Monarch of the Dark Nights Chapter 3

MOTDN—Chapter 003

Rose Virus

“Rose Virus; the incubation period is 0 to 7 days. After contracted with the virus, red freckles that look like a rose petal will sprout on the patient's face. The patient will constantly have a high fever of more than 42 degrees, and more than half of the patients will die in about 4 to 24 hours.

In the case that patients could survive this high fever and not die, the red freckles on their faces will turn black and sharp fangs will replace their teeth. Those patients will enter the final mutation phase and turn into blood thirsty zombies!

If the mutated patients who have became zombies die, there is an opportunity to obtain a red-colored pearl which looks like a bean candy by dissecting their mouth.

Collecting more than five of these red pearls and swallowing them will make you able to obtain a mysterious force. As a healthcare worker you will face more dangerous situations compared to other people in this disaster. But at the same time, you also have more opportunities than others to stay alive and survive. Good Luck!"

After having returned to the Graceful Heart Hospital, taking the opportunity when Feng Ling left to take care of something, Qing Yi took the note that secretly given by Yun Tu from her handbag and read those paragraphs full of nonsense.

'What does these mean? '

'Is it just a prank?'

'Could it be that he already knows that I was his junior schoolgirl and is intentionally joke with me?'

Qing Yi's heart was full of riddles and suspicions at the moment. However, the phone on the table rang and she picked it up. It was the Head Nurse—Liu Jie whose voice then transmitted from the speaker:

“Hey, young lady! Don't stay idle! There are a dozen of patients here. Dr. Li and Dr. Yang's hands are full right now. Quickly come downstairs and go help them!"

Graceful Heart Hospital was a small private hospital. Including the president, Dr. Liu, there were only a total of 10 doctors. In addition to the nurses, pharmacists, janitors, and security guards, both day and night shift had always been less than 30 people. Even one doctor was handling several departments. But since nurses basically had no fixed job, they had to help whenever and whatever department that was busy.

After Liu Jie hung up the phone, Qing Yu put down that hard-to-understand note and half striding downstairs.

“How do you suddenly have a fever? There's a long freckle on your face.”

"Please quickly examine my wife first, she's burning and dying!"

“HELP! Examine my son first!”

Qing Yi was not a doctor. She was just an intern nurse. And the doctors were examining the patients according to their line-up number. For the patients that were not in the line, Qing Yi took a thermometer and measured their body temperature first since by doing this doctor's diagnosis time would be reduced.

42.5 degrees,

43.6 degrees,

39.8 degrees ,

44.1 degrees .

'Is this thermometer broken?'

Whilst taking back thermometer and recording the value, Qing Yi's heart shivered. She even suspected that the thermometer had been broken. It was because the cases of having high fever patients were usually only 1 or 2 patients in a month. But now, there were more than a dozen of patients with high fever that suddenly came.

All hospitals had a special department specifically to treat these high fever patients. It was considered as a high-risk case and needed to be treated quickly. A poor and slow treatment would be fatal for the patient's lives. The cases such as this unidentified disease were the most feared case for private hospitals. Much less that all patients that suddenly came all had identical symptoms.

Suddenly, the usually tranquil and infrequently visited hospital had a sudden influx of dozens of patients with high fever symptoms, causing the hospital to be slightly turned upside down.

After having put the first batch of patients onto the hospital bed one by one, more and more people unceasingly came and brought along their sick family members.

In this way, everything began to get out of hands. After receiving dozens of patients for an hour with the same symptoms and being unable to figure out the real situation, the attending physicians finally could not withstand the pressure again and directly called the president, Dr. Liu

“Quickly use an Acetaminophen Injection to reduce the fever for each patient and then urgently advise them to be transferred to other hospitals immediately!” [1]

10 minutes later, the hospital president—Dr. Liu caught up after rushing out from his house. He checked each patient on the hospital bed before he quickly made a decision and prepared the information needed to inform the Health Bureau.

