"No way, absolutely impossible!"
The others in the room stared at the scene with horrified expressions.
In truth, this patient had already been quite strong. Just beating him would have been one thing, but taking him down with a single effortless punch, insta-killing him like that, left them utterly unable to believe it.
Especially Aki and Fuyu, who stood there dumbfounded. Either one of them alone couldn't beat No. 70, but together they were just a little stronger than him.
Still, only a little. And now Saiki had instantly obliterated him.
This meant that if Saiki had guessed wrong during their game earlier and they'd attacked, the ones lying on the floor now would be them. So they couldn't help feeling a twinge of relief—good thing Saiki had guessed right.
Meanwhile, the ghost that was still sprawled on the ground, not yet back to human form, was already questioning its entire existence. It had never seen such a terrifying caregiver!
"Bro, you're seriously a caregiver?!"
[Yeah.]
"You're a caregiver, so why didn't you say so earlier? Why didn't you just say it?"
Saiki rolled his eyes at the ghost, who was already half-melted into a puddle of sludge on the floor, too lazy to even retort.
(The rules don't say you can kill patients. It allows taking action against them, but it seems like you can't actually kill them!)
Saiki reached out, debating whether to use restoration to fix him up and then give him another punch just to intimidate him a bit.
He'd controlled his strength perfectly—there was no way it could have killed anyone.
No, more precisely, killed any ghost. And Saiki hadn't even been truly angry.
If he'd actually gotten mad, that one punch earlier would have turned the ghost in front of him into heroic fragments long ago.
"..."
Yuan Ge: I don't eat beef.
The No. 70 patient on the ground saw Saiki reaching out and assumed it was a finishing blow. Terrified, he scrambled backward a few steps, stumbled, and fell again.
"No, no, I was wrong! Don't kill me!"
[I didn't kill you. Just behave yourself and it'll be fine.]
"I'll definitely behave! Just... don't hit me anymore..."
[Do you really need to be that scared? I'm actually pretty gentle.]
Saiki glanced around. Everyone—no, every ghost—around him was watching with clear wariness.
And so they spent the morning in awkward peace.
"..."
Noon.
"Saiki-oniichan, do you have money?"
It was Aki and Fuyu who spoke.
[Yeah, why? You guys want some?]
(Didn't expect ghosts to be greedy for money too. But they've been pretty quiet, so maybe I can give them 10 bucks—hmm, that's a bit much, but I can afford it.)
"No, we were just asking if you had any."
Aki and Fuyu shook their heads, then went back to lying on the bed.
Amid the ghosts' expressions of wanting to say something but not knowing how to bring it up, Saiki walked out and headed to the cafeteria.
Since his telepathy didn't work on these ghosts and monsters, Saiki had no idea what they were thinking, but he didn't pay it much mind either.
On the 1st floor, in the staff cafeteria, Saiki arrived to find quite a crowd.
But why were there those two-to-three-meter-tall ghosts standing at the entrance again? And none of the cooks here were human.
They weren't even pretending. The one stir-frying over there had an eyeball practically dangling out and about to fall.
Saiki also spotted some familiar faces—Yao Yao, Akiyuki, Li Ming, and Zhao Gao.
(Hmm? Where's Su Sheng?)
Saiki walked over and greeted them.
[Good afternoon.]
"Sa... Saiki-sama! You're here too!"
"Saiki-oniichan, wanna eat together?"
Once Saiki arrived, the tense atmosphere eased a little.
After all, there were guards here, but they weren't human—they were ghosts.
The way they looked at everyone was like sizing up food, which made people instinctively afraid.
Saiki looked at the food they were eating and his expression showed a hint of disgust.
How to describe it... this was probably meat porridge, right? But the color of that "meat" was kind of...
Saiki averted his gaze. That yellowish-brown viscous stuff was really hard to look at.
[I'm not eating. By the way, where's Su Sheng?]
At that topic, Zhao Gao stammered awkwardly: "He..."
Akiyuki: "He's dead!"
[Dead? How?]
Saiki was a bit surprised. They'd only separated a few hours ago, and he was already gone?
Yao Yao: "You'll have to ask Big Bro Li Ming for that. He was on the 3rd floor with Su Sheng."
Saiki turned to Li Ming.
Li Ming's face was somewhat pale as he said: "Yeah, he was on the same floor as me. He was taking care of the room next to mine. It was apparently a pregnant woman who kept insisting she wanted to eat oranges.
But where were oranges supposed to come from? The pregnant woman kept yelling and told him to go outside and buy some. Su Sheng didn't know he wasn't allowed out, and he didn't dare tell the nurses or doctors. In the end, the pregnant woman twisted his head off and ate it!"
"..."
[So... that's how he went.]
Li Ming nodded.
(Whether human or ghost, pregnant women have really bad tempers. He was just unlucky—died on the very first day he got here.)
(Whatever.)
Saiki didn't dwell on it. He just felt it was a bit of a shame. After all, this was someone from the same group who came in together, someone he knew. Dying on the first day really was kind of... something.
