A new beginning

[Ghost story: Sick Sheep.]

[Cleared.]

[Player: So Annoying. Spirit Pupil reward: 2.]

[Player: Pond Fish. Spirit Pupil reward: 5.]

[Player: Abyss. Spirit Pupil reward: 5.]

[...]

Only after returning to his place in Fu City did Qin Manjiang open his phone and look at the final game results.

They had eventually found Liu Jingqing on the verge of death in the Ancestral Hall. Zhong Xueran hadn't called an ambulance. Instead, she had driven Shi Lianshan's car into Fu City with Liu Jingqing and Qin Manjiang.

"Why aren't we going to a hospital?"

Qin Manjiang asked.

"There's a better doctor. If even he can't treat her, these hospitals certainly can't," Zhong Xueran replied.

Once they entered the city, she dropped Qin Manjiang off. "Go home first. He doesn't see people he doesn't know."

"I'll keep you updated on Miss Liu's condition..."

As the car drove away, Zhong Xueran's voice drifted back to him.

Now, looking at the unfamiliar results screen, Qin Manjiang felt a little relieved.

At least it meant Liu Jingqing was still alive.

He opened his profile. Beneath his real name and alias, five eyeballs had appeared, looking particularly eerie.

At the same time, a new notification popped up.

[Item system unlocked.]

[You can only view items requiring up to ten more Spirit Pupil Counts than you currently possess.]

A One-Time Item required a minimum Spirit Pupil Count of ten. He currently had five, which meant he could now see One-Time Items costing up to fifteen Spirit Pupils.

Qin Manjiang looked at the unfamiliar item button and tapped it.

An entirely new page appeared before him.

However, only three items were lit up. The other One-Time Items were all black silhouettes without names, and he couldn't guess what they were.

[Evil Curse Pendant. Spirit Pupils required: 10.]

[Lovers' Lock. Spirit Pupils required: 13.]

[Nuo Opera Mask. Spirit Pupils required: 15.]

This... must be what Green Vine redeemed. The Evil Curse Pendant allowed a player to possess an important character before the game began and gather information.

But his luck had been terrible. The character was indeed important, but also someone who died right at the beginning.

As for the Lovers' Lock and the Nuo Opera Mask, he could guess a little about the former's function from its name, but he had no idea about the latter.

And...

Qin Manjiang looked straight at the final item.

[Permanent Exclusive Item (unique).]

[Spirit Pupils required: 100.]

There was no doubt that this item offered the greatest return.

But... he had earned five Spirit Pupils in this game. At that rate, he would need to play at least twenty games to earn a hundred.

Even if he redeemed a One-Time Item, he had to make sure his eventual earnings exceeded its cost. After all, each person could only redeem One-Time Items three times. Using up those chances early would be far too wasteful.

Qin Manjiang exited the Ghost Story Game interface. It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't received any reward for his beginner level, leaving him with considerably fewer Spirit Pupils than the others right from the start.

Just then, the screen that had just gone dark lit up again. The name displayed on it was Zhong Xueran.

"Hello?" Qin Manjiang answered the call.

"The surgery was successful." Zhong Xueran sounded a little more relaxed. Just as she was about to continue, a man's voice came from her end of the line. "Who is it?"

Zhong Xueran laughed. "The patient's family."

She was joking, of course, but the doctor didn't seem to take it as a joke. He took the phone and said to Qin Manjiang, "The location of her injury was highly unusual. The nails penetrated deep into her brain, which contains a dense network of nerves and blood vessels. The injury was near the ophthalmic artery and internal carotid artery. She was very lucky. Neither artery was punctured, so there was no massive hemorrhage."

Qin Manjiang froze. Did this doctor really think he was her family?

Before he could speak, the doctor continued, "The nail on the left had displaced the ophthalmic artery. Its tip was less than two millimeters from the internal carotid artery. However, without massive bleeding, it wasn't particularly difficult. There was no hematoma in the surgical area around the nails. The operation was successful."

"..." After listening, Qin Manjiang fell silent for a moment. "Thank you, doctor."

"Mm."

The phone was handed back to Zhong Xueran.

"Haha, don't be upset. This guy is an obsessive-compulsive old stick-in-the-mud. You'll meet him someday," Zhong Xueran said cheerfully.

"He's one too?"

"Of course. Didn't I tell you? Doctor. He's Doctor!"

