A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 252

Chapter 48: Isaac (2)

Neurosurgery resident room.

In the stillness of dawn, Jun-hoo was practicing his martial arts.

He extended his palm forcefully into the air.

Whoo-oong.

The air split with a sharp tearing sound. The window curtains in front of him fluttered wildly like a flag caught in a storm.

He retracted the Full Moon Palm Technique.

Jun-hoo immediately transitioned to the next martial art.

Sea Moon Finger.

Jun-hoo’s left hand drew a wave-like curve.

The trajectory of his arm closely resembled a boxer’s hook.

Thwack!

The finger infused with internal energy pierced a point in the air.

The Sea Moon Finger was a martial art designed to strike the enemy’s temple.

If someone had been standing where the Sea Moon Finger landed…

Their head would have been pierced.

The comprehensive set of martial arts performed with hands and arms, the Twelve Styles of Howol, continued.

Lightly.

Sometimes with precision.

The diverse martial arts ceaselessly sprang forth in the resident room, with Jun-hoo at the center.

Jun-hoo was already lost in his own world.

He was in a state of ecstasy.

His sparkling eyes were sharp like an eagle’s, yet also dreamy.

Jun-hoo was seeing something.

But at the same time, he was seeing nothing at all.

The splendid and overwhelming martial arts practice ended only after an hour.

“Hoo.”

Jun-hoo caught his breath in place.

He drew internal energy from his dantian [energy center in the body, according to traditional Chinese medicine].

After enveloping his entire body with internal energy, he evaporated the sticky cold sweat clinging to his skin.

Paat!

The sweat disappeared as if by magic.

His skin became as fluffy as laundry dried well in the sun.

Jun-hoo sat down in the chair in front of his desk.

He leaned comfortably against the back of the chair.

A smile slowly bloomed on his lips.

His achievement in the Twelve Styles of Howol had advanced by one level through the practice just now.

The Twelve Styles of Howol, which was at 4-star rank four months ago, had become 7-star rank as of today.

If the achievement of a martial art was rated out of 10 points, it had reached the 7-point range.

It had entered the top 30 percent.

Considering that the training period for the Twelve Styles of Howol was less than a year, it was a miraculous achievement.

If there were martial artists around…

They would have spared no admiration and congratulations for Jun-hoo’s achievement.

‘Well, the Harmonious Realm wasn’t obtained for free. The effect of completing the Bone Marrow Cleansing last year must also be significant.’

Jun-hoo spoke to himself and infused internal energy into both hands.

Whooo-oong.

Whooo-oong.

A subtle light, like moonlight, wrapped around his entire hand. It was a sign that he had mastered the Twelve Styles of Howol to the 7-star rank.

He withdrew the internal energy from his hands.

Jun-hoo accessed NewTube [a fictional analogue to YouTube] and checked his channel.

He had 1.2 million subscribers.

The game video he uploaded two days ago had a whopping 700,000 views.

After signing with the management company.

NewTube was truly on a roll.

Eye-catching and stimulating thumbnails.

Clean editing without unnecessary frills.

Joint broadcasts with various streamers and NewTubers belonging to the same management company, and so on.

Jun-hoo’s stock was soaring day by day.

The steep rise was enough to make the rise of Bitcoin a few years ago pale in comparison.

NewTube revenue was also insane.

He easily made ’20 million won’ [approximately $15,000 USD] a month.

And that was without including the paid advertising revenue brought in by the management company.

After confirming the sharply increasing revenue.

Jun-hoo first told his parents.

To quit their jobs.

His parents felt sorry.

They were already reluctant to become a burden to Jun-hoo.

But Jun-hoo stubbornly stuck to his own thoughts.

They had worked enough all this time.

So he told them to look into hobbies or odd jobs.

In the end, Jun-hoo’s parents surrendered to his iron will.

Some of the money was donated to charities that had passed Jun-hoo’s strict verification.

And another part was used as donations to patients from needy families that Jun-hoo was in charge of.

-Wow, I’m so jealous. If you’re a NewTuber with a million subscribers, isn’t your life over? Can’t you quit being a doctor?

