When Zong Jiu finally returned to consciousness, the dizziness and weakness in his limbs were similar to when he had first entered the instance.
It was obvious that he had been drugged.
He didn’t open his eyes, but kept his breathing even and listened in silence to the movements around him.
Really, Zong Jiu’s present situation wasn’t great.
AD
He could feel that wide straps bound him down to a narrow chair, restraining his body.
More importantly, a towel drenched in disinfectant had been stuffed into his mouth, which meant he couldn’t speak, let alone recite the key to instantly clear the instance now.
Or, in other words, he was like a fried egg stuck to the pan that wouldn’t flip over no matter what, only able to watch on helplessly, unable to move even when promised wealth and riches.
Zong Jiu, “…”
Fuck! I really screwed up big time.
[Awuwuwu, the broadcast’s finally connected again! A’Jiu, don’t cry, mama is here!]
[Damn, it’s a little inappropriate to get excited when it just reconnected, right?]
[I just went to check out a few other live broadcast rooms in this instance; they all seemed to have lost connection. It gave me a fright. Luckily Jiu-gege came back on, phew.]
[Honestly though… he has pretty good luck. If it weren’t for this pervert doctor who took him out of basement 2 like nobody’s business, this white-haired beauty would probably end up like He Jianlan and the others.]
“Awake?”
Just as he secretly plotted in his head, a low voice rang out quietly in the empty chamber.
Since he had been discovered, Zong Jiu didn’t bother to pretend anymore.
He was already holding onto the hidden trump that would pave his way to victory. The only problem now was that he had to deal with this doctor who had ‘I’m Very Happy’ written all over his face.
As long as the other would remove the towel from his mouth, even if just for a second, Zong Jiu could turn defeat into victory.
With his mind made up, the white-haired young man slowly opened his eyes and warily surveyed his surroundings.
The operating theatre was quite dim. The only source of light was the light cast down on the operating table.
But for Zong Jiu, there was still another source of light—
A black iron box placed on the operating table, radiating a brilliant golden halo, softly dappling into its surroundings in long, narrow grains of light.
Zong Jiu’s eyes flashed.
The last time he was in the operating theatre, he received an invaluable piece of information.
“That box once contained a very interesting trinket. It’s just a pity that a few decades ago… it was stolen by a disgraceful thief…”
According to Zhuge An’s conjecture, the alternate dimensional space existed exactly thirty years before the timeline of this mental asylum. When the clock struck twelve on the third day, all trainees in the mental asylum would be dragged into the alternate dimension, which meant that not only was Zong Jiu in there, he also happened to be thirty years back in the past.
Thirty years ago, this S-rank prop had yet to be stolen, but was instead sitting here, just within Zong Jiu’s reach.
Although he was determined to get it, Zong Jiu didn’t show any of it on the surface. After a cursory glance, he could conceal even the most shocking of storms in his heart.
The doctor in the white coat was standing in close proximity to his left. It wasn’t clear if he had noticed Zong Jiu’s small movement, but the interest in the man’s eyes deepened. Looking down at him, an elusive smile perpetually hung off the corners of his lips.
Zong Jiu didn’t know if it was because he was in an alternate dimension, but the equipment in this operating theatre looked much more outdated compared to those thirty years in the future. Even the electric chair that Zong Jiu sat on was an antique from the last century, rusty electrode pads poking out of the ends of the wires.
And now, these cold electrode pads were attached to his body.
Ibcu Ale’r bkc eqqfg ybvs kjr bcmf jujlc raglqqfv yjgf. Ktbrf fifmagbvf qjvr raemx ab tlw lcalwjafis ilxf atf remxfgr bo jc bmabqer afcajmif.
Ktf vbmabg kjr erlcu j rmjiqfi ab qlmx eq jcbatfg fifmagbvf qjv, rafjvlis qijmlcu la bc tlr mtfra.
Vfflcu atja Ibcu Ale’r fsfr kfgf bqfc, tf mjrejiis, wjilmlberis veu atf alq bo atf rmjiqfi vbkc, rwlilcu ojlcais jr atf ktlaf-tjlgfv sbecu wjc rtlnfgfv.
