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Translator's note: I think Wang Ziteng's mind game may come in handy for me one day. I'll try it if I (God forbid) get kidnapped or drown.
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The last person to scramble away was the manager, Wu Dahai. Out of everyone, he was the oldest and the chubbiest. Middle age had brought a pudgy tummy, and his stamina was quite low.
Whether he meant to or not, in his frantic attempt to flee, Wu Dahai grabbed a guy running ahead of him, pulling him back. He pushed himself forward, while the guy he yanked almost tripped, ending up at the very back.
SWISH!
A silver streak whizzed by.
The unlucky guy Wu Dahai had pulled back had his head chopped off, not even getting a chance to scream.
Seeing this, Fang Xiu stopped for a moment. Then, he smacked his thighs twice in anger and kept running. He wasn't worried about lagging behind. He was young, fit, and exercised often, so he was in top form.
He didn't know how to activate his spiritual power, so he was trying out different things, not sure if they'd work. They ran down a long hallway on their right for about a minute until they reached a dead end. However, they found themselves in a wide-open area.
It was a cafeteria. The space was huge and completely bare, just old tables and chairs everywhere. In one corner, they spotted stoves and a few large black pots.
Wang Ziteng was thrilled and shouted, "There's usually an exit in cafeterias."
The group felt a sense of relief upon hearing that. They quickly looked around and saw a door on the far left of the cafeteria. Without hesitation, they made a dash for it.
Meanwhile, Fang Xiu kept his cool, running at the back of the group while carefully scanning the area.
They walked through the door into another dim, narrow hallway. This one seemed even darker; the bulbs overhead looked ready to flicker out any second.
No one cared about anything around them; all they wanted was to escape. They rushed to the end of the hallway.
Wang Ziteng, who was leading, looked visibly frustrated. "It's a dead end!"
They were all shocked—the hallway led nowhere.
This was weird. According to what Wang Ziteng knew, places like cafeterias, where lots of people frequented, usually had emergency exits or paths leading outside. There was no reason for it to be a dead end—unless the entire hospital was locked down, and no one was meant to escape.
"Hey, there's a door over there!" one yelled.
True enough, there was a narrow door on the right side of the hallway. It was so thin that only one person could go through it at a time. The door was made of wood, with the paint all faded and peeling. It had a small glass window at the top.
Upon seeing the door, everyone surged toward it, not thinking about what could lie inside. They just knew there were horrifying Specters outside.
Thankfully, the room was free from any Specter. It was a tiny room filled with random items—brooms, mops, and old furniture. It was so packed that after five of them squeezed in, they barely had space to wiggle.
"Ugh! It's just a storage room! There's no way out of here!" Wang Ziteng yelled in frustration.
Everyone else looked pretty hopeless too. They were stuck! The Specters had them cornered.
'Did we make the wrong choice?'
Fang Xiu calmly thought that next time, they should go left. He wasn't freaking out. For him, it was just a matter of trying different things, not a life-or-death choice.
After some consideration, he decided to go back and try the left path. But it was too late to turn back now. Two minutes had already passed, leaving only one minute before the terrifying "doctor" would strike again. Going back would be like walking right into the "doctor's" trap.
They could pick one person to distract the "doctor" and buy time for the rest, but Fang Xiu didn't think it was worth it. With only five of them left, nobody knew how much further they had to run or how many lives they would lose along the way.
Just as Fang Xiu was about to leave the room to look for the doctor and start over, Wang Ziteng angrily yelled, "This is all your fault, Fang Xiu! We wouldn't be stuck here if you didn't pick the wrong path!"
"Fang Xiu! Why didn't you ask us if you didn't know which way to go? But no, you just had to go right!" Wu Dahai chimed in, also fuming.
Besides Zhao Hao, the other person didn't say anything, but their accusing gaze clearly blamed Fang Xiu.
A smile tugged at Fang Xiu's lips. He didn't smile often these days unless he was excited to face a Specter. But for some reason, looking at Wang Ziteng and the others, he felt like laughing.
Zhao Hao stood up for him, "Xiu didn't force you to follow him. You came on your own. You guys asked which way to go, and now that it's the wrong way, you're blaming him. If you're so clever, why didn't you choose the path?"
"We might not be as smart, but we wouldn't have decided alone. If we didn't know, we could've discussed it together. We trusted him and let him choose. But he chose wrong! He broke our trust and led us to a dead end!" Wu Dahai, being a boss, put Zhao Hao, who wasn't good with words, in his place.
"Enough, stop fighting." Wang Ziteng yelled. "We need to figure out how to stay alive. I've noticed the Specter only attacks one person at a time, and after each attack, there's a safe window of two to three minutes. So now, our only option is to pick one person to distract it while the rest of us run."
As soon as Wang Ziteng mentioned the idea, tension filled the air. Even those who weren't particularly bright could understand: it wasn't about distracting but sacrificing one person so the rest could survive.
Wang Ziteng watched everyone's reactions, already thinking ahead. He had strategically blamed Fang Xiu to prepare for this moment. When everyone blamed Fang Xiu, they would probably pick him to be the bait, sacrificing him to buy more time.
Wang Ziteng knew he had to act quickly. In times of panic, people tend to follow the crowd without much thought. If someone else had suggested that Wang Ziteng, the spoiled rich kid, should be the first to go, he might have been chosen.
In this tense moment, Wang Ziteng did something no one saw coming. He suddenly shoved Fang Xiu and yelled, "It's all Fang Xiu's fault we're stuck here. So he should be the one to pay! Come on, help me!"
Everyone else exchanged glances; they were torn. The thought of surviving at the cost of sacrificing someone else was difficult to bear.
"Let him go!" Zhao Hao shouted, charging at Wang Ziteng.
Wang Ziteng was taken aback and quickly yelled, "Wu Dahai, aren't you going to help?"
Wang Ziteng was skilled at basic mind games. When seeking assistance, it was better to call someone out by name. It made them feel responsible, and it often worked surprisingly well. Instead of asking for help in general, he targeted individuals specifically. He would use their name or a description to pick someone to help.
Even though Wang Ziteng usually goofed around, his fancy education growing up came in handy.