An F-Rank Veterinarian Physically Heals an S-Rank Magical Beast - Chapter 95

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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 95
1st Floor Lobby of Arcana Medical Center.
As Jin-hyuk passed through the main entrance, an air entirely different from usual brushed against his nostrils. It wasn’t the smell of disinfectant. Cold and desiccated, yet somehow familiar—the sterile air unique to the 19th Floor Data Server Zone. An atmosphere where all organic scent had been completely stripped away, leaving only the breath of machines.
That smell had descended all the way to the first floor.
Yoo Yi-soo stood in the center of the lobby. Before her, the elevator panel flickered erratically. No one had pressed any buttons. The floor display alternated between 20 and 19, cycling back and forth like something possessed.
“It’s coming.”
Yoo Yi-soo spoke, her expression rigid.
“The lobby temperature started dropping three minutes ago. Right now it feels like twelve degrees. And.”
She pointed toward the lobby ceiling.
Jin-hyuk looked up.
The LED lights in the ceiling flickered in a steady pulsing pattern. The intervals between darkness and illumination were regular. Like a heartbeat.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
“How long has it been doing that?”
“Since right after Choi Myung-seok’s core exploded.”
Jin-hyuk counted the ceiling’s pulsing pattern for three seconds.
Approximately forty beats per minute.
Slow. A normal human heartbeat ranges from sixty to one hundred beats per minute. Forty would be bradycardia—the pattern seen in comatose patients just before regaining consciousness.
“It hasn’t fully awakened yet.”
Jin-hyuk touched his earpiece.
“Chun-sam. Report the current status of the 19th Floor Server Zone.”
“Yes, Master. The situation isn’t good.”
Chun-sam’s voice came through rapidly.
“An unidentifiable energy pattern is spreading throughout the entire 19th Floor Server Zone. The data cables are emitting heat on their own, causing server temperatures to spike rapidly. Current zone temperature is seventy-five degrees Celsius. It was twenty-two degrees ten minutes ago.”
Jin-hyuk paused briefly.
“The server hardware will melt.”
“It’s already melting. But the molten metal is reassembling itself, just like those mechanical soldiers I reported on the 19th Floor before. The forms are still incomplete, but.”
Ma Dong-tak entered the lobby and caught the tail end of that statement.
“Those silver cans are coming back to life again?”
“More complex than silver cans. The 19th Floor server racks themselves are deforming and blocking the passages. Physically traversing the 19th Floor will be far more difficult than before.”
The Martial Arts Community elders entered the lobby.
Namgoong Cheon tightened his grip on his sword hilt as he surveyed the surroundings. Gae Bang Bang-ju and the Wudang Sect Master both wore tense expressions. They too had experienced combat with those mechanical soldiers on the 19th Floor within this building before.
“Director. That flickering doesn’t bode well. Could those silver abominations we fought last time be appearing again?”
“They are appearing.”
Jin-hyuk answered curtly.
“But this time the problem isn’t the 19th Floor—it’s the 20th Floor. The 19th Floor is merely a corridor.”
“The 20th Floor, you say.”
Namgoong Cheon’s eyes narrowed.
“That place where the Constellations were lying dormant?”
“Correct.”
Jin-hyuk stared at the elevator panel. The floor display continued cycling madly between levels.
“Chun-sam. Can you control the elevator?”
“Impossible. Floor 20 has seized control of the main system. With only my 19th Floor administrator privileges, the elevator, air conditioning, and lighting are all being overridden by Floor 20’s commands.”
“What about the emergency stairs?”
“They’re open up to Floor 18. I can unlock the 19th Floor entrance with my authority. But the staircase leading from Floor 19 to Floor 20…”
Chun-sam paused for a moment.
“It’s physically vanished.”
“Vanished?”
“The molten metal from the 19th Floor Data Server Zone has completely sealed off the staircase and corridor leading up to Floor 20. The metal wall has hardened to a thickness of over two meters.”
I adjusted my glasses.
“Floor 20 has sealed itself off.”
Yoo Yi-soo spoke with her arms crossed.
“It hasn’t fully awakened yet, so it’s buying time. In the meantime, it’s trying to absorb as much energy as possible from the 19th Floor servers.”
I nodded in agreement.
“You’re right, Manager Yoo. What’s happening on Floor 20 right now is incubation.”
