Anyone catching a glimpse of Doctor Jacob in this moment would be perplexed. Instead of the typical patient-seeing uniform, he was now attired for the Arctic Circle expedition. Standing before a gray metal door adorned with a card reader and a display, the screen indicated
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LOCKED
-30°C
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After inhaling deeply, he fortified his resolve, and Theresa stood by his side, casting a nervous glance. Fortunately, this room found itself tucked away in a secluded corner of the hospital, shielded from prying eyes. Otherwise, onlookers might have questioned the peculiar behavior of a doctor at odds with the usual hospital routine.
Doctor Jacob swiped a metal card, and with a smooth motion, the half-foot thick metal door unlocked, allowing a wave of cold mist to sweep through.
"Let's go," he urged, leading the way.
Upon entering, the doctor observed his patient, who lay gazing at the ceiling as though witnessing something unseen. Doctor Jacob too glanced in the same direction, but all he perceived was the gray metal ceiling dusted with a bit of frost. Redirecting his attention to the patient, covered to his chest with a special sheet, Jacob proceeded with a sense of purpose.
Slowly turning to face the doctor, the patient's dead eyes met his gaze. Theresa positioned herself behind Jacob, who couldn't shake a growing sense of apprehension. It felt as if the patient could see right through him, as though anticipating every word he was about to utter. Despite encountering the patient daily with open eyes, Jacob couldn't help but experience a subtle fear, a sentiment uncharacteristic for a professional doctor who should maintain detachment from a patient's appearance or demeanor. Yet, there was something about this particular patient that unsettled him.
"Hello, I am Doctor Jacob. I'm the doctor in charge of you. If you can understand me, please nod."
Nod.
"I know right now you are in a lot of pain and confused and scared. First of all, as a doctor, I have to assure you that you have nothing to be scared of. You are in the best hospital in the World Federation that can help your situation, and I will discuss how we're going to alleviate your pain temporarily and permanently. After that, I'll address your confusion. I need you to cooperate with me. Do you understand?"
Nod.
"Okay, first of all, I need to identify who you are because without that, we can't even address you. When you got into this accident, all your identifications were destroyed, and facial recognition didn't work either. So, we took a DNA sample and identified you as, in fact, a World Federation citizen. But we need your password to access your public account for more information. Is that okay with you?"
Nod.
"I will hold the tablet in front of you, and you just have to focus your eyes on the key of each character you want to type. These cameras will track your eyes, and it will understand and type itself. Do you understand?" The doctor asked, showing a small camera on the tablet.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Nod.
The doctor observed as the patient wrote 1 2 3 4 5 6 as the password using his eyes.
Doctor couldn't help but curse inwardly; this password had made his job much harder ever since he started looking after the patient. It was understandable, though. This public account doubled as an identification, and many people tended to use simple passwords for it.
"So, you are Maxwell Orion, 17 years old, a student at University Saint Hendrick. There are no guardian contacts listed, which means you have no relatives?"
Nod.
"There is a number for an orphanage here. Should I inform them?"
The first head shake came from him.
"Acting independently, even with only two days left. Impressive. All right, I will explain your situation."
(Ain’t no way a modern doctor would do this, but the story needs it.)
"You were exposed to Meritoxic Manofsulfide, also known as 'Amateratsu.' This chemical is used in beast corpse processing, commonly employed to remove tough skin, leaving only muscles exposed. The first type of this chemical wasn't as potent, but there were beasts with insane levels of regeneration even after death. The modified version, now known as Amateratsu, was developed. It burns until no skin is left, and as soon as new skin forms and the body is exposed to three factors of fire, it restarts the burning process, using your skin as fuel. This makes it particularly dangerous."
"Human skin is very thin and sensitive, and due to burned neurons, it has been recorded that exposure to this chemical is excruciatingly painful for humans. After some people used this for gruesome murders, the government strictly regulates this chemical.”
“What happened to you was an unfortunate accident. A truck carrying this substance got into an accident and leaked, and somehow you were lying on the ground. Your entire body was exposed to it. We don't know why; our theory is that you were unconscious on the ground due to something. Initially, we thought you might have had some kind of disease that made you pass out, but there were no such reports in your profile. There were no nearby CCTV cameras either."
"There are only a few survivors ever recorded in these kinds of accidents, so you were a lucky one. Even your heart stopped for a few seconds, so it looks like you are hard to kill."
The doctor added a touch of humor to ease the atmosphere and waited for a few moments to allow the patient to absorb the information.
"So, about your treatment. You came to consensus in just two days, which is unprecedented and good news. You don't have to worry. This low-temperature room is the best place for you, in fact, one of only three rooms like this in the whole federation. The more time you spend in this room, the better. You have two options.
First, your skin will slowly recover as time is spent in this room, but you won't be able to go outside permanently. If you do, you will be in immense pain. This is the temporary solution.
The permanent one is a bit complicated. Research shows that a good healer hunter has a significant impact on patients like yourself, but it will take some time. We have already contacted a high-grade healer, and he will be here in 1 month. In the meantime, the supplement we are giving you will make your muscles less likely to bleed. When he arrives, we will test how much you've improved and go from there. Alright, Mr. Maxwell, so just relax here."
"Every 6 hours, Theresa will come and change what needs to be changed. She will hold the tablet like I did, and you can ask anything via that, okay?" He gestured towards the girl behind him.
"I will hold it like before. Now, if you need anything, type it."
S E N D C O O K E D F O O D.
"You sure? It's going to hurt you. I don't recommend it. In fact, many things I said I would have never said to a normal human. But you are a hunter. I have to ask you again. Are you sure?"
Nod.
"Okay, I'll send cooked food from the next meal. Well then, until we meet again. Goodbye, Mr. Maxwell."