The morning came soon after, and although my bed was small, it was surprisingly comfortable as well. I got one of the best nights of rest in a very long time and had almost overslept if not for Noe waking me up on time. I finished my morning ablutions quickly and headed out to meet up with the Regressor, as per his instructions.
Once again I was dismayed by just how little work I actually had to do during the day. Aside from reporting whoever breaks the rules, I just had to oversee three operations, and that took hardly any time at all. Since I had to see Jae-Hyun soon, I might as well just get all the other supervision duties out of the way after.
With the day’s plan worked out, I walked to the patient’s quarters and strolled in. I noticed that the dogs weren’t there today, so I guess they only came out at night when they were tasked with guarding the hospital. How that’s possible was still beyond me. The others in the room, both staff and patient, all avoided me as best they could as I walked up to the reception.
“Morning,” I greeted the nurse stationed there, “I’m here to see a new patient, he goes by Jae-Hyun.”
“Good morning, Dr. Walter,” the nurse greeted back, “You’re here for the special patient then. He’s in isolation recovering from his most recent procedure, just down the hall in room 126.”
I stifled a grimace, I couldn’t imagine any procedure here that would be easy to endure, especially if he needed to recover from it afterward. I was hoping that Jae-Hyun would have been left alone for the most part, but that was a pipe dream given our situation. Let’s see how he’s holding up.
“Thank you,” I answered, “I’ll work with him today; let the others know if they ask.”
“Will do, Dr. Walter,” the nurse replied, “Take care, the patients and staff are all nervous after yesterday’s escape attempt.”
I nodded and quickly made my way to the room. The nurse was right, everyone in the patient’s ward had a nervous air about them. The patients seemed to be eating breakfast at the moment, and although they were grouped together in what I would assume would be their parties, no one was talking.
Jae-Hyun did state that breakfast and dinner were safe times, and I didn’t see any rules about proper breakfast conduct here, so I can only imagine that the Aspirants were simply choosing to stay quiet. I could only hear indiscreet whispers permeating the room, but even those whispers quieted down when the patients saw me.
The Disciplinary staff stationed around were standing at attention, their eyes darting back and forth constantly looking for any suspicious activities. I’m guessing that the Director was able to inform her staff about the patient’s “irrational” need to escape their care from Henry… Did I accidentally make clearing this stage for the normal Aspirants exponentially harder by accident?
Oh well, too late to change that. For now, I had a Regressor to see.
The man himself was in a sorry state when I saw him lying on the bed. I’m not sure how much censorship Noe was doing, but I almost cried out when I first saw what the doctors did with his body. Horrible scar tissue was covering every part of his exposed flesh, and the bandages that were hastily bound to him were soaked in various fluids. Worse yet. he removed the blankets covering him and I could see the other augments that the doctors here gave him.
There were weird metal instruments crudely sewn into his limbs and other extremities and they caused a horrible screeching sound every time the Regressor moved. Yet despite the intense pain, the man simply nodded at me in greeting when he saw me come in. I guess he couldn’t talk with me before a procedure started, as per the rules. He did, however, silently hand me another handwritten note. I turned my back to the only nurse stationed in the room and quickly read what Jae-Hyun wrote. It was short and concise this time.
Take me to the second operating theater, room 122.
Instructions for how to stabilize my condition on the back, follow them. We can talk then.
Don’t worry about my body or yours, it’ll return to normal once we’re out of here, and will not affect my performance.
I flipped the note on the back and saw that Jae-Hyun had indeed given me instructions for what to do. His note was neatly written and easy to follow, and he even detailed how long I should spend during each step of the guide. It must have taken him quite some time to write down all of this, yet he somehow managed despite his current condition. The guy never slacks off it seems.
“Alright patient,” I said, mainly for the other staff member to hear, “Follow me, we have a procedure to complete.”
“Will you need assistance for Patient 004’s treatment, Dr. Walter?” the nurse asked.
“No need,” I answered, “I’m just going to stabilize his condition, it’s a one-person job, especially given how busy our hospital’s been lately. No point wasting precious staff resources.”
“I understand, sir!”
Stolen story; please report.
Jae-Hyun followed me to the designated room and he sat himself down on the table. I glanced back at the paper instructions he gave me and started whatever procedure he was outlining for me. Thankfully the Regressor didn’t require me to do anything complex, and all I had to do was plug him into preexisting equipment in the room. What those did, I had no idea.
“Ok, patient,” I said as I double-checked to make sure that no one was overhearing us, “The cure is officially underway. You may speak now… although you might want to mind what you say, we could still be monitored by the Director.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Jae-Hyun said, emphasizing the title, “And you don’t have to worry about people overhearing us, even the Director will not overstep her bounds and break patient-doctor confidentiality.”
I nodded. The fact that he called me a doctor should imply that we still had to stick by the general rules of the hospital even if we weren’t actively watched.
“Of course, Patient 004,” I answered as I fiddled with another machine, “Confidentiality is very important in this profession.”
