Chapter 17 : Troubled

Kai's POV.

"So you just happened to lose your prescription, you already know what the doctor gave last time, so you want me to administer it the same as your previous doctor?" said Kai to the obvious drug addict.

Sniffling, and shivering, the drug addict who sat on the consulting chair in Kai's clinic" Ye-es, that right. Just make it so that I can buy it at the pharmacy, you don't need to worry about it"

"I can give you the number to get some help instead, or do you want me to confirm it with your "previous" doctor who is stupid enough to give drugs to you? " Ryan said while mocking.

The drug addict stood up, and cursed," Screw you asshole" before he huffed away. It's a common occurrence in Hell's kitchen for cases like this. *Cling-cling* the doorbell sounded as the addict exits the clinic.

"Haaaa", Kai sighs. it's been a month since he opened the clinic. Business was slow at first, because of his reputation. But when people know that he gives a fair charge, albeit cheap, people especially in hell's kitchen seek him to get help instead of going to the hospital.

He had many patients, such as a child with a fever, many gunshot victims, dislocated bones, broken jaw, and more. After his first patient, he excitedly checks the quest progress. But it didn't move. "What's going on? Maybe because I'm only checking the kid for fever."

This has happened all the time since. He thought his quest was over, but the count on his progress didn't move at all.

Save people (0/10)

He is confused, so he asks the doctor about it in the chat, but the doctor just snicker and says "Of course those kinds of superficial things don't count, Save, not treat!". Kai realises that he had fallen into another trap by the doctor!

"Damn it ", he cursed. "Then let me go to the hospital. Who would go to the clinic with life threatening things?"

The doctor told him "Your medical licence is ambiguous in the first place. Also, where's the fun in that?"

*Cling-Cling* The door of the clinic opened. "Business is slow today?" a black man with a scary looking face walks in the clinic carrying some paper bags.

"I got many customers, it seems I'm popular in the drug addict circle." Kai said deprecatingly. "What's special for today", Kai asked while grabbing the food bag from Domingo, a scary looking dude with an afro.

He looks like a veteran gang member, but he's actually a rare kind of hell's kitchen person, the one who makes an honest living by opening a restaurant.After Kai treats him when he gets shot in the arm by his people, he makes an exception to deliver food to Kai as he knows that the doctor doesn't have a helper in the practice.

"You should really hire someone to hire Kai, maybe a cute receptionist. You're overworking, you know that right?", Domingo said with concern. Kai opened the clinic 20 hours a day, and barely took time to go out and eat. He has a deep eye bag on his face compared to the previous month.

"Well maybe I should, but not many people want to work in Hell's kitchen. " Kai said. He didn't plan to get a helper in the restaurant as he thought he'd finish the quest early. Domingo has a scary look on his face as he smiles.

He's been convincing Kai to get a helper after a week here. But no matter what he says, Kai will shut him down quickly. Domingo thought maybe Kai's had some story about his life, in which he didn't pry as a lot of people in Hell's Kitchen have baggage on them.

"Can you afford hiring people though?" the black man asks. Kai was giving the people here very cheap medical services and he works very efficiently. Many thought Kai's are running an illegal practice, even some cops come to check his clinic, but all his licence is legal.

There's no problem at all with him opening a store there. Domingo is confused by that. He sometimes wondered "why Kai doesn't work in a hospital, as he is clearly a professional, but opened a store here?"But he didn't voice it out to Kai as he's afraid he will come to his senses and walk away from hell's kitchen.

"There's no problem for one or two. " Kai opens the food bag, unwraps the burger inside, and takes a bite of it while talking to Domingo.

"Your food keeps getting worse and worse.", Kai said after taking a bite. Domingo has been coming to the clinic for a while, he is gradually getting used to him, and now he can even make jokes with him.

"You know I miss the day when you call me Mister", Domingo doesn't back down."I call you Mista" They insult each other for a while and Domingo leaves as he still needs to manage his restaurant.

Kai put some notices up on his window panel in front of the clinic before closing for the day. It is a "Help Wanted" ad. The next day, several women interviewed for the job.

He hires two helpers, Nina, a 45 years old Latino with experience in the medical field, and Lana, 30, black woman who's a single mom who is working two jobs. Lana quit the jobs she had before as the job at the clinic as Kai's offers a higher pay than both jobs combined.

Kai's don't forget to check their background first, medical history, and previous experience, as he didn't want someone with ulterior motives working there. It gets easier at the clinic from then onwards with extra help.

"You know that Knights or whatever start to plant trees now, Ya know if ya have extra money why don't you do something for the poor instead" Domingo said in a mocking tone, complaining to Kai.

Today, Kai comes to Domingo's restaurant instead to pick up his dinner. He had to close the clinic early today as he needs to settle a few documents, item procurement and insurance settlement.

This was also because he was nagged by Nina, who knew afterwards that Kai doesn't even have a day off for himself in opening his clinic. He gives Nina and Lana the basic employee's benefit, but he's hard on himself.

Drinking his coffee, Kai has a wry smile on his face as he hears Domingo talk about the issue.

His main body, Ryan, had already started his effort in planting trees. When Ryan conveys to Hiddle about his plan, Hiddle then makes it a campaign instead and then involves the company in it.

The media starts to make jokes about it, but for Ryan, he already saw this type of effort in his previous life."But, it's too late by then".

In the early 2000s people didn't care much about global warming, but those who have already experienced it know that early steps may avoid it.

He used his own funding for that. Also, he has set up some foundations, scholarships, refugee centres in war torn countries and many more humanitarian aid to the world from the profit he gets.

