Chapter 159.2 Frank Hospital
After the extreme weather, the terrifying thunderstorms disappeared, and the temperature in the Golden City dropped to its historical low.
There were fewer pedestrians on the road than usual. When Wen Shi was almost at the city gate, he suddenly heard someone shouting Lin Hejing’s name.
Floral Shirt Guy approached him and asked with surprise if he was leaving the city.
Wen Shi nodded.
“You’ve been doing so well here. Once you leave after the Golden City recognizes your profession, you can’t come back.” Floral Shirt Guy couldn’t understand his choice at all.
Wen Shi had no intention of going into detail on this matter. He changed the subject, “Did you take care of what you needed to do?”
“Bought a talisman. They said to stick it on the corpse and recite a couple of words, something like ‘dust to dust, ashes to ashes,’ and then the bad luck will be gone,” Floral Shirt Guy said. “Or how about you come with me to remove the bad luck? It might have something to do with that gathering before going abroad. We played ‘Morgue Adventure’ that time, and maybe we picked up something filthy.”
Wen Shi almost immediately thought of the drowned ghost from the first short story who wanted to strangle him. If this had nothing to do with starting a new chapter, the information mentioned by Floral Shirt Guy might be related to the promise made by the game before.
When the number of viewers in the live stream rose to fifty thousand, the game hinted at unexpected benefits later.
Just like when he arrived, Wen Shi left with Floral Shirt Guy’s car directly. He wasn’t worried about any trickery because it was unlikely for another player to leave the Golden City this early. Moreover, A’Yu was with him, so his safety was guaranteed.
After the car had driven for a while, Wen Shi had a faint sense of something and looked back out the window. The speed in the desert, just after the rain, wasn’t very swift. Amidst the bumps, he could see a figure standing on the city wall in the distance.
In the midst of Floral Shirt Guy’s incessant chatter, that figure soon disappeared like the Golden City, turning into a blurry dot.
The car continued all the way to the mortuary.
Floral Shirt Guy, who had already made arrangements with someone in advance, led Wen Shi inside directly.
After a few questions from Wen Shi, he learned that a corpse was kept frozen in this mortuary all year round. Whenever they tried to cremate it, strange things would happen, so they eventually left it here.
The temperature inside the mortuary was very low. Floral Shirt Guy shivered while looking for a cabinet. A’Yu directly opened a refrigerated compartment on the lower right, revealing a swollen body of a drowned person.
Wen Shi took a closer look and confirmed that it was the same corpse that had tried to strangle him.
He didn’t want to stay a second longer in a place like this. Following the Feng Shui master’s instructions, Floral Shirt Guy immediately affixed the talisman paper to the forehead of the corpse and began a series of rituals. When reciting the incantation for the second time, the corpse suddenly opened its eyes and lunged at Wen Shi.
“F—ck!” Floral Shirt Guy muttered a curse and ran off, using both hands and feet.
In the face of impending danger, Wen Shi remained unmoved, confident that with A’Yu by his side, the corpse posed no real threat.
The bell tinkled softly, instantly immobilizing the corpse.
The menacing face halted right in front of him. Wen Shi asked in confusion, “We have no grudges or enmity, why does he keep fixating on me?”
“There’s a faint similarity in your scent.”
“……” Wen Shi only smelled the scent of decay from the corpse.
A’Yu used her hands to examine the swollen belly and limbs, then took out a small knife, cutting open the windpipe to retrieve the gem stuck inside.
Even though it was soaked in foul-smelling blood, one could still detect a faint scent of gasoline emanating from the gem. A’Yu called this smell as ominous. “This should be the work of a powerful and malevolent entity. This thing caused the corpse to undergo this transformation.”
Staring at the gem for a couple of seconds, Wen Shi took out the concave key he had been holding. The gem fit perfectly inside.
Wen Shi raised an eyebrow. Now he had two complete keys in his possession.
One came from the Mirror God, and the other, as A’Yu had mentioned, was from an ominous true spirit.
“Grim Reaper,” Wen Shi thought of the red name in the livestream room.
He suddenly felt that dealing with the Mirror God was easier. Just place the key in front of the mirror, and it could be infinitely duplicated, unlike the other true spirit, which required manual labor.
A’Yu pushed the refrigerated cabinet back into place. “The Yin energy here is too heavy. You should leave first.”
The moment Wen Shi turned around, several cabinets inside made clinking noises. A’Yu told him not to worry and just go.
The warm breeze outside was comforting. Floral Shirt Guy was nowhere to be seen. Initially, he had planned to go to the orphanage to cause some mischief. However, after hearing A’Yu’s update about Pei Hongxin’s situation, his enthusiasm waned. If he managed to survive the 3S instance, he’d find a way to reunite the couple.
While waiting for A’Yu, the system’s notification chimed in.
“Congratulations to the player for completing the S-level instance ‘The Horror Club.’ The instance is now undergoing settlement.”
“During this round, the player has earned a total of four thousand points. Based on the player’s performance in the instance, a new record,【Safety Helmet】has been added.”
【Safety Helmet: With a successful 3S-tier bodyguard certification in the Golden City, you can give a moment of security to demented monsters for seven seconds.】
“Settlement of the Money Scale chips is imminent. Would you like to redeem the opponent’s chips into points?”
“Yes.” The items that Bank President had offered to be frozen as chips were likely not items he frequently used. In Wen Shi’s eyes, converting them into points was a more practical choice.
