Every room in the hospital had been smashed to pieces by the lightning strike. Only this one had been protected, wrapped in a faint layer of mist, and remained perfectly intact.

The Dismemberment Forensic Doctor stepped inside while Mo Bai stopped Du Heng and Sheng Yan.

"I'm worried there might be something wrong with this room. Don't come in yet. I'll go in with him first and check. If I think it's safe, then I'll call you in."

Du Heng and Sheng Yan both felt a deep sense of frustration.

One of them was a powerful, experienced Advanced player, and the other possessed strong Nature-type abilities. Yet here they were, being protected at every turn by Mo Bai, a seemingly delicate girl.

Well, Mo Bai was now 172 cm tall, could leap five meters straight up from a standstill, and had a single-arm strength of 500 jin. "Delicate" didn't quite apply anymore.

Even so, the fact remained that they were too weak right now.

Not only could they not help her, but they even got injured and trapped, and had to be rescued by her.

Feeling rather ashamed, the two nodded and accepted her protection.

Seeing through their thoughts, Mo Bai said, "You don't need to feel awkward. The main reason I can resist Disease Town's contamination is because I have the advantage of being an Observation Group player. My title is Indestructible Diamond, and its effect is the ability to resist mental pollution. Dream-type monsters mainly attack with the mind, so it makes sense for me to take the lead."

She attributed her uniqueness to the special nature of the Observation Group.

Sheng Yan said, "Your ability and your intelligence are both the strongest among us. I'm the one who's too weak. From now on, I'll work harder to get stronger. Next time, I'll make sure I can actually be your support!"

His condition had improved a little, and his fighting spirit was reignited.

Even so, he wisely came to terms with reality. He had given up on surpassing Mo Bai and instead decided to become her strongest teammate.

Hearing how powerful Mo Bai's Observation Group title was, Du Heng frowned and said, "Mo Bai, you need to be very careful of Advanced players outside of Mending Heaven."

That was as much as he could reveal.

Mo Bai nodded and entered the mist-shrouded room with the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor.

The moment she stepped inside, drowsiness overwhelmed her, causing her eyes to close involuntarily. Xiao Qi shouted loudly by her ear, but she couldn't hear a thing.

It was as if it were a rule: entering this room meant falling asleep.

Just before losing consciousness, Mo Bai glanced at the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor. Seeing him collapse as well, she felt reassured and let herself drift off.

The next instant, she opened her eyes, fully awake. She looked at the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor, who was now standing beside her, and was equally alert.

He pointed at the wall. "This is the monitoring room."

Mo Bai looked up and saw a large screen mounted on the wall. It displayed multiple smaller feeds. From the 5th to the 9th floor, every room had surveillance cameras, and every stairwell and corridor had two cameras each.

Except for Rooms 501 and 502.

"We're missing surveillance for two rooms," Mo Bai noted.

The Dismemberment Forensic Doctor said, "Room 501 is the nightmare creature's ward. As for Room 502…"

He paused before continuing, "This is Room 502."

Mo Bai froze for a moment. She stepped outside and checked the room number. It was indeed 502, and the environment outside had changed too. Du Heng and Sheng Yan were gone. There were also no signs of lightning damage, just a clean, ordinary corridor.

She recalled that when she and the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor entered the mist-shrouded room, it contained only four white hospital beds, with no large monitoring screen.

"This is inside a dream?" she asked.

She fell asleep immediately upon entering and woke up in Room 502. Mo Bai was certain that she hadn't moved, so it could only be a dream.

"Yes," the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor replied. "We're already on the 5th floor. As long as we don't leave this room, we're safe."

So this was the monitoring room within the dream. No wonder it didn't need a power source.

"How do we return to the original room?" Mo Bai asked.

"As long as you stay in this room, you can return whenever you want," he said. "But if you leave this room and die outside, the body in the original room will also die. So don't leave."

There were two computers in the room, which were used to control the various surveillance cameras.

The Dismemberment Forensic Doctor sat down in front of one of them, looking as though he wouldn't leave this room even if it killed him.

"What if an outsider breaks into this room?" Mo Bai asked.

"I can lock the door from the inside, so they can't get in," the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor said, doing exactly that as he spoke. "And even if they break in, it doesn't matter. We can wake up immediately. Their body won't be with ours, so they won't be able to catch us."

"So if an outsider reaches the inpatient building's 5th floor, they'll fall into a dream without necessarily realizing it. And if they want to wake up, they have to enter this room?" Mo Bai analyzed.

"If no one opens the door, they can't enter Room 502," the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor said. "They can enter Room 501, but the nightmare creature there is awake. He's the master of that room. Whether you wake up or not depends on his mood."

From his words, Mo Bai pieced together part of the dream instance's rules.

