Chapter 47: The Witcher 3?

Li Nuo stared blankly at the screen. Dr. Xu's pixel avatar had collapsed onto the ground, with a skull icon hovering above his head.

"What's going on?"

"He's already dead!?"

Cha Bai: [Something just ran into him and killed him.]

"What thing?"

Cha Bai: [A person with a panicked expression all over their face. Other than that, I didn't see clearly. If I stay alert, I should be able to see clearly next time we encounter it.]

Then why can't I see it?

The split second after Li Nuo posed the question to himself, sudden enlightenment struck him. Cha Bai had entered the scene as a "player," and her abilities existed in a state specific to the "Endless Corridor."

Her insight stat was much higher than an ordinary person's, enough to observe subtle and unremarkable movements.

A few lines of text appeared on the screen:

[Player 1 character has died. You have two options]

[1. Consume 100 gold coins, switch to Player 2 character]

[2. Consume 100 gold coins, revive Player 1 character]

Cha Bai could only appear for five minutes, and now was not her time to enter the stage.

What's more, Dr. Xu had saved Li Nuo from the Grim Reaper's hands more than once; he couldn't just let Dr. Xu die like this.

[100 gold coins consumed to revive Player 1 character. The next revival will cost 1000 gold coins]

"Next time it's 1000 gold coins." Li Nuo fell silent for a moment, then placed his hand back on the keyboard: "Dr. Xu, you only have one life left. Good luck to you."

"Cha Bai, help me keep an eye on the surroundings at all times."

Cha Bai: [My new mission?]

Li Nuo: "A friend's request."

Cha Bai: [Alright.]

...

Dr. Xu opened his eyes, thinking: Surely everything just now was a dream, right...

However, the next second, it took him only a single frame to transition from lying flat on the ground to standing rigid like a nail.

It wasn't a dream...

Somebody save me...

If that punk Li Nuo were here, it would be great; he always has the most devious ideas.

Li Nuo...

Ah, Uncle Xu, I might be heading to heaven a step ahead of you.

Dr. Xu didn't yet realize that Li Nuo was "possessing" him. The next location was the restroom. Why the restroom...

Because in this place where spatial layouts had already become deranged, neither a morgue nor an operating theater could be found. Judging by the development standards of ghost stories, the probability of encountering a ghost in the restroom was much higher.

...

According to Li Nuo's observations, there were a total of 12 nurses and doctors who could be considered NPCs. Four older nurses were in the Department of General Surgery, and five young ones were hiding in the nursery. At work, the friction between the younger and older staff members was suppressed and usually didn't erupt, but as long as there was a catalyst, something was bound to go wrong; the best-case scenario was that the two factions had already split up.

It was worth mentioning that among the five young people in the nursery, there was one male doctor. The only reason he stayed with the young nurses was because they were young female nurses.

Huh? Twelve people, yet counting Dr. Xu, only ten had been accounted for.

And then there was Nie Wenyuan, hanging out in the elevator with two female ghosts.

Anyway, the problem arose.

In a pitch-black, tranquil, terrifying, and unknown environment, what should one do when they need to use the restroom?

If they were men, they could just whip it out and pee into a bottle.

Among a group of nurses, however, they still wanted to preserve a bit of dignity for themselves. What if they miraculously escaped safely this time, and someone had a loose tongue and spread the story about how you peed in and around a bottle? The consequences would be severe; it would likely spread and eventually evolve into "you're a promiscuous person."

Furthermore, there was a male doctor right over there in the nursery.

Then, with exceptional cleverness, everyone decided: let's all go to the restroom together.

And right after that, they heard the lewd folk song "Eighteen Touches" being sung by Dr. Xu. Just like that, a whole group of people was scared into squatting outside the restroom door, too terrified to move.

The most absurd part was that there was still a nurse nicknamed Xiao Meng who hadn't come out of the restroom yet.

Xiao Meng was an intern nurse (Note 1).

Had she known she would run into something this wicked today, even if beaten to death, she wouldn't have stayed behind for the meeting.

A whole group of women had come here to relieve their physiological needs, and the others had rushed out eagerly after finishing, but she was the one who had stayed the longest because she had been suffering from constipation lately...

She pulled up her pants, flushed the toilet, and hurriedly tried to leave, only to freeze in place the moment her gaze swept across the opposite side.

An infant covered in rotting flesh crawled out of the toilet bowl directly in front of her.

Immediately, a sharp, terrified scream shattered the tranquility.

...

When Li Nuo maneuvered Dr. Xu to the entrance of the restroom, he had already witnessed the scene he wanted to see.

A few nurses were cowering against the wall, while the sunny-looking male doctor sat on the ground with a terrified expression, staring into the women's restroom, too scared to speak.

"Dr., Dr. Xu!"

One nurse recognized Dr. Xu, though it didn't provide much sense of security, considering Dr. Xu himself looked rather unsafe.

They watched as Dr. Xu stiffly walked past. The male doctor gazed at the robotic-looking old bald man and immediately said, "Old Xu, pull me out of here..."

Li Nuo knew almost every nurse and doctor in the hospital. This male doctor was a recent arrival from the past two years. Because of his good looks, he was very popular, forming a sharp contrast with Dr. Xu.

From inside the restroom came the sound of crying, growing louder and louder, just like the nursery rhyme said: "Little cutie, covered in blood, stop crying, go to rest, Mommy is a big bad wolf."

