Chapter 124 - Experiments

A shiver was sent to Liu Xiaodan, and he woke up inside the void again. He looked around and realized that it was the same place as where the Mother would show up. For some reason, the place felt colder than it normally was.

He got to his feet and walked around the void. Like before, he would find the lamp at the end of the path. However, there were now three bodies on the ground. Moreover, all of them were mangled.

"The new person… isn't… someone I know. Who is he?" Liu Xiaodan got down to his knee and took a look, unfazed by the limping status of the body. At every move he did, the body moved as if it had no bones to speak of.

"It's not a patient… or someone I haven't seen yet. I thought someone from my support group is going to be sent in for treatment next." He got up and looked around some more. Seeing that the Mother didn't come after a few minutes, he took the lamp and walked forward.

Liu Xiaodan had no idea how to wake up in this nightmare on his own. The last two times, the Mother had sent him away. He had also been calling Guangru and Old Xiong for help, but to no avail. He was left to continue walking like he had no direction.

"Ah, that's it. Maybe I needed to think of a place to arrive at so I wouldn't have to walk all day." Walking aimlessly had been really proven fatal so he thought he was missing something. Liu Xiaodan hummed and chose a place to see in the light, closing his eyes and visualizing his target.

After a few more minutes, the place began to change; he could feel it from the light forcing through his closed eyes. Like Liu Xiaodan thought, the lamp could take him anywhere he wanted. That was why the Mother didn't want to give it to him.

However, now that he arrived at his destination, he was bound to look around.

The strange he chose in his mind was the second infirmary he was taken to. Like earlier he stood in the company of hard light, seemingly blinding everyone who woke up in it. The only difference was that he was not on the bed.

"Why don't they just turn the lights off? Something like this should be consuming a lot of electricity." Liu Xiaodan approached the lamp and reached out to find the switch using his fingers.

Piak! The strong light vanished in an instant as Liu Xiaodan turned off the lamp. A smile was on his face as he stared in a certain direction. This presence… it must be a greater ghost in level. It's just that Liu Xiaodan didn't fear it enough.

"Hello, do you live here?"

His voice was clear and crisp in the void. The ghost that stood just steps from where he was stared in wonder. This human wasn't like the rest; even the doctors of this hall treated the ghost with vigilance. Never turn off the light, they said. It kept the monster away, they said.

However, this man even turned it off after he found the monster in the void. The ghost didn't fear him as much as Liu Xiaodan didn't fear the ghost. Right now, there was nothing but a casual air around the room, in contrast to the usual eerie cold.

"Live… here…" The ghost forked out a few words. Just from its delayed speech, Liu Xiaodan could infer that the entity was not human in origins. Else, it would have spoken without echoing his words.

"My name is Xiaodan. What's yours?"

The human had the initiative to say his name? Wasn't he afraid of things that would haunt him using his name? The ghost stayed quiet, but it answered after a few seconds. "No name…"

Liu Xiaodan twitched and hummed. "Hm, it seems like terrifying ghosts really don't have names. Do you mind if I call you with something? I'm more comfortable if there's a name I can use to refer to you. Do you mind being called Old Doctor?"

"..." The monster stared at him carefully. The ghost knew what a doctor was, and he was not one of them. Then again, a lot of people who had gone inside this room… would always call for a doctor. Perhaps this 'Xiaodan' didn't know what he was talking to.

In reality, Liu Xiaodan knew that this thing wasn't a doctor at all. It was an entity that took on a semi-human form from all the resentment and fears it had eaten.

Most entities of non-human origin that weren't strong enough ended up like this based on Liu Xiaodan's observation. They were very much monsters to the eyes of humans.

This one, in particular, had this one big white eye everyone could clearly see in the dark. It resembled a head mirror, and so Liu Xiaodan wanted to convince himself that it was a head mirror instead. Else, he wouldn't be able to continue staring at it because of its huge eye.

"Old Doctor, where is this place? What do humans call it?" Liu Xiaodan then asked after not hearing an answer from Old Doctor. The ghost then replied with a soft voice, "Treatment Hall."

"Old Doctor, are you aware of the kings residing in this place? You did say this is the Treatment Hall, right?"

The ghost froze. This human knew of the kings, and yet he still… walked into the room. Old Doctor then took a step back. It was charmed by the human feel of this visitor, and so it had forgotten how he showed up in this room. Technically, a human could not just materialize out of thin air, right?

"Mercy… no eat…"

Old Doctor backed away and pressed itself against the walls. For a moment, it suddenly felt like it had become one of the humans that it had killed and consumed all those years. How ironic that a human-looking monster would be the one hunting it down tonight.

