An F-Rank Veterinarian Physically Heals an S-Rank Magical Beast - Chapter 77

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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 77
Four syringes remained on the table. The thick cigar smoke that had filled the room seemed to have frozen in place, not even a wisp stirring.
A bead of cold sweat trickled down the forehead of Mammon, the demon who ruled the 16th Floor – Greed Casino. For centuries, he had claimed countless lives—both heroes and the greedy—from this Penthouse, yet never before had he faced the prospect of his own existence reduced to a mere quarter probability.
Meanwhile, Kang Jin-hyuk continued to flex his latex-gloved fingers with an indolent expression. He looked less like a gambler who had wagered his entire fortune on the table, and more like a tedious neighborhood doctor preparing to administer a common vitamin injection at a local clinic.
“Come now, boss. Stop spacing out and present your neck. Here comes the second injection. I noticed your heart rate was quite erratic earlier—should I perhaps mix in some blood pressure medication this time?”
Jin-hyuk reached toward the table and randomly selected one of the four remaining syringes. Mammon’s sole crimson eye tracked the movement of Jin-hyuk’s fingertips with desperate intensity.
‘Has that bastard gotten lucky again and drawn the elixir? Or is it the deadly poison? There’s no way to know. With the magic-blocking glass, he can’t possibly know either. He’s merely bluffing!’
Mammon engaged in fierce self-suggestion, forcing the corners of his mouth upward into a smile.
“Kekeke… How touching that you concern yourself with my life. Go ahead and inject. I am Mammon, demon among demons, lord of greed. Would I cower and shrink my neck at a mere 25 percent probability?”
“If that’s what the patient wishes.”
Jin-hyuk approached Mammon and plunged the needle deep into the demon’s neck. In that instant, Mammon’s entire body tensed and stiffened—a sensation that transmitted clearly through Jin-hyuk’s fingertips.
Just before depressing the plunger, Jin-hyuk paused for the briefest moment and whispered low against Mammon’s ear.
“You know, boss, when people experience true, extreme terror, their sphincter muscles involuntarily tighten without their awareness. Right now, your gluteal muscles look like they’re about to burst. I suppose even demons can’t escape physiological responses.”
“W-what nonsense are you—!”
Mammon tried to cry out in panic, but Jin-hyuk had already depressed the plunger fully and withdrawn the needle.
Whoosh.
The transparent liquid dispersed into Mammon’s bloodstream. Everyone in the room held their breath once more. Namgoong Cheon had even closed his eyes and was chanting Buddhist prayers, while Beris cowered behind Ma Dong-tak’s broad back, peeking out timidly.
The result was elixir once again. Color drained momentarily from Mammon’s face before magical power surged through him, suffusing his features with crimson light.
“Fuhahahaha! A blank! Another blank! Didn’t I tell you! All the luck in this casino smiles upon me! I shall never perish!”
Mammon erupted into hysterical laughter, a mixture of relief and madness. He was experiencing extreme euphoria at having survived the brink of death twice. Now only three syringes remained. The probability had jumped to 33 percent.
“Now it’s your turn, doctor! One of these three contains the abyss of hell itself! Inject! I shall watch with relish as deadly poison pierces that arrogant neck of yours and you crumble to ash!”
Mammon shrieked with bloodshot eyes. Yet Jin-hyuk paid no heed to the demon’s frenzied provocation. Instead, he yawned broadly and approached the three syringes.
“Boss, keep it down. If you yell like that in a hospital, you’ll get forcibly discharged.”
This time, Jin-hyuk didn’t bother holding the syringe up to the light or checking its viscosity. Like someone casually selecting a bottle of water at a supermarket, he simply grabbed the leftmost syringe without hesitation and plunged it into his own neck.
Thunk!
“Master!”
“Director Kang!”
The Murim Alliance masters and Kim Chun-sam cried out in shock at Jin-hyuk’s reckless action. Even Mammon’s jaw dropped in astonishment at the demon’s breakneck speed.
Jin-hyuk depressed the plunger and cast the syringe to the floor. Then he smacked his lips.
“Ugh. Three shots in a row like that—my stomach’s burning from mana overdose. Boss, you wouldn’t happen to have any antacids around here, would you?”
As Jin-hyuk rubbed his neck and asked irritably, the VIP Room fell into absolute, deafening silence.
It had not been poison. Jin-hyuk had drawn only perfectly safe elixir in all three selections. If truly random, the mathematical probability of such an outcome was extraordinarily slim—a miracle.
“Th-this is impossible…! What trick did you use, you bastard! This is perfect mana-blocking stone! It cannot be seen through even with demon sight, nor detected by mana sensing! Yet you chose without hesitation!”
