Before splitting up, Fumiya Jin hadn't agreed on a rendezvous point with the fleshy-faced woman and the others.
As it turned out, there was no need.
On the flat beach, a single glance was all it took for the two of them to spot a few figures clustered together.
They were in the exact spot where they had first entered the instance, gathered behind the large rock that Fumiya Jin and Nijika had leaned against earlier. It was unclear what they were doing.
Perhaps they were... using the large rock for shade?
But the rock wasn't big enough to hide that many people.
The two walked quickly toward them.
Soon, the chubby guy by the rock noticed them and waved. "You're finally back? Something's happened over here!"
Hearing this, Fumiya Jin and Nijika's expressions changed slightly, and they quickened their pace to the rock.
And there, in the shade of the rock, lay the curly-haired man, covered in wounds and unconscious. One of his forearms was gone.
It was worth noting that the bite marks covering the curly-haired man's body were numerous and strange.
They weren't small; they definitely couldn't have been made by small fish like piranhas.
But they weren't large either, nothing like a shark bite.
Most were around ten centimeters, a bit larger than a human mouth.
Furthermore, every wound, aside from the oozing blood, was mixed with some sort of blackish-green viscous substance... Many of the wounds had already begun to fester and get infected, and it was unclear if this was related to the blackish-green slime.
"Hiss—" Nijika gasped, startled by the sight of his blood-covered body.
Fumiya Jin frowned, a sense of foreboding washing over him—how could something have gone wrong so quickly?
But a glance at the number above the curly-haired man's head revealed that he still had several hours left.
That meant the curly-haired man wasn't dead yet, but... he could die from continuous blood loss and infection?
"What happened?" Fumiya Jin asked, his eyes sweeping over the others.
"Th-this isn't our fault! He went into the sea on his own, all confident, and then this suddenly happened..." the fleshy-faced woman stammered, already trying to shift the blame.
It was the madam who stepped forward and calmly told Fumiya Jin everything that had happened, including their discovery of the wreckage, the trash they'd collected nearby, and how the curly-haired man had gone into the sea.
After listening, Fumiya Jin felt a bit helpless.
Based on the countdowns and his own deductions about the Samsara Game, he had long ago judged that the sea might be dangerous and had warned the curly-haired man several times not to go in.
But the curly-haired man didn't believe him... or rather, he was overconfident.
It's like how most people who drown in rivers are the ones who know how to swim.
The curly-haired man indeed possessed a powerful ability for underwater movement and a formidable life-saving item.
The combination of these two things gave him too much confidence. So even though Fumiya Jin had persistently advised against it, he had casually entered the sea, and now this had happened.
"Brother Doctor, you're back?" Just then, a voice accompanied by footsteps came from the direction of the sea. "Big Sis, I got the water."
Fumiya Jin turned to see the black man with dreadlocks walking over with a blue laundry detergent bottle, its plastic wrapper removed. He placed it next to Fumiya Jin. "After what happened, I didn't dare go near the seawater... Luckily, I'm smart. I dug a pit on the beach, waited for a wave to wash in and retreat, then went and scooped it up. That's how I got this back."
The fleshy-faced woman glanced at him and said, "Why'd you put it down? Hurry up and start a fire to boil the water."
Fumiya Jin looked up at the fleshy-faced woman. "Boil water? Why boil seawater?"
The fleshy-faced woman said matter-of-factly, "To disinfect, of course. Didn't you see how badly Haji is hurt? His wounds are already getting infected. If we don't disinfect them, are we just supposed to wait for him to die?"
"You want to use seawater to disinfect his wounds?" Fumiya Jin was stunned.
"Hah, this is where you're ignorant, right?" The fleshy-faced woman crossed her arms, a smug look on her face. "Saltwater can sterilize and kill germs, and isn't seawater just saltwater? As long as you boil it to kill all the bacteria and pathogens, can't you use it for disinfection?"
Despite the hot weather, a cold sweat broke out on Fumiya Jin's forehead.
