My name is Patient Zero,

I found myself an NPC.

————

I used to think that I was the main character, probably the protagonist of novels such as "I Dream of the End Every Night", "Infinite in My Dreams", and "Let That Earth Come I".

If someone goes to bed at night and often dreams that they are in another world where the end of the world is happening, and no matter how long they stay in that world, they wake up only one night, they will have the same thoughts as me.

With a certain sense of obsessive superiority, I actively participated in saving these apocalyptic worlds, and as expected, discovered their prototypes through various clues, such as "The Day After Tomorrow", "I Am Legend", "Resident Evil", "2012", "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", and so on.

If there is any dissatisfaction, it is that the thing suspected of being goldfinger is too weak, and the only effect is to "wake up" me in the event of mortality, and return to the time before the "awakening" the next time I dream.

As for the functions such as tasks, enhancements, redemptions, and bringing the results of the workout or the items obtained back to reality, there is no such thing as being at all, so that even the existence of the golden finger itself is questionable.

Although it was a bit miserable at the beginning, and I would wake up from time to time, but because of my perseverance in reading files, I will eventually succeed in saving those worlds, which feels a bit like a movie called "Edge of Tomorrow".

Because I couldn't bring anything, those adventures were completely zero, and if anything, my appreciation of disaster movies was getting higher and higher.

As for the accumulated experience of saving the end times......

Well, the real world is normal, that doesn't happen.

————

One weekend morning, I got out of bed a little because I dreamed again of a post-apocalyptic world that was a little difficult to save.

When I opened my eyes, I found that there was a large red balloon with a play button pattern floating in front of me.

Could it be that there is a bear child at home?

Subconsciously reached out to push, and it exploded.

[Hint: 'PAX-200' has already infected Patient Zero in Country C, due to its instability, please use DNA points to evolve it as soon as possible in order to infect more people.] 】

In my ears, no, it was a woman's voice in my head that was obviously mechanically synthesized,

What's that-

Before I could comprehend this state of affairs, I saw my outstretched hand dyed red, followed by a circle of red strokes like an anime rendering, and then heard the clink of Mario eating a gold coin.

Judging by some keywords, this seems to be the end of a biochemical virus......

That's why do you run out of your dreams?

No, wait, what I heard just now seems to be a system prompt, so that incompetent gold finger can be used?

"System!" I shouted at the location of the balloon.

No response.

"Evolve! Check your DNA points! I tried to shout the relevant noun I had just heard.

It was still quiet inside, but the sound of high heels could be heard in the hallway outside.

"What are you arguing about? People think we have a crazy girl in our house. Mom pushed the door open and walked in.

"Uh, I'm having nightmares." I was thinking about how to stop the spread of the "PAX-200" thing and pretending to be asleep and covering my head with a quilt.

"Huh? Will you also be scared by nightmares? "Mom came over and tore off the quilt and reached out to touch my forehead.

Wait! Although you usually do it well, today is different!

Bite.

Not surprisingly, my mother's arm touched me and was quickly stained red, and then the same red border appeared on her.

"It doesn't seem to have a fever, so I'll come down early to eat when I wake up." As if she hadn't noticed the red, Mom turned and walked out and closed the door by the way.

It's terrible, you have to think about what to do, and from experience - wait, because it's the weekend, and dad and brother seem to be home too?

[Hint: 'PAX-200' has successfully evolved into 'airborne'.] 】

With the prompt in his ear, there were two faint dings downstairs.

Well, in terms of population density in country C, airborne transmission is the most convenient, and I'm going to have to make an excuse for them not to go out today.

Still, who is controlling evolution?

I raised my arm to look at the faint red light above and began to ask myself questions.

Question: What is the reason why the system ignores you when you can hear the system prompt?

Answer: Not enough permissions, energy, points, or anything like that.

Again: The system doesn't respond to you, but it acts on its own, why?

Answer: There are other people in control, and the authority is higher than yours.

The last question: when there is a system, why is it forced to encounter something very unlucky and irreparable?

Final answer: You are an NPC that needs the story.

Forehead ...... So what am I going to do now? Keep smiling and say "hello world"?

"Don't eat, I've made an appointment with my classmates in the morning-" Downstairs came the voice of my younger brother, who was a little hoarse but still very energetic because he was in the voice change period, followed by the sound of the door opening and closing the house.

I pulled back the curtains sideways and looked out, and saw that the kid had just skateboarded out of the yard.

He was playing a little stunt while greeting the neighbors he met, and the system prompt on my side kept tinkling.

Neighbors living nearby began to dye reddish at an incredible rate, first people, then streets, and finally entire houses.

It's like a drop of red ink falling into a freshly replaced pen wash cylinder.

