The Clinic arc has begun!!!! and How the new cover ?
Ren stepped through the portal and ้hospital room vanished, replaced by the smell of old concrete and exhaust fumes. His boots hit cracked pavement, and he stumbled slightly, catching himself against a brick wall that felt gritty under his palm.
The portal closed behind him with a soft pop, leaving him standing in an alley between three buildings. Two of them had metal shutters pulled down, locks rusted and chains hanging loose. The cigar shop on his left had a faded sign that read "CLOSED" in peeling letters. The suit shop on his right looked like it hadn't seen a customer in years, dust coating the display window so thick he couldn't see inside.
Between them sat the building he remembered. Levi's bookstore.
Except it wasn't a bookstore anymore.
The windows were boarded up with plywood that had warped from weather exposure. The door hung crooked on its hinges, paint chipped away to reveal bare wood underneath. Someone had spray-painted something on the wall, but time and rain had made it illegible. The whole structure rose two stories high, both floors looking equally abandoned and ready to collapse. The second floor had a balcony that sagged dangerously, its railing broken in several places.
Ren pulled off his plague doctor mask, tucking it into his coat. He ran a hand through his hair, which probably looked terrible after a year of mountain training, and stared at the empty building.
"So Mister Levi really is gone, huh."
His voice sounded too loud in the quiet alley. No one answered. The wind picked up, carrying a plastic bag down the street. It tumbled past him and caught on a broken chain-link fence further down.
He walked closer to the building, stepping over a puddle that had collected in a depression in the pavement. The water was oily, reflecting rainbow colors in the afternoon light. His reflection looked back at him, distorted and wrong.
The door creaked when he pushed it open. Inside was worse than outside. Empty shelves lined the walls, some fallen over completely. The floor was covered in debris, paper scraps, broken glass, things he couldn't identify in the dim light filtering through cracks in the boarded windows. A staircase along the back wall led up to the second floor, several steps missing or broken through. It smelled like mold and abandonment.
"Well." Ren kicked a piece of broken shelf out of his way. It skittered across the floor and hit the far wall with a hollow thud. "This is the only building now, so I need to open a clinic here. Maybe I need to hire a construction company?"
He pulled out his phone, already starting to search for contractors in the area. The screen was bright in the dim interior, making his eyes water slightly after adjusting to the darkness.
A notification popped up before he could finish typing. Blue text, familiar format. The System.
You don't have to do that.
Ren stopped walking. He stared at his phone screen, then looked around the empty building like the System might be hiding in a corner somewhere.
"What do you mean I don't have to do that?"
Just tell me and I will deduct funds from your account and construct the clinic.
"You can do that?" Ren turned in a slow circle, taking in the destruction around him. "You can just build a clinic? Out of nowhere?"
Yes.
"How?"
Magic.
"That's not an explanation."
It's the only explanation you're getting.
Ren rubbed his face with his free hand, feeling the stubble there. He needed a shower. And probably a shave. And definitely an explanation that made more sense than "magic," but apparently that wasn't happening today.
"Fine. Sure. Just do it."
Confirm: 10 million dollars will be deducted from your account for clinic construction.
The words appeared on his phone screen in bold red letters, like they were trying to make absolutely sure he saw them.
Ren froze. His thumb hovered over his phone. He read the notification again, then a third time to make absolutely sure he wasn't hallucinating from exhaustion.
"What the fuck? Fuck you. Why is the clinic so expensive? It's just a two-story building in a shitty alley between two closed shops."
Just watch.
"Just watch? That's your answer? Just watch ten million dollars disappear from my account?"
Do you want the clinic or not?
Ren wanted to argue. He wanted to demand an itemized list of expenses, a breakdown of costs, maybe some competing quotes from other magical construction services. But he also knew the System well enough by now to understand that arguing was pointless.
"Fine. Do it. But if this turns out to be a scam, I'm finding a way to uninstall you."
You can't uninstall me. I'm bound to your soul.
"Then I'll find a way to complain very loudly until you refund me."
Noted.
Ren tapped the confirm button. His phone buzzed, showing the transfer going through. He watched his account balance drop by ten million dollars in real time, the numbers ticking down with painful efficiency.
The building began to shake.
It started as a low rumble, like distant thunder. Ren backed toward the door, suddenly very aware that he was standing inside a two story structure that looked like a strong breeze could knock it over. The rumble grew louder, accompanied by a grinding sound that made his teeth ache.
The debris on the floor began to move. Pieces of broken wood slid across the ground, drawn together by some invisible force. Glass shards lifted into the air, spinning slowly. The fallen shelves righted themselves, wood knitting back together where it had split.
Ren made it to the doorway and turned around to watch.
The walls straightened, boards popping back into place with sounds like gunshots. Cracks sealed themselves, running backwards like someone was playing a video in reverse. The boarded windows exploded outward, plywood shooting into the alley and disintegrating into sawdust before it hit the ground.
New glass appeared in the window frames, perfectly clear and smooth. The door repaired itself, hinges tightening, wood grain flowing back into existence. Paint spread across the exterior like someone was using an invisible roller, covering everything in a deep, pure black.
Not just dark. Black. The kind of black that absorbed light instead of reflecting it, the kind that made your eyes hurt to look at directly because your brain wasn't sure if there was actually anything there or if you were staring into a void.
The transformation continued upward to the second floor. The sagging balcony straightened, new railings appearing in smooth black metal. The upper windows replaced themselves, glass manifesting from nothing. The entire facade became uniform, two stories of pure black that seemed to drink in the afternoon light.
The interior transformed next. Clean white tile appeared on the first floor, spreading from the center outward. The walls painted themselves the same unsettling black as the exterior. New furniture materialized: a reception desk, chairs for a waiting room, a door leading to what Ren assumed would be examination rooms.
The staircase rebuilt itself, each step solidifying into black wood with white painted risers. The second floor overhead stopped creaking and settled into place with a final, definitive thud.
Everything was black. The desk was black. The chairs were black. The staircase railing was black. Even the tile had black grout between the white squares, creating a pattern that made Ren slightly dizzy if he looked at it too long.
The shaking stopped. The grinding sound faded. Ren stood in the doorway of what was now, technically, a functional two-story clinic.
A sign appeared above the door, metal letters attaching themselves to the black exterior with soft clicking sounds. White text on black background, bold and clear.
HECTOR CLINIC
Underneath, in smaller letters:
AS LONG AS YOU'RE NOT DEAD, WE CAN CURE ANYTHING
Ren stared at the sign. Then at the building. Then back at the sign.
"What the fuck is this, System? This old looking clinic is supposed to be worth ten million dollars?"
Yes.
"It's black. Entirely black. Two stories of pure black. It looks like a funeral home had a baby with a Hot Topic store and then decided to open a clinic"
I thought the aesthetic was appropriate.
"Appropriate for what? Scaring away customers?" Ren walked back inside, his footsteps echoing on the new tile. He looked up at the second floor, visible through the open stairwell. Everything was clean now, sterile even, but the overwhelming blackness made it feel oppressive.
"What the fuck. This is a ripoff. An actual ripoff. I could have hired a normal construction company for a fraction of this price and gotten something that doesn't look like it's trying to summon demons across two entire floors."
I said to watch, not that it would be good.
Ren stopped in the middle of the waiting room. He turned slowly to glare at nothing in particular, since the System didn't have a physical form he could direct his anger at.
"Are you giving me sass right now? You just took ten million dollars from me and built me a horror movie set, and now you're giving me sass?"
Sorry. I mean, to be fair, this building has a special effect.
"Oh really? What special effect? Does it automatically creep out anyone who walks past it? Does the second floor make people even more uncomfortable than the first floor?"
It cannot be destroyed.
That made Ren pause. He looked around the clinic again, seeing it in a different light. Still black. Still two stories of vaguely threatening architecture. But now potentially useful.
"Cannot be destroyed? Like, at all?"
Cannot be destroyed. Ever.
"Define 'ever.'"
Even if a meteor the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs fell directly on this spot, this building would be the only structure remaining on the planet. Both floors. Completely intact.
Ren walked over to one of the black walls and knocked on it experimentally. It sounded solid, normal even. Not like some indestructible material from a science fiction movie. Just a regular wall. He looked up at the ceiling, imagining the second floor above him, equally indestructible.
"Okay. That makes sense, I guess. Indestructible clinic means I don't have to worry about monster attacks or property damage." He turned back toward the center of the room.
"But why did you have to make it entirely black? And why does it look so run down from the outside? And why two stories when I only need one?"
It fits the theme, doesn't it?
"What theme? What possible theme requires my medical clinic to look like a condemned building that's also somehow aggressively goth across two entire floors?"
Your theme. You're an eldritch horror doctor. The aesthetic matches. The second floor gives you space for more complicated procedures. Or living quarters. Whatever you need.
"I'm a healer," Ren protested, but his voice lacked conviction. He knew what he looked like when he used his powers. He knew what people saw when they looked at him.
"I heal people. That's the whole point."
You heal people using tentacles and nightmare imagery. The building reflects that. Two stories of it.
