Blue Mountain Psychiatric Hospital 15

Jie Fangcheng muttered, "Why are you cursing at me for no reason?"

There was even a trace of grievance in his voice.

For no reason!!!

Qi Chanyang closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.

His expression was complicated. "Who exactly are you?"

"Hm? Didn't I tell you?"

"A retired manager from the Underworld Finance Department?"

"That's right!"

Qi Chanyang: "..."

Once again, he took a long, hard look at the person before him.

Playing dumb.

Unfathomable.

This man's strength was clearly above his own... No.

After so many years of Infinite Game, the players, who had started out as a loose rabble, had developed a new ecosystem.

Because of the peculiar nature of horror games, many people could not adapt to instances, but they had to exchange points for food if they wanted to survive at the base.

Yet the food in the shop was monotonous, so quite a few players simply became full-time chefs, trading their skills for something to eat.

Likewise, there were players at the base who sold flowers, artworks, and the like... They were collectively known as lifestyle players. Like the flowers and pottery in their hands, they decorated Infinite Game, lending its terrifying endless existence a small touch of everyday warmth.

As long as they could survive the annual "All-Player Instance," which the system forced every player to enter, lifestyle players could trade for a year of peace at the base.

But these people had no hopes of accumulating enough points to return to the real world. They drifted through each day, and with that mindset, even if they were lucky enough to survive their first instance, most lifestyle players would die in the All-Player Instance.

In contrast were players like Qi Chanyang, who voluntarily entered instances to earn points. Such players were the mainstream in Infinite Game.

Though everyone entered instances for different reasons—some wanted to save enough points to return to the real world, some wanted to rise to prominence and rule a corner of this game, and some simply could not cook, grow flowers, or do anything at all—they were all struggling to survive in the game. It was easy for their paths to cross, and guilds naturally formed one after another.

The Cozy Cat Tree guild Qi Chanyang belonged to had a ridiculous name, but its Guild Master ranked seventeenth on the points leaderboard, and the guild had a certain reputation among players.

The most formidable person Qi Chanyang knew was his Guild Master. As he compared the man in front of him to his Guild Master, he could not tell for a moment which of them was stronger.

Could this man be one of the big shots ranked even higher on the leaderboard?

That thought eased Qi Chanyang's nerves somewhat.

No matter what, this man had saved him. He probably was not the sort who took pleasure in killing players.

Even if he was a little chuunibyo...

With such a formidable fighter covering them, Qi Chanyang thought it over and decided to ask the big shot's opinion first. "Should we keep looking for clues, or go find Gu Shanshan first?"

"Either is fine."

"Then let's find Gu Shanshan first and sort through the clues we've gathered!"

"Sure."

Qi Chanyang could not help giving him another look.

Because of the nature of Infinite Game, many people had terrible tempers.

He had yelled at this guy so many times, yet the man had never lost his temper.

He had a good temperament and was strong, too. It was hard not to see him as larger than life; even that tiny flaw of chuunibyo syndrome could be overlooked.

As he thought this, Qi Chanyang skillfully pressed himself against the wall and poked his head out first to check the corridor.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a figure flash beside him. When he looked properly, Jie Fangcheng was already striding down the hallway with his club slung over his shoulder. He even turned toward Qi Chanyang in surprise. "What are you doing? Why are you being so sneaky and creepy?"

Damn it!!!

Was this sneaky and creepy??

This was the instinct of an experienced player, okay???

Qi Chanyang was indignant, but when he opened his mouth, he could not think of anything to say.

After all, the man before him was the savage who had sent an NPC running with two swings of a club.

So as not to be called "sneaky and creepy," Qi Chanyang could only follow him and step brazenly into the corridor.

But he was cautious by nature, and he could not help warning him, "The game's biggest BOSS hasn't shown up yet. That Director should be stronger than any NPC you've encountered."

Jie Fangcheng gave two indistinct hums.

In the silent hallway, only the footsteps of the two of them could be heard. Qi Chanyang had never been this brazen before.

On his first day in the game, before he had even found a way to clear the instance, he was already strolling openly and unhurriedly down the hallway at night as though he were out shopping. If he told anyone who knew him, who would believe it?

It made Qi Chanyang feel rather out of sorts.

He coughed and made conversation for lack of anything better to say. "If you run into the Director, do you think you can beat him?"

He really was just making conversation.

That NPC, who seemed to be the strongest in this instance, had not appeared yet. No one knew what it was like. Even a big shot like Jie Fangcheng could not possibly know his odds of winning, could he?

The next second, Jie Fangcheng answered, "Eighty percent."

Damn it!! That was way too arrogant!!

Qi Chanyang cursed inwardly, but could not help asking, "Eighty percent? What are the other twenty percent lacking?"

Jie Fangcheng glanced at him. "Humility..."

Qi Chanyang: "..."

As they spoke, they reached Room One.

After Qi Chanyang opened the door, Gu Shanshan was still huddled in the corner with her item in hand.

