Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Actually, Lain wanted to say that even if the nurse knocked with all her might, she couldn't enter. But somehow, thinking they probably wouldn't survive the night, his desire to explain plummeted.

What's the point of explaining, anyway? In this godforsaken world, there's no hope to be seen.

With this thought, Lain's initially agitated emotions calmed down upon realizing there was another living person. He sat nonchalantly on the edge of the bed and even thought about patting the seat beside him, inviting the poor young man to sit with him.

He had thought the young man was too scared to move, but as soon as he made the gesture, the young man suddenly stood up and then sat down beside him.

Druid: ?

His body, his body wasn't obeying him.

Druid hadn't even fully grasped the situation when the noise of banging on the door from outside ceased.

Silence enveloped the hospital room, and Druid quietly let out a sigh of relief: "Is it over?"

"Not yet," Lain said calmly, "The night is far from over. As long as the sun hasn't risen, this hospital is far from safe."

As if to prove his point, the sound of nails scratching came from the neighboring wall.

Druid shivered violently.

"What's the matter?"

"I-I-I-I just can't stand that sound!" Druid swallowed hard, looking towards the direction of the wall, "Does that mean she's going to come in from next door!?"

Lain spoke indifferently: "As long as the door isn't opened voluntarily, the nurse won't come in. As for next door..."

He paused, and Druid, hopeful, asked: "Maybe they're scared and seeking our help?"

"That won't be the case."

"Ah? Why not?"

Lain tilted his head, speaking in a tone as casual as discussing the weather: "Because last night at this time, the patient next door was dragged out and killed by the front desk nurse."

He seemed to remember something, dealing another blow to Druid's fragile psyche: "Maybe you've even seen his corpse; the front desk nurse seems to quite like the taste of patients."

"Huh?" Druid suddenly recalled the chicken feet that the front desk nurse seemed to be constantly gnawing on.

Druid: gulp

"Then, the room next door..."

"It's no longer the original patient, I guess," Lain thought, recalling the scenes he had witnessed over the past few nights. Exhausted in both body and mind, he vividly remembered the neighboring patient being torn apart and chewed like food by the nurse. Any normal human being would go insane after witnessing such a scene in this environment. The fact that he could still maintain a normal conversation was already at his limit.

Everyone reacts differently when pushed to the brink of fear. Some become hysterical, others become numb. Lain, on the surface, appeared calm and composed, but in reality, he had already detached himself from life and death, adopting an attitude of resigned indifference.

As long as I'm not afraid of death, no one can do anything to me.jpg

As they were discussing, the sound of nails scratching against the wall grew louder and clearer, as if feeling no pain. Druid even saw the wall on their side start to crumble, visibly thinning.

Damn it! This is a concrete wall!

Finally, under Druid's terrified gaze, a hole was chiseled in the wall.

An eye, bloodshot and staring intently, appeared in the hole in the wall, fixated on Lain sitting on the edge of the bed, filled with bloodlust and obsession.

"Lain... Lain... Lain..."

He, or it, started to ram against the already made hole, trying to enlarge it and burst through.

The system alert in Druid's mind blared, his sanity points plummeting, but fortunately, he gritted his teeth and endured, grabbing Lain's wrist: "Quick, run! It's coming in! We're on the third floor, we can jump out the window..."

He hadn't finished speaking when he saw Lain shake his head and pull back the curtains.

Outside the glass window, the red-haired nurse hung upside down, her limbs twisted in unnatural directions. Seeing Lain open the curtains, her blood-drenched mouth stretched into a wide grin reaching her ears.

"Lain... Mr. Lain, I love you, open the window... please?"

"What the #%&*!" Druid couldn't help but let out a curse that wouldn't pass censorship.

So she wasn't outside the door because she had given up, but was waiting at the window all this time!

If they opened the window, they might not even get the chance to jump out before...

The more Druid thought about it, the more frightened he became. A high-level instance indeed, these bizarre monsters were not only terrifying but also possessed intelligence comparable to humans! They even knew how to set traps and wait for their prey to fall!

The monster next door was still banging against the wall. The hole was getting larger, and Druid could almost see half of the creature's body, with a strong stench of rotting corpses wafting from next door.

The monster stood motionless behind the hole in the wall. Lain could see half of its body, still wearing the standard hospital gown. The exposed skin had a rubbery texture, with sparse hair covered in cracks, and eyes completely black, even the whites.

It hardly looked human anymore.

Half of its body had already squeezed into the room.

"It's over, I'm probably done for here," Druid murmured, glancing at Lain. He saw the young man in a hospital gown calmly looking back at him, seemingly with no intention of offering help.

In fact, Lain remained calmly seated on the edge of the bed, as if oblivious to the deadly danger, merely annoyed at being woken up in the middle of the night.

Right, calmness. The monsters outside the wall and the window admired him, like fervent fans. They were desperate to get in, all to gain his attention. What kind of creature could attract such beings?

