An F-Rank Veterinarian Physically Heals an S-Rank Magical Beast - Chapter 74

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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 74
Beyond the Dimensional Gate lay a world that unfolded before Jin-hyuk and his party—utterly alien and mesmerizing, a stark contrast to the blood-soaked struggle for survival they had endured within the Tower until now.
“Wow! So bright! This is really inside the Tower?”
Kim Chun-sam exclaimed in admiration as he frantically adjusted the brightness settings on his visor’s display.
Filling every corner were neon signs that blazed with such dazzling brilliance one could barely open their eyes, and enormous chandeliers. What assaulted the nose was not the stench of rotting monster blood, but the sweet, potent aroma of premium liquor and the heavy fragrance of expensive perfume.
The floor was carpeted end-to-end with plush, luxurious crimson fabric, while the ears were constantly bombarded with cheerful jazz music, the roaring cheers of patrons, and the delightful clinking of coins cascading down.
Hundreds of ornate roulette tables and slot machines filled the vast hall, and between them, alluring demi-human dealers dressed as bunny girls and demons in tuxedos moved about diligently, carrying drinks and food.
“Is this truly the Tower of Hell? I have wandered Kangho my entire life, yet even the imperial palace could not have been so resplendent and extravagant. It feels as though I have arrived at the legendary Pure Land itself.”
Gae Bang Bang-ju stood with his mouth agape, gazing up at the magnificent chandeliers and muttering to himself. For one who had spent his entire life sleeping under burlap on the streets and begging, this dazzling golden city was nothing short of a separate realm. The other Murim Alliance masters, too, had let their guard down and stood mesmerized, their attention wholly absorbed by the spectacular sights of the hall.
Yet not everyone in the party was captivated by this city of pleasure.
“Ugh, so loud! Why do these lights have to flicker so garishly? And look at those women over there! They’re barely covered with scraps of cloth! Don’t you dare look, Ma Manager!”
Beris shouted sharply, his face flushed as he stood on his tiptoes trying to cover Ma Dong-tak’s eyes. Beside him, Luna, the pharmacy director who had been organizing IV bags, also shook her head in disapproval.
“Haha! Why cover up? Places like this are meant for eye candy. Back when I was the Ares Guild Master and ranked number one among South Korea’s Hunters, I never got to visit somewhere this flashy. My hyung went into hiding, and I’ve seen plenty of noona in leggings at the gym, so I don’t bat an eye at that level of exposure. Anyway, are there any dumbbells worth lifting here? There’s just a bunch of machines.”
Ma Dong-tak seemed far more interested in how much those massive slot machines in the center of the casino weighed than in the scandalous attire of the bunny girl demi-humans. The muscle-bound fool’s mind was occupied solely with the desire to lift those heavy chunks of metal and perform lower-body exercises.
Jin-hyuk silently pushed his glasses up and swept his gaze across the casino interior with his characteristic cold and piercing eyes. Behind him, Yoo Yi-soo, the director of the medical department, was busily gathering information with a holographic chart displayed before her.
“You seem fond of the Pure Land, Bang-ju. Don’t be deceived by appearances. This gambling den squeezes blood and tears from far more people than the Hospital ever could. Moreover, look at the condition of the patrons here. Something is wrong.”
At Jin-hyuk’s observation, the party’s attention turned toward the patrons seated before the glittering machines.
Orcs, elves, humans, dwarves—countless races were absorbed in roulette and card games. Yet their expressions were not the delight of those enjoying gambling, but rather twisted with madness and despair, as though possessed by something sinister.
An elf mechanically pulling the lever of a slot machine with vacant eyes; an orc warrior trembling as he gripped cards, then collapsing with foam at his mouth. And each time they fell, the dealers naturally extracted something that shimmered with brilliant light from their bodies and exchanged it for chips.
“The currency here is not gold. Look toward the exchange desk.”
