Medical Request

"Civilization Preservation Society..."

Mulling over the name, Ivette thought for a moment and decided to begin hacking immediately. On one hand, she wanted to see whether this Civilization Preservation Society was sincere or running a scam. On the other, she figured the website's servers had probably collected plenty of information, and perhaps she could get it for free.

But unexpectedly, the intrusion was blocked before long.

Unlike the outdated static rule-set firewall used by the Blackwater District Police Department, this website employed dynamic defenses, with very few vulnerabilities that could be exploited continuously. Sometimes, she would finally break in, only for the anomalous access route to have its credentials revoked less than a second after appearing.

It gave Ivette the feeling that she was engaged in rapid offensive and defensive combat. The opponent was extremely skilled and had a sense of "breathing" to their methods. It did not feel much like AI, but more like a top-tier Rune Hacker.

After a brief consideration, Ivette decisively abandoned the attempt. Normally, hacking a system was like playing chess against a dead man, but this time, it felt as though a living person sat across the board from her. That changed everything. Though she had used proxy nodes, false addresses, and traffic obfuscation for concealment, there was no guarantee the other side would not catch some trace of her.

She had no desire to have someone trace the network cable back to her.

For the time being, she set aside the mysterious Civilization Preservation Society, whose origins were unknown but whose anti-hacking capabilities were top-notch. To avoid alerting the enemy, Ivette spent the following month or so living a relatively peaceful and tranquil life.

On Welder's side, sales of Arcane Wind Blades met expectations. Aside from one package kept for personal use, the remaining four sealed packs had all sold, purchased by the same local gang leader.

Selling those last four packs meant that 200,000 credits had arrived in her account, bringing Ivette much closer to the 500,000-credit Elemental Decay Completion Technology.

However, since she had little else to do and also wanted to prepare for certain fields in the future, Ivette added her neighbor Regal Hoffman's work account through the contact information on his business card that morning.

"Good morning, Mr. Hoffman."

"Good morning. Oh, Miss Sien, is something the matter?" Regal asked in surprise when he saw Ivette on the holographic screen.

Having lived there for a month already, Regal, his wife Susan, their eldest son Hans, and youngest daughter Mary had become fairly familiar with their neighboring "cousins," Ivette and Rosaline. Whenever they passed one another in the hallway or met on the street downstairs, they would warmly exchange greetings.

Because they were similar in age and interests, Rosaline had become especially close with Hans and Mary. They could be considered good friends.

As for Ivette, the older cousin, although she looked young as well, her manner of handling things was unexpectedly mature, nothing like that of a child. Thus, whenever they happened to chat, Regal and Susan would unconsciously treat the silver-haired girl as someone their own age.

"It's like this, Mr. Hoffman. I've had plenty of free time recently and read some books related to potions, which gave me a strong interest in medicine. I wanted to ask whether you could offer me some guidance, or allow me to observe and learn from some treatment procedures," Ivette said. "Of course, I'll pay reasonable tuition for it."

Aside from Rune Compilation, rune medicine was the field in which Ivette had the second-largest reserve of professional knowledge. After all, Abyss Base contained the most professional books in the field of rune medicine, and quite a few were even internal Black Tower secrets.

She had read them when escaping the base, but since she had not needed them then, she had not studied them seriously.

Although magical machinery and energy reserves remained her primary research directions, there was no harm in properly digesting the rune medicine knowledge she had previously skimmed through while she had spare time. She would need it sooner or later anyway.

"This..." Regal had clearly not expected such a request. He hesitated. "I'm sorry, Miss Sien. It's not that I don't want to teach you, but I don't have a teaching certification. And even if I did, this would have to be conducted through a professional educational institution..."

"You only need to let me observe. Twenty thousand credits a month. What do you think?"

"Twenty thousand..."

Regal swallowed. He was actually practicing medicine without a license, something the residents of Wright Apartments and his longtime customers around Acid Street knew very well. As a result, his fees were especially low. Among doctors of the same level, others earned around seventy thousand a month, a solid middle-class income, while his own earnings did not even reach twenty thousand.

All he had to do was let this little girl follow along and observe, and his monthly income would more than double!

Even with the risk of illegally spreading knowledge, the gamble was entirely worth taking!

Besides, he did not have a medical license to begin with. No use worrying over more debt when he was already drowning in it, and his patients would keep it secret for him...

After joking to himself, he immediately said, "All right, Miss Sien. Whenever I make a house call or a patient comes to the clinic, I'll send you a message. Does that work?"

"Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Hoffman," Ivette said with a nod.

That afternoon, Hoffman Clinic received a customer. The person seemed troubled by tinnitus and had come seeking treatment and medicine.

Ivette immediately went next door to the small clinic in the Hoffman home. While observing, she also received Mrs. Susan's warm hospitality. She was clearly there to study, yet the little table beside her was piled with pastries, making it look as though she had come to enjoy herself.

Still, Ivette understood Mrs. Susan's mindset. She was probably treating her like a major patron.

She remembered that their children, Hans and Mary, both attended Black Tower Middle School, an elite top-tier school. Its annual tuition was 300,000 credits. Even if Regal worked himself to the bone every day and Mrs. Susan took a job as well, they still had to shoulder steep student loans and even more terrifying interest. Their quality of life was worse than that of the low-level Blackwater District residents earning four or five thousand a month.

So it could not be denied that this understanding was part of why she had suddenly made such a learning request to Regal.

After observing the treatment process for a while, Ivette saw Rosaline walk directly in through the door. After politely greeting everyone, she did not disturb Regal's work and instead asked, "Mr. Hoffman, Aunt Susan, are Hans and Mary here?"

"They went out this morning. Are you looking for them to play?" Susan asked kindly.

"Yes." Rosaline gave a sweet smile.

Since the day she had crossed over, this was the first time she had made friends who could be playmates, and their personalities got along well. With little happening lately, she had been spending her days wandering around with Hans and Mary whenever she could, as if she were on summer vacation, and she was happy every day.

"Wait, let me check..." Susan opened her Magic Guide Terminal and activated a subscription-based family safety service. It allowed parents to know their children's real-time locations and quickly call the police if they encountered danger.

After looking for a while, she said in surprise, "They seem to be on Scrap Iron Avenue... That's five kilometers from here. What are the two of them doing all the way over there?" After a pause, she grew a little angry. "And they won't answer their calls! Those two children!"

Scrap Iron Avenue was an old street, and its safety rating was actually fairly decent. The street was full of shops, so the chances of an accident were low. Besides, the alarm had not gone off, and unilaterally declining calls was standard behavior for rebellious teenagers. But as a mother, Mrs. Susan's face quickly showed a hint of worry.

She muttered to herself, "Could they have run into danger?"

"Don't worry, Aunt Susan. They'll be fine. I'll go check on them right away," Rosaline said. After exchanging a look with Ivette, she immediately went downstairs and hailed a taxi to Scrap Iron Avenue.