A Survival Game Where You Have to Fall in Love with a Madman - Chapter 4

A bone-chilling creak echoed under the grinding pressure of the combat boot on You Yan’s wrist. The exact instant the scalpel slipped from his grip, He Yanqing’s cleaver swung, slicing cleanly through the lunging monster.

Pungent, foul blood sprayed across You Yan’s face, leaving a bizarre hint of sweetness amidst the metallic tang of rust.

“Twenty-seven seconds,” He Yanqing remarked, flinging the shredded flesh off his blade. Blood dripped steadily from his moonlight-blue hair. “You’re shaking like a total rookie.”

More rustling sounds echoed from outside the storage room.

You Yan wiped his face, reaching into the surgical table drawer to pull out a backup blade. “They can regenerate.” He pointed at the quivering chunks of flesh on the floor; the severed limbs were actively reconnecting their nerves at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He Yanqing’s pupils contracted. Without a word, he grabbed You Yan and dragged him into a nearby refrigeration unit.

The heavy iron door slammed shut behind them with a resounding crash as dozens of skeletal claws scraped violently against the metal exterior, emitting an ear-splitting screech.

“Hey, theoretician,” He Yanqing’s breath fanned against the back of You Yan’s ear. “Care to explain what the hell these things are?”

You Yan felt along the metal wall until his fingers brushed past the temperature controller. “Minus twenty degrees.” The faint glow of the LCD screen illuminated his deathly pale special effects makeup. “Three minutes ago, I noticed that wounds splattered with that artificial plasma healed at an accelerated rate.”

From outside the freezer, an unsettling, sickening chewing sound echoed inward.

He Yanqing used the tip of his blade to flip up You Yan’s ID badge. “A medical intern? No wonder you’re so familiar with corpses.”

“It’s just special effects makeup,” You Yan replied, swatting the badge away. Suddenly, he froze. Deep within the recesses of the cold storage unit, over a dozen body bags were piled on top of one another. Through the gaps of the half-open zippers, patches of bruised, purplish skin were exposed.

The bag at the very bottom was actively leaking fresh blood. The date stamped on it was unmistakably today.

The dim lights overhead began to flash violently. He Yanqing’s blade immediately pressed against You Yan’s throat. “Do you people use actual human organs as props?”

“This was part of the escape room’s upgrade protocol…” You Yan’s voice died instantly.

He recognized the hospital labels affixed to the body bags all too well it was the exact same private facility where his mother had spent her final days.

The moment the strobe effect ceased, the temperature inside the unit plummeted drastically. White frost rapidly crystallized over You Yan’s eyelashes. He watched as intricate, bizarre patterns materialized across the surface of He Yanqing’s blade, throbbing rhythmically like living blood vessels.

“Here it comes,” He Yanqing muttered, licking a bead of blood from his canine tooth. “On the count of three, run for the power distribution room.”

You Yan gripped his scalpel tightly. “How do you even know where the distribution room is?”

“Because…” He Yanqing’s smile contorted wildly within the erupting blasts of frigid air, “…I completely guessed, Mr. NPC.”

The refrigeration door was blown open with a violent explosion, unleashing a torrential waterfall of frozen flesh and ice shards.

He Yanqing’s cleaver carved a silver arc through the air, but You Yan’s hand moved as if guided by a phantom force, driving his scalpel straight toward the electrical distribution box. Amidst the violent crackle of electrical currents, You Yan witnessed an impossible sight, his own blade seemed to slice cleanly through ripples in the air itself. Simultaneously, the patterns on He Yanqing’s weapon flared with a brilliant crimson light, instantly reducing every monster that touched the electrical grid to charcoal and ash.

“A spatial folding blade?” He Yanqing arched an eyebrow. “You really aren’t an ordinary NPC.”

You Yan stared down at his trembling hand. The trajectory of that single strike had clearly bypassed all normal human limitations. The sparks erupting from the distribution box illuminated the bloody characters painted on the wall. The symbols he had initially dismissed as mere prop graffiti were now twisting and distorting in sync with the agonizing shrieks of the monsters.

“The game prompts just updated.” He Yanqing used the tip of his blade to lift a fallen, bite-marked notice board from the floor.

A mechanical voice broadcasted throughout the cold storage room:

【Boss Weakness: ■■■ (Redacted) | Recommended Inventory Item: A Lie】

【Player He Yanqing has unlocked the Hidden Achievement—The Beast Tamer】

【Reward Item: A Blood-Stained Stethoscope】

You Yan caught the bronze stethoscope as it fell through the air; the metal surface still retained a lingering warmth. The exact millisecond he pressed the earpiece against his chest the agonizing screams of hundreds of souls detonated inside his mind.

“Don’t listen!” He Yanqing slapped the stethoscope away, but it was already too late.

Blood-red veins flooded You Yan’s pupils. His scalpel sliced through the air in a flawless, straight line, instantly cleaving the core of the regenerating monster anomaly apart.

Watching the massive mountain of flesh collapse with a heavy thud, He Yanqing suddenly erupted into laughter. “So that’s how it is! A memory-contamination class talent. What a filthy yet beautiful gift.”

