Chapter 835: Flesh
Han Fei picked up the patient's body. He wanted to carry the patient outside, but when he returned to the first floor, he noticed the exit had disappeared. "The pure Hatred can twist a person's senses?"
The noises became even more chaotic. "If this continues, my mental corruption will worsen." Han Fei placed the patient in a ward. He had given up the chance to complete the mission. The most crucial thing was to find Shang Nv and see if he could get any useful info from her." The sideyard had patients with conditions that were not so serious. There were also departments that Han Fei hadn't heard of, like the mental corruption healing department, mutated cranial inspection department, ghost phobia, and so on. Compared to these strange departments, the internet addiction therapy center at the end of the third-floor corridor felt so normal. In real life, Xin Lu's Third Mental Hospital also had such a consultation room. The location was the same too.
"I'm on the third floor, but how can I contact her? If I release the black mist, I might attract something else." Gao Cheng's diary didn't mention how to find Shang Nv. He only said that she would patrol the third floor at night. "It's too dangerous to stay out in the corridor. I better stay inside the wards." Han Fei didn't run into any ghosts, on the side yard, but that was worse. His mental situation was bad. His soul was corrupted by an invisible power.
"In the past, Gao Cheng relied on the black mist to consume negative emotion to maintain his rationality. Now, I have both greed and healing persona. I can consume negative emotions and neutralize them. Of the whole school, Black Building and Strange Building have the smallest influence on me. In the future, I can try to lure my enemies into Black Buildings."
Han Fei entered the internet addiction therapy room. Han Fei smelt something burning. There were sparks everywhere, and it was very dangerous.
"The mental hospital did use shock therapy at its earliest manifestation, but this treatment method has been abolished." Han Fei avoided the exposed metallic wire on the ground. Han Fei looked at the charred wall and carefully opened the cubicle door. The ward was like a small cinema. However, every seat had straps, and there was a metallic helmet over each seat. The protector showed different kinds of ghosts. If the patients felt scared, the electric current would run through the helmet to shock the patients. After the tragedy, ghosts twisted people's hearts. To combat horror, some became horror.
"Normally, the electric current wouldn't be strong enough to kill, but these chairs had all been modified." Han Fei could imagine the cruel images. Han Fei closed the electric source. He was about to leave when something flickered across the screen. The souls who died in the shock room had all been sucked into the projector. Han Fei used Soul-depth Touch on the projector. He was shocked. Crazy faces appeared on the normal-looking protector. They looked how they did when they died. The scream almost shattered Han Fei's eardrums. Han Fei's black mist consumed the projector whole.
"Notification for Player 0000! Your mental corruption has increased by 1!
"Notification for Player 0000! Your healing persona has eliminated part of the mental corruption. Mental corruption minus 1.
"Notification for Player 0000! You've consumed a Small Lingering Spirit—Illness Core.
"Illness Core: We fear death and ghosts. We are cowardly and weak. Our brains are incomplete. We can't tell if we have gone crazy. If possible, can you help us? Join my body and experience my pain!
"Special Power, Patient Zero: Weaken the persona of humans and ghosts.
"Warning! As the illness core became stronger, it would have more special power and symptoms."
The ghosts in the projector had all been consumed. Most of them became nutrients for the greed persona. A small part became the Illness Core. Gao Cheng would be under a lot of pressure if he had wanted to do this in the past. However, Han Fei had the healing persona to undo the effect. His high luck also meant that he had more success consuming ghosts. He made up for Gao Cheng's weakness.
"There's another ghost in the abyss. That's something."
The ghosts in the projector were saved. But the black mist also attracted something else. The footsteps approached. As Han Fei left the shock room, another person walked in from the front door. He was in a patient's garb. He looked around 60 with white beards. His hair was pulled into dirty braids, and four dirty ragdolls hung on his body. It was hard not to notice him. Han Fei carefully studied him.
