Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 266

Chapter 266

“Why haven’t you left the Instance?” Gu Huaiwei didn’t know much about how these Trial-takers were supposed to survive inside an Instance.

“I failed to meet the clearance Rules within the required time, so I can’t leave.” The Masked Girl took a crumpled note from an iron box and handed it to Gu Huaiwei somewhat nervously. “These are the clearance Rules we received when our Instance opened. They may not still apply, but if you need them, you can use them as a reference.”

“Thank you.” Gu Huaiwei accepted the note with the clearance Rules written on it.

S-Rank: Find the source of pollution at Gray Crystal University and eliminate it.

A-Rank: Discover the cause of the infectious disease at Gray Crystal University and develop a corresponding vaccine.

B-Rank: Receive a special commendation from the medical school and represent the school in further study at Gray Mist Hospital.

C-Rank: Earn enough credits within three years to graduate from Gray Crystal University.

As time passed, the Rules of an Instance would change as well.

The contents of this note were somewhat out of date.

Gu Huaiwei memorized the contents, typed them into a text message, and waited until the bell rang outside to signal the end of class before sending it to Fang Zhao and the others.

She deliberately avoided sending it during class.

That was to prevent someone’s phone from not being on silent. If a notification sound went off in the classroom, the homeroom teacher might catch them, and they could end up violating the Rules.

Gu Huaiwei asked, “So you’ve already been in this Instance for more than three years?”

When the girl in front of her said she had “failed to meet the clearance Rules within the required time,” she was probably referring to the C-Rank clearance Rule: failing to graduate within three years.

“Yes. There were three of us who survived and stayed behind back then. One of them has already been completely polluted and lost their mind. Now only Xiao Xu and I are still holding on in the Infirmary.” The Masked Girl’s delicate brows drew together, and melancholy flickered through her eyes. “But judging from Xiao Xu’s recent condition, he isn’t far from severe pollution either.”

Xiao Xu was the boy who had carried the stretcher.

Gu Huaiwei’s body would not be corroded by pollution.

But she had seen humans who had been polluted before. Those people would become frenzied and deranged, with severe tendencies toward violence and self-harm. They would do things that defied common sense.

“The S-Rank Rules mention eliminating the source of pollution. If the source is eliminated, would you be able to leave?”

The Masked Girl gave a bitter smile, clearly not holding out much hope. “That… should work, I guess. I don’t know either. I’ve never seen anyone manage to clear away the source of pollution in an Instance.”

Just then, the phone in the Infirmary began to ring.

The Masked Girl’s body tensed. She quickly ran over to answer it. After responding in a timid, submissive voice, she hung up and told Gu Huaiwei that work had come up, so she needed to leave for a while.

“Student Gu, and…” The Masked Girl glanced warily at Lin She, who looked like a Contract Anomaly, and licked her lower lip. “Don’t leave the Pharmacy. In this place, only the Pharmacy is safe.

“The school doctor is an Anomaly. If he discovers that you’re pretending to be sick, he’ll notify the homeroom teacher and have you taken back to receive punishment under the school Rules.”

After giving those instructions, the Masked Girl left in a hurry.

Gu Huaiwei and Lin She were left behind in the Pharmacy.

Gu Huaiwei examined the shelves inside the Pharmacy. All kinds of labeled bottles and jars were arranged on them, filled with liquids of every color. There were also large bottles containing unknown limbs soaking inside.

One of the bottles was labeled Mist Lung Disease Sustained-Release Solution.

She rose onto her toes and took the bottle of solution down from the upper shelf.

The liquid inside the bottle gave off a pungent odor.
Several student medical records lay on the desk in the Pharmacy.

Gu Huaiwei flipped through them and discovered that most of the students who had come in sick were being treated for external injuries.

Not a single person had been infected with Mist Lung Disease.

That was very strange.

Because on the medicine shelves, the signs of Mist Lung Disease Sustained-Release Solution being used were extremely obvious. There were many empty bottles there, clearly finished by patients, yet in the medical records, there wasn’t a single related case.

The Masked Girl had kept a diary for the past three years.

On the first page of the diary was written: I have to leave this school. …%$#$ is waiting for me outside the Instance. Pain can keep me awake. Don’t forget …%$#$’s name.

The most crucial parts had been blacked out.

The contents of the diary were meant to remind the Masked Girl to hold on to her original purpose.

But as time passed and the contamination worsened, she had already forgotten the words she herself had written down.

A Rules slip was tucked inside the diary.

On the slip was written: Infirmary Nurse Work Guidelines.

The Masked Girl had become part of the Instance, and she moved according to these work guidelines.

One line in the guidelines drew Gu Huaiwei’s attention.

[Please collect experimental equipment and store it in the Pharmacy. Every Thursday, deliver the designated experimental equipment from the Infirmary to the Laboratory.]

There was no experimental equipment in this Pharmacy.

Gu Huaiwei dragged her fingernail across that line in the Rules and smiled. “She was probably planning to use us as the experimental equipment.”

“Miss Gu, there is no need for us to waste time here.” Lin She leaned against the workbench. “The school is only so large. We can search each room one by one.”

“Let’s take anything useful before we leave.”

Gu Huaiwei did not find a special formula for Mist Lung Disease in the Pharmacy, so she swept all the sustained-release solution from the medicine shelves into her Jade Bracelet.

Then she left the Pharmacy.

Outside were rows of iron-framed sickbeds, with some students in school uniforms still lying on them.

Most of those students were Anomaly missing arms or legs.

There were also one or two humans among them. Their corpses had already begun to stink, yet they were still lying on the sickbeds, with no one cleaning them up.

Just then, footsteps sounded from outside the door.

Gu Huaiwei pulled Lin She behind a curtain for the time being.

Xiao Xu, the companion the Masked Girl had said was heavily contaminated, brought the injured muscular man Zhang Wenwu into the Infirmary.

Zhang Wenwu had lost one hand in the Library Instance earlier.

While he was at the Sanatorium, a prosthetic had already been attached to that severed hand.

But right now, blood was dripping from the place where his hand had been cut off.

It looked like deliberate self-harm.

Zhang Wenwu lay down on a sickbed.

Xiao Xu went to call the school doctor.

After Xiao Xu left, Gu Huaiwei stepped out from behind the curtain.

When Zhang Wenwu saw Gu Huaiwei, delight appeared on his face. “Shopkeeper Gu, you hid here too!”

“What happened to your hand?”

“I did it on purpose.” Zhang Wenwu thought back to what had just happened in the classroom, and his expression turned ugly. “In our class, the homeroom teacher grades the entrance exam papers on the spot. If you fail, your head gets pulled off.

“My paper was a total mess. If I stayed there, I was definitely dead. So before the homeroom teacher got to mine, I injured myself and ran to the Infirmary to hide.”

“What about Ou Doudou and Zhang Guoqing?”

“Zhang Guoqing ran off with the excuse that he had to use the bathroom. As for Ou Doudou, that guy really is… stupidly lucky.” Zhang Wenwu tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing a rather speechless expression.