Chapter 8: White Door

The blood-red last words within the deep crimson resentment increased Wu Chang’s Life, Stamina, and Willpower attributes by 1 point each, and his Inspiration attribute by 2 points.

A total increase of 5 attribute points is equivalent to leveling up once.

Beyond the attribute point increase, there was the even more important item drop.

The deep crimson resentment burst out a palm-sized medicine box, inside which were six slots for holding pills.

The owner of the resentment had used half; at this moment, three pale blue pills remained in the box.

"Item Name: Whisper of the Nameless."

"Item Type: Consumable."

"Item Grade: C."

"Item Description: After using this item, gain the 'Forced Understanding' status. Under the 'Forced Understanding' status, no matter what happens, the user’s Willpower will not drop to zero, and they will not take damage from low Willpower. Duration: One minute."

"Note: Mysterious whispers fill my ears. It’s wonderful; I have gradually understood everything."

Wu Chang took out a pill to observe it and found that the pill was vibrating slightly, causing ripples to appear on its smooth surface.

Feeling it quietly, it seemed to contain something inside.

It was not a motor like those in small toys, but some kind of ethereal sound.

He put the small blue pill back into his personal space and tucked it away carefully.

From the Blood Thorn on the bus and the patients at the Moonlight Sanatorium, it could be seen that Willpower could be understood as another type of health bar.

If Willpower drops below a safe value, a person will fall into madness; if Willpower collapses to zero, they will become a living dead.

Keeping one's Willpower from hitting zero can be said to be an extremely effective life-saving item.

Although he was a rookie who had just joined the game, he could guess that in the Abyss Game where there is no room for error, the rarity of life-saving consumables is by no means inferior to items of the same grade.

And the deep crimson resentment gave him three all at once!

The boss is generous!

But even more generous was Jin Dun; as a tyrant of the sanatorium, this good brother dropped a massive amount of loot.

Not only did he send two blood-red last words at once, but he also dropped several quest items.

Good brother, calling you Jin Dun is a grievance to you; you should be called Treasury.

In the iron box under the bed, besides the white key specifically requested by the blood-red last words, a dozen or so small objects of unknown origin, and a solid gold pocket watch, there was also an exceptionally eye-catching black key.

He had seen this key on Zhu Li. Zhu Li had said during the day that the basement and the fourth floor of the sanatorium were restricted areas for ordinary patients, and this black key could open the door to one of them.

The fourth floor of the sanatorium is the rest area for medical staff, and only medical staff can enter.

The basement of the sanatorium is the intensive care ward; under normal circumstances, patients can only be pushed in, not walk in.

The white key wanted by the deep crimson resentment corresponds to a hidden white door in the basement; barring any surprises, the black key corresponds to the basement.

With the Traveler's Amulet, the night, which was originally full of crises, was actually freer for movement than the day.

There was still a long time before dawn, so Wu Chang headed straight for the sanatorium basement.

The Moonlight Sanatorium did not seem to equip medical staff with equipment like the Traveler's Amulet; the sanatorium in the dead of night was very empty, and not even a night-patrolling nurse could be seen.

This made his movements very smooth; he went all the way down to the first floor, stepped over several isolated iron fences, and used the black key to open the door leading to the basement area.

Just after entering the basement area, he could smell a pungent stench. The layers of the stench were complex and indescribable, like the smell of rotten, moldy raw meat thrown into a trash can filled with vomit and swill, then left to ferment after being exposed to the sun for three days and three nights.

Just by accidentally inhaling a little, Wu Chang felt dizzy. He scrambled back to the first floor and only dared to return to the basement after putting on a thick medical mask.

The layout of the basement was similar to the wards above, with the same corridors and the same room layout. The only difference was that the iron doors were thicker and could only be opened from the outside.

Looking inside through the bars of the iron door, one could see the patients in the intensive care ward, all fixed to beds equipped with pulleys. They were wrapped in layers of leather restraint suits, with iron chains for fixing wrapped outside the restraint suits.

Even so, they were constantly struggling, trying to break free from the shackles on their bodies.

Some even succeeded.

The patient in Intensive Care Ward No. 3 had a hole the size of a fist in the leather restraint suit at the flank.

At first, Wu Chang thought the patient had torn the restraint suit from the inside with their fingernails, but looking closely, he realized that the "fingers" sticking out from the hole were tentacles that had been skinned and were covered in blood and gore.

They were gnawing on each other with the small mouths at their tips, corroding the leather restraint suit with the oozing blood.

Wu Chang frowned as he watched from outside the ward. Is this thing really just a delusion?

Further inside the intensive care ward was the sanatorium's morgue.

Patients who died from the delusion were all stored inside. They maintained their restrained form, fixed to both sides of the walls with iron chains, waiting to be sent to the town's cemetery for burial after everything was over.

Following the scene seen in the resentment, he found a secret passage at the end of the basement. Behind the secret passage was the pure white iron door that had appeared in the deep crimson resentment.

Looking at the white door before him, he recalled the deep crimson resentment he had seen on Jin Dun.

The owner of this resentment was stronger than the Mage and the Gambler, both in terms of overall hard power and the ability to clear the dungeon.

Whether it was because the strength was too great or for other special reasons, this deep crimson resentment contained many segments of information, more informative than the other resentments.

The owner of the resentment was a doctor. Not long after starting, he relied on his strong professional skills to pass the sanatorium's internal assessment and put on a white coat to become a doctor.

Not only that, but he could also move around the sanatorium at night without a Traveler's Amulet.

With his powerful strength combined with the experience of a veteran player, he quickly completed the initial exploration of the sanatorium and discovered the hidden room in the basement area.

Entering the room required opening the white door, but relying on his danger perception, he sensed that forcing the door open without a key would invite danger.

After lurking and observing in secret for several days, he discovered that Jin Dun could freely enter and exit the white door, so he set his sights on Jin Dun.

Jin Dun acted cautiously and was not weak in strength, so killing him by force was not easy. The doctor planned to use Jin Dun's method and win the key through a gambling game.

Unfortunately, the players who had gambled with Jin Dun had all died, and no one brought the information out of the dungeon, causing countless players to repeat the same mistakes with Jin Dun.

In the doctor's eyes, a mere dungeon elite monster could be easily handled with a flick of his fingers.

But he didn't know that Jin Dun at the gambling table possessed a special cheating ability. Even the Gambler had capsized in the gutter, so the doctor, who was not good at gambling, naturally fell into the trap and died inexplicably at the gambling table.

Unlike the Gambler, the doctor had an exceptionally heavy obsession with the white door, as if something behind the door was attracting him.

Even in the blood-red last words within the resentment, he was still thinking:

[Find a way to enter the white door.]

This is the Abyss Game; even a veteran player as strong as the doctor, as long as one step is taken wrong, it is eternal damnation.

Wu Chang shook his head and turned his thoughts back to the present. He took out the white key, determined to see what exactly was hidden behind the white door the doctor had been so obsessed with.