“I’ve warned you. Disobedient patients who get caught violating the rules will be punished.”
Just for a split second, Zong Jiu felt like a fish being held down on the chopping board, letting the other man cut the texture of his skin with a blade as he pleased, pretentiously nitpicking on it and pronouncing judgement.
This was the first time in Zong Jiu’s life that he had to endure such humiliation.
“Mmf… mmf…”
He attempted to make sounds with the vocal cords in his throat to arouse Dr. Chu’s interest.
All he had to do was stall for time, fight to get the towel off; then, he could turn the tide.
But what he never expected was that the next second, without any warning, the power would suddenly be flicked on.
Tiny tingling electric currents streaked madly through the long wires, like millions of needles, probing into Zong Jiu’s naked body.
Fuck, this unreasonable madman!
Dr. Chu hadn’t set the voltage at a level high enough to kill, adeptly controlling it at a value that would cause unbearable pain without passing out. It was still within the acceptable range for ordinary people. Then, after that was done, he stood by calmly and admired the scene with his arms crossed, his gaze like a venomous viper that had coiled back, ready to strike.
Right as the electricity connected, the young man’s brows furrowed, his entire body arching instinctively from the concentrated jolts of current.
In a short while, large beads of sweat seeped thinly from his long hair, slithering down and clinging to his beautiful and blemishless waist like a layer of glimmering beeswax; the sight of it was a feast for the eyes.
Under the slight burning sensation from the electric stimulation, his entire body glistened heavily with sweat.
The sharp pain caused a tingling, rippling flush to slowly diffuse from his blue veins beneath the layer of sweat. Within moments, Zong Jiu looked like he was dredged up from boiling water, cooked from head to toe.
“Once this has been sterilised, we can begin the surgery. I promise, you’ll be my proudest masterpiece.”
The man took pleasure from this response, the scalpel flying and spinning over the flames, a bloody dance of art and grace between his ten slender fingers.
Perhaps one of the wires had short circuited; a tiny spark was practically about to leap out of an electrode pad.
At that very moment, the person in the electric chair suddenly slumped forward.
As his whole body was bound by restraining straps, the young man’s head drooped down when he passed out from the current. Strands of long white hair drenched in sweat hung down from his forehead, and his body was surrounded by a dense cloud of hot steam. He looked utterly miserable.
A steady stream of crystalline sweat still rolled down from the centre of his forehead. It traced down from his nose bridge to the tip of his nose, and fell drop by drop, leaving a dark smear on the ground.
The doctor arched an eyebrow.
Cream-coloured rubber gloves slowly pushed upwards along the young man’s jawline.
Even with a layer of rubber separating the two layers of skin, the coldness from the man’s fingers could easily penetrate into the marrow of his bones.
Someplace far away, a clock was stopped on the hour.
The previous time Dr. Chu appeared was also on the hour. Inspiration instantly struck Zong Jiu like sparks from flint.
“Is this as far as you can go?”
He sighed, disinterest on his face as he raised the white hair that fell by the young man’s temples. The tip of the blade hovered above his eyelid.
“What a shame.”
Just before the tip of the blade could pierce, the young man’s drooping head suddenly jerked up. As quick as lightning, he took advantage of the proximity between them to slam towards the shiny, sharp scalpel.
It was doubtlessly suicidal behaviour.
Everything flashed by like a sudden peal of thunder. By the time the doctor unconsciously deflected the hilt of the scalpel, Zong Jiu had already managed to wrap the towel in his mouth around the tip of the scalpel, the corners of his mouth pulling into a wide grin.
“Rip—”
And once the tip was wrapped around the towel, the next move slashed it towards his cheek.
Under the electric stimulation, the flushed, white-haired young man raised his head.
A paper-thin cut slowly oozed out a sticky line of blood on the side of his cheek, beautifully complementing the base colour of his skin.
The saliva-soaked towel slid down with the force of the scalpel and rolled onto the dusty floor.
Zong Jiu met the white-coated doctor’s gaze, and, with a provocative smile, recited the key.
