Chapter 1226: Bone Marrow Provider
To be honest, there were not many people with a stable mental state in the doomsday, were there?
If someone asked you to roll your naked, weak body over and over again in a stone mill, to be pounded by the stone, and your skin hit the solid stone, bruising and oozing blood and breaking your bones—that was pretty much the daily life of a doomsday posthuman.
The scarcity of supplies led to a wolfish mentality and the anxiety of never finding peace. Yet, that was still not the most unbearable part. What truly tormented people was when you woke up groggily one morning, only to find that your injuries from two days ago had taken a turn for the worse, and you dared not leave the drainage ditch you were hiding in at that moment. Because as soon as you leave the ditch it may be taken by someone else; because there is no one to bring you water, and dirty water on the walls of the ditch is now precious; because you are are afraid of being found out that you are ill.
Lin Sanjiu felt that she hadn"t seen anyone with a normal psychological state so far, including herself—but when Gardenia was referring to the former guard"s instability, she meant it had escalated to another level.
As they approached the former guard, he behaved quite normally. He kept a good distance from Magus, as if he didn"t dare to get too close, and fidgeted like he didn"t know where to put himself.
Lin Sanjiu observed him for a moment before asking, "Where are you going next?" It was a hint that they wanted to leave.
"I... What time is it now? How long has it been since I came in?" the former guard asked, looking puzzled.
Everyone exchanged glances, but no one knew the answer.
"We don"t even know what year it is in this place, let alone how to count the days," Bohemia said, scolding him as if he were a student. "How would we know how long it"s been?"
"Right," the former guard said uncertainly. He seemed unsure of what to do next. He could have been wandering around down there for several decades or just a few weeks. Although it seemed like a trivial matter, humans were creatures who needed to confirm their place in the river of time. Once they lost that sense of certainty, they would feel disoriented.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, the former guard regained his composure. "Um... I haven"t received any points, and I don"t own anything either... Can I follow you? If I can be of any help, you can give me a few organs... Or, if you don"t want me to follow you, can you just give me a few points? You"ve earned so many anyway."
So, he was that type of person? Shameless, always ready to ask for something when seeing others have something. Conversely, he would make those who were too shy feel bad for not giving. But honestly, this wasn"t the worst type.
"We can"t give you any points," Lin Sanjiu said as they walked, glancing at him a few times. They could only cash out by exchanging points for items and then exchange it back to points at the payment counter. But she had to quickly leave before someone discovered the two dead NPCs. She also needed to find Ya Jiang"s hideout as soon as possible and settle Magus down. There was no reason to turn back for such a minor matter. "You better not follow us."
"But... but I thought I wouldn"t have to face this pocket dimension alone, and I still had teammates around me... Now, you suddenly want me to face it alone." He sounded a little aggrieved as if Lin Sanjiu had decided to leave him struggling alone. "How will I get by alone?"
Bohemia was about to turn around and scold him, but Lin Sanjiu gently held him back. After thinking for a few seconds, she suddenly smiled. "You can come along."
1
As they were nearing Ya Jiang"s resting room, Bohemia caught up with them and complained softly, "Do you have a thing for ticking time bombs?"
Perhaps it was hard to understand, even for Lin Sanjiu herself. It wasn"t the most practical or beneficial decision. But she couldn"t resist the curiosity to find out where the former guard triggered Gardenia"s sixth sense. And more importantly, could she sense that something was wrong with the former guard?
Besides, she was on her guard, and the former guard"s combat power was mediocre. She wasn"t afraid of any major issues arising.
1
Bohemia was certainly not in favor of it at all. After Lin Sanjiu endured her barrage of sarcastic remarks, "Do you think this is a math problem?" "Yes, I"ve done math before, so spare me your nonsense!" "If you get stabbed to death at night, I"ll use your skull to boil water," the group finally found the patient room that belonged to Bohemia.
Puppeteer didn"t have a pa.s.s and could only wait obediently in the corner, with Bohemia left behind as a bodyguard. Lin Sanjiu climbed up the wall alone, ascending several floors until she reached the door of the target room. She squatted down and knocked on the door.
"Ya Jiang?" She called out tentatively.
After being away for most of the day, Lin Sanjiu was prepared for the possibility that Ya Jiang might have become impatient and left. However, to her surprise, he was still there as if they had arranged to meet. The door was easily pushed open as if it hadn"t been locked at all. A familiar head poked out from the open door. "You guys are finally back! I"ve been running a stall at the entrance and earned several organs worth of points!"
This guy seems to have a knack for business.
"If only I had known. I would have let you run the stall and saved us the trouble," Lin Sanjiu said, smiling wryly. She did not tell him about their experiences since they didn"t have time to talk now. She gestured for Ya Jiang to fully open the door while she went down to bring Puppeteer"s body into the room. Bohemia grumbled while dragging the former guard up.
"What about the woman with the freckles?" Lin Sanjiu placed Puppeteer"s body on the bed with a thud, and Magus"s head under the cloth seemed to give her a disapproving look when it turned. The small single-person room suddenly became crowded with so many people. However, Ya Jiang didn"t waste any time and had already restored quite a bit of the connection between the two parts of the body, making it look like a strange person with an extremely slim waist.
"That guy who occupied her body was initially tight-lipped and wouldn"t tell me where their rooms were," Ya Jiang said, sneering. "But I suspected that the soul projection had some limitations or side effects. He couldn"t hold on and finally told me. I brought him back to his room and woke up the woman. As for what happened between them afterward, only heaven knows."
That would do. At least Sesame Cake got what she deserved—her companion shouldn"t have harmed her when she had cared so much about him.
It was the first time Lin Sanjiu felt at ease since entering the hospital. She was even slightly satisfied with the progress toward her goal. Everyone was back, and they had enough points on them. She had even sent away Hei Zeji, who was terrible at detecting lies and easy to fool.
1
For the next few hours, as they waited for things to cool down, the patient room was filled with Bohemia gesturing and acting out the experiences, occasional exclamations and laughter, Magus jotting down notes with a pen when she couldn"t resist interjecting, and the sound of crunching biscuits. Even the only uncertain factor, the former guard, remained silent on the side, pouring tea and water but never speaking unless questioned.
The death of the two NPCs caused quite a stir in the hospital. However, perhaps because the hospital urgently needed to restore order after the previous chaos, the martial law was lifted just a few hours later, and everything returned to normal.
Lin Sanjiu was fairly certain that no one witnessed them at the payment counter when she took action. Therefore, when she hugged Magus and called for Bohemia to leave, she wasn"t too nervous, except for taking [There Is Probably Someone Like This in Your Cla.s.s] as a precautionary measure.
For the past few hours, the lava game outside hadn"t ended yet, but the payment counter had changed its location. They missed the hint about the appearance of the payment counter and had to go to great lengths to "cheat" the location from another posthuman. Magus wrote down what to say and how to say it to the other person. But in any case, they finally found the payment counter.
When Lin Sanjiu saw that familiar little room from afar, she stopped and frowned.
"Look, the person who just finished exchanging points," she whispered to Bohemia, "Isn"t that Wus.h.i.+ Ming?"