The Trillionaire’s Rise: Powered by a System Ring

CHAPTER 2 The Patient Who Should Have Died

Rendi opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was a white ceiling and overly bright fluorescent lights. The smell of medicine immediately filled his nose. Beside the bed, the heart monitor beeped softly again.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Rendi tried moving his fingers, and they moved. He took a deep breath, and his chest did not hurt at all.

'I am alive.'

Rendi raised his right hand in front of his face. On his ring finger sat a silver ring engraved with ancient letters, the exact same ring he had touched in the dark space.

None of it was a dream.

"Mr. Rendi? Can you hear me?"

A female doctor stood beside the bed. Her hair was tied back, and the sleeves of her white coat were wrinkled from being rolled up.

Her name tag read Dr. Nadia. She looked to be in her late twenties.

Rendi nodded.

"Please state your full name."

"Rendi Martin." His voice was hoarse.

"Date of birth?"

Rendi stated it. Nadia matched the answer with the clipboard in her hand.

"Do you know how long your heart stopped earlier?"

"No."

"Over two minutes." Nadia lowered her clipboard. "I have been in the ICU for five years. Patients whose hearts stop for that long usually do not wake up again. Even if they do, they usually cannot speak as fluently as you."

Nadia took out a small penlight and shined it into Rendi's eyes one by one. After that, she placed her stethoscope on Rendi's chest and listened for quite a while.

"Blood pressure, Nurse?"

"One hundred twenty over eighty, Doc. Saturation at ninety-nine," answered the nurse beside her.

Nadia frowned. "Repeat it."

The nurse took the measurements again. The numbers were the same.

Nadia pulled up the lab results on her tablet. Her finger scrolled up the screen, then down, then up again.

"This morning, your cardiac enzymes were extremely high. That is a sign of severe heart muscle damage." Nadia looked at Rendi. "Now everything is normal. More normal than a healthy person. This does not make any sense."

Nadia placed the tablet on the table. "Do you have any family we can contact?"

"My mother."

"We have been calling her number since noon. No answer." Nadia paused for a moment. "Only reporters have shown up. The security guards have chased them away three times."

Rendi did not answer. His eyes were fixed on a spot in midair, right in front of Nadia's face.

There, a transparent screen appeared with glowing blue text.

[Ding!] [Revival successful.] [Revival Reward: Prime Body. All Host organs have been restored.]

'Do you want to start your daily check-in?'

"Yes, check in," Martin answered.

[Day 1 check-in successful.] [Reward: X-Ray Vision Lv.1]

Rendi read the text twice. Prime Body. X-Ray Vision.

"Sir?" Nadia waved a hand in front of Rendi's face. "What are you looking at?"

Nadia's hand passed right through the center of the screen, and nothing happened. Nadia could not see it.

"Nothing, Doc. I am not looking at anything."

Nadia sighed. "You are still in shock. It is normal. I will go get the latest lab results first. Nurse Wulan, please monitor him."

Nadia left the room. The nurse named Wulan returned to her desk in the corner of the room.

Rendi stared at the ring on his finger. He rubbed its surface with his thumb, and the ring felt warm. The blue screen appeared again.

'X-Ray Vision. How do I use it?'

Rendi stared at the wall in front of him, then focused his gaze as hard as he could. The wall remained a wall.

He tried again while holding his breath. The result was the same.

'Maybe it is just a name. Maybe this system is joking.'

Rendi was still glaring intensely forward when the room door opened. Nadia walked in carrying a brown folder.

Click.

Rendi felt his eyes heat up for a moment.

Nadia's white coat faded away, then the blue shirt underneath faded as well. Rendi could see the black underwear the doctor was wearing.

The next second, the underwear also vanished from his sight. For two full seconds, Rendi saw Nadia's body without a single thread of clothing.

Gulp.

Rendi choked on his own saliva. "Cough! Cough!"

