"Where would be a good place to begin, I wonder," the doctor said, tapping his chin.

  "Let's start where the fake diary you gave me ended." Alex tapped the book on his desk.

  "You sound like a man who bears grudges easily, but I don't think it's safe for me to apologize to you.

  After all, you were snooping in my office." The doctor smiled.

  "You're right about bearing grudges.

  I've been known to be quite unreasonable when it comes to that." Alex smiled.

  The doctor smiled back and avoided the topic while picking up the fake journal.

  "Where's the real one?" Alex watched the doctor flip through the diary.

  "First of all, this isn't a diary but a journal.

  This does not represent my feelings but my work." The doctor read the diary with interest.

  "'I can't help but look in the mirror every morning and watch as the failure of a man stares right back at me…

  I tried a new treatment today and, as always, Shae Harris was very averse to complying.

  I can't blame her, since this must be due to her lack of trust in my capabilities…

  I applied a new method into the patient's drip, and it pained me to see them utterly excited…

  Not even hoping for the prospect of an improvement…

  Why doesn't it work when I add this chemical to the equation? Of course it wouldn't work. Or have I always been this stupid?

  Do I even deserve to be working here…'" Alex let out a long speech using snippets of what he remembered seeing in the diary.

  "That is a needed reflection of myself in order to gain inspiration in my work." The doctor snapped the diary shut.

  "Yeah, feelings." Alex snorted.

  "What you call it and what I call it doesn't matter.

  What you want to know is the rest," the doctor said.

  "Well then, I'd be happy to check through it myself—though I am wary of you tampering with it." Alex stretched out a hand.

  "No need to look at it yourself when I can just tell you about it." The doctor leaned back into his chair.

  "I insist. You understand, right?

  About needing to check with one's own hands?" Alex glared at him.

  "I agree. In my line of work it's best to double-check all facts personally when dealing with a patient." The doctor nodded.

  "I'm not your patient. Now hand it over." Alex was always a guy with a short fuse.

  His normal line of action would be to intimidate the doctor with his fists.

  As for the guards outside, well—he could deal with them as a show of power if need be.

  But the reason why he had been so civil was because the doctor was too calm.

  Dealing with impulsive people is quite easy.

  Just provoke them.

  Handling those with arrogance and pride is also easy.

  Beat them into submission.

  While for those who are sly—well, Alex doesn't have much patience to play word games.

  He prefers to be domineering and force the answer out.

  The type of people who present the most trouble are the calm ones.

  Those who, when you barge in unannounced, can pass you a seat and invite you for a cup of tea.

  They show no surprise and neither do their emotions fluctuate.

  They respond politely and answer your questions truthfully.

  Such that you start to doubt everything they say and leave with answers that give you even more of a headache.

  Harming these people using violence is not worthwhile.

  They don't budge, and their aura gives off a feeling of dancing in the palm of their hand.

  All this is what talking to the doctor feels like.

  Somehow you get the sense that he looks down on you yet is also very humble and polite.

  Treating you with respect.

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  "Well, it's not something I can hand over," the doctor said.

  "Why not?" Alex had a bad feeling the doctor was about to say something weird.

  "That's because it's all here." The doctor raised a finger to point at the side of his head.

  "I believe I told you that I'm not joking." Alex's fist clenched on the table.

  "Yes, I've heard that quite a lot from your mouth." The doctor pushed up his glasses.

  "I don't think you’ve understood it enough yet.

  Need some help?" Alex grabbed the doctor by the collar and dragged him over the table.

  "Can you please let me go?" The doctor wasn't angry; he just fixed the lopsided glasses on his face.

  "Only if you can understand that I'm not a man of patience." Alex tightened his grip.

  Even though the doctor was choking, his gaze was still calm.

  "Let me explain first," the doctor struggled to say.

  Alex snorted and threw him back.

  "That was uncomfortable." The doctor rubbed his neck and tidied up his shirt.

  "I'm waiting." Alex leaned back into his chair and put his legs up on the table.

