Chapter 3399: Miraculous Doctor (Six)

As Shiller was deep in thought, he suddenly heard a "thud" behind him, followed by Strange's cursing.

Shiller immediately walked towards the operating table and saw the woman who was tied up on the bed struggling fiercely, her freshly treated wound crazily bleeding.

"Anesthesia! Administer more anesthesia!" Strange was still shouting.

But Shiller pulled him over to his side and said, "Something's not right."

At this point, Strange also noticed that the woman's eyes were emitting a red glow, and sharp fangs were continuously growing from her open mouth, while grey hair rapidly sprouted on her face and limbs.

"Werewolf," Strange suddenly said. "Could the bite mark be left by a werewolf?"

"I'm afraid so; she's been infected," Shiller had already anticipated this.

Strange cursed, his expression turning very cold, and it was clear he was extremely angry. Anyone would be furious if, after all their effort almost saving the person, it all fell apart at the last moment.

"Don't get close to her," Shiller said. "We're in trouble if we get bitten too."

Unexpectedly, at this moment, the woman showed an extremely painful expression. She said, "Kill me...please kill me! I've been bitten...quickly, kill me!!!"

With a "pfft" sound, a long knife was plunged into her eye socket. Shiller exerted force in his hand, brain matter mixed with blood flowed out. The woman jerked violently, then slammed heavily onto the bed, completely silent.

Looking at the corpse on the bed, the two men exchanged wordless glances.

"We can't throw it in the furnace anymore," Strange said. "All the shadows in the room are starting to behave strangely, and the temperature has dropped quite a bit; this might be a side effect of our numerous failures."

"We haven't failed," Shiller untied the ropes from the woman's body, then said, "The game never said we had to cure the patients. Giving them a quick death is also a release."

"Have you started comforting yourself?" Strange sat down on a nearby chair. He was obviously tired; taking on too many assistant duties had prevented him from concentrating on the operation, and being startled while being deeply focused had drained even more of his energy.

"You can sleep by the fireplace for a while; leave the rest to me," Shiller said.

"What are you planning to do?" Strange asked, squinting his eyes.

Shiller tilted his chin towards the sewer entrance in the corner of the room while skillfully beginning to cut with the knife. Strange looked at the sewer entrance, but it was only about the size of a hand, circular, and difficult to stuff things into.

Of course, Strange couldn't sleep. He habitually pulled out the healing manual to read, and in the corner of his eye, Shiller started disassembling the distillation equipment.

Strange seemed to understand what he was planning. He voluntarily put on a plague doctor's mask, then used the book to cover his eyes and feigned sleep.

The sound of Shiller processing the body was like a creepy hypnotic white noise, and Strange quickly fell into a light sleep. After becoming the Supreme Magician, he rarely entered real sleep, spending most of his time in meditation, so he immediately realized his predicament upon entering his dreams.

He found himself in a prison. The dark, damp dungeon was foul-smelling, and wails came from the far end. As he looked left and right, he saw a pair of emaciated young wrists locked in chains...

A group of people in black robes entered the prison and stopped in front of a cell, one of them opened the cell door, took out a syringe, and inserted it into his body, eerily drawing out black and red intertwined blood.

Strange heard faint crying sounds, coming from his own chest, but it wasn't his voice; it sounded more like a weak little girl.

But before Strange could see what happened next, he was awakened by the smell of meat.

Shiller was throwing bones into a jar filled with sulfuric acid, while the distillation apparatus next to him was opened, bubbling with something being cooked inside.

Strange felt that the scene in the real world was far less horrifying compared to the dream.

Shiller connected the original distillation pipe to the sewer entrance, then disposed of the corroded remains and the cooked then broken-down material into the sewer.

Strange swallowed and said, "Why must it be like this..."

"Because it will resemble food waste more," Shiller said. "No one would thoughtlessly throw out raw meat, but leftover food or kitchen waste is normal."

"You don't think there are still police in this world, do you?" Strange asked.

"Maybe not, but just to be cautious. Also, I worry about the spread of the werewolf virus; high-temperature sterilization is the best method."

With that, Strange understood; he nodded and said, "Right, high-temperature treatment is the safest method. Do you feel any changes in the room?"

"No. It seems our evasive tactics have worked. But we need to think of an easier way. During the day, the smell might also arouse the nurses' suspicion."

"Hold on," Strange suddenly realized, he said, "We're supposed to be doctors, not playing a murder cover-up simulator!"