He was a doctor and also a major shareholder of the hospital. In normal times, he usually was a competent and calm person, and an emergency situation was exactly he was usually hoping for to make the hospital's business better. But for today's emergency situations, he didn't dare to even think about making money, as his intuition told him that these situations would develop into an earthshaking epidemic situation.

“Even if we must transfer them to another hospital, please treat this fever first before we go! I heard that the public hospital is also full with sick people and there's a long queue of patients there!

“There are a lot of sick people here! You cannot drive out patients like this!”

Under more than a 42 degree fever, the patients had long been unconscious. But in this communication era, news and information spread very quickly. Some of the patients' families also had long known that this sudden rain of blood was the trigger for the high fever sickness contracted by people.  They could not find empty beds in public hospitals, so they had no choice and was unwilling to leave the private hospital.

“The other hospital is bigger with a lot of beds. We only have a few doctors, so even if everyone gathers here, our hands are also full. Much less that this is a new epidemic situation and the Health Bureau has yet to determine the nature of this epidemic."

Dr. Liu did his best to earnestly convince people, and then winked at the hospital's security personnel to prevent a group of people who rushed in. Finally, some patients that had no chance to line up and would get no bed, were all advised to go to another hospital.

As far as Qing Yi knew, of all the 6 months she had been working in this hospital, most of the hospital beds were empty. But the sudden influx of dozens patients today made all the hospital beds occupied.

She used to have easy time at work and it now turned very busy. This made her forget about the note. But along with time, when she measured the body temperature of the third batch of patients, she had no choice but to take a look at that paper note again because she found that the red freckles pattern on patients' face were getting more and more to be like rose petals.

“Due to the red freckles pattern that looks like rose petals, the virus is called Rose Virus as its name, and… “

Even the Health Bureau had yet to determine the nature of this epidemic. But, how would that wandering street singer—Yun Tu know about this? According to his note, half of these patients would soon die and the surviving ones would mutate into terrible zombies. This was way too scary!

She read the note again. She was kind-hearted and timid and had never once treated seriously ill patients in her 6 months of work at this private hospital. She had never seen dying people and now she was really anxious to find another person who could give her more courage.

“Hey, all sisters are very busy! And you still have the mood to read that love letter here? That d.a.m.n youth has really blinded your soul!" Feng Ling snapped and was angry when she saw that Qing Yi was hiding behind another nurse and read the note from her handbag!

“Sis Feng Ling, come here fast and read this!"

This time, Qing Yi didn't hide and see the note as her private possession again. She directly handed the note to Feng Ling.

“What the heck? I'm way too busy and have no time to mind your private life."

Although she spoke like this, but still peeking at others' secret was women's nature, and Feng Ling quickly took the note.

“This kid really doesn't act mysteriously nor does he want to prank on us! What he has said is way too frightening… "When she had read the contents in the note, only then did she respond with a solemn expression.

“The key point is, how would he know that there will be a lot of patients with this high fever symptom at the hospital today? He also knows that red freckles. Should we inform the contents of this note to President Li?" Qing Yin carefully asked.

“Hold on! Don't rush it. This issue is very strange. Do you have that kid's number?" From this remarks, Feng Ling was obviously more mature than Qing Yi.

“I've secretly inquired it when I was still schooling. But I don't know if his number is still active." Qing Yi's face blushed as she tried to find Yun Tu's number from her mobile.

“Tut – tut- tut -” 3 busy tones transmitted from her mobile. It was very obvious that it was intentionally hung up by the number's owner!

Qing Yi knew that her number was unfamiliar for him. But her boudoir friend definitely not agree with it as she gnashed her teeth and urged her to call again.

“The number you are calling has been shut down, please call again later…"

The reminder voice from the mobile company’s system prompts kept answering! Leaving the 2 girls in anger and anxiousness!

The first rain of blood was the prelude to the apocalypse and it occurred for 3 days straight. Although the rain was fierce and overwhelming, it didn't last long and stopped after 2 hours. However, although the rain stopped, the air was gloomy as though the line of sight was severely affected. The blood-red clouds in the sky slowly pressed down as though the curtain of the night had enveloped the world ahead of time.

