Mental Asylum
We’ll see who can piss further
Sheng Yu’s eyes grew wide. “You didn’t eat it?”
In the young, white-haired man’s palm, the small white pill lay intact, without even a trace of wetness on it.
Zong Jiu glanced at him. “Just a little trick.”
To a magician, a flexible sleight of hand was the most basic introductory exercise. Although Zong Jiu’s hands were still stiff now, he was familiar with the various hiding techniques and was more than capable of hiding a small pill.
Not to mention Sheng Yu who was by his side, even the bullet chat was surprised.
[Woah, I’m very sure I saw him toss the pill into his mouth and take a big gulp of water just now.]
[Yeah, yeah I saw it too! And that creepy head nurse was staring at him the whole time.]
[Was it a prop??? But that’s impossible, he’s a newcomer, no? Where would he get props from?]
[If he didn’t have a prop, then doesn’t that mean he hid it with his own skill? Incredible, he managed to hide this trick from everyone, this newcomer really has some talent.]
Sheng Yu’s exclamation attracted everyone’s attention, and the other trainees in the dining room had a myriad of expressions when they saw the pill in Zong Jiu’s hand.
Reasonably speaking, whether they were a veteran or a newcomer, the differences in their physique wasn’t large.
The rules of the infinite loop were very harsh. Humans would always be lower in the food chain than the supernatural, and contenders couldn’t break away from their ‘human’ race even if they had the chance to change races in a special high-level instance. They were humans down to their bones; this was an unalterable fact. No matter how many instances they went through, they were unable to escape these two points.
Contenders could collect different props in the instances based on clues revealed by the NPC and rely on the abilities of those props to keep themselves alive.
Survival points awarded at the end of each instance could be used to enhance the body, enhance existing props, etc. But regardless how much the body was enhanced, they would never be able to go beyond the limits of the human race. For example, no matter how much a person tried to enhance their strength, he would never become an existence able to effortlessly lift a building like the Hulk.
Moreover, compared to enhancing props, the number of points required to enhance the body was too high. So unless they had no props at hand, most people would not choose to directly enhance the body.
The consequence of this was that, due to the urgency of the situation, almost all of the trainees in the dining room had swallowed the pill under the strict watch of the circle of nurses. Although quite a few veterans immediately ran to the nearby trash bin to induce their gag reflex, the pills had already entered their stomachs, and would still have varying amounts of effect.
From the looks of it, aside from Zong Jiu, only three others hadn’t let the pill enter their oral cavity at all.
Two of whom were the powerful S-ranks, Zhuge An and Messiah, who had methods beyond the comprehension of mere mortals, so these two weren’t worth mentioning. Qin Ye, on the other hand, simply crushed the pill into power by brute force, hiding it from the nurses’ eyes.
“I told you that this newcomer isn’t what he seems…”
He Jianlan dug out the pill from where it was stuck in his throat, his expression ugly.
As the singular person with the privilege of being unmedicated alongside the powerful S and A-ranks, Zong Jiu was baptised by intense scrutiny.
Not only He Jianlan, who had long been wary of him, but even Zhuge An condescended to glance at him.
Because of that one trick, Sheng Yu’s gaze on him turned beyond worshipful, bearing a striking resemblance to a young boy looking up at his elder brother. He even very naturally changed the term of address to ‘Zong-ge’, his tone extremely sweet and flattering.
Earlier, the head nurse had mentioned a schedule pinned on the wall; many of the trainees went over to take a look at it.
There was a floor plan of the mental asylum next to the schedule, mapping all the rooms and facilities on this floor.
This was the ground floor. It had a dining room, a library, and a reading room.
“It’s free time after dinner… Apparently we have already washed up in the afternoon. We’re supposed to be in bed by ten-thirty, and room-check is at eleven.”
Sheng Yu padded over and read it word for word. “Tomorrow morning, we have to get up at seven o’clock. Ah, and we have to take the medication at a set time every night!”
The newcomers instantly turned pale, their bodies trembling.
Now that the medicine started to take effect, many of them started to fight with their eyelids.
Sheng Yu was even more flustered. “What should I do, Jiu-ge, I can’t spit out that pill now.”
Before Zong Jiu could speak, the golden-haired Holy Son suddenly and slowly walked out amidst the throng of newcomers.
“Gentlemen, if you would spare me a moment of your attention.”
The noisy crowd instantly quietened down.
With a smile on his face and a gentle voice, Messiah’s azure eyes were like the warm breeze gliding over the Aegean Sea on a Greek afternoon. He didn’t give off any sense of superiority; conversing felt refreshing to the heart and mind. Nevertheless, no one dared to underestimate him—
Because of the S hung on his chest and that tiny ‘7’ by it.
No. 7 naturally had this qualification.
“Although the system set the competition mode to a personal one-man show, it does not necessarily represent a reduction in the level of difficulty of the instance.”
To accommodate the newcomers, Messiah raised an example.
“From our experience as veterans, if it was an ordinary or low-difficulty instance, the main task would usually be to escape from the asylum or to work out a puzzle surrounding a certain item or clue. But there is none of that in this instance. Its main task simply requires us to survive for three days.”
