Chapter 28 [Power Stone Bonus Chapter]

"Even the best actor wouldn't be able to look at Miss Sadako affectionately! Where is the severe social anxiety coming from? Why is Miss Sadako walking towards me step by step, about to get right in my face?"

Natsuki took a deep breath and calmed down. "There's no way I can go out there. The dark hallway is obviously very dangerous."

Natsuki pondered for a moment. "In that case... Miss Sadako, I'm going to show you a real treasure." He slipped his hands into his pockets.

Miss Sadako suddenly stopped, the black hair covering her cheeks trembling slightly. "A big... baby? What does this guy want to do? When other people see her, they all hide in the corners trembling. Why isn't he following the rules?"

Miss Sadako's thoughts raced. "Could he be... a pervert?" She even took a step back, growing more nervous.

"Don't move." Natsuki pulled out a wooden comb from his pocket and said seriously, "Let me give you a middle part."

The perfect center-parted comb! As long as there's hair, it will be combed into a perfect middle part.

Seeing Miss Sadako's thick black hair covering her cheeks, Natsuki felt the comb in his hand practically thirsting for it. The moment it touched her hair, his hand seemed to take on a mind of its own, moving rapidly and leaving afterimages.

In just a few seconds, the flawless, girlish middle-part hairstyle was complete.

"Huh?" Natsuki had expected Miss Sadako's face to be terrifying, or even without a face at all. But instead, she looked quite beautiful with her hair combed back. Aside from her pale, bloodless complexion, her eyes were just like an ordinary person's - clear black and white. There was even a teardrop mole under her left eye... she had the face of a delicate lady that made you want to coddle her.

Miss Sadako was stunned, having no idea how her hair had been combed so quickly. Her expression was one of pure bewilderment.

Natsuki looked directly into Miss Sadako's eyes. Their gazes met.

Miss Sadako, with her face now visible, trembled slightly as her social anxiety kicked in. Panicked, she averted her gaze, covering her face and running towards the TV.

"Don't run." Natsuki raised an eyebrow and called out, "We're roommates, what are you afraid of?"

But Miss Sadako completely ignored him, running to the TV and disappearing back into the ancient well.

The room was empty. Natsuki silently put the middle-part comb back in his pocket. "Guess I'll have to handle this roommate situation pretty well then. No more worrying about backstabbing."

Natsuki waited quietly in the ward for a while, noticing the lights in the hallway growing brighter. He walked out and looked up - his room number was 404.

Click. The ward nearby opened, and a petite girl wearing an eye mask and with disheveled hair walked out. She was obviously another player. Tears were welling up in her eyes, ready to spill over at any moment.

Natsuki observed silently, but didn't see Fujiwara or Kaguya. After a moment's hesitation, he prepared to ask the girl player in front of him for information.

"May I have your name?"

The aloof girl's eyes were brimming with tears. "Little Bird Swim..."

"Name."

"...The Evil King's True Eye Envoy."

"You just said your last name is Rikka Takanashi."

The girl with the silly hair took a half-step back and pressed down on her eye mask with her right hand. "My real name represents power, I can't just tell it to others easily."

Natsuki was silent for two seconds, suddenly feeling that this silly-haired girl wasn't very bright.

"Are you the only one in the ward?"

"There's one more."

Natsuki raised an eyebrow. "The other one is also a player?"

"No." The girl with the cowlick shook her head, looking nervously at the door behind her. "It's a scary vengeful spirit. It can talk. It said it's hungry and told me to go find food. If I can't find any, it'll get angry. The consequences of its anger are very serious."

Meanwhile, unlucky players kept emerging from the wards one after another, but Fujiwara Chika and Shinomiya Kaguya were still nowhere to be seen.

After a brief discussion with everyone, Natsuki roughly understood the rules of the game:

Each player appears in an 'initial ward' and is paired with a 'fellow patient'. The patients aren't human - they're evil spirits or something similar. They have obvious malice towards the players, but won't attack directly. Instead, they'll torment the players in various ways to deepen their fears.

The light will only last 10 minutes. The dark corridors are particularly dangerous.

Players have to stay in the wards most of the time. If they want to avoid getting hurt, they have to build good relationships with their fellow patients by satisfying their terrible demands. Like how the silly-haired girl was asked to go find food for the vengeful spirit in her ward.