Li Nuo controlled Dr. Xu to walk to the doorway, pressed the H key to throw a punch and knock the door curtain aside. Stepping inside, he saw Xiao Meng, who had frightened herself into fainting and was now slumped on the floor.

Clinging onto Xiao Meng's body was an infant.

"This little thing has quite a surreal design." Even in pixel art style, the infant's appearance was exceptionally repulsive.

The infant's skin was a pale purple, its eyes bulged out of their sockets, and its body was bloated, almost giving off the impression of advanced post-mortem decomposition. Most distinctive of all was its exceptionally long, snake-like tongue.

Saying it was ugly was like saying feces tasted terrible.

However, this little creature's appearance reminded Li Nuo of a creature from another game.

——The Witcher 3, botchling.

"Last time it was the YoRHa symbol, this time it's a Witcher monster. Could the hospital's abnormalities be caused by the Conjunction of the Spheres?" Li Nuo smiled, thinking it was probably just a coincidence in appearance, and inputted a special command for Dr. Xu.

Dr. Xu squatted down and picked up the slimy infant in his arms.

Old Xu was nearly sixty and had no children of his own. Today was his first time earnestly holding an infant. *Oh god... I don't want to live anymore...* This was Dr. Xu's inner voice upon seeing the ugly baby.

Next, the nurses and doctors who had been too terrified to move in the hallway witnessed an extremely bizarre scene.

Dr. Xu walked out of the restroom like a robot, frame by frame, staring straight ahead with a stiff expression while holding an ugly infant with a long, protruding tongue sticking out.

No one dared to speak.

The visual impact was simply too overwhelming.

Rather than saying Dr. Xu was brave, it was more accurate to say he was even weirder than that baby.

Yet it had to be said that compared to the young doctor whose guts had been scared out of him, Dr. Xu now possessed an inexplicable masculine charm, matching his bald head.

The infant in his arms cried even harder.

"Wuwu..." The wailing became piercingly sharp.

Just like the sound of fingernails dragging across glass, it made one's heart crawl with dread.

The long tongue was licking Dr. Xu's face, and he figured the fangs inside the infant's mouth would soon bite down.

Li Nuo thought of the second half of the nursery rhyme in his mind: "Stop crying, go to rest, Mommy is a big bad wolf."

Thus, he inputted a line of text, making Old Xu speak up to comfort the infant.

"Stop crying your fucking lungs out! Get up and party!"

Obviously, the crying only grew louder.

That male doctor mustered up his courage and asked, "Dr. Xu... what are you doing?"

Li Nuo had Dr. Xu reply: "A physician has a benevolent heart, eliminating demons and upholding the Dao."

Huh?

Everyone was dumbfounded.

Li Nuo couldn't see their specific expressions, thinking that fatherly scolding clearly wouldn't work, so he had no choice but to try the soft approach. After verifying the thought, Li Nuo inputted a new piece of dialogue.

And so, while holding the baby, Dr. Xu softly recited: "Mommy is bad, bad mommy, pin your mommy to the floor, kick her head right off her shoulders, just like kicking a big soccer ball, rolling, rolling, rolling away, rolling right down into the toilet bowl with a splash, mommy's head pops back up, I'll shove her right back down, hit the toilet flush button, flush away and she's all done."

Everyone fell silent, a bone-chilling coldness settling in.

The infant also fell silent, before abruptly bursting into a shrill laugh.

"So you're an abandoned baby?" Li Nuo's eyebrows furrowed slightly. In terms of lore, the botchling from *The Witcher 3* could also be understood as a wronged spirit born from an abandoned infant.

One of his hands continuously swiped across the screen, his pupils reflecting the fragmented text on his phone screen. *Nothing... Cairo Hospital has no record of any abandoned baby incidents.*

Two thoughts arose in him: either a death case resembling an abandoned infant had been covered up, or this little fellow... simply wasn't something native to the *Cairo Game World*.

No matter what the answer was, the immediate task was to pacify it.

Dr. Xu carried the infant into the nursery and placed it on a bed. The infant closed its eyes, comfortably shifting into a prone posture.

[Exterminate it before it wakes up.]

"Physical exorcism?"

Li Nuo smiled and let out a soft hum, having Dr. Xu properly close the door, before taking out the syringe he had found earlier and plunging it with lightning speed straight into the ghost infant's head. The syringe pierced directly through the rotting flesh and embedded itself into the mattress beneath.

Then Li Nuo frantically clicked the "H" key, and Dr. Xu unleashed a flurry of double-fist punches against the ghost infant. Flesh and blood flew everywhere; calling this scene a bit inhumane wouldn't even be an exaggeration.

[Mission accomplished. The infant has been eliminated. Two more supernatural incidents remain to be resolved.]

Dr. Xu's own psyche was completely numb.

It has to be a dream... Yes, it must be.

While he was comforting himself, Li Nuo had already controlled him to walk out of the nursery.

Outside the door, the nurses and doctors stood far away, looking at him with expressions as if they had seen a ghost.

"Next up..." Li Nuo pondered: "Should I deal with the elevator female ghost, or the one that ran Uncle Xu over..."

Cha Bai: [Watch out!]

Li Nuo immediately commanded Dr. Xu to dodge. A fierce gust of wind brushed past, followed immediately by a loud *bang* as a human mannequin crashed against the wall and collapsed onto the floor.

With careful observation, one could tell that this person was actually one of the hospital's anatomical mannequins.

...

Note 1: A certain mini-game titled *Nurse Intern*.

Note 2: Hooked up to an IV drip all day, should be able to update at the normal time tomorrow.