Chapter 221: [Blessed with Longevity] Negotiating with the Game
Looking closely, however, it wasn’t hard to tell that the second, third, and fourth floors all consisted of private single rooms.
In all likelihood, they were prepared for those elderly folks who required the Tai Sui.
Though she hadn’t heard everything clearly in the operating room today, combining what she saw then with the medical records she just read allowed her to piece together the truth.
Wealthy elderly individuals had plenty of money, but what they lacked most was lifespan.
They craved eternal life; they craved returning to youth.
And so, they invested in this nursing home.
In Li Yun’s memories, coming to this nursing home required only a trivial registration fee—all remaining treatment expenses were subsidized by wealthy benefactors under the guise of charitable donations.
Sure enough, there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world; things that cost no money often exacted a far greater toll.
The fifth floor was where patients’ rooms began, with nurses stationed at the nurse desk on duty.
A few players were located on the fifth floor as well.
They were still fast asleep right now.
Of course, it was also possible that, like her, they had already stepped out.
Bai Cha continued upward, returning to the sixth floor.
She stopped before the nurse desk, waiting for the nurses on duty to go on rounds and check the patient rooms.
Two nurses were chatting.
They held a cup in their hands that wafted an unusual fragrance—resembling a beverage, mm… carrying the scent of her Dodder Vine.
Speaking of which, the Dodder Vines that had grown inside the Tai Sui had been sliced into countless fragments; by all logic, those severed pieces of Dodder Vine ought to have died.
Yet this Tai Sui was miraculous indeed.
Her Dodder Vines hadn’t perished; severed into countless segments, every single piece remained capable of growth.
Fine stuff, truly.
“Sigh, when is this ever going to end? I’m sick to death of pretending to be gentle with those idiot patients every single day!” The male nurse’s face bore an impatient scowl.
“Tell me about it… Just endure a bit longer. We can’t really step outside right now anyway and have to stay cooped up in this nursing home. But it’s fine—aren’t there ten quota slots this month? I’ve already picked out an identity. Once that patient dies, I’ll see if I can apply for it.”
As the female nurse spoke, she took a sip of the drink in her hand, her face wearing an intoxicated look.
The male nurse took a sip as well, both sinking into that strange, intoxicating power together.
After a long while, the male nurse nodded.
“I’ve picked one out too. We’ve been here for two or three years now; these quota slots ought to fall to us this time no matter what.”
Bai Cha raised an eyebrow.
She hadn’t seen these two people’s names in the medical records—perhaps out of caution, Qin Fa hadn’t written them down, or perhaps the names they used now were made up to begin with.
Quite likely, all the medical staff here were like this.
No wonder these doctors and nurses all carried the aura of the Tai Sui within their bodies.
Qin Fa… sure possessed considerable capability.
First, he had these wealthy individuals hand over their family fortunes.
After granting them sufficient benefits, because they couldn’t control their physical age and kept growing younger—making it impossible for them to appear in public—he dragged them all into the nursing home to work as staff.
She had wondered earlier why the male-to-female ratio among the nurses in this nursing home was a perfect 1:1.
She had previously assumed so many male nurses were hired specifically to prevent patients from escaping, given that men naturally possessed greater physical strength.
Yet as it turned out, aside from serving as medium for cultivating Tai Sui, these patients’ identities could be taken over and used by these people as well.
That was why the doctors and nurses maintained a facade of harmony when caring for people, exerting every effort to do so.
Well, that made sense. Observing more closely allowed them to assume those identities far better—after all, some patients still had living parents.
This Qin Fa… being so formidable, she shouldn’t work for free, right?
This fellow was quite different from ordinary NPCs.
After a moment’s thought, Bai Cha headed straight to the restroom first.
Refraining from stepping into a stall, she stood by the mop-washing basin and pulled up the system panel—primarily because zero surveillance cameras were mounted here.
Given Qin Fa’s unique nature, no amount of caution was excessive.
Scrolling down her personal homepage, she located “Contact Us” and tapped it.
The game sure loved copying major real-world app platforms, though without this feature, reaching out would have been difficult indeed.
Tapping “Live Customer Support.”
Bai Cha: Hello, I would like to report the NPC Qin Fa in “Fortune and Longevity Created by Heaven.” He has discovered the existence of the game and possesses anomalous traits.
Game Customer Support: …
Game Customer Support: Sweetie~ Thank you for your report! We have understood the situation. May we commission sweetie to dispose of this NPC?
The moment the message was sent, Bai Cha received a task prompt.
[System Notice: The game hereby commissions you to purge the anomalous NPC. Do you accept?]
Bai Cha: “…”
Bai Cha typed with an expressionless face.
Bai Cha: No reward? Then I don’t feel like doing it. Think it through carefully—right now, I’m the only one in this instance with the strength to pull this off.
Bai Cha: If I can’t kill him, any other players you send in later will likely find him extremely difficult to handle as well. I believe he and the Tai Sui are already deeply bound together—whether that’s true or not, you know best in your heart.
Bai Cha: Of course, you could send more people to kill him, but do you think he will discover the secrets faster—subsequently taking control of players to attack the game—or will players manage to kill him faster?
Bai Cha: Barring any surprises, as long as he isn’t completely erased in a single instant, he should be able to revive using the Tai Sui.
Bai Cha: You probably don’t want another entity like those Buddha Statues or Demon Butterflies appearing in the game, do you?
Bai Cha: Perhaps my guess isn’t entirely accurate, in which case you could tell me what kind of existences the Buddha Statues and Demon Butterflies are. But I feel like if things keep going like this, it’s not impossible. Even I find the power of the Tai Sui tempting, and this NPC has already researched it to a very high level.
Bai Cha: Besides, before this, he had already discovered that players are always “possessed.” If we clear this game, do you think during the next run he might truly realize that the so-called possessions—the shared perception among everyone’s alter personalities that they’re in a horror game—are actually real?
Bai Cha: Or you could wipe these memories, but if you could do that, why do all our alter personalities share the perception of being in a horror game? Is it purely to increase the difficulty for players?
One message after another was dispatched.
Game Customer Support: …
The pixelated ghost face on its avatar shifted twice, turning into a dark, weeping face.
Game Customer Support: Sweetie, after internal deliberation, we feel what you said makes a lot of sense, but he hasn’t grown to that extent yet after all.
Game Customer Support: How about this: if you can kill this NPC, upon detecting that you possess a Double Card and Secret Shards, we can multiply your Double Card by twenty-fold, duplicating them all into Secret Shards for you—turning your 24 shards into 480 shards. How does that sound?
Bai Cha narrowed her eyes.
Bai Cha: Not great. In that case, I’d still need to collect the remaining 519 shards. Either give me 999 directly, or this won’t cut it. Besides, the original Double Card was supposed to duplicate all rewards across my entire game—duplicating just one item isn’t something I agree to, not even at twenty-fold!
The Game Customer Support’s avatar thereupon swapped to a furious red face.
Game Customer Support: Well then, sweetie, what do you consider reasonable?
Bai Cha felt a slight stir in her heart. It appeared this game truly cared a great deal about this anomalous NPC.
Bai Cha: Rest easy, I won’t make things difficult for you. Aside from the rewards you mentioned just now, I want information on two people. Since you’re so powerful and can directly intervene in reality, you should know who my parents are.
Game Customer Support: …
Its avatar shifted once again into a calm blue face, complete with a lotus flower resting on its forehead, its face practically screaming: I’ve achieved inner peace.
