An F-Rank Veterinarian Physically Heals an S-Rank Magical Beast - Chapter 78

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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 78
The Penthouse atop the 16th Floor, once a monument to opulence, now lay shrouded in a silence so profound it felt suffocating. Upon the silver carpet—now reduced to ash where the Lord of Greed Mammon had fallen—only a chill hung suspended in the air.
Yet the quiet was not broken by the noble prayers or triumphant cheers of heroes who had vanquished a demon.
“No, no, no, Bang-ju! I saw with my own two eyes you slipping two chips into your right sleeve just now! Are you going to take them out or not? I’m a doctor by profession—surely you don’t think I can’t diagnose a patient’s financial situation?”
“Ah, mercy, Director Kang! Please, have some compassion! I’ve spent my whole life begging on the streets, and these glittering treasures are the first beautiful things I’ve ever touched! If I could just keep these two chips, I could feed every beggar in the Beggar Sect!”
“What does feeding the Beggar Sect have to do with my wallet? Do you know how much that syringe of Abyss venom cost that we used to reduce Mammon to ash? You should be grateful I didn’t bill you for the hazardous medical waste disposal on top of everything else. Chun-sam! Shake him down!”
“Gwaaaah! Yes, sir! Collection mode activated! Old man, hand it over before your bones start breaking!”
As Kim Chun-sam advanced menacingly, spewing hellfire, Gae Bang Bang-ju finally broke down in tears and dropped two luminous mana chips from deep within his sleeve onto the floor. I clicked my tongue disapprovingly and deftly scooped them up, sweeping them into my Pocket Dimension inventory with practiced ease.
“There. That settles the emergency treatment fee for saving Bang-ju’s life and the consolation payment I made on Mammon’s behalf. Now that we’ve cleared our debts with each other, shall we begin the real accounting?”
I pushed my glasses up and reached for a dazzling golden key floating in the air—the spoils Mammon had left behind upon his death, the master key to the casino owner’s vault.
“Ma Dong-tak. There should be a hidden vault somewhere in this Penthouse where Mammon stashed his illicit funds over a lifetime. Let’s tap on every wall. If you find anything suspicious, smash it open with a crowbar.”
“Haha! I do have some expertise in finding hidden safes. Let’s begin the demolition!”
Ma Dong-tak slung a steel pry bar across his shoulder and began tapping methodically along the Penthouse walls. But the master key I held suddenly resonated, emitting a deep, humming vibration. The direction it pointed to was not the ebony-paneled walls, but the exact center of the massive circular table where we’d just played our death game.
“Huh? It’s the floor.”
I climbed onto the table and inserted the master key into a fine groove at its center, then turned it forcefully to the right.
Click! Rumble, rumble, rumble!
With a sharp mechanical sound, the entire Penthouse shook violently as if struck by an earthquake. Beris screamed and shot into the air, while the Murim Alliance masters lost their footing and tumbled to the floor.
The circular table I’d been standing on split cleanly in half, revealing a spiral staircase of gleaming gold descending into darkness below. From the depths poured forth a radiance so brilliant it threatened to blind.
“Bingo. The true heart of the casino. Everyone, come down. The view is free.”
Without hesitation, I descended the golden staircase into the underground vault. Ma Dong-tak and Kim Chun-sam followed close behind, while Yoo Yi-soo, Luna, and the others, unable to resist their curiosity and greed, carefully made their way down.
The moment we stepped through the vault’s entrance, we all forgot how to breathe.
“This… what in the world is this…?”
Namgoong Cheon’s light sword clattered to the floor.
The entire underground chamber—vast enough to contain two football fields—was packed solid with chips. Not ordinary gold or silver coins. Millions upon millions of chips blazing with red, blue, and golden light formed towering mountains throughout the space.
But that was not all. Within transparent magical glass cases were displayed the personal effects of hundreds of heroes who had died in the casino while climbing this Tower over centuries. Legendary wizards’ staffs, swords forged from dragon bone, and ancient martial arts manuals worthy of being called the scriptures of the martial world itself.
This was the terrible and brilliant crystallization of greed—accumulated by Mammon on the 16th Floor, extracted from the lifespans, stats, and very souls of countless challengers.
