Chapter 82: Team-type?

Crack! Crack!

Suddenly, sounds like bones snapping echoed out. He frowned and looked around. Relying on the meager light, he could clearly see dark silhouettes moving stiffly toward him like puppets.

Rover wasn’t afraid, because [Intuition] told him those monsters weren’t even a quarter as dangerous as the one from earlier.

He took out the [Survival Guide]. A few new lines of text had appeared on it.

[In the darkness, light is the only thing that can help you reach the place you need to go. Don’t try to kill the monsters; avoid them as much as possible, search for and piece together the information in this place, and you will obtain the correct answer.]

“Avoid those monsters as much as possible?” Rover muttered.

WHOONG!

All of a sudden, right then, the [Eye of Truth] fired a beam, sweeping across the entire space.

The light flashed for only a second before vanishing, leaving behind a scorched smell and a few tiny sparks, but they quickly disappeared as well.

[Ding! Congratulations, you have successfully eliminated 17 Nameless monsters and obtained 170 Omni Points.]

Rover: “…”

His face went blank, as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened. He glanced at the [Survival Guide], then at the [Eye of Truth], and said softly, “I don’t need to avoid them, I guess… that’s still fine, right?”

If the [Survival Guide] were a person, it probably would’ve dug a hole and crawled into it.

Way too embarrassing.

At that moment, Rover also realized he didn’t need to worry about safety at all. He even felt this place wasn’t as dangerous as he’d thought, more like a “haunted house” in an amusement park.

Besides… killing monsters gave even more Omni Points than when he [Reclaimed] zombie corpses. He didn’t know why he was getting Omni Points for killing monsters here, but… who cared? As long as he got Omni Points, that was enough.

He looked around and shouted, “Hey, monsters! Where are you? There’s a living person right here!”

System: “…”

Monsters: “…”

After Rover’s voice tore through the lobby’s silence, everything fell quiet again. His voice was like a stone tossed into a pond, raising a few ripples before the water went still once more.

“Tch!” Rover clicked his tongue, clearly disappointed. If another horde showed up, maybe he could keep upgrading the [Eye of Truth].

He headed to the reception desk in the lobby. Staring at the computer in front of him, he frowned, as if searching for something.

“Strange, there’s no info panel for this computer?” Rover muttered.

That’s right. This old computer didn’t seem to have an info panel, which meant he couldn’t upgrade or Repair it.

Rover didn’t give up. He continued searching around the reception counter. After pulling open a few drawers, he found a letter still sealed with a wax stamp.

On the wax stamp was a circle, and in the center was a pair of wings, identical to the symbol on his key.

Rover frowned and peeled the wax seal away. At that moment…

Whoosh!

A sudden gale appeared, blasting dust into the air. A damp, moldy stench hit his nose, making him feel sick to his stomach.

Cough! Cough!

Rover coughed a few times, covering his nose with his hand as he scanned the area. He didn’t think this was just a coincidence.

He had only just broken the seal on the envelope when that strange wind appeared. He thought to himself, ’Did I just trigger something special?’

Rover remembered what John had said. If this mission was like a game, then there were definitely many secrets scattered around, waiting for the participants to trigger them.

After activating and piecing them all together, the solution to the mission would be revealed.

Rover shook his head. Not seeing anything strange, and with no warning from [Intuition], he felt reassured.

He opened the envelope. Inside was a sheet of paper and a circular bronze badge. The pattern on the badge was exactly the same as the wax stamp he had just removed.

Rover frowned and unfolded the letter. Perhaps because too much time had passed, the ink had smeared, leaving only a few words he could still make out.

’Research, humanity, test subjects, god, prayer…’ Rover murmured the words he’d managed to read in his head.

In the end, he laughed and said…

“I don’t understand a damn thing!” Rover said as he tossed the letter and the badge into his infinite storage space.

Even if he didn’t understand what the letter was talking about… didn’t he just need to get to the church and everything would become clear? Why waste time and brain cells trying to solve puzzles?

