I'm Actually Panicking Because My Heart Doesn't Beat (GL) - Chapter 67

Before the mission started, to avoid alerting the strange entities, she had wrapped a piece of black velvet cloth around her wrist to hide the round pendant completely.

This Class-A item was very powerful, and Guan Xiaoxuan had come up with this plan just in case things didn’t go as expected. But to her surprise, she had barely arrived and already run into two strange beings.

The moment she felt a damp and limp tug on the corner of her clothes from behind, she spun around and pointed the Qixing Haitang gun straight at the other person’s head.

The figure was drenched in bl00d. It looked like their carotid artery had been slashed—there was a clean line across the neck, and the whole body was stained red from head to toe.

Bang—

Without hesitation, Guan Xiaoxuan pulled the trigger. The Qixing Haitang let out a sharp crack, and the bullet blew the figure’s head apart in an instant!

Thanks to the special weapon and custom bullets, this strange being was taken down with a single shot. It staggered, collapsed, and quickly dissolved into a puddle of black sludge, giving off a foul stench.

The gunshot snapped the others out of their daze. Not far away, Xing Tianqing spotted her by the corpse and ran over.

“What happened?” he asked urgently, frowning at the puddle of black sludge at her feet. “A strange?”

“Yes,” Guan Xiaoxuan replied, putting her gun away. She pulled a spare bullet from her pocket and reloaded calmly, then said, “It came up behind me without a sound. I also saw a headless strange being down the hallway earlier.”

She pointed toward the empty corridor and frowned. “Where did it go?”

Xing Tianqing followed her gaze and frowned as well.

“I really don’t feel comfortable with you being the bait. This mission is way too dangerous,” he said. “I’ll stay with you. The others are nearby, so I can at least make sure you’re safe.”

Guan Xiaoxuan thought for a moment. “But if you’re with me, will that red-dressed strange even show up?”

“There’s no way to know for sure,” Xing Tianqing admitted. “But leaving you alone is too risky. We can’t afford to lose you just trying to lure her out.”

Guan Xiaoxuan looked at him seriously and said after a long pause, “But if you’re by my side, those strange won’t come near me.”

Xiao An chimed in from the side, “Yeah, Captain Xing, just you standing there is enough to scare them off.”

Xing Tianqing still looked uneasy.

Guan Xiaoxuan turned to Xiao An and asked, “Are all the strange in this abandoned hospital as weak as the one just now?”

“Pretty much,” Xiao An replied, scrolling through her tablet and showing Guan Xiaoxuan a radar map. “These strange don’t have much intelligence—they act on instinct. Most of them are easy to handle.”

“That’s good.” Guan Xiaoxuan felt slightly relieved. She turned to Xing Tianqing and said, “You really don’t have to worry. Since I volunteered to be bait, I’m mentally prepared for this. Besides, if none of the strange come after me, how are we going to lure that woman in red from the bus stop?”

Xing Tianqing was silent for a while before finally nodding. He looked at her and said, “Just be careful.”

Once everyone was in their assigned positions, Guan Xiaoxuan was left standing alone.

She couldn’t tell if it was just her imagination, but she felt like many eyes were watching her. Yet when she looked around, she saw nothing.

She started to worry. Would her teammates still be able to keep an eye on her? It felt like her presence was slowly fading.

There wasn’t much point in overthinking. She put on her earpiece and got ready to start exploring the abandoned hospital.

The Sixth Hospital was just outside the second ring road. The area was pretty busy, yet the place had never been torn down. Rumor had it that creepy things kept showing up, so the Bureau of the Strange had been there many times. Every time, they’d clear out a few weak strange.

But the place was like a cockroach nest. No matter how many you cleaned up, more would pop out after a while. They could never fully get rid of them.

Thankfully, the strange had only been wandering nearby and hadn’t hurt anyone yet. That’s why the Bureau did regular cleanups. It had become sort of a routine job.

Guan Xiaoxuan had never been here before. She followed the path where the headless strange had appeared. The first floor was a reception hall, and the second floor had various outpatient departments. She held a flashlight and walked through the echoing halls of the building.

Xing Tianqing’s voice came through her earpiece as he coordinated the team’s positions. Her earpiece also had a GPS tracker, so everything was still under control.

She walked through the entire second floor but didn’t see the headless strange again. Maybe it had been scared off—or maybe it was hiding somewhere, waiting to ambush her.

Her flashlight beam swept around as she paced the corridor twice. Still no sign. She sighed and headed up to the third floor but again found nothing.

