Chapter 217: Frog Hospital (IX) Corpse

【Task Time: 00:30:00】

As the electronic sound faded, the surrounding light visibly dimmed, leaving only the vague outlines of the furnishings in the Morgue.

“Rustle, rustle, rustle…”

Eerie sounds of fabric rubbing came from all directions. The white sheets on the adjacent beds visibly writhed, as if something were trying to crawl out from underneath.

Perhaps because they had just regained mobility and their limbs were uncoordinated, the things beneath the sheets twisted and struggled, taking a long time to shake off a corner of the cloth, revealing hands and feet covered in liver spots.

Qi Si roughly counted. A total of twenty-one corpses on the iron beds outside the Cold Storage Units began to move.

Eight other corpses remained unresponsive, sleeping soundly and motionless.

He walked straight over, his left hand gripping the Pocket Watch of Fate reversed, and his right hand lifting the white sheets off the eight corpses one by one.

Just as he expected, these eight bodies were female corpses in their twenties or thirties, and the numbers on their wristbands began with “S.”

The corpses on the nearby iron beds seemed to gradually adapt to their limbs, sitting up one after another and tearing off their sheets.

Sun Dekuan’s back was pressed tightly against the cold iron door, his voice unconsciously taking on a mournful tone: “Little brother, what… what should we do about this? I don’t want to die…”

Qi Si remained silent, turning his head toward the Cold Storage Unit nearby.

Rows of stainless steel rectangular cabinets filled the entire wall. They were long and narrow, shaped like Coffins. A white piece of paper was pasted where the cabinets met, bearing two red characters scrawled in messy handwriting—

【Full】

This explained why a large number of corpses were left outside—because there was no room left, that’s all.

In the era where this instance was set, electronic locks had not yet become widespread, so this batch of Cold Storage Units used traditional mechanical locks.

Qi Si pulled a wire directly from his wristband, chose the lock in the very middle, and began picking it.

Sun Dekuan stood frozen for a moment, finally recovering from the shock and regaining his ability to move. When he looked closely, he saw Qi Si picking the lock.

He turned the doorknob behind him with one hand and pounded the iron door with the other: “Little brother, what are you doing? I mean, we’re already trapped, and you’re letting out more monsters? That won’t earn you experience… My daughter is only five and in kindergarten, I can’t die yet…”

While he was speaking, Qi Si had already picked the lock.

The cabinet door opened with a pull, revealing a pitch-black, empty space behind it.

Sun Dekuan’s eyes lit up: “Little brother, if you can pick that lock, why don’t you try this big door too?”

Qi Si seemed not to hear, and went off on his own to pick another lock on the Cold Storage Unit.

Sun Dekuan sensed something was up, stopped turning the doorknob, and asked hesitantly, “Little brother, did you discover something?”

Qi Si pulled open the second cabinet door; it was also completely empty inside.

He replied without turning his head: “The bodies are gone. If my guess is correct, someone transported the bodies away for another purpose. To create the illusion that the bodies were still here, they posted a ‘Full’ note to deceive people, and even placed some so-called overflow corpses outside to intimidate anyone who stumbled in.

“If the families don’t pursue the matter, and if players didn’t show up, it’s likely that the loss of the bodies wouldn’t be discovered for a long time.”

Seeing that he couldn’t open the iron door, Sun Dekuan scurried over to Qi Si: “I mean, if the families aren’t pursuing it, who cares if the bodies are missing? Why go to all this trouble with misdirection?”

“There are many people who would pursue it.” Qi Si sampled two more cabinets, confirming that the entire Cold Storage Unit was empty. “Following common horror movie tropes, a righteous, straightforward doctor, a naive, overly compassionate nurse, a weary caregiver who accidentally discovers the secret, or a third-party faction also coveting the bodies could all notice something suspicious… Without maintaining appearances, the slightest slip-up could cause significant trouble.”

That made sense. Sun Dekuan nodded, feeling impressed yet confused, and then belatedly caught the sound of shuffling footsteps.

The moving corpses became more agile as time passed. While they had been exchanging those few sentences, they had already climbed off the iron beds and were staggering toward where the players stood.

Their movements were not fast; they wandered slowly at the pace of a normal person strolling. As long as the players kept running, they would likely not be touched.

But actually moving proved difficult.

【Task Time: 00:23:21】

Due to prolonged mental tension, continuous physical exhaustion, and the unknown possibility of future complications, Sun Dekuan’s legs felt weak and he struggled to move them even slightly.

“What are we going to do? We still have a full twenty minutes. We’re going to die on the same day, same month, same year… But I still have a wife and child…”

He wore a mournful expression, feeling that Qi Si, as an intelligence-type player, not only actively triggered crisis events but also calmly analyzed and solved puzzles, making him even more incomprehensible than Huang Xiaofei and the others… Although those two were combat-type players who foolishly tried to achieve te clearance without self-awareness, they at least had the ability to defend themselves. Qi Si, however, couldn’t even protect himself, let alone his teammates… “The more conventional solution is to hide inside the Cold Storage Units…” Qi Si said, yet he held the blood-colored Cursed Pendulum in front of him and quickly walked away from the Cold Storage Units. “But I believe you’ve learned about many horror stories since entering the game. Being grabbed by a pair of icy hands after hiding in a cabinet, turning around to see a human face weeping tears of blood, then finding the door won’t open when you try to leave… these are all very reasonable developments.”

