Chapter 63 - The Institute (4)

Garbage was scattered about everywhere ; on the floors, the beds, everywhere. It wouldn't have been so bad if the garbage was regular trash; It at least showed that their had once been human life in this god-forsaken place. Instead what was left behind were used injection needles, empty pill bottles, and blood-stained cloth from who knows where. In the middle of the room, there would also occasionally be dry dark red blood stains on the floors and some blood seemed to have even splattered on the wall. Only the blunt force trauma of a heavy blow to the head would leave such scattered blood-stains. This all seemed like just one big murder scene.

Not only that, the entire building was completely pitch-dark, it stood lifelessly under the dark grey sky, and without the hustle and bustle of steps and the familiar noises one would hear only when humans were around, it seemed almost as if they had been completely abandoned in a forgotten corner of the world, the creak of rotten furniture, the patter of dripping water from the leaking taps, the occasional rustle as some vermin scampered across dirty floors all seemed to morph into hair raising calls of terrifying monsters just waiting to devour the flesh and souls of their victims!

What was even stranger was that the further in the night it got, the more obvious the rancid smell of blood and rotting meat became in the air. It was the smell of hundreds of dead animals gathered into one, a smell that reminded him of absolute carnage!

Zong Jiu lay on his back on the rusty iron bed crowded at the very end of the room, covered with a dusty mold-infested quilt. There was dead silence around, even the sound of his roommates sleeping seemed to have been silenced by a invisible hand. He trembled viscously, the room was crowded almost cramped but he only felt extremely cold.

He knew he should be asleep, in fact he had seen on the forums that sleeping was a surefire way of increasing the possibility surviving the first day of instance. And yet his heart continued to race with fear! His mind was blank, and he didn't know what to do, he only felt as if the darkness was creeping up on him slowly!

"Sleep. I need to sleep." Zong Jiu forcefully held his head, trying to shake the intruding thoughts out of his head. "Come on! Come on!"

At this moment, he heard footsteps.

The pitter patter of heels hitting the tiles.

Aren't the doors supposed to locked, the thought only flashed by briefly before overwhelming fear crashed into him like a heavy wave. Who was there!

The footsteps sounded slowly, it was if someone was taking their time as they walked, like a cat teasing it's prey. The person slowly destroyed his mental fortitude with every step. Closer, She was Closer! He listened to the heels hitting the floor, tap by tap, from afar as they came nearer, He felt his heartbeat stuttering in his chest, and his lungs slowly collapsing from lack of air, fear slowly took over his entire being! And then it stopped. The footsteps stopped by his side!

She was here! He wanted to open his eyes but the strong fear made his entire body feel weak

Shortly after, he heard someone breathing. The person or thing was breathing very close to him, they were so close, that he could feel the harsh breathing hitting the top of his head . In fear realized that the stranger was bending down to observe him. He could even feel the hot heat from the other person's breath hitting his face.

Thereupon, he tried to mobilize his body; he wanted to move, open his eyes, and move! 

To run! Get away!

But he couldn't. He was immobilized in place, he couldn't open his eyes, couldn't even breathe!. A sharp pain slowly spread from his chest to every part of his body!

His body was signaling intense danger!

Sure enough, the next second, the terrifying stranger stretched out her hand and strangled his neck!

He clearly felt the strength of these hands. It was a pair of very delicate hands but the strength felt like the bite of a tiger . The nails were very long and pierced into his flesh! He could feel the small trickles of blood that flowed from his torn flesh. Pain and a suffocating feeling assaulted his body together. He wanted to struggle, to violently fight back, but his hands remained immobile and the pain started to spike! He was being forcefully suffocated to death!

I'm going die. I'm going die!

Fear paralyzed the entirety of his brain.

At this moment, he seemed to hear a voice. The terrifying murderer who strangled his neck lowered his head, squatted beside him, and whispered in his ear, using a low voice and a mocking tone, saying:

"Are you asleep...? "

"Obedient residents should go to sleep."

"Since you can't do it yourself, I'll help you instead."

Her voice was soft and seemed genuinely helpful, but the only response to her words was the sound of choking. Zong Jiu's face slowly turned blue, his mouth gaping like a fish out of water, the oxygen was slowly being deprived from his lungs, gradually his struggles died down, he could no longer feel anything, cold numbness assaulted his veins!

His blood slowly froze and his thoughts gradually came to a halt, the also thing he saw before his death was the gleaming yellow eyes of a beast glowing brightly in the pitch-black darkness of the night.