“—and this means that the trainees only need to survive. There isn’t even any need to find out what really happened in this asylum and what truths are buried, because compared to surviving, none of the other challenges set by the system are as important.”
Comprehension dawned on the trainees.
When survival was elevated to the same high-level difficulty of puzzle-solving, that meant that in this instance, surviving had the greatest difficulty.
And once they understood this, everyone couldn’t help the chill that ran through their limbs, gooseflesh raising all over their body.
“At this level of difficulty, I propose, why not choose to tackle this as a team challenge?”
Messiah said, “Although the purpose of the one-man show is to showcase ourselves, the system has not said that trainees aren’t allowed to collaborate. There’s no need for us to point fingers at one another in order to survive.”
Seeing that a few newcomers were still hesitant, the golden-haired Holy Son continued to urge. “Rest assured, gentlemen. The rules of the infinite loop strictly forbid the contenders from killing each other. The nurse at the asylum said as much.”
“The enemies of the contenders have never been contenders. We have a mutual enemy, and that would be those things.” The Holy Son said meaningfully. “The rank evaluation is important, but right now, surviving this instance is of paramount importance, isn’t that right?”
Like words of enlightenment, this message woke up the muddled newcomers entirely.
He was right. Survival was of paramount importance. As for the rank evaluation or whether or not they were eliminated, they still had to survive up to that moment.
If they couldn’t even survive these three days, they wouldn’t even be qualified for the evaluation.
More and more newcomers stood behind the Holy Son.
Strangely enough, after the nurses left, the whole dining room felt empty.
The dining hall granny had closed shop, those big and burly nurses had disappeared to who-knows-where. They didn’t see a single additional patient NPC, only trainees with badges chattering away in this place.
Perhaps such a situation was very commonly seen in mental asylums. As long as they didn’t violate the rules set by the head nurse, they would naturally be well.
As the newcomers made their decision, the veterans clearly considered it more comprehensively.
“Let’s go, this instance clearly isn’t that simple.” He Jianlan sighed and pulled Qin Ye along with him to stand over there as well.
In the past, they had moved as a team in the infinite loop and could safely give their backs to their own people.
The infinite loop was already horrifying enough. If they also had to fend against attacks from the inside, wouldn’t they be screwed?
However, such was the situation in this instance. The system had clearly pointed out that there was a mole among them, putting the veterans on edge.
But it wasn’t unexpected that Messiah had said what he said.
Because at the moment, regardless of the existence of a mole, teaming up was the best method for both newcomers and veterans alike.
Zong Jiu stood on the sidelines and watched it all unfold. He didn’t express his opinion, but he silently moved several steps towards the Holy Son.
[Too powerful. Only the Holy Son can have such rallying power.]
[This venue is really fortunate to have a leader. Team Cursed and the Night Clan are just short of coming to blows at the venue being broadcast in the next room. They are still butting heads with each other on the sly and the newcomers have been reduced to cannon fodder.]
[Yeah, if it was someone else, they wouldn’t necessarily be able to rally everyone like this. He’s an S-rank bigshot in front of the newcomers, and there are many among the veterans who respect him.]
[Am I the only one who cares about Master Zhuge… I feel that Master Zhuge isn’t the kind that would be a stickler to the rules /facepalm]
Ultimately, everyone took a stand. Only one person stayed outside the circle.
The dark-haired man was as thin as bamboo. His arms were folded, and his eyes were as impenetrable as a frozen pool.
As the Holy Son made his passionate speech, he had stood by the wall and looked at the schedule. When Messiah finished speaking, he didn’t even glance at the people who had formed an alliance over there. Straightaway, he turned on the spot and walked off, his retreating back cold and arrogant.
Zong Jiu gazed from the gap in the crowd, determining that the direction he walked towards was the stairwell.
After the figure disappeared into darkness, someone finally whispered, “Oh my god, that man has such a strong aura.”
“We all chose to form an alliance, so why is he the only one who didn’t join in?”
Everyone had fear lingering in their hearts. “Didn’t the system say that someone got a different identity card? Do you think it could be…”
Messiah frowned. “That is No. 3, Zhuge An. His wisdom is unparalleled and his strength is unfathomable. There’s nothing wrong for him to choose to move alone. Don’t cast unnecessary doubt on others before anything is set in stone. The contenders should show a united front. Leave these thoughts in your minds, there’s no need to cast them out and disturb the peace.”
How could that newcomer dare retort? He nodded his head like chicken pecking rice, afraid that his ticket to survival would get upset with him.
Seeing the newcomer’s sincerity, Messiah let go of the topic. “Good. Now that we’ve reached a consensus, let’s make the most of our time and discuss our next steps.”
“Those who feel intensely drowsy now, or those who have tried but failed to expel the pill, please stand to the right. Those who aren’t feeling drowsy, hadn’t taken the pill, or had managed to expel the pill, please stand to the left.”
The golden-haired Holy Son methodically organised the trainees into groups in the dining room. After everyone had got to their places, he then spoke towards the right side, “We do not know the ingredients of the pill. But judging from the current symptoms of drowsiness after taking the pill, it should be a type of antidepressant sedative commonly used to treat mental illness. However, based on how its effects manifested in such a short period of time, the dosage used should be high… If you choose to continue searching for information, it is very possible that you will collapse midway.”