“Insane… how much is all this? Even if you combined Seoul’s entire annual budget, it wouldn’t be half of this…”
Even Ma Dong-tak’s jaw hung slack before the overwhelming magnitude of this wealth.
Beside him, Yoo Yi-soo, the administrative director, had a holographic calculator floating in the air that was spinning at a frantic pace, emitting loud error sounds.
“Director! The currency units exceed the jo denomination—we’re in the gyeong range! The system can’t handle it; the server is about to crash!”
Beris’s eyes sparkled, mesmerized by the luminous glow of the jewels, while Luna stared at the ancient herbs and spirit stones shimmering within the magical glass cases, swallowing hard.
“Master, those glowing plants over there… aren’t those the young leaves of the World Tree from legend? Even one of those could revive someone on their deathbed!”
“Kahahaha! Master! We’ve done it! Instant riches! No, we’ve become the wealthiest beings in the universe! Let me start gathering it all!”
Kim Chun-sam, in his Centaur form, let out a thunderous roar and began shifting into his massive cargo truck mode. But I raised my hand to stop him.
“Wait. Chun-sam, don’t just grab everything mindlessly. Those artifacts on display might have magical traps attached. I’ll appraise each one with my Eye of Truth and safely store them in my inventory. You just focus on shoveling those mountain piles of chips into burlap sacks and loading them up.”
At my instruction, Kim Chun-sam grumbled but began diligently scooping up chips. I walked between the glass cases, appraising the spoils. With each touch of my hand, legendary weapons and armor vanished into thin air, neatly stacking themselves in my Pocket Dimension Hospital warehouse.
“Wait, wait! That one!”
The Mudang Sect Master’s eyes widened in alarm as he cried out before one particular case. His gaze fixed upon an old silk-bound manuscript resting within.
“That is the legendary secret manual said to have been lost three hundred years ago—the Taiji Infinite Heart Method! How could such a treasure end up in the lair of a demon like this!”
“Ah, it seems a senior from the Wudang Sect who came up about a century ago lost it here while spinning the slot machines and had to put it up as collateral. This is how terrifying gambling can be, Sect Master.”
I calmly opened the glass case and seized the secret manual. The Mudang Sect Master swallowed hard, his trembling hand reaching out desperately.
“P-please, Director Kang. That secret manual holds the fate of our Wudang Sect. I beg you, return it to us. We will never forget your kindness.”
“Kindness? Sect Master, in a capitalist society, abstract concepts like gratitude don’t convert to currency. You want it back?”
I twirled the secret manual with a smile far more sinister than any demon’s.
“Once I leave this Tower, I plan to construct a massive comprehensive hospital in the heart of Seoul. I’ll need a considerable number of security personnel and physical therapists. In exchange for handing over this secret manual, how about you and one hundred elite disciples of the Wudang Sect work as unpaid security guards at my hospital for exactly fifty years? Oh, and meals are on your own dime.”
“F-fifty years of unpaid servitude?! You, you ruthless fiend!”
“If you’d rather not, that’s fine. I’ll just use this as a trivet instead.”
As I moved to shove the secret manual into my inventory, the Sect Master shrieked and clung desperately to my leg.
“I’ll do it! I’ll do it! With the blade of Wudang, I’ll guard Director Kang’s hospital like an impenetrable fortress! Please, just give us back the manual!”
“Excellent. Contract sealed. We’ll affix your digital signature later.”
I was a tyrant without mercy or tears. Not content with sweeping every treasure from the underground vault, I was now systematically exploiting even the absolute masters of the martial world as future hospital staff. If Mammon were dead and watching from Hell, he would surely click his tongue in shame, admitting that his own greed was nothing but child’s play compared to mine.
After approximately two hours of thorough plundering, the once-massive underground vault had transformed into a barren cavern without a speck of dust remaining.
“Phew, spotless. Now I can finally breathe easy. Well, the looting is complete—time to savor the main dessert.”
Standing in the center of the empty vault, I withdrew something from my pocket. It was the spoils I’d received from the system after defeating Mammon—a weathered parchment fragment bearing the name “Fragment of the Hidden Apocalypse.”
