Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Bai Fuling vaulted over the railing onto the roof. The roof had several parallel stainless steel clothes racks, from which hung many white sheets, bed covers, and a few blue-and-white checkered hospital gowns.

A gust of wind set the clothes on the roof swaying. The pixel-art sheets and hospital gowns almost filled his view.

Bai Fuling had initially intended to ignore these items and just pass by, but after taking a few steps, he turned back.

According to the characteristics of RPG games, rooftops are usually just empty space with minimal scenery. If there are items, they are most likely useful props for later.

So, Bai Fuling walked back to the clothes racks and clicked on the hanging items.

"Patient Gown: A blue-and-white checkered hospital gown in a standard size, a shirt and pants set. Exclusive to patients of the Third Psychiatric Hospital. (May trigger alarms/hospitalization.)"

"White Sheet: A standard-sized, pure white single-bed sheet, freshly washed with a faint scent of soap."

Wow, new clothes! Bai Fuling's eyes lit up.

He thought it over: Later, he would need to infiltrate the psychiatric hospital to search it. Judging from the behavior and attitude of the security guard at the entrance earlier, the NPCs inside were unfriendly to outsiders.

Although he had climbed up to the roof via the water pipe, if he entered the building directly like this and was discovered by NPCs, he would probably be kicked out.

Since clothes were drying on the roof, it was probably a hint for the player to take them and put on the hospital gown to blend in.

There were too many patients in the entire hospital building. Even the doctors couldn't possibly remember every single face!

This way, the player could slip in unnoticed. Even if discovered by NPCs, it wouldn't matter—the doctors would only send him back to his room, not kick him out of the building. This would give the player a chance to explore again after the doctors left.

Wearing a hospital gown and wandering around inside the psychiatric hospital building would feel as free as being at home!

Bai Fuling felt pretty pleased with himself.

He clicked on the hospital gown on the clothes rack, adding it to his inventory, then clicked to change in the clothing section.

With just a light click, his character's outfit changed. His bright yellow raincoat was replaced by a complete patient gown outfit.

The Angel Halo on his head looked a little out of place in this situation. Bai Fuling originally wanted to remove it, but after clicking a few times, he couldn't find an option to remove it.

The Angel Halo in the headwear section was locked, as if it were a permanent, default feature.

Alright, Bai Fuling thought. Maybe this was one of the player's distinguishing features, setting him apart from the surrounding NPCs, so it couldn't be changed.

He didn't dwell on it—after all, he had already changed into the hospital gown. The NPCs inside would only recognize the clothing and wouldn't care about such details.

Bai Fuling had changed into the gown but didn't leave immediately. He steered the character around the entire roof, scooping up all the hanging laundry into his backpack before stopping.

Items of the same type wouldn't take up extra slots, so he might as well take it all!

Clothes were consumable items. Apart from the initial shirt, which was infinitely renewable, other clothes would need to be cleaned or repaired if they got dirty or damaged.

As for why he also took the sheets... well, it was just convenient. What if they came in handy later?

Bai Fuling cleared out the roof, not even sparing the clothes racks, stuffing it all into his pack.

When the backpack slots were full, he looked through his inventory and decided to ditch some temporarily useless items.

Now, the roof had become as clean as its original, empty state—except for the seeds, cigarette packs, sticks, and other things the player had thrown on the ground.

Bai Fuling walked toward the roof door. This door leading inside was locked, but for the player, it was no big deal.

He skillfully took out the axe and gave the lock a few whacks. The rusty lock gave way and fell off.

However, the racket seemed to have drawn attention. Bai Fuling heard muffled voices from below.

"...What was that noise...?!"

"Is 803 causing trouble again? Xiao Zhang, go check."

"...The security office just called, saying there's an intruder here? Be careful!"

Sure enough, the NPCs here were very unfriendly toward the player, treating him as a hostile red name.

Fortunately, the player was smart and had already figured out how to use these items while on the roof.

Bai Fuling thought, satisfied, then controlled his character to push open the now-unlocked roof door and headed down the stairs.

He walked from the staircase into the eighth-floor corridor.

The white walls and white ward doors almost blended together. The entire corridor was a combination of pixelated white blocks in different shades of white.

So much white! Fortunately, the player's hospital gown was a blue-and-white checkered shirt, which still stood out against the background. It just wasn't as eye-catching as his original bright yellow raincoat.

Compared to a typical hospital, this corridor was narrower, basically only wide enough for a bed to pass through in one direction.

On both sides were closed white doors, each marked with a room number. Apart from that, there were no other markings.

Alright, now for the classic exploration bit. Bai Fuling was certain.

Logically, the key information was hidden in one of these many rooms. The player's job was to find the one containing the secret among the parallel rooms.

—It was likely related to Pang Chengyu's hesitation and indecision. Perhaps after searching, he could trigger the unknown task for Pang Chengyu's gray gift box.

From a distance, Bai Fuling saw the figure of a pixel character.

