Blue Mountain Psychiatric Hospital 2

The meal was served quickly.

The other players hesitated, but under the doctor's repeated urging, they finally took their seats as well. Then people dressed as chefs pushed out serving carts.

Just as No. 9 had said, each person received a basin of meatballs in sour soup, a bowl of tomato-and-egg soup, and a bowl of rice.

The players who had received their food looked at one another, chopsticks in hand, unsure whether they ought to eat.

The doctor urged them from the side. "There isn't much time for the meal."

As he spoke, his enormous eyeballs turned, sweeping across every player's face. "Don't waste food."

It seemed that not wasting food was one of the Rules.

Qi Chanyang picked up his chopsticks and put a meatball into his mouth.

"Eat."

The person seated beside Patient No. 8 was a high school senior, pale as a sheet.

"These aren't really human-meat balls, are they?"

Qi Chanyang shook his head. "No."

Do Not Respond had been operating for many years, and players had worked out certain patterns.

For instance, no matter how powerful an instance's NPCs were, they still had to follow that instance's game Rules. As long as players did not trigger an NPC's killing rule, the NPC could not make a move against them.

Like just now: several players had stubbornly stood where they were rather than sit down, and the doctor had only urged them on.

Players had also discussed the issue of ingredients extensively. After all, many instances took more than three days to clear, and during that time they would inevitably have to eat food from inside the instance.

Most of the time, there was nothing wrong with the food. As for human flesh... as long as no player had died, the instance's ingredients would not contain human flesh.

"Really?" The student's complexion improved a little. Imitating Qi Chanyang, he picked up a meatball too.

Qi Chanyang was just about to explain this to everyone when Xie Fangcheng beside him spoke up. "Really. Human meat doesn't taste like this."

Clang. The meatball fell from the student's chopsticks back into his basin.

Everyone stared at him in horror. Even the patient NPCs twisted their strange necks and craned toward him.

Xie Fangcheng froze when he saw their expressions. "I was joking."

Everyone: "..."

Fuck! What kind of person was this?

The high school senior angrily picked up the meatball again. When he bit down, he did it with enough force to suggest he was biting through someone's skull.

Only Qi Chanyang turned back and gave him another long, searching look.

This player named Xie Fangcheng had first lifted his meal basin and smelled it, then tried a meatball before digging in with gusto.

Food in an instance, especially minced-meat balls like these, made it difficult to tell what the original ingredients had been.

Could this Xie really taste it?

The way he had appeared was strange too. It was the first time Qi Chanyang had encountered a player who had entered an instance at a different time from everyone else.

And when new players died and entered the game, they would more or less be frightened or excited. Some whose deaths had been especially gruesome could not shake the agony they had felt when they died.

But this man? Why did he look like he had come home? His mentality was far too relaxed, wasn't it?

More than relaxed, Qi Chanyang watched as he went for a second serving of rice. He even exchanged a few words with the NPC dishing it out before coming back looking deeply disappointed.

The high school senior next to No. 8 could not help asking, "What did you say to him just now?"

The high school senior was called Xue Kai. After the college entrance exams, he had gone swimming with friends and drowned.

He had been a good student all his life and normally did not even play games. Yet after dying, he had been dragged into a horror game.

From the moment the elevator doors opened, horror movies he had seen had replayed over and over in his mind. Now he was sitting beside No. 8... God knew that when he had looked down just now, he had seen No. 8's feet splayed on the floor at angles no normal person could imagine, looking at a glance like a pair of pets.

But after he met the feet's gaze, they seemed to possess minds of their own and reluctantly crawled back into their shoes.

It was terrifying!

Xue Kai felt as though he was about to faint. Then he looked up and saw that this Xie Fangcheng, another newcomer who looked like a student too, could chat with Patient No. 9 and then go chat with the NPC serving rice.

What a warrior!!

Xue Kai was almost overcome with admiration.

"Oh, I asked if I could get some more meatballs."

"Ah... a-and what did the NPC say?"

"He said no. We didn't pay enough for the meal, so everyone only gets one serving."

"Oh, oh..." Xue Kai ate a meatball, then gathered his courage and asked, "How do you dare talk to them?"

