Cut and Paste

Cut and Paste

"Ah, Benefactor!" The moment she saw Mu Sichen, the girl's eyes lit up, and she grabbed him, pulling him into the office.

Mu Sichen had been planning to go in anyway, so he followed her momentum and entered with her.

The situation was a little bizarre, but Mu Sichen still chose to trust this girl.

That trust did not come from the fact that they were both players. It came from an analysis of objective facts.

Mu Sichen had been at the sanatorium for less than an hour, and when he saw Shen Jiyue's medical record log, he had been there for under ten minutes. At that time, Shen Jiyue's attending physician had already been named Ke Yi.

In a mere ten minutes, for this girl to cross the fog from the plaza to the sanatorium, figure out the sanatorium's rules, cure a patient, and happen to have registered under the same name as Shen Jiyue's attending physician was simply impossible.

Unless this girl had entered the game at a different time from him and had already been here for more than two days.

But that was impossible too, because back in the plaza, the girl had been affected by the Feather-Eyed Apostle killing a player and had nearly been contaminated by Big Eye. Someone capable of treating a patient and becoming a doctor would have long since subconsciously accepted the underlying logic of the Town of the Eye, and would not have had her SAN plunge because of a Fallen's death.

The only explanation was that this was the girl's game ability.

That was also why Mu Sichen chose to trust her.

As soon as he entered, Mu Sichen saw a middle-aged woman without a coat tied up on the floor. Her name badge read, "Patient: Chi Lian."

Mu Sichen turned to the girl and said, "Your name is Chi Lian?"

The girl's eyes brightened slightly, and she said in delighted surprise, "Benefactor, you're amazing. Are you omniscient? How did you know my name was Chi Lian?"

Mu Sichen felt Chi Lian's attitude was too enthusiastic. He backed up a step, pointed at the unconscious middle-aged woman on the floor, and said, "I'm guessing she is the real Doctor Ke Yi. What did you do to let the two of you exchange name badges?"

Swapping name badges was something Mu Sichen and Shen Jiyue had tried.

It was not that Mu Sichen wanted to take Shen Jiyue's place. The two of them had discussed the possibility of breaking the rules.

Since they could neither acknowledge the sanatorium's rules nor rebuild them, they had tried to look for loopholes.

Unfortunately, the moment they exchanged name badges, the writing on them automatically changed and reverted to their original names. That path would not work.

He had not expected Chi Lian to actually have a way to exchange name badges with Doctor Ke Yi.

"It's an attached ability of my starter tool," Chi Lian said, taking out a pair of large scissors. "The System said I have the ability 'Cut and Paste.' I didn't take off the name badges. I just cut and pasted the two name badges, and the words on them switched."

Through Chi Lian's somewhat overenthusiastic explanation, Mu Sichen learned what had happened.

After Chi Lian saw Mu Sichen leave, an impulse rose in her heart, and she mustered her courage to follow Mu Sichen into the fog.

But she was very afraid. She moved even more slowly than Mu Sichen, and her sense of direction was not very good either. After walking for a long time, she failed to find the sanatorium, but instead ran into Doctor Ke Yi.

Ke Yi had gone out to search for patients. When she saw Chi Lian, she warmly coaxed her into the sanatorium.

Because Ke Yi swore up and down that she had seen Mu Sichen, Chi Lian foolishly followed Ke Yi into the sanatorium.

Chi Lian recounted, "I was so stupid. It wasn't until she tricked me into the office, tried to tie me up, and was about to send me through admission procedures that I realized I'd been fooled.

"And there was something especially strange. I'm obviously in pretty good shape, but in front of her I just couldn't use any strength. It felt like I was being suppressed.

"Luckily, I still had my game skill, and my MP bar was full. I cut off her name badge with one snip, and that feeling of suppression vanished instantly. I swapped the badges right away and tied her up.

"After that, I had no idea what to do, so I decided to look for a way to leave the sanatorium. I never expected to see you, Benefactor, as soon as I stepped out!"

"A doctor's identity must have an innate suppression over patients," Mu Sichen said.

He was a family member, and he had not felt anything like that when facing Yao Wangping.

"Probably. After we swapped name badges, I knocked her out with just one punch. She didn't even have the strength to dodge." Chi Lian pointed at Ke Yi, then suddenly let out a "Huh?" and said, "Benefactor, look at her. How did she turn into that?"

Mu Sichen looked in the direction she was pointing and saw that many blister-eyes had grown on Ke Yi's neck. Her body was changing.

"She's undergoing pathological mutation. She has become a patient." Mu Sichen briefly explained the rules inside the sanatorium.

