twenty three
After reading the subtitles in front of him, Tao Sai made his choice in a second.
Take on side quests!
This is a rescue-type side quest. The target characters aren't randomly assigned; they're often crucial, with exceptional abilities, and can effectively aid the development of the refuge ship. Furthermore, the rewards are quite good.
You can spawn monsters at any time, even while doing side quests.
Tao Sai stepped on the brakes and signaled An Nan to stop the car as well. She began to analyze the task.
There is not much information about the mission. The identity of the target person, Liang Yuanzhou, is unknown. Assistance from the [Command and Control Center] is needed.
Tao Sai turned on his headset and called into the channel: "Hello, can you hear me?"
"I can hear you, Taotao." Zhou Ning replied immediately.
Tao Tao once said that if she wasn't around, she'd be the captain. Being captain carries a heavy responsibility. While steering the fishing boat along the planned route from the cockpit, she also monitors the communications channel for calls from her teammates.
"I've received a side quest. Can you help me find the target's current location?" Tao Sai said.
Based on my experience playing the game, side quests are basically fixed in one location, not too precise, it's a small place or venue that can be displayed on the map of the [Command and Control Center].
In the game, she had a God's perspective, and all the information was clear at a glance, but now she only had her own character's perspective.
Zhou Ning operated the [Command and Control Center] in the cockpit according to Tao Sai's instructions. A virtual display screen appeared in front of him, showing a small-scale topographic map of Nanzhou City.
The green dot in the center of the map marks the location of the refugee ship, located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. To the west of the refugee ship, two white arrows are nearly overlapping, indicating the current positions of Tao Sai and An Nan. In the upper left corner of the map, a yellow question mark flashes continuously.
After checking the location of the question mark, she reported, "The target location is Nanzhou City Seventh People's Hospital, in the old city district, 19.2 kilometers away from you."
"Okay," Tao Sai said, "I also need you to use the control center to predict the direction of the insect tide and help me plan a route to the Seventh Hospital."
"Got it!" Zhou Ning said energetically, then quickly switched the fishing boat to cruising mode and began planning the route.
Her intelligence is quite good. Tao Sai only needs to teach her once how to operate the basics of the [Command and Control Center - Primary].
"Taotao, ride forward about 182 meters and then turn onto the Industrial Road on the right," Zhou Ning said.
She deftly replaced directional words like "east, south, west, north" with the more familiar "front, back, left, and right." Strangely enough, both spatial imagination in geometry problems and directions in geography had always been difficult for her, but now it had become easier.
Anyway, she didn't know why, but she felt like she had become smarter.
Tao Sai gripped the handlebars tightly, bent down and stepped hard on the pedals. The bicycle sped along the wide and flat road along the river, with An Nan following closely behind.
They are now in the suburbs of Nanzhou City, and their cell phones are not with them, so they cannot take a taxi.
Fortunately, I still had a few dozen dollars in cash on me, so if I rode further into the city, I might be able to stop a taxi.
[Command and Control Center·Primary] There is no automatic navigation program, and route planning can only be done by Zhou Ning's oral instructions and manual work.
She had to ensure the shortest distance while taking into account the safety of the route according to the direction of the insect current. Moreover, the direction of the insect current would constantly change due to factors such as terrain and water areas, and the route needed to be adjusted and changed at any time. Fortunately, her brain was sufficient.
However, he was definitely too busy to drive the fishing boat, so Zhou Ning quickly called Zhou Weixing to the cockpit to drive the boat.
Ever since he saw the ship, Zhou Weixing had actually been eager to try it out. No man could refuse to drive a new type of vehicle, even if the man was no longer young.
Zhou Weixing stood in Zhou Ning's place, gripping the steering wheel with a touch of excitement, his eyes fixed intently on the water ahead. The fishing boat was in cruising mode, requiring only a gentle adjustment of direction, which wasn't difficult.
After riding for more than half an hour, Tao Sai and her companions were sweating profusely and finally got into a taxi. She repeated Zhou Ning's words on the radio to instruct the driver in the direction of driving, always keeping a certain distance from the advancing line of the insect swarm.
As the buildings on both sides of the road gradually became more numerous and older, they successfully entered the old city area of Whale City.
In recent decades, due to the needs of urban development, the east side of the old city has become a more open plain terrain, so the CBD has moved eastward and the old city has gradually been marginalized.
The insect swarm is approaching the city from west to east. An hour ago, the Nanzhou Municipal Government activated the first-level alert status and organized the emergency evacuation of citizens.
Police officers from police stations and local police substations were quickly dispatched to maintain order.
