Chapter 1 Patient 0

My name is Patient Zero.

I found myself an NPC.

————

I used to think that I was the protagonist, probably the protagonist of novels such as "Dream of the Doomsday Every Night", "Infinity in Dreams" and "Let That Earth Come".

If someone sleeps at night and often dreams that he is in another world where the end is happening, and no matter how long he stays in that world, and only wakes up for one night, he will also have the same idea as me Bar.

With a sense of mystical superiority, I actively participated in saving these worlds facing doomsday, and as expected, I discovered their prototypes through various clues. Is Legend", "Resident Evil", "2012", "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and so on.

If there is any dissatisfaction, it is that the suspected golden finger is too weak, and its only function is to "wake me up" when I encounter a certain death situation, and return to the period before "waking up" when I dream next time.

As for tasks, enhancements, exchanges, and functions such as bringing the results of exercise or the items obtained back to reality, there are no such functions at all, so that even the existence of the cheat itself is doubtful.

Although it was a bit miserable at the beginning, and I would wake up from time to time, but because of the persistent file reading behavior, I will finally succeed in saving those worlds. It feels a bit like a movie called "Edge of Tomorrow".

Because nothing can be brought out, those adventure experiences are completely zero gains. If I have to say, my level of appreciation of disaster movies is getting higher and higher.

As for the accumulated experience of saving the doomsday...

Well, the real world is normal, that kind of thing doesn't happen.

————

One weekend morning, because I once again dreamed of a doomsday world that was somewhat difficult to save, I stayed out of bed for a while,

After opening his eyes, he found a big red balloon with a play button floating in front of him.

Could it be that a bear child came to the house?

Subconsciously reaching out to push it, it exploded with a bang.

[Reminder: 'PAX-200' has already infected patient zero in country C. Since it is in an unstable period, please use DNA points to evolve it as soon as possible so that it can infect more people. 】

In my ear, no, it was a woman's voice that was obviously mechanically synthesized in my head,

what is that--

Before I understood this situation, I saw that my outstretched hand was dyed red, and then there was a circle of red strokes like the animation rendering, and then I heard Mario ding as if he had eaten a gold coin.

Judging from some key words, this seems to be the end of a biochemical virus...

So why did you come out of your dream!

No, wait, what I heard just now seems to be a system prompt, so that incompetent cheat is ready to use?

"System!" I yelled at the position of the balloon just now.

no response.

"Evolution! Query DNA points!" I tried to shout the related terms I just heard.

The house was still quiet, but there was the sound of high heels thumping in the corridor outside.

"What are you arguing about? Others thought there was a crazy girl in our house." Mom opened the door and walked in.

"Uh, I'm having a nightmare." While thinking about how to prevent the spread of something called "PAX-200", I pretended to be sleepy and covered my head with a quilt.

"Huh? Are you also scared by nightmares?" Mom came over and tore off the quilt, and reached out to touch my forehead.

wait! Although you usually do it smoothly, today's situation is different!

Ding.

Not surprisingly, my mother's arm that touched me was quickly stained red, and then the same red border appeared on her body.

"Looks like you don't have a fever, come down to eat early when you wake up." Mom didn't seem to notice the red color,

Turn around and walk out and close the door by the way.

It's too bad, I have to think about countermeasures, speaking from experience-wait a minute, because it's the weekend, and Dad and brother seem to be at home?

[Hint: 'PAX-200' evolved 'air transmission' successfully. 】

Following the reminder in his ears, two faint dings came from downstairs.

Uh, considering the population density of country C, airborne transmission is the most convenient, so I have to find an excuse to tell them not to go out today.

But who is controlling evolution?

I raised my arm to look at the faint red light above, and began to ask and answer myself.

Question: On the premise that you can hear the system prompt, the system ignores you. What is the reason?

Answer: Not enough permissions, energy, points or similar.

Ask again: the system does not respond to you, but it is acting on its own, why?

Re-answer: There are other people in control, with higher authority than you.

The last question: With the existence of the system, why are they forced to encounter very unlucky and irreparable things.

The last answer: You are an NPC required by the plot.

Fua...so what am I going to do now? Keep smiling and say "hello world"?

"Don't eat, I made an appointment with my classmates in the morning—" My younger brother's voice, although a bit hoarse because of his voice change, was still very energetic from downstairs, followed by the sound of the door opening and closing.

I opened the curtain sideways and looked outside, only to see that kid just rushed out of the yard on a skateboard.

He was doing some tricks while greeting the neighbors he met, while the system prompts on my side kept ringing.

Neighbors living nearby began to tinge a reddish color with incredible speed, first the people, then the street, and finally the whole house.

It's almost like a drop of red ink has fallen into a pen tank that has just been replaced with fresh water.

