Chapter 162.3 Frank Hospital
As Wen Shi ventured deeper into the underground tunnel leading to the special treatment room, a few figures suddenly appeared in a corner of the prayer room. The players, who used invisibility items, were delighted. This was truly an effortless gain.
“Good thing the nurse left quickly.” If she had been any slower, the remaining time on the invisibility item would have been less than thirty seconds.
It was evident that Pei Wenwei was up to something shady. One player immediately went to report him to the Director, but they soon returned disappointed. “The Director is not in.”
Since the game had set the quest of obtaining clues in the Director’s office, A’Ao couldn’t possibly stay there all the time. Wen Shi skipped analyzing and deduced that it was not yet time for the Director to return.
Before the plump nurse left, fearing that Wen Shi might be discovered and linked back to her, she came up with an excuse to send the first-floor nurses away. Reporting didn’t seem to be a viable option. Everyone’s attention gradually shiftied towards Seventh Commandment Guild Leader.
“The Director will appear sooner or later. One way is to seal off the entrance, like catching a turtle in a jar.” Seventh Commandment Guild Leader contemplated for a few seconds. “But it’s risky. There might be another exit underground.”
If the Director came back and found no one but a sealed entrance, it would only bring trouble upon them.
“Does this mean we have no way to deal with him?”
Seventh Commandment Guild Leader smirked. “There are plenty of ways. Pei Wenwei is a doctor. There’s no reason for him to go to such lengths to kill a patient.”
The game wouldn’t issue such an easy quest. Deducting the opposite was harder than saving lives.
“Wait here. If Pei Wenwei appears at the entrance with the patient in a while, it means he intends to let the person escape. Then, we’ll join forces to kill the patient.”
Interns had the right to kill fleeing patients. This had been explicitly mentioned during the night shift.
“If he doesn’t show up for a while, there must be another secret passage underground. When he returns, we’ll report him to the Director. A medical intern can’t possibly know where the secret passage is, so Pen Wenwei will be the prime suspect for the patient’s disapperance. This method has its risks. If the other party refuses to admit guilt, it might become a dead-end. However, the Director despises this person, so he’ll undoubtedly take the opportunity to make him suffer.”
The nearest place to the prayer room was the dispensary, followed by the dormitory.
Seventh Commandment Guild Leader and his team ambushed the dispensary, waiting for about seven to eight minutes. Finally, they heard footsteps. However, these footsteps were too normal, with no traces of deliberate concealment.
Just as Seventh Commandment Guild Leader was about to peek, a burst of singing reached them.
“Now let’s raise our cups and make a toast, wishing good people a lifetime of peace…”
Wen Shi sang, hands in his pockets, passing by the dispensary towards the office. There was no one behind him. From a distance, Seventh Commandment Guild Leader watched him enter the office and never come out again.
Seventh Commandment Guild Leader kept an eye on things, while the female player ventured into the underground passage and returned with strange news. “There’s a patient being held inside.”
As for how many patients had been there previously and whether any had escaped, it was hard to determine.
The door was broken, making everything inconvenient.
Inside the office, Wen Shi, who had recently joined the ranks of the influential, used an anti-eavesdropping item. When he returned, Song Yan was surprised, “The quest is done so quickly?”
It hadn’t even been ten minutes since he left.
“Not completed yet.” Wen Shi explained the situation in the special treatment room. “According to the treatment guidelines on the wall, patients on the beds receive electric shocks every hour. In the afternoon, they’re suspended from the ceiling and spun around to shake the demons out of their bodies.”
In Wen Shi’s view, the so-called “rescue” was misleading him into releasing the patient. Escaping from Frank Hospital wasn’t that easy. He couldn’t even get out himself.
To be on the safe side, Wen Shi knocked out the patient and concealed him. He had the Wandering Corpse stay behind, disguised with the【Burial Shroud】. With this disguise, the Wandering Corpse could perfectly impersonate the bandaged patient.
The【Burial Shroud】had a defensive function, rendering the electric shocks and spinning therapy harmless to the Wandering Corpse’s real form.
“Let the Wandering Corpse endure a couple of rounds of treatment first, see if it can be classified as a rescue attempt to determine if the quest is successful,” Wen Shi calmly said. “If not, that patient must have become a half-human, half-monster.”
For a normal person, covering a festering wound like that would have led to a deadly infection long ago.
“The Wandering Corpse will start singing to him from this afternoon. I’ll find an opportunity to use my skill to lower his rationality.” Wen Shi looked at Song Yan. “You turn into a mirror to make the patient question his existence. With all three factors combined, it should be enough to make him completely metamorphose. Once the transformation is complete, and the game judges the patient as a monster, I’ll put him in the Ghost Box and take him away. That counts as saving him.”