The nearest military district immediately dispatched troops to the front lines of the insect swarm, using a variety of powerful weapons, including grenades, to attack the insects in an attempt to slow their advance. However, the number of insects had reached a terrifying level. For every thousand killed, ten thousand would immediately swarm back.
An Nan leaned over the car window and observed that the outside of the taxi was a doomsday scene.
Despite the active efforts of the police, militia and volunteers to organize the evacuation, the panic among the crowd continued to rise due to the rumors that were spreading.
People desperately rushed forward, pushing and shoving their way through the jammed crowd, knocking down the elderly and children. The cries and curses drowned out the volunteers' loudspeakers. Vehicles honked their horns, and there was chaos everywhere.
Some people also smashed the glass doors of supermarkets and stores, and the crowd rushed in to grab supplies.
The Seventh People's Hospital received the notice immediately. This was the highest level of evacuation order. The first priority was to ensure the safety of personnel. All other medical equipment could be taken away if possible, and had to be discarded if it could not be taken away.
All the medical staff in the hospital acted quickly. The bedridden patients were pushed away in wheelchairs by nurses, while those with more serious conditions were pushed onto ambulances on stretchers.
Xiao Luo ran frantically throughout the surgical building, from floor to floor, and from department to department. The vice president asked him to ensure that the evacuation message was delivered to the right people.
He ran to the orthopedics department on the 13th floor, leaning against the wall and gasping for breath.
Luan Shukun, deputy chief physician of the orthopedics department, saw him and asked, "Are you here to notify the evacuation?"
"Yes..." Xiao Luo took three breaths after saying each word.
"You can go to another department directly. Our orthopedics department has already been notified." Luan Shukun said.
"Surgery..." Xiao Luo tried hard to stop panting, but in the end he could only utter two words with difficulty.
But Luan Shukun immediately understood what he meant. "You mean no one in the operating room was notified, right? I'll go now. You don't have to worry about the orthopedics department. Run slowly and be careful of heart overload."
"Thank you..." Xiao Luo said, holding onto the white wall of the corridor and walking towards the stairs. Right now, all seven elevators in the surgical building were extremely busy, and it was impossible to wait for an elevator going up.
An important orthopedic operation was underway. The medical staff's cell phone, placed in the cubicle, kept vibrating, but no one responded.
Luan Shukun stopped at the door of the operating room. Through the glass window, he saw several busy figures. He clenched his fists slightly and then walked past the operating room 1313.
There were constant footsteps in the hallway, and anxious figures running back and forth outside the door. Circulating nurse Guo Xiaoming was a little uneasy. "Doctor Liang, why is it so chaotic outside?"
The operation had been going on for three hours, but the entire process was less than halfway completed.
"Concentrate." Liang Yuanzhou said, he gripped the scalpel tightly without blinking.
He is the youngest associate chief physician in the Seventh Hospital. He is only in his early thirties and a returnee. He has outstanding professional qualities and abilities and is favored by the department director and even the dean.
This is a high-risk operation with complicated circumstances and great difficulty. The elderly patient may be in danger of life at any time, so the entire process must be handled with extreme caution.
In the operating room, several assistants, interns, and even the anesthesiologist were all nervous, staring intently at the area illuminated by the shadowless lamp.
Time passed minute by minute, and the corridor seemed to become quiet. No one ran past the door, and no unusual movement was reported into the operating room.
But Guo Xiaoming's uneasiness intensified.
…
The taxi driver was stunned by the scene and refused to drive forward no matter what. He left the two of them behind and stepped on the accelerator towards the safe zone indicated by the volunteers.
They had to walk the rest of the way.
Fortunately, the drop-off point is not far from the Seventh People's Hospital, only one kilometer away, and it can be reached in a few minutes by running.
"Taotao, a swarm of orange insects has been detected heading towards the Seventh Hospital." Zhou Ning said into the communication headset.
The colors represent the density of the insect swarm: red, orange, yellow, and blue. Red is the highest density, and yellow is the second level of density. The insect swarm they had seen in Jiangmian Town before was only blue.
The situation is critical!
"Calculate the time when the insect swarm will arrive." Tao Sai kept running.
Zhou Ning quickly calculated the result using the [Command and Control Center·Primary]: "You only have 20 minutes!"
Tao Sai put all the weapons he had on him into the [warehouse], swung his arms and ran at full speed. An Nan, who had been practicing track and field since childhood, could keep up with him.
He avoided the crowded crowds and jumped onto the roofs of vehicles blocking the road.
"17 minutes!" Zhou Ning said in the headset.
The place outside the gate of the Seventh People's Hospital was in a mess. They rushed into the hospital and found it empty.