This younger brother may be approaching the rebellious period, and he doesn't listen to me very much recently, even if I come up with some excuses to keep my family members from going out, he won't listen.

But this is almost like actively spreading the virus. Is it within the design of the system?

In this way, it is also predetermined that the big balloon will appear in front of me?

Sure enough, I am not the protagonist, but a key NPC.

————

With more than half of my world view destroyed, I simply washed up and went downstairs in a daze. I looked at the red borders on my parents' bodies expressionlessly. Their words and deeds were the same as before, but they looked weird against the dark red background.

While thinking about how to break the situation and sitting at the table to prepare for breakfast, the conversation between my father and mother once again confirmed some of my guesses.

"I'm going on a business trip to Japan in the afternoon." "Well, I'll see you off and go back to my mother's house by the way."

Look, even the direction of transmission is scheduled, foreign countries and neighboring provinces.

Speaking of the previous dream, none of the birthplaces of those "doomsday" was country C.

So the doomsday world starting from country C is the reality I thought, ha ha.

In my previous dream, from the perspective of an outsider, I have already saved quite a few people, but if it were me, no amount would be enough, because I am the center of the doomsday, so the possibility of being rescued is the lowest...

Calm down, wasn't saving so many worlds just for this moment? Come on, you can do it, who——

Huh? what's my name

"[Patient Zero], you are an older sister, and you will take good care of your younger brother when we are not at home, right?" Dad said to me.

I nodded while thinking: "Of course it's no problem. If he is disobedient, I will let him know what it means to be an elder sister like a mother."

wait!

What is my name? Patient zero?

Why didn't I realize it was wrong with such a stupid name until today?

"Patient zero" in medicine refers to the first patient who contracted an infectious disease and began to spread the virus. In epidemiological investigations, it can also be called "initial case" or "labeled case". large-scale infectious disease outbreaks.

Think about it again, what are your parents' names? Remember what it says on their ID card?

[Patient Zero's father] [Patient Zero's mother]

...I seem to hear the sound of the world view collapsing.

————

Soon afterwards, the family members went on self-righteous business trips or trips, but in fact they were carrying out actions to spread the virus.

Although it was preliminarily determined that this is a world created by a crappy doomsday game, I have no impression of it at all. To put it bluntly, for example, there would be no Aunt Rowling in the world of Harry Potter. She is one dimension higher than you coming.

But I still decided to rescue it, such as find a doctor or something.

Because this "PAX-200" didn't do anything other than dye the world red. It seems that after it evolved airborne transmission, it just waited for it to spread to the whole world by itself. In this case, I am not completely without chance.

But the problem is that now there are no "symptoms" at all, so the doctor will not prescribe me medicine. Even going to the hospital for tests and successfully finding it is useless, because the population of microorganisms that do not produce harm or even benefit are called "probiotics", and common sense cannot disrupt their balance.

To solve that thing, unless I drink antibiotics like crazy - that thing is not for drinking.

Maybe now the "players" are planning to wait for "PAX-200" to spread all over the world, and then suddenly evolve all the symptoms... Cough cough.

His throat was inexplicably itchy, and a system prompt appeared next to his ears.

[Hint: Without using DNA points, 'PAX-200' spontaneously mutated into a 'cough' symptom]

Did patient zero even have symptoms in advance?

But it's just what I want. From the word "voluntary mutation", we can see that this event should be an accident for the "player", similar to the challenge given by the game itself, so take this opportunity to go to the doctor quickly.

Quickly changed clothes and went out, and walked towards the clinic at the gate of the community.

The community where my home is located is a few small high-rise single-family buildings, each with its own yard, and there are running water lakes and artificial hills nearby. The environment is very good, and various community services are also complete, but the name is stupid—【Patient Zero District].

Before today, no one has ever had an opinion on this stupid name engraved on a rockery. It is probably the same as my name. It is restricted by some kind of rules. Being an NPC is really a sad thing.

The community services in the community are basically concentrated around the small park near the gate, and all the signboards are prefixed with "patient zero community". Suspect.

Come on, "Patient Zero Community Clinic"!

【Public Health Surveillance Site of Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Country C】

……what?

————

"Hmm, cough, cough—"

At first, I thought the signboard was exaggerated, but after entering the clinic, I was shocked again.

"Well, it looks very powerful, since when did it start?" The source of the shock - the clinic doctor looked at me and asked.

"Ahem—well, I just woke up this morning, and I don't have a fever." I covered my mouth and replied.

It is reasonable to say that I have experienced a lot of things that collapsed reality today, and I should not be surprised by other small things, but this is obviously beyond expectations.

This doctor, he is not dyed red at all!

