Chapter 19: Chapter 18: THE MIRACLE BEHIND THE MEDICAL RECORD AND THE RETURN OF THE CRAFTSMAN
That night, after a family dinner full of warmth and deeply moving confessions, I gently resisted my heart’s urge to jump right back into Second World Online. As great as the temptation was to see the market situation in StoneBrook following the global announcement, my physical body had very strict tolerance limits. The profound fatigue caused by the tension of the fight against the Grizzly King and the social interaction at the dinner table made my eyelids feel incredibly heavy.
"It’s better for me to rest completely tonight... after all, this body is still fragile," I whispered to myself before sinking into a deep sleep on my comfortable hospital bed.
The next day, a ray of morning sunlight piercing through the window blinds slowly greeted my face. However, it was not the silence of the room that welcomed my consciousness when I opened my eyes, but the sound of medical trolley wheels scraping, the squeaks of electronic devices, and the murmurs of medical staff in sterile clothing.
My spacious treatment room had been transformed into a mini intensive examination room. Gathered there was a team of medical specialists led by Doctor Karin, a relatively young and beautiful hematology-oncology doctor with thin-framed glasses and a very calm demeanor along with four nurses who were busy preparing blood sample tubes and a wireless ultrasound scanner.
I gently tapped my forehead with my pale palm. "Gosh... I just remembered. Today is the schedule for the monthly check-up."
For most people, being surrounded by syringes, bone marrow sampling tubes, and heart scanner electrode cables might trigger tremendous fear and anxiety. But for someone who had spent the last two years of his life going in and out of intensive care units, this ritual felt like a normal morning routine.
I sat myself on the edge of the mattress, then gave Doctor Karin a relaxed smile. "Good morning, Doctor. It seems your team brought more sample tubes than last month?"
Doctor Karin smiled back at my greeting while checking her medical gloves. "Good morning, Rian. We have to do a comprehensive scan today, especially to see your leukocyte response graph and vital organ functions after you started routinely using Chronos Tech’s new generation Full-Dive medical console. Just relax, we will do it as quickly and comfortably as possible."
I nodded obediently. Over the next two hours, my room was filled with intense medical activity. The nurses deftly took several blood samples from the veins in my left arm, attached brainwave scanner sensors, checked my heart rate, measured oxygen saturation, and performed scans of liver and kidney functions, which are often the first casualties of long-term chemotherapy complications.
I underwent the entire procession with absolute calmness. Not a single groan or complaint came out of my mouth when those medical needles pierced my skin. My eyes only stared blankly at the room’s ceiling, while my mind actually drifted far away, thinking about wood carving designs and the pine wood logistics supplies at the StoneBrook craft workshop.
After two hours of the exhausting physical examination procession were finally over, the medical team asked for time to take the samples to the integrated laboratory on the lower floor of my private house to be analyzed in real-time. Meanwhile, the nurses helped me move my body, which felt slightly weak after the blood draw, onto an ergonomic wheelchair.
Mira, who had been faithfully waiting outside the room door throughout the medical procedure, immediately came in carrying a tray containing my slightly late breakfast: a bowl of wheat nutrition porridge that was as bland as usual, accompanied by a glass of warm water.
I leaned my back against the wheelchair, picked up a silver spoon, and began chewing the bland porridge mechanically. My left hand reached out to grab the smartphone resting on the wheelchair’s cantilever table. Driven by boredom, I opened a social media app and began scrolling through the screen to see developments in the outside world.
I read a few humorous chat threads and funny memes that were currently being shared heavily by internet users to distract from the tastelessness on my tongue. However, as soon as my finger slid to the [National Trending Topics] list page, my chewing movement suddenly came to a complete halt. The silver spoon in my hand almost slipped and fell into the bowl of porridge.
In the top five most popular topics today, three of them were occupied by hashtags highly related to myself:
#1. #ChronosTechBatch2
#2. #SoloPlayerSyl
#3. #AlbinoElfGoddess
#4. #FirstClearGrizzlyKing
"You’ve got to be kidding me..." I whispered with wide eyes, swallowing my spoonful of porridge with great difficulty.
I tapped the hashtags #AlbinoElfGoddess and #SoloPlayerSyl. Instantly, my phone screen was flooded with tens of thousands of posts from netizens and Second World Online players. The Chronos Tech press conference broadcast last night, which showed a video clip of my Avatar jumping on a tree branch and shooting the Grizzly King’s eye, had apparently been re-recorded, cut into short clips lasting several seconds, and spread like a virus across all social media platforms!
Even outside the official SWO community forums, public gaming news accounts and digital content creators were competing to dissect my appearance’s silhouette.
@GamerFringe: "Crazy! The server has only been open for two days, and there’s already a Solo Player soloing a Level 20 Area Boss! And her avatar is a super gorgeous albino Elf girl, it feels like seeing a living anime character!"
@EsportsAnalysis: "Judging from the bow-drawing technique and how she utilized the forest wind direction, this Player ’Syl’ is clearly not a casual player. There’s a possibility she is a former professional athlete or a top-tier MMO veteran playing in secret."
