WTNL Chapter 36

Fukang Hospital
Chapter 36: Mother of the World

Fukang Private General Hospital, Second Basement Floor.

A strong, putrid stench permeated the chilling air, mixed with the sweet metallic scent of blood and the smell of formalin, rushing straight to the head and causing dizziness.

Infant specimens on iron racks, stitched corpses standing blankly in the corners, bizarre patterns drawn and traced on the floor.

Everything within sight appeared exceptionally bizarre and terrifying.

Wen Jianyan was confined to a delivery bed, his wrists and ankles securely locked by cold metal, the hard edges causing a dull ache.

He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stay calm.

That legendary-level special item was placed on a surgical tray near his head. The pale yellow liquid took on a murky texture under the light. A shriveled, deformed infant with a large head and a small body bobbed up and down in the liquid.

He didn’t know if it was an illusion…

But it felt as if it were alive, even slowly moving its atrophied limbs.

Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze and looked around the rest of the second basement floor.

He realized that the delivery bed he was lying on wasn’t the only one in the basement. To be precise, an entire row of delivery beds was lined up next to him. Dried, dark brown bloodstains remained on the cold, white iron railings, and every bed showed signs of having been used.

—Only one delivery bed was not empty.

A pitch-black, shriveled corpse lay on a delivery bed. Its twig-like wrists and ankles were secured to the racks, hanging down limply. The shriveled skin clung tightly to the skull, its mouth wide open, revealing two rows of protruding teeth.

The throat was slit open, like a mouth unable to bleed, gaping dryly.

A shocking gash tore open the corpse’s belly, as if something had violently ripped it apart from the inside.

This manner of death…

Wen Jianyan froze slightly.

Lin Qing?

The other party seemed to notice Wen Jianyan’s reaction and followed his gaze:

“Ah, her.”

The Director, covered head-to-toe in stitches, leaned in close: “Just a failed product.”

His face also looked as if it had been sectioned. The two eyeballs were of different colors, and their heights and sizes were completely mismatched, as if they came from two different bodies.

The Director of Fukang Hospital examined the young man’s face under the light, speaking in a nonchalant tone: “What a pity. I had high hopes for her, but I didn’t expect her to secretly gather information and evidence…”

“Even as a mother body, she was equally disappointing.”

“The Holy Infant only stayed inside her body for two days.”

While speaking, the Fukang Director picked up that small jar from the surgical tray beside him, gazing at the tiny infant floating inside with fanatical and adoring eyes.

He turned his head with a smile, looking at Wen Jianyan, who was tied to the bed:

“But, since you could get along so well with the ghost infants, I’m sure the Holy Infant can too.”

The young man, who had been silent since the beginning, finally spoke slowly:

“I… have a question.”

“You have no right to ask questions.” The Director broke into a wide smile, a cruel, cold light flashing in his eyes. “Why do you think I have an obligation to answer your questions?”

“All you need to do is hatch the Holy Infant.”

Wen Jianyan: “I understand, but…”

His words paused hesitantly, deliberately leaving a brief blank space.

The other party’s attitude was truly too strange. In this kind of situation, it always made one feel incomprehensible, and one couldn’t help but be curious about what the other party actually wanted to say.

This feeling of things being out of his control made the Director a bit anxious:

“But what?”

“But have you ever thought about why you’ve kept failing so many times before?”

“…”

The Director remained silent, narrowing his eyes.

“I understand that to hatch the Holy Infant, a qualified physical body is a must.”

Wen Jianyan slowly, seriously, and deliberately began to weave his nonsense:

“However, the Mother of the World must be an ideological form beyond humanity. Is it possible that the mother bodies you found before kept failing not necessarily because the quality of the physical body was unqualified, but because the spiritual body was not acknowledged?”

“Or rather, if the mother body’s spiritual body rejects the Holy Infant too much, would it be doubly judged as unqualified?”

