Miao Feichi gripped his twin blades in reverse. The shadow cast on the wall resembled a praying mantis poised to strike. He stared at the patient on the outer bed and sneered before slashing down without hesitation.
The curved blades cut through the white mist, tracing a smooth, deadly arc. In an instant, the edge reached the bridge of Bai Liu's nose.
Mu Ke nearly screamed. He wanted to rush forward and stop him. Bai Liu's panel was only an F-grade, and his health was already critically low. One strike from Miao Feichi's weapon could end his life. Bai Liu had no way to resist it; this was a potential S-grade weapon!
Mu Ke's eyes burned red with fury and helplessness. In that moment, he hated his own weakness. Why wasn't he Mu Sicheng? Mu Sicheng could block this attack. Meanwhile, he could only watch.
At last, Bai Liu slowly opened his eyes.
The knife tip hung above him, then descended swiftly, flashing in the darkness. At the same time, the long-delayed system prompt finally sounded in Bai Liu's mind.
[System prompt: Player Bai Liu has used player Mu Sicheng's soul banknote to enter the target's system panel… Completed. Player Bai Liu can now manipulate player Mu Sicheng's system panel.]
[System prompt: Player Bai Liu has used the personal skill "Monkey Thief."]
[System prompt: Player Bai Liu has equipped five "Thief's Black Fingers," enhancing the personal skill…]
[Thief's Black Fingers equipped. "Monkey Thief" upgraded from an A-grade to an A+ grade. Potential: S-grade. Against S-grade players, the stealing success rate is 50%. Against A+ and lower attack skills, block success rate: 100%.]
Bai Liu's hand, its skin warped into a strange bark-like texture, transformed into a charred monkey's paw. He flexed his fingers briefly to adjust to the unfamiliar sensation, then looked up. The blade was less than ten centimeters from the center of his forehead.
He tilted his head slightly—and caught the knife tip between his fingers.
"Fuck! This patient blocked it!" Miao Feichi reacted instantly, narrowing his eyes. "He's not Bai Liu! Bai Liu doesn't have an A+ skill that can block me. This is the other patient—the monster!"
He turned sharply toward the inner bed. "The one in that bed is Bai Liu!"
Bai Liu's lips curved faintly.
Miao Feichi's blades swept upward in a diagonal slash, the cold edge grazing Bai Liu's cheek. Even believing this wasn't Bai Liu, he had no intention of sparing the target. Bai Liu raised the monkey hand again and blocked.
Steel met hardened nails with a sharp clang. Sparks burst briefly in the dim ward.
If the lighting had been brighter, if not for the thick white fog, Miao Feichi might have recognized Mu Sicheng's black monkey hand. But the room was so dark he had to squint to see. With the Thief's Black Fingers equipped, the monkey hand looked little different from the patient's thin, darkened fingers.
Instead of realizing the truth, Miao Feichi was led further astray.
Two consecutive strikes failed. His expression darkened. "Something's wrong. This monster's level is high. To block me twice—it's at least A+."
Without hesitation, he drove his blades into the wall, flipped twice, and lunged toward the inner bed. His logic was brutally simple.
"The one outside isn't Bai Liu. The one inside is! The outer one's hard to kill—so kill Bai Liu inside first!"
If the inner patient couldn't withstand the attack, Bai Liu's entire plan would collapse.
Mu Ke's gaze flicked to the towering bookcase behind Miao Feichi. His heart pounded wildly. The bookshelf toppled forward without warning.
Mu Ke had hooked the tall shelf with his foot and yanked it down, sending it crashing toward both the motionless patient on the inner bed and the attacking Miao Feichi. Standing in the dim corner, Mu Ke shouted loudly, "The patient here just attacked me!"
The moment the inner patient was struck by the falling shelf, Bai Liu rolled across the ground and swiftly switched positions with him. His eyes were ice-cold, devoid of emotion. With precise force, he kicked the long-limbed patient off the bed.
