Chapter 12 Password

“Password…” Feng Bujue muttered, and casually entered, “Four nine nine nine nine nine…”

【Seems incorrect】 This line of text popped up on the menu in front of him.

“Okay…” Feng Bujue immediately turned around and began to carefully search the room.

Obviously, the treasure chest in front of him was not the kind of puzzle that could be opened and solved immediately, but rather one that required collecting clues elsewhere to unlock it.

“Although this isn't a corridor, standing here and trying a million passwords… doesn't seem very realistic.” Feng Bujue said as he searched, “I don't know what will happen if I stay in the room for a long time, and this room is very small. If something really pops out… I won't even have room to maneuver.”

Two or three minutes later, Brother Jue had basically determined the state of Room 109. Apart from the “shock you” jump scare when he opened the door, and the treasure chest that required a password to open, there was nothing else of value.

“Then there's no other way…” Feng Bujue said helplessly, and left the room.

Returning to the corridor, he continued forward in the direction he had been going, and soon came to a crossroads. There, Brother Jue discovered another map – “Cedar County Public Hospital 1F Floor Plan.” Like the map on the second floor of the hospital, this map also looked very chaotic.

But Feng Bujue seemed to understand it: “Mm… as expected, many parts can overlap…” This time he had experience, and to avoid attracting Chad, he spent only a short time roughly memorizing the entire graphic, and then quickly turned around and left.

“According to the map…” Feng Bujue was already formulating a plan as he hurried along, “This corridor should lead to the cafeteria, passing the pediatric clinic along the way… and the blood bank is in the basement… so…”

He quickly arrived at the corridor where the pediatric clinic was located. The obstetrics and gynecology department was next to it, and not far away was a T-junction. Turning a corner there would lead to the pediatric ward.

Just as Feng Bujue was about to pass directly through the intersection, a string of silver bell-like laughter suddenly rang in his ears.

“Hey hey… how many task lines are there in this script…” Feng Bujue couldn't help but mutter to himself. At the same time, he had already turned his head in the direction of the sound.

The laughter came from the fork in the road on his right. The lights in that corridor seemed to be broken. Except for a few meters near the intersection, everything was pitch black.

Seven or eight meters away, at the boundary between darkness and light, a child's figure was standing there. She was wearing a red dress and looked to be only eight or nine years old. Her long black hair covered her face and hung down to her chest.

“Hehe…” The ethereal laughter was chilling.

“Mm… standing in the shadows…” Feng Bujue muttered, “Then it's impossible to determine whether she's a monster or a ghost, but judging from her appearance and behavior, she's probably a ghost…”

“Uncle,” the little girl suddenly spoke, “Do you like to eat candy?”

“Hey hey… something's not right…” Feng Bujue thought, “Shouldn't this question be asked by a creepy uncle to a little girl…”

“Perhaps…” Feng Bujue replied to her, his answer essentially noncommittal.

“I have candy here, do you want to eat it?” the little girl continued.

“What flavor is it?” Feng Bujue threw back a question.

The little girl ignored his question and continued, “If you help me comb my hair, I'll share it with you.”

Brother Jue immediately had a flash of inspiration, and his right hand instinctively reached into his pocket for the small comb, “Okay… ah…” When he answered, he was still a little hesitant, feeling that something was a little strange.

“When you have time, come to my ward to find me. There's a mirror there,” the little girl said, then turned around. The red figure gradually moved away, without making a sound.

After she had completely disappeared from sight, Feng Bujue stood there for a few more seconds, then muttered, “There's no task prompt…” He stroked his chin, lost in thought, “Is this a trap… or a part of another task?”

After considering it for about half a minute, he decided to put the event aside for the time being. Since she said “when you have time,” that meant he didn't necessarily have to go there now.

Having made up his mind, he set off again, heading towards the pediatric clinic a dozen meters away.

“The task probably won't be that easy…” That was Feng Bujue's thought as he walked to the door. The moment he reached out and grasped the doorknob, a system prompt popped up in front of him: 【The door is locked】

“It's ‘locked’ and not ‘can't be opened’…” Feng Bujue said, “Which means… in order to find a key to this room, I have to first find another key to open the door to this room…” He sighed, “Oh… okay…”

This was a common occurrence in puzzle games, and there was really nothing to complain about.

Feng Bujue turned around and walked back, preparing to deal with the hair-combing-for-candy event first. Unexpectedly, when he returned to the intersection and was about to move forward, he heard another system prompt: 【The path ahead is shrouded in a dangerous darkness, are you sure you want to go?】

“Death flag ah…” Feng Bujue knew what that meant as soon as he heard it. He quickly retreated to the intersection, “No wonder the little girl said to come ‘when you have time,’ so going there directly would cause trouble…” He scratched his head, “Then… should I find a flashlight or something first?”

As soon as he said this, he had a flash of inspiration: “That's right… the security room should have one.”

