Chapter 185 – Long-Term Patients Always Learn Something

“Ling-Ge, are you okay?”

Ye Lian appeared beside Ling Mo in a flash and steadied him.

Ling Mo’s right hand had lost its strength, and cold sweat of pain dotted his forehead.

He gritted his teeth and shook his head, “I’m fine. First, check if this is his Main Body or another Avatar. We can’t give him another chance to ambush us.”

Hearing Ling Mo’s words, Xia Na, who was about to come over and check on him, hesitated for a moment. Then, she turned around to inspect the corpse.

“This… Ling-Ge, he has just started to mutate. I can’t tell if it’s an Avatar or something else…” Xia Na said in surprise.

“Then it should be the Main Body. There’s no way any survivors could be left here long enough to be bitten and mutated. No wonder he couldn’t understand anyone; his Main Body must have already turned into this.”

Disgust flickered in Ling Mo’s eyes. Before this person tried to shoot Ye Lian, Ling Mo had felt a bit of pity for him.

But now, he realized that those who are pitiful often have something despicable about them.

Clearly, this person was a superhuman, with enough power to gradually kill all the zombies, yet no other survivors were found around here…

“But why is he here? Could his hiding place be nearby?”

With Ye Lian supporting him, Ling Mo walked down the stairs, followed by the sound of footsteps behind them. Obviously, others had heard the gunshot and were hurrying over.

Ling Mo glanced at Guo Chao’s corpse, thinking that this guy was indeed unlucky…

But such is life, fragile and unpredictable.

Just then, Ling Mo noticed the stairwell door was ajar. He gritted his teeth, pulled out a flashlight, and stepped inside to take a look.

As soon as the beam hit the wall, a shiver ran down his spine.

The walls were covered in dark, crimson characters, clearly written in blood.

“I have never eaten humans!”

“I am not a monster!”

“It’s all your fault. If you hadn’t meddled, I wouldn’t have bitten you! You turned me into a monster!”

“I was wrong. Don’t come near me. Leave me alone!”

Such phrases covered almost the entire wall.

However, it looked like a long time had passed.

From these chaotic writings, Ling Mo deduced two points.

First, it seemed likely that the remaining Survivors here had been killed because of him. Second, in his loneliness and guilt, he had completely twisted his own mind.

The Avatar’s talk of killing all zombies and resisting the urge to eat flesh seemed, to Ling Mo, likely a form of psychological escape.

Was he playing some sort of self-hypnosis game? It certainly seemed possible now.

It looked like he had been relying on his Avatar to move around while keeping his Main Body hidden here to stay alive.

Ling Mo didn’t fully understand his Superpower and could only make some educated guesses based on the current situation.

When they had spoken earlier, he seemed relatively normal. Who would have thought that once things involved himself, his psychotic tendencies would be revealed immediately.

The stairwell wasn’t big, but it was filled with various items.

There were six crates of military rations stacked up and a few radios placed inside some boxes. There was also one of these radios on his Avatar.

In addition, there were some miscellaneous items, but Ling Mo didn’t have the energy to check them all.

Since Hu Chuan’s Main Body was dead, this Military District no longer posed any potential threats. The urgent task now was to treat his wounds.

He asked Li Yalin to take out the radios, putting two of them into his own backpack.

Keeping tabs on the outside world was crucial. So much time had passed that if any rescue forces were out there, they should have started sending signals to search for survivors by now.

Although the chances were slim, it was something that required attention.

By this time, Meng Jiayu and the others had caught up. Their first sight was naturally the corpses of Guo Chao and Hu Chuan.

Meng Jiayu immediately covered her mouth, her eyes welling up, while Old Wang slowly lowered his gun, revealing a look of sorrow.

“What… What happened here?” Zhang Haoyu asked in shock.

Only 2 looked relaxed. He glanced at Hu Chuan’s corpse and then quickly turned his attention to Ling Mo. “Hey, Ling Mo, are you injured?”

Without waiting for an answer, he rushed to Ling Mo’s side and reached out to touch his shoulder.

This seemingly concerned action made Ling Mo wish he could kick him, especially after he spoke.

“Let me smell it and see if it smells different from a normal person. As a monster… Ah! Nana, why did you step on me again!”

“Ling Mo, are you injured?”

Meng Jiayu hastily wiped her tears and turned her gaze towards Ling Mo.

Zhang Haoyu and the others quickly gathered around. Although Guo Chao’s death saddened them, they were all accustomed to witnessing life and death.

“Are you alright?”

“A gunshot wound, huh? Luckily, it just grazed you from above without hitting the bone… You’re fortunate. But you’ll need to endure for a while; it might take quite some time to fully heal.”

Old Wang checked Ling Mo’s wound through his clothes and said with some relief.

Ling Mo thought to himself that it wasn’t luck but rather a well-timed judgment call that saved his life.

This ability to react quickly had been honed through countless life-and-death struggles.

“In that case, it’s nothing serious. I have some emergency medical supplies with me; just need to treat it.”

Ling Mo winced in pain as he spoke.

After a brief hesitation, Zhang Haoyu turned to Old Wang. “Let’s take care of Captain Guo’s body first.”

By “take care,” he meant finding a room to place it in.

This was far better than leaving the body outside to be devoured by zombies.

Meng Jiayu and 2 stayed by Ling Mo’s side. The group sat on the stairs outside to give Ling Mo some simple wound treatment.

Of course, 2’s main reason for staying was to closely observe whether Ling Mo was a monster or a human.

