"Boss, may I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"There's something I'm good at and have been doing well. But now, I can't seem to do it well anymore. In this case... would continuing to do it be considered greed?"

"That's a difficult question."

Seo-jun let out a quiet sigh. In response, Park Min-Cheol gulped down his beer and gave a bitter laugh.

"Ah... I must have asked something unnecessary. I've gotten old enough to ask the boss these things."

"If it's a matter of life, anyone would want to grab someone and ask about it. Even an omniscient god."

"Thank you for saying that."

"No need to thank me."

"It might be rude of me to ask, but what is it that you're good at, Boss?"

Seo-jun smiled faintly.

"That's interesting. I actually gave a similar answer yesterday."

"Really? Yesterday, my memory blacked out... hahaha."

"In the past, I was good at fighting."

"Fighting... like schoolyard brawls?"

Seo-jun shrugged as he recalled the brutal battles of the demon realm.

"Something like that."

"Then what do you think you're best at now?"

"I think I'm good at eating and listening."

"That's pretty simple."

Park Min-Cheol chuckled but quickly waved his hands in panic as if realizing his mistake.

"Ah! Please don't misunderstand. I absolutely didn't mean to belittle you, Boss, absolutely not!"

Seo-jun laughed softly.

A silence settled between the kitchen and the table partition.

Seo-jun quietly handled the ingredients, and Park Min-Cheol quietly drank his alcohol.

How much time passed like that?

Seo-jun finally spoke up.

"About what you mentioned earlier."

"Yes?"

"About whether continuing to do something you can no longer do well would be considered greed."

"Ah, yes."

"How was it today?"

"Today... strangely, I was able to do it well again. Even much better than before."

"Then isn't it okay to take your time thinking about it?"

"I'd like to, but I don't have that luxury. It's a matter of life and death."

Seeing Min-Cheol's bitter smile, Seo-jun thought for a moment, then took off his apron and sat across from him.

"You probably won't remember today either."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, just like yesterday, your memory will likely black out again today."

"Haha... what a joke. I only drank one beer today. Yesterday, I did black out from drinking too much, but that was actually the first time in my life I ever blacked out. How could I black out from just one beer?"

"You will black out. But unlike yesterday, instead of losing your memory, you’ll gain certainty."

"What do you mean...?"

"I'm telling you to keep doing what you're good at. Because you've only reached 4,321 people."

"4,321 people? I have no idea what you're talking about..."

Even though Min-Cheol looked bewildered, Seo-jun just smiled warmly.

"Suction! Suction!"

"Widen it more there! I can't see!"

"Hold it, hold it, and endure for a moment!"

Slap! Slap!

As Park Min-Cheol babbled in his sleep, his wife looked down at him in disbelief and smacked his back. With a loud slap, Park Min-Cheol jolted awake.

"Arrest!"

Slap!

"Arrest, my foot. Arrest."

"Huh? What...?"

"Were you performing surgery even in your dreams, Professor Park?"

Only then did Park Min-Cheol look around.

It wasn’t an operating room. It was home.

"It was a dream."

Park Min-Cheol let out a sigh of relief. In the dream, a twelve-year-old patient had gone into cardiac arrest.

It had already happened twice, and he had been judging that resuscitation might not be possible.
But it was just a dream — what a relief.

"But why am I at home? I was definitely drinking..."

"Good grief... how much did you drink to black out again?"

"Huh?"

"You don’t remember yesterday? You crawled home on all fours."

"...I did?"

"Of course. You think I crawled home on all fours?"

"That's weird... I only drank one beer yesterday."

"One beer? More like a crate of soju."

Min-Cheol scratched his nose and tilted his head. It was baffling.

He clearly remembered only drinking one beer.
Yet he blacked out.

'I should probably get a checkup.'

Thinking that, Min-Cheol got out of bed.

"Anyway, you haven't forgotten about today, right?"

"Going to my sister-in-law’s place?"

"Surprisingly, you remembered."

"Ever since marrying you, visiting your sister’s house has been one of my joys.
Well, her cooking skills help too."

"So, I'm not much, huh?"

"No, you're great too. It's just... you can't make marinated crab as well as she can."

His wife shrugged as if admitting it.

"Hurry up and wash up and get ready. We said we'd be there by ten, and we're going to be late."

Shortly after, Min-Cheol and his wife left the house.

Today, being a rare day off, they decided to visit his sister-in-law’s house.

Of course, the main reason was to pick up the side dishes she had told them to come for.

Today, instead of taking a taxi, they drove their own car.
Since the car hadn’t been used for a while, dust had piled up thickly.

Vroom!

At least the battery wasn’t dead — what a relief.

After setting out, they were about halfway to the sister-in-law’s house when it happened.

The phone rang. Without checking who it was, Min-Cheol pressed the call button on the steering wheel.

"Hello?"

- Professor, this is Choi Hyun-sik, R3 (third-year resident) from Emergency Medicine. We had to call because there’s a patient needing emergency surgery.

"I'm off today..."

- Sorry, but it’s a Gate accident. There are no available doctors to cover the OR (operating room).

Gate accidents usually involved a dozen or more patients rushing in all at once. Naturally, a dozen or more doctors had to be deployed, so it was common to run short on hands.

"What’s the patient’s condition?"

- Suspected diaphragm tear and spleen injury...

