Chapter 48 The Treatment Transaction: "500,000".

After Qi Zhixia fell down, the area that was originally covered by her body was revealed.

The solid wood chairs were stained with some dark brown marks, while the khaki-colored soundproof carpet beneath them was stained with a large patch of eerie black.

It has a very strong visual impact.

The black parts had long since dried, and the stained fibers on the carpet were twisted into a tangled mess, resembling a miniature version of what had been ravaged by a fire.

Countless lives that tried to fight for their lives were completely annihilated in the carnage.

"Qi Zhixia!"

Liang Xun and Gu Keke were both startled by what they saw and rushed forward without saying a word.

Qi Zhixia's body began to stiffen.

She began to resemble a sculpture created by a top sculptor—exquisite, yet devoid of life.

Following her curled-up body, Liang Jun looked down and saw that her knees, which were the most severely injured in the dungeon, were now torn and bleeding.

The fair skin around the knees was fragmented and showed signs of eversion; pale yellow fatty tissue and bright red muscle tissue intertwined under the exposed skin; the loose skin was like an oversized glove, beneath which the crisscrossing white tendons were faintly visible.

Liang Xun's face suddenly turned pale.

"Degloving injury".

Gu Keke's heart sank to the bottom.

In the game, Qi Zhixia's knees were already in a state of near fracture.

They were all fully aware of these things.

Unexpectedly, after she left the dungeon, she suffered such a severe injury as the "unarmor damage".

Moreover, judging from the congealed bloodstains on the ground, Qi Zhixia had endured the entire night. Only after the two of them kept their promise and found this place did she lose the strength to remain conscious and pass out.

Her condition was far from optimistic. Liang Xun dared not waste any more time. Without saying a word, she picked up Qi Zhixia, who had collapsed to the ground, and carried her around the waist.

Gu Keke also had the foresight to run to the door of the study room and open the closed door for Liang Xuan.

"Coco, hurry up and give me navigation!"

Liang Xun moved with lightning speed, not daring to waste a second. "We need to go to the hospital! We need to go to the nearest hospital!"

"clear!"

The basic medical resources in the pharmacy were insufficient to treat her severe open wound.

To access higher-level resources, one must choose a more specialized hospital.

The two of them didn't have time to grab anything more. Liang Xun carried the unconscious Qi Zhixia to her car; Gu Keke opened the car door for her and quickly returned to the driver's seat.

The nearest hospital to the city library is the Municipal People's Hospital. Gu Keke activated the navigation, stepped on the gas, and the car sped off at top speed.

There are almost no vehicles on the main roads of Wangjiang City. If we assume that there is no traffic jam, they will be able to reach the hospital emergency department in less than ten minutes.

Surprisingly, an unprecedented traffic jam occurred just a few hundred meters from the hospital.

Hundreds of vehicles blocked the only road leading to the hospital's emergency department, their horns blaring incessantly, creating a rare yet exceptionally noisy symphony in the city.

What's going on?

Liang Jun anxiously looked out the window. Qi Zhixia was lying unconscious in the back seat with her eyes tightly closed.

To prevent her from bleeding heavily again, Liang Jun made a makeshift tourniquet out of a cloth strip and bandaged her up simply.

Although no more blood was flowing out.

"Why is there a traffic jam here?" Liang Xun asked anxiously while carefully observing Qi Zhixia's subtle movements. "Why are there so many players near the hospital?"

Under the orderly organization of the system, these cars will not drive on the road by themselves for no reason, nor will they honk their horns with such emotional fluctuations.

This only means that each vehicle here carries at least one surviving player.

Gu Keke didn't understand either, and she was extremely anxious, so she honked her horn and mingled among the many players.

"I don't know either. Are they all here to grab resources from the hospital?"

Their vehicles were not completely stationary.

Liang Jun craned her neck to look towards the entrance of the hospital's emergency department. She noticed that the vehicles in front were entering in an orderly fashion, but there were simply too many of them, which created a situation that "looked like a complete traffic jam."

If the goal is simply to seize resources, then there's no need for everyone to flock to this one hospital.

According to their navigation search results, the Municipal People's Hospital is just the closest hospital to the Municipal Library, but there are various pharmacies, clinics, or community hospitals around it—players don't need to go to great lengths to come here and scavenge for medical resources.

Thinking of this, Liang Jun's eyes lit up.

"Perhaps there are doctors in this hospital."

Not everyone is a doctor, and not everyone can heal the aggravated injuries brought from dungeons.

Injuries like Qi Zhixia's, or even more serious ones, can only be treated by professional doctors.

And the current situation seems to confirm this point.

Players from all over flock here despite the congestion, perhaps because this place contains the most precious resources in the world.

Surviving players whose profession is doctor.

Although the vehicles were still moving, at this snail's pace, Gu Keke, who was still some distance from the entrance, didn't know how much longer she would have to wait to get in line.

But time waits for no one. If they could get into the emergency department sooner, queue up and get a number, and treat Qi Zhixia's injuries sooner, they could save her life sooner.

Liang Jun didn't dare to delay. She quickly opened the back door and, amidst the almost motionless traffic jam, carried Qi Zhixia out.

"I'll take her to the hospital first. You can wait in line slowly, no rush!"

Liang Jun shouted towards the driver's seat, "If anything happens, remember to contact me via walkie-talkie!"

She pointed to the walkie-talkie in her bag on her chest.

Gu Keke silently responded with an "OK" gesture.

