Rise of the Wasteland Chapter 35 - Devil's Gift

Chapter 35        Devil's Gift

Zhou Qingfeng’s willpower could not heal his injuries. At least half of the skin on his body had varying degrees of burns. It looked like there were blisters in the areas where the injuries were minor, while the other parts were already medium rare.

As Zhou Qingfeng had been repeatedly using the ability, ‘As Quick as Lightning’, he felt dizzy due to the huge energy it consumed. Hunger, thirst, shortness of breath, palpitations - he was struggling with every single one of these conditions. When he returned to the interior of the hospital, he looked everywhere for water.

There were all sorts of medical rooms along the corridor of the hospital. However, they were all empty. The patients had either ran away or were made hostages by Locke. Zhou Qingfeng went from one room to another, looking for food and drinks, but he could not find any.

“Fuck, where is the water?” Zhou Qingfeng could not bear his burning throat any longer. He could not be bothered about the threat coming from outside the hospital. He just kept running everywhere inside the hospital. He would either rush into a room or climb the stairs. In the end, he found himself in front of the door of a small room.

‘Alonzo Superpower Laboratory’, it read. Zhou Qingfeng saw the sign on the door and he thought, What the hell is this place? Is there any water in there?

He pushed the door, but it was locked.

Zhou Qingfeng did not hesitate. He took his gun and knocked the lock off. He pushed the door open and immediately, he saw a big refrigerator at the end of the room.

Oh! Oh! What’s in the fridge? Water? Drinks? Food? Zhou Qingfeng was excited and he rushed towards the refrigerator. He opened it and saw a little glass bottle in the refrigerator.

Zhou Qingfeng grabbed the glass bottle, opened it, and smelled it. He felt the cool air linger in his nose. His body was filled with the pain from the burns and the cool air coming from the refrigerator. It made him feel extremely comfortable.

“This thing isn’t going to kill me, right? Should I drink it?” Zhou Qingfeng was very thirsty and his mind was cloudy from his grave injuries. He did not think much about this room and what was in the refrigerator. He then drank a sip of the liquid in the little glass bottle.

It was a little sour but, it was not that bad. Most importantly, drinking it felt very satisfying. Zhou Qingfeng took one more sip, then another, until the whole bottle ended up empty.

There was someone crouched in the corner of the room. He did not dare to speak when he saw Zhou Qingfeng rushing in with a rifle. He saw Zhou Qingfeng drink the liquid in the refrigerator. He could not help but say, “You can’t drink that. It wasn’t certified yet.”

What?

Zhou Qingfeng heard the voice and aimed with his rifle. He saw someone hiding under the table, “Who was that? Come out!”

As soon as Zhou Qingfeng finished his words, his limbs felt weak. Even his brain turned blurry and he felt dizzy. After a few seconds, he fainted and fell to the ground.

The man under the table quickly came out and rushed to Zhou Qingfeng. He said, worriedly, “Shit, shit! This officer drank the NTZ-49. What should I do?”

Time passed very quickly…..

Zhou Qingfeng woke up and found himself on a hospital bed. There was a white male, who looked to be around thirty, leaning and resting against the bed.

“Where am I?” Zhou Qingfeng sat up and remembered his unlucky day. He had followed Katrina to buy ammo. He was then robbed and he killed someone. He encountered a kidnapping case, and once again, killed someone. He got into the hospital, did not stop killing, and ended up rushing out from a fire. And, he was extremely thirsty.

What happened after that? I think I fainted!

Zhou Qingfeng looked at his elbow, there was a drip in it. He glanced at the infusion pack and saw the words which said, ‘Normal saline, glucose, and anti-inflammatory drugs’. They were the common medications.

However, the most miraculous thing was that in the body parts that were scalded - especially in the exposed areas, such as his arms, which were previously, burning red - were scabs that were beginning to form. Some of his body parts even itched and they were healing.

How did my body recover this fast?!

Zhou Qingfeng nudged the white man beside him to wake him up, “Hey, wake up. What is going on?”

The white man saw that Zhou Qingfeng was awake, quickly stood up, and asked concernedly, “Mr. Officer, how do you feel?”

“Amazing. Couldn’t feel any better,” Zhou Qingfeng rose his arm and pointed at the infusion lines, “Can you take these off?”

The white man nodded and said, “Of course. I was just worried that your body lacked water, electrolytes, and nutrients. That’s why I gave you the infusion. I think you need to go to the bathroom now; it’s over there.”

Zhou Qingfeng only realized it once he was told - he did, indeed, require the toilet. He went to the toilet and found that there was blood in his urine - it was black and pretty horrifying.

He peed for more than a minute and he felt a lot better and lighter. He walked out from the bathroom and saw the food that was prepared by the white man.

“I think that you should be hungry and that you have a lot of questions. Did you realize that there was something wrong with your urine? You don’t have to panic, I can explain.” The white man put a loaf of bread and a bottle of jam in front of Zhou Qingfeng and said, “You better eat something. You need a huge amount of protein, carbohydrates, and water supplements. But, these are what I have right now.”

Zhou Qingfeng was indeed, feeling hungry, extremely hungry. The white male did not even need to speak. Zhou Qingfeng had already grabbed the bread and jam, and started eating. He finished the whole loaf of bread in less than five minutes.

When the white man saw that Zhou Qingfeng had finished eating, he nervously rubbed his hands and said, “I have two news for you. Which one would you like know first?”

“Are they good news and bad news?” Zhou Qingfeng finished eating. He felt very energetic, was in high spirits, and his face was radiant with joy. He drank a glass of water before he said, “Tell me the good news first.”

“The good news is that the burns on your body are recovering very quickly. From today onwards, the ability of your body to recover will be ten times faster than that of the normal person’s. Of course, you will need to consume a lot of food under these circumstances.”

“Your physical fitness will be fully enhanced. Whether it’s strength, endurance, power, or even your vision, hearing, and smell - everything will greatly improve. You will have twice or thrice the physical fitness of ordinary people.”

“You will be running faster, jumping higher and experiencing more endurance than ever. Your ability to memorize, analyze, observe - anything related to intelligence would be improved by at least fifty-percent within the next three days. To put it simply, you will be a superhuman.”

The white man folded a finger towards his palm every time he listed an improvement. At the end, every finger was folded. Zhou Qingfeng did indeed, feel great improvement in every aspect of his body. It felt remarkably wonderful. It was as if he was high.

“That was good news, indeed. Why am I experiencing this change?” Zhou Qingfeng asked with a smile.

The white man heaved a sigh. His face sank and he said, depressed, “This will be the bad news. Do you remember the little bottle that you drank when you rushed in? That was called ‘NTZ-49’, and we call it the ‘Devil’s Gift’.”

Chapter end