********

Clang!

It was the sound of rusty iron sheets hitting hard walls, as the residents were finally let go from their room for the day. Most people were already awake and in a single file stream they flowed out from the rooms and into the halls. Nothing seemed to have changed at first glance but on closer look, you could tell that the players of a particular room had exceptionally ugly faces when walking out and before the door closed behind them, some players even spotted a dark pools of blood curdling at the foot of the door.

Someone had died.

Instantly the players hit the same general consensus, even though it was common for one or two unlucky players to die on the first day, from the looks on the dead players roommates face, his death definitely wasn't a particularly good-looking one.

They weren't allowed time to speak to each other however, as the instant they walked into the restaurant, they were immediately handed long white garbs. The same ones worn by sick hospital patients, the players frowned gloomily but under the watchful eyes of the nurses, still had to change unwillingly. This was definitely insinuating something about the institute that didn't bade well for the residents. NPC's and players alike.

"Stick out your arms."

This time the players faces went completely pale, in the hands of the nurses, was a long injection capsule that was filled with a sort of pinkish liquid that bubbled from time. No matter how they looked at, it definitely didn't look harmless. And one player who seemed to have a great fear of injections went purple in the face, but the longer they stalled the crueler the looks in the eyes of the nurse became and finally when all the aboringes had gotten their shots and the players were the only ones left, the atmosphere immediately fell to the freezing point.

"Why won't you take your injection?"

"Don't you know that only disobedient residents don't follow the rules."

"If you're disobedient you have to be fixed. Only the best citizens are released back into the federation. "

"If you refuse to comply we can only use force."

"Please take your injection."

The nurses completely refused to give them an alternative. It was either take the injection or be forced into an even worse situation. Finally, Mu Bin, the official player was the first to grit his teeth and walk up to bear the shot. The very minute the injection went in, his face turned a bloody red before immediately becoming pale as ice. Mu Bin walked away from the satisfied smile of the nurse with an ugly grimace. This was enough to show the abnormalities of the shot.

But they had no choice and one by one, they went up to get the injection, each player with varying reactions. Chu Yi's didn't feel very much, there was only a moment of burning heat that quickly singed every nerve ending before it completely cooled like the snow in winter.

When everyone had finally been vaccinated of sorts, they all stood in a line with pale faces. They weren't finished however, the nurses pulled a big bottle of pills from somewhere else but didn't distribute them immediately, they seemed to be waiting for someone to arrive,

She was here,

Da, Da, Da.

There was a crisp sound of high heels slapping on the plain tiles of the Dining Room.

The Head Nurse appeared in a strut with the same yellowing nurse's uniform, however the face of the nurse was very pale, not normal white or anemic pale, but a strange paleness. She reminded them of the bloated white corpses that they fished out of rivers, and streams after drowning. It was disturbing to say the least.

Chu Yi suddenly noticed something. On the pale white fingertips of the head nurse, he seemed to see a touch of red. He couldn't tell what it was exactly, but his intuition told him blood.

Freshly Spilled Blood.

Suddenly there was a strange feeling from behind them all, the experienced old players looked behind them subconsciously. But the only thing they could see was, under the cover of incandescent lamps in the restaurant, black shadows, their shadows, that were quietly floating on the dirty tiles, which also proved their identity as humans.

Nevertheless the strange feeling didn't go away but they couldn't see anything regardless of how carefully they looked and eventually had to turn their heads back to the situation in front.

"You have all been given the injection I see. Don't worry, it's nothing but a medicine that everyone born on the capital star takes from the moment they were born. You are just given the opportunity now, even as unqualified as you are."

There was a familiar sneer, it was the same brown haired boy who had questioned the nurse earlier, some players even looked surprised that he was even still alive. A curious look appearing on their faces.

Chu Yi also raised a brow in mild interest, but for different reasons although the boy gave the impression of just being a rebellious brat but Chu Yi thought otherwise. Being on the target list of the NPC was obviously a dangerous thing in itself but it also came with more opportunity to get first hand information. Risk and Reward always walked in both hands and the boy had obviously opted to take this route.

But it wasn't his turn to point that out and regardless of how loud the boy sneered, he was eventually ignored by the Head Nurse.

"You must remember, all residents must be obedient, you must be good citizens and you must become something that will benefit the federation. This is your show of loyalty to the Empire. This is the oath and responsibility, you as the chosen ones undertook, the moment you stepped into this building."

