2: Chapter 2 Code Awakening

The sound of rain tapping against the glass window was the first thing Lin Feng heard as his consciousness returned.

It was slow and viscous, as if separated by a thick layer of cotton. He struggled to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt as heavy as if they had been welded shut. The pervasive, agonizing pain throughout his body was the second thing he perceived—every breath tugged at his chest, sending waves of tearing pain, and his forehead throbbed with a pounding ache.

His memories were like a fragmented videotape, finally freezing on that scorching sea of fire and a beam of blue light flying toward him...

Blue light!

Lin Feng snapped his eyes open!

The intense light made his vision blur, and it took a while for him to adjust. What came into view was a stark white ceiling and an old, slowly rotating ceiling fan. The scent of disinfectant mixed with a musty odor drifted into his nostrils, telling him this must be some hospital.

He tried moving his fingers; fortunately, he had sensation. Then, he slowly turned his stiff neck to survey his surroundings.

This was a crowded six-person ward with crude facilities and mottled walls. An elderly person kept groaning on the adjacent bed, while the family member in the opposite bed was hunched over, flipping through an expensive electronic medical bill at lightning speed, looking miserable. Outside the window, the gloomy sky was still raining a drizzling acid rain, making the whole room feel oppressive and hopeless.

"I... I didn't die?"

A sense of relief at having survived surged in Lin Feng's heart. But immediately after, a greater panic seized him—Xiao Yu! He had promised to scrape together the next medical fee before tonight!

He tried to sit up abruptly, but a sharp pain in his chest forced him to fall back, and he let out a suppressed groan.

"Oh? You're awake?" A slightly hoarse female voice sounded from nearby.

Lin Feng turned his head and saw that the person accompanying the patient in the next bed was a middle-aged woman wearing a faded work uniform, who was peeling a synthetic apple while looking him over.

"The nurse said you've got a real tough life, kid," the woman said, pursing her lips. "When the patrol team sent you over, you were covered in blood; it was terrifying to look at. But after the examination, they said it was just skin and flesh wounds. No broken bones, just a concussion to observe for two days. Tsk tsk, young people really do have good bodies."

Skin and flesh wounds? No broken bones?

Lin Feng was stunned. He clearly remembered the bone-crushing sound that set his teeth on edge when he hit the wall, and the intense pain that had nearly made him pass out. That kind of injury could absolutely not be just "skin and flesh wounds."

Just then, his gaze involuntarily moved downward, landing on the indwelling needle in the back of his left hand and the patient information barcode attached to it.

**Name: Lin Feng**

**ID: PT2023110798**

**Outstanding Balance: -3,285 Credits**

That glaring red negative number and the constantly flickering amount pierced his heart like an ice pick, instantly jolting him awake from the daze of having barely survived.

Over three thousand! He had only just woken up! This sum of money pressed down on him like a mountain, making it hard to breathe, and there was still a hole of nearly eighty thousand waiting to be filled for his sister!

Immense pressure and despair instantly submerged him. He subconsciously stared fixedly at the barcode, at that string of ever-changing numbers representing the debt he couldn't bear, wishing he could burn a hole through it with his gaze!

[Beep—]

An extremely faint electronic sound, as if it had rung directly in the depths of his mind, appeared abruptly.

Lin Feng stiffened suddenly, wondering if he had bumped his head and was suffering from auditory hallucinations.

But the next second, in the center of his field of vision, the air facing the patient barcode suddenly rippled with an imperceptible wave, as if a stone had been tossed into a pool of water.

Following that, several lines of translucent, strange symbols emitting a faint blue light were superimposed on the scene of the real world without any warning!

>> Accessing MedSys_BILLING_v4.2...

>> User_ID: PT2023110798

>> Balance Query: -3285.00 Cr

>> /////

Lin Feng squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head vigorously.

A hallucination! It must be a side effect of the concussion! Or maybe the anesthesia hadn't worn off yet!

He took a deep breath and opened his eyes again, cautiously.

The strange blue characters had not only not disappeared, but had actually become clearer! They seemed to be branded directly onto his retinas; their structure was bizarre, yet he could strangely understand their meaning—'Accessing medical system billing module,' 'User ID,' 'Balance query'...

>> /////

The slash at the end of the characters kept blinking, as if waiting for input, or perhaps... the connection was interrupted?

His heart pounded wildly, and a thought, absolutely absurd yet carrying a hint of fatal temptation, surfaced uncontrollably.

This... could it be...

He tried to focus his mind, just like he usually did when calculating delivery routes in his head, and issued the simplest, purest command, one that contained all his longing, directed at that string of numbers representing his debt—'Clear it! Clear it for me!'

Silence.

The lines of blue characters remained stubbornly in place, unchanged.

I really have gone crazy from wanting money... Lin Feng gave a bitter smile, and a huge sense of loss washed over him, accompanied by a wave of dizziness. He closed his eyes wearily, feeling that he was truly ridiculous and pathetic.

