A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 538

Chapter 105. Completion and Connection (4)

“Haa…”

A sigh escaped Jun-hoo’s lips.

In the intensive care unit, Jun-hoo looked down at his haggard mentor, whose head was wrapped in bandages.

To save his mentor, or to let him die.

To disregard his mentor’s wishes, or to respect them.

At the crossroads of an unavoidable choice, Jun-hoo decided on the former.

Jun-hoo didn’t care about his mentor’s ambitions. To Jun-hoo, his mentor was simply more precious.

He hadn’t even imagined a world without his mentor yet.

The obsidian scalpel precisely excised only the necrotic [dead or decaying] tissue in the temporal lobe.

However, Jun-hoo’s gaze, as he looked down at his mentor, remained troubled.

It had already been fifteen days since the surgery, but his mentor’s consciousness showed no signs of recovery.

“Master.”

Jun-hoo gently shook his mentor’s shoulder.

His mentor didn’t even flinch.

Even considering the major surgery, the recovery of consciousness was too slow.

He had a bad feeling.

“Chief, I brought the EEG (electroencephalogram) [a test that detects electrical activity in your brain using small, metal discs attached to your scalp].”

Woo-hyun wheeled in the Portable EEG and approached the bedside.

“Okay. Let’s connect it.”

Jun-hoo carefully held the bandage wrapped around his mentor’s head and connected the electroencephalogram electrodes.

Beeep.

Beeep.

With the mechanical sound, the EEG monitor fluctuated up and down.

The brain waves were not normal.

After a thorough analysis, polymorphic delta waves and polymorphic alpha waves appeared alternately.

“Chief. This is…”

Woo-hyun looked at Jun-hoo with a pale face.

Jun-hoo smiled weakly instead of answering.

Was this a punishment from his mentor for betraying his wishes?

His mentor’s brain waves clearly indicated a ‘vegetative state.’

* * *

As Jae-hyun fell into a vegetative state, the media became heated.

There was a barrage of criticism against the recent surge in random knife attacks. A reevaluation of Jae-hyun’s activities as a lawmaker, which he had been promoting, also took place.

The first member of the National Assembly from the medical profession.

The bills he had proposed, and so on.

Thanks to Jae-hyun’s reputation and unfortunate circumstances, the media mostly treated Jae-hyun favorably.

Go Hyun-chul didn’t miss this opportunity.

He took over his mentor’s will and pushed for the Park Jae-hyun Act, that is, the mandatory assignment law for emergency surgeons.

There were dissenting voices.

However, those voices were not strong enough to stand up against the heated public opinion.

There was also some public opinion manipulation.

-Seo, make it seem like the surgery was delayed longer than scheduled. Say that we waited a long time because there were no surgeons to perform it, and barely managed to get the surgery done. You can do that much, right?

One day, Go Hyun-chul called and asked.

It was a request to obtain a legitimate reason to promote the mandatory assignment law for emergency surgeons.

Jun-hoo said he understood.

The lie was unpleasant, but he agreed.

He would have refused if his mentor had recovered his consciousness in good health, but now that he was in a vegetative state, there was no reason to refuse.

In an interview with a media outlet, Jun-hoo repeated the lines Go Hyun-chul had asked him to, like a parrot.

In a surgery that was half successful.

Jun-hoo’s internal and external reputation didn’t particularly plummet.

Rather, there were more sympathetic gazes.

This was because many people knew about the close relationship between Jun-hoo and Jae-hyun.

After his mentor fell into a vegetative state.

Jun-hoo researched vegetative state treatments like a madman.

Most of it was in vain.

Unlike brain death, there were rare cases of vegetative state patients recovering, but the reason for this had never been clearly revealed.

If he had to pick one, it would be a miracle.

So Jun-hoo gave up searching through papers and examining them.

He jumped into treatment himself.

He visited his mentor every day and placed his hand on his mentor’s head, secretly from the nurses.

He poured internal energy into his mentor’s head.

