The Vixen's Gambit: Tonight We Hunt

"..."

As she moved away from the center of Kolosten, the buildings gradually became sparser and more dilapidated, and the number of people on the streets dwindled.

But one thing continued to grow: the moans and screams echoing around Lihua.

The closer they got to the living quarters of the expelled, infected, the more distinct the cries of anguish became from the ruined structures.

Lihua occasionally caught glimpses of gaunt figures staring warily at them from the ruins. Their clothes were tattered, their faces pale, almost inhuman, like corpses risen from the grave.

But Lihua knew they were still human, people infected by the Black Death.

The Black Death from the Honkai was contagious. Without a cure, infection meant death. So it was common for the infected to be driven away like vermin to wait for death.

When she was at Schicksal HQ, Lihua had thought the infected would be miserable, but when she stepped into this settlement, she realized she had been too naive.

Human corpses were more common here than rats. She saw countless bodies of adults, clutching dead children, and children's corpses on top of their parent's bodies. These putrid corpses were so foul that even starving wild dogs wouldn't touch them.

The stench in the air was almost unbearable.

In this place, unless you had a high Honkai resistance like the Kaslanas, even a healthy person would become infected.

Lihua's brow furrowed, and Eleanor, thinking that Lihua was disgusted by the environment and the infected, shrank away even more.

She cautiously led Lihua to a half-collapsed building, pointing inside at the woman lying on a tattered blanket. The woman was unconscious, her body covered in black veins.

"This is my mother. She's been like this since yesterday. I didn't know what to do, so I tried to get some medicine..."

"Madam, please, save my mother!" Eleanor knelt down and slammed her head into the ground, begging with tear-filled eyes.

"I'll do anything! Please save her!"

"..."

Lihua looked at Eleanor and the woman struggling to breathe, then slowly said, "Eleanor, do you know how many patients are here?"

"How many patients? In this settlement?"

Eleanor looked up at Lihua with confusion. "About a thousand, but I don't know how many are still alive."

"A thousand people..."

Lihua considered the number, then made a decision. "Don't worry, Eleanor, I'll save your mother."

"Really?! Thank you, madam! Thank you so much!!"

[Target favorability increased. Current favorability: 5]

[Current Target Charging Efficiency: 250%]

Wow, every level of favorability gives 50% charge efficiency?

Lihua was a little surprised. She hadn't expected Eleanor to have such a high charge efficiency. For normal people, a 10% charge efficiency at level 1 was considered good. Even most Schicksal Valkyries only had about 20%.

This kid has a bright future, I'll make sure to get more favorability from her when I get the chance.

---

Lihua decided to save Eleanor's mother, or rather, she decided to do everything she could to save the poor people infected by the Black Death.

She built a temporary quarantine hospital in the ruins where Eleanor had taken her. She used all of the severance money that Schicksal had given her to buy medicine, medical supplies, and daily necessities from the black market.

The medicine was ridiculously expensive. A small box cost as much as a family of three would spend in an entire year. Lihua probably wouldn't have been able to open this hospital if Schicksal hadn't given her such a big severance package.

But as she was purchasing the medicine, Lihua realized something strange: it seemed like the medicine was being leaked from Schicksal. That made her incredibly confused.

The medicine had limited effect, but it could suppress the symptoms of the Black Death. Why wasn't Schicksal distributing it? Why were people selling it on the black market?

Was there a part in the original Honkai story that I missed? Lihua once again cursed herself for not paying attention to the plot.

But no matter what the original story was, Lihua's hospital eventually made progress.

Patients with different symptoms were treated in separate areas, and the people who had gathered haphazardly were also separated. The unsanitary conditions of the streets were vastly improved.

Even though the Black Death was caused by Honkai, Lihua still had the place disinfected daily to prevent other infectious diseases.

With these measures and free medicine, the death rate in the area declined significantly. Eleanor told Lihua that there were about 1000 people in this area, but after doing a head count, she found that there were less than 700 people alive.

But now, after three months, the number of new deaths was under 100. Some of those with strong Honkai adaptation had even recovered from the Black Death and joined her hospital staff.

But those weren't the biggest surprise to Lihua. What made her happiest was that her actions were paying off.

The favorability of the people who were still alive was at least level 7!

Their charging efficiency was low, but there were many of them! Lihua only had to pretend to be injured or sick a few times, and she had successfully harvested more than 20,000 energy.

It's not great to play with people's feelings like this... but I'm a bad woman, after all!

Unfortunately, as the hospital became more established and well-known, new problems began to arise.

The biggest problem was that Lihua was running out of money.

Lihua had no source of income. All her money had come from Schicksal's severance package.

If Lihua was the only one spending that money, she could've spent it lavishly for ten lifetimes. But she wasn't alone anymore.

A free hospital would become popular, and many hopeless patients would inevitably come to her. Lihua's Schicksal Welfare Hospital now had over 2000 patients.

Food, water, medicine, all of those things cost money.