Chapter 165 Can Of Worms

Lee Seng was led to the Third Year hospital wing's telepad. Dr. Wyles-Anderson and Nurse Rachael had led him there. Lee Seng slipped his shoes on and bowed at the two before reaching to open the telepad door.

"I'm sorry we couldn't do anything else to help you. I hope you get all of your answers from Dr. Valentin. He's been in this industry way longer than both of us combined." Dr. Wyles-Anderson spoke.

"Don't worry about it, doc. Thank you both for trying to help me regardless of if you could or couldn't help me." Lee Seng nodded.

"If you ever get hurt while training, come by. We can do everything else." Dr. Wyles-Anderson smiled. Lee Seng waved goodbye to the doctor and nurse and stepped into the telepad room. The automated light turned on as Lee Seng shut the door behind him. He pulled his phone out and began to set the destination from the Third Year hospital wing. When he finalized the destination, he clicked the button and felt the familiar blazing light engulf him.

In a split second, Lee Seng had appeared on the other side of campus. He stepped off the telepad and opened the door to the First Year's hospital wing. Lee Seng moved right, closing the door behind him and popped into the lobby. A nurse was sitting behind the desk handling another patient's papers when she noticed him.

"Ah, hello. I'll be with you in a sec." She smiled.

"No, need, dear. I can take him." Dr. Valentin walked out of the right hallway. The nurse looked up at the doctor and nodded. "Continue your work." He smiled at her before waving Lee Seng to follow him. Lee Seng wandered down the familiar path all the way to Dr. Valentin's office.

"Sit up there and we'll get started." Dr. Valentin instructed. Lee Seng nodded and moved past the doctor and hopped up onto the platform and curled his fingers on the edge of the bed. Dr. Valentin closed the door and sighed. "I've been informed of what happened, but I want you to tell me what happened."

"First day of Glass Specialization training with Ms. Winters. We were supposed to fight Fighter training bots on the same difficulty, but when I got around to it, the training bot recognized my voice and switched the difficulty. I literally got pummeled around and would've died if it wasn't for my Cloak being up." Lee Seng explained.

"Your cloak?"

"Mmm, it's this cloak that, uh…" Lee Seng began to stop and think of how he should explain it. "Allows me to shave off some of the negative effects I put onto myself with my powers."

"This cloak helps you in battle?" Dr. Valentin grabbed the tablet sitting on his desk and tapped away at it. The room began to hum and come alive as lights and technology started to turn on.

"Mmm, it makes me lighter, too." Lee Seng nodded.

"Well, that's good that you didn't take too hard of a hit, but you still managed to get pretty beat up." Dr. Valentin explained. He flipped the tablet and handed it over to Lee Seng. "That," he pointed at the tablet. "Will tell you the rest of the story that Dr. Wyles-Anderson couldn't tell you."

Lee Seng Chang has sustained a high amount of bruising and internal bleeding due to the training bot. During initial scans, we found there was something embedded into his stomach. We had to do a quick surgery before I could call one of the healers to finish the work on him and we found out something strange. Chang's body reacted like it didn't want to be pried open and dug around. I managed to pull the sharp object out of his body, but Dark Matter-like liquid forced its way out of the patient's body and caused damage to the surgery room and everyone in it.

There were about six people in the surgery room that were all injured due to the Dark Matter-like substance that forced its way out of the patient's body. I have reported this to the higher ups and they have immediately compensated me and the others for the damage and forced us on a couple week leave.

Lee Seng glanced up at Dr. Valentin who sat in front of him. He watched the doctor take a sip of his tea and raised his eyebrows.

"The Dark Matter-like liquid forced its way out of my body and hurt the six people who were operating on me?" Lee Seng asked. The doctor nodded and cupped the mug in both of his hands.

"Indeed." Dr. Valentin nodded.

"They were compensated and forced to go on vacation for two weeks? For what? To forget about what just happened?"

"They'll be dealt with so they don't remember what happened to them earlier today. That's all." Dr. Valentin shrugged. Lee Seng felt his response to be a bit unnerving. The doctor never acted like this.

