Indigestion

As the saying went, extreme joy led to sorrow. After Yuqing's excitement finally wore off, she had just managed to fall asleep when a bloated ache suddenly struck her abdomen in the middle of the night, waking her.

"It hurts so much..." Yuqing curled up like a shrimp on the bed. Her stomach hadn't hurt in a long time. "System bro, am I gonna die?"

Startled awake by her voice, 01010 immediately lit up its screen with a pale blue scanning light. It swept slowly from the top of her head to the soles of her feet as streams of data flashed past.

A few seconds later, the system breathed a sigh of relief. [Host, don't be afraid. It's just indigestion.]

After years of never eating her fill, her stomach and intestines had long since adapted to operating under a light load. Suddenly eating so much had irritated them. On top of that, the host had completely let her guard down in her current surroundings, and her body's previous extreme self-protection mechanism had receded, so her sense of pain had naturally returned to normal levels.

[Host, Ers is right outside. Do you have the strength to call him in? He'll take you to the infirmary.]

01010 anxiously spun in circles inside her mind. It had wanted to block the host's pain directly, but it was only at its initial Lv0 state. Ninety-nine percent of its permissions were locked, and it couldn't even use its most basic soothing function. All it could do was worry.

"It hurts so much..." Yuqing forced herself up, but another sharp cramp tore through her abdomen. Her vision went black, her arms gave out, and she fell heavily back onto the pillow.

[Host, wait.] 01010 circled the room. It had no physical form and couldn't make a noise, but it did have high-frequency electromagnetic waves, enough to alert a sentinel that something was wrong.

Bzzzt~

Once again, members of the third squad were keeping watch outside the door tonight. Ers had sent the vice captain, Shang Yu, off to write a mission report. Ers, who was closest, noticed something was wrong the moment the high-frequency electromagnetic waves entered his brain. The other squad members, who were a little farther away, grew alert a few seconds later.

"Captain, did you feel that?" Noi had already put his hand on the gun at his waist. "It seemed to come from the guide's room."

Ers frowned deeply, his unease growing. He strode to the door and gently knocked twice, keeping his voice low but clear. "Miss guide, forgive the intrusion. Are you all right?"

The room was silent. There was no response.

Ers hesitated no longer. He immediately pulled an emergency access card from his pocket and opened the door. "Miss guide!"

She was curled up in the middle of the large bed, the wisps of hair at her brow soaked with cold sweat and plastered to her full forehead. Her lips were bloodless, and she was trembling slightly from the pain. Hearing his voice, she struggled to open her eyes and glanced at him, her gaze watery, with a hint of bewildered grievance. "Ers, it hurts so much."

"I'll take you to the infirmary." Ers scooped Yuqing up and hurried outside, shouting to Noi as he went, "Noi, notify the medical team, especially Han Yu!"

"Yes!" Once he received his orders, Noi didn't even wait for the elevator. He and the little golden retriever raced down the stairs to the research center.

The matter was urgent, and the group made quite a commotion.

Sentinels already had keen senses. Besides, the entire military district had been too excited to train all afternoon, leaving them with nowhere to expend their energy. More than half of them were still awake well into the night, and countless pairs of ears instantly picked up the sudden commotion.

In just a few dozen seconds, a new thread racked up over a hundred replies. It refreshed so fast that the light screen briefly froze:

'What's all that noise upstairs? Isn't that the top floor of the administration building? Did something happen to the marshal?'

'The marshal took the first squad out to cut people down after settling the guide in. He's probably several light-years away by now.'

'If it's not the marshal... damn, good lord, surely nothing happened to the guide?'

'Holy crap, I think it really is her. I just saw Noi rush over to the research building.'

'Damn, the research building... did the guide end up in the infirmary?!'

'We're doomed, doomed, doomed! It's only her first day here! How did she end up in the infirmary already? If the Federation Guide Protection Association finds out, they'll send a starship to pick her up tomorrow, and we won't even catch a glimpse of her!'