Druid felt his head spinning. The system's alert for dropping sanity points kept refreshing. For an immersive gaming experience, Druid hadn't set the mental block function too high. In this game, losing sanity points too quickly could lead to temporary madness, where players temporarily lose control over their bodies and make socially disastrous decisions they can't understand afterwards.

[Temporary Madness: Agitation]

Just like now, Druid's rational mind told him there was an entity in the room, seemingly non-human, and the two monsters outside were after it. They probably wouldn't mind shredding him too, but if he clung to the 'big shot' now, there might still be a sliver of hope for survival.

But madness told him: to hell with it, I'm going to fight them!

Druid charged, unable to comprehend why he was so agitated. He let out a roar and attacked the monster in the patient gown that had entered the room, throwing a flurry of desperate punches.

Lain: ...

Druid's punches seemed too weak to even make a dent, while the monster in the patient gown could make him spit blood with a casual strike. Yet, driven by stubbornness, Druid fought with all his might, even using his teeth, desperately clinging to the monster in a last-ditch effort.

Finally losing patience, the monster, with its fanged maw, pierced through Druid's chest, blood pooling on the floor. Druid, powerless to continue fighting, collapsed.

He locked eyes with Lain, who looked puzzled as if asking why he chose such a hopeless fight.

Druid didn't know why either, but this was his first and last death during the beta test. He felt compelled to do something meaningful.

Druid opened his mouth, spewing out blood. His organs were shredded, fragments falling from his mouth. Yet, he still clung tightly to the monster's leg, desperately trying to stop it from reaching Lain.

"Live, survive."

He thought he must have looked incredibly cool saying that.

Then, Druid's neck slumped, marking his first death.

Lain, who had always been stoic, showed a flicker of emotion for the first time.

You never know when the brilliance of humanity will touch you.

Lain, who had abandoned any desire to survive, felt a crack in his sealed heart due to the death of a stranger.

Lain had saved Druid because he felt it was too lonely to die alone, but this stranger seemed to have never given up hope of life, even displaying a courage in his final moments that left Lain feeling dizzy and ashamed.

He had fought desperately to live just a little longer, yet they hadn’t even exchanged names.

Lain lowered his head, his expression indiscernible. The monster in the patient gown seemed uninterested in Druid's body on the ground, staggering, fixated on extending its hand towards Lain.

"Lain..."

It was too despicable.

Lain sighed. How could he easily give up his life now?

He stood up, stepping back to avoid the monster’s grasp. This movement placed him right by the window, behind which the red-haired nurse was pressed against the glass.

"The hospital has rules; you can't enter a patient's room without permission," Lain spoke softly, to no one in particular. The monster in the patient gown, sensing a threat, suddenly sped up to pounce towards Lain by the bed.

Lain forcefully opened the window: "Please come in, nurse."

The red-haired nurse let out a shrill laugh. As the window opened, the chill air rushed into the room. Her long red hair fell over Lain's face. Her greedy eyes scanned Lain's body before focusing on the patient gown monster, her rival for the prey.

The two monsters locked eyes in midair, seemingly in unspoken agreement to ignore Lain and began fighting each other.

The red-haired nurse's limbs grew black fur, her posture becoming more spider-like, and her movements were incredibly fast. The patient gown monster's rubbery skin was its best defense, its pitch-black eyes fixated on the nurse, sharp nails leaving bloody scratches on her limbs.

The red-haired nurse, in pain, glared venomously. She howled, her head splitting in two like a giant mouth, her fangs viciously tearing into the patient gown monster's flesh, blood and flesh splattering around the room, on the walls, and on the bed, leaving traces of their battle everywhere.

The only untouched spot in the room was where Lain stood, as if both sides had tacitly left it empty or were wary of something, resulting in Lain being the only one unscathed.

The youth with an inhuman appearance quietly watched the monsters' battle, as if enjoying a drama staged solely for him, his gaze undisturbed.

Druid, lying on the floor, watched in stunned silence.

Yes, although the body he controlled was dead, due to the game's features, the player's consciousness would linger for a while.

He instinctively thought to activate the game's recording feature, only to realize that it had been recording since he entered the room; everything had been captured.

The monsters' battle was brutally fierce. In the end, the red-haired nurse bit off the head of the patient gown monster, who simultaneously pierced the nurse's heart. Their twisted limbs entangled in each other's bodies, inseparable even in death.

At that moment, the sky outside began to brighten, a faint light of dawn spreading.

The youth who had stood motionless finally shifted his gaze to the window, letting out a long sigh.

"Daybreak."

The bodies of the monsters lay between him and Druid's corpse. Lain, expressionless, stepped over the two monsters' bodies as if they were insignificant fallen leaves, approaching Druid to close his eyes.

However, Druid's body vanished, leaving behind a white translucent orb and a set of keys.

The moment he saw the white orb, Lain's fingers moved uncontrollably, as if compelled to grasp it. The orb reacted swiftly, attempting to flee, but Lain caught it deftly in his palm.

Crunch.

The orb was crushed, and simultaneously, a voice echoed in his mind:

[Player Forum Now Open]

Lain: ...?