Mammon’s remaining eye trembled wildly with terror and shock. The composed, arrogant shell of the demon was peeling away, revealing the weak nature overwhelmed by an incomprehensible power.
“Hahahaha! See! Our master isn’t falling for some cheap con game! Hey, boss! Should we prep the trash cans? Once that scam artist turns to ash, we’ll need a broom to sweep him up!”
Kim Chun-sam pranced about excitedly. Ma Dong-tak also twirled an iron crowbar and laughed heartily.
“Okay. Grab a recycling bag too. Is demon ash regular garbage or food waste?”
Amidst his companions’ cheerful banter, Jin-hyuk gazed down at the two remaining syringes and smiled coldly.
“A trick? I already told you—I don’t use those shallow sleight-of-hand techniques that dealers employ.”
Jin-hyuk picked up one of the two remaining syringes—the very one that had been placed in the third position before the game began, the one that had made Mammon’s heart rate explode.
“Mana-blocking stone? Yes, excellent. It conceals magical aura perfectly. But boss, do you truly believe magic is the only method to analyze every substance in this world? You fools who rely solely on sorcery and incantation remain ignorant of medicine, which is why you fall so pathetically.”
I twirled the syringe filled with deadly venom lightly between my fingertips and thrust it before Mammon’s eyes.
“This venom and the elixir—when you strip away their magical properties and approach them as purely chemical substances, they become entirely different liquids. First, surface tension. The elixir possesses high viscosity and strong surface tension so it can be gently absorbed into human blood vessels. This venom, conversely, must destroy tissue upon contact, so its viscosity is as low and light as water. When I shook the syringe earlier, only this specimen flowed down the glass wall at an exceptionally rapid speed.”
Mammon’s lips trembled at my scientific explanation.
“Second, temperature. The venom’s molecular structure is unstable, causing it to undergo an endothermic reaction that minutely absorbs surrounding heat. When it touched my fingertip, only this syringe felt microscopically colder than the ambient temperature. Third—”
“Shut, shut your mouth! You dare deceive me with such nonsensical drivel? You claim a mere human’s senses can distinguish such minute differences? That’s a lie!”
Mammon shot up from his chair, shrieking. Yet I continued with unflappable composure.
“Third, the most irrefutable evidence. You revealed it yourself, boss.”
“Me, me? When did I ever—”
“When I reached for this syringe in the first turn, your heart rate exploded to more than double its normal pace. I heard the adrenaline surging through your veins with perfect clarity. Your certainty that you had drawn the venom from the Abyss, your anticipation of my death—your pathetic body already spoiled the answer. Why would I need to resort to magic?”
Mammon’s legs gave way, and he collapsed back into his chair with a heavy thud.
The human before me was a monster. Not through magical power or martial prowess, but by weaponizing nothing more than basic human biological signals and the laws of natural science, he had shattered the demon’s perfect murder game into pieces.
“Well then, boss. This is the final turn. Fifty-fifty odds.”
I approached Mammon, holding one syringe in each hand. My right hand held the clear, harmless elixir; my left, the venom from the Abyss that reduced all things to ash.
“The rule of this game was to take turns, correct? I just administered one, and I survived. Now it’s your turn to receive an injection.”
I slowly—very slowly—brought the venom-filled syringe toward Mammon’s neck. The cold adamantium needle tip hovered precariously, barely grazing his crimson skin.
“No… no! Don’t come closer! This game is void! Void!”
The terror of death finally consumed the demon of greed entirely. Mammon crawled backward, trying to escape, but the chair’s backrest blocked his path. He attempted to unleash golden magical power from his hands toward me, but I didn’t even blink.
“A casino owner casting desperation magic would be most inconvenient. The dealer mentioned earlier that violence is meaningless here—only ‘contracts’ govern all things. Isn’t that the absolute rule of the casino you yourself established?”
Before my words even finished, crimson iron chains erupted like serpents from the golden carpet and walls enveloping the entire VIP room, coiling tightly around Mammon’s limbs.
It was not my magic. It was the “Gambler’s Oath”—an absolute binding force Mammon had set into place when constructing the casino itself. The moment the casino’s owner attempted to reject the legitimate outcome of a game, the casino’s system activated to punish him.
“Krraaaaaagh! Release this at once! I am the master of this casino! How dare a mere creation restrain me!”
Mammon thrashed, attempting to break the chains, but the absolute power of contract superseded even demonic magic. He was ultimately pinned to the table like a frog on a dissection board, his limbs bound by crimson iron.
“You see? This is what happens when you carelessly draft contracts. Why do you think I employ three lawyers when writing the Hospital’s terms and conditions?”
I seized Mammon’s hair roughly, twisting his head back. Tears of despair streamed from his torn pupils.
“Spare me…! I concede! All the casino’s chips, my entire fortune, even the Tower’s secrets—I’ll surrender everything! Please, just spare my life…!”
