Though called a hospital, it was actually a mental treatment center for internet addiction. Established in 2004, it was once famous in Ningcheng for its electrotherapy methods during an era when parents viewed online gaming as a great calamity.
Yu Zhibo had heard of this hospital. As a child, his parents had used it to scare him. However, the hospital had already closed down in 2013, reportedly due to a fatality. At the time, he was only eight years old, so he didn't have a deep impression.
After turning off the electric scooter and removing the key, the two got off and stood at the hospital entrance.
In the darkness of night, the abandoned hospital resembled a dark prison, quietly lurking. The hospital walls, due to years of disrepair, had several long cracks. The mottled, old walls were covered in ivy. Above the hospital walls was a two-meter-high electric fence. Even though it was covered in rust, its former deterrent power could still be vaguely discerned.
There were a few holes in the electric fence, presumably made by someone throwing stones. The two walked to the hospital gate and looked inside through the rusty iron gate. The courtyard inside was overgrown with weeds, the concrete floor was cracked, and broken bricks were scattered on it.
Behind the courtyard was the hospital's central hall, and behind the hall was a long hospital corridor, deep and dark, like the gaping maw of an abyss ready to devour. The entire scene was indescribably eerie.
Suddenly, a cold wind blew, and both of them shivered. They exchanged glances and saw a mixture of fear and excitement on each other's faces.
Excitement outweighed fear.
Yu Zhibo licked his lips, took off his backpack, and to Chen Bo's stunned gaze, pulled out three water guns, yellow and green, with a childish appearance.
In front of the eerie hospital, the atmosphere became subtle.
"What is this stuff?" Chen Bo asked in a low voice.
"Three water guns: one with black dog blood, one with black dog blood mixed with chicken blood, and one with chicken blood. I want the black dog blood one. Which one do you want?" Yu Zhibo also lowered his voice.
"Kids make choices. I want the black dog blood mixed with chicken blood one." Chen Bo took the water gun. Distracted by this, he no longer felt as scared.
"You might find this ridiculous, but against ghosts, these five-yuan water guns are more effective than real guns," Yu Zhibo said.
Chen Bo didn't believe him but didn't argue.
After finishing their preparations, the two, holding their water guns, stealthily pushed open the iron gate and walked in.
Not far behind them, in the grass, a girl with her hair tied up sighed, resting her forehead. She felt that the mission she had accepted was no different from playing house with children.
Seeing the two boys' furtive figures disappear into the hospital corridor, she strode forward, bent her legs, and sprang up like a cannonball, easily clearing the nearly five-meter-high wall, including the electric fence, before landing lightly.
Looking at the eerie courtyard, the girl's red lips curved slightly, and she sniffed the air, muttering, "They really got lucky. Well, let's see if they can handle it. If not, I'll deliver the final blow. If they can't awaken..."
The girl snorted coldly and followed the two boys with her long strides.
Meanwhile, Yu Zhibo and Chen Bo had no idea someone was following them.
With walls covered in sparse moss, corners filled with cobwebs, and every dark turn holding the unknown, their footsteps echoed conspicuously in the quiet corridor, making their hearts pound like drums, a thrilling experience.
Each holding a focused flashlight, they scanned the hospital corridors, moving deeper until the end, but found nothing unusual, only feeling a chilling air.
As they walked, they stopped simultaneously, exchanged glances, and Yu Zhibo shivered. "Did you hear something?" he asked.
"I think I heard footsteps," Chen Bo said, swallowing hard.
They both turned around, only to find the space behind them empty.
"Let's keep going!" Yu Zhibo urged. So, they started walking again.
The rhythmic "thump, thump, thump" of their footsteps echoed in the corridor, their sounds overlapping and becoming somewhat disordered. As they walked, their footsteps began to merge, as if an extra person was walking with them.
Yu Zhibo's hair stood on end. He raised his hand and patted Chen Bo's shoulder. In perfect synchronization, they both stopped.
*Thump!*
An extra footstep sounded, then abruptly ceased.
Silence descended.
They turned around again, finding no one there.
Chen Bo's mouth twitched. He forced a smile. "Maybe we misheard."
"Shut up! Don't you remember how it is in ghost movies? Every time the protagonists console themselves, thinking they misheard, it turns out there really is a ghost," Yu Zhibo said, feeling something was definitely wrong and scanning their surroundings vigilantly.
*Whoosh*
In the dark corridor, a chilling wind blew. Although this was a side corridor and not exposed to the wind, the sound of wind clearly whistled. Both of them felt their hair stand on end.
Suddenly, Yu Zhibo felt a gaze from above. He looked up and saw a gaunt figure clinging to the ceiling like a spider. Its head was turned 180 degrees, its hair disheveled, its face deathly pale, and its eyes emitted a faint yellow glow as it stared at him.
Yu Zhibo immediately felt a wave of dizziness, then cleared his head.
The monster on the ceiling showed a surprised expression.
[Mental attack received. Host's mental strength is above 15, immunity granted.] A message appeared in his mind. Yu Zhibo glanced to the side and saw Chen Bo had collapsed on the ground, his face contorted in what appeared to be immense pain. Clearly, he had not been immune to the attack.
"Chen Bo!" Yu Zhibo shouted, his expression changing slightly. He had no experience dealing with mental attacks and didn't know how much damage they could inflict on Chen Bo. He couldn't help but regret bringing his friend into such danger.
If Chen Bo became an idiot because of this, he would regret it for the rest of his life.
