Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 148

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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 148.
The moment Beom-jun put on the Semi-transparent Cloak, only Min-ho recognized him.
“Oh, Director, you’ve arrived?”
He squeezed through the huddle of Residents and made space for Beom-jun to sit—the seat of honor, no less.
“This isn’t Korea University Hospital. Don’t worry about it, make yourself comfortable.”
The other Residents paid Beom-jun absolutely no mind, but Min-ho was visibly flustered watching him.
‘The cloak should erase my presence entirely. How is this happening?’
Then the Status Window appeared.
[The ‘Semi-transparent Cloak’ effect does not apply to talents already registered.]
‘That explains it.’
Reading the Status Window, Beom-jun understood why only Min-ho acknowledged him. There was only one registered talent here—Min-ho—so
Min-ho would remain aware of Beom-jun’s presence no matter where he went.
But unlike Min-ho, the other Residents simply continued their conversation as though Beom-jun didn’t exist.
“Anyway, volunteer work here is seriously hardcore, so steel yourselves.”
“He just got here—why scare him like that?”
“What, did I say something wrong? You could be in for a shock. Better to know ahead of time, right?”
“I suppose that’s fair.”
They were counseling Min-ho, who was volunteering for the first time.
“There’s literally only doctors here. So everything else falls on the youngest person’s shoulders.”
“Ah, but Min-ho, you’re a Resident with three years’ experience, so you should be fine.”
“Right, shouldn’t be too bad. I’ve been doing this since my internship? Man, it was truly a nightmare back then.”
Between what sounded like advice and what sounded like complaints, the Residents informed Min-ho about Uigwonhoe.
“You have to pick Patients up from their homes. Take a wheelchair, do the pickup, then drop them off when their treatment’s done.”
“Last year we ran out of medicine, so I had to drive to a pharmacy in town and beg for some.”
“Hey, at least it was medicine. I had to haul a Water Tank because we ran out of water—I felt like a water peddler, I swear.”
As Min-ho listened to these volunteer stories, he grew shocked.
“Why are doctors doing all this?”
“My thoughts exactly!”
“Oh, what was it again? Sacrifice? Something about awakening that spirit in us.”
The more Min-ho heard, the more troubled he became.
Professionals are supposed to work in environments where they can exercise their expertise. Yet in this volunteer program, there’s no one but doctors.
To Min-ho’s mind, this Medical Volunteer Service made no sense. He felt as though something had gone badly wrong.
“Director, is this really okay?”
Min-ho spoke to Beom-jun, who stood with his hands clasped behind his back. His expression mixed worry and resentment, but he felt confident enough to raise the question—because if anyone were Beom-jun, surely he could fix anything.
Beom-jun threaded through the cluster of Residents and sat down. Then he posed the crucial question.
“But knowing all this, why did you all come anyway?”
At Beom-jun’s words, everyone in the room fell silent at once.
Only now, it seemed, did they realize Beom-jun was there.
Some sighed, some exhaled heavily as the silence deepened. Those brimming with complaints, those who had merely listened—all wore the same expression.
The management of this Medical Volunteer Service was undeniably strange. Anything but ordinary.
And yet everyone here had volunteered to come of their own accord.
‘Does the hospital award some kind of special recognition or something?’
Seconds later, the silence broke. The Resident who’d once hauled the Water Tank spoke to Beom-jun.
“You did know this is something Uigwonhoe runs, right?”
On the surface, it was packaged as Saint Hospital’s initiative, but in truth it was Uigwonhoe’s domain—was he asking if Beom-jun grasped that?
“Of course.”
He gauged how much Beom-jun actually knew, then continued.
“You can’t become a Full Member of Uigwonhoe without going through this volunteer service. I’d say it’s their Gateway into the organization. This is my third time, right? From what I’ve seen, most people get admitted after doing it three times. I came thinking this would be my last one.”
Most people nodded at his words. But Beom-jun was different.
‘Min Jeong-sik was on the Membership Waiting List. How does this fit?’
After a moment’s thought, Beom-jun spoke.
“So Uigwonhoe reaches out directly? They don’t accept applications at all?”
Beom-jun’s question drew everyone’s attention briefly.
“Seriously? You applied? I thought that was just a rumor, but it’s real. They say you need a referral from someone they know. Your network must be something else.”
As the Water Tank Resident sang Beom-jun’s praises, the doctors’ eyes gleamed as they stared at him.
They still seemed not to know who he actually was.
But when Beom-jun said nothing further, their interest scattered quickly. The cloak’s effect proved remarkable.
Meanwhile, hearing unfamiliar details, Min-ho quietly asked Beom-jun a question.
“Director, did you have connections I didn’t know about?”
“I am the connection. What else would you need?”
Min-ho gave him a thumbs-up. But unlike Min-ho, the Residents and Interns in the room faced a different reality.
As newcomers to the medical world, they seemed forced to grind themselves down through volunteer work just to barely scrape their way into Uigwonhoe.
“Ugh, becoming a doctor was hard enough, and now there’s this. I hope it ends soon.”
Amid the continued grumbling, Min-ho—who had been listening silently—spoke up.
“Actually, Uigwonhoe isn’t something you absolutely have to join, right?”
