An F-Rank Veterinarian Physically Heals an S-Rank Magical Beast - Chapter 81

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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 81
Leaving behind the opulent and lavish celestial banquet hall of the 18th Floor, the tightly sealed golden doors leading to Layer 19 swung open with a heavy metallic groan, parting left and right.
“Eerie, isn’t it? They said it was the layer after heaven, so I expected something grand, but this smells exactly like an old freezer.”
Ma Dong-tak muttered while sniffing the air, a steel pry bar resting across his shoulders. His words rang true. The air seeping through the doorway was cold and dry, dropping below freezing. There was no trace of the rotting blood stench from the 17th Floor’s slaughterhouse or the nauseating perfume reek of the 18th Floor. Only the air of a perfectly sterilized, utterly sterile chamber—untainted by even a single gram of any living creature’s scent—greeted the party.
Kang Jin-hyuk silently adjusted his glasses and scanned the interior of Layer 19.
It was a colossal geometric maze, the exposed innards of an enormous machine stretching endlessly. Along the cold metallic walls gleaming silver, thick data cables were intertwined like veins, and tens of thousands of blue LED lights pulsed like a steady heartbeat.
[You have entered Layer 19, the highest administrative sector.]
“Director. The particles composing this space are fundamentally different from all the previous floors. The artificial data flow feels far more intense than the mana concentration. Even the dust floating in the air resembles mechanical components.”
Yoo Yi-soo reported in a tense voice while projecting a holographic chart. Beris and Luna both shrank under the oppressive weight of the cold space where magical energy was suppressed.
“An alien presence. I sense neither killing intent nor demonic energy. It feels like walking inside the belly of a massive metal beast.”
The Wudang Sect Master gripped the handle of his Taiji sword tightly, remaining vigilant. It was a space of perfect emptiness that even the senses of martial artists could not penetrate.
“Of course not. This isn’t a playground for the organic creatures you’ve faced until now.”
Kang Jin-hyuk pulled on latex gloves tightly and twisted his lips into a smile.
“If the 17th Floor was the stomach and the 18th Floor was the taste buds sampling flavors, then this is the ‘central nervous system’ and ‘immune management facility’ controlling this massive illegal structure. It’s the core sector where all of the Tower’s systems operate.”
“Bwahahaha! So you’re saying this is a server room? That’s my specialty! I’ll format everything with a hack!”
Kim Chun-sam revved his engine confidently and stepped forward.
But before the party could take even ten steps toward the central corridor of Layer 19—
Whiiiiiing—!
The blue lights covering the entire silent metal wall surface suddenly turned blood-red, and a piercing alarm blared from all directions.
[Warning! Unregistered external antigen detected in the highest administrative sector.]
[Abnormal organic activity confirmed. Initiating autoimmune protocol.]
[Mechanical demolition unit activated.]
Before the announcement could finish, the silver metal walls surrounding the party began to ripple and melt like liquid.
“The walls… the walls are moving! This, this can’t be real!”
Namgoong Cheon stumbled backward in shock.
The silver liquid metal flowed downward, pooling on the floor before rising up into three-meter-tall inorganic soldiers in human form.
Smooth silver faces without eyes, nose, or mouth. Both arms were transformed into sharp blades and blunt weapons.
Dozens, hundreds of mechanical soldiers surrounded Kang Jin-hyuk’s party with clattering mechanical sounds.
“Antigen? Intruder? They’re treating people like germs. Hey, tin cans! Do you think this is some hospital sterile room? Stop the territorial nonsense and let the Director pass!”
Ma Dong-tak spun the steel pry bar and flexed his muscles.
“I’ll cut down those metal lumps with the sword of the martial world! Infinite Taiji Blade!”
Led by the Wudang Sect Master, the elite martial artists of the Murim Alliance unleashed sword energy and charged toward the mechanical demolition unit. Crescent-shaped blue blade auras sliced through the air, cleanly severing the waists and necks of the leading mechanical soldiers.
Crunch! Crash!
