Chapter 407: Worsening Frost (8/10, Resting)

Time rewound to a few minutes earlier.

In reality.

Fang Yue opened his eyes.

What met his gaze was a familiar ceiling.

Fang Yue let his mind clear up a bit, then was about to get out of bed.

Then, his movements suddenly froze.

Because he saw Yuan Jie actually half-lying by his bedside, sound asleep.

What was going on?

Why was Yuan Jie sleeping here?

Fang Yue felt a little strange in his heart, and at the same time realized that the day and night he had been unconscious had indeed caused some effects.

He gently moved Yuan Jie aside, preparing to get up to check on Bai Xiaoya, and to find Qiu Dugu to ask about his situation of having the price taken by a strange object, whether there was still a chance to recover it.

But the moment he moved Yuan Jie aside, Yuan Jie seemed to be startled awake, and abruptly stood up.

Her expression was very blank, as if her brain was still dizzy, not knowing what had happened, simply a kind of startle response.

When she saw Fang Yue and her consciousness gradually cleared, she let out an "ah," excitedly grabbed Fang Yue's hand, and checked him all over.

"A-Yue, A-Yue, are you okay? You scared me to death, you almost scared me to death! Wuu wuu wuu!"

As Yuan Jie spoke she began to cry wuu wuu, and Fang Yue comforted her for a while before learning from Yuan Jie that when he was unconscious, Yuan Jie had discovered the abnormality.

After all, a person needs food as much as iron needs steel; even if one has to play games every day, one still has to eat, at most just delaying the meal a bit.

But Fang Yue, because of the injury sustained in the game, had remained in a state of unconsciousness and had not come out of the game.

Upon discovering the abnormality, Yuan Jie immediately panicked and called Qiu Dugu over.

Fortunately, after Qiu Dugu's examination, it was determined to be only simple unconsciousness.

The doctor who came also had nothing to say, only telling them to wait for a natural awakening, so Yuan Jie began to stay by Fang Yue's side the whole time.

Listening to Yuan Jie's words, Fang Yue felt a little touched in his heart.

After comforting Yuan Jie a few words, Fang Yue briefly told her about the matter in the game.

"What?! You had an incident in the game, and then fell unconscious in reality too? That's too scary!"

Fang Yue of course could not tell her about the parchment, only briefly mentioning the general outline of the matter.

But even so, Yuan Jie felt that what Fang Yue had done was too dangerous.

Fortunately, after Fang Yue persuaded her a few times, he helped her stop her tears.

"By the way, during the time I was unconscious, how was Bai Xiaoya's situation?"

"Same as before, no difference. A-Yue, did you find Xiao Ya in the game? The doctors discussed it a few more times, and now they unanimously believe that Xiao Ya's consciousness has entered the game. If she isn't awakened from the game soon, she very likely will truly become a frozen person for life, only able to live in the game!"

Listening to what Yuan Jie said, about the final conclusion given by the doctors, Fang Yue's expression instantly darkened.

Time waits for no one. If he could, he really wanted to immediately go to Qingsi County, then find Bai Xiaoya and wake her up.

But there was no way.

The distance in the game is not something one can cross just because one wants to.

In any case, based on Fang Yue's current understanding of the game, there simply isn't any teleportation formation inside this game.

To get from one village to another, one can only travel by horse, this kind of plain and unadorned method of movement.

Therefore, the price of a fast horse has remained high all along. Individuals usually rarely have the money to afford one; only villages have enough financial resources to buy them or even raise them themselves.

Qingsi County, Fang Yue was bound to go.

But how long it would take to arrive was uncertain; they could only let the doctors try their best to keep Bai Xiaoya's condition from worsening.

After soothing Yuan Jie, Fang Yue quickly went out and contacted Qiu Dugu.

"Come back for a bit, I have something I want to ask you."

Qiu Dugu was once again voluntarily working overtime, already out on patrol.

The "Blue Sea" game had been live for about a month, having released three batches of Game Watches, the quantity increasing each time.

More and more players became aware of this game, causing the Strangeness Level to rise again and again.

At first, their Alliance would still use the method of self-destructing strange objects to lower the Strangeness Level and maintain stability.

But recently, the Strangeness Level had risen so fast that it had reached a point where even their method of destroying strange objects could not suppress it.

Moreover, destroying strange objects would actually reduce one's own combat power; in particular, the strange objects that had leaked out had been obtained in considerable numbers by the mysterious Shadow Society, greatly increasing the danger to Alliance members when carrying out missions.

So at the current stage, the Alliance's strategic policy was to patch the big loopholes, suppress the Strangeness Level as much as possible, and no longer insist on forcefully pushing it down.

Additionally, they had to reduce ordinary people's exposure to various strange incidents.

The former could be considered something they had always been doing, and they had handled it well.

The latter, however, was comparatively difficult.

After all, the scope of ordinary people was too vast; a single leak of information could let a large number of people learn of the existence of the Strangeness Level, causing it to rise.

Therefore, patrolling alone actually didn't have much effect; it was purely because Qiu Dugu's pathological work ethic was burning fiercely.

Of course, saying this was actually a bit excessive, after all Qiu Dugu was striving hard for the safety of all humanity.

While Fang Yue was thinking about these things, Qiu Dugu had already replied, saying he would rush back at the fastest speed.

While waiting for Qiu Dugu, Fang Yue took Yuan Jie to Bai Xiaoya's hospital room.

In a huge room resembling an observation chamber, separated by a massive glass door, a group of doctors in white coats pointed at the girl lying on the hospital bed inside the glass, discussing animatedly.

That girl's entire body was condensing frost-flowers, which quickly melted from the high temperature into vapor, and were wiped dry by towels automatically delivered by a machine, while the heater began to warm and raise the temperature.

All of this was like a cycle.

Every time the girl's body froze over, the cycle would begin.

That girl was none other than Bai Xiaoya.

At this moment, Bai Xiaoya was sleeping like Snow White, waiting for a miracle to appear and wake her up.

And before that miracle appeared, she still needed to rely on this set of automated equipment to keep her alive.

Fang Yue walked over to those doctors and, after understanding the situation, finally roughly grasped Bai Xiaoya's predicament.

First, Bai Xiaoya's body temperature had basically been controlled and stabilized.

Then, the gradually worsening and freezing phenomenon could also be resolved in time thanks to the artificial intelligence's rapid response.

But the problem was, all they could do was damage control — they couldn't prevent and solve the problem before it appeared.

Therefore, Bai Xiaoya's body would still deteriorate.

Deteriorating every moment, every minute, every second, Fang Yue had to race against time to rush to Qingsi County and wake her, in order to save Bai Xiaoya.

This further strengthened Fang Yue's resolve to go to Qingsi County.

And just at this moment, Qiu Dugu had already returned; his figure appeared behind Fang Yue.

Can't take it anymore, going to sleep, only 8 updates today.

After waking up, I'll make up the missing parts with 12 more updates.

(End of this chapter)