Chapter 66: Slitting One's Own Belly and Ripping Out One's Throat

Looking at the uncapped small bottle and the brownish-yellow grease rapidly evaporating inside, Ji Yan’s throat bobbed, his expression shifting uncertainly.

He had not expected that the [Greasy Perfume], which he had considered a hot potato just hours ago, would be put to use so soon.

Yet, facing the current trouble, the only solution Ji Yan could think of was to call upon Patient A22, Liu Yan, for help.

Drawing from his experience in the [Scarlet Apartment] dungeon, Ji Yan knew that when entangled by anomalies, one could mostly escape only by leveraging another anomaly.

He had also cultivated nearly 80% favorability with Liu Yan.

He just wondered if Liu Yan could beat this asthmatic anomaly, Old Bi.

He coughed twice again, clearly feeling something wriggling inside his lungs.

This sensation was thoroughly unpleasant!

Ji Yan turned his head and spat out a large mouthful of sticky mucus.

Having accumulated 20% favorability with the asthmatic anomaly, the female rat player had already been relieved of the itch in her throat.

She looked at the bottle of evaporating greasy perfume, feeling far from optimistic about Ji Yan.

"Although the asthmatic anomaly is only a [Moderate] patient, its infection is terrifying. Ordinary patients cannot handle it, and your patient is afraid—"

Clutching his chest, Ji Yan’s breathing grew rapid. "My patient might not be a pushover."

Just as the rat player was about to speak, her pretty face suddenly turned pale.

Ji Yan felt a weight sink onto his shoulder, a chilly draft blowing across his back, while the wheezing and coughing of the old asthmatic anomaly resumed in his ear.

From the rat player’s perspective, a horribly deformed and grotesque old man could be seen dimly clinging to Ji Yan’s back!

Perhaps sensing something amiss with the [Greasy Perfume], the asthmatic anomaly had accelerated its infection...

With a dark expression, Ji Yan was about to retrieve the claw hammer from his tool bar when he suddenly felt something sticky drip onto his cheek.

Wiping it with his finger, it was a drop of disgusting brownish-yellow mucus.

Yet Ji Yan recognized it at a glance—this was grease!

Corpse grease was also dripping onto the rat player. When she looked up, her pupils constricted as she saw the entire ceiling melting like wax, large amounts of corpse grease dripping down...

Then, a massive face slowly emerged from above.

"Doctor Yang..."

"I couldn't fall asleep all night. I had a premonition that you would make me come find you in the middle of the night, and I didn't expect the premonition to come true..."

Terrified, the rat player collapsed onto the ground.

She could hardly be blamed; the face on the ceiling was simply too horrifying, its entire countenance resembling melting cheese, its facial features seeming ready to dissolve at any moment.

Ji Yan was also startled. He hadn't expected Zhang Yan to make such an entrance, thrusting her entire face straight down from the ceiling right in front of his eyes!

By now, the walls of the entire room were seeping a layer of grease, the shelves had collapsed, and the storage room looked as if it had been transformed into a creamery...

Ji Yan clutched his chest in agony and forced out the words: "Liu Yan, I didn't call you here to—"

Before Ji Yan could finish, he heard Liu Yan's eerie voice: "Doctor Yang, you look very uncomfortable."

"Also, who is the old man on your back, and why has he been clinging to you all this time?"

Ji Yan could not see the old asthmatic anomaly, but he could clearly hear its heavy wheezing and coughing in his ear.

Enduring the pain in his throat and lungs, Ji Yan raised his head with difficulty, gritting his teeth as he spoke: "It's too complicated to explain in a few sentences. Find a way to make the old man on my back stop coughing."

"If he keeps coughing, I'm going to lose my life."

"This isn't a request, it's an order, no matter what method you use!"

Ji Yan knew that with Liu Yan, one must never show weakness or plead.

Her twisted psychology only responded to domineering humiliation.

Sure enough, upon hearing the cold and imperious command, Liu Yan instead smiled, submissively and simply replying with a single word: "Okay."

