Chapter 64
Awakened abilities weren't only useful beyond the Gates.
In fact, 90% of Awakened were what you might call non-Hunter Awakened: people who never entered dungeons and instead used their abilities in everyday life.
Of course, abilities tended to be less useful when modern science could do a better job.
People with abilities that could handle things beyond the reach of modern science were always in demand and popular.
The most prominent example was healer-type Awakened who wielded divine power.
By now, it was hard to imagine a large hospital without a healer. Healers had been among the first Awakened to enter everyday life.
So, had modern medicine completely collapsed...?
It hadn't.
Their abilities weren't absolute.
In fact, for certain illnesses, they were worse than useless.
Cancer, for example.
Healers' divine power stimulated cell regeneration, but when that regeneration affected cancer cells, they multiplied out of control.
That was why it had become standard protocol to perform noninvasive tests for cancer before using divine power.
Besides, there weren't enough healers to bring modern medicine to ruin... and most of the few there were went into dungeons.
For one thing, they earned more than they could at a hospital. And healing from the relatively safe rear lines let them level up, too.
The healers who worked in hospitals were either rookies afraid of dungeons or retired Hunters.
With so few of them, medical fees were high, so healers were only brought in for serious illnesses.
Even then... the problem was that they were rarely used properly.
“Nurse Kim.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
“Where on earth did you find this new healer?”
“Pardon? Well...”
Oh Min-wook, a non-Awakened elite in the age of the Awakened and a surgeon who'd graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine, scratched his head as he voiced his complaints about the new healer.
“I mean, they don't even know how to heal a localized area. They healed some completely unrelated spot, and something weird healed up during surgery, turning into a huge mess. The whole surgical site got covered in teratomas, and I had to cut them out and start the operation over. It was a nightmare.”
“Ah...”
“At this rate, we might as well operate without a healer. Those quack healers take their cut of the medical fees either way.”
Dr. Oh Min-wook grumbled.
The biggest problem in the field was the healers' lack of skill.
The divine power needed for surgery and other medical care was completely different from the kind used in dungeons.
For example, as had just happened during Dr. Oh Min-wook's operation, if a healer couldn't control their divine power and used it over too wide an area, cancerous growths like teratomas could develop, or the healing could go wrong and interfere with the surgery or block the surgeon's view.
“Anyway, make sure that new healer doesn't come into any of my surgeries again. We managed to clean up this mess somehow, but that bastard could've killed the patient.”
“I heard they were a retired Hunter who'd spent a long time raiding dungeons.”
“A retired Hunter is even worse. They've got an inflated ego and won't listen to a word.”
They probably only ever treated cuts they'd gotten themselves. Had they ever performed cancer surgery?
Dr. Oh Min-wook grumbled under his breath.
“They don't have the skill to enter an operating room, so send them to orthopedics or something. They'd be perfect for sticking bones back together.”
Using abilities wasn't difficult in every field of medicine. In areas like orthopedics, they had such an impact that people practically cried, ‘God almighty!’
They could drastically shorten the time it took for a bone to heal.
They were also highly effective for simple cuts and burns.
“Well, I'm heading home.”
After giving the nurse an earful, Dr. Oh Min-wook waved a hand and walked away, leaving them with an awkward smile.
A man entering through the hospital's main entrance called out to him.
“Are you Dr. Oh Min-wook?”
“That's me. Who are y— Huh?”
Even if you had no interest in the Hunter industry, this was a man whose face you'd have to know by now. He practically dominated the media.
“Aren't you Hunter Kim Segyun?”
“That's right.”
“Oh, what an honor.”
“Think nothing of it...”
They shook hands, and the slightly puzzled Dr. Oh asked Segyun,
“But... what brings you here?”
“I read one of your papers and found it interesting.”
“A paper? I've written so many. Which one are you talking about...?”
“This one.”
[A Study on Optimizing the Use of Potions in Treating Awakened]
“You even brought a printout.”
“Yes. I wanted to ask whether this was really what you researched...”
“Yes, it is. It was a case involving a retired Hunter with terminal cancer. They said they had a potion and asked whether we could use it in surgery...”
“Was it effective? Based on the paper, it seems it was.”
“Incredible, really.”
Dr. Oh continued, clicking his tongue.
“It's a shame they can only be used on Awakened. Well, even if non-Awakened could use them, they're so expensive that it wouldn't be easy.”
“I heard that during surgery, you injected microscopic amounts into localized areas with a syringe. Is surgery definitely easier that way than with a healer assisting?”
“Easier? There's no comparison.”
Dr. Oh launched into a long explanation of every sort of accident that could arise from human error and lack of skill, including what had happened in the operating room just moments ago.
Segyun's expression grew increasingly serious as he listened.
“There are more accidents than I expected. Do patients ever end up in danger in the process...?”
“More than you can imagine. People don't talk about it, but the rate of medical accidents must be astronomical.”
“And the healers are even exempt from liability, right?”
“Yes. Patients sign a consent form before they come in.”
But... why had Kim Segyun suddenly come all this way to talk to him about this?
Just as Dr. Oh was wondering that, Segyun took something out of his inventory and handed it to him.
Two small bottles sloshing with liquid.
“What is this?”
“A potion.”
“...What?”
“A rapid external injury recovery potion and an internal injury recovery potion.”
Good grief.
A groan escaped him.
“Carrying around something worth several times my annual salary feels heavy. Please take them back.”
A university hospital professor's salary wasn't small, but these potions cost so much that even a professor would have to save for ages to afford them.
