Wang Hao gazed at the empty maternity ward. There were no babies’ cries of distress, nor any laughter from first-ti mothers.
"Ah, in this crazy world, there probably isn’t much of a birth rate anymore."
"If there were no external forces interfering, it would slowly co to an end. Humans aren’t foolish and are difficult to corral."
Wang Hao questioned a few nurses but was unable to gather any intelligence.
He was sowhat puzzled, yet he didn’t panic.
"Open the window and climb directly to the rooftop with bare hands?"
With a physique of 300 points, climbing directly to the rooftop with his hands was a relatively easy task.
However, what deserved attention was one of the notices personally written by the dean among the rules: "Both the outpatient building and the inpatient departnt have ventilation systems, so please do not recklessly open windows on the upper floors of the building."
This rule was quite strange.
Wang Hao took a deep breath, hesitated for a few seconds, and then couldn’t worry about it anymore.
He was completely bewildered, filled with many questions, and could only gain more information by breaking the rules.
"If I really encounter sothing bizarre, I still have the ’Feign Death’ legendary ability."
He gently pushed open the window.
Sunlight flooded in, dazzling and a bit harsh on the eyes.
He stuck his head out of the window and looked out, finding that the location had few protrusions and was not suitable for climbing upward.
"Let’s try sowhere else."
"Click—"
A faint sound ca, and the window was closed again.
However, just at the mont of closing, it seed as if a beam of light had shone through the crack!
Wang Hao’s pupils constricted slightly, startled, he opened the window again, but all was calm, as if nothing had happened.
"What’s going on?"
"It can’t be an illusion."
He moved to the other side of the building and tried another window, opening and closing it several tis.
Occasionally, with a probability of about one in ten, a strange light would shine through the crack.
After studying for a long while, he figured it out.
It was 10 a.m., the sun was positioned to the east in the sky, but intermittently, after opening or closing the window, the sun would jump to the center position.
When the window was closed, the sun returned to normal.
"The sun’s position changed, causing that tiny light to appear..."
"What does this an..."
"Every ti I open or close the window, does ti also change?"
Wang Hao frowned, still not understanding, and then directly climbed out of the window.
The biting high altitude, and the bright human stream below resembled ants.
Fortunately, Wang Hao didn’t need to climb the high-rise buildings personally and had no fear of heights; he just needed to press a button, and his character would automatically climb upward.
Two minutes later, he had climbed to the rooftop.
There, a lightning rod was installed, and there was a large, abandoned water bucket.
A concrete wall blocked the rooftop staircase.
However, just as Wang Hao was exploring the surroundings, a loud booming sound burst in his ears.
"Boom, boom!" Wang Hao struggled to keep his balance, not knowing what was happening. A series of "Danger, Danger, Danger, Danger" flashed on the screen, and he imdiately activated his Feign Death ability.
"Feign Death: Soul hides in a Different Space, body petrifies."
The ground shook violently!
An earthquake?!
...
In an instant, the booming sound erupting from the building completely engulfed him!
In his Feign Death state, Wang Hao found himself in freefall, with massive amounts of rocks and dirt pelting him, forming a fierce torrent of rock!
It was at this mont he realized: Building 3 had actually collapsed!
"What the hell?"
Nurous rocks and dirt collapsed, burying all the doctors and patients, who hadn’t even had ti to react before their lives were swallowed by the turbulent flow.
Wang Hao was dizzy with the whirlwind of scenes, unable to save even himself as the "Feign Death" also had its limits.
Although he had turned into a "stone," hard as concrete, falling from the 20th floor made a loud "smack."
The huge kinetic energy caused the long piece of "stone" to shatter imdiately.
Wang Hao watched helplessly as his head detached from his neck, and even a corner of his skull got chipped off, exposing the white brain matter.
Human souls can’t exist separately from the body, and without a body, there is no capability to observe the external world.
Soon, the screen went dark, and a line of text popped up.
"You have died."
"Reason: Smashed into a pulp (Delusion)."
...
A minute later, Wang Hao took off his helt and couldn’t help but touch his neck, his head still connected to his neck.
He felt a chill down his spine, and sweat had ford subtly.
"It’s good that it was just a ga... That scene was too realistic."
Wang Hao was a very brave person, and he didn’t suffer from acrophobia.
But this ti, the scene of falling from the 20th floor still brought him an imrsive sense of fear.
In the "Incredible Hospital" scenario, he had not found any anomalies.
But how should I put it... everything was pointing towards a horrifying unknown existence.
