Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 111

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 111.
Kim Do-yoon clutched the hospital bedding to his chest. As something soft settled into his arms, his anxiety eased slightly.
‘Stop trembling. It’s fine to apply pressure. The patient is in pain—what else can a doctor do?’
Recalling the Chairman’s words, Kim Do-yoon’s grip tightened. The thin hospital blanket creased beneath his knuckles.
Meanwhile, the Emergency Room erupted into commotion at Beom-jun’s arrival.
“Hey, hey. The Hospital Director’s here.”
The staff member who spotted him first pointed with a glance, alerting his colleagues.
“Really? The actual Director?”
Eek. What brings him to the Emergency Room?”
The medical personnel in the Emergency Room tensed more than usual, careful not to give him any reason to find fault.
“How much longer do we have to wait? Check us first, please!”
“Just a moment. I’ll explain shortly.”
Even as complaints poured out, the staff kept their voices low and soothed the patients, while all of them stole glances at Beom-jun. As a result, the patients themselves realized someone important had arrived.
Beyond that, medical personnel in blue and green uniforms huddled in small groups, whispering among themselves.
“Didn’t that patient complain about surgical complications? So it was true that the Director favors Professor Im Sung-hyuk.”
“Right, right—the Director must’ve come because of that VIP patient, that Silver one, right?”
Since an alert had been raised from the moment Kim Do-yoon questioned the surgery, everyone knew about him.
“Director, welcome.”
When Im Sung-hyuk approached Beom-jun and spoke, every person in the Emergency Room turned to look at him. Im Sung-hyuk himself, however, didn’t notice those stares and treated Beom-jun as he always did.
“How’s the Kim Do-yoon patient?”
Before going to Kim Do-yoon, Beom-jun first spoke with Im Sung-hyuk.
“He says there’s no movement, but his arm seems fine—only the finger muscles appear paralyzed.”
“Sensation? Still intact?”
“Yes, we tested with alcohol swabs and insulin needles too. It’s confirmed.”
Im Sung-hyuk relayed exactly what the Emergency Room nurse’s chart said, and Beom-jun rubbed his chin thoughtfully with one hand.
To relieve Beom-jun’s deliberation, Im Sung-hyuk continued updating him on the patient’s condition.
“When we lift him, his limb goes limp. Morphologically, the paralysis seems genuine.”
But instead of the direction he expected, Im Sung-hyuk received an abrupt command.
“Okay, leave this to me. You go.”
“Pardon?”
‘I’m the surgeon who operated on Kim Do-yoon. He’s telling me to leave the patient?’
Unable to comprehend Beom-jun’s order, Im Sung-hyuk faltered like a broken robot.
“What are you doing? Go on. Is Kim Do-yoon the only patient? Are the others just sitting around?”
“No, of course not. Then, I’ll go check on the others.”
Im Sung-hyuk excused himself awkwardly and left the Emergency Room.
It was better for Kim Do-yoon not to see Im Sung-hyuk now. From here on, they wouldn’t be discussing treatment anyway. Beom-jun approached Kim Do-yoon, who was still hugging the blanket.
“Hello, Patient Kim Do-yoon. It’s been a while. Your right hand won’t move?”
“They said the surgery went well, so I was discharged, but what is this? It’s only been a week.”
Kim Do-yoon spoke sharply, as if biting off each word.
“I’ve confirmed it. Your sensation is fine, but you can’t move it. Usually it’s the opposite, but you’re a bit unusual.”
“So what? It’s just uncommon. Isn’t that actually worse?”
Kim Do-yoon remained cold in his response, as if he already knew what Beom-jun was about to say.
“I can’t give you a definitive answer right now. We’ll need more tests to determine specifics, but the fact that only your fingers won’t move suggests it might not be a nerve issue. We should consider muscle involvement as well.”
When he mentioned muscle, Kim Do-yoon, who had been bristling, suddenly burst out.
“So—so that means the surgery wasn’t botched, is that what you’re saying?”
The immature Kim Do-yoon spoke harshly. There was no getting through to him. Beom-jun’s ears ached.
The Kim Do-yoon from was nowhere to be found.
— He was a bright and innocent young man. His clean soul seemed to manifest as art from his hands. Each time his paintings accumulated, Paris was swept up in the fervor of this young artist’s emergence.
Less than a month had passed since Kim Do-yoon made contact with Han Myeong-jae, yet he had changed so drastically.
‘Kim Do-yoon must be one of Han Myeong-jae’s creations too.’
Certainly, Han Myeong-jae excelled at manipulating people. Beom-jun couldn’t deny that. Though it meant consuming and exploiting the very people he shaped.
Beom-jun sat on the edge of Kim Do-yoon’s bed, bringing his eyes level with the patient’s own.
“You must have been very worried since you were discharged. You probably haven’t been able to paint much.”
“Paint? Ah, no! I had to keep working, so I’ve been drawing with my left hand.”
At Beom-jun’s words, Do-yoon began making excuses. It was probably preparation for becoming an ambidextrous genius painter. He’d have to keep lying for what lay ahead. Lies begat more lies, after all.
“Ah, I see? That’s interesting. There was a similar painter five years ago. He was unknown until a accident cost him his right hand, and that’s when he became famous. You’d know well, being involved in art.”
