The third player

It was a crude, simple scam, but someone would always believe it. That person was already on the brink of disaster, and only a discharge certificate could save him.

Whoosh!

Player Eight had only been out for a moment when a hand in a hospital gown pulled him back inside. The scene seemed to cause no stir. Most people in the cafeteria merely glanced over, then settled their stomachs and prepared to leave.

But one of the patients lying on the floor moved. He too made muffled cries as he charged into booth eight.

Almost instantly, Xu Kai saw this and concluded that he was the third player. The third player was in a very strange and poor state. Xu Kai felt that he was both immensely powerful and extremely weak.

Leng Chong had long been waiting inside booth eight. As soon as the third player entered, he immediately met him face-to-face.

Ice-cold Weird Energy spread over the player's entire body, freezing him on the spot.

Xu Kai took the opportunity to leave his own booth. Now that every player's identity had been confirmed, he had no more reservations. He charged straight into a doctor's booth and stripped off the doctor's clothes in front of everyone.

"You... what are you doing? Patient, what kind of illness do you have?"

"Doctor! I have an illness that makes me eat people if I don't wear your clothes! Want to give it a try?"

Xu Kai used Weird Energy to split his mouth open at an exaggerated 270-degree angle. But instead of frightening the doctor as he had imagined, the doctor nodded approvingly and said:

"I see. You're recovering nicely. You can have the clothes to play with."

With that, the doctor actually left. Even Xu Kai was stunned for a moment. This instance was more than a little insane.

According to the plan, it was time for Xu Kai to meet up with Leng Chong.

The sounds of fighting from the booth had reached the entire cafeteria, and two nurses were racing over.

Leng Chong thought he had frozen the third player and that killing him would be easy. But to his surprise, the third player's neck was so tough that his Dinner Knife failed to cut through it.

The knife was lodged inside, and Leng Chong noticed that the wound wasn't bleeding. Instead, fresh tissue rapidly sprouted from it, even pushing the Dinner Knife out bit by bit.

"Xu Kai, what kind of monster did you set me up with..."

Crack.

The ice shattered, and the third player began moving. There was no frenzy in his eyes over obtaining the discharge certificate. Instead, a trace of clarity appeared as he spoke:

"Pah. Good Dinner Knife! You cut through my hyoid bone in one stroke, or I still wouldn't be able to talk. This fucking hospital, saying I could come and go freely once I'd practiced the movements—it nearly got me killed. Oh, right, and you, you 'Evil.' You cut through my hyoid bone, so I really ought to repay you properly..."

"You're welcome. Just stand still and let me cut you a few more times..."

The two moved at the same time as they finished speaking. Leng Chong charged forward, but unexpectedly, the third player chanted an incantation, and a Buddhist barrier appeared in front of him.

"Surprised? I'm the natural counter to Weird Energy!"

Seeing Leng Chong freeze in surprise, the third player boldly charged at him, grabbed his arm, and tried to throw him over his shoulder, only to be frozen again.

Huh?!

Only the third player's face could move. He was stunned. This was a Buddhist-exclusive ability; even if it couldn't suppress Weird Energy, it should have kept it outside his body. Why had he still been frozen?

The third player couldn't figure it out. Only Leng Chong smiled.

"Heh, that's what happens when you don't learn your lesson. This time I won't cut your hyoid bone."

Leng Chong's Talent lowered the temperature of whatever he touched. Weird Energy was merely the fuel for activating the Talent, not the medium, so the third player was hit directly. But Leng Chong had no need to tell the player that.

Although Leng Chong had just made a threat, he was somewhat intimidated as he looked at the third player's seal. Apart from acting tough to scare the third player, he was almost out of options.

He didn't know why, but although the third player was clearly human, his wounds always healed quickly, and his body was extremely tough. The Dinner Knife couldn't cut through him at all. Leng Chong simply couldn't understand it.

Bang!

A tremendous noise came from outside the booth. Leng Chong froze for a moment and glanced outside. At first he was startled, but then he breathed a sigh of relief.

The two nurses had arrived, but Xu Kai had actually stopped them.

The two nurses had heard the fighting in the booth and immediately realized it was the remaining participants. Ms. Lin held Liu Fang's hand as they flew over, stepping across the booths at incredible speed. Just as Ms. Lin was about to pull back the curtain of booth eight, she sensed danger behind her and hurriedly dodged to the side.

Bang!

A table fell from above and crashed into the spot where Ms. Lin had just been standing. The number on the table had been scribbled over and was completely illegible.

A chair landed behind the table. Xu Kai sat on it with his legs crossed and a carton of milk in his hand. Countless ghostly hands stretched out behind him, blocking the two nurses' path.

"You're asking for death!"