This brother may be approaching the stage of rebellion, and he hasn't listened to me much lately, and even if I come up with an excuse to keep the family from going out, he won't listen.

But is this almost like actively spreading the virus, but is it within the design of the system?

So, the big balloon is also set to appear in front of me?

I'm not the main character, I'm just a key NPC.

————

Half of my worldview was destroyed, and I went downstairs in a daze after a simple wash, looking at the red edges on my parents with a blank face, their words and deeds were the same as always, but how strange they looked against a dark red background.

As I sat down at the table to prepare for breakfast while thinking about how to break the game, the conversation between my father and mother once again confirmed my suspicions.

"I'm going on a business trip to Japan in the afternoon." "Well, I'll send you and go back to my parents' house by the way."

Look, even the direction of transmission has been predetermined, abroad and in the province.

Speaking of the previous dreams, none of the birthplaces of those "doomsday" were country C.

So the apocalyptic world starting from country C is what I thought was the reality, hehe.

In my previous dreams, I had saved quite a few people from the perspective of outsiders, but if I was myself, no amount was enough, because I was the center of the apocalypse, so the chances of being saved were the lowest......

Calm down, isn't it precisely for this moment to save so many worlds before? Come on, you'll do it, who's-

Hey? What's my name?

"[Patient Zero], you are an older sister, and we will definitely take care of our younger brother when we are not at home, right?" Dad said to me.

I nodded while thinking: "Of course it's no problem, if he is disobedient, I will let him know what it means to be an eldest sister like a mother." ”

Wait a minute!

What is my name? Patient Zero?

Why didn't I notice something wrong with such a stupid name until today?

In medicine, "patient zero" refers to the first patient to get an infectious disease and begin to spread the virus, which can also be called an "initial case" or "marked case" in epidemiological investigations, and it is this individual who is responsible for the large-scale outbreak of infectious diseases.

Think about it again, what are mom and dad called? Remember what it says on their ID?

[Father of Patient Zero] [Mother of Patient Zero]

…… It was as if I heard the sound of the worldview collapsing.

————

Soon after, the family went on what they thought was a business trip or a trip, but it was actually an act to spread the virus.

Although it is preliminarily determined that this is a world generated by some crappy apocalyptic game, I have no impression of it at all, and it is also true that the world of Harry Potter, for example, will not have Aunt Rowling's existence, and people are one dimension higher than you.

But I decided to save it, like find a doctor or something.

Because this "PAX-200" has done nothing but dye the world red, it seems that it has evolved into airborne transmission and waited for it to spread to the world on its own, so I don't have a chance at all.

But the problem is that there are no "symptoms" at all, so the doctor will not prescribe me medicine. Even if you go to the hospital for a laboratory test and successfully find it, it is useless, because the microbial population that does not produce harm or even is beneficial is called "probiotics", and common sense cannot upset their balance.

Fix that thing, unless I'm crazy about antibiotics - that's not what I drink, anyway.

Perhaps the "player" is planning to wait for PAX-200 to spread around the world before suddenly evolving all of its symptoms...... Ahem.

The throat is inexplicably a little itchy, and the next moment the system prompt appears in the ear.

[Hint: 'PAX-200' autonomously mutates into a 'cough' symptom without using DNA points]

Did patient zero even have symptoms in advance?

However, as I can see from the word "autonomous mutation", this event should be an accident for the "player", similar to the challenge given by the game itself, so take this opportunity to rush to the doctor.

Quickly changed clothes and went out, and walked towards the clinic at the entrance of the community.

The community where my home is located is some small high-rise houses, each family has its own yard, there are living water lakes and artificial hills nearby, the environment is very good, and the community services are also very complete, but the name is very stupid - [Patient Zero Community].

No one has ever had an opinion on this stupid name carved on a rockery before today, probably like my name, it's limited by some kind of rule, and it's a sad thing to be an NPC.

The community's community services are basically concentrated around the small park near the gate, and the signboards all have the prefix "Patient Zero Community", which makes me embarrassed that I am about to commit cancer, and at the same time I am more and more skeptical about the role of the clinic.

Come on, "Patient Zero Community Clinic"!

[Public Health Surveillance Site of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Country C]

…… Ha?

————

"Uh-huh-"

Originally, I thought that the sign was exaggerated, but after entering the clinic, I was frightened a second time.

"Hmm, it looks amazing, when did it start?" The source of the fright, the clinic doctor, looked at me and asked.

"Ahem-well, that's it when I got up this morning, and I didn't have a fever." I replied with my mouth covered.

Normally, I've been through a lot of things that have collapsed reality today, so I shouldn't be surprised by other small things, but this is obviously more than expected.

This doctor, he is not dyed red at all!

