Chapter 211: Frog Hospital (Three) Fourteen Tadpoles

After the nurse left, Lu Zimo closed the door and carefully placed the glass jar on the bedside table.

Qi Si saw that the glass jar was crammed with tadpoles the size of half a fingernail, their shiny black heads trembling slightly.

The tadpoles at the very bottom of the jar hadn’t fully hatched yet, their tails entangled with sticky egg sacs, but it was expected that by the time they were eaten, they would have hatched completely.

Eat?

Qi Si caught a word that popped up in his subconscious. He truly couldn’t imagine associating tadpoles with “eating.”

The mental activity just now was more like the original body’s reaction. By extension, the inexplicable hostility he had felt towards frogs earlier should also have come from the original body.

The original body hated frogs and thought tadpoles were for eating—the worldview of this instance was truly a bit strange.

“I’m not saying this, but is this damn thing medicine? Untreated, just eaten raw?” Sun Dekuan cupped his chubby face, staring wide-eyed at the tadpoles in the jar.

Lu Zimo turned the jar halfway, revealing the label pasted on the back—

【Once a day, fourteen at a time】

Sun Dekuan mumbled, “I’ve lived this long, and this is the first time I’ve heard that tadpoles can cure diseases. Even if they can, you can’t eat them directly, there are parasites in them…”

Lu Zimo was clearly also intimidated, as swallowing tadpoles raw seemed strange no matter how you looked at it.

He looked at Huang Xiaofei: “Sister, do I really have to eat fourteen every day?”

“Eat them today first, it shouldn’t be fatal. The first day of a instance won’t set up such a malicious and low-level death point.” Huang Xiaofei said lightly, scanning everyone. “The side quest asks us to cure diseases, so tell me what illnesses you all have. Cheng An has hemophobia, and I’m pregnant and need an abortion. What about you two?”

“I might have a rash.” Lu Zimo cooperatively lifted his shirt, revealing large patches of egg-like red spots on his abdomen. “It doesn’t itch, but occasionally it feels like something is wriggling inside.”

His words were disgusting, and Sun Dekuan shrunk his neck: “I still don’t know what my illness is. I feel quite comfortable, no discomfort anywhere.”

Huang Xiaofei seemed not to quite believe him, glancing suspiciously at Sun Dekuan before telling Lu Zimo, “Zimo, take the medicine, don’t dawdle.”

Lu Zimo nodded, unscrewed the lid of the glass jar, grabbed tadpoles one by one from the jar, and placed them on the lid.

Qi Si sat on the edge of the bed, idly wiping his hands with a towel, his gaze drifting towards the shadow in the corner.

The blue frog had turned its direction at some point, its red eyes contracting and expanding as it stared at the tadpoles in Lu Zimo’s hand.

Qi Si subtly put down the towel, covered the Pocket Watch of Fate with his hand, and simultaneously began to think: if something happened, how would he escape?

Hmm, Sun Dekuan is quite bulky, he should be able to block for a while, right?

Lu Zimo had already picked out fourteen lucky tadpoles, holding the lid in front of his eyes, hesitant to proceed.

Sun Dekuan noticed his hesitation and smiled kindly: “Little Lu, I don’t know if this hospital has a kitchen, but I used to make a mean tadpole soup. If you really have to eat them every day, your big brother can help you prepare them then.”

Before Lu Zimo could speak, Huang Xiaofei urged, “Zimo, hurry up, I’ll turn off the lights once you’re done eating.”

Lu Zimo nodded again, closed his eyes, and poured all the tadpoles from the lid into his mouth.

“Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit!” The frog in the corner suddenly let out a loud, high-pitched croak, like a trumpet call.

As if hearing a command, frog croaks erupted from all directions and quickly converged into a chorus towards the ward, even carrying a sense of anger and accusation.

Two seconds later, a “thump, thump, thump” sound of banging on the door began, as if something was trying to break in.

Sun Dekuan’s eyes widened: “Oh my god, he ate tadpoles, and now their mothers are coming to get revenge?”

Huang Xiaofei reacted quickly, leaping up from the bed, hooking the small table in the aisle with her foot, and kicking it towards the door, where it slammed against it with a “clang.”

However, it was too late. The door was forced open a crack, and large numbers of green frogs, like shapeless slime, squeezed through the gap.

They stared with pus-yellow eyes, surging like waves onto Lu Zimo, gripping his clothes and hair tightly, biting his ears and fingers.

