The Only Player in 'Child of Stardust'-Chapter 81 - 68 Reality Warper Part 2

Chapter 81: Chapter 68 Reality Warper? Part 2

Chapter 81 -68 Reality Warper? Part 2

“Hmm… The rules mention that there are special compartments in the psychiatric hospital. Maybe Qin Youwen is hiding inside one of them. Let’s go explore first.”

Chen Guangxi raised her palm and cast a spell again. A faint light flashed, and the two of them turned invisible and silent.

Zhou Yuan immediately transformed into a shadow and slipped through the crack under the door. Chen Guangxi followed closely behind, using her shadow system magic to transform into a shadow as well.

The corridor was pitch black and silent, with only a faint white light coming from the distant nurse’s station.

They maintained their shadow state as they moved forward and soon arrived at the nurse’s station.

Three male orderlies were on duty, all engrossed in their phones. Two were playing games, and one was watching videos.

[Three night-shift orderlies, nothing out of the ordinary, no abnormalities.]

Was it them who did the rounds just now? Zhou Yuan was puzzled. If these three men were normal, how could their eerie behavior during the rounds be explained?

Passing by the nurse’s station, they decided to go upstairs because the rules mentioned that the special compartments couldn’t be accessed by the ‘elevator,’ leaving only the stairs as an option.

They explored each floor as they ascended, but even after reaching the top floor, they did not find the so-called special compartment.

“Don’t worry, the psychiatric hospital has three buildings. We’ve only checked one. Let’s go to the second building,” Chen Guangxi said.

They walked along the corridor toward the second building. Just then, Zhou Yuan glanced out the window and suddenly froze.

“Look outside,” he reminded Chen Guangxi.

On the playground, two shadows were joyfully running around, holding nets in their hands.

[These two patients believe they are SpongeBob and Patrick, so every night they sneak out of their rooms to happily catch jellyfish on the playground.]

“Are they… catching jellyfish?” Chen Guangxi immediately noticed something unusual.

“How did you figure that out?” Zhou Yuan asked, puzzled.

“I watched all twenty seasons of SpongeBob when I was bored. I’m very familiar with it.”

Watching the figures happily running on the playground, Chen Guangxi suddenly had a question. “How long have they been running? Did they miss the orderlies’ rounds?”

Zhou Yuan shook his head, “Not sure.”

Chen Guangxi thought for a moment, stroking her chin. “Tomorrow, let’s find time to ask the other patients if they know about these so-called rules and observe their rooms—whether they are clean and tidy or messy.”

Zhou Yuan’s heart skipped a beat. “You mean…”

“We might be contaminated.”

Chen Guangxi explained, “Maybe these rule-based stories don’t exist in the psychiatric hospital at all. It’s just that Dong Jie thought they did, so they became real. Everyone who hears about the rules gets infected, while those who haven’t heard them remain unaffected.”

If this guess is correct, then Dong Jie might be a [reality warper], and the anomalies in this psychiatric hospital are caused by him!”

A reality warper…

Someone who could bend reality at will, altering the laws of reality. Many level 4 and 5 abnormal events were triggered by reality warpers.

“But Dong Jie is just a regular person… Can a regular person become a reality warper?”

Chen Guangxi nodded, “A reality warper doesn’t have to be an extraordinary person.”

Damn, if Dong Jie is a reality warper, why didn’t the Eyes of Identification alert me? Zhou Yuan was puzzled. Or is Dong Jie not a reality warper?

Or maybe he has some power that can bypass the Eyes of Identification’s detection?

“Let’s go, keep investigating,” Chen Guangxi called.

They then checked the top to bottom of the second building, and from the ground floor back to the top floor, then returned to the first building from the top floor to the first floor.

They found nothing.

So they decided to go to the third building.

This building had a cafeteria, bathrooms, and orderly dorms, unlike the other patient wards.

The first floor was the cafeteria, but as soon as they stepped into the dark hall, a cold chill crawled up Zhou Yuan’s spine.

