2025-10-14 16:07:02Rick’s mouth opened, but she was already walking toward the bedroom. “Evelyn, ”
She stopped at the door without turning back. “You have until sunrise. Choose me… or choose this obsession. After that, I’m gone.”
The door shut with a quiet click. Rick stood motionless, the hum beneath his skin rising until it matched the rhythm of the storm outside.
The apartment went still after she closed the door. Only the clock’s second hand moved, whispering over the hush.
Rick sank onto the couch, exhaustion settling like sand through his veins. The hum inside his wrist hadn’t stopped since the board hearing; now it climbed up his arm, tiny sparks beneath his skin.
He pressed a hand over his heart. “Quiet,” he whispered. “Please.”
The pulse answered. A low vibration rolled through his chest, slow, resonant, like a second heartbeat trying to find him. The world blurred. The sound of the rain fell away.
He stood in a space without gravity or walls, surrounded by a haze of molten gold. Each particle pulsed in rhythm with his heart.
The air carried whispers, fragments of languages he didn’t recognize. “Where… am I?” His own voice echoed back a dozen times.
A ripple passed through the light. Words formed, not spoken, but inside him. [Initialization sequence … Healer identified.]
Rick stumbled backward. “Who’s there?”
[Designation: Rick Franklin.]
[Lineage trace confirmed, successor of the Meridian Code.]The golden field expanded. Outlines appeared, human figures made of data, moving like ghosts across history.
Ancient physicians stitching energy lines through bodies of light, diagrams turning to flesh. Rick’s breath hitched. “This isn’t real.”
[Reality: relative. Function: to repair.]
[System dormant for 2 000 years. Reactivated by contact with a compatible pulse.]He felt his knees weaken. “You’re a machine.”
[A system. The Healer’s System.]
His pulse raced. “Why me?”
[Because you listened when others feared to hear.]
The light brightened until it seared his vision. The voice softened, almost human.
[Do you accept synchronization?]
Rick hesitated, trembling. “If I say no?”
[Then the next heartbeat will erase this connection.]
He thought of Lila’s tiny chest rising again, of Evelyn’s tears, of Yuren’s warning that every miracle steals something in return.
He closed his eyes. “Yes.”
Pain lanced through him, white, absolute. Symbols flooded his vision, spinning faster: medical codes, neural maps, ancient scripts interlaced with modern anatomy.
Every lesson he’d ever learned rewrote itself in seconds. He screamed, no sound, only light pouring from his mouth, then darkness snapped back like elastic.
Rick woke up on the floor, gasping. The clock read 3:17 a.m. The rain had stopped. His wrist glowed softly, lines shifting like circuitry under the skin. In his head, a new voice breathed, calm and clear.
[Synchronization complete. Welcome, Healer.]
Rick staggered to his feet, heart hammering. “No… no, this can’t-”
[Diagnostics: stable. Bio-field resonance at 72 percent.]
He pressed his palms over his ears, but the voice was inside the rhythm of his blood. “Get out of me!”
[I am you. We are the pulse.]
The lights flickered across the apartment. A nearby medical scanner powered on by itself, printing data in lines of gold. On the paper: his name, his vital signs, and one unknown entry blinking at the bottom.
[System Root: Heaven’s Pulse, Active.]
Rick stared, chest tight. “What did I just become?”
Dawn seeped through the blinds, staining the apartment in gray. The hum in Rick’s veins had quieted, but the echo of the voice still lingered, steady, calm, terrifying. He needed air.
Outside, the rooftop of Salt Lake General was slick from rain. The city below looked almost innocent in the morning light, a thousand windows blinking awake.
Rick gripped the rail, breathing in the metallic cold. “Healer recognized.” The phrase replayed in his mind, softer now, like memory rather than intrusion.
The elevator behind him chimed. Yuren Sun stepped out, coat whipping in the wind. “You should be resting.”
