Chapter 3346

"Plague Doctor Treatment Code: All doctors entering the ward must strictly follow this code to treat patients; any violation may result in serious consequences. Proceed with caution."

Such a line of text appeared on the parchment. Shiler just wanted to open his mouth to speak when he found the handwriting on the paper slowly disappearing, and then a whole pile of text appeared again.

"Plague Doctor Dress Code: After entering the ward, doctors must wear a bird-beak mask, a black robe, and a brass pocket watch, and check their appearance in the mirror. If any dress items are missing, please immediately find the correct items in the wardrobe to wear. If the dress is incorrect, the 'Nurse' will pay a visit."

Shiler hurriedly lowered his head to look at himself; he was indeed wearing a black robe and had a brass pocket watch hanging around his neck. He reached out to touch his face again and found he wasn't wearing a mask. So he looked around and walked to the wardrobe by the door.

The old wardrobe had a thick layer of stains, looking like dried blood clots, and also a bit like some liver substance evenly smeared on it. There were also many scratch marks on the bottom, as if something was desperately trying to crawl into the wardrobe.

Shiler grabbed the metal handle on one side of the wardrobe door and pulled the wardrobe open a crack. A thick, putrid stench came from the wardrobe—there were no hangers inside the wardrobe at all, only a corpse rotted down to just a skeleton, with a bird-beak mask on its head.

"This is too disgusting." Shiler had just finished sighing when he suddenly remembered that Strange was a germaphobe.

He looked back and saw Strange had just entered the game and was currently lowering his head to read the content on the parchment.

"One piece of good news and one piece of bad news." Shiler turned his head to say to him, "The good news is that this is indeed a hospital; the bad news is that this is a medieval hospital."

Strange frowned. Shiler endured the disgust and took the mask off the corpse's face. However, there was no dirt on the mask, nor was there any strange smell. As long as he didn't look at the source, it wasn't unbearable.

But the problem was, they had two people but only one mask. What should they do if the other person couldn't fulfill the dress code?

Shiler checked the wardrobe again; he even dragged the mummified corpse out directly and then found a pocket watch in the corner of the wardrobe. He looked back and sure enough, Strange wasn't wearing a watch.

Shiler threw the pocket watch to him and glanced at the bird-beak mask in his hand, suspecting that this might have been set up by the system on purpose, just to let them know the consequences of violating the rules.

Shiler threw the mask directly to Strange and then said, "There shouldn't be anyone here who needs psychological treatment, so we have to protect you first. Can't expect me to open the chest of this thing."

Strange followed his gaze to glance at the mummified corpse lying on the bed, paused, and then said, "We first have to determine if the patient really has a chest cavity."

In just these ten-plus seconds, it seemed the punishment for violating the rules had already been triggered. A creaking sound began to come from the corridor, and that bellows-like wheezing sound was getting closer.

BANG!!!

A loud noise that made the whole room shake rang out from outside the door, which was nailed shut with lead plates and wood. Shiler gestured for Strange to hide further away, while he lightened his footsteps and looked toward the observation window on the door.

Through the small circular observation window, he saw the face of a woman like a mummified corpse, her eyes deeply sunken in their sockets, the lower half of her face uncovered by skin, clearly showing her teeth and gums.

She wasn't wearing a modern-style nurse's uniform, but a white headscarf, a black shirt, and a white outer skirt. Compared to a nurse, she actually looked more like a nun.

Shiler knew that in the early Middle Ages, there was no such profession as a nurse, or rather, the distinction between doctors and nurses wasn't that obvious. And some nursing work that needed to be done by women was mostly done by nuns. Later nurse uniforms were also improved based on nun habits.

This mummified nun nurse seemed to be carrying something in her hand, and was now using an iron chain to swing that thing around and smash it against the door.

BANG!

She smashed it again, and Shiler finally saw clearly. He took two steps back and said, "It seems our predecessor chose another way to contribute to medicine."

What the nurse was carrying was a male corpse, wearing a black robe and a bird-beak mask. The iron chain went in from the lower body, came out from the chest, and then wrapped around his neck, with the end held in the nurse's hand, and then she lifted him up to smash him against the door.

After smashing only twice, the door was already tottering. Shiler had no doubt that one more time and she would break in.

Just as the nurse intended to smash it a third time, a burst of urgent ringing sounded, and she suddenly let go of the iron chain in her hand and hurried toward the other side of the corridor.

Shiler breathed a sigh of relief. After confirming the corridor was safe, he turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. That male corpse lay in the corner of the corridor, his chest rising and falling slightly, as if he still had breath.

Shiler snatched the bird-beak mask off his face and closed the door with a "bang."

"I think he can still be saved."

"I think so too; which one do you want?"

"The one in your hand, at least it's fresher." Strange chose the mask Shiler had taken from the man and then handed the one in his hand to him.

The two put on the masks. However, somewhat unexpectedly, even looking out through the glass, there was no blurring, and the field of vision wasn't restricted; they could see very clearly.

