Chapter 117 System Crash They would never forget that voice until their deaths...

The corridor stretched out, and the emergency lights swayed overhead, like a huge darkroom for film reels.

The zombies that had been anesthetized by Geng Qing were still lying on the ground, motionless, no different from being dead.

As he passed by, Geng Qing glanced at him briefly, "It was worth the full injection; the effects lasted so long."

Ge Lin stomped past her angrily, then quickly walked up to Liang Jun and Xin Sang. "Sister Jun, Sister Xin, do we need to beat him to death?"

Liang Xuan remained silent, but Xin Sang seemed quite interested.

“Let’s kill him if we can,” she said, her excitement barely contained. “In all the zombie movies I’ve watched, the protagonist never finishes off the enemy, and it always ends up causing a disaster—let’s just kill him now to prevent any future trouble.”

Upon receiving the order, Ge Lin was extremely excited. He gave Geng Qing a defiant snort, then raised the mop handle in his hand and stabbed it directly into the zombie's forehead.

However, he only made the first chopping motion before that terrifying mechanical sound rang out again.

[1. If you have officially become a member of the sanatorium, please do not doubt yourself and believe that you meet all the requirements of the sanatorium. We hope you will abide by the rules here and live well. Wangjiang City Sanatorium welcomes you.]

2. Medical staff will make rounds three times a day, delivering your required medication each time. Please note that only the bright red tablets are the ones you need to take. If you find any tablets that are any other color—especially bone white—do not swallow them. Wait until the medical staff leaves, then crush the tablet and apply it to your medical record card at the bedside.

3. All medical staff are concerned for your health. Therefore, when some treatments are beyond your expectations, please do not try to avoid them or try to prove to the medical staff that you are normal—we all know that only a madman would do that.

4. Supernatural events frequently occur at the nursing home. For your health, patients are not allowed to leave the premises—except on Sundays, as these are Sundays of worship. On Sundays, you are not permitted to remain in your ward. Please proceed to the purification room as quickly as possible to listen attentively to the director's gospel teachings.

5. As you can see, the nursing home is a warm and harmonious family. Don't panic when you hear the "Birthday Song" playing on the loudspeaker. Wherever you are and what you are doing, please stop everything, face the loudspeaker, smile, clap your hands, and sing along. Please believe that whoever's birthday it is, they will be incredibly happy because of you.

6. The kind and approachable headmaster is a god who gives us everything; this is the only principle firmly held in our hearts. It was the headmaster who took us in; it was the headmaster who gave us a home where we could truly revel. Please do not doubt a single word the headmaster says, nor question the headmaster's worth—denying the headmaster is one of the signs that your condition is worsening.

Unexpectedly, this triggered the known rules of the instance.

Ge Lin's action of smashing the other person's head stopped abruptly. He stared blankly at the wooden stick in his hand, looking somewhat at a loss.

"Did...I type that?" He still couldn't quite believe it.

But that's just how things are.

Because after they came out of the cleaning room, no one except Green touched any of the items in the environment.

Since everyone watched Ge Lin beat up the zombies, they were naturally locked by the system and given the known rules.

Everything was going smoothly, but...

Liang Xuan carefully pondered the rule text that had just flashed by, and the more she thought about it, the more something seemed off.

First of all, compared to the known rules of the previous few instances, this one is more in line with the spirit of a rule-based fantasy.

Moreover, the rules are described more completely this time. It seems that the system has not hidden anything and has also informed the players of all the hidden rules.

What terrified Liang Jun the most was the content of the rules themselves.

The entire set of rules is like a hospital admission guide for "you"—that is, the player—but it also involves the relevant behaviors of the hospital director, medical staff, and patients.

From a rules-based perspective, these so-called NPCs should all possess a certain degree of autonomy.

Her gaze shifted to the zombie whose head had been completely blown off by Grin.

If this is the "patient" mentioned in the rules, then Liang Jun feels that reality is completely contrary to the script set by the system.

To further verify her conjecture, Liang Jun nudged Geng Qing, who was also deep in thought.

"Director Geng, where is the director of your city's People's Hospital right now?"

"You think our dean is the NPC mentioned in the rules?"

Geng Qing seemed to find it amusing, so he lowered his eyes again and looked at Ge Lin, who was still pounding garlic. "Our dean didn't make it through the previous few dungeon runs. Do you think he'll still be here?"

Upon hearing this news, all the doubts that had been lingering in Liang Jun's mind were resolved.

"I see."

"What do you understand?"

Gu Keke and Jiang Zhiling peeked over from both sides and said, "We were just saying that these rules have been improved quite a bit. I guess they lowered the difficulty of the rules for us because they saw how difficult this mission was."

Liang Jun didn't answer them directly, but instead looked up at Luo Chuange and Ge Lin in front of her, "The corridor is not safe. We need to hurry up and explore the new rooms to try to get more useful information."

"knew."

Only then did Ge Lin pull the wooden stick out of the zombie's head.

The other party was already no different from a highly decomposed corpse. After being beaten by Ge Lin, it was completely reduced to a lump of mud, let alone any possibility of resurrection.

Luo Chuange and Ge Lin both raised their wooden sticks high, pointing them towards ward 720, which was closest to their current location.

Geng Qing followed closely behind the two, ready to use the propofol she had on her immediately if things went wrong.

