Shen Lin’s move completely left kp bewildered. Number 75 kp was in a panic, unaccustomed to such a tough situation. After so many years, he had never encountered such a formidable opponent. Despite knowing that the path ahead was a dead end, he insisted on carving out a way. However, he always followed the proper procedures and played by the rules. He had no reason to refuse.
Zheng Du lowered his voice and asked Shen Lin, “Do you want to keep this girl here? Not let the doctor take her away?”
Shen Lin responded with a “yes.”
Kp remained silent, and Zheng, concerned, asked, “Aren’t you afraid of kp? It’s obvious that kp hasn’t arranged this plot for us.”
Shen Lin countered, “Didn’t he say he’s our partner? The one guiding us through the challenges. Why should I be afraid?”
Zheng Du hesitated, “Even though you say that, those who anger kp usually don’t end well. Most people follow kp’s suggestions without bargaining. It’s rare to encounter someone like you who dares to challenge kp. Here’s a piece of advice: be cautious; don’t provoke him too much.”
Shen Lin looked at him, raised an eyebrow lightly, and then politely smiled, “Thank you, senior.” He spoke slowly and deliberately, with a deeper meaning.
Zheng Du remained silent, unable to discern any fear in Shen Lin’s expression. Zheng Du realized that this person wasn’t pretending to be tough; he genuinely wasn’t afraid.
In a world dominated by kp, someone unafraid of kp was a rare sight.
Han Qianqiu knew Shen Lin’s straightforward personality and asked eagerly, “Can I charm my way through before you take action?”
Shen Lin replied, “Sure.”
Han Qianqiu, not yet adept at charming, had a hundred mischievous ideas in his mind. He pulled down his collar, revealing a small area of dark, withered, and contorted collarbone – a perfect 10 in appearance, a horrific sight.
He intentionally disgusted himself, throwing a flirtatious look at the poor doctor, and in a sweet voice said, “Doctor Xu~”
Shen Lin felt his defenses break.
Kp, unable to breathe, interjected, “You’re relying on your appearance despite having a perfect 10? If that’s the case, everyone undergoes a sanity check.”
Han Qianqiu exclaimed, “!!!”
Others remained silent.
Xu Lu, always in a frenzy, refused to lie down, fearing it would crush her wings. Sitting up straight, she asked Shen Lin, “Doctor Shen, are my wings beautiful?”
Shen Lin nodded, “Beautiful.”
Xu Lu asked, “Did my feathers get dirty?” Suddenly confused, she asked Shen Lin, “Why hasn’t Jianjian come yet? He said he would come today to take me home. We are getting married.”
Shen Lin reassured her, “He will come; there’s just a slight delay.”
Kp said, “Conduct an investigation in the room.”
They rolled the dice, and in the crevice of Xu Lu’s pillow, they found a diamond ring.
Thinking about the nurse’s words that Xu Lu’s boyfriend was imaginary, Shen Lin pondered, “Would an imaginary boyfriend buy a diamond ring?”
Kp asked them, “Did anyone evaluate it?”
Appraisal was an exploration skill used to estimate the value of an item, including quality, materials, and related craftsmanship. If not specified, the default value was 5.
“I did,” Zheng said, “but I only have 30 points. We can give it a try.”
He successfully evaluated it, realizing it was a famous brand of diamond ring known as the “Once-in-a-lifetime Diamond Ring for Men.” From the looks of it, someone indeed gave this diamond to Xu Lu, indicating that her boyfriend was not imaginary.
Moreover, looking at Xu Lu’s situation, it seemed her boyfriend had visited her recently. All the nurses were unaware of this, and he couldn’t have secretly peeked through the window. The only possibility was that, apart from Xu Lu, everyone else had forgotten she had a boyfriend.
They forgot this objective fact.
But the question remained, why did they forget?
Could it be related to Xu Lu’s condition, which was improving but suddenly deteriorated again?
In the afternoon, Shen Lin and the others rested individually. He tried to sleep to enter the nighttime world again. After the entire afternoon passed peacefully, he slept soundly, unable to enter the fragmented world he had struggled with the night before. Instead, it cleared away the fatigue from the previous night.
…Not bad.
Shen Lin comforted himself.
…
Night arrived quickly.
As Shen Lin fell asleep, in the middle of the night, he heard kp say, “Perform a listening check.”
After a successful check, the same voice from last night echoed again.
The monster shrouded in thick fog dragged its slow steps in the darkness, making dripping sounds. After confirming it was a clock, Shen Lin heard the sound becoming clearer, accompanying the footsteps of time, producing crisp sounds every second.
He stood in front of the peephole, looking outside. Still unable to identify what it was, following the rhythm of last night, kp asked him to conduct another investigation.
