"Nurse, have you seen my family?" Jiang Che politely walked up to the counter where the nurse was watching a video.
"Aren't you annoying! Your family is not here, okay?" The nurse shouted impatiently, soon it would be time for the dungeon's random pull!
This kid is having an episode again!
She stared at the video on her phone—strategies and records for clearing all kinds of bizarre dungeons. She had to seize the last bit of time to learn the key points to escape from those dungeons.
But over ten thousand recorded supernatural dungeons exist all over the world, each with different traits, and every evil spirit has its own characteristics and killing methods!
There's no way to memorize them all. It's just impossible!
In 2025, the Human Realm went through earth-shattering changes.
Every ten days, the supernatural descends on reality, and humans are herded into a hunting ground, forced to find a way to survive that day.
But disaster didn't stop there,
Besides the hunting grounds day, the rest of the time, the world generates bizarre dungeons, and humans get randomly pulled into them.
Within three days of entering a dungeon, if you find an exit, you can escape.
This is also the only way for humans to grow stronger—taking the special items from the dungeon back to reality, or simply escaping increases your physical abilities.
Those special items can mostly help in the real-life hunting grounds, helping people survive.
And if you kill the dungeon's evil spirit, you gain one of its abilities.
But evil spirits are nearly impossible to kill, so most people only aim to bring out special items from the dungeon.
In this weird, tumultuous world, dangers are everywhere.
But Red Pearl Mental Hospital has become a Celestial Destiny Circle, struggling to survive in a crevice.
Almost no dungeon ever generates here; hunting grounds never descend, either.
Whether it's random dungeons or the arrival of a hunting ground, Red Pearl Mental Hospital is always outside the affected area. This turned the original hospital, apart from the patients, into a retreat zone for the rich,
because compared to other places, it's safe enough here.
Patients like Jiang Che were forced into one corner, made to live together.
No one cared for the patients' treatment anymore, just a nurse taking shifts to make sure they didn't disturb life in Anding District.
Red Pearl Mental Hospital was called the Celestial Destiny Circle, but everyone knew it wouldn't always be missed.
So people could only cram in dungeon knowledge, trying to master more ways to survive supernatural spirits.
"So do you know where I can find my family?" Jiang Che's eyes were clear, asking the same question as every day.
He stared seriously at the nurse, even though she wouldn't meet his eyes.
"Your family's in a dungeon, alright? The dungeon's just about to start. Go inside and look for your family, stop bothering me!" The young nurse finally lost her patience and cursed him out.
This mental patient kept searching for his family since he was admitted. Everyone had told him clearly: You're an orphan, you have no family. But he just wouldn't believe it.
"Dungeon? My family is in the dungeon?" Jiang Che froze. This was the first time he'd heard any information about his family.
Before, whenever he asked, people only replied, "You have no family."
"Then do you know how I can get to the dungeon?" Jiang Che's heart trembled hard, the tips of his ears visibly reddening.
"Dungeon… dungeon…" He kept muttering the word over and over, a brilliant light flickering in his pupils.
He wanted to go find the dungeon, but didn't know where it was.
People like them, mental patients, no one ever shared any information about these supernatural happenings or dungeons with them.
"According to the rules, there are three hours left before the dungeon opens," the nurse rolled her eyes at him. Humanity had already worked out the timing of dungeons, but not the location.
"But it shouldn't show up here—Red Pearl Mental Hospital is a famous Celestial Destiny Circle!"
Jiang Che frowned. Hearing that it wouldn't show up here, he turned and left.
Should he run out and look for a dungeon?
He had no problem with intelligence—he just wanted to find his family, he wasn't stupid.
Though this crowd never told them any information, he'd vaguely picked up that the world had changed.
He often watched the rotating staff holding their phones, watching strange videos and jotting down notes and reciting them again and again.
Jiang Che stood beside the courtyard fish tank and tossed in a coin.
He closed his eyes, pressed his hands together, and bowed his head to pray:
Hope the dungeon opens in Red Pearl Mental Hospital.
As if one wish wasn't enough, he reached his hand into the fish tank, retrieved the coin,
: Hope my family is in the dungeon.
Plop!
The coin dropped into the water again, drifting to the bottom.
In the next second, black clouds above Red Pearl Mental Hospital twisted into an ever-growing vortex, just one glance felt like it could pull people in.
His wet hand reached into the fish tank again,
: Hope I can enter the dungeon.
At the same time, a notification flashed into Jiang Che's mind.
[The dungeon is opening. Nobody is allowed to leave. Please await your summoning.]
The vortex above grew ever larger, and from Anding District came the screeches and howls of those people, thick with irrepressible dread: "Dungeon! Dungeon!"
Excited, he rushed back to the counter, but the nurse from before looked as pale as a ghost, her eyes dead and empty.
"Nurse, is this the dungeon? Will I find my family soon?"
But she just glared, then looked back down at her phone, the video now at 3x speed.
Getting no answer, Jiang Che forlornly dragged a stool into the courtyard and stared unblinking at the swirling black cloud vortex.
The other mental patients in the room continued playing on their own, unconcerned by the looming mutant sky.
As the dungeon's aura appeared, Red Pearl Mental Hospital's image streamed onto everyone's live broadcast platform.
This was an item someone once brought back from a weird dungeon, its effect being to connect to dungeons and broadcast live the feed of Survivors entering the dungeon.
When a dungeon forms, the feed starts projecting immediately.
A testament to just how powerful this dungeon item was,
[Hahahahaha, Red Pearl Mental Hospital! It's finally their turn!]
[Fifty grand a day to stay there. If they weren't afraid of kicking out the mental patients and breaking the area's magnetic field, they'd never let so many mentally ill stay.]
[Does living there help? Sooner or later you'll die either way.]
[It helps! I got into the dungeons late, but learned so much watching the streams. I've already escaped from two dungeons.]
[Holy crap, boss! Next hunt can you bring a newbie along? I'll pay!]
[See that idiot sitting in the courtyard? Bet he doesn't even know what's above his head. These rich bastards are real assholes, didn't even bother to teach the mental patients anything about the weirdness and the dungeons.]
[You think they'd understand even if you explained? Waste of time.]
...
Jiang Che lowered his head to look at himself. He was only wearing a blue-and-white striped hospital gown, his hands completely empty.
He'd never seen his family.
If you're going to see your family, shouldn't you bring a gift home?