Chapter 218
Episode 218 Pixie (1)
On the commute home.
As I stepped out of the main building's lobby and through the automatic doors, the suffocatingly hot night air of mid-August rushed deep into my lungs.
Inhale—
Exhale—
"Even the air feels fresh."
In fact, it was just humid.
I had been dispatched to Thoracic Surgery for two weeks. It was a period that could be considered either long or short, but the dense fatigue weighing down on my shoulders made it feel like I had been rolling around the emergency room for half a year.
"It’s exhausting."
Memories of opening and closing the chests of countless patients, covered in blood while hovering between life and death, flashed before my eyes like a kaleidoscope. Of course, I wasn't the one who actually did the opening and closing.
Even so, separate from the exhaustion I had endured during that time, my steps were lighter than ever before. Why?
'Because it’s finally over.'
As I walked along the secluded, tree-lined path near the back gate of the hospital, I quite naturally flicked my finger into the empty air.
Snap.
With a cheerful, crisp sound, a translucent blue system window materialized before my eyes like a hologram.
[Shop]
I practiced moving my gaze familiarly to activate the Shop tab.
'It’s about time for an upgrade anyway.'
Consider my crazy performance in Thoracic Surgery over the last few days: I had saved a pneumopericardium patient by piercing them with a needle to relieve cardiac tamponade, and I had identified a rare case of giant cell arteritis, completely overturning the surgical plan to drag the patient back by the collar from the brink of death.
In return for those major feats of survival, the system had paid out a pretty sweet reward.
[Remaining LP: 74,400]
Over 70,000 LP. I felt like a billionaire.
I opened the higher tier categories of the shop that I had been eyeing for so long. It contained the skill that was the most essential, the most broken, and simultaneously no different from my lifeline.
[Possession Upgrade]
[Price: 50,000 LP]
[Description: For 1 hour, a designated Gallery user can possess your body, or float in the void next to you for 2 hours to provide real-time guidance. By spending 5,000 LP, two ghosts can take turns possessing you, while the other ghost waits in guidance mode.]
[Penalty: You will fall into a state of severe full-body muscle pain for 4 hours after using the skill.]
Reading down through the explanation paragraph by paragraph, I silently cheered.
'The 30-minute possession has been extended to 1 hour.'
This was the biggest change. One hour was enough time to comfortably handle everything from the core procedures of an emergency open-chest surgery to clamping and basic suturing—buying enough time until Thoracic Surgery could come down.
'And the guidance mode has increased to 2 hours, too.'
The amount of time a ghost could float in the air inside the operating room and nag into my ear had also drastically improved. If a situation arose where I didn't urgently need manual dexterity but required long-term assistance, this would be the ultimate cheat code.
'Plus, the restriction is unlocked for two people, and the muscle pain went down from 6 hours to 4 hours.'
Being able to alternate possession between two people meant I could switch skills in real-time, matching procedures for different types of surgeries like neurosurgery and thoracic surgery. On top of that, the godforsaken muscle pain penalty that used to leave me half-dead had been reduced by a whopping 2 hours.
I had been planning to splurge and upgrade my old computer at home since it was gradually becoming a piece of junk. But while upgrading a real-world desktop would break my blood-earned salary, this system let me spec up using points accumulated from rolling around on the job. Should I consider this a better deal?
'...Not bad.'
There was no need to hesitate. Buy it right now.
Without a moment's delay, I firmly pressed the purchase button.
Flash—!
[Purchase complete!]
[Remaining LP: 24,400]
With a cheerful sound effect, golden particles erupted from the system window and absorbed into my body. It felt as though a new sensation was unlocking, flowing through my blood vessels.
Hum~ hum~ hum~
A hum escaped my lips involuntarily. I quickened my pace and manipulated the blue window in the void to log into the Gallery, eager to spread the good news far and wide.
[Dead Medic Gallery]
========================
Possession has been upgraded
Author: Korean Slave 1 (Male)
Finally, two people can be active simultaneously.
The duration has doubled.
The muscle pain is reduced too.
========================
The moment I registered the post, notifications started pouring in as if they had been waiting in ambush.
Comments
Mes of the God (Male): Finally two people at once? Now you can rip open a belly to admire the organs while cracking open a skull at the same time.
↳ CrackOpenTheHead: ??? Says who? What is this, save me.
↳ Mes of the God (Male): Not a chance.
Let'sSpinTheDialysisMachine: Upgrading possession changes nothing for the sad internal medicine folks who never get possessed anyway, upvote if you agree lol
↳ Latte is Mine: Upvote lol I'll just stay in the back and read the lab results for you.
↳ Cardiology Ghost: Not me though?
↳ Let'sSpinTheDialysisMachine: Read the room, dude. Get out.
Watching the bustling chat window of the ghosts brought an involuntary smile to my face. Even though they grumbled like that, they were tsundere old men who would create a total uproar to possess me and save the patient themselves the moment a patient's vitals started shaking.
Stretching grandly as I walked through the night streets, I realized my days of walking on eggshells in someone else's department were over. I just needed to return to my own territory: the emergency room.
Smirk.
Just like that, I finished my two-week dispatch and headed back to my officetel with a light heart.
The moment I went to work at the emergency room, the person who welcomed me was Park Woong, the Section Chief of Emergency Medicine, who was chugging coffee.
"How was the dispatch?" he asked, without taking his eyes off his folder.
Inhaling the air of the Section Chief's office, which was mixed with the familiar smell of disinfectant, I replied politely, "I'm back safely."
At my peaceful answer, Park Woong slowly raised his head. "You caused two major incidents and you call that back safely?"
"That counts as a successful trip, doesn't it?"
