Chapter 316 Monster Hospital (XV)

Inside the first ward in Area C.

No. 701, who had been awakened, was being besieged by President Barbie, Twelve and Nineteen. His strangled throat and Twelve's words all suggested to some extent that he was being threatened. But to the three's expectations, the man showed no emotion except for a flash of surprise on his face when he failed to stab Twelve at the beginning.

"Isn't it just a good feedback?" The man raised his eyebrows when he heard it. He looked at Twelve with no fear on his face, as if the one strangling his throat was not an iron arm, but a gentle and friendly expression. "You really don't need to do this. I am very satisfied with this kind of food delivery service."

If you ignore the way No. 701's eyes slowly moved across the three people, and the kind of naked scrutiny that made people extremely uncomfortable, the other party's behavior was really like a hostage who was obedient and submissive after being threatened.

But the three people present did not show any joy because of the other party's cooperation. President Barbie had already loosened her grip on the other party's throat, and Twelve did not say a word for a while, because the other party's reaction was not what they expected. In other words, the other party's reaction also indirectly confirmed that the key point of this side quest was not yet grasped by them.

"Thank you then." Twelve responded indifferently. The arrogant and threatening smile on his face was no longer there. Instead, he put on a fake smile and responded to No. 701 with a fake smile.

Then he turned his head and looked at the bed in No. 702 across the street. "Since our second guest has also woken up, don't pretend to be asleep. We are in a hurry."

After saying that, he took out another lunch box from the control panel and walked directly to bed No. 702. "Your meal has arrived. Could you please give me a good review?"

The quilt of bed No. 702 was completely covered on the top, revealing a curled-up person. After Twelve spoke, there was no response for a long time, but he obviously underestimated the patience of everyone in the room. Twelve just kept holding the lunch box, as if he wanted to see how long the other party could hold out.

After about two minutes, there was a slight rustling sound, and then a not-so-slender hand emerged from under the quilt and accurately took the lunch box from Twelve's hand. "I...a good comment..."

Well, it seems that this patient's symptoms are related to his fear of seeing people. After all, he speaks briefly and concisely, trying to get people away quickly with a perfunctory response, so he doesn't care about good reviews at all.

During the confrontation with 701 just now, Twelve felt that the breathing rhythm of the other person in the room was different, and it was as if he had anticipated the other person's reaction and knew that he would not object. So after handing the lunch box to the other person, he winked at Nineteen and President Barbie, and the three of them didn't say anything more and simply left the ward.

The other players waiting outside naturally saw what was happening through the small window on the door. Although they couldn't hear some of the conversations clearly, they were able to guess what was happening based on the expressions of several people.

So as soon as the three of them went out, Mocha Meng surrounded them, "President, is there something wrong?"

Although she was not very sensitive to the details of some tasks, she felt that whether it was Area C, which they felt was not right from the beginning, or the patients inside, plus the side quests they triggered, all seemed weird.

"I don't know if I'm overthinking it, but if it's this level," she lowered her voice and pointed at the two players in the room who quickly fell asleep again, "it's too easy for us. Besides, this is a 3S level ultimate dungeon, right?"

Although her words were rather exaggerated, President Barbie, Nineteen, and Twelve still understood what she meant.

Twelve poked his cheek, which had become stiff from acting, and before President Barbie could speak, he took the lead and put his hand on Mocha Meng's shoulder. "It's more than just something wrong. Apart from the sneak attack by No. 701 at the beginning, they have been very cooperative. I think even if we knock on the door openly and explain the problem patiently, everyone will probably give our food delivery service a five-star rating. And at the speed we just went, it won't be difficult to deliver all the meals before dawn. This side quest can be said to be not difficult at all."

Although Twelve's actions seemed nonchalant, her tone was very serious. After hearing her words, the faces of the other players all looked extremely solemn.

In such a 3S-level dungeon, the most dangerous situation is not how dangerous the current situation in the dungeon is, but that the players are in the dungeon but have no idea of ​​the current situation, because the unknown is far worse than other situations.

Just like at this moment, all the players in Area C have clearly received the status of the side quest, but they do not understand the hidden meaning of the quest, nor can they find the end of the quest, and of course they do not know what they will face next.

Fortunately, there is a backbone like President Barbie. Although she agrees with Twelve's opinion, she has been the leader for some time after all, and she knows that the morale of a team is more important than anything else.

