Chapter 593

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Shen Yao

Having been in Feng City for half a month, Shen Yao had made zero progress in the Instance.

There was no clear time limit, no clear mission, and she didn't even know what the epidemic was.

The only thing that could be called good news was that she had found a Tasker of the Infinite World; the bad news also came from this, for this Tasker was not from the Changping Guild, but someone who liked being a lone wolf and relying on themselves.

Shen Yao's interaction with the other party was nothing more than a brief conversation after a hurried glance on the road.

Even both parties had not exposed their real names and living situations to each other.

After all, there were so many people in the Infinite World, and countless went to the Instance Hall every day; back then, when Shen Yao and the Changping Guild people chose to enter an Instance, a string of several dozen people filled in without blinking an eye.

With Feng City's huge area, once Taskers entered and scattered, trying to gather everyone was like finding a needle in the sea.

Tap—

It was another day of getting off work and returning home; Shen Yao carried the supplies she bought from the supermarket, tidied them up, and took them to the Kitchen.

The sky outside was pitch black, with lightning flashing from time to time.

Various warning notifications had already been sent to her phone, including that work tomorrow was canceled, and people in several low-lying areas of all of Feng City were staying at home.

As for why not quit and leave Feng City? This rain spread from south to north, covering the Whole Country, and during this period there were earthquake and volcanic eruption warnings; where could the two of them escape to?

Xu Ningchen returned home after Shen Yao came back, carrying neatly packaged Grain in his hand.

Every household needed to stock up on several days of food and drink for rainy days, including reminders and notifications from the Community and Officials; so as not to appear too eccentric and attract others' attention, Shen Yao and the others would also spend money to buy some Daily Food to keep at Home.

"Just received a Text Message notification: this rainfall involves excessive heavy metal content; Officials suggest citizens stay home, close doors and windows tightly, and avoid contact with rainwater; if there are allergic or uncomfortable reactions in the body, seek medical treatment immediately after the rain stops."

Xu Ningchen read out the Text Message content; it was indeed news released by Officials. There had been quite a few notifications from Officials these past few days, and they seemed rather contradictory.

It felt like they wanted residents to take it seriously, but didn't want to cause residents excessive panic.

However, the heavy metal content in the rainwater exceeding standards... probably wasn't just heavy metals, right?

Hearing this, Shen Yao took out several pieces of translucent Plastic Film from the System Space, "Wrap the Windows with them to prevent water from seeping through gaps."

This kind of Plastic Film was a popular item in the System Mall; it could isolate water, temperature, and Virus, produced in the Infinite World, and one piece cost several Points.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen had earned quite a few Points over these two years; besides keeping enough for the children, the rest was all used to improve their strength and buy Supplies.

Nowadays, the two's space had expanded again and again; let alone entering two Instances nonstop, even if a zero was added after the Instance, the Supplies in the space were enough for them to squander until clearing the game.

Xu Ningchen came over to help; one pulled and one nailed, and soon they sealed several Windows facing Outside.

Under the light, the Plastic Film was faintly visible; without close Observation, it was hard to find traces.

The Room they lived in was on the tenth floor, a middle position in the whole Community, and the Community had been newly built for only a few years, with not many Residents living inside.

Let alone them sealing Windows with Plastic Film at this moment, even if they personally welded Iron wire mesh, it wouldn't attract the attention of neighbors up, down, and around.

Slap slap

Patting her Palm, after finishing the Window business, Shen Yao went to the Kitchen and made two bowls of Vegetable Egg Noodles; after eating and drinking their fill, one bowl each, she drew Talismans in the Living Room.

This Copy World had no Spiritual Energy; the Talisman Papers they drew relied entirely on themselves. Similar to attack Talisman Papers like Fire Summoning Talismans and Thunder Summoning Talismans, their lethality was not as strong as before; fortunately, their space still had related stock, and these newly made ones were just for practice.

At eight in the evening, the lights in the Living Room suddenly went out.

Before Shen Yao could react to where the problem was, she heard a Crack outside the window, and the Rainstorm suddenly poured down, catching many people Off Guard.

No matter how serious Officials said these past few days, or how timely the Reminders were, there would still be many people busy for this or that reason on rainy days.

Shen Yao quickly walked to the Window Side and took out a small Flashlight from her New Dao Tool Space Earrings.

The Flashlight's light was not strong; after turning it on, the beam was only the size of a baby's fist, shooting along the Window toward the ground, merely reflecting a few scattered lights and shadows on the pitch-black ground.

Fortunately, Shen Yao's body had been strengthened with added points, and came with a telescopic function.

After confirming several times, Shen Yao turned off the Flashlight and turned on the Night Vision Desk Lamp.

