Chapter 10
Chapter 10
As the monster came after them, its three heads swaying, Assistant Li’s and Zhou Qingyan’s first instinct was to run.
They had no way to hurt it. If they didn’t run, they could only wait to die.
Instead, Zhao Xiuming stepped back, turned, and pushed open the ward door.
Assistant Li and Zhou Qingyan were stunned. Just like that? He was going in?
They were about to face the players directly?
But the monster in the corridor was almost upon them. Assistant Li steeled himself and followed. Zhou Qingyan was shaking all over.
Knowing she couldn’t keep her nerves under control, she hurriedly put on a face mask. Once inside, she kept her head down and said nothing.
The players’ probing gazes were almost palpable. Both of them felt their scalps prickle.
Still, at least the players were human. That had to be better than the inhuman anomalies.
Unfortunately, the thought vanished in an instant. The expressions on the players’ faces were so strange that unease rose in them despite themselves.
Their discussion interrupted, the players looked over warily, inspecting and assessing them without restraint.
They weren’t looking at people. They were looking at another species.
It was the detachment of “not one of us”; they saw NPCs as objects, not living beings.
After using an item, the players confirmed that all three newcomers were NPCs. The doctor in front was exceptionally good-looking. His black hair was carelessly tousled, his eyes clear and bright through the gaps.
His smile didn’t reach his eyes, but his steps were unhurried and his manner cool. He didn’t look dangerous.
Just strange. Jarringly out of place.
They couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong, but their sixth sense was screaming that something was.
Perhaps it was the contradictions about him. His face made him look like an easy target, yet his eyes were feverishly bright, brimming with anticipation.
His manner was aloof, but he wore a gentle smile. Obviously fake, and so brazenly so that he seemed afraid someone might miss it.
He might as well have written across his face: Fake smile. Don’t like it? Deal with it.
Of the two NPCs behind him, the bespectacled man warranted caution. One look told them he was full of schemes.
The remaining female NPC was timid. She was the weak point.
The players completed their assessments in a remarkably short time. In the space of a breath, they had weighed things up and formed their judgments.
They watched the black-haired doctor in front take a pen and a folded sheet of paper from his breast pocket, then casually lower his head and start making notes.
“So.” Zhao Xiuming finally dropped the fake smile and asked with apparent curiosity, “Why are you all huddled together instead of lying in your beds?”
The players instinctively returned to their beds. One tested the waters. “Doctor, we got up for a walk. We were getting to know each other.”
“What about you? Is there something you need?”
This was the players’ free time. Normally, an NPC shouldn’t be issuing a mission now, but there were always exceptions.
Assistant Li fought to steady himself. “Rounds.”
Zhao Xiuming pointed outside. “And finding a few snacks for my little pet while we’re at it.”
“With so many people here, it’s afraid to come in.”
Almost the moment he finished speaking, a strange sound came from the ward door.
Everyone looked over. The door opened a crack, and a hand reached through, pressing against the floor.
The players frowned. What the hell was crawling out there?
What followed the hand wasn’t a body, but feelers.
Black feelers coiled around one head, then two, then three.
The heads pushed through in a row above the hand. Each was bluish gray, its gaping mouth opening and closing.
The sounds they made were like whale calls, ethereal and grotesque.
Apparently unable to squeeze through, the three heads strained forward, drool dripping from their mouths.
Zhou Qingyan backed closer to Zhao Xiuming. Her breathing suddenly grew heavier.
Assistant Li was so tense that sweat soaked the shirt beneath his coat. He realized the players were used to monsters appearing.
They looked shocked, and fear flashed across their faces.
But they soon grew focused, turning more of their attention to the three human NPCs.
Zhao Xiuming held a hand out to Assistant Li, who immediately understood and passed him several pieces of dried meat.
Assistant Li cautioned him, “We don’t have much left.”
Zhao Xiuming nodded. “I know.”
Then he tossed it toward the three-headed monster without hesitation. The heads flailed faster, but it was the black feelers among the scraps of flesh that wrapped around the meat and swallowed it.
Apparently oblivious to the tension in the room, Zhao Xiuming continued taking notes.
At last, one player couldn’t stand it any longer. “Doctor, what are you writing down?”
