Human nature

The last person was the manager, Wu Dahai.

He was the oldest of them all, and also the fattest. Middle-aged spread had naturally left him in poor physical shape.

But whether deliberately or not, as Wu Dahai fled in panic, he grabbed someone ahead of him and yanked them backward, using the momentum to propel himself forward.

The person he had grabbed stumbled and nearly fell, naturally ending up at the very back.

Whoosh!

A streak of silver flashed past.

The person Wu Dahai had dragged to the back was decapitated outright, without even a chance to scream.

Seeing this, Fang Xiu immediately stopped, felt his thigh twice more, then continued running. He had no concern about falling behind. Young, strong, and accustomed to regular exercise, he was in the physical prime of his life.

He did not know how to ignite his Spirituality quickly, so he could only make these attempts without knowing whether they meant anything.

The corridor on the right was long. They ran for a full minute before reaching its end, where the space suddenly opened up.

It was a dining hall.

The dining hall was large and deserted, filled with old tables and chairs. In one corner stood a stove and several large black pots.

Wang Ziteng was delighted. "Dining halls usually have an exit leading outside."

Everyone grew excited at his words. Paying no attention to the state of the dining hall, they scanned the room, immediately spotted a door on the far left, and ran toward it.

Fang Xiu kept himself second from the back, running with a calm expression while surveying his surroundings.

Beyond the door was another dim, cramped corridor, only this one seemed even darker. The fluorescent tubes on the ceiling looked as though they might go out at any moment.

Nobody cared about their surroundings. They just wanted to escape as quickly as possible.

They soon reached the end of the corridor. Wang Ziteng, who was leading the way, looked utterly grim. "There's nowhere to go!"

The corridor ended in a dead end.

This made no sense at all. As Wang Ziteng understood it, crowded places like dining halls usually had an emergency exit or a passage leading outside. How could this be a dead end?

Was the entire hospital sealed off, with no intention of letting anyone out?

"Look! There's a door here!" a coworker exclaimed.

On the right side of the corridor's end was a narrow little door, barely wide enough for one person to pass through. It was made of wood, with faded paint and a small glass window.

At the sight of a door, nobody had time to think. They opened it and rushed inside. Whatever might be in there, there was a Ghost outside!

Fortunately, there was no Ghost inside.

It was a cramped room piled with clutter such as brooms, mops, and battered tables and chairs.

Once all five of them squeezed inside, they could hardly find anywhere to stand.

"Damn it! This is a storage room! There's no way out!" Wang Ziteng lost his composure and swore.

The others looked equally despairing.

A dead end!

This was a dead end!

The Ghost had trapped them like turtles in a jar.

Did I choose wrong?

Fang Xiu considered it calmly. It seemed he should take the left-hand route next time.

He did not panic in the slightest. After all, this was merely a trial-and-error attempt for him.

After some thought, he decided to roll back and start again, taking the route on the left.

It was already too late to run back. Two minutes had passed, leaving only one minute until the Female Physician's next attack. Turning back now would only deliver them straight to her.

Although they could send one person to their death to help the others escape, Fang Xiu saw little point in that.

There were only five people left, including himself. Nobody knew how much farther they would have to run, or how many lives it would take to get there.

Just as Fang Xiu was about to leave the room and find the Female Physician to trigger Death Rollback, Wang Ziteng's furious accusations rang out. "This is all your fucking fault, Fang Xiu! If you hadn't picked the wrong way, would we be trapped here?"

"Fang Xiu! If you didn't know which way to take, couldn't you have discussed it with everyone? You just had to take it upon yourself to choose the right!" Wu Dahai chimed in angrily.

The remaining person besides Zhao Hao said nothing outright, but their eyes betrayed a measure of blame.

The corners of Fang Xiu's mouth curled up almost involuntarily. He rarely smiled anymore, except when facing a Ghost filled him with intense excitement.

Yet for some reason, facing Wang Ziteng and the others at this moment made him want to laugh.

Zhao Hao stepped forward and argued vehemently, "Xiu didn't force any of you to come! You chose to follow him yourselves, didn't you? You were the ones who asked him which way to go, and now that it turned out wrong, you're blaming him. If you're so capable, why didn't you choose for yourselves?"

"We aren't capable, but at least we wouldn't make decisions for everyone like he did. If he didn't know the way, couldn't we all have discussed it? We trusted him and let him choose. Who knew he'd just pick at random? He betrayed our trust and led us into a dead end!"

Wu Dahai was a manager for a reason. His little speech left the inarticulate Zhao Hao unable to respond.

"Enough. Stop arguing!" Wang Ziteng shouted. "Our priority now is figuring out how to survive.

"From what I've observed, this Ghost only attacks one person at a time, and after each attack, there's a safe period of two to three minutes. So our only option now is to choose someone to lure the Ghost away, while everyone else escapes."

The moment Wang Ziteng said this, the atmosphere in the room turned strange.

Even an idiot could tell that this was not luring it away. It was going to one's death, trading one life for everyone else's.

Wang Ziteng took in everyone's expressions. He had already worked out his plan.

His sudden accusation against Fang Xiu had been laying the groundwork for this moment. Once everyone blamed Fang Xiu, who else would they choose to send to their death?

Wang Ziteng knew perfectly well that he had to do this. In situations like this, whoever acted first gained the advantage. Panicked people were easily swept along by the crowd and would not think too deeply.

If someone else spoke first and called Wang Ziteng a heartless rich kid who deserved to die before anyone else, he might truly end up dead.

As that strange atmosphere hung over them, Wang Ziteng made an unexpected move. He suddenly shoved Fang Xiu.

He shouted as he did it, "If it weren't for Fang Xiu, none of us would be trapped here, so he has to atone for it! Hurry up and help me!"

The others exchanged looks. Although they did not want to die themselves, actually surviving by killing someone else was more than their consciences-or their courage-could bear.

"Let go of Xiu!" Zhao Hao roared, charging at Wang Ziteng.

Startled, Wang Ziteng hurriedly shouted, "Wu Dahai, get over here and fucking help!"

When asking a group for help, it was best to call out one person's name. Assigning responsibility to someone specific could produce surprisingly good results.

Rather than asking whether someone could help, one should single out an individual. If one knew their name, call it; if not, identify them by a distinguishing feature and ask that specific person to help.

Wang Ziteng was quite proficient in simple psychological tricks like this. Although he spent his time eating, drinking, and having fun, the elite education he had received since childhood still had its uses.