Just like college students dragging themselves to eight a.m. classes, or office drones returning to work after a holiday.
Even if Peppy showed up, he would get two slaps!
Peppy:?
Complain all he wanted, Lin Nai would not just stand by and do nothing.
He just looked annoyed.
His movements were still extremely swift.
The less these troublesome people suffered, the better. He could always scold them after he had healed them.
After receiving Lin Nai's resentful glance, some of the staff lying on the hospital beds awkwardly looked away.
They were all staff members injured during experiments.
And their injuries were quite serious.
As for why the medical department had asked him for help—
After staying at the Herta Space Station for so many years, he might not have counted as a researcher.
But... Lin Nai could barely be considered a medical staff member "too weak to truss a chicken."
Thanks to the system.
Lin Nai had once rolled healing-related skills.
After showing off a little to Herta, she had dragged him over here to help.
Under the lofty excuse that the Space Station did not keep idle people around.
No.
Wasn't his "job" to be researched by Herta, that woman?
Did he really need to take on a side job too?!
Though he complained inwardly, Lin Nai had not refused the work.
He just disliked Herta's exploitative style. It really had the feeling of using someone and then tossing them aside.
But Lin Nai was still very proactive when it came to helping people.
Being able to use this power to heal people was not bad either.
Besides, Lin Nai was usually quite idle over in the medical bay.
As everyone knew.
The medical bay had medical facilities that the entire Space Station took pride in.
It was said that as long as someone still had a breath left, there was always a way to save them.
So normally, the medical bay only asked Lin Nai for help when the situation was urgent or they were truly too busy.
The medical bay did indeed have the best equipment.
But the staff's research was always accompanied by unpredictable risks, so the Space Station's medical bay was constantly packed to the brim.
For example, this time, one medical staff member had fallen unconscious.
But because of that one medical staff member, the medical bay had been completely overwhelmed.
Which was why, earlier at the office door, a group of medical staff had carried Lin Nai over while Asta stood nearby looking utterly baffled.
"So what were you researching this time that blew you up again?" Lin Nai asked irritably, withdrawing his gaze.
He had been planning to go back and take a nap.
Did they know how much psychological damage it did to a kid in his teens when a bunch of burly men swarmed him all at once?!
Come to think of it, this guy was an old acquaintance too.
He came here all the time. Even when Lin Nai only dropped by occasionally to help, he would see this guy.
He was practically a regular at the medical department.
The treated staff member smiled sheepishly. "It was about dreams..."
"Dreams?"
"Yes. Since there is never enough time in reality, we wanted to make use of the time we spend sleeping too!"
The staff member spoke with a serious expression. "Staying up late in reality can easily lead to mental fatigue, physical exhaustion, and experimental errors."
"The eventual result is explosions, injuries, wasted resources, and all sorts of other problems."
"So?"
"So we created a Dream Consciousness Machine! Uh... although we cannot conduct experiments in dreams at this stage, reviewing previously learned knowledge should not be a problem."
"Oh~"
Hearing that, Lin Nai roughly understood.
It was a machine that let a group of people stay conscious in their dreams and even control them.
And the purpose... was to grind harder?
Yikes.
The scientists at the Herta Space Station really were terrifying.
"But why can't you do experiments in dreams?" Lin Nai asked curiously.
The staff member explained, "Lin Nai, when you are fully aware that you are dreaming, most of what you think about can actually come true. Do you understand?"
"That means that if we can control our dreams and conduct research there, the experiments will only develop in the direction we imagine and hope for. Then all the results will be wrong."
"Unless we can overcome that obstacle..."
"I see."
Lin Nai wore an expression that said he more or less understood.
Oh.
He really did understand.
It was simple and easy to grasp.
Not like that magenta guy who said he understood but actually did not understand a thing.
"By the way, is your so-called dream control only for studying?"
"Yes, only for studying! Everything else is a no-go! You can't use it for anything else at all!"
The staff member proudly lifted his chin.
Of course.
Scientists really were terrifying.
Rather than a machine for controlling dreams, it was more like a machine that forced people to study in their dreams.
It directly restricted every other possibility.
The machine they made probably guaranteed one hundred percent lucid dreaming, but you could only study in the dream...
But did that really count as sleeping?
Wait.
Come to think of it, did reading dirty magazines count as studying?
With that thought, Lin Nai asked the staff member in front of him.
The staff member froze. A question mark appeared over his head, and he indignantly slammed the table as he shouted, "Lin Nai, are you awake? If not, go ask Madam Herta to introduce you to a fiancée."
"H-How can looking at that kind of thing count as studying?!"
"How does it not count? For example, poses and such. You have to read with a thirst for knowledge! What filthy thoughts!"
"???"
Listening to Lin Nai seriously turn the question back on him, the staff member stared blankly as his brain trembled.
W-Was he the filthy one?
The staff member was completely dumbfounded.
For a moment, he did not know whether he was wrong, Lin Nai was wrong, or the whole world was wrong.
In the end, it could all be summed up in one sentence...
Staff member: What the hell did my mother give birth to?!
Without continuing to pay attention to this guy whose CPU had burned out, Lin Nai moved on to treat the next person.
Seriously.
There was still a long queue on his side.
He needed to finish quickly.
Some staff members were still in pain. The sooner they recovered, the sooner they could go back to doing whatever they needed to do.
He really hoped they would be more careful.
The less they suffered, the less work the medical bay had to do.
But the more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became.
In that case.
Lin Nai took out his phone and stared at his contacts for several seconds.
Then he ignored the three sixty-second voice messages sent by a certain shorty.
And sent her a message.
Lin Nai: You there? Explode Gold Coins?
Silver Wolf:???
Silver Wolf: You? ****************!!!!!
Herta: I Know You're in a Hurry...
Three days later.
Herta's office.
Lin Nai was once again at Herta's mercy—meaning, undergoing a physical examination.
It felt like he had undergone more physicals this week than he had all of last month.
Herta did not examine him once a week.
Sometimes a month would pass between checkups, sometimes half a month, and sometimes it would only be a week.
But because of that strange dream this week, this was a follow-up examination.
But how should he put it?
Herta came up empty-handed every time.
Lin Nai did not know how she had managed to persist all these years when she had never found anything unusual about his body.
Of course.
Maybe it was also because he had shown Herta his abilities before.
Like healing, the Guillotine Blade, or certain strange little skills.
That was probably why Herta had remained interested and persistent.
She wanted to know how he could test as an ordinary person in every way, yet develop strange little skills every so often.
For example, a clover that could be planted in the ground and blow airborne objects away. Herta had researched it for a long time back then, though she had not discovered anything.
"His strength and everything else are clearly changing, so why do the examinations always show the state of an ordinary person? There's nothing unusual in his blood either."
Herta frowned, utterly unable to understand why things were still the same after so many years.
Before you continue