Chapter 00015: Divine Medicine
# Divine Medicine
Chapter 15
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 15: Divine Medicine
"Zola, hold on! Even the encirclement by the coalition forces couldn’t break us, I will not allow you to die, do you hear me? That's an order!"
"Your Highness… [i]cough cough[/i]!"
Amid harsh coughs, Zola weakly said:
"Please stay away from me, Your Highness... my illness is contagious. You mustn't... [i]cough cough![/i] You mustn't fall ill."
"Shut up! I will not allow you to die! Our Lord will definitely save you!"
Viola shoved open the doors of the chapel with force, leading a group of people inside.
Under the holy emblem, she dropped to her knees.
"O Lord, your loyal servant Viola humbly prays to You.
Please save Zola—she is my sword and my dearest friend, and also Your faithful follower.
Please don’t take her from me."
Viola repeated her prayer over and over again, her voice choked with emotion.
The knights who carried the stretcher also knelt down one after another, grasping their hands tightly in desperate plea for a miracle.
Half an hour passed.
Viola still heard no response from the Demon God.
Despair had all but taken root in her heart, yet she still refused to give up.
"[i]cough cough![/i] Your Highness…"
"Zola, just lie down. Our Lord will save you! Our merciful Lord will never abandon His followers!"
"No… Your Highness..."
Zola struggled to turn over on the stretcher.
As she faced downward, she vomited a thick clump of blood-tinged mucus.
"I wanted to say… [i]cough! [/i]I just heard the Lord’s voice. Such a dignified and distant voice…"
Viola was stunned, then urgently cried out toward the holy emblem:
"My Lord! Please don’t take Zola away!"
"Your Highness! Please… let me finish."
Zola forced herself upright, her fragile body swaying from constant coughing fits.
"The Lord said... He would grant me medicine."
Before she finished speaking, a surge of brilliant light burst out from the altar before the holy emblem.
When the light faded, something entirely new sat upon the altar—two paper boxes, one big and one small.
– ‐‐——–‐‐——
Li Chengxi had seen them carry Zola into the chapel on a stretcher and already knew they must be seeking help.
As expected, Viola practically skidded in and fell to her knees before the holy emblem.
He clicked on the chibi-color pixel icon representing Viola.
Her prayers appeared on screen through a dialogue box.
If it were just a normal injury, Viola could have used the Holy Light Technique to heal her quickly.
It seemed like Zola had been poisoned.
Li Chengxi moved the mouse, right-clicked Zola's pixel figure, and selected her status from the dropdown menu.
He saw that Zola’s HP had dropped to nearly half, and the status bar next to it displayed the word: “Illness.”
Oh? Not a poison then?
So Lord Leon escapes death again.
Li Chengxi had been wondering earlier how he might get rid of him quickly.
Hovering the cursor over the word “Illness,” a small info window popped up: “Bacterial Pneumonia.”
Pneumonia isn’t a major illness by modern standards—as long as treatment is prompt, the patient recovers.
But in a world with poor hygiene and primitive medicine, it's often a death sentence.
Especially bacterial pneumonia.
Without antibiotics, not only is it fatal, it might even spread into a plague.
But this wasn’t an unsolvable problem.
Li Chengxi opened Viola's skill bar, then right-clicked to choose a divine art to add.
He remembered seeing a skill called “Remove Disease.” If he could just grant this divine art to Viola, Zola would be fine in minutes.
So really, not a big issue... or so he thought.
Then, in the skill details, he saw the cost for granting "Remove Disease": 100 Faith Points.
Yet the display on the left side of the screen showed he had just 43…
Now that was a big problem.
Faith Points regenerate slowly—anywhere from a few points to a dozen each day.
Over the last several days, Li Chengxi had been frequently pulling items from the game into reality, which also consumes Faith Points.
Damn.
What now?
Like he’d said before, though they were all NPCs, some were different from others.
He could squash Lord Leon in an instant with no remorse.
