Chapter 68
"I noticed it when I first arrived, but we don't have the skill to fake death, so we can't fool them," Yuki immediately denied.
Shiina Hiyori immediately tensed up, not expecting Yuki to be so observant, already gathering information before the game even started.
Are all veteran players this professional?
"Third, I sat in on the doctors' consultation, and they decided to perform surgery on you."
Ah?
Yuki raised an eyebrow. This was somewhat unexpected. His 'illness' was a product of the Conceptual Craft Essence, which the hospital did take very seriously, but shouldn't they have conducted examinations first according to procedure?
Radiology and laboratory departments are usually located on the lower floors of a hospital. Doesn't this just mean they're being dragged down there by the plot?
And you?
"The treatment plan also involves surgery on us." Hiyori looked puzzled; it certainly didn't make sense, but based on the clues she had gathered, she could still deduce the reasoning:
"This Demon Hospital is strange; it looks very professional, but actually..."
"It's actually a den of murder for money, a place that keeps creating tragedies. And you've already called it Demon Hospital, do you still want to use common sense to understand it?" Yuki raised his hand to interrupt, following the clues and thinking deeper, when suddenly his eyes lit up.
"Wow, that makes it faster!"
"Ah?"
"What I mean is, we don't need to wait too long and waste time on the eighth floor. Think about the second half of the Hint Four."
[Hint Four: Please do not intentionally damage the hospital building or harm patients and staff. Players have 18 hours of treatment funds.]
"He used hours, not numbers. The story has been going on for 13 hours now!" Hiyori immediately grasped the key point, as if she were reading a captivating novel, and her whole being came alive.
So there's a solution! No need for painstakingly comparing floors; just lie down on the hospital bed, and the story will automatically kill the player within 12 hours.
I don't know which floor the operating room is on, but it's definitely below the eighth floor.
"Really, how come I didn't think of that?"
"Me too. This Reincarnation Game is taking advantage of players' distrust of dungeons; it's like being blinded by a leaf." Yuki said with a wry smile. He was also affected by the unreasonable Living Corpse in Crimson Moon. If Hiyori hadn't reminded him, he would have instinctively wanted to avoid getting involved with the dungeon characters.
"Is there any other important information?"
There was actually a lot of information, but Shiina Hiyori lay in her ability to analyze it herself; she tilted her head and thought for a moment.
"By the way, it's a bit unusual that all patients' treatment plans have to be submitted to one person for a decision."
"Who?" Yuki became interested. How could a hospital with thousands of patients be decided by one person?
"Dean Fukawa."
Chapter Sixteen: Self-Defense and Counterattack (Second Update)
"Beds 37, 25, and 53, prepare for surgery."
The ward sprang into action like a clockwork mechanism, with nurses and doctors taking their positions and pushing the three players out of their respective rooms.
As Yuki and Shiina Hiyori discussed, since the crime was murder for money, the money should be the priority, and the best solution was to have surgery directly.
The game only provides half a day's worth of treatment funds. According to this rule, the hospital needs to act quickly, otherwise what will happen if they can't afford the treatment after 18 hours?
This foreshadowing is hidden in every ward on the 9th floor, and in the kneeling parents of the car accident boy that Yuki witnessed firsthand.
3 PM.
Yuki glanced at the digital clock, let out a long sigh of relief. In just three hours, this entire strategy would be ruined; without healing money, the story would stop progressing.
'If that Robert were here, things might be much easier to handle; he might even just throw money at the problem and leave.'
He suddenly remembered that Rich Brother. The 'Money Replication' feature was practically invincible in the rules of the Demon Hospital. Indeed, there are no useless features; it all depends on whether you have the luck and ability to use them.
Splash splash splash.
The sound of the cart wheels rolling came from the side. Yuki his head and saw Shiina Hiyori and the boy with uneven eyes being pushed over. The boy was a little confused, but then he didn't seem uncomfortable at all and felt very welcome.
The girl exchanged a nervous glance with Yuki, receiving a reassuring look in return.