Less than a moment later, the surroundings shook and changed.
Large patches of peeling walls and the surgical tools so worn they were glazed all disappeared, replaced by pale walls and a display case with dirty, dark-brown glass. In the hollow eye sockets, a slender black snake bared its fangs, its body slithering lithely through the credivses of various body parts soaked in glass jars.
He had returned from the alternate dimensional space of thirty years ago.
Zong Jiu lay on the unpowered electric chair, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for air.
If the key to solve the puzzle was related to the plotline of the instance, then the key would be oclock, without the extra k.
Decrypting pnpso with this by the Vigenère cipher would give him the plaintext bleem, and ‘bleem’ would thus be the key to travel between the dimensional spaces.
However, that was just a hypothesis.
Zong Jiu only had one chance. If he guessed wrong, he would die on the electric chair and not have a second chance to recite any other keys. From the beginning, this was an extremely risky move.
But he chose to bet on it.
Now that everyone in the mental asylum had been dragged to the alternate dimension, the normal dimension was empty and safe.
In the silence, the white-haired young man hung his head, waiting for his limbs to slowly regain sensation.
When he recited the key just now, Zong Jiu could have chosen to change the landing time to after the three days specified by the system to become the second person to clear, following Zhuge An’s footsteps.
But Zong Jiu did not.
Not only had he chosen not to, he chose to move thirty years further back in time.
If a reason must be given… then of course it was because he couldn’t take this lying down ^_^
Anyone who doesn’t avenge an injustice isn’t a gentleman; anyone who doesn’t redress a wrong isn’t a man. He was bullied black and blue, how could his manly pride take the blow?
A few minutes later, Zong Jiu stood up shakily from the electric chair. Under the hissing gaze of the black snake, he dragged his body, numb from the electric stimulation, and limped around the operating theatre.
Soon, Zong Jiu found the target of his search in a corner littered with miscellaneous items.
The white-haired young man laboriously bent down and picked up the heavy hammer from the floor. He weighed it in his hand. Feeling strength returning to his wrists, he smiled.
With a cold expression, Zong Jiu walked to the side of the operating table, and recited the key again.
Less than a second later, the light instantly dimmed once more.
Walls peeled, rust flew. The transformation between dimensional spaces presented itself easily for the master who possessed the space-time key.
The heavens were also looking favourably on Zong Jiu; that white-coated figure was standing at the electric chair with his back facing him, his head bowed as he seemed to sort out something in the medical supply box.
The dimly lit operating theatre was so quiet that even Dr. Chu couldn’t have expected that a man would appear out of thin air behind him.
Zong Jiu smiled darkly.
Before the man could react, he raised the hammer high in the air.
“Dong—”
Behold, a hammer!
The hands holding the hammer slammed down. A good man rid the world of a scourge, nice!
Downed with a hammer; if this doctor wasn’t dead, he’d surely be crippled.
[HAHAHAHAHAH]
[Damn, no mercy. The back of my head suddenly hurts.]
[Ahahahahah my bad, I can’t stop laughing!!!!]
Before reciting the key for the third time, Zong Jiu stomped on the bridge of the gold-rimmed glasses, then reached out to take the black iron box with a golden halo from the table.
Everything in the background melted away like honey in water, flitting rapidly in his field of vision, eventually turning into a blurred and vibrant block of colour, and dissipating.
A mechanical system prompt rang out.
[Congratulations to Trainee Zong Jiu for obtaining S-rank prop x1.]
[E-rank Thriller Trainee Zong Jiu has cleared the instance.]
In a distant darkness elsewhere, a man sitting in a high-backed chair snapped his eyes open.
Transparent puppet strings on his slender fingers danced and spun from where they pierced through the dimensional void, and began to slowly draw back.
[NPC roleplaying task has failed.]
[Venue: one-man show instance in a Mental Asylum, A-rank.]
[Roleplay: a psychopathic psychiatrist with a strange collection fetish.]
[Reason for failure: character incapacitated.]
“Instead of choosing to directly leave the instance, you rested just to come back again.”
In the dead silence, the man suddenly chuckled.
“Interesting.”
