novelraw Chapter 1555 - 13: Phantasmagoria Syndrome
Chapter 1555 - 13: Phantasmagoria Syndrome
The dim light at the entrance of the activity area barely illuminated the doorway.
The gatekeeper who had stolen opened the lock and peered into the activity room.
Inside the activity room, flickering lights revealed a spacious emptiness. The faint outlines of a snow-flickering TV and a vending machine emitting fluorescence could be vaguely seen.
Tap—tap—tap—
The vast activity area was yet unexplored, and from the depths of the shadowy corridor behind, the first guest of the night stumbled forward.
Lu Li recognized the silhouette reaching the edge of the light, Aidanvoya. At night, she appeared as a shape molded from mist, nightmares, and darkness, like a reflection in water or a mass of shadows.
"Can I go in?" Aidanvoya asked.
"Sorry, only those with qualifications can enter."
Lu Li refused Aidanvoya, who clearly lacked the qualifications, watching her strangely retreat into the darkness.
From the corner where Aidanvoya disappeared, another silhouette emerged.
Tentacles of shadow dragged the silhouette, gradually clear, revealing a form that shouldn’t be here, nor should it look like this—a living tree-like Little Linna.
"I want to go in."
"Sorry, you don’t have the qualifications."
Lu Li refused Little Linna, observing her at that moment—she seemed like shadows and mist, her form patchy and faded, like a mass of shadows.
Little Linna, who did not attack Lu Li, left, and soon another silhouette appeared at the corner.
The third patient Lu Li felt unfamiliar with. It looked like a wall, its head touching the ceiling, its robust body angular. But as it approached, Lu Li found it was a silhouette made of weathered limestone rock.
It pushed open the room door, ducking inside the activity area.
No dialogue occurred the entire time, and Lu Li did not stop it.
Its fist was its credential.
More and more patients appeared subsequently; he never knew the hospital could be so bustling at night—
Lu Li recognized many of the patients, though some were unfamiliar, yet they uniformly displayed indifference towards Lu Li; they saw him merely as a gatekeeper, a profession, a symbol, rather than a familiar conversationalist from the daytime.
Especially those patients who should have been discharged appeared one after another. Mildred Hampri, Ghouls, Evildoers... It seemed as though the activity area held an unspeakable allure to these shadow-like silhouettes.
Lu Li could only rely on observation to determine whether they were qualified to enter the activity area.
Lu Li, unfamiliar with his work in the guard’s uniform, might have stopped a qualified patient or let in an unqualified patient.
Dawn broke.
Outside the window, mist gradually revealed its colors, no longer were there patients entering—the ones who did seemed to have vanished without coming out. Lu Li gazed at the activity area shrouded in darkness and silence, locked the door, and left.
...
"You failed."
Room 208, the gatekeeper mocked Lu Li, "You let someone into where they shouldn’t be..."
"What will happen to me?"
Lu Li asked calmly after two sleepless nights.
"A terrifying punishment you’d never want to face..." the gatekeeper’s tone grew increasingly cold, his lead-gray eyes fixed on Lu Li: "Despairing cries, painful screams—"
"—but I’ve decided to give you another chance."
He suddenly tossed the key ring back to Lu Li, which had been returned to him.
"Don’t cause any more trouble."
Lu Li caught the gatekeeper’s goodwill and the key ring: "You could tell me which patients have the qualifications, and which don’t."
"I could also guard the door for you." The gatekeeper retorted sarcastically.
"What exactly are those patients wanting to enter the activity area?" Lu Li ignored his sarcasm.
"You are just a gatekeeper, don’t know what you shouldn’t know."
The gatekeeper was deeply taboo about this, as Lu Li recalled the silhouettes resembling phantoms.
Are they truly patients from this hospital?
Passing by Pig King’s bedside—it was also one of the patients wanting to enter the activity area last night. Lu Li returned to his own room first, watching the calendar turn to "Eleven," then went to find Aidanvoya.
"Why ask this?"
When Lu Li found Aidanvoya, her answer was similar to what Lu Li imagined, "I went to rest after nightfall, never left."
The patients were entirely unaware of what happened last night—
What exactly are those faded outlines resembling shadows?
"How much do you know about the activity area?"
Lu Li asked Kate and Crow Mask separately. The former was oblivious, while the latter advised Lu Li not to meddle.
Kate and Crow Mask were obviously not among "those with qualifications"—their phantoms last night were also unqualified to enter the activity area.
Meanwhile, the punishment for two sleepless nights was manifesting on Lu Li: today’s dusk arrived even earlier than yesterday.
Thinking positively, the night should pass more quickly as well.
Lu Li barely had time to gather intelligence from other patients, delivering the wheelchair girl back to her room, treading the evening shadows to the corridor.
There was another piece of good news—he could continue briefly roaming the hospital at night.
Most room doors remained locked, even the worm in Room 209 had locked its door—but the unlocked door of Room 212 that Lu Li had never had the chance to visit.
Click—
The slowly opening door bumped against the wall with a soft sound.
Lu Li, dressed in a guard’s uniform, stood outside and observed the room, where three patients observed him.
A rotten, hunchbacked, elderly ghoul with slender claws and a blood-red mouth; a figure with disheveled hair and six spider limbs. A thin girl twitching and squirming unnaturally all over.
[212: Blood Spirit; Spider Princess; Snot]
Lu Li could easily match their characteristics to the patient list.
"Do you need help?"
Lu Li asked them one by one with this question.
Blood Spirit remained silent, Spider Princess and her six limbs spoke, and Snot cocked her head in confusion.
Having declined any commissions, Lu Li was forced to leave temporarily, confirming Room 213 was also closed, then headed straight to the entrance of the activity area—daytime passed so quickly that as Lu Li returned, it felt like he had just left.
Similarly, not long after opening the activity area door, the eerie shadow patients appeared.
"The activity area is under maintenance tonight, you can come back tomorrow."
Lu Li spoke to Pig King’s shadow, who grumbled something before leaving.
Not long after, the second patient arrived.
"The activity area is under maintenance tonight, you can come back tomorrow."
It was the same remark.
Lu Li lacked the ability to discern who had qualifications and who did not. So, he decided to block all patients from entering—after all, it was just for one night.
...
Morning in Room 208, Lu Li spoke with the gatekeeper.
"I succeeded."
"... The patients with qualifications didn’t enter either."
"But the patients without qualification couldn’t enter the activity area."
This was undoubtedly a clever trick, yet it didn’t break the rules. Even the outwardly strict gatekeeper couldn’t fault Lu Li: "Claim your reward then."
The gatekeeper took back the keys and guard’s uniform, along with the right to explore the night.
"I allow you to take a look at the activity area tonight."
Lu Li wasn’t pleased by this, because he suddenly remembered, he didn’t have a flashlight to conquer the night.
He needed a flashlight to enter the activity area, but to acquire a flashlight, he had to enter the activity area.