Lu Zimo screamed, flailing wildly and struggling, constantly tearing at the frogs clinging to his skin everywhere.

“Sister, save me!” He ripped off a few frogs clinging to his face, shouting for help.

Sun Dekuan, as if waking from a dream, rushed forward to pluck the frogs off Lu Zimo, his palms squeezing out red liquid, tossing the small corpses to the ground.

But more and more frogs surged in, seemingly unafraid of death, falling one after another, quickly piling into a small mountain.

In just a moment, Lu Zimo couldn’t even scream for help. He was completely buried under the mountain of frogs, all his sounds replaced by the cacophony of croaking, with a deathly silence underlying the clamor.

Huang Xiaofei rushed to the door in a few steps, stepped on the table, kicked the door shut, and pulled out several yellow papers from somewhere, meticulously stuffing them into the door crack.

Qi Si, taking advantage of no one paying attention to him, grabbed the towel and threw it over the blue frog in the corner, covering it completely.

The green frogs’ movements stalled, as if they had lost their direction and motivation, they quieted down and scattered in all directions like a receding tide.

Qi Si got off the bed, lifted the towel, revealing the blue frog’s pair of red eyes.

The green frogs immediately regrouped and resumed attacking Lu Zimo, who was still thrashing on the bed.

Qi Si understood; the blue frog must be a switch that triggers the death point.

Once it saw someone eat tadpoles, it would attract a large number of green frogs to attack; covering its eyes would stop the attack.

So Qi Si put away the towel and sat back on the bed to continue watching the show.

Lu Zimo screamed continuously, while Sun Dekuan fumbled beside him.

Huang Xiaofei pulled a lighter from her pocket, lit a yellow paper, and threw it at the door. A flash of fire instantly ignited a circle around the door, and several frogs that were too slow to react and still trying to enter were immediately roasted to charcoal.

The croaking grew louder, as if in pain, and the sizzling sound of burning flesh was incessant, filling the air with a burnt, foul smell.

Huang Xiaofei retreated to Lu Zimo’s bedside, her fingers flying as she folded several paper figures and flung them onto Lu Zimo’s body.

As soon as the paper figures landed, they immediately transformed into snakes, devouring the mountains of frogs.

The frogs were not to be outdone, furiously biting the bodies of the paper snakes.

However, the snakes ultimately had the upper hand. Five minutes later, only a pile of frog remains was left on the ground.

Lu Zimo lay weakly on the blood-soaked hospital bed, covered in a layer of transparent liquid, with red marks all over his body, but fortunately, his skin was not broken.

The red on the bedsheet was frog blood, and Qi Si showed no symptoms of hemophobia after seeing it.

But can hemophobia really distinguish between animal blood and human blood?

Qi Si, who had no formal medical education, was curious.

Huang Xiaofei said indifferently, “From now on, when you eat tadpoles, you have to avoid the frogs. Don’t let any of them see you, or you’ll attract the main force.”

Lu Zimo, half-dead, responded, “Yes, thank you, Sister.”

The flames at the edge of the door had extinguished, and the charred frog corpses perfectly blocked the door. As for whether this would arouse the doctors’ suspicion tomorrow, that was not something the players needed to consider right now.

Having just dealt with a death point, no one dared to open the door to clean up at this moment.

Sun Dekuan, still shaken, slumped back onto his own bed, panting heavily.

Huang Xiaofei glanced at the blue frog still squatting in the corner, casually flung a piece of paper at it, and blood splattered, leaving behind a frog corpse split in two.

Sun Dekuan, not understanding, asked, “Didn’t we say not to move it? Won’t something happen?”

“We’ve already killed so many frogs, one more won’t make a difference.” Huang Xiaofei sat down next to Lu Zimo and asked, “Are you okay? You’re not going to die, are you?”

Lu Zimo shook his head: “I’m not injured, it’s just that the rash on my stomach is suddenly bothering me…”

Huang Xiaofei immediately lifted his shirt, and saw that the outer edges of the large red patches had several red spots that seemed to wriggle to life, extending a thumb’s width around them at a visible speed before stopping.

Lu Zimo looked down at the abnormality on his abdomen, his already pale face growing even paler.

“I understand. This is a hospital instance, and the quest is related to curing diseases, so the death points should manifest by exacerbating illnesses through various events until we die from them. Bear with it. Be careful to avoid frogs when taking medicine tomorrow.”

