnation of the true spirit, wasn’t influenced by the will of the ghosts. He wasn’t attacked by the green figure made of glass either.
A bit more awake now, Song Yan realized the current situation and nervously asked, “Boss, what about the others?”
Wen Shi remained silent until they passed another glow-in-the-dark sign, then he spoke, “Take a closer look.”
Song Yan followed Wen Shi’s gaze. His unusually sharp vision saw three small black dots floating within the sign, resembling tadpoles. The outlines of the dots looked somewhat human-like. One of them stood out, holding a small wooden stick that corresponded to the steel pipe in the teenager’s hand. Having witnessed players being pulled into the mirror space in the Mirror House, Song Yan suddenly formed a guess, “Could they have been pulled in?”
Wen Shi nodded.
“If they’re pulled in, what will happen…” Song Yan’s breath suddenly grew heavy, his question coming to a halt.
Realizing something, Wen Shi turned around. A few meters away in the corridor stood green figures. No, if their height were magnified by dozens of times, these green figures were even taller than himself.
They had no faces. Whenever he saw those terrifyingly green faces, Song Yan’s mind went blank.
Wen Shi said, “Try not to look directly at these things.”
Song Yan took a deep breath, “It moved.”
The nearby green figures seemed like soulless puppets, all converging towards them.
“I… I can’t control myself. I keep wanting to look at its face.” Every time he did, his thoughts stopped functioning.
This was something even Wen Shi couldn’t help with. He could only offer a suggestion, “Try to distract yourself.”
Song Yan struggled to find something that could shift his focus. Almost blinded by the green figures once again, he suddenly involuntarily thought of something.
“That true spirit said mirrors are his source, so mirrors in this world, even anything reflective, might possess malevolence,” Song Yan said to ease his nervousness. “They can host the lingering souls of the dead. Now these monsters are faceless figures, like not remembering their own appearances. They were probably consumed by the brain monster and lost their memories in their past lives. So brain monster plus mirrors plus people killed by the brain monster, the combination creates these monsters, right?”
“……”
It wasn’t that Song Yan had a tricky angle, but Wen Shi thoroughly recognized a commonality among the incarnations of true spirit: they all had a strong interest in creating ghosts. Song Yan was relatively better off. Jian Qingrong had almost experienced it firsthand.
“Let’s consider something more practical.” Wen Shi managed to force a smile. “Like where these monsters are trying to force us.”
The green figures blocked various corridor entrances, while the remaining ones, like zombies, were closing in on them. Wen Shi took a few steps in the opposite direction. The temperature dropped sharply around them, accompanied by a burst of intense killing intent from the green figures.
Wisely, Wen Shi abandoned the resistance.
Once the idea of creating ghosts took root, it firmly entrenched itself in their minds. Song Yan clenched his lips and walked forward shoulder-to-shoulder with Wen Shi.
The eerie standoff continued as they moved forward until the fresh outdoor air blew in, marking the end.
An exit!
Seeing the scenery ahead, both of them brightened up simultaneously.
This excitement lasted for a second. Song Yan’s tone was uncertain. “Is it really an exit?”
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