Taking Action

Taking Action

If his guess was right, then finding this "Pillar" would be all but impossible, because this "Pillar" had no physical form at all. Mu Sichen's brows drew tight.

"Now that you mention it, when I was pushing my patient around, I felt that gaze too. And it wasn't something faint like catching it out of the corner of my eye. It was more like someone had glared at me hard," Cheng Xubo said. "Then the broadcast started."

Mu Sichen looked at Cheng Xubo as an idea gradually took shape in his mind.

"Wow! That harsh?" Chi Lian said, trying to keep her tone light. "All you did was push a patient out the door. How come the gaze you got was even stricter than the one we got when the three of us huddled together in despair?"

Cheng Xubo said, "From my professional perspective, that's automatic error correction.

"It's like a little game app. You top up 100 yuan. The program automatically records that 100 yuan as revenue, but it doesn't pay too much attention to it. After all, plenty of users top up 100 yuan.

"But if a tiny bug appears in the payment system at that moment, even a very small bug, the program will throw an error as soon as possible. After all, it could very likely affect future revenue."

Chi Lian nodded. "The three of us huddling together in despair just now was equivalent to topping up 100 yuan. The sanatorium glancing over us from the corner of its eye was like automatically recording the recharge amount.

"When you pushed the patient out of the ward, even though we don't know the principle behind it, it was equivalent to touching the sanatorium's payment system. The sanatorium immediately threw an error, so you got glared at hard."

"Exactly," Cheng Xubo said.

The two of them were using modern logic to explain what had happened inside the sanatorium only to improve their mood, pull themselves out of negativity, and lift their spirits.

Their analogy and conversation completed Mu Sichen's plan.

This plan was extremely dangerous. With the slightest misstep, the person carrying it out could be contaminated, become a thorough madman, and ultimately turn into sustenance for the "Pillar."

But right now, it was the plan most likely to succeed.

Mu Sichen was the most suitable person to carry out this plan.

If he could, Mu Sichen did not want to take the risk. He did not want to push himself to the edge of a cliff.

But this was the plan he had thought of, based on his own immature guesses, so he ought to bear it himself. He could not drag anyone else into it.

Still, he was not going to throw his life away for nothing. He had to make sufficient preparations and give himself enough safeguards before he acted.

Inside this sanatorium, which was not intelligent enough and only operated automatically, nothing could protect him better than rules.

Mu Sichen lifted his head to look at the paper where the rules were written. His gaze rested on the two supplementary regulations as he considered how he could add a regulation to the supplemental rules that would protect him for a period of time.

At present, it seemed that if he wanted to add a supplemental rule, he could only start with the patients. After all, they were the sanatorium's "payment system."

But the rule Mu Sichen wanted to write was one that could protect a volunteer's actions from interference. How could he make the target of the rule a volunteer?

Mu Sichen's gaze fell on the first supplementary regulation, "Medical staff may enter any room in the sanatorium." This was a regulation extremely favorable to medical staff. How had Yao Wangping used the sanatorium's bug to write this regulation?

Mu Sichen tried to imagine himself as Yao Wangping, someone with an extremely rational and cold-blooded personality, someone who could sacrifice anyone to achieve his objective.

He simulated Yao Wangping's conditions. The man was capable, was protected by Qin Zhou's Totem, and perhaps also had helpers from Xiangping Town.

If he were Yao Wangping and wanted to add a rule favorable to his own actions, he would definitely use any means necessary, even sacrificing his own companions.

Combining these conditions, Mu Sichen simulated a feasible plan.

In this plan, Yao Wangping could have a companion block the door of a certain room, then do something inside that the sanatorium did not want to happen, such as borrowing Qin Zhou's power to purify the blister-eyes on a patient or family member.

Inside the sanatorium, even if a patient successfully became a family member, the blister-eyes on their body did not truly disappear. They were merely transferred from the patient to the family member.

The ugly blister-eyes were what made patients so loathsome and frightening. If the sanatorium wanted to manufacture despair, then the blister-eyes absolutely could not be purified by any method. They could only be transferred from one person to another. They could increase, but they could not decrease.

The act of Yao Wangping's companion purifying the blister-eyes would inevitably draw the attention of the sanatorium's automated program, which would order Yao Wangping to add a rule as soon as possible and fix the bug.

At that point, Yao Wangping could add the rule, "Medical staff may enter any room." Protected by that rule, he could then break into the room and stop his companion from purifying the blister-eyes.

Of course, in order to deceive the sanatorium's automated program, that Fallen companion who used Qin Zhou's power was destined to be sacrificed by Yao Wangping.

In Yao Wangping's view, even if he personally contaminated one or two companions, as long as he could achieve his objective, all of it was worth it.

After this plan formed in his mind, a series of images surfaced before Mu Sichen's left eye.

In a daze, he seemed to actually see Yao Wangping burst into a restroom and drag out a patient. Most of the blister-eyes on that patient's arm had already disappeared.

Yao Wangping said something to that patient. The patient's gaze gradually went unfocused, and his arm was once again covered in blister-eyes.

Afterward, the dull-eyed patient walked into the elevator and pressed the button for B1.

"What is this?" Mu Sichen covered his left eye and wondered inwardly.

Could it be that because he had happened to guess what Yao Wangping had done, his left eye had automatically "seen" what had happened before?

The ability in his left eye had come from gazing upon Big Eye. At present, it had displayed three abilities.