When Zong Jiu finally returned to consciousness, the dizziness and weakness in his limbs were similar to when he had first entered the instance.
It was obvious that he had been drugged.
He didn’t open his eyes, but kept his breathing even and listened in silence to the movements around him.
Really, Zong Jiu’s present situation wasn’t great.
AD
He could feel that wide straps bound him down to a narrow chair, restraining his body.
More importantly, a towel drenched in disinfectant had been stuffed into his mouth, which meant he couldn’t speak, let alone recite the key to instantly clear the instance now.
Or, in other words, he was like a fried egg stuck to the pan that wouldn’t flip over no matter what, only able to watch on helplessly, unable to move even when promised wealth and riches.
Zong Jiu, “…”
Fuck! I really screwed up big time.
[Awuwuwu, the broadcast’s finally connected again! A’Jiu, don’t cry, mama is here!]
[Damn, it’s a little inappropriate to get excited when it just reconnected, right?]
[I just went to check out a few other live broadcast rooms in this instance; they all seemed to have lost connection. It gave me a fright. Luckily Jiu-gege came back on, phew.]
[Honestly though… he has pretty good luck. If it weren’t for this pervert doctor who took him out of basement 2 like nobody’s business, this white-haired beauty would probably end up like He Jianlan and the others.]
“Awake?”
Just as he secretly plotted in his head, a low voice rang out quietly in the empty chamber.
Since he had been discovered, Zong Jiu didn’t bother to pretend anymore.
He was already holding onto the hidden trump that would pave his way to victory. The only problem now was that he had to deal with this doctor who had ‘I’m Very Happy’ written all over his face.
As long as the other would remove the towel from his mouth, even if just for a second, Zong Jiu could turn defeat into victory.
With his mind made up, the white-haired young man slowly opened his eyes and warily surveyed his surroundings.
The operating theatre was quite dim. The only source of light was the light cast down on the operating table.
But for Zong Jiu, there was still another source of light—
A black iron box placed on the operating table, radiating a brilliant golden halo, softly dappling into its surroundings in long, narrow grains of light.
Zong Jiu’s eyes flashed.
The last time he was in the operating theatre, he received an invaluable piece of information.
“That box once contained a very interesting trinket. It’s just a pity that a few decades ago… it was stolen by a disgraceful thief…”
According to Zhuge An’s conjecture, the alternate dimensional space existed exactly thirty years before the timeline of this mental asylum. When the clock struck twelve on the third day, all trainees in the mental asylum would be dragged into the alternate dimension, which meant that not only was Zong Jiu in there, he also happened to be thirty years back in the past.
Thirty years ago, this S-rank prop had yet to be stolen, but was instead sitting here, just within Zong Jiu’s reach.
Although he was determined to get it, Zong Jiu didn’t show any of it on the surface. After a cursory glance, he could conceal even the most shocking of storms in his heart.
The doctor in the white coat was standing in close proximity to his left. It wasn’t clear if he had noticed Zong Jiu’s small movement, but the interest in the man’s eyes deepened. Looking down at him, an elusive smile perpetually hung off the corners of his lips.
Zong Jiu didn’t know if it was because he was in an alternate dimension, but the equipment in this operating theatre looked much more outdated compared to those thirty years in the future. Even the electric chair that Zong Jiu sat on was an antique from the last century, rusty electrode pads poking out of the ends of the wires.
And now, these cold electrode pads were attached to his body.
Ibcu Ale’r bkc eqqfg ybvs kjr bcmf jujlc raglqqfv yjgf. Ktbrf fifmagbvf qjvr raemx ab tlw lcalwjafis ilxf atf remxfgr bo jc bmabqer afcajmif.
Ktf vbmabg kjr erlcu j rmjiqfi ab qlmx eq jcbatfg fifmagbvf qjv, rafjvlis qijmlcu la bc tlr mtfra.
Vfflcu atja Ibcu Ale’r fsfr kfgf bqfc, tf mjrejiis, wjilmlberis veu atf alq bo atf rmjiqfi vbkc, rwlilcu ojlcais jr atf ktlaf-tjlgfv sbecu wjc rtlnfgfv.