Once the shirt was off, Ling Mo’s left shoulder was revealed, a bloody mess.

Although the bullet had merely grazed his flesh, it still caused Ling Mo significant harm.

Fortunately, his bones were undamaged.

“Looks like TV dramas are misleading…”

As soon as the bullet made contact with his flesh, the intense pain Ling Mo felt indicated it was anything but a simple graze.

In other words, the moment the bullet touched his body, it caused substantial trauma.

One can only imagine that if the bullet had hit somewhere like the abdomen, the entry point might have been a small hole, but the internal damage would be chaotic, and by the time it exited, it would have left a large hole.

“We can only do a basic disinfecting for now…”

Meng Jiayu couldn’t help but start crying again. Seeing Ling Mo with a furrowed brow and sweat on his forehead made her indescribably sad.

Ye Lian clenched her fist tightly, and Xia Na’s gaze grew even colder. Even Li Yalin frowned.

“Ling-Ge.”

Ye Lian, for once, didn’t react to the smell of Ling Mo’s blood. Instead, she reached out and grabbed his other hand.

“Alright, let’s do this.”

Originally, Xia Na was supposed to handle the wound treatment, but 2 eagerly volunteered, claiming his experience as a chronic patient gave him some skills.

“Weren’t you a patient in a psychiatric hospital?”

“That’s why I have plenty of experience in treating wounds!”

2 replied quite matter-of-factly. This time, he didn’t deny being a Psychopath.

He grabbed the hydrogen peroxide and, with an excited gleam in his eye, began working on Ling Mo’s wound.

Ling Mo initially wanted to stop him, but on second thought, decided to let him try. As long as 2 didn’t start cutting him up or stitching, it wouldn’t do any harm.

Trusting a female Zombie to treat wounds? Forget it. They’re more skilled in creating wounds.

Meng Jiayu looked overly tense, and Ling Mo himself could only move his left hand.

As expected from a psychic disorder person, 2 remained unaffected by the wound and started disinfecting with laser focus, appearing even more meticulous than a professional doctor.

Moreover, as a superhuman, his Psychic Power allowed his actions to be incredibly precise and swift when fully concentrated.

In just over ten minutes, he had disinfected and stopped the bleeding, finishing with a careful bandaging using gauze and bandages.

The pain was unavoidable, but this was only a basic treatment. They would need to find some medication to speed up the healing process.

“Who would’ve thought you had this skill,” Ling Mo said, his face pale.

2 carefully placed the blood-soaked cotton balls and gauze into his pocket, looking quite pleased with himself. “Of course. I had a roommate, a guy who was really into loli characters and even more into self-harm. He was probably the most representative patient of bed 3 in history. He used to have a lot of wounds all the time, so I picked up some emergency treatment skills by watching him.”

Ling Mo, trying to distract himself from the intense pain, chatted more: “Alright, it seems I misjudged you. You’re not entirely useless. But seriously, shouldn’t guys like him be restrained or sedated?”

“Naïve. Do you really think all Psychopaths are crazy? At least 3 and I just have occasional episodes of mental confusion, which is actually a sign of excessive awareness—too many thoughts racing in our minds. He self-harmed because he missed his little loli at home…probably? Anyway, as they say, top-down measures will always have countermeasures. Battling wits with the doctors and nurses keeps things interesting; otherwise, I’d have left the hospital ages ago.”

2 spoke quite seriously.

Yeah right, like I’d believe that…

Seeing that Ling Mo still had the mood to joke with 2, Meng Jiayu seemed slightly relieved.

However, watching him look utterly drained and continuously breaking out in cold sweat, it was clear he was in quite a lot of pain.

Ye Lian and Xia Na stayed close to Ling Mo, seemingly trying to comfort him through their proximity.

After some hesitation, Li Yalin also raised her hand to help wipe his sweat.

At that moment, Old Wang and Zhang Haoyu finished arranging Guo Chao’s body and walked out from the building.

“We found a room on the first floor with some guns, a car key specially hung on the door, and a large amount of ammunition. There’s also some military gear, so it looks like we’ve found our winter clothing.”

Old Wang said excitedly.

He held a submachine gun in his hand and handed it directly to Ling Mo. “This is a suppressed submachine gun. There aren’t many of these around, so you should take it.”

Suppressor? Now that sounded like a valuable item!

“This submachine gun is very quiet, though not completely silent. The magazine has a large capacity, but it’s a bit tricky to reload since we didn’t find any military-spec loaders. Despite its drawbacks, I think it will be very helpful for you. It’s a surprise to me that this gun is even here; it’s clear this place wasn’t occupied by a field unit or any special forces, thus the limited variety and quantity of weapons.”

Old Wang’s explanation piqued Ling Mo’s interest in the submachine gun. He gestured for Xia Na to take it.

Judging by his tone, there should be at least a few more of these guns around. Though they are immensely valuable to the group, Ling Mo didn’t intend to take all of them.

Female Zombies, who tend to go berserk in combat, aren’t suited to playing around with guns…

It’s a matter of instinct. It’s easy to make them cautious, but eradicating these instincts completely is impossible.

During recent shooting lessons at the base, the female Zombies showed no interest, and Ling Mo couldn’t force them.

“What about the car key?” Ling Mo asked, curious.

Old Wang pondered for a moment before replying, “I guess the person here also wanted to leave. This should be the vehicle he prepared for himself. I saw many dismantled parts and stuff… I think he must have modified that car.”

A modified car? That’s another valuable find!