But he couldn’t bring himself to let an NPC with artwork that fit his personal taste vanish.
“Wait a second—if I can pull stuff out of the game into my world, could I do the reverse? Put real-world stuff into the game?”
From the Radiance Ring to Lilia’s wooden plate and the meals Viola delivered to him—all were in-game items.
But what if he tried inserting real-world stuff?
He had never considered it before.
After all, this game had no tutorial.
Switching out of the game screen, Li Chengxi opened his browser and searched for treatments for bacterial pneumonia.
Then he installed a lock on the store door and dashed to the nearest pharmacy, buying cefalexin and some cough syrup.
By the time he got back, nearly half an hour had passed.
He tentatively tried pushing the medicine boxes into the screen.
The screen shimmered slightly—and the medicine now sat atop the altar, converted to pixel-style items.
Li Chengxi let out a deep sigh of relief.
So real-world objects could be transferred into the game.
No idea about the actual effect, though.
He’d only Googled treatment options.
He couldn’t exactly grab a real doctor and shove him through the monitor to heal her.
Just had to try these standard over-the-counter meds first.
He put on his headset—he needed to tell Zola how to take the medicine.
Otherwise, with how little they understood, these folks might stuff the entire box of cefalexin into her mouth.
In their world, alcohol seemed to play a role in treatment.
If they combined antibiotics with booze, not even the gods could save her.
He quickly and simply explained how to use the medication.
On-screen, the Royal Guards began cheering in amazement as they gathered around the cefalexin and cough syrup.
The whole scene felt surreal to him.
It was like handing a smartphone to someone from ancient times, telling them it could let them speak with someone a thousand miles away and see the world without leaving home.
They’d surely think it a divine miracle.
With that thought, the boundary between science and theology blurred in his mind.
He wondered, when people in the 21st century encounter future technology, would they consider it divine as well?
He pondered for a moment, then chuckled to himself.
Why the hell am I thinking about this? Got nothing better to do?
Just then, he glanced back up at the screen—dialogue boxes were popping up one after the other.
The Royal Guards were loudly shouting.
Each box read: “Damn!”
“What the—why!?”
Next thing he knew, the screen filled with even more boxes mixing “Damn!” and “Shit!”
“….”
Glancing down at the headset in his hand, Li Chengxi seemed to figure out why...
– ‐‐——–‐‐——
Demon Lord Calendar year 648.
April 4th.
Noon.
"Zola, how are you feeling?"
"Your Highness…"
Zola tried to lift her head off the bed but was too weak.
"I feel much better. It’s unbelievable. The doctors said this disease was terminal, but I’m already recovering after just a single day."
"Of course, it was the divine medicine granted by our Lord."
To prevent infection, the Royal Guards had scattered lime on the floor of Zola's room, as well as every place she'd passed through or spat.
That instruction had also been conveyed through divine oracle.
“What kind of place must the Divine Realm be?”
Zola gazed up at the ceiling.
“A pill the size of a peanut, wrapped in a substance clearer than glass and thinner than the wings of a cicada… exquisite patterns printed on the box, and even brightly colored glass used for the containers—it must be a land of unimaginable wealth.”
Viola responded gravely,
"Zola, no matter how beautiful the Divine Realm is, I won’t allow you to leave me just yet."
"Of course not, Your Highness—I still must serve you."
Just then, the door was softly knocked.
With permission granted, Shelly stepped into the room.
"What is it?"
"Your Highness, the scouts have finally found the trail of the bandits."
That was good news—it meant Viola could finally carry out the Demon God's divine oracle.
"How’s the status of our soldiers?"
"The divine arts granted by the Lord have greatly accelerated their recovery. Five hundred men have now fully healed and are ready for battle."
"Excellent. Instruct the scouts to continue gathering detailed intel. Not just for us—but to show our gratitude for the Lord’s mercy."
Viola rose to her feet and solemnly declared,
"Our Lord is watching—we must not let Him down. We shall claim victory!"
(End of Chapter)