Wen Jianyan’s lies flowed increasingly smoothly:

“Of course, you are the professional in this field. As a doctor, you should know better than I do that sometimes the patient’s own will can also affect the rejection of an organ transplant, right?”

The other party remained silent.

“You see, I do get along very well with the ghost infants, and I don’t think you’ll ever find a second person like me. If I also fail to hatch it as a mother body, wouldn’t that be a real pity?”

While speaking, Wen Jianyan cast a glance at the two stitched monsters not far away:

“I am tied up tightly now, and with those two gods of plague here, the ghost infants wouldn’t dare come out and help me. So what do you have to worry about?”

He looked at the Fukang Director again, speaking sincerely:

“I promise, if you answer my question, I will absolutely not have any rejection towards hatching the Holy Infant.”

Wen Jianyan paused:

“Of course, as a human, basic rejection is definitely uncontrollable, but I promise I won’t scream in terror like the other mother bodies you found before.”

Under the bright light, the young man’s eyes, covered in ghostly aura, had a hint of pale amber. His expression was sincere, as if he were truly considering the other party’s perspective.

“This way, even if the hatching fails again this time, it at least proves that my guess just now might not be right, and it can also eliminate a wrong option for you, which is also beneficial for your future experiments. Don’t you agree?”

After a brief silence, the Director said slowly:

“…What is your purpose in helping me so selflessly?”

“Even if someone is going to die, they should at least die knowing why, right?”

Wen Jianyan smiled somewhat bashfully: “Of course, there is one more thing I believe you have also seen through.”

The young man said embarrassedly:

“…Actually, I’m doing this to stall for time.”

“Humans, you know, always have an uncontrollable will to survive. Even at this point, I still can’t help but hope my teammates will come save me. But now I’m unarmed and have no means to fight against you, so I can only hope to stall for time through this conversation, and see if I can use it to escape my destined death.”

Inside the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Fuck, why do I feel like I’m actually convinced!!!]

[I never believed in persuading the BOSS with just words, but this time, I have to say… it’s just… really… it’s a big world, full of wonders.]

[This Black team captain really has some skills… First, he raises doubts based on known conditions, shaking the other party’s belief in their actions. Then, he retreats to advance, actively cooperating, reducing the degree of threat he poses to the other party, demonstrating his utilization value. Finally, he confesses at the last moment. On the one hand, he gains the other party’s trust by revealing his petty thoughts, and on the other hand, he exploits the arrogance of the instance BOSS… Just, with this combo of moves, it’s basically in the bag.]

[The person above, stop bragging. So what if it’s in the bag? Even if it is, he can only delay for a little while at most. He doesn’t really think his teammates can find this place, does he? Even if they do, it’s useless, they’ll just be throwing their lives away.]

[Yeah, the streamer is just making a dying struggle now, scraping a little time from between the BOSS’s fingers.]

[Wait! That’s not right! I remember now, do you guys remember?! The item snatching battle the system mentioned before. If the Red team fails to snatch it within an hour, the Black team will be judged the winner!]

[Right! This BOSS is ultimately just an NPC in the instance, he doesn’t know this rule. That is to say, as long as the streamer can hold out for… the remaining ten or so minutes, he will be judged the winner! And then he will be extracted from the instance. That’s what he should be betting on!]

[Fuck, the streamer’s move is on the atmospheric level! [Tipping Points 100]]

[Black team is awesome! Black team will win! [Tipping Points 100]]

[So, it all depends on whether he can scam these twenty minutes from the BOSS now, ahhhhh I’m looking forward to it!]

After thinking briefly for a few seconds, the Director of Fukang Hospital raised his eyes, staring fixedly at the other party with those asymmetrical, cold eyeballs, and slowly repeated what he had said on the fourth floor:

“…I really underestimated you.”

Wen Jianyan’s breathing involuntarily hitched slightly. Although his face remained unchanged, his stomach was already tightly knotted, and his heart was beating violently in his chest, almost rising to his throat.

