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It was 9 o’clock in the morning. The broadcast in the ward notified all patients that they could come out for activities as well as informing new patients to watch their children’s baptism.
[System prompt: A side task has been triggered. All players who have been notified by their child’s phone call are invited to go to the Love Welfare Institute to watch their investment child get baptized.]
Bai Liu was currently in Mu Ke’s ward and today was the baptism day. However, ‘Bai Liu’ was dead. Five investors would go to participate in the baptism and there would inevitably be one less. One of them, Bai Liu or Mu Ke, had to give up this side task and it was obviously Mu Ke.
Mu Ke was in very poor condition. He hadn’t slept for two consecutive nights and kept memorizing things. He also had his blood sucked, was chased and cried for a whole night. Now the young master’s eyes were swollen like a goldfish and he was lying dully on the bed, motionless.
The young master really didn’t like this wet straw bed very much but he currently didn’t have the energy to care about it. Obviously, the young master who overused his eyes and brain needed a rest. Bai Liu decided to participate in the baptism as ‘Mu Ke’. Still, it was one thing for Mu Ke to need a rest and it was another thing to actually rest.
He couldn’t sleep at all, even if he was so tired that he didn’t even want to talk. As long as Mu Ke closed his eyes, his mind would be full of messy scenes and information. His cerebral cortex remained active due to his excessive emotions and it made him have a headache. Bai Liu let him sleep on the bed but he couldn’t sleep at all.
Mu Ke saw Bai Liu stand up and prepare to go out. Mu Ke also struggled to get up from the bed, looking at Bai Liu with a bit of worry. “Or should I go? I am the real Mu Ke. If they use any items or tricks to detect lies, I can handle it.”
“No.” Bai Liu tidied up his hospital clothes. He had slept on the floor last night with the books as a pillow. He hadn’t slept well and his face was tired.
Bai Liu turned to look at Mu Ke on the bed. “I have something for you to do in the hospital. It is also something that only you can do.”
Mu Ke was startled. “What is it?”
“I need you to help me check some medical records.”
The timeline for this instance was 10 years ago. It happened to be the time when the entrepreneurs invested in the children’s welfare home and started preparing the first batch of children to be enrolled.
These two welfare homes were two manifestations of the same instant. Based on Exploding Last Train and the Mirror City Bombing, the game instance and actual event had different manifestations but the core event was generally the same. It was very possible that those sick entrepreneurs did the same thing to those children, drawing their blood to nourish a blood ganoderma lucidum and cure their disease.
However, Lu Yizhan’s investigation of them found nothing and it was useless to find clues that these entrepreneurs acted on children. After all, it had been 10 years. Many of the clues that could be found were completely broken. The children who had had their blood drawn were dead and it was very difficult to catch some clues.
In addition, Bai Liu thought that even if there were clues, they would’ve been swept away by those powerful people a long time ago. Otherwise, this group of people would’ve given up funding the welfare home, letting the place where they had committed a crime go out of their control.
Finally, even if Bai Liu got out of the game, told Lu Yizhan about what was going on and Lu Yizhan believed Bai Liu’s strange claim, there was no concrete evidence or clues. They wouldn’t be able to do anything against a bunch of prestigious and reputable entrepreneurs.
Nevertheless, Bai Liu had promised to help Lu Yizhan investigate this matter and he also took Lu Yizhan’s pay. He liked to go through with transactions from beginning to end. Things that couldn’t be done outside the game might be possible inside the game. Clues that were absent outside the game might not necessarily be absent in the game.
Bai Liu stared at Mu Ke. “Mu Ke, wait for me to write a few names down for you. During the day, the nurses are very lax in taking care of patients. See if you can get into the file room where they store patient information and find the medical records of these people. Then help me remember all the details.”
“In particular, the name of the child they used as the medicine and the time the blood was drawn. It is best to remember it all. Then once I come back, tell me.”
The medical data records were quite complicated and there were several medical records. It was very difficult for other people to remember these details in the time when they could enter the file room without being detected by nurses. Yet it was a simple thing for Mu Ke and he nodded without thinking. “Yes, tell me the patients’ names.”
Bai Liu mentioned a few names before asking Mu Ke, “Do you remember the names of these people?”
Mu Ke nodded. Then after nodding, he frowned slightly and asked in confusion, “These are all entrepreneurs in reality. They should be ordinary people. How can their names appear in the archives of this game?”
Bai Liu lowered his eyelids. “They might not be ordinary people. In this game, they should be a monster-like existence. If you can Mu Ke, remember as many names of the registered investor patients as possible.”
“
You want me to remember everything? Why?”
