Zhou Xiaoying froze for a moment, not quite understanding what Huang Shengjie meant by that.

Huang Shengjie explained, "We patients are at the very bottom of this whole game. The only way we have any chance of winning is by cooperating. Even if we can’t win a lot of visa time, at the very least we should get out safely and reduce our losses.

"If the few of us fall apart over just a few bottles of the most basic meds, then there’s no way we can ever do any deeper cooperation later on.

"This time I’m giving you the chance to buy the medicine. I hope we can cooperate with each other in the games to come.

"Du Peng, if there’s a similar chance next time, I can give it to you too."

Du Peng was stunned, then nodded. "Thanks."

Zhou Xiaoying hurried over to Huang Shengjie’s vending machine. "Thank you, thank you!"

Qian Li’s expression was a little ugly. Obviously, her behavior had once again backfired.

Now the relationships among the other four were getting tighter and tighter, and she herself was the one being pushed out.

Zhou Xiaoying quickly completed the purchase.

Then she looked at Huang Shengjie. "I’ll give you one pill, okay? At the normal price."

Huang Shengjie blinked. "Hm?"

Zhou Xiaoying said, a little embarrassed, "Each bottle has two pills. We can split them using the trading machine.

"In the next round, we might meet a doctor and get special medicine, or we might not be able to buy any meds at all.

"No matter which case it is, trying to split the meds evenly is the better choice.

"Isn’t that exactly what the trading machine in the lounge is for?"

Huang Shengjie thought for a moment, then looked at Du Peng. "You want to?"

Zhang Yuan considered it for a moment, then glanced at Du Peng. "If you need it, my meds can be shared too."

Du Peng shook his head. "I’ll pass for now. I can feel everyone’s sincerity about working together, but I still have a pill in my hand, enough to last one more round. From the next round on, the four of us can share."

Huang Shengjie nodded. He and Zhou Xiaoying went over to the trading machine.

This was the first time any player in the lounge had used this machine.

The two of them each inserted their own Medical Card into the designated slot. Zhou Xiaoying now had two bottles of medicine; she put the bottle with one pill left into the item trading compartment.

Then the two of them each confirmed the price and completed the transaction on the screen.

After that, the covers over the trading compartments closed. When they opened again, the bottle had appeared in front of Huang Shengjie.

"Thanks."

Huang Shengjie picked up the bottle and put it in his pocket.

But Zhou Xiaoying shook her head. "No, I should be the one thanking you."

As for Qian Li, she seemed to have no intention of getting involved in this mess anymore.

"Heh... a bunch of idiots. You can toss yourselves around however you like."

After dividing up the meds, everyone sat down on the folding chairs.

Only, they all subconsciously sat farther away from Qian Li.

Even though according to the game mechanics, being near an Infected wouldn’t spread the infection, on a psychological level there was still a natural sense of repulsion.

Qian Li just kept a cold face, simply dragging her folding chair to the side, away from the others.

The rest all looked towards Huang Shengjie.

But for the moment, he couldn’t think of anything he ought to say.

Seeing this, Zhang Yuan spoke up, picking up the thread:

"After two rounds, we’ve more or less confirmed each other’s willingness to cooperate. So next round, we try to find a way to see a doctor.

"There are two doctors in our district. It’s possible some doctor has already gotten special meds.

"No matter who among us manages to meet a doctor, we should try to buy as many meds as possible. If there’s no special medicine, then buy normal ones, then we can come back to the lounge and trade them to the others.

"Only one thing: we have to stay united. Whether it’s the red envelopes we hand over just to see the doctor, or the price we pay for meds, we need to set firm bottom lines. We can’t get into meaningless internal competition.

"My suggestion is: for normal meds, the lowest price we accept is 200 per pill; for special meds, 400 per pill.

"If the doctor won’t accept that price, then we may have to stand together and refuse to buy overpriced meds from the doctor, force him to compromise."

Everyone nodded, feeling that this was a fairly reasonable price.

They still didn’t know exactly how much the meds on the doctors’ side cost, but they were definitely cheaper than the vending machine’s—that was clearly stated in the rules.

The vending machine was effectively 400 per pill, which was clearly expensive, so they’d try to push normal meds down to 200 and special meds to 400.

Of course, that wouldn’t necessarily be the final bottom line. If they were truly desperate and needed special meds to save a life, these patients would certainly be willing to pay more. But before negotiating, you always start with sky-high asking prices and settle where you must.

Using those prices for a first round of bargaining with the doctors made sense.

The second round was about to end, and everyone headed back to their own rooms.

...

Huang Shengjie sat down on the sofa in his room, still doing the same thing as in the previous round: he took out one pill from the bottle, held it in his hand, and got ready.

Judging from what happened last round, after taking a Type I painkiller, only some stinging and burning sensations would remain, all within the range he could easily endure.

Feeling that it was about time, Huang Shengjie steeled himself mentally, then swallowed the pill.

But the next second, a sudden wave of searing pain hit him!

It was like someone had smashed his temples with a heavy hammer. His ears rang, his brain went blank.

Right after that, the pain shot through his whole body, making him convulse uncontrollably, curling up on the sofa!

The soft foam padding everywhere provided some cushioning so he wouldn’t slam into anything and get injured, but it did nothing to lessen his agony.

"No, no...

"What the hell! Did the meds not work?!"

The pain left his brain almost completely crashed; he had no strength to think. He was just reacting on raw instinct, pouring another pill from the bottle and swallowing it straight down.

But the effect of the second pill was even more negligible.

He had no choice but to curl his whole body up on the sofa, using every last bit of strength to fight against the pain.

After a long minute, the pain suddenly vanished.

Gasping for breath, he slumped down onto the floor in front of the sofa, his heart still pounding madly.

Suddenly, his stomach lurched. He staggered into the bathroom and started vomiting.

After a bout of dry heaving, he rinsed his mouth at the sink and looked at himself in the mirror.

His face was deathly pale from the pain, and fine beads of sweat clung to his forehead.

"Could it be the meds didn’t work because I took them early? No, that’s impossible. This time the pain was way worse than last time!

"A bit weaker than that time back in the Community.

"Which means... the meds did have an effect, but normal meds are nowhere near enough to block the pain completely.

"I’ve been infected!

"But why? I only shared the trading machine with Zhou Xiaoying. Does that mean Zhou Xiaoying is the Infected?

"But in the last round, she looked completely fine. She shouldn’t be able to endure this level of pain without any reaction, right?"

"Don’t tell me... Zhang Yuan is actually the real Infected?

"Zhang Yuan infected Zhou Xiaoying through the vending machine, and then Zhou Xiaoying traded with me and infected me..."

This was the only explanation that made sense, but even this explanation had a part that Huang Shengjie just couldn’t wrap his head around.

In the first round, Zhang Yuan hadn’t gotten any meds at all. If he was Infected, then Qian Li could only have experienced the normal pain.

If Zhang Yuan was gritting his teeth through the special pain, how could he possibly look less affected than Qian Li, who had taken meds and was only enduring normal pain?