After a good night's rest, everyone was refreshed and full of energy.
The next morning, after everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they went to the rooftop balcony to prepare for the next challenge.
Yu Hanjiang glanced at his teammates and reminded them, "Next, we're going into Spade 8. The Spade Secret Room involves survival and will be quite dangerous. If we get separated when we enter the secret room, remember not to act on your own. Organize your cards and try to rejoin your teammates."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Xiao Lou added, "We don't know what kind of environment this escape room will be in. If it's in ancient times, we should try to meet in places like teahouses or restaurants. If it's in a modern city, we should find the largest square in the city."
Thinking of Spade 3 At the Financial Crisis plaza, Ye Qi immediately said, "If it's not too dangerous on the first day, I can play the guitar in the plaza and pretend to be a street performer, waiting for everyone to come find me. This will make it easier for everyone to gather."
Xiao Lou agreed, saying, "Let's use Ye Qi as the center point, gather everyone together, and then figure out a solution."
It's inevitable that everyone will be separated during the Spade Secret Room event; they 're never together on the first day. But as Ye Qi mentioned, the first day is usually for everyone to familiarize themselves with the environment, and nothing too difficult happens. The key is figuring out how to regroup. If the room gets too crowded and it's hard to find someone, Ye Qi playing the guitar will make it easier for his teammates to spot him.
After agreeing on the plan, Yu Hanjiang drew the card [ Spade 8 ] from the wall of cards.
A familiar black vortex appeared in the center of the card, causing everyone to feel dizzy.
When Xiao Lou woke up again, she found herself in a familiar environment— a hospital.
This must be the hospital's outpatient hall. People were coming and going, with many patients queuing to register, and numerous nurses in white coats hurrying along the corridors. Xiao Lou had interned at a hospital during his university years, and since the affiliated hospital of the Medical University was connected to their school, he was extremely familiar with the layout of this outpatient hall.
He was on the fourth floor at the time, and could see the scene in the lobby downstairs.
The left side of the lobby says "Outpatient Department," the right side says "Emergency Department," and further ahead are the registration and pharmacy counters.
Xiao Lou stood by the escalator on the fourth floor, observing the patients below while watching the few lines of background information quickly scroll by in the floating frame diagonally above him.
Welcome Xiao Lou to the world of Spade 8!
[First day in the secret room, morning. Please follow instructions. Your role in this world is a surgeon. Today is Monday, and you need to go to work at the outpatient clinic. The current time is 7:50 AM. Please arrive at your doctor's office, room 307 on the third floor of the outpatient building, before 8:00 AM.]
[ Spade 8 World, all card skills are unlocked, killing natives is not prohibited]
You need to survive in this world for 14 days to complete the game. Good luck!
Upon seeing this, Xiao Lou felt a sudden chill run down his spine.
Previously, the survival time in Spade Secret Room was 7 days, but now that it's at A difficulty, the survival time has doubled.
Moreover, the most crucial point is "no card restrictions" and "no ban on killing natives"—all cards can be used, including Yu Hanjiang's gun and the attack cards drawn by teammates. This means that bloodshed will occur in this Spade 8 world, natives may attack them, and there might be other Challengers or Hunters in the A-grade secret room.
What will happen? The locked room offered no clues.
Xiao Lou took a deep breath and glanced at the time in the floating window—7:52.
There are still 8 minutes until I go to work.
He was on the 4th floor at that moment, and his office was on the 3rd floor. Xiao Lou immediately took the escalator downstairs, quickly found office number 307, and saw a sign on the door that read " General Surgery Department Clinic." He pushed the door open and went inside—
A cute girl with a ponytail smiled and greeted him: " Hello Professor Xiao, I am Xu Rongrong, a new intern. The head doctor asked me to learn from you in the outpatient clinic this week."
Xiao Lou: "..."
Does Spade 8 Secret Chamber also have a play called The Lover?
Although he was puzzled, he still nodded politely and said, "Hello, please have a seat."
