Chương 94: Blood as the Medium

But immediately after, Claire herself instantly realized she had misspoken. She covered her mouth with one hand, a flash of complex emotion flickering in her eyes. A flurry of hasty footsteps echoed from outside the door. As if hearing a keyword, Cody's eyes widened. With a heavy thud, he fell to his knees right in front of Vince!

"Vince!" His voice was hoarse from fear and agitation, completely out of tune and carrying a heavy, desperate sob.

"I... I heard it!... I beg you! Please save Zoe!"

"When we left home for college, our parents told me to take good care of her. I... our parents are surely gone by now. Zoe... she is my only family left in this world!" He looked up, his face covered in tear stains. Grabbing Vince's pant leg, he pleaded incoherently:"As long as she can live... anything is fine! I'm willing to do anything! Zoe... she would definitely be willing too! Really! I beg you..." Vince didn't speak. He just frowned, quietly listening to Cody's tearful pleas. Claire steadied herself.

As if finally making a certain resolution, she looked at Vince with a firm gaze and said word by word:"Vince... if it's true... save Zoe. She only became like this to protect us..." Meanwhile, Seth had just stepped into the room. Standing by the door, he pursed his lips and said nothing, but it wasn't hard to see the intense pleading in his eyes... Vince finally sighed. He yanked Cody up from the floor, his voice carrying a trace of sternness.

"Enough... What time is it for this melodrama? Acting as if you're offering me as a sacrifice to the heavens..." With that, he gently turned Zoe's head to the side. With his other hand, he pulled a silver-white auto-injector from his pocket, pressed it against the side of her neck, and pushed the button on top... Hiss— With a soft pneumatic sound, Zoe's slightly furrowed brows suddenly knitted tightly together.

"Mgh..." A soft groan escaped her lips. Her hands began to clench, as if she were enduring some immense pain. Fine beads of cold sweat began to break out on her forehead...

"Vince, is that... that potion?" Seeing Vince take action, Cody suddenly seemed to see hope. He hurriedly pulled out the potion Vince had distributed earlier and handed it over.

"I still have mine! Give it to her too, I'll be fine without it!"

"Shoo, shoo, don't cause trouble. You, over there, drag him away..." Seeing that Cody was completely out of his mind with panic, Vince shot a glance at Seth by the door. Seth quickly hurried over and pulled Cody to the edge of the room, terrified of interrupting Vince's work. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"That was just a hypothesis, understand? A hypothesis!" Vince glanced at Claire beside him and Cody in the distance, his brow furrowed as he constantly monitored Zoe's Health Bar.

"From 'my body has antibodies' to 'bodily fluids can transfer antibodies,' there are countless steps to verify in between. You guys just had to jump straight to the final step, didn't you..." Saying that, he sat on a chair, holding Zoe's wrist with both hands, feeling her pulse. Although she was still unconscious, her heartbeat was noticeably stronger than before. Even her wrists weren't completely limp anymore; they began to struggle slightly.

"Who cares if she's up for it? I'm definitely not." Feeling the potion taking effect, Vince's tone relaxed a bit, no longer quite as grim. With one shot of the [Feral Potion (Small)], Zoe's overall condition visibly perked up. The Health Bar above her head stabilized at [11], no longer dropping. However, after a minute of observation, it hadn't increased by a single point either. Those crimson threads that were continuously winding around her Health Bar also seemed as if they were suddenly submerged in thick glue.

The speed of their encroachment had slowed significantly, but they were still slowly advancing... But this was only the first step in the medical treatment plan Vince had just formulated. Observing the potion's effect, Vince breathed a sigh of relief. At the very least, it bought her another 10 minutes of life... He stood up from the chair and told Claire beside him:"Cut open the clothes around all her wounds. I'll be right back..." With that, he got up, returned to apartment 301, and rummaged around for a bit.

When he came back, he held a box of surgical scalpel blades, alcohol, and other medical supplies. He saw that Claire had already cut away the clothing around Zoe's thighs, arms, and shoulders, revealing the mangled, gaping wounds beneath... Since she had survived the initial attack, it meant no vital organs had been hit. Standing by the bed, Vince cleaned his own arm with alcohol while looking at Zoe's tightly furrowed brow in profile. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of admiration for her.

A nineteen-year-old girl engaging in close-quarters combat with a Mutated Hound, not only buying a crucial window of opportunity for her teammates, but also managing to protect her own vitals... he really didn't know who the real monster was here. Even Vince felt his combat intuition paled in comparison to hers. Thinking back to when he first rappelled down to the fifth floor with his superhuman constitution, he had still managed to get bitten by a normal zombie.

Looking at the usually boisterous Zoe lying so quietly on the bed, Vince felt a bit dazed. Since you're this incredible, you have to hold on. Don't die... As Vince began to move, the room grew so quiet that only Zoe's faint breathing could be heard. Vince picked up a freshly unwrapped scalpel, the cold blade gleaming with a blue tint. Claire and the others held their breath, looking at him in confusion, unsure of what he was about to do. Vince stared at the blade in his hand.

With a calm gaze, he flipped his wrist and, without a second's hesitation, plunged the blade directly into his own wrist! [-3]!

"Ah... Vince!" Claire's eyes widened in horror. She subconsciously wanted to step forward and stop him, but she immediately realized his intention. Covering her mouth, she halted her steps. Behind her, Cody also widened his eyes. Watching the blood continuously welling up from Vince's wrist, it was as if he had just seen hope.

"Hss... that hurts..." The fact that Vince could jump off the sixth floor without injury didn't mean stabbing a surgical blade into his wrist didn't hurt. Vince had been cut by a scalpel before. It was sharp and it hurt, but it brought mostly fear—fear of infection, fear of disability, fear of death... The medical records he had read used to haunt his mind like ghosts. But right now, with the cold blade piercing his flesh, even though it hurt, the fear was gone, and therefore, the pain wasn't as severe...

To prevent his current constitution from coagulating the blood too quickly, Vince specifically unequipped the [Revitalization Crystal]. Blood dripped continuously down his fingers. Vince moved his hand along Zoe's body from bottom to top, letting his blood drip into every single one of her wounds... Until the blood finally dripped onto her lips and slowly flowed into her mouth. As if sensing something, Zoe instinctively opened her mouth, continuously swallowing this heaven-sent nectar...

Since Zoe was reacting favorably, Vince let his hand hover over her lips, allowing his blood to continuously drip into her mouth... [-1] [-1] [-1]... The wound was small, so his Health Bar wasn't dropping too fast. Vince's attention was entirely focused on Zoe's Health Bar. As she swallowed his blood, translucent, pale golden threads began to emerge from the starting edge of her Health Bar...