Chapter 53 The Seventh Human Tenant: A Special Tenant and a Negative Philosophy...
The process of corrupting the instance with the ghosts in the tenant's room requires a loading bar. During this time, Zhou Fangdong opened the instance corruption interface while also glancing at the quest panel.
The progress of side quest 4, finding the cleaner, has reached (5/5).
Zhou Fangdong felt relieved and instructed Quan Wuming and the other two, as well as Qian Duolai and the other two who stumbled upstairs, "Clean up these pieces of meat Ganoderma lucidum in the second-floor corridor, put them together, and pile them in the corner of the corridor. I'll come and get them in a bit."
All five nodded in unison.
The paper heads of Qian Duolai and the other two were very suitable; even with large nodding movements, the heads did not fall off again.
Zhou Fangdong teleported back to his room and began to focus on observing the situation of Hong Zhong and Xiao Xiaoyu in the system's live video broadcast.
*
In a ward of an abandoned hospital.
Hearing Hong Zhong say he wouldn't leave, Xiao Xiaoyu was puzzled: "The supernatural dungeon of the main god is very dangerous, you..."
Before she could finish speaking, Hong Zhong interrupted her: "There are still ordinary people trapped here. I'm going to rescue them all."
Xiao Xiaoyu wondered if she had misheard: "How could you possibly save so many people by yourself? You have no idea how dangerous the dungeon is! We don't have the points system with us right now, and we don't even know how to survive this dungeon!"
Hong Zhong's voice was firm: "As long as we clear out the ghosts and cultists, this instance will be safe. Then we can slowly bring them out... I won't just stand by and watch those who were captured by the Heirs of the Bone Society die in the instance."
As soon as he finished speaking, his tone changed. He handed his car keys to Xiao Xiaoyu and said earnestly, "If you have a way to leave, then leave by yourself. Do it as soon as possible. If you delay any longer, I'm afraid something else might happen. I'm enough to handle things here on my own."
Xiao Xiaoyu took a deep breath.
Having spent so much time in supernatural dungeons and seen countless people who would stop at nothing to protect themselves, this was the first time she'd encountered someone so...so foolish...
hateful!
Xiao Xiaoyu slapped Hong Zhong's hand away from the car keys, almost gritting her teeth as she said, "I'm not leaving, I'm coming with you! What nonsense are you spouting, you've never even participated in a supernatural dungeon before! You said you'd clear out all the ghosts, but you can't even tell the difference—this ward is full of ghosts who haven't recovered! Let's get out of here right now!"
Hong Zhong paused for a moment, but without doubting the truthfulness of Xiao Xiaoyu's words, he pulled her out of the ward as quickly as possible.
Before coming, Xiao Xiaoyu had already told Hong Zhong about her ability to see ghosts, and he trusted her judgment.
But the 'patients' on the hospital beds, whose blood and flesh were being drawn, looked like humans, with human vital signs, no abnormalities, and not even the detection devices gave any warning.
—In this so-called main god instance, are the monsters' disguise abilities really that strong?
Xiao Xiaoyu seemed to know what he was thinking: "Don't use your common sense to distinguish the ghosts in the God Dungeon, and don't let your eyes cloud your perception. In the God Dungeon, not only can seemingly normal humans be ghosts, but your teammates can be ghosts, and even a table or a chair could be a disguised ghost... Don't you have one of those portable detection devices? Keep it on, don't worry about wasting it."
Hong Zhong gave a wry smile: "I've kept it on the whole time; the detection device is useless in the instance."
He looked around at the surroundings and said to Xiao Xiaoyu, "We should be on the third floor of the hospital inpatient ward now. Judging from the ward we just saw, I suspect there are real survivors on this floor, which is why those ghosts can disguise themselves as patients so convincingly. I'll take you to the doors of the other wards, and then I'll ask you to use your [Yin-Yang Eyes] to help me identify which patients in which rooms are alive."
Because Xiao Xiaoyu was walking slowly, Hong Zhong picked her up again, holding her in his arm like a handbag.
Xiao Xiaoyu had gotten used to it; because of her limited mobility, she was almost always on her feet in every instance.
They looked around the third floor and finally found a ward at the end of the corridor.
This ward is full of living people.
There were ten survivors in total. They looked just like the 'patients' in the previous ward. Most of them were bound to the hospital bed with restraints, had IV needles inserted in their hands, and had neat cut marks on their arms.
The only two people not restrained by the restraints were a refined-looking man in his thirties wearing a hospital gown and glasses, and a middle-aged man lying on the bed with his eyes closed and blood still flowing from his arm.