In this world, where a red filter seems to have been used, and even the air is dyed with a faint red, only within a one-meter radius around him are all normal colors in his impression.

Is the CDC such a powerful place? If you reason, it should be the main enemy that the "player" needs to fight in order to beat the level.

"Really? It may be a cold, after all, your home is on the shore of an artificial lake. The doctor had ear-length natural curly hair, and his facial features and facial lines were cold, and he even looked a little menacing on his own, but a pair of large black-rimmed glasses suppressed them.

"Huh? Doctor, do you know me? "I tried to figure out how I was going to explain to him that I had an unknown disease, and that although I only had a cough at the moment, it would sooner or later destroy the world—no normal person would believe it.

"It's a bit of a boast, but I know most of the resident population in the community, Miss Zero." The doctor smiled at me, wrote down the prescription, and then got up and walked to the medicine cabinet: "I personally recommend not taking the medicine first, but if it feels serious, take it according to the dose." ”

That's why my surname is Zero, right, if I can solve this crisis, I will definitely change my name!

[Hint: 'PAX-200' degenerates 'cough' symptoms and gains DNA points.] 】

But, damn it! Sure enough, the "player" has been staring at the beginning of the game?

"Huh? What, does it feel serious? When the doctor came over with the medicine, he saw me suddenly gritting my teeth and raising an eyebrow and asked.

"No, on the contrary, I feel almost better, it must be the effect of the clinic air." I rammed nonsense, paid and took the pill, and then found out that even though I was in the doctor's 'immunity zone', the red color didn't expand in.

Very good, it seems that this is a key NPC, if you show symptoms in the future, you will immediately come to him to "turn yourself in", even I, a layman, know that finding the source of infection is a key thing to cure infectious diseases.

After thanking the doctor, I left the clinic.

Next, it's time to pay attention to the world news and system prompts.

————

[Hint: 'PAX-200' has successfully evolved 'drug resistance']

[Hint: 'PAX-200' has spread to South America]

[Hint: 'PAX-200' Evolved 'Water Spread' Successful]

[Hint: 'PAX-200' has spread to Africa]

[Hint: 'PAX-200' Evolves 'Drought Adaptation' Successful]

For the rest of the day, as I expected, the "player" didn't have any intention of evolving symptoms, but just kept evolving the method and speed of transmission, and I just needed to adapt to a world with a faint red layer of everything, and I could listen to the hints to understand where the "PAX-200" was spreading.

There were several spontaneous mutations of symptoms during this period, but they were all rapidly degraded before I could go to the doctor, and I was basically the only one who was unlucky.

In order to "report" in time, I always find an excuse to wander around the clinic, but before the goal is achieved, a group of gossipy aunts and aunts make up rumors that I have a doctor.

"The girl from the [Zero] family seems to have taken a fancy to the young man who works at the [monitoring point] and is called the [monitor]~"

Come on! Don't you feel awkward to spread this kind of gossip! The world is still destroyed!

[Hint: 'PAX-200' autonomously mutates into 'nausea' without using DNA points.]

['PAX-200' autonomously mutates into 'stomach bleeding' without using DNA points]

Probably because it is almost spreading to the whole world, there have been two symptoms of autonomic mutation lately, but the "player" always degenerates them quickly, and I rushed to the clinic with the attitude of resigning myself to my fate while walking in a small park.

It should have degraded quickly, but I was the one who had stomach pains before that......

[Hint: Degenerative 'nausea' symptoms fail, please degenerate advanced symptoms first]

Well? Speaking of which, they were all unrelated symptoms before, but this time they all seem to be digestive problems?

[Hint: Degenerative 'nausea' symptoms fail, please degenerate advanced symptoms first]

[Hint: Degenerative 'nausea' symptoms fail, please degenerate advanced symptoms first]

A shiver ran down his back and went straight to the top of his head, yes, this is the legendary state of "playing games in the middle of the night until I can't do it", just like the union in one of my games has opened up the wasteland until midnight several times, and the whole group has been sleepwalking.

The time difference between the worlds will come later! The most important thing now is that I have rushed to the door of the clinic!

"Poof!" As soon as I stepped through the clinic, I vomited a large pool of blood on the ground: "Monitor, help me-"

I hope I didn't make a mistake in judgment, and unlike trivial things like a cold and cough, this "advanced" symptom should be taken seriously.

In the next moment, the colorless range that had been almost compressed to the surface of the monitor's doctor's body suddenly expanded, enveloping the entire clinic.

[Hint: A new infectious disease has been discovered in country C, named 'PAX-200']

Before I could complain about the virus, I even introduced myself, and I lost consciousness in front of my eyes, so I had to laugh in my head.

Hmph, let you play such a dark game, you must know that NPCs are not easy to mess with!