I was laying on a couch, on a balcony, overlooking the plaza of the Forbidden City. I wanted to be outside, rather than cooped up in some closet as I kept working on pushing against the curse damage that was crippling me.

“What’s the verdict?” I asked Jacob and he let out a heavy sigh while shaking his head. I was able to manage my breathing a bit better, but it was still incredibly difficult.

“Weeks, at best. By day 5,200 you will have made the best progress possible. Anything after that will be too small to have much of an impact. If you keep working on your stats until then, you should be fine to use the store,” Jacob answered.

“Anything wrong physically?” I asked.

“That would be for Doctor Katz to look at, but unless you are feeling pain you should be fine.” The good doctor had said something similar. My head was killing me, but not as bad as before. I had managed to isolate the stat damage to the area around my chest, where part of the sphere had impacted. “As for your arm, well…” Jacob trailed off.

“That bad?” I asked.

“Whatever energy signature used to be there was completely vaporized. The good news, is that even if you didn’t have to wait to fix your stats, waiting won’t make your arm injury any worse. Doctor Katz is working on it?” Jacob asked.

“Trying, but it is slow. Building one little portion at a time. No way to shortcut it?” I asked.

“If your stats weren’t damaged, then there are some things that could be attempted. But better to go the slow and steady way. Can’t risk compounding the damage,” Jacob said.

“Fine, whatever,” I muttered in annoyance. Having only my left arm was incredibly frustrating. I was back to being Stumpy McGee, the one-armed wonder. I rubbed my chest, it hurt, and the massive divot in the center was still there. Like someone had just scooped a portion of my chest out like an ice cream scoop, with my chest being the ice cream.

Jacob left, and I sipped on my mixed fruit drink as I looked out over the plaza. I spotted people looking up at me and some waved. I didn’t wave back. It would be too exhausting. I noted there was a greater concentration of Asian people. With the loss of the core cities, the demographics were changing to favor the Chinese cities.

That was a long-term issue, there were more urgent things to worry about. I looked off to the side and the airship port. Several airships detached and departed for Purgatory. The city was still under shields and there was lingering sphere energy. Jacob would be getting close and investigating the former block terrain to see if it had vanished or things had changed.

My job was to sit here and focus on getting better. It was incredibly frustrating not being at the forefront of what was happening, but the best thing I could do was recover. My primary function was my combat abilities. If I couldn’t fight, then I was worthless. Jacob had told me not to risk my skills for right now. He had less test data on skills in relation to bodily damage, but he didn’t want me to risk things.

Being stuck here, in pain, was aggravating. “Michael, how are you feeling?” Doctor Katz walked up. He checked on me multiple times a day.

“Just a headache,” I replied.

“How is the breathing?” he asked while leaning in to rest his ear against my chest.

“A struggle, but better,” I replied. He kept his ear pressed against me for almost a minute as I kept breathing and focusing on my Body stat. He then looked at my ears, eyes, and checked my pulse.

“What’s the verdict doc?” I asked.

“Your physical condition has stabilized. And you aren’t burst blood vessels in your brain anymore. You are pushing your stats as hard as you can?” he asked.

“Yes. All focused around the problem area of my chest,” I said, which had been Jacob’s advice.

“I don’t feel comfortable letting you sleep unsupervised, but the remainder of your physical condition is stable at least. I can begin work on rebuilding your arm and chest,” Doctor Katz said.

“Really?” I asked in surprise.

“I had a long talk with Jacob before he left. We will start with the arm first. It will take a while with your resistance to my skills and the damage done. There isn’t even a scaffolding left for me to work off of. Imbue Life.” I felt my right stump hurt a lot and winced.

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“It hurts,” I said.

“That is a good sign. That the nerves are coming back. Imbue Life.”

“How long until you are done?” I asked.

“About thirty days at best, for your arm. Probably forty. Then another ten to work on that chest divot. Around the same time your stats will be fixed as much as they can be,” Doctor Katz explained and got up. I looked at my stump.

“That’s it?” I asked.

“I have to go slowly, so there are no complications. I have to rebuild your arm from scratch. That isn’t easy. Getting the muscles, nerves, bones, vascular system, all working properly. There is nothing to work off of either. I am basically poking your flesh and forcing it to grow with no support from the System, in guiding your arm’s construction.”

“Don’t bunch spheres in the future. Got it,” I said with a sigh.