If the media knows about this,Ryan fears the consequences about it. "I can only watch people try to get the rich to contribute in my previous life, but now, I am the rich."

His effort causes his billionaire's status to fluctuate to turn back into a millionaire. Although he knows some people do give their best effort for the masses, some others are very selfish and capitalistic.

It is the norm for the poor to criticise the rich, so Kai joins Domingo in making fun of his company. "Who knows, maybe trees are more important for them than us," Kai said, shrugging his shoulders.

On his walk home, which is two blocks away, Kai hears something *clang-ing* in the alley. He takes a look and sees nothing.

"Maybe some cats," he thought. It was then he saw a pair of small legs, hidden by the trash. You'll miss it if you don't look closely. Kai checks out the situation and sees a small girl is unconscious, with a pale complexion, drops of sweat beading out from her forehead.

Kai considered for a while, to call the ambulance or else. As he sees the clothes on the girl, a small bag, " a runaway" he mutters. He knows in hell's kitchen, people have a complicated life .Carrying the girl like a princess, he takes the girl back to his clinic.

Quickly, he uses the x-ray glasses to check the girl's condition. "Her appendix had burst." Usually, he used the normal x-ray machine and followed the normal check-up routine, but there's no formal patient now, only an unconscious person.

The little girl is also malnourished, and had some parasites in her body. "Probably from eating food from the trash." Kai does a simple surgery on her to remove her appendix, put her on a nutrient solution, and antibiotics for the parasite.

"It's okay now." He sighs in relief. The girl is still unconscious while he rested on the chair observing her condition. He didn't go home that night and continued monitoring her.

The day arrives, and Lana comes in for her shift. She sees that Kai is sleeping on the chair in the monitoring room when she walks in. She also saw that there's a girl on the bed there with iv drops.

"Hey Kai, wake up", she says gently. Kai wakes up sluggishly, then he turns to Lana. "What time is it?" Kai asks. "Only 7.30" Lana replied.

"Who's she?" Lana turns to the girl on the bed.

"I saw her collapsed in the alley yesterday, I brought her in to check on her. Her appendix burst out, she may have died last night", he explained.

He goes to the sink and brushes his teeth. He keeps a spare toothbrush in the clinic as he used to stay there all the time . Kai asks Lana to monitor the girl while he goes to get breakfast.

He could use the system while the main body is sleeping, a perk he notices after being Kai for a while. But then, he notices the quest notification has some changes.

Quest : save 10 people (1/10)

"The number finally moves up." He realises that "I need to save near death or critical injury , being a clinic, It'll be hard to do that."

He gets some extra breakfast in case the little girl wakes up. Now he had to deal with another problem. When Kai returned, the girl just happened to be opening her eyes and is now speaking to Lana.

" You up kid? ", Kai's speech pattern turns to how he imagines the doctor's style of talking whenever he's with a patient. But he did that unconsciously.

The little girl stares at Kai and says "Thank you for saving me, but I have no money. I'll find some money to pay you later." She is trying to get up from the bed and leave but Kai put his hand on the girl's shoulder, pressing her back down on the bed.

"Are you keeping me here.. please let me go, i'll pay you later! " she begs. She has just ran away from her foster family, and now she's planning to live on her own. But living by herself for a week, she almost died.

" What your name kid " Kai ignored the kids begging. The girl calms down and says "Skye". Kai is shocked. He takes a closer look at her. "Isn't this the future earthquake girl", he thought.

" A single word, like Beyonce, Adele, Rihanna?" he teases. He knows that this is not her given word, but a name she made up on her own. Kai sees that the girl is tearing up. Even if she is the future tremor girl, she's just a little girl now.

"How old are you?" Kai stopped teasing her and asked seriously. Skye replied " I'm 14". Kai is surprised when he hears that. Skye's body is smaller than kids her age. He thought she was about 10. Kai asks the basic question about her parents and learns her situation.

Skye is nervous and almost cried the entire time."I don't want to go back to the orphanage again." It wasn't the first time she ran away from her foster family. It's just bad luck that she keeps getting foster parents that are exploiting her.

She is smart enough to understand that. She wants to find her parents, and ask why they threw her away. Kai releases Skye from his grip, he says calmly to skye. "You can go if you have a guardian. Right now, you need to pass gas first as you just finished your surgery."

Skye is embarrassed when she hears about passing gas. She needs to tell him when she farts! If Kai is not a doctor, she might think he is a creep.

"You also need to take some antibiotics for 4 weeks. I don't know what you ate but your body is filled with parasites." Skye is shocked when she hears that. " I don't have money for medicine" , she emphasised that again. Kai decided something that he is thinking about at the moment.

"If you don't have a guardian, I will be your guardian for now. After you're healthy, you can go, but now you're staying with me." Kai does not do this for a quest, to get benefits or so on, but he sincerely did that. For him, leaving the girl alone after he saves him is just irresponsible.

" If you feel that you need to pay me, or don't want to stay under my wing. I can hire you as a helper at my clinic. 100 bucks a week, what do you think?" He notices the hesitation on Skye's face and makes an offer.

It's easier to make her stay with this as she wanted to be independent. Skye's eyes brighten up and she decides quickly. " I'll do it!"

"Okay, now rest, I'll give you breakfast later, tell Lana if you've done the deed." Kai has some tact. It'll be embarrassing for the girl to tell him about farting, but it's okay to tell Lana about it.

He opened the clinic as usual. Lana asked him "Don't you need to rest. Until what time last night did you take care of her?"

"It didn't matter much. I got some rest at the clinic. It's enough for me." Today is a happy day. Finally, the doctor's quest is progressing. And also, his planting 10 million trees quest is done on the same day!