My name is Patient Zero,
I found myself an NPC.
————
I used to think that I was the protagonist, probably the protagonist in "Dream of the Doomsday Every Night", "Dreams of Infinity", "Leave That Earth I Will Come" and so on.
If someone often dreams that they are in another world where the apocalypse is happening when they go to bed at night, and no matter how long they stay in that world, only one night has passed when they finally wake up, they will have the same thoughts as me. Bar.
With a certain sense of mysterious superiority, I actively participated in saving these worlds facing doomsday, and as expected, I discovered their prototypes through various clues. So far, the worlds that can be clearly identified include "The Day After Tomorrow" and "I". "Legend", "Resident Evil", "2012", "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and so on.
If I have any dissatisfaction, it is that the suspected golden finger is too weak. Its only function is to "wake me up" when I encounter certain death, and to return to the period before "waking up" the next time I dream.
As for the functions of strengthening the tasks, redeeming them, and bringing the results of training or the items obtained back to reality, there are no functions at all, so much so that there are doubts about the existence of the golden finger itself.
Although it was a bit miserable at the beginning and I would wake up from time to time, due to my perseverance in loading files, I would eventually succeed in saving those worlds. It felt a bit like a movie called "Edge of Tomorrow".
Because I couldn’t bring anything out, there was absolutely no gain from those adventures. If anything, it meant that my appreciation of disaster movies was getting higher and higher.
As for the accumulated experience of saving the doomsday...
Well, the real world is normal and that doesn't happen.
————
One weekend morning, because I once again dreamed of a doomsday world that would be difficult to save, I lay out of bed for a while.
After opening his eyes, he found a large red balloon with a play button floating in front of him.
Could it be that there is a naughty kid at home?
Subconsciously reaching out to push it, it exploded.
[Tip: 'pax-200' has infected Patient Zero in country c. Since it is in an unstable period, please use DNA points to evolve it as soon as possible to infect more people. 】
In my ears, no, it was a female voice that was obviously mechanically synthesized in my mind.
what is that--
Before I understood the situation, I saw my outstretched hand being dyed red, and then a circle of red strokes appeared like an animation rendering, and then I heard a sound like Mario had eaten a gold coin.
Judging from certain keywords, this seems to be the end of a biochemical virus...
So why did you run out of the dream!
No, wait, what I just heard seemed to be a system prompt, so that incompetent golden finger can be used?
"System!" I shouted towards the position of the balloon just now.
no response.
"Evolve! Check DNA points!" I tried shouting the related nouns I just heard.
The house was still quiet, but the thump of high heels could be heard in the corridor outside.
"What are you arguing about? Others thought there was a crazy girl in our house." Mom opened the door and walked in.
"Uh, I'm having a nightmare." I pretended to be sleepy and covered my head with a quilt while thinking about how to stop the spread of that thing called "pax-200".
"Huh? Are you also scared by nightmares?" Mom came over and took off the quilt and reached out to touch my forehead.
wait! Although you usually do it smoothly, the situation is different today!
Ding.
As expected, my mother's arm that touched me was quickly stained red, and then the same red edge appeared on her body.
"It seems that I don't have a fever. Come down early to eat when you wake up." Mom didn't seem to notice the red color, turned around and walked out and closed the door.
It's really bad. I have to think of countermeasures and base my experience on it - wait, because it's the weekend and my father and brother seem to be at home too?
[Tip: 'pax-200' evolved 'airborne' successfully. 】
Following the prompts in my ears, two faint dings came from downstairs.
Well, with the population density of country C, airborne transmission is the most convenient. I have to find an excuse to keep them from going out for now.
But who is controlling evolution?
I raised my arm and looked at the faint red light above, and began to ask myself questions.
Question: What is the reason why the system ignores you even though you can hear system prompts?
Answer: Not enough permissions, energy, points, or anything like that.
Ask again: The system does not respond to you, but acts on its own. What is the reason?
Answer again: Someone else is in control and has higher authority than you.
The last question: Why are we forced to encounter extremely unfortunate and irreversible things when there is a system in place?
Final answer: You are an NPC needed by the plot.
Wow...so what do I do now? Keep smiling and say "hello world"?
"I'm not going to eat. I made an appointment with my classmates in the morning -" The younger brother's voice, although a bit hoarse due to his voice change, was still very energetic from downstairs, followed by the sound of the door opening and closing.
I opened the curtain sideways and looked outside, and saw that guy just rushing out of the yard on a skateboard.
He was doing some stunts while greeting the neighbors he met, while the system prompts on my side kept ringing.
With incredible speed, the neighbors began to turn reddish, first the people, then the streets, and finally the entire houses.
It was like a drop of red ink fell into a pen washer that had just been filled with new water.
