299: Chapter 299 System Black Screen, Lin Yuan Stops Outside the Door

"Sign."

Su Muxue handed over the emergency surgery confirmation form.

Lin Yuan took the pen.

"I'm going in."

"No."

Su Muxue stood inside the sterile door without backing down.

"You haven't received surgical training."

"Both your Superpower and the System are gone. If you go in, you can't stop the bleeding, you can't stabilize the fetal heart rate, and you'll only increase infection and procedural variables."

The hallway fell silent for two seconds.

Lin Yuan looked at her.

"Are you blocking me?"

"Yes."

Su Muxue removed the malfunctioning Superpower monitoring ring and tossed it into the recycling tray.

"Before the surgery ends, I am responsible for Jiang Xiaowan and the child."

"You are responsible for making sure the necessary items arrive at the door on time."

Lin Yuan gripped the access handle.

The metal handle did not deform.

The SS-grade Indestructible Martial Body, Absolute Zero, and Water Calamity all fell silent.

The contract resonance had also severed.

Inside the door, the monitor gave a rapid alert.

Su Muxue turned around.

"If we delay for another minute, the area of placental abruption will continue to expand."

Lin Yuan loosened his hand.

He signed his name on the confirmation form and added another line.

[Supreme Surgical Disposal Authority: Su Muxue.]

"Mother and daughter must both live."

"I only accept this result."

Su Muxue took back the document.

"Me too."

The sterile door closed.

Lin Yuan stopped outside the yellow warning line.

Inside the delivery room.

The crystal core therapeutic device, Superpower amplifier, and spatial blood transfusion ports all lost power.

The nurse pushed over a foot-operated aspirator.

The hand-cranked negative pressure pump was connected to the pipelines.

The diesel generator started from B1, and the vibrations transmitted along the walls into the medical area.

The second hand on the mechanical dial was still ticking.

Su Muxue put down the ultrasound probe again.

The grayscale image slid across Jiang Xiaowan's abdomen.

The probe stopped.

A section of printing paper spat out.

Su Muxue used a red pen to circle three sets of numerical values.

"Fetal position lateral shift."

"Placental abruption expanded from 0.8 centimeters to 1.9 centimeters."

"Fetal oxygen supply is declining."

Xia Qingqiu had already opened the blood type records.

"Type O inventory is sufficient, cross-matching is complete."

"The first batch of plasma is warming up."

The anesthesiologist stepped forward with the plan.

Jiang Xiaowan bit down on the gauze, enduring a round of contractions.

Her palm left a sweat print on the bed rail.

"Don't let me pass out."

The anesthesiologist looked at Su Muxue.

Jiang Xiaowan spat out the gauze.

"Local anesthesia."

"What medicine to use, where the incision is, when to transfuse blood—tell me everything."

Su Muxue asked, "Are you sure?"

"This is my life."

Jiang Xiaowan took the confirmation form.

"I want to hear it clearly."

The anesthesiologist repeated item by item.

Local anesthesia scope.

Hypotension risk.

Standby general anesthesia conditions.

Emergency blood transfusion standards.

After finishing each item, Jiang Xiaowan nodded once.

With the final stroke falling, she handed the document back.

"Let's begin."

She looked toward the closed sterile door.

"Don't make that bastard outside wait too long."

Outside the medical area, the master control console was covered in paper tapes.

[Shanghai East Bank Defense Zone, the water curtain has disappeared.]

[Zhe City North Line, all Espers are incapacitated.]

[The controlled corpse swarm in Jiangcheng broke free from mental restraint and is stirring in place.]

Lin Motong sat against the wall holding a little bear.

She closed her eyes three times, her pupils still their normal color.

"Daddy, I can't hear them anymore."

Lin Yuan picked up the steel seal.

The first stamp fell.

[Shanghai General Commander: Zhao Dingshan. Activate the conventional firepower network to seal the corpse swarm's migration route.]

The second stamp.

[Jiangcheng Ground Defense Line: Lu Yan. Abandon earth-type fortifications, switch to Titan mechas and prefabricated walls.]

The third stamp was pushed in front of Su Xiaonuan.

[Three-Region General Dispatcher: Su Xiaonuan.]

Su Xiaonuan sat into the safety master control seat.

The exterior wall line inspection request slid out from the paper tape machine.

The field duty column behind it was empty.

Her pen paused for a moment.

Then she crossed out her own name and filled in Engineering Group Two.

The steel seal fell.

"Lu Yan, distribute the B1 prefabricated walls according to three zones."

