Chapter 119: Love Welfare Institute
It seemed that these children didn’t like him very much... it seemed he hadn’t been liked by children since childhood.
Outside the door, there was the sudden rush of high-heeled shoes and the sound of the nurse’s heels against the ground. The nurses were walking toward the elevator. It was obvious that something had happened that needed them to gather.
Bai Liu’s eyes lowered. “A patient has woken up.”
“It can’t be such a coincidence...” Mu Ke’s face stiffened as he turned to Bai Liu. “It can’t be Miao Feichi’s group that woke up?”
The 2nd floor, ICU, 7:40 a.m.
Miao Gaojiang was covered with red and black burns. He coughed as he was helped up by the nurse. He turned to Miao Feichi who was unconscious in the other bed and gritted his teeth. Even if he blocked most of the attacks for Miao Feichi, his weak defense son must’ve lost more health than him.
In addition, Miao Gaojiang’s loss of health wasn’t low.
Miao Gaojiang moved his body and leaned against the pillow with difficulty. Then he gazed gloomily at his health panel.
[System notification: Player Miao Gaojiang’s health value is 23.]
Bai Liu’s wave of attacks directly took away over half his health. Even in the league games, Miao Gaojiang had rarely suffered such a big injury due to his high defense.
He gulped down the physical strength recovery agent and mental bleach with a splitting headache and the expression on his face was dark. He had only 23 health left. Miao Feichi’s health must be lower than his.
This made Miao Gaojiang finally look up.
Bai Liu was a madman. He was completely desperate to decrease their health. He tried to earn every drop of blood.
It was clear that Bai Liu had given up on the path of the investors and put all his chips on the children. Now it was meaningless to kill Bai Liu and consume their health. The urgent task was to get enough blood to clear the game and kill Bai Liu’s children.
After clearing up his thoughts, Miao Gaojiang bought several protective bandages to cover his still bleeding wound. He got up and bandaged Miao Feichi before gently shaking Miao Feichi awake. Miao Feichi woke up with a grimace. He held the railing in a dizzy manner as he was helped up by a nurse and Miao Gaojiang.
Miao Feichi had been stuffed with a tube of mental bleach and physical strength recovery agent by his father when unconscious. After waking up, the large amount of liquid intake made Miao Feichi retch a few times. Then he wiped his mouth and woke up.
“Feichi, what is your health?” Miao Gaojiang asked with a frown when he saw that Miao Feichi had woken up.
Miao Feichi opened his attributes panel. He couldn’t hold back a curse word and his face darkened. “Fuck, I only have 11 points left.”
“...It is a bit too low.” Miao Gaojiang frowned. “I thought that if your health was high enough to kill Bai Liu, we will go through the children’s welfare home. However, if you lose two health points then your health will fall below 10. This is already the death prediction value.”
‘Death prediction’ was a league audience term and was also known as the death threshold. This meant that in a league confrontation, if a player’s health dropped below a certain value then the system would send a death threshold notice to the player that their health was in a lot of danger right now. This was basically a value where they could be killed in one wave in a group war or siege.
Players who dropped to this threshold would soon be taken away from the field, so falling to it was known to the audience as predicting death. Thus, the death threshold notice issued by the system was also called the death prediction.
Miao Feichi’s death threshold was generally 9 points while Miao Gaojiang’s was 1 point. It was because he had more defense and it wasn’t easy for him to be killed in one wave of attacks.
Miao Feichi touched the bloody wound on his face and sucked in a breath of cold air. He felt pain and anger. “Fuck the death prediction. Bai Liu is a non-league player with a F-grade panel. My death threshold is generally for high level players in the league. How does he deserve to be mentioned with me?”
“He hasn’t entered the league yet. His panel is only F-grade but he can push your health near the threshold and decrease my health by half.” Miao Gaojiang calmly interrupted Miao Feichi’s incessant abuse. “Don’t you think he is even more terrible?”
Miao Feichi’s expression was stunned.
Miao Gaojiang took a deep breath. “We’ve found the wrong promotion target for the flag sacrifice. Click on the system panel to take a look. We have to give up on using Bai Liu as a flag sacrifice and quickly class the instance, or both of us will fail this game.”
Miao Feichi opened the system panel with a frown and he saw a bright red notice on his panel.
[System warm reminder: Tomorrow is Thursday, the day of serious illness. Investor players who haven’t been cured by a blood ganoderma lucidum will receive a ‘serious illness’ buff after midnight. The serious illness buff will cause the player’s blood to slowly drop. Players, please speed up the instance clearance.]
