Xiao Fan was stunned for a moment. He didn't even realize what had happened at first, thinking someone nearby had spoken.
But he soon realized that wasn't it, because the program had already started booting up.
A virtual light curtain appeared before his eyes.
The light curtain was divided into two parts. The left part took up about three-quarters of the space. It was a large screen, but the screen was black at the moment.
The right part had a few options, including basic buildings, military buildings, soldier units, and vehicle units.
This scene looked somewhat familiar. Xiao Fan quickly realized it was the game screen of Command & Conquer: Red Alert, wasn't it?
Before he could ask, the elegant female voice that had just spoken sounded out again: "Good evening, Commander."
"What did you say? You called me Commander? What's going on here?"
"Let me introduce myself first. My name is Annie. I'm your system narrator."
The female voice's reply was unhurried, seemingly having a stabilizing effect that made Xiao Fan temporarily forget the danger outside and listen patiently as she continued.
"I want to congratulate you here on becoming the commander of the Command & Conquer: Red Alert system. Just as you thought, this system is an upgraded version of the Command & Conquer: Red Alert game you played. As it happens, this system program was also created by you."
Xiao Fan thought of the game on his computer's hard drive, as well as the military unit information on the hard drive, and that idea he'd had before passing out to combine the two into one.
That's right, there was also that strange lightning and his own electric shock. Could it be that everything before his eyes now was related to that accident?
Annie went on, "This system is the only one of its kind in the universe. It incorporates the units from the game into reality. The system exists relying on you, Commander. Your will is the reason for the system's existence. You can start running the system just like operating the game."
Xiao Fan now roughly understood what was going on. Since such a fantastical thing had happened, he wouldn't delve too deep into why it happened. He only knew that this time, he had gotten incredibly lucky.
"Annie, there should be starting funds in the game, right? Does our Command & Conquer system have any?"
"Yes, Commander. According to the game settings, we have an initial funding amount of 3,000 gold. But in order to move the arsenal from your hard drive into the system, I've already used that funding."
"Then how do I proceed from here?"
"You can open the corporal starter pack that belongs to you. You can find it in the upper right corner of the screen."
Xiao Fan immediately looked toward the light curtain. By now he had figured out that all he needed to do was will it, and the light curtain would appear or disappear.
In the upper right corner of the light curtain, a small gift box was blinking nonstop.
He clicked to accept it, and the gift box opened.
A whole bunch of things actually appeared right on Xiao Fan's hospital bed!
A military uniform, a gun, a key, and a medical kit.
"These...these things all belong to me now?"
"Yes, Commander. Congratulations on obtaining the corporal starter pack. Let me introduce these items to you."
[Corporal's Uniform: Has minor protective capabilities; protective capabilities increase along with promotion in rank. Note: Promotions in rank require the number of combat units under the Commander's command to reach the current limit, along with a certain amount of funds. To be promoted from corporal to sergeant requires 8 Red Alert units and 2,000 funds.]
[Type 05 revolver: Overall length 197 mm, barrel length 76.2 mm, weight 840 g, capacity 6 rounds, effective range 50 meters. Note: Bullets can be produced at the arms factory or obtained in the real world. Under this system, firearms in designated hands will automatically replenish to max bullets every 24 hours.]
[Corporal's Ride: Domestic three-wheeled Longjiang motorcycle, seats 3 people, can mount a machine gun. Note: Because it's not easy to park in building interiors, the vehicle is currently parked in the hospital parking lot.]
[Corporal's Medkit: Contains one dose of hemostatic medicine, one roll of bandages, one vial of serum. The serum can be used to resist the zombie virus. Note: The system's medicines are highly effective to ensure healing. The number of doses increases along with rank. Medicines automatically replenish every 24 hours.]
Looking at the few items before him, Xiao Fan realized these were things that hadn't existed in the original Command & Conquer system.
First there was this military rank that he'd never seen before. After inquiring in detail with Annie, Annie provided an explanation.
"Commander, the system rule is that the higher your military rank, the more soldiers you can command. Your current rank is corporal, which commands a squad of 8 combat personnel. When the number of Red Alert units under your command reaches 8, as long as you earn 2,000 funds, you can then be promoted to sergeant."
Xiao Fan nodded. This was also reasonable. It looked like earning funds would be his main task going forward.
Xiao Fan remembered that in the game, earning funds required building a construction yard, then starting to build power plants, refineries, barracks, war factories and other structures in order to produce. But right now he clearly didn't have a construction yard.
The main screen was black without any construction yard present.
He brought this issue up and Annie provided an answer again.
"Commander, a physical construction yard requires you to collect resources in the real world in order to build it. What you have now is a portable program. The system comes with a virtual barracks to help you produce units. As long as you can continuously obtain funds, you can start building and producing units in this portable program."
Xiao Fan looked again at the buildings page on the light curtain and indeed discovered there was a barracks.
China Barracks, unit production limit 100.
Xiao Fan opened the soldiers page. There was one unit that could be produced there.
Infantryman: Costs 100 funds.
Xiao Fan recalled the game situation. The unit the barracks could initially produce seemed to have been called Militiamen.
Militiamen were local reserve forces that had undergone basic military training and could use firearms, having better fighting capabilities than ordinary people. But in the game they were the weakest combat units.
This infantryman was probably similar to militiamen. In real-world terms, this belonged to the most basic combat personnel in an army, newly enlisted recruits.
But Xiao Fan didn't have any money, he couldn't even produce one infantryman.
The zombies outside had already smashed a large hole in the only glass panel on the door used for observation, and the door itself seemed about to collapse at any moment too.
Annie gave a prompt: "Commander, please pay attention to collecting precious metals and minerals, such as jewelry."
Xiao Fan looked at the hand stretching in from outside that belonged to the zombie nurse. On it there clearly were gold rings and gold bangles.
Xiao Fan's eyes instantly lit up as he picked up the revolver.
Opening it up, inside there were six shiny bullets.
Xiao Fan had heard of this kind of gun before. It was said to have very little firepower, but this was a gun after all, it would still have a certain level of power. Holding it in his hand, he felt much more reassured.
Before he could check out his uniform and medkit, the room door was already smashed open a large hole, and half the zombie nurse's body had started squeezing through.
Behind the zombie nurse there was another female zombie in a white coat, a head nurse zombie.
Xiao Fan didn't have time to consider. He raised the gun in his hand and fired at the imminent zombie!
Bang!
The revolver's report wasn't very loud, only making a muffled sound inside the patient room.
The gunshot rang out, blood sprayed!