Nearing ten o'clock, the patient NPCs spontaneously gathered at the stairs of the first-floor corridor, and the players followed them.
The doctor stood at the iron door at the stairs, scanning the patients in front of him.
At nine fifty, he finally took out his keys.
"I'll emphasize again, the doctor will start his ward rounds at 10 o'clock. Before the doctor's rounds, everyone must stay in the ward and wait for the rounds to end. If anyone is not there..."
The doctor gave an ambiguous laugh and then opened the iron door.
The patient NPCs seemed to be used to it, walking up the stairs with their characteristic slow and shaky steps. From behind, they looked like a group of old men with unsteady legs and feet.
The players followed the patient NPC up the stairs, talking quietly behind them.
"We have to stay in the room during the rounds, but he didn't say whether we can leave after the rounds are over. So can we wait until the rounds are over before we act together?"
"No, this hospital is so scary. It might be even scarier at night..."
"Where are we going to live? The doctor didn't seem to say."
"Maybe the nine of us can live in one ward, with a big bunk bed."
The lights in the second floor corridor came on.
As soon as I entered the second floor, the temperature around me seemed to drop by a few degrees.
Qi Chanyang, who was walking in front of the players, was the first to see the few lines of words posted on the wall on the second floor.
Nighttime rules for accommodation areas:
1. Keep the room clean and tidy at night, and clean up the trash can in time if there is any trash;
2. It is forbidden to walk in the corridor after midnight;
3. It is forbidden to walk around in the corridor after the lights are turned off;
4. It is forbidden to stay in the bathroom for more than 10 minutes at night;
5. The patient must close the door after returning to the room. If you hear a knock on the door, you are not allowed to open the door.
The fifth one was probably not posted at the same time as the previous ones, and its color is much brighter than the previous ones.
Xue Kai looked at these rules and couldn't help but be curious: "It seems that there are no such rules posted on the first floor. Does it mean that the second floor is much more dangerous than the first floor?"
Qi Chanyang shook his head and motioned him to look back.
After everyone went up to the second floor, the doctor NPC named He Xin locked the staircase door leading to the first floor.
"After we returned to the second floor at 10 o'clock, the stairs leading to the first floor were sealed. Probably because of this, there were no night rules posted on the first floor, but it doesn't mean that the first floor is safer than the second floor. In fact, the fact that these rules are posted on the second floor means that the survival rate will increase after following the rules."
After saying that, Qi Chanyang turned his head slightly and whispered to the newcomers behind him: "Be sure to remember these five rules. These clearly posted rules are killing rules. Once triggered, they will definitely attract the pursuit of NPCs. But as I said, if you encounter danger, run away if you can, don't sit and wait to die!"
As he was talking, Qi Chanyang saw from the corner of his eye that Jie Fangcheng was looking up at the five rules on the wall. Even though he knew that this person was not normal, he couldn't help but ask, "What are you looking at?"
"Look at number four."
Qi Chanyang quickly looked up again and read the fourth item carefully.
Is there something wrong with this rule? Is it because of the different handwriting or is there a catch with this rule
Just then, he heard someone around him ask, "What if I get constipated at night?"
Qi Chanyang: “…”
Depend on!
Qi Chanyang turned and left.
On the second floor, the patients' rooms are concentrated on the right side of the stairs, with a total of nine rooms.
Each patient NPC entered the ward according to the number on his or her hospital gown, and the players were shocked.
Lu Xiaoqin felt like she was about to faint: "We... won't each of us share a room with a patient NPC?"
Qi Chanyang walked to Ward No. 1. The door was not closed and he could see two beds in the ward from the door. NPC No. 1 was already sitting on the bed near the door, staring at the players at the door.
Qi Chanyang could only nod: "It looks like it."
Lu Xiaoqin's legs went limp.
Everyone also looked unhappy.
Although everyone sat next to the NPC when eating in the cafeteria, there were at least other players present at that time, especially with veteran players like Qi Chanyang watching, so they felt a little safer.
