An F-Rank Veterinarian Physically Heals an S-Rank Magical Beast - Chapter 76

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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 76
The gilded doors of the massive elevator closed with a smooth mechanical hum. The interior was spacious enough to accommodate a dozen people comfortably, its floor carpeted with the finest velvet, and through the transparent glass walls, the dazzling nightscape of the 16th Floor Casino sprawled beneath us like a glittering jewel box.
As the elevator surged upward with an almost weightless smoothness, neon signs flickered past the transparent glass like stars streaking across the night sky.
“Sigh… I never thought I’d ride in such a luxuriously dizzying contraption in my lifetime. My heart feels like it’s shriveling up.”
Gae Bang Bang-ju clutched the elevator’s gilded railing with his wrinkled hands, sighing heavily. Thanks to my emergency treatment, his lifespan and inner energy had barely recovered, but having glimpsed the threshold of the afterlife, his face remained deathly pale. The other Murim Alliance masters were also sweating nervously as they gazed down at the vertiginous height beyond the windows.
“Elders, relax. Even if you fell, I’d stitch you all back together. What’s there to fear? And you, Bang-ju—you’ve learned a painful lesson today. From now on, don’t pick up even a single coin from the street. That’s the price of your life.”
I flicked dust from my medical bag and chided them. Bang-ju hung his head in shame, while Ma Dong-tak chuckled heartily and patted the old man’s bony shoulder.
“Hahaha! Old timer, you really paid your tuition in full this time! If you want to pull slot machine levers next time, try pulling the lever on my arm-wrestling machine instead. That only gives you muscle soreness instead of costing your life—much safer!”
“Now listen here, Director Ma, is this really the time for jokes? We’re heading toward a life-or-death gamble, lured by that cunning demon boss. How in the world are we supposed to win at gambling in their own headquarters!”
Namgoong Cheon furrowed his brow deeply, his voice tinged with worry as he looked at me. Beris also seemed anxious, fidgeting with the hand gripping his staff.
“That’s right! Jin-hyuk, you saw the dealer cheating just now! What about the boss himself? He might use illusions, card switching, or even manipulate the odds entirely! This is too reckless!”
But I let out a scoff and adjusted my glasses. My eyes gleamed with a ruthlessness that outshone the gaudy neon signs outside—the madness of pure capitalism.
“Manipulated odds? Illusions? That’s small-time trickery for petty dealers. Real heavyweights don’t bother with such penny-ante cheating. When the stakes are astronomical, the game is decided through psychological warfare and information warfare—the traps each side sets for the other. Besides, didn’t the opponent himself open his mouth and declare he’d stake the Tower’s secrets and all the casino’s wealth? There’s no reason for a doctor to refuse a high-stakes patient who’s already signed the surgical consent form.”
“Booooom! The Master is absolutely right! If that bastard tries to cheat, I’ll just bulldoze the entire penthouse with my hellfire tires!”
Kim Chun-sam snorted inside the elevator, puffing out his chest. As the group exchanged banter, the elevator that had been surging upward gradually slowed, then came to a gentle stop with a cheerful chime.
The moment the doors opened, a space incomparably more overwhelming and classical than the casino hall below greeted us.
The very top of the 16th Floor—Mammon’s private penthouse.
Instead of the eye-searing golden decorations of the lower levels, this space was finished with heavy ebony wood and the finest marble. The floor was covered with a thick silver carpet so plush that each step created the illusion of walking on clouds, and all four walls consisted of massive magical glass windows that revealed the bizarre night sky and nebulae beyond the Tower in their raw, unfiltered glory.
And in the very center of the room.
Beyond a circular black table that glowed softly with magical energy, Mammon—the ruler of the 16th Floor who had appeared as a hologram moments before—now sat in his actual physical form.
“I’ve been waiting for you, great intruders.”
Mammon greeted us with a leisurely smile, an expensive cigar held casually in one hand.
His true appearance was far more overwhelming than his hologram. Dressed in a blood-red suit, he bore a human form, yet golden magical energy shimmered from his skin like heat haze. Beyond the geometric patterned eye patch covering one eye, a sharp gaze gleamed—one that seemed to pierce through all the world’s greed.
“Skip the pleasantries. My consultation hours are limited, so let’s get down to business. What’s the game? Dice? Roulette? Or poker like before?”
