Chapter 79

Anger and Exhaustion

You Jiu stood at the outpatient building's entrance, squinting, trying to read lip movements from the conversation between Curly Hair and the heavyset man. Both were turned at an angle that defeated him. He clicked his tongue and drifted over to Qi Shi instead. "What do you reckon they're saying?"

Qi Shi had noticed the anger on the man's face and was watching in case Curly Hair needed help. He pulled out a pair of glasses and put them on.

These were an S-class tool. Worn by a player, they displayed any NPC's current anger value and exhaustion value in real time.

Anger value above 80 could trigger a berserk state, producing aggressive behavior toward players.

Exhaustion value above 70 produced sluggishness; above 80, the NPC would fall into sleep.

He rarely used this tool — over-reliance on quantified readings degraded his own judgment.

The moment the glasses settled on his nose, the entire space filled with floating data. Numbers dense as a mathematical universe.

Which was also part of why he disliked the tool. It couldn't be aimed at a single person. It scanned everyone.

The volume of data made his eyes swim. Most people here had exhaustion values between 10 and 40. Anger values varied considerably — some as low as 0, some cresting toward 70.

He turned toward Curly Hair and was immediately arrested by the bright red 90 above the man she was talking to.

90 anger?

What had Curly Hair done to push an NPC to 90?

What surprised him even more: with an anger value this close to the limit, the man wasn't showing any aggressive behavior toward her at all.

He'd never seen that before. This instance had too many things that didn't follow standard rules.

He moved a few steps closer to where she was standing. The data was thick enough to blur his path — he accidentally stepped on a pedestrian's foot.

The pedestrian's anger value jumped from 2 to 10.

"I'm sorry." Qi Shi apologized immediately. "I hope I didn't hurt you." He bent at the waist, preparing to wipe the man's shoe.

"It's fine, it's completely fine." The pedestrian's anger value sank back, clearing even the original 2. The man was startled by Qi Shi's response and looked hurriedly around, clearly praying no one was filming this and getting the wrong idea about him bullying a hospital cleaner.

Satisfied that no one had a phone out, he relaxed and patted Qi Shi's arm. "I'm honestly fine. My shoes are dirty anyway. Please, don't wipe them."

If this ends up online I'm finished.

Qi Shi straightened up and stood still, watching the man's anger value disappear entirely.

These NPCs were... remarkably easy to deal with.

The pedestrian, using Qi Shi's momentary confusion as his exit, left at speed. He had not been mistreating hospital staff!

*

"Manager Zhu — everything you invested in developing me, every chance you gave me, I carry all of it. Of course I remember you."

Whether instance world or real world, Manager Zhu was among the genuinely good managers — rare in either context. When she'd left Kunlun, she'd thought she'd never see anyone from this world again. That was why she'd refused the job offer so cleanly, without leaving room for anything.

If she'd known there would be a day like this...

She should have refused more gently. Left more of a door open.

Even with the awkwardness of their current circumstances, she found she was more glad than embarrassed to see him. "Manager Zhu — I'm sorry. I really did want to stay at Kunlun. I've had some difficulties."

Manager Zhu looked at her: loose strands of hair, the red pressure marks from her mask still visible on her face. The fire in him went about half out. "Your abilities are strong. Customer service genuinely wasn't right for you. Kunlun recruits from the public every month — if you ever want to come back, watch the official site."

Curly Hair looked at the ground, not at his face. "All right."

"There's no wall you can't get over. Whatever the difficulty, you push through it." He seemed to worry he'd said too much and made her feel worse. "I should go."

"Manager Zhu." She looked up. "Are you feeling unwell?"

"Stomach again. Old problem — I did too much damage in my youth."

Qi Shi had come closer. The man's anger value was now down to 30.

"Take care of yourself." Manager Zhu raised a hand in farewell and turned to leave.

"Goodbye. Please look after your health."

"I will, I will." He clasped his hands behind his back, medicine bag swaying, and walked away slowly.

Qi Shi watched the anger value above his head diminish point by point, settling finally at 10, and dissolving into the street-level data.

"How did you—" He looked at Curly Hair. Getting an NPC from 90 back to single digits in that amount of time — what kind of technique was that?

"What about me?" Curly Hair noticed the somewhat unfortunate black-framed glasses that had appeared on Qi Shi's face. Tool.