His stalling for time was indeed to wait for the snatching battle to end, so the Black team would automatically win.

But besides that, he had another reason for doing this—

That was because the apple seedling’s upgrade was almost complete, so he needed more time to wait, otherwise, he could only use the un-upgraded Fruit of Lies.

The LV1 Fruit of Lies relied too much on probability and luck, but it was also the only trump card left in his hand right now.

“So…”

The Director’s tone shifted, narrowing his eyes slightly: “This time it might really succeed.”

He placed the jar back on the surgical tray and said, “Ask away.”

Wen Jianyan discreetly breathed a sigh of relief.

He pondered for two seconds and spoke:

“I am curious about one thing. Since what you need is a mother body capable of hatching the Holy Infant, what are those ghost infants for?”

“The resentment of a hundred human infants can hatch one ghost infant. The resentment of a hundred ghost infants can hatch one Holy Infant,” the Director said slowly.

Hearing what the other party said, even though he was mentally prepared, Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but feel a thrill of fear.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down:

“But, if that’s really the case, wouldn’t the number of missing infants in this hospital be too high?”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” the Director smiled. “We naturally have our own petri dishes.”

“As long as it’s operated properly, one pregnant woman can produce two to three hundred grains of infants.”

Grains.

The use of this word was truly terrifying.

“After the children are born, they will claim the grain of infant that belongs to them, and then forget everything that happened here. And the rest will become the hatching nourishment for the ghost infants,” the Director explained patiently.

Wen Jianyan recalled the pregnant women he saw in the maternity department on the third floor, thirsting for blood like female mosquitoes.

And mosquitoes… produce about two to three hundred eggs at a time.

He racked his brains looking for more questions to stall for time when suddenly, a chill touched his wrist, which was tightly bound above his head, without warning—like cold fingers brushing across his palm, secretly slipping something inside.

What is this?

Wen Jianyan shivered and reflexively tightened his fingers, hiding it between his fingers.

…A hairpin.

He froze slightly, seemingly realizing something, and turned his head to look at the shriveled corpse lying on the delivery bed in the distance.

It still lay motionless in the distance, and a white shadow seemed to faintly sway past the shriveled corpse.

Wen Jianyan’s mind flashed back to the white shadow that flashed by before the elevator doors closed in the morgue on the first underground floor, and Lin Qing in the third-floor maternity department, covered in blood, eyes wide with rage, desperately screaming “Second Basement Floor.”

Although there was no evidence, Wen Jianyan instinctively arrived at the answer.

It was her.

It was Lin Qing.

She… bravely made changes while alive, but paid the price with her life. However, even after death, she still tried to save everyone.

Whether it was her own younger brother or a liar full of falsehoods pretending to be her ex-boyfriend.

“Enough.”

Seemingly having waited too long, the Director said impatiently: “You have asked enough questions.”

His face twitched slightly under the light, looking somewhat hideous:

“I have done everything I can by answering so many questions for you. Time cannot be delayed indefinitely, don’t you think?”

Inside the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Whoa, this BOSS still has some brains, not completely fooled by the scammer.]

[Right, right. Anyway, all the questions that needed answering have been answered. Otherwise, the longer the night, the more dreams, who knows what will happen.]

[Sigh, what a pity. The streamer is really finished this time.]

[Yeah, it’s only been about five or six minutes. There are still seven or eight minutes left until the snatching battle ends, but I guess he can’t hold on that long.]

While speaking, the Director reached out and slowly picked up the jar beside him.

All the muscles in Wen Jianyan’s body tensed up instantly. His heart pounded wildly in his chest, and his whole being was tense to the extreme.

He moved his fingers difficultly and carefully. With a small, imperceptible movement, he sent the thin, narrow hairpin in his hand into the keyhole on the edge of the shackle.

A faint sound of metal clicking rang in his ears, magnified by his overly tense nerves.

