Working Records in a Weird World - 40

 

| WRIAWW | Mysterious Psychiatric Boss | 40

After hastily uttering these words, Zong Le turned and stepped into the elevator, effortlessly pressing the button for the 47th floor.

In truth, if it hadn’t been for that troublesome doctor he encountered during his follow-up visit, coupled with the subsequent investigation that revealed the Taikang Yongle Hospital’s involvement in a massive black market chain of illegal practices and human trafficking, Zong Le would have still held a favorable impression of the place.

Due to electric shook therapy, he had lost a significant portion of his memories.

Strictly speaking, Zong Le’s memories essentially began at Taikang Yongle Hospital.

He had not only stayed there for several years but also befriended many fellow patients and got along well with the medical staff. He even became acquainted with Director Deng from the psychiatry department, a kind and generous old man who often let him use his office to enjoy a cup of tea.

It was Director Deng who suggested that he shouldn’t waste his life confined to the psychiatry ward. Since his condition had stabilized, he should go out and explore Guiyi City.

It was on this advice that Zong Le decided to discharge himself and reluctantly left the hospital.

During his last follow-up visit, he had intended to drop by and see the place again. 

However, the doctor’s unbearable behavior led to a physical altercation, and Zong Le hurriedly fled the scene, leaving the matter unresolved. This time, he decided to take the opportunity while on a mission to go up and have a look.

Humming a tune, he waited for the elevator to arrive, unaware that a post about the psychiatry department had already surged to the top of the forum.

When it came to ranking the most challenging departments, no one could overlook the operating room. After all, it was not only assigned to 1st the Saint but also housed two S-levels and several A-levels survivors.

However, this record was shattered an hour ago by the sudden emergence of the psychiatry department, all because of a single post.

[Holy crap, why are all the patients in the psychiatry department weird?!]

OP: I was assigned to the psychiatry department. Seeing that the team was led by 2nd S-level Qin Ye, I thought the mission would be a breeze. Little did I know, this was the beginning of a nightmare...

Why didn’t anyone tell me before entering this department that the patients aren’t just A-level weirds but also include S-level weirds??? Asking us to treat these weirds without resorting to force is like sending lambs to the slaughter!

The survivors in the comments were in stitches.

[Hahaha, I thought the operating room was bad enough, but this takes the cake!]

[All weird patients, RIP. I’ll light a row of candles for you here. candles.jpg]

The OP described in detail the inhumane treatment he endured in the psychiatry department. This included, but was not limited to, the medical staff being just as crazy as the patients, occasionally popping out from dark corners for a surprise jump scare. 

The patients, on the other hand, were all weirds who roamed the corridors in the dark, pulling pranks like swapping medication with candy when you turned your back.

The most terrifying aspect is that the director of this department has his own set of diagnostic criteria. Even for survivors who were assistants, if they fail to follow the "Psychiatric Department Rules Guide" posted in the hallway or perform any operation improperly, they are immediately deemed to be admitted.

Consequently, they are stripped of their medical staff identity, forced to wear patient gowns, and instantly reduced from medical staff to patients.

OP: Before entering this department, I thought the most terrifying thing would be the weird patients. However, after actually stepping in, I realized that the real horror lies in the NPCs. Although the patients here are indeed crazy, so far, apart from playing pranks and scaring people, there haven’t been any incidents of injury or murder. The S-level weird patient, whom we initially thought was the most terrifying, is now lying severely injured and sound asleep in his hospital bed. On the other hand, the NPC caregivers are increasingly growing more vicious.

In this post, the OP describes one of his personal experiences.

[At the time, I was doing my rounds and noticed that the patient in Bed 9 had an allergic reaction to medication, so I urgently pressed the call button. A C-level survivor on duty at the nurse station saw it, they hastily prepared an anti-allergy injection, and rushed over. Unexpectedly, he ran into Director Deng of the Psychiatric Department in the hallway. The director immediately noticed that the C-level survivor wasn’t wearing a nurse’s cap. With a single command, the NPC staff swarmed out, shouting, "You’ve violated Rule 5 of the Psychiatric Department: Medical staff must be properly dressed." They then stripped him of his nurse uniform, dressed him in a blue-and-white striped gown, and sent him to a controlled bed where they forcibly administered medication.]

As everyone knows, anti-psychotic drugs come with severe side effects, especially in a black hospital like Taikang Yongle within this instance. To achieve immediate results, these medications are administered in doses that far exceed safe limits, often by a hundred times.

Moreover, it’s a habit in the Psychiatric Department to lock each ward after administering medication, only reopening them during the next round of medication or patient checks. 

