Chapter 894: Rising Body Temperature

894. Rising Body Temperature

Lin Ye lay resting by the electric heater for a while, his body gradually warming up and his fingers no longer stiff.

But before long, his body temperature climbed past normal levels.

As his temperature rose, his consciousness grew hazy, and some unpleasant symptoms began appearing on his body.

"...What's wrong?"

Scarlatti abruptly rose and looked around, but she didn't see any intruders.

"He seems to have a fever. I don't know how to handle this."

Little Guardian was a mental defense system, so she had almost no understanding of physical problems.

"A fever? That doesn't make sense... Could he have encountered something outside?"

Scarlatti didn't think Lin Ye was that fragile. She knelt beside him and touched his forehead.

"He's burning up. This has to be close to forty degrees."

At such a high body temperature, an ordinary person wouldn't last long.

"There's only disinfectant here. Would that work to bring down a fever?"

Little Guardian had organized the supplies before and knew exactly what was in the basement.

"...Hmm, that kind probably won't work. Can you hold down the fort alone? I need to go outside and look for medicine."

Scarlatti wasn't sure if fever reducers would even help, but she couldn't just do nothing.

"I don't have combat ability. You stay here, and I'll go out to find medicine."

If another monster came running in, Little Guardian could probably only hold out for a few seconds.

"No, I'll go. It's dangerous out there. If you go out, you might not come back. I'll search for medicine nearby. You stay here, and if something comes, scream as loud as you can."

Scarlatti only knew that Little Guardian was connected to Lin Ye somehow, and she didn't want Little Guardian to go out and get herself killed.

"...Fine."

Little Guardian didn't argue further. She had no idea where to look for medicine anyway.

"Give him some water to drink. Maybe that'll help a bit."

Scarlatti put on her coat and climbed out of the basement.

Outside seemed to have gotten a bit colder. Scarlatti opened the door and peeked out into the corridor.

The corpse was already gone, leaving behind a drag mark on the floor.

The area was deathly silent, as if even sound itself had frozen solid.

Scarlatti approached the nearest locked room. She pulled out a piece of wire and picked the lock in just a few twists.

Her movements seemed even more practiced than Lin Ye's.

There was no one inside the office. Scarlatti checked beneath the carpet, but this office didn't have a basement either.

Scarlatti searched the entire office but only found a battery and a bag of bread.

She didn't waste time. Taking the supplies, she continued searching other locked offices.

It wasn't until she had searched through the third office that Scarlatti returned to the basement with her findings.

"I couldn't find any fever medicine. I need to rest for a while, and later I'll check the other corridors."

Scarlatti pressed close to the electric heater, trying to ease her frozen body.

"I'm sorry for the trouble."

Little Guardian handed Scarlatti a cup of freshly made milk tea.

"It's no trouble. When I was a child, I went through something similar. Back then I didn't understand anything, and I only survived because of sheer luck... cough, cough."

Scarlatti covered her mouth. She was feeling a bit unwell.

"Are you okay?"

Little Guardian noticed Scarlatti's condition and asked with concern.

If Scarlatti came down with a fever too and collapsed, then they might really be done for.

"...So I've been infected with a similar virus before. Lin Ye is experiencing his first infection... But then why aren't you affected?"

Scarlatti looked at Little Guardian with confusion.

"I'm a Consciousness. Maybe spiritual entities don't get sick?"

Little Guardian wasn't sure of the reason either.

"But you're not a Consciousness right now. A complete Dream World like this usually follows certain rules..."

Scarlatti felt there might be something she didn't know about in all this.

"How much longer can you hold on?"

The heater's temperature was dropping, and Little Guardian swapped in a fresh battery.

"...Hard to say. If I can stay in the basement the whole time, maybe I can last another day."

If she went outside right now, she might not make it back.

"Wait! There's noise upstairs!"

Scarlatti grabbed the hammer and held her breath.

Messy footsteps sounded in the corridor, as if many people were approaching the office.

Thump!

Something slammed against the office door, followed by a series of continuous impacts from outside.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

The office door was knocked open. Messy footsteps entered the office, and something stopped right above the basement.

Scarlatti helped Lin Ye up as whatever was above threw open the wooden door.

"Haha, there are actually two women hiding down here!"

"Lucky us!"

"Hurry up and drag them out!"

"Heeheeheeheeheeheeheehee!"

They were a group of men in camouflage coats. They looked relatively normal on the outside, but their faces wore extremely abnormal grins.

Scarlatti pushed Little Guardian and the electric heater into the corner of the room, facing the Lunatics above all by herself.

"This little bitch thinks she can resist!"

"Kill them! I want to eat her eyeballs!"

"I'm so cold! Damn it! Her organs are warm! Too warm!"

The men crammed into the basement, stepping onto the ladder.

Lin Ye, who had been lying on the ground, suddenly sat up and yanked hard on one side of the ladder.

The ladder toppled over, sending all the men above crashing down.

Lin Ye swung the Crowbar and smashed a man's head open.

Scarlatti moved in at the same time, swinging her hammer into the back of another man's skull.

The two fought side by side, swiftly killing the men who hadn't yet gotten back up.

Those men thrashed around in the basement like madmen, but Lin Ye and Scarlatti were both masters of close combat. Every swing of their weapons took down another enemy.

Before long, they had eliminated every single one of them.

"Cough, cough... What did you give me to drink? The taste is weird."

Lin Ye struggled to steady his breathing. He was still running a fever, having only just regained a sliver of consciousness.

"That was my blood... cough, cough... I might have been exposed to this kind of virus before, so there should be something like antibodies in my blood."

Scarlatti crouched on the ground, her consciousness already growing hazy.

"Blood? Then my sense of taste must be off too... But drinking it actually worked? And it took effect this fast?"

As a Doctor, Lin Ye couldn't understand how this kind of antibody could work at all.

It wasn't like stomach acid could digest antibodies, right?

"I had no other choice. It was too cramped in here, and I couldn't take on that many enemies by myself. I could only try it and hope for the best. Luckily, my luck held out."

Even Scarlatti hadn't known whether it would work back then.

"What do we do now? How much longer can the two of you hold on?"

Little Guardian was terrified that these two might suddenly collapse and die on the spot.

"Cough, cough... I should be able to hold out until I pass out..."

Lin Ye answered between coughs.