16 Infected

Ace started panicking. What should he do?!

It was in that moment that he wholeheartedly realized, he couldn't lose her! If she dies, he was willing to follow her to hell. (Because she clearly was not going to heaven.) He also didn't think Aida would want to become an Enraged either.

Indecisively, he clumsily picked up the gun with a shaking hand and pointed it at her.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, a childish voice rung out, "WAITTTTTTTTT!! Bad Doggy, don't shoot Mama." [ >:( ]

Ace had completely forgotten about Xiao Ai. "But your mom is infected, I don't think she would want to live her life like that as well."

"Muu you underestimate Xiao Ai. Mama will be fine with Xiao Ai helping her." pouted Xiao Ai.

Seeing a glimmer of hope, Ace immediately put the gun down and kneeled before Xiao Ai. "Tell me how I can help!" It was quite a comical knowledge as Ace kneeled before a watch, begging for help. Fortunately, no one was there to witness this scene.

"Heh~ Good Doggy. I need you to plug me into the server and plug both the server and myself into the wall outlet. I need to stay in contact with Mama the entire time though to make sure she stays safe. Do it quickly, I'm running out of energy..."

Ace carefully carried Aida over to the nearest outlet. He first connected Xiao Ai to a charger, and then connected the server to the outlet and to Xiao Ai. It was a good thing he was a prodigy engineer. Had it been anyone else in this situation, they may not even know where to begin with all the wires and cords.

"Thanks Doggy~ Can you bring lots of ice and make sure Mama's body stays cool enough? Mama is overheating, Xiao Ai is worried that Mama's circuit will be fried before Xiao Ai can do anything."

Ace grabbed a few towels and put them under Aida's head to make her sleeping position a bit more comfortable. He could tell that her temperature was rising. "I'll be going to grab ice now. Xiao Ai, I'm counting on you."

"Mm~ Leave it to me! Xiao Ai is OP! Mama, here I come!"

Ace nodded and ran off to find ice for Aida. 10 minutes later, he came back with a trash can full of ice. He did not notice that the servers and Xiao Ai had both disappeared. However, he did notice that Aida's temperature had risen again. She was so hot she literally had steam coming out of her. He tried to touch Aida's forehead and almost got burned.

Ace grabbed a few towels, stuffed them with ice and surrounded her with the ice. It wasn't enough.

Thinking for a moment, he turned the trash can with ice on it's side and slid Aida into it, making sure her arm's connection to the wall outlet was intact.

Tssssssss, the sound of a hot object touching water sounded out. Seeing the rate that the water was melting, he ran out yet again to grab more ice. This time, he filled the trash cans full.

When he got back to the locker, she had already entirely melted the ice in the first trash can. He replaced the ice and got rid of the excess water. In spite of his efforts, it was inevitable that she would be soaked when she woke up. He didn't mind though, as long as she woke up, he was willing to be scolded and smacked.

Sitting back, he only now realized that Xiao Ai and the servers were gone. It seems she truly did have a lot of hidden secrets, more than he thought. But again, that was all trivial to him. All he cared about was her well-being.

The cycle of swapping ice continued for the next 24 hours. During this time, Aida was completely submerged in ice and looked like an icicle.

It was an exhausting task considering everything they had been through in the past 48 hours, but Ace never once let his attention on Aida waver.

Seeing the ice no longer sizzle when coming in contact with Aida's body, Ace sighed in relief. Looks like the fever was coming down and there was no sign of any rashes. Somehow she was able to mitigate the standard circumstances of an infected. This was a good sign as it meant the probability that she woke up Enraged was much slimmer.

He sat down next to her and took a huge gulp of water while eating the leftover sandwiches in the bag they brought. He played around with the gun while keeping an eye on Aida, practicing loading and unloading the gun. This was the best option for keeping himself occupied and alert during this critical period.

After another 6 hours, Ace realized that he couldn't stay awake any longer. He needed to rest in order to be ready for what was to come. He identified all the exits and barricaded them with all the heavy objects he could find. He also tied strings of bells around the entrances so they would sound off an alarm if anything tried to break in.

After confirming everything was in place, Ace immediately passed out next to Aida.