“Ah…” A dry moan came from behind the curtain, presumably from the owner of the hand.

Generally speaking, the protagonist in a horror movie, when encountering this kind of situation, would likely scream in fright and collapse to the ground.

But Feng Bujue was very calm, his reasoning never stopping…

“Left hand, obvious wrinkles on the back of the hand, dry and thick nails, looking like an old man’s hand, but with amazing grip strength; subcutaneous veins protruding, with a large number of puncture marks near the veins, indicating years of infusions. The skin color is unnaturally pale, and emits a smell of formaldehyde; able to accurately grasp my wrist through the curtain, it’s definitely not a coincidence…”

Brother Jue's eyes darted around, his mind racing.

At that moment, three plans instantly formed in his mind: First, pull out the folding knife and stab; second, twist his hand back and pull him out, followed by a shoulder throw; third, pull open the curtain and take a look…

Considering that his current combat strength is no different from an ordinary person… Feng Bujue finally chose a more cautious method. So, he extended his other hand (still holding the knife in his palm), and used his index finger and thumb to pinch the long curtain beside the bed and pull it horizontally.

Squeak…

The plastic rings at the top of the curtain rubbed and slid on the iron bar, making a strange squeaking sound.

The person in the hospital bed soon appeared before Feng Bujue’s eyes…

Overall, it was an old man resembling a mummy. He lay supine on the bed, wearing a light blue hospital gown, his skin pale and his body stiff.

At first glance, Brother Jue understood that this person was probably not a “living person.” Because the old man’s body was covered with hundreds of IV tubes…

The ends of those tubes were all connected to the wall above the head of the bed, and black liquid flowed through them. The needles at the front of the IV tubes were all inserted at a ninety-degree angle into the old man’s skin, almost covering his entire body. The locations where the needles were inserted included the forehead, neck, torso (through the clothes), soles of the feet, etc. It would have been enough that these places had tubes inserted, but the most amazing thing was… even his eyeballs had IV tubes inserted… it was truly “painful just to look at.”

“Ugh…” The old man, still gripping Brother Jue's wrist, slowly turned his head. Although his eyes were pierced with needles, he still "looked" at Brother Jue and said with difficulty, “So thirsty… I’m so thirsty…”

“Old man,” Feng Bujue said earnestly, “Have you heard the saying, ‘Take medicine if you can, get a shot if you must, avoid infusions if possible’? The World Health Organization has emphasized it so many times…”

“So thirsty…” The old man ignored him, continuing with his lines.

Feng Bujue sighed and continued according to the NPc routine, "Alright… I'll get you some water to drink?"

“I want to drink… iced beer…” the old man replied.

“Old man, have you heard the saying ‘Work hard and protect your liver’?” Feng Bujue said, “Is it appropriate for you to drink alcoholic beverages in your condition?” He looked up at the wall above the head of the bed. “By the way… what exactly is flowing from the wall into your body? Oil or cola?”

“Dr. Pepper…” the old man replied.

“That really is hard on you…” Feng Bujue muttered, his mouth twitching.

(Dr. Pepper is the name of a soft drink. Its flavor is very subtle and is parodied in *South Park* as "the official drink of the agnostic.")

“I want to drink… iced beer…” the old man repeated again.

“Okay, okay… I understand…” During the conversation, Feng Bujue was constantly trying to pull the other party’s hand away, but to no avail. Therefore, he could basically judge that this was a side quest that had to be accepted once triggered, “I’ll get it for you right away.”

“Th… thank you…” As soon as the old man heard these words, he released Brother Jue’s wrist.

At the same time, the system notification also arrived: \[Side Quest Triggered]

A new line of instructions was added to the task bar: \[Purchase a bottle of iced beer from the vending machine in the restaurant lobby and bring it to Mr. Harper in Room 216.]

“Oh, you’re Mr. Harper, right…” Feng Bujue looked at the game menu and said to the old man, “Could you also tell me how to get to the restaurant?”

“So thirsty… so thirsty…” Harper ignored Brother Jue’s question, muttering softly to himself.

“Hmm… very good.” Feng Bujue shook his wrist, which had been gripped until it was sore, shrugged and muttered, “No hints at all, so damn interesting.”

Although he was forced to accept the side quest, Feng Bujue was still hesitant about whether to complete it.

“In theory, wouldn’t I clear the level if I stayed in this room until dawn…” Feng Bujue thought, “But judging from the nature of this script, it probably won’t allow me to stay in the same place for too long. Lingering in the corridor for too long will attract Chad, so lingering in the ward for too long may also attract something else…”

Thinking of this, he walked to the second bed, the one next to Mr. Harper’s.

This time, Feng Bujue simply and boldly pulled open the curtain directly. But this bed was empty.

“Hmph… would I fall for that?” Brother Jue sneered and took out his sunglasses.

In the next five minutes, he carefully looked at the entire bed, up and down, left and right, every nook and cranny, with both sunglasses and his bare eyes; he also turned the bed sheets over and over, touched them, smelled them, and was just short of putting them in his mouth to taste… After doing all this, he still didn’t give up. He even used his folding knife to tap on the bed frame, trying to hear if there were any keys or something hidden inside.

Finally, after this series of actions, which took a lot of effort, he finally confirmed with one hundred percent certainty… that this was just an empty bed used as a scene decoration.

