Chapter 4: Madmen’s Pantomime: 3

[Cartagena Asylum Rules:

1: Do not lie in bed. Do not cry and make a fuss. Take your medicine obediently.

2: Do not fall asleep while bathing. Do not horse around while sleeping.

3: Strictly forbidden to chat with mushrooms on rainy days.

4: Strictly forbidden for people of the same gender to play house in the bathroom.

5: Strictly forbidden to gnaw biscuits into the shape of a pistol.

6: Strictly forbidden to force stray cats to dig for wild vegetables.

7: Strictly forbidden to dream without permission while sleeping.

8: Strictly forbidden to hold hands while riding the elevator.

9: …]

The asylum rules, or rather the restriction rules, seen up to this point, gave Nan Lin one single impression: disjointed.

Unexpectedly, jarringly disjointed. Enough to make a person question the sanity of whoever had written them.

Nan Lin pulled his gaze back and looked ahead again.

They had walked for an unknown length of time. Beyond the window lay the ruined courtyard, where a few human figures gradually appeared.

This dungeon had no small number of NPCs. The fingers of Nan Lin’s right hand twitched, unconscious, like some distant muscle memory.

A blood-red moon in his memory. Slick fingertips. And countless bodies collapsed on the ground.

He let out a long breath. His steps faltered, and the heat in his eyes slowly dissipated.

【Player Nan Lin Sanity decreased: 50→49.】

The sudden announcement was buried beneath Nan Lin’s indifferent features.

No third party noticed.

Over in the game hall:

“W-w-wait a minute…”

“This dungeon hasn’t… and no player has broken a rule yet. So he dropped that sanity all on his own?”

“Very likely. Drop below 10 and you go insane. This new player Nan Lin is a proper time bomb!”

“I’m curious whether he’ll slaughter the other players in the same dungeon once he snaps.”

“Why not? He’s a time bomb.”

“In that case, I really want to see what happens when he runs into the monster in the stairwell. He’ll lose it completely, right?”

Another player, who looked far more composed and experienced, murmured to himself: “Nan Lin… I feel like I’ve heard that name before. Coincidence?”

Meanwhile, the humanoid self-destruct device, the walking time bomb Nan Lin, looked perfectly normal inside the game. He even took note of the asylum’s rough layout.

Just as he had observed on waking, the asylum’s construction was not complicated.

A run-down green field sat between two main buildings. The green field faced the cafeteria, and behind the cafeteria lay a pond of utter stillness, its surface covered in withered lotus leaves.

Dark. Cramped. Damp.

“When the cafeteria lights are on, entry is permitted. Loud noise is forbidden inside the cafeteria.” The male doctor’s voice rose again. He spoke unhurriedly as he pushed open the cafeteria doors before them.

“Got it. But if you don’t remember, don’t come asking me. The cafeteria isn’t my jurisdiction. I just bring you in. Hehe.”

As if he had thought of something amusing, his skeletal frame began to shake, and a low laugh of no discernible meaning spilled from his mouth.

As he turned to leave, Lin Yi suddenly caught his arm. “Got a minute? Let’s talk.”

Qiu Xinxin: ?

Nan Lin: So that’s how it works. Noted. I’ll find a chance to try it.

Under everyone’s gaze, the young man’s smile did not change. He took hold of the doctor’s oversized sleeve and asked, “What happened to this hand?”

Bone wrapped in a single layer of flesh and skin. The wrinkled hide was covered in old, deep scars. A brand from a very long time ago.

As if a fig leaf had been yanked away, the doctor violently shook off Lin Yi’s hand and glared at him with pure hatred. Without a single word, he turned and walked out the door.

“You’ll never get an answer out of him asking like that,” Qiu Xinxin said, arms crossed, stating a plain fact.

At this, the corner of Lin Yi’s mouth curved upward, a trace of a smile breaking through his overly pale face.

“Getting an answer wasn’t the point,” Nan Lin said, his flat eyes coming to rest on Lin Yi.

Lin Yi nodded. Under Nan Lin’s stare, he produced a wristband. Or rather, what was now a strip of cloth, the aged material marked with a single sharp cut.

Between his fingers, a razor blade glinted coldly.

Nan Lin: A wristband… would a doctor be wearing a wristband?

His train of thought was cut off almost immediately. There were plenty of people moving about the cafeteria, all wearing the same blue-and-white striped patient uniforms, their expressions either vacant or deranged.

For all the coming and going, the place reeked of death.

Ruan Yu spoke up, his voice carrying a faint tremble: “We have to go in, don’t we?”

Nan Lin nodded and offered a simple explanation: “Mm. The nurse said earlier, ‘you may only eat inside the cafeteria.'”

At the sound of Nan Lin’s voice, Qiu Xinxin shot him a surprised glance and nodded in agreement at the same time.

Nan Lin: …?

I’m not a mute. Why does she look so surprised?

Asked in sincerity, forgotten in an instant.

A flash of amusement shot through Ruan Yu’s eyes, promptly covered by a well-timed look of helplessness, and he hurried to catch up with the others.

They reached the serving counter and received, one by one, the truly horrifying portions of food.

Nan Lin noticed that the person behind the thick glass was none other than the female nurse who had left ahead of them not long ago.

