Chapter 236

It's time to end this.

Li Cheng spat the hidden surgical blade fragment from the roof of his mouth, landing it precisely in his right palm, where he gripped it between his pinky and ring finger to slice through the leather strap binding his right hand.

He then flicked the embedded diamond shard from beneath his thumbnail, striking with pinpoint accuracy the power switch of the electroshock device one step away, cutting its power.

Doctor Dawson and the medical staff had no idea where the blade or the diamond shard had come from; they instinctively rushed forward, trying to subdue Li Cheng.

Step three: the match.

Li Cheng plucked the match from his hair, scraped it against the surface of the belt, igniting a flame, then hurled it upward.

The match spun upward, burning the fire alarm embedded in the ceiling; after a brief delay, the alarm emitted a shrill siren, its cover automatically detached, and the sprinkler head inside plummeted down, spraying a torrent of water.

The two orderlies at the front slipped on the slick floor, toppling backward.

Li Cheng seized the moment, slicing through the leather straps binding his left hand and legs with the blade, freeing himself from the operating table.

Snap.

His feet landed steadily; he shoved the blade into Doctor Dawson's neck, snatched the metal spike from his hand, and drove it through the palm of the burly orderly who had just risen from the ground, then yanked him sideways to slam into another orderly.

The operating room descended into chaos; Head Nurse Lachid, true to her hallucinatory image as the Scorpion King, secretly held a syringe, stepped forward swiftly, and tried to jab the needle into Li Cheng's carotid artery.

Bang!

Li Cheng swung the metal spike like a short whip, striking her temple with one hand—blood gushed instantly, and she collapsed.

The situation turned dire; Director Pella turned pale, spun around, and fled—but Li Cheng closed the distance in strides, drove the metal spike against her throat, freezing her in place.

"Calm down, William."

Director Pella, drenched in cold sweat, trembled as she spoke: "This is all an illusion—you're still trapped in fantasy."

"Hahahaha, you've already said those lines once."

Li Cheng laughed, holding the director hostage as he retreated step by step toward the office at the end of the corridor, and idly picked up the last prop from the trash—a packet of instant noodles.

The hospital staff on the fourth floor, seeing their director taken hostage, dared not advance, watching helplessly as Li Cheng retreated into the office and locked the door behind him.

In the corner of the office stood a safe, requiring a four-digit numeric password.

Just as Director Pella assumed Li Cheng would force her to input the code—giving her a chance to stall—he tore open the instant noodle packet and blew the powder inside onto the keypad.

As the dust settled, the four digits most frequently pressed, saturated with human sweat and oils, glowed clearly against the powdered residue.

Four non-repeating digits offered twenty-four possible combinations—just try them one by one to crack it.

9527.

Li Cheng entered the correct code, opened the safe, and found a pile of items inside.

Passports, several stacks of cash sealed in plastic bags, and a log of patients secretly eliminated over recent years at Saint Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital under orders from various elites—things she needed to protect herself.

And the keys to the fourth-floor isolation rooms.

Li Cheng took the hospital records and the isolation room keys, once again held Director Pella hostage, pushed open the door, sprinted past the hospital staff who dared not act, and arrived directly at the isolation room door.

As he inserted the key, he seemed to hear, in his hallucination, Freya's voice.

"Are you certain you want to do this? Even if the truth isn't what you hoped for?"

I am certain.

Li Cheng pushed open the isolation room door; inside, the soft-padded furnishings remained unchanged, a wheelchair sat motionless at the center, and upon it sat a golden-haired figure with her back to the door.

Director Pella's face turned as white as paper; she could not speak a word. Li Cheng dragged her inside, turned the wheelchair around.

The girl with golden hair and blue eyes, Diane, sat in the wheelchair.

Her eyelids hung low, her expression vacant, saliva dripping from her slightly parted lips; even as her brother appeared before her, she showed no reaction.

Or rather, she could never react.

Long before William executed his rescue plan, she had undergone a lobotomy at the hospital, reduced to a soulless, living corpse.

"."

The outcome was cold and real.

Director Pella seemed to read her own fate in Li Cheng's expressionless face, and whispered pleadingly: "Please… I was ordered to do this by your stepmother."

"I don't care."

Li Cheng lifted the spike, drove it with precision and calm into Pella's eye socket, piercing straight into her brain, twisting casually to shred her frontal lobe.

