Taesu, who hadn't moved an inch until then, flinched.
He'd found it.
There was no time to rejoice.
They had to hurry.
That urgency made Taesu even colder.
With eyes that had grown that much heavier, he threw out a question.
"Do we have a prosthetic blood vessel?"
"Prosthetic... No. No, wait just a moment. I'll look for it."
From the ankle IV site, Nurse Lee Chorong's eager voice rang out.
But Taesu immediately stopped her.
"Don't move. If you aren't sure, it means we don't have one. We don't have time to look."
"Yes."
Nurse Lee Chorong answered, hiding her disappointment.
Taesu's gaze was already fixed on Brad Kim.
"Then Brad, one graft within five minutes, and another within ten. Possible, right?"
"Dr. Choi, aren't you pushing too hard? Harvest two grafts within fifteen minutes? No, how do you even do that?"
"Is it impossible?"
"We don't even have enough time to cut open the thigh. No matter how unreasonable you are, that's impossible."
Brad Kim firmly stated that it couldn't be done.
Even so, Taesu's expression didn't waver one bit.
"It's possible."
"How on earth?"
"Mesenteric veins."
"What?"
"I'm saying forget the thigh and take it from there first."
At the suggestion Taesu presented, Brad Kim's pupils quaked for an instant.
"Mesenteric veins instead of the thigh veins?"
"Brad."
Taesu pressed him mercilessly.
At that voice, Brad Kim came to his senses and looked at him with an absurd expression.
"It's possible. It is possible, but how did you come up with that..."
"What should I be hiding right now?"
"No. I mean no, but this is an order that sounds plausible even though there's no basis or logic to it?"
"Because I don't know anything."
In short, it meant he was pushing forward recklessly.
On the surface, it sounded right.
But it was thoroughly based on Caprene knowledge.
To that extent, he was only looking ahead.
Only moving forward.
Behind him was a cliff.
A thousand-zhang, no, a ten-thousand-zhang cliff.
If they delayed?
A desperate struggle.
Shanmeheum would certainly die.
There was only one chance, and Taesu's urgency to somehow create that chance didn't hesitate even at reckless orders.
Brad Kim eventually gave up on logic.
There was far too little time to argue about that now.
"Got it. I'll do it that way."
At his answer, Taesu immediately gave the next orders.
"Mr. Yoon, please help Brad."
"Got it."
Yoon Juseong offered no further objections.
Taesu urged Brad on.
"We have no time."
"I know too. Dr. Yoon, let's hurry."
"Understood."
*Shhlck.*
Brad Kim and Yoon Juseong's hands dove back into the abdomen.
Taesu's role now was to continue direct cardiac compression. But without stopping there, he sought out Kim Hyeokgwon.
"Mixter."
"Here."
*Clack.*
The surgical instrument fell heavily into his hand.
Kim Hyeokgwon's heart was clearly contained within it.
Taesu was no different.
Then Jeong Minsu urgently sought out Taesu.
"Why haven't you said anything to me?"
"Why are you standing around?"
"What?"
"You need to prepare for CABG."
When Taesu asked in puzzlement, Jeong Minsu looked at him with an absurd gaze.
"Is that just obvious?"
"It's become obvious now."
Taesu said something outlandish.
But he was serious.
*Swish.*
He removed the right hand that had been compressing the heart.
The uncontrolled heart thrashed violently.
*Thud-thud-thud.*
Seeing how violent that movement was, Jo Wuncheol shouted.
"On the verge of arrhythmia. Defibrillator!"
"We don't have one."
"What?"
"I said we don't have a defibrillator!"
Nurse Hwang Jisu cried out in a desperate voice.
No defibrillator at this very moment?
It was the same as saying there was no way to eliminate the heart's aberrant signals.
Did they have to simply watch the moment arrhythmia arrived?
His resolved composure began to waver again.
The same was true on this side.
Jeong Minsu's eyes went wide.
"What, what are we supposed to do now?"
But Taesu, facing him, was strangely calm.
"What do you mean what?"
*Thud.*
Taesu struck the heart directly.
It was precisely that 'shock therapy' that had greatly surprised Dr. Lee Jakson inwardly as well.
That method was certainly too radical.
"Uh."
"Ugh."
Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon, seeing it for the second time, flinched too.
But what of the gazes witnessing it for the first time?
"Th-that maniac..."
"Dr. Choi, are you in your right mind?"
"A-aaack."
Following Brad Kim, Yoon Juseong shouted angrily.
Nurse Chu Gangeik even screamed at the top of his lungs to express his disbelief.
He'd said he would save the patient.
Yet the very person who said those words was killing the patient.
At Taesu's actions that had blasted common sense straight to Andromeda, no one could even think of moving their hands.
Despite their reactions, Taesu observed only the heart's movement.
*Thump-thump-thump-thump.*
Not yet?
I'll make it submit no matter how many times it takes.
The back of Taesu's hand struck the heart again.
It was an action backed by calculated speed and force based thoroughly on Caprene's clinical cases.
But that was a fact only Taesu knew.
To everyone else's eyes, it was simply 'madness.'
*Thud.*
"Uwaah!"
"Kyaa!"
Everyone was in an uproar.
Then, as if his ears were ringing, Kim Hyeokgwon eventually shouted.