@WaifuHunter99: "Please, anyone who has info on the ID or real name of the player behind Syl’s avatar, spill it! I want to register to be her arrow slave! Her chest assets are truly the definition of perfection!"
I hid my face behind my free left palm, letting out a long sigh between feeling embarrassed, horrified, and yet slightly amused. The visual appearance that I had initially considered a synchronization system bug had now caused a sensation across the entire country. Netizens had even started making fan art (fan-created artwork) digital illustrations of my character with her bow in various poses ranging from cool ones to ones that were... too revealing.
"Good thing Chronos Tech’s privacy security system uses military-grade encryption," I muttered in relief, stroking my chest. "Not a single person in this world knows my real identity, except for that crazy guy, Arthur."
And speaking of Arthur, I glanced toward the instant messaging application on my phone. That best friend of mine had already sent dozens of spam messages consisting of screenshots of the social media trend, accompanied by rows of annoying laughing-out-loud emojis, as if he were an artist manager proud to see his protégé viral worldwide. I decided to ignore Arthur’s messages for the time being and return my focus to finishing my breakfast porridge.
About half an hour later, right when I had just put down the empty porridge bowl, the door to my treatment room opened again. Doctor Karin stepped inside while holding a medical tablet displaying rows of blue and green graphs.
However, Doctor Karin did not come alone. Walking behind her was my mother, Elena, who today had deliberately taken a full day off from her job as Mayor just to accompany the health check-up process of her youngest son.
There was something different about the facial expressions of the two dignified women before me. Usually, whenever the session for announcing general check-up results arrived, the room’s atmosphere would turn tense, gloomy, and full of careful wording, considering my leukemia graph always showed a worsening trend from month to month.
Today, however, Doctor Karin and Mother stepped in with expressions filled with restrained surprise, bright sparkles in their eyes, and a smile of exceptionally deep relief.
"Elena, Rian... I think you should see the results of today’s blood and bone marrow analysis directly from this screen," said Doctor Karin with a tone of voice that trembled slightly due to rare medical enthusiasm. She pulled up a chair, sat in front of my wheelchair, and then handed over her medical tablet so Mother and I could see it clearly.
I stared at the line graph displayed on the screen. Even though I wasn’t a medical scholar, living with this disease for two years had made me understand the meaning of those hematological parameter numbers very well.
"This..." I pointed toward the proliferation rate curve of abnormal white blood cells (Leukocytes), which had previously always towered high like a terrifying mountain. On this month’s latest graph, that sharp curve appeared to plunge downward significantly and begin to level off at a moderate boundary line.
"Exactly, Rian," Doctor Karin cut in while nodding quickly, pointing to the white blood cell count numbers on the screen. "We already conducted re-confirmation tests three times in the lab downstairs to ensure there were no instrument errors. The results are consistent: the development of leukemia cancer cells in your bone marrow has almost come to a complete halt."
Mother, standing beside my wheelchair, immediately covered her mouth with both hands. Her beautiful eyes instantly welled up with tears of happiness that she could no longer hold back. She leaned down, hugging my shoulders very tightly.
"The progression of your disease is still ongoing, Rian... it didn’t instantly heal completely overnight," Doctor Karin continued in a very honest yet hopeful tone. "But its aggressiveness rate has now become very, very slow. If we compare it with last month’s check-up results where this cancer was still very malignant and rapidly destroying healthy tissue, today’s condition could be considered a medical miracle."
Doctor Karin swiped the tablet screen to the next page, showing immune system and oxygen circulation parameters. "In addition, your abnormal white blood cell count dropped to a pretty good and safe level for an intensive oncology patient. Your vital organ fatigue index, especially the liver and kidneys, also shows very positive cell structure recovery. Your body is putting up an exceptionally powerful fight, Rian."
Doctor Karin adjusted the position of her glasses, gazing at me with a look full of scientific interest. "Theoretically, the Full-Dive medical technology from the Chronos Tech capsule you are using works by constantly inducing alpha and theta waves in the brain. When your brain is at zero physical stress level and your motor nervous system inside the game receives positive physical activity stimulation such as running and archery your brain releases endorphin hormones and high-dose cellular regeneration signals to all your real body’s tissues. Furthermore, your extremely happy mental state after playing the game seems to be the primary catalyst for suppressing the progression of this leukemia."
Hearing such a long and encouraging scientific explanation, I could only nod slowly while resting my head against Mother’s warm embrace. For the past two years, my ears had become too saturated and tired of hearing medical terms that always ended in prognoses of despair and countdowns of remaining lifespan.
This afternoon, however, for the first time in a very long time, those medical words brought news of life. Deep in my heart, I felt profoundly grateful and happy. It was proven that my decision to jump into Second World Online and fight was not just an escapism to waste time, but a true rescue therapy for both body and soul.
The atmosphere in my treatment room turned very cheerful after Doctor Karin left. Mother spent almost an hour sitting with me, holding my hand, and continuously expressing her gratitude while sharing this joyous news with Father, Brother Raymond, Brother Bramasta, and Alya through the family messaging group. My phone even vibrated incessantly, receiving congratulations and words of encouragement from my siblings who were at work and school.