Natsuki thought of Miss Sadako, who was in his ward. She had hidden in the well out of social phobia and refused to come out no matter how much he called. Did that mean his ward had become a safe room where he could just lie down forever?

But of course, he couldn't just lie down right away, since Fujiwara and Kaguya still hadn't been found.

Natsuki looked around the corridor, which was lined with wards on both sides. "Should I push the doors and search room by room?"

"It's too dangerous," the silly-haired girl quickly warned.

Natsuki shook his head, pushing the thought away. "In that case, we need to first figure out which ward Fujiwara and Kaguya are in..."

With his thoughts racing, Natsuki quickly sorted things out and started walking down the corridor. The silly-haired girl followed closely behind him.

"Why are you following me?" Natsuki stopped and looked back at her.

Rikka Takanashi raised her eyes and said solemnly, "Destiny is guiding me..."

Natsuki frowned. "Let's get to the point."

"Oh." Rikka's drooping hair made her look dejected. "I don't know where to find food."

"You're already a seasoned player, and you're the 'Evil King's True Eye Envoy' which sounds very powerful. Solve your own problems."

"Well, my 'Evil King's True Eye' can't be used right now because I overused it..." Rikka's expression was pitiful, like a helpless little animal about to be abandoned. "Senior, you look like a reliable good person I can depend on."

"Bad people never have 'badness' written on their faces."

"The last time I met Sister Yukinoshita, she said the same thing."

"Hm?"

After some questioning, Natsuki learned that the middle school girl in front of him had just completed one game and was still a fresh new player. Her reason for passing the previous level wasn't because of her own beauty and wisdom, but thanks to the great player she had met - a girl with long black hair named Yukinoshita.

Compared to the other players with pale, panicked expressions, Natsuki was quite calm, very much like that thick-browed girl Yukinoshita. So Rikka decided to continue clinging to his coattails.

As they were talking, a nurses' rest station appeared before them. Under the dim, cold light stood a young nurse in a white uniform. She had a good figure, but unfortunately her clothes were stained with dark brown blood, and her face was wrapped in blood-soaked gauze, making her very unappealing. And she was holding a thick syringe - no player dared to approach her.

Just now, a player who called himself the "Tyrant of Nangong Family" had gone over there and got shot the moment he opened his mouth. He was still lying on the ground.

Natsuki stared at the scene for a few seconds, and a prompt appeared before him:

[You found the haggard-faced nurse]

[You have seen through the opponent's weakness...]

[As the lowliest hospital employee, doing the most tiring work for the lowest pay and endless night shifts, the nurse wants to commit suicide daily]

[This nurse hates night shifts the most and doesn't want to talk to patients. As long as they stay quiet and don't make noise, the nurse will turn a blind eye]

Seeing this, Natsuki prepared to approach the nurses' station.

"Senior..." Rikka anxiously grabbed the corner of Natsuki's clothes.

"Stay quiet." Natsuki raised a finger, gesturing for silence. "Wait for me here, don't make any noise."

Rikka covered her mouth with both hands and nodded seriously. Natsuki then turned and steadily walked towards the nurses' station.

Some players were shocked to witness this.

The other players watched in shock as Natsuki approached the nurses' station.

"What is that boy doing?" one player asked. "You knew you'd get an injection, but you still dared to go there. You'll die, right?"

"Maybe he received a mission he had to complete, and there was nothing he could do..." another player wondered."Wait, why is he okay?"

Under the stunned gazes of the two unlucky players, Natsuki leisurely made his way to the nurses' station and started rummaging through things in front of the haggard-faced nurse.

"Found it," he said, quickly locating a worksheet that recorded the patient admission information for each ward.

He was in Ward 404. Chika Fujiwara was in Ward 405. Shinomiya Kaguya was in Room 406... right next to him.

After getting the specific information about the two girls, Natsuki turned and left the duty desk. The nurse had turned a blind eye the entire time.

"How come that guy is okay?" one player asked in disbelief.

"Is he invisible?" another wondered.

"Impossible. The nurse clearly looked right at him just now," the first player responded, equally confused.

.........

[Current Power Stones: 148]

For every 15 Power Stones, 1 Bonus Chapter will be uploaded on the same day.

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