Blue Mountain Psychiatric Hospital 20

Holy shit!

This time, even Lu Xiaoqin had stopped crying. She stared at him blankly.

Jie Fangcheng caught her expression from the corner of his eye and assumed she'd been scared stiff.

After thinking for a moment, he said awkwardly, "It's fine. I had He Xin go downstairs and call Qi Chanyang and the others. They'll come up and keep you company in a bit."

Lu Xiaoqin: "...Oh."

Jie Fangcheng really had no idea how to comfort people. After saying that, he turned back to Han Qi and jerked his chin at him.

"Why are you standing so far away? Can you tell whether I'm sick or not from all the way over there?"

Han Qi hurriedly said, "You're not sick."

"?? Did you even look before saying I'm not sick?"

Han Qi thought, Who would dare say you're sick?

He reluctantly inched his way back from the wall to his seat. The mouths that had been bickering all over his body were now silent as mice.

Watching the NPC who had been so terrifying a moment ago behave as meekly as a quail, Lu Xiaoqin couldn't help glancing again at Jie Fangcheng, who was sitting there.

The moment the NPC sat down, Jie Fangcheng reached his hand forward.

With a clatter, Han Qi immediately sprang out of his seat and pressed himself back against the wall at lightning speed.

Jie Fangcheng: "..."

Speechless, he said, "I'm getting my staff. Why are you running?"

Clenching his teeth, Han Qi pulled the staff out from his shoulder himself and held it out to him from a safe distance.

After taking it, Jie Fangcheng asked, "Got a rag?"

Han Qi shook his head, staring straight at him.

After a moment's thought, Jie Fangcheng handed the staff back to Han Qi.

"Then wipe it down for me. Get it nice and clean." He even complained, "Look, it's covered in your blood."

Han Qi: "..."

Lu Xiaoqin: "..."

At that moment, seeing the look on Han Qi's face, Lu Xiaoqin felt a strange flicker of sympathy for the NPC.

Without a word, Han Qi took the staff, lowered his head, wiped it clean with his white coat, and handed it back.

Satisfied, Jie Fangcheng planted the staff on the floor and tipped his chin at him. "Come on, let's do the consultation. How did you do it just now?"

"..." Han Qi gritted his teeth. "You're not sick. You can leave now."

Jie Fangcheng slapped the table. "You didn't even look. Being this careless, are you asking for a beating??"

Han Qi could only drag himself back into the seat. Leaning his body away, he ran his enormous, terrifying eyeballs up and down Jie Fangcheng. After looking him over for a while, he finally said, "You're not sick, all right? Could you please leave now?"

Jie Fangcheng shook his head. "I'm not leaving."

"You... don't disrupt the normal consultation process!"

One patient like this was bad enough! Han Qi's mindset had gone from "choosing prey" to merely hoping for a chance to sneak a bite of prey.

He wasn't even planning to go after this guy anymore!

But Jie Fangcheng still shook his head. "I'm not leaving. What are you going to do about it?"

At that moment, a jumble of footsteps sounded in the hallway outside the door.

He Xin led the way. A swollen red mark crossed his face, as though something had whipped him. He limped along with a somewhat aggrieved expression, a stark contrast to the monster who had been about to feed just minutes earlier.

The moment they reached the consultation room, He Xin turned and ran.

Everyone looked at one another, unsure what had happened.

Xue Kai poked his head in for a look, then immediately pulled it back.

Patting his chest, his face pale, he whispered, "Han Qi is covered in blood. I don't know whose it is. It's terrifying!"

Qi Chanyang hurriedly looked inside as well, then fell silent.

There were three people in the room. Han Qi was covered in blood and looked terrifying at first glance, but looking again, the other two players were there. Lu Xiaoqin sat by the wall. Even that timid girl dared to hold her head high now, looking from Han Qi to Jie Fangcheng.

And the other one was Jie Fangcheng...

He slung the staff over his shoulder.

"You're done with the diagnosis, right? I'm not sick, right?"

Han Qi: "...Right."

"Who's next? Oh, Xiaoqin." Jie Fangcheng looked at Han Qi. "Is she sick?"

