7.10

The soldiers quarantined in the base's west side were finally transferred to the medical department for their final stages of recuperation.

Most of the soldiers were grateful for Qiao Chen's research and development into the medicine that saved their lives. However, there were soldiers, like Sun Bin, who were upset with Qiao Chen. Their lives were saved, but they were so sick that their abilities were burned through due to the illness. They weren't any different from ordinary people now. Sun Bin fully believed that Qiao Chen deliberately stalled the drug's development just so he would lose his abilities.

After Sun Bin took his last bite of food from the provided lunch box, he angrily threw the lunch box into the ground. Then he punched the headboard until his resentment lessened.

Sun Yu was accustomed to his brother's behavior. He calmly bent over and picked up the lunch box from the floor. The second his brother found out that he lost his abilities, he punched, kicked, and smashed everything within reaching distance. Sun Yu came in to deliver his brother's food the other day, and his brother had thrown the food in a fit of anger before even taking a bite.

However, they were in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Everyone's daily food intake was rationed out. If it was thrown away, then he'd have to stay hungry. There were no replacements. Therefore, after going hungry several times in a row, Sun Bin changed to throw his lunch box after he finished eating.

"I know you're upset, brother. Unfortunately, the things that happened have already happened. You'll get through this eventually." Sun Yu said comfortingly. This was only for face value though. Sun Yu was actually very worried that Sun Bin had lost his abilities. He didn't know whether Sun Bin would be able to continue to assist and support him or if Sun Bin would become dead weight and drag him down to his level.

"It's all his fault. It's all because of that damned Mu Chen. If he had agreed to save us earlier, then I would have never deteriorated to the point that I'm at now. He's the one that dragged it on for so long so that I'd become a waste." Sun Bin gritted his teeth and growled. His face twisted into anger and despair. He truly believed that people who didn't have abilities were basically disableds and handicapped. "Useless wastes of space." Sun Bin thought darkly.

Sun Yu unconsciously looked around. He saw that the other beds were empty and remembered that everyone else in the ward had already recovered and discharged. His brother was still here because the medical staff deducted the costs of broken items via his allocated medicines. This was the main reason he still hadn't recovered until now.

"It's better to keep your voice down, brother. This is the East One base. Everyone looks at Mu Chen very highly here. If they hear you, they will make it hard on us again." Sun Yu said. He lowered his head and looked like he was enduring the humiliation.

"Are they targeting you?" Sun Bin asked with a fierce look.

Sun Yu didn't answer but his expression told Sun Bin everything he wanted to hear. Sun Bin attacked the headboard again. "That damned Mu Chen! You better watch out, because even if I've become a disabled person now, I will never let this go. I'll wait for as long as it takes."

Sun Yu's grievances had nothing o do with other people. However, he was so used to playing the victim that he made it seem like other people were giving him a hard time out of habit.

There were more and more cases where healing ability users couldn't cure infected people. Qiao Chen, as one person, was too busy. He sorted the cases where the ability healing weren't affective on the patients and handed them over to the doctors on the base. These doctors were taught the method of treatment. The healers needed to work together with the doctors to treat the infected patients.

Sun Yu thought about Qiao Chen's new method. This would mean that healers could only assist doctors. This would mean that his highly looked upon status as a healer would diminish. The need for doctors was on the rise yet once more, but his own medical skills weren't up to task. This meant that the doctors he targeted before would probably retaliate against him once their statuses rose. Therefore, even before Sun Yu could find any trouble, trouble found him.

Qiao Chen nearly fainted due to exhaustion. He over worked his body and used the system for too long. Long Ao forcibly took Qiao Chen back to the dorms the minute he heard the news.

Long Ao brushed his hand against Qiao Chen's pale and tired looking face. He was both angry and distressed. Long Ao was upset because of his powerlessness. He couldn't do anything to help lessen the workload for Qiao Chen in terms of research. He was distressed because Qiao Chen disregarded his body's health in order to complete the research as soon as possible.

"I'm okay, just a little tired. I just need a good night's rest." Qiao Chen comforted. He knew that Long Ao was upset.

"If we lose you then there will be no hope for your research to ever be completed." Long Ao replied. He admitted to himself that he was being very selfish. He would rather Qiao Chen slow down on the research and find the cure later than work himself to the bone.

"The research is going well. It just needs a couple more things before it's finished. Once the other doctors master the method I'm teaching them, I'll be able to take it easy. Then I'll only have the research to work on."

"I would rather you weren't so talented, so you wouldn't have to shoulder all these responsibilities."

"What else can I do? God gave me this ability, so I have to use it to do something for this world."

"If God was real, then we wouldn't be living in the world we live in right now."

"If the world hadn't become what it is now, then we might not have met at all. Maybe all of this happened so that we could meet." Qiao Chen said with a smile.

Long Ao realized that he had no way to choose between the zombie apocalypse never occurring and him never meeting Qiao Chen.

Qiao Chen pulled Long Ao by his hand and said, "Come and sleep with me for a bit. I want to hug you while I sleep."

Long Ao took his clothes off and went to bed. He put Qiao Chen in his arms. Then he lowered his head to kiss Qiao Chen's forehead, eyes, nose, and finally stopped on Qiao Chen's lips.

Qiao Chen was so tired that he almost got sick from taxing his body so much. Unfortunately he couldn't do much about it. Everything that needed to be done was all linked to him and required his attention.

Qiao Chen would still report to Dr. Lu and update him on the research's progress even though Dr. Lu was supposed to be resting. Dr. Lu was able to rest well knowing what an excellent job Qiao Chen was doing. However, he couldn't rest any longer once he caught wind of Qiao Chen nearly collapsing from overworking himself. Dr. Lu immediately returned to the lab and conducted research alongside Qiao Chen.

