Mechanical Alchemist

"Ghost species" belong to a class of mutated spirits that are rare but also very tricky.

Their means of attack are often psychological, with low-level creatures creating auditory and visual hallucinations, affecting the target's sanity and judgment; higher-level ones directly control a person's limbs until they die, like Pestoya did before.

But Su Lun was no longer the clueless newcomer he was when he first crossed over.

He knew that even for ghost species to control someone, it was related to spiritual power. The weaker the target's spiritual power, the easier they were to control. This was also why many evil spirits chose to frighten humans first, rather than just killing them outright. It wasn't because they took pleasure in scaring people, but because healthy and calm humans were difficult to control.

Only by scaring them, causing their SAN value to continue to drop, could they reach the critical point of control.

...

"Not coming straight for the kill, it seems that the rank of that ghost species isn't too high..."

Su Lun was very calm, and although his two shots were ineffective, he also deduced some useful information.

He was quite clear that his spiritual power was far superior to that of a rank one professional, even most low-rank ghost species.

The fact that the "Mysterious Nurse" did not take direct action is probably because it couldn't control him at all!

The calmer he was, the less the enemy could do to him.

Moreover, his musket was loaded with silver alchemical bullets designed for special monsters.

But strangely, as Su Lun waited near the wall for nearly a minute, he noticed nothing unusual.

It seemed that the monster had already left?

At this moment, he slowly moved to change his position.

But suddenly, his peripheral vision caught the reflection in the door's glass once more, and he saw the shadow of that knife-wielding nurse again.

And it was much closer now!

It was five meters away just before, but now it stood just three meters behind him!

Su Lun hesitated not a moment longer and drew his gun to fire two shots again.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

But this time, he still didn't hit his target. When he turned to look back, the Mysterious Nurse was nowhere to be seen.

The wall now had four bullets embedded in it.

"Disappeared instantly? Or is there another reason... like it can only be seen in reflections?"

Su Lun was sure that his two shots just now shouldn't have missed.

His mind was racing, trying to figure out how the creature had vanished.

Anyone else would probably have been scared into a pulse of 160+ by now, but Su Lun's heart rate was still around a calm 70.

In an instant, a thought flashed through Su Lun's mind that this scene seemed familiar.

Then he connected some dots and realization dawned: that's right, it was her!

In the very moment he was pondering, as if sensing something, he looked up at the glass again. This time, he did not see a shadow, but rather a ghastly face pressed against the back of the glass, staring right at him—it was the Mysterious Nurse, her complexion deathly pale!

Human and nurse faced each other, less than half a meter apart.

But this time, Su Lun did not fire his gun.

He simply looked at it with an even expression, even blinked, as if not at all surprised by the sight before him, "Tsk tsk... as expected, such a familiar opening. If I turn around now, this thing should stick to my face, right..."

A normal person's first reaction to this would be to turn and run.

Thinking this, Su Lun turned around without hesitation, as if to confirm his suspicions.

Then, he saw that ghostly white face just one centimeter away from his, nearly kissing him.

"No physical means of harm, just pure scare tactics. So it's indeed 'Miss' that I conjured up in my imagination. I remember its original form should be that one..."

Su Lun instantly understood.

This ghost species was created by himself!

He ignored the terrifying face before him, having roughly figured out the rules of this cursed space, murmuring to himself, "'When you think of it, it will appear before your eyes,' so that's what it means."

At that moment, Su Lun reached out and touched the Ghost Nurse, his hand passing right through, as expected.

He confirmed something else, analyzing, "Just now, I saw the nurse's name 'Janice,' and couldn't help but associate that she must be a tall, blonde beauty. Plus, the horrifying environment of the hospital made me automatically fill in the blanks with such a terrifying nurse figure. But it indeed exists..."

The Ghost Nurse only had the ability to frighten; the knife in its hand was just for show. Seeing that Su Lun was completely unscared, it floated away, seemingly bored.

....

"Imagination materializing, thought projection, wishes coming true? The rules of this cursed space are quite interesting..."

Su Lun found this experience to be very magical.

Although he had practiced creating lucid dreams during his psychological therapy sessions, achieving the same effect of wishes coming true, this was the first time in the real world that he had brought his thoughts into physical form.

"I have the ability to create it, but I cannot make it disappear. So that's another difficulty in clearing this. If I let my runaway thoughts create too many powerful things, they might end up killing me..."

Linking all the details together for a thorough consideration, Su Lun clarified the entire set of rules.

In this cursed space, or at least on this floor, the "death trap" was right here.

The hospital with its intense atmosphere of horror might actually have no monsters at all.

Its purpose was to implant psychological suggestions—dim lights, empty corridors, unoccupied hospital beds... these horrifying elements would make you fill in the blanks on your own, coming up with some monster.