The patient finally awakened. Its mouth opened, revealing jagged teeth slick with mucus. A long tongue lolled out, licking its lips as it emitted a high-frequency shriek. The air was filled with the stench of rotting vegetation.
At the same time, a monster interface popped up on everyone's system panel.
[System prompt: Congratulations to players Mu Ke, Miao Feichi, and Miao Gaojiang for triggering the Monster Book.]
[The Love Welfare Institute Monster Book has refreshed — Plant Patient (2/3).]
[Monster Name: Plant Patient]
[Features: Movement speed 1,500–2,000. Requires large amounts of water for growth. Prefers humid environments.]
[Weaknesses: ??? (Unexplored)]
[Attack Methods: Blood-sucking. Once skin is bitten, blood will be drained (A-grade attack skill). Poisonous fog pollution that continuously reduces players' health within the room until they transform into Plant Patients (A-grade skill).]
"Fuck—so the one outside really was the patient?" In the heavy darkness, even Miao Feichi was momentarily confused. But he quickly realized something was off—he couldn't kill the inner patient either.
"What the hell is going on? Why can't I kill either of them?!" His expression grew increasingly grim.
Miao Gaojiang was already confronting the fully awakened monster. Without turning around, he replied, "Bai Liu was likely alienated by this patient. His mental value probably dropped into the rage stage, which boosted his skills. He can block you now. At this point, he's no different from the monster."
"He lost a massive amount of health and stayed in the same room as this mental-pollution-type monster for so long…" Miao Gaojiang continued. "I suspect he's either dead or fully transformed. We're facing two A+ monsters. We won't finish this in fifteen minutes."
"Feichi, there are only a few minutes left. If both are high-level monsters and we can only kill one, which do we kill? I'm inclined to target the outer bed—that should be Bai Liu. But they've switched positions too quickly. I can't tell which one is him anymore. Can you sense it when you attack?"
Miao Feichi's expression darkened, and he said nothing.
In the dim ward, the clash between the Crescent Moon Double Knives and the black monkey hand rang out again and again. The metallic clang echoed continuously. Though Miao Feichi tried to suppress the noise to avoid alerting the nurses, the sharp collisions were impossible to completely silence.
Once more, he dodged the black hand lunging for his throat.
His patience finally snapped. With a furious shout, he swung both blades horizontally at full force, a streak of silver light flashing through the mist. The strike was meant to cleave Bai Liu in two.
At that critical moment, Mu Ke, crouching on the floor, yanked a hospital bed forward. It slammed into Miao Feichi's knees just as the blades were about to slice into Bai Liu's chest.
Bai Liu forced himself to breathe slowly, suppressing the instinct to gasp. The knives skimmed past, severing a lock of his hair before embedding themselves into the wet floor. "Fuck! What are you doing, Mu Ke?!"
Miao Feichi's fury exploded. He turned and glared at Mu Ke, veins bulging at his temples. That high-damage strike had consumed significant stamina, and now it had been wasted.
Mu Ke crouched on the ground, clutching a book. "I—I'm looking for books! The bookcase fell over, and the books got scattered under the bed!"
Miao Feichi, unable to vent his rage elsewhere, kicked Mu Ke hard in the chest. "Get out of the way!"
Mu Ke's face turned purple as he choked. Instinctively, he squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for another blow. Instead, a dry, charred monkey hand grasped his back and pulled him lightly aside, sliding him safely beneath the bed. Mu Ke blinked, tears welling in his eyes. It was Bai Liu's hand.
Clenching his teeth under the bed, Mu Ke began silently counting down. Eight minutes left. Bai Liu was fighting the father and son—two players with S-grade panels—for eight whole minutes. And he could only watch.
"Feichi." Miao Gaojiang's voice sounded hoarse. His upper body had begun to zombify due to his skill activation. Ivory-like tusks protruded grotesquely from his mouth, and his face had taken on a ghastly greenish-purple hue. In the darkness, he looked hideous.
