In fact, players who are holding the items notice the anomaly much earlier than the NPCs issue warnings.
While everyone at the base was enjoying lunch, the micro-sensor for environmental monitoring built into Xiao Jin's helmet emitted its first faint but clear warning beep.
The workload index displayed by the protective clothing filtration system soared by 30% in just a few minutes.
She could even "feel" that invisible, toxic energy carrying an aura of annihilation, just like the finest dust, stubbornly and continuously penetrating through the molecular gaps between layers of protective materials.
However, this level of activity didn't cause Xiao Jin much trouble. She even had time to rewatch the TV series she hadn't finished watching before and enjoy it immensely.
——
"Cough cough... cough cough cough!"
"Ugh... my chest... it hurts so much!"
"I can't breathe... I can't catch my breath... Help... Help me..."
As time went by, people in the base began to show various symptoms of infection.
Amidst the chaotic running sounds, there were also painful, suppressed coughs and groans. At first, they were sporadic, but soon they merged into a chorus, like a dying chorus.
The soldiers guarding the key passage gates, wearing the base's highest level of protective clothing, became the first victims to fall.
They leaned against the cold alloy wall, their bodies trembling uncontrollably, each cough feeling like it was tearing their lungs apart.
Inside their protective suits and masks, their faces quickly changed from deathly pale to an unnatural bluish-purple, and their eyeballs bulged painfully from suffocation.
Some people scratched their throats and chests in vain, their heavy protective gloves leaving feeble scratches on the tough protective suits.
"Serum! Quick! Purify the serum!" The officer in charge roared, his eyes bloodshot.
A small squad of medics, carrying silver refrigerated crates, stumbled through the chaotic crowd under the cover of soldiers.
The pale blue purified serum was injected into the soldier's jugular vein, and the effect was immediate.
The soldiers' violent spasms and suffocation subsided quickly, and their bluish-purple complexions faded slightly, but the lingering fear in their eyes and the weakness in their bodies could not be erased.
The base commander stood in front of the observation window of the command room, fully armed, looking down at the soldiers in the passage below who had barely regained their mobility after being injected with serum, yet looked like they were recovering from a serious illness. His face was so gloomy it could drip water.
On the huge holographic screen behind her, the curve representing the concentration of toxic gas inside the base continued to rise wildly.
Meanwhile, on another screen nearby, the number labeled "purified serum inventory" is also decreasing at an alarming rate.
Tens of thousands! There must be at least tens of thousands of people in the base.
With the little serum she had, it wouldn't even be enough to fill a tooth gap! A drop in the ocean!
Thinking of this, the base commander's gaze involuntarily turned back to the area of the players' living quarters on the monitor.
An extremely tempting yet extremely dangerous thought flashed through her mind in an instant—go and trade with them?
But the next second, she ruthlessly extinguished that thought.
A self-deprecating, bitter smile crept onto the base commander's cold, hard lips.
Change? What right does she have to "change"? Who are those "outsiders"?
That's a monster that can fight its way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, disregarding all rules! It's a non-human being that can instantly dismember even special mist demons!
The fact that they didn't actively try to seize their meager inventory is already the greatest act of kindness!
But if they really have such thoughts...
The base commander closed his eyes, so I had no choice but to offer it up with both hands!
——————
The black fog has been invading for twelve hours.
Within the base, a sense of despair spread like a plague, shattering the last shred of hope.
“It’s no use…it’s all useless…” Someone slumped in the corner, staring blankly at the reddish-purple ulcers that had quietly appeared on their arm and were spreading like a spider web.
That's a sign of deepening erosion.
Protective mask? Damp cloth?
Faced with the black fog that had soared to such a terrifying concentration, these ordinary items were utterly useless, just a pile of junk.
After inhaling the toxins for some time, the people in the base were not in good condition.
The only difference is that some people are physically stronger or are farther away from the air outlet of the filtration system, so their symptoms are milder and they can still move around with difficulty.
Some people had already fallen to the ground, curled up, groaning in pain, each breath accompanied by a bellowing sound.
"puff--!"
In the communal living area, a muffled and terrifying splattering sound drowned out all the groans!
A middle-aged man huddled in a corner suddenly arched his back as if struck by an invisible hammer, and a large mouthful of thick, dark red liquid containing fragments of internal organs gushed out.
Blood splattered on the cold metal wall opposite, leaving shocking stains!
"Ah—!" The surrounding crowd screamed and retreated frantically like an anthill exploding, trampling and shoving, their faces filled with extreme fear, as if it were not blood, but a deadly plague.
The man, coughing up blood, hunched over in agony, his hands, stained with black blood, clutching his sunken chest. His throat emitted hoarse, guttural gasps, each breath carrying a heavy, bloody stench.
His bloodshot, cloudy eyes were fixed on the direction of the medical team in white protective suits in the crowd, filled with a final yearning for life.
"Blood...serum...please...give me...serum..." The hoarse voice, like sandpaper scraping, weak yet clear, struck the taut nerves of every survivor.
Soon, several base guards wearing gas masks and fully enclosed protective suits roughly parted the crowd, carried the man who was coughing up blood onto a stretcher and took him away.
The ordinary viewers seemed thoughtful.
Are they taking him for treatment?
"Absolutely! With the serum, they can save them!"
"Then why do we have to gather everyone together? Can't we just get the injections here?"
"Perhaps...perhaps the toxic fog was particularly severe this time, and they'll need medical care after receiving the serum injection..."
The survivors, still shaken, stared in the direction the person had been taken away, whispering amongst themselves with their heads down.
But they didn't actually know.
The middle-aged man would eventually be thrown into a huge warehouse that had been temporarily requisitioned and had no medical equipment, which was also the base's temporary "isolation zone".
There were no doctors, no medicines, and certainly no life-saving serum there.
All that remained was a cold concrete floor and an increasing number of infected people being dragged in, like waste awaiting disposal.
They piled up on top of each other, groaning in pain.
The air thick with despair and the scent of death fermented and intensified there, becoming the darkest corner of the base...
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