36: Chapter 36, Volume One Finale: Repairing the Hospital to the Point of Shutdown

"Volume 1 is coming to a close."

"Don't die here."

The last words of the residual image of Lin Shoushan faded away.

His entire figure, like ashes scattered by the wind, quickly faded.

In the darkness after the desk lamp shattered, his figure became transparent bit by bit.

Finally, only that damaged Maintenance Worker badge remained, resting heavily in Lin Jin's palm.

[Maintenance Worker 07 Old Badge]

[Status: Damaged]

[Residual Authority: Maintenance Department Identity Authentication]

[Note: Possessions of Lin Shoushan]

Lin Jin gripped the badge tightly.

His knuckles turned white.

Chen Ye looked at the spot where the residual image had disappeared, moved his lips, and finally managed to squeeze out only one sentence:

"Your dad..."

"...really knows how to time his exit."

Lin Jin did not smile.

He stared at the empty spot where the light had been, his chest feeling as if a stone were pressing down on it.

The information his father left behind was too much.

The Hand of Rules was not a coincidence.

The Maintenance Department sealed itself off.

The remnants of the God System contaminated The Hospital.

The master file is not in The Hospital, but in the so-called "Second Wrench."

All of this is like a giant net.

And he had only just touched the outermost thread.

But there was no time to digest it now.

Because the Old Archives Room was shaking violently.

All the iron cabinets emitted a harsh, grinding sound simultaneously.

Cabinet doors opened one after another.

The medical records inside were swept up like a gale, suspended in mid-air.

The broadcast of the Faceless Dean rang out from all directions.

[Residual image of Lin Shoushan has been cleared.]

[Maintenance Worker 07 Old Badge needs to be recovered.]

[Visitor Lin Jin poses a risk of illegal inheritance.]

[Old Archives Room has entered forced archiving status.]

[All visitors are prohibited from leaving.]

Prohibited from leaving.

As soon as these four words appeared, Chen Ye's face instantly darkened.

"I knew it!"

"This damn hospital didn't plan on letting anyone go!"

The Medical Record Keeper stood at the doorway, its medical record folder flipping frantically.

But this time, it did not immediately side with the Faceless Dean.

Because the Faceless Dean had forcefully executed the clearing of Lin Shoushan's residual image while the library borrowing process in the Old Archives Room was not yet complete.

Its recording logic also encountered a conflict.

[Supervision process abnormal]

[Clearing behavior of Dean's Office recorded]

[Old Archives Room sealing rules damaged]

Lin Jin's eyes shifted.

There was still a chance.

The Faceless Dean wanted to lock them in here.

But the Old Archives Room was not completely listening to the Faceless Dean now.

It still retained the old rules of the Maintenance Department.

As long as he found the fault point, he could get out.

Lin Jin looked up and around.

The Hand of Rules fully unfolded.

The entire Old Archives Room turned into countless crisscrossing rule lines in his eyes.

The thickest one extended from the [God Interface] archive cabinet, connecting toward the direction of the Dean's Office.

Another extended from the Maintenance Worker badge in his palm to the register in the center of the Old Archives Room.

And the third one.

The thinnest.

Yet the most critical.

It connected to the door of the Old Archives Room.

[Target: Maintenance Department Old Archive Room]

[Current fault: Sealing rules forcefully taken over by the Dean's Office]

[Fault core: Archiving process has been tampered with]

[Repair plan 1: Break down the door and leave]

[Success rate: 19%]

[Failure consequence: All members archived]

[Repair plan 2: Complete the temporary borrowing process and leave normally as a visitor]

[Success rate: 63%]

[Repair plan 3: Initiate the Maintenance Department shutdown protocol]

[Success rate: Unknown]

Shutdown protocol?

Lin Jin's brows twitched.

This didn't sound like routine maintenance.

It sounded more like the ultimate insurance policy left by the Maintenance Department for the entire hospital.

He immediately looked at the register.

The register was already covered in black medical record paper.

A new line of scarlet text appeared on it.

[Forced archiving in progress]

[Visitors will be used as supplementary material for this file anomaly]

Chen Ye cursed directly:

"Supplementary material?"

"Does it really want to stuff us into a folder?"

Shen Tingxue did not speak.

She raised her hand to release frost, freezing the flying medical record papers.

But those papers soon ignited with black fire, and the ice layer was burned through bit by bit.

Her face turned slightly pale.

The core contamination from just moments ago hadn't fully recovered, and continuing to act now was a significant burden on her.

Lin Jin glanced at her.

"Don't push yourself."

Shen Tingxue said coldly:

"You do the repairs."

"Leave the rest to us."

Chen Ye raised his shield to block the oncoming medical record papers.

"Right!"

"You do your repairs!"

"Whoever dares to archive me, I'll smash its filing cabinet first!"

Although Liu Hang and the Short-haired Girl were afraid, they didn't scream anymore.

Liu Hang picked up a discarded iron rod from the ground and stood in front of the Short-haired Girl.

His face hadn't fully recovered, and his speech was slurred, but his eyes were firmer than before.

"I can hold on for a while too."

Lin Jin took a deep breath.

Now was not the time to hesitate.

He rushed to the register and pressed the Maintenance Worker badge onto the cover.

[Maintenance Department identity fragment detected]

[Attempt to access old authority?]

"Access."

[Insufficient authority]

[Maintenance Worker 07 Old Badge damaged]

[Currently can only open partial directory authority]

Insufficient authority.

Lin Jin's heart sank.

The residual image told him to use the badge to open the master file directory, but now that the Old Archives Room had been forcefully archived by the Faceless Dean, the damaged badge alone was not enough.

Something was still missing.

The Hand of Rules prompted quickly.

[Current Maintenance Worker identity anchor missing]

Identity anchor?