“A large children’s welfare home that was in operation for 10 years recently started losing investments
”
Bai Liu paused subtly here before continuing.
“The investment costs of large private welfare homes are huge. If there isn’t a relatively large profit chain behind it, I think it would be unlikely for it to last for such a long time. It isn’t possible for there to be the free investment of multiple groups unless a commodities industry chain was formed.”
Bai Liu calmly analyzed. “It is obvious that the goods that a children’s welfare home can provide are the children and their by-products. Generally speaking, it is easier for me to guess that it is a lust chain but this place should be blood.”
Bai Liu had an almost impersonal indifference as he stated emotionlessly, “The welfare home was open for 10 years and could accommodate hundreds of children at a time. Thinking about the number of children who can provide blood—there are probably more people saved than I mentioned. This is why I think that when the welfare home was opened, the terminally ill patients waiting in line weren’t just the surface entrepreneurs.”
Bai Liu watched him with a calm expression that made Mu Ke’s hairs stand up. “If my guess is right, apart from the players who logged into this game before, the information in that archive—”
“—They should be people who have drawn a child’s blood in reality to cure a disease.”
[System prompt: Player Bai Liu’s talk is related to the core of the game. Player Bai Liu’s small TV has been blocked and silenced during this conversation.]
Mu Ke was completely confused and he couldn’t recover. His hands fumbled and his back was cold as he got down from the bed. “Wait a minute. Bai Liu, do you mean— no wait, if I have to memorize the information of all the patients, I might not be able to remember so much in such a short time. My brain isn’t working very well right now. What exactly do you mean by what you just said?”
“I’ll explain it to you later.” Bai Liu interrupted Mu Ke’s inquiry. He glanced at the frightened Mu Ke. “If you can’t remember all of them, just remember the ones I told you. There should be a relatively tight chain of connections with this type of crime. As long as we grasp a few, it is easy to pull out others.”
Bai Liu pushed open the door. He turned to nod at the somewhat dazed Mu Ke sitting on the edge of the bed. “Take a break. I need you to always maintain a high precision memory. There is still a lot of information you need to remember.”
“I don’t need to rest. I can’t sleep. I’m going to help you remember the medical records now
 I can’t remember it in a short time so if I have a longer time
” Mu Ke spoke while slowly blinking. He shook his head twice but his head suddenly sank back on the straw bed. He sucked in a breath as he watched Bai Liu, who was holding the door handle and looking down at him.
Bai Liu looked at Mu Ke who was collapsed on the bed. “You need to rest now, Mu Ke.”
[System tip: Player Bai Liu has used high-efficiency inhalation sleeping pills on player Mu Ke.]
Mu Ke’s vision darkened and he felt like the ward was spinning. He struggled to open his eyelids, only to see Bai Liu turn to close the door and disappear. He reached out to grab at Bai Liu’s back but he could only move his fingers twice before reluctantly closing his eyes.
“I don’t want to rest
 I have to do something
”
Before his consciousness completely disappeared, he heard Bai Liu’s last words, “The sleeping pill will work until around 11:30. At that time, the nurses will be eating and no one will be in the file room. It is more appropriate for you to wake up at that time.”
“Have a good night’s rest, Mu Ke.”
Mu Ke curled up into a small ball on the straw bed. He closed his eyes, breathed evenly and slept soundly.
After one glance, Bai Liu left and locked the door behind him. Mu Ke was in a really bad state. He was filled with overwhelming shock since last night and he was like a shivering cat with his hackles raised. Not being able to sleep and rest properly would affect his memory a lot.
There weren’t many safe periods in the game suitable for Mu Ke to rest. It was understandable that Mu Ke was in a state of excessive vigilance.
Today, Miao Feichi was away, the density of nurses patrolling during the day was high and the probability of monsters coming out was low. There was no better time for Mu Ke to rest and recover fully.
However, Bai Liu’s absence would greatly deprive Mu Ke of his sense of security. The moment Bai Liu got up, Mu Ke immediately sat up from the bed with red eyes to try and follow him. He looked like he was completely unable to sleep. Bai Liu simply used the medicine to make Mu Ke fall unconscious.
At 9:30, all the investors who were going to watch the baptism gathered at the entrance of the hospital.
Rainbow: I will be having minor surgery at the start of August to fix a small airway problem I’m having, which was the cause of my sleeping problems a few months ago. It does mean I have a really busy workload before I take time off from work. Then there’s the recovery from the surgery and workload when my leave is finished. So starting from Monday next week, chapters will be released once a week until the end of August.
CG 10K event
Proofreader: Purichan