Chapter 15: Ch55. Comatose - 2 [HIDDEN ROOM]
Dr. Lee woke up to the incessant beep of her holowatch.
"Urgh... Dr. Lee speaking." She answered, turning just the audio mode on.
"I’m sorry to wake you up so early in the morning doc, but you need to come to the hospital immediately. The boy, Kurt Blake, he’s showing very strange readings that you need to check on."
’Blake again?’ She thought.
She scratched her small chin and got up, still naked.
"I’ll be there in ten... Dr. Strauss, is it?"
"Yes, what is it doc?" The doctor’s voice carried a bit of concern. He always found it a bit disturbing when Dr. Lee seemed to not remember her colleagues’ names.
But he thought it couldn’t be helped, since she only moved back to the United States a few months ago, after a three years research trip to Korea, to work with a few foreign guilds.
"Oh, it’s nothing. I just have a good feeling about this kid."
She ended the call and proceeded to get her clothes, scattered across her room.
***
In the hospital, Kurt still seemed to be sleeping peacefully when Dr. Lee arrived.
"What’s the boy’s status, Dr. Strauss?" She asked, already taking her devices from her suitcase.
"Patient Blake somehow sent a mana surge that left us with no power at all on the floor for almost five minutes."
Dr. Lee’s eyes went wide and she walked towards Kurt’s bed.
"A mana surge, huh? And why are you so sure that it was him?" She looked at Dr. Strauss, a middle aged man with thin complexion and gray streaks on his jet-black hair, while placing a mana reader on Kurt’s chest.
Dr. Strauss thought for a second.
"Because it happened only on this floor, and the awakened patients are all at the underground level."
"Hum." She didn’t look at her colleagues this time, paying close attention to the readings on her device. "What the... I have to go outside for a moment while the mana reader recalibrates."
She left the room and went to speak with Octavius and Nina.
"Good morning ma’am, sir." They nodded at her. "Did anything happen before the surge tonight?"
Nina looked at her husband and he looked back at her.
Octavius learned to lie from young age, so he just acted like he didn’t do anything.
After all, he didn’t actually believe that such a small fragment of the disaster that called the Calamity upon the Earth would do so much.
It was just a lucky charm, to give himself a bit more of hope that his son would wake up.
"His readings were completely null by the time I left, so there can only be two possible scenarios for this case."
Octavius and Nina looked at her, Nina tightening her arms around her husband’s torso.
"He might be suffering from what I call CMI, corrupt mana infusion. It happens when the person’s body is so depleted of energy to assimilate the mana from the outside, that it begins absorbing every mana particle around, giving off mana surge after mana surge, because the body simply can’t assimilate it. The cases have been rare, only happening among children, and the surges aren’t as strong as to turn a microwave on or blast it to useless. I never heard of a case like this, of a patient blasting off so much mana that it cuts the power of an entire floor..."
Nina breathed heavily, sweating cold.
"What’s the second possibility, doctor...?" Octavius asked, glaring at her.
Dr. Lee just sustained the look for a few seconds.
"He might be awakening." Was her answer.
"I want it to be the second possibility." Nina hushed. "But... Aren’t people supposed to awaken when they turn sixteen?"
Dr. Lee had a grim look in her eyes.
"Exactly. I came here to tell you guys to prepare for the worst." Dr. Lee said, turning to get in the room again. But less than a second after she turned away from the couple, she froze on her steps, completely unable to move.
"Listen, Dr. Lee..." Octavius spoke behind her, his eyes glowing with a black light. "I truly think you should have more consideration for those to whom you deliver news about their kids. Or should I presume that no one taught you to have a heart in Med school?"
She felt her whole body being slowly squeezed by a powerful, invisible grip.
"If you don’t release me, I won’t be able to confirm neither of the possibilities. I know you’re angry, but violence will solve nothing, so..."
But Octavius didn’t release her.
"My wife isn’t an awakened like us, doctor. Which means she’s much more susceptible to emotions than us, so please..." And her body slowly began turning in their direction.
"Love... No... Please..." Nina spoke. "She’s right. She’s the only one who can tell us what happens next. So please, release her..."
Octavius looked at his wife and saw the silent tears in her eyes.
"You’re too good for them, Nina." He said, releasing Dr. Lee, who glared at him, turning around and getting in Kurt’s room again.
***
The mana reader was recalibrated when Dr. Lee was back, but when she looked at the screen, her heart pounded like a war drum.
But a slight smirk sprouted on her lips.
***
Kurt opened his eyes to find himself inside a dark, apparently empty room.
"Where am I?"
He turned around and around but couldn’t see anything, until a voice sounded in front of him, approaching slowly.
"I definitely didn’t want it to be like this... But since it seems like it can’t be changed, welcome to the system’s [HIDDEN ROOM], Kurt."
When the voice approached enough, Kurt was able to discern it’s owner’s features, and it made shivers run down his spine.
"What... What’s going on?" The boy stuttered, eyes wide in shock as he looked at a slightly older version of himself.
"It’s a bit complicated, but I’m here to tell you everything I can about it, and about the role you unfortunately must play in this world..."
"I... Who are you? What am I doing here? And where is ’here’? What are you talking about and why do you look so much like me?"
The young Kurt had so many questions, but he could barely express a few of them. The slightly older Kurt, though, kept his cool and just went on with his explanation.
"As I said, it’s a bit complicated, but let’s start with the beginning.
I am you, but a version of you from another... ’world’. And the [HIDDEN ROOM] we are in right now is part of something I myself don’t fully know yet, but it’s called the system."
"The... System? Like... In those videogames and webnovels?" The younger Kurt frowned.
"Kinda." The older Kurt scratched his head, a little perplexity covering his semblant. "The only thing is that... This system isn’t... Good."
The younger Kurt looked at him with a question mark so big on his face, that the older Kurt couldn’t help but laugh at it.
"I myself am not so sure about what it means yet, but I can tell you one thing..." He paused it for a bit and his expression became dark and grave, and even the silence around the [HIDDEN ROOM] felt more oppressive. "I saw you, from the accident that sent you to the hospital for two years til now, to what the people outside the system perceive as ’last night’. And you’re here because Octavius gave you something he shouldn’t. You’re going to wake up as soon as you leave here, and when you do, you’re going to receive a message telling you that you became a [PLAYER]. But don’t be fooled for it, the system might try to kill you as many times as it can."