Xiao Lou saw a white coat hanging behind the door, so he took off his own coat, put on the white coat, and sat down at his desk to turn on his computer.
On the first day, he had to follow the instructions. He had to see patients in the morning and couldn't meet up with his teammates for the time being. He would have to go to the nearby square to find them around noon. What made him feel a little relieved was that this was a familiar [modern city] environment, and the computer desktop was still running Windows, which was very convenient to operate.
Xiao Lou opened the outpatient clinic app, entered her employee number from her white coat, and logged in.
It should be winter now. You can tell from the patients wearing sweaters and down jackets that the outside temperature must be very low. Winter is a high-incidence season for asthma and bronchitis in the elderly. In addition, Monday is the peak time for hospital outpatients. There are long queues in the lobby. There will probably be a lot of patients today.
Even though Xiao Lou was mentally prepared, she was still shocked when she opened the outpatient app.
The densely packed patient list filled the entire computer screen—there were just too many! Could I possibly see them all in one morning?
Just then, Xu Rongrong behind me suddenly coughed. She coughed up some phlegm, wrapped it in a tissue, threw it into the trash can, and said apologetically, "I have a bit of a cold."
Xiao Lou asked, "Is there a flu outbreak recently?"
While wiping her nose, Xu Rongrong said, "Yes, the weather has gotten colder recently, and a lot of doctors and nurses in the department have fallen ill."
A sense of foreboding suddenly rose in Xiao Lou's heart. He quickly took out a mask from the drawer, put it on, and tried to remain calm. He then called in the first patient through the outpatient software.
The woman who came in was a 38-year-old woman who had just undergone gallbladder removal surgery last week and was there for a follow-up check-up. She also brought her daughter, who was about 8 years old and very cute.
Xiao Lou had her lie down on the treatment bed next to him, put on gloves, and lifted her clothes to take a look—
The wound on my abdomen was ulcerated and suppurating, and there was an abnormal bluish-black color around it, which was obviously infected.
After taking her temperature, Xiao Lou discovered that the woman's temperature was nearly 39 degrees Celsius. Alarm bells rang in his mind, and he hurriedly asked Xu Rongrong to take the patient to the Emergency Department for intravenous infusion to lower her temperature before keeping her in the hospital for observation.
The woman said, "Doctor, could you please take a look at my daughter? She's injured too."
Xiao Lou helped the little girl lie down on the hospital bed and asked, "Where are your wounds?"
The little girl said earnestly, "My leg was bitten."
Xiao Lou asked, "Was it caused by an animal bite?"
The little girl said, "It might be our dog. It bit me early this morning, and my mom bandaged it up with gauze."
When Xiao Lou removed the gauze, he saw that the girl's calf was covered in blood from the bite. He immediately took out iodine and a sponge to disinfect and bandage the wound. Then he told the girl, "If you were bitten by a dog, you should get vaccinated as soon as possible to avoid contracting rabies."
The little girl avoided eye contact, lowered her head, murmured "Mmm," and followed her mother away.
Several other patients who came in afterward were also post-operative; some had wounds healing well, while others were just there to have their stitches removed and dressings changed.
Xiao Lou is not a professional surgeon, but these simple wound removals and dressing changes are compulsory courses for medical students, and he can handle them all.
He patiently examined the patients while his mind raced—the uncertainty of what might happen in this world was what unsettled him most. If it were a heart ward, among these patients might be the deceased, the murderer, or a suspect. But this was the Spade Secret Room; placing him in a hospital —could it be that a large-scale viral outbreak was about to occur?
Xiao Lou couldn't help but recall his time at Spade 2 The zombies seen in Zombie Town.
Because the town was remote and sparsely populated, the Zombie Virus only spread within the town, and its impact did not expand. If the virus had broken out in a large city, the consequences would have been unimaginable…
He was worried that a patient might suddenly extend their claws and attack him, so he always kept a safe distance from patients and had his card holder ready so he could escape at any time if things went wrong.
Just as Xiao Lou was about to breathe a sigh of relief as lunch break was approaching, a man pushed the door open and came in.
