Chapter 7 Xincheng Hospital: He Understands Him So Well!
Shen Su countered, "So, you're stalking him now too?"
Shi Yu: "..."
The game settings allow players to see only their own game panel, but viewers in the live stream outside the game can clearly see the chat conversation between the two players.
[Yu Yu is clever.jpg, Yu Yu has been seen through.jpg, Yu Yu is speechless.jpg, Hahahaha!!!]
[I just want to know how Shi Yu came to the conclusion that "Chen Su was following that guy last night" from just one sentence?]
[I also want to know how Shen Su concluded that Shi Yu was doing this based on Shi Yu's rhetorical question? What's even more amazing is that their conclusions were all correct!]
He understands him so well!
...
Shi Yu ignored the question and explained, "He asked me, 'Was that you?' So I guess he must have recognized you, but he probably didn't see you clearly because he mistook me for you."
[“He mistook me for you”—this is important. While other statements use adverbs of uncertainty like “should” or “guess,” this sentence is affirmative.]
[They're clearly not the same height, so why is Yu Yu so confident that the other person can mistake him for Chen Su?]
Thank you, I'm so touched.
Shen Su then asked, "So he found out about you too?"
Shi Yu: "..."
The conversation just couldn't continue.
Shi Yu typed with a cold face: "I walked over openly and honestly, without being followed, so there's no question of whether I was discovered or not."
It took two minutes for Shen Su to reply to the message.
Only three words: "Are you angry?"
Why do I sense such doting affection in those three words?
[Yu Yu's words were not convincing at all, nor were they rational. Although he was expressionless, I could see the emotional fluctuations in his expression.]
Are they really not on good terms? I feel like there's something strange between them.
Don't ask, the answer is simply that he understands him very well.
Shi Yu was unaware that the viewers in the live stream had already started shipping him and Shen Su as a couple. Not wanting to talk too much about irrelevant things with Shen Su, he changed the subject, saying, "Now we know that what we think of as 'dreams' every night are not actually dreams, but scenes from a certain period in the past at the hospital. The characters in these scenes can see us, and we can also talk to them. The game mechanics are probably trying to tell us some information through these scenes and characters, and triggering key characters will give us exploration rewards."
“Every night at 2 a.m., we all wake up in room 305, but each person enters a different scene each night, so we can’t see each other. However, we can chat through the game system, which is something we discovered tonight.”
"Regarding how to trigger the key character, I helped the dean pick up the pen last night, but I'm not sure if the specific trigger condition is through talking to the character, physical contact, or something else?"
"The man I saw tonight is most likely one of the key figures in the game instance, but that's just a guess. We'll only know for sure when he wakes up tomorrow." Since exploration progress isn't tallied until the next day, Shi Yu finished explaining her thoughts and asked, "What about you? What did you find?"
Shen Su sent a voice message.
When chatting on WeChat, Shi Yu doesn't like to send voice messages, nor does she like others to send voice messages. Typing is easy to understand, while voice messages take a long time to listen to. Usually, WeChat chats aren't particularly important, and in case of an emergency, a phone call would be more convenient.
However, Shen Su's voice message was only 7 seconds long, which didn't really test his patience.
Shi Yu pressed the play button, and Chen Su's voice rang directly in his ears, as if he were wearing Bluetooth headphones.
"You're suddenly talking so much..." Shen Su said lazily, deliberately drawing out the last syllable as if it had a little hook, "Are you deliberately changing the subject?"
Shi Yu almost choked on her breath.
So he was just talking to the dog?
Soon, the familiar drowsiness crept in.
When Yu woke up again, she was back in the ward, where the other five people were.
Chen Su woke up before Shi Yu. He was leaning against the headboard, propping his head up with his hand, looking at the game panel. Hearing the noise, he turned his head and greeted Shi Yu: "Good morning, did you sleep well last night?"
The other people in the ward were also awake. They looked at the two, who had never spoken to each other in the past few days, with surprise.
Shi Yu didn't want to appear impolite in everyone's eyes, so he said, "I slept very well, thanks to you."
Shen Su seemed oblivious to the sarcasm in his last sentence, and gave him a bright smile, revealing two small tiger teeth: "That's good."
Shi Yu ignored Chen Su and opened the game panel, where two new system messages appeared—
[Exploration Progress +10]
(Note: Triggering key characters)
[Exploration Progress +5]
(Note: From Chensu)
The first piece of information was as expected, but the explanation for the second piece of information puzzled Shi Yu. Why did it say "from Chen Su"?
Shi Yu glanced at Chen Su in the next bed. He didn't want to talk, so he opened the friend chat box and typed: "Are you going to give me exploration points?"
Shen Su seemed unsurprised by Shi Yu's behavior of sitting face-to-face while chatting with him via text, and replied instantly: "This should be an assist point. I also have 5 exploration points from you."
Assist points?
