WTNL Chapter 26.1

Fukang Hospital
Chapter 26.1: Unsolved dead end

Fukang Private General Hospital, second floor, Radiology Department and Archives.

Rapid and chaotic footsteps echoed in the empty corridor. Su Cheng and Qi Shen ran desperately, shadows spreading behind them as if something was in relentless pursuit.

“Quick! In here!”

Su Cheng pulled out a Master Key he had exchanged from the system shop and rushed into the archive room at the very last second before being caught!

“Clack!”

The door clicked shut in the nick of time, blocking the pursuing monster outside.

Still in shock, Su Cheng leaned heavily against the door panel, panting heavily.

The massive archive room before him was dimly lit. Rows upon rows of dust-covered shelves stretched into the distance, seemingly without end.

Su Cheng recalled Wen Jianyan’s instructions before they separated.

As part of the high-difficulty side quest, the character Lin Qing, Qi Shen’s sister, was definitely crucial. Her cause of death could very well be the entry point to discovering the truth of this hospital instance.

Although they were forced to split into two teams this time, in a way, it was actually a good thing. After all, splitting up increased efficiency.

Therefore, Su Cheng’s main goal in coming to the second floor was to search the archives for information and clues related to Lin Qing. Having Qi Shen, Lin Qing’s brother, by his side would also help him eliminate many distracting options.

Some areas in the archive room were a complete mess, clearly leaving traces of the streamers from the previous round.

Starting from these areas was naturally the most time-saving approach.

Su Cheng and Qi Shen separated to look through the files, and he soon found some useful information.

The predecessor of Fukang Private General Hospital was actually a specialized private maternity and child healthcare hospital. It wasn’t until around the year 2000 that it was transformed into a more comprehensive general hospital. However, even so, the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of Fukang Private General Hospital remained the star department of the entire hospital, receiving several times more patients than the other departments.

But after three full years of peak patient intake from 2010 to 2013, the number of patients received by Fukang Hospital began to drop sharply, and the entire hospital became declining and deserted.

As for the specific reason, Su Cheng wasn’t clear either.

The files from this period had a certain degree of loss. It was unknown whether they had been taken by other streamers or if they were never here to begin with.

Su Cheng turned his head to look at Qi Shen: “Speaking of which, when did your sister come to Fukang Hospital?”

Qi Shen recalled for a moment, raised his head, and answered, “Probably around 2012. But after she joined Fukang Hospital, maybe because she was too busy, she rarely contacted home anymore, so I’m not exactly sure what happened during that time.”

Based on the clues provided by Qi Shen, Su Cheng started looking for the OB/GYN files between 2012 and 2014, but…

The shelves where these documents were supposed to be were completely empty, seemingly having been cleared out by someone earlier.

This path was blocked again.

Su Cheng furrowed his brows tightly, almost feeling frustrated.

Just then, he seemed to think of something. He reached into his pocket, took out his phone, and opened the calendar.

The time displayed on the phone was April 24, 2014.

This should be the current time point of the instance.

Earlier in the morgue, the corpse with the sewn eyes and mouth had an estimated time of death of 2:00 AM on April 20, which was four days ago.

According to the information Xue Mingyan provided when assigning the morgue task, the corpses in any of the morgues would not stay in Fukang Hospital for more than a week.

In that case…

The corpses currently lying in the hospital’s morgue should all be people who died this week.

Then, their medical records were highly likely not yet archived.

Thinking of this, Su Cheng walked toward the file cart near the entrance of the archive room. Scattered documents were piled on the cart, which should be the materials that hadn’t had time to be archived yet.

He squatted beside the file cart and began carefully flipping through them one by one.

Found it!

Su Cheng’s eyes lit up as he pulled out a seemingly brand-new folder from the cart.

The more he read, the heavier the expression on his face became.

He did a rough count. The number of deaths during this recent period was over eighty, but the number of corpses in the morgue, even including Lin Qing, was a mere thirty-six. Although this could be explained as perhaps being claimed early by family members or other institutions, another point could not be logically explained no matter what.

Among these eighty-plus deaths, twenty-seven were male, and the rest were all female.

However, in the morgue, all twenty-seven males were present—which meant that all the missing corpses were female.

After carefully flipping through the medical records, Su Cheng made an even more important discovery.

—Aside from Lin Qing, all these missing corpses were pregnant women and dead infants.

With an ashen face, Su Cheng closed the file and threw it back onto the file cart.

He finally understood why, when assigning the patrol floors on the first floor earlier, the streamer who had returned from the archive room was so unwilling to go to the third floor.

No matter what angle you looked at it from…

The third floor was undeniably the most dangerous.

And the person sent to the third floor entirely alone was undoubtedly the unluckiest bastard in the entire instance.

Fukang Private General Hospital, third floor, Obstetrics and Gynecology Department.