"That's terrifying." Chi Lian patted her chest. "I was a patient as soon as I entered. Thank goodness I swapped badges in time. If I'd turned into something that scary, I really would rather just die."

Mu Sichen frowned. "How did you become a patient?"

"Hm?" Chi Lian, who only half understood the sanatorium's rules, looked at Mu Sichen in confusion.

Mu Sichen adjusted his own name badge. It read, "Family Member."

According to Shen Jiyue's understanding, ordinary people who came here would become family members. Only the Fallen would become patients.

If a doctor brought a family member into the sanatorium, that doctor would still have to find a way to contaminate the family member into a patient. Otherwise, it would not count as the doctor bringing a patient to the hospital.

Although the Feather-Eyed Apostle called every resister Fallen on sight, the sanatorium had clear regulations. The true Fallen were people who believed in beings other than Big Eye.

Mu Sichen had no faith at all. He was only an ordinary person, so he had been assigned a family member name badge.

Chi Lian was the same as him. She was a player and should also have been a family member. Why had she become a patient the moment she entered the sanatorium?

"When did you enter the game?" Mu Sichen asked.

"I've been here four or five hours, I guess. I'm not wearing a watch, so I can only estimate based on how hungry I am," Chi Lian said.

Four or five hours. In other words, she should have arrived here around the same time as Mu Sichen.

"When you first arrived in this world, where were you? Did you see a radio or flashlight? Did anyone preach the name of some Great Being to you, like Qin Zhou or someone?" Mu Sichen asked.

As he asked, Mu Sichen suddenly felt a faint pain in his chest. The pain was not serious. It felt a little like he had been lightly whipped by something long and thin.

Remembering the shape of the totem, Mu Sichen felt as if Qin Zhou's tentacle had slapped him across the chest.

Why hit me? Mu Sichen clutched his chest, completely baffled.

At this moment, Chi Lian answered, "No. My Starting Room was like a pitch-black room. It had nothing but four walls, and even the window was sealed shut. There was only a bed. I turned the room upside down before I finally felt a few characters carved into the head of the bed. The texture felt kind of like someone had gouged them out with their fingernails. It was pretty awful."

Mu Sichen asked, "What characters?"

Chi Lian said, "It said, 'I want to go home. I miss Chi Mei Town. Great Lord Yehua, please grant me an end that lets my soul return home.' There was no light in the room, and the two characters for 'Chi Mei' were really hard to feel out. Luckily, I had enough time. I felt them for ages, then copied them stroke by stroke before I could barely tell they read 'Chi Mei.'"

"Chimei Town, Lord of Night Splendor?" Just repeating this town name made Mu Sichen feel as if all the blood in his body had turned cold.

This was the third town name he had heard after the Town of the Eye and Xiangping Town. This "Lord of Night Splendor" was presumably, like Big Eye and Qin Zhou, a monster of another god-class domain, one who ruled Chimei Town.

Mu Sichen had always thought Qin Zhou's subordinates were the only ones inside the Town of the Eye. From the look of things now, more than one faction was lying hidden in this town.

That made sense.

According to this world's underlying logic, god-class monsters needed Followers, needed souls, and also needed to put people into "Pillars" to maintain their domains. This series of measures would obviously cause a serious population shortage.

Under those circumstances, every town would want to increase its population.

The reproductive cycle was too long. Besides, in strange towns like these, people either became madmen or numb beyond bearing. How were they supposed to date, marry, have children, and raise the next generation?

Compared with reproduction, the faster way to increase the population was expansion.

This Lord of Night Splendor of Chimei Town had presumably set his sights on the Town of the Eye too.

Perhaps Big Eye would also send His own subordinates to infiltrate other towns.

But because of the existence of "Pillars," most Fallen did not live well, whether it was Qin Zhou's subordinates Yao Wangping and Shen Jiyue, or the former owner of Chi Lian's room.

Sure enough, a "Pillar" could only be broken from inside a town.

"You really haven't believed in this Lord of Night Splendor at all?" Mu Sichen asked.

"No. It was such a crazy sentence. How would I dare believe it?" Chi Lian's expression was completely normal, nothing like someone who had gone mad. "At the time, I thought that sentence was a game clue. From 'Chi Mei,' I guessed this was a supernatural game and had already mentally prepared myself to meet a crowd of ghosts after leaving the room. I never expected to see a bunch of eyes. They were so disgusting. I would rather have gotten a pretty vengeful ghost big sister!"

When Chi Lian thought back on the eyes now, the emotion of despair had gradually faded, replaced instead by a little urge to complain.

Mu Sichen felt Chi Lian was in a much better state than when they had first met.

The problem was that in this world, without the protection of a god-class monster, how could anyone's mental state possibly be good? Even Mu Sichen himself was not in the mood to complain the way Chi Lian did.

