Beating Instances through Words Left by the Dead

Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Fourth Floor of the Sanatorium

The resentment harbored by Wolf was well hidden. When Wu Chang first entered the office, he didn’t notice it. It wasn’t until the two entered the cavern for pharmaceuticals that Wolf revealed his true form, making the resentment on him observable.

The presence of the resentment was very subtle, somewhere between pale and deep red, indicating that the owner of the resentment had some obsessions, but not too many.

The blood-colored will within the resentment appeared and disappeared intermittently. Wu Chang spent considerable effort to see its contents clearly.

The owner of the resentment on Wolf was a stalker. He not only found the pharmaceutical room but also used some skills to pass directly through the door into the room.

Perhaps because there was no ”door-opening” step, the crisis that the seasoned doctor predicted did not occur.

The stalker hid in the shadows, quietly observing Wolf.

After witnessing Wolf handling all the medical records in the office and having the on-duty doctor underground send the records to the surface, he saw Wolf change into a special robe and enter the hidden door in the office.

Inside the hidden door was an altar, on which a stone symbol statue was enshrined. The symbol was a crescent-shaped eye, identical to the pattern carved on the traveler’s talisman.

Wolf lay prostrate, devoutly worshipping the symbol.

The stalker, having discovered all this, excitedly came out of his stealth state and wanted to say something, but before he could open his mouth, Wolf, having noticed his secret being discovered, transformed into a monster and stabbed the stalker’s mouth with sharp insect-like limbs.

A one-hit kill.

This scene Wu Chang watched repeatedly many times.

He put himself in the shoes of the stalker, realizing that even if he knew when Wolf was going to attack, he still couldn’t see clearly or evade it.

Damn, within seven steps, the punch was indeed faster.

Judging by Wolf’s transformed form, it’s clear his health bar isn’t short.

With high attack and health, given his current attributes, relying on brute force to deal with Wolf wasn’t realistic, not even with Silver Dawn.

He must find another way.

As he pondered, the blood-colored will within the resentment stabilized.

[The Prophet received an oracle. The Cursed Gold is right in the second underground floor of the Moonlight Sanatorium! For the return of the master, it must be found.]

A player, of all things, shared allegiance with the deity that the dungeon’s antagonist worshiped. The situation was getting more interesting.

Wu Chang didn’t know what the so-called Cursed Gold was, so he didn’t hurry to complete the blood-colored will and instead hid this information.

Wolf noticed Wu Chang seemed distracted and didn’t engage much in conversation, only giving a few suggestions before allowing Wu Chang to leave.

Once Wu Chang left the pharmaceutical room, he returned to his human form and went back to the office, opening the hidden door the stalker once discovered.

He knelt before the altar, devoutly chanting:

”The sacrifice is about to begin, the deity is destined to descend, this is fate, it is unstoppable.”

Wu Chang left the pharmaceutical room, not continuing to explore the sanatorium, but choosing to return to his room.

He lay on the bed, sorting through the clues he discovered tonight.

The highest form of deception is nine truths and one lie, selectively expressing certain truths and inserting a lie at the most critical juncture of the truth.

The story Wolf told about White Stone Town shouldn’t be fake, and the mastermind being the Peaceful Sect seemed real too.

But the truth about the delusionary disorder, and Wolf asking him to ”awaken” Director Randy, surely had another agenda.

He suspected Wolf, not just because of the stalker’s resentment, but also because at the end of the story, Wolf, using a scratching motion, ”accidentally” tore the white coat he was wearing.

The admission guidelines mentioned that within the sanatorium, the words of medical staff can be trusted, but only those in white uniforms count as medical staff.

If the rule was such that medical personnel couldn’t speak harmfully or deceive patients, then Wolf tearing his white coat was a signal he intended to lie.

Thus, he inferred backwards that he shouldn’t ”awaken” Director Randy, at least not lightly.

However, there was one thing he couldn’t figure out: patients disappearing every now and then within the sanatorium, a group of rotten, mutated humanoid creatures locked in the underground ward, and how a stroll outside the room at night could turn one into minced meat.

With the sanatorium becoming like this, our director still hadn’t realized the existence of supernatural forces. Wasn’t his faith in materialism a bit too firm?

Staring at the half-light of dawn outside the window, he yawned. He had done enough for today. Everything would wait until after he woke up.

Wu Chang opened his eyes again, awakened by a knock on the door.

He stretched lazily, feeling wonderfully refreshed.

With physical qualities nearly double that of an average person, his quality of sleep was absurdly good, needing only one or two hours to relieve the fatigue of an entire day.

A beautiful day began with opening the door to see Nurse Julie.

”Good morning, Miss Julie.”

