Rhodes Island does not exist.

She is now completely absorbed in the act of bloodsucking, having forgotten and abandoned all thought processes, and is enjoying unconscious pleasure and satisfaction.

"If this scene were witnessed by a sudden visitor, it would be truly difficult to explain."

Looking at Kroos, who was sucking his blood like a child and whose appearance was extremely tragic, the Doctor couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh.

However, seeing her completely absorbed in the experience, the doctor couldn't help but wonder what his own blood tasted like.

Unfortunately, it's precisely because I am the one who experienced it that I can't understand the deliciousness and allure contained within that blood.

-

About five minutes later, Kroos gradually came to her senses from the frenzied act of absorption and stood there speechless and stunned.

It's hard to imagine that this person, covered in blood, was only there because they had just eaten a meal.

However, for those Blood Demons who live freely in the outside world, this is probably the norm.

"Doctor...me."

She stammered as she spoke, her normally well-developed and rich language skills now a jumbled mess.

“I haven’t actually studied the physiological structure of Blood Demons in great depth.” The Doctor sat quietly beside Kroos, speaking as if nothing had happened. “But I remember reading in a document that a Sarkaz Blood Demon can maintain its life force for nearly a month after consuming enough blood to feel full.”

"So, after drinking my blood this time, you shouldn't have to suffer from the pangs of hunger for the next month, right?" He looked at Kroos and said with a smile.

"...Let's put my matter aside for now, are you alright?" Kroos was somewhat aware of the Doctor's identity, but that's precisely why she was extra concerned. "I was holding your arm and sucking your blood for several minutes."

"It won't have any real impact on me for the time being," the doctor shook his head. "You don't need to worry about that."

"Phew... Now I finally understand why Warfarin always puts so much effort into controlling her impulses." Recalling those few minutes when she was almost lost in thought, Lucille still felt a lingering fear. "The Doctor's blood really isn't something you can just touch casually, let alone directly ingest..."

"Alright, now that you've resolved things here, I'm going to the intensive care unit on the fourth floor to find Kal'tsit." The Doctor stood up, stretched his right arm that had just been drained, and looked towards the exit as he spoke. "Also, in the coming days, I hope you can seal off the entrance to the sixth floor to prevent any groups like those thugs from plotting anything."

"You're kidding. They're a hundred years too early to plot against me." Kroos shook her head with her arms crossed. "You should be more worried about the intruders than me."

Chapter 195, Section 194: This Road Is Blocked

About five minutes later, at Kroos's workshop.

Just as the Doctor was about to leave, Kroos nearly collapsed due to a sudden wave of dizziness. So, in order to wait for Kroos to fully recover, the Doctor lingered there for a while longer.

It is indeed strange, however, that it was not the Doctor who was drained who felt tired and weak after drinking blood, but Kroos, the one who absorbed it.

"Alright, really, you don't really need to stay here anymore. Besides, I already said I'm fine, just a little tired." Kroos stretched. "At most, I'm just sleepy, I'll be fine after a nap."

“There’s no need for you to stay… Is this a way of asking you to leave?” the doctor laughed.

"Tch, what a load of nonsense. Who would dare kick you out on Rhodes Island?" Kroos rolled her eyes. "I was just trying to say that I'm fine now. Seriously... you should be the one worrying the most, but you're so concerned about others."

"Yes, I understand. But I was already planning to leave soon anyway. As I mentioned before, I have things to do in the intensive care unit on the fourth floor." The doctor said as he walked to the workbench, picked up the pickaxe on it, and turned to walk towards the exit. "That's all for now. Contact me if anything comes up."

"...Wait a minute, Doctor."

Watching the doctor's retreating figure, Kroos thought for a moment before finally calling out to him.

"What?" The Doctor turned around and met Kroos's eyes.

Kroos hesitated.

Her shoes scraped against the ground, making a sandpaper-like sound in her tension.

She had something to say, but she didn't know whether she should say it or not.

"Kroos...?" The Doctor, not understanding Kroos's true intentions, could only ask.

Time slips away with each passing second.

The atmosphere between the two froze due to the silence.

"Doctor." But she finally chose to speak, uttering the words she thought she could keep hidden forever, "I have something I want to ask you."

"Ask away if you want to." The Doctor nodded, as if he already understood what kind of question Kroos wanted to ask.