-If I were you, I’d go on an overseas trip right away. Just take it easy from now on.

-If you want to be a doctor, why don’t you just open a clinic? Don’t suffer in neurosurgery.

Everyone around him envied Jun-hoo.

At the same time, they reacted as if they couldn’t understand Jun-hoo at all.

They couldn’t understand why he was suffering in neurosurgery when he was making a high income as a NewTuber with a million subscribers.

-Money is really important, but money isn’t everything in life.

Jun-hoo’s answer was always the same.

It might sound obnoxious.

But it was an undeniable fact.

Money was only a means, not an end.

Jun-hoo believed that the moment money became the goal.

Humans became ugly and selfish.

That wasn’t all.

Jun-hoo’s ultimate goal was to save people.

In the Murim world [a world of martial arts and cultivation], he had helplessly watched the deaths of precious people, hadn’t he?

Jun-hoo was sick and tired of the repetition of such tragedies.

He wanted it to disappear before his eyes.

To achieve that goal, Jun-hoo had to become the one and only penta-board surgeon on Earth.

The neuro-oncology field.

The neurovascular field.

The stereotactic neurosurgery field.

The trauma surgery field.

He had to become the unprecedented best surgeon encompassing all fields.

‘I should see my master too.’

Jun-hoo suddenly thought of his master, Jae-hyun. He often talked on the phone, but it had already been six months since he had seen his face.

He wanted to ask for his next teaching soon.

-Professor. I have a question for you…

-What is it?

-I saw you on a health information program a while ago, Professor. Why did you go on a broadcast that pretends to deliver useful information but sells nutritional supplements?

A few months ago, Jun-hoo, who had contacted Jae-hyun, asked as if he were grilling him.

His voice was unusually blunt.

-You seem disappointed in me, kid.

-It was a broadcast that was the complete opposite of your usual way of thinking, Professor.

-There’s no need to see broadcast appearances as necessarily bad. It’s quite important to make your face known to people.

-Weren’t patients more important to you than reputation, Professor?

-Of course, patients are more important. But if I want to work outside the hospital later, if I want to reform the medical system, it would be better to increase awareness from now on.

Jae-hyun was looking further than Jun-hoo.

He was looking at hundreds of thousands of patients, not just one patient.

He was looking at hundreds of thousands of doctors, not just one doctor.

And to achieve that grand goal, he took a pragmatic approach.

He showed an aggressiveness that didn’t care about means or methods.

So Jun-hoo was misunderstanding Jae-hyun.

Jae-hyun wasn’t someone who was obsessed with reputation.

He was a pioneer who was planning a better future for the medical community by using reputation as a stepping stone.

-I’m really sorry, Professor. I was short-sighted.

-Rather, I’m grateful that you spoke so frankly. Thanks to you, there’s no chance of misunderstandings.

Grumble~

Jun-hoo chuckled as he recalled his conversation with his master.

The beggar in his stomach was clamoring for rice [feeling hungry].

Jun-hoo got up from his seat.

He took out dumplings from the refrigerator and put them in the microwave.

He took a bite of the warm dumplings. The spicy and savory taste of the kimchi dumplings captivated his mouth.

He wanted to eat more dumplings even while he was eating them.

Jun-hoo put another kimchi dumpling in his mouth.

As he did so, he stared intently at the dumpling packaging.

[Jae-eun’s Jackpot Dumplings.]

* * *

5:30 AM.

Screech.

The door to the resident room opened and a young man entered.

The young man had extremely curly hair.

His long hair, which had not been cut, was messy like a magpie’s nest.

The young man’s name was Park In-cheol.

He was Jun-hoo’s junior from school and a first-year resident who had become his junior in the department.

The ‘noble’ resident had visited the ‘humble’ neurosurgery department.

Thanks to In-cheol, Jun-hoo was freed from his life as the youngest.

“Are you tired from waking up?”

“I can’t be as tired as you are. You’ve been on duty all night, senior. Would you like a mixed coffee [instant coffee mix]?”

“I’d love that.”