Standing in the hallway with her hands on her hips, she muttered, “Where are all the ghosts?”

When she didn’t want to see any, they were always around. But now, when she actually wanted to be attacked, they were nowhere to be found.

Talk about frustrating.

Suddenly, Xing Tianqing’s voice came sharply through the earpiece. “Guan Xiaoxuan, did something happen?”

“No,” she replied, sweeping the flashlight around again. “That strange one must’ve run off. There’s nothing here in the outpatient building. I’m thinking of checking the inpatient area.”

After a pause, Xing Tianqing replied, “Alright. I’ll send someone over to the inpatient ward. You do one more round here before heading over.”

“Got it,” Guan Xiaoxuan answered.

She went through the outpatient building again, opening a few doors. Inside was the same mess—completely empty and trashed.

Since the Bureau came regularly, nothing of value was ever left behind.

As she made her way downstairs toward the inpatient building, something suddenly flashed past the dark nurse’s station. She immediately pointed her flashlight at it.

Whoosh—

A gust of wind blew in through the cracked windows, scattering the papers on the ground.

Frowning, Guan Xiaoxuan walked over. When her flashlight landed on the papers, she realized they were old medical records.

The handwriting was wild and barely readable. She wasn’t trained in medicine, so she couldn’t understand much, but she could make out words like Critical and Split Personality.

The Sixth Hospital was once a general hospital, but it had originally been a psychiatric facility. Later, the mental health patients were moved to a satellite hospital in the suburbs, and this place was converted.

But older locals still thought of it as a psych hospital, and it continued to treat psychiatric patients on occasion.

Xiao An had explained all this to her on the way over. Now, looking at the scribbled records, Guan Xiaoxuan figured they were probably written by psychiatrists.

She skimmed the damaged papers briefly. Most were useless—weather-worn, ripped, and barely legible.

Deciding there was nothing valuable, she looked away and continued down the stairs toward the inpatient ward.

As soon as she left, the windless hallway stirred again. The scattered records began to float, swirling eerily in the dark.

Outside the outpatient building, Guan Xiaoxuan saw a few of her teammates. They had been keeping a safe but constant distance to protect her.

To get to the inpatient area, she had to pass through a small courtyard. It was barely larger than a palm, with dead shrubs in each corner and an old gazebo in the center.

As she walked through, the wind picked up again, ruffling her bangs and the edge of her coat.

She paused briefly in the garden, but saw nothing suspicious. The once enthusiastic strange were now avoiding her completely, which was seriously confusing.

The inpatient building had only three floors. The doors on each floor had been ripped off—probably taken by scavengers looking to salvage anything of value.

Which was fine. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about opening a door and getting jumped.

Starting from the first floor, she walked through each ward like a livestreamer doing an urban exploration video. But there was nothing. It was like the strange had all vanished into thin air.

Frowning, she said into the earpiece, “Captain Xing, I haven’t seen a single strange. Doesn’t that seem off?”

Xing Tianqing agreed—the hospital was too quiet. He called Xiao An over and asked her to recheck the radar.

It still showed multiple strange nearby, even three inside the outpatient building Guan Xiaoxuan had just left. So why were they avoiding her?

Xing Tianqing paused, then finally said, “Wandering around aimlessly won’t work. The radar shows one strange in Room 7 on the third floor. Go check it out.”

Guan Xiaoxuan’s eyes lit up. Finally, something!

“Copy that!”

Her tone turned upbeat as she quickly headed to the third floor. She was eager to find out what kind of strange was waiting there.

Come on, attack me already!

She could hardly wait.

Taking the stairs two at a time, she skipped all the other rooms and stopped directly in front of Room 7.

Unlike the stripped-down lower floors, the third floor was better preserved. Room 7’s door was still intact, though the white paint was peeling, clearly showing its age.

Guan Xiaoxuan pulled her pistol from her waist and held it just above her left hand, which was gripping the flashlight. She took a deep breath and kicked the door open with force!

Bang! The door slammed hard against the wall, making a loud noise.

Her flashlight beam swept across the small hospital room, and she spotted a strange figure wearing a patient’s gown standing by the window. The moment it saw Guan Xiaoxuan enter, its face changed drastically, and it immediately jumped out the window!

“Huh?”

Guan Xiaoxuan hurried over, leaned against the window, and carefully scanned up and down outside. She cursed under her breath.

“What’s going on? Why did it run the moment it saw me?” Guan Xiaoxuan was shocked and confused. “Am I scarier than a ghost or what?”