Chapter 52: Undead Hospital, The Interview by Dissection

Chapter 52: Undead Hospital, The Interview by Dissection

As the new instance was successfully matched, Ji Yan was instantly overwhelmed by a strong sense of weightlessness. It was as if the ground beneath his feet had collapsed, plunging him into an endless abyss. His senses vanished, and his brain forcibly shut down.

……

……

"Alert! The Player has successfully entered the instance. Remember the three basic survival rules of [Undead Hospital]."

"All Players will assume the role of 'Interns' within the hospital. Remember not to act outside the boundaries of your assigned role."

"Each intern will be paired with a Supernatural Doctor. Daily Tasks will be issued by them. Supernatural Doctors are extremely strict—interact with caution and avoid the Danger Zone."

"The hospital receives many bizarre patients daily. Remember, Players only need to fulfill their duties as [Interns]. No matter what happens, you are in the Safe Zone."

"……"

An unknown amount of time passed before Ji Yan's groggy mind gradually cleared. In his dazed state, he heard the game system's introduction to the instance.

The sound of dripping water echoed in his ears.

The pungent scent of alcohol filled his nostrils.

When he opened his eyes, Ji Yan found himself waking up in a storage room, greeted by shelves of medicine bottles of various sizes.

Rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head, Ji Yan sat up as an operation guide panel popped up before him:

"You're awake. The time is now 5:45 AM. You have 15 minutes before your shift begins."

"Quickly put on your work uniform and wear your ID badge. Report to your attending doctor—it has a terrible temper and despises interns who are late or poor at time management."

Fifteen minutes?

Ji Yan's expression shifted, and he immediately jumped off the makeshift bed.

He swiftly scanned the room, then opened an inconspicuous drawer, where he found a blood-stained, foul-smelling white coat.

The stench of sweat and blood assaulted his nose, nearly making him retch.

But with the experience from his first instance, Ji Yan had built up a basic immunity to such simple disgusts. He briskly put on the coat.

"Congratulations, Player. You have successfully equipped the white coat and your Work ID. Remember, your intern number is 9527—this will be how you are addressed in the instance."

"It's time to leave. Within ten minutes, head to the lobby of Ward 2 to regroup. However, you’ve discovered that a scalpel is missing from your surgical kit. Find it quickly!"

Starting off like this?

Ji Yan opened the surgical kit.

Among the jumbled tools inside, the scalpel was indeed missing.

He recalled the scalpel inside the Bandaged Supernatural Entity’s paper box at the end of the previous instance.

Frantically patting himself down, he couldn’t find it.

Where had it fallen?

Ji Yan quickly surveyed his surroundings. With so many items scattered about, finding a scalpel the size of a spoon felt like searching for a needle in a haystack.

As his head throbbed, his scalp itched.

The Blood-Stained Paper Figure given to him by Miss Xu leaped out.

Under Ji Yan’s gaze, it hopped onto the corpse of a rabbit on the operating table.

Ji Yan’s eyelids twitched as he looked at the rabbit corpse. A prompt from his Talent appeared:

[Last night, you were too exhausted from studying and accidentally left the scalpel inside the rabbit’s corpse before passing out.]

Ji Yan inserted his fingers into the rabbit corpse, pulled out a blood-stained scalpel, wiped off the blood, and placed it into the surgical kit.

He turned his head to look at the Blood-Stained Paper Figure. "Gotta say, this paper figure’s got some spirit to it."

Like a loyal pet, the Blood-Stained Paper Figure hopped onto his head before burrowing back into his hair roots.

Time was short. Closing the surgical kit, Ji Yan swiftly headed out.

Stepping out of the ward, the environment of the Undead Hospital stretched before him.

Unlike the lifeless gloom of the Crimson Apartment, the Undead Hospital was even more deathly silent.

The empty corridors lacked the filth, blood, and chaos of the apartment, but the hazy lighting and the raspy broadcast voice created an even more terrifying atmosphere.

Following the game’s prompt, Ji Yan hurried toward Ward 2.

Along the way, he spotted the hospital’s "Medical Staff"—figures in white coats and orderly uniforms, their forms blurred, their faces unseen.

They moved like wandering spirits.

Carrying the medical kit, Ji Yan pressed on without pause and soon arrived at the designated location.

In the lobby, apart from him, there were four others, all clad in identical intern white coats—two men and two women.

They looked at Ji Yan, the last to arrive, with varying expressions.

The bespectacled man named Ruan Tao adjusted his glasses and smirked. "How rare. A new Player joining this Instance today?"

The red-haired woman, Liu Zhaodi, crossed her arms, accentuating her ample curves, and sighed with mock pity. "What a shame. One minute later, and we’d have seen this guy turned into a Dissection Guinea Pig."

The petite, twin-tailed girl named Yuan Yao, hugging her medical kit, muttered softly, "Why are you all so weird? We’re all Players here..."

Ji Yan observed them but said nothing, simply taking his spot.

Nearby, the Masked Man coughed twice and struck up a conversation. "Friend, what was your last Instance? How’d you clear it?"

Ji Yan brushed him off. "Stepped on a mine, got eliminated, and got dumped here."

"If you don’t wanna talk, no need for such a lame excuse."

"Undead Hospital is an Advanced Instance, not some dumping ground for failures who got kicked out of their last run."

The Eerie World’s rules meant there was no true death.

Once a Player was eliminated, they’d be thrown into the next Instance.

Those who cleared an Instance would advance to the next one.

But the two fates were worlds apart!

The Instances for eliminated Players were all broken, dark, uncontrollable Inferior Instances.

In those hellish scenarios, survival wasn’t the goal—it was pure suffering, facing all kinds of Blackening horrors and nightmarish trials.

Players couldn’t die even if they wanted to, couldn’t escape even if they tried.

A true hell.

For those who cleared Instances, though the difficulty still increased, the equipment and resources were far richer.

Even if they failed, they’d only drop back to their original First-Tier Instance.

Undead Hospital was a Second-Tier Instance.

Every Player here had cleared at least one Instance.

In terms of experience and skill, they were leagues above the ragtag bunch from the Crimson Apartment.

Naturally, the talents of the players in this instance wouldn't be lacking either.

As soon as the Masked Man said this, Ji Yan was about to speak when he suddenly felt an inexplicable chill in the air, sharp and bone-piercing...

The next second, the Masked Man and the other players abruptly kept their distance, falling silent as their expressions turned grave and serious.

Ji Yan's eyes flickered.

He knew the mysterious Supernatural Doctor had arrived.

Then, he felt a cold shiver run down his spine. Slowly turning his head, he was startled to find a towering shadow nearly 2 meters tall standing right behind him!

The Supernatural Doctor, like a ghostly apparition, stared at Ji Yan in eerie silence, an overwhelming sense of suffocation pressing down on him...