The bespectacled man sat on the bed, watching the middle-aged man bleed, with bandages and surgical instruments such as scalpels right next to him.
All the medical equipment was turned on, as if someone had disappeared while using it.
Hong Zhong rushed to the bedside of the bleeding middle-aged man and used the bandage next to him to stop the bleeding.
The bespectacled man just stood there staring blankly, muttering somewhat nervously, "Sigh, what's the use of stopping the bleeding? Life is a cycle of constant loss and repetition. Even if you stop the bleeding, the blood will still flow out elsewhere..."
Xiao Xiaoyu said helplessly, "Stop lamenting. We're here to rescue you. Instead of wasting your time, why don't you tell us about the general situation here?"
The supernatural dungeons created by the main god in the real world will set up paths to life and death based on the real situation. Having finally encountered a conscious survivor, Xiao Xiaoyu hopes to learn some useful information from him.
But the neurotic bespectacled man didn't respond to Xiao Xiaoyu, still staring at Hong Zhong's bandaging movements: "Sigh, why bother? Bandaging will only cause more injury. For the sake of a permanent solution, why not just amputate?"
Xiao Xiaoyu finally realized that this bespectacled man was no different from those unconscious patients... they were all in a state of complete irrationality.
Hong Zhong couldn't stand it anymore: "Don't be so negative, we will help you get rid of the control of those cultists."
The bespectacled man sighed again: "Well, so what? Everyone dies eventually. Living is a process of moving towards death. It doesn't matter whether you die sooner or later, so why don't we just follow the guidance of fate and face death with equanimity?"
Xiao Xiaoyu completely lost her patience: "Shut up. If you say another word, I'll stab you to death with a knife and let you die peacefully right now."
"Sigh..." The bespectacled man adjusted his glasses, let out a long sigh, and wisely stopped talking.
Hong Zhong stood up and walked around the other beds to check on the condition of the other survivors.
Those who were strapped to the hospital beds were still alive, but they were all in a coma.
Hong Zhong looked at the only conscious man with glasses, hesitated for a moment, and then asked, "Are you the only survivors in this hospital? Are there any other survivors? Just answer my question, don't say anything else."
"Sigh..." A bitter smile appeared on the bespectacled man's lips. "Everyone else has been freed, only a few of us are still alive, enduring all the pain in this world."
"However..." The bespectacled man hesitated, seemingly unsure whether he should speak.
Hong Zhong pressed further, "But what?"
The bespectacled man continued, "However, this is not my original ward. We, the medicinal catalysts, each have our own ward, and we are scattered on different floors. Just now, a flash of white light appeared, and we all inexplicably appeared here."
As soon as the bespectacled man finished speaking, Xiao Xiaoyu suddenly turned her head to look at the side wall of the ward.
She seemed to see something through the wall, her face paled, and she muttered, "So this instance is a city defense mode..."
Hong Zhong frowned: "Defend the city?"
"Simply put, it's like protecting the carrot. Before the monsters officially resurface, we need to collect resources within the instance, find out where the monsters will spawn, and then set up traps outside the stronghold to hinder the monsters' advance and prevent the survivors in the stronghold from being killed by the monsters. Whether this instance is successfully completed depends on how many survivors survive in the end."
Xiao Xiaoyu's face was extremely pale: "If the points system were still around, I could have deduced this information much earlier... Now the ghosts in the other wards have all been revived. For the safety of the survivors, we can't leave this ward too far. We can only stand guard at the door."
Upon hearing her words, Hong Zhong rushed out of the ward.
Their ward was at the end of the corridor, and they could already see many figures swaying and approaching them from afar.
Hong Zhong quickly took out a bundle of yellow warning tape from his backpack and began to set it up rapidly in the corridor.
These warning lines are used to seal off abnormal areas when they are on missions. They have the effect of blocking out supernatural forces. Placing them outside the wards should slow down the approach of ghosts.
In the hospital room, Xiao Xiaoyu wasn't idle either. A knife appeared out of thin air in her hand, and without hesitation, she chopped off her own calf.
This knife is an accessory to her Soul Link; whenever she needs to remove the Soul Link, this knife will appear so she can cut off her legs.
Xiao Xiaoyu pulled a transparent chain from the flesh of her calf, then casually tossed the useless leg aside and sat on the ground waiting for the severed leg to grow back.
In dungeons, several of her Soul Links can exist simultaneously if not used. The skill cooldown is the same as the regeneration speed of her severed leg. Once the leg is regenerated, she can sever it again and extract another Soul Link from it.
