Chapter 509: The Cursed Hospital (Part 7)

Chapter 509: The Cursed Hospital (Part 7)

"Password..." Feng Bu Jue muttered, casually typing in, "Four, nine, nine, nine..."

[Seems incorrect] A line of text popped up on the menu in front of him.

"Alright then..." Feng Bu Jue immediately turned around and began meticulously searching the room.

Clearly, the treasure chest before him wasn't the kind that could be opened immediately—it required clues from elsewhere to unlock.

"Although this isn't a corridor, standing here trying a million different passwords feels unrealistic", Feng Bu Jue said as he searched. "I don't even know what triggers if I linger too long in this room. Plus, the space is so cramped—if anything spawns, I won't have room to maneuver."

After two or three minutes, Feng Bu Jue had confirmed the state of Room 109. Other than the "startling trap" when opening the door and the password-locked treasure chest, there was nothing else of value.

"Looks like there's no other option..." Feng Bu Jue sighed and left the room.

Back in the corridor, he continued forward in the same direction until reaching a crossroads. There, he spotted another map—"Cedar County General Hospital 1F Floor Plan blueprint." Like the map from the hospital's second floor, this one appeared equally cluttered and confusing.

But Feng Bu Jue seemed to understand it. "Hmm... Just as I thought, many sections overlap..." Having learned from past experience, he quickly memorized the layout in a short time to avoid drawing Chad's attention, then turned and left.

"According to the map..." Feng Bu Jue began formulating a plan as he walked, "This corridor should lead to the dining hall, passing the Pediatrics Consultation Room along the way... while the Blood Bank is in the basement levels..."

He soon reached the corridor containing the Pediatrics Consultation Room. The obstetrics and gynecology department was nearby, and not far ahead was a T-junction. Turning there would lead to the Pediatrics Ward.

As Feng Bu Jue prepared to pass through the intersection, a sudden burst of silver-bell laughter rang in his ears.

"Hey... How many task lines does this scenario have anyway..." Feng Bu Jue mumbled, already turning toward the sound.

The laughter came from the corridor to his right. The lights there seemed broken—except for the first few meters near the junction, the rest lay in pitch-black darkness.

Seven or eight meters away, at the boundary between light and shadow, stood a little girl. She wore a red dress, possibly eight or nine years old, with long black hair covering her face and cascading to her chest.

"Kya..." Her ethereal laughter sent chills down the spine.

"Standing in the shadows, huh..." Feng Bu Jue murmured. "Can't tell if she's a monster or ghost just yet, but based on her appearance and behavior... probably the latter."

"Uncle." The little girl suddenly spoke. "Do you like candy?"

"Wait... Something feels off here..." Feng Bu Jue thought. "Shouldn't that be the creepy question a pervert asks a child...?"

"Maybe..." Feng Bu Jue replied, staring at her. His answer was as vague as silence.

"I have candy here. Want some?" the little girl continued.

"What flavor?" Feng Bu Jue tossed back a question.

Ignoring him, the girl said, "If you help me comb my hair, I'll share it with you."

Feng Bu Jue's eyes lit up. His right hand instinctively reached into his pocket for the Small Comb. "Alright..." His response carried hesitation—the situation felt... strange.

"Then come find me in my ward when you have time. There's a mirror there." The little girl turned away. That red figure faded into the distance without a sound of footsteps.

After she disappeared entirely from view, Feng Bu Jue stood still for a few seconds, then muttered, "No task prompt... Hmm." Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, he mused, "Is this a trap? Or part of another quest?"

Considering it for about half a minute, he decided to shelve the matter temporarily. Since she said, "Come when you have time", there was no need to follow immediately.

Resolving this, he set off again toward the Pediatrics Consultation Room a dozen meters ahead.

"Tasks probably won't be that simple..." Feng Bu Jue thought as he approached the door. As he reached out and grasped the doorknob, a system prompt appeared: [The door is locked]

"Locked instead of 'unopenable'?" Feng Bu Jue remarked. "So to get the key inside this room, I first need another key to unlock this room...?" He sighed. "Sigh… Well then…"

This was standard fare for puzzle-solving games—nothing worth complaining about.

Feng Bu Jue turned back, ready to handle the "comb-for-candy" event first. But as he returned to the crossroads and prepared to proceed, another system prompt appeared: [A dangerous darkness looms ahead. Are you sure you wish to proceed?]

"A death flag..." Feng Bu Jue immediately recognized its meaning, quickly retreating to the junction. "No wonder that little girl said 'come when you have time'—turning around and following her directly must trigger something." He scratched his head. "So... should I find a flashlight first?"

As soon as the thought surfaced, inspiration struck. "Right! The Security Guard Room should have one!"

Recalling the map of the first floor, Feng Bu Jue quickly remembered the Security Guard Room's location.

