Chapter 10

Wolf's resentment was well concealed; Wu Chang did not notice it when he first entered the office, only detecting it when Wolf revealed his true form inside the pharmaceutical cave.

The resentment's presence was subtle, hovering between pale red and deep red, indicating its owner held a fixation, but not a strong one.

The blood-stained last words within the resentment flickered in and out; Wu Chang spent considerable effort to decipher their content.

The owner of the resentment on Wolf was a stealth user who not only located the pharmaceutical room but also used some skill to pass directly through the door into it.

Perhaps because there was no "opening the door" step, the senior doctor's premonition of danger never materialized.

The stealth user hid in the shadows, silently observing Wolf.

After witnessing Wolf finish processing all patient records in the office and sending them upstairs via the underground duty doctor, he saw Wolf don a special robe and enter the secret door in the office.

Inside the secret door stood an altar, upon which rested a stone-carved symbol: a crescent-shaped eye, identical to the pattern engraved on the Traveler's Talisman.

Wolf prostrated himself and devoutly worshipped the symbol.

The stealth user, overcome with excitement, broke from his stealth state to speak—but before he could open his mouth, Wolf, sensing his secret had been exposed, transformed into a monster and drove a sharp insect limb straight into the stealth user's mouth.

One strike, fatal.

Wu Chang replayed this segment many times.

He put himself in the stealth user's place and realized that even knowing when Wolf would strike and how, he still could not see it clearly or evade it.

Damned if this seven-step range isn't faster than a punch.

Judging by Wolf's transformed physique, his HP bar must be short.

High attack, high defense—given his current stats, even with Silver Dawn, defeating Wolf by force alone is unrealistic.

He must find another way.

As he pondered, the blood-stained last words within the resentment stabilized.

【The Prophet Lord received a divine revelation: the Cursed Gold lies beneath Level 2 of the Moonlight Sanatorium! To ensure the Master's return, we must find it.】

A player worships the same deity as the dungeon's villain—things are getting increasingly interesting.

Wu Chang did not know what the Cursed Gold was, so he did not rush to complete the blood-stained last words; instead, he concealed this information.

Wolf noticed Wu Chang's distraction and exchanged no further words, offering only a few suggestions before letting him leave.

After Wu Chang left the pharmaceutical room, Wolf reverted to his human form, returned to the office, and opened the secret door the stealth user had discovered.

He knelt before the altar and devoutly chanted:

"The sacrifice is about to begin; the deity is destined to descend—this is fate, unstoppable."

Wu Chang left the pharmaceutical room without further exploring the sanatorium, choosing instead to return to his room.

He lay on his bed, organizing the clues he had uncovered tonight.

The highest level of deception is nine truths and one lie—selectively revealing certain truths while inserting a single falsehood at the most critical juncture.

The story Wolf told about Bai Shi Town was likely true; the mastermind behind it being the Quietist Cult was probably true as well.

But the truth behind the delusion, and Wolf's instruction for him to "awaken" Director Landi, must conceal another agenda.

He suspected Wolf not only because of the stealth user's resentment, but also because, at the end of the story, Wolf, while scratching himself, "accidentally" tore his white coat.

The admission guidelines stated that staff within the sanatorium could be trusted—but only those wearing white uniforms were staff.

If the rule forbade staff from lying to or endangering patients, then Wolf tearing his white coat was a signal he was about to lie.

From this, it followed that he could not "awaken" Director Landi—at least not easily.

Yet one thing puzzled him: patients in the sanatorium vanished intermittently, the underground wards held a group of rotting, mutated humanoid creatures, and simply walking outside at night turned one into mush.

The sanatorium had become this way—how could the director still not perceive supernatural forces? Was his faith in materialism really that unshakable?

Gazing at the half-lit sky outside the window, he yawned. He had done enough today; everything could wait until he woke up.

Wu Chang opened his eyes again, awakened by a knock at the door.

He stretched, feeling refreshingly alert.

Thanks to his physical condition—nearly double that of an ordinary person—his sleep quality was absurdly excellent; just one or two hours of sleep relieved a full day's fatigue.

A wonderful day began with Nurse Zhu Li standing at the door.

"Good morning, Nurse Zhu Li."

Zhu Li entered the room, glancing around with surprise and unease—as if she had noticed something.

"What's wrong?" Wu Chang probed. When it came to secrets, this beautiful "friendly NPC" was no less mysterious than anyone else. "Nothing. Hurry up—we're late for your consultation," Zhu Li hesitated, then said nothing.