"Don't mind me if I'm wrong... You're actually plotting something, aren't you?"

Perhaps because she had just drunk the Doctor's blood, Kroos spoke to the Doctor with a somewhat cautious tone.

But the doctor neither confirmed nor denied it, simply watching her silently.

“Sigh, I did think you wouldn’t answer me, or that you’d just ignore me.” Kroos shrugged, her blood-stained clothes clinging to her skin and trembling with her shoulders. “After all, you and Kal’tsit always end up like this when it comes to issues concerning Rhodes Island itself.”

“But that proves that what I said was indeed true, right?” she said to the doctor. “Well, to be honest, if I had to think about it, I really couldn’t come up with a suitable way to save the current situation. After all, we’ve now been reduced to relying on the weather.”

"So, if you really have a way, Doctor, then I don't mind not asking."

Kroos smiled, as bright as the spring sun in March.

"Because I just want you to know that no matter what happens, I will always be on your side."

-

Fourth floor, Rhode Island Hospital, critical care/private ward.

No matter how tense the situation was on other floors, or how the violence and deep-seated hunger of the refugees spread, this place remained as peaceful as ever, unchanged in the slightest.

—No, perhaps this sentence needs to be slightly modified.

Because the current peace is built upon changes made in the past.

Patriots changed this place.

Perhaps those refugees are lawless and don't even respect their benefactors, Rhodes Island, but they will still feel fear when facing the Patriots.

This is probably the difference between a benefactor and an abuser.

When faced with a kind benefactor, a grateful person will nod and express their thanks, while a person with ill intentions will claim the land as king.

But when faced with a chaotic perpetrator, no matter who they are, they can only submit.

"Doctor, it's been a long time."

Patriot stood at the elevator entrance on the fourth floor, blocking everyone who wanted to enter or leave like a mountain.

"Hello, sir." The doctor bowed slightly to Patriot.

Only in the face of this moving mountain did he dare not be impolite.

Even though this is Rhodes Island.

Even if this is Rhodes Island.

"I heard there was a riot upstairs. Is it under control now?" Wendigo asked the doctor, his red eyes flashing.

"Yes, it's been taken care of." The doctor nodded. "It was caused by those refugees from Chernobog. They... kidnapped one of our operators."

"...Utterly foolish." Patriot paused for a moment, then his voice boomed like a bell. "Is the operator alright now?"

"She made her choice, placing her own life on the same scale as those refugees." Recalling the explosion and those phone calls, the doctor didn't know how to express his feelings to Patriot.

"That operator...?"

"Yes, she perished along with the refugees. You must have heard an explosion outside the tower just now; that was her choice." The doctor tried to keep his voice calm.

“She was a warrior,” Patriot said in a somber voice.

For someone like Wendigo, the word "warrior" is already an extremely high compliment.

"So, how is the situation on the fourth floor?" Not wanting to dwell on the matter in Provence for too long, the doctor shifted the topic to the current facts.

“Previously, some scoundrels tried to come up the stairs to steal our supplies.” He turned around and pointed his left hand toward the stairs, “but we repelled them all, crushed them, and turned them into dust.”

"Are they all refugees?" the doctor asked.

“Not entirely.” Patriot’s huge, deformed head swayed slightly from side to side. “The remnants of the Reunion Movement outside the guerrillas have also formed an alliance with them.”

"The Reunion Movement too...?" the doctor sighed. "Indeed, the Reunion Movement was never a monolithic entity. It was formed by infected people from all over coming together, so its cohesion is definitely lacking."

“Exactly.” Patriot nodded. “Previously in Chernobog, only the guerrillas were disciplined. The rest of the troops were all wicked, using the guise of resistance to carry out oppression, which was extremely unsightly.”

"Then, where are the stairs?" The doctor looked in the direction Patriot was pointing.

“It’s already sealed off,” Patriot replied. “From now on, there will only be one entrance and exit on the fourth floor.”

"And I will stay here."

-

Thank you segment.

Thank you for the monthly pass.

Chapter 196, Chapter 195: Carter on the Hospital Bed

Inside the Rhodes Island main ship, which was already an isolated island, the fourth floor became another isolated island under the Patriots' blockade.

He pooled the resources previously allocated to the intensive care unit and redistributed them, making it clear that he was determined to stay there until the very end.

