Chapter 7
Episode 7 Urgent Quest (3) (End)
“…What did you just say?”
Time froze.
I slowly turned my head.
‘I’m fucked.’
Sirens wailed in my head.
This was on a completely different level from being humiliated by Nam Seunghyun (Male) from Internal Medicine. That was just being ignored, but this was an act of insubordination—cursing directly at a senior's treatment to her face.
My brain screamed, searching frantically for a solution. I couldn't exactly say, “I did that because I was pissed off at the system window,” could I?
An excuse.
An excuse.
I needed an excuse.
The most plausible, god-tier excuse possible.
I ran tens of thousands of simulations in a single second. Then, I squeezed out the final answer conjured by my survival instinct.
I suddenly slapped my own head.
Senior Choi Sumin (Female) and the surrounding nurses stared at me with wide eyes at my erratic behavior.
“I was talking to my stupid self, Teacher!”
“I almost delayed the diagnosis because I couldn't even properly take the history—the patient's biggest enemy! I found myself so pathetic and fucking frustrating for missing something like that! I cursed at my own stupidity! I deserve to be beaten up a bit!”
It was a god-tier performance pulled from the depths of my soul. A crazy display of hitting one's own head, combined with an excuse that sounded logical yet slightly unhinged.
The senior looked down at me without a word. I could sense her mind working busily, thinking, ‘Is this guy actually crazy, or is he putting on a show?’
After a few seconds of silence, a deep sigh finally escaped her mouth.
“Whew.”
Her icy expression thawed.
“That's enough. Raise your head.”
I slowly straightened my back.
“The triage nurse was supposed to do that, but they missed it because it was busy. It's not your fault, so don't worry about it. Besides, haven't you been overdoing it lately?”
I survived.
As the tension left my body, my legs shook.
“No, ma'am! I'm fine!”
“Whatever. Since you made the diagnosis, you explain it to the patient and the guardian.”
Saying that, the senior turned her head back to the monitor. I bowed and headed toward the patient.
Bed B-17.
The patient looked dazed by the sudden treatments.
“Patient, you must have been very startled. We found the exact cause of your pain.”
The patient's eyes flickered anxiously.
“Do I have some kind of major illness?”
“It's not a major illness. However, you caught a very rare type of food poisoning. Have you ever heard of Ciguatera?”
“Cigua… what?”
“To put it simply, you were poisoned by a toxin found in tropical seas. It's normally very rare and hard to see in Korea, so you were just a bit unlucky. This toxin confuses our nerves a bit. That's why you're experiencing the strange symptom where cold things feel hot.”
“Haha, then what happens to me now?”
“Fortunately, we found the cause quickly… and treatment has started. The IV fluid going into your body right now will flush the toxin out. A painkiller-like medication is also being administered, so you'll feel better soon.”
“If I hadn't come to the hospital, I would've just thought it was an upset stomach and suffered through it. It could have been disastrous. Thank you so much.”
After explaining a few more precautions to the patient, I returned to the station. I felt completely drained of energy.
I quietly opened the system window.
[Possessed LP: 600]
‘Cut in half, but even so, it's 500 points.’
I opened the shop list and checked the possession skill once more.
[Price: 5,000 LP]
‘4,400 points to go.’
I still had a long way to go.
After the Ciguatera commotion ended, the patient in B-17 stabilized and went through the admission process for the ward.
The emergency room quickly returned to its usual state. Drunkards causing a ruckus, the cry of a child who fell and cut their head, and the telephone bells ringing incessantly.
After frantically handling three or four more patients like that, midnight was already approaching.
While sitting at the station to catch my breath, Senior Choi Sumin walked over and tapped my shoulder.
“Hyeonjae, good job. Go to the duty room and get some sleep.”
“No, I'm fine. I'll finish charting before I rest.”
I answered, trying my best to sound cheerful, and sat in front of the EMR again.
The patient list filled the screen.
‘61-year-old male patient. Visited the hospital today around 19:00 complaining of chest pain. Lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest immediately after arrival. At 19:27, CPR initiated in the resuscitation room of the emergency medical center. Administered Epinephrine 1mg a total of 5 times every 1 to 5 minutes, but…’
The fingers tapping the keyboard felt heavy.
Ah, I'm tired…
Physical fatigue and mental fatigue rushed in all at once. I set the mouse down for a moment and leaned my body against the back of the chair.
What is the penalty for possession… extreme whole-body muscle pain. Just how bad would it be? And under what conditions does this gallery appear to people? How can I earn LP efficiently?
Ultimately, unable to overcome my curiosity, I accessed the [Dead Medic Gallery] again.
Should I lurk and look at more posts? I was curious about what these ghosts usually talked about to pass the time.
I pressed the popular posts tab. Then, I read the title of the top post, which had the most comments.
Title: Anyone seen anything rarer than what I saw? lol
Writer: Kang Nammyung (Male)
28-year-old male patient. Sudden squeezing chest pain. Showed typical infarction findings, so went straight into coronary angiography, but the coronary arteries were clean. Turned out to be Takotsubo cardiomyopathy caused by extreme stress. Takotsubo in a young man—if anyone has directly diagnosed and treated a case rarer than this, step up.
It was a pretty interesting case. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy usually appears mainly in postmenopausal women. It is truly rare for it to present in a young man with EKG findings completely identical to a myocardial infarction.
This gentleman using this ID was 100% a doctor who had been quite full of pride while alive.
With an intrigued expression, I scrolled down to check the comments.
ㅇㅇ(14.52): Must've died when you were a total newbie lol. What's so rare about this that you're bragging? You see Takotsubo from time to time.
Latte is Mine: Tsk tsk. Kids these days diagnose one thing like this and boast about it for the rest of their lives.
As expected. The comments started with insults and criticism right from the get-go. The community was the same whether alive or dead. When someone brags, someone even greater is bound to appear to assert dominance over them.
Sure enough, the final boss appeared in the very next comment.
Mes of the God (Male): Tsk tsk. I've even operated on a case of SCAD (Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection) in a pregnant mother in her 30s. It was even accompanied by a coronary artery origin anomaly. While all the cardiology and thoracic surgery professors gathered and broke their heads over it, I went in, placed four stents, and saved her.
I got goosebumps. Coronary artery dissection in a pregnant woman. It was a case that made my hands sweat just imagining it. The heart could rupture, and the fetus was also in danger—the absolute worst-case scenario.
But he operated and saved her? What kind of level had this person called 'Mes of the God (Male)' reached as a surgeon during his lifetime?
For starters, that gentleman was the first name on my possession list. Where was this list, you ask? I just made it. It seemed like there were quite a few people in this gallery I needed to keep a close eye on. Because if I didn't record something, a major disaster might happen during an emergency where I'd have the points but wouldn't know who to possess properly.
As I kept lurking, one comment among them stood out because its tone was uniquely different.
Truck Hit Guy: I know a fucking lot about trauma patients hit by trucks. Because that's how I died. Do you guys know what it feels like when your blood pressure drops from massive hemoperitoneum and your vision narrows like a tunnel? Or the feeling of broken ribs piercing your lungs so that bloody foam refluxes every time you breathe? Have you guys ever been hit by a truck? If you haven't, don't talk. It really hurts like a motherfucker.
“….”
I was momentarily at a loss for words.
The previous two ghosts were bragging about the rarest cases they had treated, surely….
But this crazy ghost using the nickname 'Truck Hit Guy' was explaining how he left the world, high-fived the Grim Reaper, and walked down the path to the underworld.
Come on, gentlemen, grow up. What's the point of doing this even after death?
Sigh….
These bastards talk about this kind of crap even when they're dead.