Chapter 29

The stallholder recalled the days he had spent living off his dwindling supplies in the epidemic instance and sighed inwardly. Luckily, he had brought back a batch of supplies, or he would have suffered a huge loss...

Su Cheng took out five chocolate bars, ten loaves of bread, and four bottles of water from the food in her Smart Bag... These were leftovers from what she had put in the Smart Bag last time.

"Five protective suits, four bottles of alcohol and 84 disinfectant, and three boxes of masks."

The stallholder's eyes widened. "Not enough!"

Su Cheng had expected his refusal. Wasn't bargaining all about starting with the lowest offer so there would be room to negotiate...?

"All right, I'll add two nutrient solutions, and you double your offer."

Two nutrient solutions were worth a hundred points. Whether this deal was worthwhile depended on how much each side needed the supplies.

The stallholder nodded. "That's more like it."

The two bartered their goods.

Su Cheng put ten protective suits, eight bottles of alcohol and 84 disinfectant, and six boxes of masks into her Smart Bag.

Those eight bottles of alcohol and 84 disinfectant each held 500 ml. Even with daily use, they would last half a month.

The six boxes contained six hundred masks in total, enough to last a long time.

After leaving the stall, Su Cheng browsed elsewhere, then met up with Yan Yu and Xu Shaowei and left the warehouse with them.

Yan Yu and Xu Shaowei both seemed unenthusiastic. Apparently, they hadn't found anything good that they needed.

The three ate at the restaurant mentioned earlier.

Su Cheng and Yan Yu had Chinese food, a buffet costing twenty points per person with unlimited servings, but no takeout or wasting food.

There were fifteen dishes, both meat and vegetables. The taste was average, but to Su Cheng, they were much more flavorful than crackers and bread.

Xu Shaowei had pasta and steak instead. A serving cost thirty-five points, with a small portion that was also slightly pricier than the Chinese food.

"There are only those same few shops in the Central Circle, and even entertainment options are so limited... I really want to go back soon."

Xu Shaowei let out a lingering sigh.

Su Cheng nodded in agreement. Most people who came to the apartments probably wanted to go back soon...

When they had possessed it before, they hadn't thought much of it. Only after losing it did they realize how happy the past had been.

After they finished eating and drinking, Yan Yu drove Su Cheng back, while Xu Shaowei drove back separately.

Thirty minutes later, Su Cheng arrived at the apartment entrance and took her bicycle out of the trunk.

"Let's get together again when we have time."

Yan Yu waved goodbye.

"Sure."

Su Cheng smiled and waved, watching her drive away.

All three were busy with their own instances. There probably wouldn't be many occasions like today when they all happened to be free, but there would always be opportunities.

After this outing, chatting and browsing with Yan Yu and Xu Shaowei had considerably eased Su Cheng's mental fatigue.

It seemed positive social interaction really was beneficial to both body and mind.

After returning to her apartment, Su Cheng refilled two storage slots in her Smart Bag with food.

She would know better next time she went out and could bring more items to trade. It wouldn't matter if she found nothing she wanted, but if she did, she wouldn't have to helplessly pass it up.

After drinking a sachet of constitution and muscle-building supplement, Su Cheng lay on the sofa and turned on the television.

The afternoon program was a wilderness survival show that explained the physical characteristics and uses of various plants in detail...

Su Cheng watched with keen interest and took out a notebook to jot down several key points.

She had to admit that the apartments were surprisingly considerate in this regard, teaching residents survival knowledge through the television.

After two hours of wilderness survival came an exercise program.

"If your lower back aches, follow me through this movement. I guarantee you'll feel relief in five minutes..."

Su Cheng followed the host's movements, moving from the sofa to the bed.

One of the movements was so comfortable that Su Cheng relaxed her body and fell asleep without realizing it...

She had no dreams during this sleep and slept especially deeply and contentedly.

By the time Su Cheng woke up, her wristband showed that it was already ten at night.

Su Cheng stretched. "It feels so good not to have nightmares."

After a day of lazing around and recuperating in the apartment, Su Cheng had recovered.

There was still one pill left of the medicine Lin Deng had given her, but she no longer needed it.

On a morning when she woke naturally, Su Cheng decided to enter an instance.

As usual, she packed two storage slots with food and water, one with weapons, and one with medicine, including the newly purchased alcohol and masks.

This time, she also had protective suits, which she put in the same storage slot as sets of clothing and trousers for each of the four seasons.

There were also miscellaneous daily necessities such as a flashlight, lighter, 84 disinfectant, toilet paper, umbrella, and sleeping bag, which could go together in two storage slots.

The Smart Bag still had five empty storage slots.

Su Cheng patted the Smart Bag. This disguised spatial ability was so useful!

In the elevator lobby, a girl happened to enter elevator No. 1. She didn't wait for Su Cheng, instead pressing the close-door button.

Su Cheng wasn't planning to visit a special instance this time. Instead, she entered the empty elevator No. 2 and pressed the button for the sixth floor.

