Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 112
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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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Episode 112.
After Kim Do-yoon finished his confession, Beom-jun pushed back the curtain that had been shielding the bed and stepped outside.
The thin fabric whispered softly as it was drawn.
Beom-jun pulled the curtain closed again, blocking the view of Kim Do-yoon lying in the bed.
But huddled behind the curtain were familiar faces.
“What are you all doing here?”
“Well, it felt wrong to just leave without hearing how it went. It did end well, didn’t it?”
Im Sung-hyuk, standing at the front, rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Judging from the completed quest notification, he must have heard Kim Do-yoon’s entire account, yet he seemed embarrassed as he spoke.
Flanking him on both sides were Min-ho and Hyun-ji, speaking in hushed, excited tones.
“Director, is the patient inside really Kim Do-yoon?”
“We heard everything! This is insane. The Chairman really… wow!”
The youthful couple’s eyes sparkled as they spoke to Beom-jun. The two, having heard Kim Do-yoon’s story, chattered away like children. As they kept adding their own comments, the words didn’t stop flowing.
“Isn’t this absolutely crazy?”
“No, where do we even report something like this? Should we call the police?”
“Exactly—at this point, it’s legitimately a crime.”
“Right, right. We have to protect the patient.”
Now aware of the Chairman’s backstory, they were caught between seriousness and exhilaration, intoxicated by their own righteous fervor. They looked ready to march out and save the world that very moment.
Beom-jun covered his mouth, chuckling silently.
The way they debated methods among themselves made it seem like they were orchestrating some covert operation.
Listening to their earnest chatter, Beom-jun felt the tension that had bound him begin to loosen.
Even exhausted from life-or-death quests, he found it absurdly funny how laughter like this could remind him why living mattered.
Beom-jun watched silently as Min-ho and Hyun-ji conspired—suggesting the police wouldn’t help, that they should contact the Ministry of Welfare instead, cycling through half a dozen schemes. Throughout it all, a faint smile never left his lips.
‘I picked up 3% Survival Probability for free.’
So that’s why there were nine witnesses—thanks to Im Sung-hyuk and his team, the Survival Probability had climbed an extra 3% as a bonus.
3% was far from negligible; it was a figure usually only granted for completing a Main Quest.
He’d thought finding colleagues for Im Sung-hyuk was the extent of it, but there was more. He’d gained additional allies for himself.
Beom-jun chuckled, thinking of the three who hadn’t left his side, worried he might face some difficult situation.
‘But who did that last 1% come from?’
Five Emergency Room staff, Im Sung-hyuk and Min-ho, Hyun-ji—three more. That came to 8%. One person was still unaccounted for.
Just as Beom-jun looked around, Min-ho and Hyun-ji’s banter continued.
“Like I said, the police won’t work.”
“No, if we file a complaint with the Ministry, he’ll be fired on the spot.”
Even as time passed, Min-ho and Hyun-ji remained lost in their own world, barely surfacing until Im Sung-hyuk finally called them back to reality.
“Have you confirmed all the patients scheduled for surgery tomorrow? They’re all stable, yes?”
“What? Professor, right now that’s not really the issue, is it?”
Min-ho thoughtlessly talked back to Im Sung-hyuk. Hyun-ji, standing beside him, jabbed his side to make him bow properly.
A yelp escaped him.
“We were just about to leave anyway. I’ll go now, Director.”
Before Im Sung-hyuk could pile on more tasks, Hyun-ji swept Min-ho away. Beom-jun waved them off casually.
“Go on. Work easy.”
Relaxed and at ease.
After all, the quest was cleared, he had Kim Do-yoon’s confession, and witnesses aplenty. More importantly, these people would testify on his behalf.
Im Sung-hyuk watched Beom-jun’s back intently. Though he wore a loose white coat, his spine beneath was perfectly straight.
Ever since Im Sung-hyuk learned that Kim Do-yoon had a connection to Han Myeong-jae, he’d felt anxious. Not knowing what to do had only made his heart more restless.
Yet the Director always seemed serene, as if he could see the future clearly.
Never rushed, always composed. He looked like someone who wouldn’t sway even in the eye of a storm.
‘That’s why he’s the Director. I thought the Kim Do-yoon situation would be troublesome, but it ended so smoothly.’
Whenever patients met the Director, they seemed to fall under his spell, their hearts given to him.
Unlike Im Sung-hyuk, who built Rapport by treating patients through the night and performing surgeries, the Director worked almost like magic.
Im Sung-hyuk reconfirmed why he was following Beom-jun.
Meanwhile, once Beom-jun and Im Sung-hyuk were alone, he spoke first.
“I told you to go, so why are you still here?”
“How could I leave you, Director? This is my patient’s situation.”
It was meant as gratitude, but Im Sung-hyuk said it as though he’d been driven to the brink of despair by Beom-jun.
His tone was the same flat delivery as always. He must have been hovering behind the curtain, anxious the whole time.
The patient’s troubles would have become a headache for him, but Beom-jun took it all on, so Im Sung-hyuk lingered nearby, uncertain.
With the Professor gone, Min-ho and Hyun-ji must have come looking for him.
Beom-jun’s lips curved up slightly.
“Your patients are my patients. Didn’t you know? This is my hospital.”
“Director, did you just say ‘my hospital’?”
