Global Collapse-Chapter 542 - 511: Almost to - 520!_1

Keke’s body was remarkably resilient; she opened her eyes as the first ray of sunlight pierced through the window the next day.

As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw a face by her bed, a face she recognized. It belonged to a celebrity.

But Keke didn’t stare blankly at this face. Almost in the instant she opened her eyes, she sat up in bed.

Her weak body couldn’t withstand the sudden movement. Keke felt a bout of dizziness, as if she had taken a heavy hit to her head.

She fought the dizziness and lifted her foot to move off the bed. Xiao Qiao, who had been standing by the bed, finally spoke, "You better lie down."

But the person who had just gotten up did not heed Xiao Qiao’s advice. She forcefully stood up by pushing against the bed, a dull pain coursing through her legs. "I need to find someone."

"Find who?"

"My sister."

After a round of mechanical questioning, Xiao Qiao understood. Keke and her sister had come to Lianhua City together. Due to certain reasons, only Keke took part in the college entrance examination event. Her sister stayed in the house they had sneaked into. Unbeknownst to her sister, Keke had an accident and fainted at Lianhua University for two straight days, so the moment she woke up, she was anxious to head home.

She bumped into Fatty, who had come to scout for information, as she stepped out of the door.

After listening to Xiao Qiao mechanically recount Keke’s situation, the enthusiastic Fatty volunteered to go with Keke to the west side of the city and bring her sister back.

Since her sister had difficulty moving, Liu Ruyan, who was there to witness the commotion, specifically arranged a room for her on the first floor. Naturally, Keke wanted to stay with her sister on the first floor.

As for the abandoned Xiao Qiao, she packed her bedding and went to stay with Liu Ruyan.

As for why her sister needed to be carried back...

"That’s what I would like to request from you." At this moment, Keke was leaning against the window, looking outside; it wasn’t clear whether she was looking at the abandoned vehicles or the barren weeds. She had shed the panicked, rabbit-like demeanor she had displayed in the instance earlier; she was very composed.

Gu Mian stood beside her.

Keke stared out of the window for quite a while before finally diverting her gaze and slowly beginning to speak, "My sister, Xu Nuo. She has late-stage lung cancer, and she’s in a lot of pain, with barely any strength to move normally."

Calling it lung cancer might not be accurate anymore. The cancer cells had now spread throughout her body, damaging her bones and relentlessly radiating pain, day and night.

Gu Mian was familiar with such patients. Once the pain reached this level, death was usually near.

And Keke had clearly come for her sister. But...

"I know that there are no specific drugs in the supermarket and that there is nothing much you can do right now... But as long as a person is alive, they will always harbor some hope. You are the only doctor I’ve met in the game, so I came here hoping that there might be a chance. I beg you, if there really is an opportunity, a real chance to keep my sister alive, please help her."

Gu Mian found the honorific "you" a bit strange. He nodded hurriedly and said, "I don’t think you need to address me so formally."

"Ah," Fatty mumbled absently from the side, "after staying in the instance for so long, I’d almost forgotten that people in the real world could also get sick."

Some players were terminally ill before the game even began. Unable to secure resources, they quickly perished.

People like Xu Nuo were somewhat lucky, clinging to life, kept alive by her younger sister... Yes, just barely clinging to life. It’s unclear whether that could be considered fortunate or not.

"So, you came to Lianhua City to find me?" Gu Mian asked.

Keke nodded slightly. "The one surnamed Chu told me in the Werewolf Killing Dungeon that you all participate in every event."

So Keke followed them to Lianhua University. Unexpectedly, before she could even meet Gu Mian, she was nearly buried alive. Fortunately, Gu Mian paid another secretive visit to the school at midnight.

If Chu Changge told Keke as much, she must have also attended the dragon boat race event.

Indeed, she continued, "I first went to the dragon boat race event. Of course, I went alone, but your boat was simply too fast for me to keep up..."

Gu Mian recalled there was a live broadcast showing the positions of each boat. He asked subconsciously, "Do you know which boat was ours?" The broadcast didn’t show who was on which boat.

Keke paused, seemingly choosing her words. After a few seconds, she continued, "The name you all used was too obvious."

Gu Mian remembered. The name of their boat was coined by Fatty—"The Doctor’s Stunning Fan Club."

At this, Fatty guiltily looked up at the ceiling. "The weather today is indeed quite beautiful."

"I didn’t catch up with you all, but my ranking was still within the top twenty percent, which won me an admission ticket."

The college entrance examination event involved taking a school bus, and an admission ticket was required to board. Even if one didn’t enter the exam hall to take the test, they could still enjoy the ride with the admission ticket. Given that Keke and her sister were both here...

Gu Mian thought for a moment. "So you conned an admission ticket off someone?"

Considering her behavior during the instance, she didn’t seem like someone who would trade fairly.

Keke didn’t say anything, seemingly admitting it by default.

Gu Mian wasn’t interested in lecturing others. He then thought of the supermarket’s medical supplies area closing. "Hmm, there’s something you might not know. The pharmacy section in the supermarket has closed for some unknown reason, so we won’t be able to buy medicine in the future."

Keke looked up in surprise. Although the supermarket didn’t stock drugs to treat cancer, it did have painkillers.

She was stunned for a moment, then carefully took out two small, transparent vials of liquid, each about half a finger long. One of the vials had been opened, and only a small portion of the transparent liquid remained. The opening was plugged with what was clearly a homemade stopper and meticulously wrapped with many layers of plastic film.

This item was quite common, officially called an "ampule"—a sealed, transparent glass container. Doctors were often seen breaking these open with their bare hands in hospitals.

However, it was a single-use container, meant to be discarded after opening. Gu Mian had never seen one sealed with a stopper like this before.

"It’s a tranquilizer with some pain-relieving effects... She’s in too much pain. I wanted to buy painkillers, but they’re too expensive."

As Keke spoke, she took out an old-looking syringe that seemed to have been used many times. "Every time my sister can’t sleep because of the pain, I inject a little... but the effect isn’t great."

Gu Mian remembered this was among the lowest-grade medicines in the supermarket. Even the lowest grade cost over a hundred Game Coins.

He only earned a thousand Game Coins for clearing an instance, enough to buy just ten small vials. Ordinary players would have even less.

"Thanks to you," Keke again used an honorific to address Gu Mian, "when the Hide-and-Seek instance collapsed, I was compensated with one thousand Game Coins. After that, it was the long winter..."

More than half the players on Earth had died as a result of this winter.

Keke seemed reluctant to recall that period but continued, "My sister and I survived the toughest few months on those one thousand Game Coins. We didn’t freeze or starve to death."

Gu Mian instinctively began doing the math.

The long winter lasted about three months. Let’s say one hundred days. So, one thousand Game Coins for one hundred days means ten Game Coins a day? Ten Game Coins a day had to cover food for two people, heating in winter to avoid freezing to death, and Xu Nuo’s painkillers. Could ten Game Coins a day really cover all that?

Fatty could tell what Gu Mian was thinking just from his expression. As Gu Mian was deep in thought, Fatty leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Doctor, you’re just too extravagant!"