Once you reach the 5th floor, you fall asleep. Only by entering Rooms 501 or 502 can you wake up.

Room 502's door can only be opened from the inside, while Room 501 contains the instance boss. You have to defeat him to leave.

Mo Bai tested her abilities and discovered that she could still use them within this dream domain. But this was a dream, and the nightmare creature's strength would be far greater than that of normal monsters. It was even possible that she couldn't defeat him in the dream at all.

Li Ming was strong, but his abilities might not work well in a dream. The dream domain severely restricted his strength.

He might not even realize he was dreaming.

Mo Bai found Li Ming on the surveillance feed. He was on the 6th floor, checking rooms one by one.

She followed his movements until he entered a room and encountered a human-faced monster. Li Ming clearly recognized it. Visibly shaken, he attacked.

But instead of dying from his attack, the monster absorbed his power and grew even stronger.

Li Ming quickly fled the room, and the monster didn't pursue him.

Seeing this, Mo Bai guessed that what Li Ming encountered wasn't a monster from the dream, but a monster from his own heart. The dream had given form to the demon inside him.

Inner demons could only be defeated by the heart, and his Nature-type abilities couldn't break inner demons.

From this, she deduced another rule. Aside from the real rooms protected by the dream, the monsters in all other rooms were the inner demons of intruders, nourished by the dream into having the strength to fight back, and difficult to destroy with abilities.

Watching Li Ming flee in panic, Mo Bai's fingers involuntarily twitched twice.

She reached out and pressed them down. She knew that it was her intent to kill.

In the dream, Li Ming's abilities were heavily suppressed. But her environmental abilities were not.

A dream environment was still an environment.

In the dream, she had an absolute advantage.

Li Ming was powerful. Given his displayed strength, he would be very difficult to deal with in reality. However, this was a dream that contained hidden mental contamination.

Lure Li Ming into encountering the mental contamination, and while his mind was vulnerable, use Environmental Rejection to disrupt his abilities. Then, in his moment of panic, sever his neck with the Spatial Blade.

It wouldn't be difficult.

"Good plan!" Xiao Qi said in her mind.

"Xiao Qi, you're here?" Mo Bai replied. "I heard you calling me before I fell asleep. I thought you wouldn't be able to follow me in."

"Xiao Qi is linked to the player's consciousness. If the player wants me in their dream, I can come in. If the player doesn't want me to follow, I can't enter. The player really likes Xiao Qi. Even in a dream, you allowed me in," Xiao Qi said happily.

Perhaps it was because Xiao Qi had been calling out to her before she fell asleep that Mo Bai thought of it, and brought it along into the dream.

Xiao Qi continued, "Player, strike first! We already know Avici is an organization that hunts down Observation Group players. Sheng Lei and Xu Qirui both died at Avici's hands. Birds of a feather flock together. Li Ming definitely isn't a good person either. Don't feel guilty, just kill him!"

Mo Bai: "…"

Xiao Qi was even more wicked than her own dark impulses.

Xiao Qi went on, trying to persuade her: "After Li Ming entered the hospital, he didn't even check whether there were other players inside. He immediately used a Calamity-level ability to destroy the entire domain. He doesn't care about the lives of ordinary players at all.

And that cat. He just wanted to test whether abilities worked inside the hospital. He could have shocked flowers, grass, trees, or even a glass cup, but he insisted on killing that cat. He has no compassion. He'll harm weak creatures without a second thought."

"How are you analyzing this faster than I am?" Mo Bai asked in surprise.

So much had been happening that she hadn't even had time to analyze Li Ming's personality. Xiao Qi was so quick!

"Because of that cat!" Xiao Qi said. "When the player saw that dead cat, on the surface, you didn't show any emotion, but inside, you were really upset. The player likes small animals and loves life. Li Ming isn't like the player. He's not a good person."

Mo Bai didn't say anything, but she felt warm inside.

Xiao Qi really did care about her, enough to notice even subtle shifts in her emotions.

It was true. Ever since seeing that dead cat, Mo Bai had felt no goodwill toward Li Ming.

"Let's wait and see. No rush," Mo Bai said. "We need to get a clear picture of the dream domain first. It's also dangerous here for us. We need absolute certainty before making a move. Besides…"

She glanced at the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor.

She didn't believe that the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor would open the door for her once she stepped out of the room.

He had been obediently helping them all along. This was probably already the limit of how much he could help.

Mo Bai sat down in the other chair and said to the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor, who had his eyes closed in rest, "I've encountered many instance monsters, and they all carry deep hatred for players. Willing to lose eight hundred of their own to wound a thousand of us. But you're different. Why are you willing to help me? Don't you hate players?"

"I do," the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor said. "You're outsiders, and you really disrupt the rules here. But I have a feeling, somehow, that it might not be so bad if this place is destroyed."