“Regarding this, my advice is not to put up an unnecessary struggle. It would be best to just go back early to rest in your quarters and preserve your strength.”
Hearing this analysis, the trainees who had ingested the pill had fear in their eyes.
“But, but—”
Sleep?
Forget the veterans, even newcomers knew this too. Sleeping through horror instances was just asking for a death sentence.
Not to mention that they were all put in single-person wards, so if anything happened, the consequences were impossible to predict. Recalling the eerie and stifling environment of the living quarters in basement 1, no matter how drowsy they were, no one dared to take the first step.
“Don’t be afraid,” Messiah gave them a reassuring look. “We can all split into two groups and sleep in the quarters.”
“Wouldn’t this be against the rules?” someone asked, anxious.
The Holy Son smiled. “How is it against the rules? None of the rules listed by the head nurse said anything about forbidding several people to share a living quarter. In any case, it’s only eight o’clock now. The schedule indicated that room-checks are conducted at eleven o’clock. If you go to sleep now, by the time they conduct room-checks you’d definitely be in a deep sleep under the influence of the medication. Even if the nurse calls other nurses for help, it is impossible for them to wake you up one by one and have you go back to your own quarters, right?”
Not only the contenders; even the bullet chat was startled by his words.
[Wtf, this is a perfect solution. If they follow this method, they would at least be able to pass through the first night peacefully. I never thought of it at all before this!]
[Damned incredible, really… As expected of his No. 7 S-rank placing. I finally understand the vast distance between a high-ranker and a mere mortal.]
[Upstairs speaks the truth. No wonder people always say that the top contenders were well-rounded morally, intellectually, and physically. Before I opened the live broadcast, I couldn’t really understand this gap, but now that I have I finally learned that all sorts of qualities are important in an instance.]
[And the most unbelievable thing is how the Holy Son likes to think from the perspective of the whole. If it was any other ordinary person, their first reaction would definitely be the same as the Master Zhuge, going off to be a lone wolf.]
Although it wasn’t necessarily true that strength came in numbers in a horror instance, everyone still understood this truth: being alone had a ninety percent mortality rate. With so many people in a living quarter, the risk and probability of something going wrong were greatly reduced, which was indeed the best policy.
Since Messiah had come up with a solution that convinced everyone, the medicated trainees split into two groups and went downstairs to sleep in their groups.
Sheng Yu, who had failed another round of induced vomiting, drooped. He waved at Zong Jiu and followed the majority of people downstairs.
There were now less than ten people left of what had been a large crowd of people. Apart from Messiah, an S-rank, there were a few other A and B-ranks who had managed to retrieve the pill stuck in their throats. Whereas there wasn’t even a single C-rank.
In such a situation, Zong Jiu with his blue E-rank badge was particularly striking.
“Everyone is a veteran, I don’t think I need to expound on much. I’ll just make it short, then.”
After the newcomers left, Messiah’s face grew several measures more sombre. “There’s a library and a reading room on the ground floor. We’ll split into groups to gather information.”
“Although it’s a survival-type instance, it is impossible that the system won’t give hints at all. As it is a matter of life and death, everyone must be careful not to miss any information.”
Everyone nodded. The golden-haired Holy Son’s gaze shifted to Zong Jiu standing by the side. “This little brother will group with me, we can take care of each other.”
Zong Jiu nodded indifferently. His reaction to the news that he was about to be in a group with a S-class was muted.
For better or for worse, he had read the novel, and he knew that it had some discrepancies with what Messiah said.
It was true that the infinite loop had an ironclad rule that contenders couldn’t kill each other. But if they were killed ‘by accident’, there was nothing that could be done about it.
The supernatural was scary, yes. But the human heart was much scarier.
Besides, ultimately, only a hundred could survive. The system of Thriller Trainee made it clear that everyone apart from themselves was a competitor. By the end of the show, it was a foregone conclusion that they would have to kill each other.
However, the competition had only just begun. The contenders who were already used to cooperative play had yet to adjust their mindset from thinking that all humans were on the same team. So, at this time, it was normal that everyone was still stuck in their old ways of thinking.
But it also couldn’t be considered deliberate concealment that Messiah hadn’t spoken of it. There were veterans who had realised this, yet still chose to cooperate as a team without a word. After all, if this information was openly addressed, it would only make the already restless people more agitated, so it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing not to say anything.
Zong Jiu walked down the corridor on the ground floor with the trainees who hadn’t taken the medication as he mulled over this.
The lighting in this corridor was much brighter than the lighting on basement 1, and the walls on both sides had evidently been repainted. Even the dirt and moss hidden in the corner were less visible.
After the meal, the time to the canonical character’s death drew a step closer.
Zong Jiu couldn’t pinpoint the exact minute and second of the canonical character’s death, but he remembered the sequence of events clearly.
There wasn’t much deviation in the plots. The Holy Son had also proposed cooperation in the novel, then had split the trainees into two groups, a ‘scouting’ team, and a ‘sleeping’ team. Only, the canonical character had followed the ‘sleeping’ team downstairs and when moving the beddings, suddenly felt the urge to use the loo. He had asked a newcomer to accompany him to the washroom, and then achieved the perfect execution of first kill achievement.
