Chapter 4: Jin Dun's Good Luck

With the cautionary tale of the Mage as a precedent, Wu Chang didn't even have the desire to open the door; he lay honestly on the bed and drifted into dreamland.

Being in a dangerous, unfamiliar environment, he actually slept exceptionally soundly, and it wasn't until the sky was bright that he was woken up by a round of knocking.

Opening his eyes again, he saw a nurse standing in the room, tapping her hand against the open door.

"Mr. Xiao En, it is time for your consultation."

Wu Chang sat up from the bed, taking advantage of the moment he was rubbing his eyes to size up the nurse.

His gaze swept over the nurse, finally resting on her towering chest, where a name tag was hanging.

"Zhu Li Smith"

Perhaps it was fate, but Nurse Zhu Li’s aggressive, stern appearance, combined with a temperament that was both sexy and cold, bore an eighty-percent resemblance to a certain actress he knew in reality.

Zhu Li threw a set of blue-and-white checkered hospital pajamas onto the bed and said expressionlessly, "Put them on."

Wu Chang picked up the pajamas and looked at Zhu Li hesitantly; seeing she had no intention of leaving, he asked:

"Are you not planning to step out?"

"Observing the patient is part of the examination."

Zhu Li had no objections, and Wu Chang certainly wouldn't be coy, so he began to change his clothes immediately.

Watching Wu Chang take off his top to reveal a chiseled, robust physique, Zhu Li raised an eyebrow, watching without blinking.

If looking was an examination, the sharpness of Zhu Li’s gaze was definitely giving Wu Chang an X-ray.

Wu Chang struck a one-handed, hands-on-hips bodybuilding pose, displaying his muscles from the front, and teased, "Do you want to give me a score?"

"Full marks," Zhu Li said flatly.

"Really?"

"Of course. The guys in town who eat potatoes don't have such a good physique."

He didn't know if it was his imagination, but while Zhu Li’s tone had no inflection throughout, Wu Chang heard an extra meaning in it.

Zhu Li seemed to be reminding him that his physique would expose his identity as an outsider.

He quickly put on his clothes; regardless of whether it was his imagination, being careful was never a mistake.

How did that saying go? The despicable outsider.

In the settings of many games, the locals are always very "hospitable."

Seeing Wu Chang dressed, Zhu Li withdrew her gaze and led him out of the room.

The renovation style inside the sanatorium was uniform, and outside the room was a purely minimalist prison style; everything was based on utility, and no superfluous decorations could be seen.

On both sides of the gray-white corridor were embedded thick iron doors, and nurses in white uniforms patrolled back and forth, watching the iron doors vigilantly.

Not every patient living in the Moonlight Sanatorium was as healthy as Wu Chang.

From the moment he left the room, the wailing, sobbing, and screaming in his ears never ceased, clearly audible even through the thick iron doors.

"What kind of illness do they have?" Wu Chang asked in a low voice.

Zhu Li said, "The same as you, delusional disorder."

Wu Chang: "..."

If Zhu Li hadn't said that, he would have thought they were harvesting kidneys behind those doors.

The delusional disorder in the instance seemed to have a slight deviation from the delusional disorder he understood.

The sanatorium was a four-story building in its entirety, and the consultation area for examining patients was on the third floor.

After a short wait, Wu Chang followed Zhu Li into the mild-case consultation room.

A middle-aged man sat in the consultation room; he looked ordinary, had obvious eye bags, and appeared somewhat haggard. The name tag on his chest read "Charles."

Wu Chang only took one look before feeling the man was unreliable.

A doctor of this age with such thick, lush hair—he figured his medical skills couldn't be that brilliant.

Charles asked with his head down, "Name?"

"Wu... Xiao En."

Charles pulled a medical record from his side, glanced at it, and then threw out a pack of medicine.

"Three times a day, takes effect half an hour after consumption; take the last dose before bed."

Wu Chang opened the waterproof paper packet, which contained three capsules.

"Item Name: Special Medicine."

"Type: Consumable."

"Item Description: While the medicine is in effect, it isolates external influences on the spirit and grants immunity to low-level mental attacks. Side effects: While the medicine is in effect, hallucinations will appear randomly before your eyes; after the effect ends, your Willpower cap decreases by 0.1, lasting until the end of the instance."

"Note: As long as I go crazy first, nothing can drive me crazy."

Wu Chang put away the special medicine calmly, his expression becoming strange.

Can taking this kind of special medicine really cure a patient? After prescribing the medicine, Charles tapped the bell on the desk and dismissed him: "Next."

During the entire consultation, Charles hadn't even clearly seen Wu Chang's face.

Tsk, a quack doctor indeed.

Leaving the consultation room, Wu Chang asked in a low voice, "Is there really no problem with a consultation like this?"

Zhu Li turned her head away and replied in a voice without emotional fluctuation, "Dr. Charles is very experienced; there is no need to worry."

Wu Chang: "Miss Zhu Li, turn your head to look at me, then say that again."