He sidestepped to avoid the monster's bite. "Half the time is gone. We can only kill one. You're the main attacker. Can you tell which one is Bai Liu?"
"Fuck!" Miao Feichi snapped. "If you can't tell, how the hell can I? They look like they were carved from the same mold!"
He launched another powerful strike—this time uninterrupted.
The twin blades flashed. Two black fingers were severed cleanly from Bai Liu's monkey hand and clattered to the floor.
[System prompt: Player Bai Liu's item "Thief's Black Fingers" has lost two fingers. The strength of the personal skill "Monkey Thief" has been reduced to three-fifths.]
Miao Feichi let out a harsh laugh. "Looks like I don't even need to choose. The one on my side can't hold out much longer. I'll finish it in five minutes."
"Do it quickly," Miao Gaojiang replied, his expression easing slightly. "Once you're done, come help me."
Under the bed, Mu Ke clenched his fists so tightly his palms nearly bled. His lips trembled, his chest still aching from the kick.
Five minutes left. Hurry.
Miao Feichi's blades moved like a mantis's scythes. As weapons born from his personal skill, they suited him far better than ordinary instance-dropped items. The knives were like extensions of his arms—his movements fluid and seamless, like flowing water. Swift. Precise. Deadly.
After the initial chaos in the cramped, fog-filled ward, he regained his rhythm. He pressed Bai Liu relentlessly, slashing horizontally, diagonally, vertically. Even the faint whistle of blades cutting through the air carried a chilling cadence.
When something was severed by such speed, there was no slicing sound—only the dull thud of it hitting the ground.
From beneath the bed, Mu Ke watched black fingers fall one after another. He bit down so hard his palm bled beneath his nails.
Three minutes left.
[System prompt: Player Bai Liu's item "Thief's Black Fingers" has lost one finger. Skill strength reduced to two-fifths.]
[System prompt: Player Bai Liu's item "Thief's Black Fingers" has lost one finger. Skill strength reduced to one-fifth.]
[System prompt: All Black Fingers lost. Enhancement removed. "Monkey Thief" downgraded from A+ to A-grade. Block success rate against A+ skills reduced to 50%.]
Miao Feichi slashed downward. Bai Liu blocked with the monkey hand.
Miao Feichi sneered. With a twist of his wrists, the blades shifted midair, changing from a vertical strike to a horizontal sweep.
Bai Liu was forced back into the corner. No space left to dodge. The cold steel arced toward his throat.
Certain of victory, Miao Feichi turned toward Miao Gaojiang with a wicked grin. "My side's done—"
Before he could finish, a hospital bed slammed into his lower back. His body lurched forward. The blades skimmed past Bai Liu's face and bit into the wall instead. For an instant, the curved steel reflected Bai Liu's pale face streaked with blood.
Behind the bed, Mu Ke gasped, gripping the railing with both hands. Fear lingered in his eyes.
One minute left.
Bai Liu suddenly smiled.
Miao Feichi finally lost control. Seeing Mu Ke once again interfering, he dragged him out from beneath the bed. "Are you fucking sick?!"
He slapped Mu Ke viciously. "Every time I'm about to kill it, you get in the way! You fucking—"
He raised both blades to strike Mu Ke down.
Mu Ke wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. Cowering in the corner, clutching a book, he stammered, "S-Sorry! I was looking for books and found something important! The system prompt said it's the life recovery medicine!"
Miao Feichi froze mid-swing. "You found it already?" His eyes narrowed. "You'd better have. Or I'll fucking—"
"Feichi, stop!" Miao Gaojiang called, retreating toward them while fending off the monster. "Check the prescription!"
Miao Feichi swallowed his curse and lowered his blades. He reached to grab Mu Ke, but Mu Ke shrank back in apparent terror, retreating toward Bai Liu in the corner. "Idiot!" Miao Feichi shouted. "There's something wrong over there! Get away!"
