Chapter 58

Tatatatata.

Regardless of the internet uproar or whatever else was happening, the helicopter was urgently flying westward over the sea.

The only fortunate thing was that, unlike typical winter weather, the wind wasn’t blowing too hard.

Thanks to that, even though the helicopter was flying at quite a high speed, the vibrations weren’t too severe.

“Uuugh.”

Of course, that was only true for someone who was used to it.

Jaewon, looking like he was about to die, had his face pressed up against the door.

Kang-hyuk shook his head as he watched Jaewon.

“You’re gonna get your head chopped off if you keep that up, punk.”

“Uuegh.”

“I mean, this barely counts as turbulence. What’s he on about?”

“Wh-what do you mean, barely? I’m seriously dying here…”

Jaewon pointed to the floor that was shaking violently.

The grains of sand that had blown in during a brief landing earlier were bouncing around wildly.

It was a sign that the vibrations were quite intense.

“You’re just a bumpkin. Who gets motion sickness on a helicopter?”

“Y-you’re the weird one, Professor… Saying you’re used to this…”

Motion sickness was commonly known to occur when the brain’s memory of internal organ positions didn’t match the actual position.

That’s why it often occurred during heavy vibrations or intense visual distortion.

To overcome it, the brain had to become accustomed to the vibrations—meaning one simply had to ride often.

In other words, the fact that Kang-hyuk showed no signs of motion sickness meant he must have ridden helicopters a ridiculous number of times.

“I’ve been fine since the start.”

But Kang-hyuk, annoyingly enough, just said that, and Jaewon could only gag toward the door instead of responding.

“Uuegh.”

“Agh, that idiot.”

As the helicopter carrying the two flew westward, some people figured out that they were heading to Baengnyeong Island.

That was none other than TV Goryeo.

By mobilizing all their contacts, they discovered that the helicopter belonged to the Central Fire Service rescue team.

“Yes, breaking news. Professor Baek Kang-hyuk of Hanguk University Hospital’s Trauma Surgery Department is currently aboard a helicopter heading for Baengnyeong Island. The reason for this flight is still under investigation.”

Reporter Park Sang-eun, wondering to herself why she had to report on something like this, spoke clearly toward the camera.

The number of live viewers had dropped to barely half of what it was initially—just around 5,000.

Still, the response wasn’t bad.

<Baengnyeong Island?>

<Did something get fired off or what?>

<Are you nuts? You think they’d fire artillery in this situation?>

The producer and assistant director were very satisfied with the reactions.

But they weren’t content to stop there.

“Did you find out who requested the rescue from Central Fire Services?”

At the producer’s question, the assistant director whispered back,

“Um… It seems the request came through the military emergency medical system.”

“The military? That’s a thing?”

“Yes. I just found out myself, but apparently the system’s been in place for a while.”

Contrary to expectations, the military actually had fewer trauma patients than civilian society.

That was because traffic accidents—the biggest cause of trauma—were significantly lower in the military.

However, when injuries did occur, the severity was far greater than among civilians.

The reason was that military bases were often located in remote areas.

So the military operated a system called the emergency medical system.

It was a system that helped with remote consultations and transport when patients emerged from isolated locations.

“So the request really came from Baengnyeong Island?”

“Yes. At first, it went to the Armed Forces Capital Hospital, but they determined the trauma was beyond their capabilities and relayed the request to major university hospitals like Hanguk University Hospital.”

“And the one that replied saying treatment was possible was Hanguk University Hospital?”

“Yes.”

It wasn’t unusual for trauma patients to be treated at university hospitals instead of directly at military hospitals.

Unlike the old days, military medical facilities and personnel were now considered inferior to civilian ones.

For cases that were too difficult to handle, it was common to perform emergency treatment and surgery at university hospitals, then transfer the patient to a military hospital during the recovery phase.

But the idea of a doctor flying out on a helicopter was unheard of.

“Still, the medical staff riding the helicopter themselves? Is that a normal thing?”

“I’m not sure. I do have a surgeon friend—I’ll ask them.”

“Good, get on it quickly. Before the public loses interest.”

“Yes.”

At the producer’s urging, the assistant director nodded while checking the still-chaotic live chat and various internet communities.

While the two were desperately trying to blow the situation up, Hanguk University Hospital was scrambling to cover it up.

“Give more budget to that lunatic? Do you know what he did today?”

“What? No… What’s going on?”

Professor Han Yoo-rim tilted his head as he watched Professor Hong Jae-hoon shout like a madman.

He didn’t particularly like Baek Kang-hyuk as a person either.

Although Kang-hyuk had saved his daughter’s life.

Aside from that, the man’s personality was garbage.

He always butted heads with superiors.

Still, it was hard to imagine that even Kang-hyuk could’ve done something terrible in such a short time.

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong? Look at this!”

Professor Hong Jae-hoon, in a frenzy, spun the monitor on his desk roughly.

Only then did Professor Han Yoo-rim get a look at the browser window on the monitor.

It was the nation’s biggest portal—Green Window.

Aside from that, Han Yoo-rim couldn’t glean much.

