Chapter 55 Muzi Fruit Is Not a Panacea

At seven o'clock in the evening, Qian Lin and his group finally arrived at their destination.

The First People's Hospital of An City, located in Sichuan and Shu.

Nothing eventful had happened along the way; or rather, the journey was almost too peaceful. They encountered no blocking Pokémon, nor any strange natural phenomena. Qian Lin did not think much of it, but the six-member team accompanying him felt somewhat unsatisfied.

"Just how much were you hoping for an accident?" Qian Lin asked, looking helplessly at Fu Xing as he stepped out of the vehicle.

Fu Xing blinked and replied with an innocent tone, "It's not that we wanted an accident to happen. Ever since Pokémon descended, all social media outlets have constantly been saying 'the outside world is dangerous' and warning everyone never to venture into the wild, so we all assumed danger lurked everywhere out here."

Hearing this, Qian Lin felt a bit puzzled: "Have you never been to the wild?"

"We have," Fu Xing shrugged. "But whenever we go out, it's definitely to execute missions, mostly heading to dangerous places. If there's no danger, we wouldn't go there in the first place, so for this trip we all thought..."

With that, Fu Xing made a "you-know" expression.

Their status was naturally different from ordinary citizens. Whenever they appeared in the wild, it was bound to be for a dangerous assignment. Therefore, he was utterly shocked that they had traveled so far and spent so long in the wild today without a single incident.

Qian Lin sighed helplessly: "You guys think of the wild far too terribly."

Regardless, Qian Lin still admired them.

Just as he was thinking this, the people sent by the hospital to welcome them arrived.

There were five people in total, with Dean Zhou prominently among them. Although Qian Lin did not recognize the other four, he could easily guess they were no ordinary individuals: one wore a doctor's uniform, another a suit, and the remaining two appeared to be nurses, though their ages suggested they were not ordinary nurses either.

Stepping out of the hospital gates, Dean Zhou spotted Qian Lin immediately. His expression remained unchanged as he simply nodded toward Qian Lin and the five people who had alighted with him.

The man in the suit beside him flashed a smile at once, then walked over to Qian Lin with great enthusiasm. Extending a hand, he said, "Hello, Comrade Qian Lin. I am Mayor Zhao's secretary, surnamed Li, and I'm the person responsible for liaising with the Bamboo County Pokémon Research Institute."

"Hello," Qian Lin said, extending his hand to shake Secretary Li's.

The two shook hands briefly before letting go. Without wasting any time, Secretary Li went straight to the point: "Mayor Zhao couldn't come in person due to a meeting, but he cares deeply about this matter, so he asked me to follow up. If there are any developments here, I will contact Mayor Zhao immediately. If you have any needs, you can also let me know."

With that, he stepped aside and gestured: "Then I shall leave the subsequent matters in the capable hands of you and Dean Zhou."

Giving Qian Lin almost no chance to speak, Secretary Li had already said everything that needed to be said, leaving Qian Lin momentarily unsure of how to respond.

Just as he managed a soft "Thank you," Dean Zhou spoke up instantly: "Let's head directly to the intensive care unit."

"Ah... alright," Qian Lin replied somewhat awkwardly.

To be honest, he was not very good at handling such scenarios; he would rather just see the patients directly and cure them.

In fact, he roughly understood why Secretary Li was here. The country's current development direction was inherently linked to Pokémon, and anything connected to national development could simply not be treated lightly.

The Pokémon Research Institute must have contacted An City in advance, and Mayor Zhao, knowing this, had sent Secretary Li to receive him.

I suddenly feel like my importance has skyrocketed, don't I?

Qian Lin shook his head helplessly and followed Dean Zhou toward the intensive care unit, asking questions along the way.

A nurse beside him handed over a stack of medical examination files. Though he could not make head or tail of them, the nurse explained them to him on the fly, while another doctor occasionally chimed in with explanations of their own. Dean Zhou, however, remained completely silent from start to finish.

A few minutes later, the group arrived at the intensive care unit. After going through a series of disinfection procedures, Qian Lin finally stood before the patient.

Just as stated in the hospital's medical reports, the patient was unconscious, exhibited abnormal brainwaves, and had a rigid body. Because Qian Lin could not understand overly professional medical terminology, Dean Zhou provided a simpler descriptive term—a vegetable.

"A vegetable..." Qian Lin repeated softly.

"It's just to make it easier for you to understand," Dean Zhou said, resting his hand on the railing of the hospital bed as he looked down at the patient. "Vegetatives have no consciousness or cognitive abilities, but the patients you see before you are different. They do not react to our speech, but they do show a certain degree of reaction to the voices of their loved ones."

"To put it simply, the difference between a vegetative and a dead person is that the former still possesses breathing, body temperature regulation, digestion and absorption, secretion and excretion, metabolism, as well as a heartbeat and circulatory functions, whereas a dead person does not." Dean Zhou spoke in a rather cold tone, his eyes showing not the slightest ripple of emotion.

A bit terrifying.

Qian Lin took an imperceptible half-step back, falling into deep thought as he gazed at the patient lying on the bed.

Dean Zhou raised his head to look at him and asked, "So, does this have anything to do with that ghost-type Pokémon you mentioned?"

Qian Lin nodded: "I can now confirm that this is indeed related to ghost-type Pokémon."

It had been unclear in the video, but being right here made it easy for him to distinguish: the people before him had fallen into a deep slumber after being attacked by ghost-type Pokémon. To put it in terms that were easier to grasp, these people's souls were no longer inside their bodies.

Hearing this, Dean Zhou let out a long breath of relief: "Finding the cause of the illness is still better than having no idea what's going on after all this time."

In illness, what people fear most is not just the sickness itself, but remaining entirely ignorant of why they fell ill in the first place.

"How do we save them?" Dean Zhou asked again.

Qian Lin pulled a Chesto Berry from his backpack and sighed, "If they had fallen unconscious merely due to a move or an ability, a Chesto Berry could be used to cure the status condition and wake them up. But the condition of these people is not caused by moves or abilities, so a Chesto Berry cannot cure them either. The only way is to find the Pokémon that attacked them and make it... return these people's souls."

A Chesto Berry could remove status conditions, but these people had not fallen asleep due to a status condition.

"Souls?" Dean Zhou blinked, looking thoroughly bewildered.

"Oh, it's just a metaphor." Qian Lin knew that if he kept dwelling on souls with a doctor, the conversation would never end, so he chose to change the subject. "Dean Zhou, do you happen to know where these people were when they lost consciousness?"

Dean Zhou sensed Qian Lin's evasion, but he didn't care at the moment; the patients were far more important.

Upon hearing Qian Lin's question, Dean Zhou turned his gaze to the other side of the hospital bed, where three middle-aged men in protective suits stood quietly.