You Yan knelt in the pool of blood, dry-heaving violently as an influx of memories that did not belong to him surged through his brain: A figure clad in a white lab coat meticulously recording data before an operating table… an individual wearing an armband stamped with the number “7” injecting a dark mist into an IV bag… his mother tightly gripping his wrist on her deathbed, whispering, “Don’t trust the medical apparatus…”

“Welcome to the real world.” He Yanqing wiped away the moisture from the corner of You Yan’s eye with a blood-stained finger. “Now, tell me—what was the designation number you saw?”

You Yan raised his head, his bloodshot eyes reflecting the black ink etched beneath the stranger’s collar line the number “13” was actively weeping fresh blood.

A faint, shallow breath drifted in from outside the storage room. The two men locked eyes. He Yanqing raised a finger to his lips, making a silent gesture for discretion.

Leaning his back against the doorframe, he slowly and methodically turned the handle downward. The door glided open a fraction of an inch. Peering through the narrow gap, He Yanqing spotted a dark silhouette slumped against the corridor wall.

“Hey, theoretician. Want to guess what kind of entity is sitting out there?” He Yanqing cast a teasing glance back at You Yan, releasing his grip on the handle to let the door swing wide open, granting You Yan a clear line of sight.

A pungent stench of formalin laced with a sickly sweet odor of decay wafted through the opening, as if someone had forcibly crammed decomposing viscera straight down their nasal passages.

You Yan’s gaze locked onto the dark silhouette. With just a single look, he stepped out of the storage room without the slightest hesitation. He had encountered that silhouette before it was the woman with the number “7” tattooed on her wrist.

He Yanqing arched an eyebrow and followed closely behind him.

Sensing someone approaching, the woman instantly snapped into a state of high alert. One hand clamped down firmly over her wound as she cast a fierce, piercing glare down the hallway. “Who’s there?!”

As the two figures stepped into the light, she recognized the globally renowned Grandmaster, God He.

You Yan had already wiped away the remnants of his special effects makeup back in the storage unit, exposing his naturally pale, exquisite features. To the woman, he looked entirely unfamiliar, yet strangely nostalgic. However, the moment her eyes swept over You Yan’s capability assessment panel, she retracted her gaze with immediate indifference.

Her tensed muscles relaxed slightly. Her long, ink-black hair cascaded past her shoulder, pooling around her waist. A grotesque, penetrating wound in her abdomen was actively bleeding out, accompanied by a thick, black sludge that dripped onto the floor, writhing like a living organism as it scrambled to escape into the shadows.

“I can’t believe someone from the ‘Faceless Circle’ actually managed to get matched into a Rank-A instance.” The woman used the wall to support herself as she struggled to her feet. But the moment she took a proper look at You Yan’s face, she froze completely.

She lunged forward, grabbing You Yan by the wrist so hard her fingernails practically dug into his faint, blue veins. “Are you… Edgar von Klein’s Experimental Subject No. 47?!” Her blood-stained eyelashes trembled violently. “Inside the encrypted archives of the monster Director’s office…”

He Yanqing’s gaze dropped, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the woman’s hand clamping You Yan’s wrist. Realizing her breach of etiquette, the woman trembled and released her grip, taking a cautious step backward.

“My apologies,” she said, her voice strained with tension. “My name is Ciyu. I am an active player within the Main God instances. As you heard from the broadcast earlier, there are only three survivors left alive in this game. It seems the three of us are all that remains. The two who died were my teammates.”

She hesitated for a brief moment before continuing, “When we first entered this instance, we crossed paths with a bizarre, high-tier NPC who seemed to possess complete autonomous free will. He kept saying… that he was an escape room employee.”

“A high-tier NPC?” He Yanqing’s eyes curved into an amused smile as he glanced toward You Yan.

You Yan ignored his gaze entirely, refusing to spare him even a fraction of an eye contact.

Ciyu, completely oblivious to the dynamic between them, continued, “Yes. He was the one who handed us the key. My teammates and I managed to reach the Director’s office on the third floor, but the Director’s lingering obsession was simply too powerful. My companions unfortunately perished there. While I was fleeing for my life, I accidentally stumbled upon the encrypted files tucked inside the Director’s desk drawer. I saw this… gentleman’s photograph inside.”

Her eyes drifted back to You Yan, temporarily at a loss for how to address him. “…This gentleman’s face.”

You Yan kept one hand stuffed casually inside his pocket, his eyes scanning the corridor. The surface of the handrails was completely covered in grainy, tumor-like growths. He noted that every single door they passed had a dense cluster of wet hair wrapped around the handle; a slight twist of the lock would cause a yellowish-green pus to spray violently from the keyhole.

Ciyu watched You Yan’s retreating figure. After a moment of hesitation, she called out, “Excuse me, but how should I address you?”

“A high-tier NPC,” You Yan replied flatly. He used his scalpel to scrape away the viscous, yellowish-green fluid that had splattered onto his palm, exposing a swarm of microscopic, unidentified organisms squithing against his skin.

“What?” Ciyu blinked, watching with a dark expression as You Yan thoroughly shook the liquid off his hand, pulled a tissue from his lab coat pocket, and casually wiped his skin clean.