Chapter 173 World Seven [2]
After hearing the announcement, all the players on the fourth floor were like clockwork toys, ready to take action at any time.
In a dungeon world hospital, the most powerful person is naturally the director. According to veteran players, in a seven-day dungeon, there shouldn't be a chance to directly confront the boss during the first three days, let alone today being the first day.
Number One and Xiao Lu exchanged glances, hid their inner shock, and sat on the accompanying chair beside the bed, continuing to dig out useful information from Wang Liu.
Unlike the nervous players, the patients in the beds were very excited when they heard that the director was coming to check on them. If the hospital hadn't had a rule against making loud noises, they would have cheered long ago.
"Student Wang, did you hear what was said on the radio just now? Do the dean and the chief physician make rounds every night?" Xiaolu asked, stuffing the peeled orange into Wang Liu's hand.
Wang Liu's face also showed a smile from the bottom of his heart. "No, the hospital has doctors making rounds every day at 9:00 and 6:00, but I have only seen the attending physician and the chief physician, not the dean."
"Student Wang, have you been in the hospital for seven days?" asked No. 1.
Wang Liu nodded, her excellent mood making her want to express herself even more strongly. "Today is the eighth day. I'm the first one to be admitted to this ward. They all came in a day after me."
"Sister, let me tell you, the dean is truly the world's number one miracle. Wherever the dean is, there will be the world's number one miracle!" Wang Liu said, suppressing her excitement.
Number One nodded slowly. Today was the eighth day, which meant that the dean had not participated in routine ward rounds in the past eight days, let alone any joint medical rounds.
Did the dean show up because they were here, or was it pure coincidence?
"What is the world's greatest wonder?" asked Xiaolu.
"Of course it's resurrection!" Wang Liu answered without hesitation, his tone extremely firm. "Patients diagnosed as terminally ill by doctors in other hospitals will recover after the director's treatment!"
"Wow, it's amazing! It's truly the world's greatest miracle!" Xiaolu also expressed surprise, but the vigilance in his eyes deepened.
This kind of world's first miracle sounds unreliable. Resurrection is definitely a life-for-life exchange, and it must be a very evil method!
"It's five forty-five now, and there are still fifteen minutes before the director's ward rounds." Number One reminded.
"Ah, there are only fifteen minutes left. I need to clean up and make my bed. If the dean is willing to treat me, I won't need surgery!" Wang Liu patted his head, got out of bed nimbly and started working. There was no sign that there was any problem with his legs.
Number One and Xiaolu also came to help. Without knowing the dean's information, all they needed to do was to play the role of Wang Liu's friends well and not let the dean become suspicious of them.
Fifteen minutes passed quickly, and the sound of footsteps and greetings from everyone could be heard in the corridor.
"Hello, Dean! Welcome to guide our work on the fourth floor!"
"Dean, you've worked hard! This is a little snack I made."
"Here's the duty schedule for this month, Dean!"
Judging from the reactions of these medical staff, the director has a very high prestige in this world's first miracle hospital. Both medical staff and patients are very loyal to him.
The joint medical rounds start from 401. Based on the one to two minutes of consultation time for each patient, it will take at least fifteen minutes for 407 to take his turn.
Xiaolu rolled her eyes, picked up the kettle that Wang Liu had placed beside the bed, and smiled. "You must be thirsty. I'll get you some hot water."
Wang Liu hesitated a little, "Sister Xiaolu, the director will be here soon. We were told on the radio not to wander around in the ward."
"I know, but I'm not a patient. Can't you just stay here well, Wang?" Xiaolu smiled and gave No. 1 a look.
Number One nodded slightly, quickly diverted Wang Liu's attention with other topics, and successfully let Xiaolu leave the ward.
Xiaolu didn’t know whether her luck was good or bad. The moment she opened the door and walked out, she saw Jing Ke coming out of Room 402.
Jing Ke is currently 31 years old, with waist-length, slightly curly hair draped naturally over her back, and a pair of rose gold-rimmed glasses on her nose. She looks cold and aloof with a very abstinent air.
The premise is that you don't look at Jing Ke, otherwise there is a high probability that you will be like Xiaolu, frightened by the abyss hidden in the other's eyes, standing blankly at the door until the other party takes the initiative to look away, and then you will walk towards the hot water room as if you have come back to life.
Two minutes later, Xiaolu came back with a kettle. After sitting down beside the bed, she slowly exhaled.
"How is it?" Number One asked in a low voice.
Xiaolu's expression became serious. "It's terrifying. I can't even move when I look her in the eye. If I want to pass smoothly, I must never stand against the dean."
