Zuo Meng pressed herself against the door, trying hard to hear the sounds outside.
Amidst a cacophony of struggling meows, the heavy dragging and crawling sounds outside intensified, accompanied by a sinister roar, as if a throat had been torn apart, which mingled with the meows.
At the same time, there were sounds of sharp weapons slashing at flesh and bone, one after another.
The sight of liquid splashing, constant hissing, and a vast, dense mass of unidentified creatures crawling through the clinic made Zuo Meng's eyes widen in disbelief.
Is the clinic really this scary at night? What are those things crawling around on the floor? And... that sound of chopping flesh and bone coming from outside, could it be Zhong Mu making that sound?!
"Ah! Doctor, don't go over there! Your fur is all stained with blood! Come here quickly!" Zhong Mu hurriedly paced back and forth, confronting the intense meowing of the cat.
Zuo Meng couldn't tell whether the cat's meow was friendly or hostile, but Zhong Mu's voice was very gentle. Even if the other party was being fierce to him, his voice was happy, as if he was enjoying the current situation.
"After it's over, I'll take the vet to get his fur cleaned and washed."
The cat's meows became more intense in resistance.
The sounds continued for nearly half an hour before the clinic gradually quieted down. The eerie roars and crawling sounds almost completely disappeared, as if all the abnormalities had been forcibly calmed down by the swinging of the axe.
Zuo Meng didn't dare to go out at all; she could only squat by the door and listen to the sounds outside.
"The clinic is all cleaned up tonight. These abnormal patients won't have a chance to run to the town. It's all thanks to me taking care of them here. Otherwise, if they had run into Brother Xiu, who knows how badly they would have been." Zhong Mu said with a satisfied tone, seemingly happy that he had done a good deed.
"Little paper doll, come help clean up the clinic. I'm taking the doctor to wash up." Zhong Mu carried away the struggling cat, its long, drawn-out meows echoing in the distance.
The little paper figure reluctantly approached with rustling footsteps, grumbling, "It's my turn to clean the clinic again, but it's much easier than when the doctor does it. Usually, when the doctor does it, the flesh and blood get more shredded."
Zuo Meng breathed a slight sigh of relief as she listened to the sounds outside gradually quieting down. The commotion tonight should be over by now.
He tiptoed back to the bed, roughly understanding what had happened outside.
The heavy crawling sounds on the floor were probably from the patients during the day.
The disease in the village started in the limbs. Those whose hands and feet rotted were unable to walk normally after the mutation at night, and could only crawl. They would become abnormal at night, attacking everywhere, and if any player was unfortunately attracted and opened a door, they would surely die.
Secondly, there's the doctor; I never expected him to turn into a cat at night.
However, judging from the little paper doll's words, when he transforms into a cat at night, he will clean up the patients in the clinic who are attacking people abnormally. However... his voice becomes more manic at night, and he may attack indiscriminately. Therefore, the rules make people careful of the doctor at night. If you are unlucky enough to go out, you may be dealt with by the doctor.
Only Zhong Mu would walk back and forth in the clinic, tending to patients while fighting off the increasingly irritable cat, completely absorbed in the moment.
"They really are a perfect match," Zuo Meng muttered as he climbed into bed. The farce was over, and he was ready to get some rest.
Not long after I closed my eyes, the clinic became completely quiet. The little paper figure finished cleaning, and occasionally a cat's meow could be heard in the distance, but it quickly disappeared. I wondered where Zhong Mu had taken his favorite doctor.
Zuo Meng drifted off to sleep again.
Just as I was drifting off to sleep, my consciousness was about to sink into dreamland when I suddenly caught a faint sobbing sound drifting in from outside the window. It seemed... to be a woman's sobbing.
She sobbed, her voice broken and mournful, sending chills down one's spine in the quiet night.
"Please...please save me..."
The woman's voice was outside the window. Zuo Meng looked up and could see a blurry silhouette reflected on the window.
She pleaded softly, "Please save me, please? Please help me..."
Compared to the somber and terrifying sound, the woman's cries and pleading voices were perfectly normal, weak and helpless, filled with deep pleas, making one's heart tremble.
Zuo Meng sat up in bed and stared at the shadow reflected in the window.
Rule 3 states that any sound you hear should be ignored, including cries for help.
That roughly refers to the current situation.
Since the rules mentioned ignoring it, no one should be able to open the door after hearing it, so Zuo Meng lay back down, but for some reason her gaze was fixed on the window and she couldn't look away.
The woman's cries were very soft and faint; compared to the raging and terrifying harassment she experienced at night in previous dungeons, this time they sounded perfectly normal.
There were no terrifying threats, no shrill screams, and no intense, sleepless disturbances.
It seemed that there really was just a pitiful, unidentified woman outside the window asking him for help.
Zuo Meng silently pulled out the rule sheet from his pocket. He couldn't quite remember the rules, so he copied them down himself.
The rules sheet is placed at the entrance, so that normal players can see it as soon as they enter.
Rule 1: Beware of doctors at night.
Any player who has successfully completed the dungeon will immediately pull the healer into the hostile alert zone upon seeing this rule upon entering.
Rule 2: Please leave the clinic as soon as possible after your illness is treated, as this is not a safe place.
The rules are correct; the clinic is indeed dangerous, and it's easy to die at night. But once we leave the clinic, is the village safe?
On the contrary, this rule leads sick players to enter the clinic for profit, be wary of the doctor, but after receiving proper treatment, they regard the doctor as strange and dangerous and leave in a hurry.
The rules imply to players that the clinic is dangerous, the doctor is dangerous, and they should leave as soon as they recover.
However, dangerous doctors will clear out mutated patients for players at night. Dangerous doctors will treat players' illnesses and also make players leave.
If you don't break the rules of the clinic, the doctor is actually not dangerous, and is even a very advantageous position for the player.
Rule 3: Do not kill anyone inside the clinic.
These rules apply to the players; the ones who kill in the clinic aren't monsters, they're the players.
Rule four states that the second floor of the clinic is a haunted area and should be the doctor's private area. Players should not go up there, as there is no danger if they do not go up. If a player insists on forcing their way in and is killed by a haunted creature, is that considered a problem with the haunted creature?
The monsters are not entirely hostile, but the rules will induce players to be wary of all monsters. So, in this dungeon, are there other monsters like the healer that are not entirely dangerous but are opposed to players because of the rules?
Zuo Meng looked up and saw that there was no one at the window, and the woman's cries for help had disappeared without her noticing.
She left when no one responded.
Normal players should be able to sleep peacefully after this, but Zuo Meng tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
He wanted to know what that woman, that strange creature, was asking him for help with.
What secrets lie in this village that require the monster to ask the player for help?
Zuo Meng sat up in bed and stared straight at the door.
He remembered Zhong Mu saying that if there was anything interesting when there was no sound, he could go out and investigate.
Now, as players with the fine tradition of the 35-dimensional town, we can no longer just lie around!