Qiao Chen squeezed the pipette with the liquid he was studying over the container of a zombie virus infected liquid. The drop hit the virus, and the liquid slowly became clear. Dr. Lu observed this and nodded his head repeatedly.

"Good! It's much faster than I expected. If you had come to East One earlier to help me, then the research would have been successful quicker." Dr. Lu said. He was happy that Qiao Chen made his way to the base eventually. However, he was still sad that Qiao Chen wasn't able to come earlier.

Qiao Chen laughed. Even if he had come earlier, he wouldn't have been much help without the system's assistance. The research's progress wouldn't have been as quick as it was going now.

Both Qiao Chen and Dr. Lu were much more relaxed not that the research was being conducted with the other's help. One the medical department's side, Qiao Chen finished teaching several of the doctors everything they needed to know. Then he asked them to train the healers and help teach them some medical knowledge. This would help keep the healers busy as well as help them become better healers.

Doctors' statuses dropped during the zombie apocalypse. Healers were the ones who replaced doctors and pushed up onto that pedestal. If there were any doctors who developed abilities, then they wouldn't continue their work as a doctor.

However, there had been an uptick in medical wounds where healers were unable to heal patients. After further investigation, it seemed that the healers only treated the symptoms. Once the wound was healed, the patients would seem fine. However, after period of time, more and more problems would pop up until their condition deteriorated. In severe cases, the patients required follow up treatment with medicines in order to be completely cured from the virus.

The doctors were very grateful to Qiao Chen because medical practitioners were once again needed. It was all thanks to the new drugs Qiao Chen developed. With it, all their years of medical school wouldn't be in vain.

The healers who were very accustomed to their prestige suddenly felt loss. There was a hole in their heart because of the sudden difference in respect they held. They stood aside and waited while the doctors performed operations. When they were needed, they would assist. If they weren't needed, then they would have nothing to do for the entirety of the operation. Even the nurses were required for more of the operation than the healers.

The healers started to feel a sense of crisis creep up behind them. If this trend continued, then they'd be completely useless. What was the difference between them and the ordinary people who didn't have any powers?

Therefore, when they heard Qiao Chen ask the doctors to teach them medical knowledge, they were quite ecstatic. Even before the apocalypse, it was very difficult to get into a good medical school. Furthermore, these doctors persevered in being a doctor even throughout the apocalypse. This meant that most of these doctors were veterans in the field.

As a result, all the healers decided to study, study, and study. It was better for them to have a necessary skill over becoming obsolete. They needed to avoid becoming as unnecessary as an ordinary person without abilities.

There were some people who had given up on being doctors throughout the apocalypse that were considering returning to their original profession. Qiao Chen considered that there would be a greater need for more and more doctors in the future. He published the news on base that people who were doctors before would be able to return to their professions as long as they passed an exam. Those who failed the exam needed to restart their studies and then retake the exam before they were qualified to practice medicine.

Qiao Chen personally announced the list of people who qualified from the first round of the doctor exams. The questions on the exam were all questions he wrote himself. They were all very challenging and tricky. Therefore, there were only a few doctors, the ones who had long years in the medical field, who were qualified to practice medicine.

When Qiao Chen was about to leave, Sun Yu stopped him. Sin Yu looked at Qiao Chen angrily and said, "You did this on purpose, didn't you? I knew you would target me. Even those who didn't have an ounce of medical knowledge were able to become doctors before me! How could I not be qualified?"

Qiao Chen produced two different exam questions for the exam. He naturally wouldn't allow a healer who didn't have any medical knowledge take the same test as a real doctor who attended medical school. The healer's exams were much simpler. This was because healers could still be used every now and then. His reasoning behind this was that as long as healers had a certain degree of medical knowledge and operational skills, they could build on these skills as they worked. After all, these people hadn't attended medical school yet.

Sun Yu knew that it would be very difficult for him to pass the exam if he took the same test as the doctors. He decided that since he was a healer, he would be able to take the same test as the healers.

He knew that the test would be simpler than the doctor one, so he was quite confident. He didn't expect that those who didn't have any medical knowledge to pass the test while he failed. He couldn't think of any other reasons for failing besides Mu Chen deliberately targeting him.

Qiao Chen looked at Sun Yu and laughed disdainfully. He looked for Sun Yu's test scores and threw it at him. "Look at your operation and written test scores for yourself. This isn't the score I gave to you. Even healers who have never been doctors before did much better than you, someone who graduated medical school. All they had to do was study hard for a short period of time. I'm embarrassed to let others know that you had your internship in my hospital before. It's quite embarrassing that you have the nerve to jump up and claim that you've been a doctor before."

"You are not a naturally gifted person. You also refuse to work hard and put out any effort. If others happen to show improvement by working harder than you, you feel as though you were cheated. I will tell you the truth. Whether it was before the apocalypse or after… I have never ever deliberately targeted you. This requires me to actually pay attention to you. You don't even have the qualification to target me with the level you're at right now. If you are suffering delusions where you believe yourself to be the victim, then I suggest that you go to the base and request psychiatric help."

Sun Yu's face exploded red in anger when he heard Qiao Chen's words. He noticed that the people around them looked at him with a strange gaze and regretted that he didn't control himself. He shouldn't have questioned Qiao Chen in a public setting. However, being humiliated by Qiao Chen before so many people made it even harder for him to calm himself down, and the strand of reason quickly slipped his mind.