Chapter 113 Two Useless Teammates? The Unknown Room
"Bastard..."
Upon hearing Ji Yan's response, the Kind Side Chu Mo froze for a moment, as if some inexplicable humor had struck her. A faint smile tugged at the corners of her lips.
"So you can smile after all."
Ji Yan's added remark instantly wiped the smile off her face, replacing it with her usual bitter, depressed expression.
Carrying the Kind Side in a princess carry, Ji Yan sprinted down the corridor. He didn’t know where it led or if there was an exit at the end. All he knew was that finding the Kind Side would inevitably reveal a way out.
The dark prisoners in the cages bared their teeth and roared in fury as they watched Ji Yan with the Kind Side in his arms.
Coincidentally, he found himself back in front of Horse Player’s cage.
Horse Player closed his comic book and stared in surprise at the little girl in Ji Yan’s arms. "Where’d you pick up this little loli?"
"..."
Before Ji Yan could respond, the floor trembled slightly beneath them.
Ji Yan’s brows furrowed. He knew the Privilege Prison confining the Dark Side Chu Mo had reached its time limit and was about to dissolve.
The moment he turned his head, the Dark Side Chu Mo appeared before him as if teleporting.
All pretense had been stripped away—her face was now contorted with bulging veins, her features twisted with malice.
"Why must you hunt us down to extinction?"
Ji Yan smirked. "You’re the one who chased me. You’re the one who kept screaming about tearing me apart. Who’s hunting who here?"
"The Kind Side can only be protected here!" the Dark Side snarled. "If you take her out, she’ll just suffer more at the hands of those bastards! You doctors claim to help, but you’re no different from them—you’re all devils!"
Her expression vicious, she advanced step by step.
Ignoring Ji Yan, she stretched out a hand toward the Kind Side. "Don’t listen to him. None of them are good! Stay here. Only I can protect you. Only I truly care about you!"
The Kind Side Chu Mo looked at her dark counterpart but didn’t take the offered hand. Instead, she shook her head indifferently. "You’re not protecting me either."
"You’re just like them—afraid of death. Because if I leave, you, the Dark Side, will disappear. That’s why you’ve hidden me deep inside, why you’ve tried so hard to stop outsiders from taking me away. What you really want… is to replace me completely."
The Dark Side froze, her face twitching as she scrambled for words to manipulate the Kind Side into staying.
"These hypocritical doctors are no better!"
The Kind Side sighed. "But I do want to leave. Staying here… is too suffocating."
"At least this doctor is more honest than you. He doesn’t hide the fact that he’s afraid of death."
Ji Yan found the remark odd. Was that supposed to be a compliment?
The Kind Side turned to him. "Keep moving forward. Don’t look back. Don’t pay attention to anything else."
Ji Yan stared at the Dark Side blocking their path, her face twisted with fury as she hissed through clenched teeth, "Take one more step, and I’ll make sure you suffer eternal damnation!"
Ji Yan blinked.
Hugging Chu Mo’s delicate frame tighter, he smirked at the Dark Side. "Trying to scare me, little girl? Words alone won’t cut it!"
With that, he strode forward without hesitation.
The dark side of Chu Mo let out a hysterical scream, transforming into a bloody maw that lunged at Ji Yan.
Ji Yan closed his eyes and quickened his pace, charging straight toward the gaping mouth. The next moment, he felt his body being swallowed into an abyss, a violent sense of weightlessness spreading through his limbs.
……
An unknowable amount of time passed.
Ji Yan opened his eyes again.
He was no longer in the damp, dimly lit ward but in a clean, soothing hospital room filled with potted plants.
He sat on a chair, and on the bed before him, a girl with snow-white hair, dressed in a blue-and-white hospital gown, leaned against the window. Her pale, bloodless face gazed quietly at the bright daylight outside.
"It's been so long since I've seen such a bright scene."
"Goat Doctor, thank you for your treatment."
"If not for you, I might have sunk deeper into my depressive trauma."
Chu Mo turned her head slightly, her eyes resting on Ji Yan.
Ji Yan rubbed his aching temples and replied, "No need to thank me. It's my duty."
As his words faded, the Mission panel chimed in response.
Ding! Congratulations, Player! You have successfully provided effective treatment to Patient [C001], "Chu Mo." You have achieved Standard Completion of the task.
Hint! Due to the patient's special status, you have gained 10% Favorability Progress with the "Supernatural Hospital Director."
Congratulations, Player! You have obtained the Supernatural Artifact Reward—Chu Mo's Teddy Bear.
"Helping the Supernatural Hospital Director's daughter out of her darkness only gets me 10% Favorability Progress?"
"How cold-blooded is this father?"
Ji Yan inwardly grumbled as Chu Mo handed him the teddy bear.
"Compared to other doctors, Goat Doctor, you're a good one. This was a gift from my mother. Now, I’m giving it to you as a token of gratitude."
Ji Yan accepted the teddy bear without inspecting it closely, storing it in his Toolbar before glancing aside.
On the nearby chair, the Horse-Faced Doctor remained in a deep slumber.
Clearly, his consciousness was still trapped in Chu Mo's inner prison.
"This Horse-Faced Doctor..."
Chu Mo reassured, "Don’t worry. He’ll wake up a little later."
"Alright. Since your condition has improved, you probably need peace and quiet now. I won’t disturb you further."
"Rest well."
With the Mission completed, Ji Yan, as usual, clocked out at lightning speed.
But at the same time, he noticed something.
Inside [C001] ward, there were only him and the Horse Player—no other doctors in sight.
Not just the Dragon Player, but even the Rooster and Rat Players were absent from the ward.
The Dragon Player's group, though involved in the Main Plot, had been assigned the first task of entering [C001] ward according to the Main Plot progression.
What exactly were they scheming?
Lost in thought, Ji Yan decided to exit the ward first.
He turned the doorknob, and the door swung open.
But the moment he stepped out, he froze.
The hallway outside wasn’t the familiar one he knew.
Instead, it seamlessly connected to another room!
When he tried to retreat, the door behind him had already shut and locked itself tight.
This room was unnervingly dark.
Cluttered and filled with shelves of miscellaneous goods, the unfamiliar environment carried a whiff of danger that Ji Yan recognized all too well.
"So this is why those guys didn’t enter [C001] ward—they set up a trap outside, waiting for me!"
The realization struck Ji Yan, and he couldn’t help but feel exhausted.
Horse and Tiger, those two players, had sworn just yesterday that they would follow the plot and seize the opportunity to help him.
Yet now, the enemy was right in his face!
And where were those two? One was still fast asleep in the ward, and the other was "confined" and couldn't leave his "old folks' home"...
Were they just a pair of useless teammates?
Ji Yan had no choice but to move cautiously around the room, familiarizing himself with the surroundings.
Through the obstructing objects, he spotted a motionless figure sitting deep in one corner of the room.
The figure was utterly still, like a statue—or perhaps a monk in deep meditation...
But Ji Yan was certain—it was a Supernatural Entity.
The putrid stench unique to the dead hung thick in the air, unbearably pungent.
This scene somewhat resembled the time he encountered Miss Xu, when he was nearly forced into a dead end by her "Disarm" Privilege.
But Ji Yan knew—that shadowy figure wasn't Miss Xu.
"Giggle—"
Right at that moment, a strange sound echoed in Ji Yan's ears...