Hurry.

Hurry up.

Just then, the familiar system voice sounded by Wen Jianyan’s ear:

[Ding! The Apple Seedling has been upgraded to LV2]

[Do you wish to acquire the usage instructions for the Fruit of Lies?]

“…!”

I was waiting for you!

Wen Jianyan instantly felt a surge of joy in his heart, and answered decisively in his mind:

Yes!

[You can tell a lie to the main subject in front of you, and it will unconditionally become reality, lasting for one minute. You have three chances]

Wen Jianyan frowned.

This… isn’t this the original rule? How is this an upgrade?

As if hearing Wen Jianyan’s thoughts, the mechanical voice continued:

[After the Fruit of Lies is upgraded, before stating the lie, you can know in advance the probability of that lie being realized.]

The Director leaned over and carefully poured the liquid and the infant inside the jar into a brass basin in front of the delivery table.

He turned on the faucet, and the roaring sound of water pipes echoed all around. More yellowish, murky liquid flowed out, tightly wrapping around the withered infant’s body like amniotic fluid.

[The Fruit of Lies is ripe]
[Do you wish to consume it?]

Yes.

Wen Jianyan thought calmly in his mind.

First lie.

[Lie Success Probability: 40/100]

Although this success rate wasn’t too high, it was still acceptable.

Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, pondering for a long moment, then spoke: “I cannot be used as a mother body.”

Roll, roll.

In mid-air, an exquisite ten-sided die began to spin.

[78/40]
[Failed]

Wen Jianyan: “…”

Sorry to bother you.

The Director sneered: “It’s already come to this, and you are actually still saying such pale and boring things?”

“Perhaps I thought too highly of you.”

He cupped the shriveled infant corpse in his wet hands and slowly walked directly below the delivery bed, stopping between Wen Jianyan’s legs.

“Rip—”

The clothes on Wen Jianyan’s abdomen tore easily like fragile paper.

“Click.”

A faint metallic sound came from above his head.

It opened!

Wen Jianyan’s spirits lifted. He quickly backhanded grabbed the shackles that were about to slip off his wrists, making them still look as if they were visually bound.

Second lie.

[Lie Success Probability: 80/100]

Very good.

Wen Jianyan’s sharp gaze swept to the side.

The surgical tray.

Throwing it at the other party later should buy some time and create an opportunity for him to use his items.

Just one instant is enough.

Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth, his slender fingers tensing up, gripping the shackles tightly. His voice was kept very low, almost just a whisper: “…The lights go out.”

Roll, roll.

In mid-air, the exquisite ten-sided die began to spin again.

[81/80]
[Failed]

Wen Jianyan: “……………………”

Fuck me.

Are you sick in the head!!!!!!

An eighty percent success rate, and he rolled an 81??????

I know my luck value is low, but it can’t be this low, can it!!!!!!

The young man’s firm, slender waistline tightened slightly with anger. His soft lower abdomen caved in, rising and falling rapidly and nervously with his breathing, his abdominal muscles faintly visible. His overly fair skin was almost dazzling under the bright light.

The Director slowly placed the infant in his hands onto Wen Jianyan’s lower abdomen. The coldness made him shiver all over, and goosebumps popped up one after another.

The next second, livid black ghost infants emerged from behind the Director, densely packed, a full one hundred and ten of them.

The room temperature plummeted, and a chilling ghostly aura spread, surrounding him in the middle.

Wuwu.

Wuwuwuwu.

The sound of babies crying came from all directions.

Pairs of pitch-black eyeballs with no whites stared fixedly at the young man trapped on the operating bed. The scene was simply hair-raising.

A smile slowly spread across the Director’s messily stitched face.

Fanatical, greedy, crazy, chilling.

Wen Jianyan’s hair stood on end.

He gritted his teeth, remembering his final lie from last time.

Could it be…

This Fruit of Lies is such that the more outrageous the lie, the easier it is for it to come true?

