Chapter 214: Frog Hospital (VI) Focus of Infection

In the vast darkness, Qi Si lost the sensation in his limbs, vaguely floating above the dreamscape.

Below, a pale blue circle of light shone down from above, coldly illuminating the entire operating room, focusing on the patient bed in the center of the room.

Qi Si noticed a frail woman lying on the bed. Her face bore a slight resemblance to the female Ghost he had seen in the ward, but her abdomen was heavily swollen.

Doctors in white coats stood in a circle around the bed, their faces indistinct. A man whose clothes were spotlessly white stood out, likely Cheng An in the past.

The doctors sterilized scalpels, looked for anesthetic needles, and bustled about, busy like a group of frogs startled by a stone.

The woman on the bed suddenly reached out a pale, withered hand and grabbed Cheng An’s sleeve: “Doctor Cheng, I’m so scared… Do you think I might die here?”

Cheng An stopped what he was doing, lowered his head, and replied, “No, you’re still young. Nothing bad will happen.”

(404 not found)

The scene sped up, and the intense surgical process rushed past, only to slow down at a certain point, revealing more details.

Qi Si saw large patches of bright red blood bloom on the white background, spreading outwards like the roots of a plant.

Perhaps because he was in a state of astral projection, he did not experience the symptoms of Hemophobia as before.

This was good news, suggesting at least that Hemophobia did not persist throughout the entire instance and could be circumvented by special methods.

The scene before his eyes suddenly went dark as if a light had been pulled, and chaotic human voices rang out disorderly around his ears.

(404 not found)

Low sobs and mournful cries began, followed immediately by sounds of arguing.

A group of people started shoving, which quickly escalated into insults and fighting. A sharp female voice shouted nearby: “You can’t blame Doctor Cheng, he even donated his own blood!”

“Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit!” Frogs chirped loudly and urgently, near and far, one after another, gradually drowning out all human voices.

“Bang!” Someone fell to the ground amidst the frog sounds, seemingly having fainted.

The noise abruptly stopped, and concerned voices rose consecutively: “Doctor Cheng, what’s wrong?”

“Doctor Cheng! Wake up!”

…Qi Si opened his eyes, and the white ceiling of the ward came into view.

The sky was already bright. The morning light spilled freely through the uncurtained window frame, illuminating the entire ward.

On the bloodstains of the dead blue frog in the corner, an identical blue frog sat upright and still, its white belly trembling as it swelled and deflated, its bloody eyes staring fixedly ahead.

He didn’t know if it was a brand new frog, the resurrection of the dead one, or a vengeful spirit seeking retribution… “Is the rule about not opening doors or windows after lights out because Ghosts and frogs will take the opportunity to enter?… Even during the day, if the door is open, frogs seem to come in, right?”

Qi Si speculated, finding himself lying safely in the hospital bed, with no bloodstains nearby and no pain in his ankles. Everything he experienced after midnight last night seemed to have been just a hallucination.

On the system interface, the value in the 【failure rate】 column had somehow changed to 【20%】.

After his gaze lingered for two seconds, large blocks of text belatedly refreshed frantically, like pop-up windows appearing on a computer screen that had just recovered from freezing.

【You are someone who strictly adheres to rules, sometimes so rigorous that you are unreasonable; whether it is public order and good customs, laws and regulations, or newly introduced policies, you implement them meticulously and cautiously.】

【Last night, you actually violated the hospital rules and proactively left the ward after lights out. Others may not understand you, but the Dean is aware of your nature. If he knew about this, he would certainly be surprised and worried.】

【Of course, last night’s anomaly might simply be due to Hemophobia; you forgot many things under extreme fear, which is understandable. However, Xu Qing (Ghost) still grew suspicious of you.】

【Role-playing Failure Rate +20%】

Good news: he learned another characteristic of Cheng An’s persona—a law-abiding, emotionless machine that practices rules.

Bad news: he was suddenly one-fifth closer to complete failure.

Qi Si did not harbor too many unnecessary emotions. After all, if the instance time limit was five days, a 20% increase in failure rate per day was within the acceptable range.

However, the fact that the Eerie Game immediately applied the maximum penalty still surprised him.

