My Sniper System

Chapter 16 - Consequences and Reward

Within a few hours, we finally arrived inside the medical building. The night finally came, and the moon and stars twinkled above the sky. Everything was silent. But the building’s insides buzzed as if they were bees inside a hive, flying to one place after another. It was a hectic day, especially when the portals arrived and wreaked havoc across the world.

As we entered the busy hallway, the doctors and nurses exchanged looks when they saw our appearance. It was as if they had seen a ghost. Those medical staff also mumbled to each other, with their eyes slanted, and sent question marks in our direction.

I had enough of this gossip, so I went directly toward a doctor and asked the topic behind their conversation.

“What’s going on? We plan on paying the hospital bills today. I-I have the money right here. If there’s something you need just to save Hina’s parents… I could-...”

But before I could even continue the words I wished to speak, the doctor shook his head and answered, “You are Nakamura Aoi, am I correct?”

I gave him a nod.

“The thing is, Amamiya Hina and you have been out for five days. Six if you count tonight. Tomorrow is the last day of your stay inside the hospital. The hospital staff thought you don’t have plans to pay for the-...”

This time around, I was the one who intervened in the physician’s words. And my eyes expanded when I heard the doctor’s claim. Even Hina shared the same look as mine. It was unreal.

“Six days? It has just been yesterday since I visited a portal….”

And then it hit me. The time I spent inside the portal wasn’t the same as the current time here on Earth. Earth’s time would be different regardless of the seconds, minutes, or hours running inside another dimension. It wasn’t something I put in mind when I entered the portal.

“What do I need to do, doctor? Please. I-I’ll do anything,” I croaked.

“Someone has already reserved the hospital room… But if you could, you could pay four hundred thousand Yen just to maintain your bed and another ninety hundred thousand Yen for all the procedures we need to do. That would last Amamiya’s parents for a month to stay inside the hospital and use every piece of equipment to prolong their lives. Beyond one month, you need to pay for the exceeding expenses and other bills to settle,” the doctor continued.

The physician tapped my shoulder and avoided my look. “Money can solve everything, Nakamura. As much as I’m ashamed to say it, the hospital needs money in order to save the patients.”

It was the truth. When the portals arrived on Earth, things had changed. More people became familiar visitors inside the hospital, while others refused to heal inside those medical buildings. It was the financial expenses that these people needed to pay inside the hospitals. The medicines didn’t come cheap. And the staff working to save the patient’s life weren’t free. They were people, too. Those people equipped with knowledge about health also needed to provide food on their tables.

I wasn’t an exception. Fortunately, I had the money to deal with the hospital bills. I would allot the rest of the money for our food expenses, hygiene, and other important factors Hina and I needed. It was one problem after the other.

“I understand, doctor. I’ll send the payment as soon as possible. Thank you for everything you’ve done.”

“It’s my job...”

I made those words into reality and paid the remaining balance inside the hospital’s accounting center. The cashier took my cash in exchange for the hospital procedures and the room Hina’s parents were staying in.

When I finished my business, Hina and I returned to the room and sat on the chair. Hina went closer to her parents and took a nap for the time being. We had an exhausting day. The little girl needed some rest after everything she had witnessed.

While that happened, I opened my wallet and greeted the paltry amount of money we had for the rest of the month. Ninety thousand Yen. It wasn’t enough to go by, specifically for two growing teenagers. We couldn’t go to school because of it. And we needed to save any amount that we could for emergency purposes.

“For now, this would do. We had at least one month until we could prepare the next payment,” I mumbled, and curled my fists into a ball.

Until then, there was one thing left for me to do. And that was conquering portals.

That option was the only reliable source of income I could receive in these difficult times. Hina’s parents were the only ones working in this family. Hina and I were just students. Money wouldn’t just grow from trees, and the hospital wouldn’t give free medicines to the patients. We needed to work hard for it.

And that reason alone was enough for me to thrive forward. Since I had this powerful system, which could eliminate monsters with a few bullets, I thought I could handle those portals. According to my system, I defeated a Class-A portal. There were only seven classes that the Crimson Guild had written. The letters described the difficulty of each portal when adventurers planned on conquering it.

S-Class and the Mythical Class were the highest difficulty and material quality written by the Crimson Guild. It was then followed by the alphabetical order of each class and their difficulty: A, B, C, D, E, and F, where F was the weakest and A was the more challenging portal, right next to S.

If I remember correctly, Midori told me that conquering an S-Class portal needed every S-Class adventurer inside the country to take part and defeat the said portal. Ten S-Class adventurers or one hundred adventurers were required to beat at least an A-Class portal. That was how they gauged the strength of portals.

