24: Chapter 24 Discarded Faces in the Recycling Room

Click.

The fifth anchor nail flew off.

The iron door of the Recycling Room shook violently.

The small scarlet light next to the doorplate flickered faster and faster.

The red light shone on Lin Jin's face, making his expression look somewhat cold.

[ Maintenance Progress: 57% ]

[ Wardification Rules are being stripped away ]

[ Current Resistance: Face-Asking Rule interference ]

[ Warning: Basement Level 2 medical record plates are continuously waking up ]

Lin Jin did not look up.

Because he knew.

The one thing he couldn't afford to do right now was get distracted.

The more chaotic the rules in a place, the less one should be led by the surrounding sounds.

The voices of the Faceless Patients continued to echo in the corridor.

"Doctor..."

"Have you seen my face?"

"Doctor..."

"Is my face with you?"

One sentence after another.

Drilled into his ears like needles.

And Liu Hang's situation was dire.

Half of his face had already blurred.

The bridge of his nose had disappeared, and his mouth was reduced to a shallow slit.

His eyes looked like they had been smeared by something; the whites and pupils were beginning to blur into a mass.

He knelt in the black water, covering his face tightly with both hands, emitting suppressed whimpers.

"I have a face..."

"I have a face..."

"I haven't lost it..."

"My face is still here..."

Lin Jin's words from just now had worked.

Liu Hang had not continued to admit that "he was losing his face."

Therefore, the Face-Asking Rule had not been fully completed.

But this could only delay it.

It was not a solution.

Chen Ye stood in front of Liu Hang, his shield pressed firmly against the Faceless Patients at the very front.

Those patients were not truly attacking.

They were just pushing forward, step by step.

With every bit they got closer, the features on Liu Hang's face faded a little more.

Veins bulged on Chen Ye's forehead.

"Brother Jin!"

"He can't hold on much longer!"

"I know."

Lin Jin's voice was very low.

His right hand twisted the wrench, while his left hand pressed against the black text constantly writhing inside the door lock.

Those characters bit his fingers like living worms.

Every time they bit, the contamination markings on the back of his hand burned.

[ Contamination Erosion: 33% ]

[ Note: You are in contact with Basement Level 2 rule residue ]

[ Identity record deepening ]

Lin Jin gritted his teeth.

He couldn't worry about that now.

The Recycling Room must be opened.

Ward 105 must be resealed.

Liu Hang must also be saved.

If someone died here because of a mistake, the team's morale would completely collapse.

By then, without The Hospital needing to do anything, they would fall into chaos themselves.

Shen Tingxue stood beside Lin Jin.

She did not blindly release large-scale frost.

After being suppressed by the contamination on her core class ability earlier, she was clearly more cautious.

At this moment, she only maintained a thin line of ice, spreading it along the ground toward the feet of the Faceless Patients.

The ice line did not attack.

It only slowed their approach speed.

"They have no body temperature."

Shen Tingxue observed the Faceless Patients.

"The freezing effect is very weak."

"They seem to be drawn here by some kind of record, not physical entities."

Lin Jin did not look back.

"Then don't freeze them."

"Freeze the water surface."

Shen Tingxue understood immediately.

The black water on the ground was the connecting medium between the medical record plates and the Faceless Patients.

The Short-haired Girl hearing her mother's voice earlier had also come from the water surface.

If attacking the patients directly was ineffective, then sever their connection to the corridor environment.

Shen Tingxue raised her hand.

The frost spread rapidly along the black water.

Crack.

Crack.

The ground was covered by a thin layer of ice.

The Faceless Patients' steps indeed slowed a little.

The blurring speed on Liu Hang's face also slowed slightly.

Chen Ye's eyes lit up.

"It's working!"

But the next second.

The medical record plates on both sides of the corridor suddenly vibrated simultaneously.

On those dark red plates, names lit up one after another.

[ Lin Hui, Not Discharged ]

[ Tang Wen, Not Discharged ]

[ Xu Zhaodong, Not Discharged ]

[ Liang Xue, Not Discharged ]

With every name that lit up, a new Faceless Patient walked out of the darkness.

More and more.

The corridor was gradually being filled up.

The Short-haired Girl could barely stand steady anymore.

"Why are there more and more..."

"How many people are there in total?"

No one answered.

Because the medical record plates in Basement Level 2 stretched as far as the eye could see.

How many people had been admitted here.

That was how many Faceless Patients there could be.

Cold sweat seeped from Lin Jin's forehead.

[ Maintenance Progress: 68% ]

Just a little more.

But the black text inside the door lock suddenly contracted, forming a blurred face.

That face pressed against the inside of the lock, looking hollowly at Lin Jin.

"Maintenance Worker."

"Have you seen my face?"

The voice did not come from the outside.

It rang directly in Lin Jin's mind.

Lin Jin's fingers paused.

The Hand of Rules instantly turned bright red.

[ Warning ]

[ Face-Asking Rule is bypassing hearing and attempting mental access ]

[ Do not answer in your consciousness ]

Mental access.

Lin Jin's heart sank.

This rule was more troublesome than before.

Not answering aloud was not enough.

He couldn't follow its thoughts in his mind either.

As long as he subconsciously judged "what this face looked like," he might also be locked in by the rule.

So, Lin Jin simply emptied that part of his thoughts.

He didn't look at the face.

