Deadly Game: Almighty Boss’s Guide to Making Money

Chapter 1277. The Emotional Mental Hospital (7)

--What's the meaning?
—Isn't this the welcome message you hear when you first enter the instance?

—Why is it happening again?
--cycle?
—I think so, maybe.

Why is it looping? Should I do it again?
—The loop may not be exactly the same as before; it's just that the loop has entered the hospital, so the plot may be different.

—But we can't keep repeating the same thing, we have to clear the level eventually!
Lin Xi had also thought of this.

“We’re probably stuck in a cycle.” Lin Xi squatted down and picked up a fallen leaf. “Look, the veins on this leaf are exactly the same as the ones outside the nurses’ station window, even the wormholes are the same.”

"A cycle? Like in those horror movies, there's no way out?" Chen Xiaoqiang's voice trembled as his gaze swept over the portrait on the wall. "Ah!" he exclaimed. "The painting...it's moving!"

Lin Xi saw it too.

The corners of the man in the white coat in the painting did indeed turn up slightly, and his previously blurry eyes seemed to focus, staring intently at the most timid Chen Xiaoqiang.

Even more bizarrely, a row of portraits had appeared on the walls on both sides of the corridor, depicting both the old and the young, all dressed in hospital gowns with blank expressions.

But if you look closely, their expressions seem to be different one second from the next.

"Come on, let's tear these paintings up first," Zhao Wenjing said, rolling up her sleeves.

"Don't panic, the dungeon won't repeat itself meaninglessly. The previous rule was 'emotions are weaknesses,' but in the nurse station, didn't we see that emotions are also a cure? The fact that it's recurring now means the rules have been upgraded. Emotions aren't just a danger; they might also be the key to breaking the deadlock."

As Lin Xi spoke, she walked to the nearest portrait painting.

The painting depicts a little girl with pigtails, who is grinning, revealing her sharp teeth.

"A key?" Liu Yun adjusted her temple, her voice still gentle. "But we can't even find the door right now, how can we use emotions as a key?"

As soon as she finished speaking, the portrait behind her suddenly emitted a series of soft whispers, like countless needles pricking her eardrums. The content was indistinct, yet it was filled with intense malice.

Chen Xiaoqiang suddenly covered his ears, his face turning pale.

“These paintings are speaking! They are saying ‘not enough,’ ‘more…’”

Huang Jingjing immediately grabbed Chen Xiaoqiang's clothes, trying to use teleportation.

However, the teleportation ability is still unusable.

"I still can't teleport," Huang Jingjing said.

"Xiaoqiang, don't worry about those paintings," Lin Xi said to Chen Xiaoqiang. "As for the voice, just treat it as the patient talking."

Chen Xiaoqiang nodded and lowered the other hand that was covering his ears.

Although her face was still pale, she didn't seem as flustered.

"It must be because we don't have enough emotional energy. After we destroyed the crystal ball, the dungeon's energy source was cut off, and these monsters, which are formed from emotions, are demanding new emotional replenishment," Zhang Yutong analyzed.

Lin Xi's gaze wandered down the corridor before finally settling on the incandescent light at the corner.

The light blinked very regularly, on for three seconds and off for two seconds.

“Previously, the manifestation of emotions was passively triggered. Chen Xiaoqiang’s fear, Fang Ming’s anger. But now the instance actively demands emotions, which means we need to actively release specific emotions in order to activate the mechanism.”

"Take the initiative to release them?" Ma Xiaofeng frowned. "You mean, we should deliberately show fear?"

“It’s not about being deliberately afraid; it’s about precise control,” Bai said thoughtfully.

"It's like mixing a potion; negative emotions are the raw material, and the dosage must be controlled. Too little won't reach the threshold, too much will cause a monster to backfire, just like what happened to Old Zhao," Yu Chen interjected.

Yu Wenjing scoffed, but still gripped the bone she had brought from the dean's office tightly.

"Easy for you to say. Fear is not something you can control just by talking about it."

Even so, she still moved closer to Chen Xiaoqiang.

The young man, trembling with fear, became the most natural "emotional reference" at that moment. "I'll try."

Bai also took a step forward.

He closed his eyes, deliberately recalling memories he didn't want to remember, and his fingertips trembled slightly.

As his emotions fluctuated, the portraits on the wall suddenly came to life. A clear laugh came from the little girl's painting, while the man's mouth stretched wider, revealing teeth stained with blood.

"It's responding!" Wang Lei said.

“But that’s not enough, the corridor hasn’t changed!” Fang Ming interjected.

"Bai Ye, stop thinking about it for now. The dosage isn't enough, and the emotional type might not be right either. The resentment in these paintings leans more towards 'fear' than 'pain'."

As Lin Xi spoke, she looked at Chen Xiaoqiang.

"Xiaoqiang, give it a try. But listen to me, just recall a little bit, like the moment you first saw the monster. Don't think about the subsequent attacks, just stop at that one second."

Chen Xiaoqiang's face was ashen, and he shook his head repeatedly.

“I…I can’t control myself…I tremble all over just thinking about those claws.”

Yu Chen handed him a bottle of water, her voice gentle.

"It's okay, we're all here for you. We'll keep an eye on your condition and stop if anything seems off. Just like last time when we banished the monster, you can do it."

Chen Xiaoqiang gritted his teeth and nodded, gripping the water bottle tightly with both hands.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

A few seconds later, his body began to tremble slightly, cold sweat beaded on his forehead, and a faint black shadow appeared under his feet.

But it's much lighter than before, with only the edges slightly curled, and no tendency to take on a concrete form.

All the portraits simultaneously emitted a piercing scream as the paint completely melted, flowing down the walls to the ground and pooling into black streams in the cracks between the bricks.

The incandescent light at the corner stopped flickering and instead emitted a steady warm light, but where the light reached, a new fork in the road appeared at the end of the corridor.

This time there weren't two roads, but three, and each intersection had a different sign.

Treatment room, pharmacy and archives.

Chen Xiaoqiang snapped back to his senses, panting heavily, as the dark shadow beneath his feet quickly vanished.

"I...I did it?" He looked at his hands in disbelief. "I wasn't possessed by the monster!"

"Because you controlled the 'degree' of your emotions."

"Yes, people do have emotions. The emotional energy that can be controlled is different from an uncontrolled breakdown."

Lin Xi crouched down and observed the black streams on the ground, which were flowing towards the entrance to the "archives room".

"These pigments ended up in the archives. Does that mean there's a clue there?"

"These three paths might not be so simple this time."

Huang Jingjing observed the three doorplates.

"The treatment seems to have been attacked, and there's a high probability of danger. The pharmacy's sign is very new, like it was just hung up, which might be bait. But the paint flow in the archives is too deliberate, making it seem like a trap."

Yu Wenjing scratched her head.

"What should we do then? We can't just stand here and wait to die. How about we split up? If we split into three groups, we're bound to find some clues."

"No," Huang Jingjing immediately objected. "It's safer if we're all together."