Ma Dong-tak also leaped like a beast and smashed a mechanical soldier’s head like a watermelon with the steel pry bar. Silver fragments scattered in all directions as the machines fell limply to the ground.
“Hahaha! They’re all bulk with no durability—softer than tofu! This’ll be cleaned up in five minutes, Director!”
Ma Dong-tak laughed heartily and stomped on the fallen mechanical soldier’s torso. The elite martial artists of the Murim Alliance also seemed relieved that their martial arts worked even in this bizarre space and began to lower their swords.
But behind Kang Jin-hyuk’s glasses, his eyes were not smiling at all.
“Everyone, fall back! Look at the floor!”
At Kang Jin-hyuk’s urgent cry, Ma Dong-tak looked down at his feet.
The shattered silver fragments and the silvery lubricant scattered across the floor were slowly gathering together as if drawn by a magnet. They instantly reconnected at the severed edges, and in less than a second, they reformed into two completely regenerated new mechanical soldiers that rose to their feet.
“What, what?! The broken one just duplicated into two!”
Beris cried out in alarm, unleashing torrents of flame magic, but the crimson-hot molten metal quickly cooled and fused into three mechanical soldiers that rose once more.
The more they destroyed, the more exponentially their numbers multiplied, and the newly regenerated ones were coated in alloys far harder than before—so hard they began casually deflecting even the sword qi of the Murim Alliance.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
“Damn it all! No matter how much we cut, there’s no end to them! They’re learning our martial energy and reinforcing their armor!”
Namgoong Cheon seized his rebounding blade, cold sweat streaming down his face.
Even under the relentless barrage of Ma Dong-tak’s iron pry bar, the mechanical soldiers merely dented—then instantly restored themselves and pressed forward.
The harder they pushed with raw force, the worse the situation became.
The overwhelming power that Hunters and martial artists had never surrendered to was becoming utterly useless against this endless regeneration and multiplication.
“Ma Director! Elders! Stop! Put down your weapons now!”
I cut through sharply, blocking my companions’ path.
“Director! If we stop, they’ll slice us to ribbons! We have to destroy them all—!”
“That’s exactly why they’re multiplying—because you’re mindlessly smashing them! These aren’t simple security robots.”
I pointed with my latex-gloved fingers at the frantically multiplying silver metallic swarm. In the system window hovering before me, the crimson text analyzed by my ‘Eye of Judgment’ glowed with perfect clarity.
[Diagnosis: Layer 19’s Excessive Immune Response and Nano-Machine Proliferation Syndrome]
“Those are swarms of microscopic nano-machines that comprise all of Layer 19. From the Tower’s central system’s perspective, we are the deadly ‘virus’ that invaded its body, and those silver metal cans are the ‘white blood cells’ dispatched to exterminate us.”
My companions stared blankly, unable to grasp what I meant by this biological and medical diagnosis.
Seeing their confusion, I immediately began explaining at their level.
“When a mosquito bite swells up and you hammer it repeatedly, what happens? The inflammation only worsens and swells like mad. That’s exactly what you’re doing right now. Every physical blow you land causes the Tower’s system to replicate and dispatch more white blood cells—more nano-machines—to the wound site, triggering an autoimmune disease.”
“Then what should we do?! We can’t just stand here and wait to die!”
Gae Bang Bang-ju trembled and stumbled backward. The blades of the nano-machine soldiers surrounding us from all sides slowly closed in on my throat.
“I’m not about to die quietly. I’m a doctor, after all. For autoimmune diseases where the immune system rages out of control and devours healthy cells, the basic medical principle is to administer ‘immunosuppressants’ or a potent ‘vaccine’—not a hammer.”
I tore open my medical bag roughly. From within, I withdrew a massive surgical syringe gleaming with cold silver light, and the ‘Casino Owner’s Master Key’—the spoils I’d claimed after killing Mammon on Floor 16.
“Nano-machines are ultimately a collective that shares mechanical lubricant and data like blood. If I inject the Floor 16 Administrator’s master key code in reverse into one of them—better yet, into the terminal most directly connected to the Tower’s main system—it’ll become an excellent biological computer virus vaccine. It’ll tangle the regeneration code and dissolve them all.”
