Breakfast Time Was Way Too Early

The next day, Xu Kai woke up in his hospital bed.

He had slept comfortably, and all the Weird Energy in his body had fully recovered. He could clearly sense his surroundings; he was finally no longer blind.

He checked the clock. It was seven thirty, exactly half an hour before breakfast.

Xu Kai washed up briefly and looked in the mirror.

His eyes were bright, the lines of his hair clearly defined. The scabs all over his body had fallen off without leaving any scars. Xu Kai could only marvel at Evil's constitution.

Unfortunately, there was a faint trace of red in his pupils. Xu Kai washed them several times, but couldn't get rid of it.

Xu Kai made a note of the abnormality, then opened the cabinet. Inside were the pillboxes he had dragged back yesterday and emptied into it.

They were marked with numbers. The pillboxes for patients one through nine were now all in Xu Kai's possession.

Xu Kai took the pills out of a box, hesitating the moment he did. The nurse who had brought breakfast before had said that once the pills were removed, they would quickly lose their potency. Keeping them in their boxes was best.

So Xu Kai ultimately took out only one box of pills, then changed the markings on all the other medication boxes to number nine.

He couldn't put the stolen boxes back anyway. Xu Kai wasn't a stickler; now that he had them, he could use them.

Xu Kai secured the pillbox inside his patient gown and sealed it with Weird Energy.

Just as Xu Kai was about to leave, two people stood outside the door.

Xu Kai walked up and looked through the observation window. One of the two outside was a nurse lying on the floor with a tray in her mouth, carrying packaged bread and milk. The other was a doctor, the very Fanatic he had fought in the previous Save-Load. The Fanatic stood with an arrogant expression.

Knock, knock.

The two even politely knocked on the door.

Xu Kai stepped forward and opened it.

"Patient Number Nine? Mm, the nurse said your condition has worsened, so I came to check on you."

"Go ahead."

Xu Kai turned around without another word, found a chair, and sat down.

The doctor had no idea Xu Kai knew what he was, and thought this was their first meeting. He put on a smile, as though he genuinely cared about his patient.

In fact, Xu Kai had long known that he was a mad Fanatic who worshipped the Weird, just like Zhang Dekai in the previous Instance.

Xu Kai kept his expression neutral and looked at the nurse. She seemed terrified of the doctor. Without his permission, she remained at the door of the ward and made no move to enter.

Xu Kai didn't underestimate the doctor just because he had bitten him to death in one bite in the previous run.

After all, he knew how terrifying his own transformation had been in the previous Save-Load. In that state, he could kill an ordinary person with sound alone.

Xu Kai even felt that he could have fought the monster in the Arena for a hundred rounds back then, so his impression of the doctor was very likely mistaken.

Xu Kai didn't dare underestimate any enemy, so he held back and quietly cooperated with the examination. He kept his Weird Energy fully mobilized. At the slightest unusual move from the doctor, Xu Kai could react and counterattack in a fraction of a second.

The doctor made no unnecessary moves. Like an ordinary physician, he first checked Xu Kai's complexion and examined his hands and legs for abnormalities. Then he nodded and asked:

"What do you think a human is?"

"A human? The sum of social relations."

"?"

The doctor was dumbfounded by Xu Kai's answer. He knew every word in the sentence, but put together, he couldn't understand it at all.

There had never been such a proposition in their world. He couldn't grasp the profound meaning of the sentence at all; it felt as though he was about to grow a brain in his head.

Originally, the doctor had laid a trap, asking whether Xu Kai accepted the concept of a "human" to guide him toward further alienation.

But Xu Kai's answer had left him at a loss.

That sentence had completely sidestepped the definition of a human.

"Ahem, that's not what I meant. What I mean is, do you accept that humans are animals that crawl on the ground and can use tools with their mouths?"

Instead of answering immediately, Xu Kai smiled and asked the doctor:

"You're human, aren't you, doctor? I think the state you're in now is the state I accept as human."

"...I'm different! You have to answer my question! You must say whether you accept it or not!"

The doctor grew angry and slammed his hand on the cabinet. This wasn't the answer he wanted to hear.

Puzzled, he recalled the Patient Number Nine he had seen in the cafeteria.

Back then, Xu Kai had opened his gaping maw and snatched his doctor's uniform. That madness and irrationality had clearly shown a high degree of alienation, so how could he seem like a completely different person today?

He didn't understand how Patient Number Nine could retain so much reason after a day of alienation. Angry and flushed, he clenched his fingers and reached into his pocket with his right hand, seeming to hesitate over taking something out.

