Chapter 17

Zong Jiu's attitude was very sincere. Not only that, he even took the initiative to tell the seniors about the S-grade item.

Although he said that the S-grade item had been taken away by Zhuge An, it was still a clue, wasn't it? Now, the others' attitude towards Zong Jiu had changed, and they tacitly agreed to his participation.

After Zong Jiu's matter was settled, Messiah and the higher-ups quickly decided not to return to the ward tonight. Instead, they planned to skip the ward rounds and explore the second floor of the basement.

Before the plan was finalized, the others' voices were suppressed.

But in the end, this plan was not safe enough. Many of the clues were deduced by He Jianlan and Messiah based on the attitude of the mental hospital's medical staff.

After the plan was finalized, although He Jianlan and the others had suppressed it for a while, there were still a few newbies in the cafeteria who were whispering in low voices.

Under the pressure of the experienced trainees, the freshmen who were more active formed a few small groups. In these small groups, there were those who followed the seniors' lead and sucked up to them; there were also those who made their own decisions and wanted to take advantage of everything.

The newbie group that was speaking now wanted to take advantage of the situation. They did not want to follow Messiah and take the risk, so now they had their own plans.

"It's already 65: 85. If we go to the second floor of the basement now, isn't it a bit too late …"

As everyone knew, in horror dungeons, the night was an unavoidable theme.

Generally, the probability of a horror happening at night was much higher than during the day. It was also much scarier and more daunting.

"There are so many of us. Can the Son of God really take care of all of us? Also, didn't we say that the second floor of the basement is not a good place? Why are we taking the initiative to go? "

"That's right … In this situation, the ward is the safest place. There are newbies here who have taken the medicine and can't leave for a while."

Messiah frowned. "If you really don't want to go, I won't force you."

"But according to our experience as experienced survivors, the probability of something happening tonight is very high. The third day will be the watershed of this dungeon. I don't recommend anyone to act alone. "

The newbies in the small groups were hesitant and did not express their opinions.

"How about this?"

The golden-haired Holy Son relaxed his brows and didn't force them. "Those who are willing to go down to the second basement floor with me, we'll meet at the staircase leading to the second basement floor in ten minutes. If you don't want to stay with me, then I'll give each of you a blessing. "

The rookies hurriedly nodded and beamed.

Even the elders knew that the Holy Son's blessing was equivalent to having a one-time-use special item. Its value was self-evident.

The others who had originally agreed to go down to the second floor of the basement were also a little shaken. Among them, there was no lack of low-level old people.

"Why don't we stay in the ward too?"

The old man furrowed his brows. "Anyway, it's only the second day. It's not like Messiah won't come back. Why do you have to take the risk? You can just stay in the ward and enjoy the fruits of others' labor."

"Exactly. This Instance Dungeon's difficulty is infinitely close to S-Rank … We'll be lucky if we can survive. Who cares about that little bit of danger? "

Originally, these middle-level survivors had signed up for the Thriller Trainee Competition because of the generous rewards. They were full of confidence at the beginning of the first dungeon. Now, all of them were scared out of their wits.

The rookies didn't know what an S-Rank Instance Dungeon meant, but the elders knew it very well. Now, the thought of retreating grew stronger.

Zong Jiu stood at the side and looked on coldly.

The sudden time acceleration exposed the shortcomings of this impromptu team with the Holy Son as the core.

"Ninth Brother, you're really amazing. You cleared our suspicions so effortlessly."

Sheng Yu chattered at the side. "Then what do we do now? Are we going to follow the Holy Son to the second basement floor?"

"What else?"

Zong Jiu asked him, "Are you afraid?"

"A little." The high school student scratched his head. "But if Ninth Brother isn't afraid, then I'm not afraid either."

Of course you're not afraid. Otherwise, how could you be so familiar with the process of killing and dumping the bodies?

Zong Jiu said half-heartedly, "Then let's go down together. We're going to die anyway. There are so many of us. If we really die, we can all be buried together. We won't be lonely."

The others were speechless.

[7888888 I'm dying of laughter. I realized that this white-haired guy is really interesting. When he's not talking, he looks like a beauty in a painting. When he's talking, his expression is so serious, but why is it so funny?]

[I wanted to say that too. He really likes to make people choke to death. I can't believe he asked Master Zhuge who Zhuge Liang was. At that time, I thought he made up a name to fool him. No. 8]

[Sigh, we're going to the second basement floor soon. I don't know if this E-Rank can stay until the end.]

What no one knew was that after Zhuge An left, the number of viewers in Zong Jiu's personal live streaming channel shot up to second place like a rocket. He was only second to the S-Rank Messiah. For a newcomer with no foundation, this was quite an incredible thing.

