Chương 70: Patient

"He's waking up!" Ava's voice cut through the haze. Gray cracked his eyes open against the harsh overhead light, a groan rattling deep in his chest. His entire body felt as though a car had run him over, yet the mattress beneath him was soft enough to swallow him whole. As his vision sharpened, Ava's face came into focus. She hovered over the bed, hands clasped tightly against her chest, the worried lines around her eyes easing into relief. Beside her stood Nabi, wearing a smug, satisfied grin.

Gozen lingered in the corner, leaning against the wall with a black katana resting casually over one shoulder. Gray braced himself to sit up. Nothing happened. He commanded his limbs to move, pouring every ounce of will into his arms and legs, but they refused to budge. He could feel the crisp sheets beneath him, the dull ache threaded through his muscles, even the cool air against his face. His body simply wouldn't move. His gaze snapped downward.

Heavy reinforced canvas wrapped tightly around his torso, pinning both arms across his chest. A straitjacket. Gray thrashed against the restraints hard enough to rattle the metal bed frame.

"Keep him steady!" Nabi lunged forward, a wicked smirk splitting her face. She wiggled her fingers and crept them dramatically toward his eyes.

"I'm almost done harvesting his eyeballs!" Under any other circumstance, a threat of organ trafficking might have sent Gray over the edge. But hearing that familiar brand of crass humor from the Blood Reaper grounded him almost immediately. The surge of adrenaline bled out, and the tension drained from his shoulders. He let his head fall back against the pillow with a heavy sigh.

"Why am I restrained?" he asked, his voice completely calm. Nabi's theatrical grin collapsed, visibly deflated by his lack of reaction.

"The doctor here uses… unconventional methods, to say the least," Ava explained.

"Doctor?" Gray frowned.

"This is a hospital?" He craned his neck and surveyed the room for the first time. It was barely larger than an ordinary bedroom, its stark white walls giving the place more of an asylum feel than a clinic. There were no heart monitors, IV drips, or rolling trays of surgical instruments—just the bed beneath him, a small table holding a clipboard, a digital clock, a cup of pens, and a row of chairs lined neatly against the opposite wall.

"Minimalist, right?" Ava said, spreading her arms as if presenting the room.

"You could say that," Gray muttered. Then the last of the fog cleared from his head, and the memory hit him all at once.

"Hyun!" Gray shouted, immediately resuming his violent struggle against the bindings.

"Where is he?!"

"Relax. He's right next door." Ava leaned over and planted one hand against his shoulder to keep him still while the other worked at the buckles securing the straitjacket. The instant the thick canvas loosened, Gray tore his arms free of the sleeves and scrambled off the mattress. His bare feet struck the cold floor, and he bolted for the exit. Gozen was already there, pulling the door open for him.

"To your left," his mentor murmured. Gray gave him a quick nod and took off down the hallway. Behind him, the casual atmosphere vanished—Ava, Nabi, and Gozen exchanged grim, knowing looks before quietly following. Gray shoved open the next door and stepped into a room nearly identical to the one he'd just left: the same psychopath-white walls, the same solitary bed in the center, the same small table and chair beside it, with a clipboard and an assortment of pens resting on top.

Hyun lay strapped inside a straitjacket, his body convulsing in a violent seizure. He bucked against the restraints, choking down ragged breaths as the mattress shuddered beneath him. Standing over him was a towering, heavily muscled woman. She wore a fitted black tank top and dark cargo pants, thick veins standing out along her arms, dense muscle shifting beneath her skin as she fought to keep Hyun anchored to the bed. Sweat streamed down her face.

One massive hand pressed firmly against his chest while the other clamped down on his face. She leaned her weight into him, pinning his thrashing body against the mattress, eyes squeezed shut in concentration. The blood drained from Gray's face.

"Get off him!" he roared, lunging forward. Gravity Well A singularity ripped open the air directly behind the woman. The localized vacuum shrieked to life, dragging everything within reach toward its center. The bed frame lurched across the floor and slammed into the front of her thighs. The woman didn't so much as stagger. Her long black hair whipped violently toward the vortex, but she remained planted like a pillar, unmoved by the gravitational pull.

Her eyes snapped open, and she turned a bewildered stare toward Gray as he closed the distance. Gray clamped both hands around her thick forearm and hauled backward with everything he had. Her arm didn't budge an inch.

