Eldritch Horror Theatre

How unpredictable and bizarre!

Looking at the finely crafted Work Badge at his feet, Fu Qian shook his head silently.

She had been a sharp, capable police officer, yet in the blink of an eye, she had turned into his colleague.

It seemed the current abnormality was likely even worse than she had described!

Setting aside the unreliable theory that she was just working a second job, the scene just now seemed to suggest one possibility—Kelly was fundamentally no different from the others.

And the safe zone she spoke of might not even exist.

Even her identity as a police officer could be something she had imagined herself.

According to her, those infected after the virus leak would have their cognition distorted, losing the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy.

She had only rescued him because she didn't want him to disturb the people in the office and trigger a bloodbath.

Everyone he had encountered so far, for instance, was relying entirely on various delusions just to maintain a superficial order.

Perhaps due to some obsession, Kelly had thought of herself as a police officer after her cognition became distorted. She had even found herself a full set of gear and fabricated a whole backstory in her mind.

If that were true, this place was a massive, inescapable powder keg. A contradiction anywhere would spark a disaster.

Such as right now.

Fu Qian recalled the old man who had charged out earlier.

Judging from his appearance, he was essentially a dying man.

And as everyone knew, nothing provoked the human mind quite like death.

So, could the reason for his madness be that the fear of death contradicted his instinctive delusions, thereby triggering his mutation?

And the reason Kelly had suddenly become so obstinate just now was exactly the same.

Everything before her had begun to exceed her comprehension. Under the intense shock, she could no longer maintain her established cognition.

As of now, this was the most reasonable explanation.

Then again, it was impressive that she had managed to get her hands on a real gun. If he remembered correctly, firearms were strictly controlled in this world.

Of course, now wasn't the time to be curious about such things. Fu Qian looked up and surveyed his surroundings.

In just a few breaths since the two of them died, the surroundings had warped into a hellscape.

The outpatient building that had been bright and pristine just moments ago now resembled a scene straight out of a horror movie. Battered by the torrential rain, it was a picture of utter ruin.

[Current task updated: Confirm One's Own Condition]

Right then, a new task prompt finally rang out in his mind, but its content... was truly hard to put into words.

What the fuck...

In his silence, Fu Qian once again felt the sheer bizarre nature of this task.

No matter how you looked at it, based on the previous string of events, shouldn't the normal progression be for him to run for his life?

What the hell did Confirm One's Own Condition mean?

Leaving aside the fact that he seemed perfectly fine, even though this place was indeed a hospital, the chances of being able to register to see a doctor were slim to none!

Standing in the torrential rain, Fu Qian looked at the surrounding ruins, lost in thought.

An abandoned hospital, no doctors, Confirm One's Own Condition... The next moment, Fu Qian thought of something and quickly walked to the side.

Along the main path into the hospital grounds stood a rust-mottled directory sign.

Fu Qian drew close under his umbrella, carefully reading its contents.

It was a map of the hospital grounds.

Although it was stained and damaged in many places, Fu Qian still managed to locate the administration building on it.

There were no doctors now, but that didn't mean there hadn't been any before.

This was Fu Qian's train of thought.

Assuming he was truly a patient in this ruined world, could he have come here for treatment before? Or even been hospitalized?

And if that were the case, Fu Qian knew there was one place where past records could be checked—the medical records room.

Looking at the map, the administration building was right behind the outpatient building, and the two were connected.

He peered into the distance. A moment later, Fu Qian made a move that could only be called insane.

He didn't walk along the path; instead, he walked straight toward the massive hole that had been smashed open.

The reason he did this wasn't that he was intentionally seeking thrills.

The changes in the scene before him were truly bizarre, and Fu Qian vaguely remembered that when the old man charged out earlier, waves of wailing had echoed from inside.

Yet after standing here for so long, there was no longer a single sound coming from inside the building.

Combined with the changes in the two people just now, there was reason to suspect that the people inside had suffered the same fate.

With the torrential rain outside, visibility was abysmal. Rather than creeping along the open road and risking being targeted by dangers lurking inside the building—putting him at a severe disadvantage when entering from the light into the dark—it was better to walk directly through the interior.

...

Inside the outpatient building, it was equally gloomy and dilapidated everywhere.

The only comforting point was that the air wasn't as foul as imagined; instead, it was rather refreshing.

After confirming there was nothing moving in his line of sight, Fu Qian walked briskly, using the continuous flashes of lightning to observe his surroundings.

About ten minutes later, he arrived at the passage leading to the administration building.

The lock on the connecting corridor had completely rotted away, and Fu Qian broke it without much effort.

But the moment he pushed the door open, Fu Qian had a faint illusion that a strange scent had permeated the air.

"This should be the place."

Quickly finding the floor plan, Fu Qian immediately locked onto the location of the medical records room.

Luckily, the medical records room happened to be located on the side of the first floor.

Fu Qian groped his way forward in the gloom. However, in the near-absolute silence, no matter how carefully he moved, his footsteps were quite obvious.

And finally, in a corner of the administration building, Fu Qian found the objective of his trip.

The door to the medical records room was actually open. Fu Qian pushed it open slowly, using the flashing lightning to confirm there were no living creatures inside.

Fu Qian didn't hesitate, feeling his way straight to the shelves holding the medical files.

The file shelves looked thoroughly rotted, and a section had even collapsed.

Fortunately, despite the heavy rain, it was daytime after all. Using the faint light, Fu Qian quickly sifted through the materials that still looked relatively intact.

And the first thing he looked for were the psychiatric files.

Given the current bizarre circumstances, after confirming that his body didn't have any obvious physical issues, his first suspicion naturally fell on his mental state.

Fortunately, the stored medical files for the psychiatric department seemed quite complete.

Fu Qian's efficiency in reviewing the materials was quite high. He checked backward from the most recent records. After flipping through dozens of them, he finally saw his own name on a medical file.

It really was here!

Fu Qian pulled out the medical file.

Although he had found what he was looking for, he had to admit that this world was getting more and more bizarre!

Fu Qian gently tapped the medical file in his hand. According to the task requirements, he just needed to open it and confirm his condition.

But...

At the very last second, right as Fu Qian was about to open it, he suddenly stopped.

It wasn't because he was afraid of finding out he had a screw loose, but because he had suddenly realized something.

He remembered what scent he had smelled when he first entered the administration building.

It was the aroma of coffee!

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