22: Chapter 22 Lin Shoushan's Medical Record

The moment the elevator doors opened.

A stench like a tidal wave surged in.

Liu Hang was the first who couldn't hold it in; he doubled over and dry-heaved.

The Short-haired Girl also covered her mouth, her face turning pale.

Even someone as thick-skinned as Chen Ye instinctively took half a step back.

"This place..."

"Is this really The Hospital basement?"

No one answered.

Because everything before their eyes looked nothing like The Hospital anymore.

There were no lights on Basement Level 2.

There were only rows of medical record plaques hanging on both sides of the walls.

Each medical record plaque emitted a faint, dark red glow.

Like pairs of open eyes.

The corridor was long.

There was no end in sight.

The ground was damp, covered in a thin layer of black water.

What was reflected in the water wasn't their shadows.

But rather, blurred human faces.

On the medical record plaque closest to the elevator.

It clearly read:

[Lin Shoushan]

[Status: Not Discharged]

Lin Jin stood rooted to the spot.

It was as if he had been nailed there.

His father's name.

It had appeared again.

And it wasn't a log.

It wasn't a prompt.

It was the medical record of The Hospital itself.

Shen Tingxue was the first to notice his abnormality.

"Lin Shoushan, is that your father?"

Lin Jin was silent for two seconds.

"Yeah."

Chen Ye's expression changed as well.

Of course, he knew about Lin Jin's father.

Three years ago.

Lin Shoushan went missing after entering the No. 9 Forbidden Zone.

The official record stated a 99% probability of death.

But now.

His name had appeared on Basement Level 2 of the Abandoned Hospital.

What did this mean?

Lin Jin didn't immediately reach out to touch the medical record plaque.

He had suffered too many losses already.

In The Hospital, no "record" was just ordinary text.

The Hand of Rules slowly unfolded.

[Target: Basement Level 2 Medical Record Plaque]

[Registered Subject: Lin Shoushan]

[Status: Not Discharged]

[Danger Level: Unknown]

[Prompt: This medical record plaque is locked by high-level rules]

[Warning: Forced reading may trigger identity tracing]

Identity tracing?

Lin Jin's eyes darkened slightly.

What he feared most right now were "records" and "identities".

Once tracing was triggered, The Hospital might very well follow Lin Shoushan's medical record and lock him, the son, in as well.

Chen Ye couldn't help but ask:

"Can we look at it?"

Lin Jin shook his head.

"We can't force it."

Liu Hang's voice trembled.

"Then let's just leave it alone for now, right?"

"Ward 105 is still waiting for the materials."

"This place is so sinister, let's not complicate things."

This was actually correct.

Their goal for coming to Basement Level 2 was to find something to replace the Isolation Anchor.

Not to investigate Lin Shoushan.

But Lin Jin's gaze never left that medical record plaque.

He had been looking for his father for three years.

Everyone told him that Lin Shoushan was dead.

But now, this instance told him:

Not Discharged.

These three words were more terrifying than "death".

Because it meant that Lin Shoushan might have been admitted to The Hospital before.

And might even still be connected to The Hospital's rules.

Shen Tingxue said in a low voice:

"Remember the location for now."

"Mission first."

Lin Jin closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, his eyes were calm once more.

"Yeah."

"Let's fix Ward 105 first."

This wasn't giving up.

It was that he knew very well he wasn't qualified to forcefully confront the core of Basement Level 2 yet.

He had to get out alive.

Only then could he continue to investigate.

Just then.

A broadcast sound suddenly came from behind the elevator doors.

[Night Shift Maintenance Worker has arrived at Basement Level 2.]

[Please retrieve the isolation supplies within ten minutes.]

[After the time limit, Ward 105 will enter the Dean's cleaning process.]

Chen Ye's expression darkened.

"Ten minutes?"

"We can't even see the path in this damn place, where are we supposed to find the items?"

Lin Jin looked into the depths of the corridor.

The Hand of Rules was trying to generate a map.

But the Basement Level 2 area was extremely chaotic.

The map in his mind was like contaminated paper, with large patches turning black.

Only three locations were barely visible.

[Waste Recovery Room]

[Special Patient Containment Area]

[Old Operating Room]

They needed an Isolation Anchor or a Contamination Suppression Spike.

According to what the Head Nurse said earlier, the original Isolation Anchor was in the Basement Level 2 Waste Recovery Room.

"To the left."

Lin Jin said.

"The Waste Recovery Room is on the left."

Chen Ye immediately raised his shield and walked to the front.

"I'll clear the path."

Shen Tingxue didn't push to the front.

She stood behind and to the right of Lin Jin; after the Ice Phoenix Core was repaired, her aura had stabilized significantly.

But the frost on her palms still carried a faint grey tint.

The contamination hadn't completely disappeared.

It was just temporarily suppressed.

Lin Jin noticed, but didn't say anything.