"What are you doing, kid?" she asked, one eyebrow lifting in disbelief. Gray gritted his teeth as his fingers slipped against her sweat-slicked skin.

"What am I doing? What are you doing? Get your hands off him!" Recognition flickered across her face.

"Ah, you must be the brother," she murmured. She slowly released Hyun and stepped away from the bed. The instant her hands left him, his violent convulsions stopped. His body went limp against the mattress, his chest rising and falling in deep, uneven breaths. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I'm the healer responsible for Hyun. I suppose my methods can be alarming if you're unfamiliar with them." Gray's racing pulse began to settle. He released her arm and straightened, though every muscle in his body remained wound tight." Alarming is putting it lightly." He glanced at the straitjacket restraining his brother.

"What are you doing, rearranging his insides? What kind of healing requires one of those?" Without waiting for an answer, Gray activated Identify. Name: Althea Vale Class: Combat Sage Level: 30 Rank: Kaiser Gray's eyes widened. A Kaiser.

"You know," Althea said, turning back toward the bed as she began undoing Hyun's restraints, "it's considered rude to use Identify on someone before introducing yourself." Caught off guard, Gray gave her a stiff nod.

"Sorry. I'm still new to this world." He gestured toward the fading vortex behind her.

"And… sorry about the whole vortex thing. I'm Gray Kim. Hyun's younger brother." Althea turned and extended a massive, calloused hand.

"Althea," she said.

"Full-time fighter. Full-time healer." Gray accepted the handshake, suppressing a wince as Althea's crushing grip swallowed his hand.

"What exactly did I just witness? Instead of using some gentle green healing light, do you just turn your patients inside out until they're cured?"

"Ha! I wish it felt that good." The voice came from the door. Gozen stepped through the doorway.

"What that brute does to you is much worse." Althea shot the swordsman a flat glare.

"Unsatisfied with my methods, Gozen? Perhaps you'd prefer to go grovel on your knees to The Glory? I'm sure their priests would be thrilled to heal you. Until then, I'm your only option." Gozen coughed into his fist and abruptly found the opposite wall fascinating.

"I wouldn't touch that place with a ten-foot glaive."

"To answer your question, boy — the esteemed Combat Sage Althea here isn't merely a terrifying fighter. She's also a highly competent healer." Althea rubbed a thumb beneath her nose, feigning indifference at the praise, though the faint twitch at the corner of her mouth betrayed her.

"She performs a deep-tissue analysis of your entire anatomy," Gozen continued, stepping farther into the room.

"She locates the exact point of injury and forces the body to repair itself almost instantly. The catch is that the scanning process is incredibly invasive—your nervous system interprets it as an attack and violently rejects the intrusion, causing the body to lash out on instinct." He tipped his chin toward the heavy canvas restraints bundled in Althea's hands.

"Hence, the straitjacket." Gray's brows rose.

"That… actually sounds incredibly useful. But also extremely painful at the same time." He turned his full attention to the towering healer.

"So what's the diagnosis? Is he going to be okay?" Althea stiffened. Her gaze flicked past Gray and settled on Gozen. The swordsman met her eyes and gave the slightest shake of his head. Catching the silent cue, Althea shifted her weight and cleared her throat, suddenly very interested in the restraints.

"I'll need to run a few more tests before I can say for certain," she replied, her voice noticeably lower as she turned back to Hyun and secured the thick canvas over his chest again.

"I appreciate it." Gray lingered on his brother for another moment before facing Gozen.

"Now, could someone tell me what happened while I was unconscious?"

"We can fill you in," Ava said as she entered with Nabi close behind. She stopped near the foot of Hyun's bed.

"Once The Natural Selection concludes, the Top 100 survivors are instantly teleported to random coordinates throughout Quantis. A mass summoning on that scale creates an enormous spatial disturbance—one that's impossible to conceal. The general public has no warning when the games actually end. Only the Kaiser mentors know the exact timing."

"That doesn't stop the Astorian from taking advantage of the chaos," Ava continued, folding her arms.

"For the most part, you're safe from being slaughtered outright because the Forge Guard maintains a heavy presence throughout the streets. But that protection comes with a catch." Her expression hardened.

"The Guards actively hunt down newly arrived Earthborn who know nothing about this world or its system. Their goal is to conscript them straight into the military."

"Is joining the military here really that bad? Why do they go to such extremes?" Gray asked.

