Nightmare Paradise : Starting as a Doctor

Three days had passed, and Lynn found solace in the tranquil atmosphere of a small bookstore. The scent of aged paper and ink permeated the air, creating an intoxicating blend. 

Sitting at a sturdy wooden desk, Lynn focused on the books before him. It had been a few days since the encounter with the murder incident and these enigmatic men in black suits. 

Without hesitation, Lynn triggered his unique talent.

[Gemini Soul!]

Immediately, he felt the now familiar sensation of his consciousness shifting, Lynn then began quickly skimming through the medical textbooks stacked on the desk, his fingers turning pages with blinding speed. The sound of fluttering paper filled the air as he rapidly worked through each volume, absorbing the knowledge within.

He quickly finished flipping through the first book, a tome of over four hundred pages, in less than three minutes. Not only could he memorize a thick book of several hundred pages word for word in a few minutes, but he could also understand the entire book as if he had attentively read it for several months.

The experience gained from learning new medical knowledge was astonishing with this method. This rapid absorption of knowledge could not be replicated by anyone else. It was not just rote memorization, but proper comprehension and ability to utilize what he learned.  

Just one minute of reading under the effects of [Gemini Soul] saved him countless hours and months of normal study. It was an incredibly efficient use of his time.

However, due to the continuous drain on his emotions that occurred when using [Gemini Soul], Lynn dared to only use it for a dozen minutes at a time before needing to rest and recover. 

As a result, after three full days of intense reading, he had only gotten through about twenty of the hundreds of medical books in this bookstore. Still, it was an impressive amount absorbed in such a short period.

The knowledge gain was still substantial, but Lynn realized that simply plowing through every book was not the most effective approach. Most of the texts contained repetitive foundational medical knowledge, with only small sections conveying truly new information.

However, after finishing these books over the last few days, Lynn could now be considered a well-informed medical professional with a strong foundation.

At least regarding medical knowledge that doesn’t involve the extraordinary, he was quite knowledgeable compared to most doctors in H City.

Lynn closed the last book and neatly stacked the volumes on the desk. 

As Lynn left the bookstore, the sun was beginning to set, casting an orange glow over the city. 

Walking through the city, he used his mind to pull up his status panel to check his progress. Just from reading the books, he had gained a decent chunk of experience.

[Player: Wandering Doctor]
[Authority: F-Rank]
Class: [Doctor lv7] (56%) 
Talent: [Gemini Soul]
Attributes:
[Strength 14] [Dexterity 16] [Constitution 15] [Intelligence 15] [Perception 15]
Class Skills: [Cell Proliferation] [String Threading]
General Skills: [Evaluation lv1] [Swordsmanship lv3] [Spiritual Vision lv1] [Quickstep lv1]
Equipment: none
[Attribute Points: 5] [Skill Points: 11]

Lynn nodded in satisfaction as the experience increased. But it didn't take long for his eyebrows to furrow as he realized that this easy method of gaining experience would soon become useless.

The diminishing returns of experience gained with each finished book were becoming more apparent. "It is no longer as effective as before. The only other way to gain experience is to put into practice the knowledge I obtained," Lynn muttered to himself.

"But pretending to be a doctor without the appropriate documents in this world is not only difficult but also risky." Lynn contemplated the dilemma. "The risk of being pursued by the police, even if they couldn’t catch me, or having my face featured in a wanted poster is something I want to avoid."

Lynn's mind raced, brimming with thoughts of potential solutions. "No," he contemplated, "there must be an alternative path..."

He opened the other new section he had been exploring in the last few days - the [Trading]. It was a place for players could trade items amongst themselves, using nightmare coins as the medium of exchange.

The first time he entered this section, Lynn’s eyes were slightly dazzled by the sheer number of things listed for trade or sale. But as he inspected the listings more carefully, his face twisted in a strange expression.

[Three-legged toad carcass
Price: 10 nightmare coins.
Quantity: 1]

[Beast Bone
Price: 5 nightmare coins.
Quantity: 1]

The trading section was constantly updated with new objects, each seeming more useless than the last.

Luckily, there was a search bar that allowed buyers to look for specific terms and the players could also use the skill [Evaluation] through the panel to inspect the element before buying it. Without these features in place, the majority of people would likely avoid using this section due to the inherent risk of scams.

In the past few days, Lynn ventured through the array of items proposed in this section, and he discovered that he could find everything he could possibly imagine.

This abundance of items was not entirely unexpected, given the substantial number of players coming from diverse worlds. The convergence of these different backgrounds and resources created this situation.

Even [Extraordinary Characteristic] that could potentially give a class skill were available, although they were extremely expensive, and most of the time could only be exchanged against another [Extraordinary Characteristic].

"If normal medical knowledge can't give me experience, then what about extraordinary knowledge?" Lynn muttered to himself as he browsed through the trading section.

An idea popped into his head. He opened up the search bar and pondered what terms he could enter to find something useful.

"Let's see...maybe books about extraordinary medicine?"

After a moment of contemplation, Lynn typed "extraordinary medical book" into the search bar. The results that appeared made his eyes widen.

Several listings for rare medical texts popped up, but what immediately caught Lynn's attention were the astronomical prices listed.

"4,000 nightmare coins for a single book?!" Lynn exclaimed as he clicked on one of the listings titled [Presentation of the Spiritual Anatomy]

Lynn inspected the listing carefully, utilizing his [Evaluation] skill.

[Presentation of the Spiritual Anatomy]
[A medical text presenting the energy pathways and spiritual anatomy underlying the physical body.]

"It’s not even a graded item,” Lynn murmured. But the cost was truly staggering.

As he checked some of the other listings.

He discovered that one after another, all the extraordinary medical texts ran from thousands to tens of thousands of nightmare coins. Lynn only had around 3,350 coins in his account currently.

"The extraordinary medical knowledge is really expensive," Lynn sighed. "Completely out of my reach for now."

"It seems I need to take a little bit of risk." Lynn finally declared aloud.