Chapter 230: Flying Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Six)

Li Cheng crossed the entire cafeteria once more, greeted Martha and Barbie, and sprinted toward the children's clinic. The matchbox in his hand rustled with his running.

The front of the matchbox was printed with the Conn Group logo, and the two remaining matches inside were also recognized by the system as props.

【Item Name: Match】

【Type: Ignition Tool】

【Quality: Common】

【Special Effect: None】

【Equip Requirement: None】

【Note: Cannot be brought out of the script world】

【Note: An ordinary potassium chlorate match. Perhaps it can be hidden in the hair and smuggled out?】

Besides the two matches, the box also held a USB-sized mini voice recorder, but when Li Cheng focused his attention on the recorder, no system prompt popped up.

"Judging by the consistent nature the Killing Ground system has shown, this difference itself is part of the hint."

Li Cheng pressed the recorder button thoughtfully and played the recording.

After a brief hiss, an irritated male voice sounded, "Why are you here again? I told you to give me some time. I've already found out that Diane was secretly locked in the seclusion room on the fourth floor. The key to the seclusion room was hidden by the director in the safe in her own office.

Yesterday, on Christmas Eve, I sneaked into the director's office. The safe needs a password, so I can't open it for now."

The irritated male voice seemed to be having a private conversation with someone, but the recorder failed to capture the other person's words, leaving only the irritated male voice's monologue.

"Listen, I took your ten-thousand-dollar deposit. I'll definitely get the job done for you."

"That's it then. Don't come into my office next time—your attending doctor isn't me. By the way, are you sure I can receive the hundred-thousand-dollar balance in ten days?"

The recording ended there, containing a substantial amount of information.

First, the speaker was most likely Dawson from the employee group photo in the medical records room.

The recording location was his office, and the recording time was December 25th, Christmas Day.

Second, the recording mentioned a new name, Diane, who was located in the fourth-floor seclusion room. And someone was willing to pay a hundred and ten thousand dollars to find her.

While pondering, Li Cheng returned once more to the children's clinic door. He inserted the key into the lock and flung the door open,

while his right hand simultaneously struck a match with one hand, driving back the monsters that lunged at him first, and also illuminating George, who was curled up on the bed crying.

The cerebral peduncle hallucination only triggers in dark environments. As the light enveloped the room and shone into George's eyes, the surrounding flayed-demon shadows retreated helplessly.

Like a reef amid the waves, Li Cheng passed through the encircling fierce ghosts, walked to the corner of the room, and turned on the light switch.

Buzz.

All the fluorescent tubes in the children's clinic lit up at once, the evil spirits instantly retreated and vanished, and the room returned to quiet.

"Thank you, Brother William." George stopped sobbing and nodded gratefully toward Li Cheng.

"It's just a small life-saving favor. You can pay me five million."

Li Cheng spouted nonsense offhandedly. After getting George's consent, he first took the chewing gum as payment, then picked up the rabbit plush on the empty bed opposite George.

The moment it was in hand, Li Cheng felt something was off.

The red-eyed rabbit plush's eyes were overly shiny. When he reached out and pried, he actually pulled off a pair of green colored contacts originally meant for human use.

The rabbit plush's original eye color was magenta, which combined with the green contacts to form pure red.

【Item Name: Green Colored Contacts】

【Type: Worn Item】

【Note: Cannot be brought out of the script world】

【Note: Custom-made special colored contacts that can reveal invisible ink. Perhaps they can be hidden under the eyelids and smuggled out?】

Wait, that rat-man Skaven said he previously saw William as having green eyes.

Could these colored contacts have originally belonged to William?

Li Cheng turned the rabbit plush over and over, and on the inside of the product tag, he saw the name "Freya."

He asked George if he knew this person named Freya, but the latter seemed to have already finished all his plot, only able to repeat "Thank you, Brother William" over and over.

Helpless, Li Cheng had no choice but to take the rabbit plush and head back to the cafeteria to report to the sheep-headed old lady Martha.

"Thank you so much, William. Here, this is what my nephew brought me."

Martha took the plush with a smile and handed Li Cheng a ring-shaped hollow candy in plastic packaging.

【Item Name: Super Hard Super Intense Mint Candy】

【Type: Food】

【Note: Cannot be brought out of the script world】

【Note: A miraculous candy that only dissolves after being chewed up, capable of thoroughly invigorating the spirit and resisting the drowsiness caused by anesthetics. Perhaps it can be hidden under the tongue and smuggled out?】

【Note: This flavor is way way way too on point】

Li Cheng squinted at the candy, ranting wildly in his heart: "Matches, colored contacts, mint candy—why does every single thing have to be hidden on the body and smuggled out? Is this a mental hospital or the highest-level federal prison?

At this rate, is the next step going to make players hide apples and durians on themselves?

And why is it that only the mint candy gets a third note? Old lady, what does your nephew do out there?"

Li Cheng roared his complaints in his heart while his face remained calm and composed. He took the mint candy unhurriedly, turned, and ran toward the first floor.

In the first-floor medical records room, the rat-man Skaven was still bent over prying the lock, only reacting when Li Cheng patted his shoulder. He sniffed the air. "I smell chewing gum. Not bad—you brought what I wanted so quickly."

Here's the blade."

Skaven snatched the chewing gum, tossed it in his mouth and chewed it soft, then stuffed the softened gum into the filing cabinet's keyhole, twisted it with an iron wire, pried the cabinet open, and started rummaging through it.

Li Cheng examined the newly acquired surgical blade. Like the colored contacts and mint candy, the blade was also tagged by the system as a prop, with a hint that it could be hidden in the upper palate of the mouth.

"The mission objective this time is to explore the hospital and stay alive within five hours.

The implied meaning is that if you can't explore the hospital and gather enough tools before the time limit arrives, death is certain once the five hours are up."

Li Cheng thought silently, took out the green colored contacts, and put them on his right eye.

Normal cosmetic contact lenses have a transparent center in the pupil area, with color only around the periphery, so they don't affect visual color.

But this specially-made pair has a special coating applied to the central pupil area, and once worn, the light before the eyes dims slightly.

When Li Cheng flipped through William's medical file, he could see through the blacked-out portions and read the new information.

Name: William

Sex: Male

Age: Seventeen years and ten months

Diagnosis: Schizophrenia

Admission Date: October 4th

At admission, fractures of the left calf, right arm, and ribs had only just begun to heal; his guardian, his father, claimed he had suffered a serious mountaineering accident, which had caused him to develop a stress disorder and schizophrenia.

The hypnosis results showed that his deepest inner fear was watching his mother being buried, together with his sister.

Li Cheng's gaze swept over the file, and he turned to ask Skavin, "Brother Skav, do you know whether there are two people in the hospital named Freya and Diane?"

"Freya I know — the little girl from the pediatric clinic on the second floor, she seems to like you quite a bit. As for Diane, I haven't heard of her. The records office doesn't have a file for her either."

Skavin suddenly raised his head and stared fixedly at Li Cheng. "They've come to take you away."

"Hm? Who are 'they'?"

Before Li Cheng could react, the scene before his eyes twisted and warped violently, and some irresistible invisible force dragged him out of the records office and flung him into the elevator car.

Slam.

The elevator doors slowly closed, and the car rose upward. Skavin, meanwhile, woodenly turned around and mechanically repeated over and over the line he had already worn to a frazzle: "Don't bother me while I'm looking for files."

(End of Chapter)