Chapter 14: Cursed Gold

Wu Chang had no official pass to leave the sanatorium, but for convenience, Randy handwrote a staff badge for him, allowing him to move freely within the facility.

Wearing the badge, he left the director's office; the medical staff wandering the corridors indeed did not attack him, as if he had become invisible.

But one person was an exception.

As Wu Chang was about to leave the fourth floor, Zhu Li blocked his path, having waited there all along.

Zhu Li glanced at the handwritten badge on Wu Chang's chest and said casually, "Looks like progress is good."

Wu Chang shrugged. "More troublesome than I expected—Director Randy is highly suspicious. He didn't believe me just because I had the king's insignia. I need more evidence to convince him."

"How is the director doing?"

Wu Chang said, "His physical health is fine—built like an orc—but the constant madness of townsfolk due to delusions has crushed his spirit. He dares not step out of his office."

"But he promised me: if I find the real culprit, he'll help."

These two statements were true, so he delivered them naturally.

Zhu Li nodded; she had already anticipated all this. "What's your next move?"

Wu Chang: "While night still lasts, I'll search areas hard to reach during the day. As a senior, Young Lady Zhu Li, any suggestions?"

"Look more at the basement and the back courtyard—you might find something. I'm on the fourth floor. If you need help, come find me."

Watching Zhu Li turn and leave after speaking, Wu Chang's face twisted in doubt.

Had he misjudged her with a petty mind?

But the guilt lasted only an instant—he crushed it instantly.

Shame? Doesn't exist.

Countless battle royale games have proven one truth: only the backstabbers and the bastards survive to the end.

He was a professional backstabber—his heart was dirty.

After a perfunctory search inside the building and confirming he wasn't being followed by Zhu Li, he headed straight for the sanatorium's back courtyard.

Zhu Li's advice wasn't empty—Randy's mentioned underground vault for old books lay hidden in a small shed in the back courtyard.

Using Randy's key, Wu Chang opened the shed and, following the directions, found a hidden passage behind the fireplace in the study.

At the end of the passage stood a small library. Shelves held all manner of texts—from carved stone tablets to parchment to printed books—covering nearly the entire history of written language.

Every artifact had been specially preserved; after hundreds or even thousands of years, the inscriptions remained legible.

This was a golden chance to investigate the dungeon world's lore.

Wu Chang pulled out a slip of paper listing numbered references, quickly gathered Randy's recommended texts, skimmed them, and understood what the dungeon's boss truly was.

The ancestor of the Anderson family had suppressed a dark god named Leyman.

Leyman was cruel, cunning, powerful, vengeful, and delightfully sadistic.

He controlled the forces of dream and reality, granting believers boundless knowledge and wealth by fulfilling their wishes—but often, out of whim, he took back their most precious things.

In one record, Leyman helped a small kingdom repel invaders and restore its glory—then, at its peak prosperity, triggered a massive volcanic eruption that swallowed the entire nation.

Appealing to Leyman was like drinking poison to quench thirst, yet desire and sheer luck psychology, combined with Leyman's generous rewards, made his followers fiercely devout.

A troublesome bastard.

Wu Chang returned the texts to their places, took out a silver crossbow bolt from his item backpack, and continued exploring the underground vault.

"Item Name: Anti-Magic Crossbow Bolt."

"Item Type: Dungeon Item."

"Item Rank: D."

"Item Skill: Exorcism."

"Skill Description: Mark a dark god or dark god follower. Hitting the marked target with this bolt deals double damage. After killing the target or one hour after the last mark, you may reassign the mark."

"Special Skill: Anti-Magic." (Unlocked by King's Insignia)

"Sacrifice this bolt to unleash unimaginable power, inflicting massive damage to the target's essence."

"Note: Only a direct strike on the essence can truly harm a dark god."

Wolf's lingering resentment mentioned that the Cursed Gold lay in the second basement level of the Moonlight Sanatorium.

If that resentment was true, no place could be better suited to hide the Cursed Gold than here.

As he suspected, when he reached a certain bookshelf, the resentment on his Anti-Magic Crossbow Bolt flickered. Upon closer inspection, he found a recess at the bottom of the shelf—its shape eerily resembled the bolt's tip.