Only after seeing them did Gu Shanshan let out a breath of relief.

Qi Chanyang was screaming inside: Look! This is what a normal player looks like!!!

Jie Fangcheng did not sense Qi Chanyang's internal cry in the slightest. After entering the room, he sat on the bed by the door, planted his club there again, and rested both hands on top of it.

The guy was back to dozing off.

Qi Chanyang restrained himself again and again, continually giving himself a mental reminder: He's not dead weight, he's a big shot. He's not dead weight, he's a big shot.

After repeating it N times, he finally calmed down and began sharing the clues he had found with Gu Shanshan.

—Though they could not really be counted as clues he had found.

When Qi Chanyang had begun answering Liu Hanyue's questions in her room on the first floor, Liu Hanyue had told him the correct answers whenever he answered incorrectly. Qi Chanyang had done his utmost to answer as many questions as possible, and at last he had pieced together a rough idea of how to clear the instance.

"This hospital initially had only three doctors: the Director, Chen Xiangyuan; the attending physician, Han Qi; and the intern, He Xin. The three gathered together to research head-transplant surgery. We know that Han Qi needed the surgery because cancer ran in his family, and he would most likely get cancer as well. He Xin was born with one leg longer than the other, and he was short. We don't know why the Director needed it."

"Ge Juan suffered a mental breakdown after her divorce. She blamed the failure of her marriage on her daughter not being outstanding enough, so she replaced everything on Liu Hanyue—her limbs, internal organs, and so on and so forth. Liu Hanyue went mad because of it. The acid burns over half of Ge Juan's face were from Liu Hanyue throwing acid on her."

"And another thing," Qi Chanyang fell silent for a moment. "Today isn't August 11..."

Before he could finish, the sound of midnight bells rang through the building.

Only after all twelve chimes had sounded did Qi Chanyang speak again. "Now, today is August 11."

Gu Shanshan froze for a moment before understanding. "So the newspaper you got was today's paper? Today's evening edition??"

"Probably."

Gu Shanshan frowned. "How is that possible..."

If the newspaper they had obtained was dated August 11, and today was August 11, did that not mean they held a cheat that could predict what would happen over the next day?

"I'm not sure either, but a very powerful player analyzed this for me before. He said that when an instance contains clues that seem extremely unusual or even absurd, you have to believe them no matter how absurd they are. Because that clue may mean players cannot clear the instance without it."

Put simply, the NPCs in the instance had too great an advantage and the player death rate was too high, so the system had no choice but to give the players a tiny cheat.

That also confirmed Qi Chanyang's suspicion—

"Blue Mountain Psychiatric Hospital may be a Level-One Instance, but it is very likely a threshold instance—an instance at the first level that comes infinitely close to a Level-Two Instance. The reason it's considered a Level-One Instance is that its highest historical clear rate was fairly high. It may be that a big shot happened to clear this instance, raising the survival rate for that run's players above twenty percent, so the system classified it as a Level-One Instance. But for ordinary players, this instance's death rate should be extremely high. Otherwise, the system would not casually give players a cheat."

There was something Qi Chanyang did not say: for ordinary players, the death rate in this instance might be infinitely close to one hundred percent.

Players had a forum. After clearing an instance, many players would share strategies for clearing it. Major guilds were appealing precisely because joining one gave players access to the guild's exclusive instance guides.

And instances with high death rates that no one had cleared to date were hugely popular topics on the forum.

For a Level-One Instance like Blue Mountain Psychiatric Hospital, the system had, by all logic, already given players a cheat. Its death rate could not possibly be low.

Yet Qi Chanyang, who spent his spare time on the forums reading strategy guides, had never seen any information about this instance.

There was only one possible explanation: apart from the group of players who had raised the instance clear rate above twenty percent, nearly every other player who entered had died. No one had been able to pass information about this instance back out.

The danger posed by this instance was already beyond comparison with an ordinary Level-One Instance.

"Also, among the patient NPCs, one of them is a normal person." Qi Chanyang recalled Liu Hanyue's expression as she spoke. "'Only he is special. Though he's normal, in the end he'll be driven abnormal too.' I think that's an extremely important clue."

Gu Shanshan asked, "Then how should we find this one normal person?"

Qi Chanyang was about to say something, but after thinking it over, he turned his head.

Jie Fangcheng was still leaning idly on his club. Seeing Qi Chanyang turn around, he lifted his eyelids... only halfway!

Too lackadaisical!!

Qi Chanyang closed his eyes briefly before asking, "Do you have any ideas?"

"No." Without a second of hesitation, Jie Fangcheng answered decisively.

"..." Qi Chanyang's face darkened. "Do you even know what question I'm asking??"

"Of course. How to find the one normal person, right?"

"Then do you have..."

"No." Jie Fangcheng looked at him, finding him rather strange. "If you're asking me, my idea is to tie them all up and interrogate them one by one."

After saying that, Jie Fangcheng actually sat up straight, his eyes lighting up. "Right! Why don't we tie them all up?"