Thinking of this, Feng Bujue immediately began to recall the 1F map, and quickly remembered the location of the security room.

“Then I'll go to the security room.” Brother Jue wasn't worried about having too many debts at this point. Anyway, he had already triggered a bunch of random events, so it didn't matter where he went first.

Soon, he returned to the crossroads he had passed earlier, and took the opportunity to glance at the map again to deepen his impression. Then he headed towards the hospital lobby. After passing through two corridors and ignoring some forks and strangely angled stairs, he successfully arrived at the hospital lobby.

When he arrived, Feng Bujue was surprised to find that… the hospital doors were actually open.

This wasn't anything new in reality. Hospitals with higher levels of service have emergency services operating all night, so it's normal for them to be open at night. But in a limited-scene horror game… whether it's a mansion, a research institute, a hospital, a house, or ruins… the exits are generally closed, and there are few settings where you can escape.

“Hmph… open the door? Am I going to fall for such a trick?” Feng Bujue stood at the hospital entrance, looking at the parking lot outside, and said calmly, “The main quest clearly states to ‘stick to your post,’ I'll definitely die if I step out.”

“Ah…” Suddenly, a long, mournful wail sounded from behind Brother Jue.

“Ah…” Immediately afterwards, another one.

In the two seconds it took Feng Bujue to turn around, the rise and fall of mournful cries filled the entire hospital lobby.

When he looked back, he didn't see anything.

“Here we go again?” Feng Bujue said, and casually put on his sunglasses, “Whoa~” He howled again.

Looking through the sunglasses, he saw a large, dark mass of ghostly figures. This group of ghosts was all gathered in front of the registration and payment windows, and they were… queuing up.

“Amitabha…” Feng Bujue took off his sunglasses, put his hands together, and chanted this sentence to show that he couldn't help them.

He completely ignored the terrifying wails and walked towards the security room.

Fortunately, the security room door wasn't locked, and he went straight in.

This room had two sections, one inside the other. The outer section was mostly occupied by monitoring equipment. There were two swivel chairs in front of the console, and the remaining space was barely enough for people to walk. Behind it was an even smaller room, probably a changing room.

As soon as Feng Bujue saw the surveillance footage, he became interested. He took two steps forward, sat down in front of the console, familiarized himself with the operation, and began to adjust the monitoring probes to observe the situation in various parts of the hospital.

Unfortunately, more than half of the dozens of monitor screens were filled with static and he couldn't see anything clearly. The remaining cameras had fixed perspectives, couldn't be adjusted, and the screens showed empty corridors.

Feng Bujue then wanted to access the video files on the computer, but opening any drive required entering an administrator password.

He was very depressed, so he clicked on the Start menu, opened the system's built-in games, and used the name “heyheyhey” to refresh the high scores in Minesweeper, Hearts, and Solitaire, slightly calming his emotions.

Then he left the console and walked towards the changing room.

There was no keyhole on the doorknob of the changing room. Feng Bujue turned the doorknob and opened it. After pushing the door open and entering the room, he casually reached out and turned on the light. In front of him, the room only had a row of lockers and a few square meters of standing space. The conditions were extremely rudimentary.

“The hospital leaders are unimaginably corrupt…” Looking at the mottled walls, the shabby cement floor, and the rusty lockers, Feng Bujue couldn't help but complain, “Although male employees don't really need to lock the door to change work clothes, not even setting up a stool in the changing room… is that supposed to save space…”

There were eight lockers in this changing room, arranged in a row against the wall. Feng Bujue walked up and tried them one by one. Only one could be opened.

As soon as the cabinet door opened, a musty smell wafted out.

There was an iron bar at the top of the cabinet, and two plastic hangers were hanging on the iron bar. Behind the cabinet door was a poster of a swimsuit model. It looked like… a half-human, half-otter creature. Judging from the style of swimsuit on her body and Lester's sexual orientation, she should be female…

At the bottom of the cabinet were: a flashlight, a key, a severely moldy sandwich (in a plastic bag), a newspaper, and a small mirror.

Among them, the flashlight and the small mirror were defined as “tools”; the newspaper had no item description; and the remaining two were story items.

【Name: Key】
【Type: Story Related】
【Quality: Common】
【Function: Open a door somewhere】
【Can be taken out of this script: No】
【Note: Lester secretly made a spare key that can open a door somewhere.】

“Where can I open the door…” Feng Bujue guessed the use of this thing as soon as he saw the note, “Isn't it the storage room on the third floor?”

【Name: Moldy Sandwich】
【Type: Story Related】
【Quality: Trash】
【Function: Edible?】
【Can be taken out of this script: No】
【Note: Usually only a severe hoarder would keep something this badly spoiled.】

“This thing can't be taken out of the script either…” Feng Bujue muttered as he looked at the item description, “Where will it be used… is there a patient in a certain ward who loves to eat rotten food…”

He took the newspaper in his hand, put the other items into his pocket one by one, and then left the changing room.

