Chapter 317 Monster Hospital (XVI)
Nan Huan followed No. 111 to visit several wards, only to realize belatedly that he seemed to have been happy too early.
I don’t know whether it was the system’s way of adjusting the difficulty, or whether No. 111 deliberately wanted to emphasize the importance of her gift in Nan Huan’s heart. In any case, they opened several more blind boxes, all of which were insignificant gifts, and there were not even any system prompts for them.
For example, a banana saved from living frugally, a receipt that allowed him to go to the activity room and play for an hour alone, or even several board games that he could play with other patients.
If there was enough time and no tasks, Nan Huan would really like to participate, but the current situation is that they have already met more than a dozen patients, and she and Bei Xi have a very good understanding of each other. Whether it is from each other's behavior, interaction with other patients, or the reaction of No. 111, it does not feel like a disguise of staff. Some patients even ran off to which ward to play, leaving only a perfunctory packaging box, and Nan Huan has not even seen them for the time being.
Looking at it this way, No. 233 seems the most abnormal among them. After all, the other party has been in a sleeping state and cannot be identified by some details.
While No. 111 was greeting other patients, Nan Huan found time to whisper to Bei Xi, "What do you think? Although it's still early in the morning, I feel more and more that your guess just now might be right. Maybe there really are staff members who have been lurking in and becoming patients a long time ago. The patients we saw just now were all too natural, without any flaws at all..."
Nan Huan felt that she understood the system or the game. After all, this was the ultimate copy. The choices she made in this copy affected what those players who had no choice would face in the future, and also affected what the truth she had been expecting would be. So since entering this copy, Nan Huan had been tense. However, the side quest given by the system and the game still made Nan Huan a little confused, as if she had not figured out the true core of the quest, so she seemed a little anxious.
Bei Xi’s control over Nan Huan’s emotions was even better than his control over his own facial features, so before Nan Huan could finish her words, Bei Xi pressed her into his arms and said, “Relax a little. After all, there are 300 people in total, and we have only met one-tenth of them. The idea I had just now was just a lie to amuse you. The system will not do such a loss-making business. I think there are two possible directions for this situation. Do you want to hear my opinion?”
When Bei Xi was trying to coax someone, the person being coaxed naturally felt comforted. When she talked a lot, it made Nan Huan feel relaxed. She let herself lean on Bei Xi's arms, tilted her head and looked at her with a smile on her lips, "Of course, even if you make up two more things, I'm willing to listen."
Nan Huan knew that she wanted to relax him, so he followed her words and flirted with her. He felt much more relaxed, so he poked Bei Xi's ribs with his fingers and said, "Okay, stop keeping me in suspense and tell me now."
"The first possibility is that there is something about patient No. 233, who we just judged to be unlikely, that we have overlooked. Although the system deliberately did not specify in the task description and prompts how many staff members pretended to be patients, I think there must be more than one person based on the base of 300 people. But if you want to say how many there are, I don't think there will be more than five. After all, if there are more people, the patients will easily notice it. According to the usual style of the system, it would not reveal any information on the basis of more than 30 patients we have seen. So either it has revealed it, but we didn't find it. Among all the patients just now, only No. 233 is a little abnormal compared to other patients, and we can't judge some of her conditions after she fell asleep."
Bei Xi spoke without any nonsense, but more like what he said after careful consideration, "There is also a second possibility, that is, we have not really triggered the core of this task, or some event has not been triggered. After all, this task is limited to dawn, and from a time point of view, it is still sufficient."
After all, this is a 3S level ultimate copy. All the players, including Nan Huan, feel that once they enter the copy, there will definitely be a series of bloody tasks, so everyone is on high alert. But in reality, after they entered the copy, the imagined storm did not come, and it seemed that the rhythm slowed down from the beginning. It was like they had drawn a sword, but found that the other party had sent out a bee.
The gap would make people feel dazed, and Nan Huan was also carrying the expectations and life and death of other players, so the feeling was naturally stronger. However, after hearing Bei Xi's words, her slightly irritable heart finally calmed down a lot.
"Then let's go take another look at No. 233?" There was no plot or event triggered. It was a matter of timing and the game. Nan Huan wanted to make an effort but didn't know what to do, so he could only start with the first possibility. "While No. 111 is chatting happily here, let's go secretly and come back to find him later."
Patient No. 111 had just taken Nan Huan and Bei Xi to a ward where several patients were playing board games together. No. 111 couldn't help but join the game. Nan Huan and the others were not in the mood to have fun at this time, so the two of them planned to look for No. 233 again.
Ward 233 was not far away, and Nan Huan and Bei Xi quickly turned back. The situation in the ward was no different from when they had just left, and even the sleeping positions of the other party had not changed at all.
