Seeing the strange infant on the platter clearly, Shen Ge felt a strong urge to voice a certain unprintable phrase. If he weren’t a future adult’s soul inhabiting this body, the mind of a mere ten-year-old child would never withstand such a fright and would likely spill everything that happened last night truthfully and completely.
However, two things puzzled Shen Ge. First, was this strange infant really so easily “contained”? Last night, while hiding by the rooftop door with Sanzai, he hadn’t heard any sounds of combat, which was completely inconsistent with the infant’s combat power from his first visit to the dream world.
Second, what did Dr. Chen mean by showing him the infant? To “intimidate” this ten-year-old child, trying to get the real story?
Or was it simply a show of force, telling him that even a Freak of this level could be easily contained by Rongshan Mental Hospital?
Fortunately, when Shen Ge recounted the previous night’s events, he did so from the angle of a “dream.” Aside from some crucial details, about sixty to seventy percent of the process was true, skillfully mixing truth with falsehood. Even with surveillance, Dr. Chen would find it hard to distinguish truth from lie.
Most importantly, Shen Ge’s current appearance as a “ten-year-old child” was the best disguise. Even if everything he said now were lies, he could brush it off as being scared out of his wits.
“Y-yes… that’s… that’s the monster!” Shen Ge “fearedfully” shrank into the corner, pointing a trembling finger at the infant on the silver platter.
However, considering his previous “character portrayal,” he didn’t overact. His panic was mixed with a sense of forcing himself to stay composed, which actually made Dr. Chen and the others believe his story a bit more.
Dr. Chen said calmly, “You seemed quite calm yesterday when you pulled out the tubes from the female patient. Why are you so scared of this infant now?”
Shen Ge had long guessed a place like the inpatient building couldn’t possibly lack surveillance. It’s just that surveillance, being the easiest facility to leak information, is often done covertly in confidential institutions.
“But… she… she begged us, begged us to kill… kill it.” Shen Ge spoke somewhat nervously, but quickly steadied himself, as if having made a decision.
Dr. Chen snorted coldly. “You’re quite compassionate. But do you know that action of yours caused us to lose a very valuable experimental subject?”
“But I thought it was a dream! What you do in a dream… I, I can’t control it.” Shen Ge said very aggrievedly.
“…” Dr. Chen was momentarily speechless.
One had to admit, Shen Ge planting the “dream” seed from the start was clearly to deal with such tricky situations now.
Dr. Chen asked a few more related questions, all of which Shen Ge deflected by playing dumb. Dr. Chen didn’t get angry. He had Shen Ge transferred onto a surgical gurney, saying they were taking him for a checkup, but they ended up at a room at the end of a corridor.
Outside the room, Shen Ge vaguely seemed to hear Sanzai’s agonized cries. Last night, he had grown drowsy while waiting and ultimately woke up in his hospital bed, meaning Sanzai likely hadn’t escaped.
As the door opened, Shen Ge saw several lab coats gathered around a bed. At their feet were several iron buckets filled with all sorts of disgusting insects.
Just as the door opened, one lab coat was putting on gloves, then reached into a bucket and pulled out a green centipede about a handspan long.
Seeing this green centipede, Shen Ge immediately thought of the Centipede Woman Ye Jingwen he’d seen in Japan. It was identical to the centipedes she controlled, just smaller in size.
Inside the room, Sanzai was tightly bound to the bed. One lab coat used a mouth gag to pry his jaws open, while the person holding the centipede immediately stuffed it into his mouth.
Sanzai struggled in agony, making choked swallowing sounds.
A group of people in lab coats crowded into the less-than-ten-square-meter room, making the already cramped space feel suffocatingly oppressive.
On the hard wooden bed, Sanzai, bound tightly, was also held down by two lab coats pressing his hands and feet, unable to struggle.
“See? This is the consequence of causing trouble in the hospital. Your previous performance has been excellent. Don’t follow their example, understand?” Dr. Chen looked back at Shen Ge, his gaze a calm warning.
Just then, the lab coats in the room continued, grabbing handfuls of disgusting insects from the buckets at their feet and shoving them into Sanzai’s mouth.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
Sanzai struggled violently, only to be met with even more ferocious force-feeding, and lab coats forcibly working his jaw to chew and swallow the centipedes.
What Shen Ge found eerie was that throughout this process of forcing Sanzai to eat the centipedes, these lab coats didn’t make a single sound, not even uttering a word.