“I’ve warned you. Disobedient patients who get caught violating the rules will be punished.”
Just for a split second, Zong Jiu felt like a fish being held down on the chopping board, letting the other man cut the texture of his skin with a blade as he pleased, pretentiously nitpicking on it and pronouncing judgement.
This was the first time in Zong Jiu’s life that he had to endure such humiliation.
“Mmf… mmf…”
He attempted to make sounds with the vocal cords in his throat to arouse Dr. Chu’s interest.
All he had to do was stall for time, fight to get the towel off; then, he could turn the tide.
But what he never expected was that the next second, without any warning, the power would suddenly be flicked on.
Tiny tingling electric currents streaked madly through the long wires, like millions of needles, probing into Zong Jiu’s naked body.
Fuck, this unreasonable madman!
Dr. Chu hadn’t set the voltage at a level high enough to kill, adeptly controlling it at a value that would cause unbearable pain without passing out. It was still within the acceptable range for ordinary people. Then, after that was done, he stood by calmly and admired the scene with his arms crossed, his gaze like a venomous viper that had coiled back, ready to strike.
Right as the electricity connected, the young man’s brows furrowed, his entire body arching instinctively from the concentrated jolts of current.
In a short while, large beads of sweat seeped thinly from his long hair, slithering down and clinging to his beautiful and blemishless waist like a layer of glimmering beeswax; the sight of it was a feast for the eyes.
Under the slight burning sensation from the electric stimulation, his entire body glistened heavily with sweat.
The sharp pain caused a tingling, rippling flush to slowly diffuse from his blue veins beneath the layer of sweat. Within moments, Zong Jiu looked like he was dredged up from boiling water, cooked from head to toe.
“Once this has been sterilised, we can begin the surgery. I promise, you’ll be my proudest masterpiece.”
The man took pleasure from this response, the scalpel flying and spinning over the flames, a bloody dance of art and grace between his ten slender fingers.
Perhaps one of the wires had short circuited; a tiny spark was practically about to leap out of an electrode pad.
At that very moment, the person in the electric chair suddenly slumped forward.
As his whole body was bound by restraining straps, the young man’s head drooped down when he passed out from the current. Strands of long white hair drenched in sweat hung down from his forehead, and his body was surrounded by a dense cloud of hot steam. He looked utterly miserable.
A steady stream of crystalline sweat still rolled down from the centre of his forehead. It traced down from his nose bridge to the tip of his nose, and fell drop by drop, leaving a dark smear on the ground.
The doctor arched an eyebrow.
Cream-coloured rubber gloves slowly pushed upwards along the young man’s jawline.
Even with a layer of rubber separating the two layers of skin, the coldness from the man’s fingers could easily penetrate into the marrow of his bones.
Someplace far away, a clock was stopped on the hour.
The previous time Dr. Chu appeared was also on the hour. Inspiration instantly struck Zong Jiu like sparks from flint.
“Is this as far as you can go?”
He sighed, disinterest on his face as he raised the white hair that fell by the young man’s temples. The tip of the blade hovered above his eyelid.
“What a shame.”
Just before the tip of the blade could pierce, the young man’s drooping head suddenly jerked up. As quick as lightning, he took advantage of the proximity between them to slam towards the shiny, sharp scalpel.
It was doubtlessly suicidal behaviour.
Everything flashed by like a sudden peal of thunder. By the time the doctor unconsciously deflected the hilt of the scalpel, Zong Jiu had already managed to wrap the towel in his mouth around the tip of the scalpel, the corners of his mouth pulling into a wide grin.
“Rip—”
And once the tip was wrapped around the towel, the next move slashed it towards his cheek.
Under the electric stimulation, the flushed, white-haired young man raised his head.
A paper-thin cut slowly oozed out a sticky line of blood on the side of his cheek, beautifully complementing the base colour of his skin.
The saliva-soaked towel slid down with the force of the scalpel and rolled onto the dusty floor.
Zong Jiu met the white-coated doctor’s gaze, and, with a provocative smile, recited the key.
