Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 142

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

Chapter 142.
The light pouring from the Talent Contract gradually dimmed. The contract itself began fading inward from its edges.
As if it had swallowed the fluorescent lights themselves and now that glow was a lie. And then the contract simply vanished.
“What? Where did it go?”
Beom-jun swept his hand through the empty air where the Talent Contract had hovered. Nothing caught his fingers. Only air.
Then the Status Window appeared before him, waiting.
[Register Kang Yo-han as Talent? Yes/No]
Kang Yo-han, toward whom Beom-jun harbored hostility, and whose talent information hadn’t even surfaced until now. Originally, he was someone Beom-jun couldn’t have dreamed of registering as talent.
Yet here he was, able to register him as talent immediately. The Talent Contract’s effect was extraordinary.
Beom-jun rolled his eyes and clicked yes. Of course it had to be yes!
[Kang Yo-han has been registered as Talent.]
[Through the registration effect, the talent’s knowledge is being absorbed.]
The Status Window, which had been quiet for a long time, erupted into frantic notifications at this unexpected event. The knowledge Kang Yo-han possessed began embedding itself in Beom-jun’s brain.
Beom-jun braced his neck and head against the incoming headache.
But he wasn’t afraid. It would be over soon anyway. Beom-jun’s anticipation of the knowledge he was about to gain far outweighed his fear of the pain.
At last he would learn about the Uigwonhoe. The Uigwonhoe that had never appeared in Doctor X, shrouded in mystery.
As Beom-jun breathed in and out, his head grew heavier. And information about the Uigwonhoe stacked up layer upon layer.
The Uigwonhoe began with Han Myeong-jae at its core—he had founded it when he was director of Korea University Hospital.
Doctors who had agreed to share his vision gathered and made a firm commitment.
‘To save patients, we must guarantee doctors at least a minimum of rights!’
‘That’s right. We need to think long-term. That way the patients survive and so do we, don’t we?’
At its origin, the Uigwonhoe was born from a pure motive: to build a better world. Han Myeong-jae’s true nature remained unknowable, but at least Kang Yo-han felt that way.
And the work the Uigwonhoe carried out was far more extensive than one might think.
It was frequent practice to receive bribes from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for prescribing new drugs, and the organization was communicating with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, even involving itself in politics. That’s how the Uigwonhoe gained increasing power. The state itself had acknowledged them.
‘Director. Should we keep working with the government? They keep trying to shift responsibility onto us. They just borrow our name when they need it.’
‘That’s what makes it win-win. We’re using the Ministry ourselves, aren’t we?’
Kang Yo-han had been dissatisfied with the Ministry’s attitude, but Han Myeong-jae’s position was unwavering.
The Ministry invoked expert opinion and based their actions on the Uigwonhoe’s stance, while the Uigwonhoe recruited members by trumpeting their intimate government connections.
Using each other in this way, the Uigwonhoe swelled in size.
In three years, their membership had exceeded a thousand.
More than half were associate members who didn’t matter much, but they consistently maintained three hundred full members, and the special members—executive officers—who Beom-jun had almost become were now four in number. Kang Yo-han had withdrawn, after all.
And there were fifty-one people waiting to join. Min Jeong-shik was fifth on that list.
Beom-jun now understood why Kang Yo-han had grown disillusioned with the Uigwonhoe after meeting him.
Han Myeong-jae had donated five billion outright, and semi-coerced Uigwonhoe members to donate as well.
But it turned out the money had come from siphoning off Korea University Hospital’s budget, and he had merely emptied the pockets of the organization’s members.
Kang Yo-han had donated the second-largest amount to the Uigwonhoe. At this level, he had probably liquidated nearly his entire fortune.
‘He gave away 1.9 billion? How stupid. You’re supposed to trust the right person.’
Beom-jun pressed his head and furrowed his brow. Now that he understood Kang Yo-han’s situation, he felt sorry for him.
Knowledge absorbed when registering talent isn’t objective. It comes secondhand, processed through one’s own lens.
In that sense, the Uigwonhoe and Han Myeong-jae as seen through Kang Yo-han’s eyes were self-contradictory and sinister.
Kang Yo-han seemed to feel greater betrayal at Han Myeong-jae’s hands than at the Uigwonhoe itself. Over the years of blindly following Han Myeong-jae, Kang Yo-han had come to regard him like an idol.
Then, at the moment Kang Yo-han left the Uigwonhoe, his final words were implanted in Beom-jun’s mind.
‘Even if I leave the Uigwonhoe, I’ll make sure to finish the medical volunteering in the Southwestern Region coming up soon. Don’t worry.’
The voice sounded vivid, as if Kang Yo-han were speaking right in front of him.
Medical volunteering hosted by Saint Hospital was scheduled for the week after next.
It wasn’t openly called Uigwonhoe activity, but in substance it was a gathering of Uigwonhoe members. Kang Yo-han was setting up the whole event.
It was perfectly timed. This Main Quest was about finding collaborators from within the Uigwonhoe, after all.