Judging by her weight, Qi Zhixia seemed like she hadn't had a proper meal in many days. Although she was about the same height as Liang Jun, she felt incredibly light when you picked her up, as if she were just an empty skeleton.

Liang Jun took three steps at a time and ran quickly towards the hospital's emergency department. Unbeknownst to her, more and more players were getting out of their cars, carrying or holding their wounded, and rushing towards the hospital despite the traffic jam.

Sitting in the car, Gu Keke exclaimed in surprise, "There are so many people..."

By the time Liang Jun started to pant slightly, she had already carried Qi Zhixia into the hospital's emergency department building.

As soon as you enter, you are hit by the strong smell of disinfectant, as if it is trying to cover up some other smell. It is so pungent that it makes you feel nauseous.

She had been to the hospital many times when she was a child, and compared to others, she had a higher tolerance for this smell.

Liang Jun merely frowned slightly, then, carrying the injured person, quickly walked with the crowd to the place where people were queuing for medical consultation.

As she had guessed, at the end of the consultation line was a doctor in a white coat.

The distance was too far for Liang Xun to see clearly, but she could vaguely make out that she was a girl wearing gold-rimmed glasses, with thick black hair piled high at the back of her head, holding a pen, and carefully questioning the patient in front of her.

The procession was moving very fast—much faster than the traffic outside.

The person on her body felt a little slumped down, so Liang Jun weighed Qi Zhixia up again, and then took the opportunity of waiting in line to look around at her surroundings.

The place where everyone was queuing was the original waiting hall on the first floor of the emergency department. However, all the extra waiting seats had been forcibly removed and replaced with retractable flow control belts to designate a queuing area for players waiting for treatment.

All around were other players. Some were injured themselves, while others were seriously wounded. Every player waiting here wore a mixture of worry and hope on their face.

"Next--"

A slightly deep voice sounded in front of him.

Liang Jun quickly shifted her gaze from the surrounding environment to the person in front of her.

At this moment, the two were separated only by a plastic table.

Being so close, Liang Xun could see the other person more clearly.

She looked to be no more than thirty-five years old, with her black hair neatly pinned up at the back of her head, except for a few strands of curled ends that weren't too unruly, appearing slightly lively and detached from the constraints.

The gold-rimmed glasses had extremely thin frames, and behind the thin lenses were a pair of very aggressive phoenix eyes.

Every button on the white coat was carefully fastened, and the nameplate of the Municipal People's Hospital hung on the spotless left chest.

Geng Qing.

Associate Chief Physician.

Those phoenix eyes quickly swept across Liang Jun's face, and then swiftly settled on the unconscious Qi Zhixia.

She was an extremely professional doctor. When that appalling dark red color filled her vision, Geng Qing parted her thin lips slightly.

Her voice was as mellow as fine wine, "A decontamination injury?"

Liang Jun nodded, then shook her head.

"I'm not sure what the injury is exactly. Do you think you can help her?"

Geng Qing's delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly, forming an elegant "川" (river) shape in the middle of her brows.

How long have you been injured?

She held a royal blue fountain pen in her hand, and the bluish-green ink quickly marked on the medical record.

Liang Jun answered in detail: "We finished the dungeon last night. She held on until around 11 a.m. today, then she passed out. We brought her here as soon as possible."

Geng Qing paused, pen in hand. "Injuries sustained in the dungeon?"

The "川" character between her eyebrows appeared even more pronounced.

“Yes.” Liang Jun nodded.

After giving her affirmative answer, Liang Jun vaguely heard what seemed to be a barely audible sigh from her.

Geng Qing's pen resumed its writing speed from a few seconds ago. The medical record was covered in peculiar symbols that Liang Xun couldn't understand.

After quickly sketching a few lines, she deftly tore off the leaflet and tried to hand it to Liang Jun.

But she was holding Qi Zhixia in both arms and didn't have a free hand to take the medical report. Geng Qing seemed to realize what was happening, and two seconds later, she placed the medical report on Qi Zhixia's unconscious body.

"Take this form and go to the easternmost window on the first floor to pay."

"Payment?"

Liang Jun paused for a moment, seemingly not quite understanding. "How do I pay?"

Under the system's rules, players can freely take resources outside the game, and there will be no trading activities whatsoever.

In other words, no matter how rich or poor a player was before, the moment they descend into a rule-based world, all their money will become nothing more than a pile of useless paper.

Liang Jun couldn't figure out for a moment what she needed to use to pay the fee.

Upon hearing Liang Xuan's question, Geng Qing slowly raised his eyelids.

Every inch of her skin around her almond-shaped eyes exuded ultimate elegance. Geng Qing's naturally aggressive gaze pierced through the top of his gold-rimmed glasses, meeting Liang Jun's eyes directly.

In that instant, Liang Jun felt like she was being sucked into a vortex.

Geng Qing put down the pen in his hand, rested his right elbow on the plastic table, and slowly spread his five slender fingers.

Her hands were beautifully shaped. Liang Jun could even picture her wielding a scalpel.

"integral."

Geng Qing's lips curled slightly, but there was no hint of a smile in his eyes.

"Five hundred thousand."

Before Liang Xun could react, she picked up the pen on the table again, and her deep, rich voice, like fine wine, rang out once more—

"Next one—"

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Author's note: I drove on the highway all day today, and I'm finally back in my hometown!

Time to start preparing for the Lunar New Year!