After the decision was made, no one wasted any more time. Those who went to the stairwell went to the stairwell, and those who went back to the room to rest prepared to rest.

During these ten minutes, Zong Jiu watched Messiah bless them one by one with the High Priest's Staff. At the same time, he began to think about the clue he got from Zhuge An.

He didn't mind telling the others about the clue.

Without sufficient information, the other trainees would only be dumbfounded. Even Zong Jiu combined the plot and guesses. After a lot of guesses, he finally figured everything out with Zhuge An's help.

The clue Zong Jiu got for free was quite complete.

Zhuge An said that the integer between three and four was just a metaphor. Its real solution represented the key to freely travel between alternate and normal dimensions.

As the name implied, this key could not be explained from a pure mathematical point of view.

The x-axis and y-axis formed a two-dimensional world.

The x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis formed a three-dimensional world.

The four-dimensional world was a spatial concept that existed in human physics.

Zhuge An learned from the mental hospital's library that the four-dimensional space-time here was not a four-dimensional space-time in a broad sense. Instead, it was a space-time conjecture proposed by Minkowski in 6452 using non-European space. It was to add a space-time line on the basis of the x-axis and z-axis to form a narrow four-dimensional concept.

Humans on Earth lived in a three-dimensional world.

People in the three-dimensional world looked down on the two-dimensional world, and people in the four-dimensional world looked down on the three-dimensional world.

For example, the gods in human imagination were likely to be existences in a higher dimension.

But in reality, dimensions could not be surpassed, and there was no way to surpass them.

But in the horror dungeon, anything was possible.

This dungeon gave them a way to move from the three-dimensional world to the four-dimensional world. As long as they got the key between three and four, they could travel between different times in this space.

Zhuge An told him that the alternate dimension was actually the mental hospital's space 85 years ago.

In the past, the military base of this dungeon was dedicated to researching space-time travel during wartime. But in the end, an accident happened in the middle of the research. The confusion of dimensions caused the base 85 years ago to be separated. All the researchers in the base became prisoners of time, wandering in the alternate dimension with no way out.

Many years later, in the mental hospital built on the original site, there was still a broken path to the alternate dimension.

The main system had already given them enough hints.

The main mission was "Survive in this dungeon for three days."

In fact, according to Zhuge An's inference, as long as the clock struck midnight on the third day, all the patients in the mental hospital would be instantly dragged into the alternate dimension. It was equivalent to throwing fat meat into a cage to hold a beast.

The key originally had the power to travel through space-time. As long as they got the key and adjusted the time a few days later, they would be able to complete the dungeon perfectly. If they foolishly followed the main mission and dragged it to the third day, only death would await the trainees.

On the first night, when everyone was sleeping, Zhuge An was taking a night stroll with the eight trigrams plate.

On the second day, when Messiah and the others were still bitterly searching for the next clue, Zhuge An had already figured out the dungeon's core.

Zong Jiu knew the password "pnpso" and knew that the password was the Virginia code. In addition to Zhuge An's hints, it was obvious what the key was.

Just like an exam, while others were scratching their heads to solve the problem, Zong Jiu had already copied the correct answer from the prodigy.

Zong Jiu felt from the bottom of his heart that he should applaud Zhuge An, so he took the blame for him as a gift.

If he wanted to, he could also read out the key and effortlessly become the second person to clear the dungeon. There was no need to follow Messiah and the others to explore the second level of the basement.

But he guessed that Zhuge An probably did not take the S-grade item in this dungeon. At the time, Zhuge An had obviously left in a hurry, and the reason for his hurry was most likely related to the "prophecy" he mentioned.

Zong Jiu did not care what the prophecy was. He did not believe it anyway.

What he cared about was how to complete more dangerous challenges, get more survival points, and see if he could steal the S-grade item. It would be a waste not to take it.

Before he got the key, Zong Jiu was already so reckless. Now that he had the key, what would happen?!

Of course, it was fake!

Let's go! What fated enemy? Did Zong Jiu care about him?!

If you don't seek death, you will die! If you don't like excitement, what kind of man is he?! If you don't even dare to challenge dangerous situations, what kind of Magician is he?!

Find the mole, earn survival points, and fight the workers!

The group stood at the entrance of the staircase on the first floor of the basement.

It was as dark as always, and they could not see the path clearly. Even the stairs could barely be seen under the light.

"Your Excellency, I got the lamp!"

Just as everyone was waiting, He Jianlan hurried over from the other end of the corridor, holding a lamp in his hand.

Zong Jiu took a closer look and realized that it was the lamp that the head nurse carried when she led the nurses on ward rounds. On the first day, Zong Jiu saw her carry the lamp to the second floor of the basement. He Jianlan was able to get it now, so he must have used some unknown method to steal it.

