In the hospital room, after hours of emergency treatment, Leo was finally out of danger. He was assigned to a VIP room, conveniently located near the doctors' lounge.
Normally, a room like this would house three patients.
However, when the families of the other two patients learned they would be sharing a space with a psychiatric patient, they panicked and vehemently protested.
"If you make us stay in the same room as a mental patient, we will raise hell in this hospital!"
The end result was clear.
Leo received special treatment.
If this hit the news, it would surely cause an uproar—proof that even psychiatric patients could pull strings now.
Old Man Walter sat by the bedside. He peeled a banana, took a large bite, chewed thoughtfully, and swallowed. Deciding the taste was acceptable, he offered it to the incapacitated Leo.
"Have a bite. I tested it for you. It's delicious."
"Ah!"
Leo opened his mouth wide and took more than half the banana in one go. "You're right, it's really good. So sweet."
Meanwhile, a man sat stationed by the door, quietly scrolling through his phone. He was an orderly from the Green Mountain Asylum, assigned to monitor these two particular patients.
He appeared calm on the surface, but inwardly, the pressure was immense.
The two men before him were, without a doubt, the most dangerous patients in the history of the Green Mountain Asylum.
They wouldn't harm others, but their methods of self-harm were bizarre and varied, so creative that the most depraved torturers of ancient times would have to bow down and call them "master."
Walter leaned closer to Leo, whispering in his ear.
"That guy at the door is here to watch us. They don't understand our methods, so they call it self-harm. Little do they know, everything we do is based on sound scientific principles."
"Quick, give me a few needles," Leo whispered back, glancing furtively at the orderly.
"No problem. I've just developed a new set of techniques based on your latest data. Want to hear the name?" Walter surreptitiously pulled out a silver needle. He pretended to be making small talk with Leo, but he was actually preparing to plunge the needle, with simple and crude force, into a specific acupoint.
"The Star Cluster Rotation Method?" Leo guessed.
Walter shook his head, his voice calm. "This is the upgraded version. I call it the Galactic Circuit Rotation Technique."
The orderly at the door occasionally looked up from his phone, noticing the two whispering conspiratorially. He had no idea what they were saying, nor did he care to find out.
He feared that too much exposure to them would warp his own perception of reality.
Soon enough.
Leo's arm was studded with a dozen silver needles. Walter's expression was deadly serious, like that of a true master of traditional medicine. He asked in a low voice, "How do you feel now?"
"Tingly… and dizzy. But it's not too bad," Leo mumbled, his words slurring.
Just moments ago, his mind had been perfectly clear. Now, a sudden fog was descending upon it.
"Impossible," Walter muttered, running a hand through his hair. He couldn't understand why Leo would feel dizzy. He had applied the needles to the arm; any sensation should have been localized there, right?
At that moment, the fog in Leo's mind thickened. "My head is spinning," he stammered. "My vision is full of white blurs… and little squiggly things swimming around, like tadpoles."
"It's getting worse. It feels like someone is talking inside my head."
Walter's mouth fell open, his face a mask of disbelief. "Your condition… it's quite severe."
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The medical monitor in the room shrieked to life.
The orderly, engrossed in his phone, jumped in fright, nearly dropping his device. He rushed over to check and almost fainted at the sight of Leo's arm, which now resembled a pincushion.
Mother of God!
Can't you people stop for five seconds?
He scrambled out into the hallway, yelling at the top of his lungs.
"Doctor! We have a situation!"
Doctors from down the hall heard the shouts and came running with nurses in tow. The orderly grabbed a doctor's arm.
"The patient… his arm is full of silver needles! The alarm is going off! We need help!"
The doctor already knew this patient had come from the asylum. He had just been saved from the brink of death, and now he was diving headfirst back into the fire.
Oh, for God's sake. Just put me out of my misery.
Click. Click.
Leo felt someone prying his eyelids open. A bright light shone into his eyes, and a cacophony of urgent voices filled his ears.
"Patient's pupils are constricted, heart rate is spiking! Prep the OR, we need to perform emergency treatment, now!"
[Otherworld Scenario Activated.]
[First Scenario: Activated. Reward: "The Hundred Refinements of the Heavenly Forge." Please begin cultivation at your earliest convenience.]
[Time of Emergence: March 1st.]
[Experience Reward: Unknown.]
A flood of unknown information poured into Leo's mind, causing a throbbing, chaotic pain in his head. Finally, he lost consciousness.
The lead surgeon who had just saved Leo was happily enjoying his lunch when a nurse burst in to report that the patient he just rescued had harmed himself again and required another emergency procedure.
He spat out a mouthful of Kung Pao chicken. "Is he insane?"
The nurse replied grimly, "Chief, he is, in fact, insane. And that's something we can't fix."
The news even reached the hospital's vice director. He immediately placed a furious call to Director Hess of the Green Mountain Asylum.
"Director Hess, are you messing with me? You send me a patient like this, and the moment we save him, he tries to kill himself again!"
"Don't even start. As soon as this procedure is over, I am personally driving an ambulance to return your two 'masters' to you."
"And don't you dare try to smooth this over with offers of drinks. This isn't about drinks! Are you people using my hospital as your playground? The families of my other patients are in an uproar! They don't feel safe, understand?"
"You know about the incident on Mount Crestfall! My department is swamped. We have countless real patients who need saving. I can't spare doctors and nurses to babysit your two lunatics!"
"Yes, I know your work is hard, but we simply can't play these games with you right now!"
"Dammit, Hess, you're pushing it! If you keep stonewalling me, do you believe me when I say I could just tell the surgeon's hand to 'slip' and send you back two permanent invalids?"
"What? You'd do that for us? We'd be so grateful!"
"Goodbye! Just wait for them!"
The vice director slammed the phone down, seething. He immediately made another call.
"Get an ambulance ready. The second they're out of surgery, send them back where they came from."
Outside the emergency room.
Walter paced back and forth anxiously. Impossible. I understood everything in the acupuncture book. There shouldn't have been any problems. Why did he get dizzy?
The more he thought, the less sense it made. It simply couldn't be.
Walter pulled out a silver needle, lifted his shirt, and aimed for an acupoint on his own body.
The first needle. Nothing.
The second needle. Still nothing.
...
The thirteenth needle.
Thud!
Walter's eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed to the floor. The people in the hallway gasped and scrambled away from him.
A nurse rushed over. Seeing Walter's condition, her face crumpled in despair, tears welling in her eyes as she cried out:
"Doctor…!"