Lost Auscultation

On his hundredth rewind, Xu Kai returned to the moment when he was approaching Kana. She lay on the floor, trembling all over, her legs limp and powerless. She had even closed her eyes, prepared for certain death.

Xu Kai still remembered the syllables, but the Mutated Loudspeaker was gone from the depths of his consciousness.

The power of Death Rewind was as overwhelming as ever. The loudspeaker he had been unable to remove from his consciousness had simply faded away when he rewound.

This time, Xu Kai was cautious.

Before, he had not realized how powerful he was after mutating. Now that he knew, he naturally did not dare move around much.

After all, back then, a single word from him had been enough to shatter every window in the corridor and kill Kana.

More importantly, he had not been judged to have exceeded the corridor's 55-decibel limit or killed a player outside a Killing Zone. Judging by what the doctor had said earlier, he had something that could temporarily exempt him from the rules.

But Xu Kai's perception had been in disarray at the time, and he had not had a chance to look into it.

Although his current mutation was not as severe as the doctor's he had encountered, he could feel himself growing bigger.

His eyes could already distinguish red from blue. With no time to lose, Xu Kai ignored Kana on the floor and opened the medicine chest. He found his No. 9 Medicine Box inside, took out a red pill, and swallowed it.

Sure enough, after he took the pill, the hair on his body lost its vitality and fell away, along with a thick layer of hide that peeled off his face. He felt the bones in his back and his spine grow flexible again, allowing him to stand up from his prone position.

His shattered perception came back together, and the black-and-gray world around him vanished. At last, he was back in the clean, white hospital corridor.

The only drawback was that his vision had changed from a multicolored reality back to the gray and white of an old photograph.

"I... you..."

Kana felt Xu Kai turn human again, and the pressure disappeared. She could finally speak, though she was still somewhat incoherent.

Hair had started growing on her hands too, so Xu Kai immediately took another red pill from the medicine box and handed it to her.

Kana hurriedly swallowed it, and the hair fell away. But her ears were still as furry as before; they could no longer return to normal.

Seeing this, Xu Kai explained to Kana:

"I saw the instructions for the medicine in the pharmacy just now. They said the pills aren't meant to suppress mutation."

"Huh? They aren't?"

Kana stared at him wide-eyed, carefully recalling how she had stolen the medicine earlier. How had she missed the instructions?

"They're a guiding agent. They guide Mutation Energy more effectively through the human body. It's like packing a box: you have to arrange everything neatly before you can fit more in."

Kana understood Xu Kai's analogy. In other words, when Mutation Energy overflowed, a person became a monster. The pills folded the Mutation Energy up, allowing a person to withstand more of it.

"Th-then what do we do? We'll all mutate eventually! Sh-should we find a doctor for treatment?"

Kana was starting to break down. The journey had been so perilous, and if not for Xu Kai, she would have died too many times already. She suddenly remembered the rules written at the guidance desk: they could take pills or seek treatment from a doctor.

Xu Kai shook his head. Find a doctor? Given what the doctor had been like in the last rewind, was he worried he was not mutating fast enough?

Now that his perception had returned to normal, he could finally see the clock in the corridor. It showed 6:55, only five minutes before the rule prohibiting entry to or exit from the rooms took effect.

"Kana, finish your Nurse task first. You don't have much time. When you're done, if anything new comes up, come find me in my room."

Xu Kai did not have much time either, so he did not explain further. He turned and headed back, hearing Kana's voice behind him:

"But our mutation..."

"Stay alive first. Only then can we deal with the mutation."

Xu Kai did not look back. He had only five minutes, and the time for Death Rewind was drawing closer. If he did not return to his room, he would very likely end up with a dead save.

As for Kana, he had killed her with the shock of his voice in the previous save, and he had saved her life in this one. That made them even.

After experiencing so many deaths, Xu Kai had come to a conclusion: when he was weak, he should not meddle in other people's affairs. Mercy was a choice reserved for the strong; sympathy was the grave of the weak.

Thus, Xu Kai had already made up his mind about working with Kana. He would help a little where he could, but if he could not help, he would not sacrifice his life for a righteous cause.

He had seen death too many times already, and one more would make no difference.

Xu Kai walked on resolutely, carrying the large box of medicine and retracing his route from memory.

Kana did not look at Xu Kai either. She too understood how little time remained and headed in the opposite direction.

Xu Kai continued along the way. Strangely, the doctor who had brought the monsters did not appear on this stretch of the route, despite the timing matching the previous occasion.

The journey went unusually smoothly, and Xu Kai returned to Room Nine before the five minutes were up. He also looked into the neighboring room. It was completely empty, as though the monsters had not come out of it.

Xu Kai pushed the door open and entered Room Nine. Nothing was amiss. Everything was exactly where it had been, and the damage left by the fighting had disappeared.

He immediately shut the door, and the tension in his heart eased considerably. It was now seven o'clock, and with an hour gone by, another tenth of his Weird Energy had recovered.

He first sensed his surroundings, carefully probing every corner and every crack in an attempt to find anything unusual.

Finally, beneath a light in the corner of the ceiling, he sensed a loudspeaker-shaped outline. Xu Kai immediately used his Weird Energy to crush it.

Only after destroying the Mutated Loudspeaker did Xu Kai let out a long sigh of relief.

That damned thing had been emitting mutating sounds all along. Now that it was destroyed, it would not be able to recover anytime soon.

After his sigh of relief, Xu Kai first checked his own condition.

His earlier mutated state had directly healed eighty percent of his wounds, and he could also use his Weird Energy to its full extent. He was in better condition than ever.

Seeing nothing amiss, Xu Kai separated a trace of Weird Energy and turned it into a spiderweb, spreading it throughout the room. As long as there was the slightest unusual movement nearby, he would be able to sense it.

Maintaining that state, Xu Kai slept soundly.

Meanwhile, Kana was still moving forward. Her slow steps gradually quickened until she was running.

The hospital was too big. To make a circuit in five minutes, she had to run with all her might.

Kana's pockets bulged, filled with the red pills Xu Kai had given up.

She ran with all her strength, gasping for breath, and finally completed the circuit and returned to the guidance desk.

The guidance desk had returned to its original appearance. The computer on it was still glowing, switched on as though someone had forgotten to turn it off before leaving work.

"Huff, huff, huff..."

Kana's breathing grew heavier as she walked up to the guidance desk and turned on the computer. A window immediately popped up, displaying the words:

"Did anything unusual occur during this inspection?"

Kana studied it, hesitating, her fingers tapping unevenly on the desk.

In the end, she began typing, entering the following in the window:

"No abnormalities. Hallucinations caused only by an error in perception for personal reasons."

"Received. Nurse Kana, please monitor your condition. If you need to request leave, please leave another message."

The other party sent only that message. After waiting a while and seeing that Kana did not continue typing, the window disappeared, and the computer screen immediately went dark as well.

Kana could not find a power switch on the computer. It seemed the other party's computer was the main unit, and only they could initiate contact with her.

Having finished her task, Kana left the guidance desk again and headed toward Xu Kai's Room Nine.

The corridors around her were quiet. On the seventh floor, Kana easily found the rooms and held out a finger, counting them one by one:

"Room Seven, Room Eight... then the equipment room and the other medical departments. Wait, where's Room Nine?"

By the time Kana realized it, she had gone all the way around and returned to the guidance desk.

"Where's Room Nine? How did Room Nine disappear? Is—is this another error in perception?"