Segyun smiled and offered the potions back, but Dr. Oh pulled his hands away.
“They're a gift.”
“...What?”
“More precisely, it's a request. These potions were made after successfully reverse-engineering them. They're not dungeon-made.”
“Oh, I see... Wait?”
They weren't dungeon-made?
Professor Oh's eyes flew wide open.
He asked in a trembling voice,
“If that's the case... they can be used on non-Awakened too...?”
“Yes, they should be.”
Professor Oh's feet began to fidget.
He was on his way home, but that was the least of his concerns.
This was something that could turn the medical world upside down.
He wanted to try them in surgery right away.
“Is that why you're giving these to me?”
“Yes. I want to see how effective potions are in surgeries on non-Awakened patients.”
Of course, Professor Oh wanted to do exactly that, too, but...
“I'm sorry, but it'll take quite a long time before these can be used in actual surgery.”
“If it's an approval issue, that's taken care of.”
“...Pardon?”
“Our highest-tier Alchemist-class Awakened officially issued certification documents and submitted them to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. They've been approved.”
Ordinary dungeon-made injury potions had already been approved for medical use, naturally, since they were dungeon items.
If so...
All they had to do was conduct a bioequivalence test proving that these reverse-engineered potions were identical to dungeon-made ones. They wouldn't need to go through a separate, arduous approval process, and even the testing itself had been replaced by Im Gyuseon's certification documents.
And if they even had support from the President...
‘President Kang Min-guk even ordered them to approve it urgently, after all.’
The approval had come through exceptionally quickly for a government agency.
“Legally, there's no issue with using them in surgery.”
“But why are you entrusting this to me in particular...?”
“I'd like you to compile the cases and prepare various reports.”
“I was planning to do that anyway... but may I ask why you need the data?”
Segyun nodded with a warm smile.
“The country's gotten too rich... so I'm going to legally siphon off some public funds.”
“...Pardon?”
“I'm talking about the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.”
“Why HIRA...?”
Dr. Oh's eyes, clouded with confusion, widened until they nearly split.
“D-Don't tell me...”
“That's right. I'm going to get potions added to the list of drugs covered by health insurance.”
“...Good heavens.”
Some rare-disease medications cost more than 2 billion won per ampule.
Developing treatments for such diseases cost a great deal, while demand was low, so they had to be sold at that price for the pharmaceutical company to stay afloat and make a profit.
Naturally, an individual couldn't afford to buy and use a drug that cost over 2 billion won.
That's why health insurance stepped in. With the insurance reimbursement, 1.98 billion won would be covered by the health insurance fund, leaving the individual to pay around 20 million won.
Twenty million won was no small amount... but compared to 2 billion, it was pocket change.
Potions were priced in the billions of won, too.
Even if non-Awakened could use them...
The number of people who could casually use a potion worth a billion won was limited.
“As you know, HIRA has quite a notorious reputation.”
“...You could call them the enemy of doctors.”
Especially surgeons.
If they made even the slightest misstep while trying to save someone's life and exceeded HIRA's standards, they wouldn't receive reimbursement for the medical costs.
Then the hospital's finances would take a hit, and they'd get chewed out by their superiors.
“To get HIRA to cover the cost, we need solid cases from the field. You'll have to produce those cases for us, Doctor. Of course, we'll pay you for the commission, too.”
“After you've set the stage this thoroughly... I'm obviously in.”
Just being able to keep those stubborn, unbearable quack healers out of the operating room made it worth pursuing for Professor Oh.
**
Around the same time.
Alchemist World.
The world's largest and most famous journal for Awakened with Alchemist-class abilities.
A paper published there by a Korean alchemist was causing a major stir.
─Potions Successfully Reverse-Engineered!
─Has the Identity of Chemical Omega Been Revealed?
Reverse-engineering potions was hardly a new endeavor.
It was a challenge countless alchemists had taken up over the years, starting with an attempt twenty years ago by a man still called the world's greatest alchemist.
Philip Kagan, founder of Kagan Pharmaceuticals.
And after roughly ten years of research, Philip Kagan reached a conclusion.
“Potions require some substance called Chemical Omega, and it can't be obtained through any form of alchemy. It's a substance that isn't just unknown—it doesn't even exist as far as we know.”
After that, the alchemy community made no further attempts to reverse-engineer and produce potions.
And yet, because potions were an unexplored realm no one had conquered, they also held a place in alchemists' hearts as a kind of romantic ideal.
But now.
That unexplored realm had been opened.
Though the details about Chemical Omega...
Commonly known as the ‘substance of God,’ had been deliberately omitted.
The conclusions reached by the great scholars of the alchemy community after reading the study were...
At first, they were certain it was a hoax.
But after confirming that the presenter belonged to a research institute owned by Kim Segyun, several famous alchemists naturally connected it to Cheonsang, which was called the ‘miracle liquor.’
In particular, the legend of the alchemy community, Philip Kagan, was almost certain.
He had already analyzed Cheonsang at someone's request and confirmed that it contained an unextractable form of Chemical Omega.
“...Just as I thought. They're producing Chemical Omega in Korea... through that liquor, no less.”
It was unusual that they were mass-producing it through liquor...
But regardless, there was no doubt that mass production was possible.
If that was the case...
“No matter what it costs... I have to obtain that technology.”
Chemical Omega, a theoretical substance at the final stage of alchemy.
The person who held it...
would probably be able to grasp the ultimate mysteries of alchemy.