Employed Reincarnation: Time to Get Serious in Obstetrics

??? "What department?" Ji Jue stood frozen on the spot, so flabbergasted he momentarily forgot all about the ravenous, drooling patients around him. "Obstetrics and Gynecology." Director Qian repeated without a ripple of emotion. *Obstetrics my ass...* He had thought this would be an "Employed Reincarnation" where he could get serious once he entered a Chrono Ruin, but the moment he arrived, he was drafted into a medical residency. Never mind that there wasn't even a salary—straight to OB-GYN? *Me?* *Are you serious?* *Where anywhere on me does it look like I know how to deliver a baby?* *And for a bunch of monstrous freaks like these patients, no less...* Yet within this Chrono Ruin hospital, every outsider had been labeled an intern. By the rules, Director Qian was his superior right now, leaving Ji Jue with zero possibility of defiance. Still, he couldn't help trying anyway... "Uh, *cough*, actually, I'm pretty good at fixing things. Is the hospital's maintenance department short on hands?" Ji Jue suggested. "Boilers, refrigerators, color TVs, air conditioners—I can repair all of them. If that doesn't work, I can do masonry, plastering, interior renovation—don't let my young age fool you, I've got plenty of experience." "Maintenance department? What is that? Our hospital has no such thing." Director Qian looked at him coldly, his expression growing dangerous. "Do you have an objection to the Academic Affairs Department's assignment?" "No, none at all!" Ji Jue shook his head vehemently without hesitation, his expression radiating absolute sincerity. "I absolutely love obstetrics! Joining the OB-GYN family was my dream all along—I'm downright flattered, Director!" "..." In the brief silence, the hint of a satisfied smile seemed to surface on Director Qian's crack-strewn face. "Very good. Dedication to your post—that is the prerequisite to becoming a good doctor." He reached out once more, his icy palm patting Ji Jue's shoulder and leaving behind a chilling aura that lingered long after. "Whatever you do, do not disappoint me." "Do not be like the others," he warned one last time. And so, after escorting Ji Jue to the entrance of Obstetrics and Gynecology and pointing at the door to signal him to report inside, Director Qian vanished down the bloodstained, decrepit corridor. Only faint wails echoed in the distance. Under the cold, vacant stares of the numerous bizarre patients in the corridor, Ji Jue didn't dare hesitate any longer. He pushed the door open and stepped inside. The office just beyond the entrance wasn't spacious—merely a few desks and an attached restroom. Two doctors inside looked up. One was numb as a puppet, merely glancing at him once before looking away, utterly silent. The other's eyes were bloodshot; seeing Ji Jue push open the door, his eyes lit up in manic delight. Except his demeanor resembled someone partially paralyzed, his face twitching spastically, unable to form a proper expression. His spiritus fluctuations were fragmented and erratic. "A newbie?" The Celestial Chosen, who had no telling how long he had been here, lunged forward and peered closely at him. "Just as I thought—that cocky, clueless look... One glance is all it takes!" "Do you have spiritus supplements?" He shoved his hands forward, pawing through Ji Jue's pockets, snarling urgently, "Hand them over! And your equipment..." The man froze for a second, then broke into a grin of delight, his gaze irresistibly drawn to Ji Jue's ring and the bell in his pocket. "What fine goods." With that, completely ignoring Ji Jue's reaction, he forcefully grabbed for the ring and the bell. Only then did he realize his wrist was gripped. Tight as an iron vise. Preventing him from moving an inch. "Where's the sense in groping a newcomer the second he walks in?" Ji Jue held the man's wrist, glanced back at the other doctor who sat motionless like a wooden statue, and smiled faintly at the man before him. "Is this also a hospital rule?" "Heh, got some guts, don't you?" Taken aback, the man sneered. "From today on, that is the rule! You'd better hand your stuff over if you know what's good for you, or you're in for a world of hurt!" "All right then. Hold on tight." Ji Jue smiled and released his grip. But before the man could even pull his hand out of Ji Jue's pocket, Ji Jue raised his palm. *Bang!* A muffled crash erupted. The man flew backward through the air and slammed into the cabinet in the corner. His eyes widened in shock as he coughed up blood and slowly slumped downward. In that instant, spiritus surged to envelop his right hand, followed immediately by Embers-aligned material properties modulation—hardness and toughness instantly maxed out, turning his fingers harder than forged steel. Next, the blessing of Masterwork Nature pushed his strength and speed to their absolute peaks. Ji Jue swung without mercy, channeling terrifying force capable of tearing steel into a fluid, effortless slap right across the man's face. Holding nothing back. "You motherf—" Furious, the Celestial Chosen tried to push himself up, but his neck was pinned beneath a foot. With a mere shift of weight, Ji Jue instantly intercepted and severed that feeble trickle of spiritus. Suppressed in an instant. "Since anyone can set the rules, I