Chapter 61: Paper Doll of Obsession, Dog-Type Player

"Is anyone in the room?"
The voice sounded extremely hoarse, as if a thick clump of phlegm was stuck deep in the throat.
Ji Yan glanced toward the door and gave no response.
At this time of night, who would have the leisure to come knocking? The trope of the knocking ghost had already grown tiresome during the previous apartment dungeon.
Ji Yan lay back down, pulled the quilt over his head, and prepared to sleep soundly.
Yet the ghost outside the door remained relentless, knocking persistently in a measured, unhurried rhythm—three taps followed by a brief pause.
The knocking sound grated on the nerves, causing irritation and restlessness that made it impossible to sleep!
Ji Yan frowned deeply.
Where had this ghost popped up from? Logically, it shouldn't target players without reason.
The female ghost, who had burrowed back beneath the bed, suddenly thrust out her blood-smeared head and gestured for silence toward Ji Yan: "Doctor Yang, do not answer, and do not open the door."
"Otherwise, that knocking ghost will instantly break through and enter."
"You only need to sleep quietly; whatever commotion happens outside the door will not affect you."
"Before you, the Doctor Yang who lived here was constantly harassed by this knocking ghost every midnight. We are all used to it."
The other female ghosts hiding in the corners chimed in as well.
They had already grown accustomed to it.
Yet the words of the ghost nurses made Ji Yan raise an eyebrow. If that was the case, it was no coincidence that this knocking ghost was targeting players of the Sheep zodiac...
He rolled over and stared at the bedroom door.
Even through the barrier of the door, his innate talent, [Omniscience and Omnicomprehension], was triggered.
"Among the twelve zodiac signs, there are three that are hostile to the Sheep, and the one harboring the greatest malice toward it is the Dog. Dog-zodiac players gain the [Prayer] privilege at night, facilitating their execution of tasks within the midnight hospital."
"Dog-zodiac players will always exhaust every method, utilizing their nocturnal advantage to maliciously harass and even hunt down Sheep-zodiac players, allowing them progression and rewards regarding the Head Physician of the Sheep."
"To fight fire with fire, how shall you, a Sheep, strike back?"
Ji Yan narrowed his eyes.
Clearly, this knocking ghost had been lured here by a Dog-zodiac player. Even if Ji Yan hadn't triggered the door-breaking rule, being subjected to such knocking all night would prevent him from sleeping, lowering his mental state and hindering the next day's mission progress.
Though the tactic was petty, it was genuinely sickening!
If he were to strike back and even hunt down the Dog-zodiac player, would that greatly accelerate his progress in conquering the Head Physician of the Sheep?
A sharp gleam flashed in Ji Yan's eyes.
Suddenly, he was filled with intense interest.
The last thing he lacked was disgusting ghastly items. What did a mere knocking ghost amount to?
At that moment, due to the continuous pounding, the wooden door began to corrode bit by bit, and the hoarse voice outside grew increasingly impatient: "Is anyone there... Is there really anyone... Doctor... My head hurts so much... It feels like there are countless bugs crawling inside. Won't you help me?"

Ji Yan ignored the crumbling door and was pondering how to deal with the knocking ghost when a sudden itch on his scalp caused the blood-red paper figurine, which had been lurking silently within the parting of his hair, to suddenly leap out and make its presence known.
The blood-red paper figurine hopped onto the quilt, vividly gesturing its limbs toward Ji Yan like a little person.
Whether it was his imagination or not, Ji Yan found that he could roughly comprehend what the blood-red paper figurine was trying to convey.
"You can help me deal with the knocking ghost outside?"
"But... you want me to go outside?"
The blood-red paper figurine nodded.
"What do you want me to go out for?" Ji Yan wondered, baffled by what scheme the blood-red paper figurine was plotting.
The blood-red paper figurine vividly gestured: "Good things!"
With that, the characters "Greed," "Wrath," and "Ignorance" flickered across the surface of the blood-red paper figurine once more, finally settling on the character "Ignorance."
Then, its color shifted to pitch black, and it darted out toward the doorway...
Ji Yan's eyes flickered; he had always been curious about the abilities of the blood-red paper figurine.
For now, it seemed that the uncanny abilities of the blood-red paper figurine stemmed from those three characters: "Greed," "Wrath," and "Ignorance."
Greed had been witnessed by Ji Yan earlier—it was simply an insatiable hunger.
Yet this hunger was exceedingly bizarre. Ji Yan had discovered at the time that consuming things caused no backlash or discomfort to his physical body whatsoever.
It even converted whatever was devoured into his own ghostly power.
On that occasion, Ji Yan had received a notification from the game interface stating that his ghostly power had increased by a full 150 points!
What manner of eerie ability did "Ignorance" possess this time?
As soon as the blood-red paper figurine darted out, the knocking stopped abruptly.
Outside the door, once the blood-red paper figurine attached itself to the back of the knocking ghost's neck, the entity instantly froze like a wooden stake, unable to move a muscle.
The command embedded in its mind to maliciously target Room 444 was forcibly overwritten. Immediately afterward, it mechanically turned around and slowly vanished in a certain direction...

