Chapter 174: Starting Vaccinations.
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 174: Starting Vaccinations.
Kim Ji-hee is not a doctor.
Naturally, no one expects her to uphold the Hippocratic Oath, the sanctity of life, or any other professional medical duty.
She feels the same way.
Kim Ji-hee has never once thought of herself as a doctor.
She just happened to get lucky, obtaining a healing skill that caught my eye, which made her useful enough to pull her own weight. Working at the hospital was mostly a hobby—she only showed up once in a while to earn some coins of her own.
That was why, unless there was a reservation, she rarely went to the hospital, spending most of her time slacking off at home or organizing the warehouse.
Yet, even she wasn't entirely devoid of responsibility.
She knew all too well how crucial coins were in a zombie apocalypse.
Though she now lived comfortably, undeservedly called the second-in-command of Paradise while diligently playing her role as my cum dumpster.
The things she experienced on the day the zombie apocalypse first broke out.
The moments she endured at the Seongsu Apartment.
And the day of the zombie rush, when she risked her life to reach the studio apartment building.
She remembered them all too well.
She could empathize with the desperate desire to survive.
So, while she lacked any professional medical ethics, she felt a heavy sense of responsibility as someone taking people's coins, and she did her best to heal them.
Though, in truth, her "best" was simply using mana to cast her skill.
Even if a patient explained exactly where and how they hurt, Kim Ji-hee wouldn't understand.
The only knowledge she possessed was the singing and dancing she'd learned while skipping school during her trainee days. She hadn't studied science properly, let alone medicine, so how could she possibly know?
If she used her healing skill and they got better, great. If not, too bad.
Sometimes she couldn't heal them because she ran out of mana, but most wounds and injuries could be cured with her skill.
But there was one thing even she couldn't fix: zombie bites.
Scratches were fine.
Although the price hike to 300 coins was a burden, those who didn't want to gamble their lives on a 5% chance of infection reluctantly came to get treated, defusing the ticking time bomb of that 5% probability.
It only cost 2 mana, which fully recharged in just twenty minutes, so she welcomed these kinds of patients.
The problem was the bite victims.
Unlike those carrying a training grenade that might never go off, patients who arrived with a live bomb strapped to their bodies left Kim Ji-hee completely helpless.
Before going to work, she could get the hot spring healing effect and equip an item that boosted her mana by 1, raising her maximum mana to 5. But even then, the most she could do with 5 mana was reduce the 50% infection rate to 25%.
Even so, she still charged them the same 300 coins.
From the patient's perspective, they still had to get treated here.
Because reducing a 50% chance of death to 25% and praying for the best was their only hope of survival.
So, these patients usually wept and begged, clinging to her.
Having seen Oh Yoon-seop bring in Oh Se-i, Kim Ji-hee understood exactly how they felt.
She also knew a way to save them.
The Level 2 Preventive Vaccine in the warehouse.
If administered before the infection took hold, it could safely eliminate even that remaining 25% risk.
But she couldn't just hand out those precious vaccines out of pity.
She knew that too.
That saving one or two people wouldn't solve the underlying problem.
And she understood why I didn't release a single vaccine, even though I had plenty to spare.
Paradise was already suffering from a massive headache due to the beggars. If rumors spread that we had vaccines?
No joke, beggar bastards dozens of times more annoying than the current ones would swarm the place.
That was why she wanted to increase her mana.
If only she could increase her mana...
...she could solve the problem while simultaneously securing a way to earn even more coins.
That was why Kim Ji-hee was overjoyed.
"Really? Ye-sol can do that?"
"Yeah. From now on, whenever you can get a mana refueling, open up reservations for preventive vaccinations. Once a payment goes through, close all other treatments. The preventive vaccine always comes first."
"Yes!! Of course. How many coins should we charge?"
"Since it's a guaranteed cure, 5,000. The price of a Level 2 Vaccine."
"Whoa!"
"You and Jeon Ye-sol can take 250 each as a commission."
"Wow. Really?"
Since it was a skill and not a consumable, assuming it cost 10 mana, the preventive vaccine could be used once every 100 minutes.
But that was only if they relied on Kim Ji-hee's natural mana recovery.
Jeon Ye-sol's mana recovery speed was far faster, so the efficiency would be incomparably higher.
Still, I couldn't compromise on the price.
Even if this SS-grade Level 10 healing skill meant no one in Paradise would ever die from a zombie bite infection again...
Why should I, Kim Ji-hee, or Paradise treat them for cheap, let alone for free?
