An F-Rank Veterinarian Physically Heals an S-Rank Magical Beast - Chapter 101
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 101
“Thump, thump, thump—!”
The black heart extracted from the bag pulsed with an otherworldly vibration, like the war drums of hell itself. The air in the clinic grew leaden and oppressive in an instant, and even the meticulously engineered mana barrier of the Arcana Medical Center trembled with a faint, anguished cry.
[Warning! Heart fragment of Calamity-grade monster ‘Void Devourer’ initiating self-replication through forced mana absorption!]
[Contamination level: 15%… 18%… Rising rapidly!]
[Time remaining: 09:59]
I narrowed my eyes and hurled the blood-stained latex gloves into the trash. Then I turned to face Yoo Yi-soo standing beside me.
“Yi-soo, get to the lobby right now. Call Chun-sam and the Murim Alliance Elders—seal off Floor 1 completely. And start triage on the patients in the waiting area. Send everyone except those tagged red out of the building.”
Yoo Yi-soo’s eyes widened. But her shock was fleeting. She read the gravity of the situation in the unwavering intensity of my gaze.
“Got it. But what about that heart? If we just leave it, the entire hospital will be contaminated. Should I try to suppress it with my mana, at least temporarily?”
“No. This is beyond what your mana can handle. If you interfere carelessly, you’ll suffer a backlash and get hurt. Take Luna and set up a barrier in the lobby. Make sure the toxic energy doesn’t leak out.”
Luna clung to Yoo Yi-soo. She nodded and left the clinic without hesitation. There was no trace of her former weakness in her departing figure. The resilience she’d forged standing beside me through countless brushes with death had made her the core personnel of the Arcana Medical Center.
The lobby was absolute chaos.
Men in black coats stood in confrontation with the Murim Alliance Elders, while reporters eager to cover the grand opening thrust their cameras forward, unwilling to miss this tense spectacle.
“I said move! This is a Hunter Association classified asset! Director Kang Jin-hyuk has no authority to dispose of it unilaterally!”
The leader of the Association’s special retrieval team shouted, raising a gun loaded with mana rounds. But blocking his path was a massive, rock-like man—Ma Dong-tak.
“Hey, you guys in black. Our director is in surgery right now. Why are you making such a racket? And a classified asset? Did you forget you almost killed everyone on the street carrying that bag? The mana levels leaking from that case already far exceed Gangnam District safety standards.”
Ma Dong-tak slammed an iron pry bar against the ground. The asphalt of Gangnam Boulevard trembled, fine cracks spiderwebbing across its surface.
“Ma Dong-tak…! You, the person ranked number one, why are you working as a lackey at some unknown hospital like this! Return to your guild immediately!”
“You want to know why I’m here? Sure, I became South Korea’s number one ranked hunter due to sudden fluctuations, but it’s all in service of the spirit of volunteering. Got it?”
Ma Dong-tak continued.
“Unlicensed? Look here—our hospital is officially registered. And don’t you see my name tag? I’m the ‘Physical Therapy Director.’ A professional manager. I’m on a completely different level from field workers like you.”
As Ma Dong-tak boasted and pointed to his name tag, Yoo Yi-soo walked out to the center of the lobby. In her hands were bundles of red, yellow, and green tags.
“Everyone, listen up!”
Yoo Yi-soo’s clear but commanding voice dominated the lobby. Her mana-infused voice instantly silenced even the reporters’ murmurs.
“A mana contamination event caused by a Calamity-grade monster fragment is currently occurring inside the hospital. We are now implementing triage. Patients whose complexions have turned violet due to severe mana backlash symptoms will receive red tags and be transported to the intensive care unit on Floor 3. Mild cases will receive green tags and evacuate the building immediately. The Association is not exempt. If you refuse examination and leave in a contaminated state, all of Gangnam will become the epicenter of a mana plague.”
“What? Triage? Are you joking right now? We came here to retrieve that heart…!”
“Association or not, if you want to die, keep talking. Luna!”
At Yoo Yi-soo’s command, Luna swept her hand through the air.