Inside a certain equipment storage room.
The Dog player was dressed in a neat white lab coat, with an "Attending Physician" badge hanging proudly from his chest.
This indicated that he had passed the probationary period, concluding the first stage of the dungeon and entering the second stage.
As he searched for the medical equipment he needed, the Dog player muttered to himself: "I must admit, thanks to those unlucky bastards of the Sheep zodiac delivering achievements to me one after another, my dungeon progress wouldn't have been this fast otherwise."
"Tonight, I'll send that unlucky fellow a knocking ghost as a welcoming gift."
"Tomorrow night, I'll send a drowned ghost to slowly erode his sanity away. Once he's on the verge of total collapse, I can butcher the little white sheep at my leisure!"
Swishing the sharp scalpel in his hand, a playful smile curled the corners of the Dog player's mouth.
The very next second, however, the door behind him was knocked upon.
"Old Niu, you're too slow!"

The Dog player called out in response. Because the Dog and Ox zodiacs shared an affinity, their tasks naturally complemented each other, leading them to naturally form a basic alliance.
During the daytime in Ward A22, it was the Ox player who had leaked the information regarding Ji Yan to the Dog player.
No response came from the Ox player outside the door.
In an instant, the Dog player sensed that something was amiss!
One of his [Prayer] privileges—[Ghostly Olfaction]—allowed him to accurately retrieve information about a ghostly entity through residual scents.
A knocking ghost?!
Shouldn't it be harassing the Sheep player over there?
Could it have been that the Sheep player stepped on a landmine and was already hunted down by the knocking ghost?
The Dog player quickly dismissed this notion because he caught the scent of the knocking ghost outside the door radiating an intense, concentrated malice.
"Someone is in the room... someone... I heard a response... Hehehe!!"
Having received a response from the Dog player, the knocking ghost outside immediately triggered its door-breaching privilege.
The flimsy wooden door was torn apart as if made of paper, and the shattered doorknob clattered onto the floor as the stooped, malice-radiating figure of the knocking ghost slowly stepped into the room...
The Dog player's eyes turned sinister, and he cursed under his breath.

On the other side, Ji Yan had just climbed out of bed.
The blood-red paper figurine slipped back in through the crack of the door, the character "Ignorance" vanishing as it reverted to its crimson hue.
"Where did you take the knocking ghost?" Ji Yan asked in astonishment.
The blood-red paper figurine gestured wildly.
"You dragged the knocking ghost back to the Dog player's side? Tsk, impressive!" Ji Yan's eyes flashed as he couldn't help giving a thumbs-up.
Curiously enough, even though the blood-red paper figurine lacked facial features, Ji Yan could clearly perceive a sense of pride after being praised.
"So, where do you want me to go next?" Ji Yan asked aloud.
Since it was a parting gift from Miss Xu, the blood-red paper figurine would hardly wish him harm.
Though the Head Physician of the Sheep had warned him not to wander about at night and to sleep soundly, as long as he didn't meddle with anything too foul, it would tacitly allow it.
Moreover, the dungeon introduction had noted that the midnight hospital would refresh plenty of desirable treasures for players bold enough to seek wealth in danger.
The hospital at midnight was fraught with secrets and unknowns; to say Ji Yan was not curious would be a lie...