Chapter 624: You Can't Leave the Hospital Just Because You Want To
"I'm not sick." The scarred player tried to force himself to stay calm, but his eyeballs were already trembling uncontrollably, constantly lingering on the wounds on his body. Every time he saw a bleeding wound, the fear in his eyes deepened.
Inside this instance, the things players imagined often became visible to the naked eye, so Xu Huo could also see the hallucination details that appeared after the scarred player was affected by the "Orb of Murmurs," and thus he could also hear the constant dripping sound of blood.
To make the effect more realistic, he had added two buckets and a clock on the side. The clock was placed on the desk facing the scarred player, and the bucket was placed under his wrist to catch the blood. There was water in the bucket, and the dripping sound would be amplified.
The scarred player clenched his teeth, watching the second hand turn one moment and the water in the bucket turn red the next, his mental state becoming increasingly unstable.
Xu Huo stood up and walked to the desk. "I heard that there was once a very famous medical doctor abroad who conducted an experiment."
"He selected a death row inmate, blindfolded him, simulated the motion of a blade cutting across his wrist, then placed a bucket nearby to drip water and told him he was bleeding. As time passed, he slowed the rate of the water dripping to create the illusion that the blood flow was slowing due to excessive blood loss."
"After a period of time, the death row inmate's breathing and heartbeat gradually slowed down, and finally stopped."
"When the doctor went to check again, he found that the prisoner had actually died, supposedly from a stress reaction."
He leaned against the desk, reached out and turned the minute hand of the clock back a bit, then added, "The authenticity of this experiment cannot be verified, but medicine pursues limits. I've always been very interested in this experiment, wanting to know if people can really be scared to death."
A fruit knife slid out of his sleeve, and he made a cut on the scarred player's wrist in front of him.
Feeling the pain and seeing the blood flow, the scarred player's eyes bulged. "What do you think you're doing?!"
Xu Huo casually dropped the knife, took a long towel from the drawer, went behind him, blindfolded him, and said, "Do you remember where I turned the minute hand just now?"
"Nine..." the scarred player answered involuntarily.
"Listen carefully to the sound of the water in the bucket. I'll be back in fifteen minutes."
After blindfolding him, Xu Huo turned and left the room.
Hearing the footsteps and the door close, the scarred player struggled in the chair. He roared and cursed, trying desperately to free himself from the chair, but as the blood seemed to drain away, his movements became smaller and smaller, his breathing weaker and weaker, and before long, he slumped in the chair.
"What is he doing?" Wen Xuelin was outside the door, watching through the glass window as the scarred player struggled in his chair, her eyes wide with shock. "Is he trapped by an item?"
No one was holding him down or tying him up; he was just closing his eyes and flailing around in the chair for no reason.
"It's obvious he's been tricked." Zheng Liang, who hadn't managed to get a room, glanced over and said nonchalantly, "People like him deserve to die."
There were other players lingering in the corridor. Two of them heard their conversation and immediately walked over. Seeing that the person inside was the scarred player, they immediately pushed the two aside to go in and rescue him.
Zheng Liang raised his hand to stop them. "You two, the treatment isn't over yet."
Those two were also cannibal players. To show their superiority after everyone lost their personal panels, they had revealed the player numbers on their backs. One of them pushed Zheng Liang's hand away, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Kid, mind your own business."
Zheng Liang sneered and didn't waste words. He raised his fist and punched, knocking the average-sized cannibal player to the ground.
"Who the hell do you think you're showing off to? Do you think everyone else is an idiot? Showing off your arms in the middle of winter, aren't you cold?!"
The man wiped his nosebleed, got up, and punched back.
If they were both players, Zheng Liang might not have the upper hand, but now that everyone had become ordinary people, and he had learned two years of martial arts, he wasn't afraid of a one-on-one fight using technique!
The two started fighting. The other cannibal player lunged at Wen Xuelin, even trying to bite her. Wen Xuelin screamed, dodged, and shoved her phone into his mouth, followed by a kick to the groin, then quickly hid behind Zheng Liang.
A one-on-two fight was impossible. There were still many players in the corridor. If the cannibal players united, the other ordinary players would naturally band together as well. Just as the atmosphere was tense and it looked like the brawl was about to turn into a group fight, the door of a nearby office opened. A doctor wearing glasses scolded them: "Do you all want to be locked up on the seventh floor?"
Players with "severe conditions" had been sent to the seventh floor. The players who had become ordinary people didn't dare to take the risk, so they had to temporarily cease hostilities.
"Next." The doctor expressionlessly pointed at someone.
Zheng Liang darted forward, pushing aside a cannibal player, and rushed in, then triumphantly closed the door. The players outside could only helplessly flip him off.
Zheng Liang voluntarily walked to the opposite side of the desk and sat down. He looked around the office before saying, "Doctor, you have good taste. You even have a landscape painting hanging in your office."
Xu Huo, whose appearance had been altered, flipped through the medical records. "Your condition clearly improved after the last treatment."
"Really?" Zheng Liang quickly said, "So can I be discharged today?"
"If you pass this test, you can be discharged." Xu Huo handed him a form. "Answer each question carefully. If the results are satisfactory, your family can pick you up today."
"No problem!" Zheng Liang slapped his thigh and readily took the form. He scribbled down the answers and handed it back, then looked at Xu Huo with full anticipation.
Unfortunately, Xu Huo couldn't let him leave so easily. He frowned and stared at the form for a while. "Do you still remember your good friend Xu Zhi?"
A flicker of surprise crossed Zheng Liang's face, but he quickly composed himself. "I remember. Why?"
"Is he really your best friend?" Xu Huo tapped the form. "He comes to visit you once a month, but on this form, you clearly wrote that your best friend has already passed away."
"How is that possible!" Zheng Liang blurted out. "Xu Zhi has been dead for ten years!"
Xu Huo took a phone out of the drawer. "This is the phone you handed in when you were admitted. Take a look."
Zheng Liang snatched it, successfully opened the photo album using his own phone password, and then saw photos of himself and Xu Zhi together at various times. Over the ten years, Xu Zhi had subtle changes in the photos, showing that he had aged. There were also a few photos of them together in the hospital, the earliest one from a year ago at the Seventeenth Hospital.
The more he scrolled, the darker his face became. Finally, he threw the phone back. "I'll only say what I remember. Just think I'm crazy. I'm not getting discharged today!"
He was about to leave when Xu Huo said behind him, "You have a meeting this afternoon. Your parents and Xu Zhi are all coming."
(Chapter End)