Chapter 88: Hanyang University Hospital Medical Faction
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 88: Hanyang University Hospital Medical Faction
A faction led by a woman, with a vast majority of female members.
A handful of men were carrying the luggage.
A typical female-dominated faction.
This group had likely carried over from the pre-apocalypse world.
Of course, in the post-apocalypse world, gender didn't matter; whoever received good skills and trained their stats diligently became the strongest. However, given their professions, they had likely stood in positions of power even before the world ended.
I could see a few women who seemed to be in charge of physical security.
Judging by their decent combat levels and stats, they probably handled the zombie slaying while the rest played technical roles.
They probably hadn't had much trouble surviving.
After all, a zombie apocalypse was the one world where doctors were in the highest demand.
Getting bitten or scratched by a zombie wasn't the only way to get hurt.
Fighting zombies led to all kinds of injuries.
They didn't just try to bite; they also punched, shoved, and tackled.
It was just that biting was their top priority during the process.
So, when tackled by a reckless zombie, people would fall, get scraped, or suffer deep gashes.
If bacteria got into those wounds, they would get infected and fall ill.
If things went south, they might even have to amputate the infected area.
There were so many potential causes for pain that ordinary people couldn't even begin to diagnose themselves. That was when they sought out doctors and pharmacists.
Of course, it would cost them.
Whether the payment was food or a safe haven, the doctor-pharmacist union was always in a position to receive protection. That was why they still looked relatively clean and well-off.
You could call them a lucky Oh Se-i, so to speak.
Though they probably lived a slightly more intense life than she did.
Not that I cared.
"What on earth... That is blatant sexual harassment."
The doctor scowled, her voice sharp.
Hmm... Is it?
Well, a lot of people were watching.
With twenty or thirty of her own faction members looking on, telling their leader that I'd take them in if she slept with me was probably a bit damaging to her dignity.
"So what? Does being a doctor make you special? Fucking bitch. With hips that wide, slapping your ass from behind would feel great. You look like you'd bear children well, too."
"..."
She had probably never met anyone who would say something like that to her face in her entire life.
Neither before nor after the zombie apocalypse.
Honestly, it wasn't easy to say such trashy things right to someone's face.
I used to spout this kind of garbage in games, but in reality, my philosophy was to never do anything that would jeopardize my survival in the apocalypse. So, far from sexually harassing anyone, I had avoided getting involved with women altogether.
Anyway, the reason I was deliberately choosing the most offensive words possible was to give them a reality check.
"Even if I combine all twenty of you, you aren't worth a single one of our quack doctors. Why should I agree to a merger? Even if I take you in, you'll just be useless freeloaders eating up my food."
"What do you mean by that? We know you have a doctor with a healing skill here. But healing without medical knowledge is entirely different from treatment that requires medical expertise. I'm not dismissing your healer, but ultimately, the most important thing is understanding how a patient was injured and providing an accurate prescription."
"Oh?"
You could tell she was highly educated. Despite facing such insults to her face, she didn't react emotionally and calmly responded with logic.
She had a point.
This multi-server set against the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse.
In other words, this real-life apocalypse was missing one crucial thing.
Plausibility.
Since reality had become like a game, many things that made absolutely no sense in the real world just happened naturally.
Take my Construction System, for instance.
The stat system was the same.
For stats to increase and make someone stronger, there should be corresponding physical changes, but there were none.
Of course, since others had to physically train to raise their stats, this only applied to me.
Houses and trams materialized out of thin air, and objects with bunker-level durability popped up out of nowhere.
The healing skills were no different.
By simply using mana, they completely bypassed the questions of why or how someone was hurting and just cured the wound.
While there were limitations depending on the level, in principle, it was a pretty serious issue, just as the doctor said.
Right now, healing worked like a charm, but in a true life-or-death crisis, there was no telling when this illogical power might suddenly "break."
What would they do then?
But I didn't entertain such worst-case scenarios.
Because I knew better than anyone else.
"That won't happen."
The system breaking down?
Zombie Apocalypse was a shitty, dead-end, outdated piece of garbage game, but at the very least, it had never bugged out.
My complaints were solely about the lack of in-game content; the system had never glitched or disrupted gameplay.
So, there was no way a "skill" would malfunction.
Unless it was human error.
"Want to make a bet?"
"What kind of bet?"
"A showdown between your twenty people and our single doctor."
I gestured to Kim Ji-hee, who was watching from behind.
Kim Ji-hee, who was playing doctor in her white lab coat today as well, scratched her head and stepped up beside me.
I put my arm around her shoulder and made my proposal.
"If you win, I'll accept the merger on your terms. What is it you want?"
"I heard there's a membership tier called 'Resident.' Treat all of us as Residents."
"Okay."
Accepting twenty people as Residents.
This was practically a full merger.
For someone like me, who strictly recruited talent based on skill potential and level, taking in twenty useless warm bodies as Residents was a blatant waste.
"I'll propose two conditions."
I raised a finger.
"First. Before we even start this bet, you enter Paradise—not as a merger, but as members. As I said, I'll accept all twenty of you, including yourself, with a Level 3 Membership. I'll drop the condition of you sleeping with me. I'm sure you'll end up spreading your legs for me on your own eventually anyway."
A Level 3 Membership currently cost 200 Coins per week.
The benefits included renting a unit in the rental housing for 20 Coins a week, where electricity, water, heating, and cafeteria access were completely free, and hospital services and food purchases were discounted by 50%.
These were the same benefits given to the ten people who had arrived with Oh Yoon-seop initially, though they were currently receiving Level 1 Membership for free, and only Oh Se-i had been bumped back up to Level 3.
It was also the membership level that allowed renting hunting equipment (limited to Level 1 and 2 gear).
Originally, family members of "Residents" could take food freely, but...
...after a certain Cat Mom incident, free food distribution had been abolished.
Instead, cafeteria access had become free.
So, the Level 3 Membership wasn't designed to make money at the moment; it was more of a tier for the families of Residents or talents who were in an awkward spot to be accepted as full Residents.
Exactly for people like them.
It was a fairly generous offer.
It showed just how much I valued professionals.
Although they were essentially a complete downgrade to Kim Ji-hee, there were times when even a downgrade was necessary in reality.
As mentioned before, while patients with severe injuries were willing to pay 150 Coins per session for Kim Ji-hee's healing, those with minor scrapes or slightly deeper wounds hesitated to spend that much.
We needed to capture those patients as well to make the membership more active and indispensable.
That was why we needed doctors, nurses, and pharmacists.
But they might not like it.
It was human nature to want to be treated well, and I had decided to give them a chance through a bet anyway.
"If you refuse, we'll go through with the bet, and if I win, the condition I just dropped will become the main prize. You sleep with me once a week, whenever and however I want, without refusal. I'll still give you a Level 3 Membership, but the other twenty will have to commute with Level 1 Memberships. I won't threaten you with what I'll do if you run away or break your promise. If you're curious, feel free to try."
"..."
The female doctor hesitated.
My unhesitating sexual harassment and crude remarks would make her realize I wasn't bluffing.
"Fine."
Even so, she seemed to believe in herself.
Given her confidence, she must have encountered and had experience with at least a few people with healing skills after the apocalypse.
They had probably been underwhelming.
Obtaining a high-level healing skill was harder than one might think, and the drop rate for healing skills in general was low to begin with.
Or perhaps they couldn't heal properly due to low mana.
Whatever the case, she had built her confidence on those subpar examples.
She was going to regret it.
"How will the bet work?"
I gestured to the two women standing on either side of the doctor.
Both were sturdily built nurses standing there like bodyguards, which made them perfect candidates.
They were of similar build and height.
"What do we need to do?"
I plunged my dagger into the guts of the scowling bodyguards.
"...!"
"Gah...!"
One strike each, in the exact right spot.
Stabbing and twisting to rupture their internal organs.
There was barely any difference in who was stabbed first.
By the time they realized what was happening, I was already gutting the second woman.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
I answered the screaming doctor.
"Save them. Let's see who can save theirs first."