Chapter 229: A Powerful Ally? Just a Tool!
This intelligence alone was enough to give Gregori a headache.
It meant that if he wanted to get out, he’d have to figure out a way to get enough pills, right?
Otherwise, he’d run out of pills just a few days after escaping and die out there.
This all harked back to the very first scene when the Chosen Ones woke up.
Without taking the pills, their bodies were so weak they could barely even sit up.
If they exerted themselves even slightly, they’d cough up blood.
Even though they had taken the pills now, their bodies were still somewhat frail.
With only eight pills left, Gregori could guess that the Horror World probably intended for the Chosen Ones to rest here for a couple of days, recover their strength, and then attempt an escape on the second night or the third day, after securing more medicine.
This was the sum total of all the information Gregori had gathered after an hour of intelligence collection.
A lot of this information aligned with the rules, allowing him to determine his next moves based on them.
By organizing all this scattered information, his path forward seemed to be slowly becoming clearer.
Of course, the Horror World was also filled with misleading information and distractions.
For instance, when the Chosen Ones explored this place, they would encounter some strange things.
On the fourth floor, three patients were interacting with a painting on the wall, as if they could talk to it.
On the third floor, there were seven doors of different colors, all leading to hospital rooms, but what was inside them was anyone’s guess.
On the second floor, there was a large room with double doors, from which strange sounds occasionally emanated.
There were many more examples like this. It was impossible for the Chosen Ones to find the correct information right from the start.
There was plenty of misinformation designed to confuse and waste time, and some of it might even be ‘side quests.’
How the Chosen Ones could sift through all this information to find a reasonable main storyline depended on how well they could interpret the intelligence and the rules. Naturally, those with more experience had a significant advantage.
So far, less than twenty percent of all participants had reached this level of understanding.
This meant that in this so-called ‘expert-level’ round, about eighty percent of the Chosen Ones—around 160 of them—still didn’t know how to proceed.
Most of the supernaturals were still stuck in the same single-minded mindset Gregori had during the Doomsday Catastrophe Horror, the prison scenario. Their solution was to find a way to cure themselves of the virus and then just fight their way out.
Some had even gone so foolishly as to grind their pills into powder to study the formula.
This earned them scorn and disdain from their own countries’ citizens and expert panels.
They felt these individuals were useless beyond their physical strength and simply didn’t use their brains.
Was it really that hard to just follow the process like an ordinary person?
They’d be better off just randomly picking a few past survivors to send in; they’d probably do a much better job than these supernaturals.
The slightly better supernaturals had at least left their rooms, but they were now bogged down by all the distracting information, unsure of what to do next.
As for the Horror World, it did give the Chosen Ones some time to prepare. The next step was to see if they could figure out the need to escape.
If they could figure it out, there was still a glimmer of hope.
If they couldn’t, they’d just be waiting here to die.
Were there any Chosen Ones with an even clearer train of thought? Of course, there were.
Zhang Yangqing had already figured out what to do next.
Because after wandering around for a while, he noticed that many patients were staying inside their rooms.
Some rooms were even locked, and the patients only came out at lunchtime.
When that happened, Zhang Yangqing planned to find a few people with symptoms similar to his.
Following his usual style, the more, the better.
After all, while other Chosen Ones might see these people as powerful allies, to Zhang Yangqing, they were just tools. Who would ever complain about having too many tools?
They definitely wanted to escape too, which meant their goals aligned perfectly.
Plus, as locals, they would know the way once they got out.
There was also a crucial point here: he couldn’t be too eager to reveal his desire to escape.
If the caretakers with the crow masks found out, he’d most likely end up dead.
Remember that room with the double doors on the second floor?
Or the blood-stained hospital room the Chosen Ones woke up in?
These were all hidden clues!
Zhang Yangqing reasoned that the person who used to live in that room must have discovered something, or perhaps one of the crow-masked caretakers had learned of their escape plan.
And then, naturally, they were executed.
The dried blood in that room wasn’t that a clear message to the Chosen Ones to be careful?
If they couldn’t grasp the implication from that, they could also deduce it from the medicine and the sealed windows.
From those two things, and from the guards at the second-floor entrance, they could infer that the rehabilitation center had no intention of letting its patients leave.