While this description isn't wrong, what did they do last night? They didn't even meet last night; they just shared information. Does sharing information really earn them assist points?
If this premise holds true, wouldn't their assist score be even higher if all six of them worked together?
The moment the idea popped into Shi Yu's head, Shen Su had already begun to implement it.
"I ran into the hospital director last night, and my exploration progress increased by another 10 points. He said I triggered a key figure..."
For the next half hour, Shen Su generously shared his experiences from the previous two nights with everyone, including the two key characters he encountered, the ability to add friends in the game, his communication with Shi Yu in the game last night, during which they both received an extra 5 exploration points, and the conclusion they reached—that the dream was not a dream, but a scene that occurred in the hospital at a certain point in the past.
He even helped tell Shi Yu about her experiences, but he didn't reveal a single word about their chat content.
Xia Wanwan got excited after hearing this: "If sharing information can earn assist points, then if we all share our experiences from the night before, wouldn't we be able to max out our exploration points very quickly?"
“That’s what I’m guessing too.” Shen Su looked at Xia Wanwan with agreement, then sighed softly, “But it hasn’t been verified yet.”
"Let's verify it now!"
Xia Wanwan took the initiative to say, "I was scared last night and encountered a ghost again, so I didn't dare go anywhere else. I just wandered around this floor and got some information about the hospital director from the nurse."
"The hospital director's name is Lin Qinghe, Qing as in integrity and He as in why he should do something. He is the dream lover of all the young women in the hospital."
"This Dean Lin is amazing. Needless to say, he's handsome. He entered university at 14, earned his doctorate at 26, and at 36, he was already the youngest academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the dean of Xincheng Hospital. Calling him a genius is no exaggeration!"
"Of course, he is not only a genius, but also a compassionate doctor. The Xincheng Hospital founded by Dean Lin adheres to the principle of serving the people. Every month, he goes to various communities to provide free medical consultations for the elderly, free medical care for the disabled, and reductions or exemptions for patients from poor families. In short, not only do the young nurses at the hospital like him, but the people in the surrounding area also respect and love him."
Xia Wanwan said a lot, but to sum it up: Dean Lin is awesome, handsome, kind-hearted, and a great person.
The background information about the hospital at the beginning of the game states that Xincheng Hospital once won the title of "Most Satisfactory Hospital by the Public". With such a good reputation as Director Lin, it is not surprising that the hospital won this title.
However, what Lin Yarong said later seemed inconsistent with the hospital's background information.
Lin Yarong learned from the security guard that the hospital exploited its employees, did not buy them insurance, violated labor contracts, made them work 12-hour days without overtime pay, and did not give them rest on holidays... However, the game description also said that Xincheng Hospital had the lowest employee turnover rate among its peers in the past ten years.
Another possibility is that the security guards are outsourced, so they don't enjoy hospital benefits, and their departures are not included in the hospital's statistics.
Cheng Jianshu and Liu Yang also briefly shared their experiences. The former spent the whole night drawing maps and didn't have any special experiences, while the latter's experience wasn't very helpful.
Based on the information shared by everyone, the six people came to the conclusion that the scenes each person encounters each night are random. Not everyone is lucky enough to encounter a scene where a key character appears, nor can everyone trigger the key character.
Both nights, key scenes were randomly triggered, and key characters were also encountered. Only Shi Yu and Shen Su received exploration points.
Xia Wanwan and Lin Yarong gained 8 and 7 exploration points respectively by getting information out of the nurse and security guard.
Cheng Jianshu ran through three buildings and drew three maps, but the maps couldn't be displayed in the scene, so it was all for nothing. However, he still got 2 exploration points, which were probably the system's reward for his hard work.
Liu Yang hasn't encountered anything yet; his exploration progress is currently at 0.
The initial intention of everyone sharing information was to gain "assist points," but after everyone shared information, an hour later, the exploration progress still did not change.
Lin Yarong speculated, "Could it be that sharing information in random scenarios at night would be more effective?"
“To share information, we first need a group chat,” Xia Wanwan said. “Since games allow adding friends, can we start a group chat?”
Everyone looked down and found that there really was a button to start a group chat.
Xia Wanwan added everyone as friends and then created a small group of six people named "Xincheng Hospital Exploration Team".
The conclusion that "sharing information can earn assist points" was drawn from Shi Yu and Shen Su's experience the previous night. Whether it applies to all six people is unknown; we'll have to try it tonight to find out.
The viewers in the live stream were completely bewildered.
Adding friends, creating group chats—is this even possible? Are you guys treating horror games like online games?
[You can add friends in dungeons? I don't remember having that feature. Am I forgetting?]
The village you mentioned earlier didn't have internet access a few years ago, but it did later. Games need to keep up with the times and upgrade accordingly, otherwise how would they retain players?
[Inviting people to chat in groups to rack up assists? Is that even possible?]
It turned out to be true.