Whoosh—!
A silvery, translucent barrier instantly enveloped the lobby. When the black aura leaking from the heart touched the barrier, it released a sharp hissing sound as it was purified. Only then did people grasp the true severity of the situation and begin moving in perfect coordination with Yoo Yi-soo’s instructions.
The Murim Alliance Elders, bewildered by this unfamiliar triage system, nevertheless cooperated desperately to have their debts forgiven.
“Say, Elder! That hunter over there has such a blue complexion he looks like he’s about to breathe his last—we should slap a red tag on him!”
“Heh heh, that fellow just seems to have a slight limp, so let’s stick a green tag on him and toss him outside! Chun-sam, you go clear away those reporters’ cameras! If the director’s surgical techniques get leaked, we’re in big trouble!”
While the Elders grabbed hunters by the collar and sorted them by severity, outside the hospital, the Hunter Association’s Emergency Director was being dispatched, and the situation was spiraling beyond control.
At the same moment, in the clinic.
I stood alone before the colossal heart. It had now grown large enough to cover the entire examination table, and grotesque blood vessels sprouted from its surface, creeping across the walls.
[Time remaining: 04:15]
[Warning: Heart rate has exceeded 200 beats per minute. Mana explosion imminent.]
“Ventricular fibrillation? No, this is ‘mana tachycardia’ from mana overload. The valves aren’t closing properly, so the absorbed mana can’t be expelled—it’s festering inside.”
Jin-hyuk analyzed the situation with clinical detachment. In conventional veterinary medicine, when a heart beats erratically and fails to pump blood properly, the most reliable method is to use a defibrillator to reset its rhythm. But this was no mere mass of muscle.
“I need to forcibly stabilize the mana-constructed valves and drain the accumulated contaminated mana inside. And all of this… I’ll resolve physically.”
Jin-hyuk picked up the iron lever resting beside him. It was no ordinary piece of metal. It was a special alloy reinforced in the Subspace Blacksmith, capable of conducting mana.
“All right, let’s begin treatment.”
Jin-hyuk drove the iron lever deep into the heart’s center, targeting the massively swollen aorta.
Squelch—!
Black blood-like mana liquid splattered across Jin-hyuk’s gown, but he didn’t even blink. His Eyes of Divine Insight had located the heart’s vulnerable nexus points.
“Yi-soo, can you hear me? Set Channel 2 to 85% concentration mana neutralizer and transmit now! I need to lower the core temperature of the heart!”
Jin-hyuk shouted toward the communication device on the wall. Yoo Yi-soo, who had been sorting patients in the lobby, manipulated her tablet frantically.
— Got it, settings complete! Sending now! Jin-hyuk, just hold on!
Through the hospital’s central control system, purified mana flowed through the conductive pathways in the treatment room floor and into the heart. Jin-hyuk seized the moment perfectly and twisted the iron lever.
“The fundamental principle of physical therapy is ‘realignment.’ Valves that beat of their own accord must be beaten into submission until they obey. The survival instinct of living creatures is powerless before brute force.”
Crack! Crack!
With each touch of Jin-hyuk’s hands, the grotesquely twisted heart valves were forcibly restored to their proper positions. The system window flashed frantically, heralding rewards.
[System: Forced Positional Restoration Technique being cast on ‘Heart of the Void’!]
[System: Contaminated mana drainage rate 45%… 60%… breakthrough!]
But the heart made one final desperate lunge, spraying black thorns in all directions. Sharp spines pierced Jin-hyuk’s shoulder and thigh. Red blood soaked his gown, yet Jin-hyuk actually laughed.
“The patient attacks the doctor? This is a real ‘problem patient.’ Looks like the anesthesia didn’t take properly.”
Jin-hyuk casually plucked out the embedded spines and tossed them aside, then withdrew an enormous syringe from his pocket. It was filled with pure mana stabilizer extracted from the basement of the Pocket Dimension Hospital.
“Here, take this shot and get some sleep. When you wake up tomorrow morning, you’ll feel refreshed.”
Jin-hyuk drove the syringe into the heart’s deepest point—the cardiac regulation center.
