26: Chapter 26 Chasing the Face, Rampage on the Second Basement Level

[ All patients. ]

[ Face-chasing begins. ]

The aged voice over the loudspeaker faded away.

Basement Level 2 had completely come alive.

The medical record plates on both sides of the walls lit up one after another.

A dark red glow spread from the end of the corridor, like a line of blood rapidly closing in on them.

Click.

Click.

Click.

After each medical record plate lit up, the sound of fingernails scratching against wood could be heard.

The next second.

Those Faceless Patients emerged from the darkness.

One.

Ten.

Dozens.

Dense and packed.

All of them were wearing faded hospital gowns, their faces blank.

They had no eyes.

Yet they all "looked" toward the long black spike in Lin Jin's hand.

That 105 isolation anchor.

It was currently slightly hot to the touch.

The runes on the spike flickered on and off, like a beating heart.

Chen Ye saw the sea of figures at the end of the corridor, and his scalp went numb.

"Damn!"

"Isn't this number just too cheating?!"

Shen Tingxue raised her hand, and frost spread rapidly along the floor.

But this time, the moment the ice formed, it was stained black bit by bit by black water from underneath.

The Faceless Patients stepped on the ice, their movements only slowing down slightly.

They didn't stop at all.

"They aren't physical monsters."

Shen Tingxue's voice was very cold.

"Freezing can only buy a few seconds."

"A few seconds is enough!"

Lin Jin shoved the Isolation Anchor into the inner pocket of his white coat and turned to run.

"Back to the elevator!"

The group immediately followed.

Liu Hang's face, which had just been restored, was still stiff; his expression was unnatural as he ran.

The Short-haired Girl's legs were weak, and she nearly stepped into the black water.

Chen Ye was quick-witted and grabbed her by the back of her collar.

"Watch your step!"

The Short-haired Girl's voice trembled in fear.

"Th-thank you..."

"Don't thank me, thank me after we get out alive!"

Chen Ye raised his shield to cover the rear.

The edge of the shield was constantly splashed by the black water, emitting a sizzling, corrosive sound.

The Faceless Patients were not moving fast.

But the eerie thing was...

The faster they ran, the longer the corridor seemed to become.

Originally, it had only taken a few minutes to walk from the elevator to the Recycling Room.

But looking back now...

The direction of the elevator was now nothing but darkness.

As Lin Jin was running, he suddenly stopped.

Chen Ye nearly crashed into him.

"Why did you stop?!"

Lin Jin stared at the ground ahead.

In the reflection of the black water...

Their shadows were running forward.

But in reality, they had stopped.

In other words...

Basement Level 2 had already begun to tamper with space.

The Hand of Rules expanded rapidly.

[ Current Area: Basement Level 2 Corridor ]

[ Malfunction: Path Loop ]

[ Cause: Faceless Patient Chasing Rule Activated ]

[ Current Status: Target carrying "Face Equivalent" ]

[ Hint: During the chase, conventional paths will be extended ]

Lin Jin's expression sank.

"Running is useless."

Chen Ye was anxious.

"If we don't run, are we waiting for them to gnaw on us?!"

"No."

Lin Jin looked up at the medical record plates on the corridor wall.

"We have to make this place recognize the path again."

Shen Tingxue understood immediately.

"The medical record plates are changing the path?"

"Yes."

Lin Jin pointed at the wall.

"The paths in Basement Level 2 aren't the floor; they are the medical records."

"When the patients are chasing faces, all the medical records are guiding us toward the Containment Area."

Liu Hang's face was deathly pale.

"Then what do we do?"

Lin Jin looked at the Basement Level 2 key in his hand.

The finger-bone key was twitching, as if it had sensed something.

The Hand of Rules refreshed.

[ Target: Basement Level 2 Access Key ]

[ Available Permission: Logistics Channel Positioning ]

[ Current Restriction: Maintenance Worker must actively confirm target area ]

There's a way.

"I'm going to open the logistics channel."

Lin Jin said in a low voice.

"Chen Ye, hold them off for thirty seconds."

Chen Ye watched the Faceless Patients closing in, his mouth twitching.

"Thirty seconds?"

"Brother, you really think highly of me."

Although he said that...

He still stepped forward.

He slammed his shield hard onto the ground.

"Come on!"

"If you want to snatch a face, ask your Grandpa Chen if this face agrees first!"

Boom!

A layer of earthy yellow light lit up on the shield.

The D-level Shield Warrior's professional power was pushed to its limit at this moment.

The group of Faceless Patients slammed into the shield wall.

Chen Ye was knocked sliding backward by half a meter.

His knees almost buckled.

But he gritted his teeth and held on.

Shen Tingxue didn't waste the opportunity.

She raised her hand and released several ice spikes, not to attack the patients, but to nail them into the walls and floor, forming a low-temperature barrier.

The black water was temporarily frozen.

The patients' footsteps slowed down again.

Lin Jin crouched by the wall and inserted the finger-bone key into the gap below a blank medical record plate.

This was not a keyhole.

But what the Hand of Rules saw was not a metal gap.

It was a permission interface blocked by contamination.

[ Target: Logistics Channel Positioning Node ]

[ Malfunction: Medical Record Path Override ]

[ Repair Plan: Restart logistics route with Basement Level 2 Key ]

[ Success Rate: 71% ]

Lin Jin took a deep breath.

He pressed the wrench onto the key handle.

Click.

The key twisted.

The blank medical record plate lit up suddenly.

Text slowly emerged on it.

[ Target Area: Level 1 Inpatient Department ]

The next second.

Black text seeped out onto the medical record plate again.

