The Power Of Radiation 15 Consequences

Mark then waited for any immediate consequences to his impatient actions of drink the water. Mark's overactive imagination conjured images and feelings of anything from itching and mild rashes to effects like organ failure and a slow death by dehydration but none of these became a reality. Mark feels both a sense of relief and disappointment. The sense of relief is from nothing untoward himself happening; the sense of disappointment however was much more prominent. Mark hoped that the pink pond water would be similar to a cure all or power up that could change Mark's destiny forever. Sadly, Mark's luck as always was not that good. Mark also hit himself in the head thinking that this is even a VR world and even if he gained something from the water it wouldn't translate to the Mark in real life.

Seeing how low the Sun was on the horizon, Mark thought it was time to head back to the cart in the hope it as fixed by Vlad. The trek back from the pond as mostly peaceful as there was a strange lack of the animals that Mark saw on his journey to the pond to begin with. Mark a.s.sumes this is because of how most the animals are not nocturnal but Vlad would see this and have a much more scared and grim expression. Most of the farmers and hunters from Brambleton could tell Mark the ominous sign is a bad omen of either a disaster, high level beast nearby or something much more sinister.

The real fact of the lack of animals was the pink pond. Mark thought nothing of it but there were no animals or even insects near the pond and the trees affected by its waters. This is because nothing that had ever drank water from the pond or eaten the gra.s.s or leaves infected by the water lived to tell the tale. This immediate consequence of drinking the pink water spread to the surrounding environment over the years with most of the beasts learning to not go near the pond in fear of an accident. This led to the scary and ominous walk back by an oblivious Mark who did not notice this due to all of his time being spent in a mega city.

Aside from this omen, Mark's walk back was relatively peaceful. He soon reached the cart and was surprised to see it almost fixed by Vlad and his trusty hatchet. Vlad had even found time to hunt two rabbit like beasts for their dinner much to Mark's delight. Vlad didn't speak much other than to say they will be leaving tomorrow morning on the cart if all goes well. Mark is relived at this and almost forgets his eventful morning and asks if Vlad had ever heard of a pond of pink water. Vlad's eyebrows slightly raise at this thought and Vlad shrugs and then briefly explains how a pond could turn pink from a animal bleeding into it or something dying near it. Mark is puzzled at this because he didn't see any animals or corpses near the water when he thought about it. This leads to Mark's next remembrance which is the total lack of animals around the pond and animals on the way back to the cart. This spooks Mark a little but he is only slightly scared and doesn't understand why that would be and chalks it up to something he can't explain since the world is supposed to be a fantasy world after all. This is Mark's last thought before he goes to bed near the cart after his dinner with Vlad.

The night pa.s.sed quietly except for Mark having fitful dreams. Mark felt uncontrollable itching which led to dreams of him being covered in insects and them biting him and even falling into a patch of gra.s.s that made his face itch. This itching feeling mostly centered around his eyes and led Mark to scratch and shake more and more as the night went on. This eventually got to the point where Mark was scratching his face b.l.o.o.d.y and his eyes were red and inflamed. This made Mark look like he had pink eye or a serve allergic reaction like he was stung on the face by a hive of bees. Mark was fast asleep though so any thoughts on his predicament would have to wait until morning because of how strangely he would not wake up from any of his dreams during the night…

In reality, where Mark was immersed in the VR capsule, Carl had finally came to check on Mark in the afternoon of the same day he entered. Carl was aware of how the time difference works in the VR world and was all the more gleeful at the prospect of his contract of training. There were many clauses in the contract which would be perfectly normal to any layman but not to someone who did contract work professionally. Carl smiled his greasy smile as he thought about Mark being able to somehow understand the contract's specifics and even find out where Carl had tricked him. Carl shook his head once again at Mark's naivety and how inexperienced he is at how the real world works. One specific clause that Carl had put into the contract was a minor change from traditional work contracts. How the contracted had to pay for any excessive training resources he used and how that would come of out the young doctor's salary when they started working.

Normally this wouldn't be a big deal but it was different for Hospital Geneva. Here, there was a mandatory training period in the VR capsule. If Mark had not been so happy at using their capsule he would have realized he could have used his weaker version he kept at his apartment. This would have led to a much less intensive experience but would have saved Mark some money. How much money? Someone once asked Carl when he was explaining his process to one of his subordinates at a different hospital. Carl's smile increased to the point someone wpould have thought he had a serious problem if he was a inpatient in the hospital, as he thought of this.

The advanced VR capsule ran on special nutrient and processing fluid to supplement the intensive experience and training capabilities it had. while the VR capsule boasted of its high-performance stats and how it made learning easier with its advance AI this all came at a cost. Both VR capsule itself and to a minor extent the AI controller needed a special type of nutrient fluid that was exclusive to the wealthy and those who could afford the advanced types of VR capsules.

These fluid canisters cost in the thousands of credits and each canister is equivalent to one day of a resident doctor working at the hospital. This can be increased by Carl using even more expensive fluids which offer a higher performance. Carl only did this to show ne doctors the evils of the real world and would normally only cost them a month's pay after the whole training ordeal has been completed. This was only a pa.s.sing thought in his mind as he left to do other things after checking in on Mark and a.s.sessing his level according to the AI's statistics. This genetic based nutrient fluid was actually the cause of the increased training speed and growth shown when Mark practiced his power which to some would be worth the cost of the normal grade fluid used. Carl would use A grade fluid which was 10,000 credits a capsule for the first day only to increase the young doctor's learning capabilities in the capsule and give them a base which they could use to learn some of the more pertinent skills. This is where the problem occurred.

While the AI was set to replace the A grade fluid when needed it could also make minor modifications based on need. This came to a head when Mark went to sleep after drinking the pink water. A blue light was flas.h.i.+ng outside the testing room to the security guard who as asleep on his chair. Because of the lack of response of the guard the AI as forced to take certain measure to insure its occupant's life and health stayed stable. This lead to an action which both Mark and even Carl to an extent would lose their mind over later on. A switch to the reserved S grade fluid and continuous use of such fluid all night while Mark's body was having the "allergic reaction" in the VR capsule. The AI of course, without human emotions could only continue to follow its protocol as it pumps canister and canister of S grade fluid into Mark's VR capsule.