WTNL Chapter 24.1

Fukang Hospital
Chapter 24.1

After the special scene ended, the other two morgues returned to their original state. All the corpses were back in their original positions, as if they had never been moved.

After pushing all the corpses into the cold storage units and locking them securely, the quest completion notification sounded in Wen Jianyan’s ear:

[Your live broadcast quest rewards are being settled…]
[Main Quest: Complete the first basement floor patrol task within two hours.]
[Completion: 100%. Reward Points: 5000]
[Instance Exploration Progress: 25%. Reward Points: 2000]
[Current Stage Plot Modification: 18%. Reward Points: 10000]

Wen Jianyan shivered.

The psychological trauma left by the previous instance still hadn’t faded. Now, seeing the plot modification progress increase couldn’t help but make his heart palpitate.

However, looking on the bright side, at least his wallet plumped up all of a sudden.

Seeing that his one-hour survival time was about to run out, Wen Jianyan quickly bought another two hours.

After purchasing the survival time, there were still 11,000 points left in his account.

He thought for a moment, and then fed the remaining loose change to the apple seedling—its undeniable usefulness was one aspect, but more importantly, he didn’t want a repeat of what happened last time. Rather than having the system suddenly deduct all the points in his account at once, it was better to periodically feed it some himself. At least this way, he could somewhat control this thing’s growth progress.

Su Cheng also received the quest completion notification.

His initial survival time was one hour longer than Wen Jianyan’s. Although he didn’t receive rewards for plot modification, the points from the main quest and instance exploration progress alone were enough for him to survive for the time being.

Wen Jianyan looked down at the small booklet in his hands. Every corpse’s name had been checked off, except for one whose whereabouts were still unknown—

Lin Qing, female, 29 years old.

Also Qi Shen’s older sister, an attending physician in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at Fukang Private General Hospital.

Cause of death unknown.

***

After completing the task assigned by Xue Mingyan, the three got back on the elevator and left the underground first floor.

The elevator doors slowly closed, emitting a rusty creaking sound.

In the instant before it completely closed, Wen Jianyan saw a white figure appear outside the elevator. The woman stood motionless in the morgue, her face pale and blurry, as if staring fixedly in their direction.

Wen Jianyan was startled, a shudder running through him.

The next second, the elevator doors closed.

The humming sound of the machine operating began, and the old corpse-transport elevator slowly ascended.

Wen Jianyan felt a chill down his spine, a layer of cold sweat slowly seeping from his forehead.

No way…

No way, right…

His fake identity last time lasted for more than half the instance. This time, it wouldn’t be seen through in just five minutes, right!

The thought that the lie he just told might have been in front of the actual person involved made Wen Jianyan’s vision go dark.

His professional career wasn’t about to suffer another Waterloo, was it?!

The number on the elevator display changed from “-1” to “1”.

“Ding—”

The elevator doors slowly opened. Su Cheng took two steps out, only to find that Wen Jianyan hadn’t followed.

He turned his head in confusion, only to see the young man standing in place with vacant eyes. He looked dispirited, his entire being shrouded in a gloomy mood.

Su Cheng asked, puzzled: “What’s wrong?”

Wen Jianyan hung his head listlessly, inching his way out of the elevator step by step: “…N-nothing.”

Whatever…

Things are already like this.

Deal with whatever comes.

—Wen Jianyan wiped his face, thinking with reckless abandon.

Soon, the three returned to the duty room, where Xue Mingyan was currently waiting.

Seeing the three of them, she raised her eyebrows in slight surprise: “Not bad, quite fast. Finished the task?”

“Yes, finished.”

Wen Jianyan nodded and handed over the form.

Xue Mingyan: “Alright, not bad. Rest for a bit.”

Wen Jianyan walked toward a chair in the duty room.

Just then, a familiar voice rang out:

[Ding! High-difficulty side quest: Protect NPC Qi Shen and leave the first basement floor has been completed!]

[Reward Item: Identity Keycard x1]

Wen Jianyan paused.

Identity Keycard?

He sat down, took out his phone, and opened his backpack in the app to check. Sure enough, an extra bloodstained keycard appeared in one of the slots in his backpack. The text printed on it had worn off, making it impossible to read what it said.

He just didn’t know what place it was used to open.

Wen Jianyan stared at the phone screen, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Time ticked by, the clock’s hands moving toward twelve o’clock. During this process, other intern nurses gradually returned to the duty room. One by one, their faces were deadly pale, their souls seemingly frightened out of their bodies. Who knew what they had encountered on their patrol floors—whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t anything good.

“Dong— Dong—”

The bell chimed twelve times, signaling the arrival of midnight.

Wen Jianyan’s gaze inconspicuously swept across the entire duty room. Compared to when they left, the duty room was noticeably emptier now. Out of the original seventeen intern nurses, only nine were gathered here now.

The number of both NPCs and streamers had decreased to a certain extent. There was even a floor where not a single person returned.

Xue Mingyan stood up, her cold gaze sweeping over the remaining people in the duty room. The corners of her sharp mouth turned down slightly:

“Why are there only so few of you back? Can’t even finish a two-hour first round of patrol?”