Nan Huan first stroked her chin and walked around the bed of Patient No. 233. She found that Patient No. 233 was indeed sleeping soundly. Despite the noises of them going in and out, there was no sign that the patient was about to wake up. Perhaps he was sleeping too soundly.
Nan Huan nodded at Bei Xi, indicating that he should go ahead and wake the man up and ask him questions.
Without outsiders present, Nanhuan was naturally not so stable and showed some small expressions. Beixi was a little amused and helpless when she saw it. Without patient No. 111 present, they naturally did not need to be so restrained. It was just to identify a patient, not to kill him, so Beixi naturally had no hesitation.
He walked straight forward and pulled the man up from the bed. The quilt slid down Patient No. 233's body, revealing his obviously overweight body. Compared with the other's greasy face, the impact was more than a little.
Bei Xi's actions were not gentle. The other person's weight of less than 300 pounds seemed like a light doll in her hands, but the strange thing was that No. 233 did not wake up.
Yes, even though he was pulled to this extent by Bei Xi, the other party did not wake up, his breathing was still long and not even disordered.
"We were negligent. When we heard what Patient 111 said just now, we didn't doubt her falling asleep." Two minutes later, Nan Huan watched Bei Xi try all the methods he could but failed to wake up Patient 233. "It seems that she probably won't wake up for the time being. But you said that she hasn't woken up because of her special skills, or is there something wrong with the system?"
From the time she entered this copy until just now, Nan Huan had no time to rest. She had either been standing or walking all the way. She was really tired, so she sat down on another bed without any consideration. She also took out the paper cup microphone that had been placed in the control panel before and fiddled with it in her hand, as if she wanted to find some clues from it.
Bei Xi tried twice, and after confirming that it was indeed difficult to wake the other person up using ordinary props and methods, he immediately gave up the idea of trying again.
"I'm more inclined to the former. If it's the system that's causing trouble, something should have been triggered the moment we discovered this, but there's nothing happening now?"
Bei Xi had already started searching the room, trying to find some clues, but the ward was clearly visible, not to mention personal belongings. If anything was there, it could be seen at a glance, so there was no need to look for it, and there was nothing suspicious.
She looked back and saw that Nan Huan looked tired, so she stopped moving immediately, squatted in front of her, and used her hands to massage the acupoints on her legs to help her relax. "But who knows, this might be a chain reaction or something, and it might require one thing after another."
Nan Huan was so comfortable being massaged that she sighed. If the situation didn’t allow it, she really wanted to lie down on the bed, close her eyes and fall asleep.
Nan Huan didn't really like the evening tasks because she had to stay up late, and Bei Xi gave her a very comfortable massage. She yawned, raised her head with tears in her eyes, looked at the paper cup in her hand and listened to the microphone, then suddenly sat up straight.
The tense muscles made Bei Xi very confused. She relaxed a little and looked up at Nan Huan, only to find that he had his eyes wide open, looking at the paper cup in his hand and listening to the microphone, as if he had discovered a new world.
"What's wrong? Did you find the link ahead?"
Bei Xi knew that she must have discovered something, and her tone was affirmative, but she did not rush to ask. She continued to relax the other person's leg muscles slowly.
"Although I'm not sure whether the two things are related, I did find a problem."
I don't know if it was Bei Xi's massage that worked, or because she finally found a clue, but she seemed to be much more energetic. She was holding the paper cup in her hand and listening to the microphone. She looked towards the fluorescent light and carefully observed the cup. "The pattern on the outer surface of the cup is a little more than before, and the outline seems to be clearer."
When he got the paper cup and listened to the microphone, Nan Huan just felt that the food patterns on it seemed a bit abrupt. He originally thought that it was just a paper cup that No. 233 got from somewhere, but now it seems that the system will not randomly pick any props.
Bei Xi took the paper cup from Nan Huan, examined it carefully for a while, and said with certainty, "There are changes, but the degree is very weak and slow. If you hadn't just taken it out now, maybe we would have to wait a while to find it. But we can't tell now. What is the relationship between the change in the pattern and the fact that Patient No. 2333 has been in a deep sleep?"
The clues were not progressing smoothly. Nan Huan hadn't come to the rescue yet to express her feelings. She felt like a person who had been hungry for a long time and finally had a big meal in front of her, but she choked after eating a little. There was something blocking her chest and her breathing was not smooth. Patient No. 111 had come over for some reason, so they had to continue opening the gifts for the time being and continue looking for other patients who might be pretending to be staff members, except for Patient No. 233.
On the other side, in Area B, in Patient X's room, President Yan felt a little relieved when he heard Nurse Zhang explain that in order to ensure the physical and mental health of other patients, Patient X was temporarily allowed to stay alone in the original ward.
