No matter how much she thought about it, it was still just speculation. Mo Bai turned the note over and over in her hands, trying to figure out where she could find her teammates.

When they entered the instance, they focused on ensuring combat strength, so the cards they brought were mostly for offense and defense. Now that they'd reached the Intermediate level, they no longer needed to carry C-grade cards, and most communication-type cards were only C-grade. Therefore, they didn't waste inventory slots on them.

Mo Bai considered whether this setup might have drawbacks, but her teammates all felt that, as Intermediate players, they were capable of handling situations on their own.

Besides, Gu Tiandong hadn't advanced to the Advanced level yet, so Mo Bai accepted the plan.

Only now, with no idea where to go, did she truly feel the inconvenience of having no means of communication.

After thinking for a moment, Mo Bai decided to follow the instructions on the note and head to the Abandoned Hospital.

It was the most reasonable choice.

Regardless of whether there was a trap behind it, at the very least, Gu Tiandong and the others originally planned to go there.

And Mo Bai considered herself a valuable member of the Observation Group. If it really was a trap, she would likely be one of the targets anyway, so following along couldn't be wrong.

She put the note away and set off for the Abandoned Hospital.

It wasn't hard to find. The town had plenty of road signs marking the locations of several safe zones.

Using the Smiling Circus as a reference point, Mo Bai quickly found the direction of the Abandoned Hospital, which was about five kilometers away. Running at a good pace, she could get there in around fifteen minutes. After six o'clock, there would also be buses.

But for now, there were no buses, so she had to run.

Along the way, she saw an older woman sweeping the streets. The woman's face was covered, to varying degrees, with burns and blisters, yet she seemed to feel no pain.

There were also people out exercising early in the morning. Among them, Mo Bai didn't see a single man.

The town didn't allow the existence of "fathers" or "husbands." What ultimately happened to those people was unknown.

As she passed through a residential area, Mo Bai saw someone leap from the top of an apartment building. The entire body engulfed in flames, muttering incoherent nonsense while falling.

The town appeared peaceful, but beneath that calm surface lay countless dangers.

Mo Bai didn't want any unnecessary complications. She avoided passersby as much as possible and kept heading toward the Abandoned Hospital.

Just as she was about to arrive, she saw a little girl, about seven or eight years old, looking up at a large tree by the roadside.

Mo Bai stopped without realizing it.

According to the information Liu Congyi had gathered, Professor Yang's daughter was around that age when the incident happened.

Mo Bai observed the girl and noticed that her face was clean, without any signs of burns.

But in a place where everyone was infected, having no burn marks at all was the most unsettling thing.

The girl noticed Mo Bai looking at her and turned her head.

"Big sister, my balloon got stuck in the tree. Can you help me get it down?" she asked.

Mo Bai studied her face and compared it to her memory of Professor Yang. There was indeed a slight resemblance.

But seven years had passed since the incident. The girl should now be fourteen or fifteen, a teenager in the prime of youth.

And if a top-tier monster in Disease Town could just stroll around openly, the system wouldn't have issued a quest to find the source of infection.

Still, a young girl playing alone with a balloon at four or five in the morning was undeniably strange. But it might be a clue.

Mo Bai walked over and asked gently, "Why are you out playing so early? Where are your parents?"

"My dad went out to work. That's where he works," the girl said, pointing to the Abandoned Hospital nearby. "Mom won't let me go outside. She says there are bad people out here who'll kill me and cut me into countless pieces, then take me to another world."

Mo Bai remembered that the Abandoned Hospital was Professor Yang's workplace before it gradually fell into ruin after his accident.

If the girl really was a high-level monster, then when monsters in an instance died, they would indeed turn into one or more cards that players could take back to the main world.

"So you snuck out to find your dad?" Mo Bai asked.

The girl leaned in close and whispered, "Big sister, I'll tell you a secret."

"What secret?" Mo Bai remained perfectly still, letting the girl approach.

"My balloon can protect 'Dad.' If you help me get it, you'll earn one chance to protect him. Will you help me?"

Mo Bai replied, "Even if you didn't offer me anything, I was planning to help you anyway."

"Big sister, you're such a good person! Good people get good rewards!" the girl clapped happily.

Mo Bai shook her head. "No, I'm not a good person. I'm helping you because I want to see what you're up to."

