After the dull sound of metal clashing, the door behind Shiller closed, leaving him in complete darkness. There was no light in the room, so he couldn't see anything.
The eerie, ethereal voice of the doll echoed again within the gloom.
"Life in this world is not equal, and doctors always have a deeper comprehension of this fact. Some people choose to strive for equality, others choose to further exacerbate the inequities."
"'You get what you pay for' is your principle. People pay you high diagnosis fees for your exceptional technical skills with high expectations. But do you truly satisfy these expectations?"
"Didn't you already test my professional skills?"
"Is it always like this?"
With a "ding", the light in the room turned on, revealing a spotlight that cast an obvious circular spot of light on the floor.
Within the scope of the light, there was an operating table, and on it lay a pale little boy, who appeared to be five or six years old.
Though his pallid complexion showed that he was alive, there were no signs of pulse or heartbeat, and his chest didn't rise or fall. It was as if time had stopped for him.
"He's five years old and suffering from congenital heart disease. He had an episode just three minutes ago, and his condition now demands immediate surgery."
An X-ray film fell from the ceiling. Shiller picked it up and looked at it under the light overhead. In a single glance, he recognized the heart - a condition he was very familiar with.
A classic case of tricuspid atresia combined with pulmonary atresia - the last surgery Shiller had performed as a surgeon.
Except, back then, the patient had just turned a month old; this boy was already five years old.
Truth be told, this was a miracle of life. The majority of severe tricuspid atresia sufferers, if not operated on in time, face very high mortality rates. Most would die due to organ failure caused by systemic hypoxia. It's rare for them to survive past a year, let alone reach five.
This kind of surgery often requires multiple stages and it's best to operate as early as possible. Although operating on very young patients may be more challenging due to their small organs, their survival rate is also higher.
But if the patient is older, it poses another, extremely difficult case. Their organs would have already begun to fail and would barely be able to hang on until the end of the operation.
Younger patients have a higher chance of dying during recovery, but older children are more likely to die on the operating table because years of deteriorating health have pushed their bodies close to collapse.
This boy was no exception. Shiller had no doubt that due to his long-term hypoxia, his organ development was limited to only 50% of his peers', and his functionality might not even reach that half-way point.
That he was still alive under these circumstances, unless the doll had created a living person, could truly be considered a miracle.
As the saying goes, surgeons do not fear complex diseases, only poor vital signs. Apart from the psychological pressure caused by the low survival rate, death during surgery is a great blow to medical staff.
Especially when the operation is not complex but requires frequent resuscitation and constant vital sign monitoring. Despite everyone's best efforts, they might not be able to save the patient, and having to stand by and watch the patient die will have a damaging psychological impact.
If it were an intern stepping into the operating room for the first time, they would probably be devastated for at least a month, with dreams haunting them about why they couldn't save the patient's life.
Of course, while the death of a patient who survived the surgery, but later succumbed due to complications or other reasons, would also be regrettable, it somehow does not hit as hard since the doctor didn't have to confront the death head-on.
The moment Shiller saw the X-ray film, he understood what the doll meant.
Morbid had revealed to the Father in Nihilite Manor that he'd operated on a child. The operation was successful, but the child died due to other reasons.
However, this time this child didn't need other reasons to die – just surviving the operation would be a remarkable challenge.
Besides a heart rate monitor, there was no other equipment in the room, with absolutely no provision for emergency care whatsoever. Vital signs had to be judged entirely based on the doctor's experience, not to mention the sterilization conditions were atrocious.
To put it another way, performing an operation under such conditions was equivalent to repairing a Gundam with stone tools. Not even considering a case of tricuspid atresia; any surgeon would think twice before treating acute appendicitis under such conditions.
Just as Shiller was about to speak, a television hidden in one of the dark corners of the room suddenly lit up, revealing the face of a man - Thomas Wayne.
Upon closer inspection, Shiller realized that this Thomas Wayne looked younger than the one he'd seen before. He was probably not even thirty, looking tired but not showing any signs of wear or the toll of time.
Shiller seemed to realize something as he glanced down at the boy lying on the bed. His bone structure did indeed somewhat resemble that of Bruce Wayne, but due to the boy's sheer emaciation and his young age, Shiller hadn't realized it at first.
Even now, if Shiller looked closely, he could only see a little bit of Bruce Wayne in the boy. After all, this young boy's condition wasn't much better than a mummy; divining the appearance of a nearly desiccated body was exceedingly difficult.