Patient No. 9, whose head was practically about to fall off, was eating. His back was held stiffly straight while his neck stretched downward. But unlike a normal person's, the back of his neck had no curve. Xue Kai even thought he resembled a deflating inflatable doll: his neck was bent at a sharp angle, yet he sat straight-backed and lowered his mouth to drink the soup on the table.

But the difference in height was truly too great. No. 9 kept stubbornly extending his head downward, and his neck made crack-crack sounds as though it were about to snap.

The bizarre scene made Xue Kai lower his head immediately after one look. He only dared stare at his own bowl.

Then he heard that warrior speak to the NPC beside him first.

"Little Nine, if you can't reach it, just pick up the bowl and drink from it."

Patient No. 9 turned his head and stared at him without blinking, confusion in his eyes.

Xie Fangcheng sighed, picked up his bowl, and held it to his mouth.

"Drink."

Everyone: "..."

No. 9 finally got to drink his soup. Xie Fangcheng even said to Xue Kai, "See? That's communicating, isn't it?"

Xue Kai hesitated, then turned to look at No. 8 beside him.

No. 8 held chopsticks in his right hand and a bowl in his left. Apparently finding his hands too far apart, he set down the bowl in his left hand. Then his left hand shrank into his sleeve and, like an octopus tentacle, wriggled across his chest toward his right shoulder. Soon it grew out from his right shoulder.

Satisfied, No. 8 resumed eating with his two arms.

Xue Kai shuddered and quickly lowered his head, saying nothing more.

Qi Chanyang gave Xie Fangcheng another meaningful look.

Communicating with NPCs to obtain information about the instance was something players had to do, just as Qi Chanyang had tried to build a rapport with the doctor on the way to the cafeteria.

But it was already good enough if newcomers did not hold everyone back. Was this Xie Fangcheng really a newcomer?

If he was, that was one thing. But if he was not, why was he concealing his identity as an experienced player?

Qi Chanyang watched him intently when a scream suddenly rang out beside him.

"Aaaaahhh—"

Lu Xiaoqin, seated beside Patient No. 3, sprang to her feet. Following her gaze, everyone immediately saw what had happened.

Patient No. 3 held a bowl in one hand. In the spoon in his other hand sat an eyeball.

The eyeball rolled around on the spoon, spun once, and fixed its gaze directly on the standing Lu Xiaoqin.

"Aaaah—"

"What are you screaming for?" The doctor came over, his eyes above the mask staring straight at her as well. "Loud noises are prohibited in the cafeteria."

"An eye, an eye... an eye..." Lu Xiaoqin was only an ordinary second-year college student. She did not even watch horror movies in everyday life. Now her face was deathly pale, and her entire body shook.

The right eye socket of Patient No. 3, who held the spoon, was now only a shriveled hollow. His left eye and the right eye on the spoon were both looking at her.

As a fellow female player, Gu Shanshan immediately stood up from beside Patient No. 4, went to Lu Xiaoqin, and supported her, blocking her view.

The doctor looked at her. "What eye?"

Lu Xiaoqin clung to Gu Shanshan's shoulder, too afraid to speak. Gu Shanshan took a deep breath and answered for her. "There's an eyeball on that spoon."

At those words, the doctor's eyes slowly narrowed. Even through his mask, one could sense his pleasure.

"Is that so? Did both ladies see an eyeball?"

"Yes." Gu Shanshan nodded.

The doctor's smile widened.

"There is no eyeball. Ms. Lu, Ms. Gu, perhaps your hysteria has worsened. It seems we will need to prescribe each of you an additional dose of treatment medication tonight."

Gu Shanshan's heart skipped a beat, while Lu Xiaoqin looked as though she was about to pass out.

"No..."

The doctor continued smiling. "Please rest assured, ladies. The doctors at our Blue Sky Psychiatric Hospital are highly skilled. We will certainly cure you of your illness."

But just then, someone suddenly spoke.

"There is an eyeball on the spoon."

The doctor turned his head and stared at the person sitting beside No. 9.

That person looked like an ordinary player too. Yet for some reason, when the doctor met his eyes, he felt faintly uncomfortable, as though he had encountered a natural predator.

He kept smiling. "It seems Mr. Xie's hysteria is quite serious too..."

Xie Fangcheng cut him off. "There really is an eyeball. Why don't you look at the spoon again?"

