Chapter 14

Upon arriving at the intensive care unit, Director Yang called the on-duty nurse inside. The nurse, wearing a mask and looking somewhat tired, listened to Director Yang’s purpose and then helped both of them change into isolation gowns and put on masks before allowing them to enter.

After entering, Zhuo Chuan took a look around. There were four beds in the ICU, each occupied by a patient. The heart monitors and other equipment were all operational, displaying the vital signs of the patients. Only one on-duty nurse was monitoring the situation.

Then, he confidently walked to a corner of the room, sat down in front of a computer, and began working. As the provincial tumor hospital was a key client of the company, he had personally visited most of the departments when he was the manager of the development department, so he was very familiar with the place.

There was no major issue; Zhuo Chuan quickly identified a minor configuration error and fixed it.

Zhuo Chuan opened a webpage, which normally connected to the old system, displaying the situation in the ICU.

"Bed 1, Patient: Xie Chenglin, Age: 79, Occupation: Associate Professor at Construction University, Condition: Stage IV Liver Cancer..."

"Bed 2, Patient: He Jianguo, Age: 47, Occupation: Construction Worker, Condition: Skull Fracture..."

"It’s all back to normal. Thank you for your hard work, Director Yang. Let’s go back," Zhuo Chuan said to Director Yang beside him.

Director Yang nodded, and they were about to leave together when a heart monitor suddenly started beeping. He turned around and saw that it was the patient in Bed 1, the associate professor, whose heart monitor was issuing a physiological alarm.

"Oh no, I’ll call Doctor Zhao right away," the on-duty nurse, startled, immediately started making a phone call.

Zhuo Chuan and Director Yang did not leave immediately; they just stood to the side, clearing the way. This was because the system had just been fixed, and during the resuscitation, the nurse might need to check the patient’s records and medical history. Staying there would ensure that no issues arose.

A doctor in a white coat hurried over. After arriving, he glanced at the monitoring equipment and began the resuscitation.

Zhuo Chuan watched the resuscitation process, which mainly involved CPR, defibrillation, and administering adrenaline. However, much of the time, it came down to luck. Human efforts were limited, and pulling someone back from the brink of death was not easy.

Zhuo Chuan stood nearby, watching the doctor’s frantic efforts to save the patient. He could see the doctor’s exhaustion and desperation as he tried to bring the patient back from the brink of death.

However, the patient’s vital signs on the monitor continued to weaken, with the breathing and heart signals fading. Zhuo Chuan, who had worked on the ICU system, knew that the weakening of these signals meant the patient was close to death.

He shook his head, wanting to leave, as no one wanted to witness a death. But just as he was about to turn around, he suddenly felt a blur in his vision, as if something was coming out of the patient’s body.

It seemed like a hazy mist was emanating from the patient. Zhuo Chuan, wanting to see more clearly, instinctively moved closer.

The nurse and doctor were busy with the resuscitation and did not pay attention to Zhuo Chuan’s actions, allowing him to approach the bed.

At that moment, Zhuo Chuan was in shock. The mist had been spreading in all directions, but as he approached, it suddenly rushed towards his eyes.

If he had looked in a mirror at that moment, he would have seen two vortices in his eyes, just like every time his soul traversed time and space. However, no one else could see the abnormality in his eyes.

He allowed the mist to flow into his eyes. Although he did not know what was happening, he knew it was definitely related to the mysterious person’s hint.

As Zhuo Chuan’s eyes absorbed the mist, the patient, Professor Xie Chenglin, who was being resuscitated, suddenly struggled with great force, making it impossible for the nurse and doctor to control him. The oxygen mask on his face also fell off.

He looked up at the ceiling and shouted, "I see it, I see it. After death, there really is another world!"

After saying this, he tilted his head and fell silent, but a smile remained on his face.

At that moment, Zhuo Chuan noticed that the mist had been completely absorbed. From the moment he saw the mist appear to when it was fully absorbed, it took about ten seconds.

After a long while, Doctor Zhao sighed, took off his mask, and said to the nurse, "It seems that what is said in palliative care is true. When people are on the brink of death, they often feel like they are flying into the sky and seeing heaven. This is nature’s final mercy, allowing them to leave in hope and longing."

The nurse nodded in agreement, but Zhuo Chuan was thinking about something else.

"Manager Zhuo, Engineer Zhuo? Are you okay?" Director Yang walked over and patted his shoulder. Zhuo Chuan’s action of moving closer to the bed seemed to him like mere curiosity about the doctor’s actions.

Zhuo Chuan snapped back to reality. After his eyes absorbed the mist, he felt a sense of fullness.

But now was not the time to dwell on that. He quickly said, "Oh, it’s my first time seeing someone die right in front of me. It’s quite a shock."

"Don’t be afraid. I got used to it long ago. In the early days, the computer center and the morgue were on the same floor, and I saw dead bodies being brought in every day," Director Yang said, thinking Zhuo Chuan was scared. After all, he was still young and had not experienced much death.

"Yes, the system is working fine now. Let’s go back," Zhuo Chuan continued. He needed to return to the new world to find out what had happened.

After giving some instructions and receiving some thanks, Director Yang asked him to help maintain the system when convenient and promised to send him the connection details. Zhuo Chuan, who might need to visit the hospital frequently, naturally agreed. With something on his mind, he did not linger to catch up with the old staff or embarrass the new development manager, and took a taxi home.

Back home, he immediately lay on the bed and his soul traversed time and space, entering his body in the new world.

In his home in the new world, he immediately turned on the computer and started searching for relevant information.

He thought about what had just happened and typed a question into the search engine.

"Do ordinary people emit soul power when they die, and if so, what shape does it take, and can it be seen?"

It must be said that the computer system used by the underground people in the new world, although similar in hardware to the modern world, was far superior in software.

He quickly found some information, though it was limited to a few simple conclusions, which were enough to explain his doubts.

"The total amount of soul power in ordinary people is very weak, so weak that they cannot even perceive it themselves. However, when they are on the brink of death and their soul is about to dissipate, the soul power contained within them rapidly disperses from their body. At this point, it can be observed with specific instruments. The dispersing soul power appears as a mist in these instruments, and the more soul power a person has, the slower the mist dissipates."

"However, the soul power that naturally dissipates at the time of death cannot currently be effectively utilized, as it contains too many impurities and dissipates too quickly to be collected and purified. Of course, given the large number of people who die each year, how to collect and utilize the soul power that dissipates at the time of death is a hot topic in the field of soul research."

Zhuo Chuan understood that the mist he had absorbed was the soul power that had dissipated. Unlike the information in the data, he could absorb this dissipated soul power. As for the impurities, it seemed they were purified along the way.

Thinking about this, a sudden thought flashed through his mind, and he excitedly jumped up from the computer. Could this be another soul skill left by the previous soul, B47995?

By absorbing the soul power that ordinary people emit upon death, he could gradually increase his own soul power. Once it reached a certain level, he could quickly master soul power, and then he would not have to fear Jie Cheng!

Thinking about this, Zhuo Chuan could not help but admire the strength of B47995. Both the ruthless Jie Cheng and the warm-hearted He Qiang, deeply feared and respected him. Just by looking at the two skills he left behind, one could see how extraordinary he was!