Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4326 - 3422: Divine Doctor with Wonderful Hands (29)

The outcome of the operation far exceeded Shiller's expectations. On one hand, Wood was in much worse shape than he had thought. The guy just looked terrifying; in reality, he wasn't that strong. Being able to subdue the patients was merely due to the patients themselves being very weak. For those with almost no ability to move, they were of course easy targets.

Furthermore, he had taken the torch along considering that Woodmen were afraid of fire, but he had not expected the fireplace flames to actually summon a Flame Monster. It really seemed like God wasn't on Wood's side anymore.

When the commotion outside settled down, Shiller looked through the passage toward the outside. The corridor wasn't entirely straight, so he could mostly not see the situation outside; he could only listen to the sounds. He heard burning fiercely outside, but it quieted down quickly.

After the room outside regained peace, faint cries came through. Shiller listened carefully; it did not sound like a child's voice but more like the overlapping voices of a group of people.

He had some guesses.

The backstory of this Game World wasn't cliché—rather, it should be considered classic. Their previous speculation about the Psychic_Battlefield wasn't entirely wrong, only this place might not be an entirely psychic realm, but a world influenced by the hate of a certain entity.

In any case, a long time ago, possibly during the Middle Ages of this world, a little girl was persecuted to death by some people—not because she was a Witch, but perhaps for some other reason.

She might have experienced torture before dying, like having her teeth and fingernails pulled out, her tongue cut off, and in the end she was burned to death.

After her death, her grudge was too powerful and turned the entire town into a Cursed Land. Every so often, different types of plagues would break out here, all terrible diseases arriving at once, killing all the townsfolk.

However, it seems the little girl had her own criteria for selection, picking out some innocents and putting them in the hospital, allowing them to avoid the disaster. Therefore, the hospital was built to be isolated from the inside out, to prevent the survivors from being impacted by those plague sufferers.

The disaster might erupt every so often, possibly every few decades, or even every hundred years. But in any case, the town would be cleaned out each time and then prosper again, repeating the previous tragedy.

After all, this is a Magical World, and if the little girl could become an Onryo, then others naturally could too. Shiller guessed that the big mouth and Flame Monster that appeared in the fireplace were the spirits of patients who had died in the hospital over the years.

They fed on the Souls of the dead patients, hoping to have more spirits join them to gain more Strength. At the same time, they might also be worried about the little girl gaining more power.

The many strange rules in the room all symbolized the torture the little girl suffered before death, such as the possible loss of a lot of blood, her missing tongue, and her being scorched by flames.

These must be the contents of Doctor Strange's dreams. But as for the little boy who encountered Dr. Foster that Shiller saw, he still couldn't figure out what was going on.

Shiller guessed that this Dr. Foster might be a survivor of a disaster that erupted at some point, similar to what they are currently experiencing. Only, he made some different choices.

When the crying outside also subsided, Shiller crawled out through the duct again. Now the room outside had completely changed its appearance, with only the pitch-black walls remaining. Everything was burnt to ashes, including Wood, the bodies of the patients, and all the furniture.

"This isn't bad either," Shiller murmured, "much more pleasant to look at."

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he walked over to where the counter used to be. The counter was made of wood, completely burned down, and the glass must have been melted. But what should have melted with it, should be some metal as well.

Shiller rummaged through the ash residue and quickly found what he was looking for—the Coins that Wood hadn't managed to transfer in time.

The coins seemed to be protected by Magic, and besides being blackened by smoke, hadn't been distorted much. After clearing all the ashes, Shiller counted the coins he had collected—there were a surprising number of more than one hundred Gold Coins and more than two hundred silver coins.

"I'm rich, I'm rich!" Shiller took out a money bag and stuffed all the coins into it, but they simply wouldn't fit. So he stuffed the remaining money into the duct of his surgery. He looked up and saw a large raven flying through the window.

From that pitch-black bird face, one could see endless bewilderment, as if it was saying, "Who am I, where am I, what was I here for again?"

However, Shiller was somewhat alert as he put away his money bag, squinting at the raven. The raven also looked back at him, and the two stared at each other for a long while. Eventually, the raven couldn't help but say, "What happened here? Where's Wood?"

"An unexpected fire catastrophe, impossible to overcome despite all efforts," Shiller said solemnly, "Poor Wood died on duty, and not even a Crystal was left behind."

"A fire?! " the raven said in disbelief, "How could there be a fire here?!"

"Seems like some careless operation room allowed a patient's clothing to catch fire, Wood didn't notice when sending them out. The flames spread to the floor, and everything was burnt down."

Shiller had just made up an excuse, and he didn't expect the raven to believe him. But unexpectedly, the raven fell into contemplation.

