The Third Floor

Corpses lay strewn across the narrow corridor, each dressed in a patient's gown.

They were all half-rotted, but the air in the corridor was still breathable.

The stench of decay hanging in the air was not particularly strong. It seemed these bodies had been lying here for so long that most of the smell had already dissipated.

Up ahead, at the end of the corridor, someone who looked like a doctor stood with his head lowered, reading a document.

"Two patients coming in this time?" The doctor raised his head and looked at Su Weiyu and Xia Shou, then his expression turned puzzled. "It seems you can both see me."

Xia Shou frowned. This was the first doctor they had encountered who could speak.

The doctors in the previous two stages had not said a single word to them, even as they died. Rather than guardians, they had been more like monsters following some kind of mechanism.

The doctor before them seemed much more human, but unfortunately... the fact that he could see Su Weiyu proved he was not human.

"Not going to answer? Then let me do the talking. First, I have a proposal. Would you two be interested in becoming chief physicians at this sanatorium? Like me, you would be responsible for ensuring Idrisu's routine medical treatment of the young lady continued without anyone disturbing him," the doctor said with a smile.

With that, he raised his right hand. The flesh in his palm churned and writhed, pushing a key out from within.

Then he raised his other hand. Its palm writhed again, and a second key emerged!

He actually had two keys!

"My two former colleagues failed to fulfill their duties properly, so their dismissal was only right.

"As it happens, there are now two vacancies for chief physicians. I think you're both quite capable and would be perfectly suited to the position.

"Oh! Don't look at me like that, and don't be so quick to refuse. I'm doing this for your own good.

"Not to boast, but although the two chief physicians you defeated held the same rank as me, our professional expertise is on entirely different levels.

"I don't know why you're immune to the keys' effects, but to put it bluntly, you don't have the slightest chance of beating me."

Disgust crossed Su Weiyu's face. "Don't waste words on him. This thing only acts human."

Su Weiyu knew exactly how her constitution worked. No human could see her, not even the highest-ranking Cleaner she had ever encountered, a Level Seven Cleaner.

And the distinction between human and nonhuman did not depend on anatomy or physiology.

She had encountered plenty of beings whose bodies had completely lost their human shape, yet remained human in mind. Such "beings" still could not see her.

But there were also plenty of things whose minds were no longer human at all, even though they still looked the part... like the doctor before them.

Judging whether a creature was mentally human meant looking at whether its thoughts and actions revolved around human emotions-in other words, whether it possessed humanity.

Clearly, although this doctor looked human, he had actually become part of the sanatorium's rules and mechanisms. He was like an NPC in a game: human in the setting, with dialogue indistinguishable from a human's, yet not a real person at all.

"I'll go first. The doctors here are all lousy at close combat." Su Weiyu raised the Boy Cutter, deciding to test him herself.

This great sword, named [Boy Cutter], had been forged by Yasuyoshi, a swordsmith from Hōki Province. Minamoto no Yorimitsu had once used it to slay Demon God Shuten-dōji, earning it the name Boy Cutter.

The truth of such events could no longer be verified, but the sword undoubtedly possessed mysterious power. Anyone who wielded it could gain the martial prowess of its former owner, Minamoto no Yorimitsu-prowess sufficient to slay evil demons.

The longer its wielder carried it, the more refined the reproduced martial skills became, until they could perform sword techniques that completely defied the laws of physics.

Su Weiyu had carried this sword for a very, very long time. She could now swing the heavy blade in a Lightning Triple Slash that normal human eyes could not track. When she swung it, all it left in the air were blurred afterimages.

Su Weiyu pushed off with her toes and shot forward.

This was Xia Shou's first time seeing Su Weiyu fight. Before this, whenever she had acted, the battle had either ended instantly or taken place in the dark.

Almost instantaneously, Su Weiyu reached the doctor and brought her long blade down at his head!

Xia Shou saw only dust burst apart in the air and an afterimage flash across the doctor's body.

Yet the doctor stood completely unharmed. He had not even made any attempt to dodge!

"I told you. You cannot win."

Smiling, the doctor calmly took a scalpel from inside his white coat and, moving at an ordinary speed, sliced straight toward Su Weiyu's throat!

Su Weiyu's pupils abruptly contracted. She leaned backward to avoid the sharp scalpel, leaving only a severed lock of hair behind.

She adjusted the edge of the Boy Cutter and slashed horizontally at his neck again. Yet the blade passed through him like a mirage, without the slightest sensation of contact.

"In a hospital, patients must listen to their doctors," the doctor said coldly.

"Who's going to listen to you!"

Su Weiyu curled her fingers into an eagle's claw and thrust her hand out like lightning, trying to seize his wrist.

The instant her fingers met his wrist, her hand passed through his body as well, as though nothing existed there.

"The Hand Doctor?!"

Was the Hand Doctor's ability that hands could not touch him?

No! It was not just hands.

The Boy Cutter had failed to cut him, too. That meant anything involving hands-even a tool operated indirectly by them-could not touch him.

Su Weiyu leaped backward with all her strength. As she opened up the distance, she delivered a graceful airborne kick at his wrist.

Her foot passed through his arm, while the Hand Doctor followed through with his scalpel, slicing a bloody gash across her calf.

"Fuck!" Su Weiyu cursed through the pain.

Xia Shou was startled by the sight as well.

Even a kick could not hit him!

He suddenly understood why the doctor had so brazenly declared that they had no chance of winning.

Because this thing controlled both the "hand" and "foot" keys!

Neither hands nor feet, nor anything indirectly operated by them, could touch him. That was practically the same as stripping them of every means of attack!

No, they needed more rigorous testing. It was still too early to draw a conclusion.