Ita Era

Chapter 99 The Chainsaw Massacre
Having figured out the game mechanics, Yu Yuan discovered a bug with Ding Shi. They could visit Ding Shi's villa by becoming friends with him. Ding Shi possessed the Four Symbols Teleportation Card, which allowed them to purchase modern supplies, which they could then bring into the instance. Most importantly, Yu Yuan had just discovered that Ding Shi owned five square kilometers of land.

We definitely have to take advantage of this opportunity. In the future, we can just pay the cost price for all kinds of facilities. We can also contact Chuyu to build a thatched-roof version of the city lord's mansion, so that the tribe members can gather in the same location and enter the instance at the same time.

Yu Yuan already had a picture of the country and its people in his mind.

While Yu Yuan was envisioning the future, the pragmatic Ding Shi used the Human Body Optimization Card. Soon, Ding Shi felt changes in his body. First, the already thinning fat on his abdomen decreased, his arm muscles became more defined, and his previously normal hair became thicker. His senses of smell, hearing, and vision were also enhanced.

In the panel data, Ding Shi's strength and agility increased from 7 to 8, but unfortunately, his intelligence did not improve. Ding Shi tried to solve a few math problems in his mind, but found that he still couldn't solve them, and his calculation ability did not improve at all.

Ding Shi did several sets of 20-meter shuttle runs on site and found that his endurance had improved, but the specific value is unknown. His breath-holding time improved from 1 minute and 20 seconds to 1 minute and 40 seconds, but this data is greatly affected by the environment, so the extent of the improvement cannot be calculated.

The auction ended smoothly, and Little Sugar left. Death then rushed up to several players to promote the mini-games available from 11 to 12 o'clock: guaranteed to be fun, we'll pay you to play, we beg you to come, we promise to send pretty girls to play with you, no ads, no fees, and you'll get a red envelope if you come.

He then threatened: "Do you think the bad news won't come just because you didn't come? The evil spirit that the Satanic cult in Ham Town summons by sacrificing souls is the bad news. You can't escape it."

Then, I reasoned with them: "Playing with bad news for an hour now is better than having it play with you for days. Think about it, don't rush to refuse, I'll wait for you."

Ding Shi directly threw a "water and soil incompatibility" at him. A familiar feeling came over him. The Grim Reaper butler's eyes widened. He entered the bathroom at lightning speed, sent his apprentice, Sha Bi, flying with a teleportation palm, and snatched the paper from his hand.

The movements were so fluid and skillful that it was almost painful to watch.

Ding Shi was three meters from his room when Sha Bi appeared out of thin air, still in the position of sitting on the toilet with his pants down. Something happened to fall down on him, and Ding Shi was instantly enraged, his head practically steaming. In the martial arts world, defecating in someone's doorstep signifies utter contempt, the kind of contempt that leads to a fight to the death.

The woman in red, who had intended to discuss the truth with Ding Shi, was unfamiliar with the rules of the martial arts world. However, the scene before her completely shocked her, and she immediately turned away, covering her mouth and nose, and left, muttering, "Beast."

Ding kicked the door open, but found it was still within a safe timeframe. He quickly pulled the door open, crawled into the room, and then closed the door.

Silly Bike: What's going on? What happened? What happened? Where's my toilet paper? Where's my toilet?
The first season of "The Grim Reaper's Invitation in Ham Town" has come to an end. As they left, the Grim Reaper, with a dark expression, saw them off at the door, giving each of them a gift. Ding Shi, whom they disliked the most, took two. Inside were two ordinary playing cards, without any special abilities, but with a 70% chance of merging them to create a special ability.

They exchanged phone numbers, and Ding Shi took out his electric scooter. Under the envious and jealous gazes of everyone, he sped away from the wealthy area.

Just outside the wealthy neighborhood, Death's daily pursuit immediately descended. This time, the pursuit was triggered by a car accident at an intersection, and, in an extremely shameless move, a little girl was targeted.

A runaway car suddenly appeared, a little girl was oblivious in the middle of the intersection, and Ding Shi had little time to react. The car wasn't heading straight for Ding Shi; if Ding Shi wanted to save the girl, he would have to take the brunt of the impact.

With too little reaction time, Ding Shi instinctively made the wrong choice: he floored the accelerator, grabbed the girl with his left hand, and the car crashed into the rear wheel of the electric scooter. Ding Shi and the little girl were thrown into the air together. The car then crashed into a road sign.

The road sign fell after being hit, crashing onto Ding Shi who was on the ground. At this moment, should Ding Shi lift the girl up to survive the readers' condemnation, or should he roll over and use his back to shield the poor little girl from the road sign?

