Chapter 5: The Hospital of Shadows
The world was a fractured mosaic of fluorescent white glare, the rhythmic, high-pitched squeak of rubber wheels on polished linoleum, and the muffled, frantic shouting of voices that sounded like they were drifting through a mile of deep water.
Kaelen felt himself being hoisted onto a gurney. The "False Mask" was holding steady, but the internal sensation was jarring—a violent dissonance between his mind and his shell. His consciousness was hyper-aware, processing the environment with the terrifying precision of a Level 5 Player, while his physical body was being forced to mimic the involuntary tremors, the cold sweat, and the shallow, rattling breaths of a man whose lungs were filled with fluid.
"Vitals are bottoming out! Heart rate is erratic—85, 40, now 110! He's going into systemic shock!" A female voice screamed. That would be a combat medic, her hands trembling as she pressed a mana-conductive oxygen mask over Kaelen's face. "How in the hell did he survive the Bone Labyrinth with an Aether-Index of 12? His ribs are literally dust!"
"Don't analyze, just pump the stabilizer!" a man barked, his voice thick with the stress of the situation.
Kaelen felt a cold, sharp needle sink into the crook of his arm. The "Stabilizer" was a high-grade mana-serum, a cocktail of synthetic Aether designed to jumpstart a stalled Soul Core and prevent "Aether-Drain" death. To a normal F-Ranker, it would have felt like a jolt of lightning to the brain. To Kaelen, it felt like a lukewarm cup of water. His System-enhanced physiology absorbed the chemicals instantly, filtering the toxins and neutralizing the magic before it could interfere with his actual, hidden stats.
**[Alert: Foreign substance detected.]**
**[Neutralizing 'Low-Grade Mana Serum'...]**
**[Conversion complete. +0.01 MP recovered.]**
*Cheap stuff,* Kaelen thought behind his tightly closed eyelids. *The Association really doesn't waste the premium medicine on the Irons. Even when they're dying.*
The gurney slammed through a set of heavy double doors, and the ambient noise shifted. Gone was the howling wind of the dungeon entrance; it was replaced by the sterile, pressurized hum of the **Aegis General Hospital—Sector 4**. This was the wing reserved for the "disposable" heroes—the scouts, the porters, and the low-rankers who were injured in the line of duty. It wasn't a place designed for long-term healing; it was a warehouse for the broken.
As they wheeled him down the corridor, Kaelen expanded his **Sense** stat. He couldn't open his eyes without breaking the illusion, but he could "see" the world in pulses of heat, sound, and malicious intent.
He felt a heavy, oppressive, golden presence following the gurney at a distance of twenty paces.
Vance.
The Captain wasn't following out of a sense of camaraderie or guilt. He was following because he was paralyzed by fear. Every second Kaelen drew breath was a second that Vance's career—and his life—hung by a thread. In the legal code of the Aegis Organization, "Sacrificing" a teammate was only excusable if there were no survivors left to provide a conflicting report. Kaelen wasn't just a survivor; he was a walking, breathing piece of evidence of a high-level war crime.
"Keep him in a private room. Security clearance Level 3," Vance's voice echoed down the hall. It was forced, tight with a manufactured authority that crackled with nervous energy. "I want a full report on everything he says when he wakes. He's... he's profoundly traumatized. Delirious. The Abyssal energy has likely corrupted his memory. He might say things... slanderous things... that don't make sense."
*Translation: He's going to tell the truth, so keep the cameras off and the witnesses few,* Kaelen thought, his mental lip curling in a ghost of a snarl.
The medics transferred him into a small, windowless isolation room. The air here was thick with the cloying scent of high-concentrate antiseptic and the ozone tang of the life-support machines. Once the sensors were taped to his chest and the medical team filtered out to consult with the head surgeon, the room fell into a heavy, artificial silence.
But Kaelen knew the room wasn't empty.
He waited. He slowed his simulated heart rate until the monitor beside his bed gave a slow, mournful *beep... beep...* He made himself look as small and pathetic as possible beneath the thin hospital sheets.
The door hissed open.
The heavy, metallic scent of Gold-Rank Aether flooded the room, so thick it felt like the air had turned to lead. Vance stepped inside. He didn't come to the bedside immediately. He stood by the door, his gloved hand resting on the hilt of his ceremonial sword, his eyes darting toward the security camera mounted in the corner. He reached out a finger, and a spark of golden light—a precision mana-bolt—hit the camera's lens, shorting it out with a quiet, sizzling *pop*.
"I know you can hear me, kid," Vance whispered. The cocky, booming voice of the "Hero of the Southern Gate" was gone, replaced by the jagged, panicked rasp of a man who felt the noose tightening. "I don't know how you crawled out of that hole. I don't know how a piece of trash like you stayed alive when Boros and Elara were torn to shreds."