The first was when the Feather-Eyed Apostle killed the four players. Mu Sichen had lowered his head and not looked, yet his left eye had automatically shown him the scene of what had happened. This was an ability that let him "see" an event as long as it happened within his field of vision and as long as he wanted to know, even if he did not actively look at it.

The second was seeing the souls of the four dead players being absorbed, as well as the concrete manifestation of Qin Zhou's Totem. This was the ability to see things ordinary people could not see, piercing through phenomena to strike directly at the essence.

The third was what had just happened. After he guessed or knew what Yao Wangping had done, he could "see" everything that had happened in the past.

Summed up, these three abilities were "what one wishes to see, one can see," "all things can be seen," and "what is known can be seen."

Mu Sichen did not know how he had stolen these three abilities, but it stood to reason that Big Eye also possessed these three powers.

In other words, when the next "Daylight" descended, even though everything they had done had happened during the "Night," while Big Eye's eye was closed, once Big Eye opened His eye, He would be able to "see" everything they had done in the "Night" clearly.

They did not have time for a second "Night." They had to settle everything tonight.

There was no turning back.

Mu Sichen's expression became resolute. Pointing at the Management Rules, he said, "I want to add a rule: 'Volunteers may not be harmed, and their actions may not be obstructed.'"

"Why add that rule?" Chi Lian was stunned. "Wouldn't that mean we can't turn volunteers into patients anymore and make Self Stickers? Your Self Stickers are really useful."

"Don't worry. We won't be short on Self Stickers," Mu Sichen said with a smile.

Chi Lian relaxed slightly, then immediately said in distress, "But adding that rule is going to be hard, right? We beat up so many volunteers just now, and the sanatorium didn't even look at us."

Mu Sichen said confidently, "That's because we turned the volunteers into patients. The sanatorium can hardly wait for more patients, so of course it ignored us."

"Then should I go beat up the volunteer controlling the elevator?" Cheng Xubo asked. "Can I beat him? That Tentacle-Eye looks really scary."

Mu Sichen said, "...I think if you attack him, even if he can't beat you, he can call a lot of volunteers over to help."

"Oh, right. Volunteers can think. They're different from the sanatorium's automated program." Cheng Xubo scratched his head.

"Then... I turn Cheng Xubo into a volunteer, and we all beat him up together?" Chi Lian suggested.

Mu Sichen said, "...We turned volunteers into patients, and the sanatorium didn't react. Do you think it would care if we injured or killed one volunteer?"

"That's true. Then what should we do?" Chi Lian asked.

"The key is still with the patients. We need to make reasonable use of the patients," Mu Sichen said. "After all, they are the program's 'payment system.'"

Yao Wangping had used a patient to add a rule. Cheng Xubo adding a rule had also been related to a patient. Mu Sichen also had to start with a patient.

"Find a patient and a volunteer who can cooperate with us. Have the volunteer perform an action that looks like they are harming the patient, but is actually treating them. Then a third party interrupts it. The interruption can use that method you two like, beating them up," Mu Sichen said.

Chi Lian said, "We don't like beating people up..."

Cheng Xubo said, "The sanatorium watches a patient about to receive treatment, only for it to be interrupted. That's like a top-up getting halfway through before the system freezes and the transaction fails. Of course that kind of bug has to be fixed!"

"Exactly. At that point, we can easily write a rule about protecting volunteers," Mu Sichen said with a nod.

Chi Lian asked, "But what use is writing that rule? Captain, what exactly are you going to do?"

"Complete the mission assigned by the System," Mu Sichen said. "Destroy the "Pillar" inside this sanatorium!"

Chi Lian did not know how Mu Sichen planned to act, but she trusted her Benefactor unconditionally. She patted her chest and said, "Whatever you need me to do, Captain, just give the order!"

"Turn me into a volunteer now," Mu Sichen ordered.

Chi Lian said, "All right. Then I need Captain Mu to lend me a bit of Energy Value!"

"Please use as much as you need." Mu Sichen currently had 300 Energy Value, enough for Chi Lian to use her Cut-and-Paste ability twice.

They circled the first floor and found a volunteer sweeping a restroom. Chi Lian casually reached into empty air and pulled out a pair of scissors. With two light snips, she swapped the two name badges.

The volunteer became "Family Member: Sha Big-Eyes," while Mu Sichen became "Volunteer: Zhang Sansan."

Cheng Xubo said with great envy, "You two can share Energy Value? That's great. Is that a cooperative ability from forming a party? Can I form a party with you too?"

It was not sharing Energy Value at all. It was Follower Chi Lian freely using his Energy Value, without even needing his consent, Mu Sichen thought sadly.

"For now, you can't form a party with me. Once you do, your identity will become a patient. After the crisis is resolved, I'll explain the conditions for forming a party to you. Then you can decide whether you want to become my teammate (Follower)," Mu Sichen said.

"All right. Where do we go next to find a cooperative patient?" Cheng Xubo asked.

Mu Sichen said, "To the seventh floor. We'll find my patient. Can you go to the seventh floor?"

Cheng Xubo said, "My patient lives on the third floor, but Dr. Yao Wangping's office is on the seventh floor, so I can go."

The attending physician for Cheng Xubo's patient was actually Yao Wangping? Then they had to act as soon as possible. Otherwise, Yao Wangping would very likely harm the patient's family member to achieve his objective.

The three of them went together to the door of Room 704. Mu Sichen instructed the other two to wait outside and rush in to interrupt his actions as soon as they heard the countersign.

After they discussed their strategy, Mu Sichen opened the door.

Shen Jiyue was sitting quietly on the sickbed, waiting for him.