As usual, patients had to visit the clinic for a checkup and collect their daily special medication before any activity.

Dr. Charles, responsible for mild cases, looked even more worn out than last night.

His eye sockets were sunken, his dark circles deeper, his eyeballs streaked with blood vessels, and patchy hemorrhages clustered near his pupils—as if he, not Wu Chang, had spent the entire night investigating.

The mentally exhausted Dr. Charles was unusually irritable. He snatched a packet of special medication and slammed it on the table, then seized Wu Chang's collar as he reached for the pills, staring at Wu Chang's radiant face with envy:

"Did you sleep well last night?"

As his neck was gripped, Wu Chang feigned panic, bracing his palm against the desk and slapping it loudly.

"Thanks to the special medication—I had a great dream."

"A great dream?" Dr. Charles repeated, his tone odd. "What did you dream about?"

"Huh?" Wu Chang pretended not to understand.

"I asked—" Dr. Charles prepared to press further, but Zhu Li had already entered the clinic upon hearing the noise.

!

Dr. Charles, evidently wary of Zhu Li, released Wu Chang's collar and grunted, "Get out!"

Wu Chang adjusted his collar and followed Zhu Li out of the clinic.

At the clinic door, Zhu Li asked pointedly: "Do you still remember the admission guidelines?"

Wu Chang: "Of course."

"Then is there anything you want to tell me?"

"Not yet, for now."

"Oh."

With Jin Dun's disappearance, Wu Chang was temporarily free of danger and could move about the activity room as he pleased.

As the hero who had exposed Jin Dun's cheating and given everyone a sense of justice, he was welcomed by the other patients.

With that emotional foundation, he quickly blended in among his fellow patients.

Blending in was easy, but extracting information was not.

Under the effects of the delusional disorder, every patient was abnormally agitated, as if fleeing from something; they would often stop mid-sentence, suddenly shivering and hiding under the table, or clutching their heads and weeping, or even searching for sharp objects to harm themselves.

Only the special medication could ease their symptoms.

But after taking the medicine, they transformed into doped-up addicts, their eyes going glassy, their speech incoherent, muttering to themselves at the empty air from time to time.

After an entire day, he had barely gathered any intelligence and had nearly been driven mad himself.

He didn't know whether the delusional disorder was truly contagious, or whether he had inhaled the powder from the special medication on the other patients, but at one moment near dusk, he turned to look at the sunset, and a phantom white angel flashed at the corner of his eye.

No good — he had to speed up the dungeon-clearing progress.

That night, carrying the Wanderer's Talisman, he headed up toward the sanatorium's fourth floor.

The daytime efforts were not entirely fruitless; piecing together the patients' fragmented descriptions with Wolf's story, he had roughly sketched out the plot of White Stone Town.

The Vino family that had come to invest in White Stone Town and the Tranquil Church really did exist; the Tranquil Church was indeed recognized by the kingdom as a dangerous element, and quite a few of the townspeople had indeed joined the Tranquil sect.

Of the fewer than twenty people in the activity room, seven patients, after getting high, threw their arms around his shoulders and loudly preached:

"Brother Xiao En, don't worry about the delusional disorder. Just join the church, and the gods will grant us eternal tranquility. If you're interested, come find me tomorrow — I'll take you to meet the priest."

Every time they finished preaching, the patients would not forget to raise their voices and stress:

"We're a secret church, so don't tell anyone! If the kingdom finds out, we'll be nailed to the pyre!"

The Tranquil Church's infiltration at such intensity was just as Wolf had said — the entire sanatorium had fallen under the Tranquil Church's control.

So Wu Chang now had to confirm the situation with the director; whatever Wolf's intentions, the director was the key to clearing the dungeon.

He made his way up to the fourth floor, used the red key to open the heavy iron door leading to the fourth level, and the moment he stepped into the fourth-floor corridor, the sight before him made his brow furrow deeply.

The medical staff were not like the patients, staying obediently in their rooms; eight or nine medical staff in white uniforms wandered the corridor like sleepwalkers.

In their sleepwalking state, they frantically tore at the white uniforms on their bodies, trying to shed them, while the white uniforms came alive as well, tightening and coiling around them like pythons, resisting the staff's struggles.

Just as Wu Chang was wondering what scene this was, a sinister voice sounded from behind him.

"Xiao En, tell me — what are you dreaming now?"

(End of this chapter)