Rhodes Island does not exist.

"Everyone is gone. Your final fate... is death."

He wouldn't choose to use soft and euphemistic language to embellish the cruel facts, after all, it was Warfarin's own wish to know this.

Moreover, he felt that if he didn't speak out directly, it would be a desecration of them and a disregard for the weight of death.

Are we dead?

Warfarin's tone didn't sound surprised.

She had already guessed the outcome, but all she wanted was an answer from the doctor.

“Yes, that’s how it should be, that’s how it should be.” She smiled. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here, in this world full of anomalies.”

“That’s how it should be,” she said.

"So, does that mean our mission, the direction of our efforts... is actually meaningless?"

Warfarin finally raised her head.

Blood tears streamed from her red eyes.

Chapter 295, Part 293: Ignorance, Ugliness, and Happiness

"I'm sorry, I was really embarrassing just now."

Warfarin leaned against the wall, her legs dangling lazily on the floor.

A weak smile returned to her face.

"it does not matter."

The doctor sat beside her, his left leg bent.

The two leaned on each other's shoulders, like two rats that had been soaked to the bone by a downpour while trying to escape.

"After all, I haven't even figured out what my mission is yet, so no one can determine what kind of effect a mission has, or whether it's a fictional concept or a real existence," the doctor said calmly, his eyes looking straight ahead.

"Maybe so," Warfarin nodded. "Anyway, I've already made up my mind. I'll do exactly what I planned before. We must have a reason for being here, so now that we have a goal, let's just do it."

"You adjusted your mindset really quickly," the doctor couldn't help but laugh.

"Really?" Warfarin stretched. "And what about me back then? Was I like this now?"

"Ah, I think so." Recalling Warfarin, who was always scolded by Kal'tsit and occasionally hung on the bridge, the Doctor couldn't help but smile. "She was a person who was both capable and full of curiosity, and also very free."

"Do I have the ability? Me?"

Warfarin pointed to herself, looking incredulous.

“Yes,” the doctor said. “You laid the foundation for Rhodes Island’s medical system, and your medical expertise is already at its peak. To say that you are merely capable is an understatement.”

"Hahahaha." Warfarin couldn't help but burst into laughter. "I really can't even imagine that."

“You can be even more proud,” the doctor smiled.

"Forget it, even if I'm incredibly powerful, I'm still just the past me, not the present me." Warfarin shook her head. "The present me is, at best, just a weirdo who can't remember anything from my past life."

“Here, there is no difference between the supernatural and humans,” the doctor said.

"Alright, stop trying to comfort me." Warfarin nuzzled the doctor's shoulder. "I won't be as depressed as before. After all, the mission still exists, and I have to complete it."

"So, shall we stand up and continue?" The doctor raised his hand and pointed to the other end of the corridor.

"No, wait a moment."

Warfarin shook her head, opened the leather suitcase she always carried with her, and then reached in with her right hand to take out a small rectangular box.

"This is……"

The doctor recognized the small box.

It was a pack of cigarettes.

The cigarette pack had a line of Victorian text written in an elegant font.

neerknowsbest.

The doctor felt he had seen this brand of cigarettes somewhere before.

Although I've seen it somewhere before, this brand doesn't actually exist in reality.

At least in the doctor's memory, it didn't exist, even though he didn't smoke at all.

"I stumbled a bit just now, you saw it yourself, and if you hadn't helped me, I probably would have fallen hard to the ground by now." Warfarin held the cigarette pack in her hand, a hint of embarrassment flashing across her face. "Actually, it wasn't because I tripped or was careless that I did that."

"what do you mean?"

“That’s a result of my unstable central nervous system.” As she said this, Warfarin’s fingers trembled slightly, as if they were completely out of control.

“I used to suffer greatly from this condition.” She gave a bitter smile, then opened the cigarette pack in her hand, revealing the few cigarettes that remained. “But after Xiao Ai suggested that I smoke, this unstable condition was suppressed.”

"But it also made you dependent on cigarettes, right?" The doctor understood very well what would happen if he used poison to fight poison.

After all, although he wasn't a professional doctor, he still had a clear understanding of these simple and basic theoretical concepts.

“Yes.” Warfarin nodded. “Although cigarettes helped me suppress the occasional central nervous system disorders, the side effect was that the disorders occurred more frequently and more severely during the time I was not under the influence of cigarettes.”

"But there's no other way, I can't just quit." She picked up a cigarette with trembling fingers.

The cigarette's exterior was the same as the cigarette box, with the words "neerknowsbest" printed on the cigarette paper.

Then, Warfarin handed the cigarette to the doctor.

"Smoke?"

This was a polite question, and the doctor was well aware of it.

Regardless of which country in Terra or which civilization it is under, asking others if they smoke before smoking is always an unwritten rule of etiquette.

And the same is true in this space filled with the bizarre and the dead.

"I won't take it." The doctor waved his hand, politely declining the cigarette Warfarin offered. "Sorry."

