Chapter 179: Using Human‑Skin Paper

Article 5 of the staff regulations blared a frantic alarm in Jiang Yuan's mind.

【This hospital has no underground second floor. If you see a staircase leading to the underground second floor anywhere, turn around immediately and do not look back.】

Turn back......

He not only turned back, he even ran down!

A fierce feeling of suffocation clutched Jiang Yuan's throat.

He made the most instinctive reaction.

Run!

Jiang Yuan spun around abruptly, using all his strength, and charged toward the staircase he had come from.

He dared not glance again at those corpse-wrapping bags, nor think about what that sudden wriggle had meant.

At the moment he turned, a slow "sizzle" of a zipper being pulled open came from behind.

That sound in the dead silent basement was so clear it made the hair on one's scalp stand up.

Jiang Yuan's heart seemed about to leap out of his chest; he could even feel a cold gaze, as if scented with corpse rot, nailed firmly to his back.

Don't look back!

Never look back!

He rushed down the stairs like a madman, the steps beneath him clanging, yet he felt as if he were stuck in mud, each step unbearably heavy.

When he finally burst out of that darkness and stepped again onto the cold floor tiles of the hospital's First Floor, his body, due to momentum, pitched forward and fell heavily to the ground.

The terrifying gaze behind him and the zipper sound both vanished.

Jiang Yuan lay on the ground, panting heavily, cold sweat soaking his thin Patient Gown, clinging to him, cold and sticky.

After a long while, he struggled to prop himself up, his back against the cold wall, still shaken as he looked around.

He had clearly run down from the Stairwell, yet this was the First Floor's lobby.

The space of this damned place was completely chaotic.

He breathed heavily, trying to get his brain working again.

The map marked more than one staircase.

It seems that to reach the Second Floor, one must use another entrance.

Or perhaps he missed some crucial clue.

Jiang Yuan forced himself to calm down and resumed exploring the First Floor Corridor.

He walked more cautiously than before, like a frightened cat, any rustle making his body tense instantly.

Just as he rounded a corner, fully focused on inspecting a locked pharmacy,

a faint, indistinct baby wail suddenly rose from the depths of the empty Corridor without warning.

It's coming!

Jiang Yuan's pupils contracted sharply.

【If you hear a baby's cry in the Corridor outside visiting hours...... please immediately look for a red storage cabinet or room nearby and hide inside......】

He almost instantly gave up exploring, his eyes scanning the dim Corridor wildly.

Red storage cabinet!

About twenty meters ahead to his right front, a row of rust‑stained Iron Cabinets stood against the wall, one of which was painted with red Paint that had long since peeled off half.

That's it!

Jiang Yuan hesitated not at all, bolting toward that red cabinet.

The wailing behind grew clearer and more mournful, as if right beside his ear.

He used all his strength to pull open the creaking cabinet door, slipping inside like a fish, then slammed the door shut with his back hand.

"Bang!"

Inside the cabinet was pitch black, smelling of iron rust and dust.

Jiang Yuan curled up in the cramped space, daring not even a breath, his hand tightly covering his mouth.

He could hear his own heartbeat, pounding in his chest like war drums.

The wail still echoed outside, alternating near and far, accompanied by some heavy footsteps pacing back and forth in the Corridor.

He couldn't tell how long had passed—perhaps minutes, perhaps half a century.

The sounds outside finally vanished completely.

A total silence.

After confirming no sound could be heard, he carefully pushed the cabinet door open a crack.

The Corridor was empty, only the bleak white moonlight pouring in from the window.

That monster left.

Jiang Yuan let out a long sigh and crawled out of the cabinet.

The feeling of surviving a disaster made his legs feel weak.

But the moment he straightened up, the relief on his face froze completely.

At the end of the Corridor, the monster he had previously encountered—its abdomen bulging high, a baby's arm clenched in its mouth—Jack Smith stood there quietly.

It did not move.

It simply... stopped crying.

The monster turned its stiff head slowly, slowly, its neck making a grating "click-click" that made teeth ache.

Its cloudy, lifeless eyes locked precisely onto Jiang Yuan.

In the next second, the monster planted its limbs on the ground, like a huge spider, charging at Jiang Yuan in a posture that completely defied human anatomy!

"Damn!"

Jiang Yuan's scalp exploded, and he turned and ran.

He ran like a madman down the corridor, the bloody wind behind him almost sticking to the back of his neck.

A storage room with its door ajar appeared in his field of view.

No time to think, Jiang Yuan flung himself sideways, burst the door open, tumbled inside, and slammed it shut with a backhand.

"Bang!"

Jiang Yuan shoved with all his might, but the force was far beyond imagination.

He couldn't hold it at all!

Just as he thought the door was about to be burst open, the force outside suddenly vanished.

"Huh?"

Jiang Yuan froze.

Immediately, he heard a chilling, wet, writhing sound.

The sound came from the gap between the door and its frame.

He slowly lowered his head.

A pale, infant's little hand was squeezing through the door crack less than a finger wide, bit by bit.

Then came a second.

A third.

A fourth!

Swarms of infant arms, like twisted vines bursting from the earth, surged madly through the crack!

They quickly grew, lengthened, branched, spreading wildly across the floor, walls, and ceiling!

In just a few seconds, the entire room was completely overtaken by those writhing, pallid arms.

A nauseating stickiness and icy chill came from all directions.

An arm lashed like lightning around Jiang Yuan's ankle, yanking him backward hard.

Jiang Yuan crashed to the floor, and more arms surged up, coiling around his limbs, waist, and neck.

He was hoisted high by those arms, like a sacrifice to an evil god.

Despair.

Utter despair nearly drowned his consciousness.

All his skills, all his struggles, seemed ridiculous and powerless before this unimaginable weirdness.

Just as a cold little hand stroked his cheek, about to cover his mouth and nose,

In Jiang Yuan's mind flashed a cold metal box he had deliberately forgotten.

Human skin paper!

Captain Wang Dui had given it to him, that eerie artifact obtained by trading blood for intelligence!

"Damn it, there's nothing left to do!"

Jiang Yuan let out a beast-like roar, summoning his last strength, twisted his body, and with his bound hands fished the cold metal storage box from the pocket of his patient gown.

He strained with his teeth to pry the box open.

The ominous human skin paper lay still inside.

Without a hint of hesitation.

Jiang Yuan shoved his thumb to his mouth and bit down hard!

Pain shot through.

He pressed his bleeding, trembling fingertip, resolute despite the shake, onto the weird human skin paper.

A drop of scarlet blood fell slowly, instantly sucked dry by the desiccated paper.