It was more than easy to avoid the canonical character’s death. He only had to avoid going to the washroom on the basement floor during this time period.
After he finished turning this over, Zong Jiu focused his attention to the task at hand.
They were standing in the reading room. There were huge piles of newspapers, and it was very troublesome to browse them.
Although it was tedious, it wasn’t entirely unproductive.
Very quickly, the trainees in the reading room found several feature articles.
The worn newspapers obliquely mentioned that the asylum was originally purposed as a wartime military base decades ago. It was abandoned after a terrible incident during the war and had a period of time when it was uninhabited as it was haunted. Little did anyone expect that it would be bought decades later by an anonymous businessman. It was given a slap-dash repainting and transformed into the present mental asylum, catering to the needs of society.
All the veterans exhaled in relief.
They had been frightened by Messiah’s words earlier. Fortunately, it wasn’t too difficult to obtain information for this instance.
According to formulaic horror movie plots, this old tale from decades ago should be the source of this instance. Although the task issued by the system didn’t require them to figure out the source of any horrific happenings, most of the secrets to staying alive were still tied to the source. If they were lucky enough to get to the bottom of what had happened back then, they might even be able to avoid danger and survive the three days peacefully.
However, was it really that simple?
Zong Jiu stroked his chin. Suddenly, he heard the warm voice of the Holy Son come from beside him.
“Forgive my imprudence, but is your hand…?”
There was nothing on the young white-haired man’s body that wasn’t beautiful; unquestionably, his existence veered on perfection.
Against this perfection, the slightest flaw was especially conspicuous.
Messiah had only noticed the unusual stiffness of his hands when Zong Jiu was looking down at the newspaper.
Or rather, the person in question had deliberately let him notice it.
Zong Jiu’s spine straightened slightly. “Yeah.”
He didn’t try to conceal the problem in his hands. Conversely, with what he could, he strenuously retrieved a newspaper. “It’s a comminuted fracture.”
[Damn, no wonder I thought something about the posture of his hands looked awkward earlier. It turned out to be a comminuted fracture!]
[Omg… If it was a comminuted fracture to his hands, even if he got steel implants to regain mobility in them, it would still have repercussions that affect his daily life.]
[You’ve to look at the severity too, right? Comminuted factors are the same. If it’s severe enough then that hand is as good as disabled. If it’s a simple fracture, he should still be able to recover fully after some habilitation.]
[What? I can’t believe upstairs managed to notice something, I totally didn’t realise at all /galaxy brain.jpg]
“My apologies.” A stunned look appeared on the Holy Son’s face. He hesitated. “Do you mind if I take a look?”
The young white-haired man moved his hand over.
The next second, a faint golden light glowed from the fingertips of the Holy Son. But less than a moment later, it disappeared without a trace, leaving only a slight warmth.
Zong Jiu guessed that this should be the special prop mentioned in the novel.
In other words, this was the key reason that Messiah could become No. 7, revered by all, and hailed as the Holy Son.
“I apologise… for an injury of this extent, there’s nothing I can do, either.”
Messiah shook his head, his azure eyes falling on the beautiful and slender hands before him. He said in consolation, “Although the infinite loop isn’t a good place to be, one has to admit that many miracles can be performed here.”
“Do you mean… that my hands have the potential to recover?”
“Yes,” Messiah said patiently. “The system will be more than happy to heal you provided you have enough survival points. I once had a side of my heart pierced through during an instance, and it only took the system three seconds to restore me as good as new, alive and well.”
The novel had only described how courting disaster could increase the rating during evaluation, but never mentioned how to obtain survival points.
“Then how are survival points obtained?” Zong Jiu threw out the question.
“By definition, the better the evaluation, the more survival points you get when the instance is settled. Of course, if you are able to complete the additional tasks, the survival points would also increase.” The golden-haired Holy Son looked contemplative. “This should also be the general rule in Thriller Trainee.”
Courting disaster for a better evaluation and challenging danger zones was also a surefire way to die.
But from another perspective, since it could increase the evaluation and rake up survival points, this was also a natural state of affairs.
Zong Jiu’s eyes flickered.
If he wanted to quickly regain the dexterity in his fingers, he would inevitably need to pay a price. It was a universal truth that one couldn’t catch a tiger’s cub without entering the tiger’s lair; nothing ventured, nothing gained.
This being the case, there was already a path laid out for him. That was, naturally—
Zong Jiu casually picked up a ballpoint pen by the side.
Hearing the sound of newspapers being set down, Messiah looked up in doubt. “Where are you going?”
The young white-haired man waved his hand without a turn of his head back. “The washroom. I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll join you, it’s not a good idea to be left alone right now,” the golden-haired Holy Son frowned, disapproving.
“I don’t want to bother the Holy Son.”
A clear voice carried over from the dim corridor.
“I’m not in the habit of going to pee with others.”
Thriller Trainee – Mental Asylum
Translated by luckykoi Edited by snoflakesun
Please don’t repost or re-translate.
