Ellison’s gaze held a moment of blank confusion, and with a brief pause in thought, his mental state underwent a significant change. The sharp struggle within him became a lack of confidence, as if his beliefs were faltering.
After Xu Huo injected the "syringe" into his arm, the light in his eyes gradually dimmed.
Xu Huo sat down in front of him and picked up a notebook, "Name?"
The same scene was taking place elsewhere in the building. Of course, the doctors facing the "patients" varied in appearance, some modeled after the patients’ own imagination, while others were illusions created by Xu Huo’s power of replication.
In reality, this group had been categorized upon entering the replica. The strongest group of advanced players, along with Captain Matt, were placed on the topmost floor. Bai Kou was also there; the reason the replica had not been dismantled yet was largely thanks to her.
The other Nobles, like Ellison, were also divided into several groups. Some were tougher to crack and not so easily lured into illusion. This was where Xu Huo needed to reinforce the concepts of "hospital" and "patient" for them.
The first two missions in the game were connected, and players who were neither able to destroy the replica nor eager to find a way out naturally chose to go after the doctors. And where to find doctors? In the psychotherapy rooms, of course.
But the psychotherapy rooms were a trap. Players who had not reached the range preset by Xu Huo could only keep opening doors until their hands tired. Only after they had sufficiently adapted to the replica’s environment would a "doctor" appear in the office.
With this precondition, the abilities of the Red and Black Bracelets were significantly weakened. For instance, Ellison believed he couldn’t summon items, but in reality, he never went through the process of summoning them—he only thought he was holding an item.
Once unable to use items or special abilities, players’ psychological defenses would begin to show cracks. Of course, this could also provoke a player’s rebellious spirit and lead them to conclude that this was all an illusion of the replica.
But knowing you’re trapped in an illusion and being powerless to escape can, with a little guidance, break down another layer of defense, plunging the players into self-doubt.
It’s like being the only sober person in a room full of drunks. When you’re the only one awake and everyone around you treats you like a madman, even the most resolute person may waver.
That was merely the appetizer, though. What followed were fantasies from oneself or others. As more and more hospital fantasies accumulated, the replica became more complete and the imagined medical staff or certain monsters edged closer to physical existence in the players’ minds.
By then, the players would fall deeper and the hospital would become a real mental institution.
For the Red and Black Bracelets, Xu Huo lured them deeper into the replica. There were some with stronger spiritual power, but that was becoming less important now, because Xu Huo had also placed the list of doctors before them, just like with the White Bracelet. If they wanted to clear the level, they had to kill a doctor.
Xu Huo meticulously divided the Red and Black Bracelets, and when he felt the time was right, he opened up certain parts of the hospital so the White Bracelet could find their targets more easily.
The Red and Black Bracelet players, partly Nobles, had systematically studied replicas classification and certain precautions for some replicas. So most of them managed some restraint upon learning this was a mental-class replica. The situation for those with the White Bracelets was different, as they were the main subjects of the fantasy.
After Xu Huo manipulated several players with compromised mental states the night before, more and more players joined the imaginative ranks. Before dawn broke, those with the White Bracelets had already seen "ghosts" without legs or faces but with eyes.
There were also mentally ill patients wandering the hospital at night looking for victims, medical staff who took pleasure in mistreating patients, bathrooms from which crying sounds would emerge whenever someone appeared, and monsters lurking under beds waiting for someone to peek...
Many such things. When Xu Huo came from the Red Bracelets’ side to check the results, the floor where the White Bracelets were had changed drastically. Even the corners and ceilings were covered in growths, and something resembling hair extended from the window to the sea.
Even the sea near the hospital had changed, no longer a black ocean with giant octopus corpses floating, but boiling soup filled with bobbing heads.
"Such rich imagination," Xu Huo hadn’t expected such progress in less than a night, so he connected the White and Red Bracelets, having the Red visit the White’s imaginative world.
Only a dozen or so Red Bracelets, who were in relatively good mental condition, were allowed in at a time. They had been reassuring each other that nothing in the mental replica was real, but as soon as they entered the White’s territory, they were horrified by what they saw. After all, who could look at a female ghost with half a body dragging itself towards them and say it wasn’t real!
The Red Bracelets turned and ran, but the building had become a bizarre world filled with impossibilities. Two Red Bracelets who were too slow were immediately dragged into the walls by several hands and overwhelmed by growths swollen like organs.
In addition to the players who vanished into the fantastical creations, several were caught by the White Bracelets.
The White Bracelets had also been tormented all night and were eager to clear the level. Seeing the Red Bracelets appear, they didn’t care if they were real or not—they just attacked. Without special abilities or props, the fights were comical likened to inept fowl pecking at each other.
Some Red Bracelets were formidable, but they were no match for the overwhelming numbers of White Bracelets. Once injured, even if the White didn’t kill them, the hospital would hold them back.
Several Red Bracelets were killed one after another, but no one cleared the level. The White Bracelets stopped, looked at each other, and said, "Could it be we didn’t kill real people?"
"Impossible!" someone objected. "They were alive!"
"Then why haven’t we cleared the level? The Red Bracelets are the doctors, we should have cleared the level after killing them!" A player, clutching his head, voiced the question many wanted to ask, "Have we really gone mad?"
"This is a replica!" Lu Yun, who had caught up panting, said, "The replica already has obstacles for players by nature. Maybe the list we saw wasn’t really the list of doctors, the real doctors are someone else!"
"Then who is it?" Chen Zi followed up, "Is the doctor among us?"
For a moment, those with the White Bracelets became wary of each other.
"Wait a second." Xu Huo appeared from around the corner, "Perhaps there’s no strict distinction between doctors and patients here. The players who came in can be either patients or doctors. Just because we have bracelets doesn’t mean we can’t become doctors."
"How do we become doctors? Through imagination?" Chen Zi closed her eyes, as if trying hard to imagine. After a moment, she opened her eyes and looked down at herself, "I didn’t become a doctor."