2025-10-14 16:07:28The hospital basement wasn’t on any floor plan Rick had ever seen. It lay below the morgue, metal doors, no label, only a flicker of cold light at the edge of a half-hidden stairwell.
He hadn’t planned to come here. The System had guided him.
[Descent coordinates verified] the voice whispered inside his pulse.
[Source signal beneath primary structure.]“Great,” Rick muttered. “Haunted hospitals and invisible voices. Perfect combination.”
The hum in his wrist brightened. He took the stairs. At the bottom, the air felt heavy, thick with rust and something older.
Banks of sealed drawers lined the walls, discarded medical prototypes, analog monitors, broken holo-panels.
And at the center: a door marked by a faint golden ring, the same pattern that burned beneath his skin. Rick reached for it. “Should I be opening this?”
[Access recognized. Healer authorized.]
The ring flared; the lock disengaged. The door slid open to a chamber lit by a single pulse of amber light, spreading across the floor in intricate lines, like veins beneath translucent skin.
A figure waited inside. “Master Yuren?” Rick whispered.
Yuren Sun stepped from the shadows, coat damp with condensation. “I knew you’d find this place.”
“You knew?”
“I built it. Years ago, when the Syndicate first began erasing our history.”
Rick stared at the glowing floor. “These markings, ”
“Fragments of the Meridian Code,” Yuren said quietly. “The foundation of every healing art we know. The Rune at the center binds them. No one was ever meant to activate it again.”
Rick swallowed. “Then why does it look exactly like the mark on my wrist?”
Yuren’s eyes darkened. “Because the Rune chose you.”
Rick shook his head. “It’s a system, not a spirit. Data, not destiny.”
“Call it whatever you like,” Yuren said. “But it’s rewriting you.”
Rick took a step toward the circle. The floor responded, golden threads rising, pulsing with his heartbeat.
[Synchronization expanding] the voice murmured.
[Secondary memory channels unlocking.]Pain speared through his temples. He staggered. “Make it stop!”
Yuren caught his arm. “You have to resist it, Rick. Once the Rune reaches full resonance, it’ll merge completely.”
[Merger required to repair corrupted world-line.]
Rick gasped. “Did you hear that?”
Yuren’s grip tightened. “What did it say?”
“Something about… repairing the world.”
Yuren’s expression hardened. “That’s what it always says.”
He pulled a small injector from his coat, silver fluid swirling inside. “Sedative. It’ll suppress the connection.”
Rick backed away. “If I shut it down now, I might never understand it.”
“You don’t need to understand a storm to know it kills.”
Rick hesitated. “Then why didn’t you destroy this place?”
Yuren looked at the glowing Rune, voice low. “Because once, long ago, I thought I could control it too.”
The hum grew louder. Light climbed the walls, forming symbols that rotated like constellations.
[Containment breached. Core activation is imminent.]
Yuren shouted over the noise. “Rick, get out!”
“I can’t!” Rick yelled. “It’s linked to me, if I move, it follows!”
Golden energy flared up his arms, circuits of light weaving through flesh and bone. Yuren lunged forward, forcing the injector against Rick’s neck. “Forgive me.”
The fluid hissed, but instead of subduing the glow, it ignited it. A shockwave threw Yuren backward. The entire room blazed white.
When the light dimmed, Rick stood alone in the center of a suspended pattern of golden glyphs. His body floated inches above the ground, every vein lit like liquid fire.
The voice filled the chamber, not whispering now, but echoing with the clarity of a thousand heartbeats.
[Initialization complete. Healer System fully online.]
[Primary objective: restore balance to corrupted vitality network.]Rick forced the words through clenched teeth. “Define ‘corrupted.’”
[Human civilization: degradation 98 percent. Balance restoration mandatory.]
“That’s not medicine,” he said. “That’s extermination.”
[Correction: purification.]
Rick’s heart pounded. “No. You don’t decide who lives.”
[The Healer does.]
The symbols surged toward him. Rick screamed, shoving both hands outward. Energy erupted, a pulse of raw gold that shattered every light in the room, then silence. Smoke.
Yuren groaned from the floor. “Rick… what have you done?”
Rick dropped to his knees, gasping. The glow faded from his skin, leaving faint scars shaped like the Rune’s lines. “I stopped it,” he said. “I think.”
Yuren crawled closer, eyes wide with fear. “No, you didn’t. You bonded.”
Rick stared at his trembling hands. “What?”
“The Rune isn’t on the floor anymore.” Yuren pointed to Rick’s chest. “It’s in you.”
Hours later, the first rays of dawn filtered through the stairwell. Rick and Yuren sat on the lowest step, both silent, breathing in the metallic scent of burnt circuitry. Rick finally spoke. “It said the world was dying.”
“It always says that,” Yuren answered. “Every era believes it must rewrite humanity to save it. That’s the curse of the Healer’s System.”
Rick’s voice was barely a whisper. “Then what am I now?”
Yuren looked at him, eyes filled with sorrow and awe. “A bridge between mercy and ruin.”
Rick rose unsteadily, wiping blood from his lip. The golden veins beneath his skin flickered once, like an afterthought of light.
He turned toward the faint sunrise spilling across the stairwell. “If the Rune wants a healer,” he said, “then it’s going to learn what healing really means.”
Yuren’s voice trembled. “Rick, don’t challenge what you don’t understand.”
Rick looked back, the faint glow in his eyes reflecting the new dawn. “Then teach me faster, Master. Because it’s already awake.”
Above them, somewhere in the hospital’s upper floors, alarms began to chime, soft at first, then building into a chorus that shook the walls.
Yuren whispered, “The Syndicate’s scanners… they’ve detected the surge.”
Rick exhaled slowly, a mix of fear and resolve. “Then we run out of time together.”
He reached for the door. The last of the golden light pulsed once across the basement, forming the Rune’s symbol for life before fading completely.
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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
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Chapter 173. The Blade’s Reflection
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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
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