However, I defeated a portal with my own powers. I had the help of Hina, but I still conquered the dungeon. Thanks to my bullets, snipers, and magic, I turned the Grim Reaper into dust. And when I mentioned the Grim Reaper to Kei, the secretary of Crimson Guild, and the receptionists, they had worried and baffled expressions. They couldn’t believe their eyes that I fought against a ghoul far stronger than me. Additionally, it looked like those people knew the boss I fought inside the portal. It was as if they expected and believed every word I mentioned to them.

If Kei and the Crimson Guild’s receptionists placed their trust in me, defeating a portal, retrieving its treasure, and exchanging them with the Guild would be a piece of cake. I didn’t have to worry about any procedures, except stomaching the eyes of the surrounding males of that woman.

But I needed some rest for tonight. When I tried standing up, my legs gave out and ruined my balance. It almost made me stumble on the ground, which could’ve woken my sleeping step-sister. I didn’t want that to happen.

“Maybe I’m becoming old… Who am I kidding? I need some beauty rest, too.”

Just like that, I grabbed the spare pillow and napped on the chair. My back stung me like a bee, but it was worth it. When I closed my eyes, my lost strength returned to me like a dog chasing its owner. Every cell inside my body thanked me as I sank into a deep slumber.

…………….

I didn’t have my body clock on and slept like a baby. When I opened my eyes, the scorching sun was already at the sky’s peak. It waved hello to everyone on the ground.

I immediately raced to the shower and washed my face inside the restroom with the cold running water. When I got out of the comfort room, Hina stood at the window and watched the kids play in the park. It was akin to a garden outside the hospital, where patients could enjoy the sunshine without any risk of stumbling inside a portal. Outside the gates were a pack of adventurers, eyeing for any anomaly in the medical building. Those numbers made everyone safe, including me.

Right next to that park and the adventurers were through the portals. Similar to what I had recently experienced, those portals had golden magical circles and purple smog covering the area. It only spelled doom that those existed when a portal materialised. And it was enough to instill fear in everyone’s minds.

Hina, who had her eyes glued to the scenery, watched the entire thing unravel. She watched the trees sway, and the children play tag below her. It was as if she was reminiscing out past. But we were stuck in our present.

“I know that these portals destroyed cities and killed innocent lives. It even nearly killed my parents. But if I look at the bright side, these events made us closer, right? I… I wasn’t sure if the time would come for us to… you know. Call each other siblings - brothers and sisters,” Hina voiced her thoughts, as she resumed contemplating with her head. “I just wish these portals could end soon. I don’t want anyone to suffer as we did. People are already dying from climate change, war, poverty, and more. We’ve had enough of this…”

I joined Hina and stared at the window. I finally found the words within a few seconds and voiced my thoughts swirling inside my head.

“I never gave up on calling you ‘my sister.’ But it’s my fault too for distancing myself from you. People expected great things from me just because they say I’m better at these things, which I’m not. And even if I was, it was not enough to compare our achievements. I-I’m not mad or anything at your parents! The truth is, I’m in debt to them, especially when they provided everything for you. But I can’t just sit still and let that happen, you know? And I know how you feel. Which was why I wanted to, at least, apologise to you.”

“Hina, I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry that I didn’t say a word when that happened. And I’m sorry for not being the brother you wanted to have,” I continued.

“You’re right about that… I never wanted a brother. When you arrived, I thought you would be the spotlight of the house. But no, you weren’t. And I was wrong. I didn’t want a brother. I needed one. Aoi, I need you.”

Those words became a chime that soothed my soul. It was as if the thorns piercing my heart had finally let loose. The pain that made me suffer for years fled from my body and eventually healed again. I felt anew.

We didn’t end the conversation just yet. Hina and I continued to discuss a myriad of things that two people wouldn’t and would have talked about. The two of us discussed many things, including the ones we told no one else about.

For the second time in my life, I felt closer to my sister. The memories we had last twelve years ago resurfaced akin to a nostalgic song that opened our hearts. It skipped a beat. And I had never felt ecstatic in my life after having that talk.

But like any other occurrence, all good things must come to an end. When our stomachs had grumbled, it was time for us to eat our first meal of the day… together. I had hit the jackpot.

Hina and I went to the cafeteria and continued our discussion. We ordered the cheapest meal that the hospital could order and saved the leftovers for later. It was best to keep our money for later.

But as we grew closer to finishing our plates, the opened television resting on the desk caught my ears. It was the news about adventurers and their limitations on entering the portals. That news greatly affected me.