Standing near the entrance to the supermarket's entrance at Hongda's business district, Yun Tu looked at the rain of blood with a gloomy expression. He knew that world had already changed. And at this time, the majority of the people had yet to become aware of this.

His phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number and Yun Tu wanted to hang it up. He looked at the time on the screen and then shut it down.

His time was precious. Even though he was just transmigrated, it would still be difficult. He must seize the time and take the initiative.

This apocalypse was as though a dark themed game. It was shrouded with a thick mystery, as to how it was started and how to end it. Yun Tu was only hoping that one day, he could unveil everything in this second repertoire.

Due to the heavy rain, more people got contracted with colds and high fevers, as they swarmed over to the hospital. In a short time, this phenomenon became the major issue and concern for the Ministry of Health and was covered in news by major news journalists. They were stressing that this would bring chaos to the world.

If Yun Tu's memory was not mistaken, at 6:30 PM, the first breakout of the Black Zombie in this city was at the Public Hospital. After the zombie broke out from the hospital, it bit dozens of people along the way before getting killed with special equipment by the Police Special Task Force.

Time was nigh, but he still had enough of it!

He bought a lot of bottled water and food from the supermarket. He came out and caught a cab. The long haired female driver looked at him with a slight frown upon seeing a crippled carrying a guitar. But Yun Tu didn't mind it. He had long been used to seeing those eyes.

Yun Tu returned to his dilapidated flat. He exchanged his clothes, put on a black coat and sungla.s.ses, and then came out again. The previously haggard and decadent person with an aura of the wandering singer was now transformed into a gangster-like appearance.

At the Public Hospital's lounge, a lot of people were lining up in a long queue in the registration room. They were waiting for the doctors to examine their sick family members. Under the cover of the sungla.s.ses, Yun Tu's eyes coldly swept over each person's face. After confirming that these people were temporarily safe, he didn't stay any longer and headed straight to the Fever Treatment Department.

There were about 30 to 40 patients in the room. A middle-aged man in his late 30s was carrying a bowl of porridge and fed his unconscious wife with a spoon. The woman was in a white patient attire and there was a rose-shaped pattern on her cheeks. The color was now had become violet.

'Could it be she will be the first one?'

TV news usually avoided to display horrible scenes. In his previous life, the first outbreak of the first zombie was only orally reported by the host and the director with no live video attached. Therefore, Yun Tu unable to figure out and make a judgment from the patients' faces that would be the first zombie

“Hey! Are the doctors in this hospital all f.u.c.king dumb? The lot of you are f.u.c.king idiots and cannot even reduce my wife's high fever? She's been with a 40 degree high fever for half a day, if you don't f.u.c.king quickly treat her, her brain will be damaged and turn into an idiot!!!" When the fourth bottle had been shot, and he saw that her wife's face was still burning hot, the husband was burnt with impatience and was unable to control his anxiousness again as he raged over the nurses in the Injection Room.

Someone people stood up and took lead, followed by other patients' family member that got agitated.

To quell the soon to be chaotic situation, the hospital's doctor-in-charge and the attending doctors hurriedly rushed over to the scene. They held a thick pile of doc.u.ments and did a series visual diagnosis. After which, they explained, "Everyone, you also see today's situation. There are a lot of people with the same symptoms and the cases keep emerging. All the experts in the hospital are now still trying to figure out the solution. We suspect that this is a new strain of viral infection and those with serious cases are to be sent to the Special Care Ward first. We will try to treat them by means of physical method to reduce body temperature first!

After the hospital made a decision, several medical personnel pushed the stretcher bed and quickly moved the female patient onto it.

Upon seeing this situation, Yun Tu's suspected that this woman would most likely be the first one to mutate into a zombie. In order not to lose the target, he disguised as the patient's family member and followed carefully behind the woman's husband.

[1] The raws said to reduce the fever. But I translated it to be more specific. I don't want to use the drug's name actually, but heck…  since the setting is in the hospital so I use  acetaminophen injection.