33: Chapter 33 You brat, if you hear this message

"Brat."

"If you hear this message."

"It means you still didn't listen to me."

"You ran to The Hospital."

The moment this voice rang out.

Lin Jin froze in place.

He hadn't heard his father's voice for three years.

In his memories, Lin Shoushan always looked unserious.

With a cigarette dangling from his mouth while repairing appliances.

Stubbornly insisting that the burnt smell was just 'charred aroma' when he burned the food.

Whenever Lin Jin did poorly on an exam, he wouldn't scold him, only pat the test paper and say:

"Not bad, you made some creative mistakes."

But now.

This voice came from the access control of the Maintenance Department Old Archive Room.

It sounded hoarse.

It sounded exhausted.

And even carried a hint of irrepressible pain.

Lin Jin's finger was still pressed into the palm print slot.

Blood was still seeping out.

But he didn't seem to feel the pain.

Chen Ye stood to the side, not daring to speak.

He was usually chatty.

But at this moment, he knew he shouldn't interrupt.

Shen Tingxue looked at Lin Jin's profile.

It was the first time she had seen such an expression on Lin Jin's face.

It wasn't his usual snark.

It wasn't his composure.

Nor was it the almost dangerous focus he showed when facing rules.

It was a deep sense of repression.

As if someone had suddenly opened a door he had kept hidden for three years.

The message from inside the door continued.

"Let's talk business first."

"If you can open this door, it means you have at least awakened the Hand of Rules."

"Don't ask me how I know."

"Because this thing isn't something you got lucky and pulled."

"It was always meant to appear on a member of the Lin family."

Lin Jin's pupils constricted sharply.

The Hand of Rules.

His father knew about the Hand of Rules.

And he said it was always meant to appear on a member of the Lin family.

The amount of information in this sentence was overwhelming.

Lin Jin even forgot to breathe for a second.

The Medical Record Keeper stood behind, its medical record folder suddenly flipping open on its own.

"Sealed message detected."

"Content involves unfiled profession information."

"Record it?"

Lin Jin turned his head sharply.

His gaze was chilling.

"No."

The Medical Record Keeper paused.

"The Medical Record Keeper's duty is to record the access process."

Lin Jin stared at it.

"The message belongs to the internal authorized content of the Maintenance Department Old Archive Room."

"The formal opening of the archive room has not been completed yet."

"You do not have the clearance to access it; you can only record the process, not the content."

The Medical Record Keeper froze.

The pages of the medical record folder flipped rapidly.

A few seconds later, it slowly lowered its head.

"Process confirmed."

"Record: Visitor is reading the access control message."

"Message content will not be recorded."

Chen Ye quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

"You scared me to death."

"This thing is really like surveillance."

Lin Jin didn't respond.

Because Lin Shoushan's message continued.

"Listen."

"The Hospital is not an ordinary dungeon."

"It was once a rule testing ground on the periphery of the No. 9 Forbidden Zone."

"Later, it went out of control and was modified by someone into a low-level dungeon for professional assessment."

"They thought that by suppressing the level to E-rank, they could make it behave."

"But rules are not something that won't crawl out of a window just because you lock the door."

"This hospital has been breaking down."

"And the Maintenance Department was the group responsible for stopping it from breaking down further back then."

The voice paused here.

A slight static sound came from inside the access control.

It was as if some kind of interference was trying to overwrite this message.

Lin Jin's expression changed slightly.

The Hand of Rules immediately deployed.

[Message contamination interference detected]

[Source: Residual authority from the Deans Office]

[Current status: Attempting to erase Lin Shoushan's message]

[Maintenance plan: Stabilize residual circuits of the access control]

[Success rate: 74%]

As expected.

The Dean didn't want him to finish listening.

Lin Jin raised his wrench and quickly struck the side of the access control.

Clack.

Clack.

Clack.

After three strikes, the static noise significantly decreased.

He said in a deep voice: "Continue playing."

Lin Shoushan's voice became clear again.

"If you see that the Maintenance Department has been sealed, don't be in a hurry to call us cowards."

"It wasn't The Hospital that sealed the Maintenance Department back then."

"It was the Maintenance Department that sealed itself."

"Because we discovered that the Dean was no longer the Dean."

"The nurse was no longer a nurse."

"The patient was no longer a patient."

"The entire hospital had long been taken over by something of a higher order."

"We called it back then—a remnant of the God System."

The air turned cold instantly.

Shen Tingxue's eyes narrowed.

Chen Ye felt his scalp tingle.

"God System?"

"This again?"

The Medical Record Keeper's folder began to flip again.

But this time, before it could speak, Lin Jin said coldly: "Do not record the content."

The Medical Record Keeper froze for a moment.

In the end, it remained silent.

Lin Shoushan continued: "You should still be a little rookie who just awakened."

"I guess you haven't seen the real God System yet."

"Simply put, it's not a god."

"It is a system that strings together professions, levels, dungeons, and rules."

"All of our profession awakenings are related to it."

"But it has problems."

"Or rather, it was never clean from the very beginning."

Lin Jin's heart sank little by little.

Profession awakening. Levels. Dungeons. Rules.

These things that constitute the entire world order were all related to the so-called God System.

And his father said it wasn't clean.

This was no longer just a problem with an Abandoned Hospital dungeon.

This was a problem with the underlying rules of the entire world.

"The main remains of the God System are in the No. 9 Forbidden Zone."

Lin Shoushan's voice became lower.

"I went in back then to confirm one thing."

"But before that, I came to The Hospital first."

"Because there is an early interface here between the God System remnants and the real-world professional system."

"If someone wants to tamper with profession awakening, this is one of the entry points."

"I intended to repair it."

"Unfortunately, I didn't finish."

