Working Records in a Weird World - 39

 

| WRIAWW | Go Home Often | 39

Zong Le was completely unaware of the chaos in the morgue.

He got off the elevator on the first floor, letting others push the corpse to the seventh basement level. He himself went to the first floor to receive his next task from He Yi, who was in charge of scheduling.

Just as he entered the lobby, he heard He Yi urgently say, "We're short on people. The obstetrics department just posted a notice about collecting a body. You guys might need to go up there."

"I'm free, I'll go!" Without hesitation, Zong Le pressed the elevator button and headed to the 50th floor.

The others watched the elevator doors close and stood there for a while before someone said, "Wait, why did he go up alone?"

"Not to mention whether he can handle it alone, but just going by himself... isn't that a bit too bold? He's completely ignoring the first rule of survival: stick together."

But Zong Le was too fast, and there was no way to catch up, so they could only complain a bit.

Survivors, having seen life and death too often, tend to be emotionally detached.

Especially in situations like this, where everyone is struggling to survive, taking care of oneself is already a miracle. After all, the adult world has no sympathy for tears, every choice comes with a price paid in blood.

A minute later, Zong Le arrived at the obstetrics department and dashed out.

In the ward, a nurse who happened to be holding a medical record and registering the death was halfway through when she looked up and suddenly found the body on the bed had disappeared. In her confusion, she hurriedly tried to stop him, "Wait, wait, what are you doing?"

Zong Le, who had thrown a white sheet over the body and was carrying it out, came to an abrupt stop, "Huh?"

He looked closely and realized the nurse looked familiar. After a moment of recollection, he finally remembered why.

"Didn't we meet during that mission in Ankang Community? I think you were called something like 'Strategist'?"

Yu Anlian: "..."

Yu Anlian: "Strategist is a nickname. My real name is Yu Anlian."

"Oh, Miss Yu," Zong Le quickly corrected himself, "Did you stop me for something?"

"Yes, I haven't finished registering yet. Put the body down first."

Hearing this, Zong Le obediently complied.

Yu Anlian pulled out a tape measure from her nurse's uniform pocket and crouched down to carefully measure the length of the corpse.

While doing so, she didn’t forget to observe the young man in black standing at the door out of the corner of her eye.

He stood straight, with his hands pressed to his sides. From his posture, it was clear he was a serious and meticulous person.

Yu Anlian had naturally not missed the recent forum leaks about the new talented newcomer. She had already been suspicious of Zong Le during the mission in Ankang Community, and after seeing that every detail in the forum matched him, she was almost certain.

"You’re that new talented newcomer from the forum, aren’t you?" Yu Anlian suddenly spoke up while filling out the data on the record sheet. 

"I didn’t expect you to be so sly. Using your status as a newcomer to stir up so much attention and even getting the major guilds to fight over you. Since they’ve invested so much, they’ll definitely nurture you well. It's killing two birds with one stone, how brilliant."

Though her tone sounded a bit blunt, Yu Anlian wasn’t mocking or belittling him. On the contrary, as someone with a sharp mind, she had always admired those who dared to fight for their own interests and expand their influence. 

For the first time, she felt the rare urge to actively befriend someone.

But to her surprise, Zong Le blinked and said, "Huh? What talented newcomer? That’s not me!"

During the last mission, Bai Shao had referred to him that way, but at the time, the situation was urgent, and the two of them didn’t have a chance to exchange more than a few words before the mission ended.

After returning, Zong Le had even carefully thought about it.

First of all, he had already completed four missions, either independently or with others, not counting the time he barged into an S-level mission. With that number of missions under his belt, he could no longer be called a "newcomer" by any stretch of the imagination.

Originally, Zong Le had planned to explain this to Bai Shao the next time they met and even bring him some braised pork knuckles he had prepared. However, in the operating room earlier, the situation had been too critical, and Zong Le had forgotten about it, so it would have to wait.

What he didn’t know was that his unexpected and firm denial had left Yu Anlian stunned.

"...You’re not?"

"No, I’m not. Miss Yu, you must have mistaken me for someone else."

By now, the Merchant Guild had already sold the information, and the major guilds’ competition had come to an end. Even if this had all been a scheme by the talented newcomer, it was time to close the net.

Yu Anlian couldn’t figure out Zong Le’s motive for denying it. Clearly, acknowledging his identity would bring him more benefits than denying it.

Unless, he really wasn’t the talented newcomer.

"Miss Yu, are you done with the records? If there’s nothing else, I’ll take the body away now?"

"Ah? Oh, sure, go ahead. Wait, I have one last question, what’s your name?"

"My name is Zong Le."

Watching the young man in black walk away, Yu Anlian found herself doubting her own judgment for the first time.

Although she was a newly risen member of the brainpower faction, she couldn’t compare to those in the Infinite Space who were almost demonically intelligent in extracting evidence and constructing logic.

"Something’s not right..."

With this confusion in her heart, Yu Anlian walked into the room and sat down on a chair, spreading her hands.

"What’s wrong?"

Many people are unaware, but in fact, although Yu Anlian hasn’t joined any organization, she is extremely close friends with Ka Guya, the Guild Master of the Moon Guild. 