“Does this mean I’d rather stay in the same room as a Ghost while suffering from Hemophobia than escape outside? It seems that in this instance, the priority of role-playing is much higher than dealing with Ghosts…”

Qi Si remembered that he had fainted in the corridor last night, just a few steps away from a long line of female Ghosts, who clearly meant trouble.

By common sense, he should have woken up in his own bed by now, deciding whether to play a match-three game or write a will for the last half hour, but the fact was he was alive and well.

This shows that although the Ghosts’ connection to him was unknown, there was a certain probability that they wouldn’t harm him; but once the Role-playing Failure Rate was full, he would definitely die, no negotiation.

Qi Si’s gaze fell upon the last line of the prompt text.

The role-playing rule stated: 【If suspicion is aroused in an NPC, the failure rate will increase by 5%~20% depending on the situation】.

The sudden increase of 20% failure rate was enough to indicate that his actions last night were absolutely a major, even fatal, mistake.

However, judging from the system prompt and his memory, the only witnesses to his rule-breaking behavior were the Ghosts in the ward and the corridor.

Even if the role-playing judgment was so strict that arousing suspicion in Ghosts was forbidden, it shouldn’t warrant such a severe punishment.

Unless… those Ghosts were of great significance.

“Why did the system prompt specifically mention the Dean? Did the failure judgment ultimately stem from the Dean discovering the anomaly? There shouldn’t be a boring setting like surveillance cameras, right…”

“If I want to gain more clues, I’ll have to interact with those Ghosts sooner or later; but I have Hemophobia, and seeing a Ghost with bloodstains will make me faint… What a hassle.”

Qi Si looked at the female name “Xu Qing” in the prompt text and rubbed his chin.

Last night, turning misfortune into fortune, he dreamed of scenes from Cheng An’s memory after he fainted.

It could basically be determined that Cheng An was an Obstetrician, and during an induced abortion, the patient died from massive hemorrhage, which traumatized him and caused him to develop Hemophobia.

To explore this instance deeply, he must first find a way to cure his Hemophobia. Otherwise, being in a state where he could faint anywhere, anytime, was practically telling the Ghosts, “I’m hopeless, come and take me.”

“So how do I treat Hemophobia? Homologous Stimulation? Resolving the knot in the heart?” Qi Si fell into contemplation.

Homologous Stimulation, which means forcing oneself to repeatedly witness human blood, was already confirmed to be useless.

From yesterday until now, Qi Si had seen bloody scenes no less than three times. His mind was completely calm, but his body honestly fainted.

As for resolving the knot in the heart… Qi Si had no such knot. What was wrong with surgical failure leading to death? It was already good enough that he wasn’t actively murdering people or performing vivisections.

Of course, the original host clearly didn’t think so.

Qi Si felt the deep malice of the Eerie Game towards him.

Besides both being very clean, his personality and views were diametrically opposed to the Original Host’s in every other aspect, to the point of being utterly unreasonable… If he could communicate with the Original Host face-to-face, he would still be confident in using rhetoric to change the Original Host’s views; but the problem was, the Original Host had been gone the moment he entered this instance… “I’m telling you, what kind of mess is this? Ghost Hospital, Desperate Battle Royale? A 20% failure rate increase in one night, that’s just great…” A familiar voice sounded in the distance. Just by the tone, one could imagine the speaker’s mournful face.

Next was a deliberately lowered male voice: “Brother Sun, say less. My sister is in a bad mood.”

The first voice said resentfully, “You think *I’m* in a good mood? I really fell for your nonsense. We haven’t even begun to clear the instance, and you’re still thinking about te clearance…”

The female voice interrupted: “It was my mistake in judgment. I didn’t expect this instance to be so tricky. But since all of us had our failure rate increased by 20%, it balances out. There’s nothing to complain about.”

The ward door was pushed open from the outside. Huang Xiaofei walked in first and sat on the bedside table. Lu Zimo and Sun Dekuan followed behind.

All three were, without exception, covered in dirt and dust, their bodies wrinkled and dripping wet, as if they had just been pulled out of the water.

What was stranger was that the blood-soaked clothes Lu Zimo was wearing, stained with frog blood, had returned to pristine cleanliness, and there were no frog corpses on the ground outside the door.

Qi Si sat up from the bed and knowingly asked, “You were out for so long. Did you find anything?”