It was the price of a life.
For a Level 2 Vaccine.
For now, we would charge 5,000 coins, but we would raise the price over time.
If someone truly had a life worth living—enough to pay 5,000 coins—they would come and beg to be saved.
Those who couldn't afford it could just pay 300 coins and gamble on the 25% chance.
What if they threw a tantrum demanding treatment?
The defense turrets would happily cut their remaining lifespan short.
"But will we get any business at 5,000 coins?"
Kim Ji-hee asked, her initial joy at finally being able to save dying bite victims and earn more coins giving way to doubt.
Even by her standards, 5,000 coins seemed like an overwhelming sum for an ordinary survivor to pay.
She wasn't wrong.
"The scrubs should just pray and die if they get bitten. Why struggle so hard to cling to life? If high-ranking members of some faction get unlucky and bitten, they'll bring the coins to save them."
Kim Ji-hee's daily routine probably wouldn't change much.
Similarly, Jeon Ye-sol wouldn't have much to do as a mana gas station just yet.
For now, Kim Ji-hee was the only one in Paradise who could actually make use of Jeon Ye-sol's mana refueling.
Even if it went unused, we just needed to put it on the menu and let people know.
That Paradise had this kind of system.
That this wasn't just a place to get food, provisions, or go to the sauna.
But that we possessed the ultimate cure to resolve the most fatal threat of the zombie apocalypse—turning into a zombie—as long as they had the coins and the time.
"Still, you never know, so just wait. Some unlucky bastard with filthy amounts of coins might get bitten and come crawling in with bags of cash."
Well, I only said that in passing.
It was a common enough occurrence in a zombie apocalypse, and in a world like this, you never knew what might happen.
But then, it actually happened.
---
"Oppa, the hospital hit the jackpot."
"What is it?"
I had slept in for the first time in a while, waking up in the afternoon to space out in the hot spring, when I received a message from Kim Ji-hee. It was quite a spectacle.
"This morning, we immediately got three reservations for the preventive vaccine. So I accepted one first and told the other two to wait, but all three of them showed up together! Apparently, they tried to clear some Level 3 Dungeon but failed and barely escaped. They were all critical cases, but they said they had the coins, so I treated the first one. Then I waited for Ye-sol's mana to recover, saved the next, waited again, and saved the last. We made 15,000 coins!"
"Wow."
Holy shit.
I never thought the day would come when I'd feel a sense of deprivation.
15,000 coins in just three clicks.
Of course, it was something I could do too, and 90% of that 15,000 coins belonged to me anyway.
Even so, I was briefly awed by the sheer majesty of the healing skill.
As expected, a vaccine in a zombie apocalypse was a blank check of immeasurable value.
To think three people would show up in a single day.
It wasn't that surprising that they had that many coins.
After all, I had set the vaccine price with the spare funds of a small faction in mind.
Rather than the money, I was more curious about who the hell these guys were to shell out 15,000 coins to save three people at 5,000 coins a head.
If they failed a dungeon raid, surely others must have been injured or killed.
Yet, out of all those people, only these three?
Something smelled fishy.
I looked at the information left in the medical records.
"Well, they were certainly worth saving."
One S-Grade Combat Mode.
One A-Grade Support Mode.
One A-Grade Combat Mode.
On top of that, the support mode was a buff-type skill I'd never seen before, which made it quite intriguing.
Was it like a buffer in a game?
A skill that temporarily boosted the target's agility... It looked pretty appetizing.
I quietly traced their footsteps.
They had received the preventive vaccine, but as long as it wasn't a zombie infection, how they died afterward was none of our hospital's business.
But as I followed their trail, I discovered something interesting.
"Oh?"
They had signed up for a membership solely for the treatment, and the moment it was over, they canceled it and vanished, leaving no trace.
Because they canceled it nearby, I couldn't verify whether they were residents living inside the Safe Base or outsiders who had come from beyond.
"Something interesting might happen soon."
Well, there was no way to know for sure.
A faction possessing modes of that caliber would be at least a small faction... or maybe even a medium faction.
Or perhaps they were true veterans with ten thousand hours in the zombie apocalypse.
Whatever the case, the Level 3 Dungeon story could have been a lie too.
Indeed. This is the true flavor of a zombie apocalypse.
Even when I think I control everything, unexpected events still unfold, revolving around the world rather than around me.
Since I have plenty of leeway, there's no need to rush.
The information gained alongside those 15,000 coins would remain as bait, keeping me in anticipation and excitement.