LWGP - Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Corpse Dissolving Potion
Liu Guang's group finally understood—this bunch was highly experienced, and they had been royally screwed by the System.
"Listening to you all, I get it now. Does this mean the System adjusts the difficulty based on the survivors' performance? Because your group performed too well, it started targeting you?"
Who hadn't played a game before? But none of them had ever seen such a scummy system.
Li Meng and Zhang Xu really wanted to say it was because their Lao Wang was too exceptional.
Knowing Director Wang as they did, they figured that after she suspected Chen Dong, she couldn't sentence him to death on suspicion alone, nor could she risk alerting him. So, she deliberately used the pretense of bandaging someone to draw him out with the scalpel.
"That was too dangerous. You were all alone just now," Zhang Xu couldn't help but nag.
"It was very dangerous. I was panicking too. Luckily, his left arm was injured. Once I twisted it until it broke, he couldn't hold the knife anymore."
It felt like there was something to roast in that statement, but they couldn't quite put their finger on it.
Zhang Xu looked at Chen Dong's unnatural-looking left arm and thought about the female doctors and nurses back in the hospital courtyard. Each of them could do the work of three men, yet they hated being called tomboys. He decided against praising his Lao Wang for being so formidably strong.
"Did Lao Wang kick him to death?" Li Meng wasn't the least bit sympathetic; she was just wondering if they could get any clues from him.
Wang Jiu shot her a look, her eyes glinting. "What are you talking about? I just gave him a light kick. How could he possibly die from that?"
Li Meng didn't dare say another word.
Liu Guang was examining Chen Dong's body. "He's not dead, that's for sure. His pupils aren't dilated. It's probably just a concussion."
Of course, Wang Jiu knew Chen Dong wasn't dead; the System hadn't sent a notification.
"See if you can wake him up. We need to ask for reliable clues."
Liu Guang actually had a method. He said it was a family heirloom of a technique. A concussion, you see, was just like when the female lead or supporting actress faints in a TV drama. The male lead just has to hold her and pinch her… or maybe kiss her?
Deputy Director Liu just used the scalpel in his hand to give him a jab.
Earlier, they had explained the origin of this weapon—the room they were locked in was a patient's ward. Someone in there had a relapse, they successfully performed an emergency rescue and received a reward, and the patient disappeared.
Just as Wang Jiu was to Li Meng and the others, Liu Guang was the leader for Wang Ling and him, inspiring a natural sense of admiration.
See, he picked a good spot. Fleshy, not much blood, but painful enough to wake the man up.
Impressive, very impressive.
Chen Dong woke up to find the axe in Zhang Xu's hands pressed against his neck. They didn't ask him anything else, just two questions.
1. Where is the key to the courtyard gate?
2. How many more murderers like him are in this hospital, along with any other dangerous individuals?
Chen Dong sneered and refused to speak. Liu Guang said, "I'm a doctor. Do you know which surgery I specialize in?"
He poked the flesh between the man's legs with the knife and said gently, "The permanent surgical removal of a certain sheath of skin and its attached cavernous bodies and other matter."
His wording was quite subtle.
Zhang Xu's eyes lit up, and he provided commentary like a narrator from a gourmet food show: "Commonly known in folk tradition as the secret art of purification. An experience you deserve."
A murderer was still a person, and a man at that. He couldn't take it. Chen Dong could only answer the two questions with a grim face.
"I don't know where the key is. I'm only responsible for guarding the seventh floor. That's each of our duties. Unless we receive an order or there's an emergency, we don't easily go to other floors."
Wang Jiu: "Does the so-called emergency include being chased by some big guy after he took your axe?"
Though resentful, Chen Dong seemed a bit intimidated by Wang Jiu. He said awkwardly, "That guy is seriously tough. In terms of raw strength, none of you are his match. Even among us murderers, few are stronger than him."
"I never said you were the weakest among them. What are you so flustered about?"
"…"
You did. You just did.
Liu Guang found it amusing and genuinely smiled warmly at Wang Jiu, but he also asked Chen Dong, "You just mentioned an order? Who gives you orders?"
"I don't know."
Are you kidding me?
Only then did Chen Dong let them take the phone from his pocket.
"The master always contacts us through our phones. If there's anything, he just sends a text."
