Chapter 1153: Relying on Her Own Brain

Chapter 1153: Relying on Her Own Brain

The remaining Higher Consciousness was enough for [Consciousness Mimicry]. Even if Lin Sanjiu mimicked twice in a row, she could still have one use of [Defense Forcefield] left; Mrs. Manas explained the invisible and intangible Higher Consciousness in terms of abilities. However, the problem wasn't with the remaining quantity.
The problem was that she couldn't activate [Consciousness Mimicry] no matter what.
"What's going on?" Lin Sanjiu was puzzled. "Could it be because I'm too weak?"
Though she said that, she knew it probably wasn't the case.
"I don't know either," Mrs. Manas said, appearing both embarrassed and anxious. This was a significant loophole in her jurisdiction, and not only had she failed to notice it, but she also couldn't figure out the reason. It was a first for her. "I've checked twice. Everything seems normal!"
Everything seemed normal, except that mimicry couldn't be used.
"What about the others?" Lin Sanjiu asked and decided not to wait for her. "I'll try!"
She confirmed [Defense Forcefield] and [Higher Consciousness Scan] could still be activated as usual.
"That's strange," Mrs. Manas muttered. "This means there's nothing wrong with Higher Consciousness."
Lin Sanjiu frowned deeply and sat on the edge of the bed, lost in thought for a while. Suddenly, she took a deep breath and quickly summoned a card. As soon as the card turned into the thin booklet she had seen earlier, she immediately opened the last page.
"I remember, if a player can't pay the bill when leaving the hospital, the hospital will use forced collection methods to mortgage and sell property... at least, I remember seeing this sentence." Her fingers quickly found the target among a sea of densely packed words, and when she looked closely, she let out a startled breath.
The original sentence was not what she thought, "mortgage and sell property," but "sell mortgaged property." The order of "sell" and "mortgage" was different, and upon closer examination, the meaning was entirely different.
The first meaning was that the hospital could accept your possessions as collateral and then sell them to settle the debt. In other words, the hospital could take your things as collateral or sell your belongings to pay off the debt.
The second meaning, however, was that the hospital had already mortgaged the property that had been pledged to it and was now selling it to repay the debt. In other words, the hospital had obtained enough collateral from patients when they were admitted.
In retrospect, it made sense: if a player was robbed in the hospital and left with nothing, unable to pay enough collateral when leaving, wouldn't the hospital bear a loss that could have been avoided?
Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but think of pocket dimensions and games, which also used the same method of collecting collateral. These pocket dimensions and games were indeed particularly shrewd in such places.
"Hurry, try to see if there's anything mortgaged!" Mrs. Manas urged.
Without further ado, Lin Sanjiu quickly tested her abilities and items one by one. Because she no longer had her left hand, she couldn't use [Mosaic Censorship] at all. Whether it had been mortgaged or not, it made no difference to her; she simply included it as one of the collateral items.
Fortunately, there were only two abilities that she couldn't use. It took her twenty minutes to test each Special Item once. By the time she reached the fourth item, [High-Efficiency Nutrient Solution] had finished dripping. After her physical strength had somewhat recovered, Lin Sanjiu came to a conclusion.
[Tornado Whip], [Sleight of Hand], [Oh My God! My Wallet Is Missing!], [The Power Of Word Picture], and [Ghost Ukiyo-e] were all unusable. Some of them were difficult to test, and she had to find out by process of elimination. Although the items themselves were still there, their effects had disappeared, rendering them like mere decorations or toys.
"Seven," she said, rubbing her temples. "I owe the hospital 8 points, and they took away 6 or 7 collateral items... They're quite fair."
She had initially wanted to use the wisdom of the grand prize to explore the game's path, but now that hope was gone. Lin Sanjiu took out the forged Informed Consent Form Ya Jiang had created and found a pen. She decided to methodically organize all the current information. Maybe when it was all sorted out, she would know what to do.
Just like a primary school student doing homework, she neatly wrote down "Known Conditions of Lava":
In each round of Lava, the location of the lava varies, and the duration varies. There is a rest period between two rounds. Registration is required before the start of the next round. Otherwise, it will be treated as illegal.
Players use the lava to engulf illegal residents, gaining the survival chance lost by the other party. Illegal residents will be sent to the hospital and automatically become registered players in the next round after discharge.
Players can slowly recover their survival chances in each round of the lava game.
If a player is engulfed by lava, their survival chances will be deducted, and they will be sent to the hospital, losing at least one round of game time.
Players in the hospital need to use points to purchase medical supplies and services.
Injured players during the lava game may have their survival chances reduced at the discretion of the game.
For emergency patients, a corresponding portion of their abilities and items has already been mortgaged to the hospital and must be redeemed with points upon discharge. Mortgaged items cannot be used again.
Player information in the lava game will be displayed in the original text area.
Looking at these eight points, Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment and wrote down several questions beside them.
First, could she leave the Lava world during the rest period? If leaving during the rest period was not allowed, could she leave as an illegal resident, avoiding registration in the next round, and leave the Lava world before others found her? Would this work?
Second, after being admitted, the duration of "at least one round of the game" is deducted. Does this "one round" include the current round she was sent here?
Third, what does "at least" one round mean? What determines how many rounds a player stays in the hospital?
She chewed on her pen for a few minutes and looked at the empty IV bag. Finally, she made up her mind. Alone in the room, she could only gather this much information, and most of it was related to the outside world of the Lava game. However, she clearly realized that the interior of the hospital was where the real action took place in the Lava world.
The real action inside the hospital clearly had only one place: the payment counter and affiliated store on the lower level.
In other words, she had to take a risk and make a trip to the bottom of the hospital—the dimly lit, indistinct circular ground within this cylindrical building.
"But with your current strength and combat power, I'm afraid that as soon as you open the door, you'll become someone else's snack," Mrs. Manas said with concern.