“But even if we were overheard,” Jae-Hyun continued, “They would only hear the delusions of a very sick person. I want to be cured of these delusions, doctor.”
“That’s a good attitude to have! You must know the nature of your sickness in order to seek the much-needed help to get better.”
“Yes,” he agreed, “But I have difficulties differentiating reality from fantasy, can you help me with that, Doctor? Can I speak about these delusions of mine?”
I see… if Jae-Hyun frames everything he says as the mental hallucinations of the infirm, then he can practically speak his mind without the worry of breaking character. After all, he is a patient, and it would be my job to hear him out, no matter how sick in the head he may be. Quite a nice way to circumvent the rules of this Trial.
“Please do,” I continued as I helped disinfect one of the more nasty wounds on his arm, “I will do my best to help heal your mind while I stabilize your body.”
“Thank you, doctor,” he answered, “I’ve been dreaming about an imaginary friend of mine, one W, sent to infiltrate the hospital. I gave him a few tasks to perform but I fear that it was too much for him to complete. I also fear that his body and mind will not endure the stress of the infiltration.”
“You worry too much,” I replied, “It’s not good for the mind. I’m sure that this hypothetical W person is more than adequate for the job at hand, and I am equally sure that his mind and body are fine with the changes. I can only imagine that someone like that would have prepared for an event like the one you imagined, and will have abilities to counteract most of the harm.”
I helped him with another bandage, but this time I slipped the key I got off of Henry into his pocket. The Regressor noticed immediately and gave me a barely perceptible nod of thanks.
“I see,” Jae-Hyun said, and I could hear the relief in his voice, “That’s good to know. Thank you, doctor, and I apologize for making you help me.”
“It’s not a big deal,” I answered earnestly, “And I would worry about your own condition first.”
Jae-Hyun nodded, “It’s fine, really. Just like my imaginary friend W, I also have abilities that counteract the worst of the changes.”
That’s a relief to hear, I was worried that the Regressor wouldn’t endure this kind of treatment for much longer, although I probably shouldn’t have worried at all in the first place. If there was one thing I was dead sure about, it was Jae-Hyun’s ability to survive through sheer willpower alone. He didn’t survive until the very end for nothing.
“And,” the Regressor continued, “I have had this recurring dream about clearing a very difficult situation. The method to do so lies in the basement.”
“I see, and what do you have to do in that dream-basement?”
“There is an entity in that basement in the shape of a small child,” he said, “to escape, we must either destroy this entity, which will be next to impossible at the moment, or to destabilize it by destroying a doll it is always carrying.”
Wait, the way to clear this stage was to either kill Alice or destroy her best friend? No way that could be right… I wasn’t ethical in any sense of the word, but there’s no world where I’d actively harm a kid, weird psychic powers or no.
Making sure my tone was as calm as possible, I asked, “What, specifically, was the exact words for the clear condition?”
The Regressor frowned, he was unsure why I was asking him this, but he answered after thinking for a while, “It should be to eliminate the source of the hospital’s grudge.”
Ok, that’s a little more vague than what he told me. The fact that the Regressor gave me two options for clearing this stage should mean that I had some wiggle room for how to interpret the clear conditions. I could easily imagine the Trash Matrix using its Aspirants as a way to weaken the people opposing Central, which would explain this shitty clear condition, but there’s no way that I’ll go along with its plans.”
“And destroying this entity or its doll will resolve this?”
Jae-Hyun nodded, “That should be the case, the grudge is tied to the entity, so if we get rid of it, or force it back into confinement via the doll’s destruction, then the grudge will be gone, at least for now. Just be careful if we hypothetically destroy the doll, it’ll cause the entity to lose control, and we’ll have to survive its anger while we wait for staff to confine it.”
“Just a second,” I interrupted, “killing or confining the entity’s not really dealing with the source of the problem, right? We’re not getting rid of the grudge so much as we’re getting rid of the person who has the grudge, that’s like getting rid of poverty by killing all the poor people, doesn’t that seem kind of counter productive?”
“I see your point, doctor,” Jae-Hyun conceded, “But that’s the easiest way to clear the stage. I don’t know what the source of the problem is, but I do know that getting rid of the entity is the easiest method of getting out of the dream.”
I’m fairly certain that the thing causing Alice the most anguish would be her loneliness, so there was a good chance that my own goal of abusing my Luck Charges to create a buddy for her would be in line with the Regressor’s needs as well. I couldn’t be sure until I find out some more information, but this was the most logical reasoning.
“Let’s say that I have free access to this basement that you speak of,” I said slowly, “Can you give me 2, no, 3 days to work on your dream problem on my side? I think I can clear your scenario in that time, one way or another. We’ll go with your strategy if that doesn’t work, but can you trust me and endure the treatments until then?”
He looked at me hard in the eyes, “Are you sure?”
“Very,” I answered.
“Fine, I trust you, Dr. Walter,” he said finally, “Do what you must in that time. I will send you a thank-you letter later, make sure you read it in case you find yourself in the basement and decide that my plan is the best course of action.”
“Thank you,” I said, “I won’t let you down.”