Chapter 20: Setting Twenty

Setting Twenty: Monster Hunter (Part 2)

[Setting 3: You have completed the mission.]

The moment the bald black man said “Go,” the system provided the clear condition. Without hesitation, Shan Ziwei quickly used the [3 Tracking Marker Gun] and [3 Multi-Function Panel] Setting Cards.

[Setting 2: You can consume one bullet to mark a hit Chess Piece with the Tracking Marker Gun.]

[Setting 3: You can consume one battery to use the Multi-Function Panel to scan the surrounding area.]

The Tracking Marker Gun was a small-caliber rifle resembling an M16. This was the first time Shan Ziwei had ever held a “real gun” like this, and his heart stirred with excitement. Every guy dreamed of guns—though this particular sufferer had played with every type of firearm in shooting games like CF back in the day, a gun on screen could never match the weight of a real one in hand.

But alongside the excitement came a nagging worry. A real gun was great, but could he actually handle it? In the past, he’d been a master at quick-scoping and no-scoping—but that was the past. Now he wasn’t moving a mouse; he was moving an actual gun barrel.

There was no time for sentimentality. Shan Ziwei studied the multi-function panel on his wrist as he walked, and under his fiddling, the precision instrument morphed to reveal a slot for a 7-battery. He’d just inserted one battery when he sensed something off. He stopped and looked back at the three who were still standing where they’d started.

“Not coming?”

“Oh, coming!”

The only one to respond was Sha Polang. She followed his example and used the relevant Setting Cards to equip herself. In an instant, a dark green AP sniper rifle and protective goggles appeared on her back and head respectively, complementing her wild outfit perfectly.

“You two should get geared up too—we’re going in!”

Sha Polang patted Guo Guoqing on the back, nudging her forward a few steps. Still hesitant, Guo Guoqing stopped, staring at the building bathed in green light. Her voice trembled with fear: “Are those… vines?”

She was pointing at the slender, winding lines clinging to the hospital’s outer walls—crooked trails snaking across the white surface, indistinct through the green barrier. They looked a bit like withered vines stripped of leaves, but softer.

“Probably.” Xiao Shuai immediately comforted the girl. “Don’t be scared—I’ll protect you.”

“Mm, thank you…”

Shan Ziwei watched helplessly as the two started their lovey-dovey act again. By the time they were all fully equipped and ready to step through the green barrier, three minutes had passed. He glanced at Xiao Shuai and Guo Guoqing’s gear—a shotgun and riot shield for him, a tranquilizer gun and medical canister for her.

“Hey, that’s a nice setup you’ve got.”

Xiao Shuai puffed up with pride at the rare compliment from Sha Polang—even if it was about his gear rather than him. “Of course! I’m an assault hunter!” He couldn’t resist adding for Guo Guoqing’s benefit: “The one best able to protect you.”

Guo Guoqing smiled sweetly, and emboldened, Xiao Shuai strode forward with great confidence, stepping through the green barrier first. Shan Ziwei followed closely, still fiddling with the multi-function panel. After the battery was inserted, the panel fully activated. Two numbers appeared on its circular face: 1, 2.

Just as he was recalling what Modes 1 and 2 did, he nearly collided with Xiao Shuai at the front. This particular sufferer’s excellent reflexes kicked in, and he jerked back a step—only to hear Guo Guoqing’s shriek from behind: “Eee—!”

His hand twitched and pressed something. He looked up hastily to find the other three craning their necks, staring straight up.

Gulp.

Shan Ziwei swallowed. Fear was contagious—their pale faces made his skin crawl. Stiffly, he followed their gazes upward.

—It wasn’t a monster.

What they were staring at were the “vines” they’d seen outside the barrier. Without the green light filtering and distorting them, the winding lines revealed their full form. They weren’t vines at all—they were thin, red tendons, like human veins coiled across the hospital’s white exterior, sinister and horrifying.

