Chapter 6: Time To Prepare

I woke up the next morning and went to check on Rick in the hospital. He was still the same and none of my traps had been triggered so It was fine. I sat down on the chair next to his bed and started planning my next steps. I had reunited and secured Rick and I already had a base of operations. Rick wasn't going to go anywhere for a month so I couldn't just sit on my ass, twiddling my thumbs while waiting for him to wake up.

The Sheriff's Office didn't have any useful books so I couldn't confirm my guess so one of my objectives would be to find a library or some books and test my theory. Most hospitals have libraries but if not, I'll head into town and go the local one. The bodies of the Walkers in the hospital need to be removed because the smell is terrible and I don't want anything affecting Rick's health negatively. I also need to practice some combat skills from my past life and try to turn them into skills and level up my current ones. My level would go up naturally as I completed my tasks so I don't put too much priority on it.

I decided to start with the hospital and move the bodies outside and line them up. I thought about burning them but the smoke would be a homing beacon for any unsavory types in the area. One after the other, I cleared them out and lined them in rows then when I reached the end, I started a new row just like in the show. I also took a bunch of bedsheets in the hospital and used them to cover the bodies to give them some decency.

Burying them would take too long so this would have to do. I walk back in and decide to check the dispensary and see if there is anything good left to take. I reach there and the shelves are empty except for two packets of throat lozenges . I guess sore throat isn't a big issue now huh

I look behind the counter and the door into the backroom is closed shut. I cross my fingers and hope no one could get in and it hasn't been touched.

On the floor behind the counter was a body that was barely recognizable and it looked like it had been trampled by a herd of buffalos. Fucking hell, clean up on aisle nine? They must've knocked him over when they were raiding the meds and did a little tap dance on him.

The body was wearing a white coat so I assumed this was Mr/Mrs Hospital Dispensary so I checked the coat and found keys in the left pocket. I guess no one was willing to check a dead body for keys, no matter how desperate they were. Big mistake.

I opened the door and a wave of cool air hit me which me happy because the AC was still on and the meds were properly cooled. Everything was still there and it was untouched. I quickly stored everything in my inventory because I didn't know what was useful or not.

After that, I took the receptionist outside and covered them as well before going to check on Rick one more time before I leave. I looked everywhere but there wasn't a library in the hospital. The doctor offices did have a few books but they were for aesthetic purposes. Rick was still breathing so that's a plus and his bag down two thirds of the way so I think I might need to change it tomorrow.

I walked out of the hospital and jogged towards town, keeping away from the Walkers as I moved. I had to take a few stops here and there because the area was filled with Walkers and I had to wait for them to pass or throw something and distract them. I made it to the Town Library a few minutes later and it was quiet. The front doors were locked and also were the back ones. I peeked through the windows and there wasn't any movement inside, this might be easier than I thought.

Seeing no other way in and not wanting to make noise chopping down the door, I grabbed some duct tape out of my Inventory and covered one of the back windows in it, entirely. While commenting mentally on how handy old me was, I elbowed the window and broke it but there wasn't much noise. I grabbed the duct taped window and pulled it off the frame and it just fell right out

I took the hoodie out of my inventory and covered my hand in it before using it to break the rest of the glass still attached to the frame. I put the hoodie on the window sill and climb in. I was surprised that there wasn't any glass shards on the ground and landed quietly inside. I walked in and there were rows and rows of shelves filled with books, I never thought I'd ever be this happy to see books in my life but here we were.

There were 50 shelves in total and each shelf had 5 rows filled to the brim with books. I counted 19 books per row on average so that was 4750 books on the shelves, regardless of subject or usefulness. There are also books in the back that haven't been shelved and new books still in boxes and there was also the return box that was overflowing with books so I estimated at least 6000 books if not more. In order to go through all of them in a month, I would need to read 200 books a day. I wish I had a shadow clone or two right now.

I would like to go through all these books in case the System found a skill in any of them randomly but I'd prioritized the useful ones first and if there's any time left then I'd try them as well since I don't know what the System conditions are for learning from a book. Would it be like the original Gamer where I just touch the book or would I need to read through it and understand it first?

I walked over to the Non-Fiction Section and found a book on the medical shelf hanging out called 'Dummy's Guide To Bedside Procedures'. Hmmm.....it's almost like someone knew I was coming here and left this out for me to see. I figured by the name that it would teach me how to help Rick while he's still in the coma.

I got a bit disappointed that the book didn't instantly become a skill as soon as I touched it because that would've solved my time problem but I'd manage. I wanted to test another theory and just read through the book quickly, just focusing on the words and not the subject matter, trying to find a shortcut and finished the book but nothing happened, Another dead end.

I sat down and started to read the book carefully, word by word and tried to understand it as much as I could. Don't get me wrong, I was a straight A student before everything went to shit and those 17 points in INT weren't for show. I took my time because I had no medical knowledge and I'd never picked up a book about medicine until now so it was all new knowledge.

After 3 hours, I finally reach the end of the book and then I hear the familiar chime sound I was waiting for

[You Have Read and Understood (Dummy's Guide To Bedside Procedures) +1 INT]

[A New Skill Has Been Created. Do You Want to Learn: Y/N]

Okay so everything was just as I thought. Reading the book and understanding it to a basic degree gave me a stat point but giving me the option to decide whether I wanted to learn the skill or not was new. I guess the other skills were created from my actions like the System said but these skill were learnt from a book and required confirmation. I clicked Yes and closed my eyes

It was like knowledge turned into muscle memory and I didn't need to cram or refer to the book for anything because everything had been almost ingrained into my mind. It was different from my memory unlock because my memories felt familiar and it felt like I realized I had two hands and I'd been using just one this whole time. The Skill knowledge was like I grew another arm but one I could use just as well as the other two. It was a weird feeling but not uncomfortable.

I opened my eyes and the Skill panel was up in front of me.

(New!) [Doctor Of Medicine (Passive/Active) Lv1/10:

-You are a Medical Doctor who is not bound my logic. Even if Grim Reaper itself comes to take a life, it will have to go through You. The only thing holding You back is Yourself and your current knowledge.

*Learning Speed for Medicine Related Subjects +20%

*'Eye Of Diagnosis' When inspecting a patient, All their ailments are revealed

*For Every Branch of Medicine knowledge added +1 INT

- Intensive Care Medicine

-???

-???

.......

]

I looked at the screen in silence but the only think I could think was 'Fuck that's OP'

I was wondering how the system would go around the multiple medical branches. They're all collected under one skill which made things easier for me. I figured out that those bags of water are called IV bags, which is already a win in my books. It took me 3 hours to read and understand a single book which by normal standards is amazing because it would take anyone else 3 years to learn what I know now but it was still too slow to go through the whole library. So I decided that for the one month, I would sleep in the library but I also had to train my combat skills and level them up as well as myself so I made a plan.

I would wake up at 4am and read for 5 hours and then I would have breakfast at 9am. I would leave the station and reach the hospital by 9:30am and then spend an hour there looking after Rick and checking his condition. At 10:30am, I would leave the hospital and go to town. I planned to spend at least 7-8 hours a day fighting Walkers, levelling up and train. By 6:30pm I should be done so I would shower, have dinner then read again until 10pm then light's out. 6 hours sleep is all I need and all my injuries from training and fighting would be healed by the next day.

After finalizing the details, I decided to turn in early for the night since tomorrow would be the start of my month long preparation camp for when sleeping beauty wakes up.