Horror Game Designer

Li San Hospital showed its true self after dark. The nightmare from the video was slowly coming true in real life. The people trapped in the hospital couldn’t differentiate between the two. Were they trapped in the nightmare and couldn’t wake up, or had their lives turned into nightmares?

“Go to the inpatient wards on the seventh floor!”

The mutation speed of Li San Hospital’s back building was fast. This was different from the other horror scenarios Xuan Wen had encountered. Normally, the horror story would slowly infiltrate the real world after midnight. However, the hospital’s back building was like it came from the shadow world. Su Mo was numb. The back building was scary for the ghosts, much less the humans.

The internally twisted Chen Meng and Mr. Yi, with his strange appearance, as well as the two kid patients, ran so fast. Even they were scared. Su Mo gasped for air. He didn’t have the guts to observe his surroundings. He focused on running until the person before him stopped. He turned around subconsciously. He saw the corridor windows. Blood dripped from the top of the transparent glass windows. Outside the window was the front building. It was then that he realised the front building had the same architectural style as the back building. They were identical. However, the front building was bathed in light, and the back building was like its shadow.

“I wonder how Brother Xiong and the rest are. I hope they haven’t entered the back building.” Su Mo was very kind. Even at that moment, he was still worried about his brothers.

“Come with me! Stick close!” Xuan Wen grabbed the doorknob. The blood vessels hidden in the door shrunk like they had been sprinkled with salt.

Xuan Wen kicked down the door. They managed to reach the seventh-floor ward before the situation became worse.

“Isn’t the exit on the first floor? Why are we here?” The kid with the gaming helmet grumbled. His brain was installed with a new game by Xuan Wen. His persona was changing. He stopped asking for murder, but it was hard for him to return to normal overnight.

“Get in! Enter the different wards to look for pills!” Xuan Wen listened to the voice on the video through her headphones. She knew how to leave, but Lu Zang didn’t mention the exact shape of the pills. To find the correct pill, they had to try the drugs found.

“Hey, we shouldn’t barge into these wards.” Mr. Yi used to be a very good nurse at the hospital. He seemed to know something about the back building. The mutation started to spread. The bannisters were morphing into flesh. As the rust fell to the ground, they became broken nails. Once one looked up, the bannisters had become fingers. The things that looked normal in the last second would change in the next. The only thing that felt authentic was the heart that was jumping out of one’s chest.

“Find the pills.” Xuan Wen’s tone changed. This was the first time she had used this tone since they had entered Li San Hospital. It sounded no different from before. However, the patient and Su Mo’s bodies moved on their own, like they were being controlled by Xuan Wen. They pushed through the first door. Something was lying on the giant white bed. It was covered by a rotting blanket. IV drip bags hung on the wall behind it. The tubes ran down as they reached under the blanket.

“It is still alive!” Su Mo saw the blanket move. The thing under the blanket was in a lot of pain.

“Do not disturb the patient. Focus on the pills.” Xuan Wen knew that Gao Ming was hurrying over. That was why she was desperate to leave. The doctors at the hospital seemed to know Gao Ming would return half a year ago! Certain things appeared to be destined.

They moved around quietly. Eventually, they turned to the hanging IV bags.

“Are those considered liquified pills?” After Chen Meng came to the seventh floor, he was a bit out of it. The environment looked strangely familiar to him, like he had stayed there before.

“Those should make you forget stuff once you take them.” Once one took the pill, one would wake up from the dream and return to the real world. If the liquid inside the IV bags were the pills mentioned by Lu Zang, the thing under the blanket would have woken up already. Xuan Wen didn’t disturb the thing in the bed and moved them to the next room.

“Ward 7002.”

The door opened, and a bouquet of horrible scents assaulted them.

“If you can’t stand it, you can stay outside.” Xuan Wen frowned. Once she entered the room, she felt uncomfortable. A thick layer of carpet was laid on the ground. Xuan Wen nudged it with the tip of her shoe. Xuan Wen realised the carpet was actually broken pieces of human skin. Everything in the ward was moulting. The walls were repeatedly cracking and falling off. The bed flaked off like skin once it was touched. Under the thick layer of dust, a mound started to bulge up at the room corner.

The shape was like a football or a human head. It slowly moved under the skin as the silhouette became clearer. The head, fingers, body. The thing suddenly sped up as it rushed at the door. Xuan Wen quickly backed out and shut the door.

“What’s wrong with the treatment here?”

The real mutation had arrived. The patients Xuan Wen had met so far could only be considered people with light symptoms.

Xuan Wen locked the door. All the wards had their locks on the outside. This arrangement was probably because the hospital was afraid the patients might leave their wards on their own. Looking down the dark corridor, the place was larger than Xuan Wen thought. Each ward was dangerous.

“Even for me, finding the pill is extremely difficult. How did Gao Ming, who was still a normal person, manage to do this back then? How did he figure out the pill was authentic?” Xuan Wen pondered it as she opened the door to Ward 7003. The room didn’t have any strange smell, but Xuan Wen was stunned, standing at the door. The walls, floor and bed were covered in deductions and formulas. There were many indecipherable symbols.

Xuan Wen didn’t let the other patients enter the ward. Xuan Wen stood on her tiptoe and used her power. She tried to understand the formulas, but it was pointless.

“This patient appeared to be calculating the probability of the real world existing…”

Xuan Wen walked around the room and noticed some terms left on the walls. The patient tried to analyse and reconstruct the dream. They recorded every object, event and scenario in the dream to try to come to a conclusion. The words and formulas were like a whirlpool, sucking one in.

“The patient is not here. Where are they?” Xuan Wen scanned the room. Her eyes landed on a map hanging in the middle of the wall. The other wards had no map. This room was special. Xuan Wen stared at the map as she slowly approached it. Her eyes narrowed when she saw something on the map.

“This is impossible!”

The map had marked out all the cities. The only thing was there was a sea where Han Hai was supposed to be!

“Is this the real Han Hai? Does Han Hai not exist?”