Su Cheng watched the elevator display as it rapidly descended.

Hopefully, I can enter a low-risk instance.

But there doesn't seem to be any such thing as a low-risk instance... Sigh.

Author's note:

None.

Chapter 29

Su Cheng appeared on a small hillside. Wearing sunglasses, she immediately surveyed her surroundings the moment she entered the instance.

"&%#!"

Two tall figures in strange outfits suddenly cried out, dropping heavily to their knees with a thud and kowtowing to Su Cheng.

Su Cheng took a large step back. She hadn't put on the translator in her Smart Bag yet and couldn't understand what they were saying.

Both wore loose, thick robes of coarse fabric and black wide-brimmed hats. Bird-beaked masks covered their faces, leaving only their eyes exposed, and they breathed through holes in the pointed beaks.

They also wore leather gloves and carried long sticks.

It was a very strange outfit, but Su Cheng felt as though she had seen it somewhere before.

Su Cheng backed away from them while searching her memory.

She remembered!

A book she had read before had contained a black-and-white photograph of this very outfit.

The caption had read-the signature attire of plague doctors.

Su Cheng's brows drew tightly together. The instant she understood the situation, she turned without hesitation and ran up the hill!

Plague doctors had appeared during the time when the Black Death ran rampant. The Black Death, also known as plague, was an epidemic disease with an extremely high fatality rate.

Their presence here meant there had to be a source of the Black Death nearby.

The Black Death was no laughing matter. If medicine in this instance wasn't advanced enough, infection meant certain death.

A line that had lingered in Su Cheng's memory for a long time surfaced in her mind:

Where the beak appeared, the Black Death arose.

The reason she still remembered that illustration of a plague doctor was that their appearance was so distinctive, and they had been imbued with symbolic significance as harbingers of disaster.

The unconventional clothing combined with its association with disaster had left a deep impression on her when she saw the picture.

The mechanical system voice that followed further confirmed her guess.

[Ding~ Welcome to the normal instance: Plague]

[Basic task: survive for 5 days. Completing the task awards 400 points and allows you to return to the apartment]

It really was the dreaded "plague."

Su Cheng ran all the way into the woods behind the hill. Although she had immediately distanced herself from the two "plague doctors," she still felt somewhat uneasy.

"Plague doctors" moved among large numbers of infected people, so there was no guarantee they weren't infected themselves. She hadn't been far from them just now-only a meter away.

Perhaps those two had taken Su Cheng, who had appeared out of nowhere in strange clothing, for some important figure, which was why they had suddenly kowtowed. Even when Su Cheng abruptly ran off, they had merely remained prostrate on the ground without getting up.

Once Su Cheng had run far enough along the path, she took alcohol out of the Smart Bag, which had already transformed into a clothing pocket, and sprayed herself all over.

Wait... how did the Black Death spread again?

Su Cheng racked her brains for what she had once learned about the Black Death... The Black Death was also called plague. It seemed to spread through rats?

No...

Specifically, it spread through fleas on rats! Fleas picked up plague bacteria from rats, then spread them by biting other creatures. Fleas could be described as carriers that transmitted the bacteria.

Aside from that, contact with patients' respiratory droplets, blood, and □□ could also cause infection.

Su Cheng looked at the alcohol in her hand. Alcohol had only a limited effect on killing fleas...

Su Cheng calmed down and reviewed what had happened when she first entered the instance. She probably hadn't picked up any fleas from those two people.

Su Cheng simply stripped off her jacket quickly and put on a white medical protective suit.

The protective suit was one piece and well sealed, isolating her body from the outside world. Whether fleas, mosquitoes, or any other bugs, none would be able to crawl through gaps in the fabric onto her skin.

The protective suit's disadvantage also came from its good seal: it was somewhat stuffy.

After putting it on, Su Cheng could still sense the storage slots when she touched the pocket area. Being enclosed inside the protective suit didn't affect her ability to retrieve items.

Su Cheng took out an iron shovel and cleared away the surrounding weeds, shoveling them all into a pile. The little bugs in the weeds fled.

After Su Cheng's bout of shoveling, the two square meters around her had become bare ground.

Su Cheng put away the iron shovel and took out 84 disinfectant to spray and disinfect the area. Ants and other small flying insects in the soil quickly crawled away.

Once the cleared patch smelled entirely of disinfectant, Su Cheng felt much more reassured. She then took mosquito repellent spray from the medicine storage slot and sprayed her hands and feet.

She had done everything she could.

As long as she was careful not to let bugs touch her skin and stayed away from infected people, she should be fine.

"What is this place?"

A female voice sounded in her mind. There was no one around, but Su Cheng didn't panic. Instead, she touched her wrist beneath the protective suit.

Besides the apartments' black wristband, her left wrist now also bore a wooden bead bracelet.

Mu Ling had followed her into the instance too.

Su Cheng replied, "An instance world. We can only leave after surviving five days..."

Mu Ling thought for a while before responding, "An instance? Was it also an instance when you came onto the train before...?"