Chapter 233

Freya, restored to normal, was an ordinary little girl with thick bangs partially obscuring her eyes; she glanced at Li Cheng with gratitude, then walked to the corner of the room and sat down slowly, silent.

"Don't you have anything to say? Or anything to give me?"

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow. Freya was clearly an NPC with a standalone plot—her sudden silence at this point felt unnatural.

Freya slowly lifted her head, paused a moment, then silently pulled a key from her pocket.

A piece of tape on the key was labeled "Pharmacy."

The pharmacy on the first floor was the last unexplored room in the three-story building; Li Cheng exhaled in relief, reaching for the key. "Thanks."

Freya held onto the key without letting go, her eyes, hidden behind thick bangs, filled with unmistakable sorrow as she looked at Li Cheng. "William, are you certain you want to do this? Even if the truth isn't what you hoped for?"

Huh? You want me to stop now, after all this? What's the difference between that and a pair of half-in-love teenagers on a trip, facing a hotel with only one room left, deciding outright to share it and playing a whole night of two-person poker?

"I'm certain."

The instant Li Cheng took the key, the bone-chilling cold he had felt on the first floor struck his brain again—this time even more severe.

His brain froze solid, stiffening and petrifying; his body involuntarily toppled backward, his back slamming against the wall, every muscle twitching and spasming.

The cold seeped into his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears—his vision turned utterly white, as if staring directly into the sun, or as if bathed in the sterile glare of an operating room's overhead light.

Fortunately, the pain came fast and left fast; after a few minutes, Li Cheng regained control of his body, gripping the wall with his left hand as he gasped for breath, wiping sweat from his forehead with his right.

'Frequency of brain freeze correlates with progress in script exploration. The closer you get to the final truth, the greater the resistance.'

Li Cheng stood slowly, pharmacy key in hand, and stepped toward the isolation room door.

"William—"

Freya called out to Li Cheng, biting her lip softly. "Take care of yourself."

"Thanks. You too."

Li Cheng waved his hand, pushed open the door, stepped into the corridor, and shut it behind him.

Freya, a patient from the second-floor children's clinic, had been locked in the third-floor isolation room—likely because she stole the pharmacy key for William.

In other words, William's "escape" plan had already been discussed with her.

Nurse Leader Lachid, still patrolling the end of the corridor, heard Li Cheng's footsteps, spun around sharply, and charged toward him.

After being ignored for so long, Nurse Leader's rage had clearly exploded; with every step, her body underwent violent transformation.

Compound eyes sprouted on her forehead; dense, centipede-like legs grew beneath her nurse's skirt; her human hands morphed into scorpion pincers; a long scorpion tail extended from her back, fusing with the giant syringe to form a terrifying weapon.

In this world, every NPC's appearance is determined by William's impression of them—this reveals just how cruel and violent Nurse Leader truly was.

Li Cheng couldn't defeat her in human form; now, in her Scorpion King form, there was no chance at all.

He sprinted away while still taunting, "Lady, you look like this and don't soak in medicinal wine? What a waste."

"Ah, I just remembered Huang the dog downstairs—he heard medicinal wine boosts virility, so he soaked himself for three days. His skin got all wrinkled, and still nothing."

CLANG!

The enraged Nurse Leader whipped her tail-syringe—barely missing Li Cheng by a hair's breadth, the needle embedding itself deep into the tiled wall of the elevator shaft.

"Even Q can miss."

Li Cheng grinned, rolled forward into the elevator car still stuck between the second and third floors, then turned, gripped the third-floor floor with his hands, and swung himself back to the second floor.

As the saying goes: big body, weak door. The Nurse Leader, now swollen several times over in Scorpion King form, couldn't fit into the elevator shaft—she could only rage helplessly, smashing the elevator car with her scorpion pincers.

The car groaned with the sickening screech of twisted metal, then—CRASH—the steel cable snapped, and the entire car plummeted to the first-floor floor.

"William!"

The Nurse Leader roared, left the elevator, and advanced toward the second floor on her centipede legs.

Hearing the chaotic sounds behind him, Li Cheng sprinted back to the cafeteria, slammed the makeup pen onto the table, and shouted, "Diamond shards!"

Barbie, who had been sitting on a chair chatting with the goat-headed old woman, jumped in surprise, then realized what was happening and handed Li Cheng the glass diamond shards.

"Thank you."

Li Cheng exhaled in relief—he now had all four items: diamond shards, mint candy, razor blades, and matches. "You two should find somewhere to hide—like the children's clinic. Nurse Leader's coming."

"Nurse Leader? We're just sitting here chatting in the cafeteria. She wouldn't bother us, right?"

Barbie said, then saw the Scorpion King form of Nurse Leader charging down the corridor—"Never mind."

Barbie and the goat-headed old woman followed Li Cheng in a sprint, reaching the opposite end of the corridor, then darted into the children's clinic and slammed the door shut.

Li Cheng kept running, dashed down to the first floor, shouted for the rat-man Skaven to hide, then charged straight to the pharmacy in the farthest corner of the hospital.

The key opened the door. All cabinets inside were locked—only three items sat quietly on the table.

One was a bag of crispy snack noodles, one was a peyote cactus, and one was a medical file—the name on the folder clearly read: Daisy.

Outside, the Nurse Leader's centipede legs drew closer; Li Cheng swiftly opened the medical file and read its contents.

Name: Daisy

Gender: Female

Age: Sixteen years, four months

Diagnosis: Bipolar disorder, paranoid schizophrenia

Admission date: June 1st

Her stepmother claimed the patient, devastated by her brother's death, was emotionally unstable and had a strong tendency toward violent aggression. Due to the patient's special condition, the hospital recommended solitary confinement in the fourth-floor convalescent ward, forbidding contact with other patients.

Daisy's photo showed a beautiful blonde girl with bright blue eyes.

So that's how it was.

Li Cheng set down the medical file—all clues were now gathered.

The bizarre NPCs of the entire asylum, the intermittent brain-piercing pain, the attending physician's voice recorder, William's own colored contact lenses, and this medical file from Daisy—who had never appeared—all pointed to one truth.

He picked up the peyote cactus, turned, and looked toward the door.

The Scorpion King form of Nurse Leader had reached the door; with a casual swing of her pincers, she smashed the iron door open.

The tail-syringe swept back and forth like a giant arm inside the cramped pharmacy, knocking over countless cabinets,

"Spatial perception disorder has four triggering causes. Besides temporal lobe epilepsy and schizophrenia, there's also Japanese encephalitis, and, peyote poisoning."

Li Cheng said calmly, picking up the peyote cactus—also known as the North American peyote—and taking a bite.

Juice splattered everywhere. Li Cheng felt his tongue tip tremble, his tone still calm. "Mescaline causes metabolic disturbances in the patient's cortical sensory cells and conduction fibers, eliminating fatigue and hunger, and producing perceptual integration disorders such as metamorphopsia, micropsia, and macropsia.

For example, right now."

The scene before his eyes twisted and warped rapidly. The giant syringe, originally taller than a person, shrank dramatically, returning to normal size.

The head nurse, stuck outside the door, instinctively sensed something was wrong and tried to flee.

But Li Cheng moved faster than her, charging straight out of the dispensary and looking at her through his distorted vision.

The shrinking effect traveled along the syringe to the head nurse, making her shrink along with it.

From her original height of over three meters, she withered down to the size of a palm.

Li Cheng dumped out the sand and gravel from the cactus glass jar, then inverted the jar over the head nurse. The latter frantically waved her scorpion pincers, but no matter how she tried, she couldn't smash or shift the heavy jar.

(End of chapter)