Chapter 156
Rrrring-ring-ring-
My phone in my pocket was ringing like crazy.
The caller was Park Woong, the director of the emergency medical center.
"Yes, this is Han Hyeonjae."
[Oh? Hyeonjae? Damn, it's noisy. Can you hear me?]
There was an enormous racket coming through the receiver.
Fire truck sirens, radio static, people's screams, and even loudspeaker announcements.
"Yes, Chief! I can hear you fine! What's the situation on scene?"
[We're still triaging! The big fire is mostly under control, and we're mopping up the embers now... Looks like something blew up over in the restaurant area! Some kind of gas pipe, maybe!]
"Ah, yes, yes."
[Anyway, let's see... after triage and transfer, we've sent 16 to Cheongjin, 17 to Gaegeumbaek, 14 to Dong-A, and 11 to Pusan National....]
"Just a second. Let me check. Nurse Jeong!"
I stopped Senior Nurse Jeong, who had just burst out of resus and was on her way to throw away a bloody wad of gauze.
"Yes?"
"Uh... how many fire patients have we had so far? Was the count accurate?"
"Just a moment! Uh..."
Nurse Jeong checked the numbers written on the whiteboard and answered.
"Including the patient who just came in, it's 16! Should we count the early arrivals who hadn't been triaged yet too?"
"Ah, that's fine! Got it! Thank you!"
I answered into the phone again.
"Chief, all 16 have arrived and been assigned to their zones. Resus and the operating rooms are both running at full capacity."
[Oh, good! Thanks for your hard work! And five more are coming for now, so please hang in there till the very end!]
"Yes, understood!"
Click.
The call ended.
I let out a long sigh and set down my phone.
The critical patients in resus were being handled by specialists from each department, sent either to the OR or the ICU, and the Zone A patients were being treated at a crazy pace too.
I sat on the station chair for a moment and stared into space.
[Time remaining: 16 minutes 45 seconds]
There were only about fifteen minutes left on the map timer now.
The clump of dust floating beside me hovered in front of me.
[What are you spacing out for? Aren't you working? Did you come here to hang out?]
'I already finished triage. Everyone's here with their respective departments, so there's no need for me to butt in and tell them what to do. I'd only be getting in the way.'
My role now was to keep an eye on the overall flow.
Basically, to watch for bottlenecks or patients who suddenly deteriorate.
[Then what? Why do you look like you just ate shit?]
'I was wondering whether the possession penalty applies to map mode too. During the last upgrade, the excruciating muscle pain got reduced from 12 hours to 6.'
[Hmm... I don't know. This is my first time being summoned like this too.]
For now, I opened the system window and bought four more advanced fatigue recovery potions.
You never know.
I might collapse sprawled out on the ER floor the moment this was over and I let my guard down.
After finishing my doping prep, I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
I wanted to see whether the scene was on the news.
It was big enough that it had definitely shown up as breaking news.
[Whoa, what is this, hell slave? Why doesn't this phone have a home button at the bottom? Is everything just screen?]
The drifter ghost peered over my shoulder at the screen, fascinated.
'...Just how old are you, exactly?'
When I opened the portal site's news, breaking news was displayed in red on the main page.
[Black smoke rises amid explosions at a massive downtown Busan fire]
[The current casualty count is around 70, and fire authorities believe the blaze started with a gas explosion in the kitchen of the department store's fourth-floor restaurant area....]
On the screen, the department store building was spewing black smoke while fire trucks sprayed water everywhere.
Then the screen switched.
[The injured are being distributed to nearby university hospitals. Let's go to a live connection from the scene.]
The reporter was standing somewhere with a microphone in hand.
The background looked strangely familiar.
[Yes! I am now outside the emergency medical center of Cheongjin University Hospital in Dongnae-gu, where the largest number of severe patients have been brought!]
"Hey, why is that right in front of here?"
Behind the reporter, I could see ambulances coming in, but the camera crew and onlookers were tangled together so badly that the entrance looked extremely congested.
"Aren't they blocking the ambulance entrance?"
Should I go out and chase them off?
What is security even doing?
