Isn't it common sense to show some sincerity before asking for a favor?
Steven narrowed his eyes.
He didn't even have to think to know what this girl—Warfarin—wanted from him.
She was clearly after his body.
But he didn't owe her anything, so why should he agree?
More importantly—what was he getting out of it?
"No need to reject me so decisively. We can at least have a little chat first—who knows? You might just change your mind."
Warfarin didn't seem discouraged by his blunt refusal. Instead, she stepped forward, closing the distance Steven had deliberately put between them.
"I don't think there's much to talk about. I'm perfectly healthy—I don't need to see a doctor."
Steven gave a hearty chuckle, but his stance remained firm.
A beautiful girl suddenly acting all friendly for no apparent reason? Yeah, right. He wasn't narcissistic enough to believe this was simply a result of his charm.
"That's what a lot of my patients say at first. And by the time they realize something's wrong—well, it's usually too late."
"Should I take that as a professional medical warning? Or are you secretly cursing me?"
Steven spread his hands, completely unfazed.
No one knew his physical condition better than he did.
His status screen was right there—aside from one pesky debuff, [Rejection of World Will I], that seemed permanently stuck on his interface, everything else confirmed his peak condition.
He could probably punch through ten bulls in a row without breaking a sweat.
"Of course not. But since you seem so against it, I suppose I'll drop the subject. After all, everyone has their own secrets—things they don't want others to find out, right?"
Seeing that Steven had no intention of budging, Warfarin decided not to push further. She casually stepped back and returned to her seat behind the medical desk, resting her cheek on one hand.
But her gaze never left him.
The scent coming off this man was unlike anything she had encountered in her long life.
It didn't belong to any known species in this world.
Yet, for Warfarin, there was something about it—something irresistible.
For a moment, she had almost lost control of her instincts. The urge to taste his blood was overwhelming.
But ultimately, rationality prevailed.
Her instincts also warned her—if she did act on her impulse, she might end up facing something terrifying.
"Come on, could you not stare at me like that? I know I'm handsome, but still, that's gotta cost extra."
Steven scratched his head, feeling more than a little uncomfortable under her unwavering gaze.
What was it with these ancient grandma pretending to be young girls? One was a riddle-spewing enigma, and the other looked at him like she was literally about to eat him.
Honestly, Outcast and Saint Carmen—who made no effort to hide their actual ages—were way easier to deal with.
Then again, he wasn't really in a position to judge. He wasn't exactly a young man himself.
And personality-wise… yeah, even he admitted he was kind of weird.
"Alright then. Here's a thousand LMD—let's start with five minutes."
To Steven's surprise, a neat stack of banknotes—the same kind Gavial had given him earlier—was suddenly placed in front of him.
Before he could react, Warfarin's pale, almost sickly face was already way too close for comfort.
Since she had already paid, Warfarin's gaze became even more unrestrained—it was almost as if she were just a step away from reaching out and touching him.
"Tsk. Let's just have a normal conversation, alright? You're kinda creeping me out."
At this moment, Steven finally understood what it felt like for others when they had to deal with his unpredictable nature. It was probably exactly like this.
The problem was, he was the one who made the offer. Now that she had actually paid up, he couldn't just shamelessly go back on his word.
Rather than standing here awkwardly while being visually violated, he figured they might as well pass the time with some conversation.
That technically counted as fulfilling her request to chat first, right?
"Hmm, what would Mr. Steve like to ask? I'm listening. I have quite a few questions myself, but I'm a little worried you might find them offensive. So, why don't you go first?"
Despite her words, Warfarin's gaze still didn't shift away from Steven.
"You sure you're not gonna start speaking in riddles?"
Steven frowned slightly and asked a question that seemed completely unrelated to the current situation.
"Riddles? Oh, I think I get what you mean."
Warfarin paused for a moment before realizing who he was referring to. Covering her mouth with a soft chuckle, she reassured him:
"Don't worry. While I do get along fairly well with Kal'tsit, I'm nowhere near as cryptic as she is. As long as your questions aren't too difficult to answer, I'll do my best to explain."
"Good. Actually, there's something that's been bugging me for a while now, and I wasn't sure who to ask about it. But since you guys research this stuff, you might be able to give me an answer."
Steven stroked his chin, carefully choosing his words before finally voicing a question that had been lingering in his mind for a long time.
"What exactly is Originium? And what is Oripathy?"
This issue had been bothering Steven for quite some time.
In this world, magic was referred to as Originium Arts, and both Outcast and Kal'tsit frequently mentioned Oripathy.
Even that synthetic creature he fought in the abandoned church had dropped something called Unstable Originium Shards.
So what the hell was this stuff, exactly?
Steven felt like he needed to figure it out.
It wasn't that he was that curious about Originium itself, but rather—he had tested something earlier.
Surprisingly, Originium could actually be used as an equivalent exchange item to generate EMC points.
Normally, that mod only recognized items from the base version of Minecraft. So Steven had been wondering for a while now—what was the most efficient and practical way to farm EMC?
If Originium turned out to be something easily obtainable, then he wouldn't have to worry about running out of points to exchange for items in the future.
After all, even a single Unstable Originium Shard was roughly equivalent to a gold ingot in EMC value.
And since it was something that monsters dropped—wasn't that basically an endless gold mine?