He wiped it away and said, "Is there any possibility that while high-concentration saltwater does have an antibacterial effect, it can only be used on objects and not to treat wounds? An excessively high concentration will severely irritate the wound, destroy the cells around it, and likely worsen the inflammation."
"Eh?" The chubby guy scratched his head. "But I think I have heard of washing wounds with saline solution..."
"Physiological saline is fine, but that's a 0.9% salt solution," Fumiya Jin explained. "Seawater is at least 3% to 4%, so it's definitely not okay. Besides, seawater contains all sorts of other miscellaneous components that can't all be dealt with just by boiling. In short, using seawater to disinfect him will only make him die faster."
"Is that so..." The others were slightly abashed. They hadn't thought it through that much.
"I don't really get all of it... but I think you know more, Doctor. You're probably right," the black man said after a moment's thought.
With that, everyone turned to look, more or less, at the fleshy-faced woman.
After all, the idea had been hers.
The fleshy-faced woman was now a bit embarrassed.
"I... I... I was just trying to help, wasn't I? We can't just do nothing!"
"Until you know what you're doing, I suggest it's better you do nothing at all," Fumiya Jin said, giving her a sidelong glance before kneeling down to carefully examine the curly-haired man's wounds.
The wounds were indeed inflaming and festering rapidly. A few had even started to ulcerate at an astonishing speed... At this rate, he would soon be beyond saving.
"The wounds definitely need to be cleaned, to wash away that black stuff," Fumiya Jin concluded. "But seawater is out of the question... We have to get fresh water."
"Duh, who doesn't know that?" The fleshy-faced woman, clearly still sore from being rebuked by Fumiya Jin, immediately seized the opportunity to retort, "But where's the fresh water? Weren't you two supposed to be looking for it? How come you came back with nothing? Are you all talk?"
Fumiya Jin couldn't even be bothered to get angry with her. He gave her a look as if she were an idiot and said, "You don't think we didn't find any, do you? We found it. We just didn't have a suitable container to bring it back."
"Huh?" The fleshy-faced woman was dumbfounded.
The others' eyes widened in an instant.
"Really?" the chubby guy asked, his face full of excitement. "There's really drinkable water?"
"Yes, it's fresh water. It's not particularly clean, but if we bring it back and boil it in those soda cans you found, it should be barely drinkable," Fumiya Jin said. "It might also be usable for washing Haji's wounds a bit. At least it's much better than using seawater directly."
"Holy crap... You actually found it? Doctor, you're the f*cking man! You're a lifesaver!" The black man with dreadlocks jumped up in excitement. If there wasn't a dying man lying right there, he might have charged over and given Fumiya Jin a big hug—though Fumiya Jin would have most likely kicked him away. Fumiya Jin had no desire to be hugged by a sweaty man.
Fumiya Jin waved his hand. "Don't get too excited. The water source is two to three hundred meters from here, and it's not easy to make another trip. Plus, Miss Pudding and I need some time to rest and recover. So it might be a few more hours before we can get the water."
Hearing this, the group calmed down a little, but most of them didn't mind. Now that they had seen a glimmer of hope, what was waiting a few more hours? They weren't so thirsty that they couldn't last that long.
Only the fleshy-faced woman was still full of complaints. "A few more hours? We're going to die of thirst..."
If someone wasn't already dying, Fumiya Jin really would have kicked her—this woman who's been nothing but a liability had some nerve to complain so much.
Fumiya Jin almost didn't want to bring out the blueberries.
But considering there were others, and they had been cooperative enough, he showed some mercy.
"Besides finding the water source, we also brought this back," Fumiya Jin said, pulling a handful of blueberries from his pocket.
The moment everyone saw the blueberries in his hand...
Instantly, their eyes lit up!
"Oh, my dear Boss Doctor... you're a goddamn superhero!"
____
Hello! Walnut here! Or... Miku Dayo in this case heheh...
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