might as well make one of my own," Ji Jue said, pressing down on his neck and informing him solemnly. "During working hours, seniors aren't allowed to speak to newcomers while standing. Just stay face-down like that. It suits you." With that, he pulled a corruption bullet from his pocket, leaned down, and waved it before the man's face. "I suggest you don't move. If I were you, I wouldn't want to get a taste of this." The moment the Quicksilver spiritus seal was cracked open for a fraction of a second, a hair-raising aura of horror radiated from the bullet, freezing the man in his tracks. Shivering uncontrollably, he turned obedient at once, not daring to twitch. "I ask, you answer," Ji Jue said. "If I don't like your answers, I'll shove this bullet down your throat. When that happens, corruption will erupt straight from your stomach, and you can admire the brand-new mutated form you take once your soul collapses. Understand?" The man nodded frantically without the slightest hesitation. The newcomer he had thought he could bully at will had transformed in the blink of an eye into a life-claiming demon, terrifying him so badly he nearly wet himself, let alone dared to resist. Over the next few minutes, without Ji Jue even needing to ask, he spilled everything down to the smallest detail. Zhao Zhou, male, thirty-five years old, native of Chaocheng, Desolate Ruins Celestial Chosen, an outsourced contractor hired by the Security Bureau. He had originally been a member of a patrol team stationed outside the Quancheng Catacombs, only to suddenly get swallowed up into this place. Even earlier than Ji Jue. According to him, time flowed entirely differently inside. Although only a few hours had separated their entrances into the Chrono Ruin in the outside world, several weeks had already passed within the ruin itself. As for his discoveries... there were none. Other than holing up in the office, strictly obeying the hospital rules, never going anywhere else, and never doing any work—dumping all his duties onto others—he had done nothing. Obstetrics and Gynecology was practically the quietest department of all, with very few patients. As long as one followed the hospital rules, the patients wouldn't attack. As long as one didn't leave the office, the things outside couldn't touch him. Relying purely on shameless slacking and cowardice, he had clung to life until now. One could only say that the sheer tenacity of his survival instinct and the staggering extent of his uselessness were equally admirable. From his trembling confession, Ji Jue gathered that Celestial Chosen underwent changes after entering this place: they didn't need to sleep or eat, feeling neither hunger nor fatigue. Likewise, they were exceedingly hard to kill... Even if they lost hands, had their hearts gouged out, or had their legs or internal organs torn away, they could still live, and the pain was minimal. Unfortunately, this was hardly good news. Because here, both other doctors and patients alike looked upon these newly arrived doctors with ravenous, drooling hunger. They would endlessly search for any mistake made or rule breached, using it as an excuse to strip away flesh, blood, and souls. In the end, once stripped of all flesh, blood, and soul, they would be sent to the morgue. A few days later, they would reappear under a different guise among the patients waiting outside... He had already witnessed no fewer than several Celestial Chosen who, having broken hospital rules or made a blunder, were torn to shreds by the monster known as Director Qian. Running away was useless, for there was nowhere to run. Begging for mercy was useless, as it only made those monsters hungrier and greedier. They had long since fallen into hell. "That Director Qian and the other doctors—do they show up often?" Ji Jue asked. "I-I haven't seen much of them." Zhao Zhou trembled, his expression twitching. "Earlier, I heard from someone in another department... that the attending physicians of each department aren't kept here. They only show up occasionally to give orders or assign tasks. The rest of the time, they seem to be in another building." Outside the window, veiled in hazy mist, stood a low-slung inpatient building. It seemed eternally shrouded in wails and screams. Like a living creature, flesh wriggled across its exterior walls. Its windows resembled weeping, bloody eyes, down which dim crimson slowly dripped. "Alright." Ji Jue shook his head. Seeing that no more clues could be squeezed out of him, he asked one final question: "When did you die?" "Wha... what do you mean..." Zhao Zhou's face twitched once, then again, his pupils dilating. "I... I..." "Think carefully, Senior." Ji Jue sighed and released his grip. "Cowering here all this time, is your memory really coherent? How much spiritus do you have left? Is your soul truly intact? Your heart, your lungs, your right eye, and your... brain—where did they all go?" "..." Zhao Zhou's eyes widened, his expression suddenly freezing. Across his face, an illusion seemed to shatter, revealing the mangled visage beneath his subconscious camouflage: a hollow eye socket, a jagged hole in his skull concealed beneath a wig, and an empty interior. "I... I'm... dead?" He stared blankly at Ji Jue, full of shock and pleading desperation. "How could I be dead? I'm