Beom-jun spoke as if he didn’t already know. A warning that he saw through his shallow deception.
Do-yoon reacted as if struck by a blade. He, who had been maintaining a pose of ignorance until a moment ago, lost his composure under Beom-jun’s callout.
“Who is that person? I don’t know them.”
“Before coming here, I reviewed all your works. Your previous series had the soul as its theme. They were clean and bright.”
Beom-jun borrowed the passage from where Kim Do-yoon was introduced.
Beom-jun didn’t throw medical knowledge at Kim Do-yoon. After all, Han Myeong-jae must have prepared meticulously for a fake medical accident. Once you stepped into Han Myeong-jae’s game, you could only play by his rules.
Instead, Beom-jun aimed to shake Kim Do-yoon himself. The sensitive, luminous soul that he was.
“The world can hide, but you cannot. If your hands touch something dirty, your soul will become tainted.”
Beom-jun wasn’t speaking idly. He had actually seen Kim Do-yoon’s paintings. On the canvas bearing his name, Kim Do-yoon’s imagined soul was rendered in shades of blue—serene and verdant.
Even Beom-jun, who knew little of art, felt an inexplicable energy radiating from it.
Kim Do-yoon should have returned home and painted something even greater, but instead he was caught by Han Myeong-jae, perpetrating fraud.
“It’s hard to believe that the Kim Do-yoon who painted those works is here.”
Beom-jun spoke with double meaning. It was praise, but also an observation that he and his former self were no longer the same person.
Kim Do-yoon began to waver. His grip on the blanket loosened.
His Essential Tremor should have been cured, yet both his hands trembled faintly—a mirror of the extreme stress he was feeling.
“I’m just…”
“You can speak freely. There’s only me here.”
A thin curtain surrounded the bed where Kim Do-yoon and Beom-jun sat.
A gap had opened. At this point, using the Control Gun should be acceptable.
Beom-jun opened his item window.
[Use ‘Control Gun’? Yes / No]
[Target confirmed.]
As Beom-jun fixed his gaze on Kim Do-yoon, the patient’s silhouette turned red in response. Beom-jun flicked his finger toward him. Kim Do-yoon turned red from head to toe, then returned to his normal color.
[Head shot. CRITICAL!!]
[Dominance Level 4 is applied.]
[Level 4: Will do it no matter what.]
[Control Gun used. Remaining uses: 0]
The usage count reset to zero once more.
After being struck by the Control Gun, Kim Do-yoon stared blankly into empty space, his pupils dilated. Beom-jun asked the entranced, dreamlike figure a question.
“Your right hand really won’t move, is that correct?”
“Yes. I made it so it won’t move. I went to the Dermatology Clinic a few days ago and got Botox injected into the back of my hand.”
When the needle is inserted deep between the tendons on the back of the hand, there’s a place where the muscles controlling hand movement converge—the dorsal interossei. It seemed to be the target.
‘I was wondering what he’d done, and it was Botox. Meticulous.’
Han Myeong-jae had prepared Kim Do-yoon with surgical precision.
But it was all for nothing before the Control Gun. Kim Do-yoon began speaking like someone half-conscious.
* * *
Beom-jun quietly observed Kim Do-yoon as he spoke in scattered fragments.
“This seemed like my chance to become famous. So I thought I had to, in case an opportunity came.”
Following the same path as his role model painter was exactly what Beom-jun had anticipated.
“How did you end up going to the Dermatology Clinic?”
“I was introduced. Chairman Han Myeong-jae told me about it.”
But no matter how he thought about it, using Botox was a reckless choice.
To completely disable his fingers in just days suggested he’d used a high concentration in a large dose. It would take half a year for full recovery.
‘How impressive. Is that really something to do to someone who paints?’
Anew, Beom-jun realized just how vicious Han Myeong-jae’s methods of handling people truly were.
But as Kim Do-yoon continued, gasps of breath could be heard from nearby.
Beom-jun had told Do-yoon that only he was here, but that wasn’t actually true.
The thin curtain surrounding Kim Do-yoon’s bed had only blocked the view—the Emergency Room staff nearby were hearing his confession.
Beom-jun had deliberately used the Control Gun in the Emergency Room.
The survival probability increased differently depending on the number of witnesses. This quest was better with a larger audience.
Sending Im Sung-hyuk away before entering the Emergency Room was also a strategy to draw attention. A protagonist buff, if you will.
Thanks to Im Sung-hyuk, there were easily thirty people nearby.
But more than half of them were patients admitted to the Emergency Room. Patients couldn’t serve as witnesses.
As if answering Beom-jun’s thoughts, the status window appeared.
[Quest targets are limited to Korea University Hospital staff.]
‘So it’s probably only five at most. 5% is better than nothing, I suppose.’
Beom-jun counted on one hand, squinting.
Roughly one resident, three nurses, one paramedic.
Not bad, but honestly, it was a bit disappointing. When would this blasted survival probability finally fill up?
Then the status window he’d been waiting for appeared.
[Main Quest completed.]
[Main Quest: Secure witnesses.]
[You have secured 9 witnesses. Survival probability increases by 9%.]
[Current survival probability is 77%.]
Nine? More people had been nearby than he’d thought.
Beom-jun grinned at the status window.
Compared to the Main Quest’s usual fixed bonus of 3%, this was triple the yield.
This was a solid haul.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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