It was 2 a.m. once again. With Dong Zi covering him, Fu Changxun had already searched most of the underground wards.
And turned up nothing.
Not even a trace of the Director—nor the monsters that the doctors and nurses had turned into.
But everyone was exhausted. Drained. Even if they encountered the NPC Director now, their odds of defeating him and making it out intact were slim.
Fu Changxun had no choice but to say, “Let’s rest for now.”
This had been his mistake. If not for that, they might’ve cleared the instance tonight.
Perhaps sensing his guilt, Dong Zi spoke softly. “It’s only the second night. We’ve only uncovered half of the hospital’s secrets. Even if nothing had gone wrong, the instance wouldn’t just let us leave this easily. It’s not your fault.”
Fu Changxun smiled faintly. “Thanks. I feel a bit better.”
He turned to Liao Xing. “Are you heading back to the fifth floor tonight? It might not be safe.”
Liao Xing nodded. “I’ll be fine. We’ll meet again tomorrow.”
His words came off a little abrupt, but no one thought too much of it. They headed back upstairs.
Fu Changxun walked the two girls to their ward, crouching down to pull a silly face at the younger one.
“Good night, Xiaoxiao,” he said.
“Good night, Gege.”
Xiaoxiao stretched and yawned, then followed Lulu into the ward. The moment she hit the bed, she was out like a light. The second half of the night passed peacefully. She slept well.
When she woke again, she saw Lulu chatting with another woman who shared their room.
“…You’re new patients, so you probably don’t know how important today is.”
Lulu blinked, puzzled. “Huh?” She turned to check the wall calendar every ward had.
Today was… Sunday?
“What about Sunday?” Lulu asked. “Is there an event? Does the hospital take breaks?”
The woman shook her head. “Family visit day.”
But her eyes, despite the mention of seeing family, were dull and numb—completely devoid of joy.
Lulu couldn’t make sense of it. She sent the clue privately to Fu Changxun through the game panel.
He’d only just gotten up himself and was still groggy, eyes half-closed. When he opened the panel and saw the message, he patted his cheeks to snap out of it.
He called over Dong Zi and shared what he’d just learned. “Let’s go up and check it out. There might be clues tied to this family visit event.”
In these instances, every plot beat had a purpose.
Dong Zi nodded and handed him a towel he’d wrung almost dry. “Wipe your face.”
Ever since the unspoken feelings between them had been exposed, Fu Changxun no longer accepted Dong Zi’s little gestures quite so casually. Only in the fuzzy, half-awake moments of morning did he let his guard down.
Sure enough, he accepted the towel and wiped his face. But once he fully came to, he awkwardly turned away. “Thanks.”
Dong Zi grinned. “No need.”
Standing off to the side, Lu Qi quietly watched them, pretending to be invisible.
When they stepped out of the ward, they found the doctors and nurses once again looking like nothing had happened. The monsters had returned to their NPC forms, briskly wheeling meal carts through the halls for patients.
The only difference was—they were now clearly wary of the players. The look in their eyes was guarded.
In Room 411, the woman had already left. Lulu was pacing anxiously.
As soon as the trio opened the door, she rushed over. “I found out more! Every weekend, some patients get visits from family. But the patients aren’t exactly thrilled about it—apparently a lot of them were dumped here by their families.” She huffed indignantly. “What kind of people do that? Sending their loved ones to a place like this!”
Xiaoxiao was just as riled up and nodded furiously. “Exactly!”
Puffed up with righteous anger, the little girl looked like a tiny blowfish, and the group couldn’t help but chuckle.
Just then, a voice echoed across the entire hospital building.
“Patient 001, Liao Xing. You have a visitor.”
The announcement crackled through the hospital’s PA system. Every player immediately looked up.
Both the patient-side and nurse-side players had heard this name from Wang Fan yesterday. They all knew Liao Xing was an especially important NPC.
But the patient-side players knew more. Lu Qi’s eyes went wide. “Liao Xing? I thought he could only appear on the fifth floor at night. How can he have a visitor during the day?”
Fu Changxun’s expression suddenly changed.
He remembered what Liao Xing had said just before they parted last night—“We’ll meet again tomorrow.”
His head snapped up. “Let’s go. He must be able to show up on the lower floors during the day. We need to find out who his visitor is!”
***
Meanwhile, over on the nurse side, Mr. Zeng had barely slept after last night’s scare.
As he got out of bed, he was still shaken, telling his wife, “I swear there was someone—pressed right up against that little window on the door, just staring at us.”
Mrs. Hu believed him, but since she hadn’t seen it herself, she mumbled around her toothbrush, “Well… either way, we’re alive. Doesn’t matter now.”
Even if there had been something out there, what could two rookies like them have done?
Worst case—they’d die together.
After ten-plus years of marriage, they’d already come to terms with the worst possibilities. At least they didn’t have kids. If they died, they had nothing tying them down.
Mr. Zeng understood what she meant—he felt the same. So he hugged her tightly.
That’s when the PA announcement rang out, and the two quickly let go of each other, rushing downstairs to find the others.
