Chapter 182 Frank Hospital
The clock had passed eleven.
Everything in the illusion changed again, as the fine red lines coming from the man retreated and disappeared. These lines reminded Wen Shi of the many cracks on the fifth floor walls.
“Sorcery…” Wen Shi didn’t understand how the true spirits had preserved his foster father’s brain. It looked similar to Grandma’s method.
When they were in the tour group, Grandma had forcefully extended the players’ lives using voodoo, which seemed to involve curses. Before applying voodoo for treatment, those sealed wounds had turned black and had strange shapes, like tree rings.
So, A’Ao’s approach wasn’t wrong. He let Jian Guangsi split up and search in the cursed fifth floor. But, he had no luck and didn’t find anything.
Wen Shi didn’t know that A’Ao had worse luck than he thought.
On the day when the details of the doctor-patient relationship game were confirmed, the hospital added a secret rule. The person to obtain the first director’s brain could take over the hospital. A’Ao dreamed of finding it when he heard about it. Sadly, it turned out to be a quest for an heir and wasn’t open to NPCs.
“Xiao Shi.”
When he came to his senses, he saw that smile, which had almost faded from his memory, reappear. His heart tightened suddenly.
Even though the overwhelming red lines had disappeared, the cocoon-like chunks in the sky remained, each one holding memories.
It might have been a rare act of mercy within the game, but after the given time limit for the quest passed, the teleportation didn’t commence immediately. Wen Shi was still in the virtual world, and the man now remembered everything.
Before he could call out “Father,” the man was already standing in front of him, and a big hand ruffled Wen Shi’s hair. “You’ve grown up.”
Wen Shi’s eyes stung, he turned away, tilted his head back for a while, and then asked in a subdued voice, “Do you want real freedom?”
If it was for what the man hoped for, to find true peace for his soul, he would willingly remove that “oxygen tube” himself.
The man shook his head.
“I used to live life recklessly, so I didn’t want to get too close to people, afraid of hurting their feelings. But monsters, they stubbornly cling to life and treat human lives as insignificant. It’s actually easier to deal with them.”
He shrugged. “So don’t be too quick to define a species.”
When Wen Shi turned back, he saw a slightly helpless expression on the man’s face. “The consequences of what I sowed are mine to reap. One day, when they come to understand, they will naturally bring me to an end. To have you destroy my last bit of consciousness, what kind of ending is that?”
Wen Shi wanted to say more, but the man waved his hand, forcibly changing the subject. “Are you getting along well with your parallel-world selves?”
After a brief silence, Wen Shi nodded and couldn’t help but ask the long-standing question that puzzled him, “Their relationship with each other is lukewarm, but they treat me well.”
The man said calmly, “Because you’re the axis.”
Wen Shi looked puzzled.
“When I made the bet with the game, I insisted on finding people with serious difficulties, to ensure a win-win situation and prevent any foul play,” the man revealed a somewhat ironic expression, “That’s one part of it… just one part.”
He looked at Wen Shi and continued, “The game can’t forcibly create or take away lives in the real world. Your parallel selves, whose lives were already on a precarious path due to terrible luck, were the best choice.”
Wen Shi was curious. “So, was it because my time was running out back then?”
After some consideration, the man decided to reveal the truth. “Did you ever feel that the other versions of yourself were exceptionally strong?”
The weakest of the entire family, Wen Xiaomeow, nodded emphatically.
“Among us, you’re the weakest axis. In a way, it seems you’ve borne a certain amount of karmic backlash. So, even for someone like me, I feel a sense of compassion when I see you.”
“……”
“Hahaha, just kidding!” The man sat back on the sofa and burst into laughter.
Wen Shi forced a smile. Given his understanding of this person, it was hard to tell whether it was true or not.
As if he could read Wen Shi’s thoughts, the man slowly said, “Mystical things are hard to explain. It was one of the hypotheses the game once put forward, but you indeed are the weakest.”
Weakest didn’t mean the most miserable, and there were plenty of tough stories in this mix.
“But most of them, you met a long time ago. After all, these things need careful planning in advance. The game couldn’t just go and negotiate with those people on the day you entered the instance.” The man looked at him. “The game once arranged for you to spend some time with them.”
Wen Shi’s expression changed. When did all of this happen?
“Back when you were in school, didn’t I hire someone to play your mom at every parent-child event? And there was that disfigured boy who used to live next door, always calling you Big Brother.
“When you were in junior high, they moved away, and you were quite sad. But in no time, we got new neighbor, a young girl. During the holidays, she used to take you to the market, and there was a creep who tried to make a move on you…”
Wen Shi remembered this incident. He had picked up a brick to confront the creep, but when he turned around, the girl had already taken care of the guy.
“……”
The man went on, listing all these encounters. Apart from A’Sang and the reclusive Grandma, everyone else had interacted with him, just wearing different disguises.
A’Yu wore sunglasses and a mask, the teenager pretending to be disfigured, while Xie Tangyan dressed up as a punk girl…
The man couldn’t help but laughed again. “Honestly, you never thought something was off, and I was quite surprised too.”
“Is there a possibility,” Wen Shi countered through clenched teeth, “when you never introduced me to any normal people?”
Airplanes, missiles, criminal groups — even the shows he watched daily were about law and order. Due to his personality, there weren’t many people his age who willingly played with him.
