Turning Back

With only ten minutes left, Xu Kai immediately retraced his steps. Looking at the four elevators, he decisively chose the third.

The bloodstains on the third elevator had already vanished, and all the corpses were gone. The elevator was spotless, as though nothing had happened.

Xu Kai was pressed for time. He noticed the abnormalities and, alert for any opponent who might appear, entered the elevator with Patient Number Eight. When nothing happened, he pressed the button for the seventh floor and waited for the doors to close.

Xu Kai and Patient Number Eight were the only ones riding the elevator this time. Patient Number Eight had shown his face to the player Ms. Lin, so Xu Kai had to keep an eye on him to prevent him from running around and drawing the players' attention.

The elevator ascended normally. Faint light showed through the gaps in the elevator, flickering as it rose more and more slowly, until it stopped when the display showed four.

The fourth floor? Xu Kai's gaze sharpened. Leng Chong had said the fourth floor was Ms. Lin's floor.

Ding-dong.

The chime sounded and the elevator doors opened. In that instant, Xu Kai immediately pressed every button above the fourth floor, his fingers flying.

The doors opened fully the moment Xu Kai finished pressing them, revealing the fourth floor.

A long corridor ran across the front of the elevator. A masked nurse happened to walk past Xu Kai.

As she passed the elevator doors, she only looked at Xu Kai out of the corner of her eye, but her stride noticeably shortened. She spoke as she walked, hatred in her voice through clenched teeth:

"Doc~tor, what a coincidence! We meet again! So you're upstairs..."

"I don't think it's a coincidence. Why are you baring your teeth at me? Tired of walking? Do you dare stop?"

"Heh heh..."

Sure enough, the nurse was Ms. Lin. Wearing a mask, she ignored Xu Kai's taunt. After passing the elevator, she kept walking without looking back.

"Don't get cocky. Even if you pressed every button in the elevator, I'll still find you."

Xu Kai ignored Nurse Lin's threat. He had always steered clear of people who flew into impotent rages and did nothing but make threats.

After that little interlude, the elevator doors slowly closed.

Only when the doors had shut did Xu Kai relax his guard slightly.

Nurse Lin was a cunning opponent, using moments when others let their guard down to probe for information. Fortunately, Xu Kai had remained on edge, though he had nearly fallen for it.

When the elevator doors had opened, Xu Kai had never considered stepping out and leaving the elevator killing zone.

He had taken a gamble, betting that Nurse Lin would not come inside.

Nurse Lin had been in a hurry even in the cafeteria, and little time had passed since then. She was most likely still carrying out her duties as a nurse and had no mind to look for Xu Kai.

Nurse Lin had deliberately pressed the elevator button just to find out which floor he was on. Clearly, he had guarded against even that.

After the doors closed, the elevator began to ascend. But because Xu Kai had pressed every button, it stopped at every floor, moving far more slowly than expected. When he stepped out on the seventh floor and saw the clock on the corridor wall, only five minutes remained.

But he could not rush through this corridor. Leading Patient Number Eight, who was down on all fours, Xu Kai carefully made his way through it and returned to the ward.

Nothing special happened along the way. It was just rather quiet.

But Xu Kai kept feeling someone staring coldly at him from behind. When he opened the door to Room Nine and looked back, he froze.

The source of that feeling of being watched was Patient Number Eight.

Patient Number Eight's appearance had changed dramatically. His fingers were slowly joining together, webbing growing between them. His abdomen had grown fatter, and something bulged beneath his hospital gown. The clear stupidity in his eyes was gone, replaced by a plea for death.

His eyes were crimson, too, and seemed to exert a pressure that made even Xu Kai's weird energy falter.

"Wuuu..."

At last, the pleading look in patient eight's eyes changed. It turned cold, like that of a large animal about to begin hunting.

His voice grew deep, like a low-toned wall clock. Sensing something was wrong, Xu Kai rushed into Room Nine and locked the door.

Killing was forbidden in this area, but Patient Number Eight had mutated and had almost no reason left. Xu Kai thought there was little chance Patient Number Eight would understand if he tried to reason with him or explain the rules, so he had no choice but to lock the door and put it between himself and Patient Number Eight.

Xu Kai pressed his body against the door, bracing it with all his might.

Patient Number Eight was pushing just as hard from outside. The weight of his force briefly made Xu Kai think he was a weird creature.

Saliva dribbled from patient eight's mouth onto the door. It was hot enough to give off steam, and it even corroded a small part of the door.

Not only that, Patient Number Eight extended long, sharp nails... No, they no longer resembled nails. They were far too thick, like the claws of some large animal, and he raked them viciously at the ward door.

Bang!

Xu Kai stopped bracing the door and immediately backed away. The instant he did, Patient Number Eight clawed a huge hole through it. Splinters flew against the wall, and his enormous body squeezed through the hole.

Xu Kai backed away calmly, thinking about what had caused patient eight's mutation. Suddenly, inspiration struck, and he understood.

He had made a mistake earlier.

