Ancient Medical Rising System: Rise Of The Forsaken Doctor

Chapter 2B: A Master’s Praise, A Disciple’s Jealousy

By dusk, the glow of Salt Lake General softened into a tired orange haze. Rick dragged himself home, badge flickering green at the scanner. 

The apartment smelled faintly of ginger tea and exhaustion. Evelyn looked up from her datapad. “So, how does it feel being the hospital’s latest saint?”

Rick smiled, weary. “If I’m a saint, then miracles are overrated.”

She stood, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “They’re calling you the Golden Apprentice. Half the board’s buzzing about divine-meridian revival. The other half wants your license audited.”

He unbuttoned his coat. “Figures.”

“Rick, this isn’t funny.” Her voice hardened. “Rumors like that get people disappeared. My father says the Syndicate already requested your report.”

Rick’s expression darkened. “Your father’s always listening to the Syndicate.”

“He’s survived them,” she said quietly. “That’s the difference between you two.”

Rick sat, rubbing his temples. “I didn’t ask to be special, Ev. I just… saw the pattern, like a memory waking up.”

She came closer, kneeling beside him. “Then hide it. Publish the method under Yuren Sun’s name. Let him take the spotlight, it’ll shield you.”

He shook his head. “That’s not right. I won’t bury the truth behind a nameplate.”

Evelyn’s eyes softened. “Truth doesn’t help the dead, Rick. Only survivors.”

He looked at her, guilt flickering behind defiance. “You think I’m reckless.”

“I think you’re walking into a machine that eats people like you.”

The words hung there. She touched his hand; the golden pulse beneath his skin flared once, faintly lighting the room. She gasped, pulling back. “Rick, your wrist.”

He covered it quickly. “It’s nothing. Just after-effects.”

Her voice trembled. “It’s not nothing. Promise me you’ll stop before this ruins us.”

He didn’t answer. When she turned away, her reflection in the window looked like someone already grieving.

While the city slept, Isaac Voss moved like a ghost through the data-archives wing. The hum of servers filled the air, punctuated by his heartbeat.

He slid a clearance card into the console, his uncle’s ID, borrowed, not stolen. The monitor unlocked with a soft chime: Administrator Access Granted.

Footage flickered, ER cameras from the night of Lila’s revival. Frame by frame, Isaac watched Rick inserting the forbidden pattern of needles. 

The child’s body glowing gold. Rick’s hand blazing brighter. “Not medicine,” he whispered. “Magic.”

He paused the feed, zooming in until Rick’s wrist filled the screen, the golden rune shining like a brand.

The door creaked behind him. He froze, but it was only the wind from the old ventilation shaft.

Isaac copied the file to a data-chip and pocketed it. “Let’s see how the Syndicate defines miracles.”

Before he left, the monitors flickered, static crawling across the frames. For half a heartbeat, golden light rippled through every screen, pulsing in sync with his own.

He backed away slowly, whispering, “What the hell?”

The lights steadied. Only silence answered. By morning, the rain had washed the city clean. The courtyard outside Salt Lake General smelled of wet concrete and ozone.

Rick walked among blooming patients and interns sipping coffee, nodding at him with mixed awe and unease.

One elderly patient stopped him. “Doctor Franklin, thank you for saving that child. We needed hope.”

Rick smiled faintly. “Hope’s contagious, ma’am. Be careful with it.”

When she left, he spotted Isaac across the garden path. The senior apprentice’s face was unreadable; he offered a stiff nod.

Rick returned it, sensing something brittle behind the politeness. A strange hum prickled beneath his skin, the rune answering a vibration in the air, too faint for anyone else to feel.

He flexed his wrist. The glow pulsed once, then settled. The city itself seemed to inhale.

From an office window above, Yuren Sun watched, one hand on the glass. His reflection looked older than it had the night before.

For a long moment, mentor and student shared the same sunrise, one heavy with warning, the other with quiet defiance.

Rick exhaled, unaware the rhythm in his veins had begun syncing with something deeper beneath the hospital foundations.