Chapter 54: Autumn (2)

[Seohyuk in NEJM? The Dean's coin must have really paid off.]

‘But I haven’t even written it yet?’

[True. But it’s Hyunjong.]

‘That’s… That’s true.’

There’s nothing as funny as calling someone a paper-writing machine, right?

Especially when he’s the real deal.

Some papers were even written in the shade of a golf course.

At that time, Shinhyuntae was losing at golf, so the genius time came too strongly, he recalled.

[Anyway, take the paper with you.]

‘It should be on the external hard drive.’

[Good that you organized it.]

‘Yeah. If it was deleted, it would have taken over 10 minutes to find it.’

Until March, or even April, he used to delete papers after reading them or just leave them on the computer.

But after Shinhyuntae told him to write papers, he started storing them all on the external hard drive.

Because having them in his head wouldn’t help him write the references for the papers he was about to write.

Knock knock.

Seohyuk immediately printed the paper and headed straight to the Dean’s office.

Normally, a resident wouldn’t even know where the Dean’s office was.

But Seohyuk, who was particularly favored by Hyunjong, knew the location so well that he was almost familiar with it.

“Oh, Dr. Seohyuk. Please come in. Would you like your Americano cold?”

“Yes, thank you always.”

Even the secretary knew Seohyuk’s drink preferences.

“Hey, take a seat.”

Following the secretary’s guidance, Seohyuk entered the inner room, where Hyunjong was waiting on the sofa.

He wasn’t just waiting.

He was typing on his laptop.

“Oh, that one? Give it to me.”

Hyunjong stopped typing and extended his hand towards Seohyuk.

It wasn’t for a handshake but for the paper.

“Yes, here it is.”

“Let’s see… Hmm. Ah… This guy wrote it, didn’t he?”

Hyunjong nodded, seemingly recognizing the name on the front page of the paper.

It wasn’t surprising.

Hyunjong had even been the president of an international society.

In today’s terms, he was the core member of the cardiology society.

Despite his eccentric personality, he didn’t have many close friends.

“Hmm… Good. It’s exactly the same. Great. He even thought of leaving autopsy records as illustrations.”

Hyunjong’s hand paused briefly as he flipped through the paper.

It stopped at an attachment with very detailed illustrations of the patient’s coronary arteries and heart.

The illustrations were so detailed that it was hard to believe they were from 1994.

Seohyuk remembered discussing the illustrations with Baruda.

In an era without digital painting or 3D graphics, the quality of the illustrations was exceptional.

“Well, this guy retired and became a medical illustrator, you know.”

That mystery was solved by Hyunjong’s muttering.

‘Ah, that makes sense.’

[Then it all makes sense.]

While they both nodded, Hyunjong continued flipping through the paper.

It didn’t take long.

After all, it was a case report.

There wasn’t much content.

At the time, it was probably considered a sudden mutation.

The possibility of anatomical variation wasn’t even mentioned.

“Good. It’s exactly the same. Moreover, it’s published in an international cardiology journal. This is enough as a reference. Come here. This is the rough introduction I wrote.”

“Uh… Yes.”

They had only parted 10 minutes ago, and he had already written the introduction.

Seohyuk wondered if this was even possible.

[While we were printing the paper, this person was writing it.]

‘I feel a bit of self-pity…’

[Don’t worry, Seohyuk. Even if you’re a little short, I’m here for you.]

‘Is this supposed to be comforting?’

[Yes.]

‘Yeah…’

Seohyuk muttered, “What more can I ask from an AI?” while looking at the laptop screen.

[Impressive.]

It was a moment of admiration, just as Baruda said.

Almost a full A4 page was written, all in English.

[Perfect grammar, appropriate word choice. This is the pinnacle of writing English papers.]

‘Ha…’

[Don’t worry, Seohyuk. I’m translating it all for you.]

‘That’s true… But. Hmm. The content is good too.’

[Yes. A master is a master for a reason.]

If it were the old Seohyuk, he would have spent a lot of time just translating the English sentences.

But now, with Baruda providing real-time translations, the time was significantly reduced.

It was almost on par with a native speaker.

“Professor, you clearly know a lot about coronary anatomy, so the introduction is perfect.”

So, Seohyuk could look back at Hyunjong after barely a minute of reading the screen.

For Hyunjong, this was quite unexpected.

Seohyuk had mentioned his weakness in English, though not directly but in his application.

“Already finished reading?”

“Yes.”

“Your reading is good? I thought you were weak in it.”