He only looked at the structure.

The door lock.

The screws.

The permission clasp.

The circuit.

The rule overlay.

In his eyes, that face was gradually dismantled into various erroneous circuits.

[ Wardification Overlay ]

[ Light-up Determination ]

[ Face-Asking Interference Node ]

[ Logistics Attribute Damage ]

Found you.

Lin Jin's eyes turned cold, and he slammed the wrench into the deepest part of the door lock.

Crack!

That face twisted instantly.

"You didn't look at me..."

"Why didn't you look at me..."

"Repairman, none of you look at us..."

Lin Jin's movements stopped abruptly.

Repairman?

This thing knew about Repairmans?

The voice inside the door lock suddenly became venomous.

"The Repairman back then didn't look either."

"He said we were no longer human."

"He said our faces had been recovered by The Hospital."

"He said that as long as the door was fixed, we would be quiet."

"Liar."

"He is a liar."

Lin Jin's breathing hitched slightly.

The Repairman back then.

Lin Shoushan?

Almost at the same time, the Hand of Rules popped up a prompt.

[ Historical maintenance residue detected ]

[ Residual record: Three years ago ]

[ Maintainer information: Damaged ]

[ Attempt to read? ]

Lin Jin's eyes darkened.

Cannot read.

Reading it now would inevitably trigger identity tracing.

This was another trap of the Face-Asking Rule.

It not only induced them to answer questions but was also using Lin Shoushan's information to induce Lin Jin to get distracted.

"Don't use my dad to bait me."

Lin Jin's voice was very low.

"You aren't qualified enough."

The next second.

He twisted the wrench violently.

Crack!

The final layer of the wardification rule was forcibly pried open.

[ Maintenance Progress: 82% ]

The red light next to the Recycling Room doorplate finally turned from scarlet to dim yellow.

The group of Faceless Patients screamed simultaneously.

Like countless non-existent mouths crying out at once.

Chen Ye's ears were numbed by the vibration.

"Isn't it done yet?!"

"Right away!"

Lin Jin stomped on the deformed latch at the bottom of the iron door, his right hand forcibly twisting the core of the door lock.

[ Logistics area attributes restoring ]

[ Recycling Room registration correcting ]

[ Warning: Internal waste is waking up ]

Internal waste?

Lin Jin didn't have time to think it through.

A dense sound of impacts suddenly came from inside the iron door.

Thud.

Thud-thud.

Thud-thud-thud.

Like many things were knocking behind the door.

The Short-haired Girl's voice trembled.

"There are things inside too?"

Lin Jin's expression darkened slightly.

"Waste Recovery Room."

"What do you think The Hospital would recover?"

No one spoke.

Because the answer was already obvious.

The things this hospital recovered were definitely not medical waste.

It could be identities.

Faces.

Medical records.

Or even the "people" stripped away by the rules.

[ Maintenance Progress: 91% ]

Lin Jin struck down with the final wrench.

Bang!

The red light went out completely.

The five characters for "Waste Recovery Room" on the doorplate flickered violently.

The ward rules originally covering it fell off like charred paper.

[ Maintenance complete ]

[ Target: Waste Recovery Room ]

[ Status: Logistics area restored ]

[ Light-up ward rules lifted ]

At the same instant.

All the Faceless Patients in the corridor stopped.

They froze in place as if they had lost their instructions.

The features on Liu Hang's face finally stopped disappearing.

But half of his face was still blurred, looking extremely terrifying.

Chen Ye hurriedly dragged him back.

"How are you? Can you still breathe?"

Liu Hang covered his face, his voice muffled.

"Yes..."

"Am I disfigured?"

Chen Ye's mouth twitched.

"Relax, it's better than having no face."

Lin Jin stood up and looked at the iron door of the Recycling Room.

The door lock was fixed.

But the knocking sound inside the door did not stop.

It was even more intense.

Shen Tingxue asked in a low voice:

"Can we go in now?"

The Hand of Rules refreshed.

[ Current area: Waste Recovery Room ]

[ Logistics area ]

[ Danger Level: C- ]

[ Hint: There are a large number of abandoned rule fragments inside ]

[ Suggestion: Enter as a Maintenance Worker ]

Lin Jin took a deep breath.

"We can go in."

Chen Ye raised his shield.

"I'll go first."

"No."

Lin Jin shook his head.

"This place recognizes identity."

"I'll go in first."

After saying this, he reached out to push the door.

Creak—

The iron door slowly opened.

A stench of rot, even stronger than in the corridor, rushed towards them.

Everyone subconsciously held their breath.

The interior of the Recycling Room was not large.

But the walls were covered with things.

Faces, one after another.

Not human skin.

More like translucent masks.

They were hung on rusted iron hooks, men and women, old and young, all with their eyes closed.

And in the center of the room.

Piled up were a large number of broken medical record plates, snapped wristbands, blood-stained work badges, and discarded syringe needles.

In the corner.

There was a black iron box.

The box had a seal on it.

On the seal was written:

[ 105 isolation anchor, Abandoned ]

Lin Jin's eyes lit up.

Found it.

But just as he stepped inside.

Those closed eyes on the wall.

Opened their eyes simultaneously.

They all looked at Lin Jin in unison.

And then.

Asked softly in countless different voices:

"Maintenance Worker."

"Whose face are you taking back?"