Rover shrugged, then glanced at the two corridors, one in the middle, the other on the right. After thinking for a moment, he decided to enter the middle corridor.

….

Somewhere else.

“Why are we on the first floor?”

Nanoe frowned as she looked at Jonathan and Laura, her face full of confusion.

“I don’t know either.” Jonathan shrugged.

Laura frowned. “I don’t think this is an illusion. The system’s functions are still working, it’s just that our abilities have been locked.”

Jonathan nodded. “Looks like… this is a team-type mission.”

“Hm?!” Nanoe asked, puzzled. “Team-type? Didn’t this mission require the full number of members to activate?”

At first, she had also heard Rover say this mission needed 12 people to activate.

Jonathan shook his head. “Team missions are a fairly difficult type. I’ve only heard high-level Survivors talk about them. I’ve never personally encountered one.”

“A team mission is the kind where some people stay in place to defend their rooms, while the others search for information or find a way to complete the mission.”

Nanoe frowned. “So both sides play some role in completing the mission?”

“That’s right!” Jonathan said. “The room defenders hold the souls of their companions. If a room is breached, then both the defender and the companion’s soul will be destroyed.”

“But if the ones responsible for searching for information go too long without any gains, it can also lead to failure, because the monsters will grow stronger over time and wave by wave.”

Laura rubbed her chin. “So… you mean we need to find clues quickly to complete this mission, and the ones holding our souls also have to do their best to defend their rooms, right?”

Jonathan nodded. “The rules might not be exactly the same, but it’s basically that. I think we’re the ones assigned to search for information and decode this mission.”

Nanoe frowned. “Strange. We don’t know anything about this mission. So where do we even start?”

At that moment, Laura raised a sheet of paper and said softly, “This is what I found while checking the corridor. It says this place isn’t just an ordinary mental hospital, it’s also a place where experiments were performed on human bodies without the media finding out.”

“The main laboratory is underneath the church. I think our final destination is the church. It’s just… I don’t know what route leads to the church.”

Nanoe and Jonathan fell into thought.

Jonathan frowned. “Standing here thinking isn’t going to solve anything. We should look around and see if there are more clues or any way to reach the church.”

Nanoe and Laura both nodded, but Nanoe thought of something and immediately asked, “If this is the first floor, then we need to find a way down to the ground floor, right?”

“Not necessarily.” Jonathan said. “Earlier, I saw a map, and I memorized it. The route to the church requires going up to the fourth floor, then using a connecting passage from the fourth floor to the doctors’ building, and only then, using that building’s corridor, can we reach the church.”

Nanoe sighed. That meant this journey would be long, with many dangers.

“Wait! Do you see that?” Laura frowned, pointing into the distance.

Nanoe and Jonathan looked where Laura was pointing, confused at first, then they flinched when they saw what was standing at the end of the corridor.

The yellow lamp above the creature’s head flickered repeatedly, but it was enough for them to see it was humanoid, yet its body was so gaunt it looked like nothing but skin stretched over bone.

Its body was wrapped in countless strips of gauze, as if fixing its joints in place.

It stood in an unnatural posture, tilted slightly to one side, its legs uneven in length. On its head were several tentacles like tree roots, writhing slowly.

All three of them shuddered, goosebumps rising as a chill ran down their spines.

“Oh… ah… oh…”

From the creature’s mouth came a moaning sound, like someone enduring unbearable pain.

Jonathan frowned. “Do you two know what the hell that is?”

“How would I know?” Laura gritted out, fear flooding her chest.

If her ability were still active, she wouldn’t be this scared. But her ability was locked right now, leaving her with only a bit of physical strength and spirit.

“Ah… oh… oh…”

Rumble!

The corridor lights in front of them suddenly went out. They jerked back instinctively, but then, that eerie sound rang out from behind them.

“Oh… oh… uh…”

All three of them shivered, their bodies trembling uncontrollably. Jonathan forced up his courage and slowly turned his head, but in the next instant…

“AGH!!!”

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