April 14, 2016
1:30 PM
At the lobby on the 1st floor of the Sky Paradise condo
"Try to think about it, Stephen," Christine said before waving goodbye and walking out of the condo. I waved her gently, as hard as I could without shaking too much and hurting my muscles and palm nerves.
"Think about it… huh?" I said softly to myself and sighed. "Think about it… hmm… ."
I turned around, preparing to take the elevator back to sit and think, reviewing the offer the hospital had offered me, with Christine as the messenger.
The hospital must be afraid that if they called me in to talk tomorrow, Stephen's ego that High like a Sky Tower would take over and RAMPAGE from forced to resign from his position as the hospital's primary surgeon.
"Oh, Dr. Strange. Are you here to send Dr. Palmer off?"
"Yes… Have a nice day, Maxwell."
A short conversation occurred while walking past a cleaning lady on the lobby floor, whom I… mean Stephen, who I see every day but never bothered to remember her name, never once greeting her. But today, I chose to greet her, reading the name tag on the right chest of his uniform, which looked like a dark blue overall.
The reason for greeting her was because I wanted to change Stephen's arrogant personality, not greeting ordinary people which made him look annoying , i must prove it better. Because from now on, I had to live in his body.
Actually, I was like him. After surviving by climbing and swimming through many bloody corpses until I left the territory of the Fellance Kingdom, I shut myself off, didn't talk to anyone.
In my mind, there was only death creeping in from the amber lead disease that took the life of my sister and caused the World Government to "erase" the existence of this kingdom from the map.
The dark power of the World Government is scary like this. It conceals the truth, collects evidence from the environment then burns it down with the town.
Destroys documents related to the amber lead disease, and spreads false information that it is a highly contagious disease. This made no one want to treat patients with this disease. They also announced that if a patient was found, they should immediately notify the World Government or the Navy so that they could quickly go and contain them to prevent the disease from spreading.
But the truth is... they wanted to silence those who witnessed the incident. They said that a major city cleansing had occurred, killing and executing people in the city, whether they were children, teenagers, adults, middle-aged people, or the elderly... . .
At that time, I used to be afraid of death. When I learned the truth about the origin of the amber lead disease through traveling the world with Mr. Corazon, who tried to find a way to cure me, but was rejected by every hospital I went to, I stopped being afraid of my own death.
But I was afraid... afraid of the cruelty, inhumanity, and immorality of the World Government instead!
And that gave me the idea of gathering people who were sick and in pain from the World Government to form a team to take revenge and seek justice for me, for those who had experienced the same thing... The first goal is to take care of Doflamingo first.
Because Dressrosa is covered in a terrifying darkness, and the evil that Doflamingo had done is disgusting. . . Manipulating people's lives with a cunning plan, terrifyingly clever, using people's lives as toys, meaning real toys, with Sugar's devil fruit power.
I don't have enough power to save the whole world, but I want to at least release the people of Dressrosa from Doflamingo's birdcage, because that's the only thing I think "might" repay Mr. Corazon's kindness towards an orphan like me.
But... After the operation to remove the amber lead from my body, I'm stuck in the body of Dr. Strange, in a new world, not the second half of the Grand Line, but a new world that... I don't know if I can go back to the original world.
If I just stay quiet and find a way to go back to the original world, it would be a waste of time. The past 2-3 weeks have been enough to heal my body, and I've come to terms with it. . .
I would have to live as Stephen Strange, who was about 25-30 years old. . . Even though I had the experience of living as a 15-year-old boy in a world where pirates roamed the four outer seas and one main sea. . .
In order to not make life from now on difficult, Stephen's bad habits had to be changed, starting with simple things like showing respect to his co-worker Christine. Just opening the door for her and walking her to the lobby were two things that Stephen had never done. But when he tried to do it, he saw a very shocked reaction from Christine, but it was a good shock. It made me feel that I had improved in terms of social skills and relationships.
And greeting the cleaner Maxwell, who normally never does, also elicits a look of astonishment from her. As the elevator doors close, I hear her mutter to herself,
"Do you have a broken hand and a crazy head, Doctor Strange? That's really strange. You've never greeted me in a hundred thousand years."
'Umm… broken hand crazy head… that's great.'
Not long after, I was back in the air-conditioned living room, leaning back on the soft sofa, closing my eyes and recalling the conversation Christine had with me about my career, what the hospital board had offered me.
The first option was to resign immediately, with a 20 million dollar compensation, negotiable.
This was the most comfortable option, and I, who don't have fancy suits and a watch collection that costs $10 million, could live a normal life for decades, but I might have to move out of this condo to find somewhere quiet and cheap to live outside of New York.
The other option was Changed position from surgeon to consultant surgeon
Consultant surgeon is a position that I have never heard of before. Christine explained to me what this position is, what are its duties and responsibilities.
"This position has never existed in our hospital before, but you are very suitable, Stephen."
"Very suitable?"
When Christine said that I was very suitable, it was because working in this position involves studying, examining, analyzing and writing detailed summary reports for the surgeons who will perform the surgery to read and compare with what they have analyzed. It is a double check in case they miss any important points.
Just one millimeter of incorrect surgical operation can mean the destruction of the body's systems in that part of the body.
A deviation of even one milligram or milliliter of medication can affect the patient's health during the recovery period. If it is too little, recovery is slow, it is not a big problem. But if it is too much, it can damage the cells and nervous system in that part of the body, causing chronic and permanent damage. The worst case is a domino effect, the system in that part collapses until the body cannot handle it.
Patients die because of the doctor's incorrect processing, calculation and evaluation. . . It's something that doctors don't want to happen!
Death is inevitable, but all doctors want their patients to die because their bodies can't take it anymore. Even though the doctors tried every way they could think of, analyzed it well, and thought that there was a chance of successful treatment, even if it was only 1%, and did their best to the utmost. . .
It's not that the patient died because the plan had loopholes, mistakes that were overlooked!!
And now that I can't hold the scalpel, cut off the bad tissue, sew up the good tissue, or connect the nerves, well... This is probably the only position where I can still use my surgical knowledge and skills to benefit people.
"Mr. Corazon... I'm sorry that I can't help the people in Dressrosa... But at least for now, I will live as a consultant surgeon to help increase the chances of survival for the people in New York... Is that right? . . Mr. Corazon. . ."