Bone-Deep Terror, a Shocking Guess!

Jiu Tian watched the place where she had left and let out a soft sigh.

He knew what made this game so torturous. Aside from the person in the Red Mask, who seemed to be living quite comfortably, no one else was having an easy time. Even Kolk's face bore injuries from time to time.

Mental torment, abysmal living conditions, and the constant possibility of physical injury if one was careless.

Considering what the big guy had said before about someone jerking off at him... and considering that she was a girl...

And this game had not prepared any food or water for the players! They had gone an entire day without a single drop of water.

Tsk. Other than the Red Mask, who had food and drinks... Why was that guy so special?

Jiu Tian shook his head. As an official, he knew the female player's background.

She was just an ordinary player who had luckily cleared two games and received some rewards.

When she saw that this was a hell game, the woman had originally planned to run immediately. But after learning that as long as she stayed alive, she would still clear the game if someone else did, she decided to lie low and hang on.

But she had realized she had been naive. A mad prison, deranged teammates, and the examples of those who had already been severely injured.

Forget it...

"Ah, what a pity. Still, leaving is probably for the best," Jiu Tian said with a sigh.

Lu Ce looked at the pile the female player had vomited onto the floor and nodded in agreement. "Mm, it is a bit of a pity."

Then, after hesitating for a moment, he suddenly slapped himself hard across the face and quickly turned to walk away.

Jiu Tian:??

What kind of nonsense was this guy up to now...

On the other side, Kolk also approached, a rare occurrence, and continued, "There's nothing to pity. Being able to keep her life in a game like this is already fortunate enough. This isn't a place someone of her level should have reached."

As he spoke, he slowly swept his gaze across the surroundings before continuing, "The ones left now are more or less up to standard."

Two perfect-clear players, and one highly capable player with a special official identity—only people like them were worthy of this hellish game.

Of course...

Kolk glanced at Lu Ce, who lay sprawled on the ground in the distance, and asked, "My friend, you've been playing dumb and acting crazy this whole time—do you really not plan to quit the game?"

"My ability is Mental Interference. I've used it on you many times already, and most of the time, it has backfired on me."

"Your chaos is no longer an act. Even if we explain it as self-hypnosis... you're almost at your limit."

"In your current state, you may end up permanently lost here, forever becoming a lunatic."

Kolk pressed forward step by step, drawing closer to Lu Ce as though he were pronouncing a death sentence upon the man on the ground.

In the distance, Jiu Tian frowned deeply as he watched the two. This time, however, he did not step in to mediate. He merely stood quietly to the side, waiting to see how things developed.

"Is your ability eating? I've been asking from the beginning what your purpose is, and I still want to know..."

"But as a normal human being, I don't think that's a good choice."

"I'll ask you one more time. Do you really not plan to quit? Don't tell me you have no exit coins left."

Kolk had now reached Lu Ce's side. Just as he was about to take another step forward, an overwhelming sense of danger suddenly locked onto him.

Lu Ce, who had been lying there silently all along, suddenly spoke.

"I suggest you don't get too close to me right now."

Kolk halted in place. An inexplicable premonition kept warning him from within: do not take another step forward!

"Haha."

With a laugh, Kolk withdrew his foot and turned away.

"Confident, aren't you?"

"I'm just worried that if you don't quit, it'll be difficult for me to complete my game..."

Lu Ce remained silent. At that moment, he was enduring the impact of massive energy within his body, along with surging, chaotic thoughts.

He did not want to speak. Before long, he fell asleep right there on the ground.

Jiu Tian said nothing more either. This time, he did not even take the initiative to discuss what they had gained that day.

He knew these two probably would not listen anyway.

The three starving men kept far apart from one another in the empty room, sitting on the floor or leaning against the walls to sleep as they endured the night.

Yes, endured. That night was exceptionally agonizing!

The entire hospital had gone a whole day without food and a whole day without medicine.

When night came, it was simply as if ten thousand ghosts were wailing. Even several layers of iron doors could not suppress the sounds. The hungry ghosts frantically pounded on the doors and walls, making the hospital even more terrifying than a Haunted House.

Kolk relied on self-hypnosis to ensure he slept, while Lu Ce had long since fallen asleep flat on his back. Jiu Tian, however, could not sleep at all.

As he sorted through the information his colleagues had sent him and pondered the sudden tit-for-tat confrontation between Kolk and Lu Ce, a chill abruptly ran through his entire body.

An inexplicable sense of crisis enveloped him, making his mind constantly turn over thoughts like these.

This hellish game seemed to involve no physical torture, yet he could not shake the feeling that something was wrong. An inexplicable terror had begun to close around him.

After an entire night steeped in the atmosphere of a Haunted House, the second day arrived, and the game continued.

Kolk continued racing Lu Ce—one fighting for food, the other hoping to seize at least one dose of medicine.

But this time, Jiu Tian headed purposefully toward the door of a room.

It was Long Wu's room—the first patient Lu Ce had met. Instinctively, Jiu Tian felt that the source of his fear lay within.

After entering, he saw Long Wu, his body withered and gaunt. The man looked utterly listless.

"Someone else has come? They changed the person..."

"Hello." Jiu Tian was surprised to find that the other man's mental state was remarkably stable, so he went straight to the point.

"Do you know who the sickest person in this asylum is?"

"Hehe, what a familiar question. Now that's more like it. That's what you should be asking..." Long Wu twisted shakily on the floor as he looked at Jiu Tian.

"No. The answer is no one. No one is the sickest."

"Who doesn't get sick? You'll get sick too. One day, you'll get sick too, and remain here forever..."

Seeing that the man refused to speak properly, Jiu Tian felt somewhat helpless. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly froze.

The fear that had enveloped him all night descended upon him once more, and in that instant, his thoughts became extraordinarily clear.

His colleague had told him all the information Lu Ce and Kolk had gathered. Aside from their inner thoughts, which he did not know, he knew everything else, including every word each patient had said to them.

On Lu Ce's side, he had learned from Long Wu that those in the back were innocent, while those in the front were guilty. So he had to question those in the front and torture them.

The person in front had been brutally tortured by Lu Ce, but Lu Ce had been acting crazily the whole time, so he had taken the initiative to ask whether Lu Ce wanted to know who the sickest person was.

He had even wanted to play a game, saying that Lu Ce was different from the people "before."

Why had that patient known the question? Was it part of the game's design, or something else?

Who were the "people before" he had mentioned to Lu Ce?

And then there was what Kolk had discovered: the people in this asylum were divided into two groups. The group in the front was guilty, while the group in the back was innocent!

When Kolk asked what the people in the back were doing there and why they remained in this place, the other party had gone mad... gone mad!

And now, this Long Wu was telling him that they would never find the answer, that they too would eventually fall ill and remain here forever.

And this man was called Long Wu, while the one on Kolk's side was called Long Liu.

Could it be...

The reason the person in front had guessed what Lu Ce wanted to ask was because someone had asked it before! And more than once!

The people in the asylum were divided into two groups. The group in the front were actual patients, while the group in the back were the ones who had come to question them.

And this group had failed to obtain the answer, failed to find the sickest person, so... they had remained here forever.

A bold conjecture surfaced in Jiu Tian's mind and refused to fade.

It was as though the cold wind of the night had turned into a cloak called fear, wrapping tightly around him, chilling him to the bone and leaving him unable to break free.

—These people had once been players too?!!

"Have you... heard of... Chosen Paradise?"