The trio followed the trail of blood, which led them to a door labeled "Operating Room."
Shorty swallowed hard.
"Are we going in?"
At the critical moment, his courage faltered again.
Roy shot him a look, then, without warning, kicked the door open.
Inside, the newbie who'd been knocked out was lying on the operating table. The female nurse who'd attacked him was straddling his body.
No, it wasn't what it looked like. The nurse was busy sewing the newbie's eyes and mouth shut with needle and thread.
But Shorty didn't catch the details, only seeing the nurse on top of the guy. He blurted out, "Why is he getting rewarded?!"
His voice startled the nurse. She grabbed a hammer from the side and charged at the trio.
Without any suspense, she was sent flying back faster than she came—not crashing into the wall but passing right through it.
"T-t-that's a ghost?!" Shorty and the other newbie were stunned.
"Yeah, probably a ghost," Roy confirmed.
Shorty's shock deepened at Roy's calm demeanor.
"Roy, aren't you scared?"
"Didn't you see me kick that ghost across the room? Why would I be scared?"
That logic was hard to argue with.
Shorty and the newbie were momentarily speechless.
Roy stayed on guard for a moment, but when the nurse didn't reappear, he figured she'd fled. He approached the operating table to check on the newbie.
The guy's eyes were fully sewn shut, and his mouth was partially stitched, but his breathing was steady. He wasn't dying anytime soon.
"Shorty, untie his restraints. I'll check the room."
"Got it!"
The operating room was spacious, with cabinets and curtains blocking parts of the view. Roy searched but found nothing unusual.
He grabbed a wheelchair and returned to the table.
"Put him in the wheelchair. We're getting him out."
Sewn eyelids were a serious issue, but thankfully, the newbie was still unconscious. Waking up unable to open his eyes would've been a nightmare.
As the trio wheeled the chair out of the room, the nurse reappeared, blocking their path. This time, she wasn't alone—she had three other nurses in different outfits with her.
"One, two, three… aren't those the three missing actresses?" Roy noticed a clear color difference on their faces and necks, likely from makeup.
The actresses had probably tried to pass as ghost nurses with makeup, but now they didn't need it. Roy sensed no life in them—they were corpses.
The nurse ghost had sewn their eyes and mouths shut, too, and their bodies were covered in stitches.
Clearly, this ghost nurse was a cross-stitch enthusiast.
Shorty's voice trembled. "I don't know if they're the missing ones, but they're coming at us!"
Roy glanced at Shorty. This guy was next-level cowardly.
"What're you scared of? They're just three women. Even if they're dead, they're just dead women!"
Shorty gaped at Roy, then said something that nearly broke him: "So… you're saying we should take advantage while they're still warm?"
Classic Shorty. Roy was done with his bizarre thought process.
"You're still chatting? They're really coming!" The newbie pushing the wheelchair was practically jelly-legged, only standing thanks to the chair's support.
"Step back. I've got this," Roy said, moving forward.
A gust of wind hit the back of his head. Turning, he saw Shorty and the newbie had already ducked back into the operating room.
"Roy, we're cheering you on in spirit!" Shorty called.
"Yeah, it's all you!" the newbie added.
Talk about loyalty.
Roy cursed under his breath and approached the three corpses.
They moved with an eerie, uncoordinated swagger, each connected to the nurse ghost by a thread, like marionettes.
As they entered combat range, threads sprouted from the corpses, trying to ensnare Roy.
No dice. A left hook, a right hook, and a whip kick later, Roy had the three corpses embedded in the wall. The threads didn't even graze his clothes.
The nurse ghost's face twisted in horror.
If her earlier defeat was due to underestimating Roy, this time she'd come prepared, only to be effortlessly dismantled. Roy was clearly on another level.
She opened her mouth and let out a piercing scream. Roy noticed her tongue was only half there—no wonder she hadn't spoken.
Whether a ghost could talk often depended on their life before death. Sadako and Kayako couldn't speak due to their pasts, but Francesca could.
No speech didn't mean no sound, though. The nurse's scream echoed through the hospital.
"Shut it!" Roy rushed forward, landing a psychic-infused slap that sent her to the floor.
Shorty, watching from behind, sighed dramatically. "Man, Roy, you hit too hard! What if you ruin her face?"
The newbie shot him a "Are you serious?" look.
"What? A ghost that hot, and you're not interested?" Shorty pressed.
The newbie shook his head vehemently. Ghost-knight wannabes were a rare breed.
Suddenly, the temperature plummeted from chilly to arctic.
"Why's it so cold? Did a Rocky Mountain blizzard roll in?" Shorty grabbed a water bottle from his pocket, only to find it frozen solid.
The temperature had dropped to zero.
"What the hell?!"
Roy felt the shift too. Combined with the nurse's scream, something else had likely been summoned.