"Have you not had enough of reality yet?" Shiller rinsed the surrounding sewer with a hose, eliminating the last trace, then said, "Rather than letting those damned emergencies ruin our laborious results, why not choose the simplest method from the beginning?"

"Don't you want to make money anymore?" Strange asked.

"There's nowhere to spend money here." Shiller spread his hands and said, "The goal of clearing doesn't seem to be about making a lot of money. The basic copper coins are enough for us to subscribe to a newspaper."

"Well, that makes some sense." Strange came over to help Shiller pack up the equipment, then said, "But we have to succeed at least once before the game ends."

"No problem, we'll just properly treat a simpler condition by then," Shiller nodded and said, "Not every case mentioned in the manual is fatal; there's always some simple ones."

The two chatted while cleaning up, and the night quickly passed. The arrival of the nurse signified the start of a new day. However, after the morning bell rang, the nurse left quickly.

Shiller and Strange prepared to welcome the next patient, but at that moment, the door was suddenly knocked.

The two exchanged glances. Shiller walked to the door, where suddenly a pair of eyes popped up on the peephole.

The golden pupils and thick eyebrows indicated it was not the nurse. Shiller sized him up and then asked, "Who are you?"

"I am Bear Caregiver; don't you recognize me? Want something fun today?"

A parchment slipped through the bottom crack of the door. Shiller picked it up and saw it was a list of goods.

It was filled with various props. In addition to replenishing what they already had, there were many new props, such as mushrooms marked with "anesthesia" effects.

Shiller pretty much understood the gameplay – treat diseases, earn money, buy more props to save more people, and then decide the game's plot direction based on some people's life and death.

But screw this, they already didn't plan to seriously engage anymore. Why purchase any healing props then? Max out the sulfur!

Shiller took out two copper coins and purchased two large bags of sulfur. When he sent out the list, the peculiar existence claiming to be Bear Caregiver seemed stunned for a moment, then asked, "Is this all you want?"

"Yes, please deliver it quickly. We'll need it soon."

Bear Caregiver left. Shiller also ordered a newspaper, and then saw the front page headline which read, "Mining Hero Nova Has Been Missing for Three Days, Rumored to Have Died from Plague, Panic Strikes Wushui Lane Again."

The picture featured yesterday's woman, fiercely battling a group of people with a mining pick, exuding a heroic aura.

Shiller casually threw the newspaper to Strange. After looking at it, Strange said, "Is this Nova a representative of the miners? Who are they battling against?"

Shiller shook his head and pulled a lever. Two copper coins fell again, it seems this is the minimum income per patient. This time, a rag was thrown down.

"Hello, I am Mr. Raven. Have you saved Nova, or is she dead? If you can save her, I am willing to offer a bounty of 10 copper coins."

"Too late." Shiller said. And again, cleaning wounds, treating infections, performing kidney surgery, and also dealing with werewolves, all for just 10 bucks? Are you kidding me?

"Do you think there's a possibility," Strange said while looking at the newspaper, "that their 'healing' is different from what we think?"

Shiller turned his head curiously.

"We are in the Middle Ages, or perhaps a bit later, but definitely not modern times. There's no modern medical system, no formal nursing system, it's basically impossible to treat a critically injured person back to a state where they can walk around energetically."

"You mean..."

"I think we might be setting our standards too high," Strange said. "Like the woman yesterday, maybe we only needed to clean her wound and apply some medicine, and that could be considered cured. Everything else was just meddling."

"But the wound on her leg... Oh, if it was just cleaned up simply, it wouldn't have progressed to a werewolf virus outbreak."

"Exactly," Strange snapped his fingers and said, "Healing too thoroughly is just causing trouble for ourselves. Better to handle it simply, might even earn some money. Certainly better than dealing with bodies for no benefit."

Shiller nodded. The key point was, destroying the corpse didn't seem to bring any extra benefits. There appeared to be a plot at the fireplace, but it seemed like there wouldn't be any substantial returns soon. Might as well just casually treat and scam some money.

Shiller rubbed his hands and said, "Then for the next patient, we'll treat with the most direct method, get it done quickly, and stuff them back. That way any trouble won't fall on us."

"Right, it'll also greatly reduce the chance of failure. Let's start."

Shiller pulled the lever, and the sound of a heavy object sliding echoed.

"Bang!" A figure dropped onto the operating table.

Looking at the familiar face, Shiller and Strange both stood there in shock. Because this time, the person who appeared before them was none other than Iron Man Tony Stark.