  The doctor merely glanced at the mud-stained shoes dangling in front of him, then proceeded to move objects away from the table.

  "The reason why I said it's in my head is because I didn't write anything down after that page," the doctor said.

  "And you expect me to believe you didn't destroy it because you knew I would come snooping?" Alex raised an eyebrow.

  "I have nothing to hide from anyone. Not even you," the doctor replied.

  "Why were you so sure I would come to your office?" Alex was curious.

  "The voices told me about you." The doctor pointed at his head once again.

  Alex was once again reminded that this guy was crazy.

  So the story of him memorizing the diary might actually be true.

  Wait—does that mean he was crazy even before the apocalypse began?

  Just how does the Shae family choose their doctors?

  "I'm not crazy." The doctor could see it on Alex's face.

  "If you say so." Alex looked at him in pity.

  "Anyway, so let's say you did memorize the diary or journal—as you would call it—" Alex was interrupted.

  "I didn't memorize anything. At the time, I could not trust my fellow doctors with the journal," the doctor replied.

  "So you're saying you believed the other doctors would use your journal for harm?" Alex found the whole plot interesting.

  The doctor went on to explain some things.

  The other doctors that worked alongside him were Shae family informants.

  And the Shae family depended on the people admitted to this building dying.

  Their goal was to make themselves look like saviors and martyrs to the general public.

  For that, they needed to make sure the patient with a rare illness died.

  Spin off a sob story about how hard they were striving to cure the patient.

  Then offer a cure and weep about how it was too late for the dead patient but not too late for others.

  This would cause pity among the public, which influences their emotions.

  Emotions lead to wants, and wants lead to spending.

  Increasing the money entering the pockets of the Shae family.

  Added with the fact that the family who bought said drugs would receive free admission into this hospital.

  The Shae family had already marketed this place as a paradise for the sick.

  Standard equipment, compassionate staff, the promise to fulfill any request of the patient.

  These illnesses were very rare.

  One in half a million.

  So the building could never truly be full.

  After the patient enters here, they become trapped.

  The supposed drug—which costs their families every penny—doesn't work.

  The staff is rude and looks down on the patients.

  Their communication with the outside world is blocked.

  Nurses guard them 24/7 to prevent escape.

  In short, it becomes hell.

  The doctor joined the hospital after the death of his sister to cure these illnesses.

  He earnestly researched day in and day out in the lab.

  But oddly enough, he found that his progress was declining.

  Feeling suspicious, he observed the people around him and realized they had been tampering with his samples.

  That was when he realized the truth and stopped writing the diary.

  Instead, he tried to commit everything to memory and hide his progress.

  The only person who knew the truth was Shae Harris.

  That was because he needed a test subject with the worst case.

  To Shae Harris it had minimal effect, but to the other patients the effect would be multiplied by a hundred.

  It worked to ease pain and delay symptoms.

  Of course, he never told the patients he administered the drug.

  After all, the security around them was too strict.

  Meanwhile, Shae Harris was practically abandoned with only the two of them.

  The Shae family had lost their use for her once they pronounced her dead.

  They didn't even bother to monitor her and left everything to him.

  Not because the doctor was competent but because they knew about his sister.

  They did it as some sort of joke—because he couldn't save his sister, and because of how Shae Harris was.

  After his sister died, the person who had been the most memorable to him was Shae Harris.

  She was so bright for someone whose life was so dim.

  The contrast made her unique.

  He thought he had found someone he could ally with.

  But the smirk on her face when she told him what he was doing was useless nearly drove him mad.

  The doctor claimed not to have hit her and fled in anger and humiliation.

  He felt humiliated because the product of his obsession didn't even think he could do it.

  After that day, the doctor sought her out over and over again.

  Trying to persuade her not to give up hope and to fight to live.

  But she rebuffed him over and over with that same infuriating smirk.

  She laughed at his efforts.

  Laid on her bed as he applied a test drug and asked him to play along with her—

  A game where she guessed when she would die and sighing about how she wouldn't get to see his face afterward.

