Chapter 54 Psychotropic Medication, Zodiac Wish

"Some other patients played a prank on me and sewed me into a painting. It hurts so much, please, doctor, save me!"

The painted face was bathed in tears and snot, its features twisted in agony as it begged Ji Yan.

Ji Yan asked in return, "How am I supposed to save you?"

"It's simple. Help me down from the wall, and I can break free from the rest myself."

Looking at the painted face weeping tears of joy, Ji Yan's expression remained calm. "Sorry, I am only responsible for treating my patients."

After several futile pleas, the painted face finally received no help.

Soon, it revealed a ferocious and terrifying expression. "Doctors are all sanctimonious hypocrites! You talk big about saving lives, but in reality, you're all cold-blooded beasts!"

"If it weren't for you dog doctors, how would I have ended up here?"

"Just to explore your so-called medical breakthroughs, you harvested everything of value from my body, and you didn't even spare my face—sewing it here to serve as an oil painting for you!"

"Damn you, you all deserve to die!!"

The oil painting shook violently, and bright red dye trickled down from the frame.

That painted face tore through the sewing threads, ripping apart the flesh and blood vessels that had grown together with the frame, sending blood splattering everywhere.

It looked ready to swallow Ji Yan whole!

Ji Yan's eyelids twitched.

Instinctively, he reached to pull out his claw hammer.

But the next second, a hand wearing blood-stained disinfection gloves grabbed that ferocious painted face.

Amidst piercing shrieks, it was forcefully ripped right out of the picture frame.

Ji Yan turned his head abruptly and saw a slender doctor in a white lab coat standing behind him out of nowhere.

To his horror, the entity had a human body, but topped with the head of a sheep!

Its horns spiraled outward, and its face was covered in surgical stitches, looking terrifying and grotesque.

At that moment, the sheep-headed doctor crumpled the eerie facial skin into a ball just as if it were a piece of paper.

Then, like ordinary garbage, it casually tossed it into a nearby trash can.

"The nurse said you devoured the 'matrix' and successfully passed the C-section interview."

Shaking the blood off its hands, the sheep-headed eerie doctor opened a pair of bulging, pitch-black eyeballs. "I am your clinical mentor, responsible for your performance during your internship."

"Didn't the nurse tell you not to touch the hospital's public property casually?"

"I didn't touch it. It initiated the conversation with me."

Recalling the resentment-filled words of the painted face, Ji Yan couldn't help but ask, "That painted face... did it say it used to be a patient at the hospital?"

"You misheard."

"That was merely an ordinary piece of canvas. It's broken, so it's time to replace it with a new one."

"Besides, this is not something you should be focusing on."

The sheep-headed eerie doctor's eyeballs held not a shred of emotion.

An evaluation form was handed over to Ji Yan.

"You've only passed the interview, but you are still in your internship period under me. If you want to become a full-fledged staff member, you must pass my test."

"You only have two days of internship time."

Ji Yan asked calmly, "What happens if I fail the internship and don't get promoted?"

The sheep-headed doctor's face seemed as though it didn't belong to it, devoid of any expression. "I will have the obstetrics nurse gestate a new intern."

"I am asking what will happen to *me*?"

According to the hospital rules, once an eerie doctor rated a player's internship performance below twenty points, they would "devour" the player.

However, "devour" was heavily marked with quotation marks, clearly carrying another meaning.

The sheep-headed doctor's cracked, blackened lips twitched into a stiff smile. "You don't want to find out."

"..."

"Today, a patient in A22 is showing signs of a worsening condition. Your responsibility is to provide a consultation and treatment. I will be monitoring your performance at all times."

"Aside from us, two other groups of doctors have taken charge of that patient, and they will also send their own students to handle it."

"In this hospital, patients are like commodities in short supply, and doctors are competing merchants. You must use any means necessary to treat them first."

"If you get the chance, find a way to orchestrate a 'medical accident' to kill their medical students!"

"Don't let me down. Perform well, and I will give you a surprise gift."

The sheep-headed doctor pinned a sheep-head badge onto Ji Yan's chest and patted his shoulder with its blood-stained hand.

"Return here before six o'clock at dusk."

"I'll be waiting for you."