Liu Xiaodan didn't answer. He was confused why the monster suddenly asked for mercy. 'Did it think that I would eat it? Was it because I asked for the kings?'

He then gripped at the lamp's handle as if feeling its tangibility. The lamp was turned off when he came here so it must only work in nightmares. Could he use it to run inside a nightmare again? However, he had more pressing matters to deal with.

He then held onto the lamp to his c.h.e.s.t, and it vanished as smoke entering his body. How creepy. Liu Xiaodan looked at the ghost again, trying to smile kindly. "I won't hurt you. Eating you won't do much for me. Tell me about the kings that you know of."

"Kings… on other floors… me only stay here…" The speech was like a child's, but Liu Xiaodan understood it well. It seemed that the halls in the facility were all shared by different entities, and they just stayed in their lanes to avoid conflict with others.

That reflection ghost for example only stayed in bathrooms so it was rather mobile. It could get away from the claws of an apex predator who could not follow it through mirrors. Old Doctor, however, was stuck in this dark room, waiting for patients to be sent in.

Liu Xiaodan then remembered. "I was sent here earlier. Why weren't you here?"

"Sleep. Conserve energy." Old Doctor had not eaten for a while, and so he weakened a little. He was about to lose his basic power as a greater ghost. Conserving energy was a must.

"Come with me. I'll feed you, but you have to answer my questions honestly. I won't hurt you, but you have to promise me the same." Liu Xiaodan extended his hand, taking advantage of the fear stricken in the supposed useful entity.

"Promise?"

"Yes, I promise. You should promise, too."

Old Doctor slowly moved towards Liu Xiaodan and cautiously attached itself to him. Since it was invited by a medium, it didn't suffer from any defenses. It freely fed on the negative aura… before it trembled.

So much… it could feel so much negative aura oozing from inside Liu Xiaodan that it couldn't believe this thing didn't eat the poor entity upon seeing it. Then again, with this kind of power, Old Doctor recalled what Liu Xiaodan said earlier.

'Eating you won't do much for me.' Perhaps it was true.

"Kings scary… no fighting…"

"I won't pick a fight with them right now. I'm not prepared; I don't even know what to expect from them." Liu Xiaodan chuckled as he walked to the door. He then phased through it and fought through the pain that came after. "So how many people walk these hallways? Do you know?"

"...only experiments… come." Old Doctor contained its trembling. It wanted to be immune to Liu Xiaodan's surprises, but it felt like it would be quite hard. He was indeed human and alive; however, he could house a spirit—multiple entities even—as if he was a corpse. It didn't help that his body temperature was so low.

"Experiments? Am I supposed to be one of them? I don't remember signing up for anything. Is my admission a ticket for them to conduct experiments on me?" Liu Xiaodan frowned before quickly hiding as a worker passed.

Worker… because the person was wearing a complete protective suit. Liu Xiaodan couldn't tell if it was a nurse or a doctor… or something else entirely. He didn't also know if that person was armed, only walking through a dark hallway with a flashlight.

'Weird. Why would they turn off the lights for this place? If there's someone like Old Doctor in this place, it would have attacked him. Do they think a flashlight is enough to deter a ghost from attacking them?'

Liu Xiaodan followed the worker stealthily. The worker didn't take a full five minutes to feel like he was being followed. He then fiddled with his flashlight, and something strange happened to the light.

A circle seemed to be cast on the light, and it was like the writings in a talisman. So that was why they were so confident.

"Eight, this is Control. Have you located 4-19?"

A voice came through a comm worn by the worker. The worker then picked it up. "Not yet, Control. Uh, I'm being followed by something. I can't tell if it's 4-19 or an entity."

"I'll review the cameras. Be careful."

Eight, the man in the suit, only nodded. He then walked off, not pursuing his hunt for the follower. Liu Xiaodan, however, didn't give up. They were looking for another patient, but it wasn't him. He wanted to find out more about their hunt, to know if this 4-19 was to be saved or to be left and slaughtered.

Unafraid of the cameras, Liu Xiaodan continued to stay out of Eight's sight. He followed Eight deeper into the place, looking at the things that the latter looked at. Bloodstains and splattered flesh… it was like someone very hurt and whose body was exploding little by little was moving around the floor.

Eight then entered a passcode on a door and went inside the room. Liu Xiaodan followed him after a few seconds. He then felt the door and soon a strange presence coming from inside. It seemed that 4-19 was inside. Liu Xiaodan phased through the door, but what he saw inside made him freeze.

"Hands where I can see them, slick." Eight aimed his service rifle right at Liu Xiaodan's face.