The Mohawk guy stared at the young man before him in bewilderment and uncertainty. For a moment, he couldn’t grasp whether the other party was an arrogant newbie who didn’t know the immensity of heaven and earth, or a true bigshot who held the winning ticket and remained unfazed in the face of danger.

Wen Jianyan took out his phone and opened his system shop to take a look.

As the points in his account grew, although the D-rank shop hadn’t been unlocked yet, he could already see the appearance and specific effects of quite a few items inside.

…Including this one.

His gaze landed on one of the items. His eyelashes drooped slightly, concealing the faint glint in his eyes.

This item was extremely important, practically an indispensable link in his upcoming plan.

“What… what are you planning to do next?”

The mohawk guy asked somewhat hesitantly.

“To escape, of course.” Wen Jianyan smiled faintly. He raised his head, his handsome face illuminated by the phone screen, coated in a shallow halo of light.

He added casually:

“The completely intact, without a single scratch kind.”

Even though he was somewhat mentally prepared, upon hearing this almost arrogant declaration from the other party’s mouth, the mohawk guy couldn’t help but be shocked.

How could that be possible?

Although he wasn’t a high-level streamer who had experienced hundreds of instances, his survival experience from the past few instances told him very clearly that this was a dead end.

As long as one was entangled by the infant spirit’s umbilical cord, unless they actively let go, there was no way to survive.

If there was only one, it might be manageable, but right now this nursery was full of infant spirits. Even if you repelled one, a second and a third would still latch on, sooner or later draining all of the streamer’s points. It was an almost unsolvable existence.

“Furthermore…”

Wen Jianyan crouched down, meeting his gaze at eye level, and said with a smile:

“If I’m in a good mood, taking you out with me isn’t out of the question.”

“?!”

The mohawk guy’s eyes widened, and he subconsciously held his breath.

Behind the young man was the eerie nursery swirling with dark energy. The livid-black infant spirits emitted giggling sounds that almost made one shiver uncontrollably. Yet, for some reason, even in such an environment, the young man before him exuded an undeniable, powerful confidence.

His voice was calm and soft, possessing a magical charm that made one helplessly want to believe him.

Even though he knew deeply that the current situation was almost unsolvable, a spark of hope couldn’t help but light up in the mohawk guy’s eyes.

However, he knew very well that there was no such thing as a free lunch.

He steadied his mind, trying his best to use the calmest tone to ask slowly:

“What do you want?”

“Oh? It seems you’re mentally prepared?” The young man smiled faintly, flickering specks of light reflecting in his amber eyes: “My commission fee is quite hefty, you know.”

“I, I have eighteen thousand points left right now.”

The mohawk guy straightened up, speaking with some urgency.

“Eighteen thousand…” Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes, the expression on his face somewhat elusive.

The mohawk guy’s live broadcast room had already exploded.

[Fuck, the guy opposite is absolutely not some bigshot! I just went to his stream to check; he’s an E-rank streamer who has only experienced one instance! A noob among noobs, a rookie among rookies. Plus, he’s rumored to be a habitual scammer. Streamer, absolutely do not believe a word he says!]

[And his stream is actually named “Integrity First,” I spit! Have you no shame!]

[Yeah! An E-rank streamer can bring at most one thousand points into an instance. It’s not even time for the live broadcast point settlement yet. Even if you beat him to death, he couldn’t pull out enough points to buy an item to counter the ghost babies!]

[Exactly, exactly. I’ve watched this Fukang Hospital instance before. Once you’re dragged into this nursery by a ghost baby, you’re dead for sure. Neither streamer has the right to look down on the other; they are both rats trapped in the same hole. At most, it’s just a difference of who dies first and who dies later.]

[The above user comments involve a streamer in the same hall and will only be visible to viewers.]

Seeing that his initial offer didn’t seem to move the other party, the mohawk guy gritted his teeth and, as if going all in, said: “I also have a Hard-level item left over from a previous instance here. Although it’s only Hard-level, its rarity is very high. Even in the free trading market, it could sell for at least thirty thousand points. If you can really get me out, I’m willing to give it to you!”

Wen Jianyan raised his eyebrows, his interest piqued: “Oh? What item?”

The mohawk guy took out his phone, opened his backpack, and showed one of the items to Wen Jianyan.

It was a very old-looking toy gun. The teal paint had peeled off, revealing the pale plastic handle. Dried brownish bloodstains remained near the muzzle. Below it was the item description:

[Vengeful Spirit’s Toy Gun (Hard-level item in the Orphanage instance)
Effect: Fires a guaranteed-hit bullet, 100% eliminates a single energy entity (Uses: 1)]

The mohawk guy smiled bitterly: “Actually, it was my error in judgment. If I had used this item from the very beginning, I probably wouldn’t have ended up in this state.”

