He Yu

In the end, Xu Kai couldn't bring himself to go through with it and imitate that whole series of dog movements.

He looked at the clock. It was 7:59 a.m., almost time for breakfast. Right on cue, someone knocked on his ward door.

"Come in."

The door opened, revealing a nurse. Something about her was so strange that Xu Kai's heart tightened.

The nurse held a medical record in her hand, which was perfectly normal. But she was wearing a mask and carrying a tray in her mouth. On the tray were bread and milk, both packaged in bags.

The nurse stared at Xu Kai, signaling him to take it. He reached for the tray with his hands. The moment he did, a flicker of disappointment appeared in her eyes.

After taking the tray, Xu Kai watched the nurse warily. The rules said a nurse would deliver the food, but he hadn't expected this method of delivery. It was more than a little strange. Then the strange nurse spoke, offering a suggestion:

"Patient Number Nine, your condition may have worsened. We'll ask a doctor to see you at seven tomorrow morning. Remember to get up a little early and stay in your ward."

"Hm?"

What was going on? Had his condition already gotten worse?

Xu Kai was puzzled. Hearing the nurse's words left him with a strange feeling he couldn't put into words.

But the rules were the priority right now, and they required him to eat on time. Xu Kai focused on the food. The bread was fresh and sealed in a bag. He took the bag; according to the rules, he had to eat within this half hour.

The nurse was still watching from the side, but Xu Kai paid her no mind. He opened the bread and began eating.

Seeing him eat, the nurse hurriedly took out a medicine box. It bore tally marks and the words "Patient Number Nine."

She opened the box, took out two pills, one red and one blue, and said to Xu Kai:

"Please take one pill, whichever you prefer. Of course, as your condition has worsened, I recommend the blue one."

Xu Kai couldn't read her expression as she spoke. The nurse had maintained a textbook poker face the entire time.

Xu Kai recalled what the nurse had done when she entered, as well as the movements depicted on the board on the wall. An outlandish conjecture formed in his mind.

When the nurse had signaled him to take breakfast, she must have meant for him to take the tray with his mouth, not his hands!

From her perspective, that was the correct way to do it, which was why she'd said his condition had worsened.

Seen that way, Xu Kai's heart tightened. Looking at the nurse's two outstretched hands, he hesitated. He was prepared to risk his life to figure out what the two pills did, so he first took the red pill.

Xu Kai couldn't see the pills' colors. He simply took the pill from the hand the nurse had said held the red one and placed it on a piece of paper.

When Xu Kai took the red pill, the nurse frowned but said nothing more. She put the blue pill back in the box and pushed the door open to leave.

Holding the red pill, Xu Kai hesitated over whether to take it. There was obviously something wrong with the pills, but if he didn't take one, he would face the unspecified punishment the game had mentioned.

Sure enough, while Xu Kai was hesitating, the game's voice rang out.

[Number 95201, you failed to take your medication after the nurse left. Current rule punishment: forced erasure]

Well, now he knew what the unspecified punishment was.

As soon as the voice finished, Xu Kai's vision went white, and he turned to ash.

When he woke up again, Xu Kai felt he was becoming more and more unhinged.

His hesitation just now had actually revealed more than anything that he was growing numb to death, valuing his life less and less, and relying more and more on his Talent.

That was terrifying. Xu Kai had to stay on guard at all times; this was a horrifying corruption.

It meant that when Xu Kai ran into difficulties, he would stop thinking and instead use his lives to probe his way forward bit by bit. Not only would he lose his wisdom, he would also become more dependent on his Talent.

It would be easy to end up truly dead that way! If he rewound to a particularly difficult scenario and his diminished wisdom couldn't solve the problem, he would die permanently! He was too dependent on this Talent. In fact, there were many things it couldn't solve.

For example, the cause of his original death, or how he had crossed over to this place.

When he had originally died, Death Rewind hadn't pulled him back. It was the game that had brought him to the City.

That alone was enough to put Xu Kai on guard. He needed to cherish his life, make every life last as long as possible, and gain as much information as he could.

And so he tried again.

On his eightieth rewind, Xu Kai returned to the moment the nurse gave him the pills.

He looked at the medicine she offered and chose her right hand, the one holding the blue pill.

He had died several times before from taking the red pill. It had actually poisoned him, sending stabbing pains through his body and immediately making it difficult to breathe.

Even then, he remembered what he'd told himself and made the most of each life. He charged straight at the nurse and flipped open Patient Number Nine's medical record, instantly understanding his own condition.