Probably the evil spirit lord. This nurse ghost wasn't strong enough to be the hospital's master—she wasn't even on Francesca's level.
Then came a heavy, labored breathing, like someone struggling through a ventilator, accompanied by a rancid stench.
Shorty covered his mouth. "Goddamn, what's that smell? Worse than my brother's year-old socks!"
That vivid description made the already queasy newbie puke on the spot.
"Damn it, can't you describe it some other way? That was too real!"
A massive, hulking figure emerged from the distance, the source of the stench and breathing.
Roy pinned the nurse ghost to the ground with his foot, eyes locked on the approaching figure.
Through his ghost-wolf dark vision, Roy saw a doctor-like figure with wrinkled, stitched skin and strange devices embedded in its body. This thing was transitioning from evil spirit to demon, already taking on a physical form.
Turning a spirit into a demon was no easy feat—far harder than a human becoming one, since spirits lacked a body.
(House of 1000 Corpses's Dr. Satan vibes.)
This body was likely stitched together by the nurse ghost from various corpses. Roy noted the mismatched limbs and torso.
"Human, let her go!" the doctor growled.
"Sure thing." Roy smirked coldly, then whipped out his Smith & Wesson M629 and shot the nurse ghost in the head.
After being possessed by Francesca, the M629 had become a special weapon, its bullets capable of harming spiritual entities, much like cursed daggers.
The nurse ghost's head exploded on the spot.
Shorty clutched his head, sighing. "Such a pretty ghost. What a waste!"
The newbie gave him another exasperated look. "Enough already!"
The nurse ghost clearly meant something to the doctor. Roy's execution sent him into a rage.
"I'll kill you!"
Furniture and corpses around them came to life, attacking Roy.
But it was futile. Roy dodged effortlessly, dismantling the assault as he advanced toward the doctor.
"That's it?" Roy taunted.
His words hit like a hammer, enraging the doctor further. In a fit of fury, the doctor did the unthinkable—he tore off his own skullcap.
Lift your skullcap, let me see your brain?
Light burst from the doctor's head, casting a bizarre filter over everyone's vision, turning the world eerie and distorted.
The doctor vanished from sight, even with True Sight active.
Roy guessed it was a mental attack, disrupting his brainwaves to alter his perception.
Even True Sight couldn't break through, but Roy's 84-point willpower made him immune to most illusions.
Shorty and the newbie, however, swayed like they'd chugged fake booze.
"Why's the world spinning?" Shorty slurred.
"Yeah, and everything's red. What's happening?"
In a blink, the skullcap-less doctor appeared behind them, grabbing them.
"Die!"
He was going for the easy targets first.
But Roy had teleportation abilities. With his ghost-wolf speed, he delivered a devastating kick, sending the doctor flying.
The kick's force was so intense it nearly shattered the doctor's body, his stitches splitting apart.
And that was Roy holding back. With 112 strength, a full-power kick could've caused an airburst, risking harm to Shorty and the newbie.
Roy moved to follow up, but the doctor vanished again, undetectable even to his senses.
This was getting ridiculous. Was this doctor a follower of Belial, using sensory deception?
But then Roy realized the doctor's ability kicked in after exposing his brain, likely interfering with brainwaves to make Roy think he'd disappeared.
With that in mind, Roy activated his Hellhound Ring.
His brain might be fooled, but the hellhound phantoms weren't—they didn't have brains to trick.
Hellhound phantom: Feeling a little insulted here.
The phantom sniffed out the doctor's location—right where Roy had lost track of him.
Roy charged a punch and unleashed an airburst in the phantom's direction.
Boom!
The doctor didn't even have time to scream before his body exploded.
With the mental attack gone, the trio's vision cleared.
The doctor wasn't dead yet—he was a spirit, and Roy had only destroyed his physical shell. As he reverted to ghost form and tried to escape through a wall, Roy lassoed his neck with a cursed hair rope, yanking him back like a roped cowboy.
Doctor: Can't even touch my skullcap!
Roy finished him off with a barrage from the M629, letting Francesca consume the weakened soul, earning a treasure chest.
[Ding! Obtained the Demon Doctor's Fate Chest! Open it?]
"Is it over?" Shorty asked, still dazed, like he'd just woken from a dream.
Roy scanned the surroundings. The temperature was rising, and the eerie mist had dissipated.
"Should be."
Harry's voice crackled through the walkie-talkie. "Hey! Can you hear me? Please, someone respond, I'm begging you!"
He sounded on the verge of tears, likely from the lack of responses earlier.
"This is Roy Black. I've handled the hospital's problem."
"Thank God! Someone finally answered!"
Voices from the entrance hall chimed in over the walkie-talkie.
But a woman's voice cut through the rest—Saltana's.
"Quiet! Roy, what's the situation in there?"
(Chapter End)