Unauthorizably inserting a needle to drain a tamponade in another department's ICU, and breaking into an emergency thoracic operating room to completely overturn the lead surgeon's plan—I shamelessly affirmed those crazy actions that had rumored through the entire hospital. I saved lives, so how was that an accident? It was an achievement.
Park Woong picked up the coffee cup on his desk and chuckled. "Spoken like my disciple. Good work."
"Thank you, sir."
"You have a surgery dispatch lined up, right?"
"Ah, yes, Section Chief."
Originally, my dispatch schedule was to move straight to General Surgery immediately after finishing the two weeks in Thoracic Surgery, allowing me to experience the rest of the knife-wielders' world.
Park Woong clicked his tongue and shook his head. "The academic conference noted that you already completed a surgery dispatch during your 1st Year, so they can't approve an additional one."
It was a limitation imposed by resident training regulations and the academic conference's administrative boundaries. This meant that officially rotating through a dispatch site for a second time in my 3rd Year had become an issue, resulting in a rejection on paper.
"Ah... Is that so?"
It was a golden opportunity to watch appendectomies and bowel resections up close in General Surgery while soaking up the knowledge of the ghosts.
"Instead, because we need some kind of justification... they said that even if an official dispatch is out of the question, they'll provide training equivalent to a surgical department. You'll probably have to act as a bound ghost in the trauma bay (* trauma resuscitation room) for the next two weeks."
"Oh... Is that how it's going to be?"
The trauma bay.
It was the absolute front line of the emergency room and the center of hell, where only the most critically injured trauma patients—those from traffic accidents, falls, and stab wounds, with blood spraying and bones crushing—poured in. Being stuck there for two weeks meant focusing solely on surgical procedures and resuscitation.
Park Woong shrugged his shoulders and added, "Even so, it's a good thing because you'll be working in the ER without having to deal with drunk trouble makers or mild cases whining about a runny nose."
"...I suppose so?" I answered half-heartedly.
Avoiding mild patients was great, but being a bound ghost in the trauma bay meant smelling the scent of blood all day long while wrestling with death alongside the ghosts.
"Exactly. Head on in. End of announcements! Dismissed!"
"Yes, sir! Dismissed!"
After a brief salute, I stepped out of the Section Chief's office.
Slide—
The moment the door opened, the familiar white noise struck my ears. The alarm sound of the EKG monitors, the groans of patients, and the hurried footsteps of the medical staff.
My hometown. Not Seoul... but the Emergency Room.
"Oh~ look who's back."
As I walked down the ER hallway, Nurse Jung, a veteran nurse who was organizing charts at the station, spotted me and offered a warm greeting.
"Yes, I'm back."
Right next to her, a figure walking back from a guardian interview brightened up upon seeing me.
"Oh! Hyeonjae is here?! I heard the rumor that you took the head of the Thoracic Surgery professor...!"
It was Lee Minjae, an Emergency Medicine Fellow. With his characteristically exaggerated gestures and voice, he rushed over, framing my infiltration into the operating room like a heroic feat of a Romance of the Three Kingdoms general.
Letting out a short sigh, I mindlessly high-fived his raised hand and kept walking toward the station without stopping.
"Hey! Han! Are you seriously ignoring my words?!"
Lee Minjae's aggrieved shout echoed behind my back.
"Keep it down, Dr. Minjae," Nurse Jung cut in, her voice cold and resolute.
"Ah, yes. Nurse Jung. I will be quiet."
The fellow's instant deflection shrunk him down instantly. It was the perfect food chain of the emergency room.
Smirk.
Letting out an involuntary chuckle, I arrived at the central station. Sitting in a corner of the wide desk was Baek Eunseo, a 2nd Year resident, who was aggressively hammering away at her keyboard with multiple windows open.
"Hey."
"Ah, oh? Oh? Dr. Han, you're here?"
When I greeted her casually, Baek Eunseo, who had her nose buried in the monitor, jumped in surprise and lifted her head.
"Yeah. My two weeks are up."
At my words, Baek Eunseo suddenly pushed her chair back, stood up abruptly, and said with sparkling eyes, "Oh, Doctor..."
"What?"
"I really missed you!"
"...."
For a moment, I was lost for words. "Uh... really? Me?"
"Yes!"
"Why?"
"Uh......"
My dry counter-question brought Baek Eunseo's words to a grinding halt.
'Why is her face turning red?'
Avoiding my suspicious gaze, Baek Eunseo hastily poured out excuses. "That... yes. It's because of the 1st Year troublemakers. Yes! That's why I missed you. Since you weren't here, the kids weren't placing orders properly and kept sending bizarre consults to other departments, so I was absolute toast! I needed your fiery scolding!"
Sure, sure. I'll believe you.
"Oh boy, yes, yes..."
Sighing and shaking my head, I was just about to find a seat in front of a computer.
"Dr. Han!"
"Yes?"
One of the nurses handling triage near the entrance ran toward the station with hurried steps, looking for me.
"There's a teenage bicycle TA (* traffic accident) patient who arrived on foot, but I think you need to examine them right away."
A teenage patient who had fallen off a bike or hit a car, but had walked into the emergency room on their own two feet instead of riding an ambulance. Normally, if someone is capable of walking in, the standard procedure is to direct them to the mild area and take an X-ray slowly.
However, the intuition of a triage nurse who filters through countless patients could never be ignored. Even if they walked in looking perfectly fine on the outside, the fact that she felt a chilling sense of discomfort meant this was not a patient to be left alone.
The first mission as a bound ghost of the trauma bay. It had started.
"Ah, yes, yes! I'm coming."
Lifting my buttocks from the seat I was about to occupy, I draped my stethoscope around my neck and shoved a penlight into my pocket. My body began to move reflectively, syncing with the speed of the emergency room.
Time to work.