Chapter 1: Life has become a game, and you are all NPCs (yo, that rhymes!)

Waking up with a start, Chen Cang felt like the heavens had played a joke on him!

Emergency night shifts always made one's heart race. After finishing the overnight duty, Chen Cang finally had some time to rest. He planned to go home and sleep, but he was so tired that he couldn't even keep his eyes open and ended up dozing off in the duty room.

"Chen Cang, Chen Cang, get up quickly. An emergency patient has arrived, you need to help with a dressing change."

Even with his eyes closed, Chen Cang knew this somewhat deep voice belonged to his senior physician, Chen Bingsheng.

Two years in the emergency department had given Chen Cang the ability to respond groggily even while asleep: "No, I'm too tired. I need to sleep a little more."

However, as soon as Chen Cang finished speaking, a voice as if from the depths of his soul rang out:

[Ding! NPC senior physician Chen Bingsheng's task: Perform a dressing change and debridement for an emergency patient. Task completion reward: 1. 20 RMB. 2. Dressing change experience +20. 3. Experience +20.]

Chen Cang was suddenly wide awake!

He hurriedly sat up in bed and looked at Chen Bingsheng with a panicked expression, "Boss, what did you just say?"

Chen Bingsheng was taken aback, "An outpatient with a trauma has arrived, you need to go and do the debridement quickly. I have an operation coming up and can't make it."

Suddenly, the voice continued:

[Ding! NPC senior physician Chen Bingsheng's task: Perform a dressing change and debridement for an emergency patient. Task completion reward: 1. 20 RMB. 2. Dressing change experience +20. 3. Experience +20.]

[Do you accept? Yes! No!]

The voice persisted!

What the hell is going on with me?

Has overtime turned me into an idiot?

No way!

The medical world is no stranger to sudden deaths of prominent figures, from medical students preparing for exams to high-ranking individuals who frequently travel abroad to present scholarly papers and attend academic conferences. Cases of deaths due to insufficient rest occur from time to time.

Have I hallucinated from too much overtime?

Seeing the continuously echoing "Yes? No?" in his mind,

Chen Cang suddenly realized that this was a big deal; it was no longer just about whether to change dressings or do overtime. The severity of the situation had implications for his sustainable future development, threatening the effective implementation of the Healthy China strategy!

With that thought, Chen Cang hurriedly got up and washed his face several times with cold water.

Unfortunately, the cold water didn't make the voice in his head disappear; instead, it helped him to calm down.

"I'm heading into surgery, you go and change the dressing, and cover my shift while you're at it."

[Ding! NPC senior physician Chen Bingsheng's task: Cover his shift while Chen Bingsheng is in surgery. Task completion reward: 1. 100 RMB; 2. Chen Bingsheng's favorability +2. 3. Experience +30.]

Chen Bingsheng left after dropping those words.

And left Chen Cang with another task!

Now, with sleepiness completely gone, he got up, put on his white coat, and made a tough decision.

Afterwards, he accepted both tasks by choosing 'Yes' to all.

He wanted to see if this was just a delusion caused by brain damage or the legendary golden thigh system.

Chen Cang was a doctor, but he was also familiar with novels and games and thus understood such concepts quite well.

As he took a deep breath in front of the mirror, he suddenly saw an arrow above his head.

Upon reflection, Chen Cang recalled that earlier his senior physician Chen Bingsheng had had a question mark over his head!

It seemed… it seemed somewhat similar to the symbols above NPCs' heads when they issued tasks in games.

But what was it above his own head? As Chen Cang thought about this, a virtual screen suddenly appeared before him.

[Name: Chen Cang]

[Profession: Doctor]

[Level: LV12:960/1200 (Resident Doctor)]

[Professional Skills:

Wound Debridement and Dressing: Intermediate: 1970/2000

Skin Wound Suturing: Intermediate: 1679/2000

Tendon Suturing: Beginner: 10/2000

Vascular Suturing: Intermediate: 102/2000

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: Intermediate: 1500/2000

Electrocardiogram Interpretation: Intermediate: 1490/2000]

Chen Cang was dumbfounded. These were his attributes?

Damn!

Chen Cang realized something—he might be on the brink of making a fortune!

This was exactly like the online game he had been playing a while ago!

Only… it seemed that the game's system had entered the real world.

First he needed to change the patient's dressing, and then he would study this thoroughly later on.

After leaving the room, Chen Cang went to the nurse's station and asked, "Where is the patient that Dr. Chen asked to have their dressing changed?"

"He's in the hall, I'll go and call him, Dr. Chen, please wait in the treatment room for a moment."

Chen Cang nodded, "Okay, thank you for the trouble."

While waiting for the patient, Chen Cang noticed that every person around him had either an arrow or a question mark above their head.

The arrows were ordinary, and Chen Cang could casually click to view basic information about others.

For instance, the young nurse Qin Yali.

[A nurse who just recently joined the hospital and is currently undergoing her internship.]

It was impossible to look in detail at someone else's specific skills and information.

However, those with [?] symbols above their heads likely had a quest. Upon clicking, Chen Cang received a system prompt:

[Zhang Xiaoyan seems to need your help with something. Talking to her might trigger a quest.]