“Redemption completed. Congratulations on acquiring 1.4 million points!”
Wen Shi, now suddenly a wealthy player, took a few seconds to digest this fact. This time, he had truly made Bank President bleed.
Wen Shi first transferred the points that Li Nan and Xiao Hua had wagered. As for the redeemed points, Wen Shi took out half, both as a gesture of gratitude for their timely assistance and as preparation for the 3S instance.
Between the two, Li Nan was undoubtedly planning to undertake the next instance, while Xiao Hua might not be ready for it. The Second Commandment Guild couldn’t possibly tackle a super-tier instance simultaneously.
“What are you spacing out for?” A’Yu appeared from behind.
Wen Shi closed his eyes briefly. Robbed of another hair strand, he sighed, “How about I give you a bit more blood?”
“That would be great!” A’Yu recalculated the chances of soul-binding with the added blood and nodded approvingly.
Given her limited powers, A’Yu could only assist effectively in two situations. Firstly, she could share some of her power with him upon parting ways. Secondly, in the event of an unexpected crisis, she would do her utmost to ensure that Wen Shi remained in a delicate state of existence.
“……” Wen Shi lost quite a bit of blood for voicing his thoughts.
After storing the blood securely, A’Yu gently placed her hand on Wen Shi’s.
【Companion Skill: Extrasensory Perception
This skill is limited to 2 uses per instance.
Point cost per use: 300
When you touch an object, you can gain some private information about its owner.
When activated, you gain an additional five minutes of spiritual sight, during which you can see monsters that are hard to detect.】
“It’s not about summoning souls?” Wen Shi had assumed this skill would be related to summoning souls, but what he got was even more to his liking. It had a practical edge that made it more useful than summoning souls, which overlapped too much with the feigned corpse skill.
“Strive to stay alive.” Wen Shi lifted his eyelids, directly meeting A’Yu’s focused gaze. “Although I’m prepared for soul-binding, and others have their own backup plans, life is only given once.”
Starting over forcibly could trigger unforeseen butterfly effects, and no one wanted that.
Wen Shi nodded, acknowledging that he had come a long way to reach this point. He would definitely tread carefully.
The surroundings began to blur, indicating that the game’s teleportation process had begun. Wen Shi seized the last moments to say, “We’ll have a chat at the tea party sometime later.”
He hoped that by then, everything would have settled, and he could take a truly complete family photo.
#
The virtual world’s plaza was bustling with people. Just when Wen Shi had grown accustomed to the desolation, he suddenly felt like a celebrity at an airport greeting.
Some players had heard about changes in the giant screen and had come specifically to verify the latest game announcements, but more were here with personal intentions towards Wen Shi himself. Ordinary team-up items couldn’t facilitate high-difficulty level instance matching, but in the virtual world, there were plenty of players who possessed the right items. Teaming up with Wen Shi was undoubtedly the easiest way to enter the super-tier instance.
Staking out someone was tough. When checking the player IDs, it turned out that Li Nan was also in the same instance. Surprisingly, there was a specific order for exiting this instance.
A pleasant surprise indeed.
Wen Shi casually glanced around, noticing the fierce looks in some people’s eyes, but he kept walking calmly. He was sure that Yu Xingzhou had sent someone over. The fact that the surrounding players hadn’t immediately rushed up to him only solidified his suspicions. Before long, he spotted a familiar figure in the crowd.
Just before the two of them could exchange words, someone handed him a business card. Many people did this one after another. Those who dared to block Ji Yuanzhi’s path were all backed by powerful forces, but handing over a business card was far from escalating the situation to a confrontational level.
“Consider auctioning off your team slots,” the player handing over the card said with a smile. “I assure you that the transaction amount will exceed ten times the previous amount.”
Wen Shi responded with indifference and did not provide a clear answer.
Following Ji Yuanzhi through the dense crowd, Wen Shi noticed that many players were engaging in transactions. Most of those who came today were players interested in 3S instances. Many players from the black market had come to sell and promote unique items.
The most common trades were themes containing elements of the hospital scene. These had already sold out in the in-game store and were being resold in the virtual world for tens of thousands of points.
Away from the crowd, Ji Yuanzhi reminded him, “Don’t consider auctions.”
The profits in the instance were limited, plus the danger level was high. Bringing in another player who came prepared would be troublesome. With the uncertainty of how many players would enter Frank Hospital on its first opening, it was better to leave it to the game to decide.
“On parting day, I no longer take risks for small gains,” Wen Shi said with a light tone. “In the last instance, I earned well over a million points.”
Ji Yuanzhi paused. “Did you steal something from the instance and sell it?”
“……” He wasn’t some kind of black-market dealer!
As they approached the hotel’s entrance, Ji Yuanzhi spoke again, “Looks like the president of Wangcai Bank got fleeced.”
The large number of points couldn’t have come from rewards during the settlement. Since the Bank President was still inside the instance, it was clear who had been scammed.
Important matters would have to wait until Xiao Hua and the others returned. Wen Shi was preparing to rest in his room when Ji Yuanzhi brought up the matter of the stolen hair. “We’ve already caught someone. Within two days, I’ll make sure to expose their identity.”
People who choose to betray for their own gain were common, but who they sold the hair to and who inspired this business venture was even more important.
Wen Shi never doubted Ji Yuanzhi’s abilities and simply nodded without further questions.
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