Plague (21): Vaccine ahead of schedule

As a family member, Tan Xiao was quickly assigned a logistics job, which involved organizing documents for the researchers.

This was, of course, arranged remotely by Nie Cheng. He always harbored a sense of dread towards the terrifying doctor, hoping that Wen Yi’s arrival would bring about a change in the vaccine development, but also fearing that the change could lead to a worse outcome.

With a young and beautiful boyfriend by his side, he hoped that Wen Yi would bring about positive changes.

Thanks to General Nie’s silent support from behind the scenes, the person in charge of Tan Xiao’s work was particularly kind and approachable.

Tan Xiao, this “privileged person,” also pleased the person in charge. He didn’t slack off, was humble, and organized the documents quickly and well, truly reducing their workload.

In the research team, there was a rather old-fashioned Professor Zhu who was not very happy with this arrangement. Yesterday, Wen Yi took a day off because of a joke, and today that young man not only came to deliver a meal but also ran to the lab to lend a hand. A kid who hadn’t even attended college and wasn’t studying medicine, what kind of trouble was he causing here?

Professor Zhu didn’t mean any harm; he simply thought that young people being overly clingy in their romantic relationships was unprofessional. The company disapproved of office romances because they affect work efficiency.

Now that Tan Xiao had arrived, Wen Yi had seen that young man several times in just one hour. He was wearing protective gear, with only his eyes visible, and Wen Yi really didn’t understand what was so attractive about him. From six o’clock yesterday afternoon to ten o’clock this morning, a full sixteen hours had passed. How much more could there be to see?

Just as this thought crossed his mind, Professor Zhu received a report from Wen Yi.

The research team consisted of several groups, and Wen Yi was originally in charge of one group. His mentor was escorted here by Nie Cheng, and he immediately handed over the group’s project to his mentor, stepping back to a secondary role. However, the group projects were interconnected, so for the sections that Professor Zhu was responsible for, he would ask Wen Yi for any necessary data.

This was the report he asked Wen Yi and his team for this morning. This model was exactly what Wen Yi was in charge of, and it was assigned as a task that would take at least eight hours. However, it was completed in just one hour today.

This guy wouldn’t have hastily written it just to get off work early, would he? But during such a critical period, he shouldn’t have done that.

With this thought in mind, Professor Zhu didn’t rashly reprimand Wen Yi. He just kept a stern face and randomly selected a few sets of data to verify… After half an hour, he found that there were no issues with the content!

At this moment, he finally remembered the genius name of Wen Yi. Being able to win various world-class awards and becoming the chief physician at a major hospital like Huaxi Hospital at the age of twenty-seven indeed showed some level of skill.

Since the data was fine, was Wen Yi this kid just pumped up with enthusiasm?

Professor Zhu instinctively glanced at Wen Yi and noticed that when the volunteer named Tan Xiao walked over, he and Wen Yi exchanged glances. The young man, with his eyes crescent-shaped behind the mask, smiled with admiration and encouragement.

Tan Xiao made a cheering gesture: “Men who work seriously are the most charming. Even when wearing protective gear, Dr. Wen looks the coolest in my eyes!”

Wen Yi’s spirits immediately lifted, as if he had received a 300% efficiency buff. His fingers were almost dancing across the keyboard, leaving traces behind.

Clearly, Tan Xiao was Wen Yi’s stimulant.

It was hilarious; there was no need to worry about Tan Xiao affecting Wen Yi’s work. To show off his best side in front of his partner, Wen Yi not only completed his own tasks with the highest quality and speed, but he also took on the work of other team members.

Usually, Wen Yi just needed a little push to get moving, maintaining high work quality and slightly faster than usual speed. But now, Professor Zhu had realized that Wen Yi’s condition from a few days ago was far from his limit. The tasks that took the team members several days to complete, Wen Yi finished quickly and perfectly in just one morning, with no mistakes at all.

As if pushing his own team wasn’t enough, Wen Yi kept urging others as well:

“Teacher Wang, I’ve finished here. You go do that experiment first; I need the data.”

“Doctor Zhao: …”

He not only urged people on the computer but also stood up to urge them. Wen Yi did all this mainly because he could get a lot of documents. During this time, he called out to Tan Xiao several times, “Darling, please help me get some documents.”

Tan Xiao indeed looked at him with admiration. He took the documents down from a high place and lowered his voice to praise his lover, “Doctor Wen, you’re amazing.”

After urging a few people, Wen Yi naturally urged Professor Zhu as well.

Wen Yi’s reason was quite justified: “Professor Zhu, you need to speed up your work. The citizens of S City are still waiting for our vaccine!”

Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry up already! His head was about to explode. Professor Zhu was so driven by Wen Yi that his veins were popping out, and he had to work even harder than before.

After all, he was an elder and couldn’t be outdone by this young junior.

The arrival of laughter and conversation led to a positive cycle in the research institute, and after a day’s work, the progress was equivalent to four or five days before.

They had already made some progress in vaccine development, and by the time they stayed up until midnight tonight, the vaccine finally made a historic breakthrough.

Everyone was particularly excited: “The vaccine is ready! We succeeded!”

Unable to contain their joy, everyone hugged and cheered, and Wen Yi, caught up in the emotion, tightly embraced Tan Xiao.

His face was buried in his young lover’s arms, but there was not much joy on his face. In an office within a building at Huaxi Hospital, which had been converted into a temporary command center, the good news about the vaccine development was also received immediately.

Nie Cheng’s cold and stern face showed little joy: Today was the twenty-first day, the vaccine appeared three days earlier than expected. In the thirty-day cycle game instance, the vaccine would be developed on the twenty-fourth day, then it would start small-scale production on the twenty-fifth day, and on the twenty-ninth day, the vaccine would show severe side effects.

The vaccine catalyzed the evolution of the disease. A patient who seemed to be getting better suddenly turned into a blood person. He became extremely aggressive, and when the blood blisters burst, a single drop of blood could instantly turn a healthy person into an infected one, who would then explode, turning everyone into blood people in an instant.

Everything was like a Resident Evil scenario, with zombies surrounding the city. But the difference was that zombies would keep biting people, while the infected were one-time bombs; once they exploded, they were gone.

City S had entered its darkest hour. On the thirtieth day, the citizens were out of control, everything had descended into madness, and those outsider players had left, plunging the world into a state of destruction.

However, the failed vaccine was just a catalyst; even without the vaccine, everyone’s condition would still have developed into that state.

The moment the vaccine appeared, the game’s players all received a side mission from the system: 

[Side Mission: Obtain the X12-T0 Vaccine (Fake)]

[Side Mission Promote the failure and dangers of the X12-T0 Vaccine (Fake)]

It was called fake because the vaccine was ineffective against the infectious disease and even had catalytic side effects, but for the game system, it was still considered a useful resource.

The vaccine was made, but it turned out to be a fake vaccine! This made most players abandon the idea of completing the side mission.

Except for those players who were exceptionally lucky and got high-ranking positions as soon as they entered the game, most players just wanted to survive, and could only survive.

Wang Mingming, a homebody who became Aunt Zhao in the game, ended up in the hospital with his family on the nineteenth day of the game because he was infected by his cheap son-in-law in the game.

His son-in-law, daughter, and granddaughter all fell ill, but Aunt Zhao was in good health, and with Wang Mingming’s talent to lock blood, he was still the one in the best condition.

It was at this moment that he realized that being ill didn’t necessarily mean he would fail the game, as long as he didn’t experience an outbreak and end up in a state covered in blisters.

Even if infected, it didn’t mean he would be eliminated; it just meant that Wang Mingming could see the game adding negative statuses, and then he would lose health every day, causing his mentality to crumble a bit.

Wang Mingming lay on the hospital bed, breathing oxygen, struggling to breathe due to the illness, but he couldn’t let his suffering be in vain. He would definitely survive until the end of the dungeon!

In the suburbs, Li Shengnan was quite lucky. Although she has been cooped up at home to the point of almost growing mold and her spirits were tense, her health remained good.

As for getting the vaccine, she didn’t expect it and wasn’t planning to get involved in any trouble. During the Huaxi Hospital attack, many players must have died; she wouldn’t take the NPCs in the dungeon for fools.

However, some players were itching to move. With so many people at Huaxi Hospital, whether they were medical staff, volunteers, organization leaders, or high-ranking government officials, there were traces of players everywhere.

It was only the twentieth day now, and even though the vaccine supply was scarce in the early stages, they were still able to obtain vaccines. These two side missions were lucrative, and fortune favors the bold!

After countless repetitions, this was the first time the vaccine was available earlier. For him, this change might not be entirely useless.

Nie Cheng put on his protective suit and found the first patient who had received the vaccine in his memory.

He had the medical staff administer the vaccine provided by the laboratory, and the patient’s reaction was exactly the same as in his memory.

Nie Cheng’s heart sank: It was obvious that the vaccine, advanced by three days, was still the failed vaccine from his memory.

“Detain the patients and continue observation.”

He ordered the military to tighten the security around the laboratory. No matter who tried to steal the vaccine, “shoot on the spot!”