The spike, now complete in its task, was tossed carelessly to the floor.

Director Pella slumped against the wall, blood trickling from her eyes, her face devoid of any pain—vacant, numb, just like Diane.

Clatter—

Li Cheng pushed Diane's wheelchair slowly out of the room.

The isolation room door stood open; the staff clearly saw the fallen director. Now that their hostage was incapacitated, they had no reason to hold back.

Orderlies and guards swung rubber batons, striking Li Cheng's head, shoulders, chest, and back—he ignored them entirely, staring up at the wall clock.

The five-hour survival countdown had ended.

【Script Task "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Completed】

【Player Restrictions Lifted】

【10 Minutes Until Teleportation. Teleport Immediately?】

Thud!

Batons slammed into his head, shoulders, chest, and back—but the orderlies and guards realized in horror that Li Cheng stood motionless, unmoving.

And from his body, an indescribable aura continuously radiated.

Everyone's hairs stood on end, muscles locked rigid, hearts pounding violently,

as if facing not an ordinary teenager, but a primal beast clad in human skin—a monstrous unknown that triggered the ancient, gene-encoded instinct of fear toward a natural predator.

"It's my turn."

Li Cheng pulled out his glasses from thin air, put them on, his tone indifferent.

Boom!!!

The ordinary patients downstairs heard a deafening roar coming from above.

Large chunks of reinforced concrete debris, along with charred and twisted human bodies, fell from the fourth floor and crashed into the flower beds.

The hospital's alarm bells blared; all doctors and nurses were thrown into chaos, but only a handful noticed two figures leaping from the fourth floor and landing steadily on the grass behind the hospital.

Skaven, Freya, Barbie, Martha, and Dalton—the fellow patients who had aided Li Cheng in the hallucinations—stood by the windows, watching him wave to them before pushing Diane's wheelchair into the shifting shadows of the trees.

"Just need to tie up a loose end."

Beneath the tree shade, Li Cheng murmured to himself, pulling out the phone he had taken from Director Pera.

——————

On Christmas night, the streets echoed with Maria Carey's timeless classic "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (also known as "Christmas Want You").

Even cheap motels were decorated with lights, stringing bulbs across their Christmas trees.

In a corner room of the motel, William, wearing a T-shirt and holding a disposable phone, sat on the floor, staring blankly at the breaking news on TV—

This afternoon, Saint Elizabeth Hospital suffered an explosion; rescuers extinguished the fire but discovered vast quantities of unidentifiable human brain slices in the underground storage.

TV stations and newspapers initially claimed these brain slices were likely imported medical samples from abroad, urging the public not to entertain conspiracy theories.

But as unidentified individuals uploaded videos on TikTok, presenting overwhelming evidence exposing Saint Elizabeth Hospital's collusion with powerful elites to abuse and even kill patients under the guise of psychiatric treatment,

TV stations could no longer cover it up and were forced to report it—among the names prominently featured was that of the newly appointed female CEO of the Con Group.

Is it over?

William lowered his head. He did not remember how he rescued Diane, how he escaped the psychiatric hospital, or how he arrived at this motel. He did not know where this disposable phone had come from.

His memory still froze at the moment he was taken into the fourth-floor operating room.

Thinking of this, William turned his head—his sister Diane sat silently in her wheelchair, eyes closed.

Buzz!

The disposable phone in his hand suddenly vibrated. William snatched it up and saw a scheduled multimedia message had arrived.

The message contained an audio file.

"Hello, William,"

The audio played automatically—it was William's own voice, casual and lazy: "I set this multimedia message to send automatically; you should receive it at eight p. m.

Turn on the TV, and you'll see the news about Saint Elizabeth Hospital."

The voice in the message seemed to guess William's expression at that moment, sensing his confusion, and laughed heartily: "Don't worry about who I am—an angel, an alien, a spirit, a traveler from another world—it doesn't matter.

I admire your courage, willpower, and initiative. Having completed 90% of your escape plan, I helped you finish the final 10%."

"Now, open the first drawer of the bedside table on your left. I left something inside."

Utterly stunned, William walked to the bedside table, pulled open the drawer, and inside lay a test tube filled with red liquid.

Beneath the test tube was a note, detailing its use—administer it to a patient to cure illnesses including frontal lobotomy.

"Consider it a gift. Merry Christmas."

(End of Chapter)