Chapter 3: Moonlight Sanitarium

"Achoo!"

Wu Chang, inside the dungeon, sneezed. He rubbed his nose to shake off the lingering sensation and muttered, "Which little cutie is thinking of me?"

After a brief adjustment, he began to assess his current situation.

Since he had already been dragged into the Abyss Game, all he could do now was try his best to survive.

Although the Abyss Game's matchmaking system was a pit, its dungeon entry settings were quite thoughtful; it automatically changed him into an outfit appropriate for the plane.

Besides that, it also gifted him a personal storage space, a must-have for any player.

However, as a starter pack, the Abyss Game was quite stingy; the personal backpack was a literal backpack, with a capacity only the size of a standard school bag.

At this moment, there was only one item inside: the silver revolver used by the camouflage-clad man.

Wu Chang took out the silver revolver, and a sense of security immediately welled up in his heart.

All fear stems from a lack of firepower.

With a weapon in hand, he at least possessed basic self-preservation capabilities.

As he toyed with the handgun, a line of information popped up on it.

"Item Name: Silver Dawn."

"Item Grade: D."

"Item Skill: Scorching Bullet."

"Skill Description: Silver Dawn automatically generates special silver bullets over time. When a silver bullet hits a target, it causes burning and explosive damage, with double damage against spirits and monsters."

"Silver Bullet: Automatically generates one silver bullet every hour; one energy point can also be consumed to immediately refill one silver bullet. Current number of silver bullets: 6/6."

Looking at the Silver Dawn in his hand, Wu Chang's resentment toward the camouflage-clad man lessened, and he began to explore the room.

According to the mission prompt, the place he was currently in was called Moonlight Sanitarium.

Calling it a sanitarium, it was actually more like a prison.

The interior had a raw, unfinished style: a crude iron-plate bed, yellowed pure-white sheets, a heavy metal door, and a small window sealed with thick metal bars.

Just how depressed would one have to be to choose to recuperate in a place like this?

It was late at night, and with the cloudy weather, the moonlight was almost completely obscured. All the light in the room came from a small kerosene lamp on the desk not far away.

The kerosene lamp was very vintage; the world where the dungeon was located was much earlier on the timeline than reality, and it was very likely that electric lights had not yet been invented.

If the timeline were even earlier, he might have been able to give the locals a little shock with some firearms.

Wu Chang picked up the kerosene lamp and observed the details of the room.

With the help of the light, he saw a wooden board hanging on the wall with his medical record pinned to it.

"Patient in Room 207: Xiao En."

"Diagnosis: Delusional Disorder (Early Stage)."

"Treatment Method: Psychological counseling combined with medication."

"Patient's Current Mental State: Stable."

That explained it; no wonder the room's decor was so hardcore. This Moonlight Sanitarium also functioned as a psychiatric hospital.

The Xiao En on the medical record should be him. Early-stage delusional disorder didn't sound too bad. Below the medical record were the admission guidelines for Moonlight Sanitarium, written in red ink that stood out exceptionally well.

"1. This sanitarium is a closed-management facility. Without a pass issued by the director, you are not permitted to leave the sanitarium at will."

"2. Within the sanitarium, you may only believe the words of medical staff. Do not believe any patients, not even yourself."

"3. All medical staff in the sanitarium will wear white uniforms. Please do not trust suspicious individuals who claim to be medical staff while wearing casual clothes, even if he/she looks very familiar to you."

"4. Please do not leave your ward after dark. If you leave the room due to sleepwalking, please remain calm after waking up, cover your ears, close your eyes, and lie on the floor while waiting for dawn."

"5. If any medical staff or doctors ask you about your specific delusions, please inform other medical staff immediately; there will be personnel coming to handle it."

The sanitarium's rules weren't numerous, but each one was bizarre, leaving Wu Chang momentarily confused.

There was a meal delivery slot at the level of his abdomen on the door. He pushed aside the latch on the inside of the room and looked out through the slot. Just as he had expected, there was a patch of pale red resentment on the door of the room opposite.

How do you create a button that makes people want to press it the moment they see it? The answer is to put a warning in front of it: absolutely do not press it.

The admission guidelines specifically emphasized not leaving the ward after dark, so there would definitely be players courting death by trying to leave.

As his ability activated, the pale red resentment unfolded into a screen, playing the experiences of the deceased before their death.

The deceased was a player wearing mage robes. The reason he was identified as a player was that he was wearing a pair of basketball shoes under those mage robes.

The mage stood in the room, waving his staff and chanting in a low voice. Magic power materialized into glowing, starlight-like particles that circled around him, forming a transparent barrier.

The other party must have been a veteran; he chanted for five consecutive minutes and stopped only after layering four different shields.

With his four layers of shields, he cautiously left the room. Everything was normal, and no accidents occurred. This boosted the mage's confidence, and he strode forward, preparing to explore the sanitarium at night.

But he hadn't gone far when his body suddenly stopped, and he collapsed to the ground, wailing.

He seemed to have discovered something terrifying and turned around, crawling toward his room using his hands and feet.

The dozen-meter distance seemed to have become an unbridgeable chasm. Just as the mage was about to crawl back into his room, his expression twisted in terror, and he let out unintelligible whimpers before dissolving into a puddle of mush amidst violent convulsions.

A puddle of mush in the physical sense.

The state was exactly like hand-beaten Chaoshan meatballs; without thousands of strikes, you couldn't achieve such a delicate and smooth effect. Once beaten to the right consistency and boiled, if you threw it on the ground, it could at least bounce half a meter high.

Until his death, the four layers of shields on the mage's body had not shattered.

Wu Chang frowned. An instant-death effect that ignores defense?

When things are abnormal, there must be a demon. Being able to make a veteran player die suddenly without any resistance—his years of gaming experience told him that the two main quests related to the dungeon must be connected to the nights at the sanitarium.

To explore the secrets of the sanitarium at night, being able to move at night was the foundation of everything.

He watched the mage's death recording repeatedly, trying to figure out the mechanism of the instant-death attack: did the mage trigger some trap, or did he wander into a certain area?

Each time he watched, his perception of what the mage experienced before death became clearer. By the fourth viewing, he had almost completely immersed himself in the mage's perspective.

As he was desperately crawling toward the room, he suddenly shuddered, feeling as if someone behind him was watching him.

Looking back from the mage's perspective, he saw details he had ignored or failed to notice the previous three times.

At the end of the corridor behind the mage, a fat man in a patient gown stood in the center of the hallway, coldly watching everything.

That fat man was not a member of the medical staff, yet he could move freely at night.

Wu Chang's consciousness withdrew from the resentment. It seemed that to move at night, he had to find that fat man in the patient gown first.

(End of chapter)