"Nothing." He left it there. "Do you want to look around the area near the hospital?"

"We're in hospital cleaning uniforms. Even during rest time, walking around in these isn't a great idea." She nodded at the clothes. "We can move freely in our own clothes when we're not on shift."

A uniform was a layer of identity. In a hospital especially, it drew the eye. And she sincerely could not survive another former colleague encounter today.

"You're right." Qi Shi looked down at his coveralls. "Twenty-five minutes until the shift. What are you doing?"

"Looks like twenty-five minutes. But since the director ate dinner with us, he's already been thinking about us getting back to work."

"Why?" Qi Shi was puzzled. Players learned each instance's time rules quickly — as long as you didn't exceed the stated limit, you were safe.

"You don't believe me?" Curly Hair smiled. "Let's find out."

"Why are you only back now?" The director was sitting in the break room when they came in, expression disapproving. "It's been fifteen minutes since you finished eating. You represent this hospital. Don't wander."

"Director — you said the break was one hour," one of the players said. "We still have twenty-five minutes."

"Out of everything I said, you only remembered that one part?" His face remained closed. "As a member of this hospital's staff, don't think about lying flat and taking it easy. Think about what you're contributing. Do you have any idea how many cleaners across this whole hospital want to work on the ninth floor?"

"An opportunity like this, and you still don't value it." He looked at the player who'd spoken. "Young people today can't stand a bit of hardship. If you have complaints, apply to transfer off the ninth floor. I don't keep idle staff here."

"You're absolutely right, Director." The player, under the director's chilly gaze, maintained the performance with effort. "I'll work hard and strive to create a better tomorrow for the hospital."

Die, old man. Still running psychological operations on players.

"Good." The director's expression thawed. "Then get back to work. I'm going to inspect the other floors."

As the director left, Qi Shi noticed that throughout the exchange, his anger value had fluctuated but never exceeded 30.

All of it — performed. The anger, the dissatisfaction. None of it was real.

The targeted player dropped his shoulders the moment the director was gone, and went for his mop with resignation.

"Sets a rule and then ignores it himself." He pulled on his gloves. "No consistency whatsoever."

"You already knew he'd do that?" Qi Shi looked at Curly Hair.

"NPCs in other instances care about rules. The people here..." They enjoy making promises and then moving the goalposts.

She put on her cleaning gloves and went out to handle room three. The patient in three had been discharged that afternoon — good timing.

*

Chao Musheng's dinner was millet congee with broccoli and carrot. The congee was fragrant and good; he got through half a bowl, then found himself too restless to sleep and too uncomfortable to sit, and decided to walk the corridor.

"Room three doesn't even have a patient right now — why are you starting with room three?" Near the door of room two, a sharp-looking man was making himself unpleasant to someone. "Can't even clean properly. I genuinely don't know what this hospital hires."

The corridor was quiet and did nothing to absorb his volume. "Why are you still standing there — get moving."

The adjacent door opened. A young man in a hospital gown stepped out.

The man had heard from his wife's assistant that afternoon about the notable person in room four. Seeing the young man appear, he immediately arranged his expression into something welcoming. "Hello."

"Hello." Chao Musheng looked at him. "Are you a family member of a patient?"

"Yes, my wife is in—" The man's sentence broke off as Xu Chenzhu appeared behind Chao Musheng. His register went up sharply: "President Xu! How do you do!"

Xu Chenzhu gave him a brief look, then shifted his gaze to the cleaning staff member the man had been speaking to.

Her again.

"Boss, Xiao Chao — this is a family member of Zeng Yun, the head of Yunhe Industries." Secretary Liu provided the identification quietly, without mentioning the man's name.

The man maintained his most accommodating smile, without a trace of the sharpness from a moment ago. He didn't even show the slightest dissatisfaction at Secretary Liu's deliberate omission.

"What happened to Ms. Zeng?" Chao Musheng knew Yunhe Industries — a few days ago, a Kunlun subsidiary project had been contracted out to them.

"She fell on the stairs three days ago. She hasn't woken up." He seemed to be aware, at some level, of how he'd just been behaving. "My temper's been short these last couple of days. Did we disturb you?"

"We understand what you're going through." Chao Musheng exhaled. "I hope Ms. Zeng recovers quickly."

The players in the corridor all registered the same thing: the man who'd been sharp and imperious two minutes ago was now the picture of docility in front of the patient from room four.