She frowned, saying sarcastically:

“These interns nowadays, learning to slack off on their very first day…”

“Those on the second round of patrol, drag them back down for me when you go up, hear me?”

“Yes…”

Sparse replies rang out in the duty room.

Xue Mingyan moistened her fingers with saliva and looked down to flip through the intern roster before her: “Let me think, the first basement floor probably doesn’t need patrolling this time. In that case, the roster for the second round of patrol—”

Just then, a streamer’s trembling voice rang out, breaking the heavy, dead silence in the duty room:

“Um…”

Xue Mingyan’s finger stopped mid-air. She narrowed her eyes and looked up in the direction of the voice.

The streamer who spoke lowered his hand. His face was deadly pale, his chest still heaving rapidly. His nurse uniform was wrinkled, and dark, speckled stains could faintly be seen—clearly blood that hadn’t dried yet.

Wen Jianyan recalled that this person had been assigned to the second floor in the previous round, the floor with the Radiology Department and Archives.

Fear still lingered deep in the streamer’s eyes: “Excuse me, can I choose not to patrol a certain floor?”

Xue Mingyan sneered: “No.”

The streamer’s eyes instantly darkened. He lowered his hand and began to nervously bite his fingernails.

Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze, listening as Xue Mingyan continued her assignments:

“You two, fifth floor. You and you, fourth floor…”

Her gaze turned towards Wen Jianyan. Those murky eyes hidden behind her glasses seemed to hold a spine-chilling coldness.

“As for you…”

Xue Mingyan scanned the remaining number of people, sighed, and said reluctantly:

“You go to the third floor.”

The instant her voice fell, the streamer who had raised his hand to ask a question earlier breathed a sigh of relief as if he had survived a disaster, seemingly rejoicing that he wasn’t the one being sent there.

Wen Jianyan: “…”

I say, your relief is a bit too obvious!

The third floor was the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, which was also where Lin Qing worked.

However, aside from that, there was one more point that Wen Jianyan cared deeply about—

“I go alone?” he confirmed.

Xue Mingyan lifted her eyelids: “Yes.”

She pointed at the few remaining people in front of her with her bony finger: “Look at the number of interns left. Is there enough to send two to every floor?”

There were nine people present, including NPCs and streamers. Aside from the morgue, the hospital had five floors. If every floor had to be patrolled, someone was bound to be left alone.

The unlucky bastard left alone: “…”

Fine.

Understood, this garbage live broadcast room is targeting me, isn’t it!

Xue Mingyan’s tone softened slightly, a rare occurrence: “Young man, don’t be so cowardly. All those weird rumors are just made up to trick people. We are a legitimate hospital here; how could weird things happen like in some movie? Don’t scare yourself.”

“…”

Was I scaring myself?!

Did I just imagine all those ghosts in the morgue?!

Wen Jianyan’s mouth twitched, and he replied dryly: “Understood. Thank you.”

The elevator slowly ascended.

The narrow space was packed to the brim. Aside from the two on the first floor, the other seven were all squeezed into this small iron box, watching the bright red numbers flash on the screen.

“Ding—”

Arriving at the second floor, Su Cheng and Qi Shen walked out. They reluctantly turned back to glance at Wen Jianyan, who was left inside the elevator, waved goodbye to him, and then stepped into the darkness.

The elevator doors closed and ascended once more.

“Ding—”

The third floor arrived.

Wen Jianyan’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He looked out through the slowly opening elevator doors—

This floor was frighteningly quiet. The mottled words “Obstetrics and Gynecology Department” were pasted on the glass doors overhead. The empty corridor stretched into the distance, seeming to have no end in sight, making one’s heart palpitate uncontrollably.

He gritted his teeth and slowly walked out of the elevator.

All the remaining people in the elevator watched the young man’s back, a trace of relief flashing across their faces to varying degrees.

Thank goodness they weren’t the ones sent to this floor alone.

Patrolling the third floor alone was truly too terrifying.

The elevator doors closed behind Wen Jianyan with a soft click, and then continued ascending.

Soon, the sound of the machine operating vanished, leaving only a suffocating dead silence.

Wen Jianyan took his phone out of his pocket and opened the app’s live broadcast backend to take a look.

The main quest had already updated.

[Main Quest: Complete the third-floor patrol task within two hours.
Completion: 0%]
[Optional Side Quest refreshed: Find the intern nurses who patrolled the third floor in the previous round.
Completion: 0/3]

He took a deep breath and raised his head.

The corridor before him was empty. It was dead silent in his ears, to the point where he could only hear his own breathing and heartbeat. This caused Wen Jianyan to uncontrollably feel his hair stand on end, chills shooting up from his feet in waves.

Although Su Cheng was useless in most situations… having someone keep him company was at least less creepy.

Wen Jianyan sighed sorrowfully.

After all, he was truly very cowardly…

To relieve the psychological pressure of patrolling alone, Wen Jianyan opened the live broadcast interface for the first time since entering this instance.

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