Its enormous body was pale yellow, covered in distinctive blue rings and black spots. A thin, transparent membrane seemed to coat its entire body, and fresh slime still dripped from the brain that drooped backward.
Unlike the one on the Third Floor, this creature looked entirely like an octopus, walking upright on several tentacles.
But both its appearance and its movements made it seem freshly hatched.
Female blue-ringed octopuses died after laying their eggs and successfully hatching them, so was the octopus in the corridor this monster's mother???
There was no way to be certain yet, but Shen Ru could confirm one thing: the Name Badge was indeed the key to changing identities, and thus one of the main sources of the contamination of livestock consciousness.
Shen Ru signaled Ruan Ping with his eyes. Ruan Ping immediately understood and obediently entered the office, watching the young man and the monster head toward the other end of the corridor.
The office was empty, but an unpleasant, fishy sea smell made him faintly nauseous.
Slime identical to that on the blue-ringed octopus clung to the surrounding walls, marking every corner of the room with its unique scent as though claiming territory.
Ruan Ping scanned the desk. There was no valuable information; most of the documents differed little from those on the Third Floor.
The Third Floor mainly treated a range of diseases in pigs, while the Fourth Floor was the main treatment area for cartilaginous animals.
In the same spot, there were also several employee rules for the Fourth Floor.
One casual glance over them made Ruan Ping's heart sink.
1. This hospital does not accept blue-ringed octopuses. Although docile, they are highly venomous. To ensure employee safety, please ignore any blue-ringed octopus encountered within the hospital.
2. The treatment areas for octopuses and snakes are separate, occupying the left and right sides of the corridor respectively. However, if the rules are broken, the areas may become disordered.
3. Due to the limited space available for cartilaginous animals to move around, this floor has only two staff members. If a third appears, please ignore them.
4. If any of the three situations above occurs, the hospital is no longer safe. Staff must evacuate immediately.
After reading all four rules, Ruan Ping's face involuntarily filled with panic.
Even the scalp at the back of his head went numb, not to mention his palms, which were so sweaty he could practically wring water from them.
Not a single one of these looked good.
That thing just now was a blue-ringed octopus, right???
If the rules said the hospital didn't accept this animal at all, then what exactly was that creature beside his idol?
The entire room was deathly silent. After Ruan Ping read through the four rules, the terrifying atmosphere reached its peak.
Whether from nerves or an auditory hallucination, he seemed to hear another sound in the room.
"Hiss... hiss, hiss..."
At first, the sound was very faint, like tinnitus brought on by overthinking.
Ruan Ping raised a hand and shakily picked at his ear. In an instant, the strange hissing grew clearer, relentlessly clamoring to fray the young man's fragile nerves.
Unbeknownst to him, a giant python several meters long had its mouth slightly open, its scarlet eyes gleaming with bloodlust. Its sharp fangs slowly approached his slender, vulnerable neck, as though it would bite straight through it in the next second.
The corridor was very quiet.
Shen Ru obediently followed behind the octopus, but his mind raced.
The theme of this instance was the inversion of humans and animals. Perhaps some human behavior had contaminated the animals' consciousness, giving them independent thoughts and allowing them to turn around and restrict human behavior.
This should have been a natural process, but the appearance of the Name Badge convinced Shen Ru that human intervention might be involved.
Judging by the monsters' behavior, the evolution of their consciousness had not yet given them any sense of kinship with their own kind.
So the buzzing and the time rewind after he killed the monster at the beginning should both have been controlled by someone.
Who was it?
As Shen Ru thought, his gaze swept over the octopus corpse on the floor. It had only been a casual glance, but that single look suddenly made him pause.
The tentacles on the floor were yellow, without any markings. Anyone would have identified it as an ordinary species of octopus.
Could an octopus of this species hatch a blue-ringed octopus of a different species?
Clearly not...
The monster continued its bizarre wriggling ahead of him. There was not a trace of panic in the young man's dark red eyes, and his steps and breathing remained steady, but he had already turned the information he possessed over in his mind countless times.
Blue-ringed octopuses were highly venomous. Logically, not every hospital had the resources or facilities to take them in and treat them, especially when this one had also caused the death of an ordinary octopus.
Perhaps the monster in front of him was the thing that should not have existed in the hospital.
In the livestream chat:
[I just came over from the other stream and saw the Fourth Floor employee rules. I'm numb now...]
[Wake up, darling! Who knows where this damn thing is taking you!!!]
[Stop yelling. If darling knew about this, do you think he'd keep walking or turn around and run?]
[...Then I'm not worried anymore. For my darling, knowing or not knowing makes no difference!]
The atmosphere in the corridor was oppressive. Shen Ru could not tell whether he was imagining it, but he faintly sensed a scrutinizing gaze coming through the gap in one of the doors.
His red eyes swept briefly toward it, a faint smile playing at his lips. The monster ahead suddenly spoke.
"We're here. Go in."
Shen Ru did not enter immediately. Instead, he stood at the doorway and quickly surveyed the room.
Unlike the dim corridor, the dazzling electric lights cast a cold white glow. The most eye-catching thing was the enormous cylindrical glass tank in the center of the room.
Under the lights, pythons gleaming black were tightly entwined with one another. Their supple bodies gave off chilling hisses, and as they writhed against each other, the lid of the glass container showed faint signs of coming loose.
A flicker of sly excitement flashed in the young man's eyes. He stared at the camera with its red light on and gave it a dazzling smile.
"Could you wait a moment? Would you witness something for me?"
Shen Ru quickly composed his expression. His tone was flat, and when he raised his eyes to the octopus, his gaze was strikingly vacant.
A shrill, impatient voice sounded beside his ear. "Witness what?"
"Witness..."
Shen Ru drew out the word and quickly redeemed an iron rod from the Space Mall. Just in case, he also applied a set of enhancement items to it. Then, under the eyes of everyone watching, he swung his arm and smashed it hard into the glass container.
His exceptionally delighted voice trembled with fervor. Accompanied by the shattering of glass, the young man gently finished his sentence.
"Your death."
NPCs couldn't kill monsters, but what about making them kill each other?
His beautiful eyes tilted slightly upward as he waited for the person on the other end of the surveillance feed to react.
The next second, the shrill, terrifying sounds were all put on pause. Countless forked tongues froze in midair, forming horrifying arcs.
At last, a voice that sounded both helpless and indulgent came through the camera.
"When did you figure it out?"
The young man's beautiful eyes curved slightly. The tip of his tongue gently licked the corner of his mouth, leaving a wet trail, and he answered with suggestive defiance.
"Just now."
Before you continue