Unfortunately, due to his error in judgment and hesitation, he was dragged to this place by the ghost baby—

Only then did he sharply realize that the existence of this item was already meaningless.

The [Vengeful Spirit’s Toy Gun] could only be used once. Even if he eliminated this current ghost baby, he still couldn’t escape the fate of being used as a host mother. The ending would remain unchanged.

He looked hopefully at the young man in front of him.

Wen Jianyan tossed out an ambiguous evaluation as if granting a favor: “…Not bad.”

Since his most useful possession had been handed over, the mohawk guy no longer cared about anything else. He used 1000 points to exchange for a temporary contract in the system shop: “If you are truly willing to save me and get me out, in this instance, I will become your subordinate. You will take a 20% cut of my point earnings, I cannot lie to you, and, under the premise of guaranteeing my own life safety, I will obey all your commands.”

Wen Jianyan did a rough calculation in his head.

—This sheep had been sheared almost bald; there was no more wool to be had.

Since that was the case, it was about time to wrap things up.

Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, looking at the other party with feigned regret:

“Do you think this is enough?”

“Or rather, do you think these things are of any use to me?”

The mohawk guy froze, his eyes instantly dimming.

Indeed, these things he offered were merely a drop in the bucket to a bigshot who had the means to repel all the infant spirits. His total points might just be the loose change from the tips the other party earned in a single stream, and some rare Hard-level item was nothing more than icing on the cake for a high-level streamer, completely dispensable.

He had absolutely nothing left to trade.

“Though, the conditions you offered don’t have too high of an appeal.”

Just then, the young man’s tone shifted, a smile evident in his voice: “However, I’m a very kind-hearted person. Giving you a hand isn’t out of the question… Plus, I’m quite interested in the information you possess right now.”

He narrowed his eyes slightly, tapping his lips with his fingertips: “How about this. Let’s add a little bonus to this deal, and we’ll call it a trade.”

The mohawk guy’s eyes widened, and he looked up at the other party apprehensively: “Wh-what?”

“Isn’t there a Sleeping Candy in the D-rank shop?” the young man said casually. “That’ll do.”

Very few people bought this item because its usage conditions were too restrictive and harsh, making it practically useless in most situations. Therefore, the price was cheap, only five hundred points.

The mohawk guy, who had thought the other party would demand an exorbitant price, was stunned.

He stared blankly at the young man before him, a trace of astonishment and being moved surfacing in his eyes.

J-just this is enough?

This was truly doing charity!

This bigshot was way too kind!

In the mohawk guy’s live broadcast room:

[…I bet fifty points that dog scammer on the other side only wanted this item from the very beginning.]

[I’ll match you a hundred points!]

[Yeah, he’s E-rank. Even if he has enough points, he can’t buy items in the D-rank shop. I’m guessing the other guy was aiming for this hypnosis candy from the start.]

[Fuck me, a deal that could have been made for a five-hundred-point item was forcefully hyped up to this level, and he even made our streamer immensely grateful, even thinking he got a bargain…]

[…What kind of natural-born capitalist is this! (Slowly leans back)]

[What I’m more curious about is what he wants this Sleeping Candy for. Even if he makes the infant spirit fall asleep, it’s impossible for it to let go of the umbilical cord… I really don’t get it, what exactly is the opposing streamer trying to do? Does he really think this useless item can save their lives?]

[Sorry everyone, I’m just too curious, I’m going to the live broadcast room next door! I’ll be back later!]

[Me too, wait for me!]

The number of online viewers in the mohawk guy’s live broadcast room plummeted, while the number of online viewers in Wen Jianyan’s “Integrity First” live broadcast room began to skyrocket. Everyone coming in was a curious viewer wanting to see from a first-person perspective exactly what this streamer was up to.

After confirming the clauses, the two pressed their fingerprints onto the temporary contract. The yellowed parchment flashed and instantly dissolved into motes of light, disappearing. This meant that the transaction was protected by the system, and neither party could violate it.

Wen Jianyan opened his backend. The [Vengeful Spirit’s Toy Gun] and [Sleeping Candy] appeared in his backpack, a trace of a smile rapidly fleeting across his lips.

Excellent, this transaction was very pleasant.

Following that, he opened the system shop backend, spent 1000 points to purchase a five-minute access window to the daily necessities section, and started a shopping spree.

The mohawk guy’s body had reached its limit. He could only sit in place with a massive, seemingly ready-to-burst belly, anxiously watching this “bigshot” who had just struck a deal with him put away his phone, turn around, and walk toward the swarm of infant spirits.

He really didn’t know what god-tier methods the other party had to get them both out of this, now that things had reached this stage.

Five minutes later, the young man put his phone back in his pocket, then followed the umbilical cord around his waist forward, accurately locating the ghost baby clinging to him.

“Baby, why didn’t you come looking for Mommy?”

The young man’s voice was gentle and soft, carrying a hint of doting and reproach.

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