"Doctor, Doctor! Can you see me? I'm Thomas Wayne, the head of the Wayne family. They say you can save him. Please, Doctor, please save little Bruce!"
At this point, a woman rushed into the frame. Shiller looked, indeed it was Martha. However, the young Martha was crying so much that her makeup had smeared. She hit Thomas' arm continuously saying: "You shouldn't listen to them! You are sending little Bruce to hell!"
"We have no other way, Martha!" Thomas spoke in despair: "We've asked the best doctors in the world, but they're all powerless. I won't give up as long as there is a glimmer of hope."
"You said it yourself, the world's doctors are powerless. Does this mysterious doctor have a way?! Give me back my son, I would rather he leave us peacefully!"
As the couple quarreled, Shiller was recalling which Batman in which universe had heart disease. He thought, and finally remembered one.
In Batman's future world, Batman seems to have retired because of heart disease and old age, but his heart disease should not have been so serious, how could he live to old age otherwise?
Wait, this might be a world with no Batman. Because Batman was born with severe congenital heart disease and died in early childhood, the whole series of Batman stories never happened and the protagonist was someone else.
This was plausible. After all, there were many comics under DC, and in some that did not mention Batman, there might be a character named Bruce Wayne. Because he was not a protagonist, he never appeared, he might have died.
While Shiller was pondering all of this, Thomas's voice came from the television: "Doctor, please, I'm willing to pay any price to save my son...."
The light in Shiller's eyes brightened suddenly.
At this stage, the Wayne family may not be the richest in the world, but they were certainly very wealthy. What changes would occur in a world that shouldn't have Batman, but now has one? Just thinking about it, Shiller felt it was very interesting.
So Shiller went forward to check little Bruce's condition. In truth, there was not much to look at. Little Bruce's timeline was frozen. Judging by the situation at hand, it wasn't safe to unfreeze him. At a glance, he was in extremely poor condition.
"Has he undergone surgery?" Shiller asked.
Thomas shook slightly because of the abrupt voice, but he quickly answered: "No surgery has been done, only a biopsy."
Shiller frowned deeply. The Wayne family was affluent enough to not miss the best period for surgery. In fact, they had even undergone invasive biopsy, yet no surgery was performed. What was the condition that could block every leading surgeon in the world?
Looking at the scans, if little Bruce's condition had not deteriorated to the present, although the surgery would be challenging, it was not impossible. The saying went, great rewards bribe brave men. The world's best surgeons teamed up, could they not come up with a plan?
Therefore, the biopsy must have been the problem. Shiller thought, those doctors must have seen something in little Bruce's heart that they were helpless about, and they dared not operate.
If the world's best surgeons didn't dare to operate, Shiller didn't believe that calling out Morbid would solve the problem. It was true that Morbid had surgical experience, but it was far from reaching the miraculous level of Doctor Strange as the Hand of God.
If Doctor Strange was here, seeing the conditions in the surgery room, he should turn around and go. This couldn't be considered as a place without the conditions for surgery. Even Thanos, if he saw an operation here, would give you a thumbs up.
But as the saying went, Shiller wanted money more than his life. There's no money in this world he didn't dare to make.
Clearing his throat, he said, "I can save him, but I need a sacrifice."
Thomas' eyes widened, "You're a doctor, aren't you? Are you not going to perform a surgery?"
"Does this look like a place where surgery can be performed?"
Thomas seemed to be able to peer into the room through a screen. As the saying went, long-time sickness turns you into a doctor. Bruce had been sick for a long time, and Thomas had seen many hospitals, big and small. The dark room where Shiller was, it really didn't look like a surgery room.
"I'm a Pope. Don't ask which sect I belong to. In any case, I can save him, but you need to make a sacrifice."
"What sacrifice do you need?"
"Your entire fortune."
Thomas looked at the screen in shock, and then he said, "But, but even if I'm willing, how will you take it?"
"You just need to nod. I have my methods."
Thomas held onto Martha, who had been crying beside him, "If you are God, then 'Yes', we are willing to give everything to save our son."
"As long as you can save little Bruce, we are willing to give away all our possessions. Take whatever you can, we just want our child! As long as you can let him survive!" Martha cried out.
Shiller rolled up his sleeves and said, "That can be managed."