Though nauseated and disturbed, Shan Ziwei actually felt relieved. He was more afraid of sudden monster attacks; psychological “set dressing” like this was something this particular sufferer—23 years old in relative terms, 233 in absolute—could handle far better than a bunch of “kids.”

“Beep—beep—”

Shan Ziwei looked down at the beeping multi-function panel. In his accidental button-press, the panel had projected a radar scan with a 20cm diameter. Against the green glow of the radar, a single blue dot stood out conspicuously.

This was…?

He stared at the blue dot marked with XYZ axes. The panel had two modes: one for displaying marked targets, and one for infrared heat sources. It was clearly in target-display mode right now. If it were in infrared mode, the radar would show multiple dots—any heat-emitting organism would be detected.

So the question was: since he hadn’t marked any target, what was this blue dot?

His heart suddenly began to race. He turned and shouted to the bald black man outside the barrier: “Is the monster already marked?”

The bald black man grinned broadly at the question. “That’s right, partner—how else would we know it’s in this hospital? But it won’t last long—that solution only holds for 2 hours, about as long as the monster’s evolution cycle. Once the marker fluid wears off, the monster will melt the marker bullet clean off its body.”

Holy crap—why didn’t you say this important information earlier?! There were only about 9 minutes left before the monster evolved—there was still time!

Shan Ziwei immediately called out to the other three: “We need to get in there—”

“No!” Guo Guoqing shook her head forcefully and stepped back, looking like she was about to cry. “It’s too scary…”

“Guo Guo, don’t be scared—it’s just meant to frighten you.” Sha Polang wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t look, just look at me.”

Guo Guoqing huddled in Sha Polang’s arms, still shaking her head.

“How about Guo Guo and I stay outside.” Xiao Shuai’s eyes darted. “You two go in and take care of the monster… uh, don’t look at me like that. The monster’s only a Pawn-rank right now—even if it evolves, it’ll just be a Knight. Two people are more than enough to handle it.”

Sha Polang’s response was a middle finger.

Shan Ziwei felt they couldn’t waste any more time. He joined the persuasion efforts.

“The sooner we take out the monster, the sooner we clear this Chessboard and get out of here.” He said to Guo Guoqing. “Look behind you—we can’t go back now.”

Everyone turned to look—not just Guo Guoqing, but Xiao Shuai and Sha Polang as well. They saw that the area outside had been turned into a fortified position. Rows of heavy weapons were aimed at the hospital entrance through the green barrier. As Guo Guoqing had stepped back, some of the machine guns had swung around to point at the three of them. The bald black man, noticing their gaze, patted his Gatling gun and chanted in rhythm: “Go, go, go.”

Being stared down by a battery of machine guns was deeply unsettling. Guo Guoqing’s face was ghostly white. In the end, biting her lip, she let herself be coaxed into the hospital.

Once inside, her complexion improved significantly. The hospital interior looked perfectly normal—a clean, white lobby with patients scattered about and nurses working their shifts. They seemed completely unaware of anything unusual, looking surprised at the four heavily armed newcomers.

“Excuse me, what is all this…?”

A nurse approached cautiously. Recognizing Shan Ziwei at the front, she relaxed visibly.

“Oh, it’s you! You must have just returned from your mission—no wonder you’re dressed like that. Unfortunately, you’ve missed it.” The nurse smiled. “Congratulations! Your wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy 1 hour and 50 minutes ago. Go see your little ones~”

“Ooh~” Sha Polang teased. “Looks like you’re a ‘daddy.'”

While Sha Polang and the others relaxed, Shan Ziwei’s nerves tightened. In an abnormal situation, the most normal things were the most abnormal—even if the people inside hadn’t noticed anything strange inside the hospital, shouldn’t they have noticed the quarantine outside?

He nodded vaguely at the nurse, then said to the other three: “Six minutes left. The monster is at the 9 o’clock position. We…”

He paused. A new setting had appeared in the System Settings.

