Chapter 231: The Messenger of the End, The Gospel of Creation!
Lunchtime wasn’tt over yet, but most of the Selected had already placed their clean plates at the designated spot and followed the yellow-haired man away from the cafeteria. It seemed they were also going to discuss some plans.
Only Zhang Yangqing, after finishing his meal, complained about how terrible the food in the horror world was. He said it wasn’t as good as the last round.
You couldn’t really blame him for that. The last round had featured wild game from the snowy mountains—bear paws, snake soup, and snow ferret.
Plus, there had been a chef. The food he prepared was naturally delicious, and it was all ingredients you wouldn’t normally get to eat.
His palate had naturally become a bit picky.
This round was a different story.
The cafeteria in the horror world was pretty similar to one in the real world; it was probably run by an outside contractor. Besides, this was a closed facility—you couldn’t order takeout. So, weren’t they just at the mercy of whatever the cafeteria staff decided to serve?
The patients here had no choice. No matter how bad the food was, if they didn’t want to starve, they had to eat it.
That’s why Zhang Yangqing voiced his dissatisfaction.
Hearing this, the audience’s sweat started to drip. Dude, can you have a little sense of crisis?
Everyone else seemed to be struggling on the edge of life and death, but you’re acting like you’re on a sightseeing tour!
Zhang Yangqing took the one-eyed kid up to the screening room on the fourth floor.
After making sure no one else was there, they discussed some details.
Calling it a discussion of details was a bit of a stretch. Really, it was him directing the one-eyed kid to do the work, getting him to figure out the necessary intel.
The kid had a submissive personality anyway. To get out of here, he didn’t dare to object and just did what Zhang Yangqing said.
That’s just how it is with the strong—they always delegate tasks in a commanding tone.
The more unfriendly Zhang Yangqing acted towards the one-eyed kid, the more the kid was afraid to provoke him.
Because the one-eyed kid also understood that the strong have their tempers.
As for how Zhang Yangqing planned to kill the other patients or what method he’d use to escape, he naturally wouldn’t say.
Until he figured that out, the one-eyed kid would definitely stay loyal and do his bidding.
Meanwhile, the other Selected were negotiating with the yellow-haired man, also discussing how to escape.
Whether the idea came from the yellow-haired man or the Selected themselves, they quickly reached a consensus.
The Selected would handle the intelligence gathering, and the yellow-haired man would prepare some items that could be used to kill people.
After eating, the Selected, who had felt completely drained, seemed to slowly regain their strength.
And with strength, following the typical Selected mindset, the next step was naturally to gather more information.
For the other Selected, this Horror Rehabilitation Center was still completely baffling. Some individuals hadn’t even realized that the goal of this round was to get out quickly.
The slightly smarter ones, like Gregori, might have vaguely picked up some clues, but they still felt like everything was an unknown. They just didn’t have enough information.
Gregori, having been through many horror games, thought this was the toughest round he’d ever faced.
But for Zhang Yangqing, where was the difficulty? It was just an introductory level, incredibly simple.
The biggest challenge in this round, aside from making contact with the yellow-haired man, was gathering extra information.
In the horror world, valuable clues were often related to the rules.
In other words, you needed to explore the things the rules mentioned.
The painting on the fourth floor, the colorful doors on the third, the death room on the second.
Just knowing about these things was enough. They didn’t really mean much.
Even if you uncovered the hidden information within them, it wouldn’t help much with clearing the round.
By eliminating the misleading clues, you could figure out the correct strategy for passing.
Unlike the other Selected, Zhang Yangqing wasn’t in a hurry to get out. He just had to wait for the “crows” and the “doctor” to show up. Then he’d know how to proceed.
As for the other puzzles, Zhang Yangqing had already solved them.
Rule 3 stated that without a doctor’s permission, patients couldn’t leave the center. Rule 8 said there were no doctors here.
Many Selected couldn’t understand this at all. Wasn’t this a huge contradiction?
Unless they found some hint or a key item, they wouldn’t be able to comprehend these two rules for a while.
Zhang Yangqing, you could say, had too much experience. Combined with his extremely high comprehension, the moment he saw those two rules, he knew they weren’t problematic.
What does a “doctor’s permission” mean?
A doctor’s permission doesn’t necessarily mean the doctor has to tell you personally, “You can be discharged.”
Actually, there are many ways to get a doctor’s permission.
For example, a pass the doctor left at the center, or a discharge permit written on paper by the doctor, or some other token from the doctor.
That could also be seen as the doctor’s permission.
According to the rules, there couldn’t be a real doctor in the center, so you had to think along these lines.
So, next, Zhang Yangqing just needed to wait for other events to happen. He’d see what important clues he could get, and then he’d know how to clear the round.
As for things that might be side quests, Zhang Yangqing couldn’t be bothered with them.
