Chapter 74 Old Campus [Please provide the response within one minute...]
The flames continued to surge upwards, reaching the first floor and drifting towards higher floors, but the nurse seemed completely unaware, dragging Xue Chao into a ward, which was the same room as the broadcasting room.
All the patients were resting. Pu Fengchun was sitting on a chair next to the third bed from the far end, with a stack of old books and notes in her arms. She stared blankly as the disheveled Xue Chao was thrown onto the bed by the nurse. She subconsciously picked up the books and got up.
The pillows that had been pretending to be human-shaped under the covers were swept off the floor by the nurse and stomped on several times, sending feathers flying everywhere.
Xue Chao was in excruciating pain from the impact, and his fingers, which he had been pressing against his body, were almost broken. He didn't show any emotion on his face, but he was thinking to himself, "So that's the difficult patient the nurse was complaining about, the one who always lies to the medical staff and then runs around everywhere."
He discovered that he also had an identity in the hospital, namely when Miss Red Rose continued to activate the supernatural power of the future corpse, leading the fire all the way to the morgue through the pipes.
At that moment, he also felt a burning pain inside his body, which perfectly matched the fire rushing from the pipe, and it wasn't from Minmin and Deng Dayun's pipe.
He vaguely grasped something back then, and now he understands: the pipe leads to the deceased's physical world, that is, the person's "inside." The pipe catching fire means that the corresponding person's "inside" is on fire—he has an identity and a plot point in the morgue.
In the other pipes he passed through before reaching Deng Dayun's film pipe, there was a body representing his character. Miss Red Rose was right; he did start the fire himself.
As for why the same pipes were burned, but Red Rose and Deng Dayun were unharmed... Xue Chao guessed that it was because their bodies in the morgue belonged to the future timeline, while the "Xue Chao" in the morgue belonged to the present.
So there was a corpse besides the red rose, a head besides Deng Dayun, and a torso guarding the 13th floor, but from beginning to end, there was only one "Xue Chao".
Either Xue Chao died at this point in time, or Xue Chao is still alive but for some reason sneaked into the morgue's cabinet.
In a hospital, he was more likely to be a medical staff member or a patient. In the end, he decided to try playing the role of a patient because he didn't have a white coat, only a hospital gown. Moreover, if he were a real patient, he wouldn't know which room he was in. He pretended to faint to avoid the risk of being exposed during questioning and being taken away directly. Medical staff always knew his room.
But he didn't expect that she was not only a patient, but also an important NPC in Pu Fengchun's hospital storyline, a "friend" she specially visited at the hospital.
He was a notorious troublemaker in the inpatient department, known to both doctors and nurses.
To prevent the nurse from returning, Pu Fengchun pretended to cover Xue Chao with a blanket and secretly slipped paper and pen into the blanket. Xue Chao understood and silently wrote down the message, asking her to ask her two other "roommates" to leave under the pretext of a "fire".
Pu Fengchun got up, holding Xue Chao's book and notes, and bowed to the quiet, restrained figure under the covers. Before leaving, he finished reciting the plot line: "Thank you for the notes, senior... I won't disturb your rest any longer. I wish you a speedy recovery."
Xue Chao did not answer. The girl left somewhat awkwardly. A moment later, she rushed back in in a panic, shook the other two patient NPCs awake, and before they could question or make a move, she forcibly dragged them away with a trembling voice saying, "It's too late, run for your lives."
The room fell silent again. Deng Dayun entered the room, moving quickly as he slipped through the doorway, but then hesitated as if he were the one suffering from burning pain and unable to walk properly. He reached Xue Chao's bedside, made two soft buzzing sounds like a mosquito, and was then suddenly pushed under the bed by Xue Chao's outstretched hand.
Perhaps worried he'd be bored, she also slipped him the rest of her notebook.
The door opened again, and a refreshing floral fragrance wafted in.
Jiang Ming sat on the edge of the bed, placed a bunch of sunflowers into a clear vase, and asked with a smile, "Do you prefer sunflowers or red roses?"
Deng Dayun covered her mouth tightly, afraid that Jiang Ming would lose attention if he didn't get a response. Then she heard Xue Chao's lazy voice muffled under the covers, answering in a hypnotic way: "From today onwards, I don't like any of them."
Xue Chao braced himself on the bed with his elbows, used a little leverage to slide up and lean against the headboard, getting straight to the point: "What's your identity when you came in? Are you the boss?"
"Of course I'm a player, what boss?" Jiang Ming's sunflower head slowly turned, his non-existent gaze caressing Xue Chao's body covered in fresh wounds, and he seemed to hold Xue Chao's hand with great tenderness.
He pretended to be clueless, but the twisting petals betrayed his delight... He was excited—he thought, they really do know who he is.
Xue Chao then asked, "Since you're also a player, why did you kill the real protagonist of the first unit and take his place... Was it a personal grudge, or were you plotting something?"
"Of course, it's so I can see you sooner. If we follow the normal order of episodes, I'll be appearing too late."
Unable to get a reason, Xue Chao weakly waved his hand, indicating that he could get lost, but Jiang Ming excitedly pressed on, "When did you guess it was me?"
"Just now," Xue Chao replied dismissively.
Jiang Ming fell silent immediately. He brought the flowerpot closer, shoving the dense flower seeds in front of Xue Chao's eyes, only to have Xue Chao push it away in disgust. Then he suddenly laughed: "You didn't suspect me the moment we met, did you... I was very careful to hide it at first, did I give myself away anywhere?"
Xue Chao smiled and asked, "Guess?"
"You've given me another difficult question." He complained, but happily accepted the riddle, seemingly taking it as a form of flirting. Jiang Ming, seizing the opportune moment, wanted to follow up with a few sweet words, when Xue Chao asked him with a hint of interest, "You're not going to kill me?"