Less than a moment later, the surroundings shook and changed.
Large patches of peeling walls and the surgical tools so worn they were glazed all disappeared, replaced by pale walls and a display case with dirty, dark-brown glass. In the hollow eye sockets, a slender black snake bared its fangs, its body slithering lithely through the credivses of various body parts soaked in glass jars.
He had returned from the alternate dimensional space of thirty years ago.
Zong Jiu lay on the unpowered electric chair, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for air.
If the key to solve the puzzle was related to the plotline of the instance, then the key would be oclock, without the extra k.
Decrypting pnpso with this by the Vigenère cipher would give him the plaintext bleem, and ‘bleem’ would thus be the key to travel between the dimensional spaces.
However, that was just a hypothesis.
Zong Jiu only had one chance. If he guessed wrong, he would die on the electric chair and not have a second chance to recite any other keys. From the beginning, this was an extremely risky move.
But he chose to bet on it.
Now that everyone in the mental asylum had been dragged to the alternate dimension, the normal dimension was empty and safe.
In the silence, the white-haired young man hung his head, waiting for his limbs to slowly regain sensation.
When he recited the key just now, Zong Jiu could have chosen to change the landing time to after the three days specified by the system to become the second person to clear, following Zhuge An’s footsteps.
But Zong Jiu did not.
Not only had he chosen not to, he chose to move thirty years further back in time.
If a reason must be given… then of course it was because he couldn’t take this lying down ^_^
Anyone who doesn’t avenge an injustice isn’t a gentleman; anyone who doesn’t redress a wrong isn’t a man. He was bullied black and blue, how could his manly pride take the blow?
A few minutes later, Zong Jiu stood up shakily from the electric chair. Under the hissing gaze of the black snake, he dragged his body, numb from the electric stimulation, and limped around the operating theatre.
Soon, Zong Jiu found the target of his search in a corner littered with miscellaneous items.
The white-haired young man laboriously bent down and picked up the heavy hammer from the floor. He weighed it in his hand. Feeling strength returning to his wrists, he smiled.
With a cold expression, Zong Jiu walked to the side of the operating table, and recited the key again.
Less than a second later, the light instantly dimmed once more.
Walls peeled, rust flew. The transformation between dimensional spaces presented itself easily for the master who possessed the space-time key.
The heavens were also looking favourably on Zong Jiu; that white-coated figure was standing at the electric chair with his back facing him, his head bowed as he seemed to sort out something in the medical supply box.
The dimly lit operating theatre was so quiet that even Dr. Chu couldn’t have expected that a man would appear out of thin air behind him.
Zong Jiu smiled darkly.
Before the man could react, he raised the hammer high in the air.
“Dong—”
Behold, a hammer!
The hands holding the hammer slammed down. A good man rid the world of a scourge, nice!
Downed with a hammer; if this doctor wasn’t dead, he’d surely be crippled.
[HAHAHAHAHAH]
[Damn, no mercy. The back of my head suddenly hurts.]
[Ahahahahah my bad, I can’t stop laughing!!!!]
Before reciting the key for the third time, Zong Jiu stomped on the bridge of the gold-rimmed glasses, then reached out to take the black iron box with a golden halo from the table.
Everything in the background melted away like honey in water, flitting rapidly in his field of vision, eventually turning into a blurred and vibrant block of colour, and dissipating.
A mechanical system prompt rang out.
[Congratulations to Trainee Zong Jiu for obtaining S-rank prop x1.]
[E-rank Thriller Trainee Zong Jiu has cleared the instance.]
In a distant darkness elsewhere, a man sitting in a high-backed chair snapped his eyes open.
Transparent puppet strings on his slender fingers danced and spun from where they pierced through the dimensional void, and began to slowly draw back.
[NPC roleplaying task has failed.]
[Venue: one-man show instance in a Mental Asylum, A-rank.]
[Roleplay: a psychopathic psychiatrist with a strange collection fetish.]
[Reason for failure: character incapacitated.]
“Instead of choosing to directly leave the instance, you rested just to come back again.”
In the dead silence, the man suddenly chuckled.
“Interesting.”