"Then I'll head to the Security Guard Room first." Feng Bu Jue wasn't burdened by too many tasks at this point—since he'd already triggered a pile of random events, the order of operations hardly mattered.

Soon, he returned to the crossroads, double-checked the map to refresh his memory, then headed toward the Hospital Lobby. Passing two corridors and ignoring some side paths and awkwardly angled staircases, he arrived at the Hospital Lobby.

Upon reaching it, Feng Bu Jue was surprised to find... the hospital entrance was actually open.

In reality, this wasn't unusual—higher-level hospitals often have 24-hour Ers, so open doors at night were normal. But in horror games set in restricted environments—whether Western mansions, research institutes, hospitals, private homes, or ruins—exits were usually sealed, rarely offering escape options.

"Tch... Do I look like I'd fall for that cheap trick?" Standing at the hospital entrance, gazing at the parking lot outside, Feng Bu Jue calmly remarked, "The main quest clearly states to 'remain at your post.' Stepping outside would probably get me killed."

"Ah..." Suddenly, a long, mournful wail erupted from behind Feng Bu Jue.

"Ah..." Followed by another.

Within the two seconds Feng Bu Jue turned around, wave after wave of sorrow filled the entire Hospital Lobby.

When he turned back, there was nothing to see.

"Still going?" Feng Bu Jue said, pulling out his sunglasses and putting them on with a flourish.

Through the sunglasses' lens, he saw a mass of pitch-black ghostly figures. The entire group gathered before the registration and billing windows, silently... queuing.

"Amida Buddha..." Removing his sunglasses, Feng Bu Jue clasped his hands in prayer. "Forgive me for my helplessness."

Ignoring the horrors' wails, he headed straight for the Security Guard Room.

Fortunately, the Security Guard Room door wasn't locked—he entered directly.

The room had two sections. The outer area was dominated by monitoring equipment, with two swivel office chairs at the control desk occupying most of the space. The remaining area barely allowed passage. Behind was an even smaller room, likely a Changing Room.

Seeing the surveillance footage immediately caught Feng Bu Jue's interest. He stepped forward, sat at the control desk, familiarized himself with the equipment, then began switching camera feeds to observe the hospital's various areas.

Unfortunately, out of these dozens of monitors, more than half displayed static, completely unreadable. The remaining cameras had fixed, non-adjustable angles, showing nothing but empty corridors.

Feng Bu Jue then tried to access video files on the computer, but opening any drive required an administrator password.

Feng Bu Jue gritted his teeth in frustration as he clicked the "Start" menu, opening several system-installed games. He set his name to "heyheyhey" and broke the high scores in Minesweeper, Hearts, and Solitaire, finally calming himself slightly.

After that, he left the workstation and headed toward the Changing Room.

The door handle of the Changing Room had no lock, so Feng Bu Jue simply twisted it and pushed open the door. Upon entering, he flipped the light switch. Inside stood only a row of Storage Cabinets and a few square meters of standing space—the conditions were brutally Spartan.

"The hospital management swindles people beyond sight..." Feng Bu Jue muttered, staring at the stained walls, the shabby cement floor, and the rust-covered cabinets. His sarcasm spilled out, "Sure, male employees changing clothes don’t need locked doors, but not even providing a chair to sit on? Is this supposed to save space?"

The Changing Room had eight Storage Cabinets lined neatly against the wall. Feng Bu Jue approached and tried each one, but only a single cabinet opened.

The moment he opened it, a moldy stench wafted out.

Inside, an iron bar held two plastic hangers. The cabinet door had a poster of a swimsuit model—a half-human, half-otter figure. Judging from the swimsuit style and Lester’s sexual orientation... it was definitely a woman.

At the bottom of the cabinet lay: a flashlight, a set of keys, a severely moldy sandwich (sealed in a plastic bag), a newspaper, and a small mirror.

Among these items, the flashlight and small mirror were labeled as "Tools." The newspaper had no item description. The remaining two were story items.

[Name: Key]
[Type: Plot-Related]
[Quality: Common]
[Function: Opens a specific door]
[Can Be Taken Out of Scenario]
[Background: Lester's Backup Key. It can open a specific door.]

"Where else could this possibly open...?" Feng Bu Jue muttered after reading the background, already guessing its purpose. "Probably that storage room on the third floor?"

[Name: Moldy Sandwich]
[Type: Plot-Related]
[Quality: Trash]
[Function: Consume?]
[Can Be Taken Out of Scenario]
[Background: Only an extreme hoarder would preserve something this spoiled.]

"So even this can't be taken out of the scenario..." Feng Bu Jue murmured, eyeing the item description. "Where could it be used...? Maybe a ward with a patient who loves rotten food?"

He picked up the newspaper and placed the other items into his pocket before leaving the Changing Room.