It was as if among these white-coated figures, only Dr. Chen was a living person!
Before Shen Ge could figure it out, Dr. Chen ordered him to be wheeled to the operating room to begin today’s experiments and checks. But unlike before… previously, Dr. Chen would explain some aspects of the experiment. This time, the operating room was terrifyingly quiet, with no communication among the surgical team at all. It was utterly bizarre!
And so, Shen Ge fell unconscious again. Vaguely, he was wheeled back to his room and sank into a deep sleep. After an indeterminate amount of time, a familiar voice sounded by his ear.
“Found you.”
?
It was “Sanzai’s” voice.
Shen Ge fought through the drowsiness to open his eyes, then pushed himself up to look towards the source of the sound. At the foot of the bed, the child crouching there was indeed “Sanzai”!
Strangely, Sanzai’s posture was identical to their first meeting—upper body leaning on the bed, lower body kneeling on the floor, face pale, wearing that eerie smile as he stared at Shen Ge, like looking at a delicate toy.
“Sanzai?” Shen Ge tried calling out.
Sanzai visibly froze, then asked with some surprise, “You know me?”
“Huh?” Sanzai’s response left Shen Ge stunned instead.
Sanzai leaned closer, face full of curiosity. “You haven’t answered me. How do you know me? I heard there’s a new patient-friend, so I came specially to see…”
New patient-friend?
Came specially to see?
Hearing this, Shen Ge felt an indescribable strangeness, as if he had returned to the very first time he met Sanzai.
So Shen Ge tried asking a few related questions. The answers were exactly the same as the first time he met Sanzai.
Sanzai crouched by the bed, pointed underneath, and said, “You must be bored here, right? I’ve dug lots of holes. Come on, I’ll take you out to play.”
“…” Shen Ge frowned, feeling conflicted. He couldn’t tell if this was a “time reset” or if Dr. Chen, to test him, had sent another “clone” similar to Sanzai.
After a moment’s thought, Shen Ge decided to take it one step at a time and accepted Sanzai’s invitation.
So he and Sanzai crawled out through the dog hole in the room, twisted and turned through the corridors, and once again arrived at the female Freak’s operating room.
Everything was identical to that night. It wasn’t until the group of lab coats injecting the black mist mystical energy into the female Freak left that Sanzai called Shen Ge to leave. But Shen Ge approached the female Freak.
Then, the woman’s lips moved. Her voice was faint, halting, as if she might die at any moment. She spoke to them: “Kill… me.”
Whether it was the lab coats experimenting on the female Freak earlier or the female Freak now, including actions and tone, everything was exactly the same as that night.
“Huh? Did… did she just speak?” Sanzai asked in surprise.
Shen Ge didn’t answer. He was thinking: should he continue following the sequence of that night, or ignore the woman’s plea and leave?
To test his hypothesis, Shen Ge ultimately chose to help the woman, pulling out the tubes connected to her. What happened next was the same as that night—
The woman’s abdomen burst open, the strange infant appeared, Shen Ge and Sanzai fled the operating room, were chased by patrollers, hid by the rooftop door, fell asleep, woke to see Dr. Chen, then were taken to “observe” Sanzai being force-fed insects… Everything, as if in a cycle.
…
…
“Found you.”
As Sanzai’s voice sounded by his ear, Shen Ge woke once again from sleep. He raised a hand to stop Sanzai from leaning closer. “Wait, let me process this!”
“?” Sanzai froze, then shrugged in confusion. “I haven’t even said anything yet?”
Shen Ge rubbed his aching forehead. “I know you’re Sanzai. You came here because you think I’m bored in my room and want to invite me on an adventure in the inpatient building.”
“Wow, you even know that! Are you maybe a Phase Two experimental subject with the special ability to foresee the future?” Sanzai said with an amazed expression.
Hearing this, Shen Ge froze, immediately looking at Sanzai and pressing, “Wait, what do you mean by ‘Phase Two experimental subject’? And what special abilities?”
Sanzai looked puzzled, seemingly not understanding Shen Ge’s excitement, but answered anyway, “Actually, I’m not too clear either. I just heard the doctors say that if you successfully complete Phase Two mutation, you can gain superpowers like the superheroes in movies and comics. You know, superpowers?”
Sanzai excitedly described the superpowers he imagined and his longing to leave Rongshan Mental Hospital after gaining them…
His train of thought wasn’t just jumpy; his statements also had major logical gaps. It seemed he only knew the general outline of things. Once asked for details, he was completely clueless.
