Chapter 871 The City of Machines and the Green Mountain Sanatorium

Mechanical City instance.

On a wide street, Su Qingqian's figure slowly appeared.

"Is this... a personal, customized version of the machine specialization?"

Su Qingqian looked up and saw towering metal buildings.

On the black, blue, and white alloy walls, thick pipes meander and climb like ivy, occasionally spewing out white steam.

On the streets, countless strangely shaped mechanical creatures are walking.

They weren't surprised by Su Qingqian's sudden appearance; they just glanced at her curiously a few times before looking away.

In the distance, a massive circular metal arena stood in the city center, and deafening cheers rolled in like muffled thunder.

Su Qingqian took a light breath and, instead of rushing around, she recalled the system tasks.

[Instance Name: Mechanical City]

Difficulty Level: Hard

Main Quest 1: Take the entrance exam for the Mechanical Engineering Academy and become a student.

[Main Mission 2: Complete the learning, design, forging, and debugging within one year to create your own combat mech and win a top-three finish in the 10086th Mech Competition.]

[Introduction: This is a mechanical city that reveres mecha combat, where all residents are intelligent mechanical beings...]

[Task Duration: One Year]

[Punishment for failure: You will be transformed into a mechanical being and permanently trapped in the Mechanical City.]

[Note: Time flow ratio between Mechanical City and Player Starfield: 100:1]

"call......"

Su Qingqian exhaled and began to think.

The main mission is very clear: enter the mechanical academy, build a mecha, and win the top three in the competition.

Before entering the instance, she tried to disassemble the "First Generation Cyber Swordsman Mech" that the boss had obtained from Jasper, attempting to reverse engineer its manufacturing process.

But the result was far from ideal.

Even though she has extremely high talent, her knowledge base is still too thin.

The forging of combat mechs is an extremely complex and interdisciplinary subject.

Involving morphology, kinematics, structural mechanics, dynamic systems, neural perception, microsecond-level sensors, intelligent combat support modules...

Therefore, this task was very challenging for her.

The difficulty of the ladder dungeon is determined by a combination of the player's ladder points and past performance.

The system rated it as "difficult," meaning that with her current skill level, she has an extremely high failure rate.

"In the past, the boss would handle all the dungeons, and I only needed to do logistics. But now, my rank is too low, and I can't keep up with the boss anymore."

Su Qingqian clenched her fair fists and encouraged herself:

"A time flow rate of 100 to 1—this is my best chance to reflect! I can do it! Go for it!!"

Then, she strode off toward the circular metal arena.

Su Qingqian is going to see what her goal is.

One year from now, she will stand in the metal arena with her battle angel!

......

A copy of the Qingshan Sanatorium.

"Tick-tock...tick-tock..."

Water was leaking from the ceiling pipes, splashing onto the moldy floor.

When Bai Ling opened her eyes, she found herself sitting behind a dilapidated desk.

A nurse stood upright in front of the desk.

The nurse was wearing a filthy white coat, her skin was ashen and severely swollen. Most horrifyingly, her face had no features, only a smooth, writhing expanse of gray flesh!

If an ordinary player opened their eyes and saw this scene, their sanity would probably plummet.

But who is Bai Ling?

She's already immune.

Bai Ling completely ignored the nurse in front of her and turned her head to look around.

This appears to be a doctor's office.

The white paint that had once been applied to the walls was now mottled and yellowed, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of formaldehyde mixed with the stench of rotting meat.

A pile of medical records stained with brown blood lay scattered haphazardly on the table.

Bai Ling looked out the door. The corridor lights flickered on and off, and from time to time, inhuman growls and chewing sounds could be heard.

She turned her gaze away and opened the system panel.

[Instance Name: Green Mountain Sanatorium]

Difficulty Level: Hard

Main Quest: Heal all patients at Green Hill Sanatorium.

[Introduction: Welcome to Qingshan Sanatorium. You are currently the only attending physician on duty here. You need to rely on your medical skills to treat all the inpatients and help them be discharged smoothly.] (Friendly reminder: The previous doctor was eaten by the patients last night because he prescribed the wrong medication. Now, your only helper is Head Nurse Anna.)

[Task duration: one month]

[Failure Penalty: None]

[Note: The player's starfield time flow rate is 10:1]

"This looks interesting..." Bai Ling's lips curled into an excited smile as she picked up the stack of blood-stained patient catalogs on the table and quickly began to flip through them.

"Currently, there are 18 hospitalized patients."

"Room 7, Nightmare, necrosis of nerve endings in the wings..."

"Room 14, the ghoul..."

Bai Ling's smile grew wider and wider: "Tsk tsk tsk, eighteen patients, all of them non-human monsters, this is simply a treasure trove of genes!"

She randomly picked up a medical record.

Patient: Marlene

Race: Ghoul

[Disease: Anorexia]

[Symptoms: The patient has lost the drive to feed on human carrion, exhibiting persistent pica, lichenification of the skin, and cognitive drift. Previous treatments by the physician, including anti-infective drugs and psychiatric interventions, have been ineffective. This is considered an instinctual degenerative disorder originating from the underground environment.]

"Anorexia?"

Bai Ling chuckled and casually tossed the medical record onto the table.

Immediately afterwards, she stood up and very naturally took a fairly clean white coat from the coat rack next to her and put it on.

"Anna, take that ghoul named Marlene to operating room number one and prepare to operate immediately."

The faceless head nurse, Anna, was visibly taken aback: "Dr. Bai... are you sure it's surgery? Marlene only has anorexia..."

"Anorexia, that was just the previous doctor's diagnosis."

Bai Ling smiled and said, "As for me, I'm a pragmatist! How can I draw conclusions about any pathological conditions without opening up the abdomen and looking inside the intestines and stomach?"

"Go ahead, Anna. I'm a professional, you can trust me. If they find nothing wrong after cutting her open, I'll just sew her back up."

Anna: "..."

But as the only head nurse, she could only nod in agreement: "Okay, okay, Dr. Bai."

......