At his words, everyone turned in unison to look at No. 3's spoon.

The spoon that should only have held one eyeball now barely contained two. Great swaths of white hung suspended in the air, the pupils pressed together pupil to pupil.

No. 3, who had lost both eyes, was blankly "looking" at everyone through two empty holes.

The doctor's expression changed.

He glared viciously at the person beside No. 9. Xie Fangcheng smiled at him. "See? I wasn't lying to you."

The doctor stared at him. After a long while, his gaze shifted back to Lu Xiaoqin.

He gave an inscrutable smile. "Hysteria will only get worse without treatment. Don't be ashamed to seek medical care."

With that, the smile slowly vanished from the doctor's face.

"What are you standing around for? Sit down and eat!"

Gu Shanshan gently patted Lu Xiaoqin's shoulder, first seeing her back to her seat before returning to her own.

Lu Xiaoqin kept trying to eat as she cried.

Patient No. 3, seated next to her, fumbled an eyeball out of the spoon, wiped it off, and pressed it back into his left eye socket. Then he lifted the spoon and swallowed the other eyeball in one bite.

Lu Xiaoqin cried even harder.

Some of the players could not help it either and muttered, "What the hell is that thing?"

But Qi Chanyang kept his eyes on Xie Fangcheng.

At exactly seven o'clock, a piercing bell rang through the cafeteria. The chef who had served the food came out again pushing his cart and began collecting plates one by one.

Thanks to Qi Chanyang's reminder, everyone had eaten every last bite. When the chef finished clearing away, he looked at them and let out a faint, mournful sigh.

The doctor stood at the door and spoke expressionlessly. "Free activity time begins now. Return to your rooms promptly at ten o'clock to rest."

After saying this, his eyes settled on Lu Xiaoqin once more.

"Patients whose hysteria has worsened may visit the consultation room on the second floor."

......

Though it was called free activity time, many places outside were locked. The doctor only opened the reading room and the badminton court.

The players followed the patient NPCs into the badminton court under the doctor's watchful gaze, then gathered in a corner to discuss things.

Qi Chanyang, an experienced hand who had cleared several instances, began by summing things up.

"Let's sort out the Rules of this instance as we understand them so far."

"First, don't waste food while eating. When the chef cleared the dishes just now, he inspected every player's plate. No one had leftovers, and he sighed in disappointment. So having leftovers may trigger a killing mechanism or a punishment mechanism."

"Second, when you encounter an unreasonable scene, don't show any reaction. Or rather, don't show it in front of the doctor NPC, or you'll be given extra medication. It may not kill you immediately, but judging by the NPC's attitude, it won't be anything good."

Gu Shanshan added from the side, "That doctor NPC told Xiaoqin and me, 'we will need to prescribe each of you an additional dose of treatment medication tonight.' Additional means we may already have a dose of medicine to take tonight. If that's true, what do we do about it? Do we take it?"

Qi Chanyang gave her an extra look.

Lu Xiaoqin had been so frightened in that situation that she did not even dare lift her eyes, but Gu Shanshan could clearly remember exactly what the NPC had said. That was rare for a newcomer.

Of course, there was another newcomer—

"By the way, before we continue, I have a question." Qi Chanyang looked at Xie Fangcheng. "Xie Fangcheng, can you explain how you made No. 3's eyeball fall into the spoon?"

"Hm?"

Qi Chanyang did not blink. His fingers pressed against his wrist, where he had set the entrance to his System Inventory. The gesture would let him pull an item from it as quickly as possible.

"I've thought it strange from the moment you entered the game. It's my first time encountering a player who entered an instance at a different time from the rest of us. Of course, perhaps I simply haven't cleared enough instances; maybe this is a common occurrence."

"But you're a newcomer. You aren't afraid of any of these NPCs at all. That No. 9 beside you can sit upright with his head folded backward in half, yet you can still chat with him so happily."

"None of that is the point—"

"As a newcomer, how did you make No. 3 dig out his eyeball and put it on the spoon? Answer me!" By the end, Qi Chanyang was already speaking harshly.

Xie Fangcheng let out an "Ah," unable to decide whether to laugh or cry.

"That's easy. Little Nine!"

