Side Quest
With a proud smirk, Henry said "Wait!"
Immediately, the guard dragging Benjamin out the room halted.
Henry looked at Benjamin and said "I want you to see this. I want you to see how you and my stupid half-sister's plan to keep our father sick failed, so just stay there and watch. Once I've decided that you've seen enough, the guard will take you away and deal with you."
Kingsley stepped away from the bed while Elizabeth walked to it, tears of joy gathering in her eyes as she couldn't wait for her husband to regain consciousness.
"So how long until we see a change, doctor?" Henry asked.
"Using data from the previous patient with the same disease, I'd say a couple of hours for the cure to fully saturate his body—"
"Doctor, what's happening?" Elizabeth asked as she looked at the patriarch with a confused expression.
"What do you mean, madam?" Kingsley asked.
"The part of my husband's hand where the IV is connected is changing color. It's turning purple and looking bruised", Elizabeth said.
"What? That doesn't make any sense—" Kingsley said as he went to check and saw what Elizabeth was talking about.
Immediately, Kingsley grimaced with confusion.
"Let me check," Kingsley said, then he removed the stethoscope from his neck and went to check the patriarch's heartbeat.
"What's going on?" Henry asked as he also went closer to check on his father.
"Doctor, the color stuff is spreading. What's going on?" Doctor Johnson asked, looking concerned.
Kingsley checked the patriarch's heart rate on his wristwatch, noting that it was rapidly increasing—just as the heart monitor he was hooked up to displayed.
"Doctor, what's happening?!" Jessica asked worriedly.
"I don't know. This has never happened before", Kingsley said.
"What do you mean this has never happened before? Didn't you say you've cured someone with the same sickness before?!" Henry asked angrily.
"Yes, I have, but none of this happened after I administered the cure."
"What the hell are you saying, doctor?!" Henry grabbed Kingsley's collar.
"Doctor, the coloration is spreading fast. What do we do?!" Johnson panicked.
"Everyone should try and calm down so I can think," Kingsley said as he too was starting to panic.
"Calm down? You want us to calm down? Are you kidding me right now?! I'm paying millions to help my father, so fix this shit right now before I descend my wrath on you!" Henry threatened.
"I know you're angry, Mister Henry, but making threats won't help, so just calm down so I can do my—" Kingsley said, but the nurses screamed.
"What is it?!" Doctor Johnson asked.
"The eyes! The patriarch's eyes!" the nurses pointed at Sebastian's face and everyone looked at it.
To their surprise, they saw a black fluid that was as thick as blood flowing out of his eyes.
"What the hell is that, doctor?!" Denison exclaimed.
"Give me a moment, let me check". Kingsley reached for Sebastian's eyes and opened the lid.
He pointed his medical flashlight at it and the pupils weren't dilating.
"Doctor, his nose!" Elizabeth said, and they all saw the same fluid coming out of Sebastian's nose and then ears.
"What have you done to our father, doctor?!" Jessica yelled.
Just then, Miss Anderson, who was furious, said "I warned all of you, but you wouldn't listen! Look at what you've done to our father with your stubbornness!"
She went for the IV and pulled the needle out of Sebastian's hand, so the cure would stop pumping into his veins.
"Benjamin and I warned you countless times and none of you listened. Now see the result", Miss Anderson said.
"What have we done?" Elizabeth cried.
"Doctor, what have you done?!" Henry yelled, putting all the blame on Kingsley instead of himself, who insisted Kingsley administered the drug to the patriarch.
He grabbed Kingsley's collar and tightened it around his neck as he continued to yell at him.
"I did what you all asked me to, so nobody should blame me!" Kingsley defended himself.
"You asshole! I ought to kill you right now!" Henry strangled the doctor.
"All of you stop this nonsense right now!" Miss Anderson yelled and, for the first time, they all listened to her.
She checked the patriarch's condition and, despite stopping the cure from entering his body, the symptoms persisted.
"It's not stopping even though that fucking cure has stopped entering his body. What do we do?" Denison asked.
As the others looked depressed, thinking that their hubris and stupidity had killed the patriarch, Miss Anderson looked at Benjamin by the door with desperation and hope in her eyes.
"Benjamin?" She asked, and the others also looked at him.
They remembered the warnings he had given earlier and realized that maybe he wasn't as useless as they thought.
They wanted to ask for his help, but their pride wouldn't let them.
However, Miss Anderson wasn't like them.
"Is it too late to do anything?" She asked— melancholy washing over her.
Benjamin looked at all of them, then he shifted his gaze to the countdown timer and saw he had three hours thirty minutes left in his mission.
In his head, he asked the system how long it would take to fix the problem Kingsley's cure had caused, and it told him that before Kingsley administered the drug, he could have done it in two hours.
However, now that the sickness had mutated, he needed five hours to cure the sickness as a whole, meaning he didn't have enough time.
Benjamin's heart skipped a beat as he heard the disappointing news.
He lowered his head and thought about what to do because it looked like he was going to fail the mission and get lobotomized the moment the timer hit zero.
Should he just give up now and prepare for his punishment? He wondered.
"Benjamin", Miss Anderson called desperately and Benjamin's eyes widened.
He remembered the pain he felt when his father died and didn't want anyone else he knew to suffer the same fate.
It didn't matter if he failed the mission due to a lack of time as he now had a new mission— one he gave himself. A mission to save Sebastian Foster and spare Miss Anderson, who believed in him, from the pain of losing her father, no matter what.
Suddenly, a new display appeared in front of him, and on it was the message.
[Side quest: Save Sebastian Foster from his mutated sickness]
[Description: Sebastian Foster has only minutes left before he dies from the sudden mutation of a disease he already had. Utilize every available resource to extend his life and ultimately cure his illness.]
[Side quest duration: Until Sebastian Foster dies or is cured]
[Reward for side quest success: Special gift box and upgrade to one of your three skills]
[Punishment for side quest failure: None]
Side quests usually don't have punishments, especially when the main mission has a punishment of its own.
The display vanished once Benjamin finished reading.
He took a deep breath, sighed, and looked at the family who were all desperately staring at him.
"As long as I'm here, it's not too late," Benjamin said to Miss Anderson.
"Let him go," Miss Anderson told the guard holding Benjamin, but instead of obeying, the guard looked at Henry.
"Do it", Henry instructed, and the guard released Benjamin.
Benjamin massaged his wrist, which the guard almost broke by being too rough. Then he cleared his throat and, with his Search Skill still active, he told the system to look for a way to cure the patriarch's mutated sickness.
The display loaded and after a second the solution presented itself.
Benjamin then said to the system, "Activate my tutorial skill."
Another display popped up with the message [Tutorial skill activated] before vanishing.
"Show me how to perform the Pasentriolic cell treatment," Benjamin said to the system.
Immediately, a grid that only Benjamin could see enveloped the room and a blue faceless avatar appeared in front of him.
It was like a game or, more accurately, a simulation, and he saw the option to initiate the tutorial.
'Initiate tutorial,' Benjamin thought, and the tutorial began.