Player Reload
Chapter 254 - 233: Flying Over the Madhouse (Part Two)

Chapter 254: Chapter 233: Flying Over the Madhouse (Part Two)

Heh heh.

Li Cheng had no energy left to be angry, instead, he cracked a smile.

In China, if hospitals are evaluated based on their size, scientific research directions, technical talent, medical equipment, and other conditions, they can be divided into many levels.

From community-level Level 1 primary hospitals, to inter-community Second Level district hospitals, and then to Third Level hospitals, which are cross-regional and provide national health services.

Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, however, is a "top-tier" hospital on a different track.

Located in Washington, D.C., it was established in 1855 and was the first federally operated psychiatric hospital in the United States.

Initially, it mainly treated soldiers with mental illnesses from the military, but with the onset of the Civil War, a large number of soldiers were sent to Saint Elizabeth, causing the hospital’s finances to become severely strained.

The cash-strapped hospital soon discovered a new way to make money by admitting people who were not sick.

Whether it was drunkards making a scene after drinking or illegal immigrants reported by civilians, all were accepted without exception. After all, the federal government provided financial subsidies based on the number of beds; the more patients, the more money the hospital made.

Eventually, the insatiable hospital even collaborated with the police, FBI, CIA, and social elites to detain journalists who exposed corporate scandals, anti-government activists, leftists, wealthy widows, and so on, all in the name of mental illness.

They tortured the patients with drugs, bloodletting, electrotherapy, hydrotherapy (immersing them in hot water for several hours until their skin was scalded), and so on, torturing them to the point of inhumanity. Countless patients died, and those who survived and left the hospital were broken people.

Compared to Saint Elizabeth, institutions like Gotham’s Arkham Asylum had to take a step back. This is the real old guard.

"The system doesn’t act without basis; this Saint Elizabeth in New England Town is likely connected to the real-world Saint Elizabeth."

Li Cheng pondered for a moment and tried to open the player panel, "Both the item bar and the skill bar are sealed. However, the Emergency Escape Card is still available, and it can be used at any time.

It seems that the priority of the Emergency Escape Card is a bit higher than the system’s restrictions."

He paused, muttering to himself, "According to the player forums, the appearance rate of a complete role-play mode is already very low.

Whenever complete role-playing occurs, the killing field decides the mission trend based on the traits displayed by the player.

For instance, giving puzzle players detective missions and battle-crazy players killing missions. Rarely do errors occur.

To avoid ridiculous situations like ’a mighty Level 40 warrior starving to death in a locked room because he can’t crack a password.’

That being said, it seems I’m too intelligent, like a rotten apple in a trash can that can’t be concealed, making the system consider me a reasoning player."

If the item bar were accessible and Gray Rain was here, she would certainly have teased, "Why would you compare yourself to a rotten apple in a garbage can when praising yourself?"

"Anyway, the first step is to stand up."

Due to the straitjacket, Li Cheng wriggled on the ground like a caterpillar, cocooning back and forth.

Using the friction between the straitjacket and the wall, it took him quite a while to barely stand up straight against the wall.

"Phew, that’s exhausting."

True to the complete role-play mode, Li Cheng panted heavily and thought, "The character I’m playing is a bit shorter than me in the real world, with no sign of physical training. This is not good."

In horror games, the protagonist is often in a state of flight. If one could run as fast as Hong Kong journalists, that would be ideal.

The fear is to end up like the protagonists of some horror games who not only can’t run fast but also have an energy bar; barely running a few steps before their lungs are about to burst.

"Mmmph, mmmph."

His mouth squirmed, his lips repeatedly rubbed against each other, breaking free from the tape with a "puh" as he spit it out inside the white mask.

Having spewed out the duct tape, his breathing eased up considerably. Li Cheng looked around the room, trying to find a sharp object like a knife or a nail to see if he could cut open the straightjacket and regain his mobility.

Unfortunately, there were no signs of sharp objects on the walls, the floor, or even under the makeshift mattress that doubled as a bed.

"Damn, if all else fails, I’ll just have to hop my way to completing the mission."

His hands and feet restrained, Li Cheng flipped off the system with a phantom limb and hopped to the door of the solitary confinement room.

The door itself was also wrapped in a white cushioned material, without a window to pass food through (which suggested that this solitary confinement room was just a temporary holding space for patients),

Above the door’s handle, on the inside, a seven-digit combination lock with English letters was embedded.

It seemed strange to have a door handle inside a confinement room, but considering it’s a mental institution, it made sense—if medical staff were accidentally locked in, at least they could get out by solving the combination lock.

And above the combination lock, there was a narrow and long piece of paper with a delicate English script that read,

"what man cannot live in a house?"

What person cannot live in a house? Li Cheng raised an eyebrow. You’re playing riddles now?

Using his nose, he spun the combination lock through the white mask, and after entering joke answers like postman, walkman, and ironman, he finally entered the correct answer: snowman.

Click.

The door to the solitary confinement room opened promptly, revealing the hospital corridor.

There was none of the expected ghostly, startling faces—instead, the hospital corridor looked quite normal.

Floors laid with ceramic tiles, walls painted in white, fluorescent tubes hanging from the ceiling, with a faint smell of disinfectant lingering in the air.

Leaning against the door frame, Li Cheng peered left and right—there was no one in the corridor, no doctors, nurses, or patients in sight.

Judging from the sign that read 1F hanging at the end of the corridor, this was the first floor of the hospital.

After pondering for a moment, Li Cheng bit the piece of paper through the mask, flipping it over.

It was clear that the strip was torn from a newspaper; its back was a piece of news.

[Kang Group’s newly appointed female CEO considers selling U.S. operations]

The date of the news article was Christmas Eve, December 24th, with no year marked, nor any indication of special significance.

"Better keep it for now. The handwriting on the paper is delicate and there’s a citrus scent to it. Probably a clue left by a female."

With the paper in his mouth, Li Cheng hopped into the corridor, "The time in this scripted world should be nighttime. It’s dark outside the windows, and the sound of rain is coming through..."

Before he could finish his sentence, an abrupt change occurred.

The rustling sound of rain suddenly intensified, becoming increasingly dense and noisy.

And on the glass of the corridor’s exterior, blood-stained handprints began to appear out of nowhere, as if countless patients were struggling fiercely in their dying moments.

All the windows shook as if the next moment, those palms would shatter the windows and break into the hospital.

The "rain sound" came quickly and left just as fast. Half a minute later, no more blood handprints appeared, and as the rain washed them away, they gradually faded.