This younger brother may be approaching the rebellious stage, and he doesn't listen to me very much recently. Even if I come up with some excuse to keep my family away from going out, he won't listen.
But this is just like actively spreading the virus. Is it within the design of the system?
So, the big balloon appearing in front of me was also planned?
As expected, I am not the protagonist, just a key NPC.
————
With more than half of my worldview destroyed, I simply washed up and stumbled downstairs. I looked at the red edges on my parents' bodies expressionlessly. Their words and actions were as usual, but it looked weird against the dark red background.
While thinking about how to break the situation and sitting at the table to have breakfast, the conversation between my father and my mother once again confirmed some of my suspicions.
"I'm going to Japan on a business trip in the afternoon." "Well, I'll see you off and go back to my parents' house by the way."
Look, even the direction of communication has been planned, including foreign countries and neighboring provinces.
In the dream before I woke up, none of the birthplaces of the "doomsday" were country C.
So the apocalyptic world starting from country C is what I think is reality, haha.
In previous dreams, from the perspective of an outsider, I had saved quite a few people, but if it were me, no amount of people would be enough, because I am the center of the doomsday, so the possibility of being rescued is the lowest...
Calm down, isn't it just for this moment that you saved so many worlds before? Come on, you can definitely do it, who is that——
Huh? What's my name?
"[Patient Zero], you are a sister. You will take good care of your brother when we are not at home, right?" Dad said to me.
I nodded while thinking: "Of course, no problem. If he is disobedient, I will let him know what it means to be like a sister like a mother."
etc!
What is my name? Patient Zero?
Why didn’t I realize something was wrong with such a stupid name until now?
"Patient Zero" in medicine refers to the first patient who contracted an infectious disease and began to spread the virus. In epidemiological investigations, it can also be called the "initial case" or "marked case". It was this individual who caused the disease. A large-scale infectious disease outbreak occurred.
Think about it again, what are your parents’ names? Remember what it says on their ID cards?
[Patient Zero’s father] [Patient Zero’s mother]
...I seemed to hear the sound of the collapse of the worldview.
————
Soon after, family members went on what they thought was a business trip or trip, but in fact they were spreading the virus.
Although I have initially determined that this is a world created by some crappy doomsday game, I have no impression of it at all. For example, there would be no Aunt Rowling in the world of Harry Potter. She is one dimension higher than you. With.
But I still decided to try to save my life, such as finding a doctor or something.
Because this "pax-200" has done nothing but dye the world red, and seems to have evolved airborne transmission and then waited for it to spread all over the world on its own. In this case, I don't have no chance at all.
But the problem is that there are no "symptoms" at all now, so the doctor won't prescribe me any medicine. Even if you go to the hospital for testing and successfully find it, it will be useless, because the populations of microorganisms that do not cause harm or even are beneficial are called "probiotics", and common sense cannot destroy their balance.
To solve that problem, I have to drink antibiotics like crazy - then that thing is not for drinking.
Perhaps now the "players" are planning to wait for "pax-200" to spread around the world before all the symptoms suddenly evolve... ahem.
My throat felt a little itchy for no reason, and the next moment a system prompt appeared in my ear.
[Tip: Without using DNA points, 'pax-200' autonomously mutated into a 'cough' symptom]
Did patient zero even have symptoms early?
But it is exactly what I want. From the word "autonomous mutation", it can be seen that this event should be an accident to the "player", similar to the challenge given by the game itself, so take this opportunity to find a doctor quickly.
He quickly changed his clothes and went out, heading towards the district gate clinic.
The district where my home is located is a group of single-family high-rise buildings. Each house has its own yard. There is also a living lake and an artificial mountain nearby. The environment is very good, and various community services are complete. The name is just stupid - [Patient Area Zero] 】.
No one has ever had an objection to this stupid name carved on a rockery before. It is probably restricted by some rules just like my name. Being an NPC is really a sad thing.
The community services in the district are basically concentrated around the park near the gate. Every signboard has the prefix "Patient Area Zero". I feel so embarrassed that I feel like having cancer. At the same time, I am increasingly doubtful about the role that the clinic can play. .
Come on, "Patient Zero Clinic"!
[Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Public Health Surveillance Site]
……ha?
————
"Ahem, cough, cough -"
I originally thought that the sign was already exaggerated, but I still got a second fright after walking into the clinic.
"Well, it looks very powerful. When did it start?" The doctor at the clinic, the source of the fright, looked at me and asked.
"Ahem - well, I woke up like this this morning, and I don't have a fever." I answered, covering my mouth.
Logically speaking, I have experienced a lot of reality-shattering things today, so I shouldn't be surprised by other things, but this was obviously beyond my expectations.
