Deep in the Living
Chapter 338 - 326: The True Form

Chapter 338: Chapter 326: The True Form

The cable ropes, hardened with neural weaving, were strung across the city skies,

A panoramic cable car, leaving the Grand Theater, was carrying Luo Di and David to the Repair Center, a considerable distance away.

The cable car was suspended a hundred meters high, not over the town streets but above the bottomless Hell Rift Valley.

Or rather, in this Synarchia, the Capital City of Evil Play, the concept of "streets" did not exist, as it was a special city designated only by major buildings.

Evil Play was deliberately located, with the city built on Hell Rift Zone.

Each significant building stood isolated upon towering spires of rock,

All movement relied on the "neural cable cars" strung from the top of the buildings.

Insects wouldn’t waste time on the streets, particularly loathing activities such as strolling.

They either worked inside major structures,

Or they left the city to cause trouble elsewhere.

Considering such urban structure, Luo Di’s interest in Evil Play heightened as he himself disliked wasting time on trivial matters, with efficiency being paramount.

David’s cloth-covered Eye socket opened again, and incredibly, a small arm reached out holding a signpost with an arrow, accurately pointing in a particular direction within the city.

"We’re almost at the Repair Center; it’s one of Evil Play’s most vital medical structures, and most who receive medical services here are entities above Demon Ascension.

Inside, of course, strict security measures are enforced.

Stay close to me later; you can only visit the floor where your ward is. As for your friend, I’ll have the nurse show you a live feed."

"Okay."

Luo Di followed the direction indicated by the signpost,

The so-called Repair Center was also built on a lone, protruding spire above Hell Rift Valley, its altitude lower than the other surrounding buildings.

And the building itself had no strange style, just a square and correct edifice, over forty floors high.

All cable car lines converged at the hospital’s rooftop, where all visitors landed on the helipad.

Strangely, though the top floor terrace had more than ten elevators, there was no security; it seemed as if anyone arriving could enter the hospital at will.

However, Luo Di’s notion was quickly dispelled.

As he followed David into one of the elevators, he realized the first reason no security arrangements were needed.

There were no metallic buttons inside the car, the control panel was merely a protruding, smooth brain.

When David touched his palm on it, the brain immediately verified the identities of the riders and connected their thoughts to the hospital’s central system.

The hospital would grant elevator privileges based on the visitor’s identity.

You only needed to convey the floor you wished to visit, and the elevator brain would receive it.

Once it verified that the occupants were entitled to access the floor, the elevator would begin to operate.

Currently, they were headed to [Intensive Care Ward (E)] where Luo Di’s physical body resided, a high-security area of the hospital rarely accessible to anyone directly.

The elevator moved.

Luo Di was surprised to discover that the energy supporting the elevator’s function was indeed electrical, just as with the cable car before; however, the electricity here was markedly different from that of the Human World.

Circulating throughout the city was a kind of bioelectricity originating from the brain,

Earlier on the cable car, Luo Di had noticed a special building area filled with brains, from where all the electrically charged neural pathways irradiated.

Ding!

[You have arrived at Intensive Care Ward (E), please proceed to the nurse’s station to complete the check-in procedure]

The elevator doors opened.

Outside was a single corridor with a red carpet, long strip lights lining the ceiling. The air bore no unusual odors, as though in a sterile space.

This floor had only one ward, situated at the end of the corridor; anyone exiting the elevator would inevitably pass by the nurse’s station.

As Luo Di approached the nurse’s station, he understood the second reason this hospital didn’t need a security team.

The nurses here greatly differed from those in the Human World,

They "accumulated and hung" within the nurse’s station; some rested with their eyes closed, while others opened their eyes to watch the visitors arriving.

They lacked bodies, consisting solely of heads, approximately fifty to sixty of them stuck together in a spherical formation.

Suspended in the air by thick nerves that descended from above.

Luo Di couldn’t determine whether this was a single entity or if each head was an individual being.

One of the younger nurse heads spoke with a smile, "Good evening, Mr. David! Please register your visit information."

