Chapter 231
Sanzi managed a smile that looked worse than crying, his voice lonely as he spoke. “Actually, I’ve known for a long time that I’m not normal. I don’t even have any memories from before. I don’t even know where I came from… Ever since I became aware, I’ve been locked inside this building. I also know there are many ‘people’ like me in here, thrown away in the toilets like garbage, slowly rotting, then sent to the backyard for disposal…”
“You’re my first friend. Don’t worry, I’m the one who brought you out this time. Whatever happens, I’ll take responsibility alone. I won’t drag you into this!”
“Go now. If you wait any longer, it’ll be too late!”
The genuine emotion on Sanzi’s pale face didn’t seem fake. He really seemed to see Shen Ge as his friend, and right now he just wanted to help him escape.
Shen Ge felt something was off, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. So he went along with Sanzi for now, stepping onto his hands and struggling to climb up toward the ventilation duct above.
After Sanzi had exhausted himself pushing Shen Ge up, Shen Ge lay at the vent opening and reached his hand down. “Grab my hand. I’ll pull you up.”
“There’s no time! You go!” Sanzi urged anxiously.
Shen Ge said, “But you said if they catch you, they’ll feed you to the bugs?”
Sanzi grinned, revealing a chilling smile. “Don’t worry about me. I’m used to eating bugs. I almost miss them when I go too long without. Don’t mind me, I know how to escape. It won’t be that easy for them to catch me!”
“Wait!”
Before he finished speaking, Sanzi jumped down from the sink, opened the door, and dashed out. As he ran out, Shen Ge vaguely heard the sound of footsteps coming from the hallway. Tap, tap, tap.
By now, Shen Ge had mastered the ability to “manifest.” Naturally, he wouldn’t panic like the first time he was in the dream world, influenced by his ten-year-old self’s mind. Instead, he lay quietly inside the ventilation duct, paying close attention to what was happening in the restroom.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Then, a gaunt figure slowly walked into the restroom. What was terrifying was that she didn’t walk straight in—her head and neck stretched in first, scanned left and right, and only after her neck slowly rose to look toward the vent did her body finally enter.
Shen Ge was no stranger to this horrifying scene. In his previous time in the dream world, the person he’d seen most often was this “Stretchy Neck” director.
Shen Ge pressed himself low inside the vent, then used his “manifestation” ability to create an illusion—a false trail leading deeper into the vent from the opening—and hid himself within it.
The director’s head stretched up to the vent, peered inside a couple of times, and was fooled by the illusion Shen Ge had created. She pulled her neck back and left the restroom.
Following the route in his memory, Shen Ge crawled through the ventilation system all the way down, eventually returning to the floor where his ward was, and made his way back inside.
He lay on the hospital bed, waiting for the night to “end.” If the cycle ended smoothly, it would prove his theory was correct.
If not, he’d have to find another way out of the loop.
Just as Shen Ge was trying to recall the details of this “infinite cycle,” he suddenly felt a cold breeze brush past him—like an icy dagger gliding across his neck.
But there wasn’t even a window in the room. The observation window on the door and the small food slot below were both closed. There was no way wind could have gotten in.
Shen Ge felt the bedboard gently shake, creaking slightly. Something seemed to be moving under the bed, making faint rustling sounds.
In the narrow ward, these tiny noises seemed magnified. Under normal circumstances, anyone would feel uneasy and afraid.
Shen Ge sat up in bed and listened carefully to the sounds around him. “Strange. The previous cycles passed the night without any issues. Why is something happening tonight?”
This kind of terrifying scenario wasn’t unfamiliar to Shen Ge either—strictly speaking, he’d entered a “loop” pattern the very first time he stepped into the dream world.
The difference was that back then, the cycle would restart only after he died. This time, merely surviving the night would cause a “reset.”
Shen Ge had thought tonight would pass peacefully like before, leading into the next day. He didn’t expect something to go wrong so soon.
Shen Ge was ready to “manifest” a weapon and fight back at any moment. But a few minutes passed, and the temperature in the ward dropped noticeably. He shivered uncontrollably.
It felt far too strange—like being thrown into an ice cellar. It had already gone from affecting his mind to influencing his physical senses.
Just then, another rustling sound came from under the bed. Shen Ge switched on the bedside lamp. The light on the desk to his right flickered on. Strangely, there was nothing under the bed.
But the noise under the bed grew louder. Shen Ge felt a cold breeze sweep past his ears, his neck, the back of his head—as if an icy figure was leaning close behind him, running a finger along his body.