Right at lunchtime, Mira returned bringing my midday meal. This time, because of the very positive medical record graphs and special permission from Doctor Karin, my wheat porridge menu was garnished with a much larger portion of shredded grilled chicken breast and a bit of rich-tasting vegetable broth. I finished that lunch with a very good appetite, accompanied by Mother’s smile and a look of admiration from Mira.
After lunch was over and Mother had to excuse herself briefly to attend an emergency online meeting from the home office room, a serene silence once again embraced the treatment room.
I turned toward Mira, who was clearing the folding table. I could no longer hide the burning glint of determination in my eyes. "Mira, take me back to the master bedroom. I want to enter the game capsule right now."
"Yes, Young Master. With pleasure," Mira replied with her sweet smile widening. She knew that the world was where her master’s health miracles were created.
Mira pushed my wheelchair across the corridor toward my bedroom, then with accustomed gentleness and skill, she guided my body to rise from the wheelchair and lie down into the comfortable interior of the Game Capsule. The cold and comfortable nerve-protecting gel pads immediately embraced my back, eliminating the lingering fatigue from the blood test that morning.
Mira attached electrode cables to my temples, checked the pod’s oxygen connection parameters, and then looked down at me with her pair of beautiful eyes. "Have a great adventure again, Young Master Syl. I hope you find more miracles there today."
"Thank you, Mira. Take care of my body here," I replied while smiling firmly.
The thick glass cover of the capsule slowly descended with a smooth hydraulic hiss. Ssssshh... Clack! The noise of the outside world vanished in the blink of an eye, replaced by the glow of blue neon indicator lights on the capsule’s ceiling flashing rhythmically. I closed my eyes, focused my entire consciousness, and then uttered the two keywords that would take me home to my virtual residence:
"Link in."
Ting!
[System: Brainwave Scan Complete... Neural Synchronization 100%.]
[System: Real Body Status: Prime / Stress Index: 0%.]
[System: Welcome Back to Second World Online, Player ’Syl’.]
The blinding white light of immersion slowly faded from my field of vision, replaced by the view of an NPC inn room interior in the town of StoneBrook where I had logged out yesterday afternoon. I opened my eyes, stretched both arms of my albino Elf body above my head, and inhaled the oak-scented digital air that felt so fresh in my lungs.
I leaped down from the wooden bed with extremely light and agile movements, landing on the plank floor without making the slightest sound thanks to my [Slow Walking] and [Stealth] proficiency levels. I walked in front of the mirror to check my appearance. The boar leather armor set crafted by Kitsuna was still attached perfectly, emphasizing the body contours of the female Elf that I was now starting to get used to with confidence.
Before leaving the inn, I opened the system interface to check the in-game time. As it turned out, the time cycle inside Second World Online currently showed early morning the sun had just risen on the eastern horizon of StoneBrook, casting a warm light that illuminated the stone streets.
As soon as I stepped out of the inn door onto the city streets, the atmosphere of StoneBrook felt very different compared to previous days. If yesterday the town square was filled with the hustle and bustle of players busy forming parties to hunt, this morning the streets were instead crowded with throngs of players standing crammed together in front of the NPC bulletin boards and at the corners of market merchant stalls.
I pulled my leather cloak’s hood down slightly to cover my silver hair and eyes, then slipped among the crowd to hear what was happening.
"Damn it! Why did the prices of softwood and raw iron materials suddenly double this morning?!" exclaimed a Warrior player while hitting a market wooden post in annoyance.
"You haven’t heard last night’s system announcement news?" replied his companion, a Mage in a shabby robe. "The developers just announced that the second batch server expansion gates will open in seven days! Five thousand new players will flood into the town of StoneBrook next week!"
"Then what does that have to do with this increase in raw material prices, idiot?!"
"Gosh, is your brain only filled with muscles?!" the Mage retorted irritably. "Large clans like Golden Lion, DragonSlayer, and the market middlemen merchants are now conducting a mass buying spree! They are buying up all supplies of Softwood, Pine Wood, Iron Ore, and Animal Skins from NPC shops as well as from miner players!"
Standing a few steps away from them, I immediately narrowed my eyes hearing that. A mass buying spree?
"They are deliberately hoarding all those raw materials starting now," the Mage continued explaining to his confused friend. "The plan is, over the next seven days, the craftsmen in those big clans will be forced to work overtime producing thousands of beginner weapons like low-tier iron swords and wooden bows to sell at high prices to the five thousand new players next week! Whoever controls the beginner weapon market next week will become the economic ruler of StoneBrook!"
Hearing confirmation of that conversation, a cold smile was etched on my thin lips beneath the cloak’s hood. The business strategy prediction I had thought about while watching television at the dinner table last night was actually happening right before my eyes. The giant clans and big merchants had already begun moving aggressively to monopolize the logistics market in preparation for the explosion of five thousand new players next week.
"They think they can monopolize the beginner weapon market just like that?" I whispered softly in my heart, touching my dimensional storage slot where the [Ironwood Longbow] blueprint and my exclusive lamination technique were safely stored.
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