The NPC in hospital clothes printed with "No. 9" was holding a badminton racket at the edge of the court, batting his own head back and forth as though it were a shuttlecock. Hearing Xie Fangcheng call him, No. 9 slowly turned his head, then folded it back one hundred and eighty degrees, looking at the players in the corner upside down.

Xie Fangcheng waved to him. "Come here, come here."

No. 9 thought it over, shifted his body, and ambled over.

The way he walked was strange. Or rather, all the patient NPCs walked strangely, swaying as though they might fall apart at any moment.

Xie Fangcheng patted his shoulder. "Go secretly dig out No. 3's eyeball. Tomorrow at dinner, I'll give you an extra meatball."

Then Xie Fangcheng added thoughtfully, "Oh, right. After you dig it out, remember to put it back in. Don't affect the relationship between you two."

No. 9's eyes lit up.

He turned and went to find No. 3.

No. 3 was playing badminton with No. 4—using another eyeball of unknown ownership. It bounced with remarkable elasticity through the air, thwacking loudly as the rackets struck it.

Everyone soon found out how No. 9 had plucked out No. 3's eyeball in front of the doctor NPC.

He squatted at the edge of the court and, with a crack, broke off his left hand with his right. Then, while No. 3 went to retrieve the fallen eyeball, he suddenly hurled the left hand out.

As though it had navigation, the left hand landed precisely on No. 3's face, its index finger digging into the eyeball.

"I... I'm going to the bathroom."

This was truly more than an ordinary person could bear. Lu Xiaoqin rose unsteadily to her feet.

The girl had never even killed a chicken in her life. Watching someone break off a hand and gouge out an eye, she really could not keep watching.

Even Gu Shanshan's scalp went numb despite her composure. She stood as well. "I'll go with you."

Over there, No. 9's left hand dug several times. Once it had successfully acquired the eyeball, it pinched it between its index finger and thumb. From a distance, it looked as though it were making an OK sign.

"See? Easy!" Xie Fangcheng said.

Qi Chanyang: "..."

He looked at Xie Fangcheng skeptically. "You've got a lot of nerve. Aren't you afraid at all when you see scenes like that?"

"Oh, my work is sort of related to this."

"Related how?"

Xie Fangcheng smiled. "I don't think I've introduced myself yet. Hello, my name is Xie Fangcheng. I was a department manager in the Underworld Finance Department, and I'm retired now."

"?"

It would have been better if he had not introduced himself. Once he did, Qi Chanyang was completely dumbfounded.

Underworld? Was that some famous big company? Retired? With a face that young, was he even twenty? Had he ever worked?

Xue Kai, however, suddenly understood. While Xie Fangcheng went to speak with No. 9, who had completed the task, Xue Kai leaned close to Qi Chanyang's ear and explained quietly, "Maybe it's voice role-play."

"What?" Qi Chanyang did not understand.

"It's voice cosplay, role-playing. They create a persona for themselves, then put themselves into that character."

"That's not it," another player beside them said. "Voice role-players aren't that immersed. I think it's more like Hei Jie."

"Hei Jie? What's that?"

"It's... how do I put it? Oh, QQ families. It's also sort of role-playing: a bunch of people form an online family. Maybe he joined this family called the Underworld and plays its Finance Department manager. But for one reason or another, someone may have replaced him, so he says he's retired. Since it's the Underworld, he must normally study this kind of thing a lot. Now that he has run into a situation like this, he's doing immersive cosplay, so he's braver."

Qi Chanyang understood too.

Oh, oh. Funeral-punk non-mainstream!

Over there, Xie Fangcheng was chatting with No. 9, who had completed the task. Crouched in the corner, the others could vaguely hear him praising No. 9 for the moment he broke off his left hand, saying it had been so cool and powerful. Even Xue Kai could not help wondering: was immersive role-playing really that useful? Could it let someone turn a blind eye to scenes ordinary people could never imagine?

Should he create a persona too?

Then from now on he would be... um, wouldn't the King of Hell be too over-the-top? Would Black and White Impermanence be better?

As he was thinking this, the two women who had gone to the restroom returned, their faces pale.

"What happened?"

Gu Shanshan gritted her teeth and took a deep breath.

"Just now, we wanted to wash our hands at the sink. When we turned on the faucet, we found that what came out wasn't water."

"What was it?"

"Blood. There were chunks of flesh in it... and human fingernails!"