The University Medical Center was silent. Too silent.
While the rest of the campus echoed with the screams of survivors and the roar of zombies, the hospital grounds were covered in a thick, yellowish-green fog.
Su Chen stood at the edge of the parking lot. His skeletal army stood behind him, rifles held at the low-ready position.
[Zone Warning: Biohazard Area.]
[Airborne Toxin Density: High.]
[Effect: Living creatures will suffer 10 Poison Damage per second. Lung failure in 5 minutes.]
Su Chen took a deep breath. He inhaled the green fog.
It tasted like sulfur and old pennies.
[System Notification: Toxin detected.]
[Passive Trait 'Perfect Body' activated. Poison Immunity: 100%.]
[Damage: 0.]
"Fresh air," Su Chen smirked.
He turned to his troops. They were skeletons. They had no lungs to rot, no skin to burn.
"Forward," he commanded.
He walked straight into the fog, flanked by 15 undead soldiers armed with riot shields and assault rifles.
They reached the automatic glass doors of the Emergency Room. The doors were stuck, jammed by a pile of corpses. But these corpses weren't normal. They were bloated, their stomachs distended to the size of beach balls, pulsing with green light.
[Mob: Bloated Cadaver (Level 4)]
[Ability: Self-Destruct.]
[Damage: 300 Acid Damage in a 5-meter radius.]
"Exploders," Su Chen noted. "If we shoot them close range, the acid will melt the skeletons' bones."
He tapped his tactical headset (looted from the armory).
"Riflemen. Single fire mode. Aim for the heads only. Do not hit the torsos."
The skeletons raised their M4A1s.
Su Chen kicked the glass door shattered.
CRASH.
The noise woke the Bloated Cadavers.
"Gurgle..."
Ten of them stumbled toward the entrance. They were slow, but if they got close, it was game over.
"Fire."
Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.
Su Chen ordered them to use suppressors (silencers) he found in the armory crates. The shots were quiet whispers of death.
The skeletons' aim, enhanced by the [Weapon Mastery] card, was surgical.
Bullet 1 -> Bloater A's Head. Splat.
Bullet 2 -> Bloater B's Head. Splat.
The monsters dropped without exploding. The acid remained contained inside their rotting bellies.
[XP +800.]
Su Chen stepped over the bodies carefully. "Don't step on them," he warned the skeletons.
They moved into the lobby. It was a mess of overturned gurneys and medical files.
Su Chen didn't go to the wards. He went straight to the Hospital Pharmacy on the first floor.
The metal gate was pulled down. Locked.
"Shield Squad. Break it."
Two skeletons with Riot Shields smashed their shields against the lock. Clang. Clang. SNAP.
The gate rolled up.
Rows and rows of shelves appeared. Antibiotics, painkillers, insulin, adrenaline, bandages.
In the apocalypse, this room was worth more than a bank vault filled with gold bars.
Su Chen didn't pick and choose. He raised his hand, the silver ring on his finger glowing.
[Inventory: Absorb.]
He walked down the aisles like a vacuum cleaner.
Shelf 1: Empty.
Shelf 2: Empty.
Shelf 3: Empty.
Within two minutes, the pharmacy was stripped bare. He took everything. Even the aspirin.
"Why leave some for others?" Su Chen thought coldly. "If they want medicine, they can buy it from me. At a premium."
He checked his map. The Loot was secured. Now for the Boss.
The [Eye of Truth] showed a massive red signal on the 5th Floor: The Surgery Wing.
[Target: The Dean (Plague Spreader)]
[Status: Performing Surgery...]
Su Chen frowned. "Performing surgery? On who?"
He led his army to the elevators. They were dead. He took the stairs.
Flight after flight, they climbed. The green fog got thicker.
When they reached the 4th floor, Su Chen heard a voice.
"Help... please... anyone..."
It was a woman's voice, weak and raspy.
Su Chen stopped. He looked down the hallway.
A nurse was crawling on the floor. Her legs were missing. She was dragging herself by her hands, leaving a trail of dark blood.
Behind her, a shadow loomed.
It was a creature wearing a doctor's white coat. But the coat was stained black. The creature had four arms. Two arms held scalpels. The other two held syringes filled with glowing green liquid.
[Elite Mob: Surgical Assistant (Level 6)]
The Assistant raised a scalpel to finish the nurse.
"Save... me..." The nurse looked at Su Chen, her eyes filled with tears and hope.
Su Chen looked at the nurse.
[Target: NPC Survivor.]
[Infection Rate: 95%.]
[Survival Chance: 0%.]
Then he looked at the Elite Monster.
[Loot Chance: High.]
Su Chen raised his own rifle (he kept one for himself just in case).
"Fire."
He wasn't talking to the skeletons. He pulled the trigger himself.
BANG.
The bullet didn't hit the monster. It hit the nurse in the head.
She died instantly. Her suffering ended.
The Surgical Assistant froze. It turned its four eyes toward Su Chen. It seemed confused. Why did the human kill the human?
"She was already dead," Su Chen said flatly, ejecting the casing. "You, however, are full of XP."
He waved his hand.
The 10 Rifleman skeletons stepped out from the stairwell, forming a firing line.
"Light him up."
BRRRRRRRRT!
The hallway turned into a thunderstorm of muzzle flashes. The Surgical Assistant didn't even have time to scream. It was shredded into a pile of meat and fabric in three seconds.
[You have slain a Level 6 Elite.]
[XP +600.]
Su Chen walked past the nurse's body without looking down. He stepped over the Elite's remains and picked up a dropped item.
[Scalpel of Precision (Rare Dagger)]
[Crit Rate +20%.]
"Trash," Su Chen tossed it into his ring. "Maybe I can sell it to a rogue later."
He looked at the double doors at the end of the hall. The sign read: **Operating Theater 1**.
The source of the plague.
Su Chen reloaded his weapon.
"Boss room," he whispered. "Shields front. Rifles back. Do not breathe the gas inside."
He kicked the doors open.
The smell hit him instantly. It wasn't just rot. It was something chemical. Artificial.
In the center of the room, under the blinding surgical lights, stood the Dean.
He wasn't human anymore. His body was a bloated mass of tumors and tubes. His back was connected to a massive tank of green liquid that pumped directly into his spine.
And on the operating table in front of him lay a creature. It wasn't a human.
It was a Zombie.
The Dean was sewing a metal plate onto the zombie's chest.
Su Chen's eyes narrowed.
[Eye of Truth Analysis:]
[Target: The Plague Spreader (Level 9 Boss)]
[Activity: Crafting.]
[Creation: "Bio-Mechanical Soldier (Prototype)".]
The Dean turned around. His face was covered by a gas mask that had fused with his skin.
"A visitor?" The Dean's voice sounded like bubbling tar. "You are just in time. I need a donor for my next experiment."
Su Chen signaled his troops.
"Sorry, Doc," Su Chen raised his rifle. "Your medical license is revoked."