Watching the sheep-headed doctor's retreating figure, Ji Yan's expression darkened slightly as familiar pressure weighed down on his head.

Yet another cruel competitive dynamic...

"Ding! The player has successfully triggered a quest: proceed to Ward A22 and administer preliminary treatment to the patient."

"Quest Hint: The patient poses a certain degree of danger. The severity of the condition is [Moderate]. Please proceed with caution."

"Eerie Doctor Hint: Each Zodiac eerie doctor possesses their own [Wish], which can grant players different gaming privileges. Players must advance the dungeon's plot to piece together [Wish] fragments and enhance their own gaming privileges."

"Standard Completion: Soothe the patient's condition."

"Excellent Completion: Effectively treat the condition."

"Perfect Completion: Fully cure the patient's condition."

(Psychoactive Medication: Players are constantly infected while inside the hospital and must rely on daily medication to remain lucid.)

(Failing to take the medication for a long period will eventually lead to complete infection, turning the player into one of "them.")

"Psychoactive medication? Turn into *them*?"

Ji Yan's expression grew slightly solemn.

He checked his own body, yet failed to find any abnormal symptoms whatsoever.

He opened the game progress panel; the current stage of the dungeon was—pass the internship period and be promoted to a full-fledged physician.

The second stage of the dungeon's progress remained locked.

Clearly, the plot of this dungeon was quite extensive.

And there was still a main questline that had yet to be triggered...

Ji Yan shook his head, having no time to dwell on such distant matters.

His primary objective right now was to pass the internship!

He picked up his medical kit and prepared to head toward Ward A22, but the moment he turned around, he froze for a split second.

Just as he pivoted, he caught a reflection in the glass of the operating room door: his own head had turned into that of a sheep?!

Furthermore, the sheep head was covered in black fur, looking grotesque and terrifying.

Yet when he turned to face the glass directly once more, it was clearly his own face again...

In the real world, he would likely write it off as an illusion and ignore it.

However, this was a horror game, and everything that seemed like an illusion could very well be a set mechanic of the dungeon.

Could this be what they called "infection"?

Touching his own face, Ji Yan shook his head, cast the thought to the back of his mind, and hurried toward Building A.

The layout within the ward building was quite bizarre; much of it consisted of solid walls, and a long, narrow corridor might only feature three or four patient rooms, with all the rest seemingly filled in and sealed with concrete.

Upon arriving at Ward A22, two figures were already standing by the doorway.

One was a burly man wearing a tank top, with an internship badge featuring an ox-head emblem pinned to his chest.

The other was a delicate-looking loli girl with twin ponytails, wearing an internship badge featuring a chicken-head emblem on her chest.

Clearly, these were the other two doctors who had taken on the treatment of the patient in A22.

"An ox and a chicken? Their external appearances certainly match their respective Zodiac eerie doctors," Ji Yan thought to himself.

The ox represented strength and robustness, while the chicken represented timidity and weakness; the two players matched these traits quite closely.

Come to think of it, the two players in the C-section ward—the pig and the snake—had also matched quite well: one was big-bellied and carefree, while the other had a sharp gaze and spoke very little.

Was this pure coincidence, or was it intentionally arranged by the dungeon?

Thinking of this, Ji Yan couldn't help but wonder: what traits did he share with a sheep?

A sheep's symbolic imagery and connotations were numerous.

Peace, kindness, gentleness, unyielding spirit...

They all seemed like positive traits.

Yet Ji Yan knew he was no bleeding-heart savior, so he certainly didn't fit those!

"A white sheep? Heh, the last white sheep player was just 'devoured' by their own sheep-head eerie entity. I didn't expect a new intern to be gestated in less than two days!"

Seeing Ji Yan, the ox-head player sneered without any restraint.

"It's not surprising. After all, among the twelve Zodiacs, the sheep-head eerie doctor naturally has the highest mortality rate. It's like they're cursed—not a single one ever survives to reach the rank of [Full-Physician]..."

The chicken-head player muttered softly, looking at Ji Yan as if gazing at an unlucky soul.

Ji Yan naturally overheard the conversation, his expression shifting slightly.

The previous white sheep player had been devoured by their own clinical mentor?