“Incubation?”
Ma Dong-tak tilted his head in confusion.
“Think of it as hatching. Just as a chick grows inside an egg, Demiurge’s remnants are reconstructing its body by draining energy from the 19th Floor servers. The metal wall acts like an eggshell.”
I opened my medical bag and checked its contents.
“We have to break through before the eggshell fully hardens. If the hatching completes, Demiurge could become even stronger than before.”
“Stronger than before?”
“The Demiurge we fought inside The Tower was a parasite that had been overfed for thousands of years. This time is different. It’s being reborn in a completely reset state, consuming only pure energy. To put it simply, it’s like removing the fat and rebuilding with muscle alone.”
Ma Dong-tak’s expression hardened for the first time.
“That’s rather terrifying.”
“Which is why we need to go up now.”
I headed toward the emergency staircase.
“Manager Yoo.”
“Yes?”
“Monitor from Floor 1. Luna and Beris are dealing with Choi Myung-seok outside, so handle the police and Association audit team as well.”
Yoo Yi-soo looked at me for a moment.
“Who’s going up?”
“Me, Director Ma, the elders, and Chun-sam.”
“What about me?”
I shook my head at Yoo Yi-soo’s question.
“Your artificial core isn’t in good condition. You should be grateful you didn’t use an aura barrier when we subdued Choi Myung-seok outside. If you face Demiurge’s remnants up there now, your core will overload.”
Yoo Yi-soo’s eyes narrowed.
“I know my condition better than you do.”
“Precisely because you know, you’ll stay here.”
I spoke each word deliberately, pressing them down with weight.
Yoo Yi-soo clamped her lips shut.
A brief silence fell.
“Understood. In that case.”
Yoo Yi-soo adjusted the frequency on her earpiece.
“Send me your vitals in real time. If things get dangerous, I’m coming up.”
“I’ll count on you then.”
Jin-hyuk turned and opened the emergency stairwell door.
The stairs up to the 18th Floor were intact. Unlike a typical hospital, the emergency stairwell at Arcana Medical Center was spacious and well-lit, with mana-infused lighting panels glowing softly along the walls at each level. When I converted the Tower’s structure into Earth architecture, I designed the internal layout myself.
Ma Dong-tak took the lead, a steel pry bar slung across his shoulder as he bounded up the stairs two at a time.
“Director Ma, please take it slower. The stairs up to the 18th Floor are safe.”
“If we go slow, won’t the hatching be complete by the time we get up there?”
“Still, it’s better to conserve your strength before we encounter the mechanical soldiers.”
Ma Dong-tak eased his pace slightly.
The Martial Arts Community elders followed behind. The Wudang Sect Master drew upon his inner energy to lighten his body, while Namgoong Cheon climbed expressionlessly with his sword strapped to his back. Only Gae Bang Bang-ju fell behind, gasping for breath.
“Huff, huff. These stairs never end! The building has an elevator, so why are we taking the stairs!”
“The elevator has been taken over by the enemy.”
“Taken over? By the enemy? An elevator?”
“The world is vast, and strange things are plentiful.”
Jin-hyuk gave a brief answer as he continued climbing.
The 18th Floor.
When I opened the emergency stairwell door, an ordinary hospital corridor came into view. This level was used as a general ward. There were no patients currently—Arcana Medical Center had only recently landed on Earth and wasn’t yet accepting regular patients.
But the atmosphere in the corridor felt wrong.
The lights were flickering. The same pattern I’d seen in the 1st Floor Lobby. Thump. Thump. Thump. Like a heartbeat.
“Forty-five beats per minute.”
I murmured.
“On the first floor it was forty. It’s accelerating.”
“Does that mean the hatching is progressing?”
The Wudang Sect Master asked.
“Yes.”
We arrived at the emergency stairwell door for the 19th Floor.
Chun-sam’s voice came through the earpiece.
“Beep boop. Master. I can open the 19th Floor entrance with my authority. However.”
“However?”
“The internal temperature is currently 110 degrees Celsius.”
Jin-hyuk stopped in his tracks.
“110 degrees?”
“The data cables and metal structures in the server zone are emitting heat, causing the entire area to warm up. It’s a temperature human skin cannot withstand.”
Ma Dong-tak furrowed his brow.