He had hoped for the unique healing power of internal energy, but it was all in vain. Even after nearly fifteen days of internal energy treatment, there was not even a fingernail’s worth of progress.

His mentor had been in a vegetative state for a month.

The nurses had to turn his mentor’s body into this position and that position to prevent bedsores [sores that develop on areas of the body subjected to constant pressure].

He was receiving nutrients through a nasogastric tube [a plastic tube inserted through the nose, down the esophagus, and into the stomach], that is, a nose line.

The nurses also had to take care of his bowel movements and urination.

His mentor’s body, which was withering day by day, was as gaunt as an old tree in winter.

Time passed and two months went by.

Jun-hoo’s heart had already burned out, leaving only ashes.

In the meantime, the quiet media once again stirred. As the regular National Assembly session began, the so-called ‘Park Jae-hyun Act’ was formally proposed.

The bill passed with more than half of the votes in favor. According to the enforcement ordinance, the bill would be applied from the second half of next year.

But Jun-hoo couldn’t laugh or cry.

Another month passed.

Jun-hoo still hadn’t given up on his mentor. And finally, he discovered a plausible trick.

If this method didn’t work, there seemed to be no other way out.

“Don’t let anyone in.”

After giving strict instructions to the intensive care unit nurse, Jun-hoo drew the curtains around the bed with a swish.

He placed his palm on his mentor’s forehead.

The real game was about to begin.

* * *

Jae-hyun couldn’t tell if he was opening his eyes or closing them.

Everything was pitch black.

Despite being immersed in a sea of darkness, Jae-hyun was not at all afraid or uncomfortable.

Rather, he felt extremely comfortable.

He wondered if this was how it felt to be a fetus swimming in its mother’s amniotic fluid [the protective liquid contained by the amniotic sac of a gravid female].

Was he dead or alive?

Was this heaven or hell?

Such thoughts briefly crossed his mind, but they couldn’t connect firmly.

They scattered like wet tissues.

Now, nothing mattered anymore.

The coziness Jae-hyun was feeling now was ecstatic. He didn’t want to give even a speck of this ecstasy to thoughts.

But it was right then.

A familiar voice echoed in the sea of darkness.

-Master. Can you hear my voice? It’s me, Jun-hoo.

Jae-hyun was startled.

Why was Jun-hoo’s voice being heard here?

“Jun-hoo. What on earth is going on?”

-Master. If you can hear my voice, try to move your body.

He didn’t know what was going on, but Jae-hyun followed Jun-hoo’s instructions. He flailed his arms and legs.

“I don’t understand this situation at all. Give me a proper explanation.”

-Are you perhaps unable to move your body?

Jun-hoo had been talking unilaterally since a while ago. It seemed that Jae-hyun’s shouts were not reaching Jun-hoo.

Not only that.

Even though he had moved his body, Jun-hoo didn’t seem to recognize it as movement.

It was as if the worlds in which the two existed were completely different.

Jae-hyun felt powerless.

He couldn’t do anything here.

Yes, it must be a useless hallucination.

Let’s ignore it.

This is the first time I’ve ever felt this cozy in my life.

I want to rest now. And I deserve to rest enough.

He felt like he was forgetting something important, but Jae-hyun tried to ignore it.

No matter how others evaluate it.

Jae-hyun tried to create an environment where patients and doctors could smile even once, even for a day.

Isn’t that enough?

It was too much to ask for more than that from himself.

-Master, please come back. I still need you.

“It’s all over. I don’t know if you’re the real Jun-hoo or not, but don’t bother me anymore. This place is too peaceful. I want to live peacefully.”

“……”

-Did you forget the promise you made with me? You were going to reform the political system, and I was going to be a beacon of hope for the patients. It’s against the rules to leave like this first.

“……”

-Please come back and keep your promise. I can’t take it anymore either. I can’t even imagine a world without you.

Jun-hoo’s cry was desperate and touching.

In an instant, Jae-hyun’s heart also welled up and his nose tingled.

It had been too long, and he had forgotten.