The next second, Ji Yan felt the bone-chilling cold on his back vanish.

When he lifted his head, he saw a pair of deformed hands reaching down into the darkness.

Immediately afterward came the sharp and furious roar of the asthmatic patient: "Where did this freakish girl come from? Mind your own business, or I'll deal with you too..."

Following that, harsh roars echoed from the darkness of the ceiling, accompanied by the spine-chilling sounds of colliding limbs.

The two disease-anomalies had started fighting, but Ji Yan had no spare energy to care; he felt as though his chest cavity was about to explode!

Although the asthmatic old man had stopped worsening the infection, a ghostly fetus had already formed inside his lungs and was estimated to be about to force its way out through his mouth.

The mere thought of his mouth and head being torn open simultaneously sent a shiver down Ji Yan's spine.

The rat player walked over, took a brief look, and knitted her delicate eyebrows: "The embryo has formed; you have to kill it before it comes out!"

"Because our zodiac signs are compatible, I can interact with my mentor to perform a thoracotomy for you, but doing so means you will owe the rat-anomaly doctor a favor, which will trigger a mandatory quest involving it."

Ji Yan spat out another large mouthful of mucus.

Panting, he said, "I don't like owing favors."

In the Scarlet Apartment, favors were precisely what had triggered chain reactions one after another, leaving him tangled in trouble.

"I can perform the thoracotomy myself."

The rat player looked as though she had heard something utterly absurd: "The moment the scalpel cuts open your chest, blood will gush forth, and your vitality will drain away completely in less than a minute."

"Your medical kit is only of fine [Rare] quality; it doesn't even have hemostatics, blood-recovery agents, or suturing thread."

"Stop trying to act tough. Right now, only an anomaly doctor can save you."

Ji Yan shook his head. "I indeed lack a top-tier medical kit."

"But I do have a special scalpel."

"No matter how special it is, it's still just a scalpel."

Just as the rat player finished speaking, she saw Ji Yan holding a scalpel without a blade, baring his medical uniform at the chest, and making a downward slash right over his collarbone.

Blade-less, yet it easily sliced open the flesh.

Moreover, no blood flowed out; one could clearly see the organs beating beneath the ribs, and a mass of black matter wriggling within the lungs...

The rat player's eyes widened in disbelief.

Otherworldly Scalpel: A blade that does not take life, only saves it. Any living creature cut open by this scalpel will retain its original vitality, even in the event of decapitation or heart extraction.

"Miss Rat, could you lend a hand?"

Ji Yan looked at her.

The rat player's pretty face flashed with astonishment.

At that moment, a tremendous commotion erupted from the two patients locked in combat within the darkness of the ceiling.

It seemed an outcome had been reached.

Ji Yan raised his eyes.

He had not known Liu Yan's specific combat prowess; he had merely intended for her to entangle the asthmatic anomaly and buy himself a temporary reprieve.

Yet what caused Ji Yan's heart to plummet to rock bottom was that the voice drifting down from above was the old asthmatic man's: "Heh, freakish girl..."

Shortly after, a battered old man's face emerged from the darkness, staring straight at Ji Yan.

Just as despair began to spread through his heart, that asthmatic anomaly was left with only its head, which tumbled down onto the floor.

A deformed hand reached into the neck, thoroughly gouging out the asthmatic anomaly's laryngeal bones and vocal cords, spraying blood all over the ground...

Grease surged as Liu Yan's mountain-like body emerged from the darkness, her bloated, oversized face pressing right in front of Ji Yan and the rat player.

Clutching a bloody mess of shredded tissue in her hand, she offered it forward.

Liu Yan smiled, as if seeking merit and reward from Ji Yan, her face filled with adoration and reverence: "Doctor Yang, is this alright?"

"I told you to stop that old Bi from coughing, and you—"

Liu Yan smiled and nodded. "Mm-hmm."

"I pulled out his entire throat, so he won't ever be able to cough again."

Ji Yan: "..."

The rat player: "..."