Shen Ge moved to the edge of the bed, his back against the wall, and pulled the blanket over himself. Only then did the chill on his back slowly fade.
At that moment, the corner of the blanket draped over the bed began to slowly bulge upward—as if something was crawling out from under the bed and slipping into his covers.
Shen Ge stood up abruptly, stepped firmly on the blanket, and stared at the raised part. “Hey, of all the things you could imitate, you choose to crawl into someone’s blanket like Kayako? You think tricks like this still scare people these days?”
“Hey, how about coming out for a chat?” Shen Ge nudged the bulging part of the blanket with his foot.
Shen Ge didn’t rashly “manifest” a weapon. Especially since Dr. Chen had mentioned that hidden cameras were installed all over the inpatient wing. Every move he made had to be cautious.
After all, having come this far, Shen Ge was tired of endlessly repeating the same cycles. He just wanted to find a way out of the dream world as soon as possible.
Shen Ge believed he had been forcibly dragged into the dream world each time while unconscious. But recalling everything that happened at the Peace Hotel, he suspected there must be a “switch.” Once he mastered it, he could enter and leave the dream world at will.
Of course, this was all assuming the mirror creature had told the truth—that Shen Ge truly held the “key” to “opening” the dream world.
“Shen Ge.”
“Shen Ge.”
Then, from under the bed came a voice. It was impossible to tell if it was male or female, young or old—but it also wasn’t the emotionless, mechanical tone of an AI. It felt like a person was calling Shen Ge’s name, though the voice sounded faint and ethereal.
Shen Ge braced his hands on the bed frame, bent down, and looked underneath. “If you’ve got something to say, say it. If not, dismissed.”
The originally tense, horrifying atmosphere immediately became far less terrifying under Shen Ge’s utterly calm tone. But the moment he bent down, he came face to face with a pale, wrinkled face—like that of an eighty or ninety-year-old—pressed tightly against the adjacent feeding slot, staring straight at him.
“Hey, you here to visit?” Shen Ge smiled faintly at the aged face and issued an invitation.
“Shen Ge.”
“Shen Ge.”
The old face continued calling Shen Ge’s name in a hurried tone, the whole face squeezed against the small opening, as if trying to force its way through.
Looking at the horrifying sight before him, Shen Ge said flatly, “Your figure is really asking too much of that little slot. Since we’re this close, why don’t you try coming through the door?”
“Shen Ge!”
“Shen Ge!”
The old face’s voice grew louder and louder, even becoming shrill and piercing.
Shen Ge grabbed the spittoon and, with perfect form, hurled it like a strike in bowling. Smack. It hit the old face squarely. His tone turned irritable. “Calling is calling. Why shout so loud? You’re annoyingly loud.”
Shen Ge’s tone carried contempt and impatience, as if what stood before him wasn’t something terrifying, but garbage he found irritating.
Strangely enough, the less Shen Ge feared the “old man in the slot”—or rather, he hadn’t felt any fear at all from the start—the clearer the old man’s face became. It even began to seem like the effect was achieved through makeup and special effects.
Shen Ge felt that the face hidden beneath the “terrifying old man” mask looked strangely familiar. But before he could get a good look, the figure pulled back into the adjacent room.
Shen Ge immediately sensed something was off. It was as if the truth and the answers were converging in his mind, separated only by a thin sheet of paper. One poke, and he would see the truth!
“Hey?”
“You still there?”
“Since you came all this way, leaving without a chat?”
Shen Ge didn’t hesitate. He crawled under the bed, trying to squeeze through the small opening into the next room. But it was as if the person next door had panicked, caught in the act. A quilt was shoved against the opening, and the bed was tipped over, completely blocking the slot.
This bizarre reaction only made Shen Ge more suspicious. But just as he was puzzling over it, a deafening crash came from the door—BAM!—like someone slamming it with a hammer.
Shen Ge immediately turned toward the door. But he wasn’t tall enough to see through the observation window. So, copying Sanzi’s move, he flipped the spittoon upside down, stepped onto it, and looked out.
Through the window, Shen Ge met… an eye.
“…” Literally, an eye.
Because there was no person outside the door—only a pool of melted flesh, and within that flesh, several eyeballs, all staring fixedly at the window.
This wasn’t the first time Shen Ge had seen these tumor-like “eyes.” There was the giant eye in the sky over Sakurajima, and later the rooms full of eyes in the tall buildings and spires of the dream world. They all looked exactly the same.
