Hell’s Handbook - Chapter 300:
300: Unexpected
Chu Yi took one look at the plant in Wu Chen’s hands and grabbed it without hesitation. That was the one that Wu Chen said would make one groggy. He chewed it a few times, then swallowed it. He immediately started feeling dizzy, as though he were drunk. He could see the monster nurses walking toward him, but he couldn’t find the will to run away from them.
Thankfully, the nurses just stared at him for a few minutes, then walked away, as though they had concluded that both Chu Yi and Wu Chen had already taken the medicine.
About ten minutes later, Chu Yi and Wu Chen regained normalcy. Chu Yi clutched his head in pain. He could think properly now, but his head hurt terribly. This was even worse than a hangover.
“Uncle Wu, this stuff… is really strong,” Chu Yi complained to Wu Chen.
But Wu Chen was also clutching his own head while leaning weakly against the wall. “It’s a bit too strong… damn it, my head feels like it’s about to explode.”
The two of them rested for a while and their heads didn’t hurt that much anymore. They now had the energy to discuss how to get out of here. Fighting their way out of here was not going to work, since these nurses were so formidable. Even if they had the same powers as before, they weren’t confident that they could fight their way out either.
“If only Boss were here. He’s the one who would tackle all these intellectual problems.” Chu Yi really missed Su Jin now.
“When you’ve got someone to rely on, rely on that person. But when there’s nobody to rely on, you’ve got to rely on yourself. If you don’t think of a way out yourself, then what are you going to do?” Wu Chen glared at Chu Yi, then whispered, “I’ve gone through dozens of Challenges and survived, and I didn’t just get lucky, okay? I don’t think this Island of Mistakes is going to be enough to kill me.”
“Wow, you sound like you’re really reliable. I’ll be counting on you then! But I think you’d better not speak too confidently, in case you have to eat your words later…” said Chu Yi even as he gave Wu Chen an encouraging thumbs up.
Wu Chen slapped his forehead. Of all the people to run into, he had to work with the least reliable member of the team.
“What do we do now?” asked Chu Yi.
Wu Chen paused to think, then said, “This place is simply too creepy. The patients here are clearly residents of the island, and many of them are formidable characters. A few monster nurses can’t possibly hold all of them down. There must be someone even more powerful keeping them in check.
“So… let’s make a little chaos!” Wu Chen’s eyes lit up. It was too hard to run out of the door just like that, so they had to create a mess and sneak out through the mess.
“You’re hoping to get away in the mess?” Chu Yi wasn’t stupid and immediately understood what Wu Chen was trying to do.
Wu Chen nodded. Chu Yi said, “But how do we do that?”
“Just like I told you earlier, I’m a master of potions! Potion ingredients don’t just refer to plants – parts of various monsters can be used to make potions too,” said Wu Chen with a smug smile.
He looked at the monsters in the ward. Some of them would definitely be considered a game boss in a Challenge, and it was very hard to get their body parts. You might not get your hands on them from anyone in Hell’s Bar even if you had the money. But now… they were all in a defenseless daze, so he could take whatever parts he wanted easily.
Wu Chen instructed Chu Yi to start searching for the parts he needed. He needed the fangs of vampires, the claws of werewolves, the wings of demonic bugs, the bandages of mummies and so on… Before this, Wu Chen never even got the chance to get hold of these ingredients. But now, he could just take whatever he wanted.
After gathering a whole pile of stuff, Wu Chen’s eyes shone as bright as the stars. He rubbed his palms greedily and said, “I can finally let my amazing potion skills shine! Chu Yi, watch the door for me. Don’t let those monster nurses disturb my potion making.”
“Got it.” Chu Yi gave Wu Chen a thumbs up.
Wu Chen got really excited. The Handbook had prevented the owners from accessing their additional skills, weapons, and other tools, but there were some skills that it could not take away from the owners. Potion making was like chemistry in the real world. As long as the things on this island worked the same way as everything else in the Handbook’s universe, then he was going to get something out of these ingredients.
He used blood to draw a magic circle, then placed the ingredients inside in a particular order. Potion making did not require the maker to have any special powers. The powers came from the ingredients themselves.
The magic circle glimmered faintly for a few seconds before fading. A few pills the size of green beans were left behind in the magic circle.
“I got it!” Wu Chen became even more excited. He didn’t think that things would go so smoothly. He didn’t stop there and continued turning the rest of the ingredients into the magic pills he wanted.
After more than an hour, Wu Chen had finally finished turning all the ingredients into pills. He sorted the hundreds of pills into different bags.
