Chapter 241: Frog Hospital (32) The Scam

Once the Blue Frog sees someone eating tadpoles, as long as its vision isn’t obstructed, it will continuously mobilize the frog swarm to attack.

Brief darkness can blind it, but once light appears and its vision returns, the attack will resume.

Qi Si held the flashlight left by Lu Zimo, his thumb on the switch, and said in a gentle voice, “Actually, there’s no life-or-death enmity between us. On the contrary, I’m very interested in this hospital you’ve set up, and I understand your difficulties and concerns.

“You should have heard the name Crimson High Priest from that esteemed individual. If not, it doesn’t matter. I just want to tell you that our goals are consistent: to bring the evil god into this world. Perhaps we can cooperate and each get what we need.

“At that time, you can use the evil god’s power to resurrect your wife and children, gaining enough protection for your family to live peacefully, while I will take over those troublesome sins for you and help you continue to run this hospital.”

As early as he realized the Eerie Game’s weak control over this instance, Qi Si had been eyeing the Frog Hospital.

The mechanism was interesting enough, it wasn’t under the game’s jurisdiction, accommodation and food were included, and security was considerable. It was truly a good place.

Before the instance started, the memory of wanting to slack off in Rose Manor but being told the territory was occupied was still vivid. Qi Si felt it was necessary to establish a base in the Eerie Game where he could rest.

Being thrown into the hospital as cannon fodder to scout ahead, he still felt a bit annoyed upon reflection. He had to replace the Dean and become a troublesome existence to make the Eerie Game even more unhappy, so it wouldn’t be a loss.

As for whether the Eerie Game would object—he was negotiating with the Dean, what did it have to do with the Eerie Game?

“Cheng Ping, it’s clear you’re someone who values family. Cheng Xiaoyu is such a lovely child. You wouldn’t want him to be torn apart by frogs, would you?”

Qi Si sighed mournfully, then quickly pressed the flashlight switch twice in one second.

The white light flashed and disappeared, and the croaking of frogs suddenly became deafening before falling silent, yet its overwhelming power was enough to make any being tremble.

The infant Ghosts were ignorant of human ways, unaware of pros and cons, knowing only to follow the simplest rules to vent their resentment and malice, retaliating against those who directly killed them, and harming innocent people who bore no grudge.

They were like natural disasters, bringing indiscriminate calamity to all beings fairly and justly, whether they were Ghosts or humans.

There weren’t many frogs left on Cheng Xiaoyu, but the frog swarm on the ground floor was still enormous. In the darkness, he wanted to rush towards Qi Si, but was helplessly blocked by the frogs and could only yell in anger.

Images from his dream flashed in Qi Si’s mind: a man in a white coat carrying a corpse into a pond, being torn apart by frogs formed from a pond full of vengeful spirits.

He listened silently to Cheng Xiaoyu’s curses, his right hand firmly gripping the flashlight, calmly waiting for the Dean’s response.

Two seconds later, the Dean sneered, “It’s not the final moment yet. Casualties during the process are nothing to fear. As long as that esteemed individual arrives in the world, even if they are only residual souls, they can be reborn.”

Having made his choice, Qi Si smiled sarcastically, “It seems you don’t love your wife and children as much as you claim.”

He raised his wrist, pressed his thumb down, and the flashlight suddenly lit up, its beam shining directly in the direction of the Dean’s voice, like a guiding beacon.

Hostage-taking was not a foolproof method; egoists could abandon others at any time.

—Qi Si’s target, from beginning to end, was the Dean himself.

The croaking of frogs sounded again, and the Dean in the circle of light finally realized something was wrong, flashing to merge into the shadows.

Qi Si ripped off his white coat, swept it across the ground, picking up strands of blood from injured frogs, and then flung the entire garment at the Dean’s face.

This move utilized the accuracy honed from practicing with the Cursed Pendulum. Coupled with the Dean’s eagerness to avoid the light, he stumbled in his haste, and the loose white coat covered the upper half of his body.

Qi Si stepped back a few paces and grinned towards Cheng Xiaoyu, “Cheng Xiaoyu, you’re so miserable. Your father doesn’t love you at all and is willing to let you be bitten to death by frogs for the hospital’s foundation…”

Cheng Xiaoyu screamed, his broken words unclear, but anyone could tell they weren’t pleasant.

The frogs couldn’t see Cheng Xiaoyu in the dark and were too simple-minded to locate by sound. The Dean, exposed to the light and stained with frog blood, naturally attracted their attention.