The path has been found; now we just need to see if anything unexpected happens.
'Of course, nothing is possible without an accident, but I'm prepared.' Yuki closed his eyes, going over all the details in his mind, and then at that moment, he heard a lively voice.
"Good luck, brothers and sisters!"
Xiao Qiannai stood at the door of her hospital room, waving to the three of them with wide eyes. Beside her was her mother, whose face was streaked with tears.
"No problem, you should also try your best to get better." Hiyori gave a gentle but forced smile, hesitantly reaching out to ruffle her sparse pink hair.
She knew it was fake, but something within her wished it were real.
Yuki remained silent. Players would be affected after activating the storyline, but they were powerless to do anything about it; at least, he didn't possess the ability or skill to bring the characters from the story back to reality.
But some things are still within my control.
He slowly extended a thumbs-up, gave the girl a deep look, then turned his head to focus his attention on his player panel.
The "Are You Seriously Ill??" option has been used; there is currently one slot remaining in the storage field.
[Conceptual Craft Essence. Gone on a Killing Spree]
Splash...
The hospital bed was moved away, and the nurses and doctors around were carrying medical records, oxygen bags, and other items. They looked quite professional. If Yuki hadn't had medical knowledge and knew what they were doing, she might have been fooled.
Under the expectant, worried, or resentful gazes of the patients, the three players were pushed through the ward and into the lobby to enter the elevator.
A strange thing happened: all the buttons that were supposed to be for the 8th floor changed, leaving only one lonely button in the center.
There are only five floors.
Yuki relaxed his fist. He had just decided that if the elevator buttons could move normally from the first floor to the ninth floor, he would risk violating [Hint Four] to seize control.
Shiina Hiyori breathed a sigh of relief. It had taken her fifteen hours to climb from the ninth floor to the fifth, finally catching up with the schedule. With thirty hours remaining, and following the decreasing pattern of the floor buttons, she could now proceed with the dungeon using conventional methods.
The premise is that there are no other interferences.
The elevator doors closed, a feeling of weightlessness arose, and a buzzing sound began to fill the air. The elevator car was deathly silent. Hiyori stared at the ceiling, emptying her mind and giving her brain a rest.
[Ding, we've reached the seventh floor.]
[Ding, we've reached the sixth floor.]
The floor notification sounds kept going off, but no one came in. It was like a naughty child pressing the button for every single floor.
This elevator is moving way too slowly.
Hiyori turned her head curiously, and just then, as they descended, the elevator lights flickered. In that split second, Shiina Hiyori's eyes widened, and she thought she was hallucinating.
Click, click.
The lights flickered every few seconds, and then, just as the elevator shaft plunged into darkness, she saw that the handsome doctors and beautiful nurses had changed their appearance.
Its skin was festering and oozing pus, its body was deformed, its head was hairless, and it didn't even have eyes. Only its mouth, split open to the roots of its ears, revealed its menacing white teeth, which, as they gleamed, made it look even more terrifying.
!?
Hiyori instinctively tried to sit up, but was pressed back down by the hand beside her. Her heart stopped beating, and she hurriedly turned her head, only to find that it was Yuki's hand.
The boy nodded slightly, indicating that he had seen it, and then pressed down with his palm to relax Hiyori's tense muscles.
He's stronger, smarter, and more experienced than me; he must have a way.
Yuki was already caught in a mental storm, having reviewed every single detail before even entering the elevator:
1. The starting floor and the abnormal floor are not in the same spatial dimension.
2. A hospital that appears very professional on the surface, but is actually a money-making scheme that harms people's lives.
3. Demons drawn by pain and resentment.
4. As you go deeper into the building, the medical staff appear and disappear in the darkness.
And most importantly--
The buttons for abnormal floors in the elevator decrease in number with each floor number. Doesn't it sound like two lines that were originally far apart are slowly converging?
"The demon will continue to grow, and will draw ever closer."
Yuki's eyes widened; wasn't it getting closer and closer?
