Chapter 14: The Mandatory Question
What exactly did 23,507 mean?
Su Qiong’s mind raced. The deadly player, A, had called the severed head he just tossed aside number 23,506, and Su Qiong was next. Given A’s massive stash of 400,000 points, the terrifying truth clicked into place.
In the world of IN OFF, players earned points in three ways: clearing a game level, getting points transferred from another player, or killing.
A hadn’t cleared his first level yet, so he had no completion rewards. Since this was a solo mission, there were no other players around to transfer points to him. That left only one bloody option.
23,506 was the exact number of mimicry NPCs A had butchered! And by calling Su Qiong 23,507, the message was loud and clear: A intended to kill him next!
Figuring this out in half a second, Su Qiong frantically yanked back the hood of his gray Mimicry Cloak to show he wasn’t a normal monster. He threw his squishy marshmallow arms high into the air to prove he was completely harmless.
“I’m a guide NPC! I can trigger hidden hints and give you clues to beat this level!” Su Qiong blurted out, explaining his usefulness as fast as he could.
Because of his newly purchased voice upgrade, Su Qiong sounded incredibly sweet and soft. Paired with his puffy, helpless appearance, even the most cold-hearted player would usually hesitate out of sheer cuteness.
But A was clearly not a normal person.
Completely unfazed by the adorable marshmallow, A lunged forward. His long legs closed the distance with terrifying speed. The rigid silver sword in his hand suddenly snapped and shifted, instantly transforming into a deadly, flexible whip. It slashed toward Su Qiong, carrying a razor-sharp gust of wind.
This is bad! Su Qiong panicked.
A’s weapon was leagues above the basic gear Shi Yuntian used. The IF system heavily favored the strong, and even though A hadn’t cleared his first level, his weapon had already awakened into an advanced form. A single graze from that whip would shred Su Qiong’s fragile bandages to pieces.
Fortunately, Su Qiong had gotten used to his weightless body. Floating straight up into the air, he narrowly dodged the lethal strike.
Crack—!
The whip struck hard, the sound echoing sharply down the dark hospital hallway. Su Qiong tensed, waiting for the second attack. But then he realized the silver whip had sailed right past him.
Had A missed?
No! Su Qiong looked back and saw the silver whip wrapped tightly around a mimicry NPC clinging to the ceiling right behind him.
The monster was grotesque. It looked like a sticky, half-melted puddle of a human. Its torso barely held its shape, and it left a trail of thick, dark blue slime wherever it crawled, like a giant, infected snail.
Drip— Drip—
Trapped in the silver whip, the monster began melting even faster. Its rotten flesh turned to sludge, dripping onto the tiles. Su Qiong hugged himself in absolute horror. If he hadn’t dodged, that disgusting slime would have ruined his perfectly clean white body!
A yanked the whip, tightening the silver tip right around the monster’s neck.
“Ahhh—!”
The creature let out a piercing shriek before violently exploding. Like a meat balloon popping, disgusting fluid and chunks of flesh sprayed across the hallway.
Su Qiong floated out of the way just in time to avoid the flying gore.
A calmly retracted his whip. He dipped a finger into the fresh blood and added a final tally mark to the wall. Only then did he look up at the little marshmallow.
“I know you’re a guide NPC.”
A raised his wrist. The high-tech player bracelet he had just used to scan the entire floor returned to his arm. When Su Qiong first appeared, A had used an elite-player privilege to sweep the area. He had instantly spotted the pure-white ID floating over Su Qiong’s head—along with his tragically low level.
Realizing the terrifying player wasn’t going to murder him, Su Qiong cautiously floated back down, carefully landing on a clean patch of floor to avoid the blood.
A watched him silently. A self-aware system NPC really was different from the mindless monsters. For one, this little marshmallow was clearly a massive germaphobe.
“This instance has been active for four days,” A said, his voice smooth and cold. “Why did you wait until now to enter?”
“Because you need me. Guide NPCs are the only ones who can trigger hidden hints,” Su Qiong explained.
He looked around the hallway. Every single wall was covered in bloody tally marks grouped in fives. Some were fresh and bright red; others were dark and dried from days ago. If every mark represented a dead NPC… no wonder A had so many points. The top-ranked player, ERROR, had perfectly cleared three levels in a row, yet he was only a few thousand points ahead of A.
“I just got here,” Su Qiong continued. “Can you explain what’s going on?”
A didn’t answer right away. He looked out the window. A faint line of golden light was breaking over the horizon.
With a flick of his wrist, A put his weapon away. The deadly sword-whip shifted again, turning into a sleek silver chain that rested easily around his waist. He turned and walked down the hall, the chain chiming softly against his hip.
