SUPER DOCTOR REVENGE

Ch. 10

Marcus's laughter died instantly. His brow furrowed. "What... what do you mean?"

"Look at your left palm, Marcus," Calvin pointed. "The base of your thumb. Is there a faint, greenish-black line running toward your wrist?"

Marcus instinctively looked down at his left hand. His breath hitched. A thin, sickly green line was indeed tracing its way along his vein. "This... this is just a minor bruise! I bumped it at the airport earlier!"

"It's not a bruise," Calvin said, taking another step closer, entirely unfazed by the poison bottle. "That is the Abyssal Ash mutation path. It has already compromised thirty percent of your lower pulmonary lobe. Every time you smoke that expensive cigar, you are accelerating the cellular degradation. In less than three minutes, that line will reach your wrist. And when it does..."

Calvin paused, his eyes narrowing. "Your lungs will literally begin to liquefy from the inside out."

"Liar! You're just bluffing so I'll drop the bottle!" Marcus yelled, but cold sweat began to pour down his forehead. Suddenly, a violent spasm shook his chest. Cough! Cough!

When he pulled his hand away from his mouth to look at what he had coughed up, it wasn't phlegm. It was a thick, blackish-purple clot of blood.

"N-No... this can't be..." Marcus panicked, the bottle of toxin slipping from his trembling fingers. It hit the dirt but didn't break, rolling harmlessly to the side. He fell to his knees, clutching his chest as a sudden, agonizing burning sensation flared up inside his torso. "Julian told me... Julian said the Sterling antidote could suppress any side effects!"

"Julian Sterling is currently sitting in a steel cage, weeping and begging for mercy from General Briggs," Calvin said coldly. "He couldn't even save his own family, let alone a greedy pawn like you."

"Calvin... please..." Marcus crawled across the filthy floor, his tears mixing with the concrete dust. "I... I am Tiffany's father! We are family! I was forced into this by the Obsidian Circle! If I didn't obey them, they would have ruined the Vance Corporation three years ago!"

"Family?" Calvin echoed the word, and for the first time, a dark, dangerous emotion broke through his calm facade. He walked up to the kneeling man, looking down at him like a deity judging a sinner. "When you watched your daughter cut off my sister's medicine money, did you think about family? When your guards threw me into the mud and broke my ribs, did you think about family?"

"I was wrong! I was blind!" Marcus begged, his hand reaching out to grab the hem of Calvin's trousers.

Vivian stepped forward instantly, her sharp designer heel pinning Marcus's fingers to the floor. "Do not dare defile Master Hudson with your filthy hands, Vance."

"Argh!" Marcus screamed in agony.

Calvin raised his hand slightly, and Vivian immediately stepped back, releasing the man.

"I can cure you, Marcus," Calvin said, twirling the remaining silver needles between his fingers. "The Nine Yin-Yang Technique can extract that toxin from your lungs in less than sixty seconds. I have the knowledge to save your life, just as I have the power to destroy the Obsidian Circle."

Marcus’s eyes flared with a desperate, pathetic spark of hope. "Save me! I will give you everything! I'll transfer the remaining shares of the company! I'll make Tiffany kneel and beg for your forgiveness! Just give me the cure!"

Calvin looked down at the gold family amulet resting against his chest, then back down at the weeping man.

"No," Calvin whispered.

"W-What?" Marcus froze.

"I am a doctor, Marcus. But I am no longer a fool," Calvin said, his voice as cold as the midnight storm. "You chose to walk the path of the shadow. Now, you will sleep in it."

Calvin turned his back, walking away toward the shattered entrance of the warehouse. "Vivian, secure the briefcases. And call the military quarantine units. Let them clean up the remnants of this traitor."

"Understood, Master," Vivian replied with a sharp, loyal smile, gesturing for her hidden operatives to move in.

"Calvin! You can't leave me like this! Calvin!!" Marcus screamed, his voice growing raspy and hollow as the green line shot past his wrist. He began to violently vomit dark blood onto the floor, realizing his greed had finally written his final chapter.

Calvin stepped out into the open air, looking up as the storm clouds over Bacca finally began to break. A crisp morning breeze hit his face, and the System inside his soul chimed with a clear tone of victory.

[Ding! Main Storyline Mission: "Purging the First Traitor" completed. Extracting rewards...]