Chapter 10 - Grand Treatment, or not

Camping in this room for the next few hours, Shiki investigated all possible means of spending his DNA points

*431 New Infected*

*400 New Recoveries*

*400 DNA Points Gained*

Just barely reaching 2000 Points (2051)

*Achievement unlocked : Amass 2000 concurrent DNA Points*

*You can now unlock 1 Symptom of your choice and upgrade one current symptom of your choice for either Strain*

A search button appears in front of me

It's... allowing me to make my own choice for a symptom... And apparently, the 2nd strain already has one symptom, Coughing 1. It probably carried over from the previous strain..

Now, back then I really didn't learn much as a child. But I did learn some stuff during my stay in the hospital, particularly the type of symptoms diseases have. Often overhearing the doctor's converse outside my room, I did pick up a thing or two.

If I want to survive, I need to raise my infectivity and longevity of the virus. My infectivity should be good enough but the people who I infect recover not long after falling sick.

Drug resistance was key, and now given the chance, I choose to upgrade it.

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Drug Resistance 1 > Drug Resistance 2

r0 increased by 0.05

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And of course, drug resistance wouldn't be the only thing that increases the rate of survival.

"Search, Virus Retention. Select"

Virus Rentention was especially useful to basically all coronaviruses. This gives them the ability to last on surfaces while out of the host's body. One could get sick after casually touching a railing which an infected person has touched. Black's main mode of transmission, Coughing, essentially releases drops of infectious saliva upon coughing. Making it extremely advantages when coupled with Virus Retention.

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New evolution - Virus Retention 1 ( I just explained it, please I don't wanna write it again <3)

Duration : 1 Day

r0 increased by 0.05

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Name : Black

Type : Virus

r0 - 1.2

Infected - 1130+

Killed - 8

DNA Points - 2051

—Evolution— (Strain 1)

Coughing 1

Drug Resistance 1 -> 2

Environmental Resistance 1

Mosquito Infection 1

Virus Rentention 1

Strain 2 ~ Unknown

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"Hey Shiki! It's about time to eat! Get your ass over here!", You could just barely here Himiko screaming across the hallway. The walls were soundproofed, so there was no need to be wary of noise control.

Items on the table as displayed -

1x Whole Roasted Chicken

A shit ton of rice ( x999) (ok maybe not that much)

1x Bowl of fresh greens

1x Whole god damn bowl of cereal crumbs

1x A Tray of baked potatoes

An assortment of drinks ( there was Apple juice of course)

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Shiki of course, grabbed the cereals crumbs bowl immediately, substituting his rice with cereal crumbs. (Author : Like I said, don't try this at home. Too much salt content istg)

"There's really a lot of things here, are there other people eating?"

"No. It's just us. Eat till your full, it could be your last meal." Zach said.

Shiki turned to Zach "Excuse me?!"

"I mean, eat as though this meal were your last. You must always be well fed if anything were to happen." Zach replied, not giving any eye contact. The whole meal he would constantly stare at his own food and avoided interacting with Shiki for the rest of the meal.

Gladly, Shiki ate the entire bowl of cereal crumbs, even asking for seconds. There was no limit to how much he could eat, he would gladly eat everything on the table.

Himiko wolfed down her bowl of rice, mixing in whatever was on the table with every bite.

Zach on the other hand, ate with grace and etiquette, finishing just a bowl of rice before slowly wiping his mouth.

Zach left the table first, heading to his room, followed by Himiko after a good 20 minutes. She had stuffed herself with a good amount of food. For her size, she might as well just have exploded already, Shiki was wondering where she kept her food deposits at.

"I need more nutrients to boost my growth." She said, pouting, signalling as though she could read his mind.

Lastly, Shiki left an hour later, finishing what's left on the table. He was stuffed beyond what the author could describe, he dragged himself back to his room and fell onto his bed.

W-what's this, I'm feeling so tired.... and dizzy.

Shiki sat up before his mind went spinning and he tumbled back onto his bed.

~~~

About 10 minutes later...

"Holy shit that guy ate a lot." Himiko said as she patted Shiki's tummy. "He'll probably be out for atleast a day with that amount of anaesthetic."

Zach dragged Shiki into the lower compartment of the building, it was something like an wine cellar room. There happened to be one other person to be inside currently, a female that was chained to the wall.

"W-Why are you b-"she said, before getting cut-off abruptly.

"You have a new cellmate" Himiko said, as she tied Shiki's body to the wall alongside the female with the assistance of Zach.

"We need to inform them that we found another disease spreader." Zach said, before they both leave the cellar.

~~~

3 days later....

"Uhhhh, my back hurts. How long was I out for..... and why the hell am I tied up?!"

Shiki struggles to break free but to no avail

A towel was tied around his head at eye level, blocking his vision. His hands cuffed to the wall and his legs were tied down by heavy metal balls.

"Why the hell am I here..."

"Oh you finally woke up?" a gentle voice said, it sounded different compared to Himiko's arrogant little voice.

"Do you know why I'm here and how long I've been out for?"

"Unfortunately I think you've been sleeping for atleast a day, I don't have anything to check the time but I think it should be longer than a day."

"As to why you're here, it should be the same reason as me." She continued...

"And that is?"

"....