Plague (12): A sudden change of events

Unlike Wang Mingming, who was a male player dressed as a woman and even as a middle-aged woman twenty years older, Li Shengnan, as a player in the same dungeon, was in exactly the opposite situation.

She bore a high resemblance to the indigenous people, was also twenty-four years old, worked as a corporate clerk, was petite, wore black-framed glasses, and usually tied her hair in a high ponytail.

Aunt Zhao, who ran a fruit shop, was single and divorced, and her life was quite comfortable, but the young unmarried girl Li was not doing well at all.

Li Shengnan graduated from high school and worked hard in a big city, commuting four hours to work every day and often working overtime.

She earned six thousand yuan a month, ate at the company, used the company’s water, electricity, and toilet paper, and only kept one thousand yuan for her rent, sending the rest back home. She was a timid, cowardly girl who was willing to endure hardship.

Due to the constraints of her character setting, Li Shengnan felt particularly stifled in the first two days of entering the game dungeon. The work was extremely tiring, and even if she wanted to hoard supplies and not go to work, the two-digit balance in her account didn’t allow her to do so.

Fortunately, she quickly realized that a character’s persona indeed shouldn’t be too OOC, but as long as the transformation was reasonable based on the original character’s traits, it wouldn’t be considered breaking character.

So, she designed a seemingly serious illness for herself, meticulously applied a sickly makeup, and edited a hospital’s critical condition notice. In front of all her colleagues at the company, she acted out being rejected by her family, feeling utterly heartbroken, and suddenly awakening.

When a person suffers a major blow, it’s normal for their temperament to change drastically. This logical and reasonable transformation, in line with her character, prevented Li Shengnan from being suspected by other indigenous people.

During the days Wang Mingming was holed up at home, Li Shengnan was putting on a grand urban emotional drama. Those days were far more exciting and thrilling than his.

Fortunately, the result of Li Shengnan’s hard work was quite good. The company, being very considerate, gave her a month’s leave and even paid her two months’ salary in advance, allowing her to recuperate properly.

Li Shengnan got the money and immediately bought all the necessary supplies, piling them up in Li Shengnan’s rental apartment.

This was the only advantage of this identity. The original owner was willing to commute four hours a day and insisted on renting a small two-bedroom apartment in the suburbs by herself, and it even came with a refrigerator, air conditioning, and a washing machine.

Li Shengnan didn’t spend much of her hard-earned wages; she bought enough food for herself for about two months, the most cost-effective kind, and set aside 3000 just in case. After all, she still had to pay rent and high utility bills for the next month.

Actually, she could still take out various loans through lending apps, but that might deviate from her character and leave a mess for the locals.

Although it was called a game, Li Shengnan felt that the NPCs in this world were too real, and the system instructed them not to break the original character settings; otherwise, the consciousness of the locals might awaken. Perhaps the instance world was the real world of some parallel universe.

Li Shengnan was a very tough little girl, and unless absolutely necessary, Li Shengnan would never do that.

Although the side missions offered generous rewards, the difficulty was just too high, and Li Shengnan hadn’t even considered doing them.

She wasn’t greedy; after successfully completing the novice dungeon, if the rewards weren’t enticing enough, she would just choose to permanently give up her player identity.

After all, the difficulty of this game wasn’t that high. Compared to those supernatural dungeons filled with ghostly NPCs or zombie siege scenarios, this dungeon where one had to survive for a month during a plague outbreak sounded much safer.

In Li Shengnan’s view, as long as she didn’t wander around aimlessly, reduced contact with outsiders, and consistently disinfected with alcohol or disinfectants every day, she had a 90% chance of easily and smoothly clearing the first dungeon.

Having safely and smoothly passed the tenth day of the game, Li Shengnan saw the game panel flash a red light. Her heart skipped a beat, and she inexplicably felt an ominous premonition.

Just past midnight, marking the start of the eleventh day in the plague infection dungeon, a piercing whistle shattered the night’s silence.

Most of the residents in Li Shengnan’s old, dilapidated neighborhood were not wealthy. After all, in such a big city, being able to rent a small two-bedroom apartment for just 1000 a month was already considered the outskirts of the outskirts.

“Ahhh!”

Accompanying the piercing sound of the horn was an even more intense scream.

Most people couldn’t resist the temptation of gossip. Even though the atmosphere had been a bit tense lately due to the infectious disease, families still couldn’t help but open their windows and peek out to see the source of the noise.

Li Shengnan was no exception. She lived on the fifth floor and, thinking the streetlights below were dim, grabbed a flashlight, put on a mask and protective goggles, sprayed some mosquito repellent, and opened the window to look down.

What she saw caused her a psychological trauma that would last for the rest of her 24 years: it was disgusting, too disgusting, her trypophobia kicked in.

She stumbled back a few steps and fell onto the cold floor tiles.

The patient being carried away by the ambulance was still wearing the delivery guy’s red jacket.