To prevent decomposition, the temperature in the Morgue was naturally lower than outside. With rows of corpses standing stiffly, surrounding them with rigid limbs, it made people feel a chill down their spine and an intense sense of cold Yin energy.

In this environment, Qi Si’s calm narration sounded sinister, and Sun Dekuan keenly felt his teammate’s dark humor, wanting to cry but having no tears.

Then he heard the young man say in a joking tone, “But I feel that given your size, it might be a bit difficult for you to hide inside.”

This was probably meant to relieve tension, but Sun Dekuan felt absolutely uncomforted.

Fortunately, Qi Si did not dwell on the boring joke. He quickly stopped beside one of the iron Morgue beds and said indifferently, “A small hint: eight corpses in this room are special.”

Special? Sun Dekuan wasn’t stupid, and hearing Qi Si say this, he immediately understood.

After all the other corpses got off the beds, there were indeed eight bodies still lying perfectly still, unmoving as mountains.

Furthermore, the standing corpses, as they moved, consciously or unconsciously avoided the stationary female corpses while driving the players in the opposite direction.

It was as if… they were afraid of those female corpses being touched.

Qi Si continued: “Given that some bodies are intended for another use, do you think the mastermind would allow those ‘high-value’ corpses to be damaged by some ‘low-value’ ordinary corpses?”

“Are you saying…” Sun Dekuan looked at the female corpses on the iron beds with lingering hesitation. “We aren’t supposed to pretend to be ‘high-value’ corpses, are we? How would we do that?”

“What are you thinking?” Qi Si sighed, rubbing his forehead. “Four bodies each, just enough to block four directions.”

That works? Sun Dekuan looked at Qi Si’s composed demeanor and suddenly realized the truth, recalling the young man’s initial action of lifting the white sheets.

It turned out this young man wasn’t being inappropriate or oblivious in the face of disaster; he had known the solution to the crisis all along and was completely confident.

Immediately, Sun Dekuan stopped dithering and went to drag the nearest female corpse.

The cold, inelastic skin served as a constant reminder that this was a dead body, provoking innate fear and trembling, but in a life-or-death situation, he couldn’t worry about that anymore.

“I’ll do it, I trust you this time!” Sun Dekuan closed his eyes and mumbled, seeming more like he was trying to convince himself.

He supported the female corpse’s arms, holding the entire body up to shield himself. His corpulent body awkwardly twisted, trying to hide completely behind the cover.

Qi Si watched Sun Dekuan, who was tightly clutching the corpse, for two seconds. Seeing that nothing unusual happened, he picked up another body.

【Task Time: 00:16:57】

The corpses walking toward the two men clearly hadn’t anticipated this maneuver, and their steps simultaneously halted.

They began to wander restlessly, like a flock of sheep that had lost its goal and direction.

Sun Dekuan took two deep breaths, opened his eyes, and seeing the corpses hesitating, let out a huge sigh of relief.

For a moment, he began to feel fortunate that he had ultimately chosen Qi Si and followed the right person.

Combat-type players were a dime a dozen, but intelligence-type players were always scarce. Although this person couldn’t carry anything heavy or lift much, he genuinely had a way to resolve danger without shedding blood.

The corpse group remained deadlocked for a while, finally figuring out a solution and tentatively splitting into two streams toward the sides.

They were clearly trying to bypass the female corpses acting as shields and approach the players from the unprotected flanks.

“Pick up another corpse, spread out, and back against the corner,” Qi Si ordered calmly.

Sun Dekuan dared not delay. In this life-or-death moment, he burst forth with a surprising agility inconsistent with his physique, dragging another corpse to cover his side, and retreated step by step toward the corner.

Qi Si also flung out the Cursed Pendulum, hooked another corpse, and retreated to the wall.

【Task Time: 00:10:11】

Four corpses were only the theoretical requirement. By wedging themselves into the corner, with the aid of two walls, only two corpses were needed to separate the players from the corpse group outside.

The walking corpses split into two waves, one heading toward Sun Dekuan and the other toward Qi Si. Their heads bent at angles impossible for normal people, reminiscent of a Zombie Siege in a film or TV show.

They approached step by step, like cats playing with mice, adopting various fierce postures to cultivate fear in their prey.

Huddled in the corner with nowhere left to retreat, Sun Dekuan didn’t dare breathe, and his heart started to doubt whether he had trusted the wrong person… Fortunately, the corpses successively stopped half a step away from him, daring not to advance another inch.

They paced back and forth like headless flies, emitting low growls of frustration and powerlessness.

Qi Si’s method worked. They just needed to hold their nerve and endure the countdown to complete the side quest.

Sun Dekuan let out a long breath, feeling a slight pang of guilt for his earlier indecisiveness for the first time.

