Chapter 19: The Asylum Pantomime: 18

Ruan Yu’s fingers curled slightly. Less guilt and more like an unconscious twitch of muscle memory.

Naturally, Nan Lin harbored no suspicion toward Ruan Yu. He scanned the handprint on the window, swept his gaze across the room, and casually lifted the tattered cloth draped over the table.

A resounding clang echoed through the quiet room as something hit the floor. A dagger, sheathless but stained with blood, lay there reflecting the light from outside.

Ruan Yu looked on, puzzled.

Damn, I’m good, Nan Lin thought.

[Congratulations, Player Nan Lin has unlocked a side quest: Desperate Revenge.]

[Quest objective: Eliminate the current director of Cartagena Asylum.]

[Quest reward: 50 growth points (can be freely allocated to any single stat).]

The voice in his ears was one Nan Lin knew well, but this time it took him by surprise.

“A side quest, in a beginner instance.” He tightened his grip on the dagger, then relaxed it.

I wonder how the others are doing.

Wait, what’s this?

Reduced punishment time?

Meanwhile, in solitary confinement.

Lin Yi had lost count of how many times he’d drifted in and out of consciousness. His already poor sense of time had blurred beyond recognition.

This day felt interminable…

He unwound the scarf from his neck and wiped his hands with practiced ease.

In the darkness, his knuckles caught a strange sheen. The subtle inhumanity of it reflected in his eyes, stirring only a numb snort of laughter.

Lin Yi wound the scarf back around his neck and stared blankly into the dark.

Find the person who created me. Demand to know why he abandoned me. Then kill a man with zero conscience.

He seethed with resentment, but gradually something felt off.

A watery stench was seeping into the room, growing thicker by the minute, reminding him inexplicably of the pond behind the asylum.

Lin Yi braced his hand against the wall and felt nothing but dampness.

He pressed closer and saw that the entire wall was beaded with condensation, the marks from his own handprint clearly visible on the wet surface.

Unease crashed over him. Lin Yi bent down to peer through the small hole he’d found earlier.

Outside, the sky was gloomy. No sun in sight. Rain poured hard, and the wind pressed the wild grass on the Green Field so low it lay nearly flat against the ground.

He knew roughly where this solitary cell was located: the outermost room on the first floor of the right-side building.

At the time, Qiu Xinxin had been escorted ahead of him. But after passing an unknown number of rooms, he’d realized she had been quietly spirited away.

Someone behind him had shoved him again, forcing him onward.

How long had he been walking?

Lin Yi pulled back and plugged the hole again, silently calculating the time.

Based on when Qiu Xinxin had been separated from him… he’d walked for less than two minutes. The distance between their cells shouldn’t be too great.

Just as he was thinking this, an indescribable stench drifted to his nostrils. From the wall of this solitary cell… and from his own hands.

He looked at the hand that had been braced against the wall, his expression unreadable.

This hand is ruined.

But nobody would be swapping out his body parts now…

Fine. It’ll have to do.

Lin Yi didn’t dare sit against the wall anymore. He stood in the center of the room, bored out of his mind, waiting for the punishment to end.

Two whole days wasted.

Had that annoying guy named Nan Lin already found the key?

As Lin Yi ruminated, he could have sworn something crawled past outside the door. The walls of the solitary cell kept seeping moisture.

He’d resigned himself to waiting much longer. Then the door was kicked open with a bang, and the sudden blast of light made him raise his arm instinctively.

Four silhouettes appeared in the doorway.

And at the very front was the one person Lin Yi hated most: Nan Lin.

“Move,” he heard the man say. At the same time, Nan Lin kicked something out of the way with his foot.

Outside, Qiu Xinxin watched Nan Lin punt the thoroughly dead monster aside and silently rebuilt her worldview from the ground up.

This is supposed to be a newcomer? What kind of newbie one-shots an instance monster?

She had good reason to suspect that if there weren’t so many rules holding him back, this guy would have carved straight through the entire instance.

Lin Yi walked out of the solitary cell with his eyes shut, so all he felt was something catching his foot. He ignored it and asked, “Early release? Is that even allowed?”

Nan Lin offered a simple explanation. “Successfully completing a cleaning task earns a reward. You could think of it as… community service commutation.”

Qiu Xinxin opened her mouth and closed it again.

Lin Yi said nothing for a long moment. “…Thanks.”

Nan Lin nodded. “Mm. You’re welcome. But why do you smell… kind of stale? Not as fresh and lively as before.”

Lin Yi’s composure cracked. Self-doubt and bewilderment flooded his expression. At the rate you’re going, people will think I’ve become a corpse.

“How much earlier are we?” Lin Yi tried desperately to redirect his attention from that remark.

“Just past dinner time.” Nan Lin checked the clock.

Qiu Xinxin couldn’t stand their back-and-forth any longer and cut in directly. “The instance has been upgraded.”

“Both the death rate and the clearing difficulty have increased. To be precise, things are getting chaotic.”

“Nan Lin and Ruan Yu completed the cleaning task and got us released early. But we were attacked along the way, and the delays pushed us to this point.”

Nan Lin popped up again. “Mainly because your room was so far away.”

Ruan Yu stifled a laugh and pulled Nan Lin back. “But fortunately, everyone’s fine.”

“Attacked? By doctors or nurses?” Lin Yi zeroed in on the key detail and pressed.

“No, it was…” Qiu Xinxin struggled to describe the things and turned to Nan Lin, gesturing for him to explain.

Nan Lin answered with complete seriousness. “Pond puppies.”

Qiu Xinxin sighed. So you’re the one calling monsters “pond puppies”?

She rubbed her forehead and tried to kick all these bizarre thoughts out of her mind.

She had been the first to be rescued by Nan Lin and Ruan Yu, followed by Zou Zhiming.

After emerging, they had planned to go rescue Lin Yi next, but were ambushed by the “people” that swarmed from the neighboring room.

“Two days of solitary cost me 100 health. Plus the attack afterward, I lost 200 total.”

Qiu Xinxin added, her tone anything but light.

She couldn’t forget what had happened just minutes ago. That monster sunk at the bottom of the cafeteria sink, rotten eyes glaring at her with malice.

Wait. If that was the case, then what Nan Lin said was actually pretty apt?

They really did look like pond puppies…

Qiu Xinxin massaged her temples and shoved the whirling thoughts from her head.

And Lin Yi, having heard her explanation, said:

“Oh. Thanks for the update. But I don’t plan on going with you.”