"Quiet, everyone."
"..."
In an instant, the operating room fell silent.
But it had truly fallen silent.
Even the ECG sound that had been dizzying their ears disappeared.
To be precise, the sound had changed.
*Beep-beep. Beep-beep.*
It was fast compared to normal, but considerably different from the sound of arrhythmia.
Jo Wuncheol conveyed that in words.
"F-f-for now... What. Is this even possible?"
"Really?"
*Swish.*
Everyone looked at Taesu with absurd expressions.
Meanwhile, Taesu's eyes remained fixed on the affected area as they had been until now.
He had temporarily blocked the arrhythmia.
Just once.
A second time would be difficult.
No, it was impossible.
Tricky, specific conditions couldn't always be met.
'*Huuu.*'
He secretly let out a sigh inwardly.
Nevertheless, not a single expression changed on the outside.
If he wavered, everyone would panic.
Taesu, who had instinctively grasped the flow, showed nothing but cold rationality.
"Brad, your hands have stopped."
"Y-yeah."
"Mr. Yoon too."
"I-I'm fine... th-that's probably why."
When too surprised, one doesn't even get angry.
Yoon Juseong's expression was exactly that right now.
Brad Kim and Yoon Juseong quickly collected themselves and continued harvesting the grafts.
Taesu kept watching the heart.
One crisis had been overcome.
Even a calculated touch was a success bordering on coincidence.
Since they couldn't hope for coincidence twice, emergency surgery had to continue.
At that moment, Taesu's eyes flashed.
Did it absolutely have to be surgery?
'*Isn't there an emergency procedure?*'
It didn't matter if there wasn't.
He just had to make one.
Taesu quickly turned toward the medical cart.
When Taesu's strange behavior was visible again, the corners of Jeong Minsu's eyes drooped.
"What are you doing now?"
"One minute."
"What the... No, Nurse Chu, please help me."
Jeong Minsu immediately sought out Nurse Chu Gangeik.
Meanwhile, his hands were already moving.
Hands trying to properly secure the affected area.
"Hm. Understood. Then I'll..."
*Clack-clack.*
Nurse Chu Gangeik caught the intention and moved with him.
Another hand approached from the opposite side.
It was Kim Hyeokgwon's hand.
"Let me join too."
"What about Dr. Choi?"
"If you worry about him one by one, your hair will fall out."
"Then we just have to do it."
Nurse Chu Gangeik also seemed to find the highly unorthodox Taesu too difficult to predict.
Thus, with Jeong Minsu at the center, Kim Hyeokgwon and Nurse Chu Gangeik assisted.
It was then.
*Snip, snap.*
A strange sound rang out in the operating room where everyone was busy with their tasks.
It came from Taesu, his back turned to the medical cart.
It was the moment that sound subsided.
*Swish.*
Taesu immediately turned back toward the operating table.
And showing what was in his hand, he spoke.
"It's done."
"What is that... A drainage tube?"
Kim Hyeokgwon, standing closer, spoke in more detail.
"It has needles attached at both ends, and it's fixed with tape."
That was all he said.
He didn't add any corresponding surgical terminology.
Which meant it wasn't an existing surgical instrument.
That much was obvious from its hastily assembled appearance.
One couldn't help but be suspicious of its crude exterior.
But Taesu didn't even spare time for explanation.
"Minsu, have you confirmed the thrombus location?"
"This is the center. From here to here."
"Support it with both hands from position one. Don't let it shake."
"...Don't tell me?"
It was the tone of someone catching on.
But Taesu didn't have the luxury to praise that.
The heart's movement, briefly calmed, was becoming irregular again.
*Beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep.*
The ECG sound was heard immediately.
"Hurry, whatever it is."
Jo Wuncheol's urgent urging grated sharply on their ears.
Taesu urged Jeong Minsu with the same sentiment.
"Hurry."
"Got it. I said I got it. ...DeBakey and retractor."
Jeong Minsu suddenly requested energetically.
Nurse Chu Gangeik reflexively handed them over without understanding.
"Here for now."
*Clack.*
Jeong Minsu roughly took them and put strength into his eyes as he moved the instruments. Having immediately secured the position, he urged Taesu in turn.
"Come on, Taesu, hurry."
"Good. Here I go."
*Swish.*
Taesu stabbed one needle end along the blocked coronary artery. Then the blood in the coronary artery filled the transparent drainage tube red.
*Sssshh.*
Soon all the air inside the drainage tube escaped and the blood pooled.
Only then did Taesu move the other needle.
Passing the coronary artery blocked by the thrombus, he stabbed it into an intact vessel.
*Sssshh.*
"It's done."
A faint smile rose on Taesu's face.
It was at that very same moment.
*Beep-beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep.*
The urgent ECG sound changed again to a rapid but steady rhythm.
Jo Wuncheol looked this way and asked urgently.
"What, what did you do?"
"It worked, right?"
"For now—no, it worked a lot. It worked considerably. No, I mean..."
*Swish.*
So curious, Jo Wuncheol approached the operating table.
And the moment he took in the changed appearance of the heart with his eyes, he reflexively opened his mouth.
"This is... a bridge?"
"It's an emergency procedure applying CABG."
"Th-that's right. Then it's possible."
Jo Wuncheol's eyes went wide as he understood the principle.