“So, do you want to relive the old times?” The man performed what seemed like a magic trick, suddenly producing a piece of straw in his hand. “I plucked this from the straw demon’s head in the past.”
“?”
“I didn’t want to, but when I was leaving the underworld with the monsters, it was insistent on trying to stop me.”
The straw from the scarecrow could be stored in one’s mind, making it convenient to carry. It was a pretty useful special item.
“After becoming a disposable item, it can freely set a point for time travel.”
Wen Shi felt a deep pang of regret. He had encountered the straw demon so many times, but besides getting covered in dust, he hadn’t gained anything.
Weighing the piece of straw in his palm, the man suddenly changed his tone, “Think twice before acting.”
After all, it was a time too far in the past, and the power of a single straw couldn’t compare to the straw demon. If Wen Shi’s actions deviated significantly or if his parallel-world selves noticed, it could trigger a series of adverse butterfly effects.
“As long as it’s something that happened before, it counts as the past, right?”
The man nodded.
“But what if it’s a fictional past? What if the me from the past isn’t really me?” After posing a question that sounded like a tongue-twister, Wen Shi slowly revealed something.
The man was momentarily taken aback, then said, “Inch resting.”
Father and son exchanged a glance. Wen Shi rubbed his hands. “Shall we give it a try?”
The man indulged his request and waved his hand to signal agreement. “Sure.”
A moment later.
He beckoned Wen Shi to come closer and inserted the straw into his head.
“Father, this kinda makes me feel like you’re selling a kid or something.” The straw was like a tag representing a sale.
The man switched to using both hands.
Wen Shi: “This almost seems like you’re offering incense to me.”
The man gave him a stern look. “Stand still, don’t move around, and no chit-chat.”
“…Oh.”
However, in less than three seconds, his lips moved again. “How long does this thing last? How do you set a time-travel point?”
Before he could finish the sentence, his entire brain felt like it was stuffed with straw. A swelling sensation made Wen Shi dizzy and disoriented. Opening his eyes was a challenge, and he had one thought in his mind: Could this straw be some kind of counterfeit product?
Amidst extreme nausea and dizziness, he heard the game cursing.
It was the first time Wen Shi had ever heard the game swear.
In Wen Shi’s mind, a multitude of memories sprawled out like an unfurled measuring tape, with each time frame having a designated spot. Wen Shi closed his eyes and tried to focus his consciousness, honing in on just one thing. The jumble of memories peeled away, leaving only the specific moment he desired. When the straw completely disappeared within his brain, time successfully rewound.
……
“Hurry up!” An impatient command came from above.
Wen Shi opened his eyes, finding himself inside an elevator, surrounded by people in sanatorium uniform urging him on.
Through the reflection in the elevator’s doors, Wen Shi saw his childlike image.
It seemed as if some kind of spell had been applied to his features that would be forgotten after one look. He had a small, frail frame, and his clothes emitted a strong scent of disinfectant, as if he had just undergone a rough sterilization. A faint smile played on Wen Shi’s lips, puzzling the staff who furrowed their brows and forcibly pulled him out of the elevator.
In this time-travel attempt, Wen Shi chose to go back to the time when he was doing a side quest at the sanatorium.
He had always had doubts about the【File】quest.
Time-travel experiences were usually easy to distinguish, sometimes the game even explicitly stated that he was in the process of time-traveling.
However, the File quest was different. It yanked Wen Shi into the pages of the records, proving it wasn’t just a mere illusion. It seemed more like a semi-real, semi-fictional story based on Jian Qingrong’s memories.
The quest details contained a sentence: “Each file represents a life.” He had entered one of those files, playing the role of Jian Qingrong.
This wasn’t a simple role-play. According to the quest mechanics, Wen Shi was Jian Qingrong himself. He was forced to embody Jian Qingrong’s character and act accordingly.
Now, during this time-travel attempt, a question arose.
In the File quest, the rules recognized Wen Shi as Jian Qingrong. So how could time be rewound?
In all time-travel scenarios, time could only go back to moments personally experienced by the time traveler. During that time, Wen Shi didn’t exist. Only Jian Qingrong did.
Wen Shi’s smile kept widening. “There’s only one most direct solution…”
First, send him to Jian Qingrong’s past, transforming the previously destroyed No. 83 into a genuine existence. This ensured that when time rewound, Jian Qingrong would still be Jian Qingrong, and he would be No. 83, avoiding any clash.
This was a certain degree of alteration to the past, which was why the game was cursing.
However, this change wasn’t significant, and the most direct consequence was that Jian Qingrong gained an additional memory. The game had a high tolerance for this and could bear the cost.
“I hate multiple-choice questions.” Wen Shi’s smile at the corner of his mouth widened.
The File quest was the only time he had to make a multiple-choice decision in someone else’s shoes. To fit the character, Wen Shi had to give up No. 83 and watch it get destroyed.
Having done something so against his will, he had to recoup some of the price.
Walking through the silent corridor, a staff member led Wen Shi to the hospital room. When the door opened, he saw a smaller version of Jian Qingrong lying on the hospital bed. Gloomy and distant, he exuded an aura that kept people at a distance.
Wen Shi offered a genuinely innocent smile and greeted proactively, “Hello.”
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