ca-book Chapter 226 - Two Hundred Twenty-Three:
Chapter 226 - Two Hundred Twenty-Three:
Chapter 226: Chapter Two Hundred Twenty-Three: "Number Thirty, He’s Gone MadMo Yan rolled over on the bed.
He glanced at the wall clock.
One o’clock in the morning.
"Tick-tock, tick-tock."
The noisy second hand ticked away, second by second. What was usually white noise now sounded like a drumbeat in his ears, loud and obtrusive.
He rolled over again, clinging to the soft white sheets, trying to bury himself in the soft bed.
He closed his eyes, reached out his hand, and covered his ears, not wanting to hear those strange sounds.
...But it was useless.
Footsteps were constantly echoing around him, accompanied by a creepy nursery rhyme. It was as if dozens of children were dancing and singing around him.
The moment he closed his eyes, he could see blood-red lines entwining and twisting in front of him, trying to bore into his brain from his eyes.
"...Mo Yan, Mo Yan."
He could even hear someone softly calling his name, like a siren gently singing to a sailor. If he responded, she would drag him to the bottom of the sea.
He buried himself under the covers, not sparing his hands or feet, covering himself completely as if this would prevent him from being attacked by ghosts.
But it was no use.
All sorts of noises were ringing in his ears, as if they simply wouldn’t leave him alone.
It was exactly this eerie situation that caused him, who had intended to get a good night’s sleep to recover spirit, to toss and turn for two hours without falling asleep.
...He knew the reason.
His San value was too low.
Although Mo Yan’s San value was still at 60, for an ordinary player without a high number of Mentality Points, 60 was already considered low. Lower and there would be a risk of falling into madness.
Every time he closed his eyes, his mind would be invaded by a variety of horrifying scenes. Blood-red, black, and various deep, dark colors would envelop him, as if once he closed his eyes, he’d never be able to open them again, completely dragged into darkness.
He had naively thought that if he just slept well at night, his San value would recover, just like in the old PC survival games he’d played.
But to his dismay, he discovered at night that a low San value wouldn’t even let him sleep.
With the noise growing more and more frenzied in his ears, he couldn’t stand the bizarre atmosphere any longer. He threw off the covers and sat up in bed.
...I won’t sleep!
I won’t sleep, alright?! So, I’m not allowed to sleep, huh!
He knew the game mechanics wouldn’t just leave him in a dead-end situation; there had to be a way to recover San value even if it was low. Since he couldn’t sleep, he might as well look for another way.
He got out of bed, ready to
"I’m fine." He found it odd that Mo Yan would ask such a question.
Earlier, upon discovering that killing students could restore sanity points, he had run into another person on the first floor, which was that girl with peach-colored hair.
The girl seemed to be coming out to check the noise, and just as the door opened, her eyes met his.
At that moment, the girl looked extremely scared, she closed the door quickly, and then locked it.
Su Ming’an had extinguished the door’s opening, and was about to ask her a question when he saw her running out like she had seen a ghost, all the while shouting that he had gone mad.
At that time, his sanity points were 52, just the right level; he didn’t plan to go higher nor did he want to go lower, aiming to always maintain this value. This way, he could see things invisible at higher sanity points, while keeping his mind fundamentally stable.
He had decided not to actively kill students anymore.
...But unexpectedly, this girl, she sought death herself and even said he was mad.
But he was clearly normal.
After she ran into Room No.3, he could only follow her and enter to kill her.
Then, he saw Mo Yan, also looking terrified.
"...Do I look that frightening?"
Su Ming’an was puzzled.
He felt no different from usual, but one by one, they all seemed as afraid of him as mice are of a cat.
"..." Mo Yan stood there stiffly, seemingly trying to lighten the mood, he forced an embarrassed smile:
"Ahahaha..." He laughed, but the laugh was very stiff: "A little... compared to the daytime."
"It’s probably a natural fear aura that comes with the identity of a doctor," Su Ming’an said.
...He now had as many as 62 sanity points, how could he be abnormal?
Rather, he felt that it was Mo Yan and these players who had become overly sensitive under high pressure; they were the ones who were not normal.
To say that he had gone mad... Seeing him and running like rabbits, shouting at the top of their lungs, with a panic-stricken appearance... The crazy ones were them.
However, his identity was probably exposed now.
Su Ming’an glanced at the tightly closed wooden doors beside him, silently inside.
...He and Mo Yan were talking with the door open in the hallway, with no sound barrier; the people inside the doors on both sides must have heard it.
They should all know by now that he is a doctor.
But that didn’t matter.
"Doctor" was only aimed at the student files of each night, and for other people, there were no restrictions on him, and they were free to choose whether to kill.
And at night, the doctor seemed to have a huge bonus—night vision, surgical knives, and the fear aura that Mo Yan mentioned, which made students not want to resist.
At this moment, the hallway maintained a weird silence.
No players dared to open their doors, nor did anyone dare speak out in their rooms.
The door to Room No.3 was open, with a ring of light leaking out.
He turned around, walking towards the depths of the corridor.
And this time, he heard no plea for him to stay coming from behind.
The wooden door remained open, the light receding bit by bit from him, and as he ascended the stairs, he heard a dull sound of a door closing.
He paused in place for a moment, then continued walking upwards.
...
Su Ming’an originally thought that the Sixth World was not a competitive instance, leaning more towards players collaborating to decipher puzzles and then collectively escaping as a cooperative instance.
However, after killing the first student and seeing his sanity points rise, he discovered the deep malice hidden behind the rules.
The Underworld scenario during the day, electric shock therapy, copying the eerie regulations... They were all intended to lower the players’ sanity points.
And when sanity points were lowered, players began experiencing hallucinations repeatedly, craving to return to mental normalcy.
To restore normalcy, they needed to kill.
...To kill fellow students like themselves.
This created a situation where during the day because of the White Sand School’s rules, students got along harmoniously as if there were no conflicts.
But come night... the night without teacher supervision, the night with doctors lurking, the unavoidable struggle for life and death would start.
Doctors needed to execute the students, and the students wanted to return to normal.
And it seemed that because of Xia Luoyang’s mental suggestion, even as his sanity points increased, he was still able to read those weird texts.
...How interesting.
Su Ming’an looked up, gazing towards the large classroom in front of him.
The floor creaked beneath his feet, surrounded by silence.
And the large classroom, empty during the day, was now filled with people.