They remembered that he was the enforcer of the policy, the demon who killed them; he made their souls turn into frogs, trapped in the cold pond; and he even stole their tadpoles to feed to others.

Perception, obscured by rules, pierced through the barrier of deception. Old and new hatreds combined, and the ground floor vibrated violently, the high-pitched croaking as shrill as an infant’s wail.

The white light beam from the flashlight continuously followed the Dean’s footsteps. Enraged frogs leaped out from every crack, surrounding the Dean.

The Dean, however, stopped, neither dodging nor avoiding, standing ramrod straight in the sea of frogs, like a bridge pillar cutting through a torrent.

He suddenly snapped his fingers, and new footsteps, messy and intertwined, sounded, approaching at a completely different frequency from the croaking, unique and out of place.

The shadow overhead receded like a tide, and milky white light softly and evenly spilled down, illuminating the frogs, Ghosts, and humans on the ground floor.

Qi Si turned his head back, discerning the source of the footsteps.

In the corridor connected to the ground floor, patients, skinnier than zombies, lined up, holding jars of tadpoles, and stiffly walked into the ground floor.

Their state was clearly abnormal; their vacant eyes stared straight ahead as they mechanically unscrewed the jars, scooped out the tadpoles, and stuffed them into their mouths.

“You can control those patients?” Qi Si asked.

He somewhat understood why the Dean knew everything that happened in the hospital so clearly.

It turned out that not only the Ghosts, but even those patients who seemingly disliked medical staff, were his eyes and ears.

He could have mobilized the entire hospital to hunt down the players, but in the past few days, he had only used the Pregnant Ghosts’ team, clearly holding back a move and setting up a smokescreen.

“Yes, I can control them,” the Dean answered directly. “You didn’t know, did you? Everything in the Frog Hospital is under my control, except for those damned frogs and you outsiders.”

“Thanks for the information,” Qi Si said politely. “But I don’t quite believe you, sorry.”

The patients remained silent as rocks, one after another stuffing tadpoles into their mouths.

The Blue Frog, held in Qi Si’s hand, witnessed everything and once again croaked loudly, issuing commands.

The frog swarm’s movements slowed, appearing indecisive.

They were conflicted: whether to continue dealing with the Dean, their sworn enemy, or to follow the rules of this world and deal with the patients who dared to eat tadpoles right in front of them.

The line of patients stretched as far as the eye could see and was still continuously pouring into the ground floor, making the number of frogs seem inadequate for a moment.

They unreservedly ate the tadpoles, chewing and swallowing brazenly, as if openly challenging the authority of the rules by sheer numbers.

The frogs were thoroughly enraged.

They made a decision in a second, turning to charge at the patients, leaping onto their backs, necks, and heads, firmly grasping onto any available spot, and savagely biting, vowing to teach them a lesson.

Large chunks of flesh tore off the patients’ bodies in sheets, like a heavy snowfall, and the surging stench of blood and putrid decay surged through the ground floor, lingering for a long time.

Qi Si covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief and said knowingly, “I wondered why you, who only needed the corpses of women who died pregnant, went to the trouble of providing so-called contraceptive tadpoles to male patients. Turns out it was to make them draw aggro for you.”

He paused, adopting a humble posture for inquiry, “As far as I know, for some reason, you dare not let too many people die needlessly. I’m curious, by having these patients take the blame for you, aren’t you afraid they’ll be killed by the frogs and disrupt your ‘meticulous and precise plan’?”

The Dean said coldly, “They are dead men, dead beyond dead.”

Qi Si rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

A moment later, he looked up and smiled brightly, “Since Cheng Xiaoyu’s safety can’t threaten you, how about I propose a different condition?

“I hold the lives of two teammates in my hands. If you’re willing to sit down and talk with me properly, I’ll let them live, so as not to affect your arrangements, how about it?”

The Dean fell silent.

He shook off the white coat draped over him, cradling it in his arms, his face obscured by shadows, making it impossible to discern his emotions.

Amidst the clamor of frogs and the soft thud of flesh hitting the ground, he asked, word by word, “What makes you think you can acquire this hospital by trading with me?”

Qi Si took out a towel to cover the Blue Frog’s eyes and stuffed it back into his backpack.

The frogs rampaging between the ground floor and the corridor fell silent at the same moment, dropping off the patients like mud and scattering aimlessly in all directions.

