Chapter 242: Frog Hospital (33) Insight

Cheng Ping, or rather Cheng Ping’an, was an honest and decent person—at least, that’s what he believed.

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After stumbling through life in a daze, he heard the voice of God.

God claimed to be the master of life and death, able to bring the deceased back to the world, and promised him that if he could complete the Ritual, his wife and son would be resurrected.

Under God’s guidance, Cheng Ping took the corpses of his wife and son to the pond, letting the frogs devour them completely.

His physical body died, but in a certain sense, he continued to live.

The Frog Hospital was built according to his memories and existed within his consciousness; he had practically become the hospital itself.

All the necessary locations were placed by him on the Fourth Floor, which was where his wife Xu Qing most frequently stayed and where she ultimately died.

This Ghost Realm he created was embedded within the real hospital’s Fourth Floor. Every day, many patients mistakenly entered it and never came out alive.

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He didn’t need to rush to complete the deal with God; he could slowly gather the materials for the Ritual and probe for more information related to God.

However, there were many things in the hospital that Cheng Ping could not control.

The frogs in the pond were terribly noisy, and several times, when Cheng Ping wasn’t paying attention, they dragged him into the pond while he slept.

There were also several persistent frogs that would enter the hospital building, jumping out of various cracks to patrol and monitor. Even if killed, they would regenerate the next day.

Cheng Ping knew this was a system of checks and balances established by God, and he quickly found a way to deal with it.

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The God, whom he called “Your Excellency,” discovered his small actions and hinted at the matter indirectly, suggesting that he should participate more deeply in the slaughter.

After repeated probing, he detected the existence of “sin.” Although he didn’t know the specific mechanism, he could feel that it was not a good thing and would likely be used by God as a means to discard him once his usefulness was over.

Fortunately, he had never trusted God. Since his family was ruined and scattered, he stopped trusting anyone.

Power and benefits obtained within the scope of rules and granted by superiors were ultimately unreliable. He needed to rely on his own strength to actively fight for what he desired.

Thus, he donned a mask, learned to deceive, and secretly used every conceivable method to evade the responsibility he would have to bear in the future.

This included splitting the Frog Hospital into two, contacting other Evil Gods, and attracting the attention of the Eerie Game… Even when that Your Excellency created the personality Cheng An to restrain him, he gladly accepted it, gradually assimilated Cheng An, induced him to trade with the Eerie Game, and lure players into the trap.

He loved his wife and son, but he knew he had to possess enough Chips to protect them and make God fulfill the promise of their resurrection.

Therefore, any sacrifice was necessary before the plan succeeded, even if it meant harming them.

And now, the plan was just one step away from completion.

After restricting Qi Si’s actions, Cheng Ping transformed into a black mist and drifted toward the pond outside the hospital building.

He fabricated false information to make the player possessing Cheng An lower their guard and cleverly try to negotiate with him, allowing him to conveniently dispose of the annoying Cheng An.

He strictly controlled the quality and quantity of the sacrificed corpses to ensure that the power of Your Excellency after descending was neither too weak nor too strong, perfectly balancing the intervention of the Eerie Game.

Next, he only needed to force another player to bring the Statue of the Holy Child over and combine it with the Statue of the Virgin to flip the switch for the Ritual, allowing him to complete the Ritual without incurring sin… Cheng Ping was happily calculating when he suddenly felt that something was wrong.

If he remembered correctly, the player possessing Cheng An had a pendulum-shaped weapon. Why hadn’t he seen it used during the recent fight?

Never mind, it’s not important… In the Green Frog Hospital, Lin Chen was rushing toward the pond when an image flashed through his mind without warning.

A refined young man wearing frameless glasses was covered in blood, pinned to the wall by two shiny black surgical knives. Through the layers of bloody mist, one could clearly see the white shirt and black trousers he was wearing.

Even though his face had changed due to the Human Skin Mask, Lin Chen could still recognize that it was Qi Si.

A voice told him that he must quickly take the Statue of the Holy Child to the Blue Frog Hospital, or Qi Si’s life would be in danger.

This was undoubtedly a threat from an unknown entity.

Lin Chen had no doubt about the veracity of the information. His heart felt as if it were bound by an invisible thread, unable to move.

Qi Si was in trouble. What should he do? Qi Si could have hidden the matter of sin from him, but he didn’t. Instead, he risked his life to find a way out for him, and he couldn’t abandon Qi Si… “Lin Chen, don’t trust anyone but me.” Qi Si’s voice was weak and sounded very feeble. “Do not come to the Blue Frog Hospital without my command.”

Was this… fear that I might be coerced into taking risks?

Lin Chen tentatively asked, “Brother Qi, are you in trouble? I just saw that you were injured…”

He described the scene that flashed through his mind in a brief summary.

Qi Si pondered for two seconds and said, “You weren’t mistaken. I am indeed in some trouble, but it’s not fatal for now. You are my last resort. You are the only one I can trust. Consider me a gambler making one final, all-or-nothing throw.”

The exact same lines triggered memories of the past. Lin Chen felt a pang in his nose, as if he were back in the later stages of the Rose Manor instance.

The situation back then was similar: Qi Si was in a desperate situation and said these words to him, asking him to sneak attack Chang Xu… This time, he definitely couldn’t fail like he did last time.

“Yes, Brother Qi,” Lin Chen said, enunciating clearly. “I’ll be at the edge of the pond in one minute. I can come over anytime then.”

“Wait for my command,” Qi Si said.

He leaned back against the slick wall; the wound on his shoulder had stopped bleeding.

It didn’t look like the bleeding had stopped, but rather that all the available flowing blood had drained away.