After returning to the surveillance room outside, he sat down in the office chair, picked up the newspaper, and began to read. According to his personality, he was naturally prepared to read the entire newspaper from front to back, but unfortunately, the system restricted this behavior.

90% of the area of the newspaper in front of him had been blurred out (Monster Kingdom used English, and so far, all the text Feng Bujue had seen in the hospital was in English, but the system's built-in translation function also displayed the corresponding Chinese in front of him), and only a small area of the news was clear.

【Tragedy! Disaster at Cedar County Public Hospital!】 That was the title of the report.

Just by looking at the title, Feng Bujue had a bad feeling…

【According to a report from this newspaper, Cedar County, December 5th (Reporter Shrek), as of 16:00 on the 5th, seventeen hours have passed since the avalanche in the Whiteball District of Cedar County in the northern part of the kingdom. Due to the continued strengthening of the blizzard, the rescue work is progressing slowly and large vehicles cannot approach the area. Manual excavation work is difficult due to heavy snow and constant landslides. Relevant experts say that if a rescue channel cannot be opened within twenty-four hours, the possibility of survivors surviving will approach zero.】

“What?” Feng Bujue read the report, and looked at it repeatedly, “What's going on?” He folded the newspaper, stuffed it into his pocket, and quickly walked out of the security room.

When he returned to the hospital lobby, the mournful cries had disappeared, and he could no longer see any ghostly figures through his sunglasses.

Brother Jue put his hands on his hips, stood in front of the hospital door, and looked at the quiet parking lot outside. The distant snow-capped mountains and the lights of the city were faintly visible: “If this place has been buried… then am I currently in a dream?” He quickly began to brainstorm, “Maybe… Lester is already a ghost too? That's not right… then why do I need sunglasses to see my own kind?” His eyes changed slightly, “Could it be… this is a ‘future newspaper’?”

“Wait… the time displayed on the computer just now was…” Feng Bujue remembered that when he was playing the game just now, the date displayed on the computer was already past two o'clock in the morning on December 6th.

Thinking of this, he went back again, wanting to confirm.

But… this time when he opened the security room door, all the monitors on the console only showed static.

As Feng Bujue's gaze moved, the screens flickered strangely, and then… the scene from the beginning of the script reappeared: blood, internal organs, terrifying faces… but this time it was being played on dozens of screens at the same time.

Feng Bujue stood at the door and hesitated for a moment. In those brief ten seconds… the lights in the security room had quietly turned dark red. The entire room began to distort and deform, and strange creaking sounds came from all around. On the wall opposite the console, three black stains gradually appeared, and slowly expanded, forming a terrifying human face…

“Tch…” Feng Bujue knew that he couldn't stay here any longer. He had to retreat quickly and close the door.

“The security room should be completely off-limits now, and the electronic calendar and clock in the lobby are turned off… which means that after I read the newspaper, I can't go back to confirm the date, is that right…” Feng Bujue pondered, “Forget it, at least I found the flashlight, I'll go to the pediatric ward first.”

He didn't dwell on it too much. On the contrary, Brother Jue was becoming more and more interested. Unconsciously, he had immersed himself in the fun of solving puzzles… main quests and side quests were just formalities. His ultimate goal, or rather what he wanted to do most… had become ‘to unravel the mystery of this script.’

…………

Long if there's a book, short if there isn't.

After two ellipses and eight characters, Brother Jue had returned to the fork leading to the pediatric ward (before coming here, he had specifically gone to the pediatric clinic to try the key in his pocket, and the result was naturally a failure).

He took out the flashlight from his pocket, turned it on, and shone it forward. The dark corridor was like a giant mouth that swallowed people, silent and oppressive… the circle of light from the flashlight could only illuminate a very small area nearby.

This kind of “cold horror” atmosphere was enough to make many people retreat. But Feng Bujue didn't care at all. He hummed a song, swung the flashlight left and right, and walked in leisurely.

“Shaolin kung fu wakes~ so good~ Shaolin kung fu is strong~ it's so "strong"! I am Iron Head Skill! Invincible Iron Head Skill~ You are Diamond Leg… Diamond Leg!”

The song he chose was of unclear meaning. Strictly speaking, it was a duet, and he didn't really know how to sing Cantonese songs. In short, the melody suddenly flashed in his mind, and he started singing comfortably.

Ordinary people might also sing in this kind of environment, mainly to relieve tension and fear. But Feng Bujue… was purely in a state of humming to himself while strolling through the neighborhood after dinner…

At this moment, he was walking into the corridor with a flashlight, and the system prompt didn't sound. It seemed that the death flag had been eliminated, and he could now pass normally.

“Waa~ Waa…”

Brother Jue hadn't walked far when he heard another sound. This time it was a baby crying.

“So… how many side quests are there…” Feng Bujue muttered, “The nursery is haunted too, huh? Fine, fine…” He aimed in the direction of the crying and walked towards it.