Ch.3636. Cyberpunk, Hospital, and Good Deeds

A day had passed since Amon had taken the party members to the hospital.

The four were admitted into separate private rooms.

This wasn’t because Amon was a premium customer, nor was it to extract more money from him.

It’s just that multi-patient rooms don’t exist in America.

As a result, Amon had to go back and forth between four rooms to take care of the four patients.

The first to recover was the blue-haired Hale.

Having an arm cut off was a serious injury even in this world, but it wasn’t a super emergency.

Stop the bleeding and attach a mechanical arm. That’s it.

Since Hale had already been using a mechanical arm to hold his machine gun, there was no rejection.

The next to regain consciousness was Tori.

She also had no resistance to replacing her eyes with mechanical ones since her eyes were already mechanical.

The two who had fully recovered in just one day immediately received discharge papers and helped Amon care for the remaining party members.

On the second day of hospitalization.

Surprisingly, the yellow-haired one regained consciousness before the mage Paul.

“Ugh!”

The party members were relieved to see him sit up energetically.

“Hey, I had an awesome dream!”

Seeing him talk nonsense as soon as he woke up, he seemed fine.

However, the yellow-haired one wasn’t completely recovered.

“Huh. I can’t feel anything below.”

The moment he said that, the party members’ expressions hardened, and they hurriedly called for a doctor.

The doctor walked into the room with a stethoscope around his neck and immediately began testing various things on the yellow-haired man’s body.

And the diagnosis was:

“Um… the short circuit occurred in a rather unfortunate location.”

“What does that mean, doctor?”

“I was planning to tell you after you recovered a bit more… sigh. You should know. Um… the patient will not be able to use his lower body from now on.”

“What?! Hey! Doctor!! What are you saying! Oh no! This can’t be! I’m impotent?!”

The yellow-haired Even began to have a fit.

His party members’ faces also turned serious upon hearing this.

Lower body paralysis.

It didn’t just mean the end of his explorer life.

He would never be able to control his sphincter or urination for the rest of his life.

Even more serious was the fact that Even would never be able to pass on his genes to future generations in a natural way.

While artificial insemination was an option, it would be difficult to find a woman willing to be with a man paralyzed from the waist down.

The party members couldn’t hide their complicated feelings at Even’s outcry.

“Aaaah!!”

The yellow-haired man’s scream filled the hospital room.

However, there was one person in the room who didn’t sympathize with Even.

“Patient, please calm down.”

It was the doctor.

Despite knowing Even’s condition well, he could only calmly tell him to remain composed.

Seeing this, Even’s face turned red as he shouted:

“How can I calm down?!”

Tears welled up in his eyes.

But the doctor’s expression didn’t change at all.

Seeing this, Even was about to curse him as a psychopath when the doctor spoke again.

“You psycho-“

“Patient. Please calm down. If you continue to get angry, you might start bleeding again. Then even the genitals we managed to save could die.”

“…What are you saying?”

“While most of the nerves in your lower body are dead, we succeeded in saving the genital nerve bundle.”

According to the doctor’s explanation, the genital nerves controlled the sphincter, urination, and sexual function.

Upon hearing this, the yellow-haired man’s expression turned to shock.

“N-no way.”

“It means you just can’t run. After rehabilitation therapy and leg implant surgery, you might even be able to walk slowly.”

“So I’m not impotent?”

“Not yet, but if you continue to get excited, you might become one.”

The yellow-haired man’s screams stopped.

He wiped away the tears that had formed in his eyes and thanked the doctor in a gentlemanly baritone voice that was uncharacteristic of him.

“Thank you, Doctor God.”

The person in front of him was no longer an ordinary doctor.

This was a god.

The doctor nodded with pursed lips, as if it was only natural.

It was confidence befitting the money.

Before the doctor left the room, he asked the yellow-haired man in a slightly playful voice:

“By the way, it seemed like you were about to say something to me. What was it… ‘You psycho’?”

“I was going to make an acrostic poem with ‘psycho’.”

Everyone in the room burst into laughter.

*

On the seventh day of hospitalization.

Paul still hadn’t regained consciousness.

His heart rate and blood pressure were stable, but he just couldn’t regain consciousness.

Not only Tori, Paul’s lover, but also the other party members waited outside his room.

While everyone was praying for his return:

“Ugh… mmm…”

“Paul? Paul!”

A sound came from Paul, who had shown no reaction for a week.

Tori, among the group, was the first to get up and rush to him.

While his comrades embraced him and filled the room with tears, Amon headed to the billing department to process the discharge.

And when he checked the receipt, he froze on the spot.

‘Billions…’

It was a receipt that literally made him say “billions” in Korean won.

‘Oh my god…’

He had prepared himself for the cost of transporting and saving four people, but facing it directly was overwhelming.

Paying wasn’t a problem.