By the time the department’s survivors received the news and rushed in to save him, the C-level survivor was already in a state of dementia due to the drug’s side effects. His eyes were glazed, drool soaked half his pillow, and he only responded with a twitching reaction to any stimulation.

This post left everyone speechless.

[Damn, can the Temple even treat this kind of internal injury?]

[Yes, brother, the Temple can cure all ailments. However, recovery from mental injuries takes a long time, and even after healing, it leaves a lifelong psychological scar. I’ve personally experienced it, and it’s truly a painful past I’d rather not recall.]

[Well, well, the Psychiatric Department has turned into a rule-based horror story, huh?]

[Exactly! Not only did the OP post about it, but there’s also another post from the Psychiatric Department next door. Another survivor, an A-level one, violated the department’s rules. He tried to resist by using his strength but was immediately overwhelmed by the NPCs. He’s now been strapped to an electric chair for half an hour, and who knows how he’s doing...]

It must be said that during missions, seeing others’ misfortunes can somewhat lift one’s spirits.

As the team leader of the Psychiatric Department, Qin Ye is under immense pressure.

Their department actually received no fewer S-level assignments than the operating room, but the cases were far more challenging.

Even though, up to now, the weird patients had not shown any signs of harming others, but that didn’t mean they never would. 

Moreover, the way these patients behaved during their episodes was utterly deranged. Dealing with mentally unstable individuals was already difficult enough, let alone weirds.

However, as the leader of one of the three major guilds, Qin Ye’s perspective was far more long-term than that of ordinary survivors.

The difficulty assigned by the system was assigned based on levels. The first ?-level mission in the ultimate dungeon was indeed tough, but at most, it would result in individual losses without causing the entire mission to fail. Compared to the current tasks in Guiyi City, which remained shrouded in mystery, was far more important.

For this reason, Qin Ye had spent a significant amount of time on ward rounds, aiming to extract more information about the ultimate dungeon from these intelligent weird patients.

"Number three, have you had any thoughts of harming anyone today?"

"No, hehe! No!"

"Number two, what about you?"

"My flesh smells so good! I want to eat myself! I want to eat myself!"

Qin Ye sighed and re-tightened the leg restraints on Number two with a headache.

He knew this guy had a special lock-picking skill, learned from who knows where, and the entire psychiatric ward couldn’t stop him. Every time they secured him, once the ward rounds were over and all the survivors went to prepare medication, he would sneak into the hallway, searching room by room for surgical knives, trying to cut his own flesh to eat.

The most absurd part was that after being caught by the staff, Director Deng wouldn’t blame the patient but would instead punish the survivors for failing to take care of him.

But not long ago, Qin Ye had learned a crucial piece of information from another patient, and it would require Number two's cooperation to act on it.

So, he cleared his throat.

His deputy, An Tao, immediately understood and went to the door to ensure no one was passing by in the hallway.

"Number two, I have an idea. Would you like to hear it?"

Hearing this, the frantically struggling Number two suddenly stopped and looked at him with dark, wide eyes.

Seeing this, Qin Ye felt a bit more at ease. Through recent observations, he had realized that while the patients in the psychiatric ward were mentally unstable, it didn’t mean they were unintelligent. Except for the particularly deranged ones, the rest could communicate normally.

"Here’s the deal, Number two. You want to get a surgical knife to cut your own flesh, right? If you can help me open the second-to-last door in the hallway, I’ll give you a knife."

To achieve his goal, Qin Ye deliberately lowered his voice.

However, the gentle, coaxing tone that worked so well on Joshua sounded completely out of place coming from a muscle man like him.

But Qin Ye’s target was a psychiatric patient, so normal logic didn’t apply.

Upon hearing that he could eat his own flesh, Number Two completely ignored the rest of the proposal and immediately cheered, "Yes, yes!"

Seeing his agreement, Qin Ye felt a surge of relief.

The psychiatric ward had the fewest patients in the entire Taikang Yongle Hospital, perhaps because the patients were all weird beings, and there might even be a threshold for admission.

Besides the psychiatric ward, this floor also housed the hospital’s archives, which were usually locked and strictly off-limits to outsiders.

When the survivors passed by earlier, they had already noticed it. Through the crack in the door, they could see densely stacked records of major hospital events, complete patient files so thick they occupied half of the archives room, death records, and some files with unknown contents. It was only later that they realized this was the archives room.

Originally, the survivors didn’t have enough information about Guiyi City. Since Taikang Yongle Hospital was a landmark building here, its archives room was bound to contain much worth examining.

