Beating the Doctor
After witnessing the overwhelming presence of the Hospital Public Service Agent, we lost every last ounce of will to resist. We obediently cooperated with the nurse.
As a result, right now I and the three employees—A, B, and C—lay strapped to surgical chairs with our limbs completely restrained.
“They clearly said that except for neurosurgery and internal medicine you’d automatically become a visitor!”
“How the hell did Choi Yu-na get guardian status? It’s a relief, yeah, it’s definitely a relief!”
“We’re perfectly fine! We even got our annual physicals this year!”
Even in this situation, employee ABC kept twisting against his bonds and shouting. It was an utterly bizarre behavioral pattern; I had no idea how he had survived anomaly number four.
Coming to Hospital Four should have meant he had experienced four different wards, yet the three people before me showed absolutely no trace of that trauma. They felt less like veteran agents and more like hot-blooded rookies fresh out of training.
How on earth had people like them become the aces of the Chungnam branch?
Patients, please remain quiet inside the hospital.
……
At the dry, mechanical voice, all three of us shut our mouths at the same time. In the nurse mannequin’s hand was a saw and a hammer—the source of the sound. There was no need to guess; those were clearly the tools meant to “treat” us.
I wondered whether the pain-suppressant injection could block agony from something like that. And even if it did, could anyone honestly say they enjoyed being beaten, torn, and sliced without feeling pain?
Gulp.
My mouth had gone completely dry. The instruction had been to take the pain suppressant, but now that very order was biting us in the ass. I couldn’t help feeling a burning sensation at the back of my neck.
If I made it out of here alive, I swore I would give the team leader a piece of my mind. The information team could deal with him for me.
The nurse stood motionless, gripping those gruesome instruments. Tick. Tock. Tick——tock.
In the examination room where no one dared open their mouth, only the sound of the clock pushing back the silence remained.
Tap, tap, tap.
Footsteps echoed from beyond the door. The nurse’s neck tilted at a grotesque angle.
The doctor is entering.
Creeeeak.
The examination room door opened, revealing a man who appeared to be in his forties. Unlike the restaurant chef who had forcibly mimicked a human, this entity looked like an ordinary person no matter how you sliced it. The white coat he wore was spotless, not a single drop of blood on it.
Yet that very normality felt paradoxically wrong—so overwhelmingly, unbearably normal that it stabbed at my brain like a two-eyed man appearing in a village of cyclopes.
“Looks like we have four patients today.”
The first two admitted patients still haven’t been located.
“We need to find them quickly so we can treat them. I wonder why they’re hiding.”
The nurse nodded and set the usual tools down on the surgical tray.
Neural paralysis due to medication. They cannot feel pain.
“Oh dear. How did all of you end up like this?”
The doctor wore a genuinely sympathetic expression as he picked up the hammer.
“If you can’t feel pain, you might push yourself while injured and cause serious complications.”
He stroked the hammer gently and slowly approached employee A.
CRACK!
He swung the hammer at A’s knee. Employee A’s pupils dilated. Yet because he felt no pain, even as blood poured from the shattered joint, that was his only reaction.
“See? This is exactly why painless conditions are so terrifying.”
CRACK! CRACK!
The doctor continued, smashing B’s and C’s knees as well. Even as bones splintered and flesh burst outward, none of them screamed.
“Why is that person over there separated?”
The doctor, still holding the bloodied hammer, turned to look at me.
This patient’s internal medication concentration is lower than the other three.
“Is that so? Then I’ll write a prescription. Send him out. There’s a guardian waiting outside, correct?”
Yes.
“Very well. Patient, take your prescription, settle at the lobby counter, and you may leave.”
The nurse approached and released the restraints on my arms and legs. Blood rushed back in, sending a prickling sensation through my joints.
Was I really supposed to just walk out like this? Leaving the three of them behind?
Once I left this place, there was no telling what the doctor and nurse would do to them under the name of “treatment.” They might very well end up among the thirty percent survival rate listed in the report—as hospital patients or clinical test subjects.
“Rookie, go out first. We’ll follow soon.”
“How…”
“Hey, you think we survived anomaly four for nothing?”
“This is all within expected parameters, so just go do the patient visit with Choi Yu-na.”
ABC were trying to push me out of the room. Liars. If they were going to talk like that, they should at least stop their hands from shaking.
I recalled something ApolloWorshipper once wrote: when you go into the field with complete strangers, even if things go wrong it hurts less.
But now that I was actually in the situation… I realized that no matter how much of a stranger someone was, abandoning them wasn’t something a decent person did.
“What kind of treatment will these patients receive?”
“Rookie!”
“Although I entered as a patient, I am these people’s guardian. I need to know what kind of treatment the hospital performs.”
Even if I ended up leaving alone, I decided to at least try something. If this entity at least fulfilled its role as a hospital, there were still cards I could play.
“Hmm…”
The doctor rolled his eyes in thought.
“If you are the guardian, then that is correct.”
“Please explain.”
“We hospitalize them for one day, draw the blood saturated with the medication, and perform a transfusion. Once enough blood is removed for the patient to regain sensation of pain, we proceed with discharge.”
