Chapter 7: Level Four Fortress—Edge Moon Falls

The Twin Flowers seemed to have given up on life. She lay on the hospital bed like a salted fish, staring blankly at the ceiling with the look of someone who had been utterly broken and had lost all desire to live.

"What an interesting kid," Li Guanqi remarked, unable to hold back a chuckle. The intensity of his dueling passion slowly dissipated.

As his reason regained the high ground, he recalled his over-the-top, "chunibyo" declarations from moments ago, and his old face flushed with embarrassment.

"The Devil's Grudge," "The equation for victory has already been written"—the duel had been a great experience and provided full emotional satisfaction, but it was certainly hard on his throat and his dignity.

Once he calmed down, he began to notice things beyond the duel.

For instance, why was it so quiet?

He glanced toward the door, a flicker of doubt rising in his heart.

Logically speaking, with how loudly he and the Twin Flowers had been shouting during their duel, the medical staff should have swarmed the room long ago. Yet, the corridor was deathly silent, not a sound to be heard.

This was a downtown city hospital; how could it be this quiet? Where had everyone gone?

Li Guanqi stood up, walked to the door, and peered out through the glass. The corridor was empty, save for a few dim, flickering lights. He looked around. The facilities in Ward 505 were ancient, with damaged doors and windows. It felt less like a hospital room and more like a haunted house where someone had died. Even stranger, the computer in the room could actually run YGO.

That was highly unlikely in a strictly managed hospital.

He frowned, a strong sense of unease welling up inside him. He had a faint, creeping feeling that everything had been orchestrated.

Li Guanqi turned to the Twin Flowers on the bed and asked softly, "Did a doctor bring you to 505, or did you break in yourself?"

The Twin Flowers flinched visibly, her movements becoming stiff. She slowly rolled over, sat up obediently, and stammered, "I... I broke in myself."

"Broke in yourself," Li Guanqi nodded unconsciously, his expression turning grave. "Where are you from?"

"I am from Bian..." The moment the Twin Flowers started, her eyes suddenly widened, as if she had seen something terrifying. Her pupils focused on the space directly behind Li Guanqi.

Li Guanqi spun around, but there was nothing there. The half-open iron door swayed in the breeze, creaking as if a ghost had just drifted in.

"I am from..." The Twin Flowers paused, then said, "the Bianyuelong Fourth-Level Fortress."

"Fourth-Level Fortress?" Li Guanqi frowned, puzzled. She had clearly let the word "Bian" slip, likely intending to say "Bianyuelong." Why change it and add "Fourth-Level Fortress"? And what did that even mean? "Bianyuelong" sounded vaguely familiar; perhaps it was a village name in some remote mountain area.

"A fourth-level fortress is just a fourth-level fortress!" The Twin Flowers waved her hands in a panic, desperate to explain but unable to find the words.

Li Guanqi skipped the question and took out his phone to search for "Bianyuelong." A few results actually popped up.

They were all posts from several months ago regarding Master Duel. Someone had complained about encountering "ghosts"; after dueling these ghosts, there were no records and no rewards. All the ghosts shared a unified trait: their ID prefix was "Bianyuelong." The screenshots in the posts showed names like "Bianyuelong-Yucheng Biner" and "Bianyuelong-Jiang Shu."

"Gh... ghosts?!" Li Guanqi’s body shuddered, and he couldn't help but gulp.

He turned to the Twin Flowers, asking with a sense of abstract confusion, "You say you... come from Bianyuelong?"

The Twin Flowers snapped back to reality and corrected him, "It is the Fourth-Level Fortress—Bianyuelong." She seemed very particular about the prefix, emphasizing it twice.

Li Guanqi’s brow was furrowed in deep thought. She had acted perfectly normal during the duel. It wasn't that he hadn't met people with mental disabilities; on the contrary, he had seen many. Such individuals usually suffered from severe depression and had difficulty with logic and comprehension. But the girl in the red dress before him was logical and articulate. She had a touch of delusions, but her ability to play Yu-Gi-Oh made her seem almost normal. In a circle filled with traps, dragons, "waifu" cards, shadow games, and exaggerated facial expressions, having a few delusions was practically standard.

Li Guanqi had been diagnosing her as a rebellious heiress who ran away from home.

Until the look in her eyes just now.

That was the dull, vacant stare of someone suffering from a mental breakdown or hallucinations—it was very hard to fake. She had seen something. He hadn't. Was she fantasizing that she came from a land of ghosts? Or was "Bianyuelong" just a team of chunibyo kids collectively acting out? He had seen eccentric people before, but never one who came with their own lore and team.

Li Guanqi picked up the medical chart, regained his composure and professional gravity, and asked, "Where is your family?"

The Twin Flowers shook her head. "I have no family."

"Surely you have a teacher?"

"My teacher is a cat."

"..." Li Guanqi’s expression darkened. "A guardian, then. Who raised you?"

"White Old Demon," the Twin Flowers said softly.

"As long as you have a guardian," Li Guanqi breathed a sigh of relief. "What is this White Old Demon's name? Do you have his contact information?"

"I cannot say his name," the Twin Flowers turned away. "As for contact info... he ran off with Ms. Blue. We can't reach him."

The trail had gone cold again. Li Guanqi sighed deeply and gave up. He felt a headache coming on; he truly couldn't handle this patient. He tried to use a gentle tone. "I'm going to find someone for you, so don't wander off."

"No!" The moment she heard this, the Twin Flowers lunged at him like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. She gripped his arm so tightly her nails dug into his skin. The strength was astonishing, as if she were a drowning person clutching the last straw. All her previous venting, twitching, and irritability vanished into thin air. At this moment, she was just a lonely girl lost in a strange city, her eyes filled with helplessness and pleading.

"Don't leave me..." she murmured, her voice laced with a sob.

"I'm not abandoning you," Li Guanqi sighed, patiently explaining, "I'm an intern. I don't have the authority to treat you on my own. I'm going to help you contact a physician who can provide more professional advice..."

"I don't want that!" The Twin Flowers interrupted loudly, her emotions spiraling. "I only want you!"

"I..." She looked around, her eyes full of anxiety and unease, her voice beginning to tremble. "Here... you are the only one I know. Don't go... don't abandon me again..."

She gripped his sleeve tightly, begging like a child, terrified that he would disappear in the next second.

Li Guanqi froze, his gaze fixed on her. He finally understood her "illness."

She wasn't crazy. She was just lost. And she had mistaken him for her only family.

A complex, indescribable feeling surged in Li Guanqi’s heart. As an intern, he wouldn't say he was used to life and death, but this wasn't the first time he had seen such pleading eyes. It was just that, in the past, those gazes had nothing to do with him; he was merely a bystander taking notes.

Now, a girl needed him. She didn't want a licensed doctor, a director, or a nurse. She only wanted him, Li Guanqi. This strange patient-doctor dynamic stemmed solely from the fact that he was a duelist—her only "family."

"Family..." Li Guanqi whispered the word to himself, wondering what he was thinking.

He, too, had no family.