He mentally slapped his own face and scolded himself: ‘He’s an intelligence-type player with six te clearance records, isn’t he more capable than you? Just do what he says, why are you still doubting?’

In the corner on the other side, Qi Si observed the corpse group outside through the gap between the two female corpses.

The quality of this batch of corpses was uneven. The oldest had white hair and skin so wrinkled it looked like it would flake off if rubbed; the youngest looked barely twenty, thin as a rail, and seemed like they could be blown over by a gust of wind.

Their eyes were rolled back, and their hands were held stiffly out, awkwardly curled into claw shapes, yet they didn’t even have fingernails.

They carried nothing of value. Their white burial clothes had no pockets, offering nowhere to store dangerous weapons.

Excluding the instinctive human fear of the uncanny and the horror implied by the side quest, there was no evidence whatsoever to suggest that these corpses could harm or kill players.

Furthermore, their movements were too clumsy and their speed too slow. Their existence seemed merely to serve as a fright factor, prompting timid players to flee in panic, lest they discover the hospital’s hidden secrets.

“Fleeing?” Qi Si shifted his gaze to the tightly closed iron door of the Morgue.

The door had been locked from the very beginning, offering players no possibility of escape, which clearly contradicted the design of the corpse group… 【Task Time: 00:00:00】

【side quest Complete】

The cold electronic voice interrupted Qi Si’s thoughts, and a large amount of text refreshed in the upper left corner of his vision.

【Congratulations, you have obtained the clue “The Hospital’s Secret”】

【Dad told me there’s a big pond behind the hospital, and it holds lots and lots of dolls】

【No, not dolls, they are frogs. Blue Frog Hospital raises blue frogs, and Green Frog Hospital raises green frogs】

【The red frogs were eaten, and there are too few grown frogs, so they need to breed lots of blue frogs and green frogs】

【Hehehe, give me a piece of candy, and I’ll take you through the misty forest to the pond to look at the frogs】

A clear child’s voice read out the text word by word beside his ear, mixed with the sounds of clapping and laughter.

The further the narration went, the more sinister the voice became, sounding like the wailing of a vengeful spirit. The miscellaneous noises were gradually drowned out by the sound of frogs, causing an inexplicable sense of unease.

The walking corpses all fell to the ground the moment the prompt sounded, making “thudding” noises and lying scattered across the floor.

Sun Dekuan stared at the pile of corpses on the floor, barely daring to breathe. After a long moment, he looked at Qi Si in the opposite corner: “Brother Cheng, what do we do next?”

Qi Si noticed the change in his address but kept a straight face: “Let’s restore this place first. At least put all the bodies back on their respective beds.”

Sun Dekuan scratched his head: “Huh? Why?”

“A doctor and a patient teaming up to take a stroll in the Morgue—do you think the role-playing failure rate can tolerate such a dramatic event?”

Qi Si dragged the two female corpses back to the iron beds, gently laid them flat, covered them with white sheets, and even remembered to tuck in the corners.

Sun Dekuan followed suit, restoring the two female corpses he had been holding.

He pointed to the pile of scattered corpses on the ground, his face bitter: “Brother Cheng, I mean, who the heck remembers where all these dead people belong?”

Qi Si: “I remember.”

Sun Dekuan:…As expected of a master.

For the next twenty minutes, Qi Si went to restore the locks on the Cold Storage Units, while Sun Dekuan, under his direction, dragged the corpses on the ground one by one to their respective iron beds.

Having just experienced the “Zombie Siege,” his fear threshold had been greatly raised. Even close contact with the corpses he usually feared did not stir a ripple in his heart for the time being.

He was busy and panting, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Qi Si grab a female corpse’s wrist, seemingly doing something.

After working for a bit longer, when he looked at Qi Si again, the young man had grabbed the wrist of yet another female corpse.

‘Are young people nowadays playing such dangerous games?’ Sun Dekuan muttered inwardly, diligently working while keeping an ear out for any movement behind him.

The screeching sounds were incessant, clearly indicating that the iron beds were being dragged around wantonly, playing a game of permutation and combination.

Sun Dekuan was thoroughly confused: “I mean, if the iron beds are moved, won’t people immediately see that someone has been here?”

“We want them to see that someone was here.” Qi Si finished what he was doing and, in a good mood, patiently explained, “After all, we can never achieve a hundred percent restoration. Even I might not notice if someone left markers like hair or scraps of paper in a hidden spot.”

You didn’t say that before… Sun Dekuan blinked twice: “But originally they would have had to inspect carefully to notice. Now they’ll know instantly…”

Qi Si turned sideways to face him, his eyes slightly narrowed, smiling mysteriously: “If a cat sneaks a bite of food and then knocks the entire plate onto the floor, do you think the owner will still be able to tell if the cat ate from that plate when they get home?”

Sun Dekuan nodded, half understanding: “So we want them to know someone came, but not that it was us; and not only did someone come, but they also discovered The Hospital’s Secret? But that still doesn’t feel quite right…”

“Hehe… hehehe…” The sound of a child laughing abruptly rang out, mixed with palpable malice. “I found you!”