Rick turned slowly. “You already know, don’t you?”
Yuren’s gaze swept over him. “The scanners in your flat activated last night. Their readings were… impossible.”
“Then you saw it,” Rick said. “The system. It called itself a Healer’s System.”
Yuren nodded once. “The ancient order spoke of it, an intelligence born from every physician who ever sought to mend what the heavens broke.”
Rick’s voice cracked. “It’s inside me, Master. Talking to me.”
“Then listen carefully,” Yuren said. “It will tempt you with power disguised as mercy. Every pulse you touch will answer you. Every failure will demand another miracle.”
Rick clenched his fists. “You want me to ignore it? Pretend I can’t save them?”
“I want you to survive long enough to understand the cost.”
Lightning flickered far out over the lake. Rick faced the sunrise, gold light spilling over the rooftops. “Evelyn’s gone. The Syndicate’s closing in. If this thing is what you say, maybe it’s the only weapon we have left.”
Yuren stepped closer, lowering his voice. “Weapons don’t heal, Rick. They consume.”
Rick met his eyes. “Then I’ll be the first to prove otherwise.”
Yuren studied him for a long moment, the wind tugging at both their coats. “I can’t stop you,” he said finally. “But if you lose control, if the system begins to guide your hands instead of your heart.”
“I’ll end it myself,” Rick finished.
Yuren’s expression softened with sorrow and pride. “Then may heaven forgive us both.”
He turned and left, the elevator doors closing behind him. Rick stayed, watching the horizon until the sun fully broke over the water.
The golden shimmer reflected in his eyes, the same glow pulsing under his skin. He whispered to the empty air, “If you really are alive in me… then we save them all. No matter what it costs.”
The unseen voice murmured back, almost gentle: [Acknowledged, Healer. Mission logged.]
The wind rose, scattering the last of the storm clouds as the city awakened below, unaware that a forgotten system had just chosen its new master.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 402
"Good!" Sterling grunted, turning around. "Lock the gates permanently! Set the automated defense turrets to shoot anything that tries to climb the walls! Let them rot in their fake health!"Sterling marched out of the room. The ten terrified doctors quickly followed him, eager to get away from the black folder on the table. The heavy white doors clicked shut. Isaac was alone in the giant meeting room. He looked at the heavy black folder on the silver table. He reached out and picked it up. There was no medical data inside the folder. The pages inside were completely blank. It was just a prop. A tool for a magic trick. Isaac smiled a genuine, warm smile. It felt strange on his face. "You are safe now, my broken friends," Isaac whispered to the empty room, looking down toward the junkyard. "Breathe the clean air. Drink the boiled water. Grow strong in the dark."Isaac turned and walked out of the meeting room. He walked down the clean white hallway toward his private office. He had
Chapter 401
Isaac stood perfectly still. His brilliant, mathematical mind moved incredibly fast. He could not let Sterling drop the bombs. If Sterling bombed the junkyard, all of the innocent people Rick had saved would die. The beautiful green miracle would turn into black ash. The Ghost Doctor’s sacrifice would be for nothing. Isaac had to stop the army. He had to protect the junkyard. But Isaac could not just say, 'No, we must be kind.' If he showed any compassion, Sterling would arrest him for treason. Isaac had to use logic. He had to use a lie that was so smart, so terrifying, and so perfectly calculated that the Guild would be too afraid to touch the junkyard. Isaac reached into the inside pocket of his pristine white suit jacket. He pulled out a thick, heavy black folder. The folder was tied closed with a thick black ribbon. In the center of the folder was a large, dark red wax seal. It was an Official Classified Report. Isaac walked slowly to the large silver table. He placed the h
Chapter 400