As the sun rose, the hospital instantly transformed. The blood on the walls vanished. Doctors and nurses appeared out of nowhere, walking briskly down the halls, while patients in striped gowns shuffled out of their rooms.
“Follow me,” A ordered.
He led Su Qiong into a patient room, pulled two hospital gowns from a cabinet, and tossed one to the marshmallow. “This hospital operates normally during the day. Weapons and combat are strictly forbidden. We have to play the role of normal patients, or the doctors will drag us away for ‘special treatments.'”
Without an ounce of modesty, A stripped off his blood-soaked shirt and pulled on the blue-and-white gown.
Su Qiong froze in place. He stared blankly at A’s bare chest, four giant words echoing in his mind: He. Has. Six. Abs!
They were perfectly defined, beautifully proportioned, and utterly flawless.
Su Qiong was consumed by jealousy. He patted his own round, squishy belly and almost cried. Why did humans get to look like that?! If Su Qiong had abs like that, he would want the whole world to admire them!
Oblivious to the little marshmallow’s blazing envy, A calmly buttoned his gown and sat gracefully on the edge of the bed.
“I got here four days ago,” A began, crossing his long legs. “When I entered, the hospital was dead silent for five minutes. The only thing I heard was the system notification.”
“That’s normal,” Su Qiong chimed in, thinking back to his first level. “It gives players a few minutes to load in.”
“Mm,” A nodded. “The system barely gave me any info. Just the main quest. Complete it, and I clear the level.”
“What’s the quest? Kill everyone?”
“No. If killing them worked, I would have left on day one,” A said flatly. “The main quest is surprisingly easy. I just have to answer a test paper.”
IN OFF had a cruel rule of thumb: the simpler a quest sounded, the deadlier it actually was.
“Mm,” A pulled a neatly folded exam paper from his pocket. “Strictly speaking, I only have to answer one question.”
The paper was printed on both sides. The questions only took up a tiny corner; the rest of the page was crammed with strict rules.
Su Qiong read the questions:
[Mandatory Question: Accurately state the exact number of people in this hospital.]
[Optional Question: The theme of this instance is: _____.] (Hint: Two words.)
Unlike Gangan Village, the hospital didn’t seem to have many locked areas, so there probably wasn’t a hidden quest to rely on.
“Did the system tell you there was more than one way to clear this level?” Su Qiong asked just to be safe.
“No.”
“Oh,” Su Qiong sighed. That meant the exam paper was their only way out. How annoying.
“I assume answering the mandatory question lets me clear the level, and the optional one is for a perfect score,” A said, a flash of exhaustion and disgust in his dark eyes. “But I’ve already answered the mandatory question wrong twice. I only have one try left.”
Su Qiong checked the rules at the bottom of the page: [Answers may be revised only twice. Three incorrect answers will result in game failure.]
Looking at the bloody tally marks outside, Su Qiong quickly figured out the problem. A had been trying to get an exact headcount by killing every single thing in the building. He was currently at 23,507. But the hospital was massive; it was easy to miss a few. Plus, when the sun rose, new NPCs spawned into the hospital for the daytime shift. They probably counted as “people” too.
A could wipe out the night crew, but the day crew would ruin his count every single morning.
“Did you test if ‘number of people’ means just the living, or the living and the dead combined?” Su Qiong asked.
“I tried both for my first two answers,” A said listlessly. “The system marked them both wrong.”
Su Qiong realized that A must have actually counted perfectly. With his terrifying strength, he hadn’t missed a single monster. Which meant the real problem was a trick question: What exactly was the system defining as a “person”?
“This is likely a guaranteed-death instance,” A said, shifting his weight and looking down at the little NPC. “If you’re afraid, you still have time to run away.”
The moment he said that, Su Qiong abruptly stood up.
A’s dark eyes instantly turned freezing cold, a flash of terrifying darkness passing through them before vanishing. Self-aware NPCs could feel fear, just like humans. It was only natural that the little creature would run.
He waited patiently. But Su Qiong didn’t leave.
Instead, the marshmallow was awkwardly trying to pull the striped hospital gown over his puffy round body, fumbling with the tiny buttons using his soft, bandaged fingers. It was the first time his code had ever worn human clothes, and he was struggling to adapt.
Su Qiong scrunched up his featureless face and looked up at the deadly killer. “Since you aren’t allowed to kill anyone during the day, let’s explore together! There are no impossible levels in this game. The clue has to be hidden somewhere.”
A just stared at him.
How could something so soft and adorable talk about murder as casually as eating breakfast? This little NPC was surprisingly interesting.
“Ah!” Su Qiong suddenly gasped, coming up with a very considerate idea. “You were up all night killing people, and you have to go back out and kill more tonight! You must be exhausted. You should get some sleep. I’ll search for clues on my own and wake you up when I find something!”