So after already shattering their knees, they would restore their sense of pain.
“Of course, after first examining whether they can feel other types of pain as well.”
With sawing and who-knew-what-else added on top.
“Is there no way to handle it with medication like me?”
“For these three, medication would take longer to show results.”
“All three of them are strangely afraid of needles despite their age.”
When you go to the hospital with a cold, they usually recommend an injection. It’s fast and effective. But if the patient or guardian throws a fit, switching to oral medication is possible. In the end, if the guardian insists hard enough, they usually get their way. The horror stories of pediatricians dealing with helicopter parents on social media proved that.
“I would normally advise against it due to possible side effects… but since the guardian requests it, I suppose we have no choice.”
The doctor gestured to the nurse as he spoke. The nurse nodded and released the restraints on all three.
“I will provide prescriptions for the three of you as well. Please settle at the lobby and visit the pharmacy.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
Leaving behind the doctor who couldn’t quite hide his displeased expression, the four of us exited the examination room as naturally as possible.
Thump, thump, thump.
With their shattered knees, the three leaned on one another’s shoulders and hopped along on one leg toward the lobby so they wouldn’t fall.
“I told you to go out.”
“Didn’t they teach you in training to take care of your own body first in situations like this?”
“Ignoring the words of the Chungnam branch aces, huh?”
“But we survived, didn’t we?”
The distance between the examination room and the lobby wasn’t far. Thanks to that, the three employees were able to stop hopping sooner than expected.
“You’re safe.”
“You too, Senior.”
Choi Yu-na was waiting for us in the lobby.
“Did you find the rescue targets?”
“No. The nurses are currently looking up the targets’ identities.”
“They said they couldn’t find the two patients. They’re probably hiding somewhere.”
I didn’t know where they were hiding, but at least it was certain that the two rescue targets had escaped the hospital’s grasp.
“We’ll leave finding the targets to the two of us. The problem is…”
ABC stood in a neat line, each with one knee completely destroyed. Senior took out the response manual after looking at them.
“The lobby is fine. It’s a safe zone.”
“Even though we were dragged away from the lobby?”
“That only happens during the initial patient classification.”
Seeing is believing.
3. Doctor
The Doctor is a humanoid entity confirmed inside Eternal Life General Hospital. Its outward appearance closely resembles an ordinary human, but its gender, age, and facial features change with every appearance. The Doctor diagnoses the patient’s condition, identifies areas requiring treatment, and performs procedures appropriate to the symptoms. According to survivor testimony, the examination and treatment process is abnormally violent in most cases. However, among all confirmed cases to date, no deaths have been directly attributed to the Doctor’s treatment process. Conversely, when patients refuse treatment, the Doctor shows a tendency to use high levels of physical force to subdue them. Considering survival probability, refusal of treatment inside the hospital is not recommended.
4. Patient / Guardian / Visitor
Personnel who enter the ward lobby are classified by nurse entities into one of three categories.
The exact criteria for classifying patients, guardians, and visitors have not been clearly identified. However, rescue targets are confirmed to be classified as “patients” without exception. Bureau employees, on the other hand, are classified as “visitors” with high probability. Cases where employees are classified as patients are rare, but to date no employee classified as a patient has returned from the hospital. Those classified as guardians face no restrictions on movement inside the hospital. Visitors, however, may only move within limited times and areas and are subject to repeated identity verification and access control. Deployed employees have testified that when they exceeded the permitted visitation time, nurse entities called the Hospital Public Service Agent.
Patients, guardians, and visitors who have received treatment tend to receive no interference in the hospital lobby area.
However, excessively long stays inside the hospital have been confirmed to cause abnormalities in the subject’s behavior and cognitive abilities; therefore, prolonged stays are prohibited.
5. Securing the Rescue Requester
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It was at least fortunate that the Chungnam branch aces ABC, whose knees were now screaming in pain, would be safe if left in the lobby. The problem was that a rescue mission meant for five people now had to be carried out by just me and Choi Yu-na.
“Can the two of us really rescue the targets?”
“Probability doesn’t matter. Once you’re on site, you carry out your assigned duty.”
“That’s a very by-the-book answer.”
Fortunately, Senior was classified as a guardian. She could search without hospital interference. This too must be thanks to DarkSurgerySurgery’s grace.
The problem was me.
“But Senior, I was classified as a patient. Can I still enter the hospital?”
“Hmm.”
There was no way Senior would know something not covered in the response manual.
“Wait a moment.”
“I think it’s okay to ask at the lobby.”
“Basis?”
“The doctor said it was fine to ask in the examination room.”
“I’ll ask.”
Choi Yu-na walked toward the nurse at the information desk. The entities lifted their heads and looked at her.
“Can I go see a patient together with someone who isn’t a guardian?”
What is your relationship?
Senior answered without the slightest hesitation.
“Husband.”
She had suddenly turned me into a married man.
Possible.
What exactly had I just heard?
When Senior returned, she thrust a V-sign at me with a triumphant expression.
“It’s allowed.”
Park Seong-bin, age twenty-five. Became a married man inside a hospital.