Chapter 165.2 Frank Hospital
Wen Shi no longer paid attention to the true spirit and signaled the Wandering Corpse, who was still staring dumbfounded at his belly. “Isn’t it time to go?”
The Wandering Corpse, aware of his own wrongdoing, followed quietly behind.
“You really are a rebel to the bone,” Wen Shi sneered. “Were you intentionally trying to mislead me by moving the pomegranate flower seed to your belly?”
The Wandering Corpse shook his head, indicating it was an unconscious action.
So it was just habitual troublemaking. Wen Shi’s mouth twitched. The pomegranate flower seed was related to the true spirit, but what was the connection between the Wandering Corpse and the game?
Could it be that the Wandering Corpse was the game’s incarnation? In their shared tendency to cause trouble for him, the two maintained a high degree of consistency. The question was, did the game even have incarnation?
Out of sight, out of mind. Wen Shi promptly summoned him back.
Upon returning to the ground floor, Wen Shi cautiously poked his head out. He didn’t spot A’Ao but he did see Seventh Commandment Guild Leader.
Seventh Commandment Guild Leader noticed him too, hurried over, and due to the establishment of temporary faith, the hostility in his eyes lessened a bit, replaced by curiosity. “How did you suddenly disappear from the treatment room earlier?”
At the time, he had been momentarily blinded by the reflection of the crucifix. When he opened his eyes again, there was no one beside him.
Seventh Commandment Guild Leader was working hard to extract valuable information from Wen Shi. If there were rankings among the believers, he would undoubtedly be the most cunning one among them.
Wen Shi sighed, brushing off the dust from his hands as he climbed up, silently reciting, Stay close to the virtuous and keep the petty at a distance. Ji Yuanzhi is still the most reliable.
He explained vaguely, “I was sucked into the space inside the crucifix but just found a way out. Have you been in the prayer room all this time?”
“Yes,” Seventh Commandment Guild Leader’s response was equally vague. “I noticed a few players lurking and found a way to send them back.”
These lurking players were actually arranged by him. His feelings toward Wen Shi were quite complex now, like serving a puppet emperor. On one hand, he held a slight sense of reverence as a commoner does to a ruler, while on the other hand, he felt like he could take the reins himself if he wanted to.
Heading towards the staff dormitory together, Wen Shi intended to bring the confirmed news of Ji Yuanzhi still being alive.
On the way, Seventh Commandment Guild Leader mentioned some news, “The Director returned to his office with injuries and became unusually irritable, constantly muttering about ‘where it is’.”
Wen Shi pursed his lips at this information. In this dimension, besides the Earl, the only one who could injure A’Ao would be the patients in the deep zones. One of his seven-day quests also mentioned the need to find something. He wondered if these two things were related.
The dormitory had quite a few players gathered, but aside from dealing with the nurses during bed checks, it seemed like everyone wasn’t too enthusiastic about exploring the instance due to their restricted roles.
The cramped cubicles weren’t suitable for conversation. The group walked to the doorway, where Wen Shi roughly explained what had happened earlier. “The true spirit here will distribute keys in various bizarre ways, so be careful not to be deceived.”
The true spirit enjoyed playing tricks and deceiving people, so his methods of distributing keys were definitely diverse.
Upon hearing that Ji Yuanzhi was still alive, Yu Xingzhou’s expression beneath his mask relaxed slightly. He nodded and said, “Alright, we’ll contact you later. I’m going to change jobs first.”
Li Nan took a step forward at about the same time.
Wen Shi was curiously asked, “Did you trigger a side quest?”
He looked at Song Yan, whose expression also appeared surprised. The three of them had been together all this time, so if they had triggered it, Song Yan should have been aware.
Yu Xingzhou laughed. “The crucifix.”
Wisdom couldn’t completely compensate for the lack of experience. Wen Shi suddenly remembered the true spirit’s collections in the crucifix space.
“The current Director catered to his preferences and traded his most important hand for the director position,” Yu Xingzhou said. “So, through this exchange, players can also change their identity cards.”
There was only one Director, but there were many nurses. They didn’t need to pay as high a price as A’Ao.
The true spirit couldn’t just suddenly appear to meet Pei Wenwei. The existence of the crucifix was designed as a pitfall by the game, but also as a kind of assistance. Interns faced inconveniences, and the path of a patient wasn’t available to them. Among the remaining positions in the hospital, there were only official doctor, Director, nurses, and gatekeeper to choose from.
“I won’t be going along,” Song Yan said with a shy smile.
The true spirit in the crucifix had just been criticized, and as the Mirror God’s incarnation, was likely to bear the brunt of any resentment.
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night. The nonstop running for an entire morning had taken its toll on Wen Shi. He waved his hand and went back to his office to take a rest.
