The Crow Healer

"Yaxiu Heath, if you're awake, see yourself out. Otherwise, dinner will be over. We don't serve meals to patients here." His eyelids already burning from the harsh glare of the incandescent light, Yaxiu sat up nimbly. He felt his face and abdomen—there was no swelling or pain at all, as though the brutal beating he had just taken from Igola were nothing more than a dream. It wasn't his first time encountering the medical technology of this world, yet it never failed to leave him in awe. The wound where the Bloodmad Hunter had run him through with a sword would have landed him in intensive care for weeks back in his previous life without any guarantee of survival; here, it had been fully healed before his interrogation even began. It had made Yaxiu think they only wanted to heal him first so they could subject him to a full interrogation wellness package. He glanced around. Unlike the infirmary he had imagined, there was no scent of disinfectant. While the room was clean, devoid of clutter or traces of blood, its color palette was dominated by shades of gray, black, and brown, creating an unsettling visual impression of "grime and chaos." Not to mention the healers here: cloaked from head to toe in black robes, wearing fearsome crow masks, and holding gleaming daggers in their hands. Far from looking like doctors, they resembled cultists preparing to offer Yaxiu up as a sacrifice. The one speaking to Yaxiu was a somewhat shorter healer. It was impossible to tell whether the voice belonged to a man or a woman; the mask seemed to have a distorting effect that made the voice sound even more terrifying. Noticing Yaxiu staring at her, she asked, "Is something wrong?" Yaxiu replied off the cuff, "I think there's still something wrong with my face." "Huh? I've already healed all your injuries," the healer said, somewhat puzzled. "Did a blood vessel rupture on the inside?" "I don't think I look as handsome as I used to. Did you not heal me properly? By the way, do you offer cosmetic surgery here?" Yaxiu had only intended to make small talk and get on her good side so that he might scrounge a piece of fruit the next time he ended up here for treatment. To his surprise, the crow healer grew excited and leaned in close. "Of course we do! Epicanthoplasty, nose bridges, bone contouring, chin fillers—I can do all kinds of procedures! You can look however you want. You could even change into another race if you like! I highly recommend the Carslan-Lauder procedure; it effectively enlarges your eyes..." With a look of disgust, Yaxiu pushed the healer away. "Your crow beak is poking me!" "Ah, sorry! If you're interested in lip enhancement, I also have the latest White Rabbit Candy procedure. It leaves your lips with a natural sweetness..." Watching the healer's fanatical zeal, reminiscent of an insurance salesperson, Yaxiu shrank back warily. "I don't have any money!" "I don't want your money, I only want you!" Yaxiu gave a delicate shudder. "So fast? We barely just met! Wait, are you a man or a woman? Wait, what race are you..." Realizing her slip of the tongue, the healer waved her hands dismissively. "What I mean is, as long as you're willing to let me operate on you, that's enough! You don't have to give me any money. It's completely free!" "Hmm..." Yaxiu asked. "What if I want you to pay me?" "Uh... how much do you want?" Seeing the healer actually reach for her wallet, Yaxiu hastily stopped her. "Wait, wait! I was just asking offhand. I don't actually want to go under the knife. But are you healers really so kindhearted, performing surgery without expecting anything in return? Dressed like that, I thought you were the type to hike up the price right in the middle of an operation." The healer said, "Huh? Isn't that perfectly normal?" "Huh?" For a moment, Yaxiu couldn't tell whether "that" referred to being free or hiking up prices mid-surgery. "So you're really not going to get cosmetic surgery?" the healer urged earnestly. "I'm a silver healer with three sorcery spirits! You won't find another capable healer who works for free out there! Running into me is practically striking gold!" "What if you suddenly start charging me halfway through the surgery?" "Do you have money?" "No." "Then what are you worried about?!" That actually made a lot of sense. As long as he was broke, she couldn't cheat him out of any money... Even so, Yaxiu shook his head. "There's a saying in my line of work: free things are the most expensive. If I take advantage of a free handout from you, I'll inevitably pay for it somewhere else." Seeing that Yaxiu wasn't biting no matter what, the healer had no choice but to come clean. "All right. If you let me operate on you, there is a tiny bit of risk involved." "A tiny bit?" "Yeah, just a tiny bit." The healer gestured with her fingers. "The truth is, I'm not very experienced with these procedures, so I need to perform more surgeries to build proficiency. But I have three sorcery spirits—more than enough to ensure your life isn't in danger..." Through her explanation, Yaxiu finally understood why they were willing to let patients get treated for free: the medical outcomes of a silver healer were entirely unverified. Unlike empirical medicine in his previous life, the medicine in this world had developed from sorcery spirits, and the most common sorcery spirit among healers was 'Water Therapy' of the water sorcery faction. As long as there was moisture in the patient's body, the spirit could be activated to rapidly regenerate their wounds. Bleeding, scraping flesh, and then activating the sorcery spirit to make the body regenerate rapidly was the most widespread method of treatment. As one might expect, this method of treatment had many shortcomings. However, all sorcery spirits possessed the capacity to evolve, and this trait was especially pronounced in the 'Water Therapy' spirit: whenever 'Water Therapy' was used to treat an ailment, it would memorize and optimize the process, allowing for more efficient treatment the next time it encountered the same condition. Not only that, if a healer treated enough varied conditions, they could even evolve 'Water Therapy' into a two-winged sorcery spirit! Consequently, silver healers were starved for patients, while patients preferred to spend more money seeking out superior gold healers rather than settling for silver. The weaker the healer, the poorer the efficacy of 'Water Therapy', and the higher the chances of complications for the patient. In the eyes of healers, Shattered Lake Prison was a golden goose—every day, inmates beaten to the brink of death were brought in for treatment. The healers could farm experience here to their hearts' content, and doctor-patient relations were remarkably stable: even if they treated a patient to death, there would be zero trouble! A healer like the one talking to Yaxiu wouldn't even have had the chance to farm experience here if she didn't have connections! Good grief, Yaxiu thought. The Death Match Club wasn't just an overt scheme to pit inmates against each other—it also turned prisoners into renewable resources, serving as walking experience bags for healers. This prison sure knew how to do business. They were winning on all fronts. Yet the fact that medical treatment was completely free and didn't consume any of a death row inmate's contribution points showed that the prison's vision was still somewhat small-time. It couldn't hold a candle to Yaxiu's former company—they hadn't just pushed sudden-death insurance on him, but had even deducted the electricity costs of his "malicious overtime" straight from his paycheck, nipping his get-rich-quick scheme of mining crypto during overtime right in the bud.