Mu Sichen might have been just a college student from a peaceful era, but he wasn’t naive. The deaths of the other four players had taught him that this was a world without safety, where goals were rarely achieved without sacrifice.

However, a sacrifice should be a choice made by the individual, not forced upon them. No one had the right to make that decision for Shen Jiyue.

More importantly, the price of this particular sacrifice was too high. The fact that Shen Jiyue could maintain his convictions while mutated into a monster proved that his beliefs were more precious to him than his life. “Curing” him didn’t mean killing him; it meant polluting his mind until he lost the very faith that sustained his soul.

To Shen Jiyue, that would be a fate worse than death.

Mu Sichen could not condone it. If he could, he would have loved to take his pickaxe to Yao Wangping’s head to see if he could knock some warmth into that cold, hyper-rational brain. But he still needed information, so he couldn’t afford to burn that bridge just yet.

“Were you like me?” Mu Sichen asked, keeping his voice neutral. “Did you enter as a ‘Family Member’ and become a ‘Doctor’ after ‘treating’ a patient?”

“No, I was a ‘Patient’,” Yao Wangping replied. “This sanitarium automatically detects one’s faith. In this town, I’m classified as a Degenerate, so I became a patient the moment I stepped inside.”

“How does a Patient become a Doctor?”

“A Family Member is already in the process of being polluted,” Yao explained. “If you push them over the edge and turn them into a Patient, you can swap roles with them. After that, you just need to ‘treat’ one more patient to be promoted to Medical Staff.”

“So if I become a Doctor, I’ll be safe here,” Mu Sichen mused.

“Not exactly,” Yao corrected. “Doctors have a quota. If a Doctor doesn’t turn in a patient every day, they get demoted back to Family.”

“The Doctor role sounds risky. What about the Volunteers?”

“Volunteers are the most stable and unique entities here, but also the most useless. Their status never changes, but they lack the power to harm anyone; they simply assist the Doctors. Once you’re a Doctor, you can order Volunteers to do anything. Ignore them. Just focus on becoming a Doctor.”

Through Yao’s explanation, the rules finally became clear.

Of the four roles, Volunteers were the devout Followers. Even covered in blisters, they were blissfully happy; they had no “Self” left to break, so they were constant.

The other three—Patient, Family, and Medical Staff—were all drawn from the ranks of ordinary residents or Degenerates. They were the only “normal” humans left in Pupil Town. The “Survivors.”

The system forced these survivors to prey upon one another. A Patient turns a Family Member into a Patient to escape their own misery; a Family Member “cures” a Patient to become a Doctor; and a Doctor hunts outsiders to avoid demotion.

It was a classic pyramid scheme. By establishing these rules, Big Eye didn’t have to do a thing. The survivors would tear each other apart just to secure one more day of “safety.”

“What happens to the ‘cured’ patients? Do they become Volunteers?” Mu Sichen asked.

“No, they are discharged,” Yao said. “They accept their physical mutations with all their hearts. They go to the basement to collect their medical records and leave the hospital full of piety.”

“Discharged? What about us?”

“When a patient is discharged, the Family and Doctor earn Contribution Points. After 7:30 PM, they can leave the sanitarium to rest and return the next day for a new patient. Volunteers get points just by staying at their posts.”

Mu Sichen noticed a glaring flaw. “Doesn’t that mean that unless you’re a Volunteer or a ‘cured’ patient, you can never actually leave this cycle? Unless you find faith in Big Eye, you’re trapped here forever.”

“So what? Our goal isn’t to escape the sanitarium; it’s to find the ‘Pillar’. Stop overthinking and go ‘treat’ your patient. Then we’ll go room by room looking for the Pillar’s trail.”

“What exactly is the Pillar? Why look room by room?”

Yao shook his head. “Every Pillar is different. No one knows its true form. It could be a cursed object, a painting, a scrap of paper, a mirror, or even a pocket of air. It’s a massive concentration of energy that supports the Domain; it can attach to anything.”

“Then how do we find it?”

“We search. We look for a collection of energy that feels… wrong.”

