Chapter Twenty-Six: Primary Acquisition Mission

The clinic marked on the map was located right in the center of the town, not far from the store. After roughly two kilometers, Qin Fei arrived near the clinic. Even from a distance, the stench of corpses wafted from the area around the clinic.

Outside the clinic, dozens of nylon bags were haphazardly stacked on the ground, swarmed by countless flies. Inside these bags, it was likely human bodies lay. The foul odor emanated directly from them.

The clinic’s walls and main entrance were mostly glass. Through these panes, Qin Fei could see several zombies lying inside. In the world of Seven Days to Die, most zombies remained in a dormant state. Unless there was a loud noise nearby or a source of heat appeared, they would not move. The wandering zombies he’d encountered at the gas station were a rarity.

This made sense; if zombies stayed active all day, their energy reserves would quickly be depleted. Unlike the living who could eat daily, zombies’ stored energy diminished with every action. Thus, they needed to remain dormant. There was no such thing as a perpetual motion machine with infinite energy—zombies were no exception.

Suppressing his revulsion at the stench, Qin Fei walked up to the clinic’s front door. Suddenly, the system’s prompt window appeared.

[Triggered Level 1 Retrieval Task: Recover Supplies]

[Level 1 Retrieval Task: Enter the clinic and recover the target materials. Be careful; we don’t know what dangers lurk inside.]

Immediately, countless yellow dots appeared as markers within the clinic. Qin Fei was stunned.

He realized these yellow dots indicated exactly where the zombies were inside the building! The system’s design was almost identical to the game. With these markers, it was as if he had a wallhack—he didn’t need to worry about being ambushed by zombies inside.

Now, Qin Fei could pinpoint the hiding spots of the zombies and eliminate them preemptively. He felt a surge of confidence.

But he didn’t rush in. He wrapped a piece of animal hide around his feet and readied his hunting bow, then slowly approached the clinic’s main hall. With the animal hide muffling his footsteps, he would make less noise as he moved.

He glanced around the clinic’s hall. There were three yellow dots—three zombies hidden within. One stood right next to the glass entrance, eyes closed, leaning against the door, clearly in a dormant state.

Qin Fei carefully shifted left, ensuring nothing obstructed his line of sight to the zombie.

Had this been the world of The Long Dark, such proximity to a gray wolf would have resulted in an immediate attack. But with dormant zombies, as long as he didn’t make noise or generate heat, they wouldn’t notice him.

He drew his bow, aimed, and released the arrow. It struck the zombie’s head, and it crumpled to the floor.

Qin Fei’s accuracy was not surprising. He was close, and the zombie stood perfectly still—a stationary target. Unless he was blind, he couldn’t have missed.

After dispatching the zombie, Qin Fei entered the hall. As he passed its corpse, he pulled the iron arrow from its skull and aimed his hunting bow at the corner.

Another zombie lay there. With a silent shot, Qin Fei took it out as well.

According to the yellow markers, the last zombie hid behind the shelving unit ahead, currently seated on the ground, also dormant.

If anyone other than Qin Fei entered the clinic, lacking the yellow markers, they would likely stumble near the shelving, inadvertently waking the dormant zombie and suffering a surprise attack. Even if they survived, they’d probably be bitten and infected.

But Qin Fei knew its location in advance.

He wouldn’t foolishly walk right up. Instead, he grabbed an empty bottle from the floor and tossed it behind the shelving unit.

The sound was faint, not enough to wake the zombie, but by chance, the bottle struck it and roused it. Once awake, a zombie’s senses sharpened dramatically.

It quickly spotted Qin Fei in the distance.

Lurching toward him, the zombie’s movements were grotesque, its body twitching and contorting as it staggered forward.

And it moved slowly.

Seeing it approach, Qin Fei retreated outside. Calmly, he drew his bow and shot an arrow at the zombie’s chest.

When zombies moved, their heads twisted constantly, making aiming nearly impossible. So Qin Fei aimed for the chest.

After being struck, the zombie collapsed, seemingly unconscious.

Based on his experience in Seven Days to Die, this state of unconsciousness would last no more than a second or two.

Qin Fei strode forward and, before the zombie could recover or stand, shot another arrow into its head.

As the arrow struck, the zombie’s legs kicked once, then it lay still, lifeless.

With the three yellow dots in the hall gone, Qin Fei knew the area was now clear of zombies.

He approached the shelving unit and began searching.

Perhaps because zombies had remained in the clinic, many medicine bottles were still untouched on the shelves.

Soon, Qin Fei found the antibiotics the woman needed.

[Quinolone Antibiotics: Effectively treat bacterial infections, including mutations caused by zombie viruses.]

In the game, antibiotics were powerful, set to cure zombie infections. Unexpectedly, they worked the same way in this game-world Qin Fei had entered.

Besides antibiotics, he found a bottle of vitamins and a small box of aloe-coated bandages.

[Aloe-Coated Bandages: Stop bleeding, promote wound healing, accelerate recovery from abrasions.]

[Vitamins: Relieve fatigue, prevent infections, dysentery, and other illnesses.]

Both were extremely precious in the apocalypse, so Qin Fei took them without hesitation.

From the right side of the hall, one could enter the clinic’s interior, where patient wards were located.

Qin Fei did not venture further inside. Having completed his task, the system’s yellow markers vanished. With no more assistance from the system and dusk settling, Qin Fei decided it was best to return to the Baishui River Store.

From his game experience, zombies grew ferocious at night, even capable of running.

Running zombies were a different creature entirely from those that merely shuffled.

Therefore, Qin Fei needed to return to the Baishui River Store before ten o’clock.

If night fell and the rampaging zombies spotted him, his life would be at risk.