Chapter 544: A Familiar Face |
Could Zhang Yuan have suffered from some serious illness in the past? A problem with his nervous system? An abnormally high tolerance for pain?
But whatever the explanation, Huang Shengjie was now completely certain of one thing: he had become Infected.
And ordinary medication was no longer enough to suppress the pain.
He would need to obtain Special Medication within one hour and achieve complete pain relief for three consecutive rounds in order to be cured. Fail that, and he would receive an instant-death penalty.
Time was running short. Each hour contained only six rounds.
Huang Shengjie hurried to the Treatment Room door and, after a moment's consideration, steeled himself and entered 3,000 Medical Points.
The patients had agreed in the Lounge not to offer the Doctor too large a bribe and not to pay inflated prices for medication. But that understanding had clearly collapsed the moment an Infected player appeared among them.
Regardless of whether the Infected player turned out to be Qian Li, Zhang Yuan, or Zhou Xiaoying, meaningful cooperation among the patients was almost certainly over.
If Huang Shengjie naively stuck to the earlier agreement and held back on what he offered the Doctor, he might never get through the Treatment Room door at all.
But after waiting a moment, the door to the Treatment Room did not open. Instead, the 3,000 Medical Points he had submitted were returned.
Huang Shengjie froze. That could only mean one of two things.
Either the Doctor had gone to see the Reviewer, or another patient had offered a higher price than 3,000.
His mind went blank. He gave the Treatment Room door a frustrated kick, then reluctantly made his way back to the Lounge.
"What is going on? Are you the Infected one?"
Zhou Xiaoying looked to be in a very bad way as well. Her hair was all over the place, and the light makeup she had been wearing was visibly smudged.
She was both frantic and furious, and the moment she saw Huang Shengjie come out of his room she rushed over to him.
Huang Shengjie glanced at the three closed doors in the Lounge and said, "Still haven't worked it out? Zhang Yuan is the real Infected player. We were all played."
Zhou Xiaoying clearly found it difficult to accept, but after calming down slightly she began to piece together what had happened.
Both VIP Patient room doors were still shut.
Zhang Yuan's door was shut as well.
No one knew what was going on with the VIP Patient room on the far right, but since neither Qian Li nor Zhang Yuan had appeared in the Lounge, they had almost certainly both gone to see the Doctor.
Qian Li going to the Doctor made complete sense. Zhang Yuan had set her up to be excluded, which left her with nothing to gain from coming to the Lounge. With the other patients refusing to accept her, she had no better option than to offer the Doctor a generous bribe and go get Special Medication herself.
Zhang Yuan's absence, on the other hand, was a betrayal laid bare for all to see.
He had known that being Infected would be exposed the moment he showed his face, so he had offered enough Medical Points to secure a meeting with the Doctor instead.
Huang Shengjie had seen it coming too late, and had not offered enough.
Ironically, Du Peng, who had made no trades at all in the previous round, had avoided infection through sheer misfortune turned to luck.
He hurried to the vending machine and bought medication.
Zhou Xiaoying looked at Huang Shengjie helplessly and said, "What do we do now? We need Special Medication!"
Based on what had happened during the pain earlier, Type I Painkiller could suppress Special Pain to some degree, but the pain had still been around a moderate level, and without complete suppression there was no chance of a cure.
Which meant Huang Shengjie and Zhou Xiaoying had to obtain Special Medication capable of full pain relief within one hour, or they would certainly die.
Huang Shengjie forced himself to stay calm. Once Du Peng had finished buying his medication, he turned to the two of them and said, "We three are obviously the weakest players in this Lounge right now. We're the ones who most need to work together.
"Qian Li is a VIP Patient. From the look of things, she is not Infected, but after everything that happened, she's almost certainly changed her approach and is only looking out for herself now.
"Zhang Yuan is purely a malicious player. He wanted to drag us down with him, but his true colours are out in the open now, and we will never trust him again.
"The three of us are in a difficult position. Right now, there are three Infected players in this Lounge: me, Zhou Xiaoying, and Zhang Yuan.
"If Zhou Xiaoying and I had any ill intentions, we could go and take up both vending machines right now and leave you with nothing to buy.
"Because if we buy first, we contaminate the machines.
"With no medication, the Standard Pain you're dealing with would keep getting worse and eventually become Special Pain.
"But Zhou Xiaoying and I have no reason to do that. We can also help you block Zhang Yuan so you can buy medication without disruption.
"So let the three of us work together. Next round, we all try to see the Doctor if we can, and whoever gets Special Medication shares it with the other two.
"What do you say?"
Zhou Xiaoying and Du Peng exchanged a glance and each gave a nod.
"Alright."
The round was nearly over. Both Huang Shengjie and Zhou Xiaoying were in low spirits. The three weakest players had formed a tentative alliance, but no one knew how long it would hold.
They each returned to their own rooms.
A short while earlier, in the second round.
In Zone D, Qin Cheng sent a request to the Review Room again.
This time the request was accepted and the door opened.
He entered the room, and was surprised to find someone he recognised.
It was Zheng Chunhua, from the same community.
Just that morning, before entering the game, Qin Cheng had been asking Zheng Chunhua about his experience of the pain.
Now the two of them looked at each other, and the relief on both their faces was plain.
This was a Selection-type game with forty players. Community 2 had only five participants, and it was entirely possible to go through the whole game without running into a single person from the same community.
Running into a familiar face from the same community meant unconditional mutual trust, and that was genuinely something worth celebrating.
"Dr. Qin! Thank goodness. I was beginning to think I probably wouldn't run into anyone I knew in this game.
"If I'd known, I would have tried to see you in the last round."
Zheng Chunhua gestured for Qin Cheng to take the seat across from him.
The Review Room was very narrow, and the two of them sat somewhat cramped.
Qin Cheng took out a bottle of Type I Medication from inside his jacket and set it on the table and said, "This is the medication available to a Doctor.
"Uncle Zheng, did you go to see the Sales player last round, or the other Doctor?
"Were you able to get any of the Sales player's medication?"
Zheng Chunhua nodded eagerly, "I went to see the Sales player, and I did get the medication!
"Four types in total. Have a look."
As he spoke, Zheng Chunhua placed four small white bottles on the table, each labelled with one of C, M, O, and F.
"What was the Sales player's name? Anyone you recognised?" Qin Cheng picked up the bottles and examined them.
Zheng Chunhua was mildly surprised, since most new players would not think to ask about that. Even if told, they would almost certainly not know the person. But Qin Cheng was different from most new players. He made a conscious effort to collect every piece of information available in the game, even if it seemed meaningless for the time being.
That, in itself, was a mark of real ability.
Zheng Chunhua answered honestly, "A player called Chen Guangming, from Community 12. Never seen them before. Probably from a different region."
Qin Cheng nodded. He did not know the name either, but he filed it away all the same. It might come in useful at some point.
He unscrewed each of the four bottles in turn and examined the four different medications.