Worldwide Awakening: My Soul Kinds Are Lost-Chapter 384: Why Does this Surgery Feel Like Blacksmithing?_1
CLANG! CLANG!
"That noise... Are you sure Linyuan Fish is actually performing surgery? It sounds more like a blacksmith at work."
Hand of God wiped the sweat from his forehead, his expression a little grim.
This morning, the three of them reported for duty smoothly. Not long after, a patient arrived. Wang Linchi started by making things difficult, demanding various examination reports. Surprisingly, it actually intimidated the patient, who scrambled around until afternoon to gather all the necessary documents. Then Wang Linchi simply announced he was preparing for surgery. The other two had expected him to say something like, "Go home and wait for news," or "We’ll give you an answer within seven days." If he had dared to say that, however, this particular patient would have instantly activated the killing rule.
What followed were those sounds from the operating room, startling them both. Initially, Hand of God worried Wang Linchi was in danger. Any normal Player would have assumed the noise meant an Erroneous Sin was attacking a Player. To their utter astonishment, it turned out to be Wang Linchi tormenting the Erroneous Sin. Before Hand of God could even enter the operating room to check, Wang Linchi detected him, stopped him, and shooed him away. Based on Hand of God’s observations, Wang Linchi wasn’t being controlled; he was genuinely performing some kind of surgery.
"About half an hour left. If he comes out of the operating room successfully, then there shouldn’t be any problem," Green Plum Brews Wine said, his face a bit pale.
Last night, the Director of Personnel Affairs had attacked. He and Hand of God had managed to escape, but not without Green Plum Brews Wine sustaining some injuries. The attack had forcibly reduced his game character’s maximum Health and inflicted a Weak status on him, lasting twenty-four hours. Naturally, he couldn’t recover yet, hence his current appearance. Fortunately, other aspects weren’t affected.
"This kid is too bizarre. He reminds me of the Demon Slayer from back then," Hand of God said, still somewhat shaken.
"Definitely not the Demon Slayer. He’s the leader of the Fallen Players, after all. Even though he was defeated by the Game System and retreated, he wouldn’t need to disguise himself to mess with us." Green Plum Brews Wine didn’t think he and Hand of God were important enough for Ye Tian to notice. They weren’t on the same level, so their paths were unlikely to cross. Besides, the two of them were cannon fodder at best. Killing them would be pointless.
"True. But we can’t keep dragging on like this, can we?" Hand of God grimaced. Following Wang Linchi was indeed very stable: have the patient undergo checks in the morning, perform surgery in the afternoon, and then clock off. It wasn’t like other Players, who were having a really tough time.
"We have no choice. The difficulty is too high. It’s not like we didn’t go out today; you saw the situation."
"Everyone’s watching us. If we actually tried to go over there, we’d probably die on the spot." Green Plum Brews Wine also felt aggrieved. Other Players could at least move around the entire hospital, but they still hadn’t found a way to leave their department.
"We made the wrong choice back then. We should have picked Nurses. Having Linyuan Fish as the only doctor would have been enough," Hand of God sighed.
Green Plum Brews Wine retorted irritably, "How could it be that simple? Could you have trusted him back then, before all this?"
Linyuan Fish hadn’t helped them become doctors, and for that reason, they wouldn’t trust him. This in itself was a paradox.
"True, this really is a headache." Hand of God had realized that the doctor role offered the best chance of survival if one had the necessary skills, even allowing for some control. But this doesn’t align with our goal, he thought. Our mission is to find the dean.
They had preliminarily determined that the dean wasn’t in the hospital’s dean’s office and seemed to have disappeared. They needed to find him within a year to trigger the next part of the main quest. Fortunately, this was a shared main quest. As long as one Player found the dean, the remaining Players would also complete it.
「On the other side,」 Wang Linchi had begun suturing the Erroneous Sin before him.
"You there... don’t let your wound touch water for a while, understand?" Wang Linchi’s tone was very gentle, a stark contrast to the brutal methods he had just employed on this Erroneous Sin.
This Erroneous Sin, named Glutton Ghost, appeared to be a subordinate of the Shadow of Gluttony, possessing similar abilities. After being tortured... or rather, treated by Wang Linchi, it now looked dazed. A trickle of reddish, viscous fluid occasionally oozed from the corner of its mouth, as if an internal injury had just been healed.
