Chapter 360: The Bizarre Mental Hospital
Zhao Xuhui had already opened many doors before, so this time he was completely unprepared, caught off guard by the corpse and given a real scare.
"Stay calm, stay calm, it's all small stuff, small stuff! Holy crap, that scared the hell out of me!"
Zhao Xuhui steadied his nerves, switched on the night vision mode of his camera, and continued deeper inside.
The room was a mess, splattered with blood, corpses, and debris everywhere. Numerous unidentified bodies hung from the ceiling, looking under the camera's night vision like a scene from hell.
Zhao Xuhui pressed on. A dead man dangling by the window suddenly spoke, giving him another fright, but still nothing major. Eventually, he reached a corridor with relatively decent lighting.
A burly figure flashed by and slipped into a nearby door.
Zhao Xuhui instinctively shrank back. After making sure the figure wouldn't come out again, he continued forward.
"Heh, jumpy much. I get it now—this stage won't actually spawn any monsters. It's all just visual effects, hmph."
Feeling bold, Zhao Xuhui crawled into a narrow gap ahead.
But just then, a hoarse, low roar rang out in his ear: "Little pig!"
Zhao Xuhui's view shook violently. At the same time, he clearly felt something grab his right arm, and his whole body was yanked uncontrollably out of the gap. The protagonist let out a terrified scream.
"What the hell! What the hell! What the hell is going on?!"
Zhao Xuhui was completely dumbfounded. Wasn't this stage supposed to have no monsters? What the heck was this thing?!
A hulking, blood-soaked humanoid monster with a twisted, ferocious face grabbed the protagonist by the neck and shoved him off the second floor!
"Damn it, no, no!! Ahhh—!!!"
Zhao Xuhui couldn't help but scream too. Mainly because he was completely off guard while crawling through the gap. The roar in his ear and the sensation on his right arm at that moment were just too real, and the visual impact of being caught at close range by the monster was intense—he could even clearly see the fat guy's warts, bloodstains, and sharp teeth.
"Bam!!"
The protagonist hit the ground hard. Zhao Xuhui could distinctly feel the impact on his back.
Just like the system prompt said, the impact was very mild, like having multiple phones vibrating on his back at once. But combined with the scene of falling from a height, the vibration made him feel as if he really had plummeted and crashed onto the floor, sending a shiver through his whole body.
Zhao Xuhui's vision went black for a moment before returning. Now lying on the floor, he helplessly stared at the chandelier on the ceiling and the corpses on the ground.
In a daze, a man dressed like a priest walked up to him, humming a tune and holding a flashlight.
"So, who are you?"
"I see now, merciful God, you've sent a messenger to find me. Spare your life, child. You have been called."
After saying two cryptic sentences, the priest vanished. After a while, the protagonist staggered to his feet.
Zhao Xuhui was starting to feel creeped out. Mainly, this string of bizarre experiences gave him a very surreal feeling.
Why was there a mental hospital in modern society that seemed straight out of medieval Europe? It felt completely disconnected from the real world!
And what was up with all these corpses? Why had all the mental patients escaped? Where did that fat guy who looked like a mutant and that rambling priest come from?
This was totally unscientific!
Had the people in this mental hospital suddenly undergone a genetic mutation? That was way too ridiculous!
These completely inexplicable mysteries sent a chill down Zhao Xuhui's spine. The series of scares had him feeling panicked. If this were real life, he would have smashed the door and fled without a second thought.
But hey, he chose a horror game, so even if he wet himself, he had to finish it. Zhao Xuhui calmed down and started surveying his surroundings.
He was now in the main hall of the administrative building. The floor was littered with the bodies of security guards. The door across from him was the one he'd tried to enter earlier, but it was locked.
At that moment, a new objective appeared: Escape the mental hospital. Enter the security room to unlock the main door.
"Escape already? Hmm, the plot makes sense. In this situation, any normal person would want to run away..."
Zhao Xuhui was already having second thoughts, but seeing the prompt that unlocking the main door from the security room would let him escape, he pushed on.
Now he was empty-handed, with nothing but a power-draining, crappy DV camera.
Zhao Xuhui desperately missed horror games with weapon systems. If only he could have a shotgun! Even without a gun, a big machete would do!
But the game had told players right from the start: no weapons here.
Zhao Xuhui felt a pang of despair.
While searching for the keycard to the security room, he encountered a few living mental patients, but they all ignored him. Except for one pervert in a wheelchair who suddenly lunged at him asking for a hug, scaring him badly—other than that, no major scares.
His tense nerves finally eased a bit.
Entering the security room, the protagonist sat in front of the computer and began unlocking the main door.
"So, unlocking the main door shouldn't cause any more trouble, right?"
"Then I can get out... Yeah, right! Screw you!!!"
Before Zhao Xuhui could finish his sentence, the priest in the lower-right surveillance feed suddenly pulled a switch. The entire screen went pitch black—power outage!
"Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!!!"
A million curses flashed through Zhao Xuhui's mind. At the same time, the security room door started shaking violently from heavy impacts!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Oh crap, this time it's real! Real monsters spawning! What do I do, what do I do, what do I do!"
"Hide in the cabinet? Nice, there's a system prompt after all."
Zhao Xuhui frantically pulled open the nearby cabinet and crawled inside.
With a loud "Bang," the terrifying fat guy burst through the door, dragging a chain behind him as he began patrolling the room.
The protagonist hid in the cabinet, panting heavily. Zhao Xuhui could clearly hear the protagonist's rapid breaths in the game, and even he was scared stiff.
Through the crack in the cabinet, Zhao Xuhui could clearly see the fat guy's face. This massive, blood-soaked creature was a true monster. Its guttural, beast-like voice and heavy footsteps sent another chill down Zhao Xuhui's spine.
The fat guy walked past him, then opened the cabinet next to his.
Zhao Xuhui: "..."
Even though he knew the game had no voice chat and making noise outside wouldn't affect the game, Zhao Xuhui still held his breath, afraid to make a sound.
Genius remembers this site's address in one second: