With my list of priorities set, I had clear goals set before me that I had to finish. Normally I enjoy this systematic approach, it made things so much easier when you just had one task to focus all your attention on, but the consequences of failure, or worse yet, not finishing on time, were a little steeper than what I was used to. But there was no sense in worrying, that just wasted more time I didn’t have.
After making sure that my rulebook and the Regressor’s notes were safely stashed away in my inventory, I turned around and returned to the reception area again to find that map. I couldn’t make much progress when I didn’t know where anything was located after all, and judging from the hints left by Jae-Hyun, I’m going to assume that this place is enormous.
Now, I thought I was prepared to face anything this haunted horror hospital had to offer, but apparently, I was woefully wrong. I also almost had a heart attack when I reentered the entrance and saw my own reflection in the rain-soaked windows. Holy shit, was this what a normal Physician here looked like? That nurse who took Jae-Hyun away looked bad enough, but a Physician was downright disgusting.
First of all, although the shape of my body remained more or less Walter-like, just a lot bigger I could not say the same about the rest of me. My face was hideously wounded and deformed, it looked like someone was in the process of skinning me alive and just left me to die halfway through. The wounds looked fresh and were leaking an awful mixture of puss and blood. I didn’t even have lips, so my decayed and yellowing teeth were exposed. Some sort of rusty metal apparatus was stretching my features to inhuman degrees, and my eyes were permanently open, with some metal wire pulling my eyelids apart.
Worse yet, my entire body looked like it was pox-ridden with disease! Pieces of my skin were actively falling off in maggoty clumps and parts of my body looked like they had been replaced with random bionics and even the grafted pieces of unidentifiable creatures. Coupled with the creepy doctor get-up, I was straight up an abomination!
Yet strangely, what I was seeing couldn’t have been what I actually looked like; I didn’t feel any different, and the fact that I could still blink meant that whatever was happening was either an illusion or something more complex at work. Even weirder, now that I was properly studying myself, I did feel stronger, and more in charge than I normally would be. I instinctively felt for my face and was glad to feel normal Walter skin instead of whatever horrible thing I saw earlier.
Um, Noe, you have any insight on what’s going on here?
“Affirmative, my Host,” she answered, “I do not have the full picture as I only have partial access to the Trash Matrix’s databases, but from what I do know, you have been fully integrated as a Physician in this Trial. Your form has changed to reflect this, but Unit Noe has insulated your mind from the changes so as to minimize further mental corruption.”
Wait, only my mind? So I do look like that right now?
“It is not permanent, and any changes experienced in this hospital will cease after Trial completion,” Noe assured, “Please be at ease, dear Walter. Unit Noe will be with you even if your form changes once more.”
That’s… I mean, ok, if it’s not permanent then… let’s just not think about it. Thanks Noe.
“You are most welcome as always, my Host.”
Well, guess I’m a freak of nature that came right out of a horror movie for the remainder of this Trial… Let’s hope Jae-Hyun and Marcus can recognize me when I see them again. Somehow I don’t think they’ll have trouble if it’s those two in particular, although Yoona would probably have a stroke if she were here. I’m glad the kids were somewhere else at least, I doubt any other Trial would be as bad as this one.
“Are you looking for something, Dr. Walter?” the nurse asked when she saw me stop for a while. Right, I had almost forgotten why I was here in the first place.
I put on my best smile once again, “Hey Sarah, you know I just had to come back to see you again.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. How come she was the only normal-looking person here? Was Father Marcus also changed when he went out of view? Just thinking about the priest normally made me shudder in disgust, but if he somehow got creepier? Great, more goodies to look forward to.
I continued my performance with a mock sigh, “But I’m also here to get a map of the hospital, I got stuck with a new intern, if you can believe that.”
“You should have said that at the start, Will,” Sarah replied, shaking her head, “I don’t know what the Director sees in you.”
“Oh come now! It’s because of my charming smile of course,” I had to suppress a wince when I remembered what my face looked like right now. Could you even make a smile without lips and with only a fraction of your actual face remaining?
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Sarah pulled a piece of paper from her drawers and gave it to me, “Just go before the interns make a mess of things again. I don’t know where we got so many of them at once, but we’ve already had a handful of them sent down for Punishment… again, and the workday hardly started. There’s only so much biomass that could be processed at once; it’s going to be a busy week.”
Wait, already? Were these intern roles played by other Aspirants? I couldn’t think of another case where they would mess up that badly in under 10 minutes. The Regressor said that the default role was a patient, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that other special roles didn’t exist here. The intern role seemed harder than the patient one just based on what Sarah said, and I could see this role being other people who couldn't make it back to Pandora in time for the Trial’s start.
