From Nobody to God Doctor

Chapter 1. Blood in the Narrow Alley

Chapter 1: Blood in the Narrow Alley

Drizzle slicked up the cracked asphalt in a narrow, claustrophobic alley behind the industrial park. The place reeked of rotting garbage, mixed with the metallic tang of blood starting to trickle from Zolda's temple. His scrawny frame was slumped in a murky puddle, while three hulking dudes stood in a circle around him, wearing nasty, mocking grins.

"Yo, trash! You still breathing down there?"

Juki, a street enforcer rocking a scorpion tattoo on his neck, spat squarely on Zolda's shivering back.

"I... I got no beef with you guys..." Zolda coughed, hacking up thick red liquid.

"No beef? Hah! My boss says you're a nuisance. You know what happens to roaches that ruin the view for rich folks?" Juki barked a harsh laugh that echoed off the damp concrete walls.

"Man, Juk, just finish him already. You talk too damn much," chimed in the second lackey, a bald guy named Gofur, flipping a pocket knife open and shut.

"Hold your horses, Fur. I wanna hear him beg first. Listen up, Zolda! Broke-ass losers like you need to know their place. You thought snitching on Mr. Wijaya's factory waste was gonna make you a hero? Dumbass!"

Juki drove his heavy combat boot hard into Zolda’s gut. Zolda groaned in agony, curling up into a tight ball.

"Wasn't trying to be a hero... it's... it's our right as citizens..." Zolda whispered weakly, his voice barely cutting through the patter of the rain.

"Right? RIGHT?! In this city, rights belong to the guys with the cash, stupid! You're nothing but the dirt on the bottom of our flip-flops," Juki snarled, grabbing a fistful of Zolda's hair and forcing the kid to look at his ugly mug.

"Enough, just die already!" Gofur stepped up, lifting his leg high, aiming right for Zolda's head.

Zolda squeezed his eyes shut. Hovering right on the edge of fading out completely, right when the pain hit its absolute peak, a massive BOOM echoed inside his skull. It felt like a heavy seal had just shattered. Suddenly, the pitch-black behind his eyelids turned into an expanse of blinding, golden light. A majestic, ancient voice started whispering archaic mantras he didn't even understand, yet they felt like they were fusing directly into his bloodstream.

Kunao Inner Eye... Opened!

Divine Healer's Legacy... Awakened!

The whole world shifted in Zolda's eyes. When he opened them, he wasn't looking at that dark alley the same way anymore. Everything looked transparent. He could see the blood pumping through Juki's veins, the pulsing nerve clusters in Gofur's neck, even the micro-fractures in their bones. Complex medical data flooded his brain in a fraction of a second.

"Yo, you seeing this? What the hell is up with his eyes?" Juki suddenly took a step back, hesitation written all over his face.

"His eyes... why'd they turn gold? Wait, is he wearing contacts or something?" the third goon, who’d been quiet the whole time, blurted out.

"Contacts, my ass! He's dying, you idiot!" Gofur yelled back, but his knife-wielding hand started shaking for no apparent reason.

Zolda slowly pushed himself off the ground. His movements, which were stiff and weak just a second ago, were now incredibly smooth and efficient. The agonizing pain in his body vanished into thin air, replaced by an overflowing surge of pure energy.

"What did you call me earlier? Trash?" Zolda spoke up. His tone was cold. Arctic cold.

"Son of a bitch! You got some nerve looking at me like that!" Juki, feeling his street-cred threatened, threw a vicious haymaker straight at Zolda's face.

Zolda didn't even flinch. He just tilted his head a few millimeters, and with lightning speed, jammed two fingers into a nerve cluster right under Juki's armpit.

"AAAAARRRGH!!! My arm! My arm went numb!!!" Juki screamed like a little girl. His arm went totally limp, dangling like a snapped rubber band.

"What's wrong, Juk? Didn't you say you wanted to make me beg?" Zolda stepped up. His aura was totally oppressive now, making the air in the alley feel thick and heavy.