Inserting the Anti-Magic Crossbow Bolt into the recess, a grinding sound echoed as a tunnel to the second basement level emerged from the floor.

Got it!

After descending nearly a hundred steps, Wu Chang entered a spacious stone chamber. Dozens of stone slabs formed concentric circles in the center, each covered in inscriptions.

As Wu Chang approached, a mist-like white wraith appeared before him, and at the same time, a strong, elderly male voice echoed in his ears.

"Reaching this point proves your worth. Those rats who worship Leyman could never do it. You must be either my descendant or a successor of the Arcane Knights, correct?"

"Lord Anderson?" Wu Chang ventured.

The wraith did not respond to Wu Chang—it continued speaking like a recorded video.

"If you're one of Leyman's rats, that's fine too. I have faith in your character. Why beg for scraps from that god when you could kill Him, steal His divine power, and become a god yourself? Isn't that far more tempting?"

"Even if you merely reseal Him, the Cursed Gold will grant you everything you desire," the wraith continued to tempt.

"Don't worry about betrayal. When we sealed Leyman, one-third of the Quiet Church's high ranks were bought by us. Thanks to them, we escaped alive—so feel no guilt."

"Now, I'll tell you everything about this place…"

Five minutes later, as the wraith vanished before his eyes, Wu Chang shook his head and refocused.

No wonder the Moonlight Sanatorium was so abnormal—it had once been a secret base of the Arcane Knights, even before the Anderson family existed, and one of their backup plans against Leyman.

The stone slabs in the chamber formed a massive exorcism array. Once activated, it would dispel or purify all entities infused with dark god power within a several-kilometer radius.

"Dispelling" meant physical expulsion.

Only the one who controlled the exorcism array's mechanism, or a direct bloodline descendant of the Anderson family, could wield this power.

Combining what happened in the sanatorium, the rule prohibiting departure from the ward at night was likely due to Randy's inability to suppress his magical talent in sleep, unintentionally activating part of the exorcism array's power.

This power fused with Randy's spell formation; once it detected the presence of an evil god aura—manifesting as delusions—it would physically expel the carrier of that aura.

The medical staff's abnormalities stemmed from the array's purification ability.

Beyond expelling enemies, the array could also help allies dispel the evil god's influence.

But its methods were extreme, similar to using chemotherapy to eliminate cancer cells.

When an ally's mind was affected by the evil god's power, entering the array triggered spiritual purification, launching indiscriminate attacks against both the person within and the evil god force entangling them.

The result was blunt and brutal: either the entrant's mind was strong enough to endure until the evil god's power was purified,

or they failed, their mind shattered, and the excess purification energy transformed into physical damage, causing the entrant's body to collapse.

Wu Chang still remembered the final words the phantom had spoken when introducing the array's power: "Don't care if the person is alive or not—just say whether the purification succeeded or not."

Perhaps due to the excessive passage of time causing magical energy to leak, the phantom had only taught him how to control the exorcism array before vanishing—but the information on the exorcism array had already answered many secrets of the sanatorium.

Once he confirmed the true nature of the Cursed Gold, he should be able to complete the main quest two of this instance.

Wu Chang picked up a badge from where the phantom had vanished; its craftsmanship matched that of the King's Badge.

"Item Name: Secret Art Badge."

"Item Type: Instance Item."

"Item Description: A token of the Secret Art Knights, granting partial usage rights to the exorcism array and allowing free manipulation of its power."

"Special Skill: Final Purification." (Unlocked by King's Badge)

"Skill Description: By burning the entire array, unleash power beyond the array's limits."

"Note: Evil god Followers who use the badge's power will suffer backlash from the array after its use ends."

The note on the Secret Art Badge only appeared when he wore the King's Badge—he had long suspected that Old Anderson, as the founding leader of the Secret Art Knights, was far too lenient toward evil god Followers; now it was clear the old bastard had held something back.

Wearing the Secret Art Badge, he entered the exorcism array, passed through layers of stone stelae, and reached the array's core.

On a stone altar, he saw the Cursed Gold floating in midair.

It was a living eye, constantly rotating.

The eye of the evil god Leyman.

(End of Chapter)