chapter 7

Cheng Miao stammered incoherently, as if she could already see Liu Xue, whose belly had long been slit open, trembling behind Doctor Xu, her body poised to flee at any moment.

A flash of terror crossed Doctor Xu’s eyes. He spun around in a frenzy, gripping the kitchen knife and hacking wildly behind him.

Now’s the chance! Cheng Miao turned and bolted, slamming the Bedroom door shut as soon as she entered. She grabbed the folding stool leaning against the wall and stood by the door, ready to give Doctor Xu a nasty surprise if he tried to come in.

Suppressing her heavy breathing, Cheng Miao could only hear her own pounding heartbeat. She swallowed, sensing something was off… Why was it so quiet?

Feeling uneasy, Cheng Miao hesitated about opening the door, when suddenly she sensed a rush of wind at her ear, accompanied by the sharp whistle of a blade slicing through the air, aiming straight for her head.

Her heart tightened. Instinctively, Cheng Miao rolled forward, narrowly dodging the kitchen knife that had swung at the back of her head.

She looked up to see Doctor Xu’s twisted figure suddenly appear before her. The fragile thread of his sanity had snapped after Cheng Miao’s earlier ghost story; now, he was completely mad.

So, in this Instance, the ghost attacks people with a knife, but walls and doors can’t stop it… Aren’t ghosts in stories usually blocked by doors?

Well, that’s certainly original and unexpected, Cheng Miao thought calmly.

“Hehehe… There’s a ghost! There’s a ghost!” Doctor Xu muttered crazily, his gaze at Cheng Miao filled with malice and a barely perceptible fear.

Clutching the folding stool tightly, Cheng Miao quickly scanned the Bedroom, searching for a way out.

She couldn’t possibly beat a ghost to death with a folding stool, could she?

Doctor Xu advanced step by step, and Cheng Miao’s shoulder brushed against the Skeleton placed behind the door.

A chilling cold seeped into her shoulder; the Skeleton didn’t feel like ordinary plastic. In a flash of insight, Cheng Miao suddenly realized-could Doctor Xu have skinned and defleshed his last two victims, Liu Xue and Aunt Li, and turned them into Skeleton specimens?

What a maniac!

Before Cheng Miao could think further, Doctor Xu, who had been eerily quiet, suddenly lunged forward, swinging the kitchen knife viciously at her!

Gritting her teeth, Cheng Miao raised the folding stool to shield herself. With a loud “clang!”, she felt as if she’d been hit by a speeding car-her palm split open from the impact, her chest tightened, and a metallic taste rose in her throat.

The pain fueled Cheng Miao’s resolve. Desperate, she drew the fruit knife hidden in her clothes and stabbed fiercely at Doctor Xu.

She hadn’t expected much-after all, he was a spirit who didn’t need doors to enter rooms.

To her surprise, Cheng Miao felt the knife sink into soft flesh. Doctor Xu cried out in pain. Without time to strike again, Cheng Miao was thrown backward by the force of her own blow.

Everything happened in an instant. As she fell, Cheng Miao crashed into the cold, hard Skeleton, but instead of hitting the wall behind her as she’d expected, her body seemed to pass through a cardboard barrier and she rolled straight into a pitch-black Dark Room.

Lying atop a pile of Skeletons, Cheng Miao ached all over. The smell in her nose and mouth was stronger than dust-it was the faint burnt odor she’d noticed earlier but couldn’t locate.

Struggling to her feet, Cheng Miao didn’t have time to survey the Dark Room before she slipped into the shadows.

She waited a long time. Outside, all was quiet; the crazed killer Doctor Xu didn’t appear.

Cautiously, Cheng Miao poked her head out. The Bedroom was spotless, with no bloodstains on the floor. Even the fruit knife she’d stabbed into Doctor Xu was gone, leaving only the folding stool that had saved her life lying on the ground.
Cheng Miao let out a faint sigh of relief, walked a few steps forward, picked up the folding chair, and leaned against the wall to steady her breathing, which was now completely out of control.

Whether it was because the Dark Room had been broken into during the fight, or because Cheng Miao had injured Doctor Xu with the fruit knife, that thing-neither human nor ghost-vanished from the Clinic as if it had never appeared at all.

After catching her breath, Cheng Miao glanced at the dimly lit Dark Room, its interior barely visible, then opened the door and poked her head out. “Er Gou, give me your flashlight!”

The three outside, bored and restless, saw Cheng Miao appear behind the door, her hair a mess and her face covered in dust, yet her deep brown eyes were still as startlingly bright as ever.

“Sister Miaomiao, what happened to you?” Er Gou handed over the flashlight, peering curiously inside. “Is there something in the room?”

“A ghost.” Cheng Miao took the flashlight and shut the door, completely unconcerned about the three kids outside, now in a panic from her single remark.

A beam of snowy white light shone into the Dark Room. After confirming multiple times that it wasn’t a crime scene, Cheng Miao finally stepped inside.

The Dark Room had clearly been remodeled by Doctor Xu himself, separated from a small room by a paper door, with Skeletons placed as a cover… As for how Doctor Xu usually entered and exited the secret room, that was anyone’s guess.

Cheng Miao crouched down to examine the two Skeletons she had bumped into. Sure enough, beneath the various marks made by an oil-based pen, faint knife marks could be seen.

At this point, every clue hinted at by the prompts had become clear.

“Human Yet Not Human” needed no explanation. “Object Yet Not Object” referred to the Skeleton specimens everyone assumed were mere medical items, but were once living, flesh-and-blood people.

As for “Dust to Dust, Earth to Earth,” it was clearly a hint for how to clear the Instance. Liu Xue, as Doctor Xu’s last victim, had even her bones displayed as decorations.

As long as the Boss in this Instance was properly buried, they could escape the Courtyard and clear Novice Village.

But… Cheng Miao hesitated, glancing at the Dark Room, uncertain whether she should continue exploring.

So far, there was no sign that Doctor Xu had any predilection for children, nor had she found his motive for kidnapping and murdering so many of them. While it was possible he was simply a deranged killer, Cheng Miao’s intuition told her there was another reason behind his actions.

Even though the method to clear the Instance was now obvious, not uncovering the full background of the Instance left Cheng Miao with a subtle sense of dissatisfaction.

Estimating the time since Liu Xue last appeared, Cheng Miao concluded she still had some time. Without further hesitation, she began searching the Dark Room as quickly as possible.

The flashlight’s beam was limited, but fortunately, while the room was hidden, it wasn’t completely isolated. Several square windows had been cut into the outer wall of the Dark Room, letting in a few strands of outside light.

The Dark Room wasn’t large; both walls were lined with massive bookshelves. The shelves were filled with ancient medical remedies, interspersed with tales of secret treatments from various ethnic minorities.

It was impossible to read all the books on these two shelves in a short time, and Cheng Miao was certain the Game wouldn’t set up such a tedious plot.

Cheng Miao scrutinized the shelves, and suddenly noticed that in one corner, packed tightly with books, there was a single empty spot.

The spot wasn’t obvious; you wouldn’t notice it unless you checked book by book. A thin layer of dust had settled in the empty space, suggesting the book had been gone for quite a while…

Cheng Miao looked around, wondering what kind of book Doctor Xu would take from the Dark Room…

In a flash, Cheng Miao thought of the Medical Book wrapped in a cover, placed at Doctor Xu’s bedside.