In this place, the only way your mental state got better was by going insane!

Mu Sichen looked at Chi Lian with suspicion written all over his face.

When Chi Lian saw that he doubted her, her heart nearly shattered. She said in great distress, "How can you not believe me? I was just playing a game, and somehow I got thrown into this world where people lose their lives. If you hadn't saved me, I would have died a long time ago, and it would have been an especially ugly death too. In this world, you're the only one I can trust. How could I possibly believe in any other random mess?"

Mu Sichen: "..."

Chi Lian's words reminded him of the Self Sticker he had stuck on Chi Lian earlier.

Wait. Hold on. What had Chi Lian just said? The only one she believed in was him?

An unbelievable thought appeared in Mu Sichen's mind.

The one who had made Chi Lian develop faith, become Fallen, and turn into a patient... it couldn't be him, could it?

As soon as this thought appeared, the long-silent System finally popped up a dialog window.

[Congratulations, player. You have obtained 1 Follower and activated the Follower System. Activation requirements: place a Self Sticker on another person, obtain that person's sincere trust, and possess a reserve of knowledge about god-class domains. Only then can you obtain a Follower.]

Mu Sichen: "..."

He had not expected that to really be the case. Chi Lian was his Follower!

The conditions for activating the Follower System were extremely harsh. Obtaining another person's trust was difficult even in an age of peace, and the requirement to possess knowledge of god-class domains alone could block countless players.

Knowledge of god-class domains was knowledge that could only be stolen by staring directly at a god-class monster with one's own eyes and withstanding the devastating mental blow such a monster brought.

Mu Sichen was not bragging. He felt that players capable of fulfilling this condition were vanishingly rare. Ninety-nine percent of people would collapse and die the moment they first saw a god-class monster, unable even to maintain human form.

Even his own glimpse of this knowledge had come from good luck plus the ignorant boldness of a fool. If he had to do it again, he might not dare look directly at Big Eye a second time.

The System also had not told him what Followers were useful for, or what power obtaining more Followers would raise in him.

Of course, Mu Sichen also understood that if the System had not said it, this was probably something he was not allowed to know, something he would only be qualified to understand once his mind reached a certain level.

For now, the biggest benefit of having a Follower was that Mu Sichen had obtained a teammate he could completely trust.

This teammate was fairly strong and could even Cut and Paste name badges. They now had a teammate who was, in reality, a patient, but in identity, a doctor!

Mu Sichen immediately thought of Shen Jiyue.

If they swapped Shen Jiyue's name badge, would he no longer have to be sacrificed?

"How many more times can you swap name badges?" Mu Sichen asked.

"Just this once." Chi Lian pointed above her head. "My MP bar emptied after only one swap, and it's really strange. My current MP bar cap is 100, but the System shows that Cut and Paste costs 120 Energy Value. I have no idea where the extra 20 Energy Value came from."

A bad feeling suddenly rose in Mu Sichen's heart.

"When you were using your skill, did you..." Mu Sichen paused in embarrassment, then still asked with forced resolve, "Did you think of me?"

"I did!" Chi Lian said with certainty. "At the time, I was thinking that I was going to die this time, and wondering whether Benefactor could save me again!"

Mu Sichen only felt his heart clog up. He opened the System panel and checked. Sure enough, his Energy Value, which had finally recovered to 30, now only had a pitiful 10 left. Chi Lian had borrowed 20 from him.

Mu Sichen did not know what benefits Followers would bring him, but he now knew the downside.

Just now, when Chi Lian had prayed to him in her moment of danger, he had responded, and 20 Energy Value had been deducted!

As long as his Energy Value recovered to 33, he could use the "Undermine" skill one more time. He had been only 3 points away, and now he was back at square one.

Just one Follower had nearly drained his Energy Value. If he gained a few more Followers, his poor 100 Energy Value simply would not be enough to go around.

And this Follower System made no sense at all. He did not mind lending Chi Lian 20 Energy Value to save her life, but could it at least notify him first?

At the very least, could it let him click something like Agree? Could it not deduct his Energy Value in total silence?

Was it going to be like this from now on? If so, his plans would be disrupted endlessly.

[In the early stage of a startup, the boss has to do everything personally. Once the business develops later, that will no longer be the case.]

The System popped up this sentence at exactly the right time.

Mu Sichen: "..."

It was bad enough that this lousy System hid everything from him, but now it was even making sarcastic comments at him?

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Author's Note:

Qin Zhou (little fists pounding chest): Mu Sichen, look at me. Believe in me.

Chi Lian: Benefactor, lend me some money (Energy Value), and I'll believe in you!

Mu Sichen: Enough. I'm tired.