'Exactly. Can the third squad even take care of a guide? If not, let us do it. We guarantee we'll watch her twenty-four hours a day without blinking!'

'Does anyone know what happened? Could she be having trouble adjusting to the local environment? Or is something wrong with her spiritual power?'

'No idea. The medical team all ran over to the research building, and they looked like they were in a hurry... sigh, I really hope she's all right. We finally got a guide willing to come here.'

'Stop, stop, my heart's about to jump out of my chest. Any brothers near the research building? Give us some news!'

'The dorm building's locked down. Who can get out except the people on duty?'

"Major General Han, this..." The military doctors wanted to examine Yuqing, but she had already lost consciousness from the pain. Curled up in Han Yu's arms, she clutched his cuff tightly with her right hand. The doctors didn't dare pull her away by force, and the examination had stalled there.

"It's fine. I'll do it." Han Yu held Yuqing's body steady with his left hand and took the examination instrument from the military doctor with his right. He focused on scanning the guide's lower back and abdomen. Sure enough, when the instrument reached her stomach and intestines, it gave a red warning: [Indigestion, poorly tolerated due to physical weakness. Recommended examination: nutrition department, malnutrition.]

"Malnutrition?" The military doctors beside him tapped the machine twice in disbelief. They would rather believe it was broken than believe a guide who had been pampered since childhood could be malnourished.

"Bring test tubes. Draw her blood and test for everything, one item at a time." Han Yu frowned.

"Yes." The military doctors hurriedly brought over test tubes and syringes. After drawing several tubes of blood, they immediately used a nearby machine to test it. The moment the results came out, they sucked in sharp breaths. "Major... Major General Han, Miss guide is severely malnourished."

"I see. Bring gastric protectants and add five milliliters of painkiller. Put the guide on an IV first." Han Yu lowered his eyes and studied the girl in his arms. Her jasmine-scented pheromones carried the aura of a tenacious superior, and it was precisely this aura that made it easy to overlook her frail body.

Outside the infirmary, the smell of disinfectant hung in the air. A red sign on the white automatic door read "Examination in progress," and the air was eerily still.

Bzz.

The white electric doors slid open to either side.

"How is the guide, Han Yu?" Ers hurried forward.

"It's serious." Han Yu removed his medical gloves, his tone somewhat inscrutable.

"What?!" Hurried footsteps came pounding down the corridor. Shang Yu's red hair had been tousled by his run, and the partially visible form of a red fox spirit followed behind him, the tip of its tail twitching restlessly.

He had just rushed to the door when he heard those words. His face went white, and he strode forward to grab Han Yu's arm. "What illness is it? Is her spiritual power damaged? How serious is it? Will there be any lasting effects?"

Han Yu stepped back half a pace, neatly avoiding his outstretched claw. Without keeping them in suspense any longer, he said bluntly:

"It isn't an illness. It's long-term malnutrition. All her bodily function indicators are below normal, and her constitution is extremely weak. Tonight, she ate too much greasy meat all at once. Her stomach and intestines couldn't withstand the irritation, which caused colic from indigestion."

He paused, his gaze darkening behind his lenses, and his tone took on a measure of professional gravity. "A guide has been deprived of nutrition for a long time, to the point where even her basic energy intake falls short of the standard. Wouldn't you call that serious?"

"I have reasonable grounds to suspect that the guide was abused before. The Guide Protection Association needs to get involved."

The moment he finished speaking, the doorway fell deathly silent. Then a flood of heartache and anger surged up, even stronger than the anxiety they had felt moments before.

"Malnutrition?" Noi couldn't help cursing under his breath, his voice full of disbelief. "Where on earth was she before, that she couldn't even get enough to eat? Who the hell had the nerve?"

Ers pressed his lips together. His hands, hanging at his sides, slowly clenched, his knuckles turning white. "I'm going to kill them."

"All right, Ers. First, figure out how you're going to explain this and calm the marshal's anger." Han Yu turned and walked into the ward. "I'll take good care of the guide for the time being."