After Huang Xiaofei finished speaking, she left the half-dead Lu Zimo and walked directly towards Qi Si: “Cheng An, you were very calm just now and didn’t offer to help. Did you discover something?”

As the game progressed to its later stages, no one was a fool; it was obvious who was watching from the sidelines.

Qi Si looked up and smiled at Huang Xiaofei: “Sorry, Sister Huang, I was so scared just now that I didn’t dare to move.”

Sun Dekuan had caught his breath, and his gaze finally fell on Qi Si.

The young man wore a white coat, and the silver bracelet and black chains on his right wrist intertwined and shimmered brightly.

He had been loosely sitting on the bed the whole time, acting playfully and indifferently to questions; he claimed to be scared, but his smile was exceptionally brilliant, as if he were just an outsider watching a good show.

Such behavior most likely meant he had some tricks up his sleeve, at least not intimidated by Huang Xiaofei and the other person.

There seem to be many powerful figures in this instance, so they should be able to clear it successfully in the end, right?

Huang Xiaofei sneered: “This is a team instance. Most selfish people don’t end up well. You’d better watch out for yourself.”

Qi Si blinked innocently: “Are you trying to morally blackmail me? Sigh, my combat and physical strength have always been very poor. Sister Huang wouldn’t want to kill me, would she?”

After that incident, he more or less figured out that Huang Xiaofei was conceited and opinionated, determined to be the sole authority in the team.

Although those with strength should naturally have more say, Qi Si particularly disliked taking orders from others.

What’s more, he had already discovered that his situation was very different from the other three players.

He was a doctor, while the other three were patients; he was mostly familiar with the NPCs in the hospital, making his role-playing difficult; the other three had just arrived and were unfamiliar with the place, so generally, they wouldn’t expose themselves.

Human groups have a tendency to reject outsiders. Under such circumstances, a team would not only fail to provide benefits but sometimes even become a hindrance.

Huang Xiaofei listened to Qi Si’s manipulative words and truly didn’t expect him to lay his cards on the table on the first day of the instance.

He’s not even pretending anymore, isn’t he afraid of being tripped up?

And tragically, Huang Xiaofei quickly realized that she really couldn’t do anything to Qi Si.

Actively harming others in a team instance, once word got out, would label one as a Slaughter-path player, and everyone would want to eliminate them; and in this instance, with four people together, it wouldn’t be easy to secretly kill someone without anyone knowing.

“When something happens to you later, don’t expect me to save you.” Huang Xiaofei threw out a remark and went back to lie on her own bed.

Qi Si let out an “mm-hmm” behind her, his tone exceptionally pleased.

Sun Dekuan, caught in the middle, felt on one hand that Huang Xiaofei was being overly aggressive by holding Qi Si accountable for not helping; on the other hand, he felt Qi Si was too cold and selfish, too calculating.

He initially thought Qi Si was quite capable, but then Qi Si claimed his “combat and physical strength have always been very poor,” which confused him again.

Perhaps not acting wasn’t about wanting to argue with Huang Xiaofei, but simply lacking the ability?

Sun Dekuan, having been through the wringer in society for years, knew that once factions emerged in a team, subordinates had no choice but to take sides—those who remained neutral would ultimately not fare well.

He thought for a moment, then turned to Qi Si and said, “Little brother, I’m not saying this to be mean, but a person needs to think long-term, not just about the present…”

“Ding-a-ling-ling—”

A phone rang abruptly, and all the players froze, then simultaneously looked at the old-fashioned phone on the floor.

This phone was originally on the small table. After Huang Xiaofei kicked the table to block the door, it fell to the floor but surprisingly wasn’t broken.

Now that a call was coming in, it was probably part of the instance’s mechanism, but they didn’t know if it was a clue or another death point.

The piercing phone bell rang persistently, and the players, remembering the story of The Ring, no one dared to move first.

After a long wait, the phone continued to ring.

Huang Xiaofei ordered coldly: “Zimo, answer the phone.”

Lu Zimo gave a bitter smile, climbed out of bed, still covered in blood, and picked up the phone: “Hello? Who is this?”

The old-fashioned phone didn’t have a speakerphone function, but due to the instance mechanism, all players could hear the voice coming from it:

“Hello, I am Lin Chen, the nursing assistant at Green Frog Hospital…”