The clock on the pure white marble wall made a soft, sharp sound. Tick. Tick. Tick. The sound was very quiet, but in the massive meeting room of the Pharmaceutical Guild, it sounded like a heavy hammer hitting a drum. The room was perfectly clean. The walls were made of white glass. The long, oval table in the center of the room was made of polished silver. Bright, cold artificial lights shined down from the high ceiling. There were no shadows in this room. There was no dirt. But right now, the room was full of fear. Ten of the smartest, richest, and most powerful doctors in the City of Iron sat around the silver table. They wore spotless white coats. They wore expensive silver glasses. They were all staring at the giant digital screen on the wall. Usually, the screen showed beautiful, climbing numbers. It showed how much money they were making. It showed how many pills they had sold to the sick, desperate scavengers in the junkyard. Today, the screen showed something impossibl
Chapter 399
Usually, at this time of the morning, the heavy food wagons rolled out of the gates, bringing the daily rations of dry bread and dirty water. But the gates did not open. Jace walked up to the edge of the crater. He looked at the closed gates. Then, he heard a strange, hissing sound. He walked over to a rusted metal pipe sticking out of the mud. It was one of the public water fountains where the scavengers drank. The dirty water trickling out of the pipe suddenly sputtered. It spit a few drops of brown mud. And then, it stopped completely. The pipe hissed with empty air. "Brin," Jace said. His young voice trembled. Brin turned around. "What is it, Jace?""The water," Jace whispered, staring at the dry pipe. "They turned off the water."The thousands of healthy, strong people in the crowd suddenly felt a very different kind of fear. It was not the fear of sickness. It was not the fear of the robotic dogs or the red electric rifles. It was the primal, deep, terrifying fear of abs
Chapter 398
The thousands of scavengers cheered. They raised their rusted pipes. They raised their heavy rocks. They were terrified, yes. But they were no longer helpless. They were a healthy, massive army of broken things that refused to be broken again. The Ghost Doctor was gone, but his medicine remained. High above the roaring crowd, inside the tallest, cleanest white tower in the inner city. Auditor Isaac sat perfectly still behind his clear glass desk. His white suit was flawless. His thin silver glasses rested perfectly on his nose. He was staring at his giant digital screen. The screen showed the live video feeds from the city’s Surveillance Drones. The drones were flying high over the junkyard. They were showing the massive crowd of thousands of scavengers gathered around the black iron crater in Sector Four. Doctor Vance stood next to the desk. He was shaking. He had washed the mud off his face, but he still looked terrified. "Auditor Isaac," Doctor Vance stuttered. "Look at them.
Chapter 397
Brin covered her mouth with her dirty hands. Her tough, brave face completely broke. The giant iron furnace was gone. The thick metal walls, the heavy ceiling, the flat iron operating table... everything had vanished. At the bottom of the crater, there was only a massive, perfectly flat, smooth pool of solid black iron. It looked like a giant black mirror resting in the dirt. The clinic had been melted down to absolute nothingness. "No," Jace whimpered. Tears instantly filled his brown eyes. He slid down the steep dirt path into the crater. He ran to the edge of the smooth black iron mirror. He fell to his knees. He touched the cold, black metal. "Doctor Rick!" Jace screamed at the top of his lungs. His young voice cracked with pure agony. "Doctor Rick, where are you?!"Brin walked slowly down the path. She stood next to Jace. She stared at the black mirror. "He burned it," Brin whispered. Her voice was hollow. "He used the white fire. He destroyed the clinic so the city guards
You may also like
Harem Multiverse Challenge
Helen B.50.9K viewsCrash-landed On An Island With Nine Beauties
Zuxian208.8K viewsThe Ultimate Heir System
Ramdani Abdul81.7K viewsSystem Super Daily Login
Khusayni36.8K viewsThe Idle God of Eternal Sloth
RainaHR419 viewsFrom Prison scapegoat to a Multi-Trillionaire
Lady Chids361 viewsTENGDA CORP: PLEASE LET ME GO BANKRUPT!
elawati262 viewsThe Trillionaire Villain: I Shall Trample Every Protagonist
Autistically197 views