With that, she lightly leapt up into the tree and spotted a red balloon among the branches.

Looking down, she saw the girl jumping excitedly. "Yes, that one! Big sister, you're amazing!"

"Thanks. I think so too," Mo Bai replied bluntly.

Her leg had fully healed three months ago. Even now, every time she ran or jumped, she felt an extra surge of joy. She cherished her healthy legs deeply.

When she merged with the black-clad version of herself, she recalled some of the darker thoughts she had when she was first paralyzed.

During the day, she could stay positive and optimistic. But once insomnia set in and the night deepened, negative emotions would take over to twist her thoughts.

Back then, she was similar to some warped creature crawling in the shadows, crouched in a dark corner, staring out at the brightly lit city and cursing every healthy person, wishing they would all suffer what she had endured.

Of course, those thoughts only surfaced occasionally, and she quickly managed to rein them in.

Later, she avoided staying up late as much as possible. If she couldn't fall asleep by eleven, she would take medication.

Those dark thoughts had long since faded, until merging with her other self brought them back.

Dragging the whole world down with me…

It was a little past four now. For night owls, it wasn't unusual to still be awake.

The balloon was red, a color often associated with fire.

Interesting.

Mo Bai reached toward the balloon. Below, the girl wore a smile full of anticipation, and malice.

At the same time, Mo Bai activated her ability Environmental Rejection, stripping away any elements that could cause "fire" or "explosion" from the balloon.

She didn't realize it before using the ability, but the moment she did, she felt a massive amount of energy being drained from her body by the balloon.

This tiny balloon consumed even more energy than when she had purified the town's pollution sources.

The reason Mo Bai could use her abilities so freely was because, when she merged with her black-clad self, she used Environmental Assimilation to draw out a portion of energy from within herself, essentially tapping into a fragment of an Ultra-Star Rank monster's power.

Once that energy was used up, it wouldn't regenerate.

Just removing the fire element from the balloon completely drained that borrowed power, instantly reducing her back to her baseline strength.

A serious loss, Mo Bai thought with some regret.

She plucked the balloon from the tree.

Seeing her retrieve it unharmed, the girl's eager expression twisted. Burn scars spread across her face, blisters covered her body, and her features became grotesque.

Mo Bai acted as if she hadn't noticed. She jumped down and handed the balloon to the girl.

The girl stared at her darkly, her eyes filled with curses.

Mo Bai took her hand and placed the balloon into it, meeting her gaze directly as if the burns didn't exist.

The girl opened her mouth, as if about to utter something sinister.

But Mo Bai reached out and gently ruffled the girl's charred hair, speaking softly:

"I know that since you were born, you don't remember many happy things, only the pain of being burned, and the pity in people's eyes when they see your wounds.

I know you want the whole world to become like you, to make everyone taste the same suffering.

Why should it be you alone who has to endure all this? Why should you be the only one to suffer?

I don't think you're wrong for feeling that way."

The little girl clutched the balloon tightly and said in a sinister tone, "I thought you'd tell me not to think like that... That it's wrong."

Mo Bai replied, "For me, thinking that way is wrong, because I wouldn't gain anything from it.

When I was in the hospital, there were many people who were worse off than I was. They were just like me, but seeing them didn't bring me happiness. It only made me afraid, afraid that one day I'd end up like them.

In the end, people pursue happiness. So do I. I simply stay true to myself and choose the way that makes me happy.

Only by living positively, optimistically, and healthily can I feel happy. Even if it's forced at first, that kind of happiness can still influence the heart.

But you're different. You really can gain happiness and strength from this kind of behavior, can't you?"

Mo Bai crouched down so she was at the same height as the girl, meeting her gaze on equal footing.

"If it could make you happy, would you do it?" the girl asked.

Mo Bai thought for a moment. "I would."

The girl tilted her head, studying Mo Bai from every angle, as if trying to see through her. Her neck bent almost parallel to her shoulders, her pupils vertical to the ground, and in an eerie posture she shrieked, "Liar! Liar! You're clearly a good person, I can tell you're a good person!"

Mo Bai wasn't startled. She replied calmly, "My actions might be judged as 'good,' but they're driven by what's inside me.

I'm not someone who can resist the lure of happiness. If hurting others could make me happy, I would do it. It's just that… it doesn't.

If you can gain happiness from it, then from your perspective, following your heart isn't wrong."

