Chapter 75
Blood pressure had risen.
The terrifying number that had been hovering on the edge of death had finally taken one step back into the realm of the living.
That tiny change instantly altered the atmosphere in the resuscitation room.
“He’s alive….”
Someone murmured softly.
A look of relief briefly crossed Professor Jeon Taejeong’s face.
The trauma surgery fellow standing beside him asked the professor anxiously,
“Professor, should we get a CT, confirm the exact source of bleeding, and then take him to the OR?”
“Take him up right away.”
Professor Jeon Taejeong’s answer was firm.
The one controlling my body also nodded at that decision.
Every moment the REBOA balloon was blocking the aorta, the patient’s lower body was going without blood and starting to die.
With that, the final decision was made.
“Get ready to transport him!”
The trauma surgery team began moving busily again.
A transport ventilator was connected to the patient, and an IV pole with dozens of dangling lines followed beside the bed.
“We’re moving! Clear the way!”
At Professor Jeon Taejeong’s shout, the huge bed began to roll.
The trauma surgery team and the nurses surrounded the bed and carefully but swiftly made their way out of the resuscitation room.
Only after that scene disappeared beyond the automatic doors.
“Phew….”
The Scalpel God let out a deep sigh.
In the resuscitation room, only our Emergency Medicine team and the tragic mess were left behind.
His gaze landed on the wall clock.
The hands pointed to 9:34 a.m.
Roughly twelve minutes had passed since the REBOA procedure began.
‘How much time is left in the possession?’
I started calculating the time.
‘It was a thirty-minute one… I’ve used twelve minutes… so that leaves eighteen.’
Eighteen minutes.
For those eighteen minutes, I wasn’t the owner of my own body.
Which means this ghost would control this body for another eighteen minutes.
‘Hmm, but this possession thing… how do you turn it off?’
A horrifying realization flashed through my mind.
The skill description only explained how to use it; there was no mention of how to end it.
Was I supposed to stay like this until the remaining eighteen minutes ran out?
Or was there some kind of shutoff command?
Could I just shout log out in my head?
Did I have to yell ‘Release possession!’ like some cringey middle-schooler?
Or ‘Get lost, ghost’?
Was I going to have to keep losing control of my own body? Did I need to hit Alt+F4 or something?
While I was flailing around in inner panic, the owner of my body was paying attention to something entirely different.
The Scalpel God didn’t even glance at his relieved colleagues.
Instead, he slowly began to survey the resuscitation room.
His eyes swept over the medication list attached to the wall emergency cart.
He checked the type of defibrillator pads on the shelf.
And then he checked the model name of the C-arm we had just used.
Then, in earnest, The Scalpel God began to move.
His gaze locked onto the huge equipment cabinet on the wall.
Without hesitation, he walked over and opened the glass door labeled [Airway Management].
Inside were laryngoscope blades and endotracheal tubes organized by size, along with modern equipment like a video laryngoscope.
“Okay, check….”
He moved to the next compartment.
[Chest Trauma]
The Scalpel God opened the drawer and took out the chest tube, drainage bottle, and clamps one by one.
Feeling the cold touch of the stainless-steel instruments with his fingertips.
“Hmm….”
The Scalpel God opened every equipment cabinet and shelf in the resuscitation room one by one, checking the contents and muttering to himself.
‘Please.’
I could only pray desperately.
‘Please just look around quietly. Please don’t touch anything.’
Then I heard a voice from behind me, so faint it was almost a whisper.
“Hyeonjae?”
It was Lee Minjae. He approached me very carefully.
“Uh… no, no—yes?”
The awkward honorifics still spilled out of my mouth.
“No, uh….”
Lee Minjae fell silent for a moment, choosing his words.
He rubbed his face once, then asked the most important question.
“You… how… how did you learn this?”
At that question, the me inside me screamed.
‘I don’t know! I don’t know either! That crazy ghost bastard must’ve learned it somehow!’
But the temporary master of my body came up with a very plausible lie.
“I… uh….”
He briefly lifted his gaze.
“Last year, when I went to a hospital in Chungnam for a workshop, I learned it there. I got a chance to try it a few times in simulation.”
I was stunned.
Chungnam?
I’d practically never left Seoul or the Gyeongsang region in my entire life.
Lee Minjae’s eyes went wide.
“REBOA? In Chungnam? As part of a workshop program?”
“Yes. I was lucky.”
“…Really?”
Lee Minjae still looked like he couldn’t believe it, but he had no further ground to press the issue.