What was even more outrageous was that the people living in it had developed a set of self-protective "Rules."
As long as these rules were followed, one could possibly survive—probably just an imagined safety.
After a long while, Wang Hao gradually recovered from the experience of being smashed to death and wiped off his sweat.
"[Smashed into a pulp (Illusion)]... Is this implying I was attacked by the [Moon of Illusion]?"
"And there was no need to turn the whole building into ruins, was there? Why exaggerate it so much..."
"Could it be that I’ve discovered so secret? I wouldn’t know..."
He grew suspicious.
The death in the first playthrough didn’t bring much disappointnt.
A five-star difficulty was set there, about the sa as "Paradise," and he wasn’t expecting to make it through in one life.
He sat in his chair, carefully considered everything, and wrote so notes on paper with a pencil.
"Known clues: The ’Rules’ written by the Dean, the logistical group’s rule protocols, they are all carefully trying to skirt around a secret."
"This secret might be hidden on the rooftop, in the canteen, in the sewers, or in the morgue... Approaching these places could an imdiate death. Hence, the Dean ordered these places sealed, and over the years, it has been peaceful."
"Without my arrival, it might have continued to be peaceful indefinitely, though an accident might occur soday."
He couldn’t help but scratch his head, wracking his brains in deep thought.
But strangely, he had not found any peculiar clues on the rooftop.
Of course, it might be because the search ti was too short... he had been killed by the [Illusion] before he could find anything.
"If there truly are no effective clues on the rooftop, but rely going up there triggers the collapse of Building 3, what does that an? What is the aning of the changes in sunlight caused by opening and closing the windows?"
His eyes suddenly brightened!
"Could it be that the [Collapse] itself is a special kind of ssage?"
Additionally, another clue was that Chen Xinyi and Xu Zhijun’s mories had been altered.
There was also a flyer in Xu Zhijun’s pocket.
Both of their personalities had fundantally changed, as if they had turned into completely different people!
Originally, Ms. Chen should have been lively and outgoing, suffering from a social butterfly syndro, and had a fun personality.
While Xu Zhijun was not very bright, reserved, and taciturn.
But now... both of their personalities were quite different.
"I already know the ability of the [Illusion], I should let my imagination fly, thinking even more."
"The flyer, [Qingtian Hospital, Cures All Diseases], hidden in Xu Zhijun’s pocket—if this paper is a hint from the ga, it could explain so things..."
Wang Hao continued to draw several clues on the paper with his pencil.
"One might speculate: This flyer was picked up by Xu Zhijun in the Earth World, at that ti he was not very sharp and might have had a sense of inferiority; perhaps he would have believed it, truly thinking there was a hospital that could cure all diseases."
"With this intense delusion, he and Chen Xinyi ca to this Incredible Hospital."
"The world I control has not yet been invaded by the [Illusion]; but this world is already under the control of the [Illusion], it can easily radiate its ability."
"Therefore, even a Black-clothed Guard Investigator like Chen Xinyi, upon entering the hospital, would naturally accept ’Cures All Diseases’ as a matter of course. She wouldn’t have too many doubts."
"After receiving treatnt in the hospital, the price they paid was to work here? And at the sa ti, their mories were altered, and they switched personalities?"
"Um... It’s highly likely."
Speculating up to here, Wang Hao felt as if he had grabbed onto a crucial clue, but it was as if there was a layer of paper blocking him, and he couldn’t pierce through it no matter how hard he tried.
The current fragnted information was still overwhelming, with many mysteries unsolved.
He took a deep breath, the thrill of brainstorming was sowhat irresistible.
"This hospital is way too terrifying! Just going in for treatnt, one might end up becoming a janitor or security guard? And have their mories rewritten."
"But where did the original janitors and security guards go?"
"The answer is probably... dead?! Washed away into the sewers, hence the frequent foul sll..."
Speculating up to this point, a chilling fear washed over him.
Why would janitors and security guards die? Who killed them?
Following this line of thought, Wang Hao faintly suspected that his guess might have gone slightly off track.
"Not all patients should turn into hospital janitors or security guards; otherwise, this hospital would beco a Mortal World Hell that swallows people without releasing them."
According to his observation, most patients could still be discharged normally, only a tiny number of patients, unlucky ones, had their mories altered and turned into janitors and security guards.
As for why his character had turned into a janitor and security guard, it could only be explained as a "hint" from the ga, perhaps intended to effectively reduce the ga’s difficulty.
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