Miao Gaojiang looked solemn. “This ‘serious illness’ is a debuff that forcibly weakens our health. According to the song, we will die of illness on Friday. This means the debuff is likely to consume all our health on Friday. Currently, health is very valuable to us but for Bai Liu, who has given up the investor clearance route, health doesn’t matter to them and can be wasted at will.”
Miao Gaojiang leaned forward. He half crouched down and stared at Miao Feichi who was still stunned. “It is because they don’t expect to take the investor clearance route. Do you understand, Feichi? All of them, including Liu Huai, chose to sacrifice themselves to protect their children.”
“Meanwhile, we chose ourselves. It doesn’t matter if we kill them because their hopes and desires on are on their other selves.”
HIs eyes gradually became dark. “Killing those children and getting their blood to survive is the first thing we need to do to clear the instance. Do you understand? Don’t trouble Bai Liu any longer. Do business first.”
Miao Feichi reluctantly gritted his teeth and finally nodded.
Miao Gaojiang sighed with relief. Miao Feichi was very impulsive and irritable but fortunately, he still listened to Miao Gaojiang’s words related to their survival. This was the reason why he couldn’t help doting on Miao Feichi and even help him commit evil. Miao Feichi was really a good child who listened to his father’s words.
He just didn’t listen to his mother very much.
However, he really listened to his father. Hesaw his father’s growing pain due to his seriously ill mother, he saw his father want to kill the woman who dragged down their whole family and he saw his father want to end this life and find better women, but he was afraid his mother would scream that he couldn’t get her inheritance and house. Therefore, little Miao Feichi stood up and became his father’s hero. He ended this miserable life for his father.
“We are going to live this time as well. You know, Feichi?” Miao Gaojiang spoke softly while touching the face of Miao Feichi leaning against him. Miao Gaojiang’s mental value had fallen below 20 and he forced it back above this line, making Miao Gaojiang’s state somewhat abnormal. This was the after-effects of his mental value decline.
Miao Gaojiang self-regulated his breathing. He inhaled and exhaled deeply. Under the seemingly calm surface, there was fear, tyranny, madness and a distorted neuroticism. “We can overcome things like your mother. There is nothing we can’t overcome.”
Miao Feichi was wrapped in bandages and his face was pale. He looked up at Miao Gaojiang, his weakness making him look a lot softer.
For a moment, the static of a television appeared in front of his eyes. Miao Feichi’s face started to flash in black and white. It overlapped with the face of a dead woman.
The woman’s eyes were stuck open as she stared intently at the cold glass of water on the counter in front of the window. Her mouth was twisted open wide and her jaw hung down to her chest, revealing a dark mouth—there was no tongue inside.
The tongue was cut off and eaten by Miao Feichi.
It was eaten by this good boy who listened to his father.
Miao Feichi stood by his mother’s bed, looking with a salivating gaze at his mother’s tongue sticking out as she drank the water, gently making delicious ripples in the glass. The little boy’s eyes shook and he gulped along with the ripples in the cup. These eyes gradually overlapped with Miao Feichi sitting on the hospital bed now.
Miao Gaojiang’s heart throbbed and he fiercely pushed away Miao Feichi who was leaning on him. Miao Feichi was pained by the push and glanced at Miao Gaojiang in a puzzled and impatient manner. “Dad, what are you doing?”
Miao Gaojiang forced out a smile. “No, nothing. My mental state isn’t very good right now.”
Miao Gaojiang turned around and drank a bottle of mental bleach. His mental value was jumping up and down due to the extreme instability from the after-effects.
Now Miao Gaojiang was perfectly aware that he was encountering the aftermath of his mental value falling below 20. However, he didn’t want to admit it and he didn’t dare to admit it. He was a bit confused about the boundary between reality and illusion. A subconscious fear was eroding his brain and it was a prelude to madness.
It was necessary to leave the game as soon as possible. Miao Gaojiang gritted his teeth while sweat oozed down his forehead. He raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his face and forced himself to calm down.
Miao Gaojiang turned to the nurse. “When will we go to the welfare home today for the adoption?”
The nurse answered in a somewhat embarrassed manner, “Today’s matching with the welfare home is canceled because many investors were hurt by the explosion at the private hospital.”
Miao Gaojiang’s expression sank. “However, we will be ‘sick’ tomorrow. Can we do the matching separately?”
“...Yes, but it is just the two of you. The welfare home won’t open its gates to avoid children escaping. If you must go, you have to go through the tunnel that goes straight to the welfare home’s church.” The nurse explained, her eyes evasive.