Originally, he wanted to take a nap, but the sounds from the ward occasionally reached his ears. Patients usually only removed their mouth restraints during treatment, while nurses supervised, watching them scream in agony.
Treatments had specific time periods, and after a full two hours had passed, the commotion didn’t decrease. Instead, it became even more intense. The patients seemed unusually excited today. Wen Shi had no choice but to get up and check several rooms only to find that the patients’ eyes, usually filled with despair and loathing, now held an inexplicable excitement.
Wen Shi went to the nurse’s station and asked, “What’s the date today?”
“It’s the 11th,” the plump nurse replied impatiently.
After preparing the medications, the plump nurse held a syringe and dragged her bulky body towards the noisiest ward, complaining, “Are these patients going crazy today?”
“The 11th…” Wen Shi calculated, and he realized that the main quest would end on the 16th.
Every 16th of the month was Friendship Day at Frank Hospital.
Reflecting on the excitement hidden in the eyes of those patients a moment ago, Wen Shi had a foreboding feeling that the roles of the fish and the knife on the chopping board were about to switch.
At half-past eleven in the evening, all the players, including Wen Shi, were summoned to the prayer room.
A’Ao didn’t appear tonight. Wen Shi overheard a player talking to Seventh Commandment Guild Leader, “This afternoon, I saw the nurse taking gauze and medicine to the Director’s office several times. It seems he’s badly injured.”
Seventh Commandment Guild Leader merely nodded casually, scanning the surroundings. He, like the others, was searching for something — the black-market player, perhaps.
Yu Xingzhou and Li Nan were missing. The likelihood of both of them encountering trouble simultaneously was low. As they speculated in hushed tones, the plump nurse entered the prayer room, followed by two tall, slender figures.
The new male nurses were wearing light blue work uniforms made of lightweight fabric. Li Nan’s shoulders were slightly broader, making him look sturdy and reliable.
Except for Wen Shi, Song Yan, and a few others who were informed in advance, the rest of the players wore astonished expressions, never expecting that the game would offer nursing as a career path.
Before they could offer payment in exchange for information, the plump nurse began to assign the tasks for the night, “Tonight’s duty is going to be tougher. You’ll be mainly taking care of the patients on the third and fourth floors.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the players instinctively tensed up, and some even clenched their fists.
This was like a sudden spike in difficulty.
Perhaps sensing that it might be a bit overwhelming, the plump nurse didn’t make overly strict demands. “You can split into two groups. During the night shift, each group needs to catch one of the runaway patients.”
She emphasized cautiously, “These two floors house severe psychiatric patients, and every night, some of them try to escape. You must catch them.”
When she spoke the last sentence, the plump nurse struggled to control the trembling in her voice.
Then she handed a syringe to Yu Xingzhou and Li Nan respectively. Even after changing roles, they couldn’t avoid night shifts. The syringe was something exclusive to the nurse identity card.
Thinking about the challenges they would face later, some players stared at the syringes, unavoidably feeling envious.
The plump nurse continued, “One group is responsible for one floor. As soon as you catch one runaway patient, you can finish your shift immediately. For those who choose to work the night shift on the third floor, report to your post promptly after midnight. Those willing to go to the fourth floor will have a heavier responsibility, but I will recommend the best areas for patrolling.”
In simpler terms, since the patients on the fourth floor were more aggressive, the NPCs would directly give them hints about where to lie in wait.
For the players on the third floor, they could only rely on blind luck.
Ji Yuanzhi was in the Fantasy Zone on the fourth floor, so Wen Shi and the others had no choice. Yu Xingzhou immediately spoke to the rest of the players, “The four of us will go together to the fourth floor.”
The more people on duty during the night shift, the safer it would be. Now they had a total of fifteen players, which meant Yu Xingzhou was giving up some of his rights in exchange for the duty qualification on the fourth floor.
After some quiet discussions among the players, they agreed.
If Yu Xingzhou hadn’t suggested it, most of them would have preferred the fourth floor, as the unknown difficulties were more daunting.
The plump nurse recorded the list of names and started making recommendations, “For the group responsible for the fourth floor, I suggest patrolling in the XX Zone.”
Wen Shi: “XX Zone?”
What an odd name.
“The XX Zone is the treatment area for patients with sex addiction. They like to have erotic dreams and are rarely awake. Every time they wake up, the hospital moves them to the fourth floor.”
When the nurse said this, Yu Xingzhou, Li Nan, and even Song Yan looked at Wen Shi with complex expressions.
“?” Why were they all looking at him like that?
Song Yan excitedly grabbed Wen Shi’s arm, “It’s your specialty!”
When the time comes, just cut them all off.
“……”
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