Although Chen Cang kept his face unchanged and appeared calm, at that moment, he was even more convinced that he had acquired an amazing system.

It wasn't long before Qin Yali came in with a patient.

"Dr. Chen, this is the patient. Uh... may I assist you?" Qin Yali looked hopeful; she had been in the emergency department for a while, always at triage and directing patient flow and had never actually dealt with or treated injuries.

[Ding! NPC Qin Yali's request quest: Let Qin Yali assist you in treating the injury. Reward: 1. 10 yuan in RMB, 2. Favorability from Qin Yali +10.]

Chen Cang smiled, "Sure, I have no one else to help at the moment, so you can assist me."

This quest is not to be missed; it's easy money worth a meal!

A conscientious system!

Upon hearing that, Qin Yali immediately became cheerful and said excitedly, "Okay, I'll go get the dressing kit."

At that moment, Chen Cang took a closer look at the patient and noticed a [?] above his head.

The patient was currently wearing shorts, with a large gash on his left knee, looking bloody and quite startling.

[Zhang Guosheng fell off his electric bike and scraped his knee. A closer examination might trigger a quest.]

Chen Cang leaned down to look at the wound; it was just a superficial scrape, and the injury wasn't deep. Despite looking bloody, it wasn't a difficult wound to deal with: "Did you scrape this while riding your bike?"

Zhang Guosheng was hissing in pain and looked somewhat anguished, "Yeah, there was sand at the corner. I slipped on it accidentally, and it really hurts, doctor... Is it serious?"

After examining the wound for a while, Chen Cang reassured him, "It's not serious. It's just superficial, no need to worry. If it really reached the bone, you wouldn't have been able to walk here. I'll clean the wound for you and change the dressing; a bandage should do."

Zhang Guosheng nodded hurriedly, "Thank you, doctor!"

[Ding! Patient Zhang Guosheng has a knee scrape and requests prompt treatment. Rewards for completion: 1. 20 yuan in RMB, 2. Wound dressing experience +20, 3. Experience +30.]

After asking the patient to lie on the treatment bed, Chen Cang washed his hands, opened the dressing kit, put on disposable gloves, and said to the patient, "Hang in there for a bit; it might hurt soon."

Zhang Guosheng grimaced, "Alright... but, doctor, please be gentle; I'm really sensitive to pain."

Zhang Guosheng, in his fifties, admitted his fear of pain naturally, without any hint of pretension.

As Chen Cang cleaned the wound, he found some fine sand embedded under the skin, requiring tweezers to remove, which was going to be quite painful.

Qin Yali, during her internship, had been through these procedures and even spent some time in the operating room. However, since coming to this hospital, she had always been working in emergency triage where she was super busy at times, but at other times not so much, mainly just bored. Being young and with a curious mind, she wanted to get involved in dressing changes, as having more skills can't hurt.

Watching Chen Cang treat the injury, Qin Yali held her breath.

"Sterile gauze pad, give me two!"

"Saline solution, rinse it."

"Iodophor."

...

Chen Cang was proficient in his work, and this kind of injury was basic wound cleaning and dressing. Although it looked terrifying, the wound would scab over quickly and wouldn't take long to heal.

Chen Cang's intermediate wound dressing technique was learned from senior physician Chen Bingsheng, who had mentored him for a year or two. Chen Cang's skills were mostly hand-taught by Chen Bingsheng.

Chen Cang was a quick learner, always diligent and hands-on.

Zhang Guosheng looked at his bandaged left knee and smiled, "Young doctor, you're skilled! It hardly hurt at all. Last year, I had the same injury on my right knee, also treated here, and it was so painful!"

Chen Cang smiled but didn't dwell on who had dressed the wound back then, "It seems you've fallen more than once then. Be careful in the future. As you age, your bones get more fragile, so you need to be more careful, uncle. I can't chat with you any longer as I have to go on duty. Yali, please clean up for me; I'm going to take over the duty shift for Dr. Chen."

Chen Cang gave Zhang Guosheng no opportunity to complain. What's taboo in a hospital?

It's criticizing one doctor in front of another. Chen Cang wasn't naive; such flattery wasn't addictive for him, so he just smiled at any comments about who dressed wounds well or poorly.

Qin Yali nodded, "Okay, Dr. Chen, you go ahead with your work. I'll clean up."

After Chen Cang left, he went to the office and closed the door.

[Ding! Completed NPC Chen Bingsheng's dressing quest, received 20 yuan in RMB, 20 points of dressing experience, and 30 experience points.]

[Ding! Completed NPC Qin Yali's dressing quest, received 10 yuan in RMB, and increased Qin Yali's favorability by +10.]

[Ding! Completed patient Zhang Guosheng's treatment quest, received 20 yuan in RMB, 20 points of dressing experience, and 30 experience points.]

With the three notifications sounding off, Chen Cang suddenly heard his phone vibrating.

Upon checking it, it was a message from Alipay announcing a prize win.

After making a payment via Alipay a few days earlier, he had received a lottery card, and now he had just won a 50-yuan cash red packet.

Looking at the tangible cash in his hand, Chen Cang suddenly realized that his days of prosperity had arrived!