The patients’ bodies, without the frogs’ support, fell one after another like dominoes, scattering into a mess of broken flesh and bones on the floor.

Qi Si watched the white coat in the Dean’s arms and said with a smile, “Because if you, Cheng Ping, can control this hospital, then I, Cheng An, certainly can too.”

The air visibly solidified, the temperature rapidly plummeting, turning frigid as winter in a few seconds. An invisible pressure weighed down, as if surrounded by hostile demons and monsters.

“There are too many suspicious points.”

Qi Si, now in his Ghost state, was completely unaffected. He merely looked at the Dean with a half-smile and continued, “First, at the very beginning, when I was allowed to choose my own name in this world, the nurse accepted my self-assigned name without any suspicion. This means that names are not important in this world.

“Then there’s the textual data in this instance; basically 90% of the content is blurred, with only key information existing in fragments. This pretty much indicates that this world is not real.

“There are many other scattered clues, such as Cheng An repeatedly being able to obtain Entry Permits, and you turning a blind eye; Cheng An having the ability to enter my dreams and permission to help me establish a consciousness connection across two locations; in dream hallucinations, Cheng An and your identities and experiences overlapped… Undoubtedly, the essence of this Ghost domain is a false consciousness space, and ‘Cheng An’ is one of your personalities.

“Perhaps I can guess even more boldly: you and ‘Cheng An’ are both personalities of someone named ‘Cheng Ping’an’.”

Because it’s an individual’s consciousness space, it has a certain privacy and is not controlled by the Eerie Game.

Because they are all in the consciousness space, players can establish consciousness connections, and geographical barriers do not actually exist.

Because they are different personalities within the same consciousness space, both Cheng Ping and Cheng An can control players’ dreams and have higher operational authority.

Cheng An is not benevolent; his repeated departures from the hospital at night are likely to collude with Cheng Ping to abduct pregnant women from the outside.

But for reasons of profit or otherwise, Cheng An had other ideas and traded with the Eerie Game, summoning players.

“You guessed right,” the Dean said.

The voice wasn’t in front of him; instead, it chillingly sounded right next to Qi Si’s ear.

Qi Si’s expression changed slightly, and he dodged sideways, but the sneak attack was faster than his movements.

A sharp pain shot through his left shoulder as a keen scalpel pierced his shoulder blade, and a tremendous force dragged him backward into the wall.

The next second, his other shoulder felt the same pain.

Two scalpels, one on the left and one on the right, pinned Qi Si firmly against the cold concrete wall. Scarlet smoke billowed from the wounds, intermittently swirling.

Qi Si looked up at the Dean, who had appeared at his feet without him noticing, and asked coolly, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill them immediately and disrupt your plan?”

Hearing this, the Dean laughed wildly, “You’ve been tricked, hahahaha! A few more deaths have no impact on me. I’ve kept you until today for another purpose…”

…Green Frog Hospital.

Lin Chen, clutching the infant stone sculpture, wandered aimlessly through the stairwell like a headless fly.

Not long ago, two orderlies stopped him, forcing him to fish for tadpoles by the pond.

He thought quickly, jumped into the pond, bypassed the whirlpool, and grabbed the statue of the Holy Child on the stone platform before running.

As soon as the orderlies approached, he raised the statue, threatening to smash it.

The two orderlies were hesitant, unable to act, and could only let him pass.

Along the way, Lin Chen used the same tactic, holding the Holy Child statue hostage and negotiating with the NPCs, barely managing to escape.

He kept Qi Si’s instructions in mind, always changing locations every five minutes, darting through the hospital building.

The stone statue in his hands grew heavier and heavier, his arms so tired they were almost numb, feeling as if they no longer belonged to him.

He knew that once he couldn’t carry the statue anymore, the watchful NPCs would swarm him, so he dared not show the slightest fatigue, gritting his teeth and enduring, without even slowing his pace.

But the human body has its limits. He was just an ordinary college student, not good at sports, and although he had been working out frequently for the past month, the effects weren’t that quick.

He couldn’t last much longer. In half an hour, maybe even less than ten minutes, he would collapse… No, he had to desperately hold on longer. Qi Si was going through so much for him; he couldn’t just be a burden and completely useless… But what was happening with Qi Si? Had something gone wrong? Why hadn’t he contacted him yet?

As he pondered, Lin Chen heard Qi Si’s voice: “Lin Chen, you can return to the pond now. When exactly to enter the passage, listen to my command.”

As calm as ever, as if the situation was entirely under control.