Chapter 38: Medical Kit

The group had no idea what Xia Mi was trying to do. However, after the previous incident where Dai Jing had misunderstood her, no one wanted to question her again. They tactfully remained silent, quietly watching Xia Mi play her game.

Xia Mi: “…”

She had intentionally been vague just to wait for someone to ask. If they didn’t ask, how was she supposed to show off with casual indifference?

Forget it. They would understand eventually as they watched. She might as well focus on the game first.

Upon opening “Illegal Laboratory,” Xia Mi was surprised to find two options appearing in the game.

One was the Medical Kit’s perspective, and the other was “Xiao Mi’s” perspective.

The game also prompted Xia Mi, informing her that she had two chances to reach an ending for each game. However, for this specific playthrough, each option could only produce one ending. If she wanted to continue pursuing more endings, she would have to spend 1,000 zhuo coins to buy another attempt.

Xia Mi was somewhat speechless.

On “Xiao Mi’s” side, she could control the character’s actions, save at key points, and make different choices to actively pursue a relatively good ending.

But on the Medical Kit’s side, she could only watch the Medical Kit act. She couldn’t influence his judgment and would have to passively witness the outcome. Was she really going to waste one of her ending attempts like this?

Even if she was annoyed, Xia Mi didn’t have much of a choice. At the very least, she could see what was happening on the Grey Domain’s side. It was better than remaining completely ignorant of the other half of the situation.

Xia Mi opened the Medical Kit’s perspective first and cranked the speed to the maximum, intending to finish watching Liao Tianhua’s ending as quickly as possible.

Armed with the experience from Xia Mi’s first game, the Medical Kit did not blindly trust Fang Zihan, the first NPC to appear in the Grey Domain. Instead, he feigned cooperation, letting Fang Zihan lead the way to find the other Second Team members.

The moment the Fang Zihan of the Grey Domain (hereafter referred to as Grey Fang Zihan) turned his back, the Medical Kit leaped up and knocked him unconscious.

The Medical Kit then did something that surprised Xia Mi. He used “Silkworm” on Grey Fang Zihan, attempting to absorb the abnormal status within him and help him return to normal.

Strangely, there was no Zhuo energy on Grey Fang Zihan’s body.

The Medical Kit was someone who could extract zhuo coins from Xia Mi herself; his “Silkworm” should have been incredibly powerful. Yet, he couldn’t absorb any energy at all. This indicated that Grey Fang Zihan hadn’t been corrupted by Zhuo energy at all.

If he wasn’t corrupted, why was his mental state so bizarre?

The Medical Kit reached out and rubbed Grey Fang Zihan’s face vigorously, but there were no signs of a disguise. He even used his watch to test the man’s blood type. The blood type was correct.

The Medical Kit reached a conclusion: the person before him was indeed the real Fang Zihan, but the spirit within was not.

He woke Grey Fang Zihan up and tried to interrogate him about what had happened in the Grey Domain, but Grey Fang Zihan refused to say a word.

To force a confession, the Medical Kit employed some painful methods, but Grey Fang Zihan clearly couldn’t feel pain. The tactic was useless.

This was his teammate’s body, after all, so the Medical Kit couldn’t use extreme measures. Ultimately, he could only knock Grey Fang Zihan out again, tie him up, and hide him away.

The Medical Kit located the room where Fang Zihan had led him and “Xiao Mi” in the previous game. Observing carefully from the shadows, he found the Grey Qiu Hailan lying in ambush.

In the game, the Medical Kit and “Xiao Mi” had both died because they were attacked by Grey Qiu Hailan while their guard was down.

Grey Qiu Hailan’s strength was overwhelming.

The Medical Kit started by shooting Grey Qiu Hailan in the thigh. Despite the leg injury and being unarmed, Grey Qiu Hailan still managed to break the Medical Kit’s collarbone and ribs, and even ruptured his spleen.

Fortunately, the Medical Kit possessed healing abilities. He had 100 zhuo coins in his body. He spent 50 zhuo coins on healing, returning to full health just as Grey Qiu Hailan reached the point of exhaustion. He managed to knock her unconscious through sheer attrition.

Even though the game simplified the characters into chibi¹ versions, even at eight times speed, and even though Liao Tianhua’s avatar was just a medical kit, Xia Mi could still feel the intensity of the battle.

Qiu Hailan really is a powerhouse!

Xia Mi couldn’t help but glance back at the little Qiu behind her. Suddenly, she felt the bear head was quite cute. The Qiu-bear on her side was much more adorable than the Grey Qiu Hailan on Liao Tianhua’s side.

Xia Mi wasn’t very good at hiding her emotions. If she thought it, she said it. She looked directly at Qiu Hailan and said, “Xiao Qiu, you’re just too cute!”

The group: “…”

They could tell Xia Mi wasn’t lying. Both her eyes and her tone sincerely expressed her affection for the little Qiu-bear.

Qiu Hailan thought for a moment and whispered, “Sister Xia might just like bears.”

Dai Jing added, “Once we get out of here, I’ll pay out of my own pocket to take Sister Xia to the zoo to see the bears.”

Fang Zihan chimed in, “If we really get out, what’s a zoo? I’ll treat everyone to a trip to Russia to pet real bears!”

Mi Xiangyan said calmly, “I have a former classmate in biology who works at a panda base. I can take everyone to see the pandas.”

Before Xia Mi arrived, the members of the Second Team had all steeled themselves for death. Her arrival had planted new hope in their hearts. Now, under Xia Mi’s encouragement, they were starting to compete with each other in a strange sort of way.