Aside from the initial bone-piercing pain when he was first stabbed twice, Qi Si could barely feel any pain now.

This seemed to be one of the effects of transforming into a Ghost. His various senses had become somewhat dull, and all sensations felt like they were separated by a layer of gauze, distant from him.

Because of this, he was able to remain clear-headed and engage in calm thought and planning.

“You bad guy! You tricked me into eating dirty things!” Cheng Xiaoyu pounced from the side, gnawing on Qi Si’s arm while angrily cursing incoherently.

Qi Si sighed, “You were the one who wanted to eat it, so how can you blame me? Besides, you heard it yourself: I am your father’s other personality. Are you sure you want to continue acting insubordinately?”

Cheng Xiaoyu fell silent, released his bite, stepped back two paces, and tilted his head in thought.

Qi Si slightly shifted his bone-exposed right arm and continued to reason, “Cheng Xiaoyu, in a sense, I am also your father. Your father, the one who is the Director, clearly doesn’t love you. He won’t even give you candy…”

Cheng Xiaoyu: “…”

…Blue Frog Hospital, by the pond.

From afar, Cheng Ping saw a plump figure standing in the middle of the pond, a ring of red and black Crystal Pendulums wrapped around his neck, making him highly conspicuous.

In an instant, he understood where the faint unease in his heart originated.

Killing as many people as he wanted elsewhere in the Frog Hospital didn’t matter, but there was one location where there absolutely couldn’t be too many corpses.

The more dead people consumed in the pond, the stronger Your Excellency’s power would be upon descent, and the more detrimental it would be to maintaining balance… The number “One Thousand” was the only standard answer the Eerie Game had given him. He dared not imagine what would happen if there was a mistake.

Fearing that the players would discover this point and use it as blackmail, he deliberately released false information, leading others to believe that too many deaths anywhere would cause him trouble… But why had someone bypassed the Deceptive Formation he deliberately set up and discovered the truth behind it?

“Who writes a Diary if they’re a serious person?” Qi Si looked at the returning Cheng Ping, smiling brightly. “The more elaborate you wrote, and the more detailed the information you let me see, the more curious I became about what kind of truth you were trying to conceal… “Did you really think I believed your story? If the facts were truly as you said, it would be understandable if you couldn’t react in time when I killed Huang Xiaofei; but when I killed Lu Zimo, why didn’t you come out to stop me?

“I think you were probably celebrating back then, hoping that all those miscellaneous people would die outside, and definitely not die unluckily in the pond, polluting your Ritual. Am I right?”

Half an hour ago, Qi Si wrapped the Cursed Pendulum around Sun Dekuan’s neck and told him, “If you don’t want to die here like Lu Zimo, go stand in the middle of the pond immediately for half an hour.”

Sun Dekuan agreed.

But how to prevent Cheng Ping from discovering his whereabouts was a problem.

Considering that only the Fourth Floor and the pond could be explored in the Frog Hospital, and Cheng Ping hadn’t noticed the players dumping the Tadpole Soup, Qi Si simply had Sun Dekuan jump down from the Fourth Floor.

He guessed correctly. Immediately outside the Fourth Floor was the ground; the First, Second, and Third Floors were all illusions. Sun Dekuan only stumbled and didn’t get smashed into a pulp.

Afterward, Sun Dekuan, with a long face, spent ten minutes rushing to the center of the pond and standing still, while secretly resolving that no matter what, he had to organize this experience and post it on the Forum after leaving the instance.

—It didn’t matter if he didn’t know their real names or appearances. He had no other intention; he just wanted to thank these Old Schemers who helped him realize the wickedness of society.

Twenty minutes later, Cheng Ping rushed to the pond, took a look, and turned to leave.

Cheng Ping warned Lin Chen not to immediately bring the Statue of the Holy Child to the Blue Frog Hospital.

Lin Chen immediately relayed the message to Qi Si.

Then, Qi Si activated the Cursed Pendulum and killed Sun Dekuan.

Frogs returning to their nest from the hospital shared the newly deceased corpse. A wisp of thick black smoke merged into the black cloud mass above the pond. A dreadful aura pressed down heavily, and a drop of blood appeared in the corner of the eye of the pure white Statue of the Virgin.

“Do you know what you’ve done?” Cheng Ping demanded angrily.

“The power of Your Excellency is not something I can resist! You have personally created an unimaginable disaster!”

In fact, Cheng Ping only needed to abandon the last step of the Ritual—combining the Statue of the Holy Child and the Statue of the Virgin—and none of the terrible situations would occur.

But after investing so many years of effort, how could he be willing to give up now?

He hated those people’s cold-heartedness, which caused him to lose his wife and son and embark on such a road of no return.

He hated “Your Excellency,” who was evil and dangerous, causing him to feel apprehension and forcing him to spend a great deal of energy on defense.

He hated the Eerie Game. Even though it cooperated with him, the help it provided was negligible.

He hated Qi Si, who wasn’t fooled by him and even turned the tables on him.

Qi Si lifted his eyelids and gazed calmly into Cheng Ping’s eyes: “Now, I have a proposition here. I wonder if you are interested.

“I have a way to transform the sin that you desperately avoid into usable power. If you are lucky, you might even obtain the Status of a God from this.”

An entirely white Scepter appeared out of thin air just in front of Qi Si’s toes, standing firmly one centimeter away from him, emitting a lustrous milky white halo.

Cheng Ping saw the description: 【Makes you look more like a God (The more sin absorbed, the stronger the effect seems to be)】, and his body froze, his hands trembling slightly.

Qi Si smiled at him, his eyes curving: “Director Cheng, trading a phantom hospital that you no longer need for a tangible method of achieving godhood—isn’t that worthwhile for you?”