"Don't worry too much for now," President Barbie's voice was not loud, but it was calming. "I don't think the system is a philanthropist. Even if we haven't figured out the hidden meaning of this task yet, there will definitely be other information to prompt us. The system is not the kind of game that likes to fast forward to the finale without any process. So either we don't have enough samples now and not all patients are in this state, or we haven't triggered some special events yet. So instead of standing here and discussing nothing, we might as well explore it ourselves."

It is unlikely that President Barbie has learned any useful skills or methods of governing the guild from following the eldest lady and the first president in the recent dungeons. After all, the former is tailored according to the individual's physical condition. Even if she is willing to learn, she cannot overcome individual differences. As for the latter, after all, the situation of each guild is different, and the foundation of the players is different. Content suitable for the players of one guild may not be suitable for the players of their guild.

However, President Barbie did accumulate some opinions about the game or the system in these copies. Maybe it was because the copies she entered before were not deeply related to the nature of the system or the evil god or Man Wugui, so she had never thought about it before. But after coming into contact with the eldest lady and the first president, President Barbie found that the system essentially does not like to see players being simply crushed, but prefers to see players finally solve a puzzle through clues in the copy, or discover the intention of the copy, but finally still find it difficult to escape the trap.

So she didn't believe that this linear task was deliberately set up by the system, nor did she believe that the system liked to see them die like this. There must be something that has not been triggered, or some key information has been ignored.

The players were quickly encouraged after hearing her words. After all, President Barbie had good reasons and arguments. Apart from a few neutral players, the remaining original players were all from their guild alliance, so they naturally believed in President Barbie even more.

"President, let's go into the ward in pairs and deliver the things. We can also check if there are any other clues."

There are fifteen people, except for President Barbie, Twelve and Nineteen, who can be divided into two groups. While President Barbie was speaking, Mocha Meng had already divided the teams.

"Well, remember not to take any extreme actions for now. Convincing is the key. All six groups start from here. Look after each other. After entering the ward, do not close the door. If anything happens, put your own safety first. The mission is secondary."

According to past experience, it would be best for the six groups to proceed in three directions: beginning, middle and end, which would have been faster. But the situation is unclear now, and considering safety issues, President Barbie asked them to start from the front ward so that they could take care of each other.

"The three of us will go to the front and take a look in case anything unexpected happens."

The latter sentence was said to Twelve and Nineteen. Both of them had no objection and understood the reason behind President Barbie's arrangement.

There was nothing special on both sides of the long corridor except the wards. There was not even a decoration on the pure white wall. Looking at it for a long time would make people feel dazed. Twelve had been observing the conditions in the wards as he passed by, but all he saw were patients who had fallen asleep. Apart from that, there was nothing special.

"Could it be that the 'good feedback' mentioned in the side quest is not what we understand it to be?" Nineteen frowned and went over the entire quest description in his mind again. "Although it is not clear where the more dangerous part of the quest is, there should be no problem with the quest itself. Could it be that there is a deviation in our understanding?"

This is a side quest of a 3S-level dungeon, and no one dared to take it lightly. President Barbie followed the other party's thoughts and thought for a while, "This possibility cannot be ruled out, but when you heard about this quest, did you have a strange feeling? Even now that I have read the quest description again, I still feel that it is a bit strange, but I can't put my finger on it."

President Barbie didn't like to use her own feelings to make judgments in the dungeon, but she had to admit that when she heard about this side quest, she always felt that something was wrong.

"I didn't feel that," Twelve stopped in the middle of the corridor, looked ahead to a place that seemed to have no end, and then looked back at the road they came from. "But after walking for such a while in this corridor, I feel that this corridor is weird. If it weren't for the room numbers on the doors, I would have thought we were standing still. After all, everything looks the same, as if this road has no end. I don't like this feeling.

Twelve is usually very direct, especially when she can't figure out some problems, she will use simple words to express her emotions.

"I have always believed that although feelings are very subjective, they are one's first reaction to the outside world. If you feel strange or uncomfortable, it is very likely that you have not consciously realized that this space or certain events make you uncomfortable, but your body has already made an intuitive response to this discomfort. I think we may have overlooked something..."

Compared to the three people standing in the middle of the ward, entering a state of scrutiny and contemplation as if discussing philosophical questions, the front part of the ward seemed quite lively. Except for No. 701 and No. 702 in the first ward who had fallen asleep again, the remaining players followed the advice of President Barbie, put on the most friendly attitude, communicated with patients in other wards, and completed their meal delivery tasks.

They entered Area C as patients, so the patients who were woken up did not have any hostility. Some of them seemed very happy when they heard the purpose of their visit. Overall, it was not difficult to get good feedback, and the expected changes or difficult people hidden among the patients never appeared.

