Chapter 543: Infection |
Zhou Xiaoying froze for a moment, not immediately understanding what Huang Shengjie meant.
Huang Shengjie explained, "We patients are at the very bottom of the hierarchy in this game. Cooperation really is the only way we stand a chance of coming out ahead. Even if we can't win a lot of visa time, at the very least we should aim to leave safely and minimise our losses.
"If the few of us fall apart over a handful of the most basic medicine bottles, there's no hope of any deeper cooperation down the line.
"I'm giving up my chance to buy medication this round, and I hope we can work together for the rest of the game.
"Du Peng, if a similar situation comes up again, I can do the same for you."
Du Peng paused, then nodded and said, "Thank you."
Zhou Xiaoying hurried over to Huang Shengjie's vending machine, "Thank you, thank you so much!"
Qian Li's expression soured visibly. Her move had clearly backfired again.
Now, the four of them excluding her were growing closer and closer, while she was the one being left out.
Then she looked at Huang Shengjie and said, "Let me give you one tablet. Just at the normal price."
Huang Shengjie was surprised and said, "Hmm?"
Zhou Xiaoying said, a little shyly, "There are two tablets per bottle, and we can split them using the trading machine.
"In the next round, we might get to see the Doctor and obtain Special Medication, or we might not be able to buy anything at all.
"Either way, distributing these tablets as evenly as possible is the better choice.
"Isn't the trading machine in the Lounge here precisely for this kind of thing?"
Huang Shengjie thought for a moment, then looked at Du Peng and said, "You take it?"
Zhang Yuan considered briefly, then glanced at Du Peng and said, "If you all need it, I'm happy to share mine as well."
Du Peng shook his head and said, "I'll hold off for now. I can feel the goodwill, and I appreciate it, but I still have one tablet left, which should last me another round. Let's start sharing among the four of us from the next round."
Huang Shengjie nodded. He and Zhou Xiaoying walked over to the trading machine together.
This was the first time anyone in the Lounge had used the machine.
Both of them inserted their Medical Cards into the designated slots. Zhou Xiaoying already had two bottles. She placed the bottle with one tablet remaining in the trading compartment.
Both then confirmed the price on their respective screens and completed the transaction.
The covers on both sides of the trading compartment closed, and when they opened again, the bottle was now on Huang Shengjie's side.
"Thank you."
Huang Shengjie picked up the bottle and put it in his pocket.
Zhou Xiaoying shook her head and said, "No, I should be thanking you."
As for Qian Li, she appeared to have no further interest in getting involved.
"Ha. A bunch of fools. Do whatever you like."
With the medication distributed, everyone took a folding chair and sat down, though all of them instinctively put some distance between themselves and Qian Li.
Even though the game mechanics meant that proximity to an Infected player carried no risk of transmission, the instinctive aversion was still there.
Qian Li simply kept a cold expression and moved her folding chair off to one side, away from the group.
The others all looked toward Huang Shengjie.
But Huang Shengjie could not think of what to say.
Seeing this, Zhang Yuan stepped in, "After these two rounds, we've established a basic level of mutual trust, so in the next round, let's each try to get in to see the Doctor.
"Our zone has two Doctors. Some of them may have already received Special Medication.
"Whoever manages to meet with a Doctor should try to buy as much as possible. If Special Medication isn't available, buy the ordinary kind, then bring it back to the Lounge and trade with the others.
"The one thing we have to maintain is solidarity. Whether it's the money we offer to get a meeting with the Doctor, or the price we're willing to pay for medication, we need to establish a clear floor and avoid pointlessly undercutting each other.
"My suggestion is that 200 per tablet for ordinary medication and 400 per tablet for Special Medication are the prices we're willing to accept at minimum.
"If the Doctor won't accept those prices, we hold together and refuse to buy at a higher price. We force them to give in."
Everyone nodded in agreement, feeling this was a fairly reasonable range.
While they did not yet know the exact prices on the Doctor's side, the rules had clearly stated that they would be lower than the Lounge vending machines. The vending machines worked out to 400 per tablet, which was obviously steep, so pushing the price for ordinary medication down to 200 and Special Medication down to 400 seemed worth attempting.
Of course, these would not necessarily be the absolute floor. If someone genuinely needed Special Medication to survive, they would naturally be willing to pay more. But when negotiating, you always started high and came down, so opening with these prices was reasonable.
The second round was drawing to a close, and everyone returned to their respective rooms.
Huang Shengjie went back to his sofa and sat down. Just as he had done in the previous round, he took a tablet out of the bottle, held it in his hand, and made himself ready.
From what had happened in the last round, taking a Type I Painkiller had left only a residual stinging and burning sensation, well within the range of something easily tolerable.
Feeling that the time was nearly up, Huang Shengjie braced himself mentally and swallowed the tablet.
But the very next instant, a searing bolt of agony hit him.
It felt as though something had slammed into his temples with tremendous force. His ears rang and his mind went completely blank.
The pain then spread rapidly through his entire body, sending him into involuntary convulsions. He curled up in a ball on the sofa.
The soft foam padding everywhere cushioned the impact and kept him from hurting himself, but did nothing to lessen the pain.
"Something's wrong, something's wrong.
"What's happening? Has the medication stopped working?"
The agony left his mind almost entirely seized up. He could not think properly. Acting purely on instinct, he tipped another tablet out of the bottle and swallowed it.
But the second tablet made almost no difference at all.
Huang Shengjie had no choice but to curl himself up on the sofa and throw every last bit of strength he had against the pain.
After what felt like an endless minute, the pain finally receded.
Huang Shengjie gasped for breath in great heaving gulps, slumping to the floor in front of the sofa, his heart still hammering.
Then, suddenly, his stomach lurched. He stumbled into the bathroom and vomited.
After a bout of dry heaving, Huang Shengjie rinsed his mouth at the sink and looked at himself in the mirror.
His face had gone deathly pale from the agony, and fine beads of sweat covered his forehead.
"Was it because I took the tablet early that the medication didn't work? No, that can't be right. This pain was far more intense than last time!
"Slightly less severe than the pain back in the community.
"In other words, the medication did have some effect, but ordinary painkillers are nowhere near enough to fully suppress this.
"I've been Infected!
"But how? The only piece of equipment I shared with anyone was the trading machine with Zhou Xiaoying. Does that mean Zhou Xiaoying is Infected?
"But in the last round she seemed completely fine. Surely she couldn't have been going through pain at that level and shown no reaction at all?
"Could it be that Zhang Yuan is the actual Infected player?
"Zhang Yuan infected Zhou Xiaoying through the vending machine, and then Zhou Xiaoying infected me through the trade."
It was the only explanation that made sense, and yet there was something about it that Huang Shengjie could not reconcile no matter how he turned it over.
Zhang Yuan had not obtained any medication in the first round. If he was the Infected player, that would mean Qian Li had only experienced Standard Pain.
But if Zhang Yuan had been enduring Special Pain with no medication at all, how could he possibly have looked less affected than Qian Li, who had taken medication and was only dealing with Standard Pain?