Zhong Xueran's confirmation settled the man's identity for Qin Manjiang.

Indeed, unless he was a doctor by profession, he wouldn't have inexplicably chosen Doctor as his alias. As expected, the top Ten Seats all knew one another personally.

He was the owner of that Cursed Scalpel-Doctor.

And in real life, he was also a highly skilled doctor.

"You two were amazing. I just saw that you and Miss Liu both earned five Spirit Pupils. For a new player, you're already doing incredibly well!" Zhong Xueran said with feeling. "I was completely lost throughout my first multiplayer mode game. I didn't get even a single Spirit Pupil in the end."

"Even people who survive might not get any Spirit Pupils?" Qin Manjiang asked in surprise.

"That's right... maybe there's a pair of eyes secretly judging whether everything we do helps advance the game. You can't expect to coast along forever, you know..."

"How many Spirit Pupils are distributed in a single Ghost Story Game?" Qin Manjiang continued.

"In multiplayer mode, the total number of Spirit Pupils is the number of players times two. Take Sick Sheep, for example. Twelve Spirit Pupils were distributed in total, and we received all of them."

"What if someone killed every other player at the last moment and had also made a contribution? Could they get all the Spirit Pupils?" Qin Manjiang asked curiously.

"No. Simply put, they're 'distributed according to contribution.' Being the last person left doesn't mean everything belongs to you. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any cooperation in this game, just people plotting against each other," Zhong Xueran explained.

So that was how it worked.

Although it wasn't quite what he had imagined, it wasn't bad either.

"However, challenge mode calculates Spirit Pupil Count differently. Every time it wipes out a group of players, it adds another round's worth of Spirit Pupil Count, then multiplies it by two. The most terrifying challenge mode has already accumulated four rounds' worth of Spirit Pupils. With six players per round, that's forty-eight Spirit Pupils. The final total gets multiplied by two again, making ninety-six Spirit Pupils altogether! If you could clear it and claim all of them... you'd practically have a Permanent Item right away..." Zhong Xueran gave him an astonishingly large number, but soon shook her head. "Still... even Yang doesn't want to touch that challenge mode ghost story."

"Why?" Qin Manjiang asked. That was a great opportunity to earn Spirit Pupils... and Yang was the Chief Player. Besides having plenty of experience, surely he also had powerful means of keeping himself alive?

"I don't know. Its fearsome reputation, maybe. Yang was selected once, but to avoid entering that ghost story, he actually redeemed an extremely expensive One-Time Item and forcibly skipped that round." On the other end of the line, Zhong Xueran pressed her palms together in prayer. "Please don't pick me. I don't have enough Spirit Pupils to buy such an expensive One-Time Item."

Qin Manjiang grew even more interested. Just what was that ghost story?

Not only had it wiped out the players four times, it had even made the Chief Player pay a huge price to skip it voluntarily.

"Do you have any idea what kind of ghost story it is?" Qin Manjiang asked.

Although Qin Manjiang couldn't see her, Zhong Xueran still instinctively shook her head. "No. Everyone who knew is dead. Unless someone breaks the game rules before dying and sends information out. There was once a vicious ghost lurking in the Water in the Building that was exposed that way. A player called Jidan Guabing sent information to those of us outside the game just before dying. That challenge ghost story was cleared that way too."

"But we do know its name. We've all seen it four times!" Zhong Xueran sounded a little frightened.

"What is it?"

Zhong Xueran fell silent for a while. Seemingly reluctant to mention the name, she said quietly, "Ping'an Hospital."

"Ghost story: Ping'an Hospital."

"Anyway, young Classmate Qin, remember this: the more Spirit Pupils, the better. Even once you have enough to redeem a Permanent Item, you still need to keep earning more..." Zhong Xueran quickly moved past the subject. "Let's work together again if we get the chance. You two got so many Spirit Pupils this time. Next time, I'm going all out!"

"After this, it's a new beginning for you, young Classmate Qin. Haha, bye!"

The call ended.

Qin Manjiang stared absently at his phone. Only after his stomach growled several times did he realize he was hungry.

But he barely had any money left.

He turned to look around the room and suddenly realized that perhaps he ought to find some way to make money.

Now that Qin Manyi was staying in a psychiatric hospital, it would be a real waste to leave the extra room empty. Hmm... that's what I'll do.

(End of chapter)