For him, they weren’t very useful.
He was just here to slack off in the horror world and, while he was at it, enjoy clearing the round with a touch of exotic flair.
Why were the other Selected running around like crazy while Zhang Yangqing leisurely watched a film here?
Because he was very good at delegating. He left the troublesome tasks to the one-eyed kid so he didn’t have to observe things personally.
This screening room, besides being a place to kill and hide bodies, was the only way to understand this world. Not just Zhang Yangqing, but other Selected would observe here too.
The screening room kept playing an introduction to the rehabilitation center on repeat.
Most of it was useless information that didn’t need to be remembered.
Memorizing the entire screening content might actually interfere with the Selected’s judgment.
Zhang Yangqing picked out two lines of dialogue that were particularly “eerie.”
[When the world is filled with sin, that strange bird which judges all living beings will appear. It is the origin of destruction, the messenger of the end.]
[When the world is filled with sickness, that strange bird which saves all living beings will appear. It is the world-saving plague doctor, the gospel of creation.]
These two lines, among all the promotional dialogue, were the ones that felt most bizarre and hard to fathom.
The Selected didn’t know what this meant yet, and there was no supporting information, but everyone had firmly memorized these two passages.
Zhang Yangqing rested in the screening room for a while, watching the center’s promotional video several times.
When it hit five o’clock, following the orderly’s instructions, he took his medicine. It had to be taken before meals, only two pills at a time—no more, no less.
The center provided breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The Selected had arrived in the morning, missing the medication time. They’d already taken their lunchtime dose.
So today, the Selected could take it one more time.
The screening room had a clock. Zhang Yangqing took his two pills right on time. He now had six left, which was enough for tomorrow.
As the medicine’s effects spread, his body slowly began to recover its spiritual energy, his damaged form started to heal, and walking didn’t constantly threaten to make him cough up blood.
But he quickly noticed a problem. This medicine seemed to suppress the virus in his body, not cure it.
That meant that currently, ninety percent of his power was still locked away. Even when his body fully healed, he’d recover less than ten percent at most.
“To regain all my strength, do I have to find that strange bird, the so-called ‘world-saving plague doctor’?”
This question puzzled not only Zhang Yangqing but also the other transcendents.
This virus was indeed troublesome. The horror world wouldn’t be kind enough to just unlock things for the Selected.
And the original inhabitants of this round, along with the horrors that hadn’t appeared yet, were incredibly powerful. Even the transcendents had to play by the rules. They didn’t want to directly clash with these entities.
Even the patients here weren’t pushovers.
Many Selected had already gone to the gym to look for handy weapons, at least something for self-defense.
Some of the more malicious Selected were picking out rusty metal pieces.
Using the gym equipment, they sharpened these pieces into extremely pointed blades, like knives.
The rust on them? One cut for tetanus, two cuts and you’re meeting your ancestors.
Of course, many Selected didn’t have the means to directly harm people. They could set up traps using heavy objects dropped from heights, trying to crush the orderlies.
Dealing with the orderlies wasn’t limited to these methods. They could even get the yellow-haired man to do it, depending on how the Selected judged the situation.
Zhang Yangqing kept it simple. He found a steel pipe and kept it on him, just in case.
At six o’clock, the loudspeaker blared. It was mealtime again.
By now, the Selected had more or less recovered physically and could walk downstairs on their own.
Zhang Yangqing strolled to their meeting spot. The one-eyed kid had learned his lesson. He waited for Zhang Yangqing to arrive, handed him a tray of food, and then got one for himself.
You could tell, in his effort to escape, he was trying hard to please Zhang Yangqing.
“How’s the investigation going?” Zhang Yangqing asked while eating his food.
“These people are all very wary. They basically don’t come out after entering their rooms. I’ve only tracked five so far. Give me a little more time,” the one-eyed kid mumbled, still focused on his meal, but a glimmer of light seemed to appear in his eye, a hint of motivation.
“No problem, there’s plenty of time.”
According to Zhang Yangqing’s rough plan, there definitely wouldn’t be any action today. There simply wasn’t enough time.
The one-eyed kid needed to track down twenty or more patients of the same type.
That way, the two of them could get a large number of pills.
The more people the kid helped kill, the more at ease he’d feel.
Because he also knew that if Zhang Yangqing only killed about ten, he might very well burn his bridges after crossing the river.
After all, when they got out, he wouldn’t be able to fight this big shot who could kill the others.
If there weren’t enough meds, wouldn’t the big shot just kill him?
Grabbing over twenty bottles of medicine would be enough for the two of them to survive outside for a while.
At the very least, he wouldn’t be in any immediate danger.
As for how to get into the other patients’ rooms, that was actually simple.
Although the door handles couldn’t be turned from the outside, when a Selected pressed the call button, the crow-masked orderly would come in. That proved they had keys to open the ward doors.