“Okay, next.” Brother Jue didn’t seem to care, even when doing useless work, he looked like he was enjoying it.

“Hey, I say, buddy,” just as Feng Bujue was about to walk to the third bed, a voice suddenly sounded from behind him, sounding like a middle-aged man, “I’m here, behind you.”

Upon hearing this, Feng Bujue turned around and looked in the direction of the voice. The voice came from the middle bed on the other side of the room, the bed was also surrounded by curtains.

“Are you calling me?” Brother Jue asked tentatively.

“That’s right,” the voice replied, “Can you come over here for a moment?”

“Sure.” Feng Bujue said, and tiptoed over. After getting close to a certain distance, he suddenly reached out, quickly pulled open the curtain in front of the bed, and retracted backward like lightning.

“What are you doing?” The middle-aged uncle sitting on the bed looked at Brother Jue and muttered, his eyes seeming to say, “Is this kid sick?”

Feng Bujue sized the other person up and down, and immediately asked, “Uh… are you a vampire?”

He asked this because the other person’s features were quite obvious, his face was basically the same as the classic vampire image in Disney cartoons. White face, red lips, slicked-back hair, fangs, thin face, and cold temperament. If this guy was wearing a suit instead of a hospital gown, Brother Jue wouldn’t even have asked…

“Hey, kid, that’s not a polite question, you know?” the vampire uncle replied, “Are you a racist?”

“No, no… never mind I said anything.” Feng Bujue quickly waved his hands and shook his head.

“My name is Richard Sutherland, you can call me Count,” the Count said.

“Don’t listen to his nonsense.” Another, somewhat shrill voice sounded from the bed to the Count’s right, which was the bed directly opposite Mr. Harper, “He’s not a count at all.”

“Shut up! You drunkard!” the Count shouted at the side.

The voice called “drunkard” retorted, “Counts have castles! Do you have one?”

“That’s nonsense!” the Count retorted, “Who says so?”

“That’s just how it is!” the drunkard replied.

While the two were arguing, Feng Bujue had moved sideways a few steps and pulled open the curtain next to the "drunkard" bed.

Sitting on the bed was a green-skinned, extremely short creature, with a pointed nose, pointed ears, big eyes, and a big mouth. There was no doubt… he was a goblin. Moreover, he was wearing a hospital gown at this time.

“What are you doing? Don’t you know to respect other people’s privacy?” After the curtain was pulled open, the goblin shouted at Feng Bujue.

“Sorry… I didn’t expect that someone who eavesdrops and joins other people’s conversations would actually care about privacy.” Feng Bujue refuted the other party with a powerful argument.

“Uh…” The goblin was immediately speechless.

“Haha…” The Count laughed, “You’re speechless now! Victor, you have this day too!”

“Oh… your name is Victor?” Feng Bujue took over the conversation and asked.

“It’s the great Victor Reedvox!” Victor replied, “A household name in the world of trade!”

“He just smuggles various wines and arms,” the Count exposed from the side.

“Shut up! You fake nobleman!”

“Shut up! You black-hearted speculator!”

The two of them quickly started arguing again, each saying a word.

Feng Bujue sighed and watched for a while. After the frequency of the two people’s speech slowed down a little, he seized the opportunity to say to the Count, “So… what did you want me to come over for?”

“Oh, right, right,” the Count turned his head and replied, “You’re going to get beer for Harper, right? I want you to pick up some blood plasma for me on the way. B type is best, not much, two bags will be enough.”

“Huh?” Feng Bujue replied weakly, “If you want to suck blood… isn’t there a goblin right next to you?”

“Hey!” Victor immediately shouted in dissatisfaction.

“Too barbaric, directly sucking blood from living creatures is simply animal behavior.” The Count looked at Brother Jue with a questioning gaze, “Young man, have you watched too many violent movies?”

“Heh… hehe…” Feng Bujue twitched the corners of his mouth and chuckled a few times, “In a way, your answer has reassured me a lot.”

“Oh! Right, if you’re going to the blood bank, please bring something back for me too,” Victor said at this time, “Yesterday, I lost a key. I guess I lost it in the pediatric emergency room on the first floor. If you can help me find it, I can give you a generous reward!”

“No problem!” Feng Bujue agreed without hesitation. The most crucial part of Victor’s entire sentence was undoubtedly the last five words…

“I won’t let you run for nothing either,” the Count said, “If you bring the blood to me, I will also give you something in exchange.”

“Okay, that works.” Feng Bujue also figured it out at this moment, anyway, he had to go out and run around, so he might as well accept a few more tasks at once, collect all the items, and then come back.

\[Side Quest Triggered]

As a result, the system notification arrived, and two new tasks were added to Brother Jue’s task bar.

\[Obtain two bags of type B blood plasma from the blood bank and bring them to Count Richard Sutherland in Room 216.]

\[Find Victor's key in the pediatric emergency room on the 1st floor and return it to Victor Reedvox in Room 216.]

“Finally… I have a question.” Feng Bujue looked at the two people in front of him and asked, “I see that you two have all your limbs and are not restrained in any way, why don’t you do this yourselves?”

“I have cirrhosis of the liver and shouldn’t move around,” Victor replied.

The Count’s reply was even more straightforward, just two words: “Anemia.”