Chapter 594: Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital

Killing rewarded points, and saving people rewarded points too. This live broadcast mission was wide open, with no fixed rules, so anyone could work out a plan suited to their own strength and goals.

The game's participants fell into three categories: live show streamers, innocents, and Traitors. The innocents were likely just ordinary people who had stumbled into it. They were the weakest of the three, which was why the Live Show had issued optional task four to protect them—a ten-point reward for every innocent saved.

The reward for killing a live show streamer was also just ten points. Both tasks paid the same, but their difficulty differed drastically. Anyone could see that saving innocents was the easier way to earn points.

This was likely a balancing measure from the Live Show, meant to prevent mindless slaughter and add to the "fun" of the "game."

Streamers only took part in the broadcasts for mission points. With a safer way to earn them available, why take the risk?

'Saving innocents is an opportunity for me.' My position in tonight's broadcast was rather awkward.

I was much stronger than an ordinary person, but I fell far short of the other live show streamers. I had never dealt with them before, either; aside from Chen Jiuge, I knew next to nothing about the other streamers.

'What if I disguise myself as an innocent to carry out the mission?' The thought flashed through my mind as I stared blankly at the clock on the wall. If every streamer thought the same way, we could all coexist peacefully for the night. The real fear was someone with far bigger ambitions—someone out to complete optional task five by killing everyone and claiming the hundred points all to themselves!

A hundred points was an overwhelming temptation for a live show streamer. Even I had been tempted when I saw that task, though I knew my own limits. With my abilities, killing everyone was impossible.

'Tonight is going to be a free-for-all.' The way I saw it, everyone would disguise themselves as innocents at first, and only as the deaths began to spread would the identities of the streamers and the Traitors gradually come to light.

Surviving until the end wouldn't be easy. I was already prepared to run for my life.

'I still have plenty of points. Once I leave Century New Garden, I can stop by the Central Bank first and redeem a few things to protect myself.' I already had most of the treasures from my previous broadcasts on me; right now, I was in peak condition.

With my plan set, I pulled out my phone and went online to search for information on the Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital.

I wouldn't have known if I hadn't looked it up, but this hospital between Jiangcheng and Xinhu actually had quite the history.

The full name of the Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital was the Jianghu Consortium Cancer Research Association Hospital. It was founded in the 1980s, and its predecessor was the affiliated hospital of the Cancer Research Society.

It was the country's earliest specialized cancer treatment institution, once boasting nearly five hundred beds and dozens of departments across a vast campus.

What surprised me was that such a major hospital had chosen to relocate twenty years ago for undisclosed reasons. Its main building remained sealed off to this day, strictly off-limits to outsiders.

'Such a huge piece of land, just left abandoned like this? What on earth happened in that hospital twenty years ago?' Twenty years ago was a very particular point in time. A lot of things traced their origins back twenty years—such as the Two-Faced Buddha's scheme, and everything I had seen at the Heaven's Gate Orphanage.

'For undisclosed reasons, a hospital this huge just packed up and moved. The whole thing feels rushed, like they were running from something terrifying—afraid that if they moved any slower, it would latch onto them.' I looked over the information online, puzzled. Relocating a hospital was a massive undertaking that usually took a long time, planned out department by department to disrupt patient care as little as possible. Yet the Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital hadn't gone the way I would have expected at all. They had left in far too much of a hurry. Rather than a relocation, it was more accurate to call it an evacuation.

'There's something wrong with the Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital itself. Put that way, tonight's broadcast participants really ought to be divided into four categories.' Besides the Traitors, the innocents, and the live show streamers, there were also the things already inside the hospital—and the threat they posed to me was no less than that of the live show streamers.

Picking such an eerie place for a survival game and a battle-royale broadcast felt suspect no matter how I looked at it.

'Why is the Live Show doing this? Are they trying to dig up the secrets buried deep inside the hospital? Or is this like Raising Gu—pitting us against each other until the strongest streamer emerges?' Unable to figure it out, I put away my phone and sat cross-legged on the bed. 'Now all that's left is to wait.'

Circulating the Profound Truth Mental Method, I channeled my Pre-Heaven True Qi into my Yifeng acupoints, extending my hearing in all directions. I had already pinned down which room Chen Jiuge was staying in, so I focused on listening for any sound coming from inside.

The night deepened. At ten o'clock, the door to Chen Jiuge's room opened, and someone seemed to step out.

'No footsteps, and I can't sense his presence at all—only the sound of the door opening and closing. Chen Jiuge must have some way of concealing his presence.' I got up, walked to the door, and peered through the peephole just in time to see Chen Jiuge standing outside the elevator, waiting for it.

His expression was grim, a stark contrast to his demeanor when facing the sect cultivators.

'He probably received the mission message too. I just don't know if his mission is the same as mine.' The elevator reached the sixteenth floor, and Chen Jiuge stepped inside, quickly disappearing from view.

'If Chen Jiuge's broadcast mission is the same as mine, this will be interesting.' I watched the changing numbers on the elevator display, my gaze turning cold. 'The streamers who betrayed the Live Show are all trapped in the Deep Dream Layer. The only Traitor whose cover hasn't been blown and who is still lurking inside the Live Show is Chen Jiuge. He's a chess piece the Two-Faced Buddha planted in the Live Show. If I hadn't happened to run into him in the Deep Dream Layer, even I wouldn't know something this crucial.'

At that thought, all the clues in my mind suddenly connected!

That was it! On the surface, the last broadcast looked like a scheme by the Two-Faced Buddha and the Traitors against the Live Show, tricking me into entering the dream. But looking at it from the other side—couldn't that have been deliberate on the Live Show's part too?

If I hadn't entered the dream, no one would have known that Chen Jiuge was the Two-Faced Buddha's chess piece, and the Traitors' exact location in the Deep Dream Layer wouldn't have been exposed either.

Putting the last broadcast together with this one, I suddenly reached a shocking conclusion: even though this was a multiplayer broadcast, the key figure in it was actually me!

I was the only one who knew the Traitor's true identity, and I was the only one who had received the crucial hints provided by the Live Show.

'I'm not an innocent, and my strength is dead last among all the streamers, but compared to the others, my loyalty is beyond question. I already passed the test in the last broadcast.' Looking at it from the Live Show's perspective, I slowly came to understand its intent behind this broadcast.

'The Live Show wants to get rid of the Traitors without tipping them off.' The three Traitors in the Deep Dream Layer posed no immediate threat to the Live Show, but there was no telling with the remaining streamers. I stared at the optional tasks in my phone's inbox, my Adam's apple twitching slightly. 'Could there be more Traitors than just Chen Jiuge?'

According to what Xiao A had said in the Dream Realm, only seven live show streamers were still alive. Counting out me, the Traitors, and Chen Jiuge, that left only two others.

One of them despised Fate Usurpers, while the other went by the nickname Butcher and liked hunting down streamers. I had no idea who I would run into tonight. The only good news was that I didn't need to agonize over it—no matter who I ran into, my only option was to run for my life.

At ten-twenty, I turned off the lights in my room. To lull the sect cultivators, I had made a point of turning the lights off a little after ten every night for the past few days, so nothing about it would look out of place.

'The Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital is in the outskirts between the two cities, outside the urban planning zone. Getting there will take at least an hour and a half—I can't waste any more time.' I touched my Ghost Ring and let Wang Shi out. Seeing his blank expression, I ordered him outright, "Stay in bed tonight. Don't go anywhere."

"What's going on?"

"Nothing." I gave a wave of my hand, paused in thought for a moment, and said, "If I'm not back by seven-fifty tomorrow morning, run for your life and get out of Jiangcheng on your own."