He lowered his gaze, letting nothing at all show on his face.

Six people. One table on its own, three seated on each side.

They stared at the trays in front of them in silence. Even the veteran players dared not move first.

Blackened, unidentifiable vegetables. Meat with a blue-violet iridescent sheen. Soup threaded with blood…

Qiu Xinxin turned her head and looked through the window at the sky.

Then she looked at the “food” before her, drew a deep breath, and with trembling hands picked up the spoon.

The game’s rules would never set up a guaranteed death.

Players were not allowed to store food in their personal inventory, and over the course of a week they could not possibly go without eating or drinking.

Even so, Qiu Xinxin could not make herself do it.

Song De, on the other hand, seemed to have spotted something horrifying. A low cry escaped him, and he flung the metal spoon away on pure reflex.

A sharp clang rang out and drew more than a few stares.

Being watched by those half-dead gazes was not a pleasant sensation. At the very least, it set Song De’s fingertips shaking so badly that he bent down and fumbled several times without managing to pick the spoon back up.

Just as he finally exhaled in relief and gripped the spoon to straighten up, a foot came down on his hand without the slightest warning.

Song De froze. A second later the pain rushed in.

But before he could cry out, Nan Lin moved fast and clamped a hand over his mouth.

“No loud noise is allowed in the cafeteria.”

Though if you’re set on dying, I won’t stop you.

Nan Lin’s words were pitched extremely low, his tone steady.

The foot withdrew almost at once. The tall figure’s shadow fell over Song De and swallowed him whole. Then, under the players’ watch, the man abruptly split his face into a smile.

“Sorry. Did I step on you? I wasn’t looking.” His tone shifted. “If you’re not satisfied, I can make it up to you. My ward number is B-301.”

Another blast of that jarring wrongness.

Nan Lin withdrew his hand, brow creasing slightly.

The man who had stepped on Song De looked thoroughly vacant, yet his words and gestures were no different from a normal person’s.

The doctors seemed like madmen, and the madmen seemed like sane people.

More and more evidence piled up in support of the theory forming in his mind.

Nan Lin said nothing. He lifted his gaze to meet the nurse’s eyes, while the golden bell hung dead center in the window, apparently serving as a display of authority.

“Brother… is any of this edible?”

Ruan Yu’s voice came from his right. Nan Lin glanced at the appalling meal, then at the equally horrifying food beside him.

His movements paused for an instant. He clearly shared Qiu Xinxin’s conclusion: these things were probably fine for the time being.

At least for one meal, or several, before the amounts accumulated enough, they were edible.

He nodded, indicating the food was temporarily safe.

Soft chewing sounds began. Nan Lin was the first to act. Watching him swallow with an unchanged expression, even Qiu Xinxin paused briefly in tribute.

The taste of this “food”… really could not be called anything but vile.

Ruan Yu, meanwhile, snuck a glance at Nan Lin and copied him, swallowing bite by bite with an exceptionally docile expression, as though he trusted the person beside him with his whole heart.

Clean and pure as a sheet of blank paper.

Nan Lin felt a small twinge of guilt, then turned to the next puzzle.

What were they supposed to do after leaving the cafeteria?

Where in the cafeteria was the clue hidden?

Qiu Xinxin and Lin Yi exchanged a look between veterans. Nan Lin set down his spoon and remained silent, his gaze sweeping the room until it stopped on a book lying on a chair diagonally ahead.

He stood and read the large characters on the cover: 《I Learned to Slay Gods in the Madhouse》

Nan Lin: “…”

Qiu Xinxin seemed to have noticed the anomaly too and turned to look.

A long pause.

Qiu Xinxin: “…”

Normal, she consoled herself. It’s a madhouse. What isn’t normal?

But that book… something about it was off no matter how she looked at it. Could there be a clue?

While Qiu Xinxin was still hesitating over whether to strike up a conversation with a dungeon NPC for the sake of a book, Nan Lin had already walked over. “Hello. Got a minute. Let’s talk.”

A textbook application of a freshly learned trick.

Lin Yi: ?

The man turned his head. His cloudy eyes rolled around several times before landing on Nan Lin.

Nan Lin’s expression did not change. “Could I take a look at this book?”

As he spoke, he pointed at 《I Learned to Slay Gods in the Madhouse》 lying at the man’s side.

“No.” The patient thought for a long time before producing that single refusal.

Nan Lin nodded. Just as Qiu Xinxin was sure he would simply take it by force, he suddenly reached into his pocket and produced a piece of candy. “Trade you. It’s sweet. With this, you won’t be scared to take your medicine.”

The patient wavered.

Nan Lin produced another.

The patient began to struggle.

Nan Lin raised the offer again. Three brightly colored hard candies glittered with tempting luster on the stainless-steel table.

If he still refuses, I’m taking it.

Nan Lin thought.

“Fine. Five minutes only. After that, you have to give it back.” The patient finally relented and pushed the book toward Nan Lin with profound reluctance.

The instant the book was in his hands, the light above the cafeteria’s serving counter went out. Darkness spilled rapidly across that small area.

And at the same time, the players remembered the male doctor’s words:

“When the cafeteria lights are on, entry is permitted.”