Facing each other in the open ward, you can seem to hear each other's happy voices. The environment does not seem like a dangerous survival game, but more like the open day of the hospital, where everyone sits together happily and discusses their symptoms (in a benign sense).

However, in an unnoticed corner, through the small window outside the first ward, one could clearly see that the quilts that were originally gathered on the two beds seemed to be slowly collapsing, as if the people wrapped in the quilts were shrinking at a certain speed, until the quilts completely covered the beds, and it did not look like there were people on the beds at all.

At the end of the beds on both sides, two fist-sized shadows suddenly appeared. They were not very obvious in the dim ward, but they exuded an indescribable weirdness.

Although the two fist-sized shadows had no specific appearance or facial features, they still stood at the end of the bed for a few seconds, as if listening to the movements next door, or simply locking onto a target.

In a short while, they had squeezed out of the first ward through the crack in the door.

The incandescent lights in the corridor were bright, but the shadow area was small enough, and they moved very carefully along the wall, so no player noticed anything was wrong.

In order to ensure that the neutral players have a sense of belonging, or to prevent them from feeling isolated, Mocha Meng deliberately separated several players who were very familiar to her team when dividing the team. She herself was also in a team with a neutral player, and they have now searched the seventh ward.

Just as Twelve had expected, all the patients in the wards they had visited had shown cooperation. If the triggered side quests were really completed based on the patients' attitudes, then Moka Meng felt that they had already won. However, she still did not let down her guard, and even stood in front of Xiaodao when he wanted to approach another bed first, "I'll do it."

"My skills tend to be protective and more convenient." As if afraid of being misunderstood by the other party, Mocha Meng made a special explanation.

To be honest, Xiaodao was a little afraid of the players from the Guild Alliance at the beginning. Her own personal skills were not that great, but she was selected into this dungeon by the system inexplicably. She soon realized that these neutral players might affect the other two camps to a great extent. From this point of view, she would definitely be won over after entering the dungeon.

Even the players of the Anti-One Guild Alliance had already started outside the hospital, before the system released the task of choosing whether to be a staff member or a patient.

But the strange thing is that even though she has become a patient now, because of the mission, she is temporarily in the same camp with players from a guild alliance, and they have no intention of winning her over. But they also don't avoid telling her any important information because of this. After entering Area C, neither President Barbie nor the other players have any intention of hiding any important information from her.

Even when they were divided into teams, they considerately adopted a 'one-to-one' model. Even when faced with possible danger, Mocha Meng took the lead and chose to go first. In order to protect his self-esteem, he made an explanation.

Kojima's neutral stance does not mean that she has any prejudice against the players or guilds on either side. It is caused by the current situation, because there must always be guilds and players who remain neutral. But this does not mean that she does not have the ability to distinguish right from wrong, or lacks the basic observation ability to see into some things.

After all, ever since the task of selecting patients and staff was released, Guild President One has already explained why his players should choose to become patients. The time and reasons are logical. In comparison, the Anti-Guild One Alliance actually took less time and motivated more players to choose to become staff without even thinking about it. This is too suspicious.

In particular, she felt that at this point in time, if the only reason that brought the Anti-One Guild Alliance together was the desire to avenge their own guild leader, it would be too weak, and Kojima expressed his doubts about this.

She smiled at Mocha Meng, did not argue with him, signaled him not to be polite, and stood behind him. At the same time, she also prepared her secret weapon just in case.

But it turned out that they were overthinking it. Patient No. 715 was still boring. Apart from talking more and going off topic from time to time, there was nothing special about him.

After delivering the lunch boxes to this room, the two of them observed the situation in the ward opposite. After not finding any problems, they prepared to go to the next ward. But when the door was about to close, Xiaodao suddenly saw something flash by. It moved very quickly and was black and looked like a stain.

But when she looked again, the corridor was bright again and there was nothing there. She rubbed her eyes, feeling a little puzzled.

Could it be that she had stayed in the pure white environment for too long, causing her eyes to feel a little uncomfortable? She reached out and pressed her temples, trying to relax her eyes.

But at the moment the ward door was closed, in the second ward where dinner had already been delivered, two dark shadows squeezed in at the door, seemed stunned for a moment, and only breathed a sigh of relief when they realized the danger was over.

Facing me were two small shadows and a hospital bed that looked completely unchanged.

Then the next second, in a space that no player noticed, the four small shadows, as if they sensed each other's aura, slowly gathered together. The shadow that was only the size of a fist instantly became the size of a melon.