Without hesitation, I pulled out a chair before the black circular table and sat down with arrogant confidence, crossing my legs. Ma Dong-tak and the Murim Alliance masters lined up behind me like a folding screen.
Mammon showed no sign of displeasure at my rudeness, simply laughing and exhaling a long stream of cigar smoke.
“Poker and dice are parlor games for third-rate gamblers. We’re supposed to be heavyweights of this Tower, aren’t we? Let’s engage in something more primal and pure—a test of nerve where luck and sleight of hand have no place.”
Mammon snapped his fingers, and the marble at the center of the table slid open, revealing an ornately crafted golden box that rose smoothly upward. When Mammon opened the lid, six glass syringes lay arranged on a velvet cushion, gleaming with cold silver light.
Each syringe was filled with an identical amount of transparent, clear liquid. It was impossible to distinguish any difference in contents with the naked eye.
“Syringes? Ha, boss, you’ve made a terrible choice of game. I’m a doctor, you know. I’m ranked number one in the world at stabbing people and injecting drugs.”
I laughed incredulously. But Mammon’s remaining eye curved in a sinister way.
“I’m well aware you’re an excellent doctor—I saw how you read Pago’s heartbeat earlier. That’s precisely why I’ve prepared a game tailored to your specialty.”
Mammon gently traced the syringes in the golden box with his fingertips.
“Five of these six syringes contain the finest elixir. A blessed drug that, the moment it enters your bloodstream, restores fatigue and amplifies magical power. But one. Only one syringe contains ‘Tears of Despair’—extracted from the demonic beasts of the Abyss.”
Mammon’s voice coiled through the room like a serpent’s tongue, raising goosebumps.
“No antidote exists. Physical resistance, magical barriers, even immortality granted by divine blessing—all useless. The moment it’s injected, it completely collapses not just the body but the very source of the soul, reducing everything to ash. It is absolute poison, death itself—something even the gods cannot escape.”
At that horrifying explanation, the Murim Alliance masters standing behind gasped in shock.
“O-one out of six! That’s the terrible death roulette those madmen from the Western Regions enjoy! A gamble where you inject deadly poison directly into your own body with a syringe!”
Namgoong Cheon cried out, his face drained of color. Beris also looked sickly pale, gripping my shoulder urgently.
“Jin-hyuk! No! This isn’t gambling—it’s just suicide! How can we know what that demon has done to these syringes!”
But Jin-hyuk gently patted Beris’s hand and withdrew it, then swept his gaze across the syringes on the table with keen interest.
“The rules are simple. We take turns selecting a syringe and injecting it directly into our own neck. Whoever draws the poisoned syringe dies—that’s defeat. Whoever survives takes the entire pot. Is that correct?”
“Precisely.”
Mammon nodded.
“Of course, you might attempt to see through the syringes’ contents with that remarkable eye of yours, but unfortunately, both this golden box and the syringe glass have been treated with absolute mana-blocking stone. Even the eyes of a god cannot pierce through the mana or composition of the contents. Only your intuition and fortune will determine life and death.”
Mammon’s words proved accurate. I secretly activated my Eye of Divine Will skill to scan the syringes, but the dense barrier erected around the golden box clouded my vision entirely. The system window where the liquid’s composition analysis should have appeared only flickered with a red error message: “Unable to Read.”
“Ah, mana-blocking glass. You’ve prepared quite thoroughly.”
I clicked my tongue and leaned deeply back against the chair.
“Master! Let me do it instead! My mechanical body has no veins for poison to spread through, and my lower half from the Dream Demon is immune to toxins! I can take all six of these syringes straight into my engine without flinching!”
Kim Chun-sam stepped forward and declared firmly. Ma Dong-tak also set down his iron crowbar and rolled up his thick sleeves.
“That’s right. Director, you should use your mind. Taking hits is my specialty. With my Self-Strengthening Technique and pectoral muscle density, I can snap a poison needle like this against my skin. Let me handle it.”
At his companions’ touching (?) display of sacrifice, Mammon let out a scoff.
“Unfortunately, substitutes are not permitted. This game is a test of courage between you and me alone. The syringe needles are specially crafted from adamantium and can pierce steel. If the needle doesn’t make direct contact with a vein, it won’t count as a valid turn. If you refuse, I’ll simply close the penthouse doors and turn all of you into permanent decorations of the casino.”