Mu Ke pretended to tremble. Head lowered, he quietly grasped Bai Liu's wrist. Stay awake. No matter how low your mental value drops, stay awake. Hold on. Don't let go.
Bai Liu leaned slightly toward him, voice calm and low. "Can you hold steady?"
Mu Ke swallowed and nodded faintly.
[System prompt: Player Bai Liu has activated player Mu Sicheng's personal skill "Thief Moving Stealthily." Due to low personal strength, usage time is limited to one minute. Full-speed mode unavailable. Final movement speed bonus: +4,900. Confirm activation?]
[System prompt: Activation confirmed. Movement speed +4,900. Physical strength rapidly declining…]
Miao Feichi watched as the "monster" before him suddenly latched onto another body. In a blur too fast for him to follow, Bai Liu grabbed Mu Ke and darted between the two ICU beds like a fish slipping through water.
The three nearly identical figures moved like slippery loaches. Several times, Miao Feichi swung and missed, unable to lock onto a target. Mu Ke cried out for help, but Bai Liu's extreme speed, combined with the dim lighting, made it impossible to distinguish between them.
"Shut up!" Miao Feichi snapped irritably, instinctively preparing to fling his twin blades.
"Mu Ke is there too!" Miao Gaojiang barked, stopping him. "He has the prescription for the life recovery medicine. Don't attack blindly! Look carefully before you strike!"
"Look carefully?!" Miao Feichi roared. "They look exactly the same! They're moving so fast that even with that idiot screaming, I can't tell who's who!"
Miao Gaojiang forced himself to stay calm. "Mu Ke's alienation is lighter. He's shorter and doesn't have as many spots. Focus, and you'll see the difference!"
Just as he finished speaking, two dark shapes burst out from beneath the bed beside him.
Miao Gaojiang had been grappling with the awakened plant patient when the two thin, ghostlike figures appeared directly in front of him.
He hesitated. What if one of them was Mu Ke?
He withdrew his zombified fist and instinctively stepped back, abandoning the finishing blow to avoid injuring the wrong person.
Bai Liu stood there, gripping Mu Ke by the collar, facing the plant patient Miao Gaojiang had just battered. His blood-streaked face was calm and detached—like a mad gambler who had already calculated every outcome.
A chill ran down Miao Gaojiang's spine. Bai Liu lifted Mu Ke and shoved him toward the plant patient.
The creature sniffed the air, catching the scent of fresh blood. Its mucus-slick teeth parted as it lunged—not at the monster-like figure before it, but at the living player whose blood it could drink.
Bai Liu did not look back. Without hesitation, he thrust Mu Ke closer.
The plant patient's long, skeletal fingers clamped onto Mu Ke's shoulders. Its jaws opened wide, searching for flesh.
Mu Ke drew a trembling breath. He turned his head, exposing the pale curve of his neck.
The monster grinned grotesquely and sank its teeth into him.
Mu Ke's body shook violently as blood drained from him. His face paled at once, but he forced himself to scream, "It's biting me! It's sucking my blood! My mental value is dropping fast!"
[System prompt: Player Mu Ke has been attacked. Mental value decreased to 67. Health decreased to 31 (main identity line total health: 50). Please escape the Plant Patient's attack range immediately! Otherwise, health and mental value will continue to decline!]
Mu Ke's limbs began to wither and elongate unnaturally. His pupils lost focus. His body stretched like a rapidly growing vine.
Miao Gaojiang's expression turned grim.
"Mu Ke is being alienated, too. Now the three of them look identical. We can't tell who's Bai Liu, who's the monster, and who's Mu Ke."
Bai Liu dragged both Mu Ke and the plant patient in rapid circles around the ward. With his boosted speed, the three blurred through the darkness—here one second, gone the next.
As Mu Ke's alienation deepened, spots began appearing on his skin. All three figures were now nearly the same height and appearance.
