Horror Game Designer

Chapter 78: I am a patient and also the best doctor

In a dimly lit clinic, the scene was one of eerie intensity. Eight spectral arms, each a manifestation of Gao Ming’s harrowing experiences with death, reached out in every direction.

Standing in this ominous setting were the victims of Dr. Lu’s cruel experiments, individuals who had been metaphorically ‘killed’ and resurrected multiple times through their harrowing experiences. They had weathered many storms of pain and despair, and now, they once again confronted Dr. Lu, the architect of their suffering.

Gao Ming leaned over Dr. Lu’s desk, his eyes red and swollen from strain and anger. His hands pressed firmly against the surface, and he exhaled a breath heavy with emotion and fogged with fatigue.

“Dr. Lu, is there a cure for the torment I endure?” Gao Ming asked, his voice a mix of hope and desperation.

At that moment, a ghastly ragdoll, grotesque in appearance, emerged from under the table. It reached out and clutched Dr. Lu’s leg. The doctor attempted to retreat, but Gao Ming’s overwhelming presence left no room for escape.

Gao Ming’s countenance was a disturbing tableau of four aspects: life, death, desire, and sin. These faces gazed at the murderous doctor, their impact as forceful as a physical blow to his head.

Inside Gao Ming, a mutated heart pounded furiously, each beat a loud, ominous thud that seemed to deepen the blood-red ambiance of the clinic. This heart was a symbol of his inner turmoil and the physical and emotional transformations he had undergone.

Outside, a fierce storm raged, mirroring the physical violence unfolding within the clinic. Blood splattered with each batter, mixing with shadows and anguished screams. Gao Ming was the embodiment of extreme violence, but underlying his frantic beating at the bastard was a profound sadness.

His mind was a battleground of conflicting emotions: death and self-destruction clashed with thoughts of redemption and a rejection of rebirth. These tumultuous thoughts were like shards of death colliding within him, creating an unbearable inner chaos. This level of pain, which would have been intolerable even for the most resilient, was a routine experience for Gao Ming.

“I truly wanted to save everyone,” Gao Ming lamented as he took another blow, “but I soon realized I couldn’t even save myself.”

Glaring down at Dr. Lu, he accused, “I trusted you completely, confided in you, yet you saw me only as a specimen for your experiments.”

“Why did you betray your patients?” Gao Ming demanded by making another blow. “They looked to you as their last hope, but you shattered that hope, subjecting them to repeated torment by thrusting your blade into their body.”

Each strand of the blood chain wrapped around Gao Ming’s soul, transforming his heart into an instrument of torture that manifested his immense pain and despair in this reality. This heart, altered by his unique experiences, was more terrifying than any creation of the notorious family mass murderer from the apartment.

In a surreal twist, the murderous doctor managed to pull out a black and white photograph from his pocket. The photo showed patients in hospital gowns, all of whom had become part of Dr. Lu’s macabre collection, their bodies mere vessels for shadows and suffering.

“Hold them off!” he orders the ghosts of his victim. The murderous doctor had lost all semblance of resistance at this point, only wanting to escape the room and flee for his life.

“Didn’t you enjoy collecting patients?” Gao Ming taunted the now bruised face Dr. Lu. “Why run away now and leave them behind? You’re not a madman; you’re just a coward, a twisted parasite feeding on the living!”

Dr. Lu had a unique ability, empowered by the shadow world, to absorb his patients’ ailments into himself, granting him extraordinary powers to affect others’ psyches. However, he had never encountered someone like Gao Ming, who, having repeatedly faced and survived death, was immune to these psychological manipulations.

Panick-stricken, Dr. Lu freed himself from the clutches of the fear doll and threw himself out the closest window nearby, falling all the way down from the second-story height.

But Gao Ming wasn’t going to let the murderous doctor go that easily. With red burning in his eyes, he too gave chase and jumped out as well.

“You can’t escape! Situ An will join you in your fate!” Gao Ming bellowed, his voice almost drowned out by the storm.

The eight formidable arms of the Flesh Immortal stretched out, lightning dramatically illuminating Gao Ming’s intense expression while thunder boomed ominously. In this climactic moment, he and the ghostly avatar grabbed hold of Dr. Lu and lifted him up like an offering.

“What do you plan to do?!” Dr. Lu cried out, terror-stricken. The idea that a living person could defeat a monster of the shadow world was beyond his comprehension, yet now he felt an overwhelming fear gnawing at his soul.

