NOVGO.NET Chapter 27: Gone Viral
Chapter 27: Gone Viral
Rain opened his eyes to a soft, white ceiling.
For a moment, nothing made sense. No red dust drifting down. No grinding, groaning vibration underfoot. The air didn’t burn going into his lungs, it just smelled clean, a faint trace of rubbing alcohol and fresh linen, nothing like the thick, iron-tasting heat he’d been breathing for hours before everything went dark.
Sunlight. Real, pale morning sunlight, streaming through a high glass window on his left, warm rectangles falling across a crisp cotton blanket pulled over his chest.
He blinked slowly, his throat dry and scratchy like sand. Somewhere below the blanket, his right leg sat elevated on two stiff foam pillows, heavy and strange, wrapped tight in something hard from ankle to mid-thigh. The pain was there, but distant now, a dull, muffled throb in his hip instead of that white-hot, screaming fire. Something dripped steadily into the back of his left hand through a thin, clear tube.
"You’re finally awake," a quiet voice said from the foot of the bed.
A middle-aged woman in pale blue scrubs pushed a small rolling cart into the sunlight. She had graying hair pulled back into a neat bun and carried a wooden clipboard tucked under her arm.
Rain swallowed, trying to summon enough moisture to speak. "How... how long?"
"Seven days," she said, stepping to the side of the bed to adjust the clear tube. "A full week. You lost roughly forty percent of your blood volume, your right tibia was fractured in three separate places, and your body was running on pure adrenaline-induced exhaustion. Most people with those injuries spend two weeks in an induced coma. You have a surprisingly resilient constitution."
Rain let his head fall back against the soft pillow, taking a deep, clean breath. "Seven days..."
"You’re in white Tiger’s Guild Recovery Ward," she explained, checking the small glass bottle hanging above his bed. "Captain Arthur of the White Tiger extraction A rank team personally covered the full cost of your room and medical treatment. He brought you in himself after hearing what happened from your party member. He felt genuine sympathy for what you went through down there."
Rain looked toward the window, feeling a quiet wave of relief wash over his chest. "Captain Arthur..."
"He said a young man who holds a line like that shouldn’t be left to rot in a public ward," the nurse added, looking down at her clipboard. She paused, her eyes lingering on his face for a moment before she looked back at her notes. "I hope you don’t mind me asking. The chart says you’re registered as an F-rank carrier. Is it true you killed a C-rank boss?"
"Yes," Rain said plainly. "It took both of us, but yeah. We killed it."
"Remarkable," she murmured, a small, genuine smile touching her lips.
"Did... did Nyra make it?" Rain asked, his voice lifting slightly with genuine concern. "Is she the one who talked to Captain Arthur?"
"She did," the nurse confirmed, nodding warmly. "She walked out on her own two feet, though she had two cracked ribs and severe shock. She spent four days before being cleared and discharged,"
Rain closed his eyes, a deep, unhurried warmth spreading through his chest.
’She made it,’ he thought, letting his breathing slow as he rested his hands on the cotton blanket. ’She actually made it out. Most people would have panicked the second Maren died. Most people would have frozen or tried to crawl into a corner when I told them the plan. She didn’t. She grabbed those daggers with her hands bleeding, stood right in front of a giant C-rank monster, and pulled its attention away so I could reach its neck. I couldn’t have taken another step on that broken leg if she hadn’t stayed right beside me, holding my shoulder the whole way down that collapsing tunnel. She was incredible. She deserves every bit of credit for us being alive right now, maybe even more than I do.’
He looked back at the nurse, who was watching him with a look of quiet wonder, as if staring at someone who had accomplished a miracle single-handedly.
’She looks at me like I did something impossible,’ Rain thought, a small, humble smile touching the corner of his mouth. ’She doesn’t know how close it was. I was seconds away from having my chest crushed into the dirt. We didn’t win because I was strong; we won because Nyra had my back when I had nothing left.’
The nurse turned to a small metal cabinet near the door, unlocked it with a small brass key, and pulled out a familiar, dirt-stained gray hoodie, folded neatly, along with a small device with a screen which Rain recognized as his school issued Student terminal and a small velvet pouch resting on top of it. She walked over and gently placed both on his tray table.
"Your things," she said. "We cleaned what could be cleaned. Whatever was in your pocket, we moved into something a little sturdier before it worked its way through the fabric."
Rain reached out, running his thumb over his precious hoodie for a second before picking up the pouch instead. He pulled the drawstring open. Inside, resting against the dark lining, was the deep-red beast core he had pried from the Bone Widow’s bone mask. It glowed faintly in the morning sunlight, perfectly intact, radiating a cool, steady pulse of latent energy.
"Captain Arthur wanted you to have that back," the nurse added. "He called it proper compensation for what you went through after your party leader fled."
"Thank you," Rain said softly, closing the pouch.
"You should rest and be proud of what you accomplished," the nurse said, picking up her clipboard again. "You’ve been trending online for the last four days, thanks to your friend."
Rain blinked, looking up in confusion. "Trending? What do you mean?"
The nurse smiled, pulled a thin black smartphone from her scrub pocket, tapped the screen a few times, and handed it to him. "Watch this."
The screen lit up with a video played from a local news feed. The footage was slightly shaky, recorded from forty yards away behind a line of Guild barricades near the rift exit.
