Chapter 879: Good and Evil

The next morning, inside a hospital room.

The sun was bright, a gentle breeze brushed against the white curtains, and the air in the room was fresh, lacking the distinct smell of disinfectant typical of hospitals.

Su Xiao leaned against the hospital bed; his right arm was wrapped in bandages, as were his five fingers.

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang was sprawled out on the bed next to him, fast asleep. Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang had guarded the door all night to prevent enemies from attacking while Su Xiao was weak.

Su Xiao moved his right arm. Previously, his right arm had been severed at the upper arm, but after last night's surgery, it had been perfectly reattached, showing no abnormalities.

The doctor who performed the surgery on Su Xiao was a middle-aged man. Through the original story, Su Xiao recognized his identity: he was known as Heaven Canceller. His medical skills were incredibly profound; he could perform heart surgery under local anesthesia, and reattaching a severed arm was, in his eyes, just a minor procedure.

It wasn't just his right arm; the wound on Su Xiao's chest had also been stitched up. With Heaven Canceller's medical skill and Su Xiao's own recovery ability, the injury on his chest had basically healed, leaving only the need to remove the stitches on the surface of the wound.

"Heaven Canceller's medical skills are even more profound than I imagined, but he is also more dangerous than I imagined."

That's right. After coming into contact with Heaven Canceller, Su Xiao vaguely felt that the man was somewhat dangerous. Although he appeared to be just a middle-aged doctor on the surface, that was not actually the case.

Many years ago, Aleister had been severely wounded by someone from the magic side and buried alive; the doctor who saved him was none other than Heaven Canceller.

Heaven Canceller not only saved Aleister, but he was also a key figure in the establishment of Academy City.

In the original story, there weren't many people who dared to directly interfere with or obstruct Aleister's plans, and Heaven Canceller was among them. Afterward, Aleister merely said in a lukewarm tone, "An 'enemy' with a kind heart," and that was the end of it—it was left unsettled.

From Aleister's attitude, one could see Heaven Canceller's special status in Academy City. He did not participate in the management of Academy City, but once he spoke up, even Aleister could not ignore him.

Just as Su Xiao was pondering, the door was pushed open. He turned his head to look and saw a middle-aged, bald doctor wearing a white coat.

The hair at the back of the bald doctor's head was somewhat gray, his build was slightly chubby, and he had a round face. Overall, he gave off a feeling of being honest and gentle.

However, no matter how Su Xiao looked at it, he felt that the combination of the bald doctor's build, face shape, and hairstyle looked very much like a frog.

The Frog Doctor was indeed Heaven Canceller. He walked into the ward, followed by a young nurse.

The young nurse stepped forward to check the IV bag hanging by the bed and then took out a thermometer.

"My body temperature is perfectly normal."

Su Xiao waved his hand and casually pulled out the IV needle stuck in the back of his hand. For him, as long as the injuries on his arm and chest were fine, he could basically be discharged. However, he didn't understand the surgical process and didn't know how long it would be before he could be discharged.

"About how long until I can be discharged?"

Hearing Su Xiao's words, the young nurse hesitated for a moment: "If there is no discomfort, you can be discharged today."

If it were any other hospital, the young nurse's statement would be absurd, but this was a hospital overseen by Heaven Canceller; it wasn't strange to be discharged so quickly.

"Go out first."

Heaven Canceller spoke, and the young nurse walked out of the ward.

"You can be discharged now, but if you want to 'work,' it will be at least tomorrow or the day after. If the nerves at the reattachment point of your severed arm break again, I cannot guarantee you will still be able to use weapons."

Heaven Canceller seemed to know something.

"Can't it be faster? The nature of my 'work' is somewhat special. If my 'business rival' recovers ahead of time, then I won't have the chance to be hospitalized in the future."

Su Xiao pulled out a cigarette, and Heaven Canceller did not stop him.