Fwooooosh—!
Silver solution spread throughout the heart’s interior. The thrashing black pulse gradually slowed. Thump… thump… thump… Finally, the heart could no longer maintain its enormous size and slowly contracted, returning to its original small fragment form.
[Time Remaining: 00:03]
[System: Sudden Quest ‘Stop the Heart’s Beating’ successful!]
[Reward: Calamity-Grade Magical Beast Essence (Void), Pocket Dimension Hospital Expansion Points 2,000P acquired!]
[Reward: New Skill ‘Forced Anesthesia’ acquired!]
Jin-hyuk exhaled heavily and collapsed onto the floor. His entire body was covered in sweat and magical beast blood, yet his eyes gleamed with the light of victory.
After the situation was resolved, the hospital lobby fell into an eerie silence.
The Hunters who had been waiting with tags distributed by Yoo Yi-soo on their chests felt relief at the fact that they had survived. The Association’s personnel were overwhelmed by Jin-hyuk’s skill in “treating” their classified asset and could say nothing.
Then the treatment room door opened, and Jin-hyuk emerged battered and broken. Luna rushed over and rubbed against his legs, while Yoo Yi-soo approached with a towel and wiped his face.
“Jin-hyuk, are you okay? You’re bleeding so much!”
“Ah, half of this is my blood, half is magical beast blood. It’s nothing.”
Jin-hyuk answered indifferently and walked toward the center of the lobby. He extended a sheet of paper toward the journalists and Association officials surrounding him.
“Director… what exactly was that technique you just performed? Controlling a magical beast’s heart in that manner is supposedly impossible even with modern magical engineering.”
A journalist asked in an awestruck voice. Jin-hyuk removed his blood-stained gown and handed it to Yoo Yi-soo before responding.
“Technique? I simply corrected anatomically misaligned positions and drained the accumulated pus. It’s just basic medical practice. Oh, and to the Association members.”
Jin-hyuk’s gaze fixed on the Association’s retrieval team leader.
“Take that heart if you want. Treatment is already complete, so it’s just an ordinary mana stone fragment now. However, here’s the invoice for the ’emergency mana contamination quarantine fee’ and ‘intensive heart treatment charges’ that just occurred. Review it and deposit the payment within 24 hours. Otherwise, starting tomorrow, I’ll refuse to treat any magical beasts belonging to the Association.”
The Association employee’s face went pale as they confirmed the amount written on the invoice.
“This… is this amount serious? It looks like there’s an extra zero!”
“Ah, I forgot that rent in Gangnam is quite expensive. Director, we need to revise the amount. Add one more zero.”
“Yes! Director! I’ll correct it immediately!”
Ma Dong-tak eagerly wrote the numbers on the back of the sign.
That evening, news headlines across the world converged on a single story.
[Kang Jin-hyuk, the savior of the demonic beast that descended upon Gangnam. Before him, no treatment is impossible.]
Yet beneath that renown lay the cold gleam in Jin-hyuk’s eyes—a gleam that sensed this was no accident. The hand behind sending that heart to the hospital. The shadow of Apollo Hospital, colluding with the Association and conducting illegal demonic beast experiments, was gradually coming into view.
Jin-hyuk sipped the warm coffee Yoo Yi-soo had prepared and opened the system window.
“Yi-soo, starting tomorrow, things will get busier. Those garbage cases Apollo sent are piling up in our hospital. If we’re going to clean all that up while squeezing money out of them, you need to take care of your stamina.”
“You’re really something, Jin-hyuk. Still… you were amazing today.”
Instead of answering Yoo Yi-soo’s praise, Jin-hyuk flicked Luna on the head.
“You hear that, Luna? Starting tomorrow, you need to earn your snack money too, so no slacking off.”
[System: The Subspace Hospital expansion feature ‘Intensive Care Unit (ICU)’ has been unlocked!]
[System: New equipment ‘Mana Purification Filter’ has been installed!]
The night deepened over Gangnam, but the lights of Arcana Medical Center showed no sign of dimming.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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