chapter 9
A cold sweat broke out across Li Yi’s back. The nurse’s station door was the standard type used for isolating critical patients, with a small window set into it so staff could monitor the room.
When he’d first entered, the window was clear enough to see the corridor outside. Now, though, it was pitch black, as if a face was pressed right up against the glass, blocking his view completely.
The shadow outside seemed to sense that the person inside wasn’t easy prey. After a tense standoff with Li Yi, it finally retreated on its own.
The footsteps faded into the distance.
Li Yi let out a long breath.
“This place is getting creepier by the minute.”
His voice echoed in the empty air.
He didn’t want to waste any more time here. He decided to find the restroom and complete the System’s task.
This was the very spot where a viewer in the Live Streaming Room had a strange encounter.
Li Yi pushed open the door, trying to look calm, though inside he was anything but.
That shadow in the hospital had survived since 2018, without food or water. Its identity was deeply suspicious.
“Streamer, my friend ran into that thing right here. After coming back-”
“Should we help you call the police?”
“Are you dumb? The police are already surrounding the place outside. What’s weird is, why aren’t there any officers inside investigating?”
“Streamer, if it gets too much, just bail. We’re all friends here-no shame in that.”
Li Yi switched on his flashlight and stepped inside.
Men’s restroom to the left, women’s to the right.
Between them was a shared sink, and above it hung his target-a mirror.
Rumor had it that at one o’clock in the morning, you could see things in the mirror that were invisible at other times.
It was now past two, and all Li Yi saw in the glass was a warped corridor, chillingly empty.
“The task says to find a clean mirror. Looks like this one will do.”
He wiped the surface, then followed the instructions, aligning his hand with its reflection.
Tap, tap, tap-
Footsteps approached, and Li Yi’s heart lurched.
Whoever was coming staggered like a toddler just learning to walk, but moved with unnatural speed.
Who was it?
“The System only needs three seconds. Finish the task and get out.”
Li Yi gritted his teeth. Three seconds-just three seconds.
Then he’d leave the hospital.
Tap, tap, tap-
The sound drew closer.
A cold draft swept in from the side.
It seemed the men’s restroom door had swung open.
Li Yi’s back was slick with sweat again.
The restroom was at the very center of the floor-there was no way a stray wind could have opened that door.
Suddenly, a terrifying thought struck him.
Why was the restroom mirror so clean?
Someone must come here often, using the mirror regularly.
The door, too, had been opened by a ‘person’.
As soon as the three seconds were up, Li Yi tried to pull his hand away, but a powerful suction came from the mirror.
At that moment, he remembered the System’s earlier task description.
The Place of Grains Reincarnation was said to be a contact point with another world.
Was this how people in the hospital disappeared?
But Li Yi found he couldn’t move at all.
The next instant, darkness fell before his eyes-and then he saw a different scene.
It was a corridor that seemed endless, the wind howling inside, doors and windows on both sides shaking violently in the gale.
This was a hospital, but not Qingshan Hospital where Li Yi was currently staying.
From the furnishings, this place appeared to have been abandoned for a long time-maybe even longer than the hospital before him. “Could this be the System showing me my own death?” Li Yi wondered to himself.
In the corridor, a man with a look of panic kept running, as if something terrifying was chasing him from behind.
You could tell from his expression that he was deeply afraid of whatever was following him. The image was blurry, his face unseen.
But from the way he ran and his clothing, Li Yi could tell-the man was himself.
Li Yi stared at himself intently. The next moment, countless pale corpses began to emerge from the patient rooms along the corridor.
One.
Then another.
They quickly surrounded him.
Li Yi sucked in a sharp breath.
He awoke in his neat hospital room, face full of fear, sweat rolling down his forehead in big drops.
The alarm clock on the bedside table rang ceaselessly. Li Yi glanced at the time: 7:30 a.m.
So it was just a dream.
He let out a sigh of relief.
“Patient, how did you fall asleep?”
The pretty Nurse Aide Sister asked, her tone filled with concern.
Looking around at the peaceful hospital, Li Yi relaxed and smiled. “I just had a nightmare. How has everything been here lately? Is all well?”
“Everyone’s fine. They all miss you,” Nurse Aide Sister replied with a professional smile.
Li Yi furrowed his brows for no reason. Somehow, the dream felt unsettlingly real. The System’s task, the hospital… He carefully studied the Nurse Aide Sister before him. The hem of her white uniform was smeared with a glaring red stain, and when he took a closer sniff,
he even caught a faint, strange odor from her, making him very uncomfortable.
“Patient, can I ask you for a favor?” The nurse aide lowered her head, voice soft and pleading.
“What is it?” Li Yi asked, puzzled.
“I beg you, please die!”
As Li Yi looked up, blood started streaming from the corners of the nurse aide’s eyes. Her mouth stretched wide into a bizarre Blood Basin Mouth, blood filling her lips.
From this angle, Li Yi could see her mouth was stuffed with pieces of some unknown creature’s flesh.
The girl opened her Blood Basin Mouth, jaw distending in a way impossible for someone so petite-like she meant to swallow someone whole, hideous and terrifying.
At that moment, the Live Streaming Room reappeared in Li Yi’s mind.
The chat in the Live Streaming Room exploded:
[“What’s wrong with the Streamer? He looks like he’s lost his memory! Move, that’s a ghost!”]
[“Don’t bother trying to save him-looks like the Streamer’s already bewitched. Time to call the kitchen for the feast, I’m sitting at the young wife’s table.”]
[“Damn, is the Streamer really about to die here?”]
The next second, a blinding electric arc crackled in Li Yi’s palm and shot straight into the nurse aide’s grotesque Blood Basin Mouth.
The nurse aide convulsed, the stench of burnt flesh filling the air, then stiffened and collapsed to the floor.
“You brazen Fiend, how dare you show off before me? Today, I’ll make you reveal your true form!”
Li Yi blew away the blue smoke curling from his palm. He had just transmigrated-how could he possibly be a patient?