Now was not the time to deal with it.

The group walked along the Basement Level 2 corridor to the left.

With every step they took.

Ripples would spread through the black water beneath their feet.

The human faces in the water would turn along with them.

As if looking at them from below.

The Short-haired Girl tried hard not to look at the ground, but after walking a few steps, she suddenly stopped.

"Wait..."

"I think I heard someone calling me."

Everyone stopped instantly.

Lin Jin said in a low voice:

"Don't respond."

Rule number one of Basement Level 2.

Do not believe anything a patient says.

Rule number four.

It is forbidden to answer "Have you seen my face?".

You must never answer the voices here.

But the Short-haired Girl's face was turning paler and paler.

"It's my mom's voice..."

"She's crying..."

Chen Ye gritted his teeth:

"It's fake."

"How could your mom be in this ghost of a place?"

The Short-haired Girl was trembling all over.

"But she is really calling my name."

The next second.

A woman's face suddenly emerged from the black water.

That face pressed against the surface of the water, eyes filled with tears, mouth opening and closing.

"Tingting."

"Mom is here."

"Have you seen Mom's face?"

The air became deathly silent instantly.

The Short-haired Girl's pupils dilated.

She almost opened her mouth instinctively.

Lin Jin stepped forward and directly covered her mouth.

At the same time.

The Hand of Rules popped up a blood-red warning.

[Basement Level 2 'Face-Asking' rule detected]

[Question triggered]

[If the target answers, they will be dragged into the water medical record]

As expected.

This wasn't a hallucination.

It was a rule trap.

The woman's face in the black water slowly turned toward Lin Jin.

Those tear-filled eyes suddenly turned venomous.

"Have you seen..."

Lin Jin directly raised his foot.

And stomped on the reflection in the water, shattering it.

"Didn't see it."

The water surface exploded.

The woman's face twisted instantly, letting out a sharp, miserable scream.

But Lin Jin didn't stop.

He dragged the Short-haired Girl backward.

"Everyone, don't look at the water."

"This place uses the voices of people you know to lure you into answering."

The Short-haired Girl was in tears.

"Th...thank you."

Lin Jin didn't speak.

He just looked ahead.

With this delay, another half minute of time was lost.

They continued forward.

But Basement Level 2 clearly didn't want them to reach the Recycling Room easily.

The medical record plaques on both sides of the corridor began to light up one by one.

[Zhang Qiming, Not Discharged]

[Song Lan, Not Discharged]

[Chen Guang, Not Discharged]

Every time a name lit up, a footstep would sound from the depths of the corridor.

As if countless patients were waking up.

Liu Hang's voice trembled.

"Are they all alive?"

Lin Jin glanced at the medical record plaque.

"In The Hospital's records, they are alive."

Chen Ye understood.

"What about in reality?"

No one answered.

Because the answer was too obvious.

These people had probably died long ago.

It's just that their "medical records" hadn't been discharged yet.

So, within the rules, they remained on Basement Level 2 forever.

At the end of the corridor.

An iron door finally appeared.

A rusty sign hung on the door.

[Waste Recovery Room]

The group just breathed a sigh of relief.

But Lin Jin suddenly raised his hand.

"Stop."

Because on that iron door.

The light was actually on.

The small red light next to the door sign was blinking.

Rule number two of Basement Level 2:

Do not enter a lit ward.

The Waste Recovery Room is not a ward.

But in the perspective of the Hand of Rules.

The prompt had already appeared.

[Target: Waste Recovery Room]

[Current Status: Lit]

[Rule Camouflage: Ward-ification]

[Entry Risk: High]

Chen Ye cursed in a low voice:

"This counts as a ward too?"

Lin Jin's expression sank.

"It wants to turn the Waste Recovery Room into a ward."

"As long as we enter in the normal way, we will trigger the rule."

Liu Hang was on the verge of a breakdown.

"Then what do we do?"

"The items are inside, but we can't go in."

Lin Jin stared at the iron door.

From the crack in the door, a faint sound of things rubbing could be heard.

Like many metal objects being dragged on the floor.

He looked down at the door lock.

The Hand of Rules unfolded.

[Target: Recycling Room Door Lock]

[Current Fault: Covered by Ward Rule]

[Repair Plan: Cut off the 'lit' judgment, restore logistics area attributes]

[Success Rate: 76%]

Lin Jin slowly raised his wrench.

"Who said we were going in?"

"First, let's repair it from a ward back into a storage room."

Chen Ye was stunned for a moment.

Then he grinned.

"Got it."

"Same old rules."

"You fix the door, we'll block the ghosts."

The moment Lin Jin crouched down.

Deep in the corridor.

All the lit medical record plaques.

Simultaneously made a "click" sound.

As if something.

Had walked out of the plaques.

Then.

Hoarse voices overlapped and rang out in the darkness.

"Doctor..."

"Have you seen my face?"