I was muttering to myself along those lines when...
Someone appeared on screen, blocking the reporter.
[Excuse me! Doctors! You can't stand there!]
?
It was a familiar face.
[Reporter, this is indeed an empty lot, but because of the emergency access-space issue, we need to use this area as an ambulance entry and exit lane right now. I'd appreciate it if you'd move aside!]
It was Park Seong-jeong.
A second-year resident.
[Please move aside for just a moment! Yes, yes! The ambulance is coming in!]
I was speechless.
"Seong-jeong... when the hell did you get over there...?"
I hadn't realized Park Seong-jeong had a talent not for the emergency-medicine skill of ER traffic control, but for actual traffic control.
Just then, the resus room door opened and Lee Minjae came out.
He took off his bloodstained gloves and came over to my side.
"It's brutal, brutal. Hyeonjae, how's the situation?"
"Ah, yes, it's almost wrapped up. Five more are coming."
"Oh? Good work. But what are you looking at?"
Lee Minjae peered at my phone screen.
The screen still showed Park Seong-jeong.
Lee Minjae was silent for a moment, then burst out laughing.
"Is that really Park Seong-jeong?"
Lee Minjae gave my shoulder a light tap.
"Our department has become completely Hyeonjae-ified now, hasn't it? That's excellent. You need that kind of backbone."
"Pardon?"
Hyeonjae-ified?
'My image...'
"I don't act like that. I'm a gentle, intellectual doctor."
"You're the loudest one here."
Lee Minjae laughed briefly, then went back into the station.
[Hell slave! That's pretty good, isn't it? I like him!]
The dust clump laughed beside me.
[You plant beans and get beans, plant red beans and get red beans, and plant lunatics and get lunatics!]
"I can't hear you. I can't hear you."
I shook my head.
A reality I wanted to deny but couldn't.
This madness spreading like a virus.
'Well... he's good at his job, so I guess that's fine.'
After watching Park Seong-jeong safely guide the ambulance in on the screen, I turned off my phone.
...
[Hell slave! Zone B, bed 4!]
The dust clump shouted, blocking my view.
[The surgery team is only looking at the wound over there, but his breathing sounds off! There are wheezes! I think pulmonology needs to take a look! Hurry and tell them!]
"Ah!"
I immediately shouted toward Zone B.
"Dr. Heo! Please put in a pulmonology consult for patient number 4 there! Suspected bronchospasm!"
"Ah, understood!"
...
[This is urgent! This patient needs an escharotomy right now! What are you doing!]
"Surgery! Any surgery doctors around? We need an escharotomy here!"
I looked around desperately.
[Hell slave, do you think I, floating around in the air, wouldn't know where surgery is? They're all busy. We don't have time. The patient's about to stop breathing!]
"Damn it."
There was no choice.
"Scalpel! Give me a No. 20 blade! And Betadine!"
I adjusted my gloves and rushed to the side of the bed.
As I took the scalpel the nurse handed me, the ghost laid its hand over mine.
[With third-degree burns, the nerves are all dead, so there's no need for anesthesia. Just cut.]
Following the ghost's instructions, I placed the blade against the hard, rigid skin of his chest.
Sshk.
[That's right... that's right, no, not like that! Too deep! Don't go as far as the fascia! Only to the subcutaneous fat layer!]
"Ugh."
[Straight along the front line! Longer! From the solar plexus to the clavicle in one go!]
I drew the scalpel down in time with the ghost's shouts.
Split.
As the hardened eschar split open, the chest puffed up sharply along with the fat layer.
"Huuuuuh...!"
Only then did the patient take in a deep breath.
[Okay! Now horizontally! You need to open it in a cross shape!]
When I did as the dust instructed, blood began seeping out.
Proof that living tissue beneath the dead tissue had started breathing again.
"Hey, Eun-seo! Bring more gauze! Gauze soaked with epinephrine! We need hemostasis!"
"Yes, doctor!!"
[Good. Now check the pulse.]
When I checked, I could feel it beating vigorously.
Blood flow had returned.
Then the system window floating at the edge of my vision blinked.