Patient Number Nine: suffers from Upright Ape Cognition, always believing that people stand upright and can use tools with both hands. Treatment plan: use Model Therapy to help change this perception. People should be on all fours and make more use of tools with their mouths.

After reading the record, Xu Kai understood that the entire hospital's perception was skewed. Perhaps, as far as the hospital was concerned, he really was a patient. And the red pill was lethal. There had only ever been one path open to Xu Kai: taking the blue pill.

This time, Xu Kai didn't hesitate. He took the blue pill from the nurse's hand and swallowed it.

The nurse breathed a sigh of relief, lifted her mask, and ate the red pill herself.

Hm?

Seeing the baffled look on Xu Kai's face, the nurse carefully explained:

"Once this box of medicine is opened, it'll go to waste if nobody takes it soon. I'd just have to throw it away if I took it back. And please don't tell anyone I took it, Number Nine! Lately I've felt like there's something wrong with my perception. I keep wanting to walk standing up."

Xu Kai: "..."

So you were supposed to crawl in here?

Well, it turned out the nurse was sick too, and she was afraid of being found out.

Xu Kai nodded and promised not to tell anyone. Only then did the nurse prepare to leave.

Xu Kai finally understood why the nurse had looked disappointed when she saw him take the red pill on the previous run. It turned out she had been worried she wouldn't get to take it herself.

After taking the pill, the nurse put her mask back on, gripped the medicine box in her mouth, and crawled out.

The bizarre sight made Xu Kai's heart tighten. Would he end up like that too?

Xu Kai still couldn't tell whether the blue pill he'd just taken would affect his perception, but a game notification popped up.

[Temporary buff acquired: movement speed increased by 30% while crawling. Duration: two hours]

Seriously, who wants a temporary buff like that?

Xu Kai grumbled. He'd finished eating, and only ten minutes had passed, leaving him a full fifty minutes to go out and explore.

He pushed the door open and stepped out. His objective was clear: since the Killing Zones were the cafeteria and the elevator, he would naturally check those two places first and see whether he could make any preparations in advance.

The requirements for becoming a Weird were extremely strict. He had to kill until only one qualified candidate remained, and then he still needed a Discharge Certificate. The Discharge Certificate was obviously a major trap, given that the hospital considered people who crawled around with trays in their mouths normal.

Xu Kai didn't dwell on it. He opened the game panel, which clearly showed the number of surviving participants: six.

In other words, four "Evils" and three players had originally entered, and roughly ten minutes into the game, one was already dead!

At that thought, Xu Kai grew more alert. He decided to check the elevator first.

He had already resolved to kill. If he got the chance, he would strike without hesitation.

The corridor was long. Xu Kai said nothing, walking carefully along it. He didn't trigger any rules on the way and reached the area near the elevator without trouble.

Only then did he notice that he was on the seventh floor, while the cafeteria was on the second.

He pressed "down," and the elevator began moving toward his floor.

Ding-dong.

The elevator arrived quickly. Its doors opened, revealing an empty car. Xu Kai probed with his Weird Energy and detected no trace of an "Evil."

He stepped inside and pressed "two." After a short wait, the elevator doors closed. At that instant, a sharp dinner knife pierced Xu Kai's heart, and a mocking female voice sounded beside his ear:

"'Evil,' watch out for glass in your next life. Some powerful people can pass through mirror surfaces, you know~."

After speaking, the female "Evil," afraid Xu Kai wouldn't die, sent her Weird Energy into his body and churned it wildly.

"Huh? You're still not dead? I think I just ambushed and killed a pretty incredible 'Evil'! The quality of this Weird Energy is way too high. No, I have to run! If I don't, you'll turn the tables and kill me~. Remember, the one who killed you is He Yu. Don't forget to call my name while you struggle~"

Seeing that Xu Kai was still struggling, the female "Evil" teased him a little more before flashing away through the elevator mirror.

Well, she'd actually stabbed him in the back! This had to be the female "Evil's" Talent, letting her pass through mirror surfaces. Xu Kai hadn't sensed her Weird Energy at all before. It really was uncanny.

Xu Kai had no strength to pursue her. His Weird Energy kept leaking out as it desperately tried to fill the gap left by the fatal wound, but to no avail. All Xu Kai could do was slowly feel his body grow colder as countless hallucinations appeared.

He had experienced this before. Because the force killing him was too weak, his death was agonizing. If a Weird or the game had done it, it would have been much quicker.

Xu Kai had no time to endure it. He shaped the Weird Energy remaining in his body into a blade, aimed it at his head, and swung down hard.

"He Yu, was it? I'll remember you."