He had enough savings to cover it if he closed his eyes and swiped his card.

After all, he earned 150,000 dollars a month just by breathing, so it wouldn’t affect his daily life.

However, by paying this, Amon would be selling his future.

If by any chance Amon or Sonia needed hospital care, it would be an express route to bankruptcy.

Even without hospital care, not having savings inherently caused anxiety in humans.

That’s not all.

Amon would have to give up on growth for several months.

It meant he couldn’t upgrade equipment or buy mana stones.

‘Damn. Do I have to pour my entire fortune into people I just met?’

Even for Amon, who was full of goodwill and conviction, giving another swipe of his card was too much kindness.

‘This really isn’t right… it’s not…’

Amon pressed his fingers between his eyebrows, deep in thought.

The billing department employee looked at him with suspicion.

“Um… sir? Perhaps your ability to pay…”

“I have money. I’m just thinking about something, so please wait a moment.”

Amon, who had unintentionally responded to the employee with a sharp attitude, continued to ponder.

After much deliberation, he held out his card and squeezed out his voice.

“Installment… is possible, right?”

“Yes, guardian. Installment is possible. Would you like to pay the full amount in installments, or half?”

“…I’ll do half.”

“Yes. Thank you, guardian. I’ve confirmed it, and you can pay when the patients are discharged tomorrow.”

“Yes…”

He turned away from the billing department with a grimace.

Amon trudged back to the party, filled with frustration.

His mind was full of curses and self-loathing.

‘Oh, you sucker. Just give it all away. Your nose is bleeding, what are you playing adult for? Oh, you idiot!!’

On his way back to the hospital room,

He tried headbanging alone and trembling in the elevator.

When he was almost at the hospital room, he seriously considered going back.

‘Should I just tell them the patients will have to pay for themselves?’

But in the end, he didn’t.

He decided to at least maintain his composure since he’d already committed.

After kneading his cheeks for about 5 minutes, pretending nothing was wrong,

He entered Paul’s hospital room.

“Phew… Congratulations, Paul. I’ve spoken to the billing department, so you can just be discharged tomorrow.”

“Um…? What about the money?”

“I paid it.”

“Didn’t you also call D4C when we arrived?”

“Yes. I paid for that too.”

“But… that…”

The atmosphere in the hospital room became heavier after hearing Amon’s words.

The party members, having some sense of decency, couldn’t lift their heads.

Even the mood maker, the yellow-haired one, knowing the amount Amon had paid, couldn’t make a joke.

Hale, with his humor function removed, and the gallant heroine Tori,

Couldn’t meet Amon’s eyes out of guilt.

In that silence, Paul briefly furrowed his eyebrows before returning to his usual state.

And he said to Amon:

“Amon. I’m really sorry, but could you give us a moment to talk among ourselves?”

Amon was already feeling uncomfortable with the room’s atmosphere.

He gratefully accepted Paul’s suggestion and went back outside the room.

After pacing back and forth outside the hospital room for about 10 minutes, the door opened.

“We’re done talking. Come in.”

Amon re-entered the hospital room through the door held open by Tori.

The first thing he saw upon entering was a purple orb in Paul’s hand.

“??”

No way.

This atmosphere.

“Here, take it.”

Paul held out the mana stone.

Amon was too dumbfounded to accept it.

Seeing this, Tori pushed Amon’s back, and only then did he carefully accept the mana stone.

“This is…”

“A unique grade mana stone. It’s what the mid-boss we defeated dropped.”

“No… that…”

Amon was too surprised to continue speaking.

He had been in a state of shock when they reached the boss room, so he hadn’t imagined the party had obtained a mana stone.

Being a true gamer, his heart started racing as soon as the mana stone was in his hand.

‘No, no, calm down, idiot. You don’t even know what the mana stone does.’

To emphasize multiple times, what’s important about a mana stone isn’t its grade but its effect.

Even if it’s a legendary grade mana stone, if it has an effect like <Become Hard>, no one would use it even if given for free.

But even if it’s a normal grade mana stone, if it has an effect like <Your first attack electrocutes the enemy> that creates a significant variable, people would line up to buy it even at a premium.

What’s important isn’t firepower but the variable.

Therefore, the unique grade mana stone in his hand, before confirming its content-

“That’s <Sky Step>.”

“!!!!”

Amon’s eyes widened upon hearing the mage Paul’s appraisal result.

Sky Step?

Amon’s mouth wouldn’t close.

The effect of Sky Step was simple.

[Allows you to step on thin air.]

In simple terms, it was a double jump.

‘What the…’

Amon’s face was filled with astonishment.

While a double jump might seem like a mundane effect, its versatility was unmatched by any other mana stone.

It allows you to go to places you couldn’t go, dodge attacks you couldn’t dodge, and appear from places the enemy couldn’t imagine.

