Infinite: Dawn Game

Second floor of the Aide Sanatorium.

The dean stood by the window, watching the rainwater trickling down the glass. As he adjusted his glasses, he couldn't help but think of what he had just witnessed.

The image of a thin boy and a sickly little girl sitting on a stone bench sharing a box of desserts is a very warm and gentle scene.

Xuexue was a child who never liked to talk to others. Due to her heart condition, she was unable to exercise or eat overly stimulating foods. This was true in life, and it was even more so after her death.

Xue Yan's obsession was too deep, trapping not only herself but also Xuexue.

The dean looked at the now empty courtyard and sighed.

He slowly turned around, and the intact skin on his face began to crack in an instant, with all sorts of knife-like wounds bursting open and bleeding, turning him into a blood-soaked figure almost instantly.

"Boom boom boom——"

When the knocking sounded, the dean seemed to be stunned for a moment, then slowly returned to normal, and the bloodstains on his body disappeared completely in an instant.

"Come in."

The door was pushed open, followed by the "clack-clack-clack" sound of high heels.

The dean turned around instantly, but the joy that had just appeared on his face froze instantly.

The person who came in was Nurse Lin. She looked very angry. Her tongue was sticking out uncontrollably from the crack on her cheek, and foul-smelling saliva was dripping down with it. So even though she was wearing a full face of makeup, she still looked disgustingly ugly.

"Dean!"

Head Nurse Lin handed the medical record to the hospital director, her tone sharp:

"What's so good about Xue Yan? She clearly doesn't know anything. Look at this time, she prescribed the wrong medicine for the patient. If I hadn't seen it, someone would have died!"

The hospital director wasn't in a hurry. He stood there listening to Nurse Lin finish speaking before smiling and saying:

"is it?"

Nurse Lin looked at him, a fleeting hint of shyness in her eyes:

"Dean, if you ask me, Xue Yan is not fit to be the head nurse. What could an illiterate woman who has never had a proper education possibly know? This is a life-or-death job—"

"Nurse Lin."

The dean interrupted Nurse Lin's relentless belittling with a stiff smile.

"I don't want to push things too far. I know perfectly well whether Xue Yan put the medicine in the wrong place or whether someone was playing with the patient's health to frame him."

Nurse Lin's face turned pale instantly, and the shyness in her eyes vanished. She trembled as she tried to open her mouth to explain, but could only delay with repeated "I".

The dean looked at the scarlet tongue on her cheek, limp and lifeless, and a flash of disgust crossed his eyes.

"Let's go."

The smile on the dean's face vanished, replaced by a coldness that was hard to fathom.

"I don't want to take action."

Upon hearing this, Nurse Lin's expression changed drastically, and the tongue on her cheek began to tremble wildly, twisting and turning chaotically as its owner ran out in high heels.

After Nurse Lin left, the indifference on the dean's face gradually disappeared. He looked at the wide-open door and walked over to close it when he keenly sensed someone nearby.

"Hello," the boy leaning against the door smiled brightly, extending his hand to the dean who was turning his head to look at him, his tone cheerful:

"Dean."

The dean's expression changed drastically. He realized that Yu Shijiu had overheard his conversation with Nurse Lin, and for a moment, he felt a murderous urge.

But when the dean's gaze fell on the teddy bear in Yu Shijiu's hand, he hesitated.

If Yu Shijiu dies, Xuexue, who finally made a friend, will be very sad.

Thinking of this, the dean reached out and grasped the boy's hand, his tone gentle:

"Hello."

"Won't you invite me to come in and sit down?"

Yu Shijiu asked.

The dean withdrew his hand. "Of course."

After the two entered the dean's office, the dean, who was walking behind, reached out to close the door, his gaze lingering for a few seconds on the busy figure deep in the corridor.

"Are you looking at Nurse Xue Yan?"

Yu Shijiu walked to the sofa and sat down. He picked up the news on the coffee table and looked at it with great interest, without turning his head.

The dean paused in his move to fetch water, then chuckled, making no attempt to hide it:

"Yes."

Yu Shijiu didn't respond this time. He looked down at the newspaper in his hand, his gaze lingering on a small section at the bottom of the newspaper for more than ten seconds.

The article on that section was about a private nursing home that was forced to close down because a patient nearly died from shock due to medication misconduct.

Adding to the conversation she overheard outside the door, Yu Shijiu found it hard not to connect the two events.

A closed-down nursing home, a head nurse who deliberately swaps medications out of jealousy to highlight her own professional competence... it really does seem quite plausible.

In the game, there are never any inexplicable similar clues.

Yu Shijiu trusted his intuition and believed that the dean had poured the tea too much and spilled it.

The dean seemed perfectly normal. He was completely different from the bizarre nurses, doctors, and even the cafeteria staff outside. He was gentle, polite, and handsome. Apart from looking a little older, he was a very nice person.

Yes, people.

If Yu Shijiu was only suspicious at first, he is now certain that the monsters in these games were not born monsters.

Before they were alienated, they were once human.

I just don't know what happened to it that turned it into a monster.

What exactly is Dawn Game?

For the first time, Yu Shijiu felt a strong sense of curiosity. He asked Xiao Li in his mind, but only received a series of silent static sounds.

Xiao Li was clearly trying to fool him: "You'll see once you get a million points!"

Yu Shijiu scoffed at this: "That would only work if I lived that long."

Xiao Li: [...]

What can I say if you put it that way? May you ascend to paradise soon?

"Xue Yan is actually a rather simple person,"

The dean placed a cup of tea, almost overflowing, in front of Yu Shijiu, and gently adjusted his glasses.

"She might be sharp-tongued, but she's actually soft-hearted,"

As if he had thought of something, a smile appeared on the dean's face.

"is it?"

Yu Shijiu picked up the tea in front of him, took a sip, and squinted as he said:

"I can't see it."

Whether it was the first time he met Xue Yan or Xue Yan, who practically wanted to lift his eyelids open during her nightly rounds, he showed no signs of being soft-hearted or naive.

Yu Shijiu had reason to suspect that this was the dean's own delusion.

Sure enough, the dean remained silent for a few seconds, then shook his head:

"no,"

The dean said, "It's only after her death that Xue Yan's dedication to her work has been amplified to an extreme degree."

Xue Yan is an ordinary woman who wants to work hard, study diligently, and earn money to cure her daughter's heart disease.

Because of the dean, she became the person she had always dreamed of being, so work became one of her top desires.

This is the real Xue Yan.