"Is this because of what happened? The abnormality that Dr. Wyles-Anderson talked about? This is what the Numbers are hiding from everyone?"

"We're making sure nobody finds out about what other things are happening to you. You had your powers for a month, Lee. You need to understand that new powers take a lot of stress on you even if you don't think it does. Plus, your appearance reflects yourself as a human-fox hybrid and you have the Protocol freely coursing through your veins at this very moment. Your body is under a lot of different changes and we don't even know why you physically changed, either." Dr. Valentin explained.

"My body's under a-a huge a-amount of changes?" Lee Seng confusingly looked at his body. "I don't feel physically exhausted at all, though."

"With the research on myself and the other Numbers, physically you feel fine but underneath all of that, you're not. Your body is changing and growing. The Protocol seemed to react to the surgery like someone was trying to hurt you and retaliated." Lee Seng glanced back down at the tablet and skimmed a little more.

'Black tendrils erupted from the patient's body and the next thing I remember was I was being pulled out of the surgery room. Everything I've reported is based on the other employees in the room and those who heard the commotion.' Lee Seng read.

"This was all reported by Dr. Reynolds?" Lee Seng asked. Dr. Valentin nodded his head.

"Dr. Reynolds fell unconscious and those who were able to pull him out and/or were conscious reported what happened." Dr. Valentin pointed at the tablet. Lee Seng nodded and moved off the raised bed and handed him the tablet.

"You didn't want to just chat, did you? What do they want?" Lee Seng asked. Dr. Valentin shifted in his chair and shut off the tablet screen. He sat the tablet on his lap as he exchanged it with his cup of tea. He sipped for a while before he let out a sigh.

"Look, Lee Seng." Dr. Valentin looked at him. "A lot of things have been happening ever since you've awakened your powers… The others… No, I want to know if you're going to need more help with all of this." Lee Seng knew what Dr. Valentin was doing. He didn't like that Dr. Valentin, of all people, was saying this to him, but nothing's been smooth ever since he made that pact with the Fox god or whatever he's called. Lee Seng let out a sigh and nodded.

"Nothing's been the same ever since the day I awakened." Lee Seng fidgeted with his fingers.

"Nothing has been, but it's an adjustment everyone needs to get used to."

"Just get to the point, Geoff." Lee Seng's voice raised. He looked up at Dr. Valentin. He was getting impatient. "What's wrong and what do I need to do? I can't just refrain myself from the Protocol. I can't not get hurt while practicing or in the field. I can't just sit idly by and allow my dad and all of his little Numbers to babysit me."

"I know you don't like it when others press you on your business. Trust me, I know."

"I don't like it when you and them press me on my business." Lee Seng corrected. Dr. Valentin simply nodded and focused his gaze on his tea. He took a sip and sighed. He looked up at Lee Seng and continued to nod. "So what's the point?"

"Let me make this clear since you aren't in the best of moods." Dr. Valentin's stern voice turned on. "You lost control during the exam and killed a squadron of the Academy's security team. You got off scot free and that was pushed under the rug because we didn't want you to be attached to that."

"You didn't want the Protocol to get uncovered."

"Let me continue before you really do get me impatient." Dr. Valentin interjected. He stood up and set the tablet on the table and stood behind the chair. "You got off free for murdering a squadron of people. I want you to remember that because you lost control of the Protocol, which wasn't your doing, you killed people in the end. That's all they'll see if this gets out. We tried our best to cover it but whatever happened today isn't going to be so easily covered up. So, we're going to try our best to cover it up by using whatever means we have to. You'll get a lot more attention, but you need to keep a low profile, alright?"

Dr. Valentin moved over to stand in front of Lee Seng and stuck his hand out. Lee Seng's impatient nature was eating at him as he was trying to listen to Dr. Valentin.

"And if I don't?" Lee Seng's eyes moved from Dr. Valentin's hand to his eyes.

"Then you can be sent back to your father and you can be done here."

Lee Seng bit his lips and rolled his eyes.

"What do I get out of this then?"