Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: We'll Fix Anything
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Flash!
The moment I opened my eyes, what came into view was a pure white ceiling.
Yeah...
That white ceiling was everything.
I was lying on a bed so soft it was absurd.
Not on a small boat.
Not on a calm lake.
No creepy girl in a red robe emanating chilling energy from her body.
Just... a white room.
'What the hell is this time!'
Am I not even allowed to die peacefully?
No, more than that.
Was all of that just a dream?
Throb-!
!
A throbbing pain shot through my leg.
The pain in my lower leg, which I hadn't felt until just now, started gnawing at my nerves again.
My gaze immediately went to my legs.
And there... my two legs...
Were there.
Precisely...
They were there.
Not attached, but just placed on the bed alongside me, like some accessory.
My two legs were with me.
I stared blankly at my legs like that. Like they were someone else's, fixating on that one spot in a daze.
No scream came out.
I just felt a strange sense of pride that I was alive and intact even after having my legs severed.
On the other hand...
It felt utterly unreal, like my legs were detachable toy parts snapped off.
Even when Snow White's knights tried to neatly sever my arms and legs, I barely held on.
'I'm no Frankenstein...'
No, really, more than that.
How the hell am I still alive?
'Someone, anyone, explain it to me.'
Creak-.
!
And as if responding to my words for real.
The door to the white room where Park Yeon-jeong lay opened, and someone strode confidently inside.
Wearing worn nurse scrubs frayed to transparency, revealing pale skin underneath, amid countless medical tools.
A figure in a white mask appeared.
A nurse.
But no one would call it ordinary. The nurse looked in urgent need of treatment herself.
"......"
I instinctively held my tongue.
No, I had no choice.
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That woman who looked like a nurse on the surface.
All too naturally...
Was a 'ghost story.'
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/Ghost Story Log
[We'll Fix Anything.]
:Identification Code Cd-F-119
If you need help, visit our '██ Hospital.'
Our medical staff is always on standby to treat all patient ailments.
(However, we do not accept patients with crushed bodies, so please note when seeking treatment.)
All treatments provided free of charge.
We are '██ Hospital,' always prioritizing sick patients.
Eradicating healthy people.
Physical restraint possible.
No mental damage.
*Additional Notes.
This ghost story is under special management procedures by the Agency, so exercise extreme caution during exploration.
Always enter with a minor injury. (The medical staff say they have no obligation to treat patients who aren't in pain.)
View more...
==========
Before I lost consciousness.
With the noise echoing in my ears, I opened my eyes again to find myself trapped in this white room.
No need to look further.
That meant.
The circumstances pointed to only one culprit.
Noise.
No one else but that guy.
The only one who would dump me here was my sleazy boss, Noise.
'How could you do this to me!'
After I slaved away like a dog for you!
Grip-!
!
While I was venting my rage at Noise.
Grip-!!
Before I knew it, countless restraint straps had firmly secured my arms and upper body.
It was an admirably swift motion.
The ghost story nurse, having bound my upper body completely, stared into my eyes and spoke in a distorted voice.
【Raise... your le...ft arm. Pa...tient.】
...Pardon?
Are you messing with me right now?
You tied up my left arm... and tell me to raise it!
But the ghost story nurse proceeded with the surgery without hesitation.
Thud-
She climbed onto the bed where I lay and pinned me down with her full weight in one motion.
Then, looking at the stump where my legs had been severed and the detached legs.
With needle and thread in both hands.
A thick needle came into view.
!
"Wait, hold on!!"
I shouted.
Yelling desperately at the ghost story nurse straddling me.
But the response was.
【...Pa...tient who re...sists... will not be trea...ted.】
With those twisted syllables, she shoved another restraint strap into my mouth like a gag without mercy.
"No, just give me a moment... mgh!!"
【Raise... your le...ft arm. Pa...tient.】
With that meaningless announcement, the ghost story nurse resumed the surgery.
'Damn it!!'
Park Yeon-jeong knew.
What happens to those who enter this ghost story when they leave.
To cut to the chase.
All beings who could be called patients passing through here.
Left completely cured of all ailments.
Returned with healthy bodies.
From physical trauma to genetic diseases, organ ruptures, even cancer. This was an all-purpose ghost story hospital that perfectly treated everything.
As noted in the log, it might be the most needed ghost story in the current world.
An undeniable fact.
Even I, when I first encountered this ghost story, found it flawless and boring.
Until I read the additional note at the very bottom of the log.
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/We'll Fix Anything.
Note: All treatments here are performed without anesthesia. (Numerous patients confirmed dead from shock during treatment.)
==========
Stab!
"Mgh!!"
The needle just pierced my thigh area.
Stab!
The ghost story nurse's hands showed no hesitation whatsoever.
And so...
Because of that utter lack of hesitation.
I had to endure the unrelenting pain of stitches through my flesh without respite.
To survive.
Stab!
"Mgh! Mghmgh!!!"
The memory of stuffing the Love Mask's mouth at Wonderriot Circus flashed through my mind.
Life flashing before my eyes?
Karma... something like that?
'But that was self-defense!'
Stab!
"Ugh!!!"
Amid the countless white rooms in this ghost story ward, from one room alone came the ceaseless short sobs of a man.
Endlessly leaking through the door crack.
Stab!
*****
Stab!
"......"
With the final stitch sewing my flesh.
The ghost story nurse gracefully stepped down from the bed where I lay.
And began untying the straps binding my body one by one.
"......"
Once all straps were removed, the ghost story nurse, pleased with my cooperation.
Gave me a warm smile around her eyes.
【You en...dured well.】
With the ghost story nurse's smile.
She gathered her medical supplies and leisurely left the room.
Click-
The door closed.
"......"
The man lying on the bed stared blankly at the ceiling.
For now...
I'm alive.
Honestly, I could have been declared dead.
The reason I endured the agony of flesh being sewn without losing consciousness to the end.
Was thanks to these damn glasses again.
No sarcasm.
Really...
These glasses let me withstand all that vivid pain without going mad until the very end.
Of course, the pain fully transmitted through my body.
Was mine to bear...
But the result is I'm alive, so that's that.
For now, that's enough.
Slowly.
My gaze fell to the site of the recent fierce struggle.
My gaze settled on Park Yeon-jeong's own two legs.
Bloodstains scattered in disarray—a tragic scene that could pass for a vivisection site to an outsider.
No... that's exactly what it was.
This place was a vivisection site.
Warm tears blurred my vision.
My gaze shifted precisely to my two legs, ignoring the messy scene.
Having watched the treatment process of reattaching my legs solely with stitches.
At first, Park Yeon-jeong doubted.
Including all nerves and such. A primal doubt: 'Did the bones connect too?'
'Did they really connect?'
Gently, very carefully, I applied a little force through my toes.
...Twitch.
!
It just moved.
Nerves and bones had connected to these legs rejoined only by stitches.
There was still a slight foreign sensation, but not bothersome.
'It works for sure.'
Excluding the no-anesthesia policy, it was truly perfect.
Of course, that anesthesia part was the biggest drawback...
Honestly, a full recovery like this was pretty mild.
I slowly raised myself from the bed, and the moment my newly reattached legs touched the floor.
Tap-!
A familiar lighting hum brushed my ears.
'...I'm back.'
Stepping on the now all-too-familiar floor tiles, my lowered gaze naturally went to the speaker on the wall.
Static-
The familiar noise I'd heard in ages brushed my ears again.
[Employee Park Yeon-jeong, long time no see! Looks like... you got your treatment well. Good job :)]
At Noise's ever-cheerful voice, Park Yeon-jeong naturally.
"......"
Pressed his lips shut.
I wasn't mad at Noise.
Just a little sulky.
...Same thing?
Fine, you're right if you argue.
With no reply from me, Noise shifted topics to continue.
[...I know. It must've been shocking. But given the situation, all I can say is it was 'unavoidable.']
"......"
Pardon?
What do you mean, Noise?
Suddenly unavoidable?
No other choice?
While I struggled to keep up.
Noise kept rambling on about something only he knew.
[But no worries! I anticipated that and sorted everything while you were getting treated!]
As Noise finished, the ever-present White Librarian handed me something quite thick for a book.
Huge font and flashy design on the cover.
The main title read:
[How to Become an Excellent Boss! A Capable Boss! Like Noise!]
The narcissistic title and the subtitle below caught my eye.
-
Hey!
You Can Do It Too.
...Hey, you too?
As I took the book, Noise's voice grew even more excited.
Echoing loudly through the entire space.
[Employee Park Yeon-jeong! You can do it too! Become an excellent, flawless, capable bos▓ like me!]
...Noise.
I didn't quite catch that amid the static.
That slip of your inner thoughts was just my imagination, right?
Please say it was.
It had to be.
Ignoring Noise's voice buried in static, I cautiously opened the book he'd given me.
To describe its contents.
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<Introduction>
-Using the power of the capable and excellent Boss Noise is easier than you think.
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My eyes hurt.
The text overlapped between words, making my head spin.
'Noise, you bastard...'
I'd forgotten he used that no-space 'high-rank slop' style since the messages.
All content in the book followed this, painful to even look at.
But.
Amid all that text, one part stood out.
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<Precautions>
-If unusual changes occur from prolonged use of Capable Boss Noise's power, report immediately to Excellent Boss Noise.
----------
After reading that precaution.
For some reason, that dream Park Yeon-jeong had flickered in my mind.
Why...?
I felt I had to ask.
"...Noise? This precaution here..."
Suddenly-!
!
I looked up, and the White Librarian's palm hovered blankly in front.
Noise's voice followed softly.
[Yes, Employee Park Yeon-jeong must have had a strange dream. What... was that dream?]
Noise, this guy.
He already knew.
As if he knew I'd mention the strange dream.
Waiting for my sealed lips to part.
"...I saw a girl in a red robe."
I continued slowly.
[.......]
"She called herself 'Eve.'"
[.......]
Noise remained silent.
The atmosphere in the space was oppressively still, and that brief silence felt even more...
Suffocating.
In that suffocating silence.
Static-
A faint tremor began devouring the quiet space.
[A name... I haven't heard in a long time.]
That one sentence faded away, sinking into distant memory.