Mu Sichen felt that Yao’s approach was too crude, and a deep sense of unease settled in his gut. He felt that if they played by the sanitarium’s rules, they would only be shackled by them.

“You just arrived today, right? Where did you get all this information?” Mu Sichen asked.

Yao checked the time, his patience fraying. “Why so many questions? From other comrades, obviously. Do you think I’m the only one who infiltrated Pupil Town?”

With these rules, can information really be passed out? Who gave Yao these rules? Mu Sichen fell into a pensive silence.

Seeing that Mu Sichen wasn’t moving, Yao barked, “The Doctors head out to hunt for patients at 2:00 PM. Treatment hours are from 2:00 PM to 7:30 PM. It’s currently 10:30 AM. We have three and a half hours. I’ll give you thirty minutes to become a Doctor. Meet me in the lobby then.”

He turned and strode out of the office, leaving Mu Sichen behind.

Mu Sichen was drowning in doubt. He felt the information he had was incomplete—acting now felt like walking into a trap. If he were Big Eye, would he really leave the “Pillars” unguarded, allowing Degenerates to wander freely and destroy them? It couldn’t be that simple.

Mu Sichen opened his hand. The fish-eye blisters on his skin hadn’t vanished after receiving the totem. In fact, they seemed more “alive.” The black dots in the center were beginning to swivel like pupils, possessing a consciousness of their own as they watched him.

A wave of nausea hit him. He hid his hand back under his cloak.

Any rational person, seeing their body rot like this, would do anything to escape it—even betray a stranger. The moment they entertained that thought, they were under the thumb of the sanitarium’s logic. The infection chain of Patient-Family-Doctor would continue indefinitely, like a never-ending horror movie.

Mu Sichen returned to the ward. Shen Jiyue was lying on the bed, eyes closed peacefully as if waiting for death. He didn’t even acknowledge Mu Sichen’s entrance.

Mu Sichen picked up the medical log again. His eyes landed on the third entry: “Family Counseling.” It noted that a Family Member had received the “Blessing” in front of Shen Jiyue, causing him great distress.

Based on Yao’s rules, Mu Sichen realized what had actually happened. Yesterday’s “Family Member” had failed to “cure” Shen Jiyue. They hadn’t earned their points. Under the pressure of the pollution, they had snapped, mutated, and gone mad right in front of the patient. Even so, Shen Jiyue had held on.

Mu Sichen needed to understand what this man was thinking. He pulled up a chair and sat by the bed. “Shen Jiyue, let’s talk.”

“Stay away from me,” Shen Jiyue said without opening his eyes. “I will never worship that disgusting eye.”

“Do you know that if a Family Member ‘cures’ a patient, they become a ‘safe’ Doctor? And that if they fail, the pollution will turn them into a patient too?”

Shen Jiyue opened his eyes. His bulging, frog-like gaze fixed on Mu Sichen. “So you’ve figured it out. Then why are you still here? Shouldn’t you be trying to turn me into a Follower?”

Mu Sichen had been ignorant of the rules until now, but Shen Jiyue clearly wasn’t. His earlier refusal to cooperate wasn’t just spite; it was a warning. If Shen Jiyue wanted to save himself, his best move would have been to pollute Mu Sichen and swap roles. He hadn’t.

“You know the rules,” Shen Jiyue said. “My advice? Don’t become an accomplice. It is better to become a patient than to become a Doctor.”

“Why?”

“The moment you act according to the sanitarium’s rules, you are internally validating the logic of Pupil Town. No matter how strong your will is, you will be invisibly polluted. You will never escape this place.”

Polluted? Mu Sichen thought of Yao Wangping. Yao was supposed to be a savior from Xiangping Town, yet he had suggested pushing a fellow survivor into the fire without a second thought. Mu Sichen had assumed he was just cold and rational. Now, he wondered if Yao had already been silently compromised without even knowing it.

Even with Qin Zhou’s totem, can a person still be polluted? Mu Sichen’s heart sank.

Author’s Note:

Qin Zhou (reaching out a tentacle): Mu Sichen, I’ll protect you.

Mu Sichen (dodging): I’m starting to think you’re actually pretty useless.