Chapter 65: The Asthmatic Old Man and the Battle of Connections

"What other information do you know?"

Ji Yan seized the opportunity to ask further.

The rat, among the twelve zodiac signs, naturally leaned toward cunning characteristics.

Regardless of how much truth or falsehood was mixed into her words, it was still information.

The dungeon survival time did not exceed 10 days, which meant that all the sheep players were stuck in the second-stage plot, most likely the death checkpoint described in the main storyline information.

Perhaps the rat player could reveal a few details.

"Not sure."

"I only know that the four players ahead of you, after being promoted to [Attending Physicians], were all infected and eliminated without exception."

The rat player shook her head.

Ji Yan did not ask further. He injected the serum into the syringe and thrust it into the infected area on his chest.

Soon, the infected and necrotic flesh could be seen recovering its color little by little with the naked eye...

"Ding! You have used the serum, effectively curing the infected area, halting the spread of the infection, and your condition is gradually recovering."

Why else would it be called a game? It worked fast and the operation was simple, with no need to dwell on details or logic.

Flexing his muscles a few times, Ji Yan checked his personal status information and confirmed that there were no abnormalities.

Thinking that the other party had survived long enough to be considered a veteran player, Ji Yan casually inquired for more information about the other zodiac signs: "Currently in the dungeon, which zodiac player has the fastest progress?"

The rat player answered without hesitation: "Of course it's the dragon zodiac."

"Before I entered the dungeon, that guy was already a [Chief Physician] and had started the third-stage dungeon plot."

"It is said that the late stage of the third-stage plot involves challenging the hospital director, which is the biggest boss of this dungeon!"

"I've met the dragon zodiac player once, hiss..."

Ji Yan saw a great deal of shock on her face, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "How so?"

"You could say that guy no longer has a single human physical feature left. His whole body is covered in purple-gold scales, and that face gave my mind a critical blow at the time!"

The rat player looked reluctant to recall it.

Ji Yan's eyes flashed. After chatting idly for a few more moments and seeing that time had dragged on to nearly four AM, he ended the idle conversation and prepared to return to room 444.

"Before you leave, let me give you a warning: in this dungeon, you must pay special attention to the dog player. He is opposed to you sheep..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Ji Yan interrupted, "We've already exchanged greetings."

"Exchanged greetings?" The rat player was slightly stunned.

"You could call it a greeting. We had a polite exchange of favors, just not sure if he's satisfied?"

Ji Yan wasn't certain either, after all, that errand had been handled by the bloody paper figurine.

He turned and walked toward the door, but as he opened it, his hand gripping the doorknob felt sticky.

Looking down, there was a patch of bloody phlegm on it at some point...

From the opened door crack, two hoarse coughs sounded from outside.

"Cough, cough..."

In an instant, Ji Yan caught a familiar scent, tainted with a malicious and bizarre corpse stench.

Immediately afterward, the door shook violently, as if something was trying to crawl out!

"Close the door!!"

The rat player ran over and slammed the door shut.

However, that cough had already echoed inside the room.

The rat player's face turned slightly pale: "Damn it, we're still too late."

"We've been targeted by an entity."

Without her saying it, Ji Yan had already noticed that the originally fresh air in the room had become heavy, stale, and fishy.

Was this an invisible entity?

"The Asthma Entity. If I remember correctly, this is a patient from A13. Theoretically, the patient entities in the inpatient building rest in their wards at night. Why would they wander over to our dormitory building?"

The rat player's pretty face looked very bad, clearly aware of how terrifying this type of entity was.

Ji Yan, however, had a guess: "Patients won't come to the dorms on their own initiative."

"But what if a doctor instructed them?"

This remark enlightened the rat player, who suddenly realized: "It's the black dog!"

"I took over patient A13 after I got promoted. At that time, a dog zodiac player competed with me for this patient, but in the end, I only cleared 20% of this patient, while that guy had some blind luck and cleared 80%."

In the hospital dungeon, once a doctor cleared over 70% of a patient, it would basically trigger favorability rewards. Most of these rewards took the form of assistance from the patient entity.

Back then, A13 had given the dog player a stick of sandalwood.

If he needed help, he just had to light the sandalwood and burn it down to one third, and the asthma patient entity would appear...

The rat player hadn't expected the dog player to use his sandalwood here!

The answer to who was meant to be dealt with by luring the asthma entity over was self-evident.

"That sandalwood is the black dog's prized possession, always kept as a life-saving trump card. Logically speaking, he shouldn't have been willing to use it to deal with you..."