"It's good that you got it."

The blond Saint let out a long sigh of relief and lifted the wooden staff from the newcomer's shoulder. The newcomer felt a warm current on his body, and a golden mark appeared on the back of his hand.

"This blessing is a one-time use shield that can block one attack."

Messiah rubbed her temples tiredly. "We don't have much time left, let's go."

After inexplicably walking forward for ten hours, the flow of time had obviously become abnormal.

They had made up their minds not to return to the ward. After ward rounds, it would be considered a night tour. Normally, no matter how much they wandered around the mental hospital, they could not see a single person. At night, the medical staff's patrols became more intense, and if they were caught, they would die.

Everyone looked at the dark staircase on the second floor of the basement and took a deep breath.

"I'll take the lead," Qin Ye said.

He raised his hand and clenched it. Everyone was shocked to see that the tips of his fingernails were dyed a deep black, and his hair had turned a cement grey. This arm had completed the transformation from a human to a beast.

The werewolf's blessing could turn the blessed human body into a werewolf. It was also Qin Ye's trump card.

The others quickly found their positions.

As the healer, Messiah was firmly protected in the center. On her left was the psychic medium Meng Tianlu, and on her right was He Jianlan who was holding the noose.

Zong Jiu and Sheng Yu were at the edge of the group, and their positions were not considered to be at the back.

The other trainees who planned to stay in the ward on the first floor of the basement were also watching them. They planned to follow them to the corner of the stairs before returning.

At this moment, a series of footsteps suddenly came from the stairs.

A sharp and cold female voice came from above. "Well, not only did you steal the hospital's lights, but you also gathered to go on a night tour?"

The trainees raised their heads in shock.

At that moment, the hour hand that was not yet 66 o 'clock moved forward again and stopped at 67 o' clock.

Cold and fear crept up their backs like a tide.

It was not the second day, but the third day!

It was the third day that was like hell, the beginning of the ultimate horror!

[F * ck!! I'm scared to death!!]

[Oh my God, this head nurse's face is as pale as a ghost. My soul almost flew out of my body when I saw her.]

[F * ck, time sped up again. It's already the third day. It's over, it's over. Why haven't they found any clues yet? I'm so anxious. If this continues, I think we'll all be wiped out.]

In such a situation, no one cared about the formation anymore. Everyone was so scared that they ran away.

A few of them ran back to the ward on the first floor of the basement in fright. As soon as they rushed in, they heard the sound of the door being locked.

The psychiatric hospital locked its doors at night. Once it was past the time for ward rounds and the nurse locked the door, they would not be able to leave the ward for the entire night.

Jiang Yuan angrily hammered the door. "Let me out!"

However, the face of the nurse outside the door only smiled sinisterly. She threw the key into her mouth and swallowed it in one gulp.

Her wide open mouth was less than an inch away from the glass door. It was as if she was teasing her prey and was about to break through the window in the next second.

It was not a human mouth at all. It was a bloody mouth full of fangs and covered in thick, scarlet blood.

Jiang Yuan was so scared that she took two steps back. She took out her special tool from her Backpack as fast as she could and stuck a cinnabar talisman on the glass door.

"Rustle —"

The moment the cinnabar talisman was stuck to the door, a fire burst out from the corner and began to spontaneously combust.

The spontaneous combustion of the cinnabar talisman meant that the thing outside was definitely not a kind person, but some kind of existence with extremely strong Yin energy.

This talisman was a one-time use tool. Jiang Yuan did not have many of them, so he had been using them sparingly.

However, he did not feel distressed. Nothing was more important than his life.

Jiang Yuan watched as the face outside the glass door was scalded and peeled off. He felt a surge of pleasure in his heart.

"F * ck, this ghost woman!"

His back was almost soaked in cold sweat. When he came back to his senses, he realized that his legs were weak and he could not stand up at all.

After half a minute, Jiang Yuan got up from the ground again.

The lights on the first floor of the basement were dim. The visibility in the corridor outside was limited. He could not see anything at all. It was as quiet as a tomb.

The nurse had locked the door just now, which meant that Jiang Yuan could only stay in the ward alone for the night.

He withdrew his gaze warily and looked back again.

The ward was also dark.

Jiang Yuan's back was against the wall. He was constantly paying attention to the wind and the grass nearby.

Logically speaking, after burning a talisman, the existence with strong Yin energy would not take the initiative to approach the ward for a certain period of time.

However, Jiang Yuan still remembered that this was a dungeon with a difficulty close to an S-level.

The higher the difficulty level, the less safe this period of time was. Although he was only a C-level, he was also an experienced survivor. He would not fail in such small details.

