48. Transforming into a Magical Girl

One of the mannequin's legs was smashed off.

It hoisted itself up once more. Lacking a leg and unable to run, it could only advance by hopping forward rapidly, though even so, it moved faster than a running human.

At the same time, it kept screaming at the top of its lungs, "Wah wah wah wah wah wah! Make me stop, please!!!"

The next second, Li Nuo controlled Doctor Xu to break into a sprint and give chase.

Both Doctor Xu and the mannequin moved like a gust of wind... leaving an indelible image in the minds of the onlookers.

In the pitch-black hospital corridor, a bald doctor was chasing after a mannequin...

Should this be considered a benevolent medical professional, or a demon-slaying paladin?

After a moment of silence among the few nurses and a male doctor, they began to discuss.

"I say... shall we go find the others and regroup?"

"Ah, sure... I somehow feel that splitting up is extremely unsafe..."

"Then what about Doctor Xu?"

"I get the feeling his day job might be exorcism. I suppose... we don't need to worry about him, right?"

...

The process of chasing the mannequin had no unusual twists or obstacles.

Perhaps due to missing a leg, the creature soon blundered clumsily into the storage room, and Li Nuo happily controlled Doctor Xu to block the door.

Inside the dim storage room.

The mannequin collapsed onto the floor, and watching the bald elderly doctor close the door, it revealed a terrified expression: "Y-y-y-y-you, what are you going to do!?"

Doctor Xu thought to himself, I'd like to know what I'm going to do as well...

Outside the screen, Li Nuo licked his lips. Screw it!

He made Doctor Xu find a saw in the storage room and saw off the mannequin's remaining leg.

As a side note, the sawing process left Doctor Xu with a psychological trauma even greater than beating the ghost baby to death; the mannequin's distorted expression and cries, as if its flesh were actually being cleaved away, felt far too realistic.

Regardless, the mannequin's leg was sawed off, and the system prompt duly arrived: [Quest completed: Help it stop. One more supernatural incident still needs to be resolved.]

"The elevator female ghost is the most troublesome one..." Li Nuo wondered whether he should directly switch to Player 2 character Chabo to try physical exorcism.

Right at that moment, the mannequin suddenly began to howl: "She, she's coming!! Why didn't you follow the sequence!"

Li Nuo was utterly baffled, but one thing was abundantly clear: perhaps the elevator female ghost wasn't the most troublesome part.

Instead, it was...

Accompanied by the sounds of floor tiles cracking, a strange noise emanated from the storage lockers inside the warehouse, sounding as though someone were dragging a blackboard up from the bottom of a well before frantically clawing at its surface...

Suddenly, a claw sliced open the storage locker from the inside as if cutting through tofu!

"Well, that's bad." Li Nuo immediately inputted a special command, making Doctor Xu carry the mannequin on his back and burst out of the warehouse, fleeing the scene like a madman!

"The correct solution was probably to complete the quests in the order of the nursery rhyme, but because I skipped the first task, it triggered that hidden fifth task?" Li Nuo recalled the final line of the rhyme in his mind: "Escape from her, the potter's field of a hundred ghosts devoid of bones."

***

On the screen, the surroundings of Doctor Xu, who was carrying the mannequin, grew even darker than before, and gradually, the path ahead plunged into total pitch blackness.

From behind, where nothing could be seen, a claw reached out and instantly slashed the mannequin into two halves.

Li Nuo quickly calculated a set of data. Judging by player attribute values, the strength stat of the "monster" pursuing Doctor Xu should be around 30, but its speed was slow, which meant either its reflexes or constitution was relatively low.

Although he lacked the [Emil's Mask] for assistance, based on his journey through Nier up to this point, he estimated the danger level of this monster to be approximately 0.5 Demonic Flower equivalents.

At least there was some good news: the monster had a physical form.

"Chabo, get your weapon ready."

Chabo: [Hold on a second, I'm rummaging through the warehouse. Will a cleaver do?]

"Ok~"

Meanwhile, not far away.

The doctor and nurses had already regrouped, exchanging intelligence in the corridor with lingering panic.

"Yeah, Doctor Xu went into the restroom and carried out a completely rotting baby..."

"He just walked past carrying a woman whose entire body was rotting..."

"Could Doctor Xu be hiding his true identity all this time?"

"No, the crucial point is what we should do right now."