Vance stepped closer, his shadow stretching across the bed like a shroud.
"But you need to understand the reality of the world you've come back to. The world doesn't want a story about a coward Captain. They want a story about a tragedy. If you wake up... if you start telling the board that I pushed you... nobody is going to believe an F-Ranker over a Gold-Ranker. I've already filed the report. You were the hero who held the line while we secured the perimeter. If you contradict that... I'll make sure your 'recovery' involves a very sudden, very unfortunate heart failure."
Kaelen felt the killing intent radiating from Vance. It was thick and greasy, but compared to the Abyssal Lord, it was nothing. Vance was a bully who had been gifted power; he lacked the true, bone-deep malice of a monster.
**[New Quest: "The Silent Witness"]**
**[Objective: Endure Vance's intimidation without breaking the 'False Mask'.]**
**[Bonus Objective: Sow the seeds of permanent paranoia.]**
**[Reward: +2 Intelligence, +1000 Credits.]**
Kaelen decided it was time to play his part. Not as the new, Level 5 Kaelen, but as the ghost of the boy Vance thought he had killed.
He let his eyes flutter open, the dull, bloodshot "Mask" making his gaze look vacant and half-dead. He didn't look at Vance. He stared straight past him, focusing on the empty, dark corner of the ceiling.
"Captain?" Kaelen's voice was a dry, hollow rattle, like dry leaves skittering over a tombstone.
Vance flinched, his hand tightening on his sword. "I'm here, Kaelen. You're... you're safe. You're in the hospital."
"The Demon..." Kaelen whispered, his hand twitching convulsively on the white sheets. "It... it didn't eat me, Captain. Do you know why? Do you know why it let me go?"
Vance leaned in, his face inches from Kaelen's, his breath smelling of expensive coffee and fear. "Why?"
"Because it was waiting," Kaelen turned his head with agonizing slowness, locking eyes with Vance. He let a single, microscopic spark of the **Blood-Lust Aura** leak out—just a fraction of a percent, but enough to trigger Vance's primal "flight" response. "It told me to tell you... that it's still hungry. It said it's coming for the Gold ones next. It said... it liked the taste of your fear the most."
Vance recoiled as if he'd been struck by a physical blow. His face went an ashen shade of grey, his breath hitching in a jagged sob of terror. For a fleeting second, he didn't see a weak boy; he saw the dark, gaping maw of the Abyssal Lord reflected in Kaelen's dull, dead eyes.
"You're crazy," Vance hissed, backing toward the door, his boots scuffing the floor. "You've lost your mind. The trauma... the mana-poisoning... it's broken your brain."
"Maybe," Kaelen said, his eyes slowly closing again. "But I'm the one who came back from the dark. What happened to the rest of the team, Captain? Why are you the only one without a single scratch on your armor?"
Vance didn't answer. He couldn't. He turned and bolted out of the room, the door hissing shut with a hydraulic thud. Kaelen heard the man's heavy, panicked footsteps sprinting down the hall, away from the "ghost" in Room 402.
**[Quest Complete: "The Silent Witness"]**
**[Reward: +2 Intelligence, +1000 Credits.]**
The moment the presence of the Gold-Ranker faded, Kaelen sat up in the bed. The heart monitor began to beep frantically as his heart rate stabilized into a perfect, calm, athletic rhythm. He reached out with his good hand and effortlessly tore the sensors and IV leads off his skin.
He felt the +2 Intelligence points click into place. It was like a fog lifting. His mind felt sharper, the ambient "noise" of the hospital—the distant conversations of nurses, the hum of the building's power grid, the vibration of the plumbing—becoming organized, actionable data.
He looked at his hands. They were steady. They were strong.
"Step one complete," Kaelen muttered, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "Vance is scared. A scared man makes mistakes. He'll try to hire a 'cleaner' to finish the job tonight, or he'll try to move me to a black-site. I can't be here when that happens."
Kaelen stood up, his bare feet touching the cold linoleum. He didn't feel weak. He felt like a predator in a cage that was far too small for his appetite. He walked to the window and pulled back the heavy curtain. Outside, the glowing spires of the S-Rank Sovereign District dominated the skyline—a world of light, luxury, and safety built on the bones of people like him.
**[Alert: New Message from 'The System'.]**
**[Message: 'The Root Directory' is calling. To grow further, you must consume a 'Soul-Anchor' from a Tier-2 Gate.]**
**[Current Credits: 1000. Access to 'System Shop' unlocked.]**
"I'm not going back to being an F-Rank scout," Kaelen said to the empty, shadowed room. "Tomorrow, the world will see a victim on the news. But tonight... tonight I start the real grind."
He looked at his clothes—the shredded, blood-stained rags of his scout uniform sitting on a chair. He needed to disappear. He needed to find a way out of the most secure hospital in the sector without being seen.
Luckily, he knew exactly which shadow to step into.