“Brilliant! Just as expected, Director! Then hurry and inject that metal lump right now!”
“The problem is those bastards won’t sit still for a vaccine. And even if I use those low-level soldiers, it’ll take forever to spread through the entire system. I need a ‘connection terminal’ that links directly to the central server.”
My gaze turned naturally—and with ruthlessly capitalistic calculation—toward Kim Chun-sam standing behind us.
“M-master? Why are you looking at me with such a sticky gaze?”
Kim Chun-sam nervously rolled backward on his tires.
“Chun-sam. You’re not an ordinary robot—you have a main core that fuses magic and machinery. Plus, while hacking the systems from Floor 11 through Floor 18, you’ve synchronized more deeply with the Tower’s network than anyone. You need to become the connection terminal for a moment.”
“You’re going to stick that crude syringe in my rear end?! If you inject the vaccine directly into my core and I get infected with the virus first and shut down, what then?!”
“Don’t worry. Have I performed surgery once or twice? If side effects occur, I’ll reinstall Windows for you. Now turn around.”
I mercilessly grabbed Kim Chun-sam by his armor collar. He displayed a crying emoticon on his visor and reluctantly opened his chest plating to expose his main access port.
“Ma Director! Elders! I need exactly 1 minute—while I inject the vaccine into Chun-sam’s core and transmit it to the Tower’s main server! During that 1 minute, don’t let those things get anywhere near Chun-sam! Push them back—don’t destroy them!”
“Got it! Shield formation is my specialty! Everyone, link up!”
Ma Dong-tak gripped his iron pry bar horizontally as a barricade, and the martial artists began using the flat of their blades to push back the approaching mechanical soldiers.
I was about to precisely insert the massive syringe containing the master key’s golden code liquefied into Kim Chun-sam’s main port.
Whiiiiiing—!
Beep-beep-beep—!
Suddenly, the mechanical soldiers froze in unison. Red lasers erupted from their silver faces, but instead of targeting me, they all locked onto Kim Chun-sam’s exposed main core.
The Tower’s core system had detected Kang Jin-hyuk’s intentions. Rather than simply eliminating him as a foreign antigen, a defensive mechanism activated—one that prioritized the reverse synchronization and destruction of Kim Chun-sam, the Trojan horse attempting to breach the system network.
“Danger! Director!”
As Yoo Yi-soo’s scream pierced the air, tens of thousands of hair-thin silver data cables erupted from the chests of hundreds of mechanical soldiers, spreading like a spider’s web.
Whoooosh!
“Aaaahhhhh! M-Master! Noooooo!”
Hundreds of cables, deftly evading the Murim practitioners’ defensive barriers, plunged into Kim Chun-sam’s open main port with a sickening sound.
[Critical error detected. Forced synchronization of external nano-machine swarm initiated.]
[Main core firewall compromised. Self-erosion rate 80%… 90%….]
Kang Jin-hyuk desperately tried to inject the syringe, but a violent spark erupted, flinging his hand away.
“Damn it! Tin can! Snap out of it! Force system shutdown!”
Kang Jin-hyuk shouted, but Kim Chun-sam’s massive centaur body convulsed grotesquely, arching backward. His visor, once glowing blue, shattered with a horrific crack, and from within, a crimson error light blazed—the system’s madness flickering to life.
Click.
Kim Chun-sam’s arms slowly rose. His machine gun barrels, which had once spewed hellfire, now aimed with perfect precision at the forehead of his creator and master—Kang Jin-hyuk.
“M… Mas… ter… Run… away….”
Kim Chun-sam’s original voice fractured through mechanical static, then transformed into the same cold, sterile feminine voice as the Tower’s system announcements.
“External intruder identified. Synchronization successful. White blood cell unit 001. Commencing eradication of the lethal virus.”
His most trusted, steadfast supporter had become the most terrifying killing machine in the 19th Layer’s highest administrative sector, finger tightening on the trigger in this moment of absolute desperation.

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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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