By the usual tropes of urban wish-fulfillment novels, when the Doctor protagonist stepped in to save a life, the patient’s family should have instantly lost all critical thinking.
The moment he declared, “I can cure this!”, they were supposed to believe him unconditionally, without a shred of doubt.
Yet, Henry Wade had completely shattered that expectation. To be precise, the protagonist’s usual IQ-lowering talent had failed.
And the reason? Alex’s special title: [Modern Villain].
This title granted immunity to those nearby, preventing them from being affected by Eric’s reality-warping protagonist aura and the so called iq reduction.
Henry Wade’s reaction? That was how a normal, rational person should respond.
Beside him, Sera was also sitting in the car, sipping from a bottle of milk shake. She’d been feeling dehydrated lately and needed to replenish her fluids.
A sudden stir rippled through the gathered crowd. The tightly packed spectators shifted slightly, creating a small gap, just enough for Sera to glimpse Eric standing in the middle of the commotion.
“Huh?!” Sera let out a surprised exclamation. “That guy… isn’t he the quack doctor who ‘treated’ my grandpa?”
After her grandfather’s passing, she had learned from the hospital what had really caused his sudden deterioration.
According to their explanation, after Eric Vaughn’s acupuncture treatment, the old man had indeed seemed to regain vitality, his face glowing, his condition appearing to improve drastically.
But in reality, this so-called ‘recovery’ was nothing more than his final reserves of life force being forcibly drained, a last flicker before the flame went out.
Once his life force was fully exhausted, his condition had plummeted into irreversible decline.
The hospital had originally been able to keep him stable, at least long enough for Sera to rush back from school and see him one last time.
But even that chance was taken away.
Because Eric had damaged the hospital’s life-support equipment, rendering them unable to sustain the old man.
Because Eric had assaulted the foreign specialists who had been flown in to help, leaving them unable to provide treatment.
The hospital had tried everything. But in the end, they were powerless. And it was all, every single bit of it, Eric Vaughn’s fault.
“You know him?” Alex asked, feigning ignorance.
Sera sighed, her expression darkening. “We met once. I sprained my ankle, and he used acupuncture to treat it. He even promised that he could cure my grandfather’s illness…”
Her voice trailed off, her mood sinking further.
“But in the end, he was just a fraud. A liar who couldn’t save my grandfather, even…..” She didn’t complete the sentence like her throat stopped her.
Alex put on an exaggerated look of surprise. “Acupuncture for a sprained ankle? That’s a first. Any random doctor in a hospital could’ve just fixed it with a little bit for message.”
“Huh? Really?” Sera felt a wave of doubt creeping in. Back then, she had trusted Eric simply because his acupuncture techniques looked flashy and impressive. She had fallen for the theatrics.
‘Hmph! So he really was just a fraud.’
Alex nodded. “Maybe his methods are just… different from standard medical practices. By the way, what’s his name? Which medical university did he graduate from?”
Sera shook her head, taking another sip of milk shake. “I don’t know. I forgot to ask, and he never said. I didn’t really pay much attention to him.”
Hearing this, Alex nearly burst out laughing.
“Didn’t pay much attention”?
‘Oh, that’s rich.’
“Don’t tell me… he never even went to university?” Alex raised an eyebrow.
“Uh… I have no idea.” Sera absentmindedly took another sip, leaving a thin layer of milky residue on her lips.
Alex sighed, shaking his head. “You knew nothing about him, yet you let him treat your grandfather?” He couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer power of the protagonist’s IQ-lowering aura. Still, he decided to educate her a little.
“Medical students go through years of training and need to earn multiple certifications. More importantly, anyone practicing medicine must have a medical license. That’s to prevent unqualified people from making small illnesses worse or—worse, turning serious illnesses into fatal ones.”
Boom!
Sera’s mind went blank.
Slowly, she looked up at Alex, her eyes welling with tears. Her lips, still coated in a thin layer of milk shake, quivered.
“I… I think I made a huge mistake.” Until now, she had comforted herself, telling herself that Eric wasn’t to blame. That even without him, her grandfather’s illness was already terminal.
But after hearing Alex’s explanation, she realized how horribly, horribly wrong she had been. Her grandfather could have lived a few more days.
And yet, she had recklessly dragged a random self-proclaimed doctor off the street and into the hospital, without asking a single question, without verifying a single thing.
This was her fault.
[Female Lead ‘Sera Kleinberg’ has suffered a mental breakdown. Congratulations! You’ve gained 2,000 Critical Points.]
“Don’t worry… you didn’t know anything and more importantly your grandfather wouldn’t blame you.”
Alex reached out and gently wiped the milk shake residue from Sera’s lips with his thumb before stepping down from the his sports car.
“Come on, let’s go see what’s happening. And while we’re at it, we can ask him which medical school he graduated from.”
Sera quickly followed behind him.
….
The crowd’s accusations and curses seemed to have no effect on Eric Vaughn. He ignored them entirely, instead walking a slow circle around the unconscious, white-haired old man.
Stroking his chin, he glanced at Henry Wade, the middle-aged man beside him, and spoke with confidence.
“If I’m not mistaken, your father has hypertension, diabetes, and chronic bronchitis. Right now, he’s experiencing a stroke. If I’m right, he had one just a few days ago and was recently discharged from the hospital, wasn’t he?”
Henry Wade’s expression instantly darkened.
“How does he know that?”
Very few people were aware that his father had been hospitalized for a stroke. On top of that, they had admitted him to a private hospital owned, meaning there was no chance of any information leaking out.
Unless… This crazy-looking young man had been keeping tabs on them all along. At that thought, Henry’s expression turned cold.
“Spit it out. Which group do you belong to?”
In the city, there were some groups that had the resources and the audacity to spy on the Wade Family. The Kleinberg Family used to be a contender, but after recent setbacks, they were too busy saving themselves to meddle in Wade Family affairs.
Eric Vaughn blinked in confusion.
“Group? What the hell is he talking about?”