The pixel character was wearing a white coat and had just come out of a room. He held a key in his hand. His actions of closing and locking the door were very practiced.

...Was this the doctor from the muffled voices who went to check Room 803? Speaking of which, this person had keys!

Bai Fuling perked up. Watching the pixel character lock the door, he knew all the rooms in the corridor were closed.

The player could certainly break the doors down, but doing so for every door would be too troublesome, made too much noise and took too long. If he could have keys to open them directly, that would be much better.

Moreover—why would an NPC suddenly appear in the background? It must be for the player to use!

In that case, why hesitate? He definitely had to go get the key item [Key]!

However, rushing in recklessly wasn't advisable. This was inside the hospital, and there were surely other doctors around. What if the target NPC shouted and called other doctors?

Then it would be a brawl! Unless absolutely necessary, the player didn't want to start a fight—it was a waste of time. Besides, if there were too many similar white coats, it would be easy to lose track of the NPC with the keys.

Bai Fuling focused, thinking about how to approach quietly.

He quickly glanced at the almost entirely white surroundings and remembered the white sheets he'd snagged from the roof.

Oh, wasn't this the perfect time to put them to use? Every item he picked up had to be useful for *something*. So, if he draped a white sheet over himself, he'd probably be invisible to the NPC!

Bai Fuling was confident. He took out a white sheet from his backpack and draped it over himself.

To be even stealthier, he even chose to crouch down.

In real life, moving around in a crouch is slower, but in the game, speed is completely controlled by the player.

Bai Fuling didn’t adjust his speed. Wrapped in the bedsheet and crouching on the ground, he dashed forward at a sprinting pace—*whoosh!*

Not far away, the pixelated NPC had just finished locking the door when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a white lump skimming across the floor at high speed. A huge exclamation mark popped up above his head.

“Hey, hey!… Wait, what is that?!”

Discovered? Crap, even though the player had already blended into the background with the white bedsheet, how did the NPC still notice?

Bai Fuling’s thoughts raced for a second, but he didn’t stop.

At least, with the bedsheet on, the NPC wouldn’t automatically target him as an enemy. The NPC seemed unable to recognize the player in this state, reacting only with shock and panic, without any hostile intent to attack.

He had to seize this chance! So Bai Fuling continued crouching under the bedsheet, scurrying forward.

“…Wait, no, no, no—ahhh! Don’t come any closer—!!” The doctor NPC’s exclamation mark trembled a few times. He turned and ran, shouting as he fled, “Help, help! A giant white… *thing*! Some kind of rodent is attacking me!”

Crap, it seemed like the NPC’s fear level had been pushed too high, causing him to call for backup.

Bai Fuling steadied his mind and upped his speed setting again.

Before any other doctors could emerge from the nearby rooms, he sprinted and lunged into a tackle, knocked the NPC down, and swiftly retrieved the keys from him, stashing them into his backpack!

The downed NPC screamed and yelled, seemingly unaware that Bai Fuling had taken his keys. He looked on the verge of passing out.

Bai Fuling took the keys and immediately turned to head back and explore the rooms.

As long as the player didn’t provoke the NPC further, he’d probably calm down on his own soon and return to his normal, scheduled routine.

However, before he could take more than a few steps, Bai Fuling heard the *click* of doors opening. On the screen, several nearby doors swung open, and more white-coated doctor NPCs stepped out.

“Xiao Zhang, keep it down, no shouting in the hallway—holy crap, what the hell is that on the floor?!”

Bai Fuling was still crouching under the bedsheet. Seeing more doctors appear on the screen, he made the quick decision to slip away, keeping low to the ground.

Wherever he passed, exclamation marks and screams erupted.

“What is that?! What’s that thing moving so fast on the floor?!”

“Don’t come over!—Quick, notify security, hurry!”

“…Is it a person? Did a patient escape from an unlocked room, draped in a bedsheet?”

“How can a person move that fast while crouching? It’s like it’s flying!”

The doctors watched as the mysterious white lump on the floor zipped away at an unbelievable, lightning-fast speed, disappearing around the corner of the hallway. The looks on their faces were priceless.

Xiao Zhang, who had been tackled to the floor, was so frightened he could barely move. Another doctor nearby helped him up.

“Are you okay, Xiao Zhang? What was that just now???”

The helped-up doctor was still in a near-fainting state, almost transitioning from a regular doctor to a psychiatric patient in one go—straight from admission to readmission.

With his last ounce of strength, he shouted, “…I saw black eyes… white teeth, and it was wearing a patient gown!”

“So it really was an escaped patient.”

“But how could a person run that fast? Black eyes, white teeth, a giant lump—it’s a mutated giant rodent!”

On the side, a doctor who had dialed security was hearing both versions. He hesitated for a moment, then merged the two descriptions:

“We need help on the top floor! There’s—uh, a suspected escaped patient in a patient gown, a mutated giant white rodent!”