As for what the staff wanted with the patients, that remained unknown for now.
But once the staff achieved whatever goal they had, the Chosen One would probably meet their end here.
Escaping sooner and finding a way to solve the virus problem sooner would increase their chances of survival.
How to find the ‘doctor’ mentioned in the rules was still unknown.
As noon approached, more and more patients gathered on the second floor.
These patients, without exception, kept a certain distance from each other.
But there were also small groups, clustered in twos and threes.
If the Chosen Ones hadn’t guessed wrong, these were people with the same virus.
Zhang Yangqing remained standing, maintaining his dominant posture, which made those around him a bit wary.
Other Chosen Ones were already exhausted, sitting on benches or leaning against walls.
Just observing their surroundings for a while had drained them completely.
Now they felt like throwing up blood and were also starving.
Their weak bodies constantly reminded them that their situation was dangerous and they shouldn’t make any rash moves.
And some unfriendly stares from nearby were fixed on the weaker Chosen Ones.
Some small groups were whispering among themselves, plotting something unknown.
If it weren’t for the many crow-masked caretakers around, these visibly weak Chosen Ones would probably be in for some trouble.
Even if some Chosen Ones realized this, there was nothing they could do; their bodies were just too weak.
Gregori was one of them. He tried to stand up to appear less pathetic.
But a sweet taste rose in his throat, and he almost coughed up blood.
He forced himself to suppress it.
Only those infected with the virus knew that horrible feeling.
If someone told Gregori that a Chosen One infected with the virus was still standing, he wouldn’t believe it.
Zhang Yangqing wasn’t feeling great either, but he was gritting his teeth and enduring the stabbing pain.
And his attributes were indeed a bit higher, giving him a slightly stronger physique than the other Chosen Ones.
Soon, it was 12 o’clock. A ‘ding-dong’ sound echoed through the rehabilitation center.
A broadcast began, essentially informing all patients that lunchtime had arrived.
Mealtime was from 12 to 2 PM. Patients who needed to eat were urged to come promptly.
Besides that, the broadcast also listed a few rules to follow.
[When the cafeteria staff adds food to your plate, you cannot refuse.]
[Wasting food in the cafeteria is prohibited. You must finish everything on your tray, or you will bear the consequences.]
[Patients must dine in the designated area. If you are caught entering other areas, you will be punished.]
[You must leave the cafeteria by 2 PM.]
The broadcast was very loud. The Chosen Ones standing under the speakers felt their ears ringing and their heads buzzing from the sound waves.
But they managed to remember the main points.
When the crow-masked caretakers on the second floor stepped aside to clear a path, the patients began to file down the stairs towards the first-floor cafeteria.
Since there was plenty of time, many patients hadn’t come down yet.
Or perhaps they wanted to avoid the crowds and the risk of catching another virus.
Gregori stood up shakily, his steps unsteady.
Just standing up seemed to have consumed most of his energy.
In his eyes, the staircase looked like it could be the death of him.
He asked a crow-masked caretaker for help.
But he didn’t meet the condition of Rule 2: ‘Pay attention to personal hygiene; the caretakers here prefer to serve patients with cleaner clothes.’
During his exploration of the center, Gregori had often leaned against walls out of exhaustion, so his clothes weren’t very clean.
Thus, the crow-masked caretaker refused his request.
He had to grit his teeth and slowly descend step by step, holding onto the railing. Each step drained more of his energy.
Gregori never dreamed that he, a Cardinal of the Holy See who had easily handled weird bosses and powerful locals, would now be tortured by a normal staircase!
Behind him came impatient shouts from other patients.
They were unhappy with his slow pace but didn’t dare get close, just cursing him as useless.
Gregori was furious. He wished he could recover his strength immediately and tear them all apart.
How dare they curse me!
But there was nothing he could do now; he didn’t even have the strength to turn around and curse back.
When he reached the seventh step, he accidentally missed one and started to fall. Just then, an arm firmly grabbed his, steadying him.
“Are you new here? Let me help you down.”
A young voice reached Gregori’s ears.
“Thank you, I’m sorry to trouble you.”