However, Sanzai’s actual age was only ten. Perhaps as a clone, his mental age was even younger. Getting some clues from him was still good.
“So, do you want to come out and play with me?” Sanzai, seeing Shen Ge fall into deep thought after his explanation, couldn’t help but ask again.
“Okay.” Shen Ge nodded.
Then, the two repeated the experiences of that night once more. This time, Shen Ge carefully observed every person, every detail, even comparing the smallest movements of the lab coats… These repeated “cycles,” unless he took the lead, were like replaying a disc—no plot deviation whatsoever!
Fourth time.
Fifth time.
…
Shen Ge seemed trapped in an infinite loop of “plot,” unable to escape, forever stuck in the same night.
“Found you.”
“…”
Shen Ge lay on the bed, not even wanting to open his eyes. The repeated cycles left him not only mentally exhausted, but most importantly, every time he tried to prevent or change the course of events, he would ultimately fall back into the cycle.
“Hey, I can even hear your breathing change. You’re clearly awake, so why are you pretending to sleep?” Sanzai said somewhat impatiently.
Shen Ge opened his eyes helplessly, meeting Sanzai’s pale face. That somewhat chilling visage instantly jolted him more awake.
Wait!
A thought suddenly struck Shen Ge…
This journey into the “dream world” was based on him having absolute control over his body and consciousness from the start, unlike his first entry where he initially observed “Shen Ge” undergoing months of experiments from a third-person perspective…
“Could it be that getting stuck in this plot cycle is because I changed the plot’s direction by killing the female Freak prematurely?” Shen Ge wondered inwardly.
“Hey, stop spacing out! So, do you want to come out with me or not?” Sanzai urged impatiently.
“Okay.”
Shen Ge remembered that during his first visit to the dream world, due to his guesses and doubts about this world, thinking he was trapped in a mystical space, he had acted cautiously, largely following Sanzai’s lead.
Thus, this time, from start to finish, he stopped interfering with Sanzai’s decisions. The biggest difference occurred after entering the operating room. When the lab coats arrived, Sanzai suggested hiding under the bed, while he had previously suggested hiding behind the boxes under another bed.
After Shen Ge and Sanzai hid under the female Freak’s bed, the group of lab coats entered and began their experiments on her.
“Who’s there?” Suddenly, it seemed a lab coat noticed two people hiding under the bed, exclaiming in surprise, then reaching out to grab Shen Ge and Sanzai.
Shen Ge didn’t use his “manifestation” ability, almost replicating his first dream world experience, relying on Sanzai’s help to break free, then escaping the room with him in the chaos.
After the two fled the operating room, Shen Ge keenly noticed the lab coats didn’t pursue them. Instead, the corridor lights dimmed, and an eerie tap, tap, tap of footsteps echoed, each step seeming to reverberate on Shen Ge’s heart.
“This way.” This time, Shen Ge and Sanzai didn’t hide by the rooftop door. Following Sanzai’s lead, they went to another stairwell.
However, as the heavy footsteps at the stairwell entrance gradually faded, the sound of high heels clicking on the floor echoed from deep within the corridor instead.
Hearing this sound, Sanzai’s face changed, showing terror. He muttered, “The Director… how is this possible? Why would she be here?”
“What Director?” Shen Ge asked deliberately.
Sanzai said urgently, “No time to explain! Run! If the Director catches us, it won’t be as simple as eating centipedes and scorpions!”
Sanzai led Shen Ge into a restroom in the middle of the corridor. However, of the six stalls, three had red “occupied” lights on.
Sanzai froze.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Just then, Shen Ge faintly heard dripping water in the restroom. Instinctively following the sound, he saw a pale-skinned little boy curled up hiding under a washbasin.
That little boy had a face identical to Sanzai’s!
“Sanzai!” Shen Ge called out intentionally, pointing under the washbasin.
Sanzai merely glanced at the boy under the washbasin and said nothing about him. Instead, he warned Shen Ge, “Remember those holes I showed you? Find a way back. Remember, don’t mention what happened tonight to anyone.”
“What about you?” Shen Ge was inwardly very puzzled. He remembered Sanzai being shocked by the infant born from the female Freak’s belly. Why was he so calm facing a little boy who looked exactly like him?
Crash!
Just then, the doors of several closed restroom stalls suddenly burst open. Then, small boy corpses, discarded like trash inside, tumbled out…