Nadia immediately rushed to the bed. "What is wrong? Shortness of breath?"

Nadia leaned over and brought her face closer. The distance between them was mere inches, and that made the situation far worse.

Rendi squeezed his eyes shut tight. "No, Doc! I am fine!"

"Your face is completely red." Nadia pressed the back of her hand against Rendi's forehead. "No fever. Then what is it?"

Rendi opened his eyes slightly. The doctor's white coat and blue shirt were visible again. Rendi let out a sigh of relief.

Nadia narrowed her eyes, then pulled her hand back and stood up straight.

"Earlier, you were looking at me like you saw a ghost." Nadia paused for a moment. "Or like a man who just saw something he was not supposed to see."

"I was just startled, Doc. I just woke up from the dead."

Nadia gave a short laugh. "Good excuse. Hard to argue with."

Nadia opened the brown folder and wrote something down.

"A patient who should be dead wakes up with a red face upon seeing his doctor. Should I put that in the report, I wonder?"

"Please do not, Doc," Rendi pleaded.

"Why? Embarrassed?" the Doctor answered while giving a small smile.

"A little." Rendi was embarrassed.

Nadia closed her folder. For the first time since Rendi woke up, the doctor smiled.

"Can I just call you by your name? It feels weird calling you 'Sir' after you just got so shy."

"Sure."

"You are actually pretty funny. On the news, you looked so stiff."

Rendi fell silent. "You watched the news?"

"The whole hospital watched it." Nadia shrugged. "The video is playing on a loop on the waiting room TV. Some people felt bad, some laughed."

"Did you feel bad, or did you laugh?"

Nadia did not answer immediately. "I was the one pumping your chest for two minutes earlier. What do you think?"

Rendi did not know how to answer, so he just stayed quiet.

The blue screen appeared again next to Nadia's head.

[Target Profile] [Name: Nadia] [Age: 27] [Profession: ICU Doctor] [Interest: 12/100] [Status: Acquaintance]

'Interest? Why does a revenge system use something like this?'

"Get some rest," Nadia said as she walked to the door. "I will check on you again tomorrow morning. Do not die again, okay? The paperwork is a hassle."

The door closed.

Night fell. The room lights were dimmed, and Nurse Wulan fell asleep in her chair.

Rendi sat leaning against the headboard, twirling the ring on his finger.

In his head, the wedding hall kept replaying. The diamond ring Evelyn dropped. Alex's hand on his shoulder.

Mr. Hendra looking down. The recording phones.

His mother had not called back either. Even now, Rendi did not know where his mother was sleeping tonight.

Rendi shook his head and forced his mind back to things he could control. He stared at the wall beside the bed, this time without holding his breath.

Rendi simply focused, then imagined what lay behind the white paint. His eyes grew hot again.

The wall paint faded. Behind it were red bricks, then a crossing water pipe, then electrical cables wrapped in black tubing. Rendi blinked, and the wall turned white again.

Rendi tried one more time, and it worked again. He blinked, and his vision returned to normal.

'So the key is focus. Blinking turns it off.'

The incident from earlier today flashed in his head again, and his face flushed hot. Starting tomorrow, he had to be careful whenever he stared at someone for too long.

Rendi pressed the ring with his thumb.

[Ding!] [System Ring activated. Touch the ring to summon the System.] [Host's abilities will be unlocked gradually.] [How to obtain abilities: complete missions, or exchange Points in the System Shop.] [Current Host Points: 0.] [Host, what do you desire?]

Rendi read that last line for a long time.

X-Ray Vision would not get his mother's house back. It was also not enough to fight the five companies now held by Evelyn and Alex.

Rendi needed much more than that.

"If I want to be strong," he whispered, "if I want to be able to fight them, what do I have to do?"

[Missions are the fastest path.]

Rendi stared at the text. For the first time since the wedding day, he smiled.

"In that case, give me a mission. Right now."

[Ding!]