Welcome to the Nightmare Game.

The bus was moving smoothly forward on a late autumn afternoon. The sunlight streamed through the window and warmed Qi Le's body. If it weren't for the girl in the seat next to him, crying and arguing with her boyfriend on the phone, this would have been a pleasant trip—no, scratch that. Who would feel good about taking their laptop to the repair shop? What confused Qi Le was that he had only played a game with almost no system requirements, yet his laptop screen suddenly blacked out for no reason. It was baffling, considering the laptop was barely a few months old! But that game... Qi Le thought, it was pretty terrifying. The game's name was quite common—Nightmare Game. He had downloaded it a couple of days ago while browsing a game forum. The name was ordinary, and it didn’t even have a screenshot, so he had mentally prepared for a low-quality game. To his surprise, it actually gave him quite a shock. Qi Le wasn’t a die-hard horror game fan, but he had played enough of them to have some basic judgment. What impressed him the most about this game, aside from the story, was the number of save points. As a self-proclaimed "save point addict," he took it to an extreme, saving at every possible point without overwriting a single save file. He probably saved around a hundred times, and still, the game ended with a bad ending (BE line). A message popped up on the screen: "Achievement unlocked: Save Point Addict." Qi Le's face darkened. Who the hell made up this ridiculous achievement? Then the game popped up another message: "Do you want to restart? YES or NO?" Without thinking, Qi Le clicked YES, then gently clicked the mouse, and his laptop screen blacked out. No matter how much he tried to restart it, it wouldn’t work. He reluctantly packed up his laptop and, feeling frustrated, prepared to head to the computer repair shop. On the way, he even wondered if downloading a pirated game had jinxed him. The girl sitting next to him was still crying. Her boyfriend seemed to shout something angrily at her on the phone, and she finally exploded, shouting hysterically, "Fine, let’s break up! You think I’ll miss you? I’ll get an abortion and make sure you and that b*tch won’t be happy!" After hanging up, she covered her face and sobbed uncontrollably. The atmosphere in the bus was awkward, and Qi Le, unsure whether to stay or leave, awkwardly took out a tissue from his bag and handed it to the girl. She glared at him fiercely. "Mind your own business!" she snapped. Feeling unjustly attacked, Qi Le awkwardly withdrew his hand and turned to look out the window, silently cursing himself for being a lonely single guy and for getting involved in other people’s relationship drama. The scenery outside the bus window rushed by quickly. Then, suddenly, Qi Le blinked— a truck appeared out of nowhere, speeding straight toward the bus! It collided with the bus before anyone could react. There was a loud crash, and the passengers on the bus were thrown forward. Qi Le had noticed it a few seconds earlier and instinctively grabbed the seat in front of him. But the inertia was too strong, and he slammed into the back of the seat, the impact making him black out amidst the screams. ... ... ... Qi Le was awoken by the blaring sound of an ambulance siren. Groggily, he opened his eyes and saw a face leaning close to him. "Ah!" Both of them screamed in surprise, then quickly fell silent. Qi Le sat up, his forehead throbbing with pain, and a doctor was sitting next to him, apparently from the ambulance crew. "Are you okay?" the doctor asked. "I’m fine, just a bit dizzy," Qi Le muttered, touching his forehead, which had been bandaged. "The bus you were on had an accident. You hit your head and may have a concussion. It's better to go to the hospital for observation," the doctor said. Qi Le didn’t feel like going to the hospital, thinking it was just a bump to the head. He gave the doctor a look, which made him pause for a moment. "Wait... are you a doctor? How old are you? Did you graduate from university?" Qi Le hesitated and asked, as the doctor looked no older than a high school student—he could even pass for a junior high schooler. The doctor shot him a glare and said, "I’m 27! I graduated with a PhD! I’ve been working for three years!" Qi Le immediately respected him. So, this was a genius doctor! Still feeling dizzy, Qi Le lay back down, chatting aimlessly with the doctor, whose name was Lü. Lü had skipped grades, graduated with a PhD at 24, and now worked at the X City First People's Hospital. Despite being a hospital "mascot" loved by nurses due to his youthful face and soft voice, Lü had been single all this time—a fact that seemed to bother him. "Same here," Qi Le thought sympathetically, feeling a little better. After a yawn, Qi Le closed his eyes, and Lü seemed to catch the yawn too, mumbling, "I’m so tired." The rhythmic sound of the ambulance siren filled the air, and Qi Le, feeling sleepy, drifted off again. ... ... ... When Qi Le woke up, he found himself lying on a row of metal chairs. A chill ran up his spine from the cold, metallic surface, making him shiver. He sat up quickly, his head still throbbing, and took a few moments to realize he must have been brought to the hospital. Yes, the hospital. But the sign on the opposite wall, reading "Infusion Hall," indicated he was in an infusion hall, not a ward. What was going on? The place was eerily silent, with no one around. The service desk was deserted, pens, sticky notes, and infusion tools carelessly left on the counter, and a water cup still steaming. It seemed as if someone had just been there, but they were now gone. This was strange. Qi Le had never seen an empty hospital like this before. The X City First People's Hospital was usually packed with patients. It was impossible for it to be so empty, unless there had been some kind of disaster. "Is anyone here? Hello? Where did everyone go?" Qi Le called out, his voice trembling, the sound echoing in the empty hall. He glanced around and walked towards the exit, ready to leave. This place felt wrong—too cold. Normally, crowded hospitals didn’t feel unsettling, but now, with no one around, the eerie chill was palpable. To his dismay, the glass doors were locked. Through the glass, the corridor outside was equally empty, with whitewashed walls and ceilings creating a strange, oppressive atmosphere. Despite it being daytime, the dim energy-saving lights gave the corridor the feel of an abandoned building in the dead of night. Turning around, Qi Le walked back to the window, planning to climb out, but as he glanced at the wall-mounted mirror, his heart skipped a beat—there, just a step away from him, was a figure in white sitting on one of the metal chairs. Qi Le whipped around, but the chair was empty. The rows of chairs were neatly arranged, some with trash and bags left by patients, but no one was sitting in them. The eerie emptiness of the place made the atmosphere even more oppressive. A cold sweat ran down Qi Le’s back as he slowly turned back toward the mirror. His pale face reflected back at him, and behind him, the empty chairs seemed to be waiting for someone to sit. But there was no one. It had to be a trick of his mind. Trying to keep calm, Qi Le approached the window and opened it, only to find the metal bars outside were welded shut. There was no escape. Outside was nothing but a thick, suffocating fog. He cursed under his breath. The door was locked, the window sealed, and the whole place felt disturbingly wrong. He tried not to think about the figure he saw in the mirror, though a part of him still wondered if it had been a real person. This felt like one of those creepy escape-the-room games. Just as he thought this, a few lines of text appeared in his mind: [Player Qi Le, you have completed the first step of the Newbie Village task: Awakening.] [Unlocked Slot X2] [Newbie Village Task 2: Leave the Infusion Hall.] [Achievement "Save Point Addict" reward granted, skill card "SL Magic" issued.] [Data synchronization countdown: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one... Synchronization complete.] Qi Le winced in pain, as if thousands of tiny needles were piercing his eyes, making tears well up. When the pain subsided a bit, he forced his eyes open, only to see—just as he had seen in the mirror—a white figure sitting quietly on the chair behind him... It was watching him.