Julie walked into the room, glancing around, surprise and oddity crossing her eyes as if she had discovered something.

”What’s wrong?” Wu Chang probed. When it came to mystery, this beautiful ”friendly NPC” was no less impressive than anyone else.

”It’s nothing, let’s go quickly, you’re going to be late for your consultation.” Julie hesitated for a moment but eventually said nothing.

As part of the routine, patients needed to go to the consultation room to check their condition and receive today’s special medicine before any activities.

Charles, the doctor responsible for the mild cases, looked even more haggard than last night.

His eye sockets were sunken, the dark circles had deepened, and his eyeballs were covered in bloodshot veins with blotches near the pupils, as if it was him, not Wu Chang, who had stayed up all night investigating.

The mentally exhausted Doctor Charles was particularly irritable. He grabbed a package of special medicine, slapped it in front of Wu Chang, and as Wu Chang reached out to take it, he seized Wu Chang by the collar. Staring at Wu Chang’s radiant face, he said jealously:

”Did you sleep well last night?”

When Wu Chang was grabbed by the neck, he pretended to panic and used his hand to support himself on the table, creating an obvious noise by slapping the surface.

”Thanks to the special medicine, I had a good dream.”

”A good dream?” Charles repeated with a strange tone, then asked, ”What did you dream about?”

”Huh?” Wu Chang pretended not to understand.

”I asked, you...” Doctor Charles was about to continue asking, but Julie, who heard the noise, had already walked into the consultation room.

Charles seemed apprehensive about Julie’s presence, released Wu Chang’s collar, and grunted, ”Get out of here!”

Wu Chang adjusted his collar and followed Julie out of the consultation room.

Standing at the door of the consultation room, Julie asked, with a hint of implication, ”Do you remember the admission instructions?”

Wu Chang: ”Of course I remember.”

”Is there anything you want to tell me?”

”Not at the moment.”

”Oh.”

With the disappearance of Kinton, Wu Chang temporarily found himself out of danger and could move freely in the activity room.

As a hero for exposing Kinton’s Thousand Techniques, satisfying everyone’s grudge, he was warmly welcomed by other patients.

With an emotional foundation built, he quickly integrated into the group of patients.

Integrating was easy, but extracting information was not.

Under the influence of the delusions, each patient was unusually agitated, as if avoiding something. They often broke off mid-sentence, shivering and hiding under tables or clutching their heads and crying, even seeking sharp objects for self-harm.

Only the special medicine could alleviate their symptoms.

But after taking the medicine, they transformed into addicts high on ecstasy, their eyes becoming unfocused, their speech incoherent, and they often talked to the air as if speaking to themselves.

After an entire day, he barely gathered any useful information and almost ended up becoming mentally unhinged himself.

He couldn’t tell whether the delusions were actually contagious or if he had inhaled powder from other patients’ special medicine. Near sunset, at one moment, he turned to look at the setting sun and saw a white angel flying past the corner of his eye.

No, I must quicken the pace of clearing this instance.

That same night, he took the Traveler’s Talisman and headed to the fourth floor of the sanatorium.

The day’s actions were not without results. Using the patients’ fragmented descriptions along with Wolf’s story, he roughly pieced together White Stone Town’s plot.

The Vino family and the Peace Church, which had come to White Stone Town for investment, did exist, and the Peace Church was indeed recognized by the kingdom as dangerous individuals, with quite a few townspeople having joined the Peaceful Sect.

In the activity room with fewer than twenty people, seven patients, after getting high, hugged his shoulders and preached loudly:

”Brother Sean, don’t worry about delusions. As long as you join the church, the god will grant us eternal peace. If you’re interested, come find me tomorrow, and I’ll take you to meet the priest.”

Every time after preaching, the patients didn’t forget to emphasize hoarsely:

”We’re a secret church; don’t tell anyone. If the kingdom finds out, we’ll be nailed to the stake!”

The Peace Church had infiltrated with such intensity that, as Wolf had said, the entire sanatorium had fallen under the control of the Peace Church.

Therefore, Wu Chang now had to confirm the situation with the director. Whatever Wolf was after, the director was the key to clearing the instance.

He felt his way to the fourth floor and used the red key to open the heavy iron door leading to the fourth floor. Upon entering the corridor, he was immediately dismayed by the scene before him.

The medical staff, unlike the patients, did not stay quietly in their rooms. Eight or nine medical staff in white uniforms wandered the corridor like sleepwalkers.

In their sleepwalking state, they frenziedly tore at their white uniforms, trying to get rid of them, while the white uniforms came alive, coiling and tightening like a python, resisting the staff’s struggles.

As Wu Chang was puzzled over this bizarre scene, a sinister voice sounded behind him.

”Sean, tell me, what are you dreaming about now?”