Xu Ningchen was organizing the drawn Talisman Papers, then put away the unused Blank Talisman Paper.

"There is pollution in the rainwater; I saw strands of black Qi."

Xu Ningchen looked up, "Virus?"

"Not sure," shaking her head, Shen Yao raised her hand and pointed outside the window, "Someone in the Community is getting rained on; wait for news in the group."

The number of people in the owners' group was not large, because few people had moved in.

The two of them usually didn't talk much; most of the time they were in a lurking state, occasionally popping up.

That night at ten o'clock, the rain outside poured harder and harder, and the owners' group became Lively.

15-1502-Shallow Smile: "Everyone, does anyone have fever medicine to sell? My child played around and got rained on; touching them, they feel a bit hot."

12-1201-Zheng: "How old is your child? My fever medicine is for Adults only."

13-1303-Still Heart Like Water: "Oh my, why didn't you watch the child? Officials reminded not to touch rainwater; otherwise, just send them to the Hospital."

"......"

Many in the group needed fever medicine; once the first person spoke, others started asking for medicine.

Every household usually kept some common Medicine; they spent money buying some from each other, and the topic gradually turned to this Rainstorm that Officials had reminded about again and again.

Shen Yao changed into Pajamas and lay on the Bed; since the electricity hadn't come, she scrolled on her phone for a while, then turned off the light and went to sleep.

As a result, after Midnight, the door outside was violently knocked on.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen got out of bed and went over, finding that the knocker was their next-door Neighbor, who immediately asked for Medicine.

Shen Yao:...

While inquiring about news through the Room door, Shen Yao also gave some common fever medicine; after closing the Room door tightly amidst the other party's profuse thanks, she took out her phone, and before even looking, she was shocked by the screen that Xu Ningchen had snapped at her.

The group who asked for medicine at ten o'clock all had high fevers and fainted; they had been sent to the Hospital overnight by their families, and those whose families couldn't manage spent money to hire owners with cars from the same Community; naturally, the price was several times higher than usual.

"Is whatever's in the rain that powerful?" Those who bumped into it were given no chance to react.

Xu Ningchen continued scrolling his finger downward; inside were several photos taken at the hospital, everything was a mess, full of patients brought in.

"Unless necessary, don't come to the hospital; they're all people, just stay home and take your medicine obediently."

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao pursed her lips, glanced at the gate behind her that had just closed, and pulled Xu Ningchen back to the bedroom to continue sleeping.

Opening her eyes again, the sky was already bright, the time had come to seven-thirty in the morning.

Shen Yao glanced at her phone; the owner group chat inside already had over ninety-nine messages.

Opening it, she scrolled to the top; it was all sorts of chaos at the hospital. Fortunately, after a night of rescue, all the patients sent to the hospital had improved, their fevers had subsided, and if they didn't relapse, they could go home to recuperate.

At the bottom were fellow patient family members complaining, saying the people inside the hospital spoke of it as serious, but actually just an IV drip could bring down the fever and improve things; next time they ran into this sort of thing, just recuperating at home would see them through, absolutely don't run to the hospital to waste money and time, it's useless.

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao was also speechless at this sort of talk; feelings, if the knife didn't fall on their own body, they didn't know it hurt.

This illness certainly wouldn't heal that quickly.

Shen Yao put on her slippers and came to the living room, just seeing that outside the light was bright, white clouds drifted in the sky, only in the distance was there still a bit of gloomy edge.

The work group notified that everyone would work normally today, the originally scheduled vacation was canceled.

Shen Yao quickly finished breakfast and went out with Xu Ningchen to toil like oxen and horses.

"Careful!"

When leaving the residential compound gate, Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen leaned back, dodging a person wearing a mask who was entering.

"Aiya, walk slower, your fever just broke and you haven't recovered, what's the rush?"

Behind the masked person followed a middle-aged woman, messy hair paired with a weary expression, and the disinfectant smell that wouldn't dissipate from her body; one look and you knew she'd spent a night at the hospital.

The two watched this mother and child leave; Shen Yao muttered softly that the masked young man had a rather faint stench on him, like meat that had been left for several days and wasn't fresh.

Xu Ningchen raised his eyebrows, "They're patients living on the thirteenth floor."

The family that first asked for fever medicine in the group last night; turns out this child is already an adult.

Shen Yao quickly arrived at the company; just as she put down her backpack and opened her computer, she heard the girl sitting next to her talking about last night's power outage and fever.

Mm, she smelled that stench from the doorway of the stairwell again.

Only this time the smell was faint; if her nose weren't sensitive, she wouldn't have noticed it at all.