Third lie.

[Lie Success Probability: 1/100]

Wen Jianyan’s breath hitched, his lower abdomen tightening slightly. His heart sank heavily, bit by bit, like a piece of pig iron weighing down on his abdomen, pulling at his internal organs until they started to ache.

The lie that came true in the last instance had at least a 5% success rate, but this one actually only had 1%.

This… given his luck, it was almost impossible for it to come true.

However, holding onto a faint and unrealistic hope, Wen Jianyan slowly stated his third lie:

“I am the Mother of the World.”

Roll, roll.

In mid-air, the exquisite ten-sided die began to spin once more.

[25/1]

“…”

Just as expected.

Within expectations.

He couldn’t say he was disappointed, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t disappointed either.

Wen Jianyan merely breathed a sigh of relief, accepting this ending almost calmly.

Alright, it seems this is it.

The Director stared at him, slowly smiling, the skin on his face twitching slightly: “That’s right, as long as you gestate the Holy Infant, you will be.”

He muttered something under his breath, seemingly chanting in some ancient language in a very low voice.

It was as if some invisible force was churning wildly in the air. Strong winds howled in the enclosed basement, the shelves holding the specimens emitting overwhelmed creaking sounds, and the lights overhead flickered violently, producing an ear-piercing sizzle of electricity.

Darkness pooled.

Humanity was so insignificant in the face of such unknown, nameless terror.

Wen Jianyan instinctively backed away, but his spine pressed hard against the delivery bed behind him.

Suddenly—

A tiny voice sounded:

“…Mommy, goodbye.”

Wen Jianyan froze slightly, looking in the direction of the voice.

He saw a ghost infant looking at Wen Jianyan hesitantly, reaching out its purplish-blue little hand toward him with longing and fear, seemingly wanting to say something.

But the next second, its entire body was pulled by some unknown force and absorbed into the shriveled infant.

In that instant, Wen Jianyan’s pupils constricted slightly, and his fingertips trembled, seemingly wanting to reach out and grab something.

[Lie Success Probability: 2/100]

…Wait, what?

What does this mean?

Wen Jianyan was stunned, subconsciously looking up—

For some reason, the ten-sided die was actually still suspended in the air, undissipated. Only then did he realize that although it rolled a number earlier, it never prompted a failure.

At some unknown point, the ghost infants that had been trapped behind the Director all this time gathered around.

“Mommy, I will love you forever.”

A second completely livid black ghost infant rested its head on his leg, rubbing against it with childlike dependence. Its purely black eyeballs were full of affection and reluctance: “We must be together forever.”

The next second, its figure slowly faded and disappeared.

Whether it was an illusion or not, the shriveled infant seemed to become a bit plumper.

[Lie Success Probability: 3/100]

“Except for Mommy, no one has ever been willing to sing me lullabies, give me candies, or tell me stories.”

This was the very first ghost infant.

“My mommy is gentle and pretty, and he said he would be with me forever.”

It tightly gripped Wen Jianyan’s pant leg with its little purplish-blue hand, as if holding onto the whole world, and showed off proudly: “My mommy is the best mommy in the world.”

[Lie Success Probability: 4/100]

“Mommy ran back to save me. Not only did he not let me be eaten, he even blew on it to make it better.” The ghost infant with only half its body left was still sobbing, but it remained clinging closely to Wen Jianyan’s side:

“I love Mommy, I love Mommy the most in this world.”

[Lie Success Probability: 5/100]

…

One, two, three, four…

Twenty.

Thirty.

One by one, the ghost infants were absorbed into that tiny Holy Infant. The Holy Infant’s body grew at a visible rate. Its body gradually became heavier, pressing down heavily and coldly on Wen Jianyan’s lower abdomen, as if it wanted to drop straight deep into his stomach and become one with him.