“I know!” I answered with a frown, “And I heard we got a whole lot of new patients as well recently. There’s no way that we can work with those numbers, and we’ve got how many doctors again?”
Sarah sighed, “It’s why we have all those useless interns, we’re still only at 220 Doctors and the 5 Physicians. Good luck, William, you’ll be working hard for once.”
“Don’t remind me, love,” I muttered, “I’ll get back to the grind, gotta fill my daily quota otherwise the Director’ll chew me a new one!”
“She’ll do more than that if you slack off this week! She’s been livid ever since we got the new staff two days ago.”
Two days ago? Well, that’s a nice bit of information to use, I guess Jae-Hyun, Marcus, and I are only late by a few days, not too bad I guess. I said my goodbyes and started to head out again when a new idea formed. I might as well take advantage of the current situation and my buddy-buddy relationship with the nurse. I think I can get a little more information out of the woman before I leave.
“Oh right,” I said, turning my attention to the nurse one last time, “I think the Director will be in a foul mood with all the chaos going on, any recommendations on how to ease her stress with my reports tonight? It’ll be better for all of us if she’s feeling better.”
Sarah stopped and thought for a moment; was she assessing if the question I asked was congruent with my persona? The nurse seems to have these weird pauses every now and then, and I’m almost certain that it has to do with all these roles and disguises everyone here’s forced to use. I took a mental note to be more cautious of what I say or do in the future, whatever system was judging my performance was thorough.
The nurse snapped out of her trance and nodded slowly before replying, “Well… I think it’ll help if you inform her of how well all the new people are integrating into the hospital, and assure her that everything is still operating optimally.”
Good, I was getting some pieces of information about these reports I had to make. I can’t push how much I ask for fear of breaking character and going for a round of “punishment” myself, but I think I can get a tiny bit more info out of the nurse before I go.
“Good idea,” I said, “Anything else? I feel like a lot of rules will be broken soon, and when that happens…”
I deliberately left off the last part of my speech. Let’s see how the nurse fills in the information.
Sarah didn’t pause this time but just shuddered, “We all know how the Director gets when people blatantly ignore her rules… Um, Will, can you do us all a favor and maybe let her know if there are any especially incompetent patients or staff here? Just let the Disciplinary staff know that you’re sending them to her directly, they’ll understand if it’s you asking. I find she gets a lot more manageable when she punishes rulebreakers personally, especially if it’s a gift from her favorite Physician.”
“I’ll do you one better and find as many as I can,” I answered, “Hopefully that’ll make her a little calmer.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” the nurse said with genuine appreciation, “I guess you can be more than just a pretty face at times.”
The nurse thought my current face was… pretty? Then what the hell would the unattractive or downright ugly people look like? You know what, I didn’t want to know. God, I hope I don’t spend too much time here, even with Noe insulating how much crap I see and experience.
I walked back to my quiet corner near the reception and took a peek at the map. This hospital was, well, for lack of a better word, huge. No wonder they were short-staffed if only 200-odd doctors worked here. It took me a while to find where I was since this place spanned multiple buildings as well as an exterior courtyard. Various wings and smaller structures were labeled with their respective uses, and it doesn’t seem like it would be too difficult to make my way around, although walking around will take some time.
For now, I made a mental note of the key locations: the cafeteria, the surgical wing, the new patients wing, and the Administration building which I can only assume is where the Director is situated. The hallway where I was now led directly to the main medical center, so let’s head there first and survey my situation. It was close to the cafeteria, which I needed to go to in a few hours anyway, so it was my safest option while I was still unsure of the current situation.
Noe, can you remind me when it’s 11:30 so I don’t miss lunch?
“Acknowledged, I shall do so.”
Thanks.
I gathered my wits about me and made my final preparations for what was to come. If the Regressor was right, then I was Dr. William Walter right now, the Director’s favorite Physician, so I had to act the part. The second I stepped into that medical wing, I couldn’t afford to let this disguise slip, especially without Noe’s help to get out of any sticky situations.
I closed my eyes and mentally went over the character I needed to play, over and over again, immersing myself deeper and deeper into the character that I needed to be. No, he wasn’t a character, he was me. I opened my eyes again and the Illustrious Dr. Willam Walter walked down the hallway with gusto without a care in the world. After all, he was the most important person in the building aside from the Director; why would he have any worries at all? It was time for the good doctor to do his part for the good of this hospital.