Chapter 15
Overwhelmed by the imposing presence of the "hospital public servant," we lost the will to resist and cooperated with the nurse.
As a result, employee abc and I were lying on surgical chairs with our arms and legs restrained.
"You definitely said anyone except neurosurgery and internal medicine would count as a visitor!"
"How the hell did Choi Yuna end up as a guardian? Thank goodness, but still!"
"We're fine! We even had our health checkups this year!"
Even in this situation, employee abc kept twisting around and shouting.
It was such a strange behavior pattern that I couldn't tell how they had managed to survive four visits.
Coming to this hospital four times meant they'd experienced four different wards.
Yet there was no sign of that in any of the three people before me.
It felt less like veteran staff and more like hot-blooded rookies.
How on earth did people like that become the Chungnam Branch's aces?
[Patients, please remain quiet inside the hospital.]
"......"
All three of them fell silent at the nurse's flat, emotionless voice.
The saw and hammer clutched in the nurse mannequin's hands.
There was no need to guess; those were clearly the tools used to "treat" us.
I wondered whether the pain suppressants would even block the pain from that.
Even if they did, could you really call being beaten, torn apart, and sliced without pain a good thing?
Gulp.
My mouth was parched as I swallowed.
The guideline was supposed to be to get pain suppressants in the first place, so what were we supposed to do if that became the problem?
I couldn't help but feel the back of my neck grow hot.
If I made it back alive from here, I would definitely chew out the team leader.
The team leader would probably chew out the Info Team for us.
The nurse stood there motionlessly, holding those gruesome tools.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick—tock
In the examination room, where no one had spoken, only the ticking clock pushed back the silence.
Click-clack
Footsteps sounded from outside the door.
The nurse's neck bent in a bizarre way.
[The doctor is coming in.]
Creak
The examination room door opened, and what came into view was
a doctor who looked to be in his forties.
Unlike the restaurant chef, who had been forcibly imitating a human, he looked like an ordinary person to anyone.
Even the coat he wore was spotless, with not a single drop of blood on it.
But precisely because of that, he was so, so completely just a doctor that
a bizarre feeling, like a two-eyed person appearing in a village of one-eyed people, kept poking at my head.
"There are four patients today."
[We still haven't found the two who were admitted first.]
"We need to find them quickly if we're going to treat them. Why did they hide?"
The nurse nodded and set the tools down on the surgical prep table.
[This is nerve paralysis caused by medication. They cannot feel pain.]
"Oh dear. How did everyone end up like this?"
The doctor picked up the hammer with a genuinely sympathetic expression.
"If they can't feel pain, they might push themselves without realizing they're injured and end up in serious trouble."
He stroked the hammer and slowly moved toward a.
Crack!
He swung the hammer at a's knee.
Employee a's pupils widened.
But perhaps because a couldn't feel pain, even though blood was pouring from the shattered knee, a's reaction went no further.
"See? This is how terrifying pain insensitivity is."
Crack! Crack!
The doctor then smashed b's and c's knees as well.
Even as bones shattered and flesh burst out, not one of them screamed.
"Why is that person separated off over there?"
The doctor, holding a bloodstained hammer, looked at me.
[That patient's drug concentration isn't as high as those three.]
"Is that so? Then I'll prescribe medicine and send them out. There's a guardian outside, right?"
[Yes.]
"Good. Patient, please take your prescription and pay at the lobby before you go."
The nurse came over and untied the restraints on my arms and legs.
As blood started flowing again, a tingling sensation spread through my joints.
Was I just supposed to leave like this?
And leave those people behind?
Once I left this place, I had no idea what the doctor and nurse would do to the three of them under the name of treatment.
Maybe they would end up counted among the 30 percent survival rate mentioned in the report.
As hospital patients, or as clinical test subjects.
"Rookie, go on out first. I'll be out soon."
"How...?"
"Hey, do you think we came out four times for nothing?"
"This is all within expectations, so just go see Choi Yuna and the patient."
Employee abc was trying to get me out of here.
They were liars.
If they were going to say that, they at least shouldn't have been shaking so badly.
I remembered what DadIsAMartialArtist had said.
He said the field is better when you go with a complete stranger, because even if things go wrong, it hurts less.
But once I actually experienced the situation firsthand...
I started to think that leaving a person behind, even if they were a stranger, just wasn't something you should do.
"What kind of treatment will these patients receive?"
"Rookie!"
"I came in as a patient, but I'm these people's guardian. I need to know what treatment the hospital is giving them."
Even if I had no choice but to leave here alone, I decided to try something first.
If this entity at least stayed faithful to its role as a hospital, then there had to be something I could try.
"Hmm..."
The doctor mulled it over, his eyes rolling.
"If you're the guardian, then you're right."
"Please explain."
"We keep them hospitalized for a day, draw out the blood infused with medication, and transfuse it. Then once enough blood has been removed that the patient can feel pain again, we begin discharge procedures."
So they restore pain sensation after already smashing the knees.
"Of course, after first examining whether they can't feel any other pain as well."
And then add sawing and something else on top of that.
"Can't we handle it with medicine like me?"
"These people will get better with medication, but it'll take a while."
"They're all weirdly afraid of needles for their age."
When you go to the hospital with a cold, they usually recommend an injection.
Because it's easy and fast.
But if the patient or guardian throws a fit, they can switch to prescribing medicine instead.