“What can I do? You’ve already signed the surgical consent form, and I’m not the irresponsible sort of doctor who lets patients refuse medication. Besides, once you’re dead, all your assets here become mine anyway. There’s no reason to keep you alive.”
I showed not a shred of mercy. With a smile more malevolent than the capitalist demon before me, I drove the venom-filled needle deep into Mammon’s neck.
Thwip!
“Krraaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”
As the plunger depressed fully, the tears of despair extracted from the claws of the Abyss spread frantically through Mammon’s bloodstream.
The effect was instantaneous and catastrophic.
Mammon’s crimson skin instantly withered to ash-gray, and the golden magical power radiating from his entire body transformed into black smoke, oxidizing into the void. An absolute poison that destroyed not merely the demon’s flesh but the very source of his soul—his body began to melt and crumble like butter on a scorching griddle.
“My… my magnificent casino… to a mere human doctor from a hospital ward…”
Mammon attempted to speak his final words through crumbling lips, but even his vocal cords had become dust and scattered away.
Sssshhhhh.
In mere ten seconds, Mammon—the demon who had dominated the 16th Floor’s Greed Casino and drunk the blood of countless heroes—was reduced to a handful of black ash scattered across the Penthouse’s silver carpet, leaving not a single bone fragment or chip behind.
Ding!
A blindingly golden system window materialized in the air.
[System Notification: The ruler of Floor 16, ‘Mammon, Lord of Greed,’ has been completely eliminated!]
[All control rights and mana chips of the 16th Floor Casino City owned by Mammon are transferred to Kang Jin-hyuk.]
[You have obtained the item: ‘Casino Owner’s Master Key’.]
[As a clear completion reward, you have obtained ‘Fragment of the Hidden Revelation’, which brings you closer to the truth of the Tower.]
The moment the system notification ended, a key radiating brilliant golden light and a worn piece of parchment floated up from where Mammon had been sitting.
“Phew. Surgery complete. Unfortunately, the patient expired due to toxic side effects. Since there are no next of kin, we’ll skip the funeral proceedings.”
I coolly peeled off the blood-stained latex gloves and snatched the floating spoils from the air.
“Yesss! We won! We beat that terrifying demon at gambling!”
Beris finally released the breath he’d been holding and let out a triumphant cry. Namgoong Cheon and the Murim Alliance masters collapsed where they stood, their legs giving out beneath them. They gazed upon me with infinite reverence—I had severed the demon’s leash using nothing but pure nerve, psychological warfare, and overwhelming knowledge, without throwing a single martial technique.
“Hahaha! As expected, Director, you’re a genius! By the way, this entire casino is ours now, right? All those slot machines and chips down below are our money, aren’t they?”
Ma Dong-tak approached the penthouse’s massive floor-to-ceiling window, unable to hide his excitement, gazing down at the dazzling neon signs of the floors below.
“Indeed. All the lifespan, inner strength, and treasures of this 16th Floor have now been transferred to my name. A most excellent acquisition and merger.”
I answered arrogantly, propping my legs up on the black table in the center of the penthouse. My pockets already bulged with wealth exceeding the annual budgets of most nations worldwide, yet the appetite of a capitalist monster could never be sated.
“Now then, esteemed elders! It’s too early to celebrate! To commemorate the casino acquisition, I’ll be submitting invoices for the Patriarch’s inner strength recovery costs from getting cleaned out by that dealer earlier, plus demon extermination fees! Please place all those chips you picked up on the table!”
“Y-you demon! Didn’t we just cross the line of death together?! Are you really trying to extort money again?!”
The Huashan Sect Elder wailed in protest, but I merely shrugged.
“I just turned that demon to ashes. I’m a very rational and meticulous Hospital Director. If you’re upset, feel free to spin that roulette again. Chun-sam! Collect their chips!”
“Yesssir! Collection time!”
Atop the 16th Floor, where dazzling neon signs flickered brilliantly, a heartwarming(?) collection party unfolded in the penthouse—a capitalist predator far more vicious and ruthless than Mammon himself, squeezing every last coin from the elderly Murim Alliance masters.
And deep within my pocket, the worn parchment fragment, the ‘Fragment of the Hidden Revelation’, pulsed faintly toward the terrible truth of the Tower that awaited them on the 17th Floor.
Then it happened.
The penthouse ceiling, which had been silent until moments before, began to crack with an eerie grinding sound.
“Director! An enormous mana reaction is detected from above! This isn’t the casino’s mana!”
The moment Yoo Yi-soo’s urgent cry rang out, crimson blood droplets began dripping down through the widening ceiling fissure—drip, drip.
The door to the 17th Floor was already opening in the worst possible way, before my party could even force it open themselves.

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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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