My finger hesitated over the call button.
The moment I pressed it, not only my peaceful day off but possibly my entire future hospital life could be ruined.

Just because I’ve done a lot of stupid sht so far doesn’t mean it’s okay to keep doing stupid sht.

Though I’d somehow forgotten that fact for a while.

Anyway, under the ghosts’ fervent pressure, whatever faint trace of reason I had left snapped.

All the exhaustion, resentment, and absolute misery that had piled up exploded at once.

I put my phone down and instead started pouring all my rage into the gallery’s post window.

[Title: Stop f*cking around already you damned bastards!!!!!!!!]
[Author: HellJoseonSlave1]

I admit I’ve gotten a lot of help from you guys,
and thanks to that I didn’t let patients die,
and I got chewed out less by seniors,
and sometimes even got treated like an ace,
but have some fcking limits!!!!!!!!
Let me rest on my day off, you goddmn ghost bastards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I seriously feel like I’m going to die!!!!!
Please, let’s rest, let’s rest, let’s rest!!!!!!!!!

At my new post dripping with insanity, the gallery fell silent for a moment.

Soon after, flustered comments began appearing one by one.

[Anon (211.36): Uh… Hell-slave… don’t do this… we’re all just trying to help you succeed…]

[DescendantOfHippocrates: Living one, we momentarily forgot your toil. Restrain your anger.]

[LatteIsLife: Kids these days lack perseverance… no, that’s not it. Yeah. Sorry.]

[HellJoseonSlave1: If you keep this up I’m quitting the gallery, you dogsh*t ghosts.]

Of course, I had no intention of actually quitting.

Why would I throw away such an overpowered cheat key.

This was a threat.

And my threat was effective.
The gallery instantly fell into panic.

[BoneNerd88: Hey!!!! No!! Don’t go!! I’ll show you my entire bone marrow slide collection!!]

[ScalpelGod: Let’s resolve this through dialogue.]

And finally, their declaration of surrender appeared.

[Anon (211.36): Hell-slave! We’ll only grind you down by half!!!!! Let’s study just one or two hours a day, okay? How about that compromise!]

Tch.

The negotiation was a success.

Still, just in case, maybe I should try calling once.

I needed to show those ghosts that ‘I at least tried.’

And honestly, I was a bit curious whether individuals could actually borrow it.

I called the education and training department first.

Then I called the department chief.

Fortunately or unfortunately, neither of them answered.

The call rang, but no one picked up.

I pressed the end call button without hesitation.

‘Whew, saved.’

I let out a sigh of relief.

But a sense of unease lingered in a corner of my mind.

Wait, was this really lucky?

Sure, the chief could be busy and miss the call.
But…

You guys in the education department should pick up.

How does it make sense for the department responsible for managing training conditions to not answer calls for no reason?

What if it had been something urgent?

I’ll definitely file a complaint later.

Thinking that, I lay back down on the sofa.

Anyway, I’d overcome today’s biggest crisis.

The gallery was quiet.
All thanks to my one-line declaration of quitting.

If this was all it took, why had I been getting pushed around like an idiot until now?
Am I stupid?

Learning is a good thing, but too much of anything is bad.

Yeah, this is enough.

The negotiation succeeded, and I protected my precious day off.

I picked up the remote and turned on the TV.

Then I opened an OTT app and ordered chicken through a delivery app.
It was fine to indulge a bit today.
After all, I’d won against those ghost bastards.

But even as the chicken arrived,
as I cracked open a can of beer,
and laughed while watching TV,
that lingering unease didn’t disappear.

‘We’ll only grind you down by half!!!!!’

The desperate cry of one anonymous user echoed in my head.

‘…But.’

I paused mid-bite on a drumstick and thought.

‘Those ghost lectures are sh*tty and exhausting, but they really are helpful.’

That myocardial infarction patient before…
that ciguatera patient too.
Saving their lives was entirely thanks to the gallery ghosts.

I’m still just a clueless first-year newbie.

My hands are still clumsy, and my knowledge is shallow.

Those ghosts may have trash personalities and treat me like a toy,
but they were experts who reached the pinnacle of their fields while alive.

Do I really have the right to reject that knowledge?

Anyway, sorry for blowing up earlier…

I conveyed a very faint apology in my heart.
They probably couldn’t hear it.

And then I made a decision.

Maybe I’ll study airway management again.

Since it’s come to this,
using those ghosts as free private tutors is the better deal.

Studying isn’t a bad thing anyway.

If I get smarter,
both I and my patients live.

I put the leftover chicken down on the table and opened the gallery window again.
Then I posted a short message.

[Title: Guys I’m back ㅇㅇ I’m not running]
[Author: HellJoseonSlave1]

Alright, alright.
Looks like I’m not destined to rest anyway, so let’s just continue what we were doing.
Airway management.

At my post, the quiet gallery instantly came back to life.
The ghosts pounced as if they’d been waiting.