Jun-hoo stared intently at In-cheol, who was filling the coffee pot with water.

As a result of observing him for about a month, In-cheol was a pretty good junior.

He was kind and quick-witted.

The only downside was that his various treatment and assisting skills were a bit lacking?

But Jun-hoo was training him, so In-cheol’s treatment skills would gradually improve.

Jun-hoo was also exceptionally talented at teaching others.

He was, after all, a martial arts instructor for the Murim Alliance.

The top-notch late-stage masters from the Murim Alliance had all gone through Jun-hoo’s hands.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks. It’s been a long time since I’ve had coffee made by a junior. Time flies. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was a first-year.”

Jun-hoo muttered as he accepted the coffee In-cheol handed him.

“Will I ever be able to drink coffee made by a junior?”

“I don’t know, but I hope so. It would be nice if the department was bustling with people, right?”

“Still, aren’t we a large group?”

“Of course. Even in the second year, there are two of us, me and Kyung-soo. And In-cheol, you’ve just joined.”

Jun-hoo took a sip of coffee and continued.

“I heard there are neurosurgery departments that haven’t been able to recruit residents for two years in a row.”

“Does that mean the third-year is the youngest in those hospitals? Ugh… that’s terrible.”

“Yeah, it’s on par with a horror movie.”

He spoke jokingly, but Jun-hoo was genuinely feeling fear.

If this situation continued for decades, surgeons would truly become extinct like dinosaurs.

And that burden and responsibility would naturally fall on the patients.

No matter how much a patient wanted to have surgery, there would be no one to operate on them.

I don’t know the distant future, but…

I have no choice but to do my best.

If I keep walking, a path will surely appear!

Jun-hoo emptied his mixed coffee, renewing his determination.

He left the resident room to In-cheol and moved to the on-call room. The other residents were still lost in dreamland.

They were sleeping like dead people exhausted from fatigue.

Jun-hoo climbed the ladder to the second floor of the bunk bed. He sat cross-legged and performed meditative breathing.

From the top of his head to the tips of his toes.

As if the very top and bottom of his body were all damaged.

Jun-hoo breathed with his whole body.

His inhalation lasted for 1 minute, and his exhalation lasted for 1 minute.

It was the result of rigorously training his mind in the Murim world.

About 10 minutes passed.

Jun-hoo opened his eyes with a refreshed expression.

The fatigue from being on duty all night.

70 percent of the fatigue accumulated from martial arts training had flown away.

All with just 10 minutes of meditative breathing.

Even Jun-hoo himself thought it was an absurd recovery power.

There were quite a few monsters in the Murim world.

In modern times, Jun-hoo was the only monster.

Jun-hoo got out of bed and returned to the resident room.

He helped the interns and In-cheol prepare for the conference.

As the conference time approached, the residents and professors filled the seats one by one.

“Jun-hoo, you’re going to have to be a little nervous today?”

Min-kyung, who was sitting next to him, stared at Jun-hoo with her arms crossed.

“Why?”

“I’m planning to educate you on cerebral angiography today. I’ve already decided on the patient.”

“That’s great. I wanted to learn it anyway.”

Jun-hoo smiled brightly.

Cerebral angiography was based on catheter procedures, and the process was as follows:

A catheter is inserted into the femoral artery.

The catheter is moved to the brain.

A contrast agent is injected into the catheter and continuous X-ray imaging is performed.

Jun-hoo hadn’t even learned cerebral angiography yet.

He already wanted to learn advanced procedures such as cerebral aneurysm coiling and cerebral angioplasty.

When it came to medical skills, he was greedy like a devil.

“You’re smiling like a pervert again.”

“You’re being too harsh today. Saying I’m smiling like a pervert.”

“What resident in the world smiles when they’re told they’re going to be taught cerebral angiography?”

“……”

“Cerebral angiography is so tough.”

Min-kyung’s gaze, which had been looking at Jun-hoo, turned slightly to the side.

Jun-hoo’s gaze also turned.

There, Si-ho, who had become the chief resident in his fourth year, was walking towards them.