“Children who have been baptized in church will be sent directly to the hospital through this tunnel. However, recently more investors have been ill so there is the selection link. However, you have been matched with your children so you can go directly through the tunnel to pick them up.”
Miao Gaojiang sighed with relief. “Where is the entrance of this tunnel?”
The nurse was silent for two seconds. “Right below the emergency stairs.”
***
“Bai Liu, how do you know the exit of the tunnel is directly below the emergency stairs?” Mu Ke asked with confusion and fear. He swallowed a mouthful of water and glanced at the time of the wall clock hanging in the ward. “It is more than 8 o’clock in the morning. The deformed children and monsters in the emergency stairs won’t disappear until after 9 o’clock. They should still be lingering near the emergency stairs. Should we go there like this?”
Mu Ke’s eyes were on Liu Huai’s cut off arms and Bai Liu’s blood-stained cuffs. He didn’t want to admit it but he said seriously, “I don’t have any combat power and your state is also very bad. If we go like this, it is easy to die if we have a head-on conflict with those child monsters. Moreover, if your guess is wrong and the tunnel exit isn’t under the emergency stairs, we will just be giving our heads.”
Mu Ke’s eyes and tone became serious as he said this. He saw with crossed legs, his hands firmly holding the corner of his clothes as he leaned forward to stare at Bai Liu. “Bai Liu (6) is dead. You can’t gamble now. We can’t make any risky decisions. If anything goes wrong, you will be the first of us to die. Your health is only 0.5.”
“I can’t be 100% sure.” Bai Liu’s expression remained calm. “Still, I’m 90% sure that is the place.”
Bai Liu glanced at Mu Ke. “I have two reasons for coming to this conclusion. First, if there is such a tunnel between the private hospital and welfare home, this tunnel is mostly for transporting children. Little Mu Ke told us the same thing. The children who had their blood drawn went back and forth in this tunnel. In the hospital, the place with the most children monsters is the emergency stairs.”
He raised a second finger. “Secondly, Mu Ke. Do you remember the welfare home we visited in reality?”
Mu Ke was stunned before he nodded.
Bai Liu continued. “The teacher told us that the welfare home was later reduced in size. After I went back, I checked the 3D comparison between the original architectural map and the current architectural map. The welfare home previously had a church. Later, the welfare home was reduced in size and this church was changed to a hospital. Guess where the security exit on the first floor of the remodeled hospital is built?”
Mu Ke held his breath as he stared at Bai Liu. Bai Liu told him the answer peacefully, “The position of the statue built in the original church of the welfare home is completely consistent with the entrance/exit of the tunnel in this game.”
“Can’t we go after 9 o’clock?” Mu Ke frowned. “It will be much safer for you after 9 o’clock.”
“That is true for me.” Bai Liu stood up. He picked up the long bone whip and moved his wrist slightly, briefly warming up before the fight.
Bai Liu’s face was pale but there were no fluctuations in his eyes as he looked at Mu Ke who was still on the ground. “However, not for the other you. Miao Gaojiang and Miao Feichi should’ve woken up. They won’t come to chase us because we aren’t planning to pass the instance using our investor identity. It will just waste their blood to kill us. If I am Miao Gaojiang, I would immediately go to the welfare home to draw the children’s blood.”
“Little Mu Ke just called to tell us that the gate of the welfare home isn’t open. This means Miao Gaojiang is unlikely to go through the door. The hospital nurses must know about the tunnel for transporting children. If a nurse tells Miao Gaojiang about the tunnel then they will likely use it to go to the welfare home.”
Bai Liu’s eyes kept lowering and fell on Mu Ke’s clenched hand. “In other words, if we don’t hurry over, little Mu Ke will be ambushed. Then you will be in as much danger as me. You know this, right?”
Mu Ke pursed his lips. He lowered his head and retorted lightly, “That’s fine. I think it is more important to ensure your health. You only have 0.5 health while I have 6.”
“Look directly in my eyes and talk, Mu Ke.” Bai Liu’a expression was blank., “Your hands are trembling and you are afraid. Don’t talk nonsense. Get up and let’s go. We are indeed at a disadvantage right now—”
Bai Liu lowered his head and used the handle of the whip to hit Mu Ke’s forehead. Mu Ke squinted at Bai Liu in a daze and Bai Liu told him quietly, “—But Mu Ke, this doesn’t mean that we will definitely lose. If the loss will cost me a lot, I will definitely win the game by any means.”