“Director Jin-hyuk, what is that scrap of paper? There’s been an unsettling, malevolent aura emanating from it since earlier.”
Beris gripped his staff tightly, his eyes wary as he stared at the parchment. Luna too wrinkled her nose in displeasure.
“That’s right, Director. It feels almost holy, but inside there’s a massive concentration of murky, dreadful resentment. My elven senses keep warning me of danger.”
“Then we open it. It’s supposed to be a fragment that brings us closer to the Tower’s truth.”
I lifted the parchment slightly into the air and carefully infused it with my mana. Instantly, the worn and unremarkable fragment erupted in an eerie, brilliant luminescence—a grotesque fusion of golden light and crimson radiance.
Shwoooosh—!
The light scattered across the vault’s empty space, transforming into a colossal holographic text and imagery that unfolded before our eyes. Though written in an ancient language, my Divine Eye skill and the system’s translation function automatically deciphered the words, embedding them directly into my mind.
[Hidden Apocalypse, Chapter 4: The Book of the Great Harvest]
[Foolish mortals. You have been climbing this colossal structure believing it to be a Trial Tower, a sacred altar through which to touch the realm of divinity.]
The very first sentence that materialized in the air was ominous. The masters of the Murim Alliance swallowed hard, waiting for the next revelation. The holographic light rippled crimson, beginning to spew forth a horrifying truth.
[Face the truth. This Tower is no staircase to ascension. This colossal structure is nothing more than a supremely efficient and vast ‘slaughterhouse’ and ‘digestive organ’ created by the great Constellations and the predators of the outer cosmos.]
“A-a slaughterhouse? A digestive organ?”
Namgoong Cheon’s voice trembled violently. The holographic imagery shifted rapidly, displaying a cross-section of the Tower.
[Floors 1 through 10 comprise the lower tier—a primary incubation chamber where mortal souls are filtered and fattened. Floors 11 through 20 comprise the middle tier—a stomach that injects extreme fear, despair, and greed into those who climbed with hope, marinating their souls’ energy to perfect deliciousness. And the upper tier beyond Floor 21 is… an extraction factory that thoroughly decomposes these fermented souls and bodies, plating them upon the Constellations’ tables.]
Within the hologram, countless spirits were torn apart by monsters or trapped in despair. The blood and anguished energy they shed flowed up the Tower’s walls, being sucked toward massive, unidentifiable eyes lurking at its apex.
[The floor-by-floor rulers you have vanquished are not test subjects. They were merely parasites aiding digestion within this colossal stomach, exploiters gathering nutrients. Struggle, mortals. The moment you reach the summit, you shall become the most perfectly prepared delicacy, ascending onto the tongues of the great predators.]
Crackle—
Pop!
With that chilling message, the holographic image severed, and the parchment fragment crumbled into ash that scattered away.
Only cold silence descended upon the underground vault.
In that moment, the very purpose for which they had climbed toward the Tower’s summit—enduring countless brushes with death—was utterly negated. They had believed that overcoming trials would grant wishes or divine power, but all that awaited them was the fate of becoming a single meal for cosmic entities.
“Ahhh… O heavens… Were we truly nothing but livestock? Was this hellish ordeal nothing but a breeding ground to fatten us…?”
The Mudang Sect Master fell to his knees, tears of despair streaming down his face. The other martial artists dropped their weapons and hung their heads. Before the horrifying truth that a lifetime of honed martial arts was merely seasoning to enhance the quality of meat, their spirits shattered completely.
“Damn it! So climbing to Floor 16 is basically the same as crawling into some monster’s belly! No wonder every boss we’ve faced has been so repulsive and twisted!”
Beris erupted in fury, repeatedly slamming his staff against the ground.
“Hahaha! All the better! I’ve been dying to see what these so-called Constellations and predators look like, see how buff their muscles are! Once I crack their skulls open with a crowbar, I’ll know exactly who the meat is!”
Only Ma Dong-tak wielded his iron pry bar with unbridled ferocity, his fighting spirit boiling over without restraint. To a muscle-bound brute, whether the opponent was a cosmic predator or a street thug mattered little—they were all merely objects to be pulverized.
