Chapter 34: Madhouse (1)
Transmitted into an instance for the third time, Ji Ning's consciousness was no longer as clear and autonomous as it had been the first two times.
She felt herself lying on a cold steel slab, her whole body aching and sore, unable to open her eyes.
The sound of people talking drifted into her ears intermittently.
"The drug developed this time isn't very effective, no reaction at all."
"Could the dosage be too low?"
"Recommended dosage is 10ml, and we've already given 30ml. That's not low."
"These lunatics are naturally thick-skinned and neurologically abnormal anyway... Forget it, suspend the experiment for now and report it upward first."
Following that, the rustling footsteps trailed away from near to far, slowly becoming inaudible.
After a long while, Ji Ning finally regained control of her body and struggled to open her eyes.
The surroundings were pitch black; only the surgical light above her head was on. The vast factory floor was lined with dozens of steel operating tables, most people still lying on them.
Ji Ning was dressed in a white and blue striped patient gown. She tried to raise her hand but found her limbs locked by iron chains.
At that moment, the light screen that resolved doubts lit up before her eyes. Ji Ning immediately read the description of this copy carefully.
【Welcome to the "Erotic Survival Game." This instance is "Madhouse." Instance difficulty: three stars.】
【Player No. 6, Ji Ning, your identity in this copy is "Asylum Patient."】
【Game Rules: Integrate into the unfolding events and act according to the Clearance Condition. Those who fail to clear will be completely eliminated.】
【Game Taboos: 1. Do not go out of character (OOC). 2. Do not obstruct or alter the course of events. Any violation will result in complete elimination.】
【Game Hint: A fish that falls out of the bucket meets no good end.】
【Clearance Condition: Escape the madhouse.】
【Clearance Reward: Successful players will receive 280 points.】
The clearance reward for this copy was very generous, but the three-star difficulty was also something Ji Ning was seeing for the first time. Adding to that, in this copy Ji Ning had to play a lunatic, and she immediately felt considerable pressure.
Quietly observing her surroundings, it seemed some kind of treatment or experiment was underway here. Afraid of being discovered as abnormal, Ji Ning continued to keep her eyes closed, pretending to be unconscious.
She silently counted in her mind. About sixteen minutes later, the others lying on operating tables around her woke up one after another.
Some struggled and screamed incessantly; some cackled with ceaseless laughter. The rising and falling sharp shrieks made one's scalp tingle.
Ji Ning, feeling the timing was about right, opened her eyes and "woke up" as well, tugging at the iron chains and giggling foolishly, blending in with the other insane NPCs.
Not long after, a group of people in blue uniforms walked in, unbinding the patients one by one, putting handcuffs and ankle chains back on them, and helping them stand up to walk out.
In this group of roughly thirty-plus lunatics, Ji Ning spotted three female players: No. 7, No. 10, and No. 12.
Led by the blue-uniformed staff, they left the cold and grim building known as the Research Institute, passed through section after section of passageways partitioned by barbed wire, and returned to a dormitory building that looked like a prison.
Here, every patient lived alone in a compartment containing only a bed, a toilet, and a washbasin. The door was a sturdy iron bar gate.
Apart from being a single room with a bit more space, it was no different from prisons in movies.
The patients entered their rooms one after another. Ji Ning discovered that the patients who had gone to the Research Institute occupied this entire side, across three floors, while patients on the other side had been staying in their rooms the whole time.
On the same floor opposite her, she spotted the remaining female players, No. 3 and No. 5.
It seemed that in this copy, all the female players had drawn the "Asylum Patient" identity.
In that case, the clearance conditions for the female players were probably all the same.
Ji Ning imitated the madwoman across from her, sitting on the floor clinging to the bars, gnawing on them now and then, her mouth filled with a cold, icy metallic taste.
"Honored guests, this way, please."
A voice rang out as a group of people walked up from the staircase. Leading them was the plump female Orderly who guarded the first-floor lobby.
She bent over attentively, her face full of smiles as she introduced: "Our establishment's goods are all carefully selected. Good-looking faces and nice figures, fed daily with maintenance drugs, they rarely lose control. The honored guests may choose at your leisure."
A pair of exquisite handmade leather shoes stopped in front of Ji Ning. Following the astonishingly long legs upward, she saw a face so perfect it seemed almost heartless, wearing a pair of thin-rimmed glasses with a chain attached, a black trench coat stretched taut and crisp over his frame, like a noble gentleman from the Middle Ages.
Ji Ning still had the bars in her mouth; her silly grinning expression compared to him looked wretched to the point of absurdity.
The female Orderly, attentive and eager, leaned sideways and said: "Mr. Jiang, you have excellent taste. This is new stock we just received this month. Her butt is wonderfully grown, big and perky, and no one has ordered her yet!"
"Her, then." Jiang Ting said flatly.
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