Han Qi's eyes rolled as he looked at Lu Xiaoqin.

Lu Xiaoqin was still timid. The moment their eyes met, she fearfully looked away.

Now that's more like it!

Just as Han Qi's lips were about to curl into a smile, Jie Fangcheng rose from his chair, planted his staff on the floor, and looked at him.

Han Qi: "..."

He could only shake his head. "Not sick."

"Fine. Next."

Jie Fangcheng turned around.

The players at the door were craning their necks into the room like a human pyramid. Six faces were filled with shock, fear, confusion, and bewilderment, and there was one more...

"Xiao Yang, why don't you go first?"

The named Qi Chanyang stepped out of the pile.

His expression was calm. He felt that no matter what bizarre scene appeared next, it wouldn't surprise him.

"Here, sit here." Jie Fangcheng kicked the chair over to him, then stood beside the desk like a door guardian and looked at Han Qi. "Don't you like consulting on patients? Go ahead and diagnose him."

With that god of slaughter standing before him, Han Qi could only say, "He's not sick either."

"Next."

By the time every player had finished their consultation, they all still felt as though they were dreaming.

Xue Kai asked softly, "What exactly is going on here??"

Wasn't this Player Jie a newcomer too? Why did he seem even fiercer than the NPC??

Qi Chanyang tilted his head back and sighed. "It's a long story."

Just as everyone was leaving the consultation room, Jie Fangcheng remembered something and turned back. "Oh, and add a plate of meatballs to lunch. Remember to tell the cook."

Han Qi's face darkened, but seeing the staff slung over Jie Fangcheng's shoulder, he could only nod in humiliation.

Jie Fangcheng was very considerate. He even asked the players, who were staring at him in horror, "Is there anything you want to eat? Might as well order it while we're at it."

Everyone stiffly shook their heads.

Only then did Jie Fangcheng leave the consultation room.

Manager Jie was civilized enough not to forget to close the door behind him. Before closing it, he reminded Han Qi once more, "The meatballs. Don't forget."

Han Qi looked at him resentfully.

After leaving the consultation room and returning to the reading room on the first floor, the players fell into a strange silence. Then Xue Kai was the first to raise his hand, looking cautiously at Jie Fangcheng. "Um... c-can I ask... why does He Xin seem so afraid of you?"

Jie Fangcheng replied calmly, "Oh, I beat him up."

"...???" Everyone looked lost.

Xue Kai asked again, "Then... why does Han Qi seem afraid of you too?"

Jie Fangcheng said, "I beat him up too."

Sun Miao was the first to catch on. "So, Brother Jie, you can beat NPCs, right??"

"Right."

Sun Miao's eyes lit up. "Then why don't we just kill all the NPCs? Wouldn't that make us all safe?"

Two voices spoke at once: "No."

Qi Chanyang looked in surprise at Jie Fangcheng, who had also said no.

This guy looked like he did whatever he pleased and ran roughshod over everyone, but he actually followed the instance rules fairly well!

In an instance with an unclear situation like this, you couldn't casually kill NPCs. Any one of them might have a crucial clue.

A horror game like Do Not Respond tested not only strength but intelligence. Only once the situation was clear could you selectively remove certain dangerous NPCs.

This was only their second day in the instance. They couldn't just go kill the NPCs. That was a rule of thumb born from the players' shared experience.

Qi Chanyang had thought this guy wouldn't care about any of that. Who knew that beneath his seemingly carefree manner, he was actually quite rigorous!

Qi Chanyang was just about to explain when he heard Jie Fangcheng patiently enlightening everyone beside him. "If we kill them, who'll sweep the corridors? Mop the floors? Do the cleaning? Empty the trash cans? Unclog the toilets... and most importantly, who'll cook?"

And the food was pretty good, too.

Someone actually went "Oh" in sudden realization after hearing that.

Qi Chanyang: "..."

Jie Fangcheng said, "So you see, that's the wisdom of clearing an instance. Right, Xiao Yang?"

Qi Chanyang looked at him speechlessly.

Like hell it is!!!