Chapter 232: Flying Over the Madhouse (8)

Leaving the stairwell, Li Cheng hurried toward the nurse's break room on the third floor's far left.

The break room door was locked, but the lock core was the lowest-grade C-class security; Li Cheng crouched on the ground, prying at the keyhole with his scalpel, trying to pick it.

Before he could properly begin, the door swung open from inside, and a blue nitrile glove seized his shoulder, yanking him into the room.

"William's little brother's here."

"William, you came?"

"Is it William?"

A dozen feminine voices chimed in unison; Li Cheng looked up to see clothing drifting everywhere in the room.

The collar of white nurse uniforms was half-popped open by full curves, revealing slender waists and tight miniskirts that sculpted perfect silhouettes; the sheer stockings ended short of the skirts, leaving a gap that added extra allure.

But, but,

Beneath all the clothing, everything was transparent—no human figures visible at all.

After a brief shock, Li Cheng's inner snark ignited fiercely, screaming inside: "Wait, is this even a real hospital?

After all that hardship, why give us a half-assed tease? Is it because William's a minor and needs child protection? Green Dam's been dead for years, you know!"

The transparent nurses seemed on good terms with William and were used to his visits—each glove rubbed his face, patted his head, and prodded his pectorals.

It wasn't hard to understand: William was handsome, resembling a slimmer version of young Leonardo DiCaprio, and from his interactions with other NPCs, he was clearly popular in the hospital.

"Uh, ladies—"

Li Cheng kept his gaze straight, politely asking: "Do you have any makeup pencils? Could I borrow one temporarily?"

"Of course."

The nurse with the most explosive figure pulled a makeup pencil from a drawer, struggled to wedge it into her cleavage, then pressed close to Li Cheng's ear and whispered with a husky breath: "Come get it yourself."

I already said this, but I have to ask again—are you guys running a real hospital?!

Where's your morality?

Where's your bottom line?

Where's your address?!

As Li Cheng swallowed and reached for the makeup pencil, the wooden door to the break room burst open.

A tall, muscular middle-aged woman, nearly 1.9 meters, strode in wearing a nurse's uniform.

Unlike the others, she had a visible form—composed expression, icy eyes—Nurse-in-Charge Rachid, from the staff photo.

"Nurse-in-Charge's here!"

All transparent nurses scattered like startled birds, crashing into walls and vanishing through them.

"Uh… good evening?"

Li Cheng held the makeup pencil, tentatively greeting Rachid.

Nurse-in-Charge Rachid glanced at Li Cheng coldly, then drew from behind her a syringe taller than herself, filled with a deeply ominous purple liquid.

She spoke calmly: "William, you've been wandering again. Time for your injection."

Hey, how'd you even pull out a syringe that big? Fourth-dimensional ass?!"

"I don't think that's necessary."

Li Cheng's face stiffened, his fingers subtly gripping the scalpel blade.

Weight equals volume times density; based on the cylinder's volume and the liquid's density, that syringe weighed at least a ton— heavier than Grey Rain.

But maybe she's just a paper tiger.

CLANG!

Rachid swung the syringe casually, crushing the adjacent metal cabinet flat—its force rivaling a battering ram.

Li Cheng looked at his own scalpel blade—shorter than his thumb—and chuckled: "See you later."

He snatched the makeup pencil, kicked off the floor, and dashed out of the break room toward the building's center.

BOOM!

The instant he escaped, Rachid hurled the syringe at the door—it pierced straight through the corridor's reinforced concrete wall.

Had Li Cheng been a step slower, he'd have been pinned to the wall.

Tap-tap-tap.

Nurse-in-Charge Rachid stepped calmly out of the break room, easily withdrew the syringe, and sprinted after Li Cheng with overwhelming momentum and pressure.

Dalton, near the staircase from the third to fourth floor, heard the heavy footsteps and peeked out curiously.

Seeing it was Nurse-in-Charge, he scrambled back into his cardboard box without even acknowledging Li Cheng's cries for help.

"Damn it, you sold me out."

Li Cheng seethed inwardly; as Rachid closed in, he prepared to draw his blade for a final stand—

Just as he turned the corner, a door on the left side of the corridor, previously closed, burst open.

A hand reached out, waving him inside.

This door's location matched the isolation room on the first floor.

No time to think—Li Cheng dashed in, slammed the door shut, turned to survey the room, and opened his player panel's inventory, ready to use an emergency escape card.

No trap sequence followed; the room was identical to the isolation room on the first floor, walls and floor lined with padded soundproofing.

No windows—only ceiling-mounted LED strips provided light.

The other "person" in the room was a girl, eleven or twelve, her entire body segmented into twenty-centimeter cubes like LEGO blocks.

The cubes were jumbled chaotically, yet she still breathed and blinked normally.

"Freya?"

Li Cheng read her name from her patient gown; the girl blinked silently, then puckered her lips, signaling him to stay quiet.

Outside the isolation room, Nurse-in-Charge Rachid's heavy footsteps passed slowly—she didn't detect Li Cheng's hiding spot.

Only after the footsteps gradually faded did Li Cheng turn his head to look at Freya.

This little girl's original bed was in the pediatric clinic on the second floor; the rabbit-ear doll Li Cheng had given the sheep-headed old lady belonged to her.

And according to the rat-man Skaven, Freya apparently had a crush on William.

"Why are you here?"

Li Cheng asked casually. The latter opened her mouth, but because her vocal cords were in the wrong position, she couldn't make any sound. She could only hop (only one leg could move, the other one grew out of her back) over to the corner of the room and lift up the sleeping mat.

Beneath the sleeping mat, a large number of X-ray film fragments lay scattered.

"Because the X-ray film shattered, that's why you're like this now? Do you need help?"

Li Cheng figured it out immediately. Seeing that Freya didn't object, he took out all the fragments and rearranged them.

As the fragments moved, Freya's body parts also rotated and shifted accordingly.

The whole process was similar to a jigsaw puzzle. Previously, to train his brain, Li Cheng would activate the multi-threaded brain-domain method and immersive role-play method whenever he had nothing to do,

doing Sudoku with his left eye and right hand, playing jigsaw puzzles with his right eye and left hand, restoring a Rubik's cube with his left foot, and playing the piano with his right foot.

After getting the assembly doll, he became even more excessive, sticking mechanical arms and mechanical hands onto himself whenever bored, single-handedly forming a symphony orchestra to perform pieces.

A few minutes later, the X-ray film was pieced together, restored into a little girl's skeletal radiograph. And Freya returned to normal as well.

(End of this chapter)