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.
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Chapter 175. The Ash Forest
Rick stepped off the cracked path, boots sinking slightly into ash so fine it clung to his soles like wet flour. The air was heavy, electric, humming faintly against his skin. Lightning from centuries past had burned the forest to charcoal; even the wind whispered against the blackened trunks as though afraid to disturb the silence. No birds sang. No insects crawled. No small movements stirred the barren ground. The world here had been purified once, and now it was dead, or close enough to death that the difference no longer mattered.Luna followed behind, carrying the faint glow of her cocoon. She bent low, eyes narrowing, reaching toward the soil. Her hands hovered over patches of gray ash that seemed lifeless. "They’re still here," she whispered. "I can feel them, faint heartbeats, buried deep."Rick knelt beside her. Fingers tracing the uneven ground, he closed his eyes, letting his Qi seep into the soil. The System’s interface flickered faintly in the corner of his mind. [Env
Chapter 174. The Bridge of Echoes
Dawn broke over the canyon in long, silver shafts of light, slicing through the lingering mist like frozen blades. The bridge, once crumbling under the weight of neglect, now stood firm. Timber had been replaced, ropes reinforced, and carved stones aligned as if they had always belonged there. Rick moved across it cautiously, his boots whispering against the worn planks. Luna’s cocoon glowed faintly at his side, a soft pulse marking her slow, even breathing.The villagers had begun crossing again, tentative at first. Mothers carried children in their arms, small hands brushing the rails, eyes wide at the restored path. Farmers with bundles of produce hesitated, their gaze drawn to the wooden supports that now held steady. The bridge sang under their steps, a subtle vibration that spoke of both labor and life reclaimed. Rick watched quietly, feeling the resonance of movement through his own pulse, as if the bridge itself were a living thing remembering its purpose.Ahead, the swor
Chapter 173. The Blade’s Reflection
The canyon woke under a fragile light. Mist lingered along the riverbank, curling in silent spirals. Rick moved slowly, carrying Luna’s cocoon like a fragile vessel, the soft hum of her Qi pulsing against his chest. The swordswoman crouched by the water, her hands hovering above the river as though she feared breaking it.Her eyes were wide now, pupils clear for the first time in years. The world hit her all at once: the sun’s angle, the smell of wet stone, the trembling shimmer of water. She flinched, shielding her face with her arm.Rick knelt beside her without speaking. The wind carried the faint clang of the canyon’s loose stones, but no words were needed. He sensed her pulse racing, every beat a drum of panic. His own Qi threaded through her, steadying, like the quiet thrum of a metronome. “Look at the water,” he said quietly. “See it, not what it hides.”Her hands trembled as they touched the river’s surface. Shadows seemed to stir beneath her fingers, images of the people s
Chapter 172. The Echo Surgery
The canyon hung in near-silence, the kind that pressed against the ribs like the weight of water. A thin mist crawled across the jagged cliffs, licking the bases of the rock walls and swirling around the rickety bridge where travelers whispered tales of a blind swordswoman. Rick and Luna stepped into the clearing beside the bridge. Moonlight draped the ground in silver, making shadows spill like ink across the uneven stones. Luna’s cocoon glowed faintly, casting a pale warmth across the clearing.The villagers had stayed far from the bridge for years. No one dared cross. No one dared speak. And no one had seen the swordswoman since the mist had thickened. Rick had heard the story: a blade so precise, so attuned, it cut life from the air itself. She was not merely blind; she had trained her body and Qi to sense the world in vibrations. He could feel her before she appeared. Her Qi was sharp, restless, a humming wire ready to snap.He took a step forward, the soles of his boots crun
Chapter 171. The Blind Blade 2
The Blind Blade exhaled sharply, a breath she had not realized she was holding. The sword wavered, then dropped to the stone bridge. She took a step back, one that would have been unthinkable hours ago. Her eyes, still clouded from years of strain, reflected a faint shimmer of recognition, not sight. She understood what had been offered, and it was enough for now.Rick’s gaze drifted to the stars piercing the mist. For the first time in the canyon, the villagers below, the few who had dared watch, could see the faint glow of hope above the bridge. Luna stirred slightly in her cocoon, a tiny pulse echoing Rick’s satisfaction. “I am not here to take your life,” Rick said again. “I am here to show you a path back to yourself.”She lowered the sword fully, letting it rest against her leg. Her chest heaved with controlled breathing. Rick could feel her stillness, the balance slowly returning. Her Qi was no longer screaming, no longer in conflict with the world. It was as though a dam h
Chapter 171. The Blind Blade
The canyon was silent, wrapped in a veil of mist so thick it swallowed sound and light alike. Rick’s boots crunched over the loose stone as he stepped off the narrow trail, his movements careful, almost surgical, as though every step mattered more than the next. The mist clung to his coat, curling around him like a living thing, damp and heavy. Luna’s cocoon hovered at chest height, faintly glowing with her contained Qi. She was still, suspended between sleep and wakefulness, the slight pulse of her energy the only indicator of life.The villagers had warned him, their voices trembling with a mixture of fear and awe. Across the bridge that spanned the canyon, a woman moved silently, her presence described as a ghost more than flesh. They called her the Blind Blade. No one had survived crossing. Those who tried vanished, their screams swallowed by the canyon’s walls. Rick did not flinch at their stories; he had walked through worse, yet he understood the danger, the mist concealed
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