At Mammon’s threatening killing intent, the air in the room froze instantly. The Murim Alliance masters swallowed hard, their eyes fixed only on my lips.
I tapped the table with my finger, silent for a moment. If I couldn’t pierce through the composition with magic, the odds were exactly one in six. Alternating injections with Mammon would be an extreme game of chance where I’d be wagering my life.
“Fine. I call.”
The word of acceptance fell from my lips without hesitation.
“Jin-hyuk! Are you in your right mind?!”
“Director Kang! Please reconsider!”
My companions protested in shock, but I raised my hand to stop them.
“However, let’s add one rule. As a doctor, the most important thing I consider when administering injections to patients is hygiene.”
I opened my medical bag and pulled out fresh latex gloves, smirking.
“I’ll select the syringe myself. And whether it’s a syringe I inject into my own neck or yours, I’ll be the one holding and administering it. You just sit still and expose your neck. A patient self-administering an injection constitutes self-harm under medical law, which violates my hospital’s regulations.”
At my unconventional proposal, Mammon’s eyebrows twitched. He calculated internally whether I might swap the syringes or perform sleight of hand. But this penthouse was his perfect domain of control—he could sense even a speck of dust in the flow of mana or distortion of space. Moreover, as the owner of Floor 16, he was a demon who fed on others’ misfortune, meaning he possessed extraordinarily good luck.
“Ho. You’ll administer the injections yourself? Keep in mind there’s a chance I’ll receive the poison in my neck, but there’s also a chance you’ll end up injecting yourself. Sleight of hand won’t work.”
“Of course. I’ll proceed with thoroughly fair random selection.”
I stretched the latex gloves taut over both hands and stood up.
“The contract is sealed. Then I’ll give you the first choice.”
Mammon leaned back in his chair and slightly exposed his neck. The arrogant demon’s face was filled with certainty that he could never be the one to receive the poison.
I slowly approached the golden box. The barrier still rendered my Eye of Divine Will useless. I let my hand hover slowly over the six syringes. The Murim Alliance masters didn’t even dare breathe, their eyes fixed on my fingertips. Beris squeezed both eyes shut.
‘Can’t see the composition with magic? Then I’ll see it another way.’
A cruel smile flickered across my lips, unseen by anyone.
I was no ordinary mage or Hunter.
I was Kang Jin-hyuk, a brilliant and meticulous surgeon who had undergone bone-grinding training through tens of thousands of surgeries and medication administrations on Earth.
My fingers picked up the first syringe.
I lifted it lightly into the air and held the liquid up to the dazzling chandelier lighting the penthouse ceiling. Then, using a snap of my wrist, I made the liquid inside the syringe slosh microscopically.
‘Viscosity test.’
The mana-blocking glass could hide composition, but it couldn’t perfectly replicate the identical physical properties of the liquid. The probability that a top-tier elixir and the deadly poison from the Abyss that shatters souls would possess identical specific gravity and viscosity was nearly zero.
My sharp eyes began analyzing like a high-precision camera: the wave motion of the liquid inside the syringe, the speed of microscopic droplets forming on the walls, and the angle of light refracting through the illumination.
‘First one—the liquid’s descent along the wall is too fast. Viscosity close to plain water. Not the characteristic stickiness of an elixir. Eliminated.’
Jin-hyuk calmly set down the first syringe and picked up the second one.
‘This bastard Mammon. He’s good at controlling his expression.’
Jin-hyuk examined the syringe carefully while stealing a glance at Mammon’s face. Mammon was leisurely smoking a cigar, but when Jin-hyuk’s hand passed over the third syringe, he caught the subtlest twitch—the facial muscles beneath Mammon’s eye patch contracted ever so slightly, and Jin-hyuk didn’t miss it.
“Hmm, the techniques dealers use and the boss’s methods aren’t that different after all.”
Jin-hyuk murmured as he picked up the third syringe. This time, he lightly pressed the tip of his bare finger against the glass surface of the syringe.
‘Temperature difference. Deadly toxins inherently possess chemical instability. This syringe is precisely 0.5 degrees cooler than the ambient temperature. And the speed at which bubbles rise is subtly slower.’