"Xiao Ling, did you get caught in the rain and run a fever last night? Did you go to the hospital?"

"Sister Shen, I didn't go; I took medicine and slept, and my whole body feels relaxed."

"I heard going to the hospital just means getting an IV drip, and it costs several hundred, not cost-effective."

This girl named Xiao Ling wasn't very old; she hadn't been at the company long.

Shen Yao counted as an old employee; occasionally she'd give Xiao Ling some pointers, so their relationship was pretty good; at noon they went out together to buy some food.

Shen Yao nodded as if deeply convinced, saying quite a few people in their residential compound had run fevers; some went to the hospital to fuss about it, some just took medicine themselves; but looking at the chat records this morning, everyone said they were more or less fine, so it really wasn't serious.

That morning, when the company department held a group meeting, the stench lingering at the tip of Shen Yao's nose intensified; she smelled it on several people.

Asking around, she learned that yesterday they had more or less all come into contact with rainwater, ran fevers at night, and were back to normal by morning.

The peak of Shen Yao smelling this stench was at noon when eating outside.

The aroma of the food mixed with the inescapable stench; Shen Yao, even if she could bear it, turned pale, and could only grit her teeth and say she felt unwell, packing the food to take away; by the time she got home in the evening, she looked listless, making Xu Ningchen worried sick.

"It's fine, just a bad smell;" who knew how long this illness's incubation period was.

As for contagion, it probably didn't exist, because she hadn't smelled it on other people or family members; it might also be related to the time being too short.

Their strengthened bodies made them strong and healthy, and in the Copy World they were less likely to get sick.

Like this epidemic, as long as it wasn't a variety with extremely strong toxicity, it could easily not hurt Shen Yao and the other person.

"We might need to think of a way to gather the people of Changping Guild together as soon as possible."

Strength in numbers, more people make things easier.

Although the High-Difficulty Instance of Regular Instances was difficult, after all it wasn't a Spirit Instance; relying on their spatial various items, surviving and clearing it was easy.

It was just that their purpose for entering the Instance, the Territory Token and extra points, these two were the reason they hadn't left but stayed behind to wait and see.

"Hospital"

Shen Yao thought Taskers would definitely go investigate; compared to the heavily guarded Laboratory, the Hospital was a relatively easier backup option to enter.

Previously they hadn't taken action because the Instance hadn't shown any abnormalities.

Now that abnormalities had appeared, they had to focus all their energy on it.

Asking their respective leaders for leave for a period of time, Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen each ran to the Hospital; especially because of the high fever patients, the outpatient hall was full of patients, and finding a Tasker of the Infinite World among them really wasn't difficult.

One two three four five... Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen spent three days, relying on Changping Guild's own communication ability, finally gathering everyone together.

Everyone was scattered around several districts near Feng City; during this period they weren't idle, and had also figured out some key clues.

Among them was a Tasker working at the Hospital, mentioning that regarding this high fever, the Official had long been prepared; don't look at the IV drip looking ordinary, inside was added a newly developed special-effect medicine.

Behind the scenes, the Official would also talk cooperation with patients, drawing blood for tests, conducting various analyses.

"Where might the Territory Token be? How to get it? Won't it make us save the people of Feng City."

"Saving people earns extra points; if you don't want to do it, prioritize preserving yourself."

"Let's not talk about these first; do we want to live closer to each other? This Instance hasn't explained anything clearly; if everyone has something, they can still help look after one another."

"Choose the Villa District; fewer people means fewer troubles; once the epidemic spreads, we can still hide."

"......"

A group of people discussed back and forth; finally they booked several villas in a Villa District near Central Park in Feng City, and all the big shots moved over to live together.

Among the Taskers who entered this Instance, some were rich, some were Ordinary People; to avoid subsequent trouble, all the villas were chosen to be bought with money.

"Good thing this money can't be taken away, otherwise I definitely wouldn't be willing to spend it."

He Jie patted his chest; he was the lucky one among the taskers this time, a rich Nth-generation worth several billion, his family's only requirement was that he not cause trouble — as for liking to buy buy buy and spend spend spend, that was a minor issue.

"These few villas need simple decoration, the interiors will just use items from the System Mall," their purpose wasn't enjoyment, they didn't need the villa interiors to be too luxurious, just usable was fine.

"Rest assured, I've already contacted the Construction Team, I added money to have them finish as soon as possible."

He Jie made a hand gesture; his status in the Changping Guild wasn't high or low, but he had a good relationship with Shen Yao, the two of them — the talisman paper they sold basically passed through He Jie's hands; as for how much money He Jie earned from it, one could analyze a thing or two just from his attitude — God of Wealth ah.