Just before lunch, before Xu Kai had restrained the patient with a stool, he had thrown the frisbee for Patient Number Eight to catch.

That action was identical to the one on the wall panel! So Patient Number Eight had been transformed without him realizing it.

This is bad, Xu Kai thought. Time was up; he could no longer leave the ward without breaking the rules, and there was a large beast inside with him.

Patient eight had mutated completely and no longer looked human. His hospital gown had burst apart, revealing a thick mane. His head had grown ferocious, his mouth had elongated to reveal sharp teeth, and his eyes had turned scarlet.

"Ahem, say, do you still want to play frisbee?"

Xu Kai tried waving the disc, but Patient Number Eight remained unmoved, staring straight at him as though he had something to say.

Xu Kai understood. It meant he was hungry, had no interest in playing, and only wanted to fill his belly with Xu Kai.

Crash!

Xu Kai spun around and hurled a chair at patient eight. It struck him with a huge crash and shattered into pieces.

Patient eight's head only swayed slightly. He did not even bleed, and the hem of his clothing was slightly dirty.

Roar!

After taking the hit, patient eight let out a howl that shattered the glass.

The sound was so loud that Xu Kai felt even his black-and-white world shake.

After that roar, patient eight charged like a ravenous beast. The speed of his rush almost reminded Xu Kai of the semi-truck in the previous instance.

But Xu Kai extended his weird energy and pulled his body aside. A fierce gust swept past him as patient eight slammed into the wall behind him. The white surface immediately broke apart, exposing hollow bricks and dried-out cement.

After dodging the attack, Xu Kai looked around for a suitable weapon. He suddenly spotted two steel IV stands beside the bed and picked one up.

Holding the IV stand, Xu Kai faced patient eight.

"Number eight, remember me? I played frisbee with you."

"...Awooo!"

Patient eight did not answer. Like a feline, he lowered his body as far as it would go, his knees twisting in an unnatural direction. His red eyes fixed on Xu Kai, and he pounced.

The instant he sprang, Xu Kai controlled a weird hand to pull himself up from the ceiling. He flipped over, twisted his waist sharply, and drove the IV pole downward with all his strength!

Psh!

Both ends of the IV pole were blunt, but with all of Xu Kai's strength behind it, the pole struck the pouncing patient eight and pierced his abdomen. It even went through the floor, lodging among the reinforcing bars between the slabs.

"Wuu, awoo!"

Patient eight cried out in pain from the stab. Like a sheet of paper, he had been pinned hard to the floor by a nail.

On all fours, patient eight struggled to jump free. The IV pole began to sway, on the verge of being pulled out by him.

Swoosh!

Weird energy flew from Xu Kai's fingertips and attached itself to the IV stand. Like a giant, it pressed down hard on the stand. Instead of rising, the stand sank another ten centimeters, making patient eight howl in pain.

"Humans are animals that use tools with both hands. How can you beat a human after giving up your human form?"

Xu Kai spoke to patient eight, but unfortunately, patient eight could no longer understand. He continued to thrash about. Though the IV stand had pierced his abdomen, he still displayed astonishing vitality, but he never managed to break free of it.

Only after making sure the IV stand was stable did Xu Kai take a close look at Patient Number Eight's condition.

His muscles were taut, and the muscles exposed on his body were far larger than before. The same went for his vitality: even with the IV pole through his abdomen, he could still thrash about. Xu Kai could even see that part of the wound where the pole had pierced him had already healed.

What bizarre vitality. Before this, Patient Number Eight had only been a patient with impaired cognition, but after performing the action on the wall panel, he had become a beast.

And Patient Number Eight was not the only thing that was strange. There were other things, too.

Xu Kai followed patient eight's wound with his eyes to the floor where the IV stand touched it. The floor was healing too.

Startled, Xu Kai immediately looked at the wall patient eight had hit earlier. Even the hollow bricks had been exposed before, but now the wall had closed up, with only the plaster missing.

"Wait, the whole hospital can't possibly be alive, can it?"

Xu Kai moved away from Patient Number Eight and rushed to the wall, taking a close look at the debris knocked loose earlier. He picked up a few grains and rubbed them between his fingers. They were very dry.

It would take more than a year after workers finished laying a wall for it to become this dry. Yet thinking of the wall healing just now, Xu Kai found it bizarre.

It was as though the ward were alive, its wounds able to heal on their own...

Click.

As Xu Kai crouched down, he heard some movement beside him. Patient Number Eight was twisting around. Taking advantage of Xu Kai moving away, he had turned his head back, opened his bloody maw, and was preparing to bite through the IV stand.

But when he bit down, he jerked back again.

There was no other reason: it was too hot! As soon as Xu Kai sensed what he was doing, he reinforced the stand with flames from a distance. He gave patient eight a burn when he opened his mouth, and patient eight's eyes grew much clearer.

After several exchanges, Xu Kai finally subdued Patient Number Eight and secured him firmly in Room Nine.

Everything eventually fell quiet, but Xu Kai had even more questions. This instance was far too bizarre. He could not understand why the designer behind it had turned the patients into this kind of animal.