Of course, it has drawbacks: you can’t hover in the air like with flight, and once you jump, it doesn’t recharge until you step on the ground again, but even considering that, its versatility was excellent.

No, it was even better.

While flight mana stones can be detected, there’s no way to detect a double jump.

If you were to rank mana stones in a game, it would be tier 0.

It was just a basic right.

So much so that if you had to choose between a normal grade double jump and a legendary grade mana stone in a VS battle, you’d choose the double jump without hesitation.

And now, such a mana stone was of unique grade.

“Holy…”

A curse involuntarily escaped Amon’s lips.

It couldn’t be helped.

Sky Step was a mana stone that reduced cooldown and increased the number of steps you could take as its grade increased.

At normal grade, you can double jump every 10 seconds, and at above normal grade, you can double jump every 5 seconds.

From rare grade, the double jump recharges as soon as you step on the ground.

And at unique grade…

‘Triple jump…!’

Amon’s hands trembled.

If by any chance this mana stone were to be put up for auction, bidding would start at 5 times the cost Amon had just spent.

That’s how valuable this mana stone was.

‘Good deed coin is skyrocketing!!!’

He could understand why people couldn’t quit when their coins skyrocketed.

This dopamine rush was incomparable to any other entertainment.

“Lord…!!”

Amon couldn’t contain his overwhelming joy and let it out.

Hearing this, the members in the room burst into laughter.

“Even in this situation, you’re calling for the Goddess!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll make a donation at the church later.”

“Oh my goodness, I can’t handle this.”

Only then did Amon realize his indiscretion.

As soon as the mana stone was in his hand, he lost his reason and revealed his material desire too honestly.

“No… that…”

“It’s okay. It’s yours now. We’re all planning to retire from being explorers after this anyway.”

“…What?”

“We might look fine, but after this incident and replacing our bodies, our implant tolerance seems to have reached its limit. If we continue as explorers, we might trigger implant psychosis.”

“Ah…”

Implant psychosis.

Hearing this term, Amon couldn’t say anything.

People have a limit to the procedures they can receive based on their mental strength, and if they exceed that limit, they gradually lose their sanity and eventually go mad.

The crazy gorilla Amon had encountered before was an example of this.

According to Paul, as each member had additional parts replaced with machinery, they had precariously reached their tolerance limit.

If they were to be greedy here, they could immediately become like the crazy gorilla.

Of course, this tolerance limit had to rely solely on intuition, but this party seemed to have their own know-how.

“You can feel that?”

“Meditation, contemplation, and experience.”

It meant it was intuition, so it was hard to explain.

After hearing this, Amon’s gaze shifted between the mana stone and Paul.

He wanted to tell them to use it as retirement funds.

But he was dying of regret at the thought of returning the triple jump.

As if reading Amon’s thoughts from his expression, Paul pushed his back.

“We’re planning to retire and supply mercenary equipment anyway. If you feel bad, just use it and promote our products.”

Amon finally decided to rely on Paul’s consideration.

“Thank you.”

He immediately used the mana stone.

As he destroyed the mana stone, purple light particles were absorbed into Amon’s feet.

‘???’

It should have been absorbed into his equipment, but it was absorbed directly into Amon’s body.

‘What the?’

Nevertheless, the triple jump user manual played clearly in his mind.

The party members didn’t notice Amon’s confusion and congratulated him, thinking the mana stone had been absorbed into his socks.

“Become a legend!”

Amon immediately returned to reality at the yellow-haired man’s cheer.

Well, it’s probably better for it to be absorbed directly into the body rather than into equipment.

Thinking that it’s all good, Amon stopped thinking about it.

Then suddenly, one fact came to mind.

“Oh right. I’ll be right back.”

“Why?”

“I’m going to get pizza.”

“Uh… okay…”

The party members sent off Amon, who suddenly left the hospital room.

After leaving the room and before going to buy pizza,

Amon revisited the billing department.

“I love you, guardian. How can I help you?”

“About the installment I mentioned earlier. Can I change the payment method?”

“Yes. Since the payment hasn’t been processed yet, you can change it as much as you want.”

“Then please make it a lump sum payment.”

Unlike before, he willingly held out his card.

What’s a mere cost when you’ve obtained a tier 0 mana stone?

The employee tilted her head, seeing Amon suddenly smiling and saying he’d pay in a lump sum.

‘Did he win the lottery or something?’

It wasn’t entirely wrong.

Thinking so, she completed the payment with the card Amon handed over.

Even with a billion-level amount being deducted, Amon was still smiling.

After receiving his card back, before turning around, Amon asked the employee:

“Oh, by the way, is it okay to eat pizza in the hospital room?”

“It’s allowed in the patient’s room.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Amon immediately headed to the pizza place.

About an hour later.

Amon returned to the hospital room with a tower of pizzas.

“Party time!”

The unexpected pizza party continued until they were discharged the next day.