Jack completed his first mission without fanfare.
Ten injuries treated across Port Victory.
Ten lives saved for money, favors, or information.
Ten moments where his Transparent World made the difference between survival and death.
The system chimed quietly as he washed blood from his hands in a cracked basin.
[MISSION COMPLETE: "A Surgeon of the Streets"]
Rewards Granted:
15 Skill Points
Skill Unlocked: Sterile Field
A new mission immediately replaced the last.
[NEW MAJOR MISSION: "Sanctuary of Sins"]
Objective: Build an underground laboratory / illegal clinic.
Additional Objective: Treat at least 30 criminals, fugitives, or wanted crooks.
Rewards:
• Pocket Dimensional House (Era-Styled Modern Interior)
• System Storage Access
• Clinic Reputation System Unlocked
Jack read the mission carefully, a slow grin forming.
An underground clinic.
His own territory.
A safe place to operate, experiment, and earn favors.
In this world, information and survival were currency—and he would become the banker.
Building the Illegal Clinic
Jack spent days scouting abandoned basements, sewage tunnels, and half-built warehouses.
None were stable enough.
None were secure enough.
Then he found it—an old cellar beneath a butcher's shop, long unused and half-collapsed.
He bribed the owner with free medical treatment for life, and the basement became his.
Jack worked relentlessly—hauling stone, reinforcing beams, scrubbing walls with improvised antiseptic he crafted from available herbs and alcohol. The Transparent World helped him avoid collapsing structures and rotting wood.
By the end of the week, the hidden clinic was ready.
A simple room:
• A sturdy wooden table for surgeries
• Shelves for medicine, tools, and anatomy books
• A hidden trap door leading to a crawlspace
• Buckets for blood disposal
• Candles and oil lamps arranged to avoid shadows
And in the corner, a locked chest for his system-purchased equipment.
He called it The Underworks.
A Brutal First Case
The first patient arrived before Jack expected.
Dragged in by two gang members late at night, a young crook bled heavily from a deep stab wound near the kidney. The air reeked of iron and panic.
"Doctor… please," the man gasped.
Jack didn't comfort him.
He wasn't a kind man—just efficient.
"Put him on the table," Jack ordered.
The Transparent World activated instantly, letting Jack see the torn muscle layers, the slow leak of blood, the trembling kidneys struggling to function.
He grabbed his sterilized tools.
"This will hurt," he said plainly.
Then he cut.
Blood spurted, the wound deeper than expected. The patient screamed, but Jack continued without hesitation—clamping vessels, cutting necrotic tissue, stitching with precision no surgeon of this era possessed.
When he finished, the crook was alive—barely, but alive.
The gang members stared in awe.
"How did—?"
"You saved him—!"
Jack wiped the sweat from his brow.
"Payment," he said flatly. "Money or a favor. Choose."
They paid in both.
The Clinic Grows
Word spread fast.
Criminals, thieves, smugglers—all sought the mysterious surgeon who didn't ask questions, didn't judge, and didn't refuse.
Jack treated bullet wounds, broken bones, infections, and diseases this era called "mysterious curses."
By the twentieth patient, his clinic was already whispered about in alleys:
The Ghost Surgeon.
The Man Who Sees Inside You.
The Dodger's New Trade.
Jack only cared about the mission counter.
By the thirtieth patient, the system chimed again.
[MAJOR MISSION COMPLETE: "Sanctuary of Sins"]
Rewards Granted:
• Pocket Dimensional House (Era-Styled Modern Interior)
• System Storage Access
A doorway of shimmering light appeared in front of him.
Jack stepped through.
Inside was a Victorian-style modern home—electric lights disguised as oil lamps, plumbing hidden inside wooden walls, a kitchen that looked old but worked like modern appliances.
A sanctuary.
A hideout.
A place no one could follow.
Jack exhaled deeply.
He finally had a home.
Unlocking His First Breathing Technique
Back in the Underworks, the system pinged again.
[TEMPLATE PROGRESSION: 10%]
New Ability Unlocked: Sun Breathing — First Form (Self-Defense Ready)
Warmth spread through Jack's chest.
His muscles tightened with new strength.
His lungs expanded with power meant for warriors.
A simple instruction appeared:
"Breathe in as though the sun rises within you."
Jack followed it.
His entire body shifted—faster, sharper, stronger.
Not supernatural, but undeniably beyond human.
In a world this dangerous, it was the first real weapon he had.
Facing His First Enemy
Jack stepped out of the clinic late that night—and stopped.
Three men stood waiting.
Knives drawn.
Eyes hungry.
"You've been treating our enemies," their leader snarled. "Bad for business."
Jack didn't speak.
He breathed.
Sun Breathing — First Form.
The world slowed.
Their movements became clear—muscle tension, blood flow, the exact instant they would strike.
Transparent World lit them up like anatomical diagrams.
They lunged.
Jack moved.
A sidestep.
A strike to a nerve cluster.
A twist of the wrist.
A hard elbow to a jaw.
One man collapsed instantly.
The second screamed as Jack dislocated his shoulder with surgical precision.
The third froze, dropping his knife.
Jack stepped forward, voice cold and low.
"If you want to live, spread the word," he said. "I am not your enemy—unless you make me one."
They ran.
Jack adjusted his coat, heartbeat steady.
He was no longer just the Dodger.
He was a surgeon, a fighter, a shadow in the criminal world—and something much more dangerous.
And this was only the beginning.