Tough case

After the quartet reached the nearest bus stop, they split. Dimitri and Sofia headed to the school, and Anna took Michael to see her mom. They arrived at the hospital half an hour later.

It was a strange thing to see such an old facility. Rather, it was modern for 2008, but Michael experienced the miraculous machines of two decades in the future, so nothing impressed him. In Russia, his focus was elsewhere, and he had no expectations about the medical tech.

Now, it wasn't his family whose life was in danger, and he had no support from Splendid Glory. A terrible thing to say, but Michael had no sense of urgency like the last time.

The doctors here had a better bedside manner and cared more about their patients' family members' feelings. When Anna led Michael to her mother's room, a nurse already invited a doctor to consult them.

"Mom. How are you?" Anna brushed the woman's hair. "This is Michael who I told you about. He helped me earn all that money," she added, her cheeks stealthily turning pink. That was by far not the most important thing about Michael Anna had described to her mother.

"Hello, Mrs. Novikova. I am Michael North, please, call me Misha. Your daughter is a very bright and inspiring young woman, one I'm proud to call a friend."

Anna evidently took after her mother. Natalia Novikova had the same pale complexion and slender, lithe figure as her daughter. The woman's hair was brown like Anna's, and she had long, thin fingers with weird stubs on the tips.

Michael stepped out, letting his friend talk to her mother and called the doctor.

"Those things on her fingers, what is that?"

"That's a symptom of her disease."

"And what exactly is wrong with her?"

"And you are…?" the doctor stretched his words.

"Friend of the family."

"Young man, I'm sorry, but we don't give out privileged information to anyone but family members."

"I'm also the one who decides if Mrs. Novikova gets upgraded to a VIP suite," Michael used a typical approach for the wealthy. "You saw that Anna brought me here and introduced me to her mom. I'm not a stranger. I just want to know more and make Mrs. Novikova more comfortable."

The doctor sighed but relented, "Pulmonary fibrosis, an acute one. It's a scarring of the lung. The patients have trouble breathing, lose weight, experience ache in their joints. Mrs. Novikova also presents a symptom you've noticed, the clubbing on her fingers. As far as we can tell, her current condition is a result of a previous pneumonia."

"So, she had trouble breathing and fell into a coma?"

The doctor's eyes darted at Anna. He hesitated before adding, "Miss Novikova doesn't agree with us, but the MRI shows distinct damage to her mother's head. Likely physical trauma. Due to the lack of oxygen, something went wrong with her brain, it stopped responding."

Michael gave his friend's mother a helpless look. Removing a simple tumor took him a month, so how could he intervene with a brain? On the other hand, if he took care of the scarred lung tissue and then tried to wake her up… it wasn't impossible. Still, Michael didn't like his chances.

"Thank you. When she gets transferred to a VIP suite, I hope the standard of her care will be the best you can provide."

"Of course," the doctor nodded at the youth. It felt strange to be ordered around by a boy, but if his words about throwing money around were true, it could help some of the poorer patients.

"Hey!" Michael called for Anna. "Let me remind you, miss millionaire, that you have the funds to get your mom a better room. I'd recommend something more expensive. Even if it won't do her much good by itself, the doctors and nurses will see her differently. They might come up with something just to make you happy."

Anna nodded enthusiastically and ran to speak with the doctor who was tickled silly. Wasn't the boy supposed to pay? Instead, he made the girl part with her own money. Some friend of the family he was!

As soon as the doctor accompanied Anna to take a look at their deluxe accommodations, Michael took Natalia's hand and sent his energy towards her lungs. When his supernatural sense found some scarred tissue, he carefully tried to heal it. Surprisingly, it went much easier than with his father's tumor.

Flawed Healing technique had only one function: it made healing with glory points more effective. Tumor needed to be destroyed, not healed, or at least that's how Michael used his energy. His own LZD1 was genetic, so there were no organs to send glory points into, the disease was present in most of them. However, Anna's mother needed her lungs healed, and that was something Flawed Healing Technique helped a lot with.