Yao Yao walked over to Saiki, patted his shoulder, and comforted him: "Saiki-oniichan, don't be sad. He can still respawn. Eat first!"
❓
[Where did you get the idea I'm sad? I'm nowhere near the point of crying over him.]
"Ah... right!"
Yao Yao scratched her head awkwardly: "Then let's eat first!"
Saiki shook his head.
[I'm not eating. No way I'm eating something made by ghosts.]
"If you don't eat, can your body hold out?"
Akiyuki looked at Saiki in confusion. If she had a choice, she wouldn't want to eat ghost-made food either, but without refueling some energy, the body really couldn't take it. Forget seven days—she'd be gone in two.
[I'm not eating. I'm just here to pick up medicine and food for the patients.]
Saiki shrugged. That's right—caregivers had to hurry. After eating, they still needed to bring medicine and food to the patients. Sometimes they didn't even have time to eat themselves.
But even if he had time, Saiki wouldn't eat.
How could Saiki possibly eat anything made by ghosts? Forget whether eating or not would affect his body over these seven days—it wouldn't make much difference anyway.
More importantly, he could just use restoration on himself in a simple loop. He could go his whole life without eating.
Then Saiki went to line up in the queue for picking up medicine and food. He was an honest guy—he had to queue properly.
The person in front stepped up, pulled some coins Saiki had never seen before from their pocket, and said to the one-eyed ghost cook: "I'm here for the medicine and food for patient in Room 404 on the 4th floor."
The one-eyed ghost cook lowered his head, found a box, then took out a plate, punched himself in the stomach, and spat a viscous substance from his mouth onto the plate.
The player endured the nausea, took the medicine and food, and left.
A slight ripple passed through Saiki's eyes.
(What? What did he give? Is that money? But it doesn't look like normal human currency.)
Saiki crossed his arms, looking troubled, with what seemed like an ahoge bouncing on his head.
(Yare yare daze, what should I do...)
"Saiki Kusuo, you're Saiki Kusuo, right!"
A voice interrupted Saiki's thoughts—it was the person in front of him.
[You are?]
Saiki rubbed his chin, trying to recall this somewhat familiar face in his mind.
Less than a second later, he remembered.
[Oh~]
"I'm Lin Fan! You don't remember me? I told you we'd meet again."
[I know.]
(I really didn't want to meet you.)
Saiki recalled—this was the first person he'd met in this world before entering the horror game.
Originally, because of his name, Saiki hadn't wanted any contact with him. The name alone screamed "troublemaker." But running into him here of all places was something else.
Lin Fan's mouth curved up slightly: "Meeting here really is fate..."
[Let's skip that. Coming here to get medicine and food—do you have to pay for everything?]
Saiki pointed at the unusual coins the person ahead had taken out.
Lin Fan saw them, pulled some from his own pocket, and said: "Oh~ you mean these? These are ghost coins. You need them when fetching medicine or food for patients. The patients should give them to you..."
He paused there, looked at Saiki with puzzled eyes, and asked: "You don't have any? What did you do to your patients?"
[I didn't do anything!]
Saiki sighed in exasperation.
(Those guys didn't say anything, damn it. But those two girls did ask if I had money... Wait, so that's what they meant by money! Why didn't they just say so!)
"Oh~"
Lin Fan's eyes gradually lit up with excitement: "Then let me cover for you!"
Saiki looked at the smiling Lin Fan and didn't respond right away, but still politely refused.
[I decline.]
"Why?"
[No reason.]
(This guy is giving me that look—he wants me to owe him a favor?)
Lin Fan's lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but he held back.
Lin Fan [Fine, from the looks of it he probably has a way. If he really gets stuck later, I'll help then. This guy's definitely not ordinary—better to get on his good side early.]
And so, when it was Lin Fan's turn, he pulled 15 ghost coins from his pocket.
"Food and medicine for Room 605 on the 6th floor. Oh, and the patient requested sandalwood for the food."
The one-eyed ghost cook casually took the 15 ghost coins, crouched down to rummage, then carefully opened a box, took out two sticks of sandalwood, placed them on the plate, added a few medicine boxes, and said coldly: "Done. Get lost!"
Lin Fan didn't leave. After glancing at the two sandalwood sticks on the plate, his eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at the one-eyed ghost.
"This doesn't seem quite right. The ghost coins I gave should be worth more than just two sticks of sandalwood!"
The one-eyed ghost spat casually, his expression toward Lin Fan growing increasingly strange.
Now the one-eyed ghost looked sinister, drooling, sizing Lin Fan up and down like he was gourmet food.
"No, what you gave is only enough for two sticks of sandalwood. Too little money. Don't try to get something for nothing unless you want to trade something else..."
Lin Fan lowered his head and snorted coldly: "Something else? Sure I have it. Just don't know if you can handle it!"
"What, you..."
The one-eyed ghost started to say more, but before he could finish, his face changed drastically, staring at Lin Fan in horror.