You Jiu believed what his eyes saw—the NPC standing outside Ward 4 was none other than General Manager Su’s secretary from the Chenyuan instance.
But how could an NPC from one instance appear in another?
Was it because both Chenyuan and the hospital were places prone to supernatural occurrences, making the instance’s magnetic field unstable and allowing the NPC to slip through?
He turned to Xiaojuan, walking over to her and whispering, "Don’t you think the person outside Ward 4 looks familiar?"
"Really?" Xiaojuan kept scrubbing the floor crevices with her small brush, not even glancing up. "I don’t think so."
"You didn’t even look." You Jiu pressed down on the brush, his voice low and tense. "I’m not joking. That’s an NPC from the Chenyuan instance."
Xiaojuan let go of the brush, giving him a complicated look. "What kind of answer are you hoping for?"
You Jiu wasn’t like Brother Wu and the others. While they still harbored doubts and resistance toward the Main God system, You Jiu had long since adapted to navigating the instance world with ease. Though he always wore a smile, he was a cold and detached person.
He trusted no one and prioritized his own interests above all else. She wasn’t confident about recruiting someone like him into the Anti-Main God Alliance.
"You clearly know something." You Jiu handed the brush back to her. "Sis Juan, give me a hint."
For the sake of clearing the instance, he could bend or stretch as needed.
"Xiaojuan." A bodyguard passed by them, pulling a box of cake from a bag and handing it to her. "For you."
You Jiu glanced at the bodyguard, then the cake, before finally settling his gaze on Xiaojuan’s face.
"Thanks." Xiaojuan accepted the cake, her face burning at the thought that all of Brother Chao’s bodyguards recognized her.
Stupid Main God, making her lose face like this in this world.
Once the bodyguard left, You Jiu took the brush from Xiaojuan’s hand again, helping her scrub the tile crevices. He grinned. "Sis Juan, is this good enough?"
Xiaojuan scoffed.
The "friendship" between players was so fake it made her laugh.
You Jiu caught the mockery in her laugh but didn’t care. All he cared about was the 50x mission reward.
Qi Shi finished wiping down the tables and sofa, then switched to a floor-cleaning towel, crouching to scrub the ground.
"You don’t need to clean the floor like that. It’ll just get dirty again when people walk over it." Chao Musheng noticed the silent cleaner, who was hunched over in an uncomfortable-looking position.
Su Chenzhu glanced back at the inconspicuous cleaner in the corner before fastening the top button of Chao Musheng’s hospital gown.
Qi Shi turned to look at the NPC on the hospital bed. Maybe it was because this NPC was too good-looking—even in sickness, his eyes were bright and lively.
Being stared at like that gave him an inexplicable sense of reassurance.
Realizing how strange that thought was, Qi Shi shuddered. Could this NPC be manipulating players’ minds?
"Thank you, sir." His voice was hoarse as he quickly gathered all the trash and fled Ward 4 like his life depended on it.
After tossing the garbage, he washed his hands under the faucet. When he returned to the break room, the sweet scent of cake filled the air.
"What’s wrong with you?" Xiaojuan looked up from her cake, noticing Qi Shi’s odd expression. "Want some?"
The cake the bodyguard had given her was too big, so she’d split it in half.
"Cake?" Qi Shi took off his hat. "Where’d you get that?"
"Someone gave it to me. It’s good stuff." She handed him the plate. "Try it?"
"Thanks." Qi Shi took the cake and, without hesitation, ate it.
[Ding. Consumed delicious cake. HP +2.]
"You’re not afraid I’d trick you?" Xiaojuan was surprised he didn’t even question it before eating.
"Nope." Qi Shi ate quickly, finishing the cake in moments. "A friend of mine cleared an instance with you before."
Xiaojuan raised an eyebrow.
"She said you’d never actively harm other players." Remembering that she’d shared a cake that restored HP, Qi Shi warned her, "The patient in Ward 4 is suspicious. Be careful around him."
Wasn’t the patient in Ward 4 her Brother Chao?
Xiaojuan stared at Qi Shi for a long moment. "What did he do?"
"He can charm people, make players drop their guard." Qi Shi glanced at her. If even a grown man like him could be affected, a woman like Xiaojuan would be even more vulnerable.
Xiaojuan opened her mouth, closed it, then after a long silence, finally spoke. "The cake we had at lunch, and the one just now—they were both given to me by the patient in Ward 4."
"Brother Shi, is it possible that the patient in Ward 4 is just… naturally charming?"
As soon as she finished speaking, the two players who’d been mopping the floor returned.
They’d overheard her words, their faces filled with horror.
They’d warned her—never eat things given by NPCs. Look what happened. She’d lost it already.
What sane player would find something from an instance world charming?