As the protagonist of the grand and glorious story, it was naturally the latter. So the wooden road sign slammed hard into Ding Shi's back, and Ding Shi was hit so hard that he landed on the little girl, who immediately spat out a mouthful of blood.

As for Ding Shi, he was mostly unharmed. At the critical moment, he transferred his Force to his back to create a protective barrier, and with the soft cushion of the girl's flesh beneath him, he was fine. In this way, he not only protected himself but also demonstrated his heroic actions, leaving no room for criticism.

That's how hypocrites are made. I can kill you and your parents will thank me.

But the smug Ding Shi underestimated death; there were even nails on the road sign. When Ding Shi got up to check on the little girl, he felt a pulling pain in his buttocks.

Passersby rushed forward to help. Three strong men lifted the wooden sign and pulled three iron nails in a triangular shape out of Ding Shi's buttocks. Ding Shi couldn't help but let out a scream.

Ding Shi and the little girl were quickly taken to the Ham Town People's Hospital.

The little girl was out of danger after being rescued. Ding Shi received a tetanus shot and was hospitalized for 24 hours for observation. During this time, the little girl's parents expressed their gratitude to Ding Shi without discussing any reward. The town's deputy mayor, who came with the little girl's parents, awarded Ding Shi a Ham Medal as a reward for his courageous act of protecting others.

Having the Hamm Medal grants privileges such as free admission to zoos, free book borrowing, and free admission to museums.

Ding Shi contacted the police station by phone from the hospital, and the police granted him leave and commended him for his actions. The police chief told Ding Shi that after being discharged the next day, he should report directly to the plainclothes police station. It turned out that a plainclothes officer had gone missing while investigating at the hospital the previous day, and the police chief decided to replenish the plainclothes manpower. Due to Ding Shi's heroic deeds, the police chief decided to send Ding Shi to his death—no, he decided to send Ding Shi to take over the investigation of the Satanic cult.

Hospital?

Ding Shi recalled the contents of the newspaper: Mayor Liu Decai was in a coma in the hospital after a car accident. Why were the plainclothes officers investigating the hospital?
Ding asked, "Chief, did the missing plainclothes officer mention investigating any part of the hospital?"

The chief replied, "I don't know. The plainclothes officer only mentioned that the offering might be a complete body pieced together."

After hanging up the phone, Ding Shi learned through inquiries that the hospital stored bodies in two places. One was the morgue, where bodies for which there were no objections to the death were stored. The other was the pathology laboratory, where bodies for which the cause of death was unclear. In those days, some doctors were quite eccentric; in order to determine the cause of a patient's death, they would conduct a comprehensive examination of the deceased, attempting to find the cause of death.

I just happen to be hospitalized, I just happen to be promoted to plainclothes officer, and a former plainclothes officer who was investigating the hospital has gone missing. It all feels like a trap.

However, while the world of Ita may be a trap, it does offer some real benefits. Knowing that Death's assassination attempt for the day was over, Ding Shi remained confident. But this was only confidence; after all, this was a Demon King instance, and paranormal events could occur in the hospital.

Evil spirits require sacrifices and are not so easy to appear. But there is another type of ghost that is more common: the obsessive ghost, or earthbound spirit. Obsessive ghosts appear from 23 PM to 5 AM the next day. They have no intelligence, and humans cannot defeat them. They will kill any creature that stands in their way.

Their form is neither corpse nor spirit, but a new body constructed by spirits, possessing great power.

Thinking of this, Ding Shi continued to ask the head nurse, "The morgue's closing time doesn't happen to be from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., does it?"

The head nurse was surprised and nodded: "That's right, how did you know?"

Ding Shi pressed further, "What about the pathology lab?"

The head nurse said, "The pathology lab is different. Without overtime, their shift ends at 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next day."

The head nurse explained, "The hospital is short-staffed right now. At night, there's only one nurse on duty per floor. You're feeling well, so if you see any other patients who need help, please offer it." "Okay, thank you." Watching the beautiful head nurse who had given him the injection leave, Ding Shi turned to look at his fellow patient, a man with dark circles under his eyes, slightly overweight, with a small belly, and around 40 years old.

Four hospital beds, two of which are empty.

When the man saw Ding looking at him, he tentatively sang, "Loving you, I walk alone in the dark alley?"

Ding Shi asked in confusion, "What?"

The man looked away: "It's okay. Just don't wander around at night. I don't want to have different patients every day."

Ding Shi looked puzzled: "Hello, my name is Ding Shi. May I ask your name?"

The man said, "My name is Kuangshi (矿石)." Kuangshi is a surname with fewer than a thousand people in the whole country, ranking 1873rd among the thousands of surnames.

Ding asked curiously, "What does 'changing patients every day' mean?"