In just ten seconds, Jin-hyuk completed a perfect diagnosis. In a place where magic held no sway, he had identified the Abyss’s deadly toxin using only pure fundamental physics and chemistry—surface tension of liquids, viscosity, temperature, and the refractive index of light.
“You’re taking quite a while to decide. If you’re scared, you can surrender now. I’ll accept you as my eternal slave.”
Mammon mocked him, grinding his cigar into the ashtray.
“Scared? I was just choosing which medicine would be best for your skin complexion.”
Jin-hyuk picked up the fourth syringe without hesitation. He perfectly avoided the third syringe containing the deadly toxin and selected the one filled with harmless elixir.
“Well then, first turn. You go first, boss.”
Jin-hyuk approached Mammon with predatory grace and precisely inserted the needle into the vein at the base of his neck, then pressed the plunger.
Whoosh.
The transparent liquid flowed through Mammon’s bloodstream. Everyone in the room held their breath, watching for any change in Mammon. One second, two seconds, three seconds.
Mammon’s face showed no change. Rather, his skin took on a healthy glow as the elixir’s effects manifested.
“Phew… thank goodness… it wasn’t a blank….”
Gae Bang Bang-ju sighed with relief from behind, collapsing to the ground. Mammon let out a laugh as he cracked his neck lightly.
“Kahahaha! Unfortunately, this time it was a blessing. Now it’s your turn, doctor. One in five odds. Why don’t you test your luck?”
“I’ll handle my own luck, so don’t worry about it.”
Jin-hyuk walked calmly toward the remaining five syringes. Though he had already pinpointed the location of the deadly toxin, the true essence of this game lay in the psychological warfare of driving his opponent to the brink.
Jin-hyuk deliberately brought his hand over the third syringe containing the deadly toxin.
At that moment.
Behind Jin-hyuk, Mammon’s heart rate suddenly spiked—a sound that reached Jin-hyuk’s acute hearing with perfect clarity. The demon’s heart was racing. It was the explosive surge of adrenaline born from his certainty that Jin-hyuk was about to pick up the deadly toxin as planned.
‘You fell for it, you con artist.’
Jin-hyuk’s hand, which had been reaching for the third syringe, suddenly pivoted like swatting a fly and snatched the sixth syringe at the far end.
“Ah, maybe it’s just my imagination. This one looks more appetizing somehow.”
At Jin-hyuk’s sudden change of direction, Mammon’s expression crumpled like tissue paper for an instant. But Jin-hyuk didn’t miss that subtle shift.
“Well then, I’ll administer the injection directly to my own body. Oh, I’ll skip the disinfection. Either way, it’s either deadly poison or a tonic.”
Jin-hyuk laughed playfully and drove the sixth syringe unhesitatingly into his own neck.
“Master! You mustn’t!”
“Director Kang!”
His companions cried out in alarm, but Jin-hyuk pressed the plunger all the way down. The liquid in the syringe was sucked into his body.
A deafening silence fell over the room. Beris couldn’t bear to watch and collapsed with his hands over his ears, while Ma Dong-tak gripped an iron crowbar, ready to smash Mammon’s skull at any moment.
“Hmm. The taste is a bit bland. You claim it’s premium elixir, but you’ve really cut corners on the cost, haven’t you, boss?”
Jin-hyuk withdrew the needle and shrugged his shoulders. Only a small puncture mark remained on his neck, with no abnormal symptoms appearing. Instead, fatigue vanished completely, and a vivid surge of mana flowed through his entire body. It was a perfect elixir.
“This… what is this….”
Mammon’s remaining eye trembled violently as if an earthquake had struck. Was it coincidence? Or had that bastard somehow seen through the magic-blocking glass? The demon’s brain began spinning frantically.
“Hahahaha! See that! What kind of master do you think we have—falling for such a shallow poison trap! Our master’s luck is the strongest in the entire universe!”
Kim Chun-sam stamped his front paws and cheered wildly.
“Well, that heartwarming first round is complete. Four remain now. The odds have climbed to twenty-five percent.”
I flicked the empty syringe onto the floor and turned toward Mammon with a devilish smile. My golden eyes had already meticulously orchestrated the end of this game.
“Don’t hold back, boss. I’ll be jabbing you all night long.”
A corrupt physician who sees through everything, and a demon of greed caught in the snare.
The true death roulette of the 16th Floor Penthouse finally began to reveal its grotesque true nature.

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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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