Then it happened.
As I quietly brushed the ash from the parchment, a low, grotesque laugh escaped my lips.
“Kuh… kuhk, kuhahahaha!”
I clutched my stomach and burst into hysterical laughter. It wasn’t the mad cackling of despair or terror. It was laughter infused with absurdity so extreme it bordered on volcanic rage.
“M-Master? What’s wrong? Has the truth overloaded your main core?”
Kim Chun-sam asked nervously, but I abruptly cut off my laughter and unleashed a murderous killing intent from behind my glasses. In my bloodshot eyes, not a single gram of fear toward the cosmic predator remained.
“Livestock? A breeding ground? A slaughterhouse? No, no. These vile bastards have absolutely no business ethics whatsoever.”
I growled as I roughly tore off my necktie.
“Filtering souls and dismantling bodies to extract energy? This isn’t a slaughterhouse. It’s a mega-scale illegal organ harvesting factory where innocent people are forcibly confined, drained of blood, and stripped of their organs—an unlicensed blood bank!”
The martial artists’ eyes widened at my brutal medical and capitalist interpretation.
“Think about it. Millions of challengers’ blood and energy. They’re hoarding that astronomical bioenergy among themselves? And these unlicensed cosmic bandits are freely consuming my patients—no, my potential customers’—lives? This is a blatant violation of medical law, antitrust law, and massive tax evasion!”
I thrust my finger accusingly into the empty air, seething.
“Do you know who I am? I’m Kang Jin-hyuk, the one who’s been grinding away in operating rooms for over a decade trying to build a hospital in Seoul! But these con artists don’t even pay building taxes or income taxes while freely sucking up bioenergy? How dare they steal life in front of a doctor! You thieves, I’m climbing to the very top of this Tower and not only revoking your licenses—I’m bankrupting your entire hospital!”
My rage wasn’t the solemnity of a hero. It was the extreme fury of a capitalist hospital director whose rice bowl and monopolistic territory had been violated. Even cosmic predators were nothing but unscrupulous rival hospital directors committing tax evasion and illegal medical practices in my eyes.
“Everyone, get up! We don’t have time to whimper! We’re heading to the top floor to properly educate those unscrupulous hospital directors running an illegal operation! I’ll seize every last bit of energy those bastards stole and divvy it up as our shares!”
At my audacious and revolutionary cry, a strange spark of life began to flicker in the eyes of the martial artists who had been drowning in despair.
Would they become livestock ascending to the gods’ table, or would they become hired thugs working for an unscrupulous hospital director? Somehow, the latter seemed infinitely preferable—a peculiar madness was spreading among them.
“Kuhaha! Perfect! Hired thugs taking down an unscrupulous hospital director! I absolutely love this job title!”
Ma Dong-tak roared, hoisting his iron pry bar high.
“Buaaang! Demolishing illegal structures is my specialty with these flaming tires! We’re heading straight for the next floor gate!”
I took the lead, striding up the golden staircase with purpose.
The truth of the Tower. It was a horrifying despair, but before an irrational capitalist monster like Kang Jin-hyuk, it was merely an illegal competitor to be eliminated.
In one corner of the 16th Floor’s vast hall, a crimson Dimensional Gate leading to the 17th Floor yawned open.
The 17th Floor—a factory of refinement and extraction.
Armed with scalpels and invoices, my party marched toward that place where even more horrifying machines awaited to drain the vital essence of living beings, ready to issue a merciless closure notice.
But the moment we passed through the gate, what greeted us was neither a blood-soaked battlefield nor the screams of monsters.
Blinding white illumination so intense the eyes couldn’t open. The acrid sting of disinfectant searing the nostrils. And the sharp, sterile whine of machinery assaulting the ears.
[EMERGENCY ALERT! Unregistered bioenergy influx detected. 17th Floor bioextraction facility initiating sterilization and dismantling protocols.]
The moment the eerie announcement ended, the floor beneath us began moving with a whirring sound like a massive conveyor belt.
And at the far end of that belt, slowly rotating in the darkness, was a crusher the size of a building—one that could chew through steel like tissue paper.

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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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