But this wasn't good news; it meant there must be occasions that required them to see clearly, such as jump-scare segments that couldn't be missed.

After checking the equipment on his body again to make sure it was correct, Shiler took out the parchment again. The handwriting on it had indeed changed again.

"Plague Doctor Examination Code: Doctors need to examine six parts of the patient's body, which are the skin, eyeballs, mouth, limbs, body fluids, and hair. Synthesize the pathological manifestations of each part to make a diagnosis of the patient's condition and illness. For symptom diagnosis, refer to the second book from the right on the third row of the bookshelf, 'Diagnostic Methods for Plague Diseases'."

Strange walked quickly to the bookshelf and took out the book mentioned on the parchment.

This book was written in Latin, but Strange happened to know Latin. He flipped through it briefly and then said, "Not complicated, about 196 diseases, corresponding to over 1200 symptoms. The directory is also well organized, and you can quickly retrieve the content you need. The only problem is—it has nothing to do with medicine."

Shiler also took it over to look and found that Strange was right. Because the various symptoms described in this book weren't things a normal person would get at all. For example, there was a symptom in the skin column, which was spreading black spots on the chest.

That would be fine, but the key was that the symptoms mentioned that the black spots would gradually arrange themselves into a Fibonacci sequence, which was the pattern of the Golden Ratio sequence. One of the diseases corresponding to this symptom was "The Arrival of the Black Death Day."

Although the plot style looked medieval, it clearly mixed in supernatural elements. Strange coming here was the right place, because he wasn't just an excellent surgeon, but also happened to be a mage. This was truly like coming home.

But Strange clearly didn't think so. These diseases and symptoms that looked like they were made up were challenging his worldview as both a surgeon and a mage at the same time, making him endure double the torment and test.

"How do you expect me to believe that these examination results, which are like black magic spells, are correct?" Strange said while reading the book, "If he tries to pollute my brain with this kind of wrong knowledge, then he's found the wrong person. My decades of modern medical education experience aren't that easy to shake."

"Better shake it a bit." Shiler picked up the parchment again and saw new text.

"Plague Doctor Treatment Code: After determining the patient's illness and condition, the doctor needs to treat the patient. Please strictly follow the fourth book from the right on the sixth row of the bookshelf, '900 Plagues and Effective Treatment Methods,' for treatment, and use the instructions in the first book from the bottom row, 'Medical Instrument Operation Manual,' to correctly operate medical instruments to assist in treatment."

Shiler's fingertips slid across the dazzling array of book spines on the bookshelf and finally stopped at a flash of bright red. He took out the treatment book first, then crouched down to get the instrument operation manual.

Strange looked at the treatment manual first. As expected, it was another pile of nonsense. For example, to treat a disease like "The Arrival of the Black Death Day," one needed to use a quarter-ounce of deer blood mixed with the ashes of the burned third page of the Revelation, evenly smear it on the surface of the skin where the pattern appeared, and completely peel off all the skin that showed ulcer reactions to be burned.

If you said it wasn't professional, this thing was written in Latin, and the various handling methods were written in a decent way, with data accurate to one-twentieth of an ounce. But if you said it was professional, this thing had nothing to do with modern medicine; it was purely talking nonsense with a straight face.

But as it happened, the number of these examination and treatment methods was extremely large and very complex. It also involved many professional surgical operations, such as thoracotomy, laparotomy, craniotomy, and precise peeling of skin and nerves. If you weren't a professional doctor, you really might not be able to handle it.

Shiler had already discovered that this game setting was aimed at Strange. Overcoming decades of modern medical common sense to return to the Middle Ages to be an unscrupulous witch doctor was really very difficult.

As for him? Regarding medieval psychology, he also knew a thing or two; after all, he had very rich experience as a Pope.

Strange stood in front of the patient bed on the right, reading the examination and treatment manuals at high speed. He had said before that this thing wasn't complicated, and he wasn't bragging. The categories of modern medicine were much more complex than this.

According to his educational background, these things were actually about the same amount as what he had to memorize in one day when reviewing for a final exam in college. It really wasn't that much.

While he was browsing quickly, a few lines of text appeared on the parchment again.

"Plague Doctor Important Reminder: When performing treatment, the patient may not be very cooperative, and may also produce various reactions due to different treatment methods. You can refer to the first book from the left on the third row, 'Handling Methods for Plague Treatment Emergencies,' for handling. If it really cannot be handled, you can perform destruction operations on the patient."

"Please be sure to note that the nurse will patrol irregularly. If discovered by her to have abused or destroyed patients, the other party may take measures to ensure the doctor works diligently."

"In addition, destroying patients may trigger unpredictable serious consequences; proceed with caution unless necessary."

"Being a plague doctor is a very hard and complex job; more rules need to be explored by yourself. In addition, you can work well, or rest appropriately, or you can... just survive."

(End of chapter)