When Chen Bugu arrived at the first-floor cafeteria of Ciyun Building, he found Yan Kuan, Wang Bin, and Lin Lin sitting at a dining table.
Lin Lin was holding a transparent vase, found from who knows where, constantly making the motion of drinking water, yet there was clearly no water in the vase.
Meanwhile, Yan Kuan and Wang Bin sat at the table, picking up withered leaves from the tabletop and continuously stuffing them into their mouths. They were vying with each other, as if savoring some delicacy.
"What are you doing?"
Chen Bugu already had a vague, uneasy premonition.
Hearing this, Yan Kuan and the others turned their heads to look at Chen Bugu.
The moment their eyes met, Chen Bugu's heart sank, knowing that his guess had most likely come true.
At this moment, the three of them had bloodshot eyes and strange expressions, clearly having fallen into a hallucination.
The next instant, Chen Bugu felt the ground beneath his feet begin to squirm. He immediately realized something was wrong and quickly retreated several steps.
Several earth spikes appeared where he had just been standing.
Chen Bugu turned and accelerated, leaving Ciyun Building without looking back.
He knew that after Yan Kuan and the others fell into a hallucination, they would surely regard him as an enemy. Staying there would only cause him more trouble.
Returning to the front of the Outpatient Building, Chen Bugu fell into a dilemma.
Was it still necessary to go to Changde Building to check on Bai Ting and the others?
Given the current situation, Bai Ting and the others might very well have also fallen into a hallucination.
To be honest, if Bai Ting and Lin Xiaoxiao both treated him as an enemy, Chen Bugu probably wouldn't be able to escape without activating Bullet Time.
However, up to this point, Chen Bugu didn't even know who the enemy was. Frequently using Bullet Time under such circumstances was probably not a wise move.
It was a pity that Decipher couldn't help others escape hallucinations. Chen Bugu had already tried it just now, and it was ineffective.
Chen Bugu simply retreated directly back to the initial guardroom.
He wanted to confirm one thing: when exactly did they fall into the hallucination?
Entering the guardroom, the layout was no different from half an hour ago. Even the newspapers and brochures they had taken out were still on the table.
A purple light flashed in Chen Bugu's eyes, but the scene before him did not change.
This basically confirmed that everyone's hallucinations occurred after they had explored separately.
However, they had clearly split into three small teams, yet at least two of those teams had still fallen into a hallucination.
Had the enemy been following him all along?
But when Chen Bugu arrived at the first-floor cafeteria of Ciyun Building, Yan Kuan and Wang Bin already had their mouths full of leaves, clearly having fallen into a hallucination much earlier.
Does that mean there's more than one enemy?
But if the number of enemies was large enough to deal with them separately, why had their figures never been seen from beginning to end?
Chen Bugu bit his fingernail, his mind racing, contemplating all possibilities.
Leaving Bai Ting and the others aside for now, for people like Lin Ye and Yan Kuan, if their state prolonged, their mental health would likely suffer, and their lives might even be in danger.
Chen Bugu had just decided to form his own team, and it was hard for him to accept these people dying here like this.
Was something overlooked?
Where was the enemy? And how did it drag them into hallucinations?
Chen Bugu walked out of the guardroom, holding a brochure, and looked at the three courtyard buildings not far away.
Hmm?
Chen Bugu seemed to suddenly understand.
He knew who the enemy was!
Chen Bugu returned to the guardroom, took a paper cutter from a drawer, and then quickly ran towards Changde Building.
He didn't rashly enter Changde Building but instead ran a circle around its outer wall.
Sure enough!
On the outer wall of Changde Building, there were also those dense, vine-like plants clinging to the wall.
Chen Bugu grabbed a branch, and the paper cutter in his hand decisively struck down.
"Clang!"
The paper cutter broke into two, while the branch remained completely unharmed.
Not only was it unharmed, but with this strike, the branch even began to twist bizarrely. Its force was so great that Chen Bugu quickly couldn't hold on any longer and had to let go!
At this point, Chen Bugu was basically certain that all the bizarre hallucinations in this hospital were caused by these plants.
Initially, Chen Bugu hadn't considered this, as plant-type demonic beasts were extremely rare; Chen Bugu had only heard of them in his previous life and had never seen one.
But when Chen Bugu compared the brochure found in the guardroom with the actual hospital buildings, he found that the only difference was these strange plants clinging to the outer walls.
Three buildings, everyone fell into a hallucination, so the commonality must be the key to the enemy's invisibility.
These plants clung to the outer and inner walls of every building. Now it seemed clear that they were not ordinary plants but a type of plant-based demonic beast.
There was another point that made Chen Bugu even more confident in his guess.
That was, previously in the Outpatient Building, when he first walked into the first-floor outpatient hall, he didn't seem to fall into a hallucination.
But by the time he searched for the "flashlights" upstairs, he had already fallen into a hallucination.
In between, the only problematic part was when he observed those leaves in the hallway and leaned in to smell them with his nose.
Therefore, this demonic beast most likely relies on "scent" or some invisible medium to drag its prey into a hallucination.
And the plant's weakness was also inadvertently exposed.
Because of the flashlights!
Why would it make Chen Bugu go get those flashlights?
Because when Chen Bugu first observed those plants in the Outpatient Building's hallway, he was using Fireball for illumination.
If he didn't discover those "flashlights," Chen Bugu would have continued to maintain Fireball for illumination, but fire and scorching are precisely what this plant fears.
So, after I approached it while holding a "Fireball," it immediately set up "flashlights" specifically in my hallucination, the purpose being to make me extinguish my "Fireball" myself.
This plant is hard, like metal, capable of Breaking blades.
Therefore, its weakness is already obvious.
"Fireball!"
Chen Bugu silently chanted in his mind, pouring a large amount of spiritual power into the Fireball in his right hand.
The Fireball rapidly grew, stabilizing after reaching the size of a basketball.
The temperature of the flame was rapidly rising, its color changing from yellow to blue from the inner flame, and the surrounding air was also visibly distorted by the heat.
The plants on the outer wall of Changde Building seemed to have all awakened, beginning to twist and move away from Chen Bugu's position.
"Trying to run?"
Chen Bugu lunged forward, directly smashing the Fireball in his right hand towards a cluster of plants not far away.
"Hiss~!"
A strange sound emanated from the cluster of plants.
They all came alive, rapidly withdrawing from the flames before them, quickly fleeing.
Chen Bugu hurriedly gave chase.
He was surprised to find that, in addition to Changde Building, all the plants in Ciyun Building and the Outpatient Building seemed to have come alive!