You’d have to kill a crow-masked orderly first before you could kill the same-type patients.
By sorting out the clues, you could actually form a complete process.
Actually, at this stage, the smarter Selected were starting to get suspicious.
The yellow-haired man’s statement about killing ten gave the impression he had some other plan.
But even with suspicion, there wasn’t much they could do. They needed to use the yellow-haired man’s force to solve problems, and then figure out a way to get rid of him later.
That’s the nature of dancing with wolves.
As for those who weren’t suspicious, they were likely heading towards a deadly outcome.
After dinner, the vast majority of patients returned to their rooms and stayed inside.
Because the period from 8 PM to 12 AM was the time the crows came out.
The patients didn’t know where the crows came from, because those who knew were already dead.
According to what the Selected had learned from the yellow-haired man or the one-eyed kid, these crows could instantly kill any patient wandering outside or with their door open. This was likely formidable horror-level combat power.
The transcendents’ strength was now a tenth of what it was, so naturally, they didn’t dare confront these crows.
The yellow-haired man didn’t dare provoke them either and warned the Selected never to even think about testing them.
After eating, most Selected returned to their rooms or nearby. They definitely wanted to see what these crows were. Were they actually crows?
The bolder Selected even lingered outside, trying to find useful clues.
When the clock struck exactly 9 PM.
Caw! Caw!
That rough, raspy sound echoed throughout the entire center.
Every patient who heard those calls was filled with fear.
Even the Selected felt it—a terror that came from the depths of their hearts, an instinctive dread.
It was like a mouse hearing a cat’s meow; it was a species-based suppression.
The strange crows of this horror game had begun to descend. Their calls were a warning to the Selected.
If the Selected didn’t hurry back into their rooms, they would surely die.
Then came the sound of birds flapping their wings.
Following the rules, the Selected had all entered their rooms.
Even the transcendents had. Earlier, each one had thought defiantly that they’d ignore the rules and just kill any horror they met.
But once inside, with their severely injured bodies and power reduced to a tenth, they had to obey.
This made some transcendents feel humiliated. They wondered if the people back home, seeing them like this, would be disappointed.
Zhang Yangqing didn’t have that burden. He was just going through the motions anyway. Why were you all so dramatic?
He lay in his ward. The smell of disinfectant was still so unpleasant.
Even with his door closed, he could still hear the crows cawing outside.
It lasted for about ten minutes, then stopped.
A few minutes later, all the Selected’s doors opened simultaneously, without any warning.
A person wearing a crow mask and a white coat walked in.
This person had a doctor’s ID badge on their chest. It actually looked pretty convincing.
“Hello, patient. I’m the doctor here. I need to perform a physical examination on you now. It’s for your recovery.”
The doctor with the crow mask spoke directly.
This startled quite a few Selected.
How could the Selected forget the hint from Rule 8: Always remember, there are no doctors in the rehabilitation center. When someone claims to be a doctor here, do not believe what they say.
The person in front of them was clearly a fake doctor.
So, the Selected used their wits, trying to refuse all the fake doctor’s requests with words.
Some transcendents, seeing the doctor approach, even jumped out of bed, ready to resist with force.
They had recovered some strength and had the ability to fight back.
Zhang Yangqing’s solution was extremely simple. He just pressed the call button. This would make the crow-masked orderly come and drive away this horror claiming to be a doctor.
The logic was simple too. Not every Selected had the strength to fight a horror.
So, you just needed to see yourself as an ordinary Selected. The horror world would surely give ordinary Selected a way to deal with the horror. As long as you didn’t agree to its demands, you just called the crow-masked orderly.
While the other Selected were still in shock, Zhang Yangqing had already completely figured out how to clear this round.
After a day of observation, the Selected should have noticed that this place was completely sealed off.
Even the first floor was totally enclosed. There was no way out.
But the Selected hadn’t seen any of these fake doctors inside.
That meant they were outsiders.
The crows must have been providing cover for the fake doctors.
Because during the ten minutes the crows were out, there were no patients outside.
In other words, the fake doctor appeared in the center during this time.
With the crows around during that period, patients naturally didn’t know how the fake doctor got in or how they got out.
So, based on the information Zhang Yangqing gathered during the day, it was very likely the elevator.
The elevator only activated during the time the crows appeared. This was how the fake doctor came up.
If Zhang Yangqing wasn’t mistaken, there would be another ten minutes of crow calls soon.
And those ten minutes would be when the fake doctor left via the elevator.
The elevator was the way out for the Selected.
As for the “doctor’s permission” mentioned in Rule 3, wasn’t that just the ID badge on the fake doctor’s chest?
The person was a fake doctor, but the pass was probably real.
Otherwise, how could they get in from outside?
So, for this round, there were a lot of people to kill!