Xiao Lou looked up and suddenly met a pair of dark, deep eyes.
In that instant, all his worries vanished, and a smile involuntarily crept onto his lips. If it weren't for the presence of the interns around...
Xiao Lou almost blurted out the other person's name—it was Yu Hanjiang.
In this world, Yu Hanjiang is a police officer. He was dressed in a smart police uniform and entered with a young boy who looked like a student. Upon seeing Xiao Lou in a white coat, Yu Hanjiang's eyes lit up slightly. He quickly regained his composure and pretended not to recognize him, saying, "Doctor, could you please take a look at this student's wound?"
Xiao Lou nodded and asked softly, "What happened?"
Yu Hanjiang explained, "A fight broke out at school, and someone bit my arm, tearing off a piece of flesh."
Xiao Lou: "..."
Was the one that bit him born in the Year of the Dog? Its teeth are that strong!
He had the patient lie on the bed and disinfected and bandaged the bloodied arm. The student, in pain and tears streaming down his face, cried to Yu Hanjiang, "Officer, I was bitten by Zhou Yu from Class 8! This is intentional assault! You must arrest that brat!"
Yu Hanjiang said calmly, "Don't worry, he can't escape."
Xiao Lou quickly finished treating the patient, and it was time to leave work. Yu Hanjiang asked a colleague to take the student to give a statement, while he and Xiao Lou walked out of the office side by side—pretending to consult the student about his condition, but actually exchanging information.
At lunchtime, the number of people in the hospital had noticeably decreased.
Yu Hanjiang turned his head to look at Xiao Lou.
I remember seeing Xiao Lou for the first time at the Forensic Identification Center in the real world. He looked exactly like this: his white coat was spotless, he was clean and refined, and his smile made him seem especially friendly.
Xiao Lou has long, straight legs, and when he wears a white coat, he looks just like the male lead in a medical drama.
At that moment, seeing himself in his police uniform and Xiao Lou in his white coat, Yu Hanjiang had a fleeting illusion that the two of them had returned to reality.
Upon reaching the end of the corridor, Yu Hanjiang took a deep breath to compose himself and looked gently at Xiao Lou, asking, "Do you have any clues here?"
Xiao Lou shook his head: "No. But I have a feeling that a virus is going to break out in this world... There are a lot of patients in the hospital today, and I've seen several infected patients with severely ulcerated wounds. I've never seen wounds like this before. The student you brought in even had a piece of flesh bitten off. I think something's not right."
Yu Hanjiang frowned slightly: "Could it be a viral apocalypse? Will Infected attack its own kind indiscriminately?"
As we were talking, there was a sudden commotion in the emergency room—a middle-aged woman with an IV drip suddenly ripped the needle out of her arm and slammed the bottle to the ground!
Her hair was a mess, her eyes were bloodshot, and she bit anyone she saw, like a mad dog!
A piercing scream came from all around—she had actually bitten off a child's ear!
The child's parents were stunned. After recovering, they immediately stopped her and a scuffle broke out. Hospital security guards quickly arrived and subdued her, but they were also bitten on the hands. Some passing nurses were also caught in the crossfire.
Her daughter walked beside her, holding her hand expressionlessly.
Xiao Lou's breath hitched—wasn't this the first patient he had ever treated? The woman with a wound infection after cholecystitis surgery?
At the time, her daughter was also injured, saying she was "bitten by a dog," and Xiao Lou told her to get vaccinated immediately. Now it seems the Little Girl wasn't bitten by the family dog—the injury on her leg was from her mother!
Seemingly noticing Xiao Lou's gaze, the Little Girl suddenly raised her head.
Her eyes were bloodshot as she stared at Xiao Lou. She opened her mouth, and Xiao Lou clearly saw a strange smile creep up her lips. She took the child's ear that her mother had just bitten off, put it in her mouth, and chewed it slowly, her face full of satisfaction, as if she were eating the most delicious candy.
Xiao Lou: "..."
Yu Hanjiang: "..."
The two men exchanged a glance and said at the same time, "Run!"