This time, Shen Lin rolled a successful check.
The moonlight outside the window illuminated the room. The dim light pierced through the deceptive darkness, and Shen Lin clearly saw that the thing was indeed floating. In the black mist, six blurry figures reflected, resembling feet yet appearing like claws. The position of its shoulder blades rose high, surrounded by even denser fog. Shen Lin couldn’t see clearly, whether it was due to the overly thick fog causing a visual illusion or whether the creature indeed had a pair of wings.
Kp said, “san-check, deduct 1 for success, 1d6 for failure.”
This san-check wasn’t unexpected. Shen Lin successfully passed the sanity check, reducing 1 point of sanity.
The creature walked past him, disappearing at the end of the corridor. Shen Lin opened the door and said to kp, “I’m going to follow it.”
Kp: “…”
Shen Lin: “?”
Kp: “How much is your tracking? You really aren’t afraid of death. Go ahead.”
Shen Lin successfully passed under kp’s nose.
Kp: “… How did a player like you participate in the Judgment Game?”
The black mist left behind a tail-like mark. Shen Lin kept a distance, following behind.
He casually said, “Isn’t it interesting to play with me?”
Kp had no expression, “You are just a bug.”
Shen Lin: “You surprisingly understand bugs.”
Kp: “… ” He sensed the sarcasm.
Shen Lin asked, “Why did the Judge set up such a game?”
Kp: “Because he was too bored.”
Shen Lin: “?”
Kp: “He said so himself, the endless time submerged in the depths of the sea is too boring. Every day, he faces either towering and endless pillars or the muddy black slime flowing over his body. He said that playing games with humans is more interesting.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a god,” kp said devoutly, “a god who rescues us from the endless abyss.”
Shen Lin chuckled.
Kp suddenly said, “You remind me of a player.”
“Who?”
“He’s known as the Nightmare of the kp Assessment, the devil. After opening enough rooms, you can apply for an assessment to improve your qualifications. The assessment method is to lead a group of players with special qualifications to complete a room’s game.”
He bounced to Shen Lin and pulled open the coat of his swallowtail suit, revealing the stars on his shirt, “Have you seen the stars on my chest? This is the qualification certificate obtained after each assessment. I didn’t meet him during my assessment; I’m not qualified yet. To challenge him, you need at least a 4-star upgrade to 5 stars. According to my senior, he always manages to drive kp insane. Even a hundred pages of script written in advance aren’t enough.”
“Perhaps the preparations were insufficient,” Shen Lin said mercilessly. “What happened next?”
“… ” Kp said, “What else?”
“And him?” Shen Lin asked lightly; he always liked to hear stories from predecessors and legends.
After a moment of silence, kp spoke seriously, “He left, then came back. I don’t know.” The paper man with the image of a magician disappeared from Shen Lin’s sight. “Well, yes, we welcome him, but we don’t really welcome him.”
At this moment, the black mist came to a complete stop. It stopped in front of a room on the fourth floor, pushing the door open without hesitation and walked in.
Shen Lin followed, observing him standing by the bed.
It was an unoccupied room, with white and dilapidated walls, layers of peeling wallpaper, and a damp, rotten smell. It was different from Shen Lin’s room.
The black mist stretched out a thin beak-like object, falling on the bed, absorbing something out of thin air.
Shen Lin saw a gloomy blue object appear out of nowhere. He couldn’t figure out where it came from, but he could see that its state was extremely unstable. It looked like a tangled ball of yarn, its color changing suddenly from blue to red, then abruptly turning into a deep green, a profound purple… Finally, the colors blended into a mass, turning into a yellow firework exploding before his eyes. In the moment of intense and vivid colors dissipating, he saw a face with a sharp and terrified expression.
In an instant, it vanished.
Shen Lin’s pupils tightened. He couldn’t understand what was happening before him.
Kp’s voice echoed in the empty room, cold and sharp, “san-check, deduct 1d6 for success, 1d10 for failure.”
Shen Lin rolled successfully, losing 5 sanity points.
Kp: “You are about to fall into temporary madness. Now, perform another sanity check to see if you can suppress the sudden impact.”
Shen Lin rolled, failing the sanity check.
Kp’s trembling voice said, “… You tried to understand what happened and failed. You temporarily suppressed these crazy thoughts. You have entered a period of impending madness.”
After finishing, he remained silent for a while and asked seriously, “Did you bribe this die? Next time, I’ll change to another one.”
Shen Lin: “After so much trouble, I bribed all the dice.”
Kp: “… Be a good individual.”
At this moment, the black mist completely absorbed the strange colors. In the ticking sound, it drifted slowly out of the room.
Finally, Shen Lin saw it disappear at the end of the corridor.