Hearing the voices behind her, Xia Mi wanted to join the conversation, but the Medical Kit had encountered another teammate.

She focused back on the game. She watched as the Medical Kit defeated his teammates one by one, finally knocking out and tying up all seven of them.

Medical Kit: [Only the “Eye” is left.]

The Medical Kit had only 10 zhuo coins remaining, and his casing was battered and broken. He searched the Underground Laboratory with great difficulty, checking every room, but could find no trace of the “Eye.”

However, he didn’t lose heart. He found Mi Xiangyan’s equipment, which included an echo detector used for searching for Secret Rooms.

Before Mi Xiangyan had headed to the Pharmaceutical Factory, she had speculated that there might be hidden rooms within the facility and had brought the detector along. It was how she had found the Underground Laboratory in the first place.

Using the detector, the Medical Kit found a Secret Room in the deepest part of the laboratory.

The door to the Secret Room had a combination lock, and the Medical Kit naturally didn’t know the code.

However, he had brought some lock-picking tools. He simply used explosives to blow the lock open.

The walls of the Secret Room were covered in drawings of the number “8.” It was unclear whether they were the number eight or the symbol for infinity.

In the middle of this swarm of “8s,” a man lay quietly on the floor.

He was “Eye.”

He lay there as if asleep, wearing no Protective Suit. The cloth strip used to blindfold him had been untied and placed by his side.

Medical Kit was cautious. He did not approach directly, but instead activated the anti-glare function in his helmet and tossed a flashbang.

Intense light flooded the entire room, effectively sealing Eye’s vision.

No matter how powerful Eye’s ability was, it was triggered through his sight. Experts had previously researched that if Eye underwent Zhuo-transformation, the best method for recovery was to place him in a lightless environment. If Eye could see nothing, the Zhuo energy would enter a state of “Zhe,” allowing Eye’s human consciousness to return to normal, overcome the Zhuo state, and return to a stable “Rong.”

Medical Kit used the flashbang for the same reason. Regardless of Eye’s current state, he had to use “Zhe” to soothe the energy within Eye’s body first.

Relying on the lenses in his helmet, Medical Kit reached Eye’s side amidst the blinding glare.

As soon as he drew near, Eye snapped his eyes open, but the intense light pierced them. Eye cried out in pain, clutching his face.

Medical Kit seized the opportunity to grab the cloth strip from the floor and tied it back over Eye’s eyes.

Simultaneously, taking advantage of Eye’s inability to act, Medical Kit bound him securely.

Once the glare faded, Medical Kit aimed an anesthetic gun at Eye’s neck and asked: [Can you communicate normally?]

If Eye was unable to communicate like the other team members, Medical Kit would knock him out and find another way.

To his surprise, Eye answered: [I can.]

Medical Kit asked: [What exactly happened to the Second Team?]

Eye replied: [It is not a matter of what happened to the Second Team, but that I fell into a trap hidden two months ago.]

Medical Kit waited silently for Eye to explain.

Eye said: [We came to the Pharmaceutical Factory to find clues regarding Zhang Xun and No. Y-057 Zhuo. The other side emptied all the data in the Underground Laboratory, but as long as I am here, no matter how thoroughly they cleaned up, they cannot cover up history. To hide what happened here, they had to deal with me.

Captain Liao, two months ago, they released the four Zhuo of the Y-Series into Building 6, and at the same time, they placed a living mirror in the room where the Y-Series data was stored.]

Medical Kit: [A mirror? Living?]

Eye shook his head and said: [Yes, living. I do not know how they managed to make inorganic matter live, but I know it was alive.

They moved everything else out, leaving only that mirror behind.

The mirror was quiet, remaining in a state of Zhe until I entered the Underground Laboratory. When I saw that mirror, it suddenly “came alive” and rapidly copied my eyes.

I wanted to warn everyone, but the mirror triggered my Zhuo-transformation. My consciousness became blurred. I instinctively opened my nest, but I did not want to hurt anyone; I only wanted to use the nest to protect them.

I wanted to fight that mirror. I wanted to prevent it from devouring my teammates.

But after the transformation, I felt an uncontrollable urge to devour the energy from my teammates’ bodies. So, I could only find an empty room and lock myself inside, refusing to let anyone near me.

Fortunately, Captain Liao, you sealed me in time and woke my consciousness.

Captain Liao, isn’t my identity confidential? How did the people at the Pharmaceutical Factory predict my ability two months ago and set a trap specifically for me?]

After hearing this, Medical Kit considered that there might be an enemy mole within the Disposal Bureau, but this was not the place to discuss it. He helped Eye up and said: [We will discuss this later. First, we…]

Before he could finish, Eye’s arm transformed into a sharp glass shard and pierced through Medical Kit’s body.

Medical Kit turned into a broken box.

Eye stood before his corpse and said softly, [Captain Liao, you overlooked one thing. If I had truly escaped the Zhuo-transformation state, the nest should have dissolved long ago, shouldn’t it?]

Eye removed his blindfold, opening a pair of deep black eyes with no whites, and looked toward the game screen.

As if making eye contact with Xia Mi, he opened his mouth and said something.

No sound came out. The game faithfully displayed his lip movements, but no text dialogue box appeared.

Xia Mi watched his mouth open and close as he rattled off a sentence, and then the game displayed “GAME OVER.” Medical Kit’s ending had been reached.

Xia Mi: “…”

She didn’t know how to read lips! What the hell did he say? Would it have killed them to include some audio?

Translator’s Notes