It was impossible to tell them apart.
Even with superior panels, Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang couldn't instantly kill three A+-speed targets—especially while trying not to harm Mu Ke.
Miao Feichi's frustration boiled over. "Did these things eat Mu Sicheng or what? Why are they so damn fast?!" His eyes gleamed with bloodlust. "If we can't tell them apart, then just kill all three. Forget Mu Ke. We'll deal with the recovery medicine later. Kill Bai Liu first."
"There's only one minute left," Miao Gaojiang warned. "We can't kill three in time."
Miao Feichi licked the blood at the corner of his lips. "Then I'll open S-grade. A few dozen seconds will be enough."
"In a level-two instance? That's a waste of stamina—"
Miao Gaojiang met his son's furious gaze and sighed. "…Fine. Do as you like."
[System prompt: Player Miao Feichi has activated the personal S-grade skill "Resentment Double Knives." Based on current stamina, duration: one minute. After one minute, stamina will be fully depleted and cannot be restored with recovery agents. Natural recovery after one day. Confirm activation?]
[System prompt: Activation confirmed. Double knives infused with accumulated resentment. Attack +8,001. Stamina rapidly decreasing…]
Miao Feichi's expression turned eerily blank.
He drove his blades into the ground. The floor cracked instantly, and a strange white mist surged upward, carrying a thick scent of blood.
The mist coalesced into a pale, humanoid specter. Its lower half remained tethered to the blades, while its upper body floated like a ghost, mouth open in a silent scream.
The resentful soul clung to its killer, its hatred sharpening the knives that had once slaughtered it.
Then the specter lunged forward.
The white apparition tore through the vapor-filled ward like a vortex, rushing toward the three blurred figures. Miao Feichi followed in its wake. In less than a second, he pierced the wall with one blade to anchor himself, kicked off, and sent the other blade straight toward Bai Liu's face.
This strike was on an entirely different level. It wasn't merely fast—it was overwhelming. Bai Liu felt the heat of the blade cleaving through the mist. The knife aimed to sever his neck cleanly. His eyes darkened.
He twisted away at high speed, the blade grazing his cheek and carving a thin line of blood. In the same instant, Miao Feichi yanked the curved blade back in a deadly arc, aiming for the back of Bai Liu's neck.
There was no time to dodge. Bai Liu raised the monkey hand to block. But this strike was not like the others. He couldn't clamp onto the tip. The blade pierced through his palm and stabbed into the back of his neck. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
[System prompt: Player Bai Liu has activated "Thief's Monkey Hand." Due to 50% judgment reduction, 50% of the damage has been successfully blocked.]
[System prompt: Player Bai Liu has used "Siren's Fish Scale" to block 49.7% of the damage. The item is slightly chipped (10% durability loss). Please repair it promptly.]
[System warning: Player Bai Liu's health has dropped to 7! Mental value has dropped to 27!]
Logically, 99% of Miao Feichi's knife damage had been blocked, and the remaining 1% should have been enough to kill Bai Liu. However, when the blade pierced the back of Bai Liu's neck, the tip only sank in by a shallow millimeter before being stopped.
At some point, the coin embedded with the fish scale had shifted to his back, perfectly intercepting the tip of Miao Feichi's knife.
Bai Liu glanced at Mu Ke, whose blood was still being sucked and who was on the verge of losing consciousness. Mu Ke coughed and, upon seeing Bai Liu's pierced neck, his pupils shrank sharply. Bai Liu quickly calculated Mu Ke's remaining mental value and health before calmly loosening Mu Ke's grip on him.
Mu Ke's eyes fluttered open with difficulty. His hands slowly and weakly fell away.
The force of Miao Feichi's strike pushed Bai Liu forward. Miao Feichi raised his curved knives, and just as he was about to deliver the killing blow, Bai Liu suddenly whispered hoarsely, "I… cough… am Mu Ke."