clearly still alive, I..." And then, he finally remembered. A few days ago—no, how long ago had it been? A week? Or even longer? Inside the delivery room, shrill, wretched weeping. "My baby is dead! Give me back my baby! Pay me back my baby!..." The blood-drenched delivery bed. That bizarre woman gripping his hands in a death lock, her hideous expression gradually softening into tenderness, her smile chilling him to the bone: "You be my baby instead. My child, come into Mommy's tummy, good baby..." What happened after that? Zhao Zhou couldn't remember. The only things echoing in his shattered consciousness were unending chewing noises, muffled moans, laughter, and the gradually rising wails of an infant. He finally remembered. He had, in fact, long since... In that instant, the final lingering obsession of the Celestial Chosen Zhao Zhou dissipated into smoke. His terrified, contorted expression gradually smoothed out into flat calm, numb and dull like a wooden puppet, void of any breathing or thought. Like a marionette, he climbed up from the floor and returned to his desk. Throwing himself once more into his work. Just like the "senior" beside him. They had long since been assimilated by the Chrono Ruin, becoming a part of it. The more flesh and soul they lost, the more severe their assimilation, until eventually, they merged completely into this nightmare. *No, was this really a Chrono Ruin?* *Or rather, was this truly an ordinary Chrono Ruin?* Although Ji Jue had never run a ruin before, he had at least heard about them: ordinary Chrono Ruins were deformed mutations formed by the clash and commingling of Sovereign Virtue energies, but they shouldn't reek of abominations to this degree! Corruption. Genuine corruption pervaded this hospital. He had smelled it the very instant he entered—too much of it, unnaturally abundant. Cousin was constantly warning him about it. Yet, oddly enough, there was no prompt for extraction—not a single reaction. According to Ji Jue's experience, Cousin's corruption extraction worked in two ways. The first was applied to himself: whenever he confirmed the prompt, anytime, anywhere, even infused dragon blood could be converted back. The second was applied to others, which came with far more restrictions. From the first deadly geezer to Zhu Hong, and across numerous subsequent attempts, the target had to be dead or near death, having lost their self-will and control over their own spiritus. Yet he had just tried it. From beating Zhao Zhou into the floor to the shattering of Zhao Zhou's final obsession and his utter collapse, Cousin hadn't reacted in the slightest. Unless Zhao Zhou wasn't the main source of the corruption. Then where was the primary source? Or could it be that what was undergoing corruption... was this very hospital, or even the entire Chrono Ruin?! Lost in thought, he fiddled with the equipment in the room. He twisted off a water valve, unscrewed a faucet, yanked out a section of steel pipe, dismantled the air conditioner's indoor unit barehanded using Masterwork Nature, rummaged through the debris, and stripped the throttle valves from two oxygen tanks. Non-Offensive activated: barehanded transmutation. No, it didn't even require alchemical transmutation steps—merely material processing, cutting, assembling, riveting, and welding. Finally, when he released his grip, a crude, jerry-rigged "happy pistol"—welded from the faucet and water pipe, powered by batteries, wires, and a small electric motor, and bound together with rolls of medical tape—was complete. Ji Jue grinned and whistled. He slotted a corruption bullet inside. Then he raised his arm. He aimed at the empty office before him—or more precisely, at the swivel chair that had seemed to twitch in the faucet's reflection moments ago. "Now, we can have a proper chat." He smiled, his eyes utterly cold: "—Get the hell out here!" In the dead silence, nothing stirred in the office; only distant wails echoed. Ji Jue's expression didn't waver. His finger steadily pressed down on the motor's trigger switch, completely unbothered by the possibility that he might be sparring with thin air. According to Director Qian, there should have been at least one more Celestial Chosen who hadn't been picked. Ji Jue didn't believe for a second that this was a mere oversight, especially given Director Qian's wording when parting ways earlier... The pronoun he had used was "you all"! Perhaps it had referred to all the Celestial Chosen who entered this time, or perhaps... from start to finish, someone invisible had been following right behind him?! And in that very instant, the air seemed to blur for a split second. A stifled breath finally sounded nearby. In the corner, a familiar figure materialized, raising her hands nervously as if caught in an awkward situation. Red-rimmed eyes, pale face. It was none other than Tong Hua. "Don't be rash, Brother Ji Jue," she pleaded, trying hard to keep her voice steady. "It's me, it's—" *Boom!* A thunderous roar blasted out. Without a shred of hesitation, Ji Jue pulled the trigger. Hiding from the very beginning until now, if you had taken literally any unfamiliar face, Ji Jue might have given you credit for sincerity. But daring to disguise yourself using the face of someone he knew... Who the hell are you trying to fool, bastard!