Chapter 97: Preparing for the Battle Ahead
As the team's vanguard, Cao Qian thought for a mont and said, "I want to know what kind of danger we will be facing. The system said there are two parasitic mosnters in the hospital, but you said the situation's likely even more dangerous. Why do you think there are more parasites, and how many enemies do you think we'll face?"
Xing Ye took a deep breath, "If I'm not mistaken, at least 30% of the patients in the hospital's inpatient departnt have already been transford into parasitic monsters and are under the control of the departnt head. The situation with Director Wang is different. I have a guess at what's going on, but I'm not certain."
"What?" Yan Hebi was in disbelief, "At least 30%? Have we been ssing around in a haunted hospital this whole ti?"
Xing Ye nodded, "Yes, most likely. Think about it carefully. Earlier, we thought we could filter out potential parasitic monsters and players using the hospital's dical records. However, all we actually found were players and the only parasite we found was the asles patient."
"What about Director Wang's departnt? Doesn't that skinless lizard born from that pregnant lady count?" Guan Ling asked.
Xing Ye said, "That's a different form and it doesn't pose a threat to us right now. We can verify my guess by examining the won at 2 am tomorrow, but either way, the Gynecology and Obstetrics Departnt is harmless to us for now. We need to focus on the Departnt Head's faction. Yan Hebi, do you rember what happened when we asked the nurse at the Infectious Disease Departnt this morning?"
"I rember, she said she had an argunt with her boyfriend." Yan Hebi said.
Xing Ye nodded, "That's the key. She said she didn't know why her boyfriend was arguing with her, accusing her of never picking up the phone when she had never even heard it ring before. It seems like a normal argunt, but think about it this way: what if she never hears the phone because she turns into a monster at night?
"When we went to the nurse's station last night, there wasn't a single nurse there. It's not just the infectious disease departnt. Apart from the Gynecology and Obstetrics departnt, we didn't see any nurses in the hospital. In the surveillance footage, we saw the asles patient turn back into a human before a nurse ca and took him away. That nurse wasn't the sa nurse Yan Hebi had scouted out earlier.
"Therefore, I believe that many of the hospital staff have already been parasitized."
"If it's like that, why did the Departnt Head want to infect other hospital staff?" Guan Ling asked, "I heard him instruct a nurse to collect saliva and respiratory droplets and sneak it into the drinks of other hospital staff. Doesn't that an that there's still a considerable amount of hospital staff still in the incubation period and aren't completely parasitized?"
Xing Ye nodded, "In the day, sure. But not necessarily at night."
He asked Yan Hebi to bring up the work schedule for the past two days and compare it to the originally scheduled shifts. Cao Qian examined it for a mont before saying, "There are too many people who changed shifts. Most people wouldn't change shifts unless there was an important reason to avoid ssing with their circadian rhythms. However, there's been frequent shift changes over the past few days. There are even a few who have worked through the night and continued to work the day shift today!"
Xing Ye nodded, "Right, and today's the day with the most shift changes in all. I have reason to believe that by tonight, we and the people in the Gynecology and Obstetrics departnt will probably be the only uninfected people left in the hospital."
"No way. What about normal patients? What would happen if they encountered a monster in the hospital? It won't be good if too many people know about it, right?" Yan Hebi asked.
"There's a large store of sleeping pills in the hospital. The occasional use of one wouldn't have much influence on the body, no?" Xing Ye said, "Of course, there are so illnesses that make it hard to fall asleep even with the aid of a sleeping pill. Those patients can be supervised. As long as the departnt head controls those areas effectively, it's fine. My guess is that the monsters are concentrated near my ward, the departnt head's office, and the Infectious Disease Departnt's staff room."
"Now that you ntion it..." Yan Hebi pointed at the surveillance cara in front of Xing Ye's room. He replaced tonight's footage with a loop of previously recorded footage, but they could also use the laptop to view the security feeds in real ti. "Tonight, there is an unusually high number of staff in the psychiatry departnt."
The four looked at the laptop and saw a slew of hospital staff going back and forth outside of Xing Ye's ward, seeming to be busy at work.
Guan Ling gulped, "I was just thinking we should find Ge Kuangyi to remind him we can cooperate and think of a solution to this together. But now, it seems we're helpless..."
Cao Qian picked up a shred of paper Xing Ye had torn off earlier, "Was this what you were worrying about earlier?"
Xing Ye nodded, "At the start, I didn't think of it and thought there were only a few monsters in the hospital. My original plan was to guard Guan Ling in the staff room and gather more information, but with what we know now, that path won't do."
Cao Qian clenched her fists, "If that path won't do, does that an there's still a path we can take?"
Xing Ye nodded confidently, "Yes! There are still two paths we can take. The first option is to hide tonight in the Gynecology and Obstetrics departnt. I suspect Director Wang and the departnt head have a tacit understanding of one another. They may not work together, but they won't fight either. We can hide in the gynecology departnt to play it safe tonight, but that'll also an we'll be dragging the ga on. Tomorrow, one of us four will definitely be parasitized. The other option is far more dangerous: we can break into the departnt head's office, find the cipher key for the CD, and decipher its contents. If we do this, we may be able to solve the ga before six am tomorrow morning and save Ge Kuangyi's life!
"But I need to remind everyone that right now, it's already half past nine in the evening. Tonight's operation will be far from a short one. If we act rashly, then when the clock strikes midnight and I lose my mory, I might beco your biggest burden."
The three, originally eager, fell silent.
Xing Ye might not be the strongest in their team, but he had long beco their pillar. If he loses his mory midway through, it'll be a destructive blow to them.
Xing Ye extended two fingers. "Option one: we can risk it all and break into the departnt head's office, potentially ending it in a death fight with the parasitic monsters."
"Second, we can hide in the Gynecology and Obstetrics departnt. Ge Kuangyi will die tomorrow, the departnt head will have hidden or destroyed the cipher key, and one of us will be actively infected. Of course, the cipher key might not be the only way to find the true ending. We might still be able to reach the true ending following the second option, but it'll an abandoning one team mber and Ge Kuangyi."
Cao Qian laughed, "You've already said so much, let's just take the risk of you losing your mory. I vote in breaking into the departnt head's office."
Guan Ling spoke, "When I was in a team with Di Kuang, every round, he would leave behind sobody useless to be the sacrifice. Every victory we had was bought using the corpses of our teammates. I hated it, but back then, I was weaker. I thought that since I was a healer, I wouldn't be abandoned by Di Kuang, so I just watched on as Wu Yu and the rest were pushed around. I hated myself for it. I hated those strategies that always involved abandoning or sacrificing sobody."
Yan Hebi also nodded, "Little Yiyi, no matter what you decide, I'll follow you! I'll be your strongest supporter."
Xing Ye smiled and couldn't help but rub the mirror.
As long as they worked together, they could do anything.
"Alright!" Xing Ye quickly wrote so things down and showed everyone, "This is our battle plan tonight. Among these is a contingency plan for if I lose my mory and counter-asures. I hope everyone can morize it."
Yan Hebi scratched his head, not used to Xing Ye's fighting strategy, "Weird, aren't I playing a fighting ga with special abilities and stuff? Why does this battle plan make
feel like I'm cramming for a test?"
Cao Qian was very sympathetic, "Just morize it. Once you've morized it, you'll discover when you've prepared for a fight, your power can reach a level greater than you've ever imagined."
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