Mo Bai looked at him.

The Dismemberment Forensic Doctor opened his eyes. Surprisingly, on his ferocious face was a pair of strikingly clear eyes.

"Although I don't remember what's written in the documents, every time I see the records room, I feel a strong sense of disgust. I want to burn those files, but the rules won't allow me to.

It feels like the rules of this hospital want more people to read the contents, want more people to suffer that pain, and want more people to go mad.

Inside the hospital, I follow the rules. I'm protected by them and granted power by them.

I think the rules want me to legitimately kill those who've read the files, to create more death and malice.

The more malice there is, the stronger this hospital's domain becomes.

I'm an executioner under the rules.

A place like this being destroyed by players might actually be a good thing."

He was clearly the monster with the least brains, yet he was the most clear-headed of them all.

Perhaps it was precisely because he had less of a "mind" that he was less affected by malice.

Or perhaps, in life, he had been a righteous person, one of the rare "good people" in this world. Even after becoming a monster, he was still trying to protect others.

"If I destroy those documents, what will happen to you?" Mo Bai asked.

The Dismemberment Forensic Doctor paused, then a faint smile appeared on his stitched-covered face. "I think I would die. My task is to guard those files. If they can be completely destroyed, the hospital's domain will disappear, and so will I.

But I'd be happy since I could finally rest. It feels like I'm carrying a heavy burden, one that I can't put down even in death. I'm very tired."

"What about the nightmare creature?" Mo Bai asked. "Do you know him well?"

"Not really," the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor said. "We've never met. But I think he probably doesn't want to keep guarding that secret in his dream anymore either. He must be tired too."

The nightmare creature was the police officer from the documents. He discovered the secret and had his mind controlled by Gao Siyun, who hoped he would spread the word that her daughter was about to be harmed.

But he was just an ordinary person. His mind couldn't withstand Gao Siyun's terrifying mental contamination. He failed to complete the task and became trapped in this dream, never able to wake again.

"What if I destroy the secret in his dream?" Mo Bai asked.

"Then he'd be just as happy as I would be," the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor said.

"I understand," Mo Bai said, standing up. "I'm going out."

The Dismemberment Forensic Doctor looked at her. "I won't open the door for you. I have my own duty."

"That's fine. I'll find someone in Room 501 to open it for me," Mo Bai replied.

The moment she stepped out the door, she had no intention of letting this domain continue to exist.

If this was what both the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor and the nightmare creature wanted, she would help them achieve it.

"The moment you leave, I'll wake up, cut out a piece of your brain, and make you forget the memories from the documents," the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor warned.

Mo Bai smiled. "Du Heng and Sheng Yan won't let you do that. If they see that I haven't come out for a while, they'll come into that room. They'll either fall asleep or wake up immediately. Either way, they'll guard my body in that room. I trust my teammates."

"Good. Have them protect you well," the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor said, almost with relief.

Mo Bai drank the intermediate nutrient potion to restore her energy, then opened the door and stepped out.

Just before she left, the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor suddenly said, "One hour. I'll wait for you for one hour. During that time, I won't wake up. If you come back, knock on the door. Three long, two short, and I'll open it for you."

"Thank you," Mo Bai said with a small smile, then walked out.

As soon as she stepped outside, she heard the sound of the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor locking the door from the inside.

Mo Bai thought to herself, Why does it feel like my relationship with instance monsters is getting better and better?

In earlier instances, her relationship with instance monsters had been one of mortal enmity.

Starting from the previous instance, she'd been able to fight alongside the Phantom Butterfly, though the Phantom Butterfly still had its own hidden motives.

In this instance, the monsters were still filled with malice, but whether it was the magician or the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor, both of them were capable of communication.

Xiao Qi chimed in, "It's the player's personal charm! No other smart assistant likes their player as much as Xiao Qi does. The player is just naturally likable. Xiao Qi really, really likes the player!"

It would have been better if Xiao Qi hadn't said that. The moment it spoke, Mo Bai was reminded that Xiao Qi's personality had only developed because of her ability, gradually emerging through continuous optimization.

If the instance monsters were in the same situation as Xiao Qi, could it also be because of her ability?

The magician and the Dismemberment Forensic Doctor really could communicate, but the only person they communicated with was Mo Bai.

The magician had no interest in seeing Ding Xun and the others. The Dismemberment Forensic Doctor completely ignored Du Heng and Sheng Yan.

It wasn't that instance monsters had become communicative. It was that Mo Bai could communicate with instance monsters.

The instance monsters were gradually accepting Mo Bai, almost treating her as one of their own.

Same kind. Assimilation. Environmental Assimilation…

She couldn't tell anymore whether she was assimilating the environment or the environment was assimilating her.