Mental Asylum
We’ll see who can piss further
Sheng Yu’s eyes grew wide. “You didn’t eat it?”
In the young, white-haired man’s palm, the small white pill lay intact, without even a trace of wetness on it.
Zong Jiu glanced at him. “Just a little trick.”
To a magician, a flexible sleight of hand was the most basic introductory exercise. Although Zong Jiu’s hands were still stiff now, he was familiar with the various hiding techniques and was more than capable of hiding a small pill.
Not to mention Sheng Yu who was by his side, even the bullet chat was surprised.
[Woah, I’m very sure I saw him toss the pill into his mouth and take a big gulp of water just now.]
[Yeah, yeah I saw it too! And that creepy head nurse was staring at him the whole time.]
[Was it a prop??? But that’s impossible, he’s a newcomer, no? Where would he get props from?]
[If he didn’t have a prop, then doesn’t that mean he hid it with his own skill? Incredible, he managed to hide this trick from everyone, this newcomer really has some talent.]
Sheng Yu’s exclamation attracted everyone’s attention, and the other trainees in the dining room had a myriad of expressions when they saw the pill in Zong Jiu’s hand.
Reasonably speaking, whether they were a veteran or a newcomer, the differences in their physique wasn’t large.
The rules of the infinite loop were very harsh. Humans would always be lower in the food chain than the supernatural, and contenders couldn’t break away from their ‘human’ race even if they had the chance to change races in a special high-level instance. They were humans down to their bones; this was an unalterable fact. No matter how many instances they went through, they were unable to escape these two points.
Contenders could collect different props in the instances based on clues revealed by the NPC and rely on the abilities of those props to keep themselves alive.
Survival points awarded at the end of each instance could be used to enhance the body, enhance existing props, etc. But regardless how much the body was enhanced, they would never be able to go beyond the limits of the human race. For example, no matter how much a person tried to enhance their strength, he would never become an existence able to effortlessly lift a building like the Hulk.
Moreover, compared to enhancing props, the number of points required to enhance the body was too high. So unless they had no props at hand, most people would not choose to directly enhance the body.
The consequence of this was that, due to the urgency of the situation, almost all of the trainees in the dining room had swallowed the pill under the strict watch of the circle of nurses. Although quite a few veterans immediately ran to the nearby trash bin to induce their gag reflex, the pills had already entered their stomachs, and would still have varying amounts of effect.
From the looks of it, aside from Zong Jiu, only three others hadn’t let the pill enter their oral cavity at all.
Two of whom were the powerful S-ranks, Zhuge An and Messiah, who had methods beyond the comprehension of mere mortals, so these two weren’t worth mentioning. Qin Ye, on the other hand, simply crushed the pill into power by brute force, hiding it from the nurses’ eyes.
“I told you that this newcomer isn’t what he seems…”
He Jianlan dug out the pill from where it was stuck in his throat, his expression ugly.
As the singular person with the privilege of being unmedicated alongside the powerful S and A-ranks, Zong Jiu was baptised by intense scrutiny.
Not only He Jianlan, who had long been wary of him, but even Zhuge An condescended to glance at him.
Because of that one trick, Sheng Yu’s gaze on him turned beyond worshipful, bearing a striking resemblance to a young boy looking up at his elder brother. He even very naturally changed the term of address to ‘Zong-ge’, his tone extremely sweet and flattering.
Earlier, the head nurse had mentioned a schedule pinned on the wall; many of the trainees went over to take a look at it.
There was a floor plan of the mental asylum next to the schedule, mapping all the rooms and facilities on this floor.
This was the ground floor. It had a dining room, a library, and a reading room.
“It’s free time after dinner… Apparently we have already washed up in the afternoon. We’re supposed to be in bed by ten-thirty, and room-check is at eleven.”
Sheng Yu padded over and read it word for word. “Tomorrow morning, we have to get up at seven o’clock. Ah, and we have to take the medication at a set time every night!”
The newcomers instantly turned pale, their bodies trembling.
Now that the medicine started to take effect, many of them started to fight with their eyelids.
Sheng Yu was even more flustered. “What should I do, Jiu-ge, I can’t spit out that pill now.”
Before Zong Jiu could speak, the golden-haired Holy Son suddenly and slowly walked out amidst the throng of newcomers.
“Gentlemen, if you would spare me a moment of your attention.”
The noisy crowd instantly quietened down.
With a smile on his face and a gentle voice, Messiah’s azure eyes were like the warm breeze gliding over the Aegean Sea on a Greek afternoon. He didn’t give off any sense of superiority; conversing felt refreshing to the heart and mind. Nevertheless, no one dared to underestimate him—
Because of the S hung on his chest and that tiny ‘7’ by it.
No. 7 naturally had this qualification.
“Although the system set the competition mode to a personal one-man show, it does not necessarily represent a reduction in the level of difficulty of the instance.”
To accommodate the newcomers, Messiah raised an example.
“From our experience as veterans, if it was an ordinary or low-difficulty instance, the main task would usually be to escape from the asylum or to work out a puzzle surrounding a certain item or clue. But there is none of that in this instance. Its main task simply requires us to survive for three days.”
