The Strange Patient

"Max, where did you lead that big guy from your room? Are there any other dangerous-looking guys outside?"

Given that the name "Wild Boar" didn't sound very appealing, Lin Yu decided to respect the woman's opinion and call her "Max."

Since both "The Order" and "The Night Watcher" are righteous organizations, Lin Yu and Max naturally formed an alliance.

In particular, when Lin Yu used the [Mind-Reading Mirror] to look at Max, ever since he saw the "Order's" identity token, the only emotions this guy displayed were trust, joy, and relief.

Faced with Lin Yu's question, Max naturally didn't hide anything. "Hey bro, there were probably some monsters in the corridor wearing hospital gowns, which also didn't quite look like living people. I didn't disturb them... As for where that big guy went, I don't know either—the corridor outside is U-shaped, and I lost him after going around two corners. Maybe he went upstairs or downstairs?"

As Max spoke, Lin Yu nodded slightly.

"Looks like there are a lot of monsters outside too... I wonder how they compare to the strength of the monsters inside?"

Hearing Lin Yu's mutterings to himself, Max quickly interjected, "Brother, I believe in you. If you can take down this one in your room in a second, you can do the same with the ones outside."

"It wasn't that I won by myself... it was my 'helper'."

As Lin Yu spoke, he pointed to a corner of the room.

That was exactly where Stiller was standing.

At the same time, Lin Yu communicated with Hannah in his mind.

"Give him a new outfit... a ninja outfit, and ask Stiller if he knows how to imitate a ninja."

As Lin Yu spoke, Hannah's response came quickly.

"Quack! No problem, Director! I'll pass it on!"

"Oh... Stiller said he would!"

After Hannah replied, a transparent ripple and refraction quickly appeared where it and Stiller were standing, like some kind of optical change— Lin Yu knew this was intentional on Hannah; with its level of disguise, it didn't need any "transition" at all.

As the ripples changed, Stiller appeared in the corner of the room, dressed in black, masked, and wearing a headband.

A look of surprise appeared on Max's face.

"There are still people here?!"

Stiller stood with his feet together and clasped his hands in a fist salute. "I am a ninja! Yoro Shiku! Ninja!"

He stood ramrod straight and spoke with a strong voice.

However, Lin Yu could tell that Stiller's voice seemed to carry a hint of resentment.

Max, even more astonished by what he saw, exclaimed, "Holy crap, May Brothers, that's so cool... Is that the Player you were teaming up with?"

"This is the first time I've ever met Profession is 'ninja'!"

Lin Yu shook his head. "No, this guy is my... [Summoning Item]."

Max was even more surprised. "A sentient humanoid... Brother, who are you?"

Lin Yu quickly waved his hand. "This is a mindless mechanical puppet that can only execute simple commands and fight... It can only say a few sentences, you'll see if you don't believe me."

He glanced at Stiller and gave him a subtle wink.

"Ninja No. 1, what did you have for lunch today?"

Stiller looked at Lin Yu, his eyes revealing helplessness and a hint of annoyance.

But seeing the threatening look in Lin Yu's eyes, Stiller still reluctantly cooperated.

"My ninja! It's painful to die at night! Ninja!"

He clasped his hands together again and said in a very displeased tone.

Max immediately clapped.

"Amazing, amazing, amazing!"

"This Ninja No. 1 is amazing! It must be expensive, right? It must cost tens of thousands of points!"

Lin Yu did not answer the price question, but instead waved his hand.

"Alright, let's check my 'ward' one more time, then get ready to leave."

"Although there are no mandatory conditions, staying in the room all the time might trigger some undesirable mechanisms."

Max wholeheartedly agreed.

After a quick search to make sure nothing was left behind, Lin Yu signaled to Max that he could leave.

She swaggered into the room, completely devoid of the nervousness and caution she had shown when she entered.

Just as Max had said, the outside was indeed a U-shaped corridor.

Calling it a loop isn't entirely accurate—because through the windows and the fog, Lin Yu could roughly determine that the hospital wasn't four corridors, but rather some kind of polygon.

Regarding the exact number of sides... after visually estimating the curvature of a corner, Lin Yu felt that if this polygon were a regular polygon, it should be a heptagon.

The old, somewhat blurry glass is set in a metal aluminum frame; the floor is cement, and the walls are a stark white.

The chandelier overhead swayed precariously, its wires exposed outside the ceiling.

Looking out the window, you can see a courtyard that used to be a garden, but is now abandoned and filled with withered branches, fallen leaves and weeds.

A thin, gray mist floated in the air.

Lin Yu counted and found that he was on the second floor—and judging from the outline outside the window, the entire building had five floors.

Lin Yu muttered to himself, surveying the desolate and oppressive corridor.

"Not just Asylum, but an abandoned Asylum...?"

The corridor they were in was very long, probably several tens of meters long, with closed room doors on both sides.

Even with only five floors, this Instance Venue isn't too small.

No wonder Max was able to shake off the "Doctor" after just a couple of turns.

Lin Yu observed that only two room doors were open.

Besides your own, there's another door that's open, located six rooms away.

"Where did you come from?"

Lin Yu asked, Max nodded.

"Brilliant reasoning and observation! I definitely came from there!"

Lin Yu was helpless.

There were only two doors open; what does that have to do with reasoning?

He looked around again.

"But I didn't see any monsters."

As Lin Yu spoke, Max immediately pointed over there.

"That section isn't there, but there's an activity area over there in the corridor over there, with a few people wearing hospital gowns."

Following the direction Max pointed, Lin Yu walked past the corner on his Right Hand.

The two arrived at a brand-new corridor—a corridor without rooms, making the area feel exceptionally spacious.

An old activity area was set up there, and many "people" dressed in hospital gowns wandered around the corridor.

To call them "humans" is an understatement; these creatures likely have a framework similar to Homo sapiens: a head, torso, and limbs.

Its size and proportions are roughly between one and a half and two meters, a normal size, not as exaggerated as the Doctor who looked like a giant, sentient wheel-shaped cake.

But looking at the details... these guys are still not human.

Some have all their joints reversed, some have only one huge, solitary eye on their heads, some have webbed hands, and some even have heads that are giant oranges.

And yet they act just like humans—going down slides, playing chess, building blocks, doing push-ups.

Everyone is busy with their own things.

"What a chaotic mess..."

Lin Yu couldn't help but sigh.