Therefore, Jiang Yuan continued to pay attention to the surrounding movements. His left hand took out his last talisman from his backpack and his right hand groped for the light switch on the wall.

In the darkness, he felt another extremely cold hand on the switch.

####

There were few people like Jiang Yuan who turned around and ran back to the first floor of the basement.

More people followed the large group and rushed into the stairwell of the second floor without looking back.

"Thump, thump, thump —"

The iron plates on the stairs were stepped on by them. The sound echoed throughout the dark stairwell. It was impossible to tell where was where.

Under the dim illumination of the oil lamp, the darkness of the second floor of the basement was shakily pushed away.

The rusted iron plates, the peeling walls, the damp and moldy corners dripping with water, and the gaps filled with moss.

On both sides of the corridor was a row of endless rooms. At first glance, it looked no different from the first floor of the basement except that the doors were much more dilapidated. If there was a difference, it might be the corpse lying on the ground in a pool of dried blood that was torn beyond recognition.

In the midst of the chaos, the swaying oil lamp was knocked over by someone and fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.

Suddenly, the whole scene fell into a pitch-black darkness again. It was a terrible coincidence.

Messiah made a prompt decision: "Split up and run. Don't get caught!"

In the darkness, no one knew who was who. You bump into me, I push you, and you stumble to find a place to hide.

In order not to get caught, everyone started to run.

Compared to the others, Zong Jiu, who had the key to pass the level, was very relaxed. Not only did he have the energy to turn left and right to shake off Sheng Yu, he also calmly picked a room and went in. He crouched behind the door and looked at the situation outside.

After about ten seconds, the footsteps gradually stopped.

Instead, it was the strange dragging sound that Zong Jiu and Zhuge An heard in the toilet that day.

They had been transferred to another dimension, transferred to this place of exile that was forever fixed in the past thirty years.

The darkness surged in like a tide. The dragging sound rubbed against the uneven cement floor and rang out in the broken corridor outside.

Most of the trainees had hidden, and the corridor returned to silence.

Occasionally, the footsteps would stop. Usually, a different sound would be heard in the next moment.

Every different sound was evidence that a person had been found.

The sound of a head being chopped off and rolling to the ground, a short and painful scream, and the loud sound of fresh blood spurting out.

Listening to the sounds outside, it seemed that there were old people huddling together to break through the encirclement and rush upstairs.

Only Zong Jiu was calmly crouched by the door, happy to watch the show.

He thought that he should know who the remaining mole was.

In the first two days of the mental hospital, only the people who were alone would be dragged into the other dimension and realize the root of this dimension. Under these circumstances, if everyone had gathered together to explore the second floor of the basement, it would not have been a bad idea. It would have been a way to solve the problem.

Unfortunately, everyone, under the leadership of that person, chose to stick together until the last day. Because of that, they missed the biggest piece of information. That was why they had to wait until the last day, when it was clearly the most dangerous time to go downstairs.

Not to mention, under the intentional or unintentional hints, they missed out on who knew how many key clues.

From the beginning, they had given everyone a clear path to walk down the "wrong" path, misleading and vague information, using their own prestige and trust to play everyone in the palm of their hands.

Just how brilliant was that person? He was so brilliant that he didn't even make a move directly. With just a few words, he made everyone beg for mercy and be deeply grateful.

How interesting. In reality, he was the manipulator in the dark, fooling everyone.

The person who seemed the least likely, the person that no one suspected, was the most suspicious person.

If Zong Jiu was the Messiah, he would be laughing in his heart.

Look, these people are so stupid, so pitiful that it makes people laugh.

"Dong, dong, dong."

The footsteps in the corridor were getting closer. It seemed to be only a few steps away from Zong Jiu's dormitory. Every step was like a vibration in the heart.

The white-haired young man squatted on the ground and stretched very leisurely.

The random mission was completed. After coming to the second floor of the basement, he had also completed a few dangerous challenges. It was time for him to leave.

Just as he yawned and was about to read the key —

His raised wrist suddenly touched a cold and hard watch.

Zong Jiu suddenly raised his head and looked at the pair of eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses that were filled with interest.

"Wow, look what I've caught!"

The man's voice was low, like boiling milk melting into thick Darjeeling tea. It was fragrant and full of eeriness.

"Hmm? A disobedient kitten that violated the rules and roamed at night? "

Zong Jiu felt a tingling pain in his neck. The choking smell of disinfectant enveloped his body.

He did not expect that before he entered the narrow room, the doctor in the white coat had already been standing there, waiting for him.

The white-haired young man tried to open his eyes, but he could only see blurrier and blurrier.

Before he fainted, his last thought was —

F * ck. I'm screwed.