"I don't get happiness from it," the girl said. "Even if everyone in the world died, I'd still be in pain. I'd still be this ugly. As long as it hurts, I'll never be happy!"

"Then what would make the pain stop?" Mo Bai asked.

She wasn't spending time and energy here to reform an Ultra-Star Rank monster with words. She just wanted information.

To find the source of the infection and solve the problem, she needed to understand the desires of such a monster. The girl was both a danger and a crucial clue.

"My dad said he'd find a way to help me," the girl said. "Then he left… and never came back."

Mo Bai fell silent and didn't dare respond. After all, she could be considered the one who had killed the girl's father.

"My mom told me that Dad forgot about us," the girl continued. "She said he was selfish. Before the accident, he worked overtime all the time for fame and status, never coming home, and in the end, he brought disaster on himself, and on us.

After the accident, he said he'd find a way to save me, but really, it was for himself. Mom said he's the kind of person who'd forget his wife and daughter for worldly power. He must have gained power somewhere else and just abandoned us.

He probably comforts himself, telling himself, 'Once I achieve this or that, I'll come back for you.' But in reality, he's never kept his promises."

Mo Bai felt a bit less guilty.

The girl's mother wasn't wrong. Professor Yang truly became obsessed with merging with an Ultra-Star Rank monster.

Obsessed with power, and never returned to them.

In the institute's research records, there was only work on how to fuse Schizophrenics and nothing about treating burns.

Mo Bai herself merged with an Ultra-Star Rank monster and came into contact with Professor Yang's consciousness.

She couldn't read all his memories, but she could sense his strongest desires.

At that time, all he wanted was to become complete, to become the most powerful existence immune to harm.

Perhaps, somewhere in his heart, he had thought about curing his daughter, but it was far from his top priority.

Once he became whole, he might have remembered her and used a stable extract to save her. Or perhaps he would have been consumed by power and never thought of her again.

"Then tell me where you are," Mo Bai said. "I might be able to help ease your pain."

The girl let out a creepy giggle. "No need. I've already found a way."

"What way?" Mo Bai asked.

"Mom said this town has 300,000 people," the girl replied.

"Doesn't look like that many," Mo Bai said honestly.

"That's because more than half are already dead," the girl said. "Mom told me that if I offer everyone in this town to her, she'll come back to life. Then she can protect me, and I'll never feel pain again."

"You really listen to your mom," Mo Bai said evenly.

A warm expression appeared on the girl's face. "Because Mom kept holding me… she held me even at the very end."

Mo Bai knew what "the end" meant. The end of the fire. It was precisely because her mother shielded her with her own body until death that the girl miraculously survived.

"She really cared about you," Mo Bai said truthfully.

The girl pouted. "But she watches me too closely. I want to go out and play too. She says everyone outside is bad and wants to kill me, so she won't let me out. I had to sneak out while she's asleep… just to play with people."

Play with people, not balloons. Mo Bai glanced at the balloon in the girl's hand.

Overall, the conversation had been fruitful.

At the very least, Mo Bai learned that the one on the verge of becoming a true Ultra-Star Rank monster in this instance might not be the girl, but her mother.

"Did you have fun?" Mo Bai asked.

The girl thought about it. "Not really. I blew up a few people, and it was boring. But you didn't get blown up, which surprised me. And you said a lot of things I've never heard before. That made me happy."

"That makes sense," Mo Bai said. "Games, battles, they're only fun when there's back and forth. A one-sided crush is boring."

"I see," the girl nodded thoughtfully.

As if making up her mind, she stuffed the balloon into Mo Bai's hand. "Then this time, I lose. As promised, you get one chance to protect 'Dad.'"

The balloon vanished the moment it touched Mo Bai's hand, and she felt a burning pain in her palm. When she looked down, a red balloon-shaped mark had appeared there.

The girl waved at her. "Big sister, Mom's about to wake up, so I have to go. Next time we meet, I'll think of a more interesting game. I'll definitely burn you beyond recognition, so wait and play with me~"

With that, the girl turned into a wisp of black smoke and disappeared.

Mo Bai looked at the mark on her palm, unsure whether she was lucky or not.

"It seems like the Broken Porcelain Doll title effect hasn't disappeared," she muttered.

Ever since the Phantom Butterfly, the monsters in these instances seemed to like her…

…and also really wanted to kill her.