Chapter 999: Different Zones

Seeing that grotesque, massive mushroom creature, even the seasoned gamer Franca felt a chill of bizarre horror.

Oh my God, what kind of monster is this?

No wonder it’s a manifestation born from the psychological shadows of a Great Being—whether from Mr. “The Fool” or the Heavenly Sovereign…

As similar thoughts flashed through her mind, Franca and Jianna silently split to either side, one vanishing into shadow, the other dissolving her form.

Rosan had never fought alongside them in a supernatural battle, and this was her first encounter with a monster unobstructed by barriers—plus, this wasn’t even the “Shaman’s” territory, leaving her momentarily paralyzed.

Instinctively, she spun around and sprinted back toward the previous hall, moving so fast she left afterimages in her wake.

Yet she had clearly chosen the pair of wooden doors behind her—yet she was horrified to find herself rapidly approaching the giant mushroom creature, its surface crimson as blood, streaked with white veins.

At the same moment, Franca emerged from the shadows.

She felt the shadow she’d hidden in had strangely come alive, as if trying to control and erode her from within.

The next second, both she and Rosan saw the giant mushroom creature swell violently, its hand coalescing into a massive magma sword wreathed in pale blue flames.

The giant mushroom creature closed the distance in a single step and brought down the sword, seemingly forged from crimson magma.

Franca didn’t retreat—instead, she shot forward like lightning, crouched low, and darted sideways, skimming the searing heatwave just before the magma sword could strike.

Jianna’s body swiftly materialized on the ceiling, gripping a brass-colored revolver, aimed squarely at the giant mushroom creature’s head.

Bang!

The giant mushroom creature’s sword cleaved straight through inexperienced Rosan, shattering her like a mirror.

The “mirror decoy” Franca and Jianna had crafted for Rosan finally proved useful.

But the magma sword didn’t stop after shattering Rosan—it slammed hard into the corridor floor, erupting into dozens of pale blue sulfur fireballs.

Boom!

The instant Jianna pulled the trigger and fired a bright yellow bullet toward the giant mushroom creature’s head, she was engulfed by a chain reaction of explosions.

More than half the corridor, including Franca and the giant mushroom creature itself, was swept up in the blast from a dozen sulfur fireballs.

Franca and Jianna involuntarily triggered their “mirror decoys”—their bodies thinned, then cracked into fissures, finally shattering into fragments.

When the explosive turbulence in the narrow corridor subsided, Franca, Jianna, and Rosan reappeared at the very end of the corridor, beside the opposite pair of double wooden doors—the exact spot where the giant mushroom creature had originally stood.

They saw the giant mushroom creature’s head half-caved in, oozing dark red blood, white mycelium, and tiny spores; its body torn open by the blast, revealing both mycelium and flesh within.

As flesh writhed and mycelium grew, the giant mushroom creature’s wounds healed rapidly, restored to their original state.

Seeing this, Franca’s scalp prickled. She spun around, shoved open the door, and bolted out of the corridor.

She felt fighting in this confined space was disadvantageous for them, while the terrifying mushroom creature—with its absurd regenerative ability and explosive attacks—was clearly in its element!

So she had to escape—not just to break free of the giant mushroom creature, but to find a more suitable battlefield for a “Sorceress” and a “Painter.”

Jianna didn’t hesitate; she followed Franca without delay.

Rosan, who had expected to die, was stunned that the “mirror decoy” had actually worked—and now that she had experience, she imitated Luo Fu and Jianna’s actions.

All three quickly passed through the open door and entered a new, dim corridor.

Behind them, the two halves of the wooden door swayed several times before finally sealing shut completely.

Franca moved forward while vigilantly watching for any sign the giant mushroom creature was pursuing them—only to find silence behind the door, utterly still.

“Hmm… do psychological shadows only operate within fixed areas?” Franca slowed her pace, making a guess based on her experience and imagination.

Jianna nodded, glancing around:

“So now we need to watch out for the psychological shadows of this area?”

“What psychological shadows?” Rosan looked confused.

“Monsters like the one we just saw,” Franca explained simply.

Rosan’s eyes flickered, then she blurted out:

“Monsters turned from Zhou Mingrui’s psychological shadows?”

Quite sharp… Franca considered, then said:

“Including those born from evil forces’ psychological shadows.”

Rosan fell silent for two seconds, then opened her mouth to say more—when she suddenly began coughing.

“Cough… cough… cough…” She paused, then said, “Why do I feel like I’ve suddenly gotten sick?”