On the screen, Nyra was standing near the back of a White Tiger transport wagon. Her left arm was bound tight in a clean white sling, her face bruised and pale, but her chin was set high. Standing in front of her were three tall, well-equipped hunters wearing high-grade, polished silver-and-black alloy armor, their weapons sheathed but their postures arrogant and imposing.
One of the high-tier hunters was reaching toward a supply chest, his voice carrying clearly over the crowd noise on the recording. "Standard protocol for unregistered contractor clearings. All cores are impounded for guild assessment until the contract dispute is resolved."
"Touch that box and I’ll cut your strap," Nyra’s voice rang out on the video, sharp, clear, and completely devoid of fear. She didn’t back down an inch, stepping directly into the path of the broad-shouldered hunter, her good hand resting on the pommel of her dagger. "That core didn’t come from your guild. Rain fought that boss with a broken leg while a member of your guild who was supposed to be our leader by the way ran away like a coward! He nearly died for it! It belongs to both of us, and you aren’t touching it!"
The high-tier hunter frowned, stepping forward to press his authority, but before he could speak, Captain Arthur strode into the frame. The older captain placed a heavy, gloved hand directly on the hunter’s chest plate, shoving him back two full steps.
"Stand down, Renner," Captain Arthur barked in the video, his deep voice cutting through the argument effortlessly. "The girl’s right. White Tiger doesn’t rob kids who survived a collapsing gate. The core stays with them. Log it as a private contract salvage and clear the road."
Rain watched the screen, a surge of genuine, unguarded admiration filling his chest. A small laugh escaped his lips.
’Look at her,’ Rain thought, his eyes fixed on the video as Nyra stood her ground against three hunters who could have crushed her with a single blow. ’She was exhausted, bruised, barely able to stand on her own two feet, and she still stood right in front of those high-grade armors and told them off. She didn’t let them take what we paid for in blood.’
"A family visiting the forest site where the rift had opened caught the whole thing on camera," the nurse explained, her tone light and amused. "They posted it online that afternoon. People are calling you ’The F-Rank Phenomenon’ across the local boards. They’re fascinated by the fact that a carrier and a D-rank survivor brought down a C-rank High Boss after being abandoned."
Rain scrolled down to the comment section beneath the video, curious.
>>User482: That girl is a total badass! Standing up to White Tiger A Ranked like that takes real guts!
>>RiftWatcher_99: If the carrier really killed a C-rank with a broken leg, he deserves way more than just the core. White Tiger should be paying them a pension!
>>GuildNewsLocal: White Tiger Guild needs to answer for why their personnel defrauded a group of low ranked hunters, cajoled them into a rift above their pay grade and abandoned them inside a collapsing rift! Glad Captain Arthur did the right thing.
>>Realist_Hunter: Come on, people. An F-rank carrier killing a C-rank boss? Sounds like clickbait. Somebody’s inflating the story for views.
>>Apex_Grind: Agree. No way an F-rank does that and walks out breathing. Wait for an official statement before anyone starts calling this kid a phenomenon.
Rain read through the small handful of dismissive comments with a calm, amused expression, entirely unbothered by the skepticism. He handed the phone gently back to the nurse.
"People say all kinds of things when they weren’t there to see the mud," Rain said with a soft chuckle. "It doesn’t change what happened."
"You have a very good attitude," the nurse said, sliding the phone back into her pocket. "Most young men your age would be screaming at the screen trying to prove themselves."
"Is it alright if I go visit Nyra?" Rain asked, looking toward the door. "Or has she already left for home?"
The nurse flushed slightly, her cheeks turning a faint shade of pink as she tapped her clipboard against her leg. "Oh. Well, she was discharged three days ago, actually. But she’s been coming back every evening since. She sits in the chair right outside your room for an hour or two just to check if you’ve woken up."
Rain blinked, a bright, genuine smile spreading across his face. "Really? That’s really kind of her."
"Yes, well." The nurse cleared her throat, suddenly looking quite flustered as she adjusted her bun. "It was entirely unprofessional of me to bring that up. Patient privacy and all that. I shouldn’t be gossiping about visitors."
She grabbed her rolling cart quickly, her boots squeaking against the polished tile floor. "You need your rest. I’ll tell our senior healer you’re awake."
"It’s nothing at all," Rain said warmly, watching her hurry toward the door. "Thank you for taking such good care of me."
The nurse paused at the threshold, gave him a small, flustered nod, and stepped out into the hallway, closing the door softly behind her.
Rain sat alone in the quiet, sunlit room. The gentle hum of the air conditioner filled the space, soft and peaceful. He looked at the closed door, his smile lingering.
"Thank you, Nyra," Rain said quietly to the empty room, his voice sincere and full of warmth. "Thank you for everything."
He leaned back against the stiff pillows, taking a long, slow breath. The silence settled around him, peaceful and unhurried.
As he closed his eyes to relax, a soft, familiar chiming tone resonated gently inside his mind, accompanied by a pale blue translucent box that materialized in the air directly before him.
[Host, you have several pending notifications. Would you like to open?]
[YES] / [NO]
Rain opened his eyes. A small, confident smirk touched the corner of his lips as he looked at the floating text. His chest felt lighter than it had in weeks.
’Yes,’ Rain thought, clicking the option in his mind. ’Let’s see what all that trouble earned us.’