This doctor, he's not dyed red at all!
In this world where a red filter seemed to be used and even the air was dyed a light red, only within a one-meter radius around him were all the normal colors in his mind.
Is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention such a powerful place? If you reason about it, it should be the main enemy that the "player" needs to fight in order to pass the level.
"Really? You may have caught a cold. After all, your home is on the bank of an artificial lake." The doctor has ear-length curly hair, and his facial features and facial lines are very cold. Looking alone, he even looks a bit sinister, but he has a big black face. The glasses suppressed them all.
"Huh? Doctor, do you know me?" I tried hard to think about how to tell him that I was infected with an unknown disease. Although I only have cough symptoms now, it would destroy the world sooner or later - no normal person would believe it.
"Although I'm a little boastful, I basically know all the residents in the district, Sister Zero." The doctor smiled at me, wrote down the prescription, stood up and walked to the medicine cabinet: "I personally recommend not taking medicine yet, but if If you feel serious, take the appropriate dosage.”
So I call the patient Zero, right? If I can handle this crisis, I will definitely change my name!
[Tip: 'pax-200' degrades 'cough' symptoms successfully and gets DNA points. 】
Damn it! Sure enough, the "player" was staring at the beginning?
"Huh? What, do you feel serious?" When the doctor came over with the medicine, he saw me suddenly gritting my teeth and raised his eyebrows and asked.
"No, on the contrary, I feel almost better. It must be the curative effect of the air in the clinic." I said nonchalantly, paid and took the medicine, and then found that even if I entered the doctor's 'immune range', the red color did not expand.
Very good, it seems that this is a key NPC. If symptoms appear in the future, come to him immediately and "surrender". Even a layman like me knows that finding the source of infection is crucial to curing infectious diseases.
After thanking the doctor, I left the clinic.
Next, just pay attention to world news and system prompts.
————
[Tip: 'pax-200' evolved 'drug resistance' successfully]
[Tip: 'pax-200' has spread to South America]
[Tip: 'pax-200' evolves 'water source propagation' successfully]
[Tip: 'pax-200' has spread to Africa]
[Tip: 'pax-200' evolved 'drought adaptation' successfully]
The following days were just as I expected. The "player" had no intention of developing symptoms at all, but was constantly evolving the method and speed of transmission. I just needed to adapt to a world where everything was covered with a layer of light red. , you can also listen to the prompts to understand where "pax-200" has spread.
During this period, I had symptoms that mutated on my own several times, but they quickly degenerated before I went to see a doctor. Basically, I was the only one who was unlucky.
In order to "report" in time, I always found excuses to wander around the clinic, but before I could achieve my goal, a group of gossipy aunts and aunts made up rumors that I had a crush on the doctor.
"The girl from [Zero] seems to have taken a liking to the guy who works at [Monitoring Point] and is called [Monitor]~"
Please! Don’t you feel awkward spreading this kind of gossip? This world might as well be destroyed!
[Tip: Without using DNA points, 'pax-200' autonomously mutated into 'nausea' symptoms]
[Without using DNA points, 'pax-200' autonomously mutated into 'stomach bleeding' symptoms]
Probably because it is about to spread all over the world, there have been two symptoms of autonomous mutation at once recently, but the "players" are always quick to degenerate them. I was walking in the park and rushed to the clinic with an attitude of obeying orders.
It should be degraded soon, but before that it was me who had stomachache...
[Tip: Regression of 'nausea' symptoms failed, please regress advanced symptoms first]
Um? The symptoms used to be unrelated, but this time they all seem to be related to digestive system problems?
[Tip: Regression of 'nausea' symptoms failed, please regress advanced symptoms first]
[Tip: Regression of 'nausea' symptoms failed, please regress advanced symptoms first]
A shuddering feeling ran along the back and went straight to the top of the head. Yes, this is the legendary state of "playing games in the middle of the night until you are too sleepy", just like the union in one of my games that opened up wasteland until midnight several times, and the whole group was killed. All kinds of sleepwalking.
Time difference between worlds later! The most important thing now is that I have rushed to the door of the clinic!
"Pfft!" As soon as I stepped into the clinic door, I vomited a large pool of blood on the ground: "Monitor, help me——"
I hope I didn’t make a mistake in my judgment. Unlike colds and coughs, this “advanced” symptom should be taken seriously.
The next moment, the colorless area that had been compressed almost to the monitor doctor's body suddenly expanded, covering the entire clinic.
[Tip: A new infectious disease was discovered in country c and was named 'pax-200']
Before I had time to complain about this virus even introducing myself, my vision went dark and I lost consciousness, so I had to laugh in my head.
Hum hum, for you to play such a dark game, you must know that NPCs are not easy to mess with!