Qin Ye had a spatial item he had obtained earlier in another instance, which could temporarily store objects he handled. Time was tight, and after unlocking the door, there wouldn’t be enough time to carefully review the documents. They could only store them in the spatial item first and hand them over to the guild’s top brains and analyze it later.

"Alright. I’ll come find you after the next round of ward checks. Just follow my arrangements then. It’ll take about ten minutes."

Just as Qin Ye thought this was a good plan, a lazy voice suddenly chimed in.

"Number Two, don’t forget what the boss said before he left the hospital."

The other survivors in the ward immediately went on alert, their gazes shifting to the speaker.

Number Five lay on the hospital bed, his eyes half-closed, toying with a brass pocket watch in his hands. Strangely, despite being 80% paralyzed, his hands were oddly nimble. The brass chain of the pocket watch transformed into a butterfly, then a hippopotamus, under his manipulation.

Noticing their stares, Number Five didn’t seem to care. Instead, he continued speaking to Number Two as if no one else was there.

"The boss made it clear before he left, he said that you are not allowed to do any more self-harm. If you’re caught again, you’ll be punished to drink plain rice porridge for a month and locked up for 10 days of solitary confinement."

Who is the boss?! At that moment, all the survivors in the ward had the same thought.

It was no wonder they were so tense. This Number Five was the only S-level weird in the entire psychiatric department, known as the Hypnotist. Although his medical report stated that he needed a wheelchair for daily activities, being a S-level weird , no one dared to let their guard down.

Sure enough, after the Hypnotist’s words, Number Two, who had been excited just moments ago, suddenly resembled a frightened ostrich. As he buried his head in the bedding and curling up into a trembling ball. The bed frame creaked under the strain.

After a while, a muffled voice emerged from under the covers: "Hasn't the boss been discharged from the hospital for half a year? He probably won’t come back. Besides, he didn’t say anything about coming back to visit when he left."

"Haha. You believe that?"

Number Five scoffed. "The entire psychiatric department is his territory. Coming back would be like returning home. Based on my speculation, if the boss does come back, he’ll officially take over Taikang Yongle Hospital. If you run into the gun, don’t blame me for not warning you."

Hearing this, Number Two nervously began biting his nails.

Seeing that their opportunity might slip away, Qin Ye quickly interjected, "Don’t you want to eat meat? Besides, all I need is for you to help me unlock a door. It’ll only take a few minutes."

After a long internal struggle, Number Two finally said, "I need to think about it. Go do your ward checks first. Come find me later, and I’ll give you my answer then."

"Alright."

The group understood the principle of "too much is as bad as too little" and decided not to push further, so they exited the ward.

Once they were in the corridor, An Tao couldn't wait to ask, "Who is the 'boss' those two weird mentioned earlier?"

The identity of this boss must be extraordinary, otherwise, it wouldn't make an S-level weirds so scared.

"Could it be the hospital dean?" speculated a member of the Watchtower Guild.

 "The detection results from the 3rd Great Medium show that the source of the weird enveloping us originates from the dean's office on the top floor. Judging by his status and strength, the dean is undoubtedly the final boss of this mission, he is definitely an S-level weird."

"Impossible. Didn't you hear what the S-level weird said? The entire psychiatric department is the 'boss's' territory, and it mentioned that upon returning, it would officially take over the entire Taikang Yongle Hospital. If its boss were the dean, why would it describe it that way? That wouldn't make any sense."

If it's neither this nor that, then only the most unlikely guess remains.

"Could the 'boss' be a weird outside Taikang Yongle Hospital, affiliated with Guiyi City? Is this mission just a prelude?"

Opinions varied, but no one could figure it out.

Finally, Si Yuyan, the most brilliant mind in the Watchtower Guild, who had been silent until now, spoke up. "This 'boss' is indeed an unexpected variable in our plan. But according to the weird, the 'boss' has been away from the hospital for a long time, and it's unclear when it will return. We should keep an eye on it, but there's no need to worry too much, as the probability of it appearing in this mission is quite low."

Her words were undeniably convincing, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"With Miss Si's assurance, I feel much more at ease."

"Indeed."

"Earlier, when I heard Number Five talking to Number Two, I was quite puzzled. Since when do weirds have the habit of reminding and helping each other?"

"It's probably not common," Si Yuyan's eyes darkened. "It's more likely that the 'boss' once implemented a collective punishment that even a S-level weird fears getting burned in the cross fire. Didn't you notice it's tone was filled with fear? There was no trace of gloating."

"This precisely indicates a more terrifying fact... the power of the psychiatric department's boss is deeply ingrained in the weirds' very bones."

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