Seeing how arrogantly Xu Kai had presented himself, Liu Fang glared at him and prepared to activate her Talent, intending to send him flying out of there.

But at that very moment, Xu Kai calmly began drinking his milk.

[Player Liu Fang has violated the rule "disturbing someone who is eating." Punishment: crushing pressure for ten minutes]

Pfft!

What? How could this be?

Liu Fang was baffled. She spat out a mouthful of blood as the gravity forced her to her knees, and even the floor began to crack. Seeing this, Ms. Lin looked warily at Xu Kai, intending to remember his face. Sister Lin said:

"Impressive. I'll remember you."

She didn't attack. She knew her knife could quickly sever the ghostly hands behind Xu Kai, but that would also violate the rules, since it counted as disturbing someone who was eating.

She was certain the man before her had moved his own table over so that he wouldn't violate the rule requiring people to sit in their seats while eating. At the same time, he had lured them into attacking and violating the rules. His intentions were truly sinister.

Sister Lin had never imagined the rules could be used this way. If she had known, she would have saved her milk from breakfast and pulled a sneaky move of her own. Unfortunately, one of them was now badly injured, kneeling on the ground under punishment, while the other was too wary to move. They could only watch helplessly as the killing unfolded in booth eight.

"Heh, what's your name? Is the discharge certificate in there?"

Sister Lin asked several times, but Xu Kai remained expressionless and simply drank his milk.

There were still twenty minutes until the allotted time for entering and leaving the ward, but Xu Kai wasn't anxious.

He reasoned that the ones who should be anxious were the two nurses. During breakfast earlier, Sister Lin had killed only one person in the elevator before hurrying to the fourth floor. They had less time for their task than he did.

Sure enough, after Ms. Lin saw that she couldn't do anything more, she slowly backed away, preparing to leave.

At that moment, Liu Fang's desperate cries rang out:

"Ms. Lin, don't leave! Save me! It's two against two now! These two 'Evils' must have teamed up!"

"Heh, ever heard of the Three Kingdoms? A triangle is the most stable!"

Ms. Lin's former enthusiasm was gone. She left without looking back.

Of course, she was also watching in secret, hoping to lure Xu Kai into making a move. As long as he did, she was confident she could cut him down in that instant!

But Xu Kai remained steady as a mountain, still drinking his milk without making a move. Ms. Lin crouched in the shadows and watched for a while. Seeing that she really was running out of time, she could only leave with regret.

By now, Liu Fang was even more anxious. When she first entered the game and saw that the punishments varied, she had thought the instance had deliberately made them lighter to create opportunities for killing. Now that she had fallen victim to one, she realized it was a malicious trap set by the Rule Ghost.

Under the punishment of ten minutes of crushing pressure, Liu Fang couldn't move at all! Yet she was about to miss her identity task, and the punishment for failing that task was obliteration.

It was a trap designed to make people let their guard down. Liu Fang glared hatefully at the man before her. If not for him, she wouldn't have fallen for it!

"You! You'll never beat Ms. Lin! Just wait for death! We're all going to die!"

Full of hatred, Liu Fang remained pinned firmly to her knees. Xu Kai stayed calm, drinking his milk as he pleased.

Sure enough, before long, Liu Fang's pupils contracted. A tremendous force descended, and she instantly turned to ash.

Because ten minutes were up.

"Why aren't you done yet? I already stopped the nurses."

"Almost, almost..."

Hearing Leng Chong's perfunctory reply, Xu Kai put down his milk and walked in, raising an eyebrow.

He saw Leng Chong holding a Dinner Knife and hacking fiercely at the player's neck. The player was frozen in a block of ice, unable to move at all.

Leng Chong gripped the Dinner Knife tightly with both hands and had one foot planted on the player's face, as though he were sawing through a tree.

"...Sigh, let me."

Xu Kai's gaze sharpened, and a strange flame ignited inside the player, burning him to ash in an instant.

Holy shit! Starting a fire from a distance! Was that Xu Kai's Talent?

Seeing this, Leng Chong's wariness reached its peak. Ice armor formed over almost his entire body as he watched Xu Kai guardedly.

"What's wrong? What are you doing? Aren't we going to keep working together against Ms. Lin?"

Xu Kai looked innocently at Leng Chong, as though nothing had just happened.

"Ms. Lin? Who's Ms. Lin?"

"The nurse with the knife. I heard her name just now. Come on, let's get out first, and bring Patient Number Eight with us. We're almost out of time."

Xu Kai said no more. He looked at the large clock above the cafeteria. They now had only ten minutes to get back.

Now, everyone was exposed to view. Although Xu Kai was wearing a doctor's uniform, Ms. Lin was no pushover. The lie would probably be exposed soon.

Xu Kai's gaze darkened. As things stood, they could only return to the ward first and plan carefully afterward.