Then she mentioned the previous question again, but because the people behind her didn't know about the patient's escape from the hospital, she asked very implicitly, "After the incident was over, did Nurse Hao, Nurse Wang, and Security Guard Guo tell you any useful information?"
In President Yan's opinion, if something has changed about Patient X, and the turning point was the escape incident that day, it would seem that the three accomplices who joined forces did not just pick a scapegoat at random, but might have carefully selected him. So the key point might be Patient X. If those accomplices can explain, it would be a clue for them.
Nurse Zhang seemed to have understood what President Yan meant by his hesitation, so she didn't seem too shocked this time. However, after a complex and difficult-to-recognize emotion flashed across her face, she lowered her voice, approached President Yan, and explained the problem in a voice that only the two of them could hear, "Before the disciplinary result came out, the Acting Dean sent someone to look for the three of them, but the three of them committed suicide out of fear of punishment. Their lounge has been temporarily sealed by the Acting Dean, and no one can enter now. Maybe the Acting Dean hasn't found out anything yet, so he just told us to concentrate on finding the whereabouts of Patient X..."
No matter why those three people had joined forces to frame her and wanted to drive her out of Area B, after all, the three of them were also staff members of Area B. As the saying goes, family disgrace should not be made public, in Nurse Zhang's opinion, Dr. Yan was now the responsible doctor of their Area B. In addition, the other party had done her a favor, so it was okay to tell her about this, but it must not be heard by the doctors in other areas, so when she explained the matter, she deliberately avoided the remaining three doctors.
President Xuan didn't show any special attitude. He still hadn't figured out why the system had specially selected the three doctors from Area C to enter Area B. Was the purpose for this mission really to provide assistance or to cause sabotage? So he didn't want to attract President Yan's special attention. Since the other party didn't want them to listen, he had no intention of getting close to him. He even stopped the remaining two presidents who wanted to listen, and gave them a look to be honest.
He was not worried that President Yan would deliberately conceal any important clues. After all, judging from the other party's expression, what Nurse Zhang said did not provide any useful information. It seemed that it might be some private affairs of their area B. President Xuan had even less curiosity to know.
President Yan's face did not look very good. She obviously did not expect this answer. After all, after the work assignment was completed, she only heard the notice that those people who had joined together would be expelled from the hospital. She thought that the acting dean would always ask about the matter before they were driven away, but she did not expect that three living people would be gone in the blink of an eye.
Almost at the same time that she realized something was wrong and the Acting Dean collected evidence to confirm the facts, it meant that the group of people were wrong. But they would not be allowed to leave the ward without the Acting Dean's permission, so they felt that there was no point in struggling, or there was some hidden secret. President Yan's intuition told him that it was most likely the latter.
Because before they designed the escape incident that framed others, they should have been very clear that without the permission of the acting dean, it was impossible for all the staff to leave the ward on their own, but they did it anyway. After this incident, Patient X gained the ability to disappear freely in Area B. President Yan felt that all this was not a coincidence.
If they were a little bolder, perhaps the three accomplices had discovered the peculiarity of Patient X early on, so they set up this game with the intention of stimulating this ability in Patient X. After all, according to their original script, Nurse Zhang would be expelled from Area B, their immediate superior would leave, and they would no longer be constrained. However, Patient X has the ability he has now, so it seems that it would not be difficult for them to leave, and everything would make sense.
But that group of people didn't expect that President Yan would show up halfway, or to put it more conspiratorially, after all, these three dead cannon fodders didn't look like the big boss, and there might be a real mastermind behind them, and their purpose was not simply to leave the ward. In order not to expose the ability of patient X and their real purpose, the three accomplices were killed when they were discovered. After all, only dead people will not leak anything.
Nurse Zhang was only a nurse after all, and she didn't have much contact with the outside world. So President Yan understood that no matter whether the Acting Dean found any useful clues from the bodies of those people or in the lounge, he would not share them with her. The only clues she had now were the room where Patient X would disappear every day, the bed where he would lie every day, and the fact that Patient X's sense of smell had become abnormally sensitive.
"I'm sorry, Doctor Yan, I still have some work to do. You can take your time here. If you need anything, you can come to the nurse's station to find me."
Perhaps the system had obtained enough information from Nurse Zhang, and was reminding President Yan in disguise that they would have to rely on themselves from now on, and it quickly found a reason to send Nurse Zhang away.
Doctor Yan nodded and politely escorted the man to the door, maintaining the image of a calm and measured boss until the very last moment. Then she turned around and, whether intentionally or unintentionally, began to discuss the mission with her temporary team members, "What do you think? Where should we start?"
She asked this question frankly, without any awareness that she was currently at the highest level, and even seemed a little self-righteous.
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