Now he has to stay in a ward alone with the NPC at night, and even Gu Shanshan, who had always been calm, changed her expression.
Just then, the doctor's voice came from behind the player.
"Why don't you go back to your room?"
Lu Xiaoqin's legs were so weak that she couldn't walk. Gu Shanshan helped her to the door of Ward No. 3. The doctor's eyes were fixed on them.
"Only two people can stay in one ward. No third patient is allowed."
In the ward, Patient No. 3 sat quietly on the bed. When he saw Lu Xiaoqin, he grinned at her. Then he reached out like a naughty child, dug out his eyeballs and played with them in his hands, looking at her with his dark eye sockets.
Lu Xiaoqin stepped half a foot into the room, then shrank back in fear.
Gu Shanshan supported her and asked in a low voice: "How about you change rooms with me? I don't think you said we can't change rooms."
Lu Xiaoqin was shaking all over, and she was so scared that tears came out, but she shook her head firmly. "No, what if changing rooms triggers some rules?"
Although Gu Shanshan didn't say it, Lu Xiaoqin knew that it was because of her that Gu Shanshan squeezed blood and human tissue out of the faucet.
If the player named Jie hadn't helped them, they might have triggered the killing rule and died.
Lu Xiaoqin knew that she was timid. From what Qi Chanyang said, this dungeon was considered very simple in the game. She was so scared that her hands and feet became weak. Even if she survived this dungeon by chance, she would not be able to gain points if she did not enter the dungeon. And points were required for eating and staying at the base.
In the next copy, without the reminder of kind-hearted old players like Qi Chanyang, without the care of Gu Shanshan, and without the help of Jie Fangcheng, she would surely die.
Gu Shanshan is different from herself. She is very calm. Although she is also afraid of these things, the fear does not affect her thinking and taking actions.
She could survive in the dungeon, and maybe she could accumulate enough points to go back.
Lu Xiaoqin didn't want to drag others down.
She took a few breaths, held onto the door frame, her expression as heroic as it could be, and stretched out her legs again—
At this moment, Lu Xiaoqin felt another head popping out from beside her head, looking into room number three.
Lu Xiaoqin was startled and turned around to see that it was the player named Jie.
Xie Fangcheng happened to pass by and frowned like a dean, looking at Patient No. 3: "What are you doing? If you act naughty again, I'll crush your eyeballs!"
Number Three also knew him, because it was he who made Number Nine dig his eyes out twice.
Number Three knew that Lu Xiaoqin was easy to bully so he threatened her, but when he saw Jie Fangcheng, he silently shrank his body, turning his eyeballs in his hands and looking at the door.
"What are you looking at? Put your eyeballs back on! You're messing around." The tone he spoke sounded just like that of the dean of studies.
Number Three obediently reached out and put his eyeball back into its socket.
Although he was clearly a scary NPC, Lu Xiaoqin seemed to see a hint of grievance in his eyes at this moment.
Jie Fangcheng raised his chin towards Lu Xiaoqin and said, "It's okay. If this kid continues to act naughty, I'll lend you No. 9's left hand tomorrow. His left hand is very accurate in digging his eyeballs. You can bring it with you tonight to give yourself courage."
Lu Xiaoqin: “…”
I don’t know which one is more terrifying: having a broken hand or having one’s eyes gouged out.
Lu Xiaoqin fainted: "Thank you... Thank you..."
The doctor urged from behind: "It's almost ten o'clock! Hurry up!"
Lu Xiaoqin took a deep breath and finally entered the ward.
Jie Fangcheng also walked in, and at the end of the corridor was Ward No. 9.
He pushed open the door and saw Number Nine sitting quietly on the hospital bed. After seeing Jie Fangcheng, a smile appeared on Number Nine's tilted head.
Jie Fangcheng also smiled at him, closed the door, walked to the bed inside and sat down.
For a moment, the corridor and the surroundings were very quiet.