‘This could work. I can naturally establish a connection with the Uigwonhoe.’
Beom-jun pressed his temple and grinned.
By now his previously heavy head had shifted to a sharp, needle-like pain in both temples,
but contrary to the pain, Beom-jun’s mind felt refreshed. Having learned the detailed ins and outs of the Uigwonhoe, his thirst felt quenched.
* * *
The next day. Beom-jun arrived at the hospital at 7 a.m.
He had things to discuss with Im Sung-hyuk about the medical volunteering. Honestly, Beom-jun hoped Sung-hyuk would go on the volunteer trip.
He was the person Beom-jun trusted most at Korea University Hospital, but he was also the protagonist of Doctor X.
Even in the heart of the Uigwonhoe, he would never be tainted by them.
But Beom-jun knew Im Sung-hyuk’s character well.
‘He’ll definitely say no. I can see it coming from a mile away.’
Sung-hyuk wouldn’t abandon Korea University Hospital’s patients to go elsewhere. In truth, this place was the front line.
At a volunteering location, patients could be selected, but the patients of Korea University Hospital would have no one but Im Sung-hyuk.
Beom-jun pondered how to convince Sung-hyuk, then told him to come directly to the Director’s Office. Said it wasn’t something to discuss over the phone. If push came to shove, he was prepared to use his authority.
And so Sung-hyuk arranged for 7 a.m.
‘Then how about 7 tomorrow? I’ll come to your office.’
‘Sure, 7 works. We can meet in the evening then.’
‘No, sir—I meant 7 in the morning. I need to do rounds at 8 and go into the Operating Room at 9.’
‘Ah, a meeting at 7 in the morning?’
Because of Im Sung-hyuk’s obsession with patients, Beom-jun now had to arrive at the hospital at 7 a.m. too.
Beom-jun yawned.
‘Coming to the hospital at this hour. How long has it been? First time since I finished my residency, I think.’
Telling Im Sung-hyuk to take it easy would be pointless. Better to just let him see as many patients as he wanted.
‘Well, I’m the one in a hurry this time anyway.’
Beom-jun flopped into the leather chair that came up to his neck.
Outside the window it was pitch dark, as if in the middle of the night. Winter made the days short.
It was already early February. In Doctor X, the setting had been spring when Choi Beom-jun died. Now there really wasn’t much time left before Beom-jun’s death.
As Beom-jun gazed out at the dark Korea University Hospital, he heard a knock.
—Knock, knock.
It had to be Im Sung-hyuk.
“Ah, you’re here.”
“Yes, Director. You said you had something to discuss.”
The moment Sung-hyuk entered the Director’s Office, he asked urgently. He seemed to have sensed from Beom-jun’s call that it was something pressing.
With the medical volunteering starting the week after next, time was indeed tight.
This man, whose attention was solely on patients, had developed quite the perceptiveness.
To someone like that, Beom-jun spoke bluntly.
“Can you take about a week off? From what I can see, there are no urgent surgeries scheduled. If an emergency comes up, I can take it myself.”
Beom-jun had already reviewed Im Sung-hyuk’s surgical schedule. And if worse came to worst, he could do it himself—just like when he had operated on the Li Mu-sung patient before.
“Take a week off? What’s this for?”
Sung-hyuk, who usually acted as if he could handle anything, hesitated the moment Beom-jun touched on his patient care.
“There’s going to be medical volunteering in the Southwestern Region soon. It’s not just any volunteering. Most of the Uigwonhoe members will be involved.”
“…So I’d have to be away for a full week?”
“That’s what the current schedule shows. Though things could change once we get there. If it turns out to be less than expected, you could return earlier.”
Sung-hyuk seemed to be deliberating over Beom-jun’s words, but only briefly. His decision came quickly.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to go. I can’t abandon my scheduled patients.”
Beom-jun wasn’t surprised by his answer. It was just confirmation that Im Sung-hyuk’s top priority truly was his patients.
“Min-ho, though. That’s what I’ve been training him for.”
Beom-jun brought up Min-ho while looking at Sung-hyuk. He knew Sung-hyuk cared deeply for him.
“Ah, Min-ho….”
“If you step back from the rotation, it’ll be a chance for Min-ho to showcase his abilities too, won’t it?”
At Beom-jun’s words, Sung-hyuk deliberated far longer than before.
“Then, would it be possible to send Min-ho to the medical volunteering instead? Min-ho handling critical patients at Korea University Hospital right now would probably be too much. But the volunteering deals with relatively less severe cases, so it should be manageable.”
Beom-jun, who had been thinking only of sending Professor-level doctors, belatedly recalled Min-ho at Sung-hyuk’s suggestion.
‘Send Min-ho to the medical volunteering instead of Im Sung-hyuk?’
Min-ho’s Affection Level was maxed out, just like Sung-hyuk’s. A talent guaranteed never to betray.
“Hmm, Min-ho?”
As Beom-jun hesitated, Sung-hyuk made his appeal.
“As you know, Director, Min-ho is good at examinations, so he’d actually be better suited for the volunteering than I am.”
But the concern weighing on Beom-jun’s mind ran a different grain than Sung-hyuk’s appeal.
The volunteer group would include many accomplished doctors. He needed to find someone willing to cooperate with him from among the Uigwonhoe members, and if he showed up looking unremarkable, that would be a problem.
Just then Beom-jun snapped his fingers with his thumb and middle finger.
There was an item he hadn’t used yet.
Beom-jun opened his Status Window and searched for the unused item.
[Name: Fever Mode (3-day Pass)]
[Property: Grants a specific talent Fever Time for 3 days.]
[Remaining Uses: 1]
‘It’s only 3 days, but I can use it at a critical moment.’
With this, Min-ho could display capabilities on par with Im Sung-hyuk. Or even better. Sung-hyuk himself hadn’t tapped into his full potential yet.
If things went well, Min-ho might even earn a name as the next-generation doctor.
“Min-ho should be fine then.”
Beom-jun nodded and grinned. At his words, Sung-hyuk seemed reassured.

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