The Head nurse said indifferently: "If you try to violate this oath, you will be locked up in a confinement room or forced to be treated by the doctor until you become outstanding members of the federation once again. It all depends on the severity of your condition. Trust me, you won't want to try one by one."

No one in the dining room made a sound, as quiet as spirits in a grave.

"Very well, you are much more obedient than the last batch of residents admitted to the Institute." A hungry smile seemed to flash across her ghostly face but it disappeared before they could look deeper into the reason.

Obviously, this attitude of obedience satisfied the Head Nurse, and a smile was rarely seen on her mean face.

"Cooperating with our treatment will only benefit you in become exceptional citizens of the empire. I am very pleased that you can figure this out."

She clapped once loudly after she finished addressing the residents, waving for the nurses holding the medicine bottles to come forward,

"Okay, its almost time for breakfast, start distributing the medicine."

The Head nurse waved her hand, and the nurses behind her walked out of the shadows one by one holding the medicine bottle, and handed out the pills with a glass water to the residents in the dining room one by one.

The players exchanged glances in private.

Tang Shun quietly asked him what to do.

Chu Yi did not speak.

The slender hands put the pill in front of his face, sniffed it, and frowned slightly.

To eat or not to eat?

There was no logo on the medicine bottle, and they didn't even know what medicine it was. It was a strangely shaped pill that resembled more of a white lump than anything else, it also had a strange metallic scent that made it even more unknown to what it was. Drugs from unknown sources in the strange Institute full of mysteries can't be eaten even if you think about it with your toes. Not to mention that they are not sick at all. Regardless of the obviously bullshit excuse of the Nurse.

As if guessing what the players were thinking, several nurses didn't immediately leave after distributing the pills, they stood over the players staring at everyone with sharp eyes, and watched them swallow them before giving out another tablet to the next resident.

No matter how reluctant they were, they could only swallow under the unrelenting gaze of the nurses.

What else could they do but swallow it. Fight? Definitely not at this stage.

On the other side, after getting the pill Chu Yi turned it around in his fingers impenetrably and threw the pill directly into his mouth, under the snake-like gaze of the nurse beside him.

After everyone had swallowed, the Head nurse suddenly ordered with an almost mocking undertone "Roll up their sleeves, open their mouths, and lift their tongues. Check if there are any disobedient residents who wants to disgrace the honor of becoming the Chosen One."

It's over.

There was a loud thump in the hearts of some players who tried to play tricks, and at this moment, they couldn't care about the lack of water, or what was in the pill, so they swallowed the entire lump dry with just their saliva. 

Unfortunately, there will always be someone who is particularly unlucky in this world. Many people in the restaurant had the same reaction, however there was one overly nervous resident who had obviously been jittery and uneasy from the moment he had entered the building. He was taken aback by the unexpected order of the Head Nurse and hurriedly tried to swallow the large lump. It wasn't known if he had been too hasty when he swallowed it but he started hacking uncontrollably! He coughed again and again until he accidentally coughed up the entire unswallowed pill, it flew out in a straight arc and fell to the ground with his saliva still shining brightly on it and rolled to the feet of the Head Nurse.

The resident's face turned as pale as the nurses!

The head nurse sneered and waved.

"It seemed that there are indeed disobedient residents among you guy."

"You shall be sent to the confinement room to reflect and be reformed." A group of heavy, large nurses that the players didn't know when they came out, threw the player to the floor without mercy, there was an audible thunk as his head hit the floor with a loud boom! They didn't care however and grabbed the player by his feet, even as he screamed for help and tried to struggle, they still held on firmly and dragged him away callously before anyone could react, disappearing soundly into the dark corridors.

After a while, the loud horrified screams of the player in the corridor stopped abruptly, and the next moment the sound of gurgling chokes came before they were immediately cut off and disappeared behind the heavy walls.

There was no buffer time, no forgiveness

This was the Institute.

And they were the chosen ones.

It was deadly quiet in the restaurant, and everyone looked as if they had stepped on shit.

The Head Nurse shook her head in disapproal, " Tsk, Tsk- Such disobedient residents have shamed their planets, I do hope he is properly transformed by our trusty doctors at hand."

Seeing that the goal of killing the chickens to scare the monkeys was achieved, the head nurse nodded in satisfaction, waved for breakfast to be served, and turned to leave.

Chu Yi stared at her leaving back with playful eyes,

Obedient?

We'd have see about that.