Zhao Xiuming pointed to the labels at the heads of the beds. “Your conditions and blood types.”
Someone drew a sharp breath. “Blood types? Why are you recording our blood types?”
He didn’t answer, only smiled meaningfully.
The players quickly put it together. They looked at the monster in the doorway, then at the dried meat in Assistant Li’s hands, and remembered that line about finding snacks for his pet.
Didn’t that mean he intended to feed them to the monster?
What was going on? Why hadn’t the game system given them a prompt?
The looks they gave Zhao Xiuming’s group turned hostile. Assistant Li, meanwhile, thought Zhao Xiuming was being reckless.
He wanted the players and anomalies to fight, but he didn’t want to get dragged into it himself.
Looking up, he saw exactly what he’d expected: Zhao Xiuming’s smiling eyes, full of eagerness. The man was doing this on purpose.
Assistant Li clenched his fists. “Being this rash isn’t wise, is it?”
Zhao Xiuming looked hurt, as though he’d been scolded. Displeased that Assistant Li had broken character, he rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief.
In fact, he hadn’t known there was a handkerchief there. Having found it, he deliberately used it to dab Assistant Li’s forehead.
A vein bulged in the assistant’s forehead with anger, but he couldn’t lash out.
Only after satisfying his mischievous streak did Zhao Xiuming speak. “I know. Don’t be angry.”
“There’s nothing we can do until it’s full.”
Then he turned back, tucked the handkerchief into his pocket, and smiled at the players. “Dear patients, I’m afraid we’ll have to trouble you.”
What did that mean? The players took defensive stances.
What did he mean, trouble them?
Did he expect them to sacrifice their bodies to feed the anomaly?
As though reading their minds, Zhao Xiuming waved the paper in his hand, his gaze flicking toward something. “It likes type B blood.”
One type B player jolted. Catching that sidelong glance, he looked beside his bed.
The three-headed anomaly had indeed quietly extended its feelers toward him!
While no one was looking, a funguslike substance had spread from beneath his bed onto its surface. Something alien crawled inside the white sheet.
Not daring to touch the fungus on the sheet, the player kicked the bed.
It tipped, lifting one corner of the sheet. The things writhing underneath were none other than the monster’s feelers!
The other type B players noticed something wrong as well. That black fungus was silently spreading toward them, too.
The first player to notice had struck out in fright. Disturbed, the feelers instinctively shot toward him.
Terrified, he threw an item. It seemed to be a dagger, slicing along the feelers and piercing the anomaly.
Zhao Xiuming and the others couldn’t see the item’s rank. All they saw was the three-headed anomaly suddenly stop, then sprout more feelers with a series of wet bursts, flailing wildly.
This time, the sound it made was a man’s agonized groan.
Hearing the familiar voice, Assistant Li couldn’t help feeling pity. A little of it showed on his face.
Enraged, the three-headed anomaly shook and attacked indiscriminately. Its feelers pierced the walls, floor, ceiling, and players’ bodies.
The players fought to protect themselves. They attacked together, and the three-headed anomaly proved unable to withstand them.
There were clever people among the players. One woman noticed that the timing of the three NPCs’ arrival was far too suspicious.
She took out a lie-detecting item shaped like a porcelain rabbit. “Everyone, are those three NPCs really on the monster’s side? Could they be using us…?”
But that flicker of suspicion vanished completely amid the three-headed anomaly’s murmurs.
The three human heads connected to it wore expressions of pain. Mindlessly, they repeated the same words toward Zhao Xiuming and his companions. “Why won’t you save me…?”
“Why won’t you save me…?”
“It hurts, Assistant Li. Why won’t you save me…?”
“Zhao Xiuming, why won’t you save me…?”
Under the players’ scrutiny, the bespectacled male doctor at the back looked grave. The timid female doctor looked pained and unable to bear it.
The young black-haired doctor in front was entirely different. His beautiful face broke into a smile, the corners of his mouth lifting high.
Zeal and interest mingled in his bright eyes. He spread his arms like God descending to earth. “I’m not saving you because…”
“You’re my toys.”
“You’re my test subjects.”
The female player’s palm-sized porcelain rabbit flashed green eyes, then suddenly shattered, announcing its verdict: [Truthful.]