Bang bang bang… Thump thump thump… Rustle rustle…

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

Strange noises suddenly came from the ceiling above, like something was crawling, running, and writhing.

“Did you hear that?” Zhou Yuan asked Chen Guangxi in his mind.

“Yeah… The fifth rule: [If you hear strange noises from the ceiling and hear someone counting down, run immediately].

There are only strange noises now, no counting down, no need to worry.”

Chen Guangxi was calm and experienced, having seen numerous scenarios before. She confidently gestured for Zhou Yuan to head upstairs.

The second floor was also a cafeteria, and the strange noises followed them up.

“Can you sense what that is?” Zhou Yuan wanted to use the Eyes of Identification to take a peek since the rule didn’t say they couldn’t look up.

“Just a corpse,” Chen Guangxi had already looked up.

Seeing her look up, Zhou Yuan also looked up and saw a corpse glued to the ceiling.

The corpse was male, around thirty, dressed in a blue and white striped hospital gown, with eerily pale eyes staring at them.

[Congratulations, you found a poor soul who died from breaking the rules. But it’s not a threat; the real threat is what killed it—the woman who counts down.

That woman is in the second building now. You perfectly missed her earlier, so you can safely explore for now.

By the way, you can find a compartment on the third floor.]

Finally, some useful information!

This psychiatric hospital seemed to have some unknown force affecting the Eyes of Identification, not providing much useful information earlier.

“Get lost,” Chen Guangxi glared at the corpse on the ceiling.

The corpse immediately scrambled away like a spider, quickly crawling on the ceiling with great agility.

“Ms Chen is impressive,” Zhou Yuan flattered.

Chen Guangxi snorted twice and calmly said, “Our invisibility doesn’t work on abnormalities, so be careful.”

They climbed the stairs to the third floor, and as soon as they stepped on, both of them froze.

The scene changed; what was a dark lounge just a moment ago had turned into a brightly-lit reading room.

The reading room was huge, with rows of bookshelves surrounding a few scattered people in white coats quietly reading.

“It’s a compartment,” Chen Guangxi realized they had entered a compartmental space.

Just then, a man in a white coat passed by, holding a steaming coffee mug.

[A healthcare worker trapped in the compartment; he is already lost, so do not provoke him. He enjoys reading romance novels and shipping couples obsessively.]

The man suddenly paused, turned his head, and looked at them, “What are you two patients doing here in the middle of the night?”

Zhou Yuan’s mind raced, and he smiled awkwardly, “We’re just taking a walk, hehe…”

“Taking a walk at midnight, are you kidding me?” Chen Guangxi was speechless. Could his excuse be any more perfunctory?

Unexpectedly, the man in the white coat smiled knowingly, “Oh… a walk, huh? Well, take your time.”

Saying that, he left and sat back in his chair, continuing to read his half-finished romance novel.

Chen Guangxi: “???”

Did that really work?

At that moment, Zhou Yuan received a notification:

[One of the compartment spaces: the reading room.

As a scene born under the rules, the reading room also has some inviolable rules.

1. Maintain silence in the reading area, or incur the wrath of the administrator.

2. One must finish reading a whole book before engaging in other activities.

3. You cannot stay in the reading room for more than three hours, or you will get lost.

4. The reading room is safe; staying there can dispel negative statuses and restore sanity.]

Now that you know the rules, it’s your turn to act. Just a hint: you can find clues about Qin Youwen here.]

“Should we go in?” Zhou Yuan asked, looking at Chen Guangxi.

Chen Guangxi thoughtfully stroked her chin, “I reckon the reading room must also have some rules. It’s dangerous to enter without knowing them…”

“That’s easy. Just ask someone,”

Zhou Yuan whispered, calling out softly to the healthcare worker from earlier, “Hey man, come here for a sec.”

The healthcare worker looked up, then got up and walked over. Once out of the reading area, he spoke, “What’s up?”

“We want to read some books. Can you tell us the rules?” Zhou Yuan asked earnestly.

The healthcare worker was straightforward:

“Oh, sure, listen up…”