Chapter 55
My vision flipped upside down.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Before I had time to distinguish up from down, my body spun through empty air.
“Ugh⋯!”
My stomach twisted.
If I had to compare it to a similar experience, perhaps one from childhood.
Maybe one of those rides the other kids had forcibly dragged me onto when I stubbornly refused to go.
No, this was a hell of a lot worse.
This wasn't simply rotating, either.
Every time my vision flipped, it felt as though space itself folded and unfolded, and the light that had been above me a moment ago flashed beneath my feet the next.
As though someone had grabbed me by the collar and thrown me between dimensions.
“Madam Yoon Mi-ja never said anything about this?!”
The intervention type.
The variant type.
The chain type.
Hadn't that living national treasure personally guaranteed that I'd be safe as long as I held out inside Hyeonmu?
As if mocking all those explanations, my body rolled around in some unidentified space for a long while.
Bang!
“Urgh!”
At last, I slammed into the floor.
“Ow, ow⋯.”
My head was ringing.
I didn't get up right away.
First, I blinked several times.
No double vision.
My vision wasn't doubled, and neither side was especially blurry.
My stomach was a little queasy, but I wasn't about to throw up, and I could move my fingers and toes just fine.
I bent my elbows and knees one after another and slowly turned my neck from side to side, but there was no sharp pain.
‘My cervical spine is fine.’
I pressed on my ribs.
No pain when breathing.
No nosebleed, either.
Other than the dull ache in my head, I was fully conscious.
“A minor contusion, at most⋯.”
Maybe it was a professional habit.
A normal person would have started cursing the system that had thrown someone around like this, but the moment I came to, I was examining my own body first.
Still, it was strange.
Considering how fast it had felt, it wouldn't have been surprising if a bone or two had broken, yet my actual injuries were no worse than stumbling on the street.
‘Did it deliberately drop me just hard enough not to kill me?’
That thought made me feel even worse.
“If you're going to give me a sudden quest, just give it to me. Why throw a person around like a delivery box⋯.”
But just as I was grumbling and pushing myself to my feet.
Shing.
The words died in my throat.
Right in front of my Adam's apple.
Because I felt the touch of cold metal.
At the same time, someone twisted my arm behind my back.
From beyond my vision, which had yet to adjust to the darkness, came a low, subdued voice.
“Who are you? How did you find this place and get in?”
What the hell was this?
I didn't even know where I'd landed, and the moment I opened my eyes, someone had a knife at my throat.
It would be best to rule out this being a normal place.
And then.
Sniff.
A strange smell brushed the tip of my nose.
‘⋯What is this?’
Amid the metallic smell peculiar to old blood was a damp, mingled stench with a fishy reek.
‘Is this necrosis?’
I couldn't be certain.
But it was definitely the kind of smell a surgeon could never easily forget.
An infected wound, or an abscess that had not been properly drained.
Or the distinctive stench released when dead tissue began to rot.
Besides, now that I looked closely, the hand gripping my arm wasn't clean, either.
Brown bloodstains had dried on every knuckle.
Dark-red crusts of blood lay beneath the fingernails.
And a stained strip of cloth was wrapped around the wrist.
Was it their own blood?
Or a sign they'd been repeatedly pressing on someone else's wound to 'stop the bleeding'?
“You'd better answer quickly.”
The knife point edged a little closer.
“I'm not very patient.”
“⋯⋯.”
At that moment, a memory from long ago surfaced.
When I was around thirty in my previous life.
Feeling limited by merely waiting for patients inside a hospital, I'd volunteered several times for medical aid in overseas conflict zones.
I'd operated with gunfire not far away, watched armed troops overturn hospital tents, and clashed countless times with people who asked about affiliations and sides before they asked about someone else's life.
I learned one thing there.
In a place ruled by guns and knives, medical personnel aren't strong.
But they are
needed.
That fact alone creates room for negotiation.
“Isn't this a little harsh?”
“What?”
I kept my voice as low as possible.
“I'm a doctor, you know.”
The presence behind me stiffened for an instant.
Very briefly.
But unmistakably.
“⋯A doctor?”
Just as I thought.
I didn't miss that subtle reaction.
“That's right.”
And I pressed one step further.
“I don't know who you are, but I might be able to treat the person you're caring for here, at least.”
“⋯!”
The fingertips gripping my arm trembled.
I was right.
“How⋯ how did you know?”
“The smell.”
“What?”
“The stench peculiar to infected tissue is mixed in with the smell of old blood. Your hand also bears traces of repeated attempts to stop bleeding. If it were your own wound, your hand wouldn't be working this well.”
Silence.
“Someone is seriously injured, aren't they?”
“⋯⋯.”
“But they haven't been able to receive proper treatment.”
The knife point trembled ever so slightly.
I steadied my breathing.
Of course, there was some bluffing involved.
You can't definitively diagnose a patient from a bad smell alone.
Whether the wound was infected.
Whether tissue necrosis had begun.
Or whether the smell was simply coming from a bandage that had been left on too long.
I couldn't guarantee anything without seeing the patient myself.
But the diagnosis wasn't what mattered.
What mattered was that this woman had started to believe me.
“I'm going to turn around now.”
“⋯!”
The grip on my arm tightened.
“If you don't like that, you can cut my throat first. But remember this.”
After a beat.
“The moment you kill me, the person you've been cherishing enough to keep alive will lose their chance to receive treatment, too.”
I couldn't afford to show weakness here.
Of course, I didn't mean I would overpower her by force.