This mechanism only exists in dungeons, and players cannot cut off their lower legs to prepare for the Soul Lock before entering the dungeon.
The bespectacled man watched as the little girl guarding the door decisively chopped off her leg with a knife. His gaze shifted downwards, and he silently looked at his own calf. He pursed his lips tightly, deciding to try his best to remain quiet from now on.
When Hong Zhong returned to the ward after finishing his work in the corridor, he was terrified to see three severed legs on the floor as soon as he opened the door, thinking that a ghost had attacked the ward.
"Don't worry, this is me using a skill," Xiao Xiaoyu explained.
Looking at the three broken legs on the ground, Xiao Xiaoyu sighed softly, thinking to herself that it was a waste.
If her witchcraft doll were still alive, she could feed the three severed legs to the doll and curse at least three vengeful ghosts to death.
After Hong Zhong entered the ward, Xiao Xiaoyu placed three Soul-Binding Locks in front of the door as the last line of defense against ghosts and monsters entering.
"It's alright, don't worry, we just need to hold out for a while, just a little while longer." Xiao Xiaoyu didn't know if she was comforting Hong Zhong or herself.
Now we can only place all our hopes on that landlord with unfathomable power, hoping he can control the ghosts to come to our aid in time.
Xiao Xiaoyu personally experienced the funeral home scenario and witnessed just how terrifying the ghost baby that suddenly appeared in the funeral home was.
She wasn't worried at all that the monsters under the landlord's command weren't strong enough to destroy the dungeon; her only concern was that the landlord hadn't yet realized they were in danger.
Seeing that everything was arranged, Hong Zhong picked up Xiao Xiaoyu, who had a broken leg and was unable to move easily, and placed her behind him. Then he pressed a button on his chest, and a retractable strap, like a baby carrier, appeared out of thin air and firmly bound Xiao Xiaoyu to his body.
Then Hong Zhong, holding two guns, stood facing the ward door, observing the situation outside through a small window in the door.
As the sounds of heavy objects hitting the ground and strips of cloth tearing rang out, the figures in the distant corridor continued to move forward, albeit slowly.
The warning line is effective, but it may not last long. The monster must be shot down as soon as it gets close enough to be within range.
Just as Hong Zhong was intently staring at the door of the ward, Xiao Xiaoyu behind him suddenly noticed something was wrong.
In Xiao Xiaoyu's view, the patient whose wounds had just been bandaged by Hong Zhong was experiencing a rapid increase in yin energy, which almost instantly grew to the level of a B-grade vengeful ghost!
Just as Xiao Xiaoyu was about to warn him, she saw the bespectacled man with a pessimistic expression pick up the scalpel next to him, cut his wrist, and drip blood into the patient's mouth.
The yin energy dissipated rapidly, and the patient's condition stabilized.
Xiao Xiaoyu looked in surprise in the direction where the bespectacled man was.
She suspected she might have misjudged the situation due to poor visibility...
Xiao Xiaoyu had always judged the movements of others based on the fluctuations of supernatural power and the yin energy they carried. She found it hard to believe that the bespectacled man who had been saying "It's no use saving him," "It's better to amputate his limbs," and "It's better to die" would harm her to save his ghostly companion.
The bespectacled man sighed listlessly, "Sigh... Don't look at me, this person is completely beyond saving. Even my blood can't suppress him for long."
"If I were the only one in this ward, I wouldn't care about this mutated guy... After you all leave, let things take their course. Perhaps dying at the hands of someone who shares the same fate as me is my ultimate destiny."
Once this man started talking, he couldn't stop. Perhaps because Xiao Xiaoyu was tied up behind Hong Zhong's back, her intimidating presence had diminished, the bespectacled man began to sigh again:
"Sigh, what do you think the world after death will be like? Could this world just be someone's dream? Zhuangzi dreamt of a butterfly, what is real and what is fake? When we die, are we really dead? Or is death just waking up from a dream and moving on to another kind of life?"
The slight feeling of emotion that had just risen in her heart vanished instantly. Xiao Xiaoyu said in a deep voice, "Great philosopher, stop talking. It will affect Hong Zhong's observation."
"I am not a philosopher, I am a doctor."
"Okay, doctor, please shut up."
“I used to be a doctor, but I am not anymore. My name is He Yansheng.”
“Hong Zhong, put me down, I’m going to sew that guy’s mouth shut.”