Zhu Li quickened her pace, walking toward the first floor without looking back, and said stiffly, "Walk faster, or we'll miss breakfast." Upon descending to the first-floor lobby of the sanatorium, the first thing to enter his sight was an open wooden door.

Outside the wooden door was the sanatorium's front yard; a circle of iron railings isolated the inside of the sanatorium from the outside, and a chain lock hung symbolically on the gate of the iron railings.

A wooden sign stood next to the gate.

"During the control period, passage requires the Director's written order; unauthorized entry or exit is prohibited."

Neither the sanatorium's wooden door nor the iron gate was fortified; it would only take a paperclip, a hammer, or even a brick to smash them open.

The main quest of the instance was to leave the Moonlight Sanatorium; if it were anyone else, even knowing a B-rank instance couldn't be this simple, they would still try it out of stubbornness.

But Wu Chang would not.

The artistic, spray-like bloodstains on the gate were all telling him not to court death.

Every patch of blood was a cluster of resentment.

Several patches of resentment sprayed into the air, revealing the form of an air wall; the air wall overlapped with the iron railings, shrouding the entire sanatorium.

He randomly chose a few spots of resentment to examine; the owners of the resentment included not only players but also natives of the instance plane.

Regardless of their status, the moment they touched the gate, they would collapse and die instantly, their bodies twisting and dissipating as if devoured by something unknown, with no struggle or resistance in between.

In the cafeteria on the left side of the lobby, Wu Chang received his breakfast.

Two unpeeled potatoes and a small bowl of stewed beans.

The beans were completely stewed to mush, and paired with an unknown sauce, both the taste and texture were like vomit that had been digested several times.

Zhu Li was right; eating this kind of stuff really wouldn't put any meat on one's bones.

He carried his breakfast and followed behind Zhu Li to the activity room on the first floor.

Recreation in the activity room was like yard time in prison; it was one of the few times patients had for free movement.

When the two arrived, nearly thirty patients were already scattered throughout the activity room; they were in groups of three or five, either whispering loudly about a prison break back-to-back, or earnestly asking for advice on footwork changes for playing soccer around a vase.

Looking at the various actions that left one full of question marks, Wu Chang was certain this was a genuine mental hospital.

Before entering the activity room, Zhu Li whispered, "Two pieces of advice for you: one, don't cause trouble here, especially under the eyes of the medical staff. Two, if you want to leave in one piece, it's best not to provoke Jin Dun."

"Why?"

"That guy is too good at manipulating people's hearts; many who have gambled with him have accelerated the deterioration of their condition and turned into idiots ahead of time."

"I will be careful."

Watching Zhu Li’s departing back, Wu Chang could be certain that his previous feeling was not his imagination; Zhu Li was helping him.

Regardless of what her motives were, she could at least be considered half an ally.

Walking into the activity room, before he could clearly see the internal structure, his gaze was drawn like a magnet to a fatty sitting alone at a table shuffling cards.

Wu Chang could be certain that he was the fatty who had appeared in the Mage's resentment.

Not everyone has a powerful digestive system that can grow to over three hundred pounds just by eating a limited supply of potatoes and stewed beans.

This guy was either getting extra food or really gained weight just by drinking cold water.

The fatty’s prominence didn't just come from his physique, but even more from the dense resentment behind him.

A rough glance showed no fewer than twenty counts of resentment, two of which were particularly striking: one bright red, one deep red.

Compared to him, the Blood Thorn who committed murder on the bus could be considered well-behaved.

Wu Chang found a corner to sit down, and while stuffing stewed beans into his mouth, he examined the resentment on the fatty.

This behavior reminded him of his roommate, Old Four, who watched compilations of daily traffic accidents in the dorm to help him eat.

And don't you know, this method really helped him eat; after finishing all the resentment, that bowl of vomit-like stewed beans was actually eaten up by him entirely.

Question Old Four, understand Old Four, become Old Four, surpass Old Four!

The scenes in the resentment behind the fatty were mostly related to gambling.

"Showdown, must showdown!"

"I have four Kings, I don't believe you can have a straight flush!"

"The Goddess of Luck is smiling; I've hit the jackpot today!"

Among the many light-red resentments, the last recorded scenes were mostly of him grabbing a handful of high cards, shouting to reveal them with red eyes; one could feel the madness of the resentment owner before death even through their last words.

Cherish life, stay away from gambling.

Wu Chang shook his head, placed the bowl on the table beside him, tucked two potatoes into his pockets, and walked over to the Fatty who was shuffling cards.

"Playing cards alone is so boring; want to play a couple of rounds with me?"

The Fatty looked up at Wu Chang, smiling as joyfully as a child who had discovered a new toy.

"Sure, if you're willing to play with me, then we're friends. I haven't seen you before, are you new here?"

Wu Chang plopped down into the seat opposite the Fatty and said, "Yeah, my name is Xiao En, what about you?"

The Fatty smiled and said, "My name is Jin Dun, everyone calls me 'Lucky Jin Dun'."

(End of chapter)