“110 degrees. That’s hotter than a sauna.”
“A sauna is around 90 degrees. At 110 degrees, proteins denature.”
I rummaged through my medical bag.
“Elders, can you regulate your body temperature using your inner energy?”
The Wudang Sect Master nodded.
“If I deploy the Tai Chi Protective Qi Barrier, I can block the external heat to some degree. However, maintaining it for extended periods will consume a significant amount of inner energy.”
“Five minutes will suffice. We need to traverse the 19th Floor within five minutes.”
Jin-hyuk retrieved two silver heat-reflective sheets from his bag. Emergency medical equipment he’d stockpiled in his subspace inventory.
“Director Ma, please wrap these around yourself.”
“I don’t need them.”
“If you suffer burns, I’ll have to bill you for the treatment costs. Wrap them on.”
Ma Dong-tak, left speechless, accepted the heat-reflective sheets.
Jin-hyuk wrapped the remaining sheet around himself.
“Chun-sam. Open the door.”
Beep—!
The 19th Floor entrance door opened.
Heat poured out in waves.
It was a desiccating heat so intense that hair would curl at the slightest contact. It was difficult to keep one’s eyes open. The Wudang Sect Master immediately deployed the Tai Chi Protective Qi Barrier, erecting a translucent barrier of qi around the Martial Arts Community elders. As the heat touched the barrier, a crackling sound erupted.
Jin-hyuk gripped the heat-reflective sheet and stepped into the 19th Floor interior.
The sight before him was utterly different from the 19th Floor he’d seen before.
The silver metal walls had already melted more than halfway, flowing down to the floor. Data cables had been torn from the floor and walls, converging in one direction like blood vessels. That direction was the ceiling—the ceiling connecting to Floor 20.
And that ceiling was completely sealed by the molten metal.
A two-meter-thick metal wall.
Its surface glowed red-hot. From within the metal wall came a rhythmic pulsing sound—thump, thump. This time it wasn’t the flickering of lights, but a physical vibration.
[System: Activating special skill ‘Eye of Divine Will’.]
Jin-hyuk narrowed his eyes and scanned beyond the metal wall.
[Scan Result: Massive biological response detected within Floor 20.]
[Estimated Volume: Approximately 300 cubic meters. Currently expanding at roughly 2% per minute.]
[Biological Tissue Composition: Otherworldly organic cells 78%, absorbed 19th Floor metal structures 22%.]
[Diagnosis: Acute re-proliferation of Outer God remnants. Mechanism similar to segment regeneration in tapeworms.]
Jin-hyuk clicked his tongue at the scan results.
“Just as I thought—cutting off only the tail didn’t kill it.”
“What did you say?”
Ma Dong-tak asked, adjusting his heat-reflective sheet.
“Tapeworms can regenerate even if their bodies are severed into hundreds of pieces, as long as the head—the scolex—survives. When I killed Demiurge in the Tower, I extracted the core, but the data remnants left in the 19th Floor Server Zone acted as the scolex. It’s been regrowing from there.”
“Then this time we must ensure we eliminate even the scolex completely.”
“Precisely. The problem is.”
Jin-hyuk looked up at the metal wall.
“We need to break through that wall and ascend, and we still don’t know what condition the entity will be in once we do.”
“A two-meter-thick metal wall.”
Ma Dong-tak swung his pry bar once. Wind cut through the heat as it moved.
“It will take some effort, but there’s nothing I can’t break through.”
“No. Breaking through it physically would take far too long. If we remain on the 19th Floor for more than five minutes, the elders’ inner energy will be completely depleted.”
Jin-hyuk retrieved something from his medical bag.
A small syringe. Inside it was a transparent liquid.
“What is this?”
“It’s a gastric acid sample from Behemoth that was left in the subspace inventory.”
Ma Dong-tak took a step back.
“That’s the acid that melted through the floor on the 14th Floor?”
“Correct. Though the amount is small, if we inject it into the thinnest point of that metal wall, we can corrode it enough to bore a hole through.”
I scanned the thickness distribution of the metal wall using the Eye of Divine Will.
[Analyzing metal wall thickness distribution.]
[Thinnest point: upper left section of wall surface, data cable concentration zone. Thickness approximately 80 centimeters.]
“Upper left. 80 centimeters.”