[Map mode ends in 10 seconds]
Ah.
So time had already run out.
[Time's up, hell slave! That was new and fun again!]
The dust clump swelled up as if pleased.
[See you again next time! I'll come properly logged in then!]
Pop.
The dust clump vanished in a burst of light.
Is that bastard the Scalpel God or what?
At the same time.
Thud.
A wave of weakness, as if my heart had dropped out, swept through my whole body.
Damn it.
Is even the cooldown random?
I immediately used the item I'd bought earlier.
A tingling sensation flowed through my blood vessels and forcibly held my mind together.
"Dr. Han Hyeonjae! Which department should we call for a consult on this patient?"
An intern shouted from afar.
"Uh... surgery and plastic surgery! Quickly! Call both!"
"Yes!!"
...
How much time had passed after that?
The patients in resus had all been sent up to the OR or ICU.
Patients from Zones A and B had also finished emergency treatment and were being transferred to wards or resting after being stabilized.
Ding-a-ling.
When the phone rang, I picked up the receiver.
"Yes, this is Han Hyeonjae from Emergency Medicine."
[Oh, Hyeonjae. It's me.]
It was Chief Park Woong's voice.
[The scene is cleared. Mopping up the embers is done too, and there are no additional rescuees. They've all been rescued.]
"Ah... yes."
[Good work. Lift the emergency code.]
Click.
I lowered the receiver and grabbed the megaphone.
"As of this moment, Code Black has been lifted."
...
"Huuuu...".
"Good job!"
"You worked hard!"
Sighs of relief and applause burst out from all around.
The interns, their tension broken, slumped to the floor, and some staff patted each other's shoulders.
"Yes, and now the patients who were pronounced dead on scene will begin arriving one by one."
The atmosphere instantly turned solemn.
"Family members will be coming too, so please be careful not to do anything disrespectful until the very end. Thank you for your hard work."
"Understood!"
Thud.
My body sank into the chair.
'...But why am I the one wrapping things up?'
Suddenly, I had a moment of existential frustration.
The chief had called and told me to wrap things up, sure.
But why was I, a third-year resident, the one organizing everything and guiding people around, while Professor Cheon Eun-jeong and fellow Lee Minjae were right there behind me?
Looking over casually, I saw Professor Cheon and Lee Minjae with their arms crossed, watching me with very satisfied expressions.
'Don't look at me with that proud face. This is your job.'
Especially Lee Minjae.
The way he was giving me a thumbs-up was infuriating.
'Argh.'
Just as the ER had roughly switched back to its normal routine of receiving general emergency patients, and the energy drink's effects were just about to wear off.
Zzzing.
The automatic doors opened, and a man wearing a vest covered in soot walked in.
It was Park Woong.
He had returned after finishing command at the scene.
The moment he came in, he spotted me sprawled out in the center of the station and walked over.
"Hyeonjae. Good work."
"Ah, yes, Chief. You're back."
I tried to get up, but my body felt like lead and my butt wouldn't come off the chair.
Park Woong looked at me quietly, then patted my shoulder.
"You worked hard."
"Not at all. Everyone else worked hard."
"Anyway, do you want to... ah, go in and rest for a bit today?"
Park Woong carefully suggested.
"Pardon?"
"No, you know, that thing from before. The aftereffects or something."
Ah.
That bullshit about how I'd collapse if I focused too hard.
And he remembered that, and even offered me a rest first...
As expected, our chief really is the GOAT of bosses.
'In that case, I should accept gratefully.'
But as a good Korean, isn't it polite to refuse once?
"No, it's fine. I still have some things left to wrap up..."
"Fine, whatever. You look like you're about to keel over today or tomorrow anyway. Then don't go home—just lie down in the on-call room or something. That's really hard to control, you know."
"It does seem that way. My head feels like it's going to split open."
"Yeah, yeah. Go on in. We'll handle the rest."
"Hahaha... thank you."
I staggered toward the on-call room.
Creak-
I flopped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.
'This ended pretty well, I guess.'
So the first large disaster Code Black I faced after becoming a resident
was brought to a safe close without losing anyone.