Chapter 603: Curse

The handwriting on the note was ugly, as if the author had penned it for the very first time.

"The paper is yellowed and mildewed, so it must be from many years ago. But the handwriting is still quite clear, as if it was added much later." I hadn't taken the curse to heart. After finishing the note, I fell into thought.

I had checked the map in the Outpatient Building earlier; the Central Operating Room was indeed on the seventh floor. Judging by this, the information on the note wasn't entirely false. At the very least, the writer was intimately familiar with Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital and knew the exact location of every department.

"Go to the Central Operating Room and the morgue in the basement of the Third Ward to retrieve his death and birth certificates, respectively. This correlation is a bit strange. The Central Operating Room corresponds to the death certificate, while the morgue corresponds to the birth certificate. Was this a slip of the pen, or deliberate?" I rubbed my chin. Normally, if a surgery failed, the hospital would issue a death certificate to the deceased's family. As for the morgue, it was merely a place to store corpses. Even if they issued paperwork, it would only be temporary storage or remains transfer documents. A birth certificate was impossible; no one would be born in a place like that.

'It's probably just a slip of the pen.'

I pondered this silently, my expression unchanged. The Writer standing beside me was the same; he even looked a little disdainful.

"I designed this kind of boring game ten years ago. It's an old cliché." The Writer reached for the note, but the young man immediately snatched his hand back, carefully tucking the paper into a compartment of his backpack.

"Come on, aren't you being a bit too sensitive?"

The young man, Chen Mo, stayed silent for a moment as he shouldered his backpack again. "I'm not lying to you. This curse is real. I don't know where the old professor got this note, but I do know that he stopped breathing shortly after being brought to the hospital."

"Maybe it was just an accident." The Writer pulled a beer from his case and started drinking, completely absorbed in his own world. His eccentric behavior caught my attention; even an alcoholic wouldn't need to drink this frequently.

My nose twitched. I suddenly realized that the faint scent of disinfectant originally clinging to the Writer was now completely masked by the smell of alcohol.

"At first, my roommate and I didn't care. But the next day, when I woke up, I saw him sitting on his bed, staring dead at me. He was holding that note, his face pale and his forehead covered in cold sweat," Chen Mo said, his expression pained. He waved his hands agitatedly; it seemed he would never forget the scene from that morning for the rest of his life.

"He scared the hell out of me. I asked if he'd had a nightmare, but out of nowhere, he just said to me, 'We're all going to die. I already saw it.'"

"I've always been timid. I cursed at him and went out to wash up, but when I came back to the dorm, he was gone. His things were scattered all over the floor, as if he had been chased and fled for his life." A bitter smile tugged at the corners of Chen Mo's mouth. "Classes started and ended, but I didn't see him all morning. It wasn't until our anatomy class in the afternoon... Everyone opened the vats where the gross anatomy teachers were stored, and we were completely terrified! My roommate was soaking right there among the gross anatomy teachers! His skin was pale, his limbs were twisted, and the way he died was incredibly horrific!"

Chen Mo's voice almost choked with sobs, showing the massive psychological impact that scene had left on him.

"We live in double rooms at the medical college. My roommate had died in such a bizarre way, and I'm a coward. I didn't dare sleep alone in the dorm, so I went to find some other classmates to squeeze in with for the night. After lights out, everyone fell fast asleep. The room was dead silent with nothing out of the ordinary, so I finally relaxed and got ready for bed." Chen Mo's voice gradually turned shrill. "Maybe it was because my roommate's death had left too deep of an impression on me, but I couldn't sleep at all. Every time I closed my eyes, his face appeared in my mind, along with what he told me that morning! 'We're all going to die. I already saw it.'"

"I didn't know what he had seen. I tried to roll over, but suddenly realized I couldn't move. I was terrified. I opened my mouth but couldn't make a sound. My classmates were sleeping right next to me, but I couldn't wake them. Unable to say a single word, I could only watch helplessly as something seemed to push the dorm door open and crawl inside in the dark!"

"I swear I'm not lying! That thing was soaking wet, its face pressed against the floor, crawling toward me inch by inch!"

"I felt like I couldn't breathe. There wasn't a trace of air in my lungs, and my organs felt like they had stopped working. My eyes were wide open as I watched that thing slowly, so slowly, crawl right up to me."

Chen Mo's voice grew louder. His emotions had spiraled out of control. I quickly spoke up to comfort him, and it took a long while before he could continue.

"It was too dark. I couldn't clearly see what that thing looked like, but it was strange—I could just feel that it was my dead roommate. He had come back!" The young man took a deep breath, his story nearing its end. "My roommate seemed to say something to me, like he was urging me on. It wasn't until he left that I abruptly sat up in bed. All my classmates in the room were staring at me in shock. I looked like a mess, my clothes completely drenched in sweat, as if I had just been fished out of the water."

"My classmates kept asking me what was wrong. I originally thought I had just had a nightmare, but when I reached into my pocket, I suddenly found something extra inside. I pulled it out to look, and that note my roommate had taken away had somehow appeared in my pocket!"

"What should I do? I don't want to die. I don't want to end up like my roommate." Fear overflowed on Chen Mo's face. "I finally understood what my roommate meant, and only then did I believe the curse on the note was real. So, I packed a few things and rushed over here overnight. I don't know if this is a prank, but I really just don't want to die."

By the end, he was practically babbling incoherently. Not a single person in the room interrupted him.

After listening to him, I didn't offer any opinions. I just pondered it in silence.

If what Chen Mo said was false, then he definitely had ulterior motives. He was very likely one of the live show streamers, and his acting skills were absolutely on par with the Writer's. He would be extremely dangerous to me.

But if what he said was true, I had just seen that note myself. The curse would befall me as well, which was equally bad news.

"Have you tried burning the note or taking it to a Taoist temple?" The Writer held a beer can, taking a slow sip. "Nice story, but I still don't buy it. As a veteran supernatural researcher, I've traveled to so many places and never seen a so-called spirit. You're just a kid who hasn't even grown all his hair yet, and you've already experienced a supernatural phenomenon? I'd say this is a psychological illness. How about you drink a beer to calm your nerves first?"

The Writer handed the can of beer in front of me to Chen Mo. I narrowed my eyes and stared at the young man, wanting to see how he would react after taking a drink.

"I swear to God that everything I said is the truth! I don't want to hurt you. You two just saw what was on the note, too. We're in this together now. We have to do exactly what the note says; that's the only way we'll survive!" Chen Mo explained anxiously. It was obvious the young man didn't have a bad heart and wasn't scheming, but he was just too cowardly. If he were the protagonist of a horror movie, he probably wouldn't survive for five minutes.

Chen Mo casually set the beer aside without even glancing at it, continuing to urge the Writer and me to act together with him.

'He didn't drink it? Is it dumb luck, or did he notice something?' My gaze shifted back and forth between the Writer and Chen Mo. There were only a few live show streamers in total, but both of these guys felt sketchy to me; neither of them seemed like a good person. 'Should I move together with them? The water tank I found in the Sarcoma Center of the Outpatient Building is definitely suspicious. I haven't taken a close look at it yet.'

I wasn't left with much time to think. Soon, the Writer and Chen Mo reached a consensus. The two of them decided to explore the Outpatient Building tonight, just as the note dictated.

Chen Mo was doing it to break the curse. The Writer, according to his own claims, was doing it to find inspiration.

Both of them looked toward me. I couldn't easily refuse, so I reluctantly nodded in agreement. "This place is very dangerous. Sticking together will be somewhat safer. However, before we head out, there's something I need to trouble you guys with."