Number One's heart sank, and he hummed softly, "So our mission is to survive for seven days, not anything else."
"By the way, when I left, the dean was about to enter Room 403. Huang San and Xiaobai should have already confronted the dean." Xiaolu said.
"Huang San is a veteran player. He won't provoke a dungeon boss casually." Number One paused. "As for Xiao Bai, it's only the first day. Huang San won't sacrifice him right away."
"Then just stay put. Unless we take the initiative to offend, the dean should not take action against the patient's family." Xiaolu said.
-
The examination in a ward with two people in a room is particularly fast. If the condition is not serious, perhaps only a simple conversation of two sentences is needed to complete the consultation.
At six sixteen, the footsteps were getting closer.
As the half-closed door was pushed open, the dean, who seemed difficult to approach, also appeared in the sight of No. 1 and Xiaolu.
Xiaolu still remembered the feeling of suffocation, so she didn't dare to look at the dean who walked in. She held an unpeeled orange in her hand and peeled it slowly.
Number One did not sense any dangerous aura from Jing Ke, but her gaze did not linger on Jing Ke for too long. Just one glance was enough for Number One to remember the appearance of the boss of this copy.
"Good evening." Jing Ke greeted casually, then picked up the medical record book handed to her by the chief physician and began to read it.
"Wang Liu, there are irreversible lesions in the knee joints of both legs. The attending physician diagnosed that both legs must be amputated. Otherwise, the lesions will metastasize to the heart. Once they invade the heart, your life expectancy will be shortened to seven days." Jing Ke read out the contents of the medical record.
Jing Ke's voice was just like her appearance, cold and distant. However, the patients, who deeply admired the director, didn't care and continued to look at her with eager eyes.
"Director, is there any way to remove the lesion? I don't want to lose my legs." Wang Liu said, his tone excited and with obvious pleading.
"Okay, but I'm a bit busy lately. If you want to wait for me to handle it for you, you may need to continue to stay in the hospital for a while." Jing Ke put down the medical record book.
Jing Ke pushed up his glasses, his expression unchanged. "Losing your legs isn't a terrible thing. As long as you complete the registration at the hospital, you'll definitely have a pair of legs that match yours within three years."
"If we meet a kind-hearted person who donates, it will take even less time." Jing Ke said, moving his gaze from Wang Liu to No. 1 and Xiaolu.
"Are these two your friends?" Jing Ke's gaze stayed on No. 1.
"Yes, Dean, these two sisters are good friends of my sister. My sister can't come, so they came to the hospital to see me." Wang Liu said.
"I am willing to continue to stay in the hospital. As long as I have the opportunity to receive treatment from the dean, I have no problem staying in the hospital for a year." Wang Liu's face was filled with a bright smile.
"Good boy, you can continue to stay in the hospital. I'll make time to come in a month at most." Jing Ke touched Wang Liu's head, the figure of Number One still reflected in his pupils. "Remember to abide by the hospital's rules."
"Okay, Dean, I will strictly abide by every rule." Wang Liu responded. Although she was very excited, she still controlled her volume to ensure that she would not make too much noise.
"Do you two want to stay in the hospital with Wang Liu?" Jing Ke asked.
"Dean, we are entrusted by Sister Wang Liu to take care of Wang Liu in the hospital for six or seven days." Number One said, slightly raising his head to meet Jing Ke's gaze.
However, Number One did not think that the dean's eyes were as terrifying as the endless abyss. Instead, she felt that the dean's eyes were very beautiful. After looking at them for a long time, it was like looking up at the stars, which made her feel very comfortable.
"Oh, so, according to regulations, each bed is equipped with only one accompanying bed. So each patient can only be left with one person to accompany them when they stay overnight." Jing Ke said.
"Director, can we borrow the accompanying bed that other patients don't need?" Xiaolu asked.
Jing Ke glanced at Xiaolu and said in a more distant tone, "Only one family member can accompany a patient at night. This is the rule."
"Is there no other way?" Number One asked.
Jing Ke's tone softened. "If you feel unwell, the patient's family members have priority admission to the hospital. There are currently vacancies."
"Of course, if you are a family member of a medical worker, you can temporarily stay in a room in the VIP reception area." Jing Ke raised the corners of his mouth slightly, and the alienation on his face changed from ten points to three points.
"Dear patient, do you have any questions?" Jing Ke asked.
"Not yet. Thank you for your answer, Dean." Number One smelled a trap and put away his curiosity in time.
Jing Ke didn't mind and restored her distant and unapproachable expression. "If you encounter any problems, you can use the corridor phone to call me. The number is 444."
After finishing what he needed to say, Jing Ke took a group of doctors with him to check on the patients in other beds.