“Chu Yi, come over here!” He called Chu Yi over, then passed him a few bags, saying, “Remember which is which carefully. There are three types of pills here. One is a super strength pill, one is a void pill, and the last one is a berserk pill. Super strength pills can increase one’s strength greatly, void pills can help us to temporarily enter a different dimension, and the berserk pills make one go crazy.”
“They’re all for me?” asked Chu Yi.
“The void pill is for you. The berserk pills and super strength pills are meant for the monsters in the ward. When they start going crazy, we’ll take the void pills and seize the chance to run for it, understand?” explained Wu Chen patiently.
Chu Yi’s eyes lit up and he said admiringly, “Gosh, I was right to rely on you! But if we have void pills, then why do we have to escape in the chaos? Why can’t we just walk right out?”
“If I could do that, I would have! But the effect of these void pills can only last 30 seconds and I’m only able to make two of them. That’s not enough for us to just saunter out! So, we still have to create a ruckus here,” said Wu Chen.
“Got it!” Chu Yi nodded. He then followed Wu Chen’s instructions to stuff the berserk pills and super strength pills into the mouths of the monsters, then hid in a corner to wait for the pills to take effect. It was better to be careful, since a punch from any of these monsters after they had gone berserk could send them flying through the clouds.
A few minutes later, the pills started taking effect. The dazed monsters suddenly started becoming restless and some of them started attacking the door. The monster nurses clearly took notice and they opened the door with the intention of reverting these monsters to their previous groggy state.
But to their surprise, not just one monster was being violent. The entire ward had gone insane. And just like what Wu Chen guessed earlier, these monster nurses weren’t able to take on so many monsters at a time, so they were torn to shreds almost immediately.
The monsters dashed out of the ward and Wu Chen motioned to Chu Yi to follow them. As they trailed behind the monsters and left the ward, they realized that this ward was only a very small one in the entire hospital. There were dozens of similar wards and all of them housed a group of equally formidable monsters.
“Oh my god! Who in the world built this hospital? These monsters… if they combined forces, they’d be powerful enough to kill a deity, I think!” remarked Wu Chen in shock. Some of the monsters he spotted were some of his greatest nightmares. He had run into them during Challenges, and they had been so powerful back then. But now, they were all trapped inside a small room like a pet of sorts.
“Uncle Wu? I think… I’ve got the answer to your question.” Chu Yi tugged on Wu Chen’s sleeve as he stared in disbelief at the entrance of the hospital. A clown in a straitjacket was grinning menacingly at the monsters trying to flee.
“Damn it,” Wu Chen cursed under his breath. Even though he and Chu Yi had noticed that the clothes on the monsters here were similar to the clown, they didn’t think that the clown was the owner of this place.
The clown strolled further into the hospital. The monsters had gone berserk, but even then, they were still terrified of the clown. They moved backward and didn’t dare to fight the clown.
“What a troublesome bunch.” The clown shook his head with displeasure and flicked his finger gently at one of them. That monster instantly exploded, leaving flesh and blood everywhere.
Wu Chen and Chu Yi shuddered at the sight. The hope they had earlier turned into despair.
“Chu Yi, take this.” Wu Chen stuffed a pill into Chu Yi’s hands. “This is my void pill. Taking two pills will increase the effect’s duration to one minute, which will be enough for you to escape.”
“What about you?” asked Chu Yi.
Wu Chen shook his head. “You go first. At most, I’ll just return to the ward. I’ve got an infinite amount of ingredients here, so I can always just take some time to make more pills. I’ll be fine.”
His words made sense to Chu Yi, so he patted Wu Chen’s shoulder and said, “I’ll wait for you outside!”
“Got it.” Wu Chen gave Chu Yi a thumbs up, just like how Chu Yi always did. Meanwhile, the clown was slowly walking in their direction. Wu Chen said to Chu Yi, “Leave now!”
Chu Yi immediately consumed one void pill. His body shook violently and disappeared, as though had been transported to a different dimension.
He carefully avoided the clown and walked toward the entrance of the hospital. The clown did not notice his existence and continued slaying the monsters.
When Chu Yi was about to reach the entrance, he saw that the clown had killed all the monsters that had run out from the ward. Wu Chen was the only one left.
Why didn’t he return to the ward? Chu Yi was surprised. But when he looked carefully, he realized that the door to the ward had been shut fast. Wu Chen couldn’t go back in at all.
The clown looked at Wu Chen and smiled. “I remember you. You’re a member of Team Boning Knife!”
“Haha… since we know each other, do you think we could…”
BOOM! Before Wu Chen could finish his sentence, the clown flicked a finger at him. Wu Chen exploded and his blood and flesh flew everywhere.
Chu Yi couldn’t believe his eyes. He couldn’t believe that the confident Wu Chen had died… just like that.