In this world where a red filter seemed to be used, even the air was dyed light red, only the one-meter radius around him was the normal color in his impression.

Is the CDC such a powerful place? If you reason about it, it should be the main enemy that the "player" needs to fight in order to pass the level.

"Really? You may have caught a cold. After all, your home is by the artificial lake." The doctor has natural curly hair that reaches his ears, and his facial features and facial features are very serious. Looking at it alone, he even looks a bit fierce, but he has a big black face. Glasses suppress them all.

"Huh? Doctor, do you know me?" I tried hard to think about how to explain to him that I was infected with an unknown disease. Although I only have cough symptoms at present, it will destroy the world sooner or later-normal people would not believe it.

"Although I'm a bit boastful, I basically know the resident population of the community, Miss Zero." The doctor smiled at me, wrote down the prescription, got up and walked to the medicine cabinet: "I personally suggest that you don't need to take medicine, but if you If you feel serious, take the dose again."

So my surname is No. 0 and I am called a patient, right? If I can handle this crisis, I will definitely change my name!

[Hint: 'PAX-200' degenerates the 'cough' symptom successfully and obtains DNA points. 】

But, damn it! Sure enough, the "player" has been staring at the opening stage?

"Huh? Why, do you feel serious?" When the doctor came over with the medicine, he saw me gnashing his teeth suddenly and asked with raised eyebrows.

"No, on the contrary, I feel better. It must be the effect of the air in the clinic." I said nonsense, paid and took the medicine, and then found that even though I entered the doctor's "immunity range", the red color did not expand.

Very good, it seems that this is a key NPC. If you have symptoms in the future, you should come to him and "turn yourself in". Even a layman like me knows that finding the source of infection is the key to curing infectious diseases.

After thanking the doctor, I left the clinic.

Next, just pay attention to world news and system prompts.

————

[Hint: 'PAX-200' has successfully evolved 'drug resistance']

[Hint: 'PAX-200' has spread to South America]

[Hint: 'PAX-200' evolved 'Water Source Transmission' successfully]

[Hint: 'PAX-200' has spread to Africa]

[Hint: 'PAX-200' evolved 'drought adaptation' successfully]

For the next few days, as I expected, the "player" didn't mean to evolve any symptoms at all, but just kept evolving the transmission method and speed. I just need to adapt to the world where everything is covered with a light red layer. , you can also listen to the prompt to know where the "PAX-200" has spread.

During the period, there were several times of self-mutation and symptoms, but they were all degenerated quickly before I went to the doctor. I was basically the only one who was unlucky.

In order to "report" in time, I always find excuses to hang around the clinic, but before I achieve my goal, a group of gossip aunts and aunts make up rumors that I have seen a doctor.

"The girl from [Number Zero] seems to have taken a liking to the guy who works at [Monitoring Point] and is called [Monitor]~"

please! Don't you find it awkward to spread this kind of gossip? This world should be destroyed!

[Hint: Without using DNA points, 'PAX-200' spontaneously mutated into a 'nausea' symptom]

[Without the use of DNA points, 'PAX-200' mutated spontaneously into the symptom of 'stomach bleeding']

Probably because it is about to spread to the whole world. Recently, there are two autonomous mutation symptoms at once, but the "players" always degenerate them quickly. I was walking in the small park and rushed to it with the attitude of doing my best Clinic.

It should be degraded soon, but I was the one who had a stomachache before that...

[Hint: Regression of the 'nausea' symptom failed, please degenerate advanced symptoms first]

Ok? Speaking of unrelated symptoms before, this time it seems to be a digestive system problem?

[Hint: Regression of the 'nausea' symptom failed, please degenerate advanced symptoms first]

[Hint: Regression of the 'nausea' symptom failed, please degenerate advanced symptoms first]

A sense of trembling ran down the back and went straight to the top of the head. That's right, this is the state of "too sleepy playing games in the middle of the night" in the legend, just like the guild in a certain game of mine. All kinds of sleepwalking.

The time difference between the worlds will be discussed later! The most important thing now is that I have rushed to the door of the clinic!

"Wow!" As soon as I stepped into the gate of the clinic, I vomited a big puddle of blood on the ground: "Monitor, help me—"

I hope I am not wrong in my judgment. Unlike trivial things like colds and coughs, this "advanced" symptom should be taken seriously.

In the next instant, the colorless area that was originally compressed to the surface of the monitor doctor suddenly expanded, covering the entire clinic.

[Hint: A new type of infectious disease has been discovered in country C, named 'PAX-200']

Before I had time to complain about this virus and even introduced myself, my eyes went dark and I lost consciousness, so I had to laugh in my head.

Hmph, let you play such a dark game, you must know that NPCs are not easy to mess with!