In the end, if the guardian insists, anything goes.
The stories pediatricians post on SNS about entitled parents prove it.
"There can be side effects, so I'd like to dissuade you, but... if the guardian says so, there's nothing I can do."
The doctor said that and gestured to the nurse.
The nurse nodded and loosened the three of them from their restraints.
"I'll give the three of you prescriptions as well. Pay at the lobby and stop by the pharmacy."
"Thank you, doctor."
Leaving behind the doctor, who didn't bother hiding his displeasure as he watched us, abc and I slipped out of the examination room as naturally as we could.
Thump, thump, thump
Afraid they'd fall over because their shattered knees couldn't hold them, the three of us hooked our shoulders together and hopped on one leg toward the lobby.
"I told you to leave."
"Didn't they teach you in training to take care of your own body first in situations like this?"
"You don't even listen to the Chungnam Branch aces."
"But we survived."
The distance between the examination room and the lobby wasn't that far.
Thanks to that, employee abc was able to stop hopping much sooner than expected.
"You made it back safely."
"So did you, senior."
Senior Choi Yuna was waiting in the lobby.
"Did you find the rescue targets?"
"No. The nurses are checking the rescue targets' identities right now."
"They said they couldn't find the two patients. Probably because they're hiding."
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.
"Let's say the two of us find the rescue targets. The problem is..."
abc, side by side with their knees shattered.
The senior looked at them and pulled out the response guidelines.
"The lobby is fine. It's a safe zone."
"Even though we were taken from the lobby?"
"Only when you're first classified as a patient."
Seeing is believing.
++++
[Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine Guidelines]
1.Nurse
(omitted)
2. Hospital public servant
(omitted)
3. Doctor
The doctor is a human-like entity confirmed inside Yeongsaeng General Hospital.
Its outward appearance resembles that of an ordinary human, but every time it appears, its sex, age, and overall impression are all different.
The doctor diagnoses the patient's condition, finds the areas that need treatment, and carries out procedures suited to the symptoms.
According to survivor testimony, the examination and treatment process is often abnormally violent.
However, among the cases confirmed so far, no one has been reported to have died directly because of the doctor's treatment process.
Conversely, if treatment is refused, the doctor tends to use a high level of physical force to subdue the patient.
Given the chances of survival, refusing treatment inside the hospital is not recommended.
4. Patient / Guardian / Visitor
Anyone who enters the ward lobby is classified by the nurse entity into the following three types.
Patient,Guardian,Visitor
Although the classification criteria have not been clearly revealed, rescue targets have been confirmed to be classified as "patients" without exception.
On the other hand, Administration Bureau staff are highly likely to be classified as "visitors."
There have been rare cases of employees being classified as patients, but no employee classified as a patient has yet been confirmed to return from the hospital.
Those classified as guardians are not restricted in their movement inside the hospital.
Visitors, on the other hand, may move only within limited times and areas, and are repeatedly subjected to identity checks and access control.
Deployed staff testified that if they exceeded the allotted visitation time, the nurse entities called the hospital public servant.
Patients, guardians, and visitors who have received treatment tend not to be interfered with in the hospital lobby area.
However, since cases have been confirmed in which excessively long stays inside the hospital caused abnormalities in the subject's behavior and cognitive abilities, long-term stays are prohibited.
5. Securing the Rescue Requester
.
.
.
.
++++
At least it was a relief that the Chungnam Branch ace abc, whose knee ached, would be safe if left in the lobby.
The problem was that a rescue mission meant for five people would have to be handled by Choi Yuna and me—just the two of us.
"Can the two of us rescue the target?"
"The probability doesn't matter. If you came to the site, you do the job assigned to you."
"That's way too by-the-book."
Luckily, the senior was a guardian.
We could search without the hospital interfering.
This, too, must be the grace of Amsulsuseulsuseul-nim.
The problem was me.
"But, senior. I was a patient—can I even enter the hospital?"
"Hmm."
There was no way the senior would know something not even mentioned in the response guidelines.
"Wait a second."
[Snapped a pic of the hospital lobby nurse's smokin' hot bod]
Author : ShitpostingIsEasy
(rough explanation of the situation so far)
So that's how it went
I have to go into the ward with the senior to look for the rescue targets, but
Is there any way for a patient to get in?
Or can I ask the lobby nurse?
(Comments)
ComeAtMe : Where the hell is that smokin' nurse, you bastard?
Amsulsuseulsuseul : If it's the lobby, you can ask. Not in the ward.
GhostNo.1 : This bastard's got guts too—he's a newbie and already bossing an entity around.
GayGoeiGeyya : If it hadn't understood you, it would've been level 4.
ㄴShitpostingForPay : There are plenty of level 4s that can understand speech.
GayGoeiGeyya : Kyaaaah!!!
"I think it'd be fine to ask in the lobby."
"Based on what?"
"The doctor said it was okay to ask in the examination room."
"I'll ask."
Choi Yuna approached the nurse at the information desk.
Those things lifted their heads and looked at the senior.
"Can someone who's not the guardian go see a patient?"
[What is your relationship?]
The senior didn't hesitate even a little.
"Husband."
She suddenly made me her husband.
[That is possible.]
What did I just hear?
The senior came back with a triumphant expression and held up a V sign at me.
"They said yes."
Park Seong-bin, 25. I became a married man at the hospital.