Overshadowed as he was by Beom-jun, Min-ho genuinely didn’t know much about Uigwonhoe.
He couldn’t fathom what it was that made these doctors suffer so.
The Resident who’d been leading the conversation laughed derisively at that, as though Min-ho were naive to the ways of the world.
“It’s essential if you want to make it as a doctor in Korea. All the top-four hospitals work that way. Doesn’t everyone know Uigwonhoe controls most decent hospitals? Well, except Celestial Hope University Hospital still holds out, but honestly it’s only a matter of time.”
“Korea University Hospital isn’t—mgh!”
Just as Min-ho tried to object, Beom-jun activated Control.
[Activating Control/Dominance.]
[Control/Dominance is forced against the target’s will.]
[Control/Dominance Level 2: Comply whether you like it or not.]
Beom-jun placed his hand over Min-ho’s mouth, then raised his index finger to his own lips.
‘Shh.’
Logically speaking, the thought ‘don’t speak’ had come first, before his mouth was covered—but that might’ve just been his imagination.
Startled, Min-ho was calmed by Beom-jun’s gesture.
On a first meeting, you had to be nothing but cooperative. Allies would be easier to manipulate, enemies easier to catch off-guard. And Min-ho especially needed to be strategic here.
Once Fever Mode went active, Min-ho would perform in front of large crowds—many eyes watching.
“So what you’re saying is, if you don’t join Uigwonhoe, you can’t survive long at your own hospital, right?”
Beom-jun directed this summary toward the Residents, who still didn’t know who they were talking to.
Having extracted what he needed, Beom-jun abruptly left the group.
But aside from Min-ho, the doctors retained only the vaguest sense that someone Min-ho knew had been present at the volunteer site—and couldn’t recall whom they’d actually been speaking with.
* * *
Beom-jun returned to Base Camp headquarters.
The Semi-transparent Cloak proved even more useful than he’d anticipated. He’d gathered quite good intelligence compared to his initial test run.
‘I was right to send Min-ho. I’d been fixating too much on the upper ranks.’
Because he was Hospital Director, Beom-jun rarely met with Residents and Interns.
Min-ho was exceptional—an outlier with explosive growth potential. In reality, Beom-jun’s circle consisted mostly of Professors and hospital executives.
But hearing directly from the Residents this time had proven a significant harvest.
He’d learned that the rhetoric about guaranteeing doctors’ rights and sacrificing for Patients hadn’t penetrated down to the lower ranks.
‘They’re being coerced into volunteering, and by the third session they suddenly embrace Uigwonhoe’s ideology like madmen? That doesn’t add up.’
Beom-jun shook his head.
The Residents he’d met didn’t align their beliefs with Uigwonhoe’s stated principles. They were closer to clinging to the organization for survival. The Interns would be even worse. Medical students, needless to say.
Yet regrettably, they were all fledgling doctors—barely two or three years out, still building their skills.
Frankly, Beom-jun didn’t see them as viable Quest targets.
Moreover, this particular Quest required someone inside Uigwonhoe. These doctors hadn’t even applied for membership yet.
Beom-jun found the team roster at Base Camp headquarters.
He identified which doctor had done most of the talking.
– H-2 Team Vice-Leader Heo Sung-hyun.
He was a Resident at Eunseong Hospital. Being part of the Heart Team, the H-group consisted of Thoracic Surgery, Cardiology, and Endocrinology, and he was in Thoracic Surgery.
‘Well, if things go well, I might see him again someday.’
And if things went well, Uigwonhoe might not exist by the time he came back next year.
After confirming Heo Sung-hyun, Beom-jun moved quickly.
With the Semi-transparent Cloak, there was so much to learn here. Since he’d come all this way, he might as well squeeze it for everything it was worth.
Beom-jun searched for wherever the Service Leader might be.
The Leader had been avoiding him since early morning—he was nowhere to be found.
‘Yesterday he was chasing after me all day. Where’d he go?’
Probably there was much the Leader couldn’t share with someone outside Uigwonhoe. Which meant: where the Leader was, Uigwonhoe’s internal secrets would overflow.
Beom-jun grinned and began ransacking Base Camp.
He didn’t need a crowd. Three people gathered anywhere would spill a torrent of information.
He searched the meeting space first, but not an ant was stirring.
Then the Patient treatment area, the storage room where supplies were stacked, the lodging where medical staff stayed.
He’d scoured quite a bit of Base Camp, yet the Leader remained nowhere in sight.
Sweat was beading on Beom-jun’s forehead.
The day was cool, but the mountains surrounding them blocked the wind, trapping humidity.
As his breathing grew heavy, his breath came in visible mist.
Beom-jun passed the Medicine Storage almost without thinking when he heard voices from inside.
He stopped and took three steps backward.
“A Membership Waiting List applicant didn’t show up for the volunteer work? Who is it? What kind of person?”
“You know, that one at Korea University Hospital, um… who was it again?”
“Oh! Min Jeong-sik? But he’s practically an executive. Of course he wouldn’t come.”
“There are no exceptions. We need to see something before we approve membership.”
In the most remote corner of Base Camp, a covert conversation unfolded.

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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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