The blue smoke had just begun to drift when it was scattered by the breeze from outside the window; a faint scent of tobacco permeated the room.

"Of course... not. You recovered too quickly. From a certain perspective, that is others' misfortune."

Although Heaven Canceller's attitude was not exactly bad, it was not good either.

"Doctor, those words sound harsh coming from you. As one of the creators of this large-scale testing ground, you actually care whether others are unfortunate?"

Su Xiao prepared to probe Heaven Canceller's attitude; the other party's medical skills would make his subsequent missions go more smoothly.

"It seems you know quite a lot. Aleister told you? Rest assured, there are no Windowless Buildings here with me."

Heaven Canceller sat on the hospital bed where Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang was located. He had come to find Su Xiao, but it did not seem to be purely to visit a patient.

From the moment Heaven Canceller entered the ward, both sides had already begun to probe each other.

"That is not the case. Do I look like the kind of reckless fool who knows nothing about this place and just barged in?"

Heaven Canceller being one of the creators of Academy City was not much of a secret.

"That is true. For someone in your profession, it is not strange to know some of the secrets here. However, you just said this is a large-scale testing ground? You seem to have misunderstood the meaning of Academy City's existence."

Heaven Canceller let out a long sigh and looked out the window.

"Too many people have sacrificed themselves here—vibrant young people. Conversely, a lot of technology that benefits humanity has also been born here. Perhaps for Aleister, this is a large-scale testing ground, the cornerstone of some crazy plan of his. But to me, this is a pioneer of scientific development. Superpowers are just a small part of it, a flawed part."

After Heaven Canceller finished speaking, the ward fell into silence.

"You wouldn't happen to want to... kill that person, would you?"

Su Xiao looked at Heaven Canceller with a burning gaze.

"No. If he died, this place would turn into a battlefield in a short time. If I wanted to, I would have done it decades ago. Why wait until today, until Aleister is this powerful, to make a move?"

Heaven Canceller stood up. When he reached the door of the ward, he suddenly spoke: "There is a shrine in the Twelfth District. The scenery there is quite nice. After you recover, you can go there for a visit; perhaps you will have an unexpected harvest."

Heaven Canceller walked out of the ward. Su Xiao extinguished the cigarette in his hand. He discovered one thing: the factions within Academy City were not solely dominated by Aleister.

Heaven Canceller, who had always been hiding in the shadows, neither showing his hand nor leaking his secrets, was likewise not to be underestimated.

The cryptic words Heaven Canceller said before leaving were giving Su Xiao a choice, letting him choose whether to stand on Aleister's side or on Heaven Canceller's side. Of course, both belonged to the Science-side faction, just different branches.

"So that's how it is. I was wondering before how Qiyuezhe would carry out missions after entering Academy City. It turns out there is this relatively moderate faction of Heaven Canceller."

Su Xiao got up from the hospital bed. Based on known clues, some Qiyuezhe with strong intelligence-gathering capabilities would not immediately flee Academy City. After all, Academy City was the main plot point of the Magic Index world; leaving here meant losing a large number of opportunities to trigger side missions.

However, Su Xiao did not intend to join Heaven Canceller's faction. If the other party wanted to cooperate with him, he would gladly agree. As for joining the other party's faction, forget it; their styles of handling affairs were too different. Compared to Heaven Canceller, Su Xiao was more willing to cooperate with Aleister. As for why Heaven Canceller was trying to win him over, the reason was simple: his combat power was strong enough.

If Heaven Canceller was the benevolent faction within Academy City, then Aleister was the evil faction. One good and one evil, they were both enemies and friends. While not interfering with each other's management, they were sharing technology. Indeed, one mountain cannot hold two tigers, but neither Heaven Canceller nor Aleister were 'tigers'; they were more like the difference between warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals.

With Su Xiao's 'kind' aura and his touching 6 points of Charm, joining the benevolent camp was definitely not a wise move. Only villains and villains have a common language.