It took a lot longer for me to get used to the new access that I had as vice director, so much so that I had to skip dinner and had to have a nurse inform Vadeem and Noel of the fact. I had thought that I’d be done with it in a few hours at most, but my short introduction of had lasted into the night. By the time I had some understanding of my control over Hope’s Memorial, the Director had already left, and I only had hours before the Aspirants were due to invade.

  Noe had offered to do the bulk of the processing for me, but I thought that I should get a handle on doing things on my own every now and then, in case one of her wayward shards came along and screwed with her fancy computer bits. Plus, I owed it to Molly and Abigail to do my best as the vice director; I wanted this hospital to be as much as they did, and it’d be rude not to give it my all. Well, in the end, I still had to have Noe help me out a bit with organizing all the cool new info and the sheer memorization of information, but that was it!

  “Alright, Molly,” I said, putting away the last of the stacks of paper accrued on my new office desk, “I think I have the most of it. Let’s get all of the staff gathered, and I’ll give my formal speech as their new vice director.”

  Molly raised an eyebrow. “You have it all memorized? The madam took close to a week getting it all sorted out, and while your true form is impressive, you are hardly at your prime right now, Walter.”

  Okay… maybe Noe helped out a little more than just that… But I would have done it all with more time at hand!

  “I got it,” I assured, “I still have some tricks up my sleeves, even half asleep.”

  “You would be a mess without me, my Host,” Noe chimed.

  Molly gave me another dubious look before nodding her porcelain head. “If you say so. I’ll be going as well then, Walter.”

  “You can’t stay?”

  She chuckled. “I can hardly come in my true form without a lot of precautions and the Director’s direct involvement, not to mention the consequences if I acted directly here. I don’t think I need to remind you that I am not the most subtle of individuals. Plus, I’d be a burden here as a doll. It’s better if I ensure that Alice and Toby are taken care of. This will be the first time that they are away from home for so long, even with Bob’s impressive new tech.”

  I frowned. “Well, I guess that’s fair. Just… take care of those two.”

  “I will, and you take care as well, Walter. I haven’t properly thanked you for what you did in that village.”

  I grimaced. “Uh… Claire wasn’t calling it even?”

  She smirked, genuine amusement showing. “Hardly, Walter. That was an appetizer, although I suppose I can forgive you if you handle this situation well. Think of it as extra motivation to do well.” She floated up to me and gave me one final pat on the shoulder. “Now go, the people have already gathered. Do us at Hope’s Memorial proud, show them what the illustrious Dr. Walter can do.”

  I returned the smile. “You bet I will. Keep the kids entertained, because I promise you that I’ll show the invaders just what it means to anger the honest folks here. This little invasion’s nothing, our real goal is to clean out the corrupt shareholders.”

  Molly chuckled. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet. Those leeches have entrenched themselves deep into this world. Getting them dislodged from their position of power will require power and resources that we don’t currently have.”

  “Currently is the key word though,” I said, “and I’m fucking Dr. Walter. I always do the impossible, so don’t think that things will continue to be the same. I’ll dislodge the bloodsuckers before long, I swear it.”

  Molly’s smile turned into a laugh. “You know, I actually believe that you will do just that. If you manage it, then I’ll grovel whenever you need me to. But enough talk, Walter. You really do need to go.”

  “Aye aye, Molly. Say hi to the kids for me.”

  She gave me one final nod before disappearing into the void, leaving me alone in the office for the first time. No, that wasn’t quite right. Ever since I got promoted, a small portion of my mind was linked with Hope’s Memorial. I wasn’t truly alone, and if I concentrated a little bit, I could feel the heartbeats of every living thing in this building. I sighed and prepped myself for what was to come. Right, let’s give these unfortunate invaders a proper welcome.

  * * *

  The various staff and other inhabitants of Hope’s Memorial, save the crucial staff needed to maintain the hospital’s functions, were gathered before me. There wasn’t a space wide enough to gather so many, so I made do with using the cafeteria. Noel and Vadeem stood to my side, looking down on the various monstrosities with unmitigated hostility. I had already gone over what I needed those two to do prior to my general address, and with the new abilities that I’ve gotten, their jobs shouldn’t even be all that dangerous. In fact, I think it’ll be a nice way for them to let out some of their pent-up rage and frustration that’s built up over the last few months.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Of course, all of this was on the premise that Noe could do the one thing that I hoped she could. The one thing that I’ve learned through my new vice director role was that I had the ability to create and enforce rules, but that only applied to the people properly integrated into the hospital. That was the reason everyone had to register with Sarah. Without that integration process, my control over them would lessen to an almost comical level.

  A part of the reason it took so long for me to finish the meeting with Abigail and Molly was that we were trying to rub heads and think of a way to circumvent the main advantage that the invaders had. They would be sent here directly, and without the Director’s influence, it wouldn’t be possible for them to be screened by Sarah. Things seemed hopeless until Noe suggested that she could, in theory, take over Sarah’s role for the Aspirants under the Trash Matrix’s influence.

