"What the fuck is he doing?" Everyone was stunned.
Shao Lan was the first to jump up. "After him."
He charged out ahead of everyone.
Qin Ning was the first to run after him, and the others quickly followed.
Zhang Fang was running toward the shore. The boundless sea stretched out before him, but he showed no sign of slowing down. He was about to plunge straight into the water.
Shao Lan rushed up and grabbed him.
Zhang Fang shouted, "Let go of me! I have to go back! I have to go back..."
He shook Shao Lan off and lunged toward the sea.
The next second, Qin Ning caught up from behind and delivered a vicious flying kick to Zhang Fang's head.
Zhang Fang passed out.
A wave rolled in, soaking Shao Lan's and Qin Ning's calves. They rolled up their trouser legs and laboriously dragged Zhang Fang back onto shore like a dead donkey.
The other four stood rooted to the spot, terrified by what they had seen.
Only when Zhang Fang had been dragged over to them did everyone snap out of their daze. Xu Jiawei and Xu Zijian stepped forward to lend a hand, helping tie him up.
The Village Chief came over too. "Jiaojiao, what's wrong with your man?"
Xu Jiaojiao said helplessly, "How would I know?"
"Is he sick?" the Village Chief asked. "Take him to the Health Station..."
"No need," Shao Lan interrupted. "I'm a doctor."
Xu Jiawei froze.
She had chatted with Shao Lan in the vehicle and asked what he did in the real world.
"Oh, I'm a graduate student," Shao Lan had said casually at the time.
Why was he claiming to be a doctor now?
Puzzled, Xu Jiawei asked, "Aren't you a graduate student? How are you a doctor now?"
"I'm a medical graduate student," Shao Lan said blandly.
Xu Jiawei: "..."
She kept feeling that Shao Lan wasn't telling the truth, but she had no proof.
"My research focuses on mental illness, so I might be able to deal with his condition," Shao Lan told the Village Chief.
He tried moving Zhang Fang, but found him too bulky to manage easily, so he turned to Qin Ning. "Could you lend a hand?"
Xu Zijian said, "I'll help you."
"No need," Shao Lan said. "Qin Ning and I can carry him. We shouldn't keep all our strongest fighters together."
His reasoning was sound and impossible to argue with. Xu Zijian could only nod silently and step back.
Shao Lan and Qin Ning carried Zhang Fang back to the Guesthouse and put him in Shao Lan's room for the time being.
Before Zhang Fang woke up, Shao Lan found a rag and stuffed it into his mouth.
Watching Shao Lan bustle about, Qin Ning asked expressionlessly, "You're not a doctor, are you?"
"No." Shao Lan dusted off his hands and straightened up. "But we absolutely cannot let Zhang Fang go to the Health Station again."
"You want to save him?"
Shao Lan shook his head. "No. I need him to save me."
So far, Shao Lan still hadn't gathered enough information.
But at least he could sense that Zhang Fang had to be the key to everything.
Of the eight of them, Zhang Fang had been the first to show signs of trouble, even before Song Liru. At least Song Liru had seemed perfectly normal while chatting with them before she disappeared, whereas Zhang Fang had already been singing that strange song.
Especially now that they couldn't find Song Liru, Zhang Fang was the only person they could study.
"Let me ask you something," Shao Lan said. "What did Zhang Fang remind you of just now?"
Qin Ning thought for a moment. She had a vague feeling, but couldn't quite put it into words.
"A fish," Shao Lan said. "Have you ever fed goldfish?"
"Goldfish can easily eat themselves to death because they don't know when they're full. No matter how much food you scatter in, they'll eat it all until they gorge themselves to death."
Qin Ning recalled how Zhang Fang had wolfed down the "rice noodles."
"And did you hear him? When he ran toward the sea, he shouted, 'I have to go back.' Strange, isn't it? People don't live in the sea. Why would he say 'back'?"
Fish lived in the sea.
"After eating the rice noodles, Zhang Fang kept saying he couldn't breathe. We all thought it was because he'd overeaten or something was stuck in his throat," Shao Lan said. "But if we assume he's a fish, it makes perfect sense-a fish can't breathe on land, so of course he'd be gasping for air. That's why Zhang Fang was so desperate to rush into the sea."
Qin Ning glanced at Zhang Fang.
Though unconscious, his chest was rising and falling. He wasn't dead.
"You've spotted the hole in that theory." Shao Lan nodded. "If he'd really turned into a fish, he should have suffocated by now. But he hasn't."
"So Zhang Fang's body hasn't changed. At least for now, he's still physically human and hasn't developed gills. If he really plunged into the sea, he'd drown."
"But he believes he's a fish. He has a fish's understanding of the world and instinctively lives according to its habits... In short, his [soul] has become a fish."
After a brief silence, Qin Ning said, "Contamination."
Shao Lan repeated, "Contamination?"
"Monsters in many Instances work this way. They attack the players' minds first, gradually driving them insane. That's [contamination]," Qin Ning said. "This Instance is near the sea, so its contamination is connected to the sea."
Her tone was calm. She had probably already been through quite a few Instances.
Shao Lan considered this. "Could Song Liru have been [contaminated] too?"
"Possibly," Qin Ning said. "[Contamination] can happen in many ways, and it can also be completed in an instant."
Shao Lan began to think.
The hallucinations they had experienced after hearing Zhang Fang sing must have been a form of [contamination] too.
At that thought, Shao Lan took out his folding knife and cut a wound in Zhang Fang's arm.
Blood welled out, but Zhang Fang's eyes remained blank. He showed no reaction.
It seemed his [contamination] was more severe. Pain couldn't bring him back to his senses.
The reason was simple: Shao Lan and Xu Jiawei had been indirectly [contaminated] by Zhang Fang, like a virus that grew weaker as it spread.
Zhang Fang, however, had come into direct contact with the [source of contamination]. It was like swallowing a petri dish full of viruses, so naturally his condition was the worst.
Then what was this [source of contamination]?
Shao Lan's gaze fell on Zhang Fang's bandages.
Those glimmering things were gone.
Perhaps they hadn't disappeared, but had instead... burrowed into Zhang Fang's body?
Shao Lan removed the bandages and carefully examined Zhang Fang's wound, but he couldn't see anything unusual.
Qin Ning pondered for a moment, then rose and headed outside.
"Where are you going?" Shao Lan asked.
"To find Song Liru," Qin Ning said.
This was all the information Zhang Fang could give them. If they wanted to learn more, they had to find Song Liru.
"I'm going too." Shao Lan followed her.
Qin Ning stopped.
"Sorry," she said coldly. "I told you, I don't like working with other people."
Shao Lan nodded. "I only said I was going to look for Song Liru too. I didn't say I'd look with you. We'll each do our own searching. That shouldn't count as working together, right?"
Qin Ning: "..."
She walked on, and Shao Lan followed.
Qin Ning stopped and looked back.
Shao Lan shrugged helplessly. "I'm taking this route too."
He exploited the loophole as though it were perfectly natural. Qin Ning turned away with an icy expression and quickened her pace.
The two descended the stairwell to the second floor when they suddenly heard voices from the first floor-the Village Chief had returned with the other players.
Before you continue