Soon, the shrill ten o'clock bell rang.
Almost at the same time, the sound of carts and the collision of bottles and jars could be heard from far away in the corridor.
Qi Chanyang tore open the cicada-shaped paper, and a transparent jade cicada that only Qi Chanyang could see flapped its wings and gently landed beside his right ear.
The call lasted half an hour, and he wanted others to hear it from the moment the doctor walked in.
This group of newcomers had never completed a dungeon before, and it was their first time facing NPCs alone. They needed courage and experience.
Soon, all eight cicada-shaped pieces of paper had been used, and "Chi Cicada" took effect.
Qi Chanyang whispered: "Can you hear me?"
After seven chaotic "yes", Qi Chanyang patiently reminded again.
"When the doctor comes in, listen carefully. The procedure should be fixed. If you follow my way of dealing with it, there will be no danger."
"Uh-huh."
"OK."
There was silence in Mingchan for a moment, and the sound of a cart being pushed outside the door was exceptionally slow, as if there was something very heavy on the cart that required a lot of strength to push.
But no matter how slow it was, you could hear the sound getting closer. This agonizing wait was like being locked in a coffin, waiting for the oxygen in the coffin to run out.
Just then, Lu Xiaoqin's timid voice came from the "Ming Chan".
"Brother Qi, thank you."
Soon, there were several chaotic noises again.
"Yes, thank you so much Brother Qi. If it weren't for Brother Qi, I would have been scared to death when I entered the dungeon."
"Me too, me too."
"Luckily, Brother Qi is here, otherwise, with a few newcomers like us, we would probably die without knowing how we died."
"I know, Xue Kai, you must be scared to death."
"You are so brave, you are so brave that you couldn't even walk just now!"
Qi Chanyang pursed his lips and smiled, and his tense nerves relaxed a little.
At this time, someone whispered, "Brother Qi, are all the old players as kind as you?"
"No." Qi Chanyang's smile faded and he glanced at Patient No. 1 lying on the bed.
Number One was short, but had extremely long arms and hair. His hair dragged on the ground, as if he thought the ground was dirty. Number One stretched out his arms, which were longer than he was tall, and tangled his hair around his arms out of boredom.
Qi Chanyang seemed to have thought of something, and said in a cold voice: "Some people just look like humans."
There was a moment of silence in the "cicada".
Just then, the sound of a cart could be clearly heard, and it sounded like it had reached the door.
Qi Chanyang calmed his mind.
"Enough of small talk, get ready—"
The voice passed by the door of Ward No. 1.
An unfamiliar sound came from the "cicadas" and the corridor, overlapping and entering everyone's eardrums.
"The doctor is making rounds."
Qi Chanyang suddenly sat up from the bed.
"Which room did the doctor enter?"
A trembling but calm voice answered him from the sound of cicadas.
"Room four."
Gu Shanshan sat on the hospital bed and looked at the two doctors standing at the door.
One was the familiar He Xin. Dr. He, who always looked arrogant, was now pushing a cart obediently. The two-layer cart was filled with various solutions and medicines.
Only after opening the door could you see that it was not because there were too many things on the cart that he walked so slowly.
Gu Shanshan's gaze moved downward. He Xin was standing on one leg. The other leg seemed to be missing a piece of leg bone, and he walked with a limp.
And the other doctor—
Gu Shanshan took a look and immediately looked away. She covered her mouth, suppressed the urge to vomit, and spoke quickly and in a low voice.
"Besides He Xin, there is another doctor, probably Han Qi. But he has... a lot of teeth on his body."
Han Qi was also wearing a white coat, and he even had a strange tall hat on his head, as if to cover something growing on the top of his head.
The edge of his hat was held firmly by his teeth, which were so small that they looked like baby teeth.
Han Qi was also wearing a mask, but two canine teeth were exposed at the edge of the mask on his right cheek, and it was obvious that he also had something like this on his face.
