Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Emergency Quest (Complete)
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“…What did you just say?”
Time froze.
I slowly raised my head.
‘I’m fucked.’
A siren blared in my mind.
This was on a whole different level from getting chewed out by Internal Medicine’s Nam Seung-hyun.
That was just being ignored. This was outright insubordination—cursing straight at a senior’s treatment.
My brain screamed as it scrambled for a solution.
I couldn’t exactly say, “I lost it because of the system window.”
Excuse.
Excuse.
I needed an excuse.
The most plausible, divinely inspired excuse.
In one second, I ran through tens of thousands of simulations.
And my survival instincts squeezed out the final answer.
I suddenly smacked my own head.
Senior Choi Su-min and the surrounding nurses’ eyes went wide at my sudden action.
“It was directed at stupid me, Doctor!”
“The most basic patient history taking—History taking—even that I couldn’t do properly, almost delaying the diagnosis! I’m so pathetic and fucking worthless for missing even something that basic! I cursed at my own stupid self! I deserve to get hit!”
It was an inspired performance, soul poured into it.
The crazy act of hitting my own head, paired with an excuse that sounded logical but was missing a few screws somewhere.
The senior stared down at me without a word.
I could feel her mind churning: ‘Is this guy actually crazy, or is he putting on a show?’
After a few seconds of silence, a deep sigh finally escaped her lips.
“Haah.”
Her icy expression softened.
“Fine. Lift your head.”
I slowly straightened my back.
“That should’ve been done by the triage nurse in the first place, but she was busy and missed it. Not your fault, so don’t worry about it. And aren’t you pushing yourself too hard lately?”
I’m saved.
The tension drained from my body, leaving my legs shaky.
“No, I’m fine!”
“Whatever. You made the diagnosis, so you explain it to the patient and guardian.”
With that, she turned back to the monitor.
I bowed my head and headed to the patient.
Bed B-17.
The patient looked bewildered by the sudden treatments.
“Sir, you must’ve been startled. We’ve pinpointed the exact cause of your pain.”
The patient’s eyes shook with anxiety.
“Do I have some big disease?”
“It’s not a major illness. Just a very rare case of food poisoning. Have you heard of ciguatera?”
“Cigua… what?”
“Simply put, you’ve been poisoned by toxins from tropical seas. It’s extremely rare in Korea, so you were just unlucky. This toxin messes with our nerves, causing weird symptoms like cold feeling hot.”
“Heh heh, so what happens to me now?”
“Luckily, we found the cause quickly… and started treatment. The IV you’re getting now will help flush out the toxin. It’s got some painkiller-like stuff too, so you’ll feel better soon.”
“If I hadn’t come to the hospital, I would’ve thought it was just indigestion, suffered through it, and ended up in big trouble. Thank you so much.”
After explaining a few more precautions, I returned to the station.
My whole body felt drained.
I quietly opened the system window.
[Held LP: 600]
‘Halved, but still 500 points.’
I opened the shop list and checked the possession skill again.
[Price: 5,000 LP]
‘4,400 to go.’
Still a long way.
***
After the ciguatera commotion, Patient B-17 stabilized and went through admission to the ward.
The ER quickly returned to normal.
Drunks causing a ruckus, a child crying with a split-open head from a fall, and the constant ring of phone bells.
After handling three or four more patients in the frenzy, midnight was approaching.
I sat at the station to catch my breath when Senior Choi Su-min approached and patted my shoulder.
“Hyun-wook, good work. Go to the on-call room and get some shut-eye.”
“No, I’ll finish charting first then rest.”
I forced a spirited reply and sat back at the EMR.
The screen filled with the patient list.
‘61-year-old male. Presented at 19:00 today complaining of chest pain. Lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest right after arrival. 19:27, CPR started in the resuscitation room at the Emergency Medical Center. Epinephrine 1mg administered at 3-5 minute intervals, total 5 doses, but…’
My fingers felt heavy on the keyboard.
Ah, I’m tired…
Physical and mental fatigue hit me all at once.
I set the mouse down for a moment and leaned back in the chair.
What’s the penalty for possession… severe full-body muscle pain. Just how bad?
And who does this gallery appear to? Under what conditions?
How do I farm LP efficiently?
Unable to resist curiosity, I logged back into [Dead Med Scholars Gallery].
Maybe browse some posts?
I wondered what these ghosts usually chatted about.
I tapped the popular posts tab. Then I read the title of the top post with the most comments.
Title: Seen anything rarer than this, bastards? Anon
Author: Gangnam Physician
28-year-old male patient. Sudden chest-squeezing pain. Classic infarction signs, so straight to coronary angiography—arteries clean. Turns out it was Takotsubo cardiomyopathy from extreme stress. Takotsubo in a young guy. Any of you diagnosed and treated a rarer case than this? Step up.
Pretty interesting case.
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy usually hits postmenopausal women.
It’s super rare for it to show up with perfect MI-like ECG in a young man.
This Gangnam Physician guy was 100% a smug doctor in life.
With an intrigued look, I scrolled down to the comments.
Anon (14.52): Must’ve been a total noob back then lol. What’s so rare? I see Takotsubo all the time.
Back in my day: Tch tch, kids these days diagnose one thing like this and brag about it for life.
As expected. It started right away with sniping and insults.
Communities were the same dead or alive.
Whenever someone bragged, some even greater someone always showed up to lord over them.
Sure enough, the final boss appeared in the next comment.
God’s Scalpel: Tch tch, I operated on a SCAD in a 30s pregnant woman. Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection, with an anomalous coronary ostium too. Cardio internal med and thoracic surgery profs all gathered, scratching their heads in panic—I went in, placed four stents, and saved her.
Chills ran down my spine.
Coronary artery dissection in a pregnant woman.
Just imagining it made my palms sweat.
Heart could rupture, fetus at risk—worst-case scenario.
And he surgery’d it and saved her? What level had this ‘God’s Scalpel’ reached as a surgeon in life?
Anyway, this guy was the first on my possession list. Where’s the list? I just made it.
Looked like there were quite a few in this gallery I needed to keep an eye on.
If I didn’t note them down, in an emergency I’d have points but fumble the possession—disaster.
As I kept lurking, one comment stood out with a totally different vibe amid them.
Guy Hit by a Truck: I know all about truck trauma patients. That’s what killed me. You know that massive hemoperitoneum, blood pressure tanking, vision tunneling feeling? Broken ribs puncturing lung, blood foam refluxing every breath? You ever been hit by a truck? If not, shut up. It fucking hurts bad.
“...”
I was speechless for a moment.
The first two ghosts were bragging about their rarest treated cases, sure…
But this Truck Guy was straight-up describing how he bit it—high-fiving the grim reaper on his way out.
Come on, guys, grow up.
Even dead, this is what you do?
Ha….
These bastards even in death just spout this crap.