Xiaojuan and Qi Shi turned to look at them. The two averted their eyes and quickly left the break room.
Years of experience had taught them to stay far away from players who’d lost their minds.
"You didn’t even get a good look at the patient in Ward 4. How do you know so much about him?" Qi Shi sensed something off—like how she’d eaten lunch without hesitation earlier, or how familiar she was with the packaging.
From a player’s perspective, she trusted the NPCs in this world way too much.
But they’d all just entered this instance. Xiaojuan wasn’t some clueless newbie, so why was she acting so irrationally?
"I saw his face clearly when he first arrived at the hospital." Xiaojuan tossed the cake box into the trash and tied the bag. "You ate food he sent, and instead of negative effects, you gained HP. Doesn’t that prove he’s good?"
She left with the trash, the sweet scent of cake lingering in the room. Qi Shi stood frozen in the middle of the break room. Ever since entering this instance, he’d felt something was off.
Now, that feeling was stronger than ever.
In the evening, they had an hour-long break. The supervisor led the five of them to the hospital cafeteria.
"The cafeteria serves three meals a day. Since you’re hospital staff, the meals are cheap."
Xiaojuan glanced at the meat dishes—all pale and unappetizing.
"Take only what you can finish. No wasting food." The supervisor held a lunchbox. "You can bring your own containers if you don’t like the cafeteria trays."
The supervisor seemed used to the cafeteria food, his expression devoid of enthusiasm—just the resigned look of someone eating to survive.
After taking a bite of the stir-fried winter melon, Xiaojuan understood why he looked so lifeless.
The dish tasted even blander than it looked.
Recalling the days of indulging in good food at the Kunlun employee cafeteria, Xiaojuan felt a pang of nostalgia. Those were the good old times—back when Manager Zhu still saw her as a promising talent to nurture.
After the meal, with some time left before their shift began, the players decided to take the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the hospital's interior.
The five of them stood in the first-floor lobby, their eyes darting between the guide robots strolling past and the large 3D navigation map on the wall, their expressions tinged with confusion.
Shouldn’t a hospital dungeon have peeling walls, rusted windows, cobwebbed doorframes, and pitch-black corridors?
Why was this place so brightly lit, with clear route maps and robots wandering around?
"Hey, waiter." A man reeking of cigarette smoke approached them. "How do I get to the surgery department?"
"We’re janitors, not waiters," one of the players corrected.
Since when did hospitals have waiters?
"Aren’t janitors just service staff?" The man coughed a few times, displeased with the player’s dismissive tone. "Your hospital’s service attitude is terrible."
Grumbling, he walked away.
The players were speechless. "The scenarios being built lately are getting weirder and weirder. What kind of NPC calls hospital staff 'waiters'?"
Xiaojuan couldn’t help but chuckle. "It’s not weird at all."
If this happened in a dungeon, it might be strange—but in the real world, it was perfectly normal.
"The doctors here are no good. I know an old physician with generations of family expertise..."
Among the crowd, a gaunt old man slipped into the queue, muttering about the doctors’ skills and ethics. Nearby, a security guard in uniform stood holding a loudspeaker, which blared on loop: "Beware of medical scams! Stay vigilant against fraud!"
"Is this normal too?" A player pointed at the scene, turning to Xiaojuan.
How was any of this normal?
What kind of proper hospital dungeon was like this?
"Hello, friends." A uniformed police officer approached, arms laden with thick stacks of flyers. "Care to learn about anti-fraud awareness?"
"Please take a look at these safety tips."
"Is this normal as well?"
"Of course it’s normal. Why wouldn’t it be?" Xiaojuan stepped out of the outpatient building into the spacious plaza. Pedestrians hurried past, their faces reflecting joy or sorrow—each carrying their own emotions.
The real world was just like this.
"Xiaojuan?" A slightly plump man stood not far away, clutching a bag of medicine. He scrutinized her repeatedly before finally walking over, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets as he stared at the word "Janitor" printed on her uniform.
"You’re actually working as a janitor in a hospital?!"
Manager Zhu couldn’t comprehend it. He was furious, deeply disappointed—what had he done wrong?
Why would Wang Xiaojuan choose to scrub floors in a hospital instead of staying at Kunlun?
Was he really that terrible?
"Manager Zhu?!" Xiaojuan’s mind buzzed at the sight of his visibly unstable emotions. Of all the luck—why did it have to be her?
The world was so vast, so why was she the only one cursed with misfortune?
"How kind of you to still remember me," Manager Zhu said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "What an honor."
Xiaojuan: "..."
Damn you, Game Master. You’re truly a piece of work.
Wang Xiaojuan, who had held her head high all her life, finally felt her spine snap.