It definitely wouldn’t die. Since it had delivered itself to his doorstep, Wang Linchi had very ’kindly’ modified this Glutton Ghost into a collector, using it to plunder the power of both the hospital and the Game System. The process had been quite smooth. The only downside was that after the modification, it was as quiet as if its frontal lobe had been removed—utterly silent. But this was understandable, considering how much its brain and body had been altered. It was only alive because it was an Erroneous Sin, not a conventional life form. The earlier noises, like a blacksmith at work, were naturally part of this modification process.
"I’m talking to you. Why aren’t you reacting at all?" Seeing this, Wang Linchi wasn’t displeased; on the contrary, he looked quite satisfied.
If this thing shows even the slightest reaction, I’ll have to announce an extension to the surgery, he thought. I’ve buried so many secrets in its body. What if they get out?
After another careful examination, he tidied up and began to wheel the hospital bed out.
Hand of God and Green Plum Brews Wine, who had been waiting anxiously, hurried over. "How did it go? Was it successful?"
"Quite smoothly. The patient was very cooperative," Wang Linchi replied, also sounding rather pleased.
"It’s not dead, is it? Why is it covered with a white sheet?" Green Plum Brews Wine exclaimed, startled. This is too much! Erroneous Sins can’t be killed! 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂
"Ah! My apologies, my apologies. Old habits die hard from... previous work," Wang Linchi said, realizing his oversight and looking slightly embarrassed. He quickly pulled the white cloth down.
This only made the other two look even more horrified.
"You turned it into an idiot?!" Hand of God was utterly shocked. Erroneous Sins indeed couldn’t be killed, but an intelligent one could certainly be tortured into idiocy.
Yes, from my perspective, Wang Linchi’s so-called surgery was more likely torture, Hand of God thought. He probably just used some rule within the operating room to suppress the Erroneous Sin’s power.
Moreover, Wang Linchi had said he was ’used to this.’ What on earth was he doing before the game even appeared? The thought sent a shiver down their spines. They unanimously concluded they had encountered a depraved, murdering demon—perhaps even a serial one.
"How is that possible? He’s recovered," Wang Linchi said, displeased. My medical skills, which have little to do with science, are like those of a divine doctor reincarnated! How dare they say I turned him into an idiot?
"Let me tell you, it had aggressive tendencies. I used my profound medical techniques to cure it through surgery alone, without resorting to psychotherapy or medication. How can you make such baseless accusations?"
Hearing Wang Linchi’s explanation, Hand of God and Green Plum Brews Wine were dumbfounded.
"But... its medical record says it had a bone stuck in its throat!" Green Plum Brews Wine exclaimed, nearly losing it. Something is definitely wrong here!
Wang Linchi fell silent.
"Don’t tell me you didn’t even look at the medical record before starting the... ahem, treatment?" Hand of God had previously been unsure if Wang Linchi was actually performing surgery. Now he was certain: this wasn’t surgery at all.
"Oh, is that so? No matter. Just consider it a complimentary service." Wang Linchi admitted he hadn’t read the chart. I’m not a proper doctor anyway, why would I read a medical chart? he thought, then said gravely, "However, there’s a very serious problem now."
"You didn’t fail to find the bone, did you? With all that noise earlier, there must have been one," Green Plum Brews Wine interjected immediately.
"Not exactly. The main issue is, there’s a huge mass of internal organs in there, and I don’t know which part the bone is stuck in. If you two have a moment, could you help me find it?" Wang Linchi said helplessly.
"What’s so hard about that? Isn’t it just..." Hand of God was about to say ’leave it to me’ when Green Plum Brews Wine stopped him.
"What’s the exact situation?" Green Plum Brews Wine asked cautiously. He had a nagging feeling something was off.
Wang Linchi stepped aside, pushed open the door, and gestured them in. Inside the operating room, a small mountain of what looked like garbage was piled up. On closer inspection, it was a heap of various severed limbs, organs, bones, and other remains. The sight made both their faces turn pale.
"This does look really troublesome," Hand of God muttered, his expression a mixture of shock and disgust. He desperately wondered how so many innards could have been extracted from such a tiny Erroneous Sin.
"Let’s start searching. Otherwise, we can forget about resting tonight." Green Plum Brews Wine’s face was also grim. But there was no choice; if they didn’t complete this task, they would all die here today.
"The problem is, what kind of bone are we looking for? It has a lot of bones in its body—some still with flesh attached, others half-rotten," Wang Linchi grumbled.