However, at that very moment when his spirit relaxed and his consciousness was in a daze...

>> Command Received.

>> Overriding Local Verification...

>> Writing New Value...

>> Done.

>> Balance Updated: 0.00 Cr

The electronic sound in his mind rang out again, so fast it was like an illusion!

Lin Feng snapped his eyes open, nearly straining his neck!

He stared intently at the information barcode on the back of his left hand.

In the place where the outstanding amount was displayed, the originally glaring red number -3,285.00 had now actually turned into... 0.00!

It was green! The green color representing a cleared balance, no outstanding debt!

Lin Feng's breathing stopped abruptly, his pupils dilating to the extreme. He felt as if he had been struck by an invisible bolt of lightning, every nerve in his body screaming and trembling!

Not a dream! Not a hallucination!

He jerked his hands up, looking at them over and over. Beneath the skin was normal flesh and blood; there was nothing unusual. But he could feel that something had changed. It was as if... as if the entire world had an extra hidden menu in front of him, and he had just inadvertently pressed that single button leading beyond his authority.

Fear and ecstasy, these two extreme emotions, collided violently in his heart like two giant waves, making him tremble uncontrollably all over.

"Hey, young man, are you okay?" The middle-aged woman in the next bed noticed his pale face and strange expression, and couldn't help but ask, "Is something wrong? Should I call a nurse for you?"

"No... I'm fine!" Lin Feng's voice was extremely dry. He recoiled his hand under the blanket as if he had been electrocuted, as if that string of zeroed-out numbers would burn someone else's eyes. "Thank you... I, I'm quite alright."

He pulled up the blanket, feigned weakness, turned to lie on his side, back to the woman, and secretly pinched his thigh with trembling fingers.

A sharp pain came.

Not a dream. All of this was real.

That metal box... that explosion... that beam of blue light flying over...

A term flashed through his chaotic thoughts—"Infinite Code"?

Could it be...

"Creeeeak—"

The ward door was pushed open.

Heavy footsteps accompanied an uncomfortable, insincere, mocking voice.

"Oh my, look who it is? Our industrious and brave Lin Feng, why are you lying here?"

Lin Feng's body instantly stiffened, his blood almost freezing.

He was too familiar with this voice! It was that bully Supervisor Wang, who withheld his wages, sent him to Rust Iron Street, and even came to his door to violently collect debts!

How did he find this place?!

Lin Feng slowly turned around and saw Supervisor Wang's fat body almost blocking the ward door. He was wearing a cheap suit, his face oily, carrying a bag of nearly expired nutritional solution in his hand, feigning concern, while his small eyes flashed with undisguised calculation and malice. Behind him followed two slouching youths wearing "Xunfeng Express" vests, clearly lackeys here to back him up.

"Supervisor Wang..." Lin Feng's voice lowered, and his hand subconsciously gripped the sheets tightly. Old grievances and new hatred, intertwined with the strange power he had just acquired, made his heart beat so fast it felt like it was going to explode.

"Tsk tsk, I heard you had an accident, and as your leader, I was so worried!" Supervisor Wang walked to the bedside, tossed the nutritional solution onto the nightstand with a thud, and said, "Tell me, why did you run off to that hellhole of Rust Iron Street for no reason? And you broke the company's electric scooter... That's company property! It's worth several thousand Credits!"

He leaned down, lowered his voice, and the fake smile on his face instantly vanished, leaving only a cold threat: "Kid, the money you owe the company hasn't decreased by a single cent. Looking at you, I guess you can't work anymore. Tell you what, I'll show some kindness..."

His greasy finger was almost poking Lin Feng in the face: "That 'relief fund' you previously advanced to treat your sister, pay it back to me with interest within three days! Otherwise..." He sneered and glanced at the hospital room, "I don't think you'll need to stay in this hospital anymore."

Three days again!

Another one of these life-threatening demands!

If it were the Lin Feng of ten minutes ago, he would likely have been swallowed by endless despair by now. But now...

Lin Feng raised his head and looked directly into Supervisor Wang's disgusting little eyes. Intense panic still existed, but a strange, cold fury, mixed with a newly born confidence that he himself had not yet fully understood, was quietly surging from the deepest part of his heart.

His gaze involuntarily swept past Supervisor Wang's nauseating face and landed on the ID badge pinned to his chest—besides his name and position, there was a small electronic chip used for internal authorization identification.

Almost instinctively, he concentrated his mind.

>> Accessing...

>> Target: XunFeng_Logistics_LowLvl_ID

>> /////

The blue characters in his mind lit up faintly once more.

The corners of Lin Feng's mouth, at an angle Supervisor Wang couldn't see, curled up extremely slightly and stiffly.

He spoke slowly, his voice still carrying the weakness of his injury, but it held a hint of something imperceptibly cold:

"Supervisor Wang..."

"My electric scooter... it seems like it was you... who assigned the order for me to deliver to Rust Iron Street, right?"