While they were whispering among themselves, two things happened.

First, arms continuously oozed out from the floor and walls, and one of them grabbed the male doctor's ankle, scaring him so badly he nearly pissed his pants...

Second, Doctor Xu came running from afar with a righteous and awe-inspiring expression, trailed by a woman about two meters tall equipped with a pair of beastly, sharp claws.

In such a perilous environment, a nurse finally couldn't help but scream, "Doctor Xu... save us!"

Doctor Xu, whose mind was numb and drifting in a trance, heard the cry. He gazed at the nurses being dragged down by the bizarre arms.

Although he was a doctor, it had been a very long time since he heard anyone emit a cry that required him.

The last time he heard a similar plea was from Li Nuo's mother.

That shout of "Save my child" caused him to spend fifteen years building a bond with that child akin to an old friendship across generations.

And this time, Doctor Xu only thought, No matter what... at least they need me... then... I have to find a way to save them!

Li Nuo: "Chabo! Your turn!"

Chabo: [Fine.]

[100 coins consumed, switching to Player 2 character Chabo.]

[Upon this character's death, she will return to the "Endless Corridor" without dying for real. Please feel free to use her.]

Before everyone's eyes, a flash of light washed over Doctor Xu's body, transforming him into a white-short-haired girl wearing an eyepatch.

[Player 2 character has a special attack composition method. Various skills can be derived according to fighting game motion inputs. The skill list is located in the upper left corner of the screen.]

"Alright, first is this!" Li Nuo rapidly input down-forward-punch. Chabo stepped back with one foot to brace against the ground, and before the monster behind her could lunge, she delivered a spinning kick! Her heel struck the monster's face directly with concussive force, sending it flying and crashing to the ground!

Everyone was dumbfounded, and someone asked, "Are you still Doctor Xu?"

Li Nuo tapped out a line of voice commands.

Chabo drew the cleaver from her waist and flicked it horizontally: "I am, a magical girl."

The impact of this scene was undoubtedly immense. Yes, a middle-aged uncle transforming into a magical girl was far more bizarre than seeing a ghost.

Li Nuo... what on earth are you playing at! Chabo knew full well what a magical girl was, but all her action patterns were currently controlled, rendering her unable to resist.

Li Nuo's eyes gleamed as a particularly interesting idea popped into his head.

For the longest time, he had tried to teach Chabo to speak in chunnibyou dialogue in order to trigger the experience and coin amplification traits of the [Focuser].

However, this woman surprisingly possessed a strong sense of shame...

Although she could utter those words, her facial expression and tone were wrong, and the sense of dissonance she projected was extremely strong, rendering the [Focuser] unable to trigger.

Yet right now, Chabo was helpless, and her face remained rigid, standing there like an emotionless kuudere.

Her speaking tone would not change, and her expression would not change.

Li Nuo began to tap rapidly on the keyboard.

Chabo spoke to the monster she had kicked aside: "I stand here alone to block the way, and I shall not retreat a single step."

Chabo's internal psychological state was utterly chaotic: Li Nuo... what are you doing!

The [Focuser] was not triggered.

At that moment, the monster had already reappeared before her. Li Nuo controlled Chabo to quickly step back, kick it in the torso, and follow up by driving her blade straight into its forehead, instantly spraying blood all over her face.

She spoke to the twitching monster: "I have already transcended the limits of humanity. If you still view me with that pathetic mortal wisdom, you are merely..."

Before she could finish her sentence, another identical two-meter-tall woman emerged from behind and charged straight at her.

However.

What did a constitution of 170 mean?

It could be understood as Chabo being impacted by a heavy object, yet remaining completely motionless as she slowly turned her head back.

The monster raised its head, and its previously deathly pale and ferocious face revealed panic: "What... are you?"

Chabo grabbed her neck, slashed down with a single blade, lifted the severed head, and under Li Nuo's control, spoke with that cold expression: "Hmph, a defeated dog has no right to know my name."

As those words fell, several lines of text appeared on the screen:

[Focuser triggered.]

[Due to the special nature of the quest, only Effect 3 and Effect 4 can be activated.]

[Effect 3: If the main or side quests are ongoing upon completion, experience points increased by 40%, coins acquired increased by 30%, shared by teammates.]

[Effect 4: Slightly increases the probability of encountering high-difficulty enemies.]