  Her takeover of Central’s worthless Matrix was going smoothly, and she could now make small adjustments to its Trials if I was within proximity. It wasn’t complete, but changing the status of some Aspirants should be within her power, but there were some caveats. What role could we reasonably assign them?

  Having all of them change into patients would be impossible with the current resources available to my system. We could maybe do a dozen of them at most, but several thousand? Menial staff was also out of the question since harming staff, even if they were fake staff, would have dire consequences for the reputation of the hospital. That left us with only one real choice: they’d all be assigned as visiting guests.

  Guests were only loosely associated with the hospital, so the integration process was minimal, but that did come with certain downsides. As guests with no real ties to Hope’s Memorial, they didn’t require employee handbooks, which meant that they didn’t have any individual rules that they needed to follow. That meant that I couldn’t make unreasonable new rules to fuck them over. The only thing I could use was general hospital rules.

  Unfortunately, as directly stated by both Molly and Abigail, making general hospital rules was a lot more difficult than making specific rules for staff or patients. The logic was that whatever strange laws the inhabitants of this plane followed didn’t allow for unreasonable stipulations, otherwise, the entire hospital was at risk of being shut down. That meant that I had to think about what I could do. For one, they couldn’t be unreasonable or illogical, so stuff like “All guests will die after entering the reception” is off-limits. I wasn’t quite sure what would be and what wouldn’t be reasonable, but the Director assured me that Sarah would only implement the ones that didn’t go too overboard.

  Still, all of this hinged on the invaders coming in as guests and not just invaders.

  “You don’t need to worry, my Host. I am 99.94% sure that your proposal is possible.”

  And what’s that 0.06% uncertainty?

  “That is on the unlikely event that you die before the Aspirants come,” she replied. “I do not think that will happen, but I am not omniscient, so the margin of error is still there.”

  Don’t you think 0.06%’s a bit high for me to somehow die in a few hours? That’s like a 1 in 2000 chance.

  “It is 1 in approximately 1667, but have you seen your life so far, dear Walter? You run into danger without a second thought, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that mess of a body explodes due to the contrasting organs,” she quipped. “It is only that low because I am here.”

  I forced down a sigh. Alright, fair enough. Let’s go under the assumption that I won’t spontaneously combust or implode.

  “That would be wise, my Host. And I would also suggest you address the staff now. They are growing impatient with their new vice director.”

  Er, right. Amp up the awe and my presence, Noe. Just enough so that any points we spend now will be replenished before the mission starts.

  “As you will, my Host.”

  I cleared my throat and glanced over at the anxious staff. Even with Noe’s liberal application of the Emotional Redux skill, the fear and uncertainty didn’t fade all that much from the expressions of the staff. Right, I’ll have to take it upon myself to infuse respect and trust. Noe’s powers can only go so far if I do nothing myself.

  “Valued staff and patients of Hope’s Memorial!” I said, projecting my voice to every corner of the hospital.

  From my new connection to Sarah, I saw that the people not currently present in the cafeteria were surprised that I could speak to them through the hospital itself and not through the intercom. It was an ability usually restricted to the Director herself.

  “I think I need no introduction,” I continued, authority oozing from every word that I spoke, “But I will repeat it in any case. I am Dr. William Walter, Hope Memorial’s number-one physician and the doer of the impossible. I understand that you are all feeling nervous about the imminent invasion and of the Director’s absence. Many of you know that I will be in charge now, but what you do not know is that I will no longer work as a physician. That is no longer my role here!” I stopped for just a moment for dramatic effect. “Starting today, I am the vice director of this lovely institution!”

  I concentrated (with a lot of help from Noe) on my link to the hospital and forced the entire structure to twist and turn to my will, but more than that, I infused a little bit of my own essence into the building. Projections, videos, and other arcane manifestations started to play around the hospital; on the walls, on the various displays, and in every corner of the building, images of my various deeds played on repeat. More than that, I mimicked what Abigail had done, and a portion of my Xollon aura was also projected. From the startled expressions of the staff, I think they finally started to understand the implications of what I said, and before long, cheers started to erupt from the halls and into the cafeteria.

  I silenced them before it could grow too loud. “For too long,g you have relied solely on Director Abigail to protect this medical facility! For too long have you suffered from the torment of the invaders coming in here and destroying everything that you hold dear! For too long, you have endured without a way to fight back, but that changes today!

  “I, along with the lovely Director, have found a way to strip these abominable invaders of their greatest weapon! They will no longer enter our sanctuary and place of healing without consequence. They can no longer enter as invaders, but as proper, law-abiding individuals! From now on, every invader will enter as guests to our lovely hospital, and I don’t think I need to tell you what happens to guests who overstay their welcome, do I?”

  More uproarious cheers met my question. Oh yeah, these natives knew very well what that meant. From what Abigail had told me, aside from my direct intervention to get rid of rule breakers, staff were also super boosted when they were tasked with vacating unruly visitors. As long as the Aspirants broke even the most minor of rules, they’d be facing juiced-up monsters straight out of hell, and I don’t believe for a second that these parallel humans were equipped to deal with that.

  My smile turned feral. “So what say we welcome our new guests in the only way that we can?”

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