“—and this means that the trainees only need to survive. There isn’t even any need to find out what really happened in this asylum and what truths are buried, because compared to surviving, none of the other challenges set by the system are as important.”
Comprehension dawned on the trainees.
When survival was elevated to the same high-level difficulty of puzzle-solving, that meant that in this instance, surviving had the greatest difficulty.
And once they understood this, everyone couldn’t help the chill that ran through their limbs, gooseflesh raising all over their body.
“At this level of difficulty, I propose, why not choose to tackle this as a team challenge?”
Messiah said, “Although the purpose of the one-man show is to showcase ourselves, the system has not said that trainees aren’t allowed to collaborate. There’s no need for us to point fingers at one another in order to survive.”
Seeing that a few newcomers were still hesitant, the golden-haired Holy Son continued to urge. “Rest assured, gentlemen. The rules of the infinite loop strictly forbid the contenders from killing each other. The nurse at the asylum said as much.”
“The enemies of the contenders have never been contenders. We have a mutual enemy, and that would be those things.” The Holy Son said meaningfully. “The rank evaluation is important, but right now, surviving this instance is of paramount importance, isn’t that right?”
Like words of enlightenment, this message woke up the muddled newcomers entirely.
He was right. Survival was of paramount importance. As for the rank evaluation or whether or not they were eliminated, they still had to survive up to that moment.
If they couldn’t even survive these three days, they wouldn’t even be qualified for the evaluation.
More and more newcomers stood behind the Holy Son.
Strangely enough, after the nurses left, the whole dining room felt empty.
The dining hall granny had closed shop, those big and burly nurses had disappeared to who-knows-where. They didn’t see a single additional patient NPC, only trainees with badges chattering away in this place.
Perhaps such a situation was very commonly seen in mental asylums. As long as they didn’t violate the rules set by the head nurse, they would naturally be well.
As the newcomers made their decision, the veterans clearly considered it more comprehensively.
“Let’s go, this instance clearly isn’t that simple.” He Jianlan sighed and pulled Qin Ye along with him to stand over there as well.
In the past, they had moved as a team in the infinite loop and could safely give their backs to their own people.
The infinite loop was already horrifying enough. If they also had to fend against attacks from the inside, wouldn’t they be screwed?
However, such was the situation in this instance. The system had clearly pointed out that there was a mole among them, putting the veterans on edge.
But it wasn’t unexpected that Messiah had said what he said.
Because at the moment, regardless of the existence of a mole, teaming up was the best method for both newcomers and veterans alike.
Zong Jiu stood on the sidelines and watched it all unfold. He didn’t express his opinion, but he silently moved several steps towards the Holy Son.
[Too powerful. Only the Holy Son can have such rallying power.]
[This venue is really fortunate to have a leader. Team Cursed and the Night Clan are just short of coming to blows at the venue being broadcast in the next room. They are still butting heads with each other on the sly and the newcomers have been reduced to cannon fodder.]
[Yeah, if it was someone else, they wouldn’t necessarily be able to rally everyone like this. He’s an S-rank bigshot in front of the newcomers, and there are many among the veterans who respect him.]
[Am I the only one who cares about Master Zhuge… I feel that Master Zhuge isn’t the kind that would be a stickler to the rules /facepalm]
Ultimately, everyone took a stand. Only one person stayed outside the circle.
The dark-haired man was as thin as bamboo. His arms were folded, and his eyes were as impenetrable as a frozen pool.
As the Holy Son made his passionate speech, he had stood by the wall and looked at the schedule. When Messiah finished speaking, he didn’t even glance at the people who had formed an alliance over there. Straightaway, he turned on the spot and walked off, his retreating back cold and arrogant.
Zong Jiu gazed from the gap in the crowd, determining that the direction he walked towards was the stairwell.
After the figure disappeared into darkness, someone finally whispered, “Oh my god, that man has such a strong aura.”
“We all chose to form an alliance, so why is he the only one who didn’t join in?”
Everyone had fear lingering in their hearts. “Didn’t the system say that someone got a different identity card? Do you think it could be…”
Messiah frowned. “That is No. 3, Zhuge An. His wisdom is unparalleled and his strength is unfathomable. There’s nothing wrong for him to choose to move alone. Don’t cast unnecessary doubt on others before anything is set in stone. The contenders should show a united front. Leave these thoughts in your minds, there’s no need to cast them out and disturb the peace.”
How could that newcomer dare retort? He nodded his head like chicken pecking rice, afraid that his ticket to survival would get upset with him.
Seeing the newcomer’s sincerity, Messiah let go of the topic. “Good. Now that we’ve reached a consensus, let’s make the most of our time and discuss our next steps.”
“Those who feel intensely drowsy now, or those who have tried but failed to expel the pill, please stand to the right. Those who aren’t feeling drowsy, hadn’t taken the pill, or had managed to expel the pill, please stand to the left.”
The golden-haired Holy Son methodically organised the trainees into groups in the dining room. After everyone had got to their places, he then spoke towards the right side, “We do not know the ingredients of the pill. But judging from the current symptoms of drowsiness after taking the pill, it should be a type of antidepressant sedative commonly used to treat mental illness. However, based on how its effects manifested in such a short period of time, the dosage used should be high… If you choose to continue searching for information, it is very possible that you will collapse midway.”
