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Tick-tock...
Blood dropped onto a chaotic mess of a floor, staining the papers a glaring red, and then slowly spread around.
Tao Tao fought to cover her slit throat, trying to speak, but no sound would come out. She watched with a flicker of panic in her eyes as the young man rose and walked away.
In the assessment theater, no one could use their real abilities, yet this guy's combat strength was terrifying!
Hiss... Is this what the world of the powerful is like?!
The entire records room was destroyed in the struggle between the two. Tao Tao kneeled among the bookshelves, watching as more and more blood pooled under her, her consciousness beginning to blur. She bit her lip, caught in a dilemma.
Should she use the Resurrection Card now, or wait for that strange time loop to activate?
If she waited for the latter and got it wrong, death would be real, but the Resurrection Card was one-time only—it would be gone after use.
Damn it! Why did she have to run into him?
Tao Tao lay on the ground gasping for air. She summoned the Player's Handbook and flipped to the items section, her fingers trembling slightly.
...
Around the corner on the third floor, Xu Shuo left the records room with a pleased stride, heading down the stairs.
Almost the moment he opened the fire door to descend, the elevator doors in the corridor opened, and Director Zhang stepped out, his face grim as he hurried toward the records room.
On the dim and eerie corridor, the opened records room cast a stark light.
Standing at the doorway, Director Zhang glanced at the chaos inside and let his angry gaze linger on the small figure in the pool of blood for a moment before turning abruptly and leaving.
It seems it's not this person.
Besides, it's too late for a rescue; might as well just go downstairs and kill Luo Kun, and in the process test out the cause of the time loop.
What's more important, the one who acted might have already set his sights on Patient No. 13.
...
The second-floor stairwell.
After descending, Xu Shuo was about to push open the second-floor fire door when he suddenly sensed something and turned to look.
On the stairway leading to the first floor, a youth in hospital attire stood there, gazing intently at him.
Quite unlike his previous mania, he looked pale and somewhat panicked and helpless as he gazed at the young man on the ground, then at the fruit knife and the blood on himself.
Chen Chu murmured, "It's happening again..."
...
Time flowed slowly yet again, leaving the entire hospital in utter silence.
"I see."
Xu Shuo, who had been leaning on the office desk, suddenly lifted his head, a new certainty in his eyes.
Luo Kun wasn't a player; he was just an NPC that had discovered The Fifth Hospital was undergoing a time loop. Therefore, from the start, he knew Chen Chu would try to kill him but also knew he couldn't be killed, thus enjoying this toy-like process.
Tsk, he's really a little deviant.
The original Chen Chu hadn't known that time was continuously resetting, and his second personality was no different, so he was always repeating the almost identical actions of killing and saving.
But after Xu Shuo entered the role, Doctor Chu seemed to have also realized this critical point.
Because their memories had already been shared.
Xu Shuo thought about all this, took out a couple of pills from his pocket and swallowed them, then stepped into the bathroom to pull out the fruit knife, tucked it into his pants pocket, and arranged the long, thigh-length lab coat to cover the pockets.
...
This was the third reset.
In the quiet office, Director Zhang, who had been napping in his chair, opened his eyes. He immediately got up, opened the door, and headed to Chen Chu's office.
On the dimly lit, silent corridor, a white-clad nurse passed by, respectfully nodding at him before calmly pushing the nurse cart in the opposite direction.
At this, Director Zhang paused, but when he turned his head, the nurse had already rounded the corner with the cart.
He looked away and continued walking, passing by Patient No. 8's room and taking a glance inside.
...
In the ward, Patient No. 8, who had just awakened, sat up gasping for breath. She breathed rapidly, then lifted her hands to frantically feel her neck.
"Back again, back again..."
Although this time loop cost her two mission failures, now she had to thank the loop for saving her in this third one!
Grateful for preserving her rare Resurrection Card!