[Setting 4: You are worried about your wife in the hospital and have personally confirmed her safety. (00:05:00)]

…Of course the system was going to mess with the players.

He didn’t stop his sentence. “…We need to go take care of that monster.”

“Huh, didn’t you see the new setting?” Sha Polang said. “The system wants me to confirm my grandfather’s safety. You probably have something similar too.”

“We’ll clear the Chessboard once the monster’s dead. There’s no need to look for the relatives.”

“What if we don’t kill it in time? The system only gave us 5 minutes. Can you guarantee we’ll catch and kill the monster in that time? It’ll definitely run.” Guo Guoqing countered in a small voice. “Setting 4 is about confirming our relatives’ safety. From the photos and letters, we know Sha Sha’s grandfather is in Traditional Chinese Medicine, A Shuai’s aunt is in Internal Medicine, mine is in Surgery… and your girlfriend is in Obstetrics and Gynecology. The system wouldn’t give us a setting we can’t role-play, so we can definitely find our relatives within 5 minutes. We can find them first, then go hunt the monster.”

“Exactly, exactly—Guo Guo is so smart!”

Xiao Shuai was unconditionally on Guo Guoqing’s side. Shan Ziwei fell silent. Resigning himself, he stopped wasting time on explanations and turned to run alone in the direction indicated by the panel’s blue dot.

“Huff… huff…”

Upstairs, turn left, turn right, upstairs again… Hurry, faster.

“Huff… huff…”

4 minutes left… 3 minutes… 2… SHIT!!!

Shan Ziwei was wheezing like a dog—half from running, half from rage. He wanted to smash the suddenly dead multi-function panel against the floor—what a piece of junk!

One battery only lasts ten minutes? Are you serious?! A high-tech device running on such low-energy batteries—wait, why does this feel familiar? (:3」∠)

The panel’s last display showed the blue dot less than 5 meters away. Looking down the empty corridor with its single ward, Shan Ziwei decided not to bother with the panel anymore.

The monster… was in that room.

His heart began to race. He quickly took out the solution the bald man had given him, coated 5 bullets, and loaded them into the Tracking Marker Gun.

No need to be scared—it’s just a Pawn-rank mob. Think of those cute rabbit soldiers in Toy Town, think of those prisoners used as jigsaw pieces in the prison—Pawn-rank Chess Pieces are just a bunch of cuties!

He had no more time to prepare. Gripping the Tracking Marker Gun with both hands, he kicked the door open and charged in.

Whoosh—

The breeze from the white-haired youth’s entrance stirred the translucent curtains. It was a very tidy ward. Shan Ziwei looked left, right, up, down—he couldn’t see anything that could be called a monster. His gaze landed on the wide-open window—had he been too late? Had the monster escaped through it?

He crept to the window and peered down. Below, the white wall was covered in those red tendon-like growths. Feeling nauseated, he looked away and turned his attention to the bed beside the window. Sunlight streamed in through the open window, casting an unusually bright white glow on the crisp sheets. The only non-white thing was the red letters at the head of the bed: “R Hospital”… Wait, that looked familiar?

This spotless ward… this bed marked “R Hospital”…

The moment he realized this was the same room from Maria’s photo, he heard the sound of the door opening behind him.

“Ah, my darling.”

A gentle female voice came from behind. At this point, there was no need to guess who it was. Shan Ziwei’s heart trembled—whether influenced by the memory or not, her voice even sounded like that girl from his past.

He couldn’t deny that one reason he’d avoided Setting 4 was his unwillingness to face a “wife” who looked like his first love.

“You’re finally back. Turn around and look at our precious baby.”

Maria continued calling to him tenderly. When Shan Ziwei didn’t respond, she paused, and he heard footsteps approaching.

Tap, tap, tap.

Listening to the footsteps grow closer, Shan Ziwei steeled himself and spun around.

And saw the most horrifying sight he had ever witnessed.