“Regarding this, my advice is not to put up an unnecessary struggle. It would be best to just go back early to rest in your quarters and preserve your strength.”
Hearing this analysis, the trainees who had ingested the pill had fear in their eyes.
“But, but—”
Sleep?
Forget the veterans, even newcomers knew this too. Sleeping through horror instances was just asking for a death sentence.
Not to mention that they were all put in single-person wards, so if anything happened, the consequences were impossible to predict. Recalling the eerie and stifling environment of the living quarters in basement 1, no matter how drowsy they were, no one dared to take the first step.
“Don’t be afraid,” Messiah gave them a reassuring look. “We can all split into two groups and sleep in the quarters.”
“Wouldn’t this be against the rules?” someone asked, anxious.
The Holy Son smiled. “How is it against the rules? None of the rules listed by the head nurse said anything about forbidding several people to share a living quarter. In any case, it’s only eight o’clock now. The schedule indicated that room-checks are conducted at eleven o’clock. If you go to sleep now, by the time they conduct room-checks you’d definitely be in a deep sleep under the influence of the medication. Even if the nurse calls other nurses for help, it is impossible for them to wake you up one by one and have you go back to your own quarters, right?”
Not only the contenders; even the bullet chat was startled by his words.
[Wtf, this is a perfect solution. If they follow this method, they would at least be able to pass through the first night peacefully. I never thought of it at all before this!]
[Damned incredible, really… As expected of his No. 7 S-rank placing. I finally understand the vast distance between a high-ranker and a mere mortal.]
[Upstairs speaks the truth. No wonder people always say that the top contenders were well-rounded morally, intellectually, and physically. Before I opened the live broadcast, I couldn’t really understand this gap, but now that I have I finally learned that all sorts of qualities are important in an instance.]
[And the most unbelievable thing is how the Holy Son likes to think from the perspective of the whole. If it was any other ordinary person, their first reaction would definitely be the same as the Master Zhuge, going off to be a lone wolf.]
Although it wasn’t necessarily true that strength came in numbers in a horror instance, everyone still understood this truth: being alone had a ninety percent mortality rate. With so many people in a living quarter, the risk and probability of something going wrong were greatly reduced, which was indeed the best policy.
Since Messiah had come up with a solution that convinced everyone, the medicated trainees split into two groups and went downstairs to sleep in their groups.
Sheng Yu, who had failed another round of induced vomiting, drooped. He waved at Zong Jiu and followed the majority of people downstairs.
There were now less than ten people left of what had been a large crowd of people. Apart from Messiah, an S-rank, there were a few other A and B-ranks who had managed to retrieve the pill stuck in their throats. Whereas there wasn’t even a single C-rank.
In such a situation, Zong Jiu with his blue E-rank badge was particularly striking.
“Everyone is a veteran, I don’t think I need to expound on much. I’ll just make it short, then.”
After the newcomers left, Messiah’s face grew several measures more sombre. “There’s a library and a reading room on the ground floor. We’ll split into groups to gather information.”
“Although it’s a survival-type instance, it is impossible that the system won’t give hints at all. As it is a matter of life and death, everyone must be careful not to miss any information.”
Everyone nodded. The golden-haired Holy Son’s gaze shifted to Zong Jiu standing by the side. “This little brother will group with me, we can take care of each other.”
Zong Jiu nodded indifferently. His reaction to the news that he was about to be in a group with a S-class was muted.
For better or for worse, he had read the novel, and he knew that it had some discrepancies with what Messiah said.
It was true that the infinite loop had an ironclad rule that contenders couldn’t kill each other. But if they were killed ‘by accident’, there was nothing that could be done about it.
The supernatural was scary, yes. But the human heart was much scarier.
Besides, ultimately, only a hundred could survive. The system of Thriller Trainee made it clear that everyone apart from themselves was a competitor. By the end of the show, it was a foregone conclusion that they would have to kill each other.
However, the competition had only just begun. The contenders who were already used to cooperative play had yet to adjust their mindset from thinking that all humans were on the same team. So, at this time, it was normal that everyone was still stuck in their old ways of thinking.
But it also couldn’t be considered deliberate concealment that Messiah hadn’t spoken of it. There were veterans who had realised this, yet still chose to cooperate as a team without a word. After all, if this information was openly addressed, it would only make the already restless people more agitated, so it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing not to say anything.
Zong Jiu walked down the corridor on the ground floor with the trainees who hadn’t taken the medication as he mulled over this.
The lighting in this corridor was much brighter than the lighting on basement 1, and the walls on both sides had evidently been repainted. Even the dirt and moss hidden in the corner were less visible.
After the meal, the time to the canonical character’s death drew a step closer.
Zong Jiu couldn’t pinpoint the exact minute and second of the canonical character’s death, but he remembered the sequence of events clearly.
There wasn’t much deviation in the plots. The Holy Son had also proposed cooperation in the novel, then had split the trainees into two groups, a ‘scouting’ team, and a ‘sleeping’ team. Only, the canonical character had followed the ‘sleeping’ team downstairs and when moving the beddings, suddenly felt the urge to use the loo. He had asked a newcomer to accompany him to the washroom, and then achieved the perfect execution of first kill achievement.
