Chapter 557: Kneeling

Tan Minglei's eyes were full of suspicion, "Type O and Type F, a whole bottle costs only two or three hundred points, doesn't it?

"Don't bother asking how I came to know this. But I'm fairly confident the information is accurate.

"Let's say 300 per bottle. That's 60 points per tablet, and 180 points for a full cure.

"And yet I previously bought Type M from you at 1,500 per tablet.

"Twenty-five times the price.

"Earlier you said Type O and Type F could cause addiction and serious consequences. Have you actually tested that?

"Do you have evidence?

"Or is it purely your speculation?"

The Doctor's expression darkened, and he said in a low voice, "So what exactly are you trying to say?

"That I should spend all my own Medical Points giving you medication for free?

"I'm just an ordinary player too. I happen to know a little professional knowledge, and I happen to have been assigned the Doctor identity. That's all there is to it.

"Don't try to hold me to the professional ethics of a real-world doctor.

"I want to do the right thing, but I also need to earn visa time in this game. All I can do is try to find a balance within the rules.

"I have no intention of arguing about this with you, and I owe you no explanation.

"When the game ends, if your community has a debrief, you'll understand. I'm no saint. The choices I've made are far from the best, but they are absolutely not the worst."

The Doctor finished speaking and instinctively leaned back slightly.

By this point in the conversation, the tension between them was palpable.

The game prohibited violent acts, but there was no telling when some player might lose their composure in a moment of fury.

And the game imposed no restrictions whatsoever on verbal aggression.

Humiliation, insults, moral attacks, or even spitting, all of it was theoretically possible.

What the Doctor had not expected, however, was that Tan Minglei, whose face had been filling with anguish and indignation, suddenly dropped to his knees with a thud.

The Doctor was stunned, "You, what are you doing!"

The expression on Tan Minglei's face shifted gradually from anger to despair, "Doctor, I think I can more or less guess why you're doing this.

"Those of us patients have talked it over in the Lounge as well.

"Two of the players are absolutely convinced that you're deliberately refusing to sell us the cheaper Type O and Type F in order to control the supply chain, act as a middleman, and sell us overpriced medication.

"The whole talk about Type O and Type F having serious side effects, they say it's just an excuse and a cover story.

"But I believe you.

"Because I know the recommended retail range for Type M is between 1,200 and 1,500.

"And before it reaches you as the Doctor, it has already passed through the Sales player and the Reviewer. Two stages.

"Which means the price you pay for Type M must also be around 1,500. If you sold it to patients at the same price, there would be no profit at all, and you would leave this game empty-handed.

"But if you sold it above 1,500, it would be flagged as a violation transaction, with 10% deducted from your earnings each time, up to a maximum of 70%.

"So if you want to earn any visa time at all while only selling Type M, the only way is to significantly inflate the per-tablet price.

"And if you were purely in this to earn Medical Points, there would be no need to go to all this trouble. You could just sell Type O and Type F directly.

"Those two cost almost nothing to stock, the profit margin is enormous, and patients would probably be grateful to you for it.

"Yet both Doctors have still absolutely refused to sell them, which is why I genuinely believe the side effects are serious, and that you are looking out for us.

"After all, Type M only makes patients lose visa time, whereas Type O and Type F could permanently damage the body."

The Doctor was stunned. He had not expected Tan Minglei to have worked all of that out.

In truth, once you had the relevant information, noticing those details was not difficult. What was difficult was being willing to consider things from the other party's perspective.

As a patient who had been forced to pay 1,500 per tablet at inflated prices, any ordinary person would be furious, and would be in no state to think about things from the Doctor's point of view.

And so Tan Minglei's words visibly moved him.

But then Tan Minglei's tone shifted, "Even so, Doctor, have you ever considered what the difference between visa time and life actually is for ordinary players?

"Even if Type M truly has the fewest side effects, it's still too expensive. Even at its base price, it costs several times more than the other medications.

"I may be able to manage, but what about the other patients? Most of them didn't start with many Medical Points to begin with. How many tablets can they actually afford?

"Even if the fatal pain is temporarily cured and they escape the Infected status, they could become Infected again at any moment later in the game.

"Whether it's from Standard Pain worsening, being passed the infection by another patient, or simply being unlucky enough to be selected by the system again, they could suffer all over again.

"And on top of that, many patients don't have much visa time at all. Just buying the basic medication from the Lounge has already cost them a significant number of Medical Points. If Special Medication is still this expensive, their current Medical Points simply won't be enough, and they'll have no choice but to convert at a 2:1 ratio, or even be forced into debt at 4:1.

"For them, what is the essential difference between running out of visa time and dying?

"So Doctor, I'm begging you, please show some mercy and sell us Type O and Type F.

"In this terrible place, no player knows whether they'll still be alive tomorrow. Any one of us could die in the next game.

"Even if there are side effects, there's no guarantee any of us will live long enough for them to take hold.

"This is my own choice, and it's the shared choice of every other patient in the Lounge."

The Doctor was frozen. After a long silence, he quietly opened a drawer and took out a bottle of Type O medication.

Eleventh round.

In the Review Room, Zheng Chunhua and Qin Cheng met again.

Taking one look at Zheng Chunhua's expression, Qin Cheng felt a twinge of unease and asked, "What happened?"

Zheng Chunhua let out a quiet sigh, "Last round, I went to see the other Doctor. Feng Yuguang.

"He told me that he's struggling to hold on. He wants to give up.

"He also tried to convince me to give up.

"And I've been thinking, maybe we should just let it go.

"Sell Type O and Type F to the patients."

Qin Cheng looked at him in silence for a moment, "Isn't it a little too early to give up now?

"This game isn't even halfway through yet. The earlier we give in, the sooner the medications flood in, and the worse the harm to all the players.

"Can we hold on for at least a few more rounds?"

Zheng Chunhua said, "Feng Yuguang told me that the patient who came to meet with him gave him the worst verbal abuse he's ever received.

"Called him and the Reviewer two conspirators, said they were deliberately monopolising the medications, that there were cheaper drugs available but they were withholding them, only selling expensive ones, doing nothing but trying to drain every patient's Medical Points and visa time.

"He tried to explain himself. It didn't help."

Qin Cheng said, "Then stop explaining. All he needs to do is keep giving patients medication and saving lives.

"Whatever people say about him, he can let it go in one ear and out the other."

Zheng Chunhua shook his head with a sigh, "That's what I told him too.

"But he turned the question back on me. Why? What gives us the right?

"We've said everything there is to say. These are strangers from different communities. We share no common interests with them. Why should he endure this kind of grievance and misunderstanding, just to help people who have nothing to do with him?

"If these patients want Type O and Type F, why not just give it to them?

"In this terrible place, no matter whether you live or die, every player can ultimately only look out for themselves.

"This is simply not our responsibility.

"As for what they do with the medication once they have it, whether they strictly take just one tablet per round, or take several, whether they end up addicted in the end, those are their own choices.

"Even if we manage to protect them in this game by holding the line under pressure, what about the next game? And the one after that?

"They could die in any game that comes after this.

"What does any of what we're doing actually accomplish?"

Qin Cheng let out a quiet sigh and looked at Zheng Chunhua, "Uncle Zheng, that's also what you want to say, isn't it?"

Zheng Chunhua paused, then gave an honest nod, "Yes."