63: Chapter 63: Underground Doctor (Please Favorite, Follow, and Vote) 63: Chapter 63: Underground Doctor (Please Favorite, Follow, and Vote) He Ao gripped the steel rebar in his hand, which he had just torn from a loose section of the iron stairs.
His gaze fixed on the huge chanical humanoid rushing towards him, and he took a slight breath.
Super mory, activate!
In an instant, a torrent of energy flooded into his body, and his already weakened heart started beating forcefully once again.
The imnse blood pressure pulsed through his veins, also causing wounds that had started to heal to gush fresh blood again.
He Ao leaped forward, and the wounds that had begun to adhere were once again torn apart by lacerations.
It hurt a bit, but it was bearable.
Muscles like coiling dragons bulged on his arms as he swiftly moved to the left to confront the ch Cultist, which was just in the right direction to et the electric saw slashing from the enemy’s right arm.
Then, just as he was about to get close, his body shifted abruptly to the right.
The ch Cultist’s right arm tried to keep up with his pace but encountered a brief delay.
And in that brief delay, its chest, completely unguarded, opened up towards He Ao.
The hard steel rebar penetrated the iron shell like piercing tofu, then went through the gaps in the alloy skeleton and pierced the ch Cultist’s pulsing high-energy compression battery, before exiting out of the steel shell at the back.
Everything was completed in the fleeting mont.
He Ao left the steel rebar inside the body of the ch Cultist and leapt out tens of ters before slowly coming to a stop.
BOOM——
A roaring explosion sounded on the silent street.
Surging flas, fragnted chanical limbs, and intense noise erupted behind He Ao.
That was the violent explosion caused by the high-energy battery being penetrated.
He shut off his Super mory and took out a half-empty box of cigarettes from his blood-stained pocket, flicked out a whole cigarette, then shakily took a lighter from the box and lit the cigarette.
This wasn’t his habit, it was Regit’s.
Thick smoke infiltrated his injured lungs, and in that mont, He Ao coughed violently, yet he didn’t throw away the cigarette but continued to stagger forward with it clenched in his mouth.
Crimson blood trickled from the torn wounds, flickering in the light of the explosion.
Regit did not like these chanical creations, but he was very aware of their characteristics.
And He Ao, he rely utilized those characteristics.
For instance, the violent explosion caused by the high-energy battery being breached in a short period.
A shattered tal skull followed by the explosion landed in front of He Ao, bounced a few tis, and finally ca to rest.
Its red eyes stared at He Ao’s staggering figure, flickered once, and then slowly faded away.
Counterattack when attacked.
Only counterattacked once.
Legitimate self-defense.
He Ao staggered into a dark alley, making his way towards the deepest part of it.
He eventually stopped in front of an old, sowhat rusty rolling shutter door.
He pressed the doorbell and leaned against the wall, quietly waiting.
A mont later, the rolling shutter gradually rose, revealing a middle-aged man with glasses and short brown hair, dressed in a white coat.
Seeing He Ao, he imdiately said excitedly,
“Old Geezer, have you finally decided to donate your body for my research?
Oh dear, why are you so banged up?
And why are you still smoking?
What if you ruin those good lungs of yours?
Co on, we can still treat them for preservation.
I’ve just got a vat of high-quality formalin on hand.”
“Screw off,” He Ao exhaled a puff of smoke, “I’m not dead, just heal , dammit.”
As he spoke, he got to his feet and staggered forward, but slipped and fell directly on the middle-aged man in the white coat.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, don’t be in such a hurry.
You have to wait until I get the materials ready.
You see, body preservation is a process…
First, you need to lay flat, face up.
The way you’re face down like this, blood will flow down into your face, it’ll beco deford, and we won’t be able to preserve your handso features.”
He Ao did not respond.
Taking advantage of his last bit of clarity, he snatched the wristband from the middle-aged man’s hand and managed to send a leave request ssage to the library’s leadership.
Then, he lost consciousness.
——
He Ao felt as if he had experienced a vague dream, in which he had gone through a complete life cycle, from birth to old age, with the naivety of youth, the vigor of middle age, and the stubbornness of old age.
When he slowly opened his eyes, all he saw was the large cheek of a middle-aged man with glasses.
“You’re awake?”
Seeing He Ao awaken, the middle-aged man looked regretful and shook his head as he turned and walked away from the room, “That’s really bad news.”
He Ao struggled to sit up from the bed.
His body had been thoroughly bandaged, and the wounds on his chest and limbs were crudely stitched up.
Regit’s body, despite its age, had smooth and beautiful muscular lines, with a heartbeat as strong as a drum, the result of long-term martial arts practice.
The dical insurance provided by Dawn City Library for its employees was the cheapest tier with only a 20% reimbursent rate.
Aside from so atrocious companies, nobody would willingly choose such low coverage.
Of course, this was also related to Regit’s age.
Being sixty-one made any health insurance overly expensive for him.
That’s why, under the circumstances just now, He Ao was unable to afford the cost of an ambulance or hospital dical expenses.
He had no choice but to seek out an ‘underground doctor’ he knew.
The so-called underground doctors are private practitioners who start treating people without obtaining a license.
Many aren’t even proper dical school graduates, and their skills vary widely.
But the upside to underground doctors compared to formal private hospitals is that because they rely on word of mouth, they only focus on treating illnesses and won’t invent so bizarre condition to sell you a treatnt plan that costs thousands or tens of thousands of federal coins but is actually worthless.
Of course, misdiagnoses due to incompetence are not included here, though they happen quite frequently.
Underground doctors also charge far less than hospitals, making them very popular among the lower classes.
Especially in a place like Aston District, where lawlessness prevails and the streets are filled with the poor and holess, underground doctors abound.
However, most underground doctors can only treat minor ailnts like headaches or fevers and are helpless when it cos to serious illnesses.
An underground doctor capable of treating major diseases is extrely rare because they could easily get higher salaries at large hospitals.
Only a handful, due to special circumstances, continue to work as underground doctors.
And Roger, the brown-haired middle-aged man that Regit knew, was just such an individual.
Roger only treated people he knew, and there were many ways to get to know him.
For example, he might stop you in the street and say, “I’m very interested in your body.”
That was how Regit t Roger.
He Ao struggled out of bed and walked towards the door, feeling distinctly that his right leg was not responding well.
When he had been injured earlier, his whole body hadn’t been under his control, so he didn’t pay much attention.
Now that his condition had sowhat stabilized, he could feel there was a problem.
Regit already had a limp in one leg.
He Ao walked with a limp toward the outside, only to see Roger playing with an adorable pet—a green, twenty-centiter-long lizard.
Roger threw a piece of alloy to the pet, which caught it in one bite.
Just as He Ao thought the little lizard would play with the chunk of tal, it bared its sharp teeth and chewed the hard alloy into powder.
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