His phone buzzed with a group message.
[Group Chat: Medgrind 3.0]
Joyce: Dinner @ Snow Crane. You alive, trauma boy?
Jason: Heard you triaged a two-patient standoff this morning like a damn war general. Tell us everything.
Joyce: I want drama. Jason wants pathology. Spill.
Edan smiled despite the fatigue. Of course they heard. Nothing stayed secret in a med school cohort for more than ten minutes, especially among friends who lived and breathed hospital gossip.
He replied:
Be there in 20. Save me a seat and a dumpling.
Snow Crane was a quiet Taiwanese place a few blocks from the hospital, popular among residents and students alike for its forgiving hours and hot tea that never stopped flowing. By the time Edan arrived, Joyce Pater and Jason Hart were already seated in a corner booth—Joyce sipping oolong and Jason hunched over a notepad covered in anatomy mnemonics, chopsticks forgotten on the table.
“Look who survived the trauma bay,” Joyce grinned, standing to pull him into a hug. “You smell like iodine and burnout.”
“More like cold sweat and trauma gel,” Jason added, sliding over to make space. “I read the case on the trauma board. You ID’d a hidden wrist fracture?”
“Distal radius,” Edan corrected, sitting down. “And pneumothorax before imaging. We decompressed right in the bay.”
Jason gave a low whistle. “Damn. That’s bold.”
Joyce raised an eyebrow. “So, tell me—how does it feel to have more practical hours this week than most of the PGY-1s?”
Edan shook his head with a laugh. “Like I need a nap and an entirely new identity.”
Their laughter filled the booth, an anchor pulling him back to normalcy. Joyce, with her boundless empathy and sharp tongue, was top of their class in patient satisfaction scores. Jason, relentless and observant, aimed for radiology but had a weird obsession with surgical trivia. They were his constants—the people who knew his weaknesses, his cramming habits, his caffeine threshold, and now… the people he’d need to keep this secret from.
He wasn’t ready to explain VitalSight, or the system menus, or the fact that he could see a person’s health tick away like a timer. Not yet.
“Any news on residency tracks?” Edan asked, trying to steer the conversation.
Joyce leaned back. “Still between Family Med and Pediatrics. I like continuity… and kids don’t lie about pain.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Jason gave a dramatic eye roll. “I need machines. I’ll let Joyce talk to people. Radiology, all the way.”
They both looked at Edan. “You?”
“I don’t know yet,” he said truthfully. “Internal’s calling, but trauma made sense in a way I didn’t expect.”
Jason squinted at him. “You're the type who’ll double-board someday, huh? The overachiever path.”
Edan just smiled faintly. They have no idea how literal that prediction might be.
That night, after dinner, Edan walked home alone under the cooling sky. His small apartment was modest—a second-story unit near the med school campus, still scattered with textbooks and clinical guides. He collapsed onto his futon and, for the first time all day, summoned the system interface without interruption.
[System Menu – Full Access Mode]
EXP: 90/100
Skill Points: 2
System Sync: 30%
Perks Unlocked:
VitalSight (Passive)
Clinical Awareness II
Pattern Recognition II
Triage Reflex I
Ethical Judgment I
Branches Opened:
Internal Medicine
Emergency Medicine (Crossover Branch)
New Feature: Synergy Pathways
Activated upon unlocking skills across multiple specialties. Generates compound bonuses and hybrid abilities.
A glowing icon pulsed at the bottom of the menu. He tapped it mentally.
[Synergy Pathway: Acute Insight]
Conditions Met:
Pattern Recognition II (Internal Med)
Triage Reflex I (Emergency Med)
Bonus Effect:
Enhances detection of rapidly evolving conditions with unclear presentations. Reduces diagnostic delay by 15% under time pressure.
Synergy Level: 1
Unlock more synergy pathways by acquiring 3+ skills from different branches.
Edan sat back, stunned. So blending specialties doesn’t just give breadth—it creates new depth.
The possibilities exploded in his mind: integrating surgical skills with diagnostic insight… blending psychiatry with pattern analysis… even public health overlays in outbreak scenarios. The system wasn’t just a cheat—it was a training scaffold that rewarded interdisciplinary mastery.
[Suggestion: Apply Skill Point?]
Available Branch Upgrades:
Internal Medicine: Diagnostic Anchoring I
Emergency Medicine: Rapid Response Mapping
Synergy Pathway: Acute Insight II (Locked, needs 3rd skill)
He hesitated.
Internal Med keeps me precise. Emergency makes me decisive. But what if I don’t have to choose?
He selected Rapid Response Mapping under Emergency Medicine.
Skill Acquired: Rapid Response Mapping
Improves decision-tree speed under chaotic conditions. Highlights most efficient diagnostic tests based on context.
+10% chance of selecting ideal workup order under stress.
Synergy Bonus Progress: 2/3 Required for Acute Insight II
Keep exploring to unlock full synergy bonuses.
Edan closed the interface and let the glow fade. The hum of traffic outside filtered into the room, distant and calm. He stared at the ceiling for a long moment.
This thing… it’s not just about being better. It’s about becoming the kind of doctor who can think past the silo.
His phone buzzed again—another message from Joyce.
Joyce: You okay? You get quiet after trauma. Just checking in.
He stared at the screen, then typed back slowly.
I’m okay. Just thinking about where this all leads.
Joyce: Wherever it does, you won’t go alone.
Edan stared at the message longer than he meant to. Then he smiled.
He would carry this secret for now—but when the time came, they’d be by his side. Friends. Rivals. Team.
Next Mission Chain: Differential Dilemmas (Internal Medicine Tier 2)
Triggered by: Overlap symptoms in a non-verbal patient
Time limit: 8 hours
Reward: +50 EXP, unlock Pediatric Focus (Sub-specialty side path)
But first… sleep.