The latter is known as the least leader-like leader among the major guilds, having no ambition for her career. She usually leaves everything to the vice-leader and acts as a mascot herself.

“I just met that survivor I mentioned to you before, the one suspected to be the talented newcomer. Do you remember?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“He said he’s not the talented newcomer.” Yu Anlian frowned, utterly confused. “You know I’ve studied profiling and can roughly tell if someone is lying.”

“But I just can’t figure it out. According to the reasoning, this conclusion can’t be wrong. Could there be someone else in the Infinite Space who also meets all the criteria?”

Ka Guya looked at her for a moment, then suddenly asked, “Did you ask for his ID?”

“Yes, it’s Zong Le.”

Hearing this, the leader of the Moon Guild calmly lowered her head and started typing on her phone.

Yu Anlian leaned over to look and saw that the other had already opened a chat window with the guild’s vice-leader.

[Ka Guya]: Siqi, the talented newcomer information you bought at a high price from the Merchant Guild last time should include his ID, right? What’s his name?

[147]: Why are you suddenly interested in this?

[147]: His name is Zong Le.

[147]: If you encounter him during this question-level mission, don’t let him go! Oh, I don’t mean for you to kill him, but you must recruit him into the guild.

“Why did you give your vice-leader, Yi Siqi, such a nickname? Though it’s oddly fitting.”

But now was clearly not the time to worry about such things. The most important thing was that the name sent by the other party was exactly the same.

Yu Anlian fell into a long silence.

After a while, she looked at Ka Guya in confusion. “Why do you think this person won’t admit it? What’s in it for him?”

“You’re asking me? I don't know either.”

The two of them sat in silence.

......

At the same time, Zong Le hurriedly carried the body he had received from the obstetrics department back to the first-floor lobby.

The elevator to the morgue was occupied, so he immediately switched to the emergency staircase, sprinting through the dimly lit corridors without showing any signs of strain from the dozens of kilograms he was carrying on his shoulders.

When passing by the Nuclear Medicine Department, Zong Le even managed to free up a hand to kick away a few zombies that had escaped from the department, crushing their heads to ensure they were completely unable to move. After finishing this, he patted his hands and continued downstairs.

"Doing good deeds without leaving a name" had always been his personal motto.

Upon returning to the morgue, Zong Le noticed that the atmosphere was clearly off, much more somber than when he had left. He grabbed a member of the team and finally learned what had happened from him.

"That weird that came to collect the body earlier actually injured someone?!"

"Yeah, who would have thought? You know, we're in the middle of a mission and can't return to the Infinite Space for treatment at the Temple right now, so we just have to endure it. You were lucky not to have been targeted by it."

Zong Le's expression darkened.

After setting down the body, he quietly made a detour and ran to the outside of the break room.

Through the window, he saw Lin Quan, who had his arm cut off, lying unconscious.

The team's survivors had performed emergency bleeding control treatment on him, wrapping up the severed limb. The application form was placed on the table nearby, with the red equal-armed cross symbol prominently displayed.

"Receiving Company: Taikang Yongle Biotech Company."

Even from a distance, Zong Le could clearly read the words at the bottom of the form.

Judging by the prefix "Taikang Yongle," it was undoubtedly another enterprise under the Taikang Yongle Group.

Zong Le memorized the name of this company that brazenly took bodies from the hospital.

Through firsthand investigation, he had come to realize that an invisible human body supply chain had formed beneath the surface of Guiyi City. As a provider, Taikang Yongle Hospital was definitely at the upper end of this chain, and to completely dismantle this black market, merely cleaning up one hospital was far from enough.

Zong Le had an excellent memory, and he clearly remembered the aura of that A-level weird. The next time they met, he would definitely beat that weird half to death for daring to attack his teammate.

The following actions were predictable, dull, and tedious.

As time went on, the hospital's foot traffic increased, and the survivors assigned to the outpatient department reported that the number of NPCs and weirds coming for treatment had reached the point where there was no room to sit. With this trend, the number of dead bodies would only continue to grow.

Originally, Zong Le was only responsible for transporting bodies from the first floor to the morgue, but he was fast and eager to help, often volunteering to collect bodies from other departments when they were overwhelmed.

When he ran to the Ophthalmology Department, he even helped a weird patient put their eyeball back in place. In the unattended nursery of the Pediatrics Department, he took a bottle and acted as a caretaker for a while. 

His actions in the Emergency Department were even more exaggerated—he practiced medicine without a license, looking up a medication process on a machine and helping an NPC hang an IV bag.

Upon returning this time, He Yi stopped him: "Brother Zong, wait a moment."

"A S-level big shot just came down from the operating room and specifically asked for you."

"Ah? What do they want from me?" Zong Le was puzzled.

As he spoke, he looked up and saw a new message refreshing on the notice board, his eyes lighting up.

"Alright, if they comes looking for me again later, just tell them I'm in the psychiatry department."

It had been several months since Zong Le was discharged, and he hadn’t gone back to visit his former fellow patients yet.

This task was the perfect opportunity for him to go back and check on them.

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