32: Chapter 32 Continental Carnival

Chen Moxuan was filled with curiosity, his eyes scanning the scene before him.

He had only seen mental institutions in movies and TV shows. Now, finding himself in one, he couldn't help but wonder if this world's mental hospital matched his preconceived notions.

It was a vast, spacious hall. By the light from the doorway, he could see a single bed placed every two meters. A rough estimate put the number at over thirty.

The entire hall was eerily quiet. The people on the beds all seemed to be sound asleep. If not for the faint sound of breathing, Chen Moxuan would have suspected it was a morgue.

Chen Moxuan turned and looked at the man who had led him in. Judging by his attire, he seemed to be a male nurse.

"Stop looking. Your bed is over there," the male nurse said in a low voice.

He gestured for Chen Moxuan to go over. Once Chen Moxuan was lying flat on the bed, the nurse began fastening the restraint straps on the bed, securing Chen Moxuan's hands and feet one by one.

"You're tying me up?"

"Rules are rules. Anyone with violent tendencies gets restrained," the male nurse explained.

"What if I need to use the bathroom?"

"There's a button by the side of the bed."

As soon as the nurse finished speaking, the button emitted a soft *beep*. At the same time, something in his pocket seemed to start vibrating.

"You need to go already?" the male nurse asked, puzzled.

"No, I just wanted to see if it worked."

"..." The male nurse was clearly growing impatient, his movements with the restraints becoming faster.

"When can I leave?" Chen Moxuan threw out another question.

"You'll have to ask your attending physician that."

The male nurse had finished the restraints. As if he couldn't stand to stay a second longer, he turned and hurriedly made to leave.

"Wait!" Chen Moxuan quickly called out.

"What now?" The male nurse only turned half his face, his tone full of annoyance.

"Don't I need to change clothes?"

"Are you crazy?!" the male nurse couldn't help but snap angrily.

With a heavy *clang*, the thick alloy door slammed shut, plunging the room into dead silence.

Without the fluorescent light from outside the door, the only illumination was the faint light filtering through the security window. In the distance, there was only endless darkness.

"So, what should I do next?"

Lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, Chen Moxuan pondered.

He had followed the advice of the girl named Song Xin, offering no resistance along the way, and had ultimately been brought to this ward.

If Song Xin hadn't tricked him, then his arrival here was likely within her expectations.

"The Madman Society... Could it be that everyone in this organization is mentally ill?" This thought flashed through Chen Moxuan's mind.

Chen Moxuan felt lying there speculating was pointless. He decided to get up and explore the room.

The restraint straps on the bed were more than enough to bind an ordinary person, but Chen Moxuan practiced martial arts, and his strength far exceeded that of a normal person.

He simply tensed his abdomen slightly, and with the powerful core strength from his training, he abruptly sat up. The restraint straps were easily torn apart.

Chen Moxuan got off the bed and walked slowly toward the depths of the room.

Although the room was pitch black, relying on the sensory enhancement brought by his first realm, sixth stage martial arts cultivation, he could barely make out the path ahead.

Almost every bed here had a patient lying on it. The sound of snoring rose and fell, all seeming to sleep soundly.

"Strange, is everyone asleep at this hour?"

From the time Chen Moxuan took the helicopter here, it had only taken half an hour at most.

It should only be around 4 PM, yet all the patients in the ward were fast asleep. It was indeed quite suspicious.

Suppressing his confusion, Chen Moxuan continued walking slowly inward. Suddenly, he felt his foot kick something.

He bent down and groped around, feeling a rectangular object in his hand.

Chen Moxuan took it to the iron window and, by the faint light filtering through, finally saw what it was.

"A remote? Could there be a TV here?"

Thinking this, Chen Moxuan pressed the remote's power button several times in different directions.

Instantly, a light source lit up to his left front, illuminating the surroundings. It was indeed a television.

The TV was currently tuned to a news channel:

"This afternoon at 3:20 PM, a tragic incident occurred at C City's Third Middle School."

"A Monster with a B-level threat rating had secretly infiltrated Class 2, Grade 3 of the Third Middle School."

"After detecting the Monster's traces and identity, the Hero Association quickly and discreetly evacuated students from other classes and immediately dispatched the A-Rank Hero, Wan Chaoren, to the scene to carry out the mission of exterminating the Monster."

"Unfortunately, the Monster became alert before the operation. Knowing escape was difficult, the Monster, in a fit of madness, launched a retaliatory attack, brutally slaughtering the students of Class 2, Grade 3."

"In the end, Wan Chaoren arrived in time and successfully killed the Monster. However, it is heartbreaking to report that only one student from Class 2, Grade 3 survived."

"It is reported that this survivor likely suffered severe psychological trauma and is currently undergoing mental contamination treatment..."

Listening to the news report, Chen Moxuan understood why, back then on the same floor, all the classes except theirs had suddenly been switched to physical education.

Ironically, his confusion at the time had been brushed off by Teacher Ma with, 'Their PE teacher was sick too many times before, and you guys haven't missed a single PE class.'

"Next, another news report."

After finishing the report on the Third Middle School incident, the anchor continued, facing the camera for the next piece of news:

"There are only five days left until the preliminaries for the 99th Continental Carnival. Regarding the content of this year's carnival, citizens across the nation are enthusiastically participating in online voting, with unprecedented fervor..."

Hearing this, Chen Moxuan felt a wave of disgust. He lightly pressed the remote, and the TV screen instantly went black, plunging the surroundings back into silence.

"I almost forgot about this perverse thing."

The so-called 'Continental Carnival' was a proposal passed ninety-nine years ago by the Superpower Association, the organization that held actual power in the Dazhou Nation.

The proposal claimed it was to reduce the growing negative emotions among the populace.

Every year, one city was randomly selected from the Dazhou Nation's millions of cities to host a three-day-and-night carnival, broadcast live in its entirety.

The carnival's activities were chosen by popular vote from the general public. They were varied, but most were designed to vent humanity's darker sides, It can be called entertainment to the death.

For example, one of the activities was called 'Lawless'.

The content of this activity was to strip the selected city of all legal constraints. Within that city, no action was considered illegal.

At the same time, criminals from the city's various prisons would be released, along with sinners imprisoned for offending Transcendents, and mentally ill patients with severe mental contamination.

Under these circumstances, the selected city would often experience a three-day-long massacre. After the event concluded, the city was practically destroyed.

To this day, Chen Moxuan couldn't understand how such an absurd proposal could have passed. He could only attribute it to the perverse tastes of this nation's Transcendents.

Even though the TV had been loud just moments before, everyone continued to sleep soundly.

Chen Moxuan had explored the room to its end and found nothing unusual for now. So, he felt his way back to his own bed in the dark.

"Idle hands... Might as well test the effects of this qi and blood agent."

The people here hadn't searched him nor made him change clothes.

The two vials of qi and blood agent he had brought from the Martial Arts World were still safely tucked in the inner pocket of his clothes.