The voice paused here, and then suddenly coughed.

The cough was heavy.

As if his lungs were full of blood.

Lin Jin's fingers tightened involuntarily.

The blood in the palm print slot flowed even more.

Shen Tingxue whispered a reminder: "Your hand."

Lin Jin didn't seem to hear her.

He stared fixedly at the access control.

"Dad..."

When he said this word, his voice was a bit hoarse.

But the message, of course, would not respond to him.

Lin Shoushan just continued: "If you hear this far, remember three things."

"First, do not trust profession levels."

"Levels are labels for ordinary people to see, not the truth of the rules."

"An F-rank Repairman is not trash."

"A true Repairman does not repair things."

"They repair the broken parts of the world."

Before Lin Jin's eyes, the Hand of Rules vibrated slightly.

As if responding to this sentence.

He remembered the day of the awakening, the whole school laughing.

F-rank. Life profession. Repairman.

Everyone thought he was finished.

But his father had already left the answer here three years ago.

The profession wasn't trash.

It was the world's evaluation system itself that was flawed.

"Second."

Lin Shoushan's voice suddenly became serious.

"Do not let the Dean get the Maintenance Department master file."

"The master file records the real interface of The Hospital's remnants."

"If the Dean gets it, it can reconnect this place to the God System."

"By then, this hospital will no longer be a dungeon."

"It will become a living source of professional contamination."

Chen Ye's expression changed.

"In other words, the Dean wants to level up?"

Shen Tingxue's eyes were calm, but clearly heavier.

"Not just leveling up."

"It wants to reconnect to the external professional system."

Lin Jin understood.

Why the Dean had been keeping an eye on the Maintenance Department archives.

Why the Head Nurse risked overstepping her authority to help him register.

Why Basement Level 2 kept trying to record his face.

This hospital didn't just want to kill them.

It wanted to use Lin Jin, this "Maintenance Worker," to reopen the sealed Maintenance Department system.

Then get the master file.

And reconnect to the God System remnants.

"Third."

Lin Shoushan's voice suddenly became a little softer.

"If you see my medical record in The Hospital, don't be in a hurry to save me."

Lin Jin's pupils shook.

Chen Ye was also stunned.

Shen Tingxue's expression changed slightly.

In the message, Lin Shoushan continued: "I might still be alive."

"Or I might just be a lingering shadow in The Hospital's records."

"More likely, it's bait used by the God System to lure you."

"You child, you have a hard mouth but a soft heart."

"If you really see me, you might just jump into the pit on a whim."

"So I'm saying it in advance."

"Don't save me."

"Get the master file first."

"Leave The Hospital first."

"Survive first."

Lin Jin's throat felt blocked by something.

Three years.

He had been looking for his father for three years.

Now he finally heard a clue.

But his father told him: Don't save me. Survive first.

The voice in the access control was silent for two seconds.

When it sounded again, Lin Shoushan seemed to chuckle.

"Of course."

"I know you probably won't listen completely."

"After all, you are my son."

"But at least don't be stupid enough to go and sacrifice yourself alone."

"If there are people around you that you can trust, trust them once."

"Repairmans aren't meant to work alone."

"A shitty job like repairing the world can't be done by one person."

Lin Jin's eyes felt a bit hot.

But he didn't let his emotions spiral out of control.

He just slowly released his hand from the access control.

The bloodline verification was complete.

Inside the heavy iron door of the Maintenance Department Old Archive Room, a dull unlocking sound came.

Clack.

Clack-clack.

Mechanical gears turned.

The door, which had been sealed for many years, finally slowly opened a crack.

There was no light inside the door.

Only thick dust and the musty smell of paper poured out.

And deep in the crack of the door.

An old-fashioned electronic sign lit up.

[Maintenance Department Old Archive Room has been opened]

[Visitor: Lin Jin]

[Clearance: Temporary]

[Accessible files: Ward 105, Deans Office, Maintenance Department master file directory]

Lin Jin looked at the last item.

Maintenance Department master file directory.

It wasn't the master file itself yet.

It was just a directory.

Which meant the real master file was hidden even deeper.

The Medical Record Keeper suddenly stepped forward.

The medical record folder flipped open automatically.

"According to the supervision process."

"The visitor should prioritize accessing files related to the Ward 105 maintenance report."

"Direct access to the Maintenance Department master file directory is prohibited."

Lin Jin looked at it coldly.

"I know."

"Check Ward 105 first."

The Medical Record Keeper stopped.

Chen Ye was stunned.

"Really check Ward 105 first?"

Lin Jin nodded.

"The report hasn't been finalized and archived yet."

"We need a legitimate reason."

"Checking the master file directly would just give the Dean leverage."

Shen Tingxue looked at him and nodded gently.

"Use the Ward 105 file first to open higher clearance."

"Right."

Lin Jin gripped his wrench and stepped into the Old Archives Room.

Inside the archive room.

Rows of iron cabinets stood silently in the darkness.

On each cabinet, there was a yellowed label.

[Ward Maintenance]

[Staff Anomaly]

[God Interface]

[Sacrificed Maintenance Worker]

Lin Jin's footsteps paused for a moment in front of the last label.

Sacrificed Maintenance Worker.

He saw on one of the drawers.

A familiar number written on it.

[Maintenance Worker 07: Lin Shoushan]

But just as he was about to approach.

Deep inside the archive room.

A "pop" sound suddenly rang out.

A desk lamp turned on.

Under the light.

Sat the back of a man wearing old work clothes.

He was looking down, writing a maintenance report.

Hearing the footsteps.

The man stopped writing.

He didn't turn around.

He just said in Lin Shoushan's voice:

"Brat."

"Didn't I tell you not to be in a hurry to save me?"