Then, your fantasies would materialize into actual monsters that would chase you down in reality.

Moreover, the things that instinctively terrify you are probably the ones you can't defeat.

Too bad it met Su Lun, the pathological player who had conquered over eight hundred horror movies and games.

There was a small surprise, but it wasn't thrilling.

....

Su Lun felt he had cracked the rules, and he wanted to give it a try.

"Since I can manifest fantasies, then... let's try a 'big wave'?"

Su Lun imagined the image of a big-wave beauty in his mind, but...

The next second, he surprisingly stroked his chin and revealed a thoughtful expression, "It actually failed?"

"Could it be that the fantasy isn't specific enough, not detailed enough?"

Su Lun pondered.

Then, he automatically filled in a few characters with detailed images in his mind.

"Maria Ozawa?"

"..."

"Audrey Hepburn?"

"..."

"Lady Tsunade?"

"..."

He tried to think of characters from both the second and third dimensions, and yet, none of them materialized.

The continuous failures made Su Lun puzzled, "The way I opened it seems incorrect? The rules I've deduced should be right, otherwise, the Ghost Nurse Miss shouldn't have appeared."

He felt that his train of thought should be correct, but there was definitely something missing.

"Let me think, what other conditions were met when I imagined that Ghost Nurse... At that time, I was fully focused on guarding against monsters, and then... right, emotional fluctuations!"

Suddenly, he felt he had found the blind spot.

This cursed space couldn't manifest just anything, it could only bring to life certain things that met the rules.

For example, things that could evoke a sense of fear... terrifying objects!

....

If it were an ordinary person, even if they thought of this flaw in the rules, the more they tried to control themselves not to think about it, the more those thoughts would inevitably fill their head.

In that moment of distracted thought, the corridor would probably be filled with all sorts of 'cuties.'

Yet Su Lun was unruffled, although various "candidate characters" came to mind, he felt no fluctuation in fear.

However, he didn't plan to give up trying, and mused while stroking his chin, "If I want a horrifying character, it's best to be one capable of physical attacks, something I could thrash on a strength level, no Mr. Ghost, zombies would be best..."

Hospital + horror elements + missy, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Of course, the unbeatable, wildly aggressive nurse from "XX Ridge"!

Su Lun suddenly imagined a nurse with no face in a screen-full of long legs, a tight low-cut hip-hugging miniskirt nurse uniform, and then he controlled himself to tense up nervously...

The next moment, the incredible happened!

Su Lun thought that there should be people in those empty wards, and sure enough, one by one, the nurses with their bodies contorted, carrying knives, steel pipes, and wrenches, began to shakily emerge from the wards.

Seeing this, Su Lun's eyes lit up, pleased rather than shocked, "It really worked... Finally, I see a physical entity!"

Having played the classic game so many times and collected a row of figurines at home, he had always fantasized about meeting them in person. At this moment, his dream had come true.

These miniskirt nurses were highly aggressive, but they were no match against Su Lun, who had already taken office.

Su Lun evaded the knives and sticks with ease, even managing to take the leisure to closely observe some details he was curious about before.

"So the bodies beneath their clothes have the same anatomical structure as humans..."

"Tsk tsk, the lace is quite detailed. They even wore leggings underneath, pah, thumbs down! Where's the basic trust between man and mystery?"

"Indeed, the material is genuine, not stiff, and the touch is excellent..."

"..."

With this, his long-standing curiosity was finally satisfied.

Despite the terrifying hospital scene in this cursed space, Su Lun, the rule-breaking player, turned it into a risqué game.

Before long, after he had observed enough, he raised his gun and effortlessly eliminated the group of monsters.

If this wasn't a dangerous cursed space, Su Lun thought this fantasy-manifesting hospital would be his "Happy Hut," likely stopping to create more 'cuties' to satisfy his years of curiosity.

Unfortunately, lingering further could lead to unforeseen mishaps, so he decided to continue exploring.

....

After figuring out the cursed rules of the space, Su Lun went on a rampage through the third floor of the hospital ward without encountering a single monster.

However, besides finding a few nurse duty rosters, he found no useful information.

Then he looked at the hospital stairs and walked down to the second floor.

The moment he stepped down, he saw a man wearing a cowboy hat, who was blind, sitting in front of a ward.

Su Lun knew this man was blind because he immediately recognized the outfit's high distinctiveness and wondered, "Blind Detective Bill? Impossible that he was the previous tenant..."

The image of Blind Detective Bill emerged from the memories stripped from some corpse, but it didn't prevent Su Lun from knowing that this man was a renowned Bounty Hunter in the inner city, one of the rare "Gun Masters" in Old Lington!

It was said that the blind man had another identity in secret—a major in the "Umbrella Organization"!

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