Jing Ke's attitude towards patients is similar, but when she makes a promise, the processing time for each patient is different.
Among the people in the ward, only Wang Liu had been admitted within a month, while the others had been admitted within half a year or a year, with a huge time difference.
After Jing Ke and a group of people left in a hurry, Xiaolu slowly exhaled, cut the peeled orange into two halves, and stuffed one half into No. 1's hand.
"I'm not talking nonsense, am I? The aura of this dean is very scary. Even if the seven of us were tied together, we would not be her match." Xiaolu stuffed an orange slice into her mouth.
Number One hesitated for a moment. Is the dean's aura scary?
But why didn't he sense the danger? Furthermore, the dean answered every question and didn't seem to have any intention of attacking the player.
"What are the arrangements for the evening? There can only be one caregiver for one patient. The hospital is closed after 8 pm. Do you want to find a way to stay here, or look for an opportunity outside?" Xiaolu didn't notice that something was wrong with Number One, and frowned as he thought about it.
"Five. The nurse at the beginning said that there are only five patients with the surname Wang. There are seven of us in total, and at least one of us must become a patient, so that everyone can stay." Number One said.
He continued his analysis, "Besides, we just learned this rule from the dean. It's not listed in the hospital regulations in the security office, and others may not know this yet."
"You mean, we should strike first?" Xiaolu raised his eyebrows.
"Well, I'll go to the fifth floor first. You wait for me here." Number One said.
"No, there might be something dangerous on the fifth floor. 504 and 514, those ward numbers don't sound auspicious at all." Little Green objected. "The most taboo in survival books is to act separately."
"The rules aren't explicitly stated, but they're not hard for seasoned players to spot," Number One said. "If we all leave, maybe when we return, there'll be another friend of Sister Wang Liu in the ward."
Xiaolu frowned. Experience told her that what Number One was worried about was very likely to happen.
Rather than fighting for the unknown room on the fifth floor, the room on the fourth floor might be the other two people's priority choice.
"It's 6:28 now. No matter what the result is, you must be back before 7:30," Xiaolu said. "If you don't come, I'll come find you. The worst-case scenario is that one of us becomes the patient and the other becomes the patient's family member."
This time, Number One did not refuse. He stuffed all the oranges that Xiaolu handed to him into his mouth, then stood up and walked out.
-
The corridor was very quiet after dinner, and many medical staff had gone to participate in the director's rounds. Even at the nurses' station, there was only one nurse on duty.
Number One zipped up his jacket, and after judging from his hearing that the dean was still making rounds in other wards, he quickly walked towards the stairs and arrived at the fifth floor in a blink of an eye.
The fifth floor is still the inpatient area and looks very quiet.
But the silence on the fifth floor was not the deserted silence of the fourth floor, but a dead silence.
There were patients wearing blue and white striped clothes walking in the corridor, but their eyes were dull and their walking movements looked extremely stiff and rigid.
As Number One passed by a patient, he caught a whiff of the old man's scent, the kind often found on people in their seventies and eighties, the smell of decaying bodies fading into death.
Number One was very sure that when she passed by the patient, she saw a face that looked to be in his early twenties, without a single wrinkle at the corners of his eyes, a face that should belong to a young person.
Young people shouldn't have this kind of smell.
Number One's eyes darkened, and she first found Ward 504.
The door of Ward 504 was closed, and the transparent glass that was originally convenient for observation became frosted, preventing people outside from seeing what was happening inside the ward.
After stopping and observing for ten seconds, No. 1 decisively chose to continue moving forward and arrived at the door of Ward 514.
The door of Ward 514 was ajar. There was almost no human sound inside the ward, only the sound of the monitor running smoothly.
Number One observed the situation in the ward through the crack in the door. Her vision was limited, and she could only see that there were people on both beds, and both were patients wearing oxygen masks.
Their condition doesn't look good, and it seems like they are on the verge of death.
Number One did not rush in. Instead, she chose to go to the nurse's station first, just like before, and pretended to be looking for someone.
"You are looking for Wang Jie in Ward 514, right?" the nurse said, her eyes falling on Ward No. 1.
Unlike the normal gaze of the nurse on the fourth floor, the eyes of the nurse on the fifth floor contained more obvious malice, as if the person standing in front of her was not a person, but an object that could be handled at will.
"Yes, I came to see him at his request," Number One said. "May I ask how Wang Jie is doing now?"
"Wang Jie, if you cooperate with our doctors, you might be able to live until Sunday," the nurse said with a chuckle. "You're the one Wang Jie's friend asked to help. Could you assist us with the medical care and persuade him to cooperate with the doctors?"