Just saying these words took a great deal of effort for Gregori.
At this point, he couldn’t worry about infections anymore. If no one helped him, he simply couldn’t get down.
After they reached the first floor, he got a good look at his helper—a young man with blonde hair.
Observing closely, he saw the roots were also blonde, meaning it was natural, not dyed.
Gregori thanked him profusely, and the blonde young man said not to worry about it.
Unlike the other listless or injured patients, he seemed about seventy or eighty percent recovered.
Aside from an occasional cough, he was pretty much like a normal person.
During their conversation, Gregori learned how to tell who had the same virus as you.
It was by looking at the neck—the same reason the crow-masked caretakers had checked the Chosen Ones’ necks at the very beginning.
There were several vertical purple marks on the side of the blonde young man’s neck, behind his ear.
They looked like veins connecting the neck and body.
Gregori also had several vertical purple marks on the side of his neck. It was only after seeing these that the blonde young man had decided to help him.
Since there were no mirrors here, and the Chosen Ones were afraid to get close to others, it was hard for them to discover this detail on their own.
Without the blonde man’s tip, Zhang Yangqing would have been the only one to figure out this pattern. He was the proactive type, approaching patients who didn’t avoid him to observe and even talk to them.
He could easily gather information this way.
In Gregori’s eyes, this blonde young man seemed like a so-called ‘friendly NPC (non-player character),’ right?
But thinking about it, this horror scenario was too unique. If an NPC hadn’t approached him, it would have been very difficult for him to find someone from his own group through observation alone.
As they talked, Gregori followed the blonde young man to the first-floor cafeteria.
Along the way, he observed his surroundings and found it was pretty much as he expected—no view of the outside whatsoever.
All the doors and windows here were locked; under normal circumstances, there was no way out.
Plus, some areas were guarded by crow-masked caretakers, and patients could only move along designated routes.
99.5% of the Chosen Ones who made it here encountered a blonde helper and got plenty of useful information from them.
The only 0.5% who didn’t was Zhang Yangqing.
Because his clothes were clean, he triggered Rule 2 before even going downstairs.
Rule 2 clearly stated that the caretakers really like serving people with cleaner clothes.
Before Zhang Yangqing could even ask, a caretaker proactively came over to help him down the stairs.
He enjoyed the VIP patient treatment.
In Zhang Yangqing’s version of the Horror World, the caretakers’ attitude was completely opposite to what other Chosen Ones experienced.
It almost made you think the caretakers here had a obsession with cleanliness.
Seeing this, the Dragon Kingdom’s audience grew a bit worried. Since Zhang Yangqing hadn’t connected with a blonde helper, he was missing information and a potential ally.
Because the cafeteria stage presented a huge challenge: the cafeteria staff would definitely add extra food to the Chosen One’s plate.
According to the broadcast rules, the Chosen One couldn’t refuse this extra food.
This was expected.
They’d end up with a heaping plate, enough for two people.
If they couldn’t finish it, they’d be punished, and who knew if that punishment meant immediate death.
So, the clever Chosen Ones would ask their blonde helper to hold off on getting food first. Then, after they got their overloaded plate, they’d ask the helper to share half, so both would be full.
It was a simple favor, and the blonde helpers didn’t refuse.
It seemed they were currently acting as friendly, same-team NPCs.
As the only one without a helper, Zhang Yangqing naturally drew everyone’s attention. Everyone was guessing how he would get through this.
Some viewers guessed that Zhang Tian-shi would do what he’d done before and just dump his food onto someone else’s plate.
After all, he had pulled that stunt before.
Others guessed he might skip getting food altogether and just ask someone with a full plate for a portion.
That would also help that person with their problem—killing two birds with one stone.
But there was a big requirement: that person had to be infected with the same virus, otherwise, neither would want to get too close.
Just as the audience was buzzing with discussion, Zhang Yangqing made his move.
He walked straight up to a patient who had just finished getting his food. This guy looked weak, and, importantly, he had the same purple marks Zhang Yangqing had observed earlier.
Get food? Why would I bother getting food?
When Zhang Yangqing can take something, he’s never polite.
The cafeteria had plenty of rules, but none of them said I couldn’t take food from someone else!