After making sure he was able to solve at least part of the problem, Michael sent the energy further, to the woman's brain. Grey matter was one of the most mysterious and unknown parts of the body, so he was extra careful to contain the ball of light's emanations.

Then, somewhere in Natalia's skull, he noticed an anomaly, an indentation in the bone that pressed on the brain. Michael tried to push on the bone in order to straighten it but was unsuccessful. His only skill didn't see the process as healing and didn't increase its efficiency.

"As I already told you, miss Novikova, the head trauma is inoperable. The risk to damage the brain is too high. And your mother's situation cannot warrant a lung transplant. Her comatose status puts her very low on the list. I'm sorry, but money or no money, at this moment there's nothing I can do to wake her up," Michael heard a voice and the sound of footsteps.

He called on the energy and sent it to the lungs. The cultivator coated the organ's surface with the light and, after making sure the treatment took effect, his conscience emerged back into reality.

Michael had no idea how the process worked. He knew there were Psionic and Martial Skills that he hadn't seen yet, which required him to use Mental Power and Life Force. But glory points that gathered in his brain were a representation of the world energy of the highest order. His cultivation was too pathetic to use it, so how did he do it?

'Glory,' he thought, 'How meaningful are glory points? For example, if I could use them to increase my cultivation level, how many would I need?'

Splendid Glory was unable to answer his first question, so it went directly with the second one. "Advancing from 1-stage, 8-star to 9-star requires an equivalent of 4,650 glory points."

"Eeeeh? I make that much in two days! Can't you reconsider and let me use them to increase my level!?"

"Host, please do not be playful."

Only after Michael learned that, he realized how much of a bottomless pit LZD1 was. And the extent to which his current situation was out of balance. The small amounts of energy he received while cultivating or spent on abilities had no comparison to what he earned through good deeds or wasted on treating his genetic disease.

"Glory, use the rest to ease my symptoms. Also, I'd like a quest to heal Anna's mother."

Silence.

"Michael?"

"Ah, you're back. What do you think, is it worth it to get your mom a better room?"

"I'm not sure, but I still want to do it," answered the girl.

"You should. Get her a quiet place where she won't be disturbed."

Anna nodded at the doctor who promised to make the arrangements later that day.

"Good. It'll give you some privacy when you come to see her again. I will come too."

The girl beamed when she heard her friend would like to accompany her again to visit her mother. Michael was the best, after all.

'That privacy will go a long way in treating her lungs.' In reality, Michael didn't care about Natalia's comfort. While he was unconscious, he didn't hear the visitors' voices, so the belief that comatose people can still use their senses seemed like a joke to him. He only did that to heal her in peace.

As for Anna's reading, it helped the girl feel like her mother was still with her, so Michael didn't stop her.

"What now? It's getting dark soon."

"Let's go back to school."

Even though Michael had a new task to complete, he had to save up on glory points first. Meanwhile, there were a great many things to do. Prepare more videos for his YouTube channels, finally sign up for a partnership with the website, talk to Zhao and give him some money, begin step two of developing a cure for cancer, establish North Gaming. Also, Michael admitted with shame, he had to catch up on his school assignments. Ah, perhaps an update with new levels for Angry Birds was in order? Anything to put off homework!

But there was one thing he could do on the very same day. When Michael got home, he used his new bank card to buy a smartphone. His old Android phone couldn't connect to the Internet, and a nouveau riche like him could afford something better.

Then, he remembered those song lyrics he copyrighted almost three months ago using all of his piggy bank money. Now, he was well-known enough to be taken seriously, but was it time to cross into the entertainment industry?

Suddenly, an idea came to Michael that made him forget all about the stupid lyrics. Copyright! Protect his future prospects! He immediately began buying website domains. Anything with the word "north" was in his sights. His name would be his brand! Who cares if he never gets to use them, owning them is enough!

northgaming.com!

northacademy.com!

northfitness.com!

northmedical.com!

northindustries.com!

All of the above with ".org" and ".net" domains!

And many, many more.

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