The mental hospital's fifth floor.
When the elevator doors opened, a spacious, spotless lobby came into view. Unlike the previous floors, the information desk and Nurses' Station stood directly opposite the elevator, with patient rooms on the left and consultation rooms and operating rooms on the right.
Stark white lights illuminated the entire corridor, and surveillance cameras ran continuously in the corners.
Quiet and immaculate, it even had a hint of peaceful everyday life.
To Shen Ru's surprise, a young woman sat at the nurses' desk. Her hair was tied in a bun, her uniform was neat, and she looked bright and alert, even wearing a polite smile.
She showed no surprise at seeing the three of them emerge from the elevator. As though following a preset program, she walked over naturally and asked:
"What happened?"
Shen Ru said nothing. His dark red eyes curved as he stared straight at her, sizing her up. Just as she was about to ask again, he spoke:
"Downstairs... there were strange noises downstairs. They made me a little dizzy. I'd like to see a doctor."
Rather than responding directly, the nurse turned her gaze to the two men behind him and asked again with a smile:
"The doctor isn't on duty yet. You can tell me if anything's wrong. Did something happen downstairs?"
Meng Yizhi and Ruan Ping suddenly remembered those red eyes in the elevator. They both shook their heads vigorously, backing up Shen Ru's story:
"We're just dizzy!"
In the livestream chat:
[Hahahaha, those two are so obedient!]
[Guys, does nobody else think this nurse is weird??]
[Exactly. And the atmosphere on the fifth floor is clearly different. It feels like the calm before the storm.]
The nurse awkwardly withdrew her curious gaze and said softly to the three of them, "You can stay on the fifth floor for now. I'll arrange for you to see the doctor as soon as they come in tomorrow. Is that all right?"
At that reassuring answer, a smile finally reached Shen Ru's eyes. He added, "The three of us will stay together."
The nurse's expression visibly stiffened, but she immediately recovered and agreed with a smile.
Shen Ru followed the nurse, smiling. He hadn't told her exactly what had happened downstairs, instead picking out things that sounded strange but harmless. If the nurse was a player, she would definitely go downstairs to unlock the storyline.
I can't wait.
I wonder if she'll like the present I left behind.
Inside the room.
The nurse had assigned them a standard four-person room. Once Shen Ru confirmed that the door was properly closed, he looked up at the camera blinking red overhead and scoffed.
An indescribable heaviness settled over the room.
There was one obvious problem: every nurse or doctor on the previous floors had been an animal in disguise, but the nurse on this floor was an actual human.
Ruan Ping huddled beneath his blanket with only his head showing and asked timidly:
"Shen Ru, could that nurse be a monster in disguise?"
Shen Ru shook his head. Since the three of them were working together for now, he patiently analyzed their current situation to keep them from getting in one another's way:
"Our test on the fourth floor confirmed that the Name Badge is one source of the monsters' cognitive contamination. That's why the monsters recognized Ruan Ping as one of their own when he wore it. But think carefully. Did that nurse react that way just now?"
Ruan Ping stifled an exclamation and ventured shakily, "Shen Ru, are you saying the nurse isn't a monster?"
Meng Yizhi shook his pink-haired head and sighed. "Not only is she not a monster, I think she's a player. She was fishing for information just now. You're the only innocent little darling who didn't notice."
With that reminder, Ruan Ping suddenly recalled the employee rules he had seen on the fourth floor. They explicitly stated that there were only two staff members on that floor, and that any third person should be ignored.
He told the other two what he had noticed.
After thinking for a moment, Shen Ru said, "According to the inversion theory, the giant python and octopus on the fourth floor are the two monsters taking the staff members' places. That would make the real staff members the players or NPCs locked inside the rooms. We can't rule out the possibility that the nurse is a player from the fourth floor, but it isn't certain."
After all, the dead octopus on the fourth floor had two eyeballs on its suckers. Another player might already have been killed.
There was only so much they could deduce from the clues they had.
The instance had a three-day time limit, after all. Thanks to Shen Ru, the other two were utterly exhausted and fell asleep soon after lying down.
Shen Ru didn't fall asleep right away. He stared at the camera with his eyes open.
The room was deathly silent.
Perhaps he had been wrong from the beginning. Mo Yu might not be the only person behind the cameras.
Otherwise, why did he insist on using his talent to speak to him?
The night deepened. The dim moonlight in the room seemed to fall beneath a shadow, gradually eroding his vision. The light before his eyes vanished, and Shen Ru was plunged into complete darkness.
Everything around him was freezing. He felt enveloped by thick fog, his entire body held by something invisible, like a canary trapped in a cage with no hope of escape.
Shen Ru felt warm breaths against his neck, followed by a weight settling on his shoulder.
A familiar, delicate fragrance washed over him. He couldn't tell whose heart was pounding so relentlessly.
"What are you doing, President Mo?"
Rose always liked to let his voice lilt upward at the end of a sentence, giving it an inexplicably seductive edge.
"Soothing you."
The deep voice sounded beside his ear, gentle and smiling.
Shen Ru laughed, his tone chilly, all trace of his earlier flirtatiousness gone.
"Did some dog lover give you that idea?"
Mo Yu had indeed read plenty of pet-care advice, which offered many ways to manage a beloved pet's moods.
But he felt that telling the truth might make Shen Ru angry, so he changed the subject with stiff, clumsy abruptness.
"You don't like dogs? Cats work too."
The man's absurdity nearly made Shen Ru laugh in anger. But with his body restrained and himself at someone else's mercy, he could only grit his teeth and scrape together the last of his patience to say:
"I want to be human. And if possible, I'd like to be your dad."
The moment he finished speaking, a large, warm hand mercilessly covered his mouth, pressing red marks into his pretty face and leaving him looking terribly pitiful.
The man leaned closer. His long, well-defined fingers rubbed the reddened outer corner of Shen Ru's eye, adding the most delicate, enchanting stroke beside those red eyes.
Then Shen Ru heard Mo Yu sigh, his deep, pleasant voice teasing Shen Ru's ears:
"So cute."
Shen Ru: ????
Cute, my ass!
How could an insult sound so offensive???
Shen Ru struggled to open his mouth and curse, but the delicate fragrance enveloped his whole body, leaving him unable to move.
Even his mouth was sealed tight. He could only make muffled "mmph" sounds to express his displeasure.
His movements pleased Mo Yu, whose dark eyes sparkled with amusement. They were very close, and the man lowered his head, almost touching the tip of Shen Ru's nose.
"Do you know The Truman Show?"
His gentle voice sounded beside Shen Ru's ear. "I'll be waiting for you to find me."
The pitch-black fog dispersed, and the other two men's breathing became clearly audible.
Moonlight filtered through the window, falling softly across Shen Ru's stunning face.
His eyes were misty, the red marks on his face had yet to fade, and the outer corners of his eyes had been thoroughly rubbed raw. He lifted his red eyes slightly, breathtakingly beautiful.
In the livestream chat:
[Fuck!!!!!!]
[...I told you the livestream signal couldn't have cut out for no reason.]
[How did my gorgeous wife end up like this in the blink of an eye!!!!]
[Fine, don't let us watch, but can you at least let us listen next time???]
Before you continue