[Ding, we've reached the fifth floor.]
The elevator doors opened, and the layout was finally different from before; this was no longer a brightly lit ward, but a dimly lit area.
The area was large, with wide corridors on both sides. Every ten meters or so, there was a large iron door with a red light flashing "under surgery" on it. Then the floor was quiet, and the annoying noise was gone.
A doctor in surgical scrubs approached, took the medical records, and ushered the three into the preparation room before dispersing to prepare the medications.
Yuki glanced around, sat up slightly, and saw Shiina Hiyori nervously licking her lips, and then saw the boy with uneven eyes calmly pretending to be asleep.
"Aren't you afraid?"
"Well, I'm used to it, and you make all the decisions, so what am I afraid of?"
Yuki nodded, ignoring him, and then looked at Shiina Hiyori: "Are you struggling with something?"
"Well, once the plot begins, we can't enter spectator mode anymore. I don't know how to restart the comparison method later."
The comparison method requires the reference object to remain unchanged; otherwise, how can the differences in floors be identified? But now, their every move is triggering a butterfly effect.
"But we can't actually let these bastards cut us, can we?"
The girl's lips moved slightly, but she couldn't speak. She realized that the dungeon walkthrough had reached a dead end.
The comparison method is useless, the plot has reached a bottleneck, as expected, Reincarnation Game like to pose difficult problems for players, and now there's something even more fatal:
According to Hint Four, they have no way to resist.
"Hey, why are you sitting up? We're about to give you anesthesia." The doctor had already noticed Yuki and scolded him.
The man seemed not to hear anything, which drew the attention of the doctors and nurses, who then gathered around him to ask his question.
"Doctor, I have a question, it's only related to my condition."
"Keep it brief," the surgeon urged impatiently, as if rushing to the next operation.
"Will I be missing something during the surgery?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's something like removing a kidney. When I go back to the ward, I'll only be able to wail in pain every day, or I'll have to pay more money to have you put the kidney back in for me."
These words were insulting, yet they reflected what Yuki had seen and heard since entering the hospital, and the preparation room fell silent.
The doctors and nurses exchanged helpless glances, when the surgeon suddenly waved his hand.
"The patient has delusional tendencies; let's give him a sedative injection first."
"Sir, please don't worry. Our hospital is absolutely professional and highly praised by our patients." The sweet-looking nurse comforted him while taking a syringe from the tray. "You just need to take a nap, and your pain will be gone in no time."
Shiina Hiyori didn't believe a word of it, yet she didn't know how to resolve the situation, because Hint Four forbade players from damaging the hospital or harming medical staff.
This is the starting floor, which is clearly within the 'hospital' area.
Her eyes widened, her mind racing, seeing that Yuki didn't struggle, letting the needle pierce her skin, but just then—
Swish.
A streak of silver light flashed without warning, and a beautiful head flew into the air.
He... made a move???
Shiina Hiyori was somewhat incredulous when she saw the man in the hospital gown jump up, holding a long sword with a red handle. His face showed no forced struggle, only the most direct emotion.
Cool!
With a single slash, the oppressive feeling that had been building up since entering the hospital vanished, and everything he saw and heard made his blood boil.
He turned his head to look at the doctor who was dispensing the medication. Surprisingly, the doctor didn't run away; instead, he picked up Scalpel and rushed over, acting like a madman, as if he were about to fight to the death.
Didn't run away? That makes sense.
The speed was too slow, and the small Scalpel was negligible. Yuki jumped off the hospital bed, cut the person in half with one stroke, turned around, and accurately inserted the blade into the throat of the second person.
With the sound of sharp blades slicing into flesh, Yuki slaughtered his way through the room, leaving severed limbs scattered everywhere, the stench of blood overpowering the smell of disinfectant.
They attacked suddenly, then swiftly and decisively killed them all in less than a few seconds. It was so fast that Hiyori didn't even have time to react. She hurriedly looked around, fearing that something unusual might have happened.
"What about Hint Four?"