Lin Jin looked at the back of his hand.

[Night Shift Maintenance Worker Lin Jin]

This was the identity The Hospital gave him.

But this identity came from the Faceless Dean's system and wasn't pure enough.

The Maintenance Department didn't fully recognize it.

Unless...

Lin Jin raised his wrench.

That rusty wrench that had been with him since he first awakened.

From the outside, it was still worn out.

But at this moment, beneath the rust on the surface of the wrench, an extremely fine line faintly emerged.

Like some kind of sealed mark.

The Hand of Rules vibrated.

[Unknown maintenance tool detected]

[Status: Not fully awakened]

[Resonance with Maintenance Department Old Badge exists]

Lin Jin's eyes suddenly narrowed.

The second wrench.

His father said the master file was not in The Hospital, but in the second wrench.

Then what about the first one?

Who exactly left the one in his hand?

There was no time to think carefully.

He pressed the rusty wrench and the damaged badge onto the register at the same time.

Boom!

The register suddenly erupted with a circle of gray-white light.

The entire Old Archives Room seemed to be shaken hard by something.

[Maintenance Department identity anchor confirmed]

[Temporary Maintenance Worker Lin Jin, granted Old Archives Room emergency maintenance authority]

[Initiate shutdown protocol?]

Upon hearing "shutdown," Chen Ye immediately shouted:

"Initiate it!"

Lin Jin did not confirm immediately.

Because the next line of prompts appeared.

[Shutdown protocol description: Temporarily disconnect the Old Archives Room from the main body of The Hospital]

[Effect: Prevent the Dean's Office from reading files]

[Side effect: The Old Archives Room will enter a permanent sealing countdown]

[Those who do not leave before the countdown ends will be sealed along with the Old Archives Room]

Sealing countdown.

Was this the method the Maintenance Department used back then to seal itself off?

Disconnecting from the main body of The Hospital so the Faceless Dean couldn't get the master file.

The price was that the Maintenance Department was also locked inside.

Lin Jin finally understood.

The Maintenance Department was not sealed by The Hospital.

It was to prevent the Faceless Dean from getting the master file, so they actively locked themselves deep within the rules.

A group of Maintenance Workers used the clumsiest and most ruthless method to block the most critical interface of The Hospital.

Lin Jin looked up at the row of [Sacrificed Maintenance Worker] iron cabinets.

Every name there could be someone who stayed behind back then.

He suddenly felt the badge in his palm was very heavy.

It wasn't the weight of the metal.

It was the weight of many people who couldn't walk out.

"Initiate."

Lin Jin pressed down on the wrench.

The next second.

The entire archives room suddenly lost power.

All the flying medical record papers fell as if they had lost their life.

[Maintenance Department shutdown protocol initiated]

[Disconnecting Old Archives Room from the main body of The Hospital]

[30%]

[57%]

The Faceless Dean's broadcast showed obvious distortion for the first time.

[Stop.]

[Maintenance Worker Lin Jin.]

[You do not have the authority to shut down The Hospital's archive system.]

Lin Jin sneered.

"I am a Maintenance Worker."

"If the system is broken, of course I have the right to shut it down for repairs."

[Connection disconnection: 81%]

[93%]

The Faceless Dean's voice became shrill.

[You will lose the chance to leave The Hospital.]

[You will stay in the rules forever, just like Lin Shoushan.]

Lin Jin's fingers paused slightly.

But the next second, he remembered the words in his father's message.

Get the master file first.

Leave The Hospital first.

Survive first.

He pressed down hard.

"Then stop talking nonsense."

"Shut it down for me."

[Connection disconnection: 100%]

Boom!

The door of the Old Archives Room swung open violently.

Outside was no longer Basement Level 2.

But a patch of blinding white light.

Assessment dungeon exit!

The Medical Record Keeper stood at the doorway, its medical record folder stopped flipping.

Its voice became mechanical and hollow for the first time.

"Old Archives Room has been shut down."

"Supervision process interrupted."

"Final report cannot be archived."

"This ward round process has ended abnormally."

Chen Ye's eyes lit up.

"The exit!"

"Hurry, let's go!"

Shen Tingxue immediately supported the Short-haired Girl.

Liu Hang stumbled to keep up.

Chen Ye raised his shield to cover the rear.

Lin Jin took one last look at the depths of the Old Archives Room.

The row of [God Interface] archive cabinets had all gone dark.

In front of the [Sacrificed Maintenance Worker] iron cabinets, the desk lamp fragments were still lying on the ground.

As if the residual image from just now had never appeared.

But in Lin Jin's palm.

The 105 file copy was still there.

The Maintenance Worker badge was still there.

The lines on the rusty wrench were still slightly hot.

He turned around.

He stepped into the white light.

Behind him, the door of the Old Archives Room slammed shut.

At the very last moment.

He heard the distant and cold voice of the Faceless Dean.

[Lin Jin.]

[The Hospital has recorded you.]

[Next ward round.]

[I will come to find you in person.]

The white light swallowed everything.

Lin Jin's vision went black.

When he opened his eyes again.

He was already kneeling on the teleportation array outside the Abandoned Hospital.

The daylight was blinding.

Alarms, shouts, and the footsteps of medical personnel surged from all directions.

Someone was shouting:

"They're out!"

"The examinees are out!"

"The Abandoned Hospital dungeon is collapsing!"

Lin Jin raised his head.

The phantom of the Abandoned Hospital in the distance was cracking bit by bit.

But behind the window on the top floor of The Hospital.

A faceless figure stood there quietly.

Watching him.

The next second.

The Maintenance Worker badge in Lin Jin's hand felt slightly hot.

A prompt that only he could see slowly appeared.

[Volume 1: Abandoned Hospital Arc, Finished]

[Volume 2: Combat Academy Arc, About to begin]