[Anon (211.36): Oooh! You’re back, Hell-slave! I knew you had it in you!]

[LatteIsLife: Tsk tsk, you should’ve done that from the start instead of wasting energy.]

[HellJoseonSlave1: I’m seriously quitting, okay?]

[Anon (211.36): Ignore him, he’s just an idiot!!!!! Please don’t go!!!!!!!!]

[DescendantOfHippocrates: A wise decision, living one! The path of learning is endless!]

[ScalpelGod: Hm. If you don’t have a real mannequin to practice airway management, then it can’t be helped.]

At that, my heart dropped, thinking I’d be assigned the hellish mission of ‘calling the professor’ again.

But the next comment completely shattered my expectations.

[ScalpelGod: Do it with drawings.]

Drawings?

Drawings??

What kind of drawings all of a sudden?

[AnatomyGhost: Exactly! I happen to have excellent material. After I died, I was so bored that I spent about thirty years harassing a medical illustrator ghost in the afterlife to make this series of human anatomy diagrams. I dare say it’s more accurate than any anatomy book that exists.]

So I wasn’t the only living doctor being harassed out of boredom.

I silently prayed for the unknown medical illustrator’s soul.

Anyway, starting from that moment, an unbelievable scene unfolded before my eyes.

What appeared in the gallery wasn’t just a simple anatomy drawing,
but an image so detailed it felt like someone had taken a living person and put them there.

So you really made this by harassing someone for thirty years?

That person—no, that ghost—was practically a saint.

[Anon (211.36): Alright, we’ll start the oral exam now.]

And the exam began.

A new post in the gallery showed a perfectly normal adult airway cross-section.

[Anon (211.36): Question one. The most basic airway management. Which hand do you hold the laryngoscope with? Which side of the tongue do you insert the blade on?]

I searched my memory and typed out the answer in my head.

[HellJoseonSlave1: Hold it with the left hand, insert on the right side of the tongue and sweep to the left.]

[Anon (211.36): Correct. Then where should the blade tip be placed to lift the epiglottis and expose the vocal cords? What is that structure called?]

[HellJoseonSlave1: Vallecula.]

This was easy.

Too easy!

After a brief pause with no new comments, another post appeared.

The image changed.
This time, it was the airway of a trauma patient.
Broken teeth fragments and blood were mixed into total chaos.

[ScalpelGod: Scenario. Trauma patient. Oral bleeding and vomit obscure the view. What do you do first?]

Uh, if it’s trauma, you obviously call an ambulance.

[HellJoseonSlave1: Call 119?]

[ScalpelGod: No you idiot, you’re in the hospital!!!!!!! Why the f*ck would you call 119 again!!!!! Are you asking paramedics to secure the airway for you!!!!!!]

Ah.
I’d been so focused on the trauma patient that I briefly forgot what kind of test this was.
I pulled myself together and left a proper reply.

[HellJoseonSlave1: Suction.]

[ScalpelGod: Obviously. Then while suctioning vomit with a large-bore tip, you accidentally stimulate the larynx. The patient suddenly develops laryngospasm. The vocal cords clamp shut and the tube won’t pass. What do you do now? You have 30 seconds.]

I panicked.
My mind went blank.
Do I sedate the patient first?
Or…

[HellJoseonSlave1: Inject a small dose of muscle relaxant to relieve the spasm.]

[ScalpelGod: Too late. The patient has already gone into cardiac arrest from hypoxia. The patient is dead. Idiot. In this situation, you should attempt positive-pressure ventilation with a bag-valve mask while simultaneously preparing for a surgical airway!]

Damn it.

I killed the simulated patient right from the start.

This time, an external view of the neck appeared before my eyes.
The thyroid cartilage, the cricoid cartilage, and the thin membrane between them.

[ORGhost3: Alright, intubation impossible, bagging impossible. The patient’s oxygen saturation is dropping into the 70s. You’re holding a number 11 blade. Where do you cut? Draw the exact incision site on the image in your head.]

Sweating cold, I located the cricothyroid membrane in my mind and drew a line over it.

This gallery really has a lot of features.
It even has a drawing tool.

I uploaded the image as is.

[ScalpelGod: That’s not it, you idiot! If you cut there, you’ll hit the thyroid gland! Are you trying to kill the patient with massive bleeding! Again!]

I drew the line again.

[ScalpelGod: Too high! That’s the thyroid cartilage! Are you planning to cut bone!]

And so, sitting on my officetel sofa,
I repeatedly tore open and sutured an imaginary neck dozens of times.

It was the most bizarre airway management training site in the world.

Comments (0)

Trending Novels

I Became the strongest hero of the previous generation

Archmage on the bed

I was mistaken for an undefeated general

Healers in the martial arts world are obsessed

Became a genius Muggle in the Archmage Gallery

I Wove Earth’s History Into A Fantasy