Chapter 78: Asylum No. 02 (2)

Everyone got off the bus, and the gusts of wind carrying a biting chill swept over them, making them shiver instinctively.

An old, run-down building was enclosed by a cement wall with no paint on it at all, looking extremely rough. A rusty iron gate blocked their view, yet it still stood there, unmoving.

Around the asylum were patches of overgrown grass, nearly a meter tall, as if this place had been abandoned for more than ten years.

Because the fog was far too thick, they could only see part of the hospital and nothing beyond that.

At that moment, everyone’s invitation card suddenly emitted a gloomy light. Then, in the blink of an eye, each one transformed into an old, battered key, streaked with dried blood. Every key had a clear number stamped on it.

“This is…” Rover frowned and muttered.

Jonathan spoke up. “Standing around here won’t solve anything. Let’s go inside. Don’t worry, we’ll still be safe until the mission starts.”

As he spoke, he walked to the front gate and put his strength into pushing the heavy iron door open.

KRIT!!!

The screech of metal grinding against metal rang out, and in this oppressive, silent atmosphere, that sound became even more horrifying.

The gate opened, revealing a stone-paved path, though grass had forced its way up everywhere through the cracks between the stones.

On both sides of the path was nothing but fog, like walls blocking them from entering those areas.

“Just like in a game.” A man suddenly spoke up.

Rover glanced at him and asked softly, “You are…?”

The man seemed friendly as well and smiled. “Just call me John.”

“John, what do you mean by that?” Rover asked quietly.

John smiled. “In video games, even in so-called ’Open World’ titles, there are still areas the devs won’t let players enter. They’ll put up invisible walls or barriers so you can’t go there.”

“Look at the fog walls on both sides. It’s like a forbidden zone that’s been set up. Meaning whoever created this place only wants us moving within the area they designated, and won’t allow us to go anywhere else.”

“Or it could be… to enter the areas covered by fog, we’d have to complete some hidden mission first.”

Everyone nodded slightly. What John said sounded very reasonable. It was just that… who could create places like this? A god?

Countless questions surfaced in their minds. Of course, none of those questions had answers.

They walked into the asylum, and then a sheet of fog suddenly surged up and sealed off the entrance completely.

Seeing that, Jonathan frowned. “Looks like… if we can’t complete the mission, we’ll be trapped here forever, or…”

He suddenly swept his gaze over everyone, his smile turning a little unhinged. “Or… everyone dies.”

“Quit trying to scare people.” Nick suddenly spoke. “Even if you die, I still won’t.”

Jonathan nodded, then led the way, bringing everyone into the main hall of the asylum.

This place was like an old-style castle that had been renovated. The outside was archaic, but the inside felt somewhat modern. However, that “modern” vibe seemed to stop at somewhere around the 1970s.

Yes. Everything, from the furniture to the equipment to the layout of the main hall, looked like a hospital from the 1970s.

The strange part was… even though everything was in disarray, there wasn’t any dust, as if they were the ones who had traveled backward into the past.

“ZZ… ZZ.”

Suddenly, from the broadcast speaker high above, a shrill ’zz’ crackled out, making everyone cover their ears.

“What the hell is that?”

“Damn it! What kind of freaky noise is that speaker blasting?”

Luckily, the noise only lasted a few seconds before it cut out. Then a mechanical voice came from the old broadcast speaker.

[Welcome to Asylum No. 02. This is a place that listens to humanity’s howls and mad laughter.]

[In your hands are ward keys. Each of you may claim one room. However, each room can hold a maximum of two people.]

[You may defend your rooms, upgrade your doors and defense towers. During rest periods, you may explore to gather more information about this hospital.]

[As long as you hold out until sunrise, the mission will end. The system will score you based on your performance.]

[Note: This mission will use a separate in-mission currency, and there will be side quests during rest periods.]

[The mission will begin in: 30 minutes.]

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The moment that mechanical voice ended, three doors leading to three different corridors suddenly swung open.

Everyone looked at each other for a while. No one spoke. Their eyes were filled with questions, as if a thousand thoughts were stuck in their throats.

CLAP!

Suddenly, Jonathan clapped his hands and said softly, “Good. We have twelve people total, so split into three teams, four people per team. Even though one room can hold at most two people, I hope each person claims a room. That way, the pressure is evenly spread.”

“I’ll take the people I’m closest to. The rest of you can choose freely. As for which door we take, we’ll flip a coin, since we don’t know the layout or where those doors lead.”

“So we’ll use this.”

Jonathan took out a coin, tossed it up, then caught it cleanly in his palm. He grinned. “Heads or tails?”

Nick glanced at everyone. Rover did too, but Rover spoke first. “Heads!”

Jonathan glanced at Nick and John. At that moment, John raised both hands in a surrender gesture and laughed. “I don’t really care. If you’re short a slot, I can join.”

Nick spoke up. “Tails!”

Jonathan opened his hand. Heads.

Rover had the skill [Intuition]. Guessing which side the coin would land on was ridiculously easy for him.

“You pick first,” Jonathan said with a smile.

Rover nodded slightly, his gaze landing on the three doors. One to the right, one to the left, and the last one leading toward the back.

At this moment, [Intuition] was running at full throttle. Rover could feel that the right-hand door and the middle one made him deeply uneasy, like they were the entrance to hell.

The left corridor also made him uneasy, but it was more like… something very good was waiting for him there.

Rover pointed at the left corridor and said softly, “I’ll take that one. I’m bringing Nanoe, Morie, and Leng Yan.”

Throughout the entire process, the three women stayed silent and followed Rover’s decision. No one voiced any objections.

Before entering the mission, Leng Yan had also said that during this mission, she would obey his orders completely.

So Rover’s team could be said to be tightly united. There wouldn’t be anyone betraying them or causing trouble within the group.

Nick glanced at the right corridor, pointed at it, and said, “Then I’ll take this direction. Me, Laura, John, and that girl.”

The four members of Nick’s team started moving. That left only the final corridor, and Jonathan led his own people toward it.

Time was too tight. There was no way they could search around here for additional clues.

Rover led Leng Yan, Nanoe, and Morie into the left corridor.

Once they passed through, the door immediately shut behind them. Rover frowned. “Looks like… we can’t move to other areas.”

Morie sat in her wheelchair and said softly, “Rover, we don’t have to stay together. One room per person. That way, the pressure gets spread out.”

Rover nodded, then looked at Morie with concern. “Morie, will you be okay on your own?”

Hearing Rover’s concern, warmth rose in Morie’s chest. She smiled. “It’s fine. In the first round, I was alone too, and I still made it through. Besides, I still have a lot of support items in my backpack. Defending will be easy. If I can’t hold, I’ll contact everyone.”

Rover nodded, then led them around the corner of the corridor. After that, Rover frowned when he saw the scene ahead.

“This place… is it really an asylum?”

In front of him was a short corridor, about twenty meters long and more than five meters wide, with two rooms on each side arranged in a zigzag pattern.

The floor was a disaster. The ceramic tiles were cracked and broken. Fresh, wet blood was splattered everywhere. There were even syringes, IV tubing, torn scraps of cloth, and even… fragments of chain on the ground.

The chaos was so extreme that Rover couldn’t imagine whether this was an asylum at all, or some place meant to torture the most vicious criminals.

Morie shivered, fear rising. Her hand quickly tightened around Rover’s. To her, Rover was the strongest wall she could lean on.

Rover took a deep breath, taking in the stench of blood and a thick, rotten odor in the air, mixed with the sharp bite of disinfectant that stabbed into his nose.

At that moment, Leng Yan spotted something and frowned. “That… is that the map?”

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