"It's not inherently bad. To each their own, I guess." Ava shrugged.

"But why work under a faction that sees you as cannon fodder? They'll send you off to fight wars that only serve to line the pockets of the ones who sit at the top. Forging your own path as a Kaiser is far less restrictive—and significantly more lucrative." Gray tilted his head, a dry scoff escaping him.

"The rich using the poor to fight their wars. Sounds familiar."

"Exactly." Ava nodded.

"And the military is only one trap. Local businesses will price-gouge ignorant Earthborn, and bottom-feeding Guilds will try to lure them into predatory contracts. You'd be lucky if that were the worst of it."

"There are opportunists who hunt disoriented survivors just to kidnap and sell them. Then you have Kaiser mentors who decide their new disciple is a liability and turn the city upside down looking for them—only to execute them the moment they're found. For the right price, The Forge Guard will often look the other way." Gray swallowed hard as the grim reality of this new world settled over him.

"What about the others?" he asked, his voice falling to a hesitant murmur.

"The ones who didn't make the Top 100?" A shadow crossed Ava's face. She broke eye contact and stared down at the floor.

"They… weren't teleported to the city," she said quietly.

"They went straight to the auction block."

"I see." Gray forced his voice to remain steady.

"Okay. So what happened to me?"" I happened to you," Nabi said, leaning out from behind Ava. She tapped a finger against her chest.

"Remember my Blood Signature ability? After you passed out, I marked both you and your brother so I could track your coordinates. Recovering you two was the easy part. Dragging both of you halfway across the city while trying to find this 'hospital'? Not so much. With our implanted communication devices disabled now, Ava couldn't exactly give me directions." Ava ducked her head, muffling a guilty chuckle behind one hand. Gray stared at the Blood Reaper as the pieces slowly clicked into place.

"Your Blood Signature…" he murmured.

"That's how you reached me in time? Back in the competition?" Nabi gave a crisp nod.

"Yup." Gray's hands slowly curled into fists.

"Then why?" he demanded, stepping toward her. Nabi raised an eyebrow, entirely unfazed by the sudden hostility.

"Why what?"

"Why did you wait so long to show up?" His voice climbed with every word.

"If you were tracking me, why didn't you step in earlier? You could've prevented all of this! You could've helped me fight off William!" He thrust an accusatory finger toward his brother's unconscious form.

"Calm down, boy." Gozen's rough voice cut through the room. His mentor stepped between them before Gray could move any closer.

"You're aiming your anger at the wrong person. She had no way of knowing what was happening to you." Gray froze, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths as he stared up at his mentor.

"When you pulled that suicidal stunt with the stimulant and forced your Legacy to unlock, I had to physically track down Ava," Gozen explained.

"I needed her to contact Nabi and get her to assist you. Thankfully, knowing what an absolute pain in the ass you are, Nabi had already marked your shoe with her Blood Signature during your time in the fourth level." The fight drained out of Gray in an instant. Shame rushed in to replace his anger, and his gaze dropped to the floor.

"I… I didn't realize." Gray rubbed the back of his neck, then forced himself to meet Nabi's eyes with an apologetic grimace.

"Thank you. You've done nothing but save my life. Someday, I'll repay the favor tenfold. I swear." Nabi waved him off, though her wicked smirk quickly returned.

"Don't sweat it. Using you as a live test subject gave me some incredible data for my class." Amusement glinted in her eyes.

"But yes. You will pay me back. A hundredfold."

"Did you just say Legacy, Gozen?" Althea cut in. She wasn't looking at them. Her massive hands worked methodically over the thick leather straps of Hyun's straitjacket, buckling and unbuckling them in a restless rhythm. Click. Snap. Click. The sharp metallic sounds filled the otherwise quiet room.

"Which one?" Gray tensed. He glanced over his shoulder at Gozen, uncertain whether he should reveal it. His mentor met his gaze and gave a firm nod.

"The Legacy of… Shroud," Gray answered, his voice tightening around the name. Althea's thick fingers froze over a steel buckle. Silence settled over the room for a long, heavy beat. Nobody moved. Then came another click as Althea resumed fiddling with the restraints.

"Shroud, you say," she murmured, her eyes still fixed on the canvas.

"I suppose I'll be seeing a lot more of you, then." The buckle snapped shut beneath her thumb.

"Or worse, I'll just end up attending your funeral."