However, perhaps because his mental strength was as high as 19, despite his worry for Chen Bo's situation, his thoughts were exceptionally clear, and his actions were not panicked in the slightest.
In the next moment, he raised the water gun filled with diluted black dog blood and sprayed it at the monster on the ceiling.
"Quite interesting!" Not far away, the girl from the Sacred Bureau, with her hair tied up, nodded, resting her chin on her hand. "His mental strength is quite high, able to be immune to the hallucinatory attack of an F-class minor ghost."
This F-class minor ghost was at the bottom rung of its class. Besides using its mind to confuse people, it had no physical form and thus no strong offensive capabilities. Of course, if it could consume fear, that would be different.
The more fear its enemies felt, the more solidified its body would become, potentially reaching a density comparable to steel at its peak, making it impervious to bullets. It would also develop numerous abilities, with significant improvements in speed and strength.
However, as long as people weren't afraid, this wild ghost was nothing. Therefore, the girl watched from the sidelines with confidence, as the one fighting it showed no fear at all.
This Yu Zhibo's reaction upon seeing the wild ghost was acceptable. His companion, however, due to his low mental strength, had been drawn into the illusion created by the wild ghost.
"But he seems to care about his companion. A good quality."
As the girl commented, the battle on the other side was also changing.
After being sprayed by Yu Zhibo's black dog blood, the areas hit by the spray emitted a piercing sizzling sound, like sulfuric acid hitting butter, releasing a foul-smelling smoke. The ghost could no longer maintain its position on the ceiling and fell to the ground with a wail.
Seeing that his prepared black dog blood was effective, Yu Zhibo rejoiced and increased his firepower, spraying wildly.
The wild ghost immediately began to wail. The wailing was piercing and unpleasant, seemingly another form of mental attack, making Yu Zhibo feel agitated. He continued spraying while also kicking at it.
However, because it had absorbed so little fear, the wild ghost's body was not solid. When Yu Zhibo kicked, his foot felt like it was submerged in ice water, easily passing through the ghost's body and landing on the ground. Soon, his foot began to feel cold and numb.
Quickly withdrawing his foot, Yu Zhibo continued to spray the ghost's head with the water gun. The ghost shrieked in pain but showed no signs of being destroyed, struggling to escape.
Yu Zhibo then used Chen Bo's water gun, but the effect was minimal.
He then took out garlic, glutinous rice, and black donkey hooves from his backpack and threw them all at the wild ghost. He then sprayed it with the chicken blood water gun, but to his surprise, it had no effect at all.
Yu Zhibo was startled. He hadn't expected that despite preparing so much, only the black dog blood was useful.
Remembering that there was still half a can of dog blood in the canned food, Yu Zhibo quickly took it out and poured it onto the wild ghost.
Immediately, the wild ghost wailed even more shrilly, its ghostly form dissolving faster.
If spraying the ghost with diluted black dog blood was like pouring plain water on butter, then pouring undiluted black dog blood was like pouring molten iron on butter, and it was the kind that spread.
Soon, the smoke grew thicker, the wild ghost's body on the ground shrank, and finally, it completely evaporated.
[F-class wild ghost eliminated. Congratulations to the host for completing the initial mission. Due to significant emotional fluctuations during the mission, the reward has been upgraded from a single tomoe Sharingan to a two tomoe Sharingan. May the host continue to strive and achieve greater glory!] A golden message appeared in his mind, but Yu Zhibo didn't have time to notice it. Instead, he quickly crouched down to check Chen Bo's condition.
Fortunately, Chen Bo's expression had softened, no longer as pained and contorted, and his breathing gradually stabilized.
This was likely because the wild ghost, which had been launching mental attacks, had died, and its attack effects had diminished.
Yu Zhibo breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to wake Chen Bo, his mind suddenly felt like a door had been blown open.
Then, he felt a cool energy flow from his mind into his eyeballs. His pupils, previously pitch black, turned blood red. Finally, two black tomoe slowly appeared in the blood-red irises of his left and right eyes, each at a 180-degree angle.
The Two Tomoe Sharingan, awakened!
It was only then that Yu Zhibo noticed the message in his mind, which made him unable to help but feel surprised and delighted.
He hadn't expected to awaken with two tomoe right from the start!
With the awakening of the Sharingan, the world before his eyes seemed to have had layers of mist cleared away, and what he saw became much clearer.
The walls were still the same walls, but he could clearly see every tiny speck and irregular texture on them.
Besides physical objects, he could also see the residual yin energy left in the air after the wild ghost was eliminated, which was slowly dissipating.
This awakening had not only enhanced his eyes but also brought about changes in other aspects.
After the successful awakening of the Sharingan, he could clearly feel an energy vortex forming in his dantian, absorbing the ambient energy from the air. As energy was absorbed, he felt as if his body had broken free from some shackles and was beginning a slow transformation.
With no further concerns, he sat down cross-legged, allowing his body to absorb the surrounding energy, and felt his body's transformation accelerate.
"This must be spiritual energy," Yu Zhibo murmured, noticing that the spiritual energy stat on his data panel, which had been at 0, was slowly increasing to 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3.
The numbers for his stamina, agility, and physique also began to change, increasing by +1 each.
As surrounding energy was continuously absorbed, he felt his body strengthening in all aspects. This feeling was incredibly exhilarating.
Lost in the visible improvement of his strength, he didn't notice the girl with her hair tied up, who had been following him, looking at him with a shocked expression from not far behind.
Half an hour later, after the transformation ceased, Yu Zhibo glanced at his data panel and found that his attributes had significantly increased.
The data was as follows: