Chapter 23 Healing

"Oh no!

If I hit the ground at this speed, even if I don't die, I'll be crippled!"

Li Zheng suddenly realized, taking a quick glance as he rolled. Although the room was empty, it was over ten meters high.

Falling from a height of over ten meters, with bad luck, you could go straight to the ICU, and the whole village could come and wait for the news.

Moreover, before entering this room, Li Zheng had already experienced a free fall from nearly thirty meters high!

"Gravity Shoes, please, work one more time!"

Li Zheng roared in his heart, putting all his energy into powering the smoking Gravity Shoes.

Crackle.

Sparks flew, and the metal shoes gave a slight popping sound as a system alert appeared.

[Gravity Shoes are completely destroyed and cannot be repaired.]

However, along with that popping sound, the Gravity Shoes still managed to give Li Zheng a bit of help, altering the gravity around him for an instant.

Just a momentary change in gravity was enough.

Li Zheng's descending momentum suddenly slowed.

But it still couldn't stop his free fall.

"Leave it to fate!"

Li Zheng hugged his head with his hands, curling himself up like a shrimp, trying to control his rolling body, thinking to land on his back if possible.

Thud!

Thump thump thump…

First came a strong impact, followed by an overwhelming pain that nearly made him faint.

His lungs were pressed inexplicably, and his heart skipped a beat.

After rolling several meters on the ground, he finally stopped.

As he lay on the ground, Li Zheng felt pain everywhere in his body; he couldn't tell how many bones were broken. His organs felt scorching, likely with some minor bleeding.

"Damn! It hurts like hell..."

Li Zheng coughed up a mouthful of blood, hurriedly opening the trade hall to search for medical equipment.

However, it was either because it was only the second day since the game started or the medical equipment was too scarce.

The listings for medical equipment were pitifully few, and the prices were astonishingly high.

"A Black Iron Level hemostatic spray costs one liter of water + 100g of Bronze Level material B25 Manganese Steel? But it only treats external wounds, PASS!"

"Black Iron Level fracture splint, smart control, with eight uses left, can fix most fractures, costing five people's meals for a day? Done!

Ten Honey Fruits aren't enough? Add ten more Luoshen Flowers!"

Honey Fruit -10, Luoshen Flower -10.

"Black Iron Level XBP painkiller, oral medication, effectively suppresses pain without healing wounds, one pill lasts eight hours, and there are two pills left? It costs… one pill for a tool to develop alien genes? Waste of my time!"

"Nanorobots (biological type), Bronze Level, can perform internal debridement, costs one Technology Core... rental for eight hours? Crap, they even have a rental function? I have to provide the energy myself? Rent it!"

Technology Core -1.

Li Zheng reviewed all the medical equipment listings, finally buying one and renting another, obtaining two things effective for his injuries.

The fracture splint, which was called a splint but actually looked like a cylindrical object, somewhat like a tube for storing scrolls. It could open and close from the side, primarily for setting broken limbs.

The nanorobots were a silvery-gray grit, contained in a transparent Crystal Bottle, and they worked once ingested.

Once the energy was depleted, the nanorobots would gather uniformly in the user's abdomen, receiving wireless recharging from the Power Core, undoubtedly a high-tech product.

Enduring the pain, Li Zheng first placed his right arm in the splint, which covered up to his shoulder.

After closing it, he asked Little Sakura to help press the switch.

With a buzzing sound, the misplaced bones were set, followed by a penetrating pain, then warmth spread through his arm, and the pain quickly subsided.

"This splint, although only Black Iron Level, works surprisingly well."

Li Zheng was a bit surprised.

He had thought that the effect of Black Iron Level medical equipment wouldn't be that good.

However, the results were far quicker than he anticipated; within just five minutes, the pain in his right arm had mostly subsided.

"Don't waste time with rented stuff, Little Sakura, help me pour that bottle into my mouth."

Seeing the fracture splint working, Li Zheng decided to have Little Sakura help, working inside and out simultaneously.

"Ying ying."

Little Sakura landed on Li Zheng, struggling to lift the Crystal Bottle, almost as big as it, and held it to Li Zheng's mouth.

Click.

Using his teeth to open the lid, the silvery-gray grit fell into his mouth, and Li Zheng swallowed it all without hesitation.

In no time, he started vomiting blood profusely, a particularly terrifying sight.

"Ying ying..."

Little Sakura flapped its wings and rose, looking worriedly at Li Zheng, but knowing that it couldn't do anything to help, it was extremely anxious.

After vomiting several mouthfuls of bad blood, a hint of color returned to Li Zheng's pale face, making him look much better.

The pain in his body gradually diminished, and the frown caused by the discomfort began to relax. Li Zheng even had the energy to flash a comforting smile at Sakura.

"It's nothing, it just looks scary. I'll be back to normal in a bit."

"Ying."

Sakura landed next to Li Zheng's ear, her small face rubbing against his cheek, ending up with a lot of blood on her fine fur.

"Ying?"

Tilting her head in thought, Sakura ran to Li Zheng's side and tugged fibers from his clothes.

She pulled out a clump of fibers, took a big piece, and holding it, flew up to Li Zheng's face, awkwardly helping to wipe away the blood.

Li Zheng chuckled and praised, "Our Sakura is really sensible! Here, get my left cheek, the blood is almost in my ear."

"To the right, to the right, it's sticky on the right cheek, you didn't clean that properly just now."

"A bit higher, a bit higher."

"Sakura, are you drawing on my face!?"

"Ying ying ying!"

Sakura became a bit impatient being bossed around by Li Zheng, her initial worry vanished, and in a huff, she grabbed the fiber and began to haphazardly scrub Li Zheng's face until it turned bright red.

But then she remembered how Li Zheng had sent her to safety first when danger arose and immediately felt a pang of guilt, rushing to grab a few more clean fibers to gently wipe his face clean again.

Click.

With a crisp sound, the bone-setting splint that had been working for half an hour automatically snapped open, reducing its usage count by one.

"Hmm? It seems my entire right arm has recovered?"

Li Zheng tried moving his right hand; the excruciating pain from half an hour ago had disappeared completely, as if it had never been injured.

"Such amazing black technology, it could benefit so many if it existed on Earth."

Li Zheng mused to himself, placing his left arm in as well, this time able to start the splint for healing by himself.

With one arm recovered, tasks became much easier.

"Alright, you can take a break now, I can handle this myself. You should eat something first."

Li Zheng stopped the restless Sakura from circling around him and handed her a Luoshen Flower from his capsule dwelling.

The little one had worn itself out in the past half-hour.

Perhaps because it couldn't help when Li Zheng was in danger, the little one worked hard to prove its care for him.

Whenever it saw any bloodstains or dirt on Li Zheng, it would diligently wipe them off with fibers.

It almost came to the point of picking his earwax...

Four hours later, Li Zheng's limbs had been fully healed, except for the nanorobots inside him that were still in continuous operation.

During these four hours, Li Zheng recharged the nanorobots twice, consuming two Power Cores Type I.

The high consumption's result was that as long as he didn't make any intense movements, he felt almost no internal discomfort.

"By my calculations, the nanorobots will soon be out of power again."

Li Zheng sat at the corner, estimating that in roughly five minutes, the nanorobots would have exhausted all their energy.

At that point, he could prematurely return the nanorobots to the rental provider.

After all, the two complete Power Cores Type I he had were depleted during the recent healing, leaving only one with 65% energy for the water purifier. Even if he used up this one, it wouldn't yield better healing results, so he might as well keep something in reserve.

During this time, Li Zheng had checked over his body and found that apart from the severe injuries to his internal organs and limbs, only two ribs were broken.

The bone-setting splint couldn't treat ribs, and he had tried a few activities, finding that unless they were forcefully executed, the broken ribs wouldn't pose much of a hindrance.

"I must quickly find a tool to heal the rib injuries, or the wounds might worsen over time. But surprisingly, despite the fall, my spine didn't sustain any injury, which is a pleasant surprise."

Seems like this is what you call "a blessing in disguise."

However, the bruising on the back was quite severe, making him grimace in pain upon contact.

"Thankfully, I stuffed fibers into my clothes beforehand, providing excellent cushioning during the fall, or else..."

Li Zheng felt a bit fortunate.

Technically, the bones he broke were almost all due to the tumble he took on the ground.

So the fractures were mainly concentrated on his limbs.

As for those two ribs, they were indeed shaken during the immediate impact.

[Nanorobot energy depleted, please recharge promptly.]

"No need to recharge, returning them now."

Li Zheng declined the recharge option and opened the trading hall, selecting the tool return function.

In the next moment, Li Zheng felt an itch on his fingers, and silvery-grey granules dropped from his fingertips, disappearing before hitting the ground.

Including the Crystal Bottle previously used to store the nanorobots, it too vanished without a trace, apparently returned by the system to the rental provider.

"Whew..."

Exhaling deeply, Li Zheng stored away the bone-setting splint, still with two uses left (four times used for repairing both legs, acknowledging that legs are longer than arms), and took out the head-sized red flower—Rock Ice Ruo Fire.

"Next is to tackle the source of all hardship, the initiator of greed."

Li Zheng said to himself, taking a fierce bite on the petal of Rock Ice Ruo Fire...