Following David’s registration, which included the need to view Luo Di’s original body inside the Intensive Care Ward and possibly even touch the body,

Creak creak~

From deep within the cluster of heads, something began to wriggle and crawl out.

Swish~ As a copious amount of brain fluid poured onto the floor,

the most senior head nurse here detached herself from inside,

and as soon as her head fell off, neural structures sprouted from her neck area, swiftly forming an all-white body.

It looked both clothed and unclothed.

Tubing filled her empty eye sockets, and syringes in place of teeth between her parted lips attested to her professionalism.

"Mr. David, 74% of the ancestral remnants remain inside patient Luo Di, currently in the early stages of repair. This floor, as well as his ward, are under level two lockdown, and the Repair Center does not recommend contact at this time.

Moreover, allowing Mr. Luo Di’s temporary consciousness carrier to approach his physical form now might impact the subsequent repair work."

David waved his hand dismissively, "Extraordinary circumstances, extraordinary measures. Anyone else with Luo Di’s injuries would have died long ago; his survival means the ancestors want him to live.

An early meeting between the ’Second Self’—endowed with Game Brain—and his physical form might yield unexpected benefits.

I will take full responsibility for any issues."

"Please sign the liability waiver here, Mr. David."

While David was signing, Luo Di standing nearby felt an incongruity. Discussions about his physical self were underway, yet the decisions were being made by the hospital and David.

The head nurse took the signed waiver and led the way down the hall, "Before entering the intensive care unit, please suit up in protective gear; the patient’s ancestral debris may contaminate the surrounding environment."

Outside the ward.

As Luo Di was donning his protective gear, he suddenly felt a prying sensation from behind.

Turning his head, he saw that the cluster of heads previously hanging at the nurse’s station had moved a short distance along the ceiling-dropped nerves.

Now, the cluster of heads reached the corridor space, all nurses opening their eyes, all looking in this direction... and through their tubing-filled eye sockets, a sense of vigilance was discernible.

This scene prompted Luo Di to wonder, "Is every nurse on this floor solely tasked with repairing my physical self?"

The head nurse responded immediately:

"Not just repairs. All patients injured by ancestors carry potential risks; they may regress during the repair process and become a type of ancestral creature.

Should this transformation occur, it poses a significant threat to the entire hospital.

Thus, in addition to repairs, our nursing team is also charged with extermination. If your physical self undergoes ancestral mutation, we will entirely eradicate it.

However, your physical self has shown no signs of regressing since admission, and all monitoring indices are safely above the threshold, so there’s no need to worry."

"Understood."

Luo Di understood why the medical fees here were so high.

When he followed the head nurse into the ward and saw the scene within the intensive care unit, he even thought the money well-spent.

"I’m this badly injured?!"

Inside the intensive care unit,

A dense network of nerves suspended Luo Di’s battered body in the air, each one connected to critical body parts.

Monitoring every physiological state of his body, maintaining the most basic traits of life.

Even the critical metal spine was extensively eroded, partly blackened, with corrosion grooves of various depths.

The skull was almost entirely perforated, with only the additionally grown internal skull protecting the brain, especially safeguarding the vital pituitary structures.

The lower body was completely gone,

Only a few fleshly strands remained of the right arm,

And the left arm was a white bone smeared with decaying flesh.

At the moment,

The nerves connecting the whole body were slowly drawing away the ancestral remnants. Once a nerve adhered to a remnant, it was to be discarded, sent to the incinerator for complete destruction.

Luo Di watched his nearly unrecognizable physical self.

Suddenly, something strange happened.

On the physical face,

The sporadically remaining right Eye suddenly swiveled, fixating with its greyish pupil onto Luo Di entering through the door.

As their gazes met,

A grey connection swiftly established from the pituitary,

And for a moment, Luo Di could clearly feel the current state of his body, sensing a certain need from it.

"Wait! Can all medical services be temporarily stopped, and also, could you return all of the ancestral remnants you’ve extracted to me?"

As Luo Di made this request,

Both the head nurse and David looked at him with strangeness.