Huang Xiaofei sneered, “If you weren’t willing to risk exploration yourself, why should you expect us to tell you?”

No one paid attention to her.

Sun Dekuan seemed to have finally found someone to complain to, pouring out his grievances to Qi Si: “Don’t even mention it. Last night, as soon as we turned a corner in the corridor, we were surrounded by a group of female Ghosts. We couldn’t kill them, and we couldn’t outrun them. We huddled in the corner all night; we couldn’t move an inch…”

He already regretted siding with Huang Xiaofei. The advantage of a Strength-type player is a safe ne clearance. Without that level of skill, trying to follow the te clearance route was simply digging his own grave… The hospital night was clearly unsuitable for going out. Even players without illnesses wouldn’t gain much useful information by going out; instead, they would expend stamina and get involved in danger.

Qi Si sighed faintly: “I guess what those nurses said is one of the instance’s hidden rules: doors and windows cannot be opened at night, or unclean things will enter. After you left yesterday, a frog and a female Ghost entered the room. I managed to escape by pretending to sleep, and my failure rate still increased slightly.”

Hearing this, Huang Xiaofei finally noticed the blue frog squatting in the corner. Following suit, she flicked a slip of paper at it, and the newly appeared frog was decapitated just like the one yesterday.

“But I did gain some useful information.” Qi Si’s expression remained unchanged, his eyes feigning a glance at the top-left corner of his vision. “The system prompt said that the character I’m playing developed a psychological trauma because he failed an operation on a woman named ‘Xu Qing,’ and he is extremely afraid of Ghosts coming to claim his life, so he cannot calmly pretend to sleep after seeing a Ghost.”

Sun Dekuan remembered something and slapped his thigh: “I also got a prompt, saying that the person I’m playing is timid and fearful, engaging in speculation and profiteering, and wouldn’t dare wander out on the first day; he has to observe the situation for a while first…”

All players who went out at night had their failure rate increased, which was genuinely fair in a sense.

Although it was unknown whether other players were only forbidden from going out after lights out on the first day or if the rule applied going forward, the mere risk of increasing the failure rate was enough to deter people.

Huang Xiaofei suddenly looked at Qi Si and asked abruptly, “How much did your failure rate increase?”

Both her and Lu Zimo’s failure rates had increased by the maximum 20%. Subsequent exploration must be careful, and if necessary, it would be best to use players with lower failure rates for trial and error.

As for what to do if the other party refused, that would mean moral blackmail—”You don’t want all of us to fail clearance, do you?”

Asking suddenly was intended to disrupt the composure of others, reduce the possibility of lies, and obtain a more truthful answer.

Qi Si saw right through Huang Xiaofei’s mind. He turned his head, smiled at her, and said, “You want to know? Then… you—guess—it.”

…On the top floor of the hospital, in a dimly lit office.

The tall bookshelf blocking the window was tightly packed with various books, and archive files were stacked high on the bottom shelf.

The shadow of the bookshelf perfectly shrouded the purple office desk. A small replica statue of Lamentation over the Dead Christ was placed in the center of the clean, tidy desktop, but the faces of the Virgin Mary and Christ were full of East Asian features.

A white piece of paper lay flat in front of the statue, and a black fountain pen hovered in the air as if held by a ghost, automatically writing lines of text on the page:

【Dear (data deleted) Excellency:】

【As you foresaw, all patients admitted to Ward 404, whether formerly doctors or patients, have undergone a certain degree of personality change after admission and exhibited strange behavior contrary to reason.】

【Last night, Doctor Cheng An, who should strictly adhere to the rules, frantically rushed out of the room in the middle of the night and fainted in the corridor. I returned him to his bed and did not see anything frightening in the ward. Perhaps this poor soul was just driven mad by hallucinations caused by his illness.】

【The other three patients, whose backgrounds are clean, proactively walked out of the ward while conscious. I am certain they were not suffering from sleepwalking. They seemed to want to go elsewhere or leave our hospital entirely; after seeing me, they quickly regained their composure following their initial panic.】

【It took great effort for me to stop them. For a moment, I even wanted to kill them. But in order not to affect the plan, which is close to success, I had no choice but to endure, as always.】

【Excellency, I believe you must know something. If possible, please graciously inform your loyal devotee.】

【(data deleted)】