At his age, he didn’t pay much attention to trending search terms anymore.

Honestly, even Professor Hong Jae-hoon didn’t know exactly where the trending rankings showed up.

“What am I looking at…?”

“Are you blind?”

Despite not knowing himself earlier, Professor Hong jabbed furiously at one corner of the screen.

“Ah… this. Huh?”

Professor Han Yoo-rim realized that Baek Kang-hyuk’s name was appearing multiple times in the rising search rankings.

“What… what is this?”

“I don’t know either! That bastard must’ve caused some kind of scene.”

“Baek Kang-hyuk foul language, Baek Kang-hyuk shut up, Baek Kang-hyuk f…?”

“Looks like he swore on some broadcast. Take a look at this.”

Professor Hong Jae-hoon showed a KakaoTalk message sent by someone from the PR team.

It was a YouTube video link—someone had already clipped the part where Kang-hyuk yelled “shut up” and uploaded it.

Some quick-handed person was already milking it for views.

“What… Why would he… do something like this…”

“How should I know? Do crazy people need a reason to do crazy things? He needs to be fired.”

“Th-that’s…”

Han Yoo-rim had come to request a budget reallocation but hadn’t even been able to bring it up.

No, he technically had brought it up but couldn’t follow through at all.

How could he, when the person he needed to persuade was erupting like a lunatic?

Bwoong.

Just then, another link came through Professor Hong Jae-hoon’s messages.

It was also from the PR team.

– Professor, TV Goryeo is currently running a live special on Professor Baek Kang-hyuk.

As soon as he read that, Professor Hong Jae-hoon burst into a roar.

“Those damn bastards! Do they think we pour money into them every year just for them to latch on like hyenas and make a damn scene?!”

“W-why, sir. Please, you have high blood pressure… Don’t get so worked up…”

“You think I can stay calm? TV Goryeo is live right now, digging into Baek Kang-hyuk’s tracks!”

He pointed furiously at the screen, which was still buffering.

The video hadn’t started yet, but the live chat from current viewers was continuously scrolling.

<Oh, isn’t he a real doctor?>

<Now that I think about it, he probably didn’t just swear for no reason.>

<Wait… did he actually take the chopper to save a patient?>

The video hadn’t loaded yet, so nothing was certain.

But the reaction was better than expected.

No, it was really good.

“Sir.”

“What now. I’m going to see the hospital director. Seriously, where the hell did we dig this guy up from?”

“Just a second. Please look at this.”

“Look at what? You know this stuff just gets my blood boiling!”

“No, I mean—the reaction is really good.”

“What reaction…? Huh?”

Only then did Professor Hong Jae-hoon notice the endless stream of positive comments.

As Han Yoo-rim had said, the reaction was quite favorable.

Almost all the comments were praising him.

“What the…”

“Let’s just wait and see for a bit. It might be better to pull this up on a PC.”

“The URL… Eh, you do it. I swear, my eyes are starting to go with age.”

“Understood.”

Han Yoo-rim entered the link into the browser on the PC.

Perhaps because the PC handled it better than the phone, the video loaded shortly after.

Tatatatata.

Reporter Park Sang-eun was unexpectedly on board a helicopter.

“Yes, I’m currently en route to Baek Kang-hyuk’s suspected destination—Baengnyeong Island. According to reports, several soldiers stationed at the Marine Corps Command on Baengnyeong Island were injured during training, and Professor Baek is on his way to treat them!”

Even as she spoke, Park Sang-eun couldn’t hide the surreal feeling.

She had only been with TV Goryeo for not even two months—a rookie, through and through.

She was deliberately trying to look more composed than she was, putting effort into her expression and posture.

But every time she stood in front of the camera, nerves took over—she was still a newbie.

And yet, here she was, with the camera focused solely on her for dozens of minutes now, broadcasting live.

She had even been provided a chopper for coverage.

That was a luxury no rookie reporter could usually hope for.

By this point, she even found herself rooting for the same Baek Kang-hyuk who had cursed at her earlier.

‘Please… Please let him actually be a real doctor…’

What if, after all this, it turned out he had nothing to do with the patient?

The attention would have nowhere to go and might ultimately turn into backlash against TV Goryeo and Reporter Park Sang-eun herself.

Just then, a desperate voice came from the pilot’s seat.

“Gusts ahead! We’re turning!”

“What?”

“Reporter Park, the weather’s too rough! We can’t go any farther!”

“No! We have to follow Professor Baek!”

“Look! Even he can’t break through that wind. He’s probably landed somewhere and is continuing by boat!”

“N-no way…”

As the pilot said, Kang-hyuk’s helicopter was also facing turbulent winds.

The pilot of Kang-hyuk’s chopper was saying the same thing as the one from TV Goryeo.

“We need to land and travel by boat! It’s too dangerous!”

But Kang-hyuk’s response was completely different from Reporter Park’s.

“If we go by boat, it’ll take another three to four hours. The patient won’t make it.”

“If we keep flying like this, we might not make it!”

“No, we’ll make it.”

“W-what? Don’t tell me—you’re thinking of flying it yourself again! No! No way!”