Childbirth

"Doctor! Doctor! I think I'm going into labor!"

A blood-soaked woman twisted and struggled, strapped to a badly rusted delivery chair in a dim little clinic. Her screams tore through the air.

"Quick! Doctor, come take a look! He's coming out!!"

"Why aren't you coming over yet! Doctor! Doctor!? Are you even a doctor?? Turn around and take a look!!!"

The pregnant woman's screams grew sharper, and her struggles more frantic. Yet the doctor standing nearby never turned to look at her. He merely nodded and placated her unhurriedly:

"All right, all right, I'm coming. Don't panic. I'm preparing the delivery tools. Madam, you wouldn't want your child to fall onto the floor the moment it's born, would you?"

Those words seemed to strike the increasingly deranged woman with lethal force. Her frenzy stalled, and her bloodshot eyes gradually cleared. Her pupils rotated mechanically and slowly before she lowered her gaze to her belly and answered foolishly:

"The child... right, the child... The child can't fall onto the floor. I'm going to give birth. The child can't fall onto the floor..."

She kept repeating those words, and her emotions gradually stabilized. Before long, the little clinic fell quiet again, leaving only the clang of metal being hammered.

The doctor was making delivery tools.

Fine sparks sprayed out from in front of the doctor, briefly illuminating the dim space.

The pregnant woman's attention was drawn by the sparks. Clutching her belly, she turned to look at the doctor's back. Her eyes slowly began reddening again, and her expression gradually twisted into a grimace.

"Doctor! What are you doing! What are you doing!?"

"Me? Didn't I tell you? I'm preparing the delivery tools. There have been too many patients at the clinic lately, and all the nurses have gone to help. I have to handle these odd jobs myself."

As he spoke, the doctor turned around and displayed the crude steel saw he had just hammered together. A sunny, cheerful smile bloomed across his face as he said with some pride:

"Look. It's ready."

The moment the pregnant woman saw the steel saw, her entire body suddenly convulsed. The leather straps tugged against the rusted chair as she struggled, producing a teeth-grating screech.

Her legs kicked wildly, splattering the filthy blood covering her body everywhere.

"What are you going to do! That isn't a delivery tool! What are you going to do!!"

"Madam, please look carefully. This is indeed an obstetric saw."

The doctor approached the pregnant woman with the saw in hand, his gaze lingering over the irregular teeth as if admiring a work of art. At the same time, he clicked his tongue repeatedly in praise:

"This is cutting-edge delivery technology published in SCIENCE. All I need to do is use this obstetric saw to open your belly, and your child can be born intact right on the delivery chair. This avoids, at the source, the tragedy of a child having a high chance of falling onto the floor during a natural birth, while also reducing the risk of infection;

"Furthermore, these sharp teeth can enlarge the wound, ensuring that the child's head won't get stuck because there isn't enough room during delivery."

The doctor measured the tool against the pregnant woman's belly, then narrowed his eyes and smiled.

"Most importantly, this procedure currently has zero negative reviews."

"The child... safe... My child... will be safe..."

"That's right, Madam. Please rest assured. I'm the most experienced obstetrician in the entire clinic. I'll definitely ensure your child's safety."

Having received his promise, the pregnant woman suddenly grew excited. She slapped her hill-like belly hard and stretched out her neck, shouting impatiently:

"Quick! Deliver my baby! My child is coming out! Hurry, Doctor!! Hurry!"

"It's my honor to serve you."

The doctor raised the crude steel saw. His hands did not tremble in the slightest. He lightly touched it to her skin, then expertly drew it upward.

"Shik—"

A thin line of blood meandered upward. A ripe watermelon split apart in an instant.

Then!

"Boom—"

The body, unable to bear the strain, exploded like a slashed balloon, sending filthy blood spraying everywhere.

She was not dead yet.

She screamed hoarsely from the agony, struggling with all four limbs at once. Her vicious, terrified gaze fixed on the doctor as she shrieked wildly:

"What are you doing? What are you doing!? You're trying to kill me! You're trying to kill my child!!"

The doctor was drenched in blood, yet his face alone remained spotlessly clean. He gently moved the steel saw blocking his face aside and smiled as he comforted the patient once more:

"Madam, saying that is terribly hurtful. I'm saving you and your child. Look, your child... has been born safely."

The pregnant woman's wild movements stopped. Overwhelmed with joy, she looked toward her belly, only to see a pair of enormous, pure-black eyes blinking at her from within the cavity filled with rotting flesh.

Those eyes were exceptionally clear and lively, and very captivating.

If their owner had not been a writhing tentacle, it might have been even more lovable.

Looking at the terrifying Newborn, whose body resembled an octopus tentacle, the doctor smiled knowingly and praised it:

"Look how healthy your child is. Such bright, spirited eyes. At a glance, you can tell it's a... uh... a... child with big eyes."

