Chapter 55
Chapter 55
“I’m sick?”
Qin Lan looked down at his hospital gown, speechless.
The ward was so narrow that aside from the bed and toilet, there was no room to move.
Fortunately, the toilet was reasonably clean. Otherwise, the stench would have been unbearable.
The bed also looked ancient. Rust covered much of its iron frame, and stains marked the mattress.
“Excellent. I am absolutely not touching that bed.”
“It looks like lying down on it would get me pregnant.”
Qin Lan surveyed his surroundings with interest and quickly noticed several suspicious details.
“A ward this narrow has only a call button and no equipment for monitoring vital signs… Every corner of the bed is rounded, and the frame is welded to the floor…”
“There are even clasps along the rails for attaching restraints.”
Understanding dawned on him. “So this is a psychiatric hospital?”
Instances with this theme were fairly common. Psychiatric hospitals were the sort of places where all kinds of twisted curses could form.
“My superhuman intelligence tells me this is the perfect time to use my superhuman strength.”
After a moment of thought, Qin Lan abandoned the idea of charging out and beating every student from the other schools.
That would clear the competition quickly, but it would be too unfair…
In truth, Qin Lan was not that kind.
He merely felt that a direct beating would not truly shatter the elite students’ confidence.
“Patients can’t leave during non-rest periods. What happens if I go outside anyway?”
Qin Lan was curious.
The anomaly was only 1-Star and could not possibly hurt him.
Even if the Slit-Mouthed Woman from before stood here and bit him, the only thing she would accomplish was covering him in saliva.
“Only one way to find out–and possibly die.”
Qin Lan made his decision.
Every school’s students had probably been assigned separate wards. The first team to reunite would undoubtedly gain the greatest advantage.
Without any understanding of the instance, no one could determine when the “rest period” began. Naturally, no one would dare risk themselves to find out.
No one except a certain shameless smurf.
In her own ward, Liang Yu carefully searched the room but found no useful clues.
She looked worriedly through the small window in the door, unsure how to contact her teammates.
“This is terrible. The instance split us up right from the start…”
Liang Yu’s Talent leaned toward support. Separated from her teammates, she could do very little.
Outside the instance, the screens displayed the situation inside every ward in real time.
The students watching the joint examination were ecstatic and had already begun discussing events excitedly.
“Look! Wang Lei, the captain of No. 1 High School, is already using his Talent!”
“His Talent summons an elemental spirit. He can send it out to explore the instance, which is both efficient and safe!”
“So that’s a B-rank Talent. Amazing.”
On the screen, a calm young man with a buzz cut raised one hand. A strange creature shedding sparks emerged from the floor, squeezed through the ward’s window, and flew into the darkness outside.
The summoned elemental spirit shared information with Wang Lei. It could explore the map, transmit messages, and perform basic attacks and defensive actions, making it exceptionally versatile.
“No. 2 High School is making a move too!”
“It’s Chen Jing! She’s using Echo Vision to investigate the area!”
Another feed enlarged before the audience.
Chen Jing, the captain of No. 2 High School, stood with her eyes closed. Subtle sound waves spread outward from her in every direction.
Once the echoes returned, she would be able to construct a complex and precise model of the surroundings in her mind.
She could also use it to locate anomalies throughout the map.
The captains of several teams had begun taking action. Some of the other students waited quietly, while others tried to use their Talents to gather more information for their teams.
As for No. 3 High School…
“Wait… What is he doing?”
A sharp-eyed spectator noticed something unusual on one of the feeds.
“Is that a student from No. 3 High School? Don’t tell me he’s trying to–”
While the audience stared in shock, Liang Yu heard a tremendous crash inside the instance.
Clang!
Bang…
The first sound came from something being broken.
The second came from something heavy striking the floor.
Heavy footsteps sounded in the dark corridor outside the ward, followed by a hospital announcement riddled with static.
[Static…]
[Twenty-eight minutes remain until the rest period.]
[Please remain quiet. Do not walk through the corridors.]
A terrifying growl drifted out of the darkness, stirring ominous images in Liang Yu’s mind.
[The orderly will patrol the corridors. Patients who violate hospital discipline will receive the appropriate punishment.]
Liang Yu’s expression changed. “An orderly? Is that the anomaly inside this instance?”
“Did someone just break a rule and trigger its hunt?”
The growling gradually receded and faded. Before long, however, it returned, now even more frantic.
Several muffled impacts accompanied it.
“What in the world is happening…?”
As Liang Yu tried to make sense of the situation, she suddenly noticed something was wrong.
The footsteps outside seemed to be approaching her ward.
“What?!”
Liang Yu panicked. “I didn’t do anything! I followed the rules, so why is it coming after me?!”
Her Talent was almost useless when she faced an anomaly alone. If it truly targeted her, elimination would be her only possible outcome.
No one could die inside a simulated instance.
Any participant whose vital signs fell to a dangerous level would be forcibly teleported out.
Still, being eliminated only minutes after the instance began would be humiliating.
The footsteps drew closer, and Liang Yu’s heart climbed into her throat.
She squeezed as deeply into the corner as possible, held her breath, and minimized her presence while waiting for the “anomaly” outside to act.
“Hmm? No one here?”
The voice sounded faintly familiar.
Liang Yu stared in disbelief, unsure whether she could trust her ears.
“Oh, there you are. I thought I had the wrong room.”
Qin Lan’s face appeared in the small window, and he greeted her.
“You…”
“You?”
Liang Yu could not understand what was happening.
Wasn’t this a non-rest period? Wasn’t an orderly patrolling the corridors?
“Could you let me in? You don’t want me to dismantle another door, do you?”
Qin Lan politely asked for her opinion.
“That noise came from you breaking down a door?!”
Liang Yu finally realized what had happened outside.
Qin Lan remained perfectly calm. “Yes. I even had a chat with Old Liu, the orderly.”
“He looked pretty angry. Maybe he was going through menopause or just had a terrible temper…”
“But don’t worry.”
“I clenched both fists and took turns massaging his head. He’s sleeping peacefully now.”
He had beaten the orderly unconscious!
Liang Yu’s mind stalled.
No. This was not how an instance was supposed to work!
He was supposed to hide inside his ward until the rest period, then cautiously explore once it was safe. When he encountered an anomaly, he should restrain it with his abilities, run as fast as possible, remain alert, and carefully uncover the storyline and hidden rules…
He was not supposed to walk up and knock the anomaly unconscious with a few punches!
Instances did not work like that!