Hearing the doctor's harsh voice, Xu Kai acted as though he had been frightened. He went along with the doctor, nodding as he said:

"Yes, yes, yes. You're different from humans, doctor."

"...Heh, do you enjoy making a fool of me?"

The doctor asked no more questions. His face twisted, and a faint trace of scarlet gleamed in his eyes as he said coldly:

"Enough! Patient Number Nine, your condition has indeed worsened. Given your current state, I recommend immediate surgery!"

"Recommend? I refuse."

"It's not up to you."

The doctor didn't attack after speaking. Instead, he finally pulled his right hand out of his pocket, where he had kept it firmly tucked, and produced a certificate bearing the words Red Shirt Hospital Senior Access Certificate.

Crack...

The moment the certificate appeared, Xu Kai heard a deep, muted resonance. Almost all the walls and windows—practically everything in the hospital—were responding to it.

Immediately afterward, Xu Kai saw the plaster peel away from the walls of the entire ward. Rather than falling to the floor, the dust slowly rose.

A hissing and crackling sounded as the whole ward changed.

Its plaster slowly peeled away, exposing the steel bars beneath. But it wasn't built like an ordinary building; the bars were densely packed, like an iron cage.

Its structure grew increasingly similar to the Slaughterhouse from before. Even bloodstained knives slowly emerged from the ceiling, hanging before Xu Kai.

Everything in there was alive. Xu Kai could feel everything around him staring fixedly at him.

It was so similar—exactly like the Slaughterhouse Xu Kai had seen when his cognition was disordered.

Perhaps all it lacked were corpses.

"After you, Patient Number Nine. If you're hallucinating things like bloodstained knives and a rusty slaughterhouse, that already shows your cognitive condition is severe. You need emergency surgery!"

"Doctor, what are you mumbling about? I don't see any of that."

"...You see it."

"I really don't."

"You see it! If I say you see it, then you see it!"

The doctor nearly jumped up, like a child. He angrily raised a hand and pointed to Xu Kai's right.

Pfft!

A bloodstained long knife pierced straight through Xu Kai's right arm. Xu Kai didn't even grunt. He stood ramrod straight, his expression unchanged.

Xu Kai looked bewildered, his eyes as clear as those of a fresh college graduate.

"Doctor, why are you raising your hand? Why are you looking at me? What's wrong with me?"

"You really don't see the knife? Doesn't it hurt?"

"What knife? Doctor, what's wrong with you? Are you suffering from a Cognitive Abnormality?"

Not only could Xu Kai not see it, he even began to show concern for the doctor.

"They say physicians can't heal themselves. If you see any strange phenomena, remember to speak up. You shouldn't conceal your condition."

"...I'm a doctor! How could I possibly have a Cognitive Abnormality?!"

The doctor roared at Xu Kai, jumping up and down in rage. This was the first time he had met such an unyielding patient. If he hadn't been unable to kill Xu Kai here, and if even severely injuring him hadn't violated the rules for doctors, he would have loved to give up on this patient seed and slaughter him outright.

"Enough! I've had enough of all this! Patient Number Nine, stop playing dumb! Today, you must come with me for surgery! I'm the doctor! I have the power to decide whether you live or die!"

The doctor took out the senior access certificate again and aimed it at Xu Kai, staring fixedly at him. Suddenly, he seemed to lose focus for a moment.

In that instant, the doctor seemed to have lost something, and his face turned unusually pale.

Xu Kai's eyes narrowed. The doctor was obviously up to something. Taking advantage of his pallor, Xu Kai rushed forward, intending to snatch the certificate.

He moved so quickly that he was right in front of the doctor before the man could react. The certificate was already in Xu Kai's hand.

The certificate was palm-sized and extremely hard. A deep red fir tree was drawn on it, red as blood.

That stood out sharply. Xu Kai's eyes could only see black and white, yet the certificate penetrated his cognition, allowing him to see its deep red. He couldn't even look away, staring at the red fir tree for a long time, unable to recover his senses.

"Heh, they said Number Nine was quite cunning. I didn't expect him to pick it up and look at it himself."

The doctor smiled, his face still pale. He gestured for the nurse outside to come in and take Xu Kai to the operating room.

"Nurse, don't be afraid. He's facing an avatar of a Great Being. This patient is already terminally ill and can't move at all! Drag him along. I'm going to give him a proper makeover!"

The nurse lowered her head and let the doctor place Xu Kai on her back, then carried him out of the ward.

Xu Kai was still conscious, but he couldn't move as he looked at the red fir. He couldn't understand that deep red at all. There seemed to be more than color within it; it was continuously directing incomprehensible information into his mind.

Then, halfway there, Xu Kai received too much information from the deep red. With a bang, he exploded and died.