Chapter 228

Following the principle of waste reuse, Li Cheng tied together the two sleeves of the restraint suit and hung them in front of his body as a makeshift backpack to hold file folders, slips of paper, and other props.

He also tied scraps of cloth around his fists to serve as gloves and protect his wrists.

He ascended the first-floor stairs, his mind racing: "The mission briefing mentioned that William entered Saint Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital for some undisclosed purpose, and his medical records state he suffers from schizophrenia."

The question is: is he truly ill, or faking it?

In this world, do rat-men truly exist, or do the Skaven only appear as rats in William's perception—because he suffers from kleptomania?

This question would not be answered soon; Li Cheng shook his head and stopped thinking, stepping up to the second floor of the asylum.

Like the first floor, all the lights along the second-floor corridor were on, yet not a single person could be seen.

On the left wall hung a map of the hospital's second floor.

On the right, the door to the pediatric clinic was ajar, the lights inside turned off, faint sobs drifting from within.

Li Cheng eased his steps and approached the door to peer inside.

The pediatric clinic was much larger than the medical records room, its interior newer and more brightly decorated, with wooden flooring and colorful wallpaper featuring floral and avian motifs.

On the left side of the room stood a row of plastic cartoon-style animal chairs: lion, giraffe, reindeer, snow leopard, and others.

On the right side stood six wooden beds arranged in three rows of two.

Five beds were empty; the sobbing came from the bed in the corner near the window.

It was a human boy wearing blue pajamas, with a pig's nose, clad in a patient gown, curled up under the blanket. Beside the bed, the nightstand held various snacks: gum, sausage, and more.

"Big Brother William?"

The pig-nosed boy spotted Li Cheng and asked, voice trembling with tears: "Is that you?"

"It's me, George."

Li Cheng called out his name from the label on the boy's patient gown (wondering if he had a sister named Paige): "Why are you still awake so late?"

George sobbed: "There are monsters in the dark. They're watching me. I can't move."

This revealed two things: one, danger lurked in the dark; two, George was immobilized—he likely couldn't just toss the gum over.

"Alright."

Hearing this, Li Cheng pulled the door open slightly.

The corridor's light spilled into the pediatric clinic, dispelling a small patch of darkness, but the rest remained shrouded in shadow.

Li Cheng extended his arm and pressed the light switch near the door.

Click.

The switch flipped, but the bulb remained dark.

"That switch is broken. You need to flip this one."

The pig-nosed boy extended a finger from under the blanket, pointing to the wall directly opposite him.

The switch was located in the room's corner, about nine meters away from Li Cheng. With William's physical stats, he couldn't possibly throw anything far enough to flip it.

At the same time, Li Cheng strongly suspected the system had deliberately placed the pediatric clinic near the entrance as a hidden trap—

He had to pass right by the clinic door when ascending the stairs, ensuring George would immediately notice him and trigger the scene.

If Li Cheng now ran off to fetch a flashlight or oil lamp and left George here, he might return to find the boy dead.

No choice. He had to go in.

He bent his knees slightly, pushed off the floor, and sprinted toward the location of the light switch—beneath which, on the wooden bed, sat a red-eyed rabbit doll.

One step, two steps—everything normal—until, on his third step, sudden change erupted.

From beneath the bed diagonally opposite George, a semi-transparent mass shot out, seized Li Cheng's right ankle, halting his forward momentum and yanking him backward.

Fortunately, Li Cheng had anticipated this; he kicked off the left wall with his left foot, twisted his waist sharply, and used the rotational force to brace his hands on the bed's surface, landing steadily while dragging the semi-transparent entity out from under the bed.

"My god, Hayek's invisible hand."

Li Cheng's eyes widened as he blurted: the thing was a semi-transparent human left hand, about half a meter in diameter, adorned with an absurdly flashy diamond ring on its ring finger.

"Watch out—above you!"

George cried out, and as he spoke, the ceiling rippled like water; a pumpkin-headed scarecrow dropped down, swinging a giant scythe toward Li Cheng.

Li Cheng dodged sideways; the glowing scythe slammed into the floor, and the scarecrow struggled to pull it free.

"Your right!"

George shouted again; the wall to Li Cheng's right rippled like water, and a werewolf leapt out, jaws wide, lunging at him.

Li Cheng threw a right hook, knocking the werewolf's head askew, then followed with a gut kick, sending it crashing into the wall—when George screamed again, frantic: "Behind you!"

Are you kidding me? Every time you say a direction, a monster appears there. I'm starting to think you're the real final boss.

Li Cheng spun around—and saw a figure slowly rising behind him.

It was a grotesque human: all skin stripped away, nose removed, half the skull shaved off, exposing a glistening white brain; eyes plucked out and embedded in the palms of its hands.

Its strength far surpassed that of the werewolf or scarecrow; with a single wave of its hand, Li Cheng was flung backward, crashing through the door and slamming into the wall.

Thud!

The pediatric clinic door slammed shut with invisible force; Li Cheng rushed forward, but received the prompt: 【Door immovable. Pediatric clinic key required.】

Faint sobs still drifted from inside, but George gave no response to Li Cheng's shouts.

"What the hell."

Li Cheng's mind raced: the monster's base stats were far beyond those of an ordinary human—impossible to defeat at this stage.

At the same time, George was still alive—his storyline hadn't ended, or the system wouldn't have prompted that the door required the clinic key.

"This scene is a hint: the player must find a key item elsewhere, then return to save George and retrieve the gum."

Realizing this, he stopped pounding on the door and turned, sprinting down the corridor.

The most likely place to spawn the pediatric clinic key was the doctors' lounge on the opposite side of the U-shaped building.

Li Cheng sprinted through the second-floor cafeteria.

The cafeteria was located in the very center of the U-shaped main building, spacious and vast, and under the bright lights, two figures in hospital gowns sat all alone, chatting casually.

One of them was a sheep-headed old woman with a kindly face, cradling a plastic baby doll and bottle-feeding it as if it were a real human infant, utterly indifferent to the milk spilling all over the floor.

Her hospital gown showed her name was Martha.

The other was a wheat-skinned human woman who had clearly had too much plastic surgery.

Her lips were thick, her apple cheeks plump, her nose bridge excessively high and sharp. The features combined together looked horrifying no matter how you looked at them, giving off a vibe like the alien from E. T.

Her hospital gown showed her name was Barbie.

"Hey, William."

Barbie seemed to know William too, and said amiably, "Slow down, don't fall—where are you headed?"

"Going to the doctors' lounge to find the pediatric clinic key."

Li Cheng was already used to the way NPCs in this scripted mission spoke, and said quickly, "George is trapped."

"Oh, poor George."

The sheep-headed old woman Martha made the sign of the cross over her chest and sighed, "He's been tormented by hallucinations terribly."

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow. "Hallucinations?"

Old Martha sighed, "Yes, every time it's dark, George sees all kinds of terrifying hallucinations. It's precisely because of this that his parents sent him here.

He tried hard to learn not to cry, thinking that as long as he stopped crying, Daddy and Mommy would come take him back—but he didn't know his parents had already had another child."

Hallucinations? Li Cheng silently rotated his wrist. Judging by the feel from earlier, it didn't seem like hallucinations at all.

(End of chapter)