Tao Sai asked into the communicator, "Has the target's current position remained unchanged?"
"Yes, there is no change." Zhou Ning replied after confirming the position of the question mark.
The location of the target person could not be more precise. It would be a waste of time to search every corner of such a large hospital.
Tao Sai ran into the outpatient hall, her eyes lit up, and she went to the consultation desk. She grabbed the mouse, clicked on the hospital's official website, and searched for "Liang Yuanzhou."
The search results appeared quickly.
"Liang Yuanzhou, male, 31 years old, deputy chief physician of orthopedics, graduated from..."
Tao Sai jumped up from his seat before he could finish reading the information and waved to An Nan who was not far away, "Let's go! Let's go to the orthopedics department now!"
They rushed into the surgical building and pressed number 13 according to the floor index sign.
"15 minutes!" Zhou Ning said.
The elevator stopped and opened the door. The elevator entrance was located at the intersection of the L-shaped floors. Two people acted separately, one searching one side.
Tao Sai checked room by room and finally found a figure in the operating room 1313 at the end of the corridor.
The "In Surgery" light box on the wall was on, but Tao Sai didn't care about that anymore and knocked on the door.
The knocks on the door gradually became heavier, and the circulating nurse Guo Xiaoming finally walked over quickly and opened the door.
"What's the matter? Are you the patient's family member?" Guo Xiaoming asked.
The elderly patient has been hospitalized for nearly a month, and no one from his family has visited him.
"I'm not. A natural disaster is coming soon. You must evacuate quickly." Tao Sai said briefly.
"Natural disaster? What natural disaster? Why haven't I heard of it?" Guo Xiaoming widened his eyes.
"It happened too quickly. The government has already notified an emergency evacuation. All the staff in your hospital have evacuated. You are the only ones left. That's Dr. Liang Yuanzhou in there, right?" Tao Sai glanced inside the door, but the doctors inside seemed to be completely unaware of her existence and were still busy with the operation.
No wonder she heard those noises just now, it turned out something really happened!
"Wait a moment, I'll go talk to Doctor Liang right away!" Guo Xiaoming turned around and ran quickly, but the professional qualities engraved in her bones made her slow down her pace when she approached the operating table.
She said in a low but clear voice, "Doctor Liang, a natural disaster is coming. Everyone has evacuated, so it's time for us to leave too."
Liang Yuanzhou's hand movements did not slow down or stop at all. He frowned slightly. The operation had now reached the most critical step. If the operation was stopped or postponed, the patient would not be able to survive. There was no other choice but to continue with all his strength.
"Give me another half an hour." Liang Yuanzhou said calmly.
Guo Xiaoming quickly ran out and replied, "Doctor Liang said it will take another half an hour. Is that okay?"
"13 minutes!" Zhou Ning said in the headset.
Tao Sai ran to the corridor entrance and looked out the window. To the west, the ground in the distance was a dark mass. A swarm of mature insects formed a massive storm in the air, advancing continuously. Wherever the insects passed, the reinforced concrete buildings collapsed like rotten wood, then were swallowed by the black tide and reduced to ash, leaving nothing behind.
Several military helicopters, the Z-10 armed helicopters, hovered in the air, firing crazily with machine guns. Rockets and bullets hit the densely populated area of the insect swarm, piercing a huge hole. The corpses of insects flew all over the sky, but they were soon replaced by new insects.
The army on the ground fought and retreated, and the swarm of insects in front of them was like the sea, rushing towards them and unstoppable.
The sound of the explosion came from far away and the vibration of the ground also reached the operating room.
"I'll give you ten minutes, you must go!" Tao Sai shouted loudly outside the operating room door.
Guo Xiaoming was frightened by the roars and his voice became excited: "Doctor Liang, we really have to leave!"
Liang Yuanzhou stared at the patient's incision tissue with a firm gaze.
"Doctor Liang!"
"If you want to leave, you can get out now!" Liang Yuanzhou finally became angry, which was rare.
At that moment, the operating room monitor began to make an unusual sound, indicating that the patient was in ventricular fibrillation. Almost simultaneously, a violent explosion echoed, shaking the windowpanes and causing everyone in the operating room to freeze.
"Why are you all standing there? Defibrillator!" Liang Yuanzhou roared.
He took the fully charged defibrillator from the equipment nurse, and veins popped out between his eyebrows.
Tao Sai pushed open the door of the operating room, walked in quickly, bent down to pick up a stool, and then smashed it directly on the back of Liang Yuanzhou's neck.
With a bang, Liang Yuanzhou's eyes suddenly went dark and he fell down.
"Resist." Tao Sai said.
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