Chapter 1 The Gate

After realizing that one of the voices belonged to the woman who had run off earlier, Jiang Cheng prepared to step forward and open the door.

But to his surprise, the younger man beat him to it, stepping forward to stop him, then turning around to look at everyone with a strange expression.

Jiang Cheng's eyes paused for a moment, then, as if understanding something, he took a few steps back, his expression becoming as fearful as the others.

The young man's eyes swept across everyone's faces, clearly not finding what he was looking for.

There weren't any experienced teammates here.

Just newbies.

"Please listen to me now," the young man said, lowering his voice. "Has anyone here experienced anything like this before? Opening a door and entering a bizarre world?"

Everyone's expressions gave him the answer.

Especially Jiang Cheng. He looked like he was scared to death, but he was still trying to keep his legs from shaking, not wanting to cause trouble for anyone.

The young man sighed, his expression disappointed. "I've experienced something similar once before. It was very dangerous. I hope everyone is prepared."

The middle-aged man in his forties opened his mouth, but the young man stopped him. "Don't ask questions. Just listen to what I have to say."

He paused, adding, "If you want to go back alive, that is."

Hearing this, everyone's faces turned uneasy, especially the middle-aged man's.

After all, he used to be a leader, and being spoken to so bluntly by a young man made him very uncomfortable.

But he kept that discomfort to himself.

"Don't ask where we are. I don't know either. But I do know that it's dangerous here. There's danger everywhere, and things will happen that are hard to understand."

"What kind of things?" Jiang Cheng asked, trying to speed things along.

"Paranormal events." The young man looked at the white door, his gaze seeming to penetrate it and see what was behind it. "This world... has ghosts."

"Ghosts?"

"I know it's hard for you to accept, but it's the truth." The young man seemed unwilling to waste any more time and got straight to the point. "Behind this door is a whole new world, in a different location and time than our own."

"You know what time travel is? You can think of it that way for now."

"We've traveled to a new world, and it's definitely not a good thing. It's nothing like those novels where a fallen prince makes a comeback, or a domineering CEO falls in love with an ordinary girl from an ordinary family. None of that crap."

"Here, there's only endless despair and terror, and of course, ghosts."

Seeming to think he had said too much, he got to the point. "In this new world, we need to solve a case, or... well," the young man hesitated, "let's just call it a mission."

"Based on the scenes we encounter and the people we come into contact with, we need to find clues, complete the mission, and try to survive in the process."

"Only those who survive to the end can leave this place."

"When we open this door, we're sure to encounter people from this world. You can think of them as NPCs (non-player characters) in a game. They're here to advance the plot and provide us with clues. Don't say anything rash. Think carefully before you act." The young man paused. "Understand?"

Everyone was confused, but they nodded anyway. "Understood."

Standing in front of the door, the young man took a deep breath and then opened it.

Everyone walked out.

Outside...

Looking at the scene before him, Jiang Cheng immediately realized where the feeling of familiarity came from. This was... a hospital.

They were standing in a corner of the lobby, about 10 meters away from the ophthalmology department. On the other side was a huge glass window.

Behind the glass window stood a row of black wooden shelves, with small drawers embedded in them, and next to them were a few old-fashioned characters: Traditional Chinese Medicine Pharmacy.

It seemed that the wooden shelves contained various medicinal herbs.

Following the sound, they turned a corner and found the woman who had run off earlier in a relatively secluded area at the back of the lobby.

The woman was in a sorry state. Two security guards had pinned her to the ground, her hands twisted behind her back, and one of her shoes was lying about 2 meters away.

Several doctors and nurses were standing around, as well as an old man wearing an apron.

The old man was wearing glasses and dressed inconspicuously, but he looked very stern as he spoke to the woman on the ground, his tone serious.

The woman struggled from time to time, but she couldn't break free from the two security guards.

"Stop!" the young man shouted as he walked up.

Jiang Cheng and the others followed behind him.

Seeing such a group of people suddenly appear, the two security guards looked flustered, but the old man remained calm.

"Da da da."

The sound of hurried footsteps grew louder and closer. Soon, two people came running from another direction. The first was a woman dressed as a nurse, followed by a man in his forties.

The man didn't seem to be in good shape, and he was panting heavily, but when he saw Jiang Cheng and his group, his face lit up with excitement.

Seeing this, Jiang Cheng felt relieved.

The NPCs to meet their group... had appeared.

Now it was time to understand the mission background. Looking at the layout of the hospital and the way these people were dressed, Jiang Cheng guessed that it was at least 20 years ago.

Especially the collar of one of the security guards, which revealed a dark red, coarsely knitted sweater made of thick wool.

Jiang Cheng had only seen it in very old-fashioned TV dramas.

The man first caught his breath, then smiled apologetically at the old man, before turning around and saying in a scolding tone, "You family members of patients, how can you be so undisciplined? barging in without even saying hello, just because you called ahead? "

"Take the patient and come with me to register!" The man seemed to have some authority in the hospital, and he knew how to use his official tone very well.

"Director Qi, what's going on with these people?" the stern old man asked, looking at the man.

Hearing this, the man smiled ingratiatingly. "Doctor Liu, these are patients transferred from the Third Hospital, along with their family members. There was some unpleasantness during the transfer, who would have thought..."

The old man glared at Jiang Cheng and his group, reprimanding them. "Making a scene in the hospital over your own selfish interests, disrupting the normal order of medical practice?"

"It's outrageous!"

"Yes, yes." The man said with a smile, "I'll criticize them harshly later and teach them that making a scene in the hospital won't solve anything."

As he spoke, the man secretly gave them a look, and Jiang Cheng and the others immediately understood, quickly apologizing and saying that they had been impetuous.

It wouldn't happen again.