Ma Dong-tak followed my gaze to confirm the location.
“I’ll inject the acid there, and once the corrosion progresses, I’ll finish breaking through.”
“Please do.”
I picked up the syringe and approached the metal wall.
Heat slammed against my face. Even with the heat-resistant sheet wrapped around me, breathing became difficult within a meter of the metal wall. I held my breath and drove the needle into the metal surface.
Ssssshhhhiiiiing—!
The sound of gastric acid corroding metal filled the air. Pale blue smoke rose from the metal surface. As corrosion began, the metal’s color shifted from silver to a dark reddish hue.
30 seconds.
1 minute.
The thickness of the corroded section began to decrease. From 80 centimeters to 60, 50, 40.
“It’s ready, Director Ma.”
Ma Dong-tak charged forward.
CRAAAAAASH—!!!
The pry bar struck the corroded point with perfect accuracy. It didn’t pierce through on the first blow, but the metal caved deeply inward.
Second strike.
CRAAANG—!
Third strike.
SCREEEECH—!!!
A hole large enough to fit an arm through opened in the metal wall.
From that hole, the air of Floor 20 came pouring out.
The smell was different.
The opposite of the dry heat of Floor 19. It was humid and sticky—a mixture of the acrid sweat stench of an unwashed massive body and the sickly-sweet reek of artificial nutrient solution.
It was the exact same smell I’d encountered before in the Constellation Ward on Floor 20.
My eyes narrowed.
I activated the Eye of Divine Will through the hole to scan the interior of Floor 20.
[Scanning Floor 20 interior.]
[Warning: Massive biological response is expanding rapidly.]
[Current estimated volume: approximately 500 cubic meters. Expansion rate increasing per minute.]
[Powerful mana signal detected at the center of the biological response. Core formation in progress.]
[Warning: Estimated remaining time until hatching completion — approximately 3 minutes.]
Three minutes.
Jin-hyuk looked at Ma Dong-tak.
“We need to widen that hole and breach it within three minutes.”
Ma Dong-tak adjusted his grip on the pry bar.
“How wide does it need to be?”
“Wide enough for one person to squeeze through.”
“Understood.”
Ma Dong-tak wedged the pry bar against the hole’s edge and applied force through both arms, leveraging the bar’s mechanical advantage.
Screeeeeech—!!!
The sound of tearing metal filled the 19th Floor. Veins bulged across Ma Dong-tak’s forearms. The thermal sheet tore open. He didn’t stop.
The Martial Arts Community elders rushed forward.
Namgoong Cheon condensed his sword energy at the blade’s tip, slicing away the hole’s edges. The Wudang Sect Master drove jagged metal fragments inward with a palm strike infused with internal force.
One minute.
The hole had widened enough for a person to crawl through.
“That’s it. Going in.”
Jin-hyuk pushed his body through the opening first.
The moment his feet touched Floor 20’s surface, a system warning blared.
[Warning! You have entered the highest level of Floor 20.]
[Warning! The Tower Creator’s remnant has entered the final stage of incubation.]
[Time remaining until hatching completion: 2 minutes 7 seconds.]
Jin-hyuk lifted his head.
Floor 20 had transformed into a space utterly unlike the Constellation Ward from before.
The enormous iron beds had all vanished. The Constellations had already become Jin-hyuk’s debt slaves during the Tower Clear and been dragged to Earth. What now filled that empty space was a colossal mass of crimson flesh—a towering column of organic matter stretching from floor to ceiling.
It pulsed like a heart.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Fifty-five beats per minute. Faster than before.
Tens of thousands of data cables were embedded across the flesh’s surface like blood vessels. Energy siphoned from the 19th Floor Server Zone flowed through the cables into the mass. It was a grotesque fusion of organism and machine.
Ma Dong-tak climbed through the opening and saw the flesh mass.
“That’s…”
“Demiurge’s new body.”
Jin-hyuk spoke as he drew out a scalpel.
“It’s not complete yet. We have to locate and extract the core before the incubation finishes.”
[Time remaining until hatching completion: 1 minute 42 seconds.]
The flesh’s pulsing accelerated. Sixty beats per minute. The same as a normal human heartbeat.
It would open its eyes soon.
Jin-hyuk pulled on latex gloves taut and ran forward.

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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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