Cool tones became the dominant color in the hallway, appearing dim and oppressive under the silver and gray, while the sound of dripping water echoed from the ceiling above.
In the empty yet oppressive white patient room—
A doctor, clad in silver-white, with orange prosthetic eyes and wearing a mask, was speaking.
Beside him stood a smart medical robot, its face a glowing screen displaying the patient's condition through a mix of text and images.
On the bed, a red-haired woman wore a respirator, data cables pulled from her wrist and connected to a large instrument nearby, with various thick black wires exposed on the instrument's exterior, conducting a data survey on the woman.
"Ms. Martinez's injuries are not severe. What caused her to fall into a coma was not the impact from the car accident, but rather her prolonged fatigue; she seems to have never gotten proper rest.
Additionally, she did not replace her cybernetic organs according to citizen guidelines, nor did she come to the hospital on time for detoxification of her organs. These are the main reasons why she is currently in a coma."
The doctor, who looked even more like a robot than the robot beside him, continued:
"In short, this car accident became the trigger for her internal organs to rebel. This makes me very curious: how did she manage to maintain high-intensity work even when her internal organs, including her heart and nervous system, were failing? What drove her to do this?"
David pursed his lips, his eyes welling with tears as he anxiously said, "Then what should we do? Please, save my mom!"
"Don't be nervous, Mr. Martinez. First, we will replace her failing internal organs," the doctor said with a smile.
At the same time, the screen on the medical robot beside him changed, displaying several pictures and numbers.
Those were organs, all sorts of cybernetic organs.
Of course, there were also natural organs, but good natural organs... were actually more expensive than damn cybernetic organs!
But was this expensive thing really meaningful?
Poor people couldn't possibly afford them, and rich people wouldn't come to a district hospital like this to buy replacement organs.
In Night City, there's no shortage of places selling black market organs. Take the Scavengers, for example; after extracting all value from a person, they ultimately use that person's body. Therefore, organs are not valuable in Night City.
Cybernetic doctors in Night City have plenty of discarded organs, and where do those organs go?
To hospitals, of course...
But the cheapest ones here cost tens of thousands of Euros!
Is the hospital selling them with the idea of scamming whoever they can?
"This will ensure her body functions normally and won't continue to weaken under high-load conditions. Next will be some basic medical care. In short, Ms. Martinez's situation is not complicated to handle."
After speaking, the doctor looked at David and continued, "So, what kind of package do you plan to purchase?"
"I, I..." David stammered. He only had a few hundred Euros on him, but the cheapest package on the medical robot's screen was 54,000 Euros.
He couldn't afford it at all!
So, David's gaze fell on Jax.
Jax looked at David's pleading eyes, nodded, and then prepared to transfer money to David. This money... he'd consider it his sponsorship for Night City's future legend.
But a voice suddenly rang out.
"Let me pay for it. I'll pay for this," Maine suddenly said.
Jax and David both looked at Maine.
Maine stood outside the ward, his large hand resting on the metal composite door. He hooked his sunglasses down with a finger, looked at David, and said, "Your mother and I have a business deal. If it weren't for this accident, that deal would have been completed in the next two days, so let me pay for it. Consider it my down payment."
"Thank you, Maine, thank you," David said gratefully.
Seeing this, Jax shrugged, letting Maine pay the bill.
"Eighty thousand..." David was stunned when he received the money.
"Buy a better medical package," Maine said with a wink and a chuckle to David.
David nodded, then looked at the doctor, "I want to buy the C-level package for 80,000 Euros."
"Thank you for your trust, Mr. Martinez. Please pay here," the doctor said with another smile. This smile was more sincere than the previous one, and he even bowed slightly to David.
Beside him, the medical robot displayed the payment interface.
David immediately transferred all the money.
"Alright, Martinez, please sign this guarantee," the doctor said.
David looked at the so-called guarantee, which was full of dense terms and conditions, and Jax was also looking.
Finally, Jax could summarize it in one sentence—a hegemonic clause.
For the C-level package, if an accident occurred during surgery, the hospital would not compensate. If there were any objections, one could complain to the relevant departments.
Yes, this was a commodity. If you had an objection, you complained.
And complain?
In Night City, where would ordinary people go to complain?
NCPD?
The NCPD had long been in cahoots with the major corporations.
People always talked about gangs, but in reality... wasn't the NCPD also a big gang?
Helpless, David could only sign the terms.
The doctor then looked at David and said, "We will now begin preparing Ms. Martinez for surgery. Please everyone leave here for now. I will inform you of the exact completion time of the surgery later."
Subsequently, everyone was asked to leave the ward and waited in the cold hallway. About ten minutes later, the doctor pushed Gloria's bed towards the operating room, followed by the medical robot.
Immediately after, two security robots appeared before them.
"What's the meaning of this?" Maine, who had never been to a hospital for treatment, saw this and laughed in exasperation.
Sasha, who had some understanding of hospitals, calmly said, "They're here to watch us, to prevent us from causing trouble later."
"What if we bought the A-level package?" Dorio asked from the side after thinking for a moment.
"Then we would probably be in a VIP room, or even allowed into the operating room to watch the doctors work, and if an accident occurred during surgery, the hospital would pay us huge compensation," Sasha said.
She said this, chewing her bubble gum and blowing a huge bubble.
"Don't worry too much. If Gloria's condition was very troublesome, he wouldn't have used reassuring language to persuade David to buy the package, as he's afraid of being recorded. So, if it were truly a troublesome situation, they would speak vaguely instead of giving guarantees."
"And, more than that."
Sasha narrowed her eyes, her bubble popped, and she looked towards the end of the corridor.
At the same time, everyone in Maine's crew stood up, and David also nervously followed suit.
At the staircase on the fourth floor of the hospital, an old man wearing a cowboy hat appeared, followed by five people dressed in 6th Street Gang attire, and... Reiner was among them.
"Jax, your people are here," Sasha said.
Jax looked over, a sneer on his lips.
How annoying...
Although he knew this was 6th Street Gang territory and being found by them was only a matter of time, was this... a bit too fast?
They had left the warehouse less than an hour ago, and now they were already at the hospital?
It seemed he still wasn't famous enough.
Jax thought this as he looked at the group of people.