"...Well, I lost this round. I helped her because I was afraid you'd discover my secret and I wanted to get rid of you too. You didn't intend to walk into a trap, did you? Sigh, what a miscalculation. It aroused your suspicion and made you guess what I was hiding there... Oh well, her special ability is really convenient for destroying evidence. With a little effort, she can even burn that old man's spiked bones, it's just a bit slower than other corpses—besides, I like you so much, why would I take advantage of you?"
That's nonsense. He definitely did it on purpose. There's a section of red rose finger deep in the stem of the old man's neck.
Xue Chao gave a fake smile: "I thought you liked to do things yourself."
"Time was too tight. Killing him before you could even react at the start was already an extremely difficult maneuver!" Jiang Ming said, holding a flower tray, his face full of anticipation for praise.
"who is he?"
"A boring old man, you definitely wouldn't like him."
"It's okay, I don't like you either."
How will you know if you don't try?
"I'm not a masochist."
"Yes, it is—didn't you want to kill me too?" Jiang Ming asked with a sinister curiosity. "I've been waiting...why haven't you come to report back to me?"
Xue Chao replied in a dismissive "Stop messing around" tone typical of a scumbag: "I have a main character to focus on, why would I care about you?"
Some of their mocking glances seemed to say, "How can you not recognize your own place?"
"..." Jiang Ming seemed not to have expected this answer, but it made him feel genuinely annoyed for a moment, more so than any answer he had imagined. So, in the silence, the sunflower slowly lowered its head, its roots stretched out, elongating the neck where plant and flesh intertwined, and peered horrifiedly under the bed, only to be caught by Xue Chao and stuffed back in.
"If you stole someone's things, keep them safe. Don't just leave them lying around. Have some public spirit." Xue Chao rolled out of bed, pushed the young man's shoulder, and walked him to the door. Leaning against the doorframe, he suddenly asked, "Do you really like me?"
"Of course!" Jiang Ming, caught off guard by the questioning, turned around dramatically and said in an aria-like tone, "If I could get a kiss from you, I would die without regrets... um."
The blade hidden in his sleeve pierced Jiang Ming's flower head in an instant, making a gruesome cut where Jiang Ming's mouth should have been, revealing a pair of lips that could be kissed. Xue Chao held the connection between his flower head and stem and kissed him like that. His blue eyes were not closed, and he quietly watched him. His soft tongue stirred the hard seeds and went into the flower head. He raised his chin slightly and put in a small piece of flesh, like a lump.
Then Xue Chao retreated without hesitation, and Jiang Ming's sunflower head suddenly burst into flames. The red rose girl, who was secretly observing from the corner, realized that she had burned the wrong person, pulled out a ruby dagger, and shot it at Xue Chao like an arrow.
What he pushed into his mouth through his lips and tongue was a piece of flesh from that finger.
Xue Chao quickly retreated back into the room. Following the instructions Xue Chao had left in his notes, Deng Dayun had already scraped off the surface of the third oil painting, and sure enough, there was another painting.
Beneath the sacred six-winged angel in the chaotic world lies the darkness of night. A pale blue butterfly flies by, leaving a faint trail of light.
The number "7" is placed close to the bottom right corner, its force penetrating the paper. When the two sides are put together, it looks like a fluttering butterfly when viewed from the side.
The entire space was once again filled with exposed white. Deng Dayun in front of the painting, the red roses that rushed in, and Jiang Ming burning at the door disappeared one after another. Everything in the ward also disappeared, turning back into a pure white space, but it was not immediately painted with "new paint" and remained stuck in white.
Xue Chao brought up the host panel and, sure enough, saw the All-Seeing Eye spinning endlessly, indicating "loading," with the high-dimensional program running frantically.
If each player is in one unit, then there are five units in total. The characters are fixed, and the storyline must be completed. But now the first player has died and been replaced by the next player, so it doesn't match up anymore.
"Why don't you just turn a blind eye and let that idiot do another episode? He's good at that." Xue Chao gave his colleague advice on how to slack off.
What's the most important thing at work? Just getting by.
Instead of being thanked, they were turned around and accused.
[One player has been detected dead...]
[Mismatch detected between the number of units and the number of players...]
[Copy error ￥&）*Y&*($R)
[The host must provide an emergency solution within one minute; otherwise, the instance will be automatically considered a failure.]
【0:0:59】
"?" Xue Chao cursed, "There were two players at the start, and you reported one to me. I haven't even blamed you for dragging the team down yet, and you're already accusing me of something. What kind of broken appliance did you bring from the village? From the last instance until now, don't you know how many times you've made mistakes? Even a dog could count for you with its paws after all this time... You're actually sent by your boss to secretly lay off people, aren't you?"
The countdown continued, and the game system remained silent, seemingly intending to ignore it. Xue Chao called out, "Bennu."
[...]
"You made a mistake, so you have to give me something in return." Xue Chao smiled. "Popularity is your goal. Are you going to give up such a unique dungeon mode? ...I have a way."
A system error has been detected. A compensation package has been pre-issued to you. Please check back later.
"Don't try to brush me off so easily. If such a huge mistake only results in a B-grade item, I'm really going to lose my temper."
【0:0:20】
Ha, playing dead. It's another pre-payment, and they won't reveal what the compensation is, afraid he'll trick the president into getting something for nothing.
Suan Tong is clever; he actually thinks so.
Xue Chao lay down on the spot: "Each unit of the campus has a main timeline, but other timelines are also interspersed. The same goes for the space; there are often interconnected places and different spaces. With such a high 'tolerance,' why not make good use of it—why not just merge the fourth and fifth units?"
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