The soul promise he had shared with Jun-hoo.

Even!

Shamefully, this promise was first proposed by Jae-hyun to Jun-hoo.

But what could he do?

This sea of darkness was too cozy to leave, and even if he wanted to leave, there was no way to leave.

But it was right then.

In the distance, a stream of light began to sparkle.

Even though the lights were far away, they were as radiant as if they were right in front of him.

He didn’t know well, but if he could touch that light, he would be able to escape this place.

-Master. Please don’t forget me. Please don’t forget the promise you made with me. Above all, please don’t forget the promise you made with yourself. You always said that if you struggle to the end, you will surely see a way.

He didn’t know why.

Suddenly, Jun-hoo’s voice sounded small. It had become a whisper instead of a cry.

Jae-hyun silently stared at the stream of light.

The comfortable sea of darkness.

The stream of light where new pain would probably begin.

The deliberation was not long.

Jae-hyun swam towards the stream of light. The stream of light looked close, so he thought he would reach it soon, but it was an illusion.

The distance was not narrowing easily.

He felt like giving up, but he endured.

Hope torture.

It was a story he had heard repeatedly from the people around him while working as a surgeon, and even after becoming a member of the National Assembly.

Stop being exploited by that hope.

But they didn’t know.

There is no end to hope, and there is no end to despair.

If there is no end to both, he would rather choose hope.

He didn’t know how long it had been.

No. Could there even be time in this place in the first place?

Whatever it was, it didn’t matter.

The desire to move forward eventually brought Jae-hyun to the stream of light.

Jae-hyun held the brilliant stream of light in his hand.

The stream of light was hot enough to burn.

The pain he had forgotten rushed through his whole body.

“Ugh…”

Jae-hyun groaned and lifted his eyelids.

The first thing he saw was a surprised Jun-hoo.

Jun-hoo blinked for a long time, then roughly hugged Jae-hyun. Jun-hoo’s body was trembling sadly. He was sobbing.

“Yes… you called me.”

Jae-hyun patted Jun-hoo’s back with a smile.

* * *

Four days after regaining consciousness, his mentor was discharged from the hospital.

“What on earth happened?”

One day, his mentor asked Jun-hoo.

After hearing everything that had happened while he was in a vegetative state.

“Now I finally have a chance to tell you honestly. I’m not actually an ordinary person.”

“Huh? Are you saying you’re a psychic or something?”

“Something like that.”

Jun-hoo smiled awkwardly.

He revealed that his roots were in the Murim [a fictional martial arts world in Korean literature and media].

His mentor, who had read martial arts novels, accepted Jun-hoo’s identity relatively without resistance.

In the first place, the feats that Jun-hoo had shown so far were too far from common sense.

“Okay. I understand that you’re from the Murim. But I wonder if it’s possible to treat a vegetative state with martial arts.”

“I used a combination of telekinesis and innate true energy.”

“Telekinesis and innate true energy?”

“Yes.”

Innate true energy was the life force that humans were born with.

Internal energy could be replenished if consumed, but innate true energy could not be replenished.

A human whose innate true energy is exhausted dies.

So Jun-hoo had treated Jae-hyun with a desperate determination.

First, he maximized the activity of the brain with innate true energy, and then he used telekinesis.

Among vegetative state patients, there are patients who have consciousness.

He judged that if there was consciousness, communication would be possible with telekinesis.

The plan worked.

His mentor, who heard telekinesis in a state where his brain was activated, crossed over from the world of unconsciousness to the world of consciousness.

However, this was not a 100 percent possible treatment.

Jun-hoo was encouraged by his mentor’s treatment and tried the same treatment on other vegetative state patients.

Unexpectedly, the treatment failed.

Does the treatment only succeed if the patient has a desperate will to return to life like his mentor?

Or was his mentor’s case simply rare?

He couldn’t draw a clear conclusion yet.

Anyway, Jun-hoo was happy.

His mentor was alive, and the so-called Park Jae-hyun Act had already passed.

Now, Jun-hoo had only one task left.