But this time, Shen Ge didn’t feel “fear.” He stayed right by the door, “staring back” at the eye outside. And just like with the old man in the slot, that eerie sensation returned.
The less afraid he was of these strange phenomena, the more “real” these terrifying images became—as if they were illusions deliberately staged by someone.
A guess flashed through Shen Ge’s mind: He had only started encountering these bizarre visions after undergoing Dr. Chen’s second-stage experiment and receiving the so-called “virus antibodies.”
First, it was important to remember that Shen Ge had come to Rongshan Psychiatric Hospital as a “test subject.” In other words, he was the subject being observed.
At best, he was just a “high-level lab rat.”
So, what if the so-called “first-stage experiment” was simply injecting Shen Ge with various weird experimental substances—even “mutant samples”—and only after his body became fully compatible with the aberrant energy, or what the system called “mental power,” did the second-stage experiment begin?
The difference was that in the second stage, the “observations” by Dr. Chen and his team shifted from overt to covert. They even went as far as having staff disguise themselves as terrifying monsters. Under the influence of psychiatric drugs, Shen Ge couldn’t distinguish reality from dreams—so they could trigger the so-called “key” to the dream world.
If this hypothesis were true, then it explained why the less Shen Ge feared these terrifying entities, the more “real” the images became.
Just as Shen Ge felt he was about to tear through the paper blocking the truth, the temperature inside the ward plummeted. The freezing air made him shake uncontrollably.
Shen Ge opened his mouth, only to find he couldn’t make a sound. His body had gone rigid. He couldn’t even move a finger.
Before, he’d thought this was the effect of fear. But now, he was sure it had a lot to do with the sudden drop in temperature in the ward—more than likely… some kind of mind-affecting toxic gas!
Before Shen Ge could think it through, his consciousness grew heavier and heavier. Then, he fell straight backward. Thud. He hit the floor hard, his vision swimming with black spots, and passed out from the pain.
He didn’t know how long he was unconscious. Between half-sleep and waking, Shen Ge vaguely heard people talking nearby. The voice was familiar—it seemed to be Dr. Chen.
Shen Ge felt various monitoring devices attached to his body. He deliberately slowed his awareness and, through self-hypnosis, maintained a “comatose” state.
Dr. Chen and the others were gathered around the hospital bed, watching the monitors and speaking in low voices. It seemed Shen Ge had woken up slightly “earlier” than before, which allowed him to catch fragments of conversation related to the experiment.
“He was acting strangely last night. Those idiots almost got caught. Replace them. Bring in Team 2.”
That was Dr. Chen’s voice. There was a quiet authority in his tone that made the others in white coats feel breathless.
Then, Dr. Chen’s assistant said, “Chief, even though the kid had some minor issues, we successfully triggered an aberrant energy reaction. If we stop now… wouldn’t that undo all our progress?”
“Triggered? Didn’t you read last night’s report? He almost completely woke up… If we hadn’t used sample ‘****3133’ this time, the experiment would’ve spiraled out of control!” Dr. Chen said angrily.
“But… we also confirmed that he’s likely developed a second personality.”
“No, it’s not just a second personality. There must be multiple. Look how unnaturally calm he was facing those monsters…”
“Yeah, and also—”
The assistants seemed to want to argue further, but Dr. Chen’s stance was firm. He appeared ready to abandon the second-stage experiment and move directly to the third stage.
“Terminate this phase. Prepare for Stage Three.”
Now that Dr. Chen had made the call, the others had no choice but to fall silent, though clearly reluctant.
Shen Ge had no idea what distinguished these three stages. But one thing was certain now: the “infinite loop” situation had likely been resolved.
So, Shen Ge gradually eased off the self-hypnosis, letting his body return to normal. The moment he stopped, the monitors immediately showed changes.
“That’s enough. He’s waking up,” Dr. Chen said in a low voice.
Instantly, the ward fell silent except for the steady beep beep beep of the instruments.
Shen Ge slowly opened his eyes, deliberately looking confused as he glanced at Dr. Chen and the others. His face showed pain. “Dr. Chen… what happened to me?”
Shen Ge was particularly struck by what they said about a “second personality.” He wondered if they had mistaken his adult soul, which had returned from the “future,” for a secondary personality inhabiting his ten-year-old body.
But if they wanted to experiment on a “second personality,” he would play along. He’d act like a split personality case, take things one step at a time, and see how they responded.