“At least it can be fixed. But the curse damage is absolute. That is also why I am going slow, to allow the curse damage to be corrected. I rush things, there could be weird complications,” Doctor Katz said.

“Thank you. I am just frustrated,” I replied.

“I understand. But you will be back on your feet in no time,” Doctor Katz said.

“And the Avatar?” I asked.

“Rambling about doom. A rotating post has been set up to monitor her, but she seems mostly unaware of her surroundings. It is possible that she has had a complete break from reality. Her ability to sense the world around her is clearly lacking.” The good doctor was a bleeding heart, which was what I liked about him. But it also didn’t let him see the reality of the situation.

“The Avatar cannot be trusted. But she did help at the end. We will keep her alive. Can you get her focused and answering questions again?” I asked.

“It is impossible to say. She has suffered greatly. She has moments of lucidity, but the physiological damage is immense. Your treatment is actually what I was pioneering to treat her,” Doctor Katz said.

“Really?” I asked.

“It has been part of my research into fixing long term curse damage. Something that will be important for people grinding in high level zones if there is an accident. If there is health care, then they will be more willing to grind those zones. Their health care fees could subsidize the food growing project,” he said.

If the good doctor ever managed to weaponize kindness, then I would stand no chance. “You want permission to treat her after me,” I said and he nodded.

“Giving her back her limbs, tongue, and eyes, would be a huge step in helping fix her mental state,” Doctor Katz said.

“Pressuring me when I am injured?” I asked with a slightly harsh tone, but I wasn’t that upset.

“Only pointing out the origin of your treatment,” Doctor Katz responded while staring right at me. He was onto me, and knew I was bleeding heart under all my rationality. The Avatar had saved the day in the last battle. Even if it was the System acting through her, she had earned a reward.

“Fine, after you fix me up. You can fix her up as well. But I want you to make it clear to her, that one scheme, and she is right back to being a human nugget doing paperwork,” I replied.

“I will convey that to her during her course of treatment,” Doctor Katz said and looked to the side. Clarissa was there. “It appears that my time with you is up. I will be back this evening.” He then left and Clarissa came over. A servant put a chair next to me and she sat down. She waved away the guards and servants as we both sat there in silence.

“How bad is it?” she asked.

“Full recovery in about 50 days. I should be asking you that,” I replied.

“The sphere’s energy is receding based on the last update I got. Jacob is being dispatched with Captain Francis and Michelle to go investigate. Hopefully Purgatory is still intact and comes out of the shield. Also, we can reclaim the cities,” Clarissa said.

“This will impact demographics,” I muttered.

“If Purgatory is fine, only slightly. If we lose Purgatory, then the Chinese cities will have a heavy influence. It also matters if we get more arrivals,” Clarissa said.

“The language rule still stays up. English will remain the language of this government, now and forever. If people can speak it, then they can apply. Hire based on trustworthiness and competence,” I said.

“That was the plan. But there are just a lot of pressures and things are in flux. Thank you for being out here. Just seeing you are alive, is the biggest stabilizing factor,” Clarissa said.

“The least I can do. So now all we have to do is wait and hope that Jacob figures out what we even need to do next,” I muttered.

“The exodus to the West has also begun to slow down,” Clarissa said.

“And the other nations?” I asked.

“Not a concern. They might know something is wrong, but there is no way they would risk capitalizing on our momentary weakness,” Clarissa replied.

“Don’t underestimate people’s stupidity. But I am sure you have it all under control like usual,” I said.

“Thanks. I appreciate the vote of confidence. The big hope is that Purgatory is okay. If it is, then that will save countless hours of work and headache,” Clarissa said.

“Or it could remain half sunk. What do you think about that?” I asked.

“Then we have a unique city. Will have to shore up the walls and clear off the top, but we can deal with. An actual public works project if the System doesn’t automatically fix it all,” she said.

“I heard those are good for stimulating the economy,” I joked.

“Perhaps. We just need the zones and monsters to get points flowing again. I plan to declare the end of martial law once Jacob reports back,” Clarissa said.

“That is still going on?” I asked.

“Yes. I passed on word that it would most likely end in a couple of days when we returned, but there was still lingering damage. Rather than constantly change stuff about, I plan to issue a more concrete decision once I have an understanding of what can be recovered,” Clarissa said.

“That is fine. I trust you. And we all lived,” I said with a smile.

“Yes we did,” Clarissa reached out and grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze before getting up and leaving.