Where Jin-hyuk gestured with his chin stood an exchange desk with an enormous golden scale. There, it was not money or jewels that changed hands, but patrons cutting their own wrists to draw blood or extracting mana from their staffs, placing them on the scale. The blood and mana that touched the scale were instantly converted into transparent, glimmering chips and distributed to the patrons.
“The Master is correct! After scanning with my visor, those chips are not composed of gold or silver. They are pure stat data—concentrated life force, mana, and physical strength values—condensed into physical crystalline form!”
Kim Chun-sam cried out as his visor emitted beeping warning sounds.
“In other words, they are not gambling with money. They are wagering their own ‘lifespan’ and ‘abilities’ as stakes. They are not losing money—they are losing their lives and their strength!”
At Kim Chun-sam’s horrifying analysis, Namgoong Cheon recoiled in shock. Yoo Yi-soo also gasped and covered her mouth in horror.
“Such terrible sorcery exists! A gambling den that steals lifespan and inner strength! We must escape this place at once!”
“I agree. There is no reason to participate in someone else’s scam. However, the fact that there are so many wealthy fools here squandering their lifespan and stats suggests that on Earth, too, there are plenty of rich Hunter fools. When we return to Earth, instead of a monster butchery, I should establish a real hospital that will strip wealthy Hunters of every last coin and soul. Let us move straight toward the exit. Touch nothing and make eye contact with no one.”
Jin-hyuk adjusted his medical bag firmly and took the lead.
But incidents always erupted at the moment of greatest carelessness, at the weakest link.
“Huh? Where did Bang-ju go?”
Ma Dong-tak looked around, bewildered. The elderly Gae Bang Bang-ju, who had been admiring the chandeliers beside him moments before, had vanished without a trace.
“Damn it! I just said not to touch anything!”
Jin-hyuk turned his head urgently and scanned the casino hall. He felt his blood pressure rising as he gripped the back of his neck.
In the distance, before a massive slot machine that flashed with brilliant light, stood Gae Bang Bang-ju in his tattered burlap, as though entranced. Before him, an alluring dealer with a fox tail smiled brightly as she handed the old man a glimmering chip.
“Oh my, elder. This is your first visit, isn’t it? At our casino, we offer new patrons a complimentary ‘welcome chip.’ Why don’t you try pulling that slot machine lever? Who knows? Perhaps you’ll hit the jackpot and gain a thousand years of lifespan and infinite inner strength.”
The fox demi-human dealer’s sweet voice carried a thick layer of irresistible enchantment.
Gae Bang Bang-ju, who had spent his entire life eating scraps from the streets and could never resist anything “free,” had already had his reason completely overwhelmed by the enchantment at the mention of no cost.
“F-free, you say? Hehe, a thousand years of lifespan? Well, pulling this lever costs nothing, so at worst I break even, don’t I?”
Gae Bang Bang-ju swallowed hard, took the chip from the dealer, and inserted it with a clink into the coin slot of the slot machine.
“No! Stop! Don’t pull that lever!”
Jin-hyuk rushed forward at breakneck speed, shouting, but he was already a step too late. Gae Bang Bang-ju’s rough hand had already yanked the slot machine’s crimson lever with all his might.
Clank! Whirrrrr—!
The slot machine’s screen began spinning wildly with a cacophony of mechanical sounds.
Cherry, cherry… and what stopped on the final reel was a blood-red skull mark.
[Bust! Tough luck! Deducting the Welcome Chip fee!]
The moment an unpleasant electronic tone blared from the machine.
Whoooosh!
From the slot machine’s screen, eerie crimson tentacles of mana erupted, piercing through Gae Bang Bang-ju’s solar plexus. It wasn’t a physical blow—it was a direct extraction of mana that stabbed straight through his soul, qi channels, and dantian.
“Ugh, gack! Cough! W-what is this…!”
A mouthful of dark blood spilled from Bang-ju’s lips. But that wasn’t all. His once-taut skin shriveled and withered in an instant, his black hair turned white and fell out in clumps. The formidable inner qi that had enveloped his body dissipated like air escaping from a punctured balloon.
