Chapter 12: You guessed right — I am

Zhu Li dodged the muzzle and at the same time used a small grappling move, pressing Wu Chang to the ground.

"Is this how you repay your savior?"

Wu Chang slapped the ground in surrender. "That's exactly how I helped Dr. Charles take off his uniform earlier."

Zhu Li released Wu Chang and said, exasperated: "That wasn't helping him break free of the uniform's control — it was just kicking him off the edge of a cliff."

Wu Chang said, entirely self-righteous: "Just tell me — did it come off or not?"

The battle between Charles and Wu Chang shattered the night's stillness in the sanatorium. The medical staff in the corridor, as if receiving some kind of order, closed in on the source of the noise.

Zhu Li glanced at the approaching sleepwalkers, had no time to waste words with Wu Chang, grabbed him, and ducked into the empty room beside them.

She covered his mouth with one hand and raised the index finger of the other in a "shh" gesture.

A few minutes later, the corridor fell silent again, and the sleepwalkers dispersed along with it, returning to their sleepwalking state of struggling with their uniforms.

Zhu Li leaned close to Wu Chang's ear and whispered: "Wandering around at night is forbidden — that's a rule of the sanatorium."

"What exactly is going on here?" Wu Chang asked, copying Zhu Li's breathy tone.

There were too many mysteries inside Moonlight Sanatorium and too few clues. Even after reading the obsessions of several players, the intel he had was still pitifully scarce.

Now that a knowledgeable person had finally appeared, how could he let her go so easily.

Like every clue-providing NPC in a game, Zhu Li very cooperatively began to recount everything that had happened inside Moonlight Sanatorium.

The intel Zhu Li provided was close to Wolf's; the only difference was that she added two important pieces of information.

The first concerned the Anderson family.

Legend had it that before the invention of the steam engine, when humanity's faith had not yet been stolen by industry and technology, certain lucky ones blessed by the gods could wield the power of the occult.

The royal house once gathered these people together and formed a Secret Arts Knight Order.

The ancestor of the Anderson family was the first — and last — commander of the Secret Arts Knight Order.

The merit that earned the Anderson family its fief of Bai Shi Territory was leading the Secret Arts Knight Order to seal away an evil god named Leiman — and the evil god worshipped by the Tranquil Church was none other than Leiman.

Legend had it that Leiman was an evil god five meters tall, his entire body composed of gold.

After the Secret Arts Knight Order sealed Leiman, they melted its body down into gold coins for safekeeping. The evil divine power lingering on these coins earned them the name Cursed Gold.

The second concerned the director of Moonlight Sanatorium himself, Randy Anderson.

Randy was a thorough materialist, firmly believing that the so-called occult was nothing but cheap tricks of deception. But ironically, his body possessed a talent for the occult rivaling that of his ancestor.

Under the force of his intense will, the entire Moonlight Sanatorium had been constructed by him into a massive magical formula.

Anyone who entered the sanatorium would be assigned an identity, bound within the formula.

The identities, in the form of uniforms, were divided into two types: medical staff and patients. Once fused with an identity, one could not break free, could not escape.

The fellows wandering the corridors, struggling with their uniforms in their sleepwalking — they were evil god cultists who had infiltrated Moonlight Sanatorium, attempting to obtain the Cursed Gold.

Even with the power granted by the evil god, they could not break free of the formula.

At this point, Zhu Li's tone grew solemn.

"The formula inside the sanatorium is like a forced game of house with a brainwashing function. It corrodes and rewrites everyone's will, turning them into puppets called medical staff and patients."

"Before, I could still resist, but in recent days the formula's power has been growing stronger. If this keeps up, sooner or later I won't be able to stay conscious either — I'll be assimilated by the formula. So I need your help: find the method to break free of the formula together with me."

Wu Chang had been fretting over the next step when an NPC with hints came to him of her own accord. He suppressed his excitement and asked, his expression unchanged:

"What can I do to help?"

Zhu Li said: "The delusion has developed to its current stage — only Director Randy has the ability to stop all of this. I can use phase magic to help you pass through layer after layer of obstruction and enter the director's office. What you need to do is convince him to face reality, accept his magical talent, and end all of this." "Convincing the director — clearly you're better suited than I am. Why don't you go yourself?" Wu Chang asked, frowning.

As a mature NPC, Zhu Li should learn to clear the dungeon on her own and not rely on the player for everything.

Zhu Li said helplessly: "I said before — once you fuse with an identity, you're bound by the sanatorium's rules, and I'm no exception. Without permission, I can't enter the director's office on my own. But as a newcomer, you're not bound by the rules."

"How long after entering the sanatorium does one fuse with an identity?"

"One week."

Wu Chang clicked his tongue, secretly thinking the Moonlight Sanatorium dungeon was devious enough.

The dungeon intro only stressed leaving the sanatorium, never mentioning a time limit. If the dungeon wasn't cleared within a week, one might never be able to leave.

It was plainly a trap aimed at steady, methodical clear-type players — like the veteran doctor, for instance. Just figuring out how to change from patient to doctor had taken him nearly a week; one could say that before the real exploration even began, he had already lost the game.

"Miss Zhu Li, do you have any suggestions for convincing the director?"

Wu Chang knew his own limits well. He wasn't the protagonist of a hot-blooded manga who could defeat the Dafan Sect with nothing but love, justice, and a good speech.

Zhu Li pulled a metal badge the size of a biscuit from her bosom and stuffed it into Wu Chang's hand.

"It can keep Randy from killing you on sight, but how exactly to convince Randy — you'll have to figure that out yourself."

Wu Chang looked at the warm badge in his hand.

"Item Name: King's Badge."

"Item Type: Dungeon Item"

"Item Description: A token of the king. Only envoys personally appointed by the king may bear this insignia. The bearer will earn the respect of the Kingdom faction and the Secret Arts Knight Order faction. When obtaining items related to the Kingdom faction, there is a chance of unlocking an additional ability."

"Note: Manufactured by the first-generation Secret Arts Knight Order. It can only be activated with the bearer's permission and cannot be replicated."

No wonder Zhu Li knew so much — she was a secret agent sent by the king.

"Aren't you worried I might be one of the Tranquil Church?"

Zhu Li shook her head. "Not worried."

"Because I look upright and imposing?"

"…"

After a brief silence, Zhu Li said: "Because I saw you kill Jin Dun. Jin Dun had an amulet granted by the evil god — anyone who worships the evil god can't harm him."

Wu Chang recalled something, and his expression turned strange. "You didn't warn every newcomer who entered the sanatorium not to mess with Jin Dun, did you?"

He seemed to know the source of the heavy obsession on Jin Dun now.

Zhu Li said, without a shred of guilt: "I need an efficient method to screen companions — valuable companions."

"So now you've figured out my background?" About to face the Dean head-on, as an outsider, Wu Chang needed a solid identity to stand on.

Nothing was more suitable than the identity Zhu Li had conjured up.

Zhu Li wore an expression of having revealed the answer, and said slowly, "You carry a magical artifact with a sacred aura on you. Its state of preservation is practically perfect, but the details show traces of history. And when you saw the King's Emblem, you didn't take the initiative to ask me what it did, but instead looked surprised — clearly you recognized it."

"Combined with your killing of Xieshen Sect cultists and your investigation of the Cursed Gold, it's not hard to guess — you must be a descendant of a member of the Arcane Knights."

Wu Chang applauded Zhu Li's guess.

"You guessed right. I am."

(End of chapter)