Players, Please Board the Train

For a moment, Ellison’s eyes looked dazed. With that brief pause in his thoughts, his mental state underwent a significant change. The sharp struggle from before became lacking in confidence, as if his beliefs were wavering.

After Xu Huo injected the ”syringe” into his arm, the light in his eyes gradually faded away.

Xu Huo sat down in front of him and picked up the notebook. ”Name?”

”Ellison Doug...”

*

The same scene was also playing out elsewhere in this building. Of course, the ”doctors” appearing before the ”patients” had different appearances. Some were based on the patients’ own imaginations, while others were illusions created by Xu Huo using the dungeon’s power.

In reality, this batch of people had been categorized when they entered the dungeon. The strongest group of high-level players and Captain Matt were directly assigned to the top floor. Bai Kou was there too, and the fact that the dungeon hadn’t been dismantled yet was largely thanks to her.

Other nobles like Ellison were also divided into several groups. Some were tougher nuts to crack, not so easily falling into illusions. Of course, this meant Xu Huo had to help them deepen the concepts of ”hospital” and ”patient.”

The first two game tasks were sequential. Players who lacked the ability to destroy the dungeon but were eager to find a way to clear it would naturally choose to go kill a doctor. Where could doctors be found? In the psychological treatment room, of course.

But the psychological treatment room was a trap. If players didn’t reach the preset range Xu Huo had established, they would only tire themselves out opening doors. Only after they had sufficiently adapted to the dungeon’s environment would a ”doctor” appear in the office.With this prerequisite, the abilities of the Red Wristband and Black Wristband wearers would be greatly weakened. Like Ellison, he arrogantly thought he couldn’t summon items, but in reality, he never even went through the process of calling forth an item—he only *thought* he was retrieving an item.

Once unable to use items or characteristics, a player’s psychological defenses would develop vulnerabilities. Of course, it might also incite a player’s rebellious spirit, leading them to judge this as a dungeon illusion.

But knowing one is deeply trapped in an illusion yet being powerless, with just a little guidance, would break through another layer of defense, plunging players into self-doubt.

It was like being the only sober person in a crowd of drunks. When you alone are clear-headed, but everyone around you treats you like a madman, even the most steadfast person would waver.

This, of course, was just the appetizer. Later came fantasy products from oneself or others. The more fantasy objects this hospital had, the more complete the dungeon would become. The imagined medical staff or certain monsters would approach physical reality within the players’ cognition.

By that time, players would sink deeper and deeper, and the hospital would become a genuine mental asylum.

For the Red Wristband and Black Wristband side, Xu Huo used inducement to draw them deeper into the dungeon. Of course, there were also some with stronger mental power, but that wasn’t too important anymore, because Xu Huo had also posted the doctor list in front of them. Just like with the White Wristbands, if they wanted to clear the dungeon, they had to kill a doctor.

Xu Huo methodically divided the Red and Black Wristbands. Feeling the timing was about right, he then connected some internal parts of the hospital, making it easier for the White Wristbands to find targets.

Some of the Red and Black Wristband wearers, being nobles, had systematically studied dungeon classifications and some dungeon precautions. Therefore, most of them exercised some restraint after learning this was a mental-type dungeon. But the White Wristband side was different; the White Wristbands were the main body of the fantasy.

Last night, after Xu Huo induced a few players with poor mental states, more and more players began joining the imagination brigade. Even before dawn, some White Wristbands had seen ”ghosts” with heads but no feet, faces but no eyes.

Additionally, there were mental patients wandering the hospital at night searching for prey, medical staff with mental issues who took pleasure in abusing patients, toilets that emitted crying sounds whenever someone appeared, monsters hiding under beds waiting specifically for people to look... and so on. By the time Xu Huo went over from the Red Wristband side to check the results, the floor occupied by the White Wristbands had drastically changed. Even the corners and ceilings were covered in growths, and there were even hair-like things extending from the windows all the way into the sea.

Even the sea surface near the hospital had changed. It was no longer a black ocean filled with giant octopus corpses, but a pot of boiling soup, floating with bobbing human heads.

”Such rich imagination,” Xu Huo remarked, not expecting such results in less than a night. He then connected the White Wristband and Red Wristband sides, letting the Red Wristbands come experience the White Wristbands’ imagined world.

Only about ten Red Wristbands were let in at a time. These people were still in relatively good mental states, constantly telling each other things like what you see in mental-type dungeons isn’t real, and so on. But the moment they entered the White Wristband area, they were instantly horrified by the scene before them. No one could look at a female ghost dragging half her body on the floor, frantically crawling towards them, and say that was fake!

The Red Wristbands turned and ran. But now, this building was like a bizarre otherworld, full of things impossible in reality. Two Red Wristbands ran too slowly and were immediately dragged into the wall by several pairs of hands, then submerged by the bulging, organ-like growths.

Aside from players disappearing into fantasy products, several other players were caught up by the White Wristbands.

The White Wristbands had also had a rough night and had long wanted to clear the dungeon. Seeing the Red Wristbands appear, they didn’t care if they were real or fake, charging forward to kill them—without the help of characteristics and items, the scene of both sides fighting could be described as amateurs brawling.

Some Red Wristbands were still skilled, but unfortunately, the White Wristbands had numbers. Once injured, even if not killed by the White Wristbands, they would be held back by the hospital.

Red Wristbands were killed one after another, but no one cleared the dungeon. The White Wristbands stopped, looking at each other before saying, ”Could it be that the people we killed aren’t real?”

”Impossible!” someone retorted. ”They are alive!”

”Then why haven’t we cleared the dungeon? The Red Wristbands are the doctors; killing them should let us clear it!” A player clutched their head, voicing the question many wanted to ask. ”Have we really gone mad?”

”This is a dungeon!” Lu Yun, who had caught up panting, said. ”The dungeon inherently sets obstacles for players. Maybe the list we saw isn’t the doctor list at all; the doctors are someone else!”

”Then who is it?” Chen Zi, who had followed, pressed. ”Could the doctors be among us?”

For a moment, the White Wristbands grew wary of each other.

”Wait a moment,” Xu Huo appeared from around the corner. ”Perhaps there’s no strict distinction between doctors and patients. Players who enter can be patients or doctors. Even though we got wristbands, it doesn’t mean we can’t also become doctors.”

”How do we become doctors? Through imagination?” Chen Zi closed her eyes, seeming to imagine hard for a moment. She opened her eyes after a while and looked down at herself. ”I didn’t turn into a doctor.”