# 1582
Chapter 1582: His Game
BOOM—!
With a deafening roar, Lin Qiye's body crashed into the first floor of the ward building. After shattering several walls, he collapsed into the billowing dust.
He propped himself up with one hand, slowly rising from the rubble. Glancing at the bloodstain in front of him, shock flickered across his eyes!
"How is this possible…"
"Y-yes, yes! That's the expression! Bewilderment, shock, confusion, terror… Magnificent! Absolutely magnificent!!" [Chaos]'s voice rang out leisurely as he took measured steps closer to Lin Qiye. On that "benevolent" face,诡异的疯狂与狰狞 emerged!
"Lin Qiye, do you really think you're the master of this place?"
Lin Qiye stood frozen.
"This hospital doesn't belong to this world. It's merely an object that drifted here… Why would you believe you're its master?
Was it the white coat you picked up in the director's office? Was it opening the doors to these patients? Was it the 'Director' title you gave yourself? Or was it that you were the first one here? Oh wait… strictly speaking, you weren't the first either. Wasn't it that little girl named Jinian?
Doesn't it make you curious?
The white coat? That girl wore it too. The wards here? That girl opened them too. Several of the patients here even communicated with her… Why is that? Could it be that the hospital recognized her as master first, then you as master second?
Don't be naive. This hospital doesn't have any master at all! Anyone who comes here can do all of this!
The reason you've been able to monopolize this hospital for so long is simply because that girl hid it in your mind. No one could touch it, and no one could enter here! You're nothing but a pioneer—a lucky fool who claimed this hospital as your own!"
[Chaos]'s words pierced into Lin Qiye's mind like thunder after thunder.
Indeed…
There was no absolute connection between himself and this hospital.
During those years of blindness, this hospital had existed in his mind for so long, yet he couldn't even open its doors. It wasn't until his spiritual power broke through the "Lamp" realm that he entered, found the white coat in the director's office, and discovered the letter Jinian had left behind.
He opened door after door of the wards, voluntarily treating the patients within and exchanging their abilities. Throughout this entire process, there was no indication—no proof—that he was the master of this place.
Even the souls of "mysteries" imprisoned in the Dungeon wrote:
"As a mythical creature you killed with your own hands, you possess the right to decide its fate…" Not "As the master of this hospital, you possess the right to decide its fate…"
If he thought about it from this angle, many things could be explained. For instance, why could patients see what Lin Qiye saw once the treatment progress reached 95%?
This wasn't shared vision—it was because this hospital existed within Lin Qiye's mind. The scenes outside the hospital that patients saw were exactly what Lin Qiye saw. And once treatment progress hit 95%, they were about to shed their "patient" identity, so they could see the progress bar above their heads and even attempt to communicate with the hospital.
"That's not right… even if it doesn't recognize a master, you shouldn't be able to hurt me! You're a mental patient here!" Lin Qiye frowned, speaking up.
Lin Qiye clearly remembered that within this hospital, neither patients nor nurses could harm him—Nyx, Merlin, Gilgamesh… all of them were the same. This should have been the hospital's protection mechanism.
[Chaos]'s lips curled slightly upward. He extended a finger, pointing at the chessboard filled with black pieces in front of him.
"This hospital does have its own will. Sometimes, after you've treated so many patients, it really does help you… But don't forget, I'm different from you!
I'm from beyond this world, and so is my origin. Moreover, I'm [Chaos], the One Who Crawls. As long as you give me enough time, I can seize a portion of its authority, even lull its consciousness into deep sleep…
Haven't you noticed? Recently, what's been different about this hospital?"
Lin Qiye seemed to have thought of something. "It's you? You've been secretly preventing me from recruiting new nurses? You've been altering the rules here? That chessboard… doesn't represent changes in the outside world, but rather your level of control over this hospital?!"
When he was on the fortune-telling Island, Lin Qiye had discovered he couldn't recruit any more nurses. He had assumed there was something wrong with these "mystery" souls themselves, but that apparently wasn't the case.
"This game is quite interesting, isn't it?" [Chaos] cackled sharply. "I just laid out my progress in controlling this hospital right in front of all of you, yet none of you could guess its meaning… Every time I see your confused expressions, it's incredibly entertaining!"
"If you were hiding behind the sixth ward door all along, why didn't you take the opportunity to control it in the years before I even set foot in this hospital?"
Hearing this question, the face of "Yorand" stiffened, then cold laughter followed without a word.
A glint of insight flashed across Lin Qiye's eyes. He glanced at the rooms on the second floor of the ward building, as if he'd deduced the truth.
"I see now… You're afraid of the patients in the earlier wards, aren't you? The moment your movements were discovered, Nyx, Merlin, Bragi, Sun Wukong, Gilgamesh—they would never let you off. If they joined forces, you might not stand a chance.
So you only dared to act in secret. You even almost got caught by Gilgamesh. It wasn't until they all left the hospital that you dared to stand here openly."
Having figured this out, Lin Qiye's expression calmed. At the very least, this creature before him wasn't omniscient or without weakness.
At this moment, Lin Qiye had basically connected all the dots—the cause and effect of everything.
"The matter with Eden—was that your doing too?"
"Hehe… Do you know how difficult it is to find a soul brimming with life energy in this place? I went through so many schemes to secretly extract her soul and devour it, recovering my strength—only for you to snatch it away with that broken cup… We still have an account to settle." [Chaos] coldly laughed.
As Lin Qiye had guessed, Bragi's sudden departure from the hospital had indeed been [Chaos]'s doing.
At that time, Bragi and Eden should have been as one. Through some means, [Chaos] had directly extracted Eden's soul, swallowing it into himself. Without Eden's second soul, Bragi naturally left the hospital with 100% treatment progress.
When Lin Qiye returned to the hospital, [Chaos]—hoping to avoid detection—had altered the interface information, which explained why Eden's name had vanished…
Later, when Bragi made a wish upon the [Holy Grail] to bring Eden back, the monster that appeared in the sky was no one else but [Chaos]'s true form! But after that incident, the [Holy Grail] suffered severe backlash and shattered on the spot.