Card Room (Rebirth)
chapter-12

Xiao Lou entered the Peach Blossom Spring again and the prompt appeared in the suspension box.

[The card ‘Tao Yuanming’ has grown by +1.]

[The skill effect of Remember Peach Blossom Spring has improved and two partners can be brought into the Peach Blossom Spring.]

[The remaining time for the Peach Blossom Spring is 4:30.]

Tao Yuanming’s growth indeed depended on the number of times he entered the Peach Blossom Spring.

Xiao Lou went to the Hearts and Diamonds rooms first and got many useful cards. Tao Yuanming, Nine Palaces Grid and the Compass saved his life in this secret room. If he came to the Spades room from the beginning, he would experience something terrible when encountering the zombies.

Xiao Lou took a deep breath, turned away from the Peach Blossom Spring and returned to the entrance of the tobacco and alcohol supermarket.

Shortly after he left, the Peach Blossom Spring disappeared due to the 30 minute time limit. At the same time, the lower right corner of the Tao Yuanming showed a ‘not able to be summoned’ prompt that would last for 24 hours.

This meant he could no longer rely on the space teleport of the Peach Blossom Spring.

He had to be extra careful if he encountered a large number of zombies again.

The clearance time for 2 of Spades was 60 minutes and he had already used 35 minutes.

Xiao Lou looked at the clearance time bar and sped up his pace towards the Central Hospital.

Just now, he deliberately stayed at the entrance of the inspection centre for a moment, using the 30 metres vertical distance of the rose perfume to draw all zombies on the ten floors to the playground ring. Therefore, he didn’t encounter any zombie attacks after entering the hall of the inspection building.

Xiao Lou stood in the hall and carefully gazed at the signs.

The first floor was the CT and MRI imaging inspection department, the second floor was the pathology laboratory, the third floor was the pathogenic microbiological laboratory and the fourth floor was his destination, the blood testing centre.

Xiao Lou went to the elevator and pressed the up button. He found that the elevator wasn’t working and turned to climb the stairs.

The strange that was when he reached the stairs, a cool feeling flowed over his back and he felt that a pair of eyes were staring at his back. Xiao Lou turned around but found there was only a long and empty corridor behind him.

He frowned, ignored this weird feeling and used his long legs to quickly go upstairs.

There were some broken corpses on the corner of the stairs that exuded a strong smell. The higher he got, the worse the odour. Xiao Lou covered his mouth and nose with his sleeves and strode towards the blood testing centre.

The zombies in the inspection centre had been led to the playground by him. Apart from the disgusting smell, there was no trouble on the road. However, he was stunned the moment he reached the blood test centre on the fourth floor.

There were countless blood samples here.

Red, green, purple, black, yellow, blue…

There were rows of test tubes of different colours, at least a few hundreds.

Xiao Lou was a forensic doctor and naturally knew what the colour of these glass tubes represented. When a hospital drew blood from a patient, it would use test tubes of various colours to separate the blood according to the contents of the examination. The red tube would be used to check the blood biochemical index, the purple tube was used to check the blood routine, black was to measure the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, blue was to measure prothrombin…

Ordinary outpatients and inpatients usually got the test results within three days of taking blood but large hospitals needed to draw blood from hundreds of patients every day. It was normal for a large number of blood samples to accumulate.

How could he find it?

Xiao Lou quickly looked around. Suddenly, he saw all the test tubes had barcodes and the patient’s name. Xiao Lou recalled that in the plot introduction, the boy was admitted to the hospital for an emergency and his fever couldn’t be lowered. Finally, he died and was sent to the morgue.

Death in a hospital was a very serious matter. The doctor had to sort out the case of the deceased within 24 hours, writing a ‘death analysis’ report and issuing a medical death certificate to the family. After the boy’s death, there must be case data kept in the emergency department. If he knew the boy’s name, wouldn’t he be able to obtain the serum sample?

Yes, as the protagonist of the 2 of Spades room, the little boy must have a name!

There were still 20 minutes left to clear the instance. Xiao Lou decisively turned and went downstairs.

He quickly ran back to the outpatient building and rushed into the doctor’s office of the emergency centre on the first floor.

The movements caused by the virus outbreak made the office messy. Xiao Lou saw the case rack in the corner instantly. There were many cases on it. He took out all the cases and quickly scanned their first pages.

Those who didn’t match the gender and age were thrown away. He screened three male children in half a minute and among them, only one was admitted to hospital because of a ‘fever’ and the last page had ‘analyze the cause of death’ written on it.

Liu Xiaoyuan, 8 years old, he matched the plot description received when entering the secret room.

Xiao Lou’s eyes brightened. He held Liu Xiaoyuan’s case file as he quickly returned to the blood testing centre.

The number of serum samples in the testing centre was numerous. Xiao Lou swept through them, ignoring the samples of unrelated people. Finally, he successfully found the serum samples of a patient called ‘Liu Xiaoyuan’ in the corner.

Red, yellow, blue, green, black and purple, the blood test tubes of various colours were preserved.

The child’s condition was too complex and the doctor obviously couldn’t diagnose it. Therefore, he took a lot of blood to do a comprehensive examination. It was also the routine operation of the hospital to do a full inspection in difficult cases.