Chen Dong had expected them to be eager to ask what kind of orders he received, but instead…
Everyone: "You son of a bitch, you have a phone? And it has Wi-Fi?"
Look at those jealous faces. They were all so alike.
Chen Dong was speechless.
It wasn't Wang Jiu and the others' fault. Due to the System's restrictions, they couldn't bring their phones out of the room. Not that it mattered, since there was no Wi-Fi anyway.
But business came first. One look at the phone's text messages made everyone's scalp tingle. The content was basically the same—requesting goods, fresh, and cleaned up.
The only differences were:
—It has a poor appetite today. No organs. Clean the meat up a bit more.
—Good appetite today. Increase the portion. Bring four servings.
—Poor appetite. Wants it cooked. No skin.
None of them were newbies anymore. They could sense the enormous amount of information just by thinking about it, and a terrifying thought crept into their minds.
Li Meng couldn't help but tremble as she said, "Lao Wang, we were just about to say that the bodies in the morgue drawers were mostly intact, without any major injuries, so there weren't many clues. But what we found strange was—there was blood in all the drawers, frozen blood."
Intact corpses weren't usually that scary, especially for them. But this blood was like the entrance music for a demon king, complete with special effects that made one's skin crawl.
Popsicles?
Each freezer drawer held a long, bloody corpse-popsicle. At first glance, they looked like sour plum juice popsicles.
The two women, Li Meng and Wang Ling, felt their teeth chattering. Only Wang Jiu maintained some semblance of rationality.
"Why are these bodies being preserved like this? Are you short on fresh goods?"
"No. Sometimes it gets too hot and stuffy, and the master says it likes to eat ice. The blood is added to preserve the bloody taste."
"…"
It sure knew how to live it up.
But what kind of monster was this "it"?
Li Meng and the other two had already thought of the "awakening" creature on the fourth floor where they were.
They had left quickly and didn't see what happened afterward, but they had been on guard. Now, making the connection, they were all horrified.
With such a massive appetite, what kind of monster could it be?
Chen Dong didn't really know either. He said it was fed by a specialist, but he didn't know which floor it was on.
On the fourth floor, perhaps Number Four was the designated feeder. Unfortunately, he was already dead.
Wang Jiu's group of three remained silent.
"The key should be with that master."
The sender of the text messages was just a string of numbers, with no contact name saved.
When asked about the master's location, Chen Dong was clueless. He did mention that besides the eleventh and twelfth floors, there was indeed only one murderer on each of the floors below. However, there were gunmen in the courtyard, specifically to shoot anyone who escaped the murderers and made it outside.
"Then how many people like us are locked up in this hospital in total?"
"About a hundred or so."
That was a lot of people. Even without weapons, they could overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers.
But the System wasn't stupid. It had set things up from the start, like separating them into rooms with timed locks, making it convenient for the murderers to pick them off one by one. They could probably kill at least a third of them during the initial chaos.
They couldn't get any more information out of him. Fearing they would kill him, Chen Dong begged for mercy with the piety of a devout Christian: "I'm willing to turn over a new leaf and help you find the master, to help you escape. So, please…"
Thump! That familiar feeling.
That was his last thought as he fell.
Wang Jiu, who had struck the blow, wasted no words and simply showed the phone to the others.
"A new message came in."
Everyone looked. The new message read: "Intruders in the 11th-floor warehouse. Eliminate them."
"It must have been sent to everyone."
"Other murderers will be coming up here soon."
They didn't have much time left.
That was why Wang Jiu had decisively knocked Chen Dong out.
"He's not dead yet. You mentioned there's a reward for killing these murderers. Since Director Wang was the one who found him, the kill belongs to her. You do it."
Liu Guang was a man of great poise. Zhang Xu and Li Meng had a very good impression of him. Although Wang Ling and Xu Kai were envious of the reward, they knew they had no standing to say anything, so they kept quiet.
Now it was all up to Wang Jiu's reaction.
Perhaps she wouldn't be able to do it.
Just as they had that thought, Wang Jiu raised her hand and stabbed the already-concussed Chen Dong in the back.
Xu Kai and Wang Ling: "???"
Wang Jiu: "Killing someone from the front… I really can't bring myself to do it. The back is a little better."