The rain pelted down, adding a frantic rhythm to the already chaotic scene. Lightning flashed, and thunder boomed as both Gao Ming and the Flesh Immortal opened their mouths.

The eight arms brutally tore Dr. Lu apart. Countless blood vessels, resembling extensions of Gao Ming’s own veins, emerged from the ghostly deity and penetrated Dr. Lu appendages, piercing both his mortal and spiritual hearts.

It is believed humans possess two hearts – the spiritual Heart of Deity, destined for reincarnation, and the other physical Heart of Mortality, remaining in the mortal world. But now, Gao Ming intended to seize both of Dr. Lu’s hearts.

Screams reverberated through the shadow world as Dr. Lu’s face twisted in horror while witnessing the nightmarish torture chamber within Gao Ming’s heart during the absorption. These operating devices represented overwhelming despair that needed to be quelled, and the offering was none other than Dr. Lu tonight.

Now powerless to resist, the man realized too late that he had missed his opportunity to fight back. Once Gao Ming had seized control of his two hearts, his fate was irrevocably sealed, giving way for the Flesh Immortal to imprison Dr. Lu inside the horrific “heart chamber” within Gao Ming.

There, fragments of death memories, interlocking like sinister gears, began to turn and subject Dr. Lu to excruciating torture in the chamber, enduring the punishment he so rightfully deserved.

Finally, the screams ceased after only the very memory of death correlating to Dr. Lu was consumed by the sin aspect, turning his existence into another bloodied chain hanging in the heart chamber.

“The torture chamber seems to transform the tortured souls into chains and torture devices,” Gao Ming observed after noticing the reddish hue subsiding somewhat on the ghostly avatar, “and then uses them to torment other trapped spirits.”

Gao Ming experienced a profound sense of relief and satisfaction from within, a feeling he hadn’t known for a long time.

“So this is what it feels like to be free of the haunting memories of death!” he exclaimed, a sense of liberation washing over him.

He stretched out his arms, allowing the relentless downpour to drench him. It felt as though the rain was washing away not just the physical grime but also the psychological shackles that had bound him for so long.

“I’ve been trapped in too many nightmares. To completely free myself, I must break through every single one of them!” Gao Ming thought determinedly.

Suddenly, he heard faint footsteps behind him. Turning around, he saw the patients previously under Dr. Lu’s care approaching slowly. They didn’t show any aggression towards Gao Ming; instead, they stood at a respectful distance as if sensing the remnants of Dr. Lu’s presence on him.

“Dr. Lu is gone. From now on, I, Dr. Gao, will be taking care of you,” Gao Ming declared, removing his patient gown and standing bare-chested in the rain. “You are in luck. You’ve now met the best doctor in this city.”

As he walked back towards the clinic, the shadowed figures of the patients followed him. They seemed to understand and trust Gao Ming’s intentions.

“I am not like Dr. Lu. I will genuinely treat your ailments, helping you eventually emerge from the shadows to bask in the sunlight,” Gao Ming promised, feeling the heartbeats of several patients around him.

Among them, four patients stood out. Amei, the youngest, was plagued by a bizarre illness that made her believe she had been a fish out of water since childhood. Wu Shu, the oldest, was a paranormal investigator from the Xinhai Investigation Bureau who had been studying abnormal events and the shadow world before being accidentally captured by Dr. Lu. The other two were a young couple, deeply in love and outwardly normal.

“I’ll delve deeper into this after returning. This photo seems particularly relevant to my field,” Gao Ming thought, picking up the black and white photo he had noticed earlier. The image of Dr. Lu had disappeared, replaced by Gao Ming standing in the rain.

Turning the photo over, he saw what appeared to be a child’s scribbles. It read: “Photo of the patients: Everyone in this city is mad, their diseased brains recording this diseased era.”

After pocketing the photo, Gao Ming changed back into his clothes and checked his phone. He found three urgent messages from Wei Dayou, all sent just two minutes ago.

“Gao Ming! Those ** made me go down the cellar first! Hurry up!”

“Where are you?! Not stuck in traffic, right?”

“Something’s wrong in the black cellar! None of the villagers who went down have come back up! It’s almost my turn!”

Gao Ming quickly donned his raincoat and rushed out into the storm, determined and focused.

“Now that Dr. Lu’s chapter is closed, it’s time to deal with Qing Ge. I’ll dismantle Situ An’s two main supports before dragging him into my torture chamber,” he mused, his resolve unwavering as he disappeared into the heavy rain, ready to confront the next challenge.