Miao Feichi froze. He halted the descending blades, cursed at having targeted the wrong person, and kicked the bleeding Bai Liu aside. Without hesitation, he turned toward the other two monsters.
Bai Liu was sent crashing into a corner. Leaning weakly against the wall, he calmly watched Miao Feichi attack the delirious Mu Ke. Quietly, he took out a soul banknote and pressed it against his system panel.
[System prompt: Player Bai Liu has used player Mu Ke's soul banknote to intervene in the other player's system panel. After the intervention, player Bai Liu can access player Mu Ke's system panel.]
Mu Ke staggered in an attempt to dodge but failed to escape completely. Miao Feichi's double knives grazed his body, and he collapsed to the ground.
[System warning: Player Mu Ke's health has dropped to 6! Mental value has dropped to 26!]
Miao Feichi seemed to sense something was wrong. Instead of killing Mu Ke outright, he struck him with the flat of the blade. Mu Ke curled into a ball from the impact. Miao Feichi stepped on Mu Ke's back and stared down at him, eyes narrowed.
"…This reaction lacks strength. It's nothing like the monster or Bai Liu I fought before. Why do I feel like you're Mu Ke?"
He tapped Mu Ke's face twice with the blunt side of his knife, his gaze drifting dangerously between Bai Liu and Mu Ke. "Hey. Are you conscious? Answer me—who are you?"
Suddenly, Mu Ke opened his mouth and bit down on Miao Feichi's ankle. His eyes were red as he imitated the monster that had sucked his blood, desperately trying to do the same to Miao Feichi. A muffled whimper escaped his throat as his teeth dug into Miao Feichi's skin.
He was imitating the monster.
Mu Ke didn't want to expose that Bai Liu was pretending to be him, so following Bai Liu's instructions, he acted like the ward's monster. Bai Liu had told him that he had to resemble the monster as much as possible. Only then could Bai Liu escape safely.
Mu Ke bit down like a rabid dog. But he was far too weak—more like a frantic puppy than a threat. Miao Feichi's S-grade defense was not something a novice-level player could chew through.
Miao Feichi cursed. "You must be the monster my father almost killed." He raised his double knives, intending to finish Mu Ke off.
Mu Ke didn't dodge at all. Blood poured from his mouth, but there was only one thought in his mind—a thought that aligned perfectly with Bai Liu's earlier plan:
Bite him. Don't let him leave.
Bai Liu's health was already critically low. Mu Ke couldn't allow Miao Feichi to go after him again, or Bai Liu would surely die. This thought repeated itself in Mu Ke's mind like a mantra, almost as if he had hypnotized himself out of sheer terror after seeing Bai Liu collapse in a pool of blood earlier.
Mu Ke clung tightly to Miao Feichi's legs. His eyes were unfocused as he clenched his jaw and held on, even though he couldn't break through the defense. Miao Feichi swore and brought the resentment-filled soul knives down toward him.
Bai Liu calmly calculated the time.
Ten seconds left.
Almost time.
[System prompt: Will player Bai Liu use the tool "Statue's Shell" to enhance player Mu Ke's resistance attributes?]
Bai Liu's eyes were cold.
[No. Use the Statue's Shell on the plant patient.]
[System prompt: Calculating… Since the plant patient has absorbed 35% of player Mu Ke's blood, which contains his attributes, it can directly use player Mu Ke's equipment. Does player Bai Liu confirm giving the tool to the plant patient instead of the endangered player Mu Ke to increase defense?]
Miao Feichi's resentment-filled knives were descending toward the hollow-eyed Mu Ke.
Bai Liu lifted his eyelids and glanced over indifferently, his expression calm and unreadable.
[Confirmed. Do not use it on Mu Ke.]
_________________________________________________
(Note: Reminder. Statue's Shell is a reward from the Siren Town Monster Book and increases defense by 100 points. It is different from the Mermaid Amulet used in Exploding Last Train.)