Ore walked to the door, glanced outside, then leaned against the window, took out a cigarette, lit it, and seeing Ding Shi still looking at him, asked, "Have you heard of the chainsaw killer?"

Ding Shi: "No."

Ore said, "Legend has it that the chainsaw killer haunts the hospital, and several patients, doctors, or nurses die at his hands every day, which is why there is a shortage of staff. Not only are there not enough nurses, but there are also not enough resident doctors, and even not enough patients. Otherwise, my profession wouldn't be that of a patient."

The ore muttered to itself, "Damn it, what kind of world even has a profession called 'patient'?"

Ding feigned ignorance: "Of course there is such a profession as 'patient.' Doctors can learn about unknown illnesses by observing patients. The income is very high."

Ore slapped his forehead: "Trial tester."

Ding Shi: "What?"

The ore said, "There's a profession in the outside world called a drug tester. You wouldn't understand. Anyway, don't wander around at night, and be careful when you go to the toilet. What do you do?"

Ding Shi replied, "Police."

Mineral Stone's eyes lit up. This job was great; he wouldn't have to live in fear and stay up all night. But then he thought, if the police heard any commotion, they would go out to investigate, and then he might have to find another patient.

The ore continued, “Don’t go out at night. I’ve already stayed in the hospital for two nights. Both of my fellow patients left the ward at night and never came back.”

Ding Shi asked, "Did you call the police?"

“It takes 72 hours for a missing adult to be reported, and even if a case is reported, it is unlikely to be investigated seriously.” Ore asked, “Have you noticed any strange people in the past few days, people whose behavior and speech are a bit odd?”

Ding Shi nodded: "Yes."

The ore asked, "Who is it?"

Ding Shi: "You."

Ore: Dumb NPC.

While it's said there are fewer staff at night, there aren't many even during the day. Stepping out of the ward, the entire corridor was deserted; not a soul in sight. Passing other wards, I noticed the occupancy rate was less than 30%. Two nurses were filling out forms and writing at the nurses' station, while a young resident doctor sat at a table reviewing patient records.

Quiet, very quiet.

Ding Shi was puzzled. The ore was talking about a chainsaw killer. Even at its lowest setting, the sound of a chainsaw could alert others in the quiet environment of a hospital ward. Each floor had a telephone; a call would bring the police there in no time. In such an environment, how could the chainsaw killer repeatedly succeed and escape unscathed?
This inpatient building has five floors. The first floor houses the lobby, archives, and other administrative departments. The second and third floors are wards. The fourth floor contains the pathology laboratory, storage, and other facilities. The basement is the morgue.

However, the morgue is not separate from the inpatient department; it has a passageway connecting to the outpatient building and the back door, through which funeral home staff will transport the body.

After chatting with the nurses at the nurses' station for a while, Ding Shi went to the restroom at the end of the corridor, where all three stall doors were open.

Very good, a standard odd number of urinals. For boys, urination etiquette dictates avoiding the middle urinal and keeping away from others if there's an empty space. In cases of 3 or 5 urinals, prioritize the first or last urinal. As for not peeking out or offering help, these are not matters of etiquette but rather public order and good morals.

Ding Shi chose the last position, drew his sword from its sheath, opened the sluice gate, and released the water, feeling thoroughly satisfied.

A man emerged from the open stall, brandishing a dagger and lunging at Ding Shi's neck from behind. The blow came silently. Ding Shi had previously confirmed that the stall door was open and no one had entered the restroom, so his guard had lowered considerably.

But a menace is a menace, and he's not so easy to kill. Ding Shi suddenly remembered a sordid use of the Human Body Optimization Card, so he looked down. The knife grazed his neck and pierced Ding Shi's scalp. With a swift pull, a spurt of blood gushed out.

Ding Shi turned to face a burly male caregiver wearing a mask. The caregiver missed his first strike and tried to stab again, but Ding Shi delivered a lightning-fast punch to his chest. The caregiver staggered backward, his body slamming against the wall, blood gushing from his chest. Ding Shi then pursued, delivering 15 punches to the caregiver's chest in one go, breaking all his ribs before stopping.

The male caregiver slid down to the floor, leaning against the wall, and vomited up mouthfuls of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.

Five minutes later, police officers arrived at the scene and identified the man as Zhao Shengchan, who was in his forties. His background was... well, he had a nickname, Chainsaw, because his snoring sounded like a saw.

Yes, he is the chainsaw killer who used a dagger to kill people.

As Ding Shi received the nurse's bandage, he hated himself for being so careless. How could he have assumed the chainsaw killer would use a chainsaw? If he hadn't paid attention to the changes in his body, that stab would have killed him.

(End of this chapter)