12: Red wine steak and deadly high fever

“Sizzle—”

A thick-cut steak with clear marbling let out an enticing sound in the frying pan.

As the butter melted, the rich aroma of meat instantly filled the entire cockpit.

It completely walled off the lingering smell of fishy rain and rotting corpses from outside the window.

Jiang Ran stood before the induction cooker, wearing a dry cotton bathrobe he had scavenged from the Logistics Park and swirling half a glass of red wine in his hand.

This was the most 'human' moment he had experienced in the past three months.

Ten minutes ago, he had just tested the newly installed water purification system.

In that narrow yet fully functional shower room, he had spent half an hour scrubbing himself under a constant 42-degree Celsius stream of hot water.

He washed away the stench of rain, engine oil, and zombie blood.

The sensation of his pores opening up was so refreshing it almost made him moan.

“Medium-rare, just right.”

Jiang Ran skillfully turned off the heat and plated the steak.

The plate and cutlery had just been printed using the Elementary Universal Workshop.

Although made of ordinary food-grade polymer, they were exquisitely shaped and pure white, even carrying a hint of warmth from being freshly made.

He carried the plate to the pilot's seat.

Resting his feet on the control console, he sliced into the tender, juicy beef while watching the storm rage outside.

As a piece of beef entered his mouth, the fats burst across his tongue.

He took a sip of red wine; the slightly astringent liquid slid down his throat, bringing a wave of warmth.

“This is the life I want.”

Jiang Ran sighed contentedly.

At this moment, 99% of the world's survivors were likely killing each other over half a piece of moldy bread.

Or shivering in the freezing floodwaters.

Yet here he was, enjoying a candlelit dinner inside this steel fortress.

But this comfort did not last long.

Just as Jiang Ran finished the last bite of meat and prepared to get up to clear the plate...

A sudden wave of dizziness made his feet stumble, and he nearly fell onto the deck.

“Hmm?”

He grabbed the back of the chair and shook his head hard, trying to dispel the black fog before his eyes.

“Is this wine... that strong?”

Jiang Ran frowned.

The red wine was just an ordinary table wine found in the Logistics Park warehouse; its alcohol content wasn't high, and with his tolerance, it shouldn't have affected him like this.

But now, he felt his cheeks burning, and his breath carried a scorching heat.

The dashboard in front of him even began to double, and the surrounding sounds seemed to drift in and out of focus.

It wasn't just dizziness.

A sudden, throbbing, piercing pain radiated from the left side of his back, near the shoulder blade.

It felt as if something living was burrowing frantically beneath his flesh, striking his nerves with every beat of his heart.

Jiang Ran's gaze instantly turned cold.

As a survivor who had scraped by for three months in the apocalypse, he was all too familiar with this sensation.

This wasn't drunkenness.

This was a high fever.

He quickly shed his bathrobe, staggered to the mirror in the shower room, and struggled to turn his head to check his back.

Under the bright LED light, he saw the condition of his back clearly.

His pupils constricted sharply.

Below his left shoulder blade, there was a scratch about five centimeters long.

It must have happened when Tiger and his gang pushed him into the water; he had accidentally been grazed by the rusted sheet metal of a billboard on the building's exterior.

At the time, he was in a state of extreme fear and survival, with his adrenaline surging.

He hadn't cared about such a minor injury at all; it hadn't even bled much.

But now, that inconspicuous little cut had become unrecognizable.

A large area of skin around the wound was swollen to a terrifying purplish-red, shiny and taut.

The center had already begun to fester, oozing a murky, yellow-green pus. Most terrifying of all—

Several dark red streaks were spreading from the wound toward his armpit and heart.

That was a sign of lymphangitis.

It was a severe bacterial infection, a precursor to sepsis.

“Damn it...”

Looking at his flushed face and rapid breathing in the mirror, Jiang Ran's heart sank to the bottom.

In this flooded world, the water was filled with corpses, garbage, and all sorts of unknown viruses and bacteria.

With humidity as high as 90%, it was a breeding ground for bacteria.

Getting injured in such an environment...

Even a wound the size of a pinprick could be a death warrant if not promptly disinfected and treated.

“System!”

Jiang Ran gritted his teeth, enduring the waves of chills as he growled in his mind.

“Activate Medical Repair Mode!”

“I don't lack metal! I have electricity! I have energy! Fix it for me!”

However, that mechanical voice, which was usually omnipotent and could repair a steel hull in an instant...

Gave him an answer that filled him with despair:

【Error.】

【This system is only responsible for the reconstruction and evolution of mechanical matter.】

【The host is a carbon-based biological organism and cannot undergo physical repair through the consumption of metal.】

The cold electronic voice echoed in the cockpit.

Jiang Ran slumped powerlessly into the leather seat, looking at the ship full of supplies—

Tons of steel, precision radar, endless canned food, and a combat knife that could cut through iron like butter.

This ship was indestructible.

But he, the captain, was a fragile being of flesh and blood.

He rummaged through every crate he had brought back from the Logistics Park.

There were tools, generators, and food, but not a single piece of medicine.

Those precious antibiotics and anti-inflammatories...

They were either in hospital pharmacies downtown or in the private reserves of some wealthy individuals.

His body temperature continued to rise; Jiang Ran felt his consciousness begin to blur, and a black haze crept into the edges of his vision.

If he couldn't get antibiotics before dawn...

Even with this invincible warship, he would be killed alive by a tiny bacterium inside him.

When that time came, this ship would become his most luxurious iron coffin.

“I can't... die like this...”

“I worked so hard to survive... I have a ship... I have the system...”

Jiang Ran bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, using the sharp, metallic pain to keep himself awake.

He struggled to reach out and press the frequency knob on the radar console.

“Since I don't have medicine... then I'll find someone who does.”

The temperature in the cockpit was clearly set at a comfortable 22 degrees.

Yet Jiang Ran felt as if he were in a furnace, and the next second as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.

“Cough, cough...”

He coughed violently twice.

The movement pulled at the wound on his back; a piercing pain made his vision go black, and he nearly collapsed onto the control console.

He had to be fast.

Sepsis progressed extremely quickly.

Once septic shock set in, even if he found medicine later, he might not have the strength to inject it himself.

With a trembling hand, Jiang Ran wiped the fine cold sweat from his forehead.

Forcing his scattered consciousness to focus, he locked his gaze onto the radar screen in front of him.

“System... switch radar mode.”

“Disable terrain scanning, disable metal detection.”

“Enable... all-band radio monitoring.”

【Command confirmed.】

【Passive monitoring mode enabled. Scanning civilian/military/emergency bands...】

The green topographical map on the screen disappeared, replaced by jumping waveforms.

At the same time, countless noisy voices emerged from the cockpit speakers.

“Bzzzt... Help! Someone help me! I'm on the roof...”

“Mom! Where are you...”

“I have money! I have ten million in cash! Whoever can pick me up, the money is all theirs! Bzzzt...”

“This is the Blue Sky Rescue Team... Bzzzt... Are there any survivors...”

Countless desperate roars, cries, and pleas flooded into Jiang Ran's ears like a tide.

This was the panorama of the apocalypse.

Normally, Jiang Ran might have listened coldly for a while to analyze the situation.

But now, this valueless noise only made his already throbbing brain more chaotic, feeling as if it might explode.

“Filter!”

Jiang Ran gritted his teeth, his eyes bloodshot as he growled into the microphone: “Filter out all general distress calls! I don't want to hear nonsense!”

“Search keywords: ‘medicine’, ‘doctor’, ‘hospital’, ‘ambulance’!”

【Performing voiceprint screening...】

【Noise suppression in progress...】