Just one wall away, in another dorm room, Li’s livestream was finally back online.
He called out to Zhang and noticed the guy was bundled up tight today. “What, cold or something?”
“Zhang’s” voice was unusually high-pitched and porcelain-soft. “Think I caught a cold. I’m fine.”
“Oh—well, make sure you take care of yourself,” Li replied.
He didn’t think much of it. He usually streamed at night, but he’d taken a shower last night and turned the stream off beforehand—then forgot to turn it back on until now.
But he couldn’t see the barrage of comments flooding the screen—nor did he realize that the moment he started streaming, the audience immediately sensed something was wrong.
[Streamer! What’s up with Xiao Zhang-ge?!]
[His face totally changed! Didn’t Xiao Li-ge notice? How can he be this careless?!]
[Holy shit, I can’t watch this. That thing has to be a ghost!]
[Did it mess with Xiao Li-ge’s perception? Why hasn’t he noticed anything off at all?]
[Exactly! Xiao Li-ge’s a veteran player—he handled the last instance like a pro. There’s no way he wouldn’t notice his partner was replaced!]
[Ge, PLEASE notice something’s wrong already!!]
No matter how loud the viewers cried out, their voices couldn’t reach Xiao Li-ge. He was still cheerfully narrating to his audience: “Today’s breakfast looks great. I’ve got a feeling something big’s coming. Family, time to feast—storm-style!”
He took one bite, then immediately perked up at the sound of a broadcast chime. His face lit up. “It’s that guy from yesterday—they’re calling for him! The instance just dropped a clue!”
Breakfast instantly lost its appeal. He shoved a few more bites into his mouth and waved to his teammate. “Xiao Zhang-ge, c’mon, let’s go—move move move!”
“Xiao Zhang-ge” gave a low, muffled grunt in response and slowly followed behind him.
As the nurse players hurried over, the patient players were already deep in thought.
“This is… his family member?” Fu Changxun said with disbelief, struggling to get the words out.
In the designated family waiting area sat a grotesque, black mass—vaguely resembling a demon from legend, only ten thousand times uglier.
The moment it turned to “face” them, everyone’s SAN value dropped in unison.
It was hideous. So ugly it was physically painful.
Fu Changxun felt like his eyeballs had taken a direct hit for ten thousand damage—he was nearly blinded. At the same time, his entire worldview and value system teetered on the edge of collapse. How could a normal kid like Liao Xing have that as a parent? Why would anyone send their child into a place everyone else desperately avoided?
He couldn’t make sense of it. All he could do was watch as Liao Xing descended the stairs with a blank expression and walked into the waiting area.
Whatever conversation he had with his “family member” wasn’t suitable for eavesdropping. Regretfully, the players had to miss it.
But from the outside, they could clearly see Liao Xing screaming himself hoarse at the monster. The thing didn’t back down, either—its entire black, fleshy mass shook with rage.
When Liao Xing came back out, the creature inside had grown even more grotesque.
His voice was hoarse, even without the glass separating them.
“Sorry you had to see that. We’ve never gotten along.”
Fu Changxun forced a smile. “Don’t worry about it. It’s your life—you don’t have to care what anyone else thinks.”
Liao Xing gave a bitter laugh. “This is just part of the process. I need to head back. See you tonight.”
With that, he turned and walked upstairs without hesitation, as if staying any longer was impossible.
Meanwhile, in other waiting rooms and chambers, more monsters and patients began to appear.
They were all ugly—but Liao Xing’s “family” was uniquely horrific. Hideous in an almost avant-garde way.
Fu Changxun stared at the singularly repulsive creature, and a sudden sense of alarm jolted through him. As if struck by a realization, he turned to the others and asked, “Is there anything all these family members have in common? Any shared traits?”
“Family… family traits…” Lulu gnawed on her fingernail. “All the patients were brought in by their family members!”
Grab any random person in the corridor and ask how they got here—they’d all say the same thing: they were sent in by the person they trusted most. And once they’re in, there’s no getting out.
Which means—they hate their families. Even more than they hate the nurses.
That’s why the family members looked so utterly monstrous.
Mr. Zeng and Ms. Hu arrived, followed closely by Xiao Li-ge.
They had, once again, missed a critical piece of information. Regretful, they turned to Fu Changxun and the others for an update.
Xiao Li-ge’s attitude was still terrible. He fired off a few questions, but none of the players responded. Finally, Ms. Hu stepped forward and asked politely, “Mr. Changxun, what happened?”
Fu Changxun let out a long breath and said solemnly, “I think I finally understand—about Liao Xing.”
“In his mind, the nurses are terrifying black monsters that stab him with needles and force medicine down his throat. The doctors are white, masked monsters who shock him with electricity. His family? They’re devils who visit him from time to time—like a prison visit—and were the ones who sent him to this hell in the first place.”
“There’s only one exception. Just one person who remains human—” Fu Changxun paused before continuing, “—the one he considers his friend.”
Dong Zi added, “But he believes he belongs to the darkness, while his friend is part of the light. So the real question is—why did he end up here? No—why was he sent here? That’s the key.”