  She would taunt and ridicule him each day.

  All while whispering in the ears of the other patients about how the doctor was a liar.

  Warning them to refuse his help and scream if they ever saw him with a syringe.

  She warned them to stay awake during their painkillers.

  Painkillers that weren’t normal but a special brand that caused intense pain before knocking the patient out.

  Unconventional, but it relaxed symptoms for a day.

  It was also how he gave the patients his test drugs - by mixing it with said pain killers.

  His work got harder—and that was what Shae Harris wanted.

  She made a point to remind him.

  The doctor once accused her of wanting to kill herself just to spite him.

  He found her with a cut arm, smiling at him the next day.

  She told him she wanted to cut the wrists but then she wouldn't see the look on his face if she died too quickly.

  It was from then on that she started to misbehave.

  She would slash her arms and act crazy, pretending she wanted out.

  But the doctor knew this was a play solely for the two of them.

  In a fit of rage and desperation to make the crazy girl find a reason to live—

  He let her go out with permission from her parents, claiming she would die in a week.

  Shae Harris helped in her own way, though he doesn't know the details of how she convinced her parents.

  That was the last time he saw her because the outbreak happened the day she left for school.

  The doctor had no idea why she chose to go to school.

  Alex was about to speak when he heard a sound in his head.

  It reminded him of when the speakers in his classroom would glitch before an announcement.

  "Are you okay? I'm a doctor, I can help." The doctor walked around the table and pressed a hand on Alex's shoulder.

  "I'm fine." The sound disappeared a second later, and Alex slapped the hand away.

  "I understand.

  It must be shocking to hear about the real Shae Harris and just how much malice she had." The doctor returned to his seat.

  "So you're saying there's a problem with Shae Harris?" Alex asked.

  "I know there's a problem. A problem beyond us tiny humans." The doctor said.

  [ Hint : the doctor's story might reveal hidden truths ]

  "What do you know?" Alex felt it was too much of a coincidence for the system prompt to appear.

  "This was all told to me by the voice in my head." The doctor tapped his head.

  Alex observed him for a minute but decided to leave it be.

  This crazy man probably wouldn't spit out anything else.

  Most importantly, he already had a new direction.

  "I'm leaving then." Alex walked out of the office.

  "I remember she quite liked sports. You can start from there," the doctor called out.

  Alex just waved his hand to show he heard.

  Inside the office, the doctor leaned back and wiped the blood trickling from under his eyes.

  Luckily his glasses hid it before Alex saw.

  The voice in his head started to whisper.

  It cursed the damn system for injuring it even though it was only held back for a moment.

  It praised the doctor for using that second to focus the direction on Shae Harris.

  Then it cackled, thinking about torturing Shae Harris.

  It wanted to pry open her mouth and ask how those brats had defeated it twice already.

  "Hmm, the system user should be the best person to bring that crazy girl back—even if something is protecting her.

  I find myself delighted at the prospect of our reunion.

  Hopefully she has changed her mind and decided to live—with my help." The doctor said as the eyes hidden beneath his glasses turned red.

  Somewhere else, Shae Harris sneezed and rubbed her nose, cursing that stupid doctor at the Shae family hospital.

  She only sneezes whenever he thinks of her.

  Honestly, just remembering his face made her lips twitch and she almost smirked evilly.

  "Why are you making a scary face?" Wei Zhi shifted back from her.

  "I just remembered a guy I loved to torment." Shae Harris smiled widely.

  Completely throwing the memory away.

  Wei Zhi: I don't think that's something to be happy about!

  "What are you guys talking about?" Mori Aoi came forward.

  "About how much I love you." Shae Harris clung to her and kissed her cheek.

  Wei Zhi: You!!!

  "It's time to go," Yi Zheng called from the driver's seat.

  "Let's go." Shae Harris dragged Mori Aoi into the van while she dragged Wei Zhi.

  The two girls ran into the van laughing while Wei Zhi just smiled.