Chapter 305: Xu Huo's Door
The flying bandage monster knocked over another one as it crashed. Yan Jiayu rubbed her hands together, lifted the tabletop again, and asked Xu Huo, "Are you okay? How do we get out of here?"
"Go downstairs." Xu Huo turned and walked toward the stairwell. In this hospital, floors one through six represented the intensity of spiritual contamination, with the sixth floor being the strongest. That was why he couldn't successfully open a door on the sixth floor.
"Then let's go downstairs!" Yan Jiayu said directly. "You all go ahead; I'll cover the rear."
More and more "security guards" appeared on the sixth floor. The others didn't waste any words and quickly but orderly descended the stairs.
By now, most of the walls on the fifth floor had peeled away, leaving every room fully exposed. Those half-human, half-monster things wandered the fifth floor, the black mist they carried spreading like a source of disease, contaminating everything. It dyed most of the floor black, blurring the rooms and the ground.
"This floor looks like a 3D game..." Sima Xiao'er muttered instinctively, but when he looked down and saw his own feet covered in something like a swarm of gnats, he exclaimed in shock, "I'm turning into a monster too!"
It wasn't just him. After arriving on the fifth floor, only Xu Huo at the front and Yan Jiayu at the back remained uncontaminated.
The two exchanged a glance across the others. Xu Huo said, "Speed it up. We need to get downstairs before the whole building is contaminated!"
As soon as he moved, Sima Xiao'er and the others naturally followed. Along the way, they grabbed various tools and fought their way down to the third floor. During the process, two players were dragged away by hair that shot out from the black shadows, but the rest remained unharmed—though the black shadows on their feet had spread up to their knees.
"Come in." Xu Huo opened the door to the ward he had stayed in earlier, but once inside, it was no longer a psychiatric hospital room. Instead, it was a pure white space.
"What is this place?" More than a dozen people, including Sima Xiao'er, all stepped inside, but wherever they passed, they left behind trails of something like black smoke.
Xu Huo's gaze darkened. A spiritually contaminated area should normally lack consciousness, but he was trying to lead people out. His own spiritual power, pulling on the spiritual power of many others, caused a backlash from the collision of forces. His originally stable spiritual world had become contaminated as well. If he didn't get out soon, with the contamination density increasing, he might not be able to open his own door.
Taking two steps forward, a new door appeared before him. He turned the handle, but behind the door was still the third floor.
He quickly walked to the opposite side and opened another door to step inside.
Sima Xiao'er and the others didn't understand what was happening, but they could only follow. After passing through three doors in a row, they were still on the third floor.
The Special Defense Department players were completely baffled by what was happening. Perhaps due to the spiritual influence, they didn't show any impatience. Instead, they grew increasingly silent, their expressions becoming sorrowful and despairing.
Sima Xiao'er was still relatively clear-headed. He said to Xu Huo, "Brother Xu, don't panic. Stay calm. Follow your method, and you can definitely get us out!"
"If it really doesn't work, just go out on your own." Yan Jiayu stepped forward. Her arms and legs were also wrapped in black shadows. "I think I understand the situation now. All of us are trapped in our own consciousness. The only one who can save themselves is themselves. Carrying us is just holding you back. It's better for you to go alone than for all of us to die here!"
Sima Xiao'er looked at her in shock, but quickly swallowed his words. He wiped his eyes and said, "Brother Xu, life and death are fated. You should go quickly... Please, when you get out, tell Captain Nie to give me a grand funeral. At least I died for my country..."
Xu Huo glanced at the Special Defense Department players, who were nearly swallowed by the black mist. He turned and closed the door, bringing everyone back to the third floor completely.
He said to Sima Xiao'er, "I'll take Yan Jiayu out first. If I succeed, I'll come back for the others. Wait for me on the first floor."
With that, he opened a door out of thin air on the wall behind him and pulled Yan Jiayu inside.
The door closed and disappeared without reappearing. Sima Xiao'er stared without blinking for several seconds before hope reignited in him. "Right! Right! If you can't take so many at once, you can take them one by one!"
He turned and rushed over to Tall Black and the others, slapping each one across the face. "Wake up! We still have a way out! Hurry to the first floor! Xu Huo will come back for us!"
Unfortunately, the players remained immersed in their own worlds. They only glanced up briefly before sinking back into despair.
Sima Xiao'er was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. After pacing in circles twice, he suddenly shouted, "Captain Nie is calling for a meeting!"
The slightly numb Special Defense Department players' eyelids twitched, and they actually stood up instinctively!
"Captain Nie, I'll never curse you behind your back again!" Sima Xiao'er said, tears streaming down his face. Then he shouted, "Run downstairs!"
On the other side, Xu Huo led Yan Jiayu down a few steps and smoothly opened the door leading outside.
Yan Jiayu, regaining consciousness, flipped to her feet and moved her arms in surprise. "We really got out!"
Xu Huo nodded. "I'm going back in to get the others. Please protect the outside."
"Got it!" Yan Jiayu held a demon-subduing pestle in one hand and a large pair of scissors in the other.
Xu Huo entered the psychiatric hospital again. By now, the entire hospital was wrapped in black mist, with faint roars echoing from within.
"Brother Xu!" Sima Xiao'er called out to him from the lawn.
Xu Huo quickly walked over, grabbed him and the nearest player, and stepped through the door. After bringing them out, he repeatedly went back to fetch more people.
Inside the psychiatric hospital, the black shadows gradually devoured the activity area outside the building. At the same time, the mist outside the abandoned building was thinning.
"Is this place going to disappear?" Yan Jiayu glanced outward.
"I'll go find the others. Team Leader Wu and the Ting City branch should still be outside!" Sima Xiao'er said, about to head out.
"This isn't Ting City. Xu Huo and I entered this place from a welfare home in Flower City," Yan Jiayu said. "When did you come in?"
The two compared times, and Sima Xiao'er realized, "A few hours, and the mist zone moved from Ting City to Flower City?"
The two locations weren't far apart, but the mist zone contained a building—a real, physical place. How could it have just moved directly to Flower City?
"There's no communication between inside and outside," he quickly called to Tall Black and the others. "Let's find a way out. Next time Brother Xu comes out, tell him not to go back. We need to get out of here fast!"
The Special Defense Department players, now equipped with their gear, finally snapped fully awake. They tied the pre-prepared ropes around themselves and walked out of the building one by one.
After they left, Yan Jiayu bit her lip. Xu Huo had been inside for too long this time.
All the people on the first floor had been sent out. Xu Huo didn't leave. Instead, he opened a door from below and returned to the hospital.
The interior of the hospital was filled with pitch-black shadows. No part of it looked like its original self anymore. The walls and floors were covered in pus-filled blisters, pulsing like living things. Every step he took, his feet dragged up sticky, foul-smelling threads.
(Chapter End)