Pathological Heart Lock - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A night of pure insanity.

By late morning the next day, I bared my teeth and hissed as I hauled myself out of bed.

Xie Lizhi was already gone.

Enduring the ache in my body, I got up, washed up, and had just finished when a player assigned the Maid role pushed the door open with a tray of food.

Seeing me still alive, she looked a little stunned.

“The Manor Owner came back last night?”

I nodded, feeling inexplicably guilty.

She asked again. “Then… did he do anything to you?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. He appeared right on time at midnight. I followed the requirements-helped him take off his clothes and shoes-and then we lay in the same bed and slept for the night.”

Lying made my conscience burn.

The Maid Player gave me a weird look.

“Sleeping with a ghost for a whole night. That’s something.”

She told me that three people had died last night.

All of them died in their own rooms.

Nobody else heard any commotion at all.

Maybe it was Xie Lizhi’s identity that gave me a sliver of nerve.

After eating, I took a lap around the manor and rummaged through places here and there, flipping through whatever I could.

In the afternoon, the system’s voice rang out in everyone’s head again.

[Good afternoon, players. The Manor Owner’s wife seems to be feeling unwell. Maids and Bodyguards, please accompany Madam to Ren’ai Hospital for a physical examination.]

The Butler NPC appeared again.

At some point, a car had pulled up outside the manor.

The Butler opened the door and made a respectful inviting gesture toward me.

“Madam, please get in.”

We were switching maps.

Once we left the manor, it felt like our lives would no longer be under Xie Lizhi’s protection.

But I didn’t want to die, so I forced myself to bargain.

“I don’t think I’m that unwell,” I said. “If I go back to my room and sleep for a bit, I’ll be fine. There’s no need to go to the hospital.”

The old Butler’s smile didn’t change.

“Madam, please get in.”

…So there was no negotiating.

Resigned, I got into the car, my face pale as a vegetable.

The two Maids and two Bodyguards traveling with me followed suit, all of them wearing grim expressions.

The car drove away from the manor.

Half an hour later, it stopped outside a hospital built out in the suburbs.

Tall iron fencing surrounded the place.

There was even electrified wire on top, as if it were meant to keep patients from escaping.

“Hospital maps are usually about dead babies, pregnant women, that kind of thing…”

“And it could be human body modification…”

The players discussed in low voices with long faces.

Everyone looked desperate, like they were about to collapse.

I couldn’t help envying the people who got to stay behind in the manor.

A moment later, the hospital’s main gate opened.

A nurse NPC walked out.

She wore a mask.

Her eyes were rolled white, as if there were no pupils at all.

“Madam Xie, right?” she said. “The Dean has been waiting for you for a long time. Please come with me.”

Once again, the other players looked at me like they were wishing me luck.

I was truly cursed.

New map, and I was isolated again.

And I’d have to face a new Big Boss by myself.

How could any player be this pitiful?