Xin Sang held tightly to one corner of the invisibility cloth. If the group really had no way out, she would use the item to give them enough time to escape.

Old Ren, who was temporarily unable to fight back, stayed behind to cover everyone's retreat. He would immediately alert everyone should anything happen behind the crowd.

Everything behind the door is unknown, so they must be extremely careful and vigilant.

The door to room 720 was not as smooth as the door to the cleaning room; when the doorknob was turned, the hinges would creak and groan from dryness.

Driven by various motives, Luo Chuange only opened the door a crack, then, like a well-trained veteran, squeezed into the blind spot, gripping the stick, and slipped inside.

Ge Lin followed closely behind.

But his movements were clearly not as skillful as his.

Geng Qing was the third to enter the room.

After looking around, she peeked out and whispered to everyone, "Come in, it's safe inside."

Upon entering ward 720, Liang Jun thought she had left the hospital building.

Although the seventh and sixth floors have the exact same structure, the completely different interior layout still greatly impressed her.

The 720 ward was in a mess. The four beds that were originally neatly arranged were now scattered everywhere. There was even a bed facing the windowsill. The previously sealed windows were now broken and shattered, with glass flying everywhere.

Witnessing this chaotic scene, Liang Jun couldn't help but wonder if a very fierce fight had taken place here—perhaps with casualties.

Just as Luo Chuange and Ge Lin were carrying their weapons and searching every corner, Xin Sang tiptoed and sneaked closer to the battle-damaged window.

Qi Zhixia, who had a keen eye, noticed her dangerous behavior and reminded her, "Be careful."

The seventh floor is not the highest floor of this building, but it is still nearly 30 meters above the ground. If someone were to fall from there, their chances of survival would be extremely slim.

Surrounded by sharp shards of glass, Xin Sang couldn't find a place to grab on the windowsill, so he just craned his neck as far as he could, trying to find any trace of human life downstairs.

But there was nothing there.

The ground directly below this window is empty.

Xin Sang sighed, having gained nothing. Just as she turned around, she bumped into Liang Xun walking towards her.

Memories from just a few minutes ago flooded back, and Xin Sang immediately started a conversation, "By the way, baby, what did you say you understood?"

Following Xin Sang's question, the others also stopped what they were doing and stood quietly in the cluttered ward filled with red light, listening to what the other person might have to say next.

Liang Xun nodded and laid out her deduction in its entirety: "At first glance, the rules seem to have a lot of content, but they are not of much reference value to us—or rather, they are completely useless rules."

She connected her conjecture with the actual situation provided by Geng Qing, and came to only one conclusion.

"The instance we are currently in is a 'madhouse carnival' projected onto the real world; however, the system has not updated accordingly, so it still gives us the default rules of the original game setting for the 'madhouse carnival'."

"Whether it was intentional on the part of the system or a genuine program error, the facts before us are as they are—"

Liang Xun's tone was tinged with helplessness, but her eyes were incredibly firm. "This time, we can't rely on any of the rules given by the system. We can only figure it out ourselves and complete the mission by 'accidentally'."

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions on everyone's faces became less than optimistic.

Unexpectedly, this was only the fourth dungeon, and it had already fallen to hellish difficulty.

Seeing that the atmosphere seemed a bit somber, Ge Lin's eyes darted around, and he slammed the wooden stick in his hand down on the ground, the loud thud instantly snapping everyone back to reality.

"Cheer up, everyone—" The guy with the blue buzz cut, who was full of energy, bounced around under the red light. "Since the situation is already this bad, we need to work even harder, put in all our effort, and not overlook any small corner, in order to find more useful information!"

Whether it was his words that truly motivated them or his comical figure that made them unable to hold back their laughter, the players, who had fallen silent, once again threw themselves into the search, diligently searching the ward for any clues.

But the room was only so big, and after searching it upside down, they couldn't find a single useful item.

"There's really nothing left, let's go to the next ward," Gu Keke sighed. "We can't waste any more time like this."

Liang Jun and the others responded to the call, and they lined up again in the fixed formation in front of the door, ready to leave ward 720 and go to the next room.

Just as Ge Lin was about to turn the doorknob, a series of slow footsteps suddenly came from outside the ward.

"Shh—" Ge Lin quickly realized what was happening and gestured for everyone to be quiet, "There's a noise outside the door..."

Although they dealt with the one-armed zombie, they were still in a dungeon, which didn't mean that other zombies wouldn't appear.

Therefore, Ge Lin concluded that there was a 99% chance that the person outside the door was a zombie. He winked at Luo Chuange beside him, and the two reached a consensus, preparing to grab their weapons and rush in the instant the door opened.

But before the two could get ready, the shuffling footsteps stopped in front of room 720.

Everyone held their breath, and the scene became extremely tense.

Just as the two sides were at an impasse, the owner of the footsteps suddenly knocked on the door of ward 720.

Is anyone there?

Upon hearing this voice, Liang Jun, Gu Keke, and Qi Zhixia were all stunned and stood there, looking at each other in bewilderment.

They would never forget the owner of that voice until their deaths—

Zhang Weiming.

-----------------------

Author's note: My rhinitis flared up again while swimming, and it hasn't gotten better yet; I keep sneezing...

Each sneeze was incredibly powerful, and the impact made my back hurt even more...

How could a person's life be so miserable...?