There was definitely something to roast there, but they didn't dare say it.
However, they felt that this Director Wang was truly unlike any ordinary woman. She was steady, sharp, and uninhibited. She did what needed to be done without any hesitation or false modesty.
She wasn't the type to say "no, no" with her mouth while her body honestly accepted the offer—she just took the kill directly.
Very poised and natural.
Soon, the System notified Wang Jiu's group of three that she had killed Murderer No. 7. The kill was still counted towards her individual score, and she could also take one item from this morgue.
Pah!
What could they possibly take from this huge morgue? A corpse?
Li Meng and Zhang Xu felt that with this System message, the two of them had also received the reward. They figured the System defaulted to treating the three of them as a team, but the other three were not included and seemed unaware of what the reward was.
This was probably one of the rules.
No one wanted to waste time, but they realized they hadn't found any clues in the morgue. Instead, it was Chen Dong who had brought them some information.
They just didn't know what Lao Wang was going to take. They were running out of time.
"You guys check Chen Dong's body for any clues. I'll check this drawer."
Wang Jiu randomly pulled out a drawer and, as usual, tried to collect it.
A System prompt appeared, first asking for confirmation. After Wang Jiu confirmed.
"Weakling No. 1, you do not have a storage pack and cannot absorb it. Furthermore, as this is a corpse and not a tool, it cannot be brought back to reality. You may choose to process it in another way."
Eh, there's a way!
"What kind of processing?"
"You can choose to materialize it locally, after which it can be carried directly."
How am I supposed to carry such a large corpse, no matter how you materialize it? I'm not Lam Ching-ying; I can't exactly herd corpses, can I?
Still, Wang Jiu told the System to materialize it. If it turned into some kind of anatomical specimen, she could just leave it.
The System was truly incredible. In the next second, the corpse frozen in the bloody popsicle began to dissolve.
No, it was more like the entire bloody popsicle dissolved and condensed, finally turning into a small, palm-sized bottle.
Inside was a blackish-red liquid.
"Materialization complete—one bottle of Corpse Dissolving Potion, a product of the 444 Dungeon. Do you choose to take it?"
Oho!
This was useful! And it even came with a free bottle!
Wang Jiu immediately took the Corpse Dissolving Potion and put it in her backpack. Meanwhile, Liu Guang and the others had found a clue on Chen Dong's body.
"Look, there's a micro-locator stuck to his chest."
Liu Guang was indeed no ordinary person. Cautious and meticulous, when he said he was looking for clues, he nearly stripped Chen Dong down to his underwear, but he did make a discovery.
"I suspect all these murderers have locators and are being controlled by that master. That's how our position was exposed."
"It would be great if his phone had a locator app that could show us the positions of the other murderers. Hey, Director Wang, look."
Liu Guang was scrolling through Chen Dong's phone when his eyes suddenly lit up. He immediately shared his discovery with Wang Jiu.
Wang Jiu took a look, and sure enough, there it was.
The locator app was quite advanced, showing a 3D model of the twelve-story building. The distribution of red dots was clear at a glance.
However, there were only seven red dots left.
Number Four and Number Seven had already been KO'd by them.
"This should be a contact-based thermal locator, stuck to his skin and keyed to the wearer's body heat. If a murderer dies and their temperature drops, the sensor deactivates, broadcasting their death, and the others know something has happened."
"There are no murderers on the eleventh and twelfth floors. So besides Number Seven and Number Four, who you guys took out, another murderer must have been dealt with. After all, there are a lot of survivors on our side, and some of them are bound to have some fighting ability, like that big guy on our seventh floor."
Remembering how they had been deceived by Chen Dong and abandoned such a formidable "ally," literally following a murderer, Wang Ling and Xu Kai felt a little depressed.
But suddenly, the expressions on Wang Jiu's and Liu Guang's faces changed slightly. They exchanged a look.
The red dots on the app showed one red dot on their current location, the eleventh floor.
If this was a contact-based thermal locator, and Chen Dong was already dead with the sensor torn off and set aside, not in contact with a living body, then where did this red dot come from?
Unless…
Wang Jiu and Liu Guang simultaneously tightened their grip on their scalpels. They pointed towards the main door and gestured for silence.
The other four instantly understood: there was a murderer outside.
Comments
Post a Comment