Back in the Security Guard Room, he sat at the office chair and started reading the newspaper. By nature, he intended to examine every inch of it front and back, but unfortunately, the system restricted this behavior.

Ninety percent of the newspaper’s area was blurred (Monster Kingdom used English, and so far all text Feng Bu Jue had seen in the hospital was English. However, the system's built-in translation function displayed corresponding Chinese text for him). Only a small news snippet remained clear.

Bad News! The Disaster OF Cedar County Public Hospital — the headline of this media coverage read.

Just reading the title sent an ominous premonition through Feng Bu Jue.

"According to Cedar County, December 5 report (Reporter Slicer), as of 5:00 PM local time, seventeen hours had passed since the avalanche struck the White Ball District in northern Kingdom. Due to the escalating blizzard, rescue operations are progressing slowly. Large vehicles cannot approach the area. Manual excavation faces severe challenges from heavy snowfall and continuous landslides. Experts warn that if the rescue passage isn’t cleared within the next twenty-four hours, the survivors' chances of survival will approach zero."

"What?" Feng Bu Jue finished reading the article, then reread it several times. "What exactly is going on here?" He folded the newspaper, stuffed it into his pocket, and hurriedly exited the Security Guard Room.

When he returned to the hospital lobby, the wailing sounds had vanished. Even through his sunglasses, no ghosts were visible.

Feng Bu Jue stood with hands on hips, facing the hospital’s main entrance and gazing at the tranquil parking lot. In the distance, snowy mountains and city lights shimmered faintly. "If this place was already buried... am I inside a dream right now?" His mind raced with speculation. "Could it be... Lester is already a ghost? But then why do I need sunglasses to see others of my kind?" His eyes narrowed. "Could this be... a newspaper from the future?"

"Wait... the time on the computer earlier..." Feng Bu Jue recalled that when he was playing games, the computer displayed December 6th, 2:00 AM.

As he pondered this, he retreated, wanting to confirm.

But when he opened the Security Guard Room door this time, all monitors on the workstation displayed nothing but static snow.

As Feng Bu Jue shifted his gaze, the screens flickered eerily, then... the opening scene of the scenario replayed—blood, organs, terrifying faces—but this time across dozens of screens simultaneously.

Standing at the doorway, Feng Bu Jue hesitated briefly. Within those mere ten seconds... the artificial lighting in the Security Guard Room silently turned crimson. The entire room began warping, accompanied by creaking noises from all directions. On the wall opposite the workstation, three black stains gradually emerged, expanding into a horrifying human face.

"Tch..." Feng Bu Jue knew this place was no longer safe. He quickly stepped back two paces and shut the door.

"The Security Guard Room is completely off-limits now. The electronic calendar and clock in the lobby are also non-functional..." Feng Bu Jue mused. "So after reading the newspaper, I can’t confirm the date anymore. Fine... I’ve at least found the flashlight. Let’s head to the Pediatrics Ward first."

He didn’t dwell excessively. On the contrary, his curiosity was growing. Unknowingly, he had immersed himself in the puzzle-solving fun. Whether main quest or side quest, those were just formalities. His true purpose now—his greatest desire—had become solving the mystery of this scenario.

...

Details are omitted when unnecessary; otherwise, all is explained.

After eight omitted words and two ellipses, Feng Bu Jue stood again at the forked path leading to Pediatrics Ward (before arriving, he had specifically tested the Key in his pocket at the Pediatrics Consultation Room, but as expected, it failed).

He pulled out the flashlight, switched it on, and shone it forward. The pitch-black corridor swallowed the light like a giant’s mouth—silent, oppressive. The flashlight’s round beam barely reached a few meters, illuminating only a narrow range.

This "cold horror" atmosphere would make many turn back. Yet Feng Bu Jue remained completely unfazed. Humming a tune, he swung the flashlight side to side, strolling in leisurely.

"Shaolin kung fu wakes~ Pretty good~ Shaolin kung fu strong~ So strong! I've got the Iron Head! Unbeatable Iron Head! You’ve got the Diamond Legs... Diamond Legs!"

The song choice was cryptic. Strictly speaking, it was a duet, and he didn’t even know the Cantonese lyrics well. Basically, the melody just randomly popped into his head, and he started humming along.

In such an environment, most people would sing to ease tension and fear. But Feng Bu Jue? He was just in his usual evening stroll mode—like walking around his neighborhood after dinner, humming to himself.

As he advanced through the corridor with flashlight in hand, the system prompt indeed didn’t trigger. Looks like the death flag had been cleared, allowing normal passage.

"Waaah~ Waaah..."

He hadn’t walked far when another sound came. This time, it was a baby’s cry.

"So... just how many side quests are there?" Feng Bu Jue muttered, aiming his flashlight toward the sound. "Nursery haunted too, huh? Fine, fine..."

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end