Was room four the highest-authority NPC on the ninth floor?

Qi Shi took off his glasses and wiped the lenses, then put them back on. Two people in this corridor still showed no data at all.

The patient in room four. And the man looking after him.

No anger value. No exhaustion value. Nothing. If there hadn't been exactly five players in this instance, he'd almost have suspected the two of them were players.

A nurse came out from the nurses' station with a cart. "Sir — it's time for vital signs. Has your family member shown any other new symptoms today?"

The man looked back into the room. "About the same as yesterday. When is she going to wake up?"

"It's already been three days — do your doctors have any way to treat her or not?!"

His expression was furious. His voice was furious.

But Qi Shi watched his anger value: 30. And those 30 points had climbed during the exchange with Chao Musheng's group — they'd been lower before.

The nurse, meanwhile, showed 40 on anger and 72 on exhaustion.

In any other instance, 72 exhaustion meant an NPC parked on the floor and refusing to move. In this instance, 72 exhaustion and the NPC was still doing her rounds, still functional.

Every NPC here seemed built differently.

When the man had gone back in with the nurse, Chao Musheng turned to look at Curly Hair.

She was turning her cleaning gloves in her hands, unable to meet his eyes.

"There's a small garden nearby." Chao Musheng was aware of the three other cleaning staff watching from further down the corridor, and raised his voice slightly. "Can you come with us for a walk? I heard from one of the bodyguards that you found his wallet earlier today and returned it."

Curly Hair blinked.

Xiao Chao was deliberately giving them a reason in front of the others — acting as though he didn't already know her. The wallet was a cover story.

Had he misread something from her not approaching him first?

She looked up. He still had the IV line in his hand, but his eyes were full of easy warmth. She gave a small nod.

When you've died of embarrassment enough times, you build up a tolerance.

What she felt guilty about was not being able to control when or where she appeared. She didn't know if her presence was making trouble for him.

*

You Jiu came out of a room carrying a bucket of dirty water from mopping around the bed frames. He looked up to find Curly Hair walking away with several men.

Those backs look familiar.

Known: the last one in line was the secretary from the Chen Garden instance.

The two in front of him would have to be—

Chao Musheng and President Xu.

So it wasn't just Secretary Liu who had escaped the Chen Garden instance. They'd all come through together. Which explained why the bodyguards had sent Curly Hair extra fruit at lunch and a cake this afternoon — Xu Chenzhu's team.

But why did these NPCs, after crossing to a new instance, still remember Wang Xiaojuan?

What kind of luck was that?

Wait.

He thought about how the medical staff and the other patients on this floor treated room four — that particular deference, almost identical to Chen Garden's.

Every instance had a different boss. How were Chen Garden's NPCs commanding the same level of treatment in a hospital instance?

Something was wrong with the fundamentals here.

"Xiao You." The director drifted over. "Get room eight sorted — new patient arriving in five minutes."

Five minutes to turn a room?

Are you human?

Five minutes later, You Jiu stared at the patient being wheeled into room eight and fell into a confusion deeper than any he'd encountered in this game.

Chen Fang, the second young master of the Chen family.

How was he also in this instance?

Had the Main God lost its mind?

Two instances sharing NPCs — was it trying to save on character modeling?

*

The ninth floor's small garden was a rest area built specifically for patients — a pocket of green tucked into the building. Chao Musheng bought a bottle of something from the vending machine and handed it to Curly Hair.

"Xiao Chao — are you all right? Really?"

"I'm fine, just a minor cold." He smiled. "I was starting to wonder if you'd ever look up at me today."

"I'm sorry, Xiao Chao." She gripped the bottle. "Actually, I—"

Beep.

A violent resonance through her skull — the kind that came from somewhere deep in whatever was left of her self, shaking her too thoroughly for words.

"You don't need to explain. I understand." He smiled.

Every time there was something serious happening, Curly Hair appeared nearby.

There was only one conclusion: she was someone who had taken on a heavy responsibility and was walking toward it.

Curly Hair thought to herself that Xiao Chao possibly did not understand.

"Is there anything I can do to help with your current difficulty?" he asked.

Curly Hair looked at him with an expression of considerable wear. "A letter of thanks from a patient to their cleaner."

Let the misunderstanding stand. Who knew what she'd be doing the next time she ran into Xiao Chao in an instance anyway.