Chapter 551: The First Time the Door Opens

"That's it?"Huang Shengjie snapped back to himself and glanced at the vending machine screen. He had not managed to press the 'Verify' button in time either.

He would have wanted to press it, of course, hoping that the verification would succeed, the Imitator would be killed, and the game would end and send them back to the community.

But his rational mind kept reminding him: pressing 'Verify' out of wishful thinking was pointless. He had to consider the probability of enough other players doing the same.

Twenty players choosing 'Verify' was what made it meaningful.

And clearly, that player's speech had not been persuasive enough. Even if Huang Shengjie had pressed 'Verify' himself, it would only have been throwing Medical Points away.

"Only one minute, no extension, which means they didn't even get five 'Verify' votes."

The small flame of hope that had lit up inside Huang Shengjie was quickly doused.

For what it was worth, the accusation had not been entirely without basis. Chen Guangming's ability to acquire information and steer the game's direction was clearly stronger than that of most players, which could be taken as characteristic behaviour of an Imitator.

But in practical terms, an accusation of that level was nowhere near enough to convince the vast majority of players.

Even without any professional knowledge, Chen Guangming could still potentially have done everything attributed to him, because the Reviewers in Zones C and D might well have possessed the relevant knowledge themselves and chosen to share it with him for personal gain.

The room fell quiet again. The fifteenth round had already begun.

While he had been considering whether to vote, Huang Shengjie had missed the window to enter the Lounge. He simply sat back down on the sofa and continued thinking.

"This accusation didn't succeed, but I've still learned something new from it.

"So the state Zone C is in right now, it's all because of this player called Chen Guangming?

"He must have convinced our Zone C Reviewer at their very first meeting, and then the Reviewer went on to convince both Doctors.

"Every player in Zone C with an Advantage Identity is acting in bad faith. Not a single one stood up to stop any of this.

"The Type O that Qian Li has been selling really is some kind of addictive Special Medication. I absolutely cannot take any more of it.

"How did I end up this unlucky?

"There it is again."

The withdrawal pain had come back.

Unlike the game's designated pain, this did not appear only in the final two minutes of each round. It could strike at any moment.

By now it had reached the point of appearing two or even three times per round.

Just when it had barely passed and he was hoping for a brief rest, it came again right on its heels. That pattern felt more hopeless than anything else.

Huang Shengjie took out the Type O bottle once more, but after a moment's thought put it back.

"No. Can't take it.

"I've already reached the point where I need two tablets just to fully suppress the Special Pain. I have to hold the line.

"The withdrawal pain will just have to be endured."

But it was becoming more and more difficult to endure with every passing round.

Eventually, Huang Shengjie stood and went back to the vending machine, searching through the items until he found something.

Hard liquor.

Alongside the various foods and drinks, there were several different bottles of alcohol at varying strengths.

He had not understood before why the Imitator would have included high-proof liquor in the machine's inventory. After all, who would drink in the middle of a game?

But now it suddenly made sense to him. Under this kind of pain, alcohol could serve as a kind of anaesthetic. At least when he was unwilling to take more medication, it might give him some relief.

Sixteenth round.

In the Lounge, the doors to the various patient rooms opened one by one.

Zhou Xiaoying came out of her room, trembling, and tipped two more tablets from her bottle into her mouth, then twisted open a bottle of mineral water to wash them down.

When she saw Huang Shengjie, she paused and said, "You, what exactly are you doing?"

Huang Shengjie looked terrible. The liquor had flushed his pale face with a sickly redness, his hair was a mess, and fine beads of perspiration were seeping from his forehead.

Seeing the bottle in Huang Shengjie's hand, Zhou Xiaoying immediately understood something.

"What are you doing? Are you trying to numb yourself with alcohol?

"That won't work at all, will it?

"I think you'd be better off just taking the medication properly. Otherwise you'll have suffered the same and then some, dealt with the same side effects, and also wrecked your body in the process."

Huang Shengjie shook his head and said, "No. I can't take any more medication.

"The accusation broadcast, you all heard it, didn't you?

"Zone C is a lost cause right now. All the medications here are addictive.

"The Type O and Type F you're all carrying, all of it."

Qian Li let out a sigh and said, "And what exactly is anyone supposed to do about that?

"The Doctor only sells us these two types.

"I had no choice except to pick the one that seemed less harmful, which was Type O."

Zhang Yuan looked at the bottle in Huang Shengjie's hand with a somewhat resigned expression and said, "Setting aside the medication question for a moment, that approach of yours simply isn't going to work.

"Basic common sense.

"Drinking large amounts of hard liquor cannot solve drug addiction. It will in all likelihood just add alcohol dependence on top of it, leaving you with a double dependency.

"Not to mention that alcohol itself will cause damage to your body.

"You have every reason not to trust me. But in a game like this, making decisions on impulse is not something to take lightly."

Zhou Xiaoying quickly nodded in agreement and said, "He's right. Stop drinking."

Huang Shengjie looked around at everyone in the Lounge with a complicated expression, then after a moment's hesitation said, "I want to try it anyway. What if it helps?"

In his heart, Huang Shengjie knew his approach was probably going to fail and might even make things worse.

Whether eating food or drinking alcohol, both could easily be traps the Imitator had deliberately laid.

The Imitator was not trying to earn visa time through these things. Rather, they were using them to gradually erode the players' psychological defences and wear down their willpower.

And once a player's willpower broke down, the only thing left was complete surrender to the medication.

But even knowing all of that, what difference did it make?

Without any way to see the Doctor, even if Huang Shengjie gave up the idea of numbing himself with alcohol, there were only two paths left:

The first was to unconditionally trust Qian Li and keep buying Type O from her, forced to keep increasing the dose as its effect steadily weakened, until the game ended.

The second was to trust Zhang Yuan and try the Type F he was offering, to see whether it truly had fewer side effects.

But were either of those options actually better?

Huang Shengjie already had a sense that both paths would almost certainly lead to traps that were worse.

In this game, it looked as though he still had choices. In reality, he had been out of genuine choices from the very beginning.

Zhang Yuan held out a bottle of Type F medication, "Forget it. Take this bottle. It's free.

"You can try it first, and then decide whether you want to buy more.

"Things can't really get any worse, can they?"

Huang Shengjie still had no intention of trusting Zhang Yuan, but staring at the Type F he had never tried before, he found himself wavering.

And then, from somewhere in the Lounge, came the sound of a door opening.

Everyone paused, because there were only a matter of seconds left before the door window closed and every door would be sealed shut.

They had all assumed no one else was coming.

But the VIP Patient room door that had never opened once throughout the entire game, opened for the very first time.

Huang Shengjie turned to look, and surprise crossed his face almost immediately.

Because the player who stepped out of the room was someone he knew.

"Lawyer Lin? So it was you in there the whole time?"