The more he heard about the patient’s condition, the more Min-Cheol’s expression hardened. Eventually, the call ended.

“What should I do?”

His wife asked. In fact, Min-Cheol hadn’t said he was going. He had only said he would contact him again in a minute.

“I should go. I should, but…”

Min-Cheol stared at his hands on the steering wheel. Would the same luck follow him as yesterday? Would there be no symptoms like yesterday?

“This isn’t like you. Why are you hesitating?”

“Huh?”

“You used to rush out, leaving everything behind if there was an emergency. But now you’re strangely hesitating.”

“...I’m worried.”

“Worried?”

“Worried if I can do the surgery well.”

“Of course you can do it well. What are you talking about?”

Min-Cheol gave a bitter smile at his wife’s calm words. She then firmly grasped his hand.

“I know what kind of state you’re in.”

“...!”

“Why are you so surprised?”

“H-how did you know?”

“Oh my. How easy do you think I am? Do you think I’d believe you if you said it was a multivitamin?”

“...”

“There’s no one else who can perform the surgery. It’s up to you. You can save them.”

“Do you really think I can?”

“Of course.”

With those words, his wife got out of the car.

“I will just take a taxi home, so don’t worry about me. Do the surgery well, okay?”

“Thank you.”

Min-Cheol turned the car around as soon as the door closed.

Shortly after, they arrived at the hospital.

The surgery preparations were already completed. The anesthesiologist had already put the patient under anesthesia in time.

Min-Cheol looked down at the patient in a daze.

It felt strange. Something was off.

He had been anxious on the way to the hospital. He had worried that the patient might have a seizure during the surgery.

But when he arrived at the operating room, everything felt different. Instead of anxiety, he felt certainty. Certainty that there would be no seizure and certainty that he could save this patient.

With confidence, Min-Cheol removed the loop (magnifying glasses) from his head.

“Doctor?”

“I’m fine.”

“But how can you do it without the loop…”

“I’m really fine.”

Min-Cheol’s face looked more at ease than ever before.

‘Just like yesterday.’

The pores on the patient’s skin, even the impurities stuck between them, were clearly visible.

Just like yesterday, it felt like the patient’s skin, organs, and nervous tissue were all 3D, clearly visible in a dimensional way.

“Scalpel…”

Just as he was about to ask for the scalpel, Min-Cheol suddenly felt a memory surface.

- 5,678 people.

- At least for these people, you must be a good doctor.

- Then could you tell me the lottery numbers for this round, with that ability?

- What is it that you need?

- 4,322 people.

- You probably won’t remember today, will you?

You probably won’t remember today.

With that final word, Min-Cheol returned to reality.

The memory wasn’t vivid. It felt like several photos had been cut out of a panorama, drifting in and out of his mind.

He wasn’t even sure if it had been a dream or something real. The only thing he was sure of was:

‘4,320 people.’

That was the number of patients he had to save from now on. That much was certain.

The surgery was successful. No… it was so successful that the medical staff participating in the surgery felt awe at his miraculous skills.

“Did you see earlier?”

“Of course, how could he perform the incision so cleanly?”

“I knew Professor Park’s skills, but I didn’t know it was to this extent. Don’t you agree, head nurse?”

The head nurse nodded reluctantly. She had scrubbed in several times for surgeries with Professor Park before.

She was surprised back then, but today was especially shocking. It felt like his skills had improved dramatically since then.

‘And without the loop…’

It was hard to believe, but it was true.

Performing the surgery while avoiding the delicate blood vessels without the loop was almost divine.

Like the head nurse, the quick-witted assistant who had joined in a hurry, Choi Hyun-sik, was also impressed.

Strictly speaking, he wasn’t just impressed, he was regretful.

‘I should have gone into trauma surgery.’

If he had, wouldn’t he have had more opportunities to join Professor Park’s surgical team?

He would have learned so much from it.

And the fact that the medical staff was discussing him while he was unaware was something Min-Cheol couldn’t even imagine. He was in the waiting room, exchanging greetings with the patient’s family.

“Thank you! Doctor, thank you so much!”

“It was nothing. The patient will wake up soon. Don’t worry too much.”

“Yes! Thank you so much! Hehehehe!”

Min-Cheol handed a handkerchief to the family and returned to the professor’s office.

Like all surgeries, trauma surgery left him exhausted after the operation.

But strangely, he felt as lively as if he had returned to his twenties.

Min-Cheol’s eyes suddenly fell on his phone, which he had left on the desk. There were two missed calls.

It was from his wife.

He called back, and as soon as the phone rang, his wife picked up immediately.

“You called?”

- Yes. I wanted to know if the surgery went well.

“Of course it went well.”

- I’m glad to hear that.

“Is that why you called?”

- No, well…

“Are you still at your sister’s house?”

- Yeah. She asked me to stay for dinner.

“Then tell her to wait a little. I’ll be there soon.”

- Can you do that?

“Of course.”

- Okay. Then I won’t eat until you get here, so hurry up.

“Okay.”

Min-Cheol smiled and hung up. Just as he was about to grab his coat and leave the office,

“Hmm.”

Min-Cheol muttered and walked back to the desk. He rummaged through the drawer.

Resignation Letter

He wasn’t going to submit it anyway, so there was no need to keep it. Without hesitation, Min-Cheol threw the resignation letter into the trash can.