"Zhao Dingshan, heavy artillery in the port area is not allowed to pursue-shoot, protect the railway first."

"Liu Qing, divide the wired telephones into three groups. Poll every two minutes per group."

Liu Qing adjusted her thick glasses.

"Understood, Housekeeper Su."

Lu Yan's voice came through the wired telephone.

"Boss, the corpse swarm is moving toward the Silent Well."

Lin Yuan took the receiver.

"Don't stop them."

"Clear personnel along the route and set up a five-kilometer firepower circle. No one is allowed to approach the wellhead."

"Yes."

Su Xiaonuan opened the new regulations.

[Irreplaceable personnel must not proactively enter the highest-risk areas.]

She stamped the stay-behind seal behind her own name.

She didn't apply to go to the outer wall.

Paper tapes from the three regions were still being fed in continuously.

Orders were issued one by one.

No spatial teleportation.

No mental communication.

No Espers breaking the deadlock.

Mechanical relays, wired telephones, Titan mechas, and old-style artillery took over the defense line.

Tiangong No. 1 did not stop.

B2 All-Mechanical Observation Cabin.

Tang Qiqi wound up the spring-loaded camera and pressed the shutter.

Click.

A photo spat out from the bottom.

The black trace inside the Return-to-Zero Coffin clung to the inner wall and moved one grid toward the medical area.

The fetal heartbeat from the delivery room came through the headphones.

Thump.

The black trace retreated.

Tang Qiqi took twelve consecutive photos.

Twelve photos lined up on the table.

Every time the fetal heartbeat dropped, the black trace would leave a notch in the coordinate box.

Neither more nor less.

Twelve of them.

"This thing can even keep a score?"

Tang Qiqi put down her candy stick and used a pencil to mark the time.

The fetal heartbeat accelerated.

The movement of the black trace also accelerated accordingly.

It did not break through the Return-to-Zero Coffin.

It was more like recording.

Recording that unborn child.

Tang Qiqi grabbed the papers and rushed out of the observation cabin.

Master control console outside the door.

Lin Yuan filled three pages with surgery requirements.

Blood bank vehicle arrival time.

Diesel engine backup fuel volume.

Mechanical elevator duty personnel.

Sterile instrument replacement batches.

Guard rotation interval.

He no longer touched the delivery room access permissions.

All orders stopped at that yellow warning line.

Su Xiaonuan glanced at the paper.

"Master, Shanghai requests to transfer away a plasma vehicle."

"Rejected."

"Reason?"

"The medical area has the highest priority."

The steel seal pressed down.

The blood delivery vehicle stopped at the delivery room door along the mechanical track.

The nurse checked the serial number and carried away the first box.

Tang Qiqi ran over from the stairway and slapped the twelve photos onto the table.

"Great Demon King, the black trace is recording the fetal heartbeat."

Lin Yuan scanned the time markers.

Inside the delivery room, the monitor suddenly emitted a long beep.

The paper tape slid forward.

The fetal heartbeat curve missed a beat.

The blank space was only one grid long.

Everyone in the hallway stopped moving at the same time.

Su Muxue's voice penetrated the door panel.

"Fetal heartbeat dropping."

"Blood pressure eighty-six."

"Anesthesia complete."

The instrument tray made a soft sound.

"Initiate emergency cesarean section."

"Incise."

Lin Yuan pressed down on that section of blank paper tape.

The next second.

Thump.

The fetal heartbeat fell once again.

Inside the Return-to-Zero Coffin, the twelve notches lit up simultaneously.

The black traces did not move forward.

They all bowed uniformly toward that heartbeat.

Jiangcheng Silent Well.

The garrison retreated to the five-kilometer firepower line.

The three layers of steel plates sealing the wellhead bowed downward.

No explosion.

No impact.

The steel plates, along with the supports, shrank into the darkness.

A black coordinate opened up at the bottom of the well.

The corpse swarm that lost Lin Motong's restraint did not go berserk.

They lined up in a queue.

One by one, they walked into the well.

Shanghai, Zhe City, Beijing, the Northern Border, the European Continent.

The twelve recorded Silent Wells opened at the exact same second.

The pointer of the mechanical monitor crossed the red line.

Twelve offline photos were sent to Tiangong No. 1.

Liu Qing spread out the photos one by one, a row of data flashing behind her thick lenses.

"Master."

"The traction waveforms for the twelve wells are out."

She pressed the Return-to-Zero Coffin notch record alongside it.

The two sets of lines completely overlapped.

Inside the delivery room, the second fetal heartbeat fell.