Gu Shanshan took a look and immediately lowered her head.
Han Qi walked in.
Patient No. 4 was a little girl. She was wearing a hospital gown that was too big for her and covered her body tightly, making her look like a doll with scary big eyes.
But if you've ever seen her walk, you'll notice that her legs are actually two arms, exactly the same as the two that grew out of her shoulders.
Han Qi squatted down and looked at the little girl with a smile.
"Qingqing, how are you today?"
Number Four answered him obediently: "It's a good day today."
"Have you seen any more strange kittens?"
"No."
Han Qi stood up and turned to instruct He Xin.
"Qingqing, it's still yesterday's medicine."
He Xin pinched a round pill from the medicine bottle and handed it to her. No. 4 put it in the palm of his hand, turned around and looked straight at Gu Shanshan.
Gu Shanshan took a deep breath.
Soon, Han Qi walked to her bedside.
"Ms. Gu, I heard that you saw an eyeball in the spoon today?"
Gu Shanshan bit her lower lip and suppressed her fear.
"Yes."
"There won't be eyeballs in a spoon, right?" Han Qi looked at her.
"But Dr. He should have seen it while we were eating..."
"Doctor He was wrong. This was his mistake." Han Qi narrowed his eyes and turned his head to look coldly at He Xin behind him. "Doctor He has paid the price for his carelessness."
He Xin shuddered all over.
After saying that, Han Qi turned around with a smile.
"Ms. Gu, please rest assured. Although you are suffering from severe hysteria now, with the careful treatment of our Blue Mountain Mental Hospital, such symptoms will soon be alleviated. He Xin, prescribe another dose of medicine for treating hysteria for Ms. Gu."
When He Xin, who was guarding the cart, heard this, his expression, which had been a little ugly since he entered the door, immediately improved. He happily took out a flesh-pink medicine bottle from the second layer, pinched out two pills from it, and handed them to Han Qi.
Han Qi stretched out his hand—as he moved, his wide sleeves pulled up, revealing a section of his forearm.
There were also two rows of teeth on his forearms.
Gu Shanshan forced herself to look at the teeth on his arm. She needed to provide Qi Chanyang and the others with more information.
At this moment, the teeth that had been motionless on her arm suddenly opened, revealing her mouth and tongue, as if making a naughty face at her.
Gu Shanshan:!!!
She gasped and jerked back.
"What's wrong, Ms. Gu?" Han Qi's voice sounded, with undisguised excitement and malice, "Did you see something strange again? Ms. Gu, is your hysteria getting worse again?"
Gu Shanshan took two deep breaths and forced herself to calm down.
"No." She raised her eyes and looked straight at Han Qi, "I'm just looking forward to... curing the disease."
Han Qi looked at her for a long time before he smiled.
"Don't worry, the disease will be cured sooner or later."
After saying that, he handed the medicine in his hand to Gu Shanshan.
After Gu Shanshan got the medicine, she understood why He Xin didn't just tilt the bottle to pour the medicine out, but instead squeezed the medicine out with his hands with great effort.
Two round pills, densely covered with suspicious, hairy tentacles, moved in her palm.
"Eat it, and your illness will be cured." Han Qi stared at her and said.
Gu Shanshan felt as if her whole body was crawling with this thing, and she felt nauseous.
She took a deep breath and said, "I... will eat by myself later."
"No." Han Qi smiled, "Good boy, you have to take medicine with your companions."
Number Four, who was sitting on the bed next to him, tilted his head, holding a pill in his hand, and was also waiting.
Gu Shanshan gritted her teeth.
In her ear, Qi Chanyang was analyzing things quickly with her in Mingchan.
"At the moment, it seems that you shouldn't take more than three tablets of this medicine. Just now, the NPC said that your hysteria has worsened, and his tone was very expectant. It should be that there will be serious consequences after taking three tablets. I guess... three tablets is the lethal dose. Two tablets should not kill you, but there will definitely be serious side effects. Shanshan, find a way not to swallow the medicine!"