[ Error ]

[ Current target should proceed to the Special Patient Containment Area ]

[ Please cooperate with the patient face-chasing process ]

Lin Jin sneered.

"Cooperate with your grandpa."

He used the wrench to smash the line of black text.

[ Path Conflict ]

[ Maintenance Worker permission intervention ]

[ Logistics route recalculating ]

The wall began to shake violently.

All the medical record plates emitted a piercing scream simultaneously.

As if countless people didn't want them to leave.

Chen Ye was almost unable to hold on.

There were more and more Faceless Patients, and the shield wall was creaking under the pressure.

His arms began to tremble.

"Hurry up!"

"I really can't hold them off anymore!"

Cold sweat dripped from Lin Jin's forehead.

[ Recalculation Progress: 42% ]

Too slow.

Just then.

A Faceless Patient crossed the ice barrier and slammed its palm onto Chen Ye's shield.

It didn't strike.

It just asked softly:

"Your face."

"Can you lend it to me?"

Chen Ye's eyes instantly went dazed.

The contours of his face actually began to fade.

Shen Tingxue's expression changed slightly.

She pointed a finger, and frost pierced into Chen Ye's shoulder.

The sharp pain instantly woke Chen Ye up.

"Holy shit!"

"Almost fell for it!"

"Don't listen to them talk."

Shen Tingxue's voice was as cold as ice.

"They are looking for a response from your heart."

Lin Jin heard this, and his eyes shifted.

A response from the heart.

The face-asking rule doesn't necessarily require a verbal answer.

As long as you admit in your heart that "my face can be taken away", it becomes established.

Then what about the opposite?

If they lose the logic of a "face-chasing target", would the chase be interrupted?

Lin Jin looked down at the Isolation Anchor.

The Hand of Rules popped up a hint.

[ Current Isolation Anchor carrying "Face Equivalent" judgment ]

[ Cause: After replacing the abandoned identity exchange, the Isolation Anchor was marked by the Recycling Room ]

[ Repairable: Temporarily remove face-chasing mark ]

[ Success Rate: 58% ]

That's it!

Lin Jin immediately took out the Isolation Anchor.

The moment the long black spike appeared...

All the Faceless Patients instantly became even crazier.

They all looked up in unison.

"Face..."

"Give the face back to us..."

Chen Ye's pressure increased sharply, and he was nearly knocked flying.

Lin Jin didn't care about that much.

He pressed the wrench directly onto the runes of the Isolation Anchor.

[ Repair Target: 105 isolation anchor ]

[ Malfunction: Incorrectly carrying face equivalent mark ]

[ Repair Plan: Strip face-chasing mark, retain isolation function ]

[ Warning: During stripping, the repairer will briefly endure all gazes ]

Lin Jin's fingers paused.

All gazes.

The next second.

He gritted his teeth and started the repair.

Boom!

All the Faceless Patients in the entire Basement Level 2...

Turned their heads simultaneously.

They no longer looked at the Isolation Anchor.

Instead, they looked at Lin Jin.

Hundreds of eyeless "gazes" fell upon him.

Lin Jin's mind shook violently.

Countless voices drilled into his consciousness simultaneously.

"Did you see it?"

"Did you see it?"

"Did you see it?"

His vision went black for a moment.

The skin on his face felt like it was being grabbed by an invisible hand and torn away.

[ Contamination Erosion: 36% → 39% ]

[ Mental stability decreasing ]

[ Repair Progress: 19% ]

Lin Jin gritted his teeth.

Don't answer.

Don't look at the face.

Don't look for the face.

Only look at the malfunction.

Rune breakpoints.

Error marks.

Recycling Room residue.

He forcibly suppressed all the voices and used the wrench to pry away the black stains on the Isolation Anchor bit by bit.

[ Repair Progress: 47% ]

Shen Tingxue saw that Lin Jin's state was wrong and immediately released a circle of cold air.

Not an attack.

But to help him suppress the burning heat brought by the mental contamination.

"Lin Jin."

"Listen to my breathing."

Her voice was very steady.

Like a clear line of ice, cutting through the countless noisy sounds.

Lin Jin followed her rhythm, inhaling.

Exhaling.

His consciousness finally stabilized again.

[ Repair Progress: 76% ]

Chen Ye roared as he held off the last wave of impact.

"Are you motherfuckers ever going to stop?!"

"Face, face, face! If you don't have one, why don't you go get plastic surgery!"

This illogical angry cursing actually made Lin Jin almost laugh out loud.

It was at this very moment.

He found the last error mark.

He twisted the wrench hard.

Snap!

The black stains on the Isolation Anchor completely shattered.

[ Repair Complete ]

[ Face-chasing mark cleared ]

[ 105 isolation anchor Status: Usable ]

At the same moment.

All the Faceless Patients stopped in unison.

They stood blankly in place, as if they had suddenly lost their target.

A narrow door suddenly cracked open in the wall behind them.

Behind the door was a dim, yellowish staff passage.

A new route appeared on the medical record plate.

[ Logistics Channel Opened ]

[ Leading to: Level 1 Inpatient Department ]

Lin Jin grabbed the Isolation Anchor.

"Go!"

The group rushed into the passage.

Chen Ye was the last one to retreat inside.

The moment the door was about to close...

Deep in the corridor...

That aged voice suddenly rang out.

[ Maintenance Worker. ]

[ You have cleared the face-chasing mark. ]

[ But you left your own face behind. ]

Lin Jin turned his head sharply.

He saw that on a distant blank medical record plate...

A face slowly emerged.

It was none other than...

Lin Jin himself.

The next second.

That face opened its eyes.

And smiled at him.