In the first place, trying to use brute force against that woman in this world would be ridiculous.
If so, there was only one thing I could use.
My medical expertise.
‘I'll use it to seize the initiative.’
I turned around very slowly.
Slowly enough that the blade wouldn't cut my throat.
At a pace that showed I had no intention of stopping without provoking her.
And just as my eyes finally met those of my opponent in the darkness.
“Seo⋯.”
“⋯?”
Her orange eyes widened in shock.
“Doctor Seo Jihoo?!”
“What?”
Scurry!
The woman who had held a knife to my throat moments earlier recoiled in horror.
She was so startled that her feet tangled, and she fell hard on her backside.
Thud!
At the same time.
Flicker.
Flicker.
Faint lights flickered to life one by one in various places along the walls.
Only then did I get a proper look at my opponent.
‘⋯Who is she?’
Neatly arranged bangs as white as a crescent moon.
Beneath them, bright orange eyes gleamed.
Should I call her cute?
Or seductive?
In a world overflowing with women, I'd seen more beautiful faces than I could count, but the woman before me possessed a strangely alluring sensuality that drew the eye.
And what stood out most of all was her outfit.
Black fishnet.
Cloth clinging tightly to her body.
A design that daringly exposed her thighs and sides.
It looked very familiar.
A female ninja from a Japanese ninja series.
‘A kunoichi?’
In addition, a half-raised mask hung beside her head.
A strangely familiar tengu mask with horns jutting up from it.
The woman who recognized me.
Dressed as a kunoichi.
A familiar mask.
Just as the pieces began fitting together in my head.
Rustle.
Flop!
“⋯!”
She was fast.
A ninja indeed.
I'd merely blinked, yet the woman was already prostrating herself before me.
And not merely kneeling normally.
Her forehead was on the floor.
Both hands neatly placed in front of her.
And the two mounds pressed beneath her chest had spread across the floor almost like steamed buns—a textbook dogeza.
“I-I'm sorry!”
Her ringing cry echoed through the space.
“I had no idea who I was facing and committed such an outrageous offense! I deserve to be disciplined until my butt turns bright red!”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Just as I thought.”
“Pardon?”
“You were the kunoichi who tried to kidnap me back then.”
“?!”
The head buried against the floor shot up.
“H-how did you know⋯!”
“The Ministry of Men and Family Affairs told me.”
I pointed to the tengu mask hanging beside her head.
“They said there was a high chance one of the attackers that day was a Japanese kunoichi.”
Well, I wouldn't have needed that information anyway.
A kunai.
A fishnet outfit.
A tengu mask.
At this point, she might as well have been advertising with her entire body, 'Hello, I'm a suspicious kunoichi.'
But one thing was strange.
Why was the woman who had hidden her identity so thoroughly last time now openly revealing everything, from her face to her clothes?
There were two possibilities.
Either she believed this place was that safe.
Or.
‘She doesn't even have the strength to hide.’
My gaze shifted to the woman's hands.
Looking again, her condition was even clearer.
Dried blood.
A hastily wrapped bandage.
Eyes reddened with fatigue.
Dark-red stains smeared across various parts of her clothes.
The latter seemed more likely.
Flop!
“Doctor Seo Jihoo!”
Then the woman once again slammed her forehead against the floor.
“The person who is practically my master is in critical condition!”
“⋯!”
“No doctor has been able to treat her. But if it's you, Doctor Seo Jihoo⋯ if you're the person who even removed a Gu Worm from Guild Master Jang Mi-ran's head, surely⋯!”
Her voice trembled.
It was hard to believe she was the same person who had held a knife to my throat only yesterday.
I folded my arms.
“So.”
I deliberately lowered my voice coldly.
“Are you telling me to walk into the Japanese Life Resources Administration of my own accord?”
“N-no!”
Perhaps because she couldn't raise her head.
Her buttocks, sticking high into the air in the dogeza position, urgently wiggled from side to side.
“I cut ties with the Japanese Life Resources Administration long ago!”
“⋯What?”
“My name is Baek Sawol.”
She drew a deep breath.
“I am the vice guild master of South Korea's Cheongryong Guild.”
“?!”
Wait a second.
Cheongryong?
That's one of the four major guilds representing Gangdong.
It was then.
Ding.
[Emergency Quest: Restoring Cheongryong]
[Target: Jin Yeoryeong]
“⋯Jin Yeoryeong?”
Baek Sawol's body went rigid.
[Former eighth guild master of the Cheongryong Guild.]
[Currently suffering progressive damage throughout her body due to Black Blood Snake Poison.]
[Objective: Treat Jin Yeoryeong.]
[Success: 10P / Cheongryong Guild's absolute trust]
[Failure: Jin Yeoryeong's death / Complete collapse of Cheongryong Guild / Chinese Hunter capital enters the Gangdong region]
I stared at the final sentence before me, then slowly lowered my gaze.
Baek Sawol was still prostrated on the floor, fists clenched so tightly that her fingertips had gone white.
And the smell of rotting blood stung the tip of my nose.
Only then did I understand.
Why the status window had thrown me here.
I let out a short breath.
“Let's see the patient first.”
“⋯!”
Baek Sawol's head shot up.
“D-Doctor Seo Jihoo⋯.”
“I never said she could still be saved.”
I cut her off firmly.
“I can't guarantee anything until I see her myself.”
Selling hope wasn't a doctor's job.
Especially not in front of a dying patient.
“So.”
I held out my hand.
“Lead the way. From here on, 'I' will examine her.”