The delight on the pregnant woman's face briefly froze at this nonsensical praise, but that did nothing to stop her from displaying her overflowing love for her child.

Black blood of joy spilled from her withered eye sockets.

"My child! My child!!"

"Yes, it's your child."

"Bring my child over! I want to see him! Is it a boy or a girl?"

The doctor's smile stiffened at those words, and a hint of struggle appeared on his face.

Strictly speaking, if one insisted on assigning a gender to an octopus tentacle...

"Congratulations, Madam. It's a... male... boy."

It did indeed have something between its legs. In fact, it was itself something between the legs.

"A boy... A boy!?"

The pregnant woman's voice rose again. Even her severe injuries could not stop her from twisting and struggling. Her crazed expression crawled back over her terrifying, blood-smeared, gaunt face.

"Why is it a boy! Why would it be a boy?! It should clearly have been a girl! You! Your delivery technique must have been faulty! It's you!! You quack!"

Perhaps sensing his mother's fury, the Newborn lying in the pool of blood blinked innocently.

You know, if you ignored the body and only looked at the eyes, it was actually pretty cute.

The doctor shook his head and sighed at this absurdly amusing scene.

"Madam, you should know that a child's gender is determined by its parents, not the doctor. Perhaps you should ask the child's father."

"The child's father..." Confusion flashed through the pregnant woman's eyes before she suddenly began laughing viciously.

"He's gone... I ate him... Hahaha, he's dead! That man actually wanted to be the child's mother... He didn't deserve it. Only I can be the mother..."

"...Mm... what?"

"He's gone... I can't find him... Hahaha, he disappeared... I'm the child's mother!"

The doctor's CPU overloaded for a while.

But his impeccable professional training allowed him to seize the business opportunity almost immediately. He raised his eyebrows and said with some excitement:

"If it was merely a normal death, our clinic can provide you with a special service for interrogating the dead. You still have a chance to ask him why your child is a boy.

"However, this service may be a little expensive.

"But I think that for the sake of the child, everything is worth it..."

He promoted the service enthusiastically, as if he would receive a huge cut once the deal went through.

Perhaps moved by the doctor's sincerity, the pregnant woman's eyes shifted between venom and confusion several times. In the end, she nodded like a walking corpse.

"My child must have an explanation. What do I do?! Hurry, Doctor, I want to ask him!"

"Very good, Madam. First, please close your eyes."

Watching the pregnant woman hesitantly close her eyes, the doctor's lips curled into an eerie smile.

He raised the steel saw and once again placed its crude teeth against her neck.

"Then take a deep breath... Yes, yes, very good. Tilt your head back. That's right, lift your neck a little higher. Good, don't rush. It'll be over soon..."

"Shik..."

The doctor's hand trembled.

Plop... Something fell.

Filthy blood sprayed everywhere, splattering the snow-white wall with an exquisite cinnabar painting.

"Uh... There was a slight accident, but the surgery went smoothly. Madam, you can go look for the child's father now."

The doctor clicked his tongue softly. He casually wiped his blood-covered hand on his white coat, then glanced at the head on the floor.

"Ugh, that's creepy."

He hurriedly kicked it away, then raised the steel saw and turned to look at the tentacle on the patient's corpse.

The big eyes were still blinking. It seemed not to have figured out what was happening—or perhaps it had no capacity for awareness yet.

"I told you just now that this service is a little expensive. Your mother hasn't paid yet, but she probably won't be coming back for a while.

"So... how about you pay for her?"

Although it lacked awareness, the Newborn still instinctively struggled violently upon sensing death's approach.

In the doctor's eyes, however, that struggle looked more like an invitation.

The livelier a fish leaped on the chopping block, the harder the fisherman felt like chopping.

"Shik—"

The doctor pierced its body without hesitation. The newborn tentacle writhed in agony, and before long, the adorable big eyes completely lost their luster and stopped moving.

On the day it embraced birth, it also embraced death.

"Payment received. Thank you for your patronage!"

The doctor bowed gracefully, tossed aside the steel saw, and walked out of the dim room without looking back.

Solo Trial (Birth of Leavings) challenge completed

Scoring in progress, rewards being settled...

Player: Cheng Shi, performance rating: S

Food obtained: Finger Bread (C) ×5

Food obtained: Canned Slime Drink (C) ×5

Food obtained: Fake Eyeball Cake (B) ×1

Path to Godhood +0, Ladder of Audience +0 (Solo Trials do not increase scores)

Current Path to Godhood score: 2104, global ranking:

Current Ladder of Audience score: 156, Path ranking: 74

Trial cleared. Exiting soon

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