The rat player tried to open the door, but it felt as though it had been glued shut. The moment she pulled, thick bloody phlegm oozed out from the gap in the door.

"It shows someone's mental defense has shattered."

"For the sake of revenge, he even brought out his ultimate trump card."

Ji Yan roughly guessed that the bloody paper figurine had controlled that knocking entity and made the dog player look thoroughly wretched.

People like that were laughable to think about.

The other party had targeted him, and Ji Yan had merely returned the favor politely, yet the guy's mental defense shattered.

Wasn't this equivalent to: It's only natural for me to beat you and make you swallow your grievances, but if you dare to fight back, I'll go red-hot and fight you to the death!

Utterly ridiculous.

At this moment, inside the room, a hoarse cough sounded every single minute.

Ji Yan soon noticed that his own throat was itching as well, feeling as though ten thousand ants were crawling inside his windpipe.

Clearly, the asthma entity was using its coughs to infiltrate the air with pathogens and invade their bodies.

Ji Yan couldn't help coughing twice.

The rat player hurriedly spoke up: "You mustn't cough!"

"The more you cough, the more intense the itch becomes, and the more severe the lung infection gets."

Ji Yan saw the agony on the rat player's face; she was trying her utmost to endure the itching in her throat.

"Severe infection, and then what?" Ji Yan asked in return, feeling an abnormality in his chest cavity and his lungs churning, as if something was about to crawl out.

Fine sweat beaded on the rat player's smooth forehead: "What that entity patient coughs out is not pathogens, but its eggs."

"Breathing causes the eggs to parasitize inside the body, and coughing causes the eggs to grow rapidly."

Mentioning this, the rat player recalled another unpleasant memory: "At the time, I saw those infected patients with my own eyes coughing violently. What they coughed up wasn't bloody phlegm, but embryonic mucus..."

"In the end, I saw the patient's throat swell as thick as a head, its mouth stretching open like a snake's, and a soccer-sized entity baby crawling out from its mouth!"

Hearing this, Ji Yan's mouth twitched.

The rat player would rather bite the skin of her hand to pieces than endure a cough.

She would rather die than have a baby crawl out of her throat!

This way of dying was too disgusting!

Ji Yan subconsciously coughed twice again, as if to prove the words were true, coughing up a puddle of transparent mucus...

"Doctor, I feel so awful, coughing until I can't breathe. Do you have medicine on you? Save me..."

Inside the room, the voice of the asthma entity rang out. It seemed to be calling out to Ji Yan for help, but in reality, it was just a set of pretexts randomly conjured up to target him.

"I have medicine. Why don't you show your face first and let me take a look at you?"

Ji Yan replied, but the asthma entity simply repeated its lines as if it couldn't hear him, and its coughs became increasingly frequent and violent...

"This old bastard!" Ji Yan's expression turned slightly cold.

"Old master, do you remember me?"

At this moment, the rat player suddenly spoke up.

"Hmm... You're the rat doctor who came to the ward with the dog doctor that day. Why are you here too?"

Seeing that the other party had responded to her, joy lit up the rat player's face. She glanced at Ji Yan and said, "Old master, the one you're looking for is the sheep doctor; I just happened to pass by. Can you..."

There was a brief silence in the air, and then the voice of the asthma entity slowly echoed: "Very well."

"Rat doctor, you may leave. The only one I am looking for is the sheep doctor anyway, since the medicine is on him..."

Hearing this, the rat player secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the 20% favorability she had cultivated with the asthma entity patient was still useful.

She looked at Ji Yan, her expression holding no trace of guilt or awkwardness: "This trouble came looking for you, even though the two of us are supposed to be allies in terms of the zodiac."

"But you must know that in a place like a bizarre dungeon, allies are as fragile as paper. You'll have to rely on yourself to survive this calamity."

Ji Yan glanced at her: "I didn't stop you from leaving."

The rat player was slightly startled and couldn't help asking: "How are you going to deal with this?"

"Judging by this momentum, in less than ten minutes, the entity baby in your lungs will have formed and forced its way out..."

Ji Yan clutched his chest, coughing lightly as he said, "The black dog has his connected patient, and what a coincidence, so do I."

"Since this old asthma geezer insists on messing with me, I might as well let my patient have a deep conversation with him!"

As his voice fell, a small brownish-yellow bottle appeared in Ji Yan's hand.

The wooden cork was twisted and pulled out, and a bizarre fragrance instantly filled the entire room...