“Bang-ju!”
Ma Dong-tak, arriving first, caught the collapsing Gae Bang Bang-ju. But the man in Ma Dong-tak’s arms had become as light as a mummy.
“Doctor! This old man’s condition is strange! He’s aged a hundred years in an instant! His breathing is incredibly faint!”
Jin-hyuk slid forward, grasped Bang-ju’s wrist, and checked his pulse. Divine Eye displayed the man’s condition in a red warning window.
[Diagnosis: Acute Vitality Depletion and Inner Qi Evaporation Syndrome]
[Status: The slot machine has forcibly confiscated 20 years of lifespan and 50% of inner qi. Rapid physical aging is progressing, causing organ failure.]
“Bastards. Confiscating 20 years of lifespan and half his inner qi under the guise of a Welcome Chip fee? Even loan sharks don’t charge interest like this.”
Jin-hyuk gritted his teeth and opened his house call bag.
“Luna! Bring the highest-grade vitality water immediately and pour it down his throat! Ma, prepare for chest compressions! Patient, stay with me! You promised me free security for my hospital in exchange for forgiving your debts back then—if you die here, who’s going to honor that contract?”
Even as Jin-hyuk cursed, his hands moved with flawless precision and speed. He inserted a specially crafted mana ampule directly into Bang-ju’s heart, forcibly pumping the failing heartbeat. Luna’s cascading spirit water barely supplied moisture and vitality to Bang-ju’s withered veins.
“Cough… haah… my dantian… it’s completely empty… even breathing is difficult….”
Thanks to the emergency treatment, he barely clung to life, but Gae Bang Bang-ju had now become a frail, ordinary elderly man who couldn’t properly throw a single sword technique.
“How dare you! How dare you do something so vile to a brother of our Murim Alliance! You wretches! Harming people with your sinister sorcery! Return Bang-ju’s inner qi at once!”
An enraged Namgoong Cheon drew his photon sword and aimed its tip at the Fox Dealer’s throat—the one who had handed the Welcome Chip to Gae Bang Bang-ju. Ma Dong-tak likewise slammed his iron pry bar against the floor, radiating killing intent.
“We’ll just smash this hunk of junk machinery and extract the chip. Get out of the way! I’m cracking this tin can open!”
The moment Ma Dong-tak raised his pry bar toward the slot machine.
Beep—! Beep—!
A piercing alarm shrieked throughout the entire casino hall, and the red lights on the ceiling spun frantically.
“Violence detected within casino. Regulation violation. Security personnel deploying.”
With a monotone mechanical voice, a massive door at the casino’s corner opened, and over three-meter-tall security guards poured out. Muscular orcs, minotaurs clad in steel armor, and golems with massive hammers instead of arms. A dozen burly guards instantly surrounded Jin-hyuk’s group.
The Fox Dealer who had handed the chip to Bang-ju didn’t even blink before Namgoong Cheon’s photon sword, instead offering a fishy smile.
“Guests. This is Floor 16, the Casino of Greed. Here, money and violence are meaningless. Only ‘probability’ and ‘contracts’ govern everything. That gentleman pulled the lever of his own volition and lost his stakes according to fair probability.”
The Fox Dealer snapped her fingers, and two brilliantly glowing diamond-shaped chips fell from the bottom of the slot machine. They were chips condensing Bang-ju’s lifespan and inner qi. The dealer elegantly picked them up and shook them mockingly.
“Smashing the machine won’t restore that gentleman’s lifespan. If the machine is destroyed, the condensed energy simply oxidizes into thin air. If you truly feel wronged, there’s only one way.”
The dealer’s pupils greedily narrowed like a serpent’s vertical slit.
“Purchase chips and win them back through a fair game. Of course, the stakes would be your fresh lifespans and abilities. Hehehehe.”
“Y-you seductive creature! Gambling with people’s lives as collateral!”
