"Theresia, let Little March take you to the medical bay first. Star, Dan Heng, let's go comfort the station staff," Himeko began assigning tasks.
"Mm, leave it to me!" March 7th immediately replied.
"After you're done, we'll regroup at Lead Researcher Asta's location. I've already sent Herta many messages. Now, we just have to see when she's willing to read them."
Herta, huh... Can we get the real Herta? Though the puppet Herta isn't bad either.
"Let's go," March 7th took Tian An's hand and started walking. Along the way, they were surrounded by the panicked footsteps and despairing cries of the station staff.
This was no longer the game world where you could always undo mistakes. Here, one wrong step could lead to irreversible disaster.
Seeing Tian An constantly looking at the people around them, March 7th felt she needed to change the subject, to prevent the atmosphere from becoming too heavy.
"Right, Theresia, you still haven't told me what your status was back home."
"Status? What status could I have?" Tian An answered subconsciously, but quickly perked up when she realized March was asking about her status among the Sarkaz.
"Back there, I was a princess, you know! They all called me 'Your Highness'," Tian An declared.
"Huh? Really?!" March 7th was still a bit skeptical. Unless her country was destroyed or overthrown, why would no one be looking after her...?
"Guess," Tian An finally allowed herself a moment of playfulness, releasing a bit of the long-pent-up pressure.
"Then maybe I'm also a lost princess from some country!" March 7th suddenly made a connection to herself.
"March 7th is so cute, of course you're a princess," Tian An learned a new skill: Flirting.
"Heh, I just love how Theresia talks," March 7th grinned, pulling Tian An's hand as they headed towards the medical bay.
———
"Doctor, could you help my..." March 7th opened the door first and walked in, only to find the medical section already packed with people. All sorts of personnel were here.
The only thing they had in common was the severity of their injuries.
Groans echoed from all directions, assaulting Tian An's senses. The thick smell of blood made her feel nauseous, but she couldn't vomit.
"Those who can still walk, wait for now! We need to prioritize the critical patients! We'll handle others after reinforcements arrive!"
A person in a white coat shouted forcefully from the end of the room using a megaphone, trying to clear out the "friends and family" accompanying the injured.
Tian An had never imagined just how much suffering existed when a game became reality – suffering she would never have wanted to witness.
Like this time, the injured filled the medical bay, completely different from the game's plot. Or perhaps, the plot simply skipped over these unpleasant scenes.
She had originally thought it would be exactly like the space station in the game, without any changes.
Logically, the space station's resources and technology should have been sufficient to support their medical capabilities...
But now it seemed every step she took altered the course of the plot.
"This..." March 7th was troubled, but she couldn't exactly pull a patient off a bed for an examination.
"Little March, I'm fine. Let's just go," Tian An felt there was nothing wrong with her body anyway.
"Alright, but you have to tell me if you feel uncomfortable!" March 7th was also affected by the scene they had just witnessed.
When Theresia faced so many injured kinsmen, did she feel the same way...? Tian An wondered silently.
"Over there, young lady! Give me a hand!" A female doctor, carrying a staff member covered in blood, called out loudly.
"Me?" Realizing the call was directed at them, the two quickly ran over.
"Help me pull out a cot," the female doctor pointed towards a retractable bed folded into a cabinet.
"Oh, okay," Tian An, somewhat flustered, managed to pull the bed out. March 7th carefully helped the doctor move the injured person onto the cot.
"Patient needs immediate hemostasis! I need hemostats!" the female doctor shouted into the room, but everyone was frantically busy, with no time to lend a hand.
"I'll go, I'll go!" March 7th hurried off.
"Hang in there! Your abdomen was stabbed multiple times by the Anti-Matter Legion; you're losing a lot of blood," the female doctor pressed down on the largest wound with a blood-soaked cloth.
"Little Lan... Little Lan..." The injured man struggled to lift his head, only for his strength to fail him tremblingly.
"Old Uncle, tell me, I'm listening," the female doctor leaned closer, her voice trembling.
"Your... your boyfriend... why isn't he here?"
"He... he's fine. He's fine," the female doctor's eyes darted away. She looked vaguely into the patient's eyes for a moment, then lifted her head again.
She treated it merely as an accident, where some people just happened to be the ones who rushed to the front lines.
"Oh... oh, I see," the old uncle seemed to understand everything, but lacked even the strength to wave his hand.
"Um... I didn't know which ones were hemostats, so I brought them all." March returned with a kit.
"Thank you," the female doctor immediately opened the medical kit and began preparing for emergency surgery.
Tian An tried hard to concentrate her power, but she couldn't summon even a speck of healing energy like Theresia could. She couldn't help but doubt herself: was she really suited for this role?
Reinforcements finally arrived at that side of the medical bay. March 7th pulled Theresia aside to make way for them.
The cries of pain mingled with the beeping of medical equipment, forming the critical lifeline between life and death.
In a daze, Tian An seemed to see that apocalyptic vision again, the suffocating feeling of despair threatening to engulf her.
"Theresia..." March 7th looked at Tian An with worry. Sometimes, this was the substance of reality behind a disaster.
Beep. Beep.
"Patient in bed two is experiencing heart failure!"
"Prepare for emergency resuscitation!"
Various high-tech devices were brought in, ready to be deployed in their respective areas of expertise...
Tian An snapped back from her trance. March 7th had pulled her out of the medical bay, worried something might happen if she stayed there too long.
"Theresia, are you alright?"
Although March 7th also found these scenes distressing, she had experienced more of them than Tian An, so she naturally coped slightly better.
"March... I'm such a failure."
———————————————————
This was supposed to be a story of heroes forging the future. But when viewed from a lower perspective, one discovered that where there is light, there must also be darkness...
At this moment, Tian An finally realized that every part of the plot she experienced wasn't a fairytale woven from sweet dreams and ideals. The end of a space comedy might ultimately be a tragedy.