The Ghost Box was a gift from Jian Qingrong, meant for containing the Old Man Ghost. It had some extra space, so adding one more should be no problem.
As a true philanthropist, saving people was never a challenge for Wen Shi.
Yu Xingzhou fell silent for a moment. Pei Wenwei’s rules of saving people made him realize, for the first time, that the saying “the sooner you die, the sooner you’re reborn” had a bit of truth to it.
“Once midnight passes, the game could send me a new quest at any time.” Framed by his single lens, a resolute light shone in his peach-blossom eyes. “Once a quest comes, I’ll go to the deep zones to find Ji Yuanzhi.”
Golden Daddy had to be saved.
Quests meant opportunities. He couldn’t rescue someone from the upper floors on his own, but with Yu Xingzhou’s time-freezing ability and Li Nan’s Money Pathway, there was a chance.
The host remained unresponsive. Wen Shi suspected that only the telephone receiver allowed two-way communication. The letters he had sent might not have reached the host as smoothly as he had hoped.
He thought for a moment, then said, “There’s no archives room on the first floor. To find Ji Yuanzhi, we need to locate the archives room first and confirm which floor and zone the patient with the same skill as him is in.”
“Deep” was a rather vague description. Starting from the third floor, the whole spatial structure was probably different from the lower two floors.
Seeing Wen Shi’s determination to save his subordinate, Yu Xingzhou felt somewhat comforted. Ji Yuanzhi, your eyes didn’t deceive you.
The three of them quickly discussed their rescue plan.
Ding-ling-ling~
Wen Shi paused, wondering where the ringing phone sound was coming from.
As he looked around, the others quickly grew alert. Wen Shi belatedly realized that the ringing was only audible to him. He reached into his backpack and pulled out the phone receiver.
He tentatively said, “Hello?”
On the other end, there was a moment of silence, as if the person was surprised. After a while, a voice that he hadn’t expected to hear came from the phone receiver. “It’s me.”
Deep, sexy, and with a hint of forced suppression of pain. Wen Shi’s face changed instantly. “Little Octopus?”
“…H-help me.”
Judging from the live stream, most of the patients in the deep zone had no idea of Aaron’s true identity, let alone the existence of the mini octopus.
The possibility of a monster impersonating his identity and calling him was low.
Wen Shi’s gaze turned cold. “Another one-or-the-other choice?”
To carry out a rescue mission in the deep zones, Li Nan’s Money Pathway was almost the only way to ensure everyone’s safe escape. However, the Money Pathway could only be used once, and Yu Xingzhou’s time-freezing ability had a considerable cooldown time after each use.
“The game really know how to play.” Every word was spoken through gritted teeth.
The mini octopus chose to seek help immediately upon hearing his voice, indicating that it had likely undergone horrific torture. This clearly indicated that he had endured extremely terrifying torment to the point that he couldn’t bear to send out a distress signal even in a perilous situation.
Wen Shi could hardly imagine what it had been through. In an instant, his anger towards the game reached its peak.
Li Nan and Yu Xingzhou noticed Wen Shi’s dark expression and, combined with his words, deduced something.
Yu Xingzhou said in a low voice, “Stay calm for now. Inquire about the situation. The game enjoys seeing people in pain. The more desperate you seem, the more it relishes in it.”
Wen Shi’s fingers were almost crushing the phone receiver as he asked in a low, intense voice, “Where are you?”
The mini octopus covered its mouth with its tentacles and, after calming down its trembling voice a bit, replied, “Intellectual Disability Zone.”
“?”
His angry expression stiffened as Wen Shi opened his mouth again to confirm, “Where?”
After connecting with the person he was closest to, the mini octopus no longer hid its grievances. “The hospital diagnosed me with brain paralysis, severe intellectual disability, also known as idiocy, and incomplete mental development…”
Recalling the labels it had been given upon entering, the mini octopus recited the list by the book.
“Originally, I was brought in as part of an assembly,” the mini octopus recalled with a choked voice. “But then, I was forcibly singled out and labeled as mentally impaired by some invisible force.”
Wen Shi wanted to say something comforting. It took some effort to find his voice again. “I know your current situation is very dangerous…”
“I’m not in danger,” the mini octopus explained. “With nine brains, I’m the smartest in our zone. But I don’t want to stay here for another moment.”
The pent-up grievances caused the voice on the other end of the phone to rise in pitch. Li Nan, standing nearby and overhearing the conversation, raised an eyebrow and said, “With all nine brains paralyzed, shouldn’t it be the most severe according to summation method?”
Wen Shi gave him a glare and placed a finger on his lips, signaling him to be quiet.
Why say such a blunt truth? Not allowed.
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