"There's nothing to apologize for. I'm the one who should be apologizing." Warfarin smiled, then took out a metal lighter from her inner pocket, lit it in the deathly corridor, and lit a cigarette.

"hiss--"

The tobacco and paper rolls release pale white smoke when burned at high temperatures.

Warfarin's face was faintly visible in the smoke.

Then, she suddenly spoke.

Did I smoke in the past?

She asked the doctor.

Upon hearing this question, the doctor recalled the roll of paper that would occasionally appear between Dr. Warfarin's two fingers.

“She…smokes too, but not this kind of cigarette.” He said, looking at Warfarin in front of him. “She usually smokes her own handmade herbal cigarettes to keep herself alert.”

"Is that so?" Hearing the doctor describe herself, Warfarin slowly shook her head, then put the cigarette to her lips and took a small inhale.

White smoke, like silk, seeped from the corners of her mouth in wisps.

“Speaking of which, I’m quite curious about these cigarettes.” Staring at Warfarin’s smoking posture, the doctor couldn’t help but ask, “Where did you get these cigarettes? I don’t think this place is the kind of place that would have them.”

“Yes, that’s true, that’s what I thought at first too.” Warfarin nodded. “But in fact, there are supermarkets on Rhodes Island.”

"Supermarket...?"

The doctor felt both surprised and reasonable about this incongruous term.

"It was Xiao Ai who told me to try my luck at the supermarket and see if I could find anything good," Warfarin said. "I did find something, and there were definitely more good things inside than I had imagined."

"Then, take me to see it sometime when you have time," the doctor said.

"Okay, I'll go after this is resolved."

Warfarin smiled.

-

Thank you segment.

Thank you to my beloved Carmenump Anime Protection Association for the blades and monthly passes, thank you.

Chapter 296, Section 294: The Keeper's Duties

The burnt-out cigarette lay flat on the ground, with trampling marks near the mouthpiece.

After leaving the doctor the information that there was a shop on the sixth floor, Warfarin said that she had recovered her health and left quickly.

As for the Doctor, his next journey will probably involve returning to Specter to seek answers to some questions.

For example, where can one find smaller monsters, or obtain fresh internal organs?

Although these are all shocking questions that are not suitable for discussion in public, they are probably just the norm here.

"Then let's head back."

The doctor stood up from the wall, shook the dust off his coat, picked up his pickaxe, and headed towards the elevator.

"Ah, speaking of which..."

He suddenly realized a problem.

"The suitcase Warfarin is carrying looks like the one I used when I was a traveling doctor?"

-

The doctor's footwork wasn't particularly fast, but it wasn't slow either.

After exchanging brief greetings with the Patriot on the ninth floor, the Doctor descended the stairs and opened the door to the eighth-floor lobby.

"squeak--"

The tiny hinge clicked softly, its decibels insufficient to carry itself throughout the vast hall, so it was probably only audible to the Doctor.

The beds where the doctor had planted his seeds remain as pure and white as they were when the doctor left.

"The seeds have been sown; time is all that's needed to bring them to fruition."

The doctor walked to a bed, then gently stroked the still-flat sheets with his hand and smiled.

He roughly knew how long it would take for these seeds to take root and sprout, so he wasn't surprised by the unchanging status quo; he simply took it for granted.

"But walking through it again, I realized that the hall is indeed quite spacious." The doctor's gaze stretched from the beginning to the end, until the images of the beds began to overlap on his retina.

“I’ve made many rounds of the previous wards, but to be honest, those experiences were all very easy.” The doctor muttered to himself as he slowly strolled through the white lobby, recalling the details of the past. “The area here is really exaggerated. Even if I were here back then, I would probably feel tired.”

Time slipped away beneath the doctor's feet.

As he stepped over the beds in the hall once more, he came back to the protruding pillar in the room.

The elevator entrance on the pillar remains eye-catching.

At the same time, it still lacks a control panel, leaving people wondering where the elevator is connected to.

"Hopefully, its end isn't Rhodes Island's end." The Doctor shook his head. "I feel we should find something that can pry it open and see what's inside."

However, when the doctor had this thought, he didn't immediately think of the pickaxe in his hand.

Perhaps it's because they're bound by fixed mindsets.

-

After leaving the eighth floor, the doctor returned to the stairwell that had been taken over by the strange creature and turned into its lair.

"Rumble--"

The moment the doctor stepped onto the stairs, a strong tremor from the bottom traveled up his feet and through his entire body.

"Such enthusiasm is truly remarkable."

Feeling the vibrations that felt like those of a celebrity fan, the doctor couldn't help but smile wryly.

But thinking about it this way, it's probably because I made a promise to it that I would bring it back something to eat, which is why it was so excited.

They were even as excited as a puppy.

But it's a pity.

Because the doctor broke his promise.

He had intended to use those bio-tanks to create some food for himself, but unfortunately, due to the nature of the bio-tanks themselves, he was ultimately forced to break his promise.

Even if he explained it to the strange creature like that, the creature might not be able to understand.