“Something’s not right…” Hong Zhong, who had been staring at the door, sounded puzzled, and then actually put Xiao Xiaoyu down.
Hong Zhong opened the ward door, pointed to the ghosts outside, and said to Xiao Xiaoyu, "Look, aren't the ghosts in this corridor decreasing?"
And he didn't know if it was just his imagination, but he felt like the lights in the corridor had turned red.
As soon as Xiao Xiaoyu landed, before she could even check the situation in the corridor, she suddenly noticed that her shadow was starting to grow longer.
The shadows quickly covered the entire ground, followed by a faint red emerging from them—the ward floor seemed to have turned into a pool of blood, turning the entire room a blood red.
The next instant, a battered figure slowly rose from the pool of blood.
He wore a white lab coat stained with mottled blood, his upper body ripped open, all his internal organs missing. His jaw had been completely ripped off, his tongue hanging on his neck, vibrating slightly, causing the bits of flesh hanging down from his cheeks to produce a faint, almost talking sound: "...Does it hurt...?"
"It hurts so much......"
As the weak and painful sound rang out, dozens of sharp spikes suddenly appeared from the pool of blood on the ground, piercing his already broken body.
He was like a sacrifice strung on thorns, offering his remaining flesh and blood to an ethereal god.
Because the door to the ward was open, Hong Zhong noticed that every time a sharp spike pierced the disemboweled ghost, a ghostly figure in the corridor would disappear—this disemboweled ghost that suddenly appeared in the ward was helping them.
"This is the ghost in my room!" Xiao Xiaoyu recognized it immediately. Although she couldn't see human faces, she could see ghosts very clearly. "The landlord intervened! We're safe!!"
Hearing her say that, Hong Zhong was immediately shocked.
I underestimated the landlord of Liwan Apartments.
This ghost felt even more dangerous to him than the peddler, at least an A-level monster—if even such a terrifying ghost was completely subservient to the landlord, what couldn't he do?
Hong Zhong discovered that whenever he mentally prepared himself to be overwhelmed by the landlord, the mysterious landlord would always display an even greater power than he expected.
His power is like a bottomless abyss; no one can see his true strength.
*
On the live video feed, Zhou Fangdong controlled the disemboweled ghost in Room 105, sniping at all the ghosts and ghost-like patients in the hospital as if playing a shooting game.
There are just too many ghosts in this dungeon! The main god is really determined to kill Xiao Xiaoyu. He's been tapping the screen so much that his tendonitis is about to flare up. He's never been this tired even when playing rhythm games.
Just then, Zhou Fangdong caught a glimpse of a monitoring screen above the system interface. On the hospital's rooftop, a group of bald men, who appeared to be cult members, seemed to be performing some kind of ritual to pray for divine blessings.
Seeing this, he immediately extended the Blood Shadow range of the Ripper Demon to the top floor, and before the ritual was completed, he ruthlessly strung all the cultists together like candied hawthorns.
After eliminating the last ghost in the hospital, a system pop-up appeared:
[Congratulations, host, on successfully infiltrating the main god's instance!]
Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief.
But before he could continue looking, the system suddenly bombarded him with fireworks, even with 3D effects, making it look particularly flashy.
After the fireworks effects disappeared, a pop-up window appeared with larger and bolder font:
[Congratulations, host, on absorbing a clean, unrevived core of an evil god's clone in this instance!]
Evil God's Clone Core?
It turns out that the group of cultists on the rooftop were actually preparing to summon an evil god's clone.
Zhou Fangdong felt a wave of fear wash over him. He hadn't looked closely enough and had killed them all without realizing it. Luckily, he acted quickly enough; otherwise, who knows what might have happened if the evil god's clone had appeared.
[The system is currently digesting the clone core; the system is strengthening its defenses; the apartment is also strengthening its defenses; a new device to eliminate the evil god's contamination within the apartment is under construction...]
Estimated time: 6 hours
[Dungeon successfully invaded! Reward: 2000 Ghost Coins, one guaranteed lottery ticket (guaranteed to draw at least three items)]
[Energy overflow detected, system unable to process in time... using excess power to automatically clean and renovate the room...]
Room 202 has been cleaned and renovated and is ready for immediate move-in!
[The tenants of rooms 106 and 105 were detected to have brought a half-ghost back to the apartment. They have been automatically converted into tenants and placed in room 202.]
[New Tenant Profile: Special Tenant - The Negative Philosopher Doctor, now unlocked!]
[Please check the encyclopedia and claim your rewards promptly!]
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Author's Note: There will be an extra chapter at midnight tonight.
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