"Bastard! What the hell did you do to Juki, huh?!" Gofur lunged forward with his knife. "I'm gonna stick you, you piece of shit!"

Zolda just gave a slight smirk. His eyes tracked Gofur's slow-motion attack effortlessly. Right when the tip of the blade almost grazed his shirt, Zolda snatched Gofur's wrist. With a light tap on the back of the guy's hand, a sickening CRACK rang out.

"FUUUUCK! My bone's snapped! Damn it, he's using black magic!" Gofur collapsed, clutching his arm which was now bent at a totally unnatural angle.

"Black magic? Nah. This is just a little anatomy lesson for low-rent street trash like you," Zolda said deadpan.

The third goon tried to make a run for it, totally spooked, but Zolda casually picked up a small pebble and flicked it. The rock shot out like a bullet, nailing a nerve right behind the thug's knee.

Thud! The guy face-planted hard into the asphalt.

"Crazy... who the hell are you?!" Juki tried to backpedal, dragging his trembling legs. "Mr. Wijaya won't let you off the hook if he finds out you're messing with us!"

"Your precious Mr. Wijaya is nothing but a bug to me now. And you... you're just the messenger." Zolda walked closer, every footstep echoing ominously.

"Don't... don't kill me... please... I was just following orders!" Juki started whining, his tough-guy act completely replaced by sheer, absolute terror.

"You said being poor was a disease earlier, right? Well, I just found the cure for you." Zolda grabbed Juki by the jaw.

"What... what do you mean? Mercy, boss! Mercy!"

"The cure is... a kind of pain that no doctor in this world can fix, unless I pull it out myself." Zolda pressed a specific point on Juki's forehead.

Juki's eyes bulged out of his skull. His whole body went rigid. He wanted to scream, but the sound got trapped in his throat. An unimaginable agony shot from the top of his head down to his toes, like thousands of red-hot needles piercing his nervous system all at once.

"You're gonna feel this every single night at midnight. Until you get down on your knees and grovel to the locals you've been terrorizing." Zolda let go, letting Juki pass out from the sheer shock.

Zolda stood tall in the pouring rain. He stared at his own hands. That golden energy was still faintly glowing beneath his skin. The Kunao Inner Eye was legit. He wasn't the weak Zolda anymore. He was the master of life and death.

Suddenly, at the end of the alley, a sleek black luxury sedan screeched to a halt. The door flew open, and a woman rocking a red dress—torn down the side—sprinted out, gasping for air. She was drop-dead gorgeous, but her face was painted with pure panic.

"Help! Somebody... please help me!" she screamed, before tripping over her own feet and collapsing right in front of Zolda.

Zolda narrowed his eyes. Through his inner sight, he spotted something seriously messed up inside her body. It wasn't an external wound, but a rare poison hauling ass straight for her heart.

"Navi?" Zolda muttered under his breath. For some reason, the name just popped into his head, like destiny was whispering this chick's identity to him.

"You... please... they're trying to kill me..." She gripped the soggy hem of Zolda's pants.

Right behind her sedan, two black SUVs slammed on their brakes. A squad of guys in slick safari suits hopped out, strapped with firearms, moving with tactical precision.

"Hand the lady over, or you're dying right here with her, kid!" one of the suits barked, aiming his piece straight at Zolda's head.

Zolda didn't flinch. He just stared right down the barrel with a dead, lethal gaze.

"I'm really not in the mood to negotiate with somebody's lapdogs," Zolda said, his voice ice-cold.

"You got a death wish! Fire!"

BANG!

The gunshot shattered the quiet of the night. But the second that bullet left the chamber, time seemed to freeze for Zolda. He just moved two fingers through the air, plucking the hot lead with a precision that absolutely defied human logic.

"What the hell?! He... he just caught a bullet bare-handed?!" The pursuers' jaws hit the floor, all the color draining from their faces in an instant.

Zolda dropped the crushed bullet onto the ground with a sharp metallic clink.

"Now, it's my turn to..."

Zolda shot forward like a blur of black shadow, and the moment his palm slammed into the lead hitman's chest, the guy's ribcage shattered into pieces and...