Xiao Lou took the six blood samples from the test tube rack and headed downstairs.

He had used up 45 minutes.

The moment he returned to the outpatient building and took the elevator to the rooftop, he would be able to pass the instance.

He had just walked to the first floor of the inspection centre when he suddenly heard a clear and sweet voice behind him. “Congratulations for perfectly clearing the 2 of Spades room. I am A of Spades. You can come to me to receive your reward.”

Xiao Lou hesitated and looked around for the sound.

There was a long corridor on the first floor of the inspection centre and the voice was coming from behind the iron door at the end of the corridor.

Xiao Lou walked to it and found that the upper part of the door contained strong iron bars while the lower part was locked from the outside. Through the gap in the iron bars, a small room around 10 square metres could be seen. There was a bed with security clothes still hang on the wall. This should be the security lounge.

A little boy who only reached Xiao Lou’s waist was standing by the bed. He was dressed in black and stood with his back to Xiao Lou, his voice clear. “The key to the door is in the pocket of the security guard there. Open the door for me.”

Xiao Lou looked back and saw that on the side of the corridor, there was a dead security guard. The neck was bitten and the head was missing.

The little boy said, “Yes, it is him. Take the key out of his pocket…”

Xiao Lou didn’t take the key and asked calmly, “Why aren’t you facing me?”

The little boy smiled. “As a keeper, I need to be more mysterious.”

Xiao Lou spoke lightly, “When I went upstairs, the person staring at me from behind was you—Liu Xiaoyuan.

He was making a statement and his tone was very positive.

Hearing this, the boy’s back slightly stiffened. “What are you talking about?”

“The first infected person Liu Xiaoyuan, who was locked up by the security guards. I didn’t expect you to retain consciousness.” Xiao Lou smiled. “Did you want to trick me into helping you open the door? Unfortunately, I’m not that stupid.”

The little boy turned around.

His face was as pale as paper, his lips covered with blood and the two tiger teeth were as sharp as the fiercest beast. There were no whites in his eyes and no pupils, it was only a shocking pure black.

Xiao Lou wasn’t scared and looked at him like it was expected.

Since his deception failed, Liu Xiaoyuan’s facial features gradually distorted and he reached out with bony hands, trying to force the iron bars open. “Let me out! Let me out—AH!—”

His voice was so loud it soon became a scream.

It was a high-pitched sound similar to a beast leader. It echoed in the empty inspection building and made the surrounding air twist.

Xiao Lou’s eardrums were stabbed with pain and he realized that this person was summoning the zombies. Xiao Lou didn’t hesitate to turn and run!

The zombies trapped in the ring on the playground started to move after hearing the sharp whistle. If Xiao Lou hadn’t trapped them in advance then at this time, Xiao Lou would be flooded and buried alive by zombies.

Xiao Lou, “…”

The 2 of Spades room actually had a pit at the end.

After getting the serum, many challengers knew they would be getting a perfect clearance and their spirits would be relatively more relaxed. If they heard someone saying ‘I am A of Spades’ at that time, maybe they would believe it.

Fortunately, Xiao Lou was careful enough and cautious enough to notice the little boy wasn’t right and didn’t listen to his words by opening the door.

This little boy was the boss of A of Spades!

A scream directly summoning the zombies was really frightening!

Xiao Lou rushed back to the outpatient building, pressed the elevator button and took the elevator to the rooftop.

A helicopter was waiting on the wide rooftop for him. The moment he walked onto the roof, the helicopter started. The propellers roared and the surroundings filled with heat.

The suspension box above his head filled with familiar words.

[Congratulations to the challenger Xiao Lou for perfectly clearing the D-grade secret room ‘Zombie Town’ in 50 minutes, the instance clearance score is greater than 85% of the challengers!]

[This instance clearance is evaluated as A-grade. A perfect clearance will get an extra lucky draw chance. Please return to the personal space for settlement of the rewards.]

Look, this was the right style of the secret rooms.

Before the challenger cleared the instance, the secret room keepers wouldn’t inexplicably affect the instance clearing process. Even if A of Spades really appeared, he wouldn’t be locked up behind an iron door. Moreover, the little boy had his back to Xiao Lou and asked him to take the key. That’s how he knew that this little guy was Liu Xiaoyuan who was locked up by the security guards after the initial infection.

A 60 minutes secret room, Xiao Lou used 50 minutes to clear the instance and was almost pitted at the end. It was really dangerous.

He wasn’t very good at the survival type secret rooms. In the previous Hearts and Diamonds rooms, his clearance score was greater than 99% of the challengers. This time, it was only more than 85% of the challengers, indicating that 15% of people passed the instance more smoothly than him.

Perhaps there was another method?

Xiao Lou sat on the helicopter while thinking about it. Just then, another prompt filled his suspension box.

[Congratulations to the challenger Yu Hanjiang for perfectly clearing the 2 of Spade secret room, Zombie Town in 15 minutes, refreshing the world record of the 2 of Spades secret room!]

Xiao Lou, “……”

15 minutes?

He had to lure the zombies, slipped by the zombies and run for his life while Yu Hanjiang actually used 15 minutes to perfectly clear the instance?

Excuse me, Group Leader Yu of the criminal police force, did you push past them with a bulldozer?