Im Sung-hyuk blinked several times. A brief silence fell as he seemed to turn the unexpected declaration over in his mind.
“Yeah, my hospital. What, is there a problem?”
Beom-jun replied matter-of-factly to the flustered man, as naturally as saying 1+1 equals 2.
“What? Ah, no… never mind.”
Beom-jun’s words, delivered casually, carried weight.
It amounted to him shouldering not just the responsibility Im Sung-hyuk felt as a doctor, but also every patient he sought to protect.
Yet Beom-jun didn’t boast about it. He said it simply, as though stating the obvious.
“Of course it’s my hospital. So you don’t need to shoulder everything alone.”
Im Sung-hyuk nodded in assent at Beom-jun’s words, offering no objection.
He no longer doubted that he wasn’t fighting alone at Korea University Hospital.
“Yes, sir. Understood.”
That was when Beom-jun spotted a familiar silhouette near the Emergency Room entrance. The rounded figure and build unmistakably belonged to Vice Director Gu Hui-jeong.
* * *
The quest reward had raised Survival Probability by 9%. Five Emergency Room staff, three from Im Sung-hyuk’s team—
The one person unaccounted for was the Vice Director.
“Hello, Vice Director. We meet here.”
“…Yes.”
When Beom-jun approached Gu Hui-jeong quickly and acknowledged her, she hung her head as though she’d seen something she shouldn’t have.
“Are you ill?”
“No, not me. My mother.”
Now Beom-jun could see an elderly woman in a wheelchair beside the Vice Director—her mother, who bore such a striking resemblance that one could imagine this was how the Vice Director would look in her later years.
It didn’t seem she’d come to investigate intentionally. She probably hadn’t timed her arrival to coincide with the Kim Do-yoon situation. Especially not while accompanying her mother.
“Since it’s a personal matter, there’s no need to worry about it. I’m already off duty anyway.”
The Vice Director drew a line. Well, it was her personal business after all. Though hospital work itself was deeply intertwined with people’s private lives.
Gu Hui-jeong devoted herself completely to her single mother. Though she seemed to care only for herself, she loved her mother as she would have loved herself. Giving up her life in America was likely, in part, because of family.
Beom-jun suddenly recalled a scene from Doctor X. The way certain situations dredged up old memories when circumstances proved similar.
‘It wasn’t directly depicted, but she seemed obsessed with her mother. Maybe that’s why she never married.’
Beom-jun had always found the Vice Director slightly off-putting when he’d watched Doctor X in the past.
She harbored inferiority toward the Hospital Director and despised him obsessively, yet that fixation existed within her family as well.
Beom-jun readily extended kindness toward Hui-jeong, who was now pushing the wheelchair.
“If she needs hospitalization, I’ll arrange a room in Ward 77 for you.”
It meant he would willingly exercise the Hospital Director’s authority over VIP rooms.
‘Well, my Survival Probability went up thanks to her anyway. I can manage this much.’
Though she remained somewhat entangled with Han Myeong-jae, he could gradually raise her Favorability and register her as a Recruit later.
Beom-jun thought optimistically. After all, he’d never failed to secure someone as a Recruit before.
He was confident that with time and effort, the Vice Director would eventually become one of his people.
But Gu Hui-jeong rejected his goodwill.
“That’s kind of you, but I’d prefer if you didn’t see me here.”
She avoided his eyes, seeming uncomfortable. Her body protectively shielded the mother in the wheelchair. It appeared instinctive—she was guarding her mother.
‘What’s this,’
Beom-jun’s brow twitched for a moment.
Now that he thought about it, the aggressive woman from before had gone quiet and subdued once her hostility was stripped away.
Once, she’d certainly held people in her grasp and made them dance to prove her influence. Without that power, she felt as flat as a can of cider gone stale.
“You heard everything Kim Do-yoon said, didn’t you?”
Beom-jun poked at her deliberately.
She must have heard. There was no way she wouldn’t know about the Kim Do-yoon situation. More than anything, the Survival Probability had gone up.
“….”
“It seems you did. You probably understand Kim Do-yoon’s situation better than anyone.”
“….”
Hui-jeong maintained silence in response to Beom-jun’s words.
She knew best how Han Myeong-jae manipulated people. The way he dug into weaknesses and broke them in.
What she’d experienced as Vice Director likely wasn’t so different from what Kim Do-yoon endured. Han Myeong-jae had used her ambition for the Hospital Director’s position to make her do countless things.
But ultimately, none of it benefited the Vice Director—it only fattened Han Myeong-jae’s coffers.
“The Chairman—!”
But the moment Beom-jun tried to speak about Han Myeong-jae, Hui-jeong cut him off.
“I! I like living this way. I’m planning to stay quietly in Korea, taking care of my mother.”
She wasn’t naive like Kim Do-yoon. The fact that she didn’t break even when moved to Han Myeong-jae’s whims likely meant she was an exceptionally solid person.
She yielded flesh to Han Myeong-jae but kept her bones intact.
Beom-jun sensed it instinctively: to bring down Han Myeong-jae, he absolutely needed Gu Hui-jeong.
Then, at that moment, a new quest materialized.
[Main Quest generated.]
[Main Quest: Subvert the Enemy]
Register Han Myeong-jae’s inner circle as a Recruit.
Reward: Survival Probability +3%
Failure: Death
It was by far the most brutally difficult quest yet.
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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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