[Lie Success Probability: 50/100]

[Lie Success Probability: 80/100]

[Lie Success Probability: 100/100]

…

[Lie Success Probability: 111/100]

In mid-air, the ten-sided die remained in the distance, maintaining its original appearance, but the number below had changed to:

[25/111]
[Success]

[Streamer Wen Jianyan has become the Mother acknowledged by the Holy Infant]
[The Mother of the World has loaded into the instance]
[Time Limit: One minute]

At some unknown point, the Holy Infant had become the size of a human baby. Its skin was soft and white, lying peacefully and calmly on the young man’s bare abdomen, as if snuggled in its mother’s embrace.

“Wait… how… how could such a thing happen?”

The Director widened his eyes in disbelief.

This… this is completely different from the results of all his previous experiments! The Holy Infant did not dive into the mother’s abdomen to hatch itself using the nutrients of the mother’s body, but rather…

It was successfully born directly on the outside!!

This, this—

“Success… it succeeded!!!!”

A crazy ecstasy flashed in his eyes. Gurgling sounds came from his throat, as if he was going completely mad: “Haha, hahaha, hahahahahaha—”

But the next second, all the ecstasy and madness froze in his eyes.

“Squish.”

The faint sound of a blade sinking into flesh rang out.

The young man had freed himself from the restraints on his wrists at some unknown point. His bare upper body sat up abruptly, like a wild beast tensing its body in the darkness, seizing a fleeting opportunity to strike at its prey.

Wen Jianyan held the infant lying on his abdomen with one hand, and with the other hand, he gripped the scalpel he had picked up from the surgical tray beside him.

Then he backhanded stabbed it in with precision!

His fingers tightly gripped the handle of the knife, the tip slicing along the stitches between the Director’s throat and head, creating a massive wound identical to Lin Qing’s.

“Heh… heh…”

A bizarre sound of wind rushed into the wound. The Director shifted his cloudy eyeballs with difficulty, staring fixedly at the human before him.

He actually… felt pain.

This, this is impossible.

This is impossible!!!!!

It is… impossible for a human to hurt him!!!!!

The intense light of the operating table cascaded from above, spilling over the young man’s fair, exposed shoulders and back, gilding his slender limbs with a layer of pale gold. It was as if his entire person was enveloped in a halo of holy light.

Beneath his long eyelashes, his eyes had returned to their original color. Extremely gentle, extremely beautiful, and extremely focused. Hard and sweet like honey, yet hiding a deadly, poisonous danger.

Wen Jianyan raised his eyes, shattered gold melting in their depths. Looking up from below, he smiled, applying force with his fingertips, and yanked hard—

The black thread tightly sewing the Director’s head and neck snapped, revealing a massive, severed wound.

The young man’s voice was deep and magnetic, carrying an incredibly faint trace of a smile:

“This is for my ex-girlfriend, Lin Qing.”

Wen Jianyan deftly pulled out the scalpel, shaking the blood drops off the gleaming silver blade. Under the other party’s disbelieving gaze, he backhanded the blade into the Director’s abdomen for a second time.

Cyan veins bulged on the back of his hand, a hint of brutal, bestial radiance in his eyes.

He maneuvered the blade to slice open the other party’s lower abdomen and twisted it forcefully. He watched as the dismembered, greasy internal organs spilled out from the torn wound, the spurting blood staining the floor red.

Crimson blood splattered, landing on the young man’s fair face, trickling down his cheek, dripping onto his smooth shoulders and chest. His flawless pallor was dotted with crimson blood.

Like a holy idol stained with blood, falling from grace, plummeting into hell.

Wen Jianyan’s expression was peaceful and calm, his blood-stained lips curving up slightly, a hint of wickedness showing through his gentle and kind facade.

He narrowed his eyes, smiling softly, and whispered:

“This is for my one hundred and ten children.”

__

Author’s Note:

Did you think Xiao Wen would need to be saved by a malicious ghost!!

He doesn’t need to!

Single, beautiful male mommies are the strongest in the world!

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