Namgoong Cheon trembled with rage, but hearing that destroying the machine would erase Bang-ju’s inner qi forever, he couldn’t bring himself to swing his sword. The guards pressed forward, ready to wield their clubs at any moment.
Right then, Jin-hyuk, who had been quietly finishing Bang-ju’s emergency treatment, slowly rose to his feet.
“Ma. Lower the pry bar. And you, put your sword away.”
At Jin-hyuk’s calm and chilling instruction, Ma Dong-tak and Namgoong Cheon turned to him with bewildered expressions.
“Director Kang! Are you saying we should listen to what they’re saying now? That’s clearly a scam!”
“Ah, I know it’s a scam. But what can we do? In hospitals, if a patient signs the surgical consent form, even if something goes wrong during the operation, it’s legally difficult to hold them responsible. Since Bang-ju was negligent in pulling the lever without even reading the terms and conditions, using force to smash things is disadvantageous both medically and legally.”
Jin-hyuk peeled off the blood-stained latex gloves and tossed them into the trash bin. He adjusted his necktie, and his eyes gleamed with a coldness and sharpness sharper than ever before—the madness of capitalism itself.
“They’re suggesting we settle this through proper rules, through a game. Fine, I’ll play along. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth—deception for deception, then.”
Jin-hyuk strode toward the Fox Dealer.
“So, I just need to win back the lost chips through the game, right?”
“Oh my, customer. You’re going to participate in the game? We welcome you. For exchange, please go to that desk over there….”
“I’ve already brought plenty of stakes.”
Jin-hyuk flung open his medical bag, and from within it, he poured out a torrent of spoils he’d accumulated across the 13th, 14th, and 15th Floors onto the casino carpet.
The Lich King’s mana bone powder, mithril chunks farmed from Behemoth’s Stomach, a tablet containing the Mad Scientist Victor’s research data, and even the core of the highly toxic slime extracted from the 15th Floor just moments ago. Without exception, they were byproducts condensed with legendary-tier mana and energy that defied valuation in ordinary currency.
“Lifespan? Stats? I don’t need such petty stakes. Convert all these mana chunks into chips. This should be more than enough to qualify for a VIP table, right?”
The Fox Dealer’s eyes widened in shock at the enormous surge of spoils Jin-hyuk had dumped. Even the guards faltered and stepped back at the overwhelming wave of mana. The casino’s exchange scale spun wildly, then swallowed the spoils and vomited forth hundreds of black VIP chips—the highest denomination—in a waterfall.
“Well, ammunition loaded.”
Jin-hyuk swept the pile of black chips into his hands with practiced ease and grinned wickedly at the dealer.
“I’ll skip the petty mechanical games. Take me to the table with the highest stakes in this casino and the most vicious card sharp bastard. We’re playing poker.”
“Ho, ho ho… You’re overflowing with confidence, customer. Let’s see how long that arrogance lasts. I’ll escort you to the VIP table.”
The Fox Dealer bowed respectfully, trying her best to conceal her alarm.
“Master, will you be alright? Those bastards are masters of illusion and deception. The mathematical probability of winning against them is virtually zero percent.”
Kim Chun-sam blinked his visor anxiously as he warned him. Jin-hyuk turned back and winked at Ma Dong-tak and the Murim Alliance masters.
“Don’t worry. I’m a surgeon, after all. When it comes to diagnosing vital signs—pupil tremors, heart rate changes, subtle muscle contractions—I’m hundreds of times more of an expert than those card sharp bastards. If they get caught switching cards, I won’t just break their fingers; I’ll extract their actual wrist joints.”
Jin-hyuk, clutching the chips, walked confidently toward the VIP Poker Table laid with a red carpet in the center of the casino.
An extraordinary gambling showdown was about to begin in the heart of the 16th Floor casino—between a demon card sharp who manipulated probability and an unscrupulous doctor who could see through an opponent’s blood pressure and pulse to pierce through any bluff.

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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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