A bizarre and terrifying experience; I messed up the dungeon world.

"The experiment...the special drug...the dean objected...Chen Zhiyuan persuaded the wealthy businessman...the dean died...died on the third floor, east side...they put the body—"

thump.

A dull thud came from the corridor.

Zhang Hai immediately shut his mouth, his whole body froze, and he even stopped breathing.

Zhou Lang glanced at his watch. 11:58.

Two minutes.

Without hesitation, he rushed out of the ward and hurried back to the nurses' station. The moment the iron gate closed, all the lights in the corridor went out.

In the darkness, countless light footsteps sounded, surging from the direction of the east corridor.

Zhou Lang took out an oil lamp from his pocket but didn't light it—this wasn't the previous instance, and turning on the light rashly might attract unwanted attention. He pulled down and locked the iron gate of the nurses' station and sat down against the wall.

The footsteps grew closer.

Then it stopped.

It stopped right outside the iron gate of the nurses' station.

Zhou Lang peered out through the crack in the iron gate. Moonlight streamed in from the window at the end of the corridor, and he saw—

A row of figures in white coats stood outside the door. They were all in the posture of making rounds, holding medical record folders, stethoscopes, and syringes, but their heads were all turned 180 degrees, facing backwards.

They were "looking" at Zhou Lang with the backs of their heads.

My phone vibrated; it was a text message from Han Yingying:

Are you alright? All the patients on the fourth floor are sitting up, and I'm locked in the duty room and can't get out.

Zhou Lang replied: 【Don't go out, wait until three o'clock.】

Another one, Xiong Batian:

The old man in the bed next to mine is laughing. He's been laughing for ten minutes straight, and I'm going crazy.

Zhou Lang thought for a moment and replied with three words:

You laughed too.

Five seconds later, Xiong Batian replied:

【? ? ? 】

[Laugh along with him. You're a patient, and a patient should act like a patient.]

After a minute of silence, Xiong Batian's reply came:

[Damn, it worked! He stopped laughing and even called me crazy.]

Zhou Lang couldn't help but smile slightly.

At three in the morning, the footsteps faded away. The lights in the corridor came back on, and the white coats with their necks twisted disappeared completely, leaving not a single footprint on the ground.

Zhou Lang opened the iron gate and walked out of the nurses' station.

The corridor had returned to normal—on the surface. But he noticed one change: the door to room 307 was open.

He went over and saw that the bed was empty.

Zhang Hai has disappeared.

After daybreak, Zhou Lang found all the players he could contact in the cafeteria.

Aside from him, Han Yingying, and Xiong Batian, Zhao Minzhi was safe and sound; Li Ming was alive, but in poor mental condition and hadn't slept all night; the guy with the gold-rimmed glasses also came, sitting upright in the VIP seat eating breakfast, seemingly unaffected by anything—the single VIP ward had independent security, and was probably a safe zone during the strange occurrence.

Two random players did not appear.

My phone rang; it was a system message:

[System Notification: Player "A-Jie" has died. Player "Hu Xiaofan" has died. Current survivors: 10/12.]

Two people were killed on the first night.

"How did he die?" Zhao Minzhi asked.

"I don't know," Zhou Lang said, "but it's highly likely that the rules were violated. Either they left the safe zone at night, or they did something that triggered the strange occurrences."

Xiong Batian's expression was not good: "I almost did it last night too—if it weren't for what you said..."

"What did you say?" Han Yingying asked curiously.

"He made me laugh with the old man in the next bed."

Han Yingying turned to look at Zhou Lang.

"During the period when the supernatural occurs, patients also become supernatural beings," Zhou Lang explained. "But their criteria for judgment are different. The supernatural beings that are medical staff patrol the corridors and arrest people who leave the safe area. The supernatural beings that are patients stay in the wards to investigate who is not a 'real patient'."

"What are you doing—" Zhao Minzhi was about to ask.

"Just a guess."

"...A guess?"

"A weird laugh went on for ten minutes straight. It wasn't going crazy; it was a test. A normal person's reaction to a terrifying scene is fear, silence, or pretending to be asleep. But a 'real patient'—a patient who has been experimentally modified—would find it normal and might even laugh along. So I made him laugh too."

Zhao Minzhi was silent for a few seconds: "What's wrong with your brain?"

"Talent." Zhou Lang said expressionlessly.

Han Yingying lowered her head and took a sip of porridge, the curve of her lips hidden behind the rim of the bowl.

During the meal, Zhou Lang told him about Zhang Hai's disappearance.

"He told me some information about the dean last night, but before he could finish speaking, something strange happened. When I woke up, he was gone."

"Were they mysteriously abducted?"

"It's hard to say. He himself is half a ghost—Chen Zhiyuan's former assistant, who participated in human experiments. But he still retains a part of human consciousness, can speak, and can provide information. Now that he has disappeared, there are two possibilities: he was silenced, or he was moved to the east side of the third floor."

"What are you planning to do?" Han Yingying put down her bowl.

"Today during the day, I need to go to the east side of the third floor."

All four people at the table looked up at him at the same time.

"The rules say we can't go in," Zhao Minzhi pointed out the problem directly.

"The rule says 'No entry into the east corridor on the third floor,'" Zhou Lang emphasized the word "corridor." "What if I don't use the corridor?"

He pulled out the floor plan he had taken yesterday from his pocket and pointed to the east side of the third floor: "The outer wall of the east corridor is right next to the hospital's atrium. There are fire hydrants on the outer wall between the third and second floors. I climbed out of the second-floor window, followed the fire hydrants to the third floor, and then climbed directly into the east-side room through the window on the outer wall. I didn't go through the corridor at all."

Zhao Minzhi glared at him: "Did you come here for a medical checkup or for rock climbing?"

"I'm an intern doctor, I don't see patients."

"Are you crazy?" Xiong Batian muttered, but didn't object. He was used to it.

Han Yingying didn't speak, staring at the floor plan for a while: "Can the fire hydrant pipes support your weight?"

"You'll only know once you try."

"I'll keep watch for you," she said calmly, without any further explanation.

Zhou Lang glanced at her. Han Yingying's expression was normal, as if she were saying that the weather was nice today.

"OK."

At 9:30 a.m., Zhou Lang first reported to Chen Zhiyuan. Chen Zhiyuan arranged for him to help check the inventory at the pharmacy. Zhou Lang worked for half an hour, and while the pharmacy manager went to the restroom, he flipped through the medicine receiving slips.

A large number of reagents and biological products have complicated names, but they all have one thing in common—they are all labeled with the "LRYZ" coded prefix.

LRYZ.

He had seen those letters on Li Ming's medical record as well.

Zhou Lang took a picture and put it in his pocket. At 10:00 AM sharp, he slipped out of the pharmacy and met up with Han Yingying in the stairwell on the second floor.

"I've already scouted the second-floor window near the courtyard," Han Yingying said, handing him a hand-drawn sketch. "The window isn't locked, but the fire hydrants outside..."

She hesitated for a moment.

"What's wrong?"