He must have fallen ill a few days ago but didn’t show any obvious symptoms like a fever, so he endured it to earn more money, until his body couldn’t take it anymore and he collapsed.

To avoid being bitten by insects, the delivery guy was wearing a tightly fitted windbreaker, long sleeves, long pants, and even a motorcycle helmet.

But when he fell to the ground due to the illness, the helmet was removed, revealing his terrifying face.

When Li Shengnan was in high school, she saw some male classmates who had severe acne on their faces due to puberty. The acne was so severe that it all developed into cystic acne, making their faces look disfigured, which was indeed very disgusting.

However, the delivery person who collapsed had something on his face that was definitely not cystic acne. Those pustules were very large, bigger than a fingernail, and they kept getting bigger, densely covering his entire face. The delivery person’s eyes, nose, and mouth were all covered by the pustules.

For the first time, she hated her good eyesight. From the fifth floor, she could see clearly as the medical staff lifted the person onto the stretcher. The pus-filled abscess was pulsating, growing until the skin couldn’t hold it anymore, and then it burst open, turning the face covered in abscesses into one covered in blood.

Li Shengnan felt nauseated and wanted to vomit, but she couldn’t, so she sat on the ground, retching in distress.

The air conditioner’s motor was still quietly running. Suddenly, Li Shengnan remembered something and quickly closed the window, then hurriedly turned on the expensive air purifier she had bought.

Patients like this delivery worker were not just one case. This unprecedented special virus had evolved too quickly, developing a terrifyingly high transmissibility in a short period of time.

The hospital research team discovered that the reason for the exponential increase in infected patients was that this disease was not only transmitted through blood but also through bodily fluids.

What made it terrifying was that the virus could also be transmitted through saliva, sweat, and tears. Before this disease appeared, no infectious disease had ever been transmitted through sweat and tears.

This meant that an infected person was essentially a walking virus carrier. After all, in such hot summer weather, just walking outside will make you sweat. If you lean on a handrail or sit on a public transport seat, your skin is very likely to come into contact with someone else’s sweat.

The only silver lining was that these sweat or tears did not transmit through the air after they evaporated, so a healthy person wouldn’t get infected just by breathing in virus-laden air.

Only if the skin directly touched these virus-carrying fluids would one contract this peculiar infectious disease.

It was somewhat like chickenpox or smallpox. If the blisters were scratched and the transparent pus flows onto other healthy skin, the patient would develop new blisters in a short period of time.

At first, the speed of blister formation was very slow; if one broke today, only one or two would appear tomorrow.

However, as time went by, the speed of blister formation accelerated as if a turbocharger had been activated, appearing on the patient’s body at an incredible rate.

It was not just a skin disease that caused blisters; the pus-filled blisters all over the body could trigger inflammation and accelerate the failure of various organs in a short time. This was an irreversible damage, which was why the mortality rate was so high.

With the rapid increase in special patients, the situation in the hospital had become more severe.

The highest-ranking government official issued an emergency directive through the media at 10 AM: “This city is facing a sudden and severe test. Starting today, we are officially entering a wartime state. All personnel must stay at home by midnight tomorrow. Non-law enforcement personnel and those involved in the transportation of essential supplies are not allowed to go out until all patients are successfully eliminated.”

Although some scenes in the game dungeon were very similar to reality, this dungeon was not reality.

At least the players who had seen the news deeply understood this: in reality, how could there be a direct shooting of citizens for violating a ban?

From the statements made by citizens online, it seemed the military really would shoot to kill.

Li Shengnan seriously suspected that in ten days, when the final stage of the instance began, the government would directly order the military to kill all the infected patients.

After all, if an effective vaccine was not developed, for the safety of the majority, the NPCs in the instance might make such a cruel choice.

She shivered and wrapped herself tightly in the blanket: absolutely, absolutely cannot get infected!

And in the family building of the hospital’s affiliated community, Tan Xiao was originally at home waiting for Dr. Wen Yi to finish work, but instead, all he received was a cold notification: “The hospital has been designated as a high-risk area. From now on, only entry is allowed, and all medical staff must remain in the hospital.”

Huaxi Hospital, which had received a large number of infectious disease patients, was clearly the most dangerous and also the most important area in the city. Armed military surrounded the largest hospital in terms of area.

Countless medical elites were escorted by military vehicles to gather there. From today onwards, Dr. Wen Yi would not be finishing work.

Tan Xiao called Dr. Wen, but no one answered.

They were so close, close enough that opening the window would let him see Huaxi Hospital three hundred meters away in a straight line, yet he felt so far apart, as if separated by an insurmountable galaxy.

Leaning against the wall, Tan Xiao watched the scene outside, his heart sinking: for the next three days, five days, or even longer, he and Wen Yi would not be able to meet. They could only wait and hope that the situation would suddenly resolve itself, or that they would be directly separated by death.