"You look unfamiliar. Is it your first time here?" The old man was quite normal. Han Fei remembered his mission, so he decided to communicate with the elder.
"I'm new here. How shall I call you?"
"Names are not important. The important thing is you need to leave here as soon as possible." The elder said seriously. He took out a picture from his pocket. "This place is haunted."
"Is it?" Han Fei glanced at the picture. It was a picture of the old man.
"Look at this. This person should be dead, but I can still see him! He wants to kill me!" The elder twisted the picture. Suddenly, he turned around and stared at the empty doorway. "Shush! He's coming!" Han Fei forced the ghost inside the cap to check, but there was nothing outside. "Sir, what did you see?"
"Ghost! The ghost is coming!" The elder whispered. His body curled together as he hid behind the door.
"Let them come. I'm rather hungry." Han Fei fitted into this place perfectly. Han Fei held the elder's shoulders. He was about to heal him when the elder jumped up in fear and pointed at Han Fei. "No! You're a ghost too!"
"How can I be a ghost? See how warm my hands are."
"You died when you were very young! Your parents strangled you! You were laughing when you died!" The elder suddenly screamed. "Think about it! Think about your parents!"
"I have not met them..." Han Fei's mind just had this idea when various memories that didn't belong to him popped up in his mind. The childhood memories of the patients gelled with his, trying to make him crazy. "Is the Pure Hatred's power related to memory?"
Han Fei noticed that the mission given by the system was not easy to complete. Everyone who was here had a big problem. Communicating with them carried a huge risk. The good news was Han Fei was not afraid.
"You say I'm a ghost, so I am. But why would a ghost kill for no reason?" Han Fei detained the elder and forcefully treated him.
"Notification for Player 0000! You've discovered the special patient with paranoiac persona—Elder Eight!
"Elder Eight: The oldest patient at Xin Lu's Third Mental Hospital. He survives until now because he is suspicious of everything."
"How to use a paranoiac persona?" Through Soul-depth Touch, Han Fei saw the elder's broken heart. He tried to heal the elder's persona. The treatment effect was good. The best thing was healing others didn't exhaust Han Fei, but he would get something back to become stronger. Like the patient earlier, he joined Han Fei's star. After ten minutes, the elder stopped struggling. Just as Han Fei thought the elder had died, the elder twitched twice as if he wanted to get up from the ground.
"He's still alive?!"
When Han Fei said that, the elder's face darkened as he pondered whether to fake death.
"Are you feeling better? Actually, I'm a doctor from the human base." Han Fei took out Gao Cheng's teacher Id. The elder was confused. Why would a doctor show a teacher's id, but he didn't dare to question?
"I came here to find a ghost. Her name is Shang Nv. She is the head of the nurse of the side yard." Han Fei helped the elder up. "Do you know where she is?"
"Shang Nv? The head nurse?" The elder shivered. "You're not talking about the chained blind woman, are you?"
"Chained? She can't move?"
"There is a female nurse on the third floor that has escaped from another hospital. A long time ago, she participated in an eye-transplant surgery. The surgery was very successful, and the man regained his sight. However, they didn't know the man they helped was cursed by God. Everyone who helped him would be tortured by God." The man pointed shakily at a room on the third floor. "She's on the third-floor taboo zone. But I advise you not to go there. There are too many ghosts there."
Han Fei had an idea of Shang Nv's identity through the elder. The man she helped was most likely Gao Cheng.
Han Fei slithered to the taboo room. Han Fei ignored the elder and opened the door. The stingy smell of blood wafted out. A blind woman lay on the cold ground. Her skin was written with strange curses. Her eyes were dug out. She didn't move.
There were three doctors standing around the woman. They used various tools to insert a growing flesh figurine into the woman's stomach. The scene was different from what Gao Cheng wrote. Han Fei wondered, "Does the Pure Hatred know that she has once helped Gao Cheng? So they are punishing her again?"
The black mist oozed out. To force Han Fei to make a move, Gao Cheng jumped into the abyss.