“Disease”? Had that mushroom creature produced a mystical pathogen? Franca and I are both “Sorceresses of Pain,” with some resistance to “Disease” abilities—brief exposure won’t infect us, but Rosan isn’t immune, and symptoms appeared already? Too fast—this isn’t Level 7 capability… After being triggered, Zhou Mingrui’s Dream City’s power level has shifted, and this change began from beneath Mushi Hospital—yet hasn’t yet manifested externally? Jianna vaguely understood the cause, and pulled a healing potion from her “Traveler’s Satchel.”

She didn’t immediately offer it to Rosan; instead, she paused and asked:

“Can you draw your own miracle medicine?”

Even if the medicine you draw only lasts a short time, it can still cure—if you eliminate the mystical pathogen before the effect fades!

At that moment, Franca also realized the reason, muttering:

“That mushroom creature is terrifying…”

“What kind of monster is this?!”

Rosan felt her forehead burning hot. She shook her head:

“I don’t know what disease this is, or what medicine to draw to cure it.”

“Then drink this,” Jianna handed the healing potion to Rosan.

—She and Franca always kept two healing potions on them; previous ones consumed had been supplied by Lu Mi or replenished by him.

After experiencing the decoy’s substitution of death, Rosan now trusted Franca and Jianna deeply. She took the potion, twisted open the cap, and gulped it down in one swallow.

Just seconds later, she blinked and said:

“It’s gone… the sickness is gone…”

“That’s amazing!”

“Your drawing ability is amazing too,” Franca modestly replied, pointing to the end of the current corridor, “Let’s keep moving—we need to find the elevator as soon as possible, or we don’t know what we’ll run into next…”

She still trembled at the memory of the giant mushroom creature.

Jianna and Rosan felt the same, quickening their pace to follow behind Franca.

Just as they took two or three steps, the pair of double wooden doors at the corridor’s end suddenly swung open.

Franca and Jianna instinctively activated “Invisibility,” then realized they needed to figure out how to hide Rosan.

Rosan, already adapting to the situation, took her pencil and, in just two seconds, sketched a simple, unremarkable, childlike doodle of a door on the side wall.

The door had no label and led nowhere. Rosan placed her palm on the handle and yanked sharply backward.

The door she’d just drawn on the wall magically opened, revealing a dark space the size of a 2303 room’s bathroom.

Rosan slipped inside, then carefully closed the paper-thin door behind her.

The wall surface now bore only faint, barely visible pencil marks resembling a door.

At that moment, the double doors at the corridor’s end had fully opened. A nurse in light-blue scrubs, wearing a white mask, slowly pushed a gurney into the current area.

Franca held her breath, fixing her gaze on the nurse and the gurney.

She saw the nurse’s eyes—empty, wooden, yet hiding deep malice—and noticed the thin blanket covering the gurney held no patient or corpse.

What chilled Franca’s neck was the blanket’s swollen, bulging shape—yet beneath it, there was clearly nothing.

Covering an invisible thing? Franca and Jianna pressed their backs tightly against the side walls, maximizing distance from the nurse and the gurney.

Amid the sound of wheels rolling over floor seams, the nurse maintained a slow, mechanical posture, pushing the gurney between Franca and Jianna, toward the double wooden doors leading to the giant mushroom creature’s corridor.

Only when the gurney had fully passed through the doors and vanished from sight did Franca and Jianna deactivate “Invisibility,” returning to the center of the corridor.

Rosan also opened the door on the wall and stepped out lightly.

She didn’t forget to “close” it.

“How did you know it was safe to come out?” Jianna asked, having nearly knocked on the door.

Rosan lifted her pencil and smiled:

“I drew a peephole inside.”

“Right. Keep looking for the elevator,” Franca took the lead without hesitation.

Just as they reached the exit at the corridor’s end, the pair of double doors suddenly swung open again.

It opened once more—this time, when they were less than three meters away.

…………

Mushi Hospital, Emergency Center.

Following his previous experience, Zhou Mingrui described symptoms of acute gastroenteritis and successfully obtained a lab requisition form.

Holding the form, he turned down the right corridor toward the emergency blood-drawing station.

While waiting for his number to be called, he clutched his stomach, feigning unbearable pain, hurriedly left the area, entered the first-floor lobby, and headed toward the nearest public restroom.

Along the way, he casually scanned his surroundings, searching for any odd details.

—He had found nothing unusual in the emergency center earlier.

The nearest public restroom was adjacent to elevators 6 through 10. Under dim lighting, Zhou Mingrui swiftly circled into the elevator lobby.

He pressed both “up” and “down” buttons simultaneously, observing the elevators’ behavior.

Soon, two elevators arrived at the first floor, their doors opening nearly simultaneously.

Zhou Mingrui glanced left and right—the upward elevator showed no anomalies, but the downward one gave him a chilling sense of descending into hell, toward the source of fear.

“The problem at Mushi Hospital is underground?” Zhou Mingrui whispered to himself.

(End of Chapter)