When the clock struck 2 a.m. that night, everyone woke up in their familiar empty hospital room.
It was probably this small group of six that gave them the courage, and each of them boldly went out to explore.
Before this, Shensu summarized several locations where key figures might appear: the elevator entrance of their inpatient building, the ambulance outside the emergency building, the photo wall in the lobby on the first floor of the outpatient building, and the dean's office on the second floor of the medical technology building.
Shen Su also planned a detailed exploration route for everyone—the first thing to do after waking up is to go to the elevator entrance and bump into the dean. You can bump into him and help him pick up his pen. Then go to the front of the emergency building and see if there is a young man who is unconscious being pushed off an ambulance. The dean personally performed the surgery on this patient, so he is very likely a key figure. Although you can't talk to him, you can still get some experience from the surrounding area.
If you don't encounter the dean at the elevator entrance, it means you haven't randomly entered this scenario. In that case, hurry up and go to the photo wall in the lobby on the first floor of the outpatient building to encounter the second key figure. He is a man dressed in all black, wearing a baseball cap and a mask. This man doesn't seem like a good person, so following him is risky. Just try to strike up a conversation with him.
As for the dean's office on the second floor of the medical technology building, Shen Su does not recommend going there, as it may be life-threatening.
If they didn't encounter any key figures in these locations, it means they might not have randomly selected a scene with a key figure, or they might have, but neither he nor Shi Yu had experienced it.
Then explore freely, and whether you encounter key figures depends on your luck.
Most importantly: everyone needs to share what they see and hear in the group as they explore.
Everyone explored Shen Su's accommodations methodically. At the end of the night, in addition to their basic exploration points, each of the six received the following system message—
[Exploration Progress +6]
(Note: From Shi Yu)
[Exploration Progress +8]
(Note: From Chensu)
[Exploration Progress +3]
(Note: From Xia Wanwan)
[Exploration Progress +4]
(Note: From Lin Yarong)
[Exploration Progress +5]
(Note: From Liu Yang)
[Exploration Progress +3]
(Note: From Cheng Jianshu)
...
It was a very fruitful night.
Everyone explored some information to some extent, obtained basic points, and also received "assist points" from the other five people.
This assist point is half of the player's base score. For example, if Shi Yu's base score is 12, then the other five players will each receive 6 assist points from Shi Yu.
After the night's exploration progress was completed, the total exploration progress was as follows:
Shi Yu: 62
Slumber: 62
Xia Wanwan: 40 Liu Yang: 34
Lin Yarong: 40
Cheng Jianshu: 34
Everyone was in a great mood after earning so many exploration points in one night.
"Today is the fifth day of the game," Lin Yarong encouraged everyone. "Let's keep up the good work."
While drinking soy milk, Xia Wanwan said, "Sister Lin, don't worry. At this rate, we'll have enough exploration points by tonight and tomorrow night."
Shen Su laughed and said, "Yes, Sister Lin, if we perform exceptionally well, we can reach 80 exploration points tonight."
Liu Yang picked up the fried dough sticks that Xia Wanwan had left and ate them. He then said to Shen Su, "Even without any extraordinary performance, Shen Su and Shi Yu, your exploration progress is already so high. Even if you just casually grind tonight, you can still clear the game by tomorrow morning."
"Where does Sister Lin live? Is it also near Lotus Lake?" Chen Su asked with a smile. "My home is also near Lotus Lake. Can I visit Sister Lin after we go out?"
Chen Su kept calling Lin Yarong "Sister Lin," which Cheng Jianshu couldn't stand. He held his wife's hand and said seriously, "What Sister Lin? My wife and I are about the same age as your parents."
"Really?" Shen Su looked surprised. He glanced at Cheng Jianshu and then looked seriously at Lin Yarong. "But Sister Lin looks about the same age as my sister."
A few seconds later, he added, "But Uncle Cheng, you can tell that he's about the same age as my father."
Xia Wanwan: "Pfft—"
Shi Yu's lips twitched, and she glanced at Chen Su out of the corner of her eye before looking away.
This person is genuinely sweet-talking and truly likes elders, though this "elder" might only be limited to middle-aged women.
Because a middle-aged man might want to kill him.
Lin Yarong covered her mouth and laughed so hard her shoulders were shaking. While laughing, she tightened her grip on Cheng Jianshu's hand, telling him not to bully the child anymore. She also told Chen Su that he could come to her house for a meal whenever he had time after he left, as her husband was a very good cook.
Cheng Jianshu: "..."
Cheng Jianshu felt wronged; who was bullying whom?
Everyone shared what they saw and heard last night in real time in the group chat, so this morning no one talked about the games from last night. Everyone was talking about where to eat and drink and where to relax and have fun after going out.
The atmosphere in the ward was relaxed.
Shi Yu was not affected by the relaxed atmosphere; a tension remained in his mind.
They gained exploration points too easily.
I have a feeling that the game ahead won't be easy.
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