# Chapter 508: Hallucination and Reality
Lu Yun recognized that all the doctors on the bulletin board were Red Bracelets, which made the players present turn pale. "If all the doctors are Red Bracelets, then to complete the second task, we'd have to kill Red Bracelets."
To ensure the safety of both Red Bracelets and Black Bracelets, the White Bracelets who boarded the ship had been carefully selected. Regardless of their background, they were basically players of low levels. Even if some Red Bracelets lacked practical combat experience, the quantity and quality of items they possessed far exceeded those of White Bracelets. The two sides simply couldn't compare, otherwise so many wouldn't have been killed at the start of the hunt.
Now the Instance had listed Red Bracelets as doctors, clearly forcing them to fight Red Bracelets to the death.
"I think this Instance doesn't want us to kill Red Bracelets, but rather wants Red Bracelets to kill us," a player said. "The first task is to complete one psychological treatment. Only doctors can treat patients. Do you think Red Bracelets will cooperate and let us pass?"
"Then should we try the third task? Isn't the hospital gate right there?"
Following the direction the speaker pointed, everyone turned around. The hospital gate was clearly visible directly in front of the reception desk. There was no problem finding it.
"But is this the hospital gate?" Serin walked over and tried pushing the door. It didn't open, and he didn't clear the Instance.
Several more players tried one after another, all returning empty-handed.
"Although it's an E-rank Instance, that doesn't mean the solution is right in front of us," Lu Yun said. "Did you notice the last reminder in the Instance? This Instance might cause hallucinations. That is to say, the door we see isn't the real door. The real door is somewhere else in the hospital, we just haven't discovered it yet."
"Then let's go find it," a player hesitantly suggested. "But there are still Red Bracelets and Black Bracelets in the Instance."
"I have a detection item I can use," said Chen Zi, the spirited female player who had spoken several times before. "It can detect the number of people within a certain range. I think Red Bracelets and Black Bracelets probably don't dare to move around freely right now either."
"That makes sense," Xu Huo spoke up. "Many Black Bracelets have no experience solving Instances. They might already be hiding like frightened birds."
That was a reasonable thought. Opportunity was right in front of them, and they had to take risks even with danger present.
So everyone first searched the first floor thoroughly, then followed the nurse's instructions to go upstairs and find the wards.
There was a card lock on the stairs. After Serin used the card to open the door, he didn't leave the card behind but said to everyone, "What if returning it actually traps us?"
Players found it hard to trust each other. Everyone was afraid of being trapped, but they also didn't trust him. A player stepped forward and stuck a small item on the electronic lock. After a few seconds, he removed it. "This lock can't lock anymore."
The electronic lock was damaged. Even if closed, it could be easily pushed open.
With that settled, everyone had no objections and climbed the stairs to the second floor of the hospital.
Exiting the stairs led to a large nurse station, currently empty. There were corridors to the left, right, and straight ahead of the nurse station. The left and right sides were both wards, while only at the end of the corridor straight ahead was a doctor's office.
After circling through the corridors, the players actually found their own names.
"How strange. How could the Instance know our names?"
"Didn't you hear Lu Yun say this might be a hallucination? Besides yourself, who would know your name?"
"So how do we rest tonight? We've checked every room on this floor, every window and wall. There's no door, and we can't get to the third floor."
"Let's just find any room to make do. I have a bad feeling that once we enter a room, we'll become real mental patients."
"Idiot."
"Don't disbelieve it. Do you know what psychological suggestion is?"
"I don't know, and I don't believe it. You have items, can't you tell reality from hallucination?"
...
The players argued back and forth, but that was all they could do. Unable to clear the Instance for now, they simply rested near the nurse station.
As time passed, some players grew tired and dozed off leaning against the wall, while others with more energy forced themselves to stay awake. But just then, a player suddenly stared into the deep corridor and shouted, "Who's there!"
Everyone was startled awake and immediately entered combat readiness, but when the lighting item shone down the corridor, there was nothing there.
"Are your eyes playing tricks on you?" Chen Zi said.
The player, with a gaunt face and dark eye bags, said grimly, "I clearly saw someone walk past."
"There's no one there," Xu Huo said. "Didn't we all check earlier?"
"Could it be a Red Bracelet climbing in through the window from outside?" another player tried to offer a reasonable explanation.
"There!" The gaunt player suddenly pointed at the corridor straight ahead again. This time, several people shone their lights in that direction and indeed saw the tail end of a figure.
"Damn it, let's go!" Chen Zi threw her light ahead and charged straight forward. "There are so many of us, why be afraid of one person!"
She wasn't the only one with this idea. At least six or seven players rushed out simultaneously, but when they chased to the ward door, the figure had disappeared again, leaving only the curtains fluttering by the window.
"He got away fast!" A few people left the room somewhat reluctantly.
After resting in place for a while longer, another player saw the figure in the corridor. This time, more people chased after it, but still failed to catch it.
"What does this mean? Playing with us?" Chen Zi was puzzled. "What's the point?"
"We might be having hallucinations," Lu Yun said with a frown. "Everyone, don't run around. Don't think about the figure..."
Before he finished speaking, he too saw a person standing at the end of the corridor, a red bracelet reflecting faint light in the darkness.
The others followed his gaze and once again chose to swarm forward. This time was slightly better. The vanguard squeezed into the room just in time to see the other party climbing out the window to escape. Two players rushed to the window in one breath and were about to jump down after them, but Lu Yun stopped them just in time.
"Wait! Look down first and see where this is!"
The two players came to their senses, squinted hard, and after a moment realized the truth. They stumbled back in shock: outside the window was not something else, but an ocean filled with corrosive aura!
"Now the situation is very clear. Although we feel like we're on the second floor, we're actually right next to the sea surface," Serin said. "If we had forcefully broken through the first-floor gate earlier, we might have let the seawater flood in."
Everyone found this troublesome. Xu Huo asked at the right moment, "Then how do we determine what's real and what's fake in this building?"
"We're inside the Instance venue, at least separated from the outside world. As long as we don't try to break through the hospital's boundaries, we should be fine for now," Lu Yun said after a moment's thought.
"Then tell me, was the figure we saw a hallucination or a setup by the Red Bracelets?" the gaunt player asked.
(Chapter End)