Because when faced with such a specific lie, the one doing the doubting ends up looking like the weird one.
And so the conversation ended, and The Scalpel God started wandering around the resuscitation room again.
I could only watch helplessly as my body, entirely apart from my will, opened the drawers of the emergency cart and fiddled with the defibrillator settings.
‘You already did the procedure. Now stop and get out of my body.’
At that moment, a ray of light flashed through my mind.
‘Ah, wait a second.’
Possession, Scalpel God.
I had activated this skill by shouting it in my mind.
‘Then turning it off could be…?’
I saw hope.
If I had activated possession by thinking ‘Possession, Scalpel God’ in my head, then wouldn’t deactivation work the same way?
Yes, that was it.
Please.
Please be right.
‘Release possession, Scalpel God.’
The moment those words passed through my mind.
…
The world began moving again.
Sshh—ha.
Yes, this was it.
That cold, alien sensation that had been controlling my body slowly melted away.
The musty air of the resuscitation room, I’m really glad to see you!
It’s only been a little over ten minutes, but still, I’m glad to see you, air!
Full control of my body had returned.
I closed my eyes for just a moment at that feeling of release.
And when I opened them again, Lee Minjae was standing in front of me with a worried expression.
Gah, that startled me.
“Hey, Hyeonjae? Why are you like this? Could there be something wrong with your brain?”
To casually say something that could be taken as an insult. That might sting a little.
“I’m fine. I’m just… a little tired….”
My body, now that the possession had worn off, swayed weakly.
I barely managed to grab the emergency cart beside me and panted for breath.
An awful wave of fatigue.
The resuscitation room was a scene that could only be described as utter chaos.
No, just plain chaos is probably more accurate.
Blood had pooled here and there, and the floor was strewn with countless medical disposables whose purpose I couldn’t even tell.
The staff began silently and mechanically cleaning up the remains.
Picking up blood-soaked gauze, disinfecting the floor, and organizing the used instruments, every step proceeded in complete silence and perfect synchronization.
As expected, a neat environment isn’t made in a day.
I stared blankly at the scene.
More accurately, I still didn’t feel like this was real.
Beside me, Baek Eunseo and Park Seongjeong were standing there with almost dazed expressions.
The eyes of the two first-years were fixed on a single point in empty space.
Come to think of it, if I’d been a first-year, I’d probably have stared the same way.
What kind of second-year skips over a fourth-year and a fellow to perform a procedure, then gives pointers while observing the procedure to a professor from another department—hell, even to an expert at the very top of that field?
For those two, tonight’s experience would probably remain an unforgettable shock for the rest of their lives.
By contrast, fourth-year Han Jae-eon had already gone back to the station and was pulling up the next patient’s chart as if all this were already a thing of the past.
Man, as expected.
The ER’s mental powerhouse, Han Jae-eon.
“Ah, wait a moment.”
I let out a low groan without even realizing it.
The muscles in my right shoulder twitched in a deeply unpleasant way.
‘…What is this?’
I rolled my shoulder a few times.
Maybe I’m just tired.
It must be muscle tension from being so wound up until a moment ago.
I tried not to think much of it.
But at that moment, a memory I’d been trying to forget flashed through my mind like lightning.
‘Didn’t I get muscle pain right at this point last year too?’
Right. The day I did an open laparotomy in the ER as a first-year resident.
The day I was first possessed by The Scalpel God.
The hellish pain that suddenly came for me the moment everything was over and the possession snapped off.
…Ah.
The pain began at the same moment I realized it.
Ah.
Wait,
If there’s a god, please listen to me for a second.
It hurts way too much.
It hurts.
It was a horrifying pain, as if someone were grabbing every last muscle fiber in my body like ropes and wringing them in opposite directions with insane force.
Ah, I really didn’t want to go through this pain again.
The convulsion starting in my shoulder spread in an instant to my back and waist, then to my arms and legs.
Ugh…
“Hey, Hyeonjae?”
Lee Minjae, who was helping clean up beside me, noticed something was off.
“What’s wrong? Does something hurt? Your face has gone completely white.”
“Ah, I…”
That was all I could manage to say.
My vision began narrowing like a tunnel.
The fluorescent lights of the resuscitation room split into dozens of afterimages and danced before my eyes.
Lee Minjae’s face, the nurse’s face too.
Everything blurred together.
The strength left my legs. I lost my grip on the cart.
‘Yeah, let’s just faint. Once I pass out and wake up, I’ll probably feel a little better…’
And with that, my consciousness cut off.