Gu Shanshan knew it in her heart, but three pairs of eyes were staring at her.
Gu Shanshan could only put the pill in the palm of her hand, open her mouth, and put the pill in her mouth in front of the three people.
Han Qi looked at her seriously.
"Ms. Gu, did you eat it?"
Gu Shanshan made a swallowing motion, nodded, and pressed her tongue tightly on the two pills that were twisting wildly in her mouth.
Han Qi sneered: "You won't cry until you see the coffin."
Gu Shanshan's hair stood on end, but Han Qi in front of her just glanced at her with pity and sympathy in his eyes, then looked at Patient No. 4 meaningfully, and quickly left with He Xin.
As soon as the ward door was closed, Gu Shanshan immediately stretched out her hand.
In just a few seconds, she felt her mouth was filled with strange things.
She forcibly tore out the two monsters that were stuck in her mouth.
As soon as the two monsters came out, they immediately turned back into the shape of small pills.
Gu Shanshan dry-heaved twice and spat out a mouthful of blood before taking off her coat and wrapping the two pills tightly in her clothes. Then, she endured the pain and quickly whispered the information to the others.
"Xiaoqin! If the doctor asks you, just say you saw it wrong and didn't see the eyeball, otherwise you will have to take two pills. The teeth on Han Qi's body... they are not just teeth, they are mouths without lips! They seem to have their own thoughts and can move on their own. Don't stare at them, the teeth may open after being discovered..."
Lu Xiaoqin cried softly and asked, "Shanshan, how are you?"
In "Cicadas", Gu Shanshan said in a tone of having survived a disaster: "I hid the medicine under the tongue coating... What the hell is this thing?! Once it enters the mouth, it will grow rapidly. It has tentacles and suckers and will stick to the mouth... As soon as the doctor leaves, you must pull this thing out as soon as possible, otherwise they..."
"big sister."
The unfamiliar voice from the little sister spread through the chirping cicadas to everyone's ears.
There was deathly silence from Gu Shanshan's side. After a long while, Gu Shanshan's voice, pretending to be calm, was heard again.
"What's wrong, Qingqing?"
She called out patient number four’s name, which sounded like it should be a close one.
But no one seeing the current situation would think that they could become close.
Under Gu Shanshan's hospital bed, No. 4 was on all fours, clearly lying prone, but her head was turned 180 degrees, revealing a girl's face connected to her back. Her big eyes were looking at Gu Shanshan, with her twin ponytails hanging in the air.
"You didn't take your medicine, did you?"
Gu Shanshan took a deep breath and tried to force a smile: "Sister ate it."
"You're lying." Number Four pouted, then laughed happily. "It's okay, I'll tell you a little secret too, I didn't eat it either."
As he spoke, Number Four stretched out his hand and, like Gu Shanshan, tore a monster out of his mouth.
This monster was obviously smaller than Gu Shanshan's. After being pulled out, it returned to the shape of a pill and its color was different from the one Gu Shanshan ate.
It seems that the medicine on the first layer and the medicine on the second layer are not of the same type.
Number Four dropped the pills on the ground, and they quickly squirmed and disappeared.
Number Four smiled, slowly stood up, and then climbed onto Gu Shanshan's bed.
Gu Shanshan resisted the urge to run away and tried to coax her into taking the medicine.
"Sister really took the medicine. Good children should listen to the doctor."
Number Four looked at her, her chin resting on her hands, her legs that looked exactly like her arms dangling, making her look oddly innocent and girlish.
Number Four smiled and said, "I'm just listening to the doctor."
—“The doctor said that all the patients in the ward need to take medicine together!”
Her innocent eyes were filled with excitement: "Big sister, we didn't take any medicine, so we won't be sleepy today! So after the doctor leaves, we can play games!"
"… what game?"
Number Four looked at her with a smile in his eyes: "This game is called - Guess how much meat you have on your body."
(End of this chapter)