Chapter 628: The Players' Wild Imaginations
"Ahhh!!!" After nightfall, screams began to come from different directions in the hospital—the high floors of Building One, the laboratory of Building Two. The cries, sometimes impossible to distinguish between male and female, automatically took on a specific person's voice in the players' ears, sending chills down their spines in the dead of night.
Moreover, the situation inside the hospital had worsened compared to yesterday. Black spots had grown on the corridor floors, and a strange, pungent odor wafted everywhere, making some players who had planned to sneak samples at night too afraid to even leave their rooms.
With the overall environment deteriorating, the players were forced to cooperate. Gu Yu, Zheng Liang, and a few others gathered with some other black players to discuss countermeasures.
They had tried the first task during the day, but none of the players had cleared it. Instead, those who had undergone psychological treatment had developed some problems.
"I paid special attention to that scarred-arm guy," said a buzz-cut black player. "After his treatment during the day, he never came out again. During the hospital's disinfection earlier, I saw two security guards carrying a body bag out of that treatment room. Word is he was scared to death."
"Scared to death?" This was salt in the wound for the already overwhelmed players. "What kind of situation could scare someone to death? There weren't any random ghosts or monsters in the hospital during the day!"
"No idea about that," the buzz-cut black player said. "But I've figured it out—this hospital is definitely using patients for experiments. Scarred-arm probably died because of that."
"I did a headcount. Excluding those taken to the seventh floor, there are fewer than forty left from the third to the sixth floor. Some went missing last night," Gu Yu said. "I'm afraid even more will disappear tonight."
"There are also new patients coming into the hospital," Wen Xuelin added. "But they were sent directly to Building Three for isolation."
"They must be later players. Tough luck for them. The isolation wards are definitely full of infected people. Whether the infectious disease is real or fake, those people are walking into hell-mode difficulty," another female player said. "I've carefully studied the three tasks for clearing this instance. The first task is a dead end, the second is clearly harder, so we can try the third."
Everyone exchanged glances. The buzz-cut black player said, "Someone tried the third task. They didn't clear it."
"Either we picked the wrong time, or our cleaning method was off," the female player said. "But think about it—what's there to clean at the main gate? Now it's different. With the bacterial infection in the hospital, maybe this is the opportunity."
"That's possible," Brother Liang said, stroking his chin. "Let's try using the cleaning agent first."
"I stole this from a cleaner," the female player said, pulling out a glass bottle.
"Trying it is fine, but we need someone to lure away those creepy things outside the door," the buzz-cut player said. "Since no one can open their panels now, whoever goes is taking a huge risk. The fairest way is to draw lots."
He took out paper and a pen he'd swiped from the nurse's station. "Odd numbers are bait, even numbers go to the main gate."
No one objected. They folded the slips and drew in turn. There were twelve people total. Gu Yu, Wen Xuelin, the buzz-cut player, the female player who made the suggestion, and two others would go to the main gate. The rest were responsible for luring away the monsters on the floors.
"Hope more people stay conscious tonight," Brother Liang said, then picked up a fire extinguisher and quietly cracked the door open. But what he saw outside shocked him. The corridor was no longer what it had looked like when they came out. Besides the bacteria, massive piles of writhing flesh blocked both sides—on the walls, the ceiling—with chunks of meat and slime constantly dripping down, hissing with a corrosive sound when they hit the floor.
"Is this real or fake?" Zheng Liang couldn't help asking.
"Fake, of course. Did you see anything like this in the hospital during the day? Growing this much in such a short time—it has to be from the players' imaginations!" Brother Liang gritted his teeth. "These idiots! The instance already warned us not to imagine things, and they come here to open up their wild imaginations!"
"Roar! Roar!" Beast-like growls came from nearby, giving everyone a bad feeling. The buzz-cut player said, "No one would fantasize about zombies, would they..."
Before he could finish, the door of the next room was slammed open with force. A person tumbled in along with the door panel, then twisted grotesquely as they got up, tilting their head back to stare at their doorway!
Brother Liang immediately slammed the door shut. The person outside crashed into it at the same time. If two or three people hadn't been bracing it from inside, that door would have come off too.
"That's not a fantasized zombie—that's a player," Brother Liang said. "The patient in the next room. He's turned into a zombie!"
"What kind of monsters are in this hospital?" Wen Xuelin's face went pale. "Can those bacteria infect people and turn them into zombies?"
"What zombie? If anything, they'd turn into xenomorphs!" the buzz-cut player said. "Haven't you noticed how strong he is?"
Everyone's minds were foggy. They couldn't figure out whether the person outside had truly turned into a xenomorph or was just imagining themselves as one. The former meant the infectious bacteria was severe enough to cause xenomorphization, while the latter meant the danger in the hospital still came from their own imaginations—and that the instance hadn't actually suppressed their real physical abilities. In other words, their physical strength was still there; they just thought it wasn't.
"Only one way to find out," Gu Yu said quickly. She pulled the sheets off the bed, tied them together into a rope, and threw it out the window. "We're on the third floor. Lower me down. The situation inside and outside the main gate is the same anyway!"
"I'll go!" Zheng Liang stopped her, but Gu Yu didn't agree. She pushed him aside. "It's easier for someone lighter to go down and come back up."
With that, she sat on the windowsill. Listening to the various sounds coming from the room's window, she nodded at Zheng Liang and slid down.
The second floor had also become a place for monsters to roam. As soon as she hung by the window, several hands reached out from inside. Gu Yu dodged their grabs, but the rope tied around her waist was caught. Seeing how incredibly strong those hands were, nearly pulling Zheng Liang and the others down from above, she decisively cut the sheet with her knife!
"Sister Gu Yu!" Wen Xuelin shouted.
The floor wasn't high. After landing, Gu Yu ran toward the main gate. But unexpectedly, several "zombies" rushed out from both sides, and one even jumped down from an upper floor to block her path!
She recognized him as a cannibal player. Seeing the blood around his mouth, she grabbed a nearby potted plant and threw it, trying to circle around him. But he was too fast—he grabbed her arm and bit down on her shoulder!
Zheng Liang and the others jumped down behind her. Gu Yu didn't look back. With all her strength, she smashed the glass bottle against the door. The bottle shattered, and the cleaning agent spilled across half the main gate. In an instant, she vanished from the spot!
(Chapter End)