Ren wanted to argue more, but he was too tired. He'd spent a year training on a mountain, fighting his way through progressively more difficult challenges, pushing his powers to their limits. He'd been looking forward to coming back to civilization, opening his clinic, maybe having a normal day or two before chaos inevitably found him again.
Instead, he had an indestructible black building that looked like it was trying to win a competition for
"Most likely to be investigated by concerned citizens."
"Do you seriously think we're going to get even one patient with this setup?"
Well, you will get one soon.
Ren's exhaustion crystallized into suspicion. That tone. He knew that tone. The System used that tone when it was about to drop some new complication on him.
"What do you mean?"
Check your smartphone.
"I'm literally holding my smartphone."
Check it.
Ren looked down at his phone. The screen was still showing his banking app, his account balance now sitting at a much smaller number than it had been five minutes ago. He was about to ask what he was supposed to be checking when the phone erupted into noise.
Beep beep beep beep beep beep.
The sound was piercing, loud enough to make him wince. His screen flashed red, replacing the banking app with an emergency alert that filled the entire display.
ALERT ALERT ALERT
GATE BREAK NEARBY
GATE BREAK NEARBY
PLEASE EVACUATE TO THE DESIGNATED SHELTER PROVIDED BY AZARETH EMPIRE
THIS IS NOT A DRILL
The message repeated, scrolling across his screen while the beeping continued. Ren could hear other phones going off in the distance, a chorus of emergency alerts spreading through the neighborhood.
"Fuck." He moved to the window, looking out at the street. People were already running, heading away from wherever the gate had broken. He could hear sirens starting up, the wail of emergency vehicles responding to the crisis.
"Should we go help out?"
Is that your purpose?
"What?"
Is helping your purpose?
Ren frowned at his phone, confused.
"What are you talking about? There's a gate break. People are in danger. Of course we should help."
No, it is not. Let's just wait. Maybe we'll get lucky and get some fear point farming opportunities.
"Fear point farming?" Ren repeated slowly, the words tasting strange in his mouth.
He looked back out the window. Another explosion lit up the sky in the distance, smoke rising in a dark column. More screams. More sirens. The city tearing itself apart while he stood in his brand new indestructible clinic.
You're a Horror doctor now. Doctors don't go looking for patients. Patients come to them.
Ren walked over to one of the black chairs and sat down heavily. He stared at his hands, remembering what they could become. Tentacles. Surgical instruments. Weapons. Tools for healing that looked like implements of torture.
"Fear point farming," he said again, quieter this time.
The ethical part of his brain screamed at him. People were dying out there. He had the power to help. He was a doctor, for fuck's sake. The whole point was to save lives.
But the system had a point. He needed fear points to grow stronger. He needed patients to come to him so he could heal them and gain power. Chasing after every crisis would burn him out before he even got started.
Ren leaned back in the chair, the leather creaking under his weight. He could feel the exhaustion settling into his bones, the weight of a year's worth of training and transformation. Outside, the city burned. Inside, everything was quiet and black and waiting.
"Fine," he said, his voice flat. "Then let it burn."
Excellent choice, host.
"Don't sound so happy about it."
I'm not happy. I'm pragmatic.
"Sure you are."
Ren closed his eyes, listening to the chaos outside. The sirens. The explosions. The screams that were getting closer. He wondered how many people would make it to evacuation shelters. How many wouldn't. How many would end up needing a doctor desperate enough to try anything.
His clinic was indestructible. His sign promised to cure anything as long as you weren't dead. And he was sitting here, waiting, while the world outside tore itself apart.
"This is fucked up," he muttered.
Welcome to being an eldritch horror doctor.
"I hate you."
You say that, but you keep listening to me.
"Because you're bound to my soul and I can't get rid of you."
Exactly. So stop complaining and wait. The patients will come. They always do.
Ren opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, at the second floor above him, at the black walls that surrounded him on all sides. His indestructible fortress. His monument to cosmic horror disguised as medical practice.
Outside, something exploded close enough to rattle the windows. Close enough that he could smell smoke filtering in through the ventilation. Close enough that he could hear individual voices screaming for help.
He didn't move.
"Let it burn," he said again, softer this time. Almost like a prayer. Or a confession.
The System didn't respond. It didn't need to. They both knew what he'd become. What he was choosing to become by sitting here instead of helping.
A doctor who waited for patients instead of seeking them out. A healer who let the world burn so he could pick up the pieces afterward. An eldritch horror wearing a medical license like a costume.
Ren sat in his black chair in his black clinic and waited for the survivors to find him, listening to the city tear itself apart outside his indestructible walls.