It was more than easy to avoid the canonical character’s death. He only had to avoid going to the washroom on the basement floor during this time period.
After he finished turning this over, Zong Jiu focused his attention to the task at hand.
They were standing in the reading room. There were huge piles of newspapers, and it was very troublesome to browse them.
Although it was tedious, it wasn’t entirely unproductive.
Very quickly, the trainees in the reading room found several feature articles.
The worn newspapers obliquely mentioned that the asylum was originally purposed as a wartime military base decades ago. It was abandoned after a terrible incident during the war and had a period of time when it was uninhabited as it was haunted. Little did anyone expect that it would be bought decades later by an anonymous businessman. It was given a slap-dash repainting and transformed into the present mental asylum, catering to the needs of society.
All the veterans exhaled in relief.
They had been frightened by Messiah’s words earlier. Fortunately, it wasn’t too difficult to obtain information for this instance.
According to formulaic horror movie plots, this old tale from decades ago should be the source of this instance. Although the task issued by the system didn’t require them to figure out the source of any horrific happenings, most of the secrets to staying alive were still tied to the source. If they were lucky enough to get to the bottom of what had happened back then, they might even be able to avoid danger and survive the three days peacefully.
However, was it really that simple?
Zong Jiu stroked his chin. Suddenly, he heard the warm voice of the Holy Son come from beside him.
“Forgive my imprudence, but is your hand…?”
There was nothing on the young white-haired man’s body that wasn’t beautiful; unquestionably, his existence veered on perfection.
Against this perfection, the slightest flaw was especially conspicuous.
Messiah had only noticed the unusual stiffness of his hands when Zong Jiu was looking down at the newspaper.
Or rather, the person in question had deliberately let him notice it.
Zong Jiu’s spine straightened slightly. “Yeah.”
He didn’t try to conceal the problem in his hands. Conversely, with what he could, he strenuously retrieved a newspaper. “It’s a comminuted fracture.”
[Damn, no wonder I thought something about the posture of his hands looked awkward earlier. It turned out to be a comminuted fracture!]
[Omg… If it was a comminuted fracture to his hands, even if he got steel implants to regain mobility in them, it would still have repercussions that affect his daily life.]
[You’ve to look at the severity too, right? Comminuted factors are the same. If it’s severe enough then that hand is as good as disabled. If it’s a simple fracture, he should still be able to recover fully after some habilitation.]
[What? I can’t believe upstairs managed to notice something, I totally didn’t realise at all /galaxy brain.jpg]
“My apologies.” A stunned look appeared on the Holy Son’s face. He hesitated. “Do you mind if I take a look?”
The young white-haired man moved his hand over.
The next second, a faint golden light glowed from the fingertips of the Holy Son. But less than a moment later, it disappeared without a trace, leaving only a slight warmth.
Zong Jiu guessed that this should be the special prop mentioned in the novel.
In other words, this was the key reason that Messiah could become No. 7, revered by all, and hailed as the Holy Son.
“I apologise… for an injury of this extent, there’s nothing I can do, either.”
Messiah shook his head, his azure eyes falling on the beautiful and slender hands before him. He said in consolation, “Although the infinite loop isn’t a good place to be, one has to admit that many miracles can be performed here.”
“Do you mean… that my hands have the potential to recover?”
“Yes,” Messiah said patiently. “The system will be more than happy to heal you provided you have enough survival points. I once had a side of my heart pierced through during an instance, and it only took the system three seconds to restore me as good as new, alive and well.”
The novel had only described how courting disaster could increase the rating during evaluation, but never mentioned how to obtain survival points.
“Then how are survival points obtained?” Zong Jiu threw out the question.
“By definition, the better the evaluation, the more survival points you get when the instance is settled. Of course, if you are able to complete the additional tasks, the survival points would also increase.” The golden-haired Holy Son looked contemplative. “This should also be the general rule in Thriller Trainee.”
Courting disaster for a better evaluation and challenging danger zones was also a surefire way to die.
But from another perspective, since it could increase the evaluation and rake up survival points, this was also a natural state of affairs.
Zong Jiu’s eyes flickered.
If he wanted to quickly regain the dexterity in his fingers, he would inevitably need to pay a price. It was a universal truth that one couldn’t catch a tiger’s cub without entering the tiger’s lair; nothing ventured, nothing gained.
This being the case, there was already a path laid out for him. That was, naturally—
Zong Jiu casually picked up a ballpoint pen by the side.
Hearing the sound of newspapers being set down, Messiah looked up in doubt. “Where are you going?”
The young white-haired man waved his hand without a turn of his head back. “The washroom. I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll join you, it’s not a good idea to be left alone right now,” the golden-haired Holy Son frowned, disapproving.
“I don’t want to bother the Holy Son.”
A clear voice carried over from the dim corridor.
“I’m not in the habit of going to pee with others.”
Thriller Trainee – Mental Asylum
Translated by luckykoi Edited by snoflakesun
Please don’t repost or re-translate.