"I don't know about that. I don't know Wang Jie. I'm making this trip purely because someone asked me to do so." Number One sensed danger.
Her intuition told her that the danger she would face as a patient's family member staying on the fifth floor might be greater than the danger she would face as a patient on the fourth floor.
"Is that so? That's such a shame for him." The nurse kept smiling. "Do you want me to take you to visit Wang Jie?"
"Please." Number One agreed. Since she used that excuse, she had to meet Wang Jie to get out of this situation.
I wonder if Heishi regrets choosing the fifth floor, or if he already knew the situation on the fifth floor and deliberately chose it?
In just a few steps, many guesses flashed through Number One's mind.
When Number One saw Wang Jie's current appearance, she stopped thinking for a moment.
There is no other reason, Wang Jie’s current situation is really too weird.
Judging from the part above Wang Jie's neck alone, he is a young man in his prime, with thick hair and beard, and looks very energetic. Even wearing an oxygen mask does not affect this perception.
But after the nurse kindly lifted the quilt covering Wang Jie, the part below his neck was exposed to the air.
Wang Jie's shirt was unbuttoned, and there were many transparent tubes connected to his chest. Along with the slight rise and fall of his chest, unknown liquid was injected into Wang Jie's body through the tubes.
But even with a steady stream of liquid injected into Wang Jie's chest cavity, his upper body still appeared dull gray and his muscles were atrophied.
The difference between the upper body and the head is huge, as if one is a color photo and the other is a torn black and white photo.
"Ma'am, don't you want to ask Wang Jie how he feels now? This is one of the few times when he is awake." The nurse said behind No. 1, and the corners of her mouth, which were originally normal, continued to rise, and the corners of her mouth were really grinning to the back of her ears.
Just as the nurse opened her bloody mouth and was about to take a bite of Number One, a familiar broadcast sounded on the fifth floor.
"Notice, the director will arrive on the fifth floor in one minute to inspect the medical staff. Doctors and nurses on duty, please do not leave your post at will. Notice, the director will..."
The moment the broadcast sounded, the mutated nurse suddenly returned to her original appearance, and her originally malicious eyes turned into a normal friendly expression.
"Ma'am, I have to go back to work. If you need anything, please come to the nurse's desk and find me. I'm Nurse 033, and I'll be happy to serve you," said the nurse.
In just a blink of an eye, the nurse disappeared from the ward and teleported back to her work station.
Number One slowly exhaled, put away the props he had been holding in his palm, hesitated for a second, and then covered Wang Jie with the quilt again.
As early as when he left 407, No. 1 had hidden two props in his hands, one was a defense and control prop, and the other was a purely lethal prop.
After entering the ward, Number One did not relax his surveillance of the nurse. Although it seemed that Number One had left his back to the other party, Number One could see the nurse's every move through certain mirror reflections.
If the nurse had opened her mouth and bit it, at least half of the dozens of teeth in her mouth would have been broken. If she was less lucky, she would have swallowed the prop and been accurately blasted by No. 1.
From Number One's perspective, this was only the first of seven days of survival. If possible, she wouldn't make a move until the very last moment, and even if she did, she wouldn't be the one taking the initiative.
After hesitating for two seconds between leaving and staying, Number One quickly checked the condition of the patient in the other bed, relying on the assumption that the medical staff would not mess around during the director's inspection.
After removing the blanket, the other patient was found to have just as many transparent tubes as Wang Jie. However, the tubes served a different purpose: one-third of this patient's tubes were transporting fluids into the chest cavity, while the other two-thirds were transporting fluids out.
Why is this? What's in these hoses?
Is it something that the hospital extracts from their bodies, or is it using their bodies as a transit station or converter?
Number One fell into thought, and then she noticed a gust of wind blowing behind her.
This is inside the ward, the windows are not open, where does the wind come from?
Number One sounded the alarm, and through the reflective equipment, she saw a man in a white coat standing behind her who looked somewhat familiar.
After swallowing silently, Number One covered Bingleng with the quilt again and turned over as naturally as possible.
"Director? Are you here for your ward rounds?" Number One asked in surprise.
Jing Ke pushed up her glasses and looked at Number One with a hint of personal emotion in her eyes. "No, I'm here to check on the medical staff's work."
"Is this your friend?" Jing Ke asked.
Number One shook his head, holding the props with his hands behind his back, ready to run away at any moment, "No, I just noticed that the patient didn't cover himself with the quilt when I passed by, so I covered him up."
"Is that so? You're such a helpful person." Jing Ke smiled and tilted her head slightly. "But you look a little nervous. Are you worried about something?"
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