“About three more people have died of illness in the last few days,” Kal’tsit said, holding a logbook. “While it would be a pity from a normal perspective, it is a relief in the current situation, for both the living and the dead.”

"How is Frostnova doing?" the doctor asked.

“The situation is not optimistic.” Kal’tsit shook her head. “It’s a time when she needs a lot of medication and a well-planned diet, but we’ve encountered this difficult situation… So what we’re doing now is at best just keeping her alive.”

"And in a few more days, even their lives won't be able to be sustained." The doctor shook his head after taking stock of the remaining supplies on the fourth floor.

“Everyone is the same.” Kal’tsit’s gaze fell on Patriot, who was standing guard in front of the elevator. “Look at Bozokasti, he is still tall and strong, as if he is still the heroic embodiment of the flag that symbolizes the infected on the Ursus ice plains, but in fact he has not eaten a single meal in the past three days.”

"Three days...?" The doctor's eyes widened in shock.

“Yes, three days.” Kal’tsit nodded. “In order to save resources and reduce consumption, he gave all of his own resource allocation to Frostnova.”

“But if this continues… he’ll die.” The Doctor stared at Patriot, a few emerald green glints flashing in his pupils. “As a late-stage Infected, the level of crystallization and Originium infection rate throughout his body is already excessively high. If this continues…”

"Doctor, do you think he would care about something like this?" Kal'tsit couldn't help but laugh upon hearing the Doctor's words.

“I don’t know, because I don’t know him.” The doctor turned his gaze back to the face of the woman in front of him. “Although I believe that verbal communication can promote understanding between people, for someone like Patriot, no amount of communication is enough.”

“Right now, Bozokasti only has his daughter in his eyes.” Kal'tsit didn’t answer the Doctor’s question, but continued from where she left off with her previous question.

“Ever since he met Frostnova, he has regarded her as everything to him,” Kal'tsit said. “He has lived for a long time, and the long years have worn away his once sharp nerves, so if he wants to continue living, he needs a spiritual anchor.”

"Frostnova was his spiritual anchor." The Doctor thought of Kattus lying on the hospital bed, his body cold.

“And on our side, we also have a Katarina who isn’t much different.” Kal’tsit’s eyes fell on the door of a hospital room.

"Cartes...you mean Amiya? What happened to her?"

Upon realizing the person Kal'tsit was referring to, the Doctor immediately tensed up.

“Amiya fell ill while you were preoccupied with the Provence affair,” Kal'tsit said. “But because of the unfortunate timing, she wanted to keep it a secret from you so as not to worry you too much.”

"But that would only make me worry, wouldn't it?" The doctor frowned. "Just say what's on your mind, don't keep things to yourself."

“Although that’s what you say, you were actually already confused when you were dealing with the Provence incident, weren’t you?” Kal’tsit pointed out the Doctor’s inner weakness. “The issue of secrecy itself is not the problem; the important thing is how long the secrecy will last.”

“Reasonable secrecy can make things run more smoothly and make everything more efficient. After all, you see, I didn’t keep this a secret forever; I told you as soon as you finished dealing with things in Provence, didn’t I?” Kal’tsit said.

"Where is Amiya now? In that ward you pointed to?" The Doctor's gaze fell on the same spot as Kal'tsit's.

“Of course not.” Kal’tsit shook her head. “She’s in the medical ward.”

"Then why did you ask me to come to the fourth floor to find you?"

"To show you what the most resource-rich area of ​​Rhodes Island is really like," she said calmly.

The doctor offered no rebuttal.

-

Rhode Island, third floor, medical department.

Since being besieged by the natural disaster, the doctor has hardly visited the medical department.

Even if he didn't come, he wouldn't have any worries about the medical department.

After all, Rhodes Island is essentially a pharmaceutical company, and even though it has armed forces comparable to professional mercenary organizations, it claims to be a medical organization.

For this reason, most of Rhodes Island's core management personnel, including Kal'tsit, are concentrated in the medical department.

Therefore, there is not much need for the doctor to interfere.

"Ah, Doctor, you've arrived."

Walking down the unchanging corridor, the doctor slightly raised his right hand to signal to the medical staff who passed by and greeted him.

What are the medical staff busy with right now?

With medical resources almost exhausted, they probably have nothing left to do except provide some nursing care for people in group wards and private wards.