"Are they getting stronger indeed?" the raven muttered quietly.

Shiller didn't pick up on his words and just said to himself: "Old Wood has been burnt to nothingness, and this place is in a mess, what do you plan to do?"

"Don't worry, the hospital has the ability to Self-repair. However, Wood indeed won't be able to return to his post for a short time, so I have to..."

He had just reached this point when he saw Shiller's sinister gaze. The raven's eyes fell on his hand. There were still some wood shavings sticking to the pliers in Shiller's hand.

The raven seemed to understand something, its wings fluttering as it stepped back a few paces and said, "It's pointless to do this, new puppets will soon be delivered from Westchester..."

"And soon there will be another unbeatable fire," Shiller said, looking at the raven.

The two stared at each other for a while, the raven said somewhat helplessly, "Why do you insist on doing this?"

"Then what do you think I should do? Quake in fear and hide in the shelter you've provided, feel eternally grateful to you, and then repay your kindness with my labor? Do I look like that kind of person to you?"

New n𝙤vel chapters are published on freeweɓnøvel.com.

"Of course you're not," a voice came from behind. Shiller turned around and saw a familiar figure—it was another himself.

"Arrogant?!" Although there were many other selves, Shiller recognized Arrogant immediately. His demeanor and tone were all too familiar.

The raven was obviously even more baffled. Looking at the two nearly identical individuals, it said, "Are you two twins?"

"That's not important," Arrogant said as he straightened the Cross on his robe, looking at Shiller, "Split your gains with me, half and half."

"Impossible." Shiller flatly refused, clutching his money pouch tightly before saying, "This is the money I've earned through hard work."

"Or shall I have the Prime Universe Batman have a talk with you?"

"Hiss..." Shiller took a cold breath and said, "Did you really team up with him?!"

Shiller begrudgingly took out a Gold Coin from his money pouch and handed it to Arrogant, saying, "That's all there is, no more."

Arrogant took the Gold Coin and placed it in the pocket of his robe, then extended his hand and said, "Give me a few silver coins as well."

"Don't be too greedy! You haven't lifted a finger, and now you show up wanting a share of the money, no way!"

"We need silver to make things," Arrogant explained.

"Then I'll exchange this Gold Coin for silver coins for you." Without waiting for Arrogant to agree, Shiller took out the Gold Coin from Arrogant's pocket, placed it back in his own pouch, and counted out 35 silver coins.

"Exchange rate differences plus transaction fees." As he spoke, Shiller deducted 5 silver coins, handing the remaining 30 to Arrogant.

Arrogant wasn't surprised at all. He pocketed the money, then turned to the raven and said, "We meet again, Mr. Raven."

"I haven't seen you before, have I?" The raven took two more steps back, then seemed to recall something, looked at Arrogant with some horror and said, "Are you that doctor who poisoned me?!"

Arrogant smiled and nodded, saying, "It wasn't poison, just a Dream Potion used to enter dreams. After all, to rescue the spirit of an innocent girl trapped in dreams, we need this kind of potion. Since you're willing to save her, contributing to the trial was the right thing to do."

All words seemed to get stuck in the raven's throat. Shiller, however, recalled how the raven man with a bird's head was unconscious when delivered to them, could it be that he was knocked out by the Dream Potion crafted by Arrogant and his group?

It seemed quite possible. After all, the Woodman and the bird man were obviously problematic. If he could figure out a way to deal with the Woodman, then the combination of Arrogant and Primary Universe Batman dealing with a bird man wasn't out of the ordinary.

In some ways, the two groups were in sync, with no intention of sitting ducks. The main idea was to create trouble for whoever they could catch.

The raven man was unlucky, being arrested by Batman when he went to the hospital to push the plot forward, knocked out by the Dream Potion, and still unconscious when sent away. Mr. Wood might have thought he wasn't cured yet and sent him over again. It was no injustice.

So if Natasha was also in Arrogant's hospital ward, her situation might be the same as Wanda's—they were newcomers.

Since it was known that Natasha's partner was Arkham Batman, it was only a matter of time before they arrived here. Thinking of this, Shiller's gaze at the raven turned somewhat sympathetic.

Frankly, even all the villains in this Game World combined might not be as ruthless as Arkham Batman. Someone was in for a serious misfortune.

"Ahem." Shiller cleared his throat and said, "I deeply regret the fire that happened. But as a doctor, it's my duty not to let my patients wait for too long."

"Even if Mr. Wood's puppets will be arriving soon, the delay in between might result in the loss of several precious lives. I can't just stand by and watch."

"I propose that, in the absence of Mr. Wood, I take on the role of Guide for a period of time. I guarantee to serve the patients to my fullest capacity, working with my colleagues to create new glories for our hospital!"