“I’m studying English. I need to go abroad for training.”

Upon hearing Seohyuk’s words, Baruda muttered something like, “Matching the Dean in deception.”

But Seohyuk’s face showed no change.

“Wow… Anyway.”

Hyunjong, surprised, tapped his laptop.

“I’ve done this much. The abstract… should be like this.”

It seemed he was typing, not just tapping.

‘Is he crazy?’

[He’s not deleting any sentences.]

It was a scene that perfectly fit the phrase “written in one stroke.”

It looked like he was typing without thinking, but the content on the screen was flawless.

This time, it wasn’t as detailed as what Seohyuk had seen earlier, just a summary.

It was the abstract.

“Add some flesh to this and write the results and discussion.”

“Ah… So, I’ll just submit this abstract?”

“Yes. The deadline for the autumn issue is probably soon, right? I’ll submit it. After all, our hospital is in charge this time.”

“Yes, Professor. When should I submit it by?”

Generally, if all experiments and data organization were complete, writing a paper took about a week.

This was exactly such a situation.

Although it felt a bit rushed to write a paper based on just one case.

Anyway, Seohyuk looked at Hyunjong, expecting a week.

“Hmm. Do you want to write it here?”

But Hyunjong was something beyond human.

[Are you crazy?]

Even Baruda, who aspired to be the world’s best AI, was surprised.

‘He must be joking.’

[Expression analysis… It doesn’t seem like a joke.]

‘Damn. Is it possible?’

[I’ll analyze the feasibility. Buy some time for 5 minutes.]

‘5 minutes. Got it.’

The original Baruda would have instantly provided an answer.

But now, it was using Seohyuk’s brain to replace the computational devices lost in the explosion.

As a result, the types of information it could process had greatly expanded, including the five senses, but the speed had significantly decreased.

Now, both Baruda and Seohyuk were used to this speed, so they didn’t complain much.

Anyway, Seohyuk cleared his throat and looked at Hyunjong.

To buy the 5 minutes Baruda had requested.

“Ah, Professor.”

“Hmm?”

“Because of the paper with Professor Kim Jinshil.”

“Suddenly?”

Since the request was so sudden, the topics he could think of were quite limited.

[Bringing up a paper while talking about writing a paper…]

Baruda’s complaints continued.

“Yes. I want to consult with you. From my perspective, the Dean is more….”

“Ah… Well, I do have more experience. And I’m smart, right?”

Fortunately, Hyunjong didn’t think it was strange.

He just boasted about himself, which disturbed Seohyuk’s mood.

Of course, Seohyuk genuinely believed Hyunjong was a genius, so he didn’t take as much damage as Shinhyuntae would have.

“Yes, Dean.”

“Okay. Speak up.”

“Well… Actually, it’s not about the heart.”

“It’s fine. I know the basics.”

If it were anyone else, they would have called it nonsense.

But Hyunjong was a real genius.

He knew the basics of almost all medical fields.

“Isn’t there a treatment for liver cancer using high-frequency ablation?”

“Ah… Yes. It’s quite common. The liver is a relatively solid organ.”

Originally, burning cancerous tumors was extremely risky.

If living cancer cells were to fly to other parts, it would cause artificial metastasis.

But for some cancers, including the liver, there were exceptions.

“Even so, there are occasional metastases, right?”

“There are some reports.”

“So, I want to create a tumor-like mass containing a radioactive isotope in a pig’s liver and see if the isotope spreads to other parts of the liver after high-frequency ablation.”

“Hmm… Go on.”

Hyunjong, as a born scholar, showed interest.

It was clear he was a strange person, considering he showed interest in a field unrelated to his own.

But he was also a great person, being one of the best in his field.

Seohyuk felt fortunate and continued.

“I want to confirm if the isotope spreads to other parts of the liver after ablation. I’m not sure if it’s better to do it on a living pig or a dead pig’s liver. If it’s a living pig, it will cost more….”

“Ah. Hold on.”

Hyunjong seemed excited by the interesting and meaningful paper.

Meanwhile, Baruda sent the analysis results.

[There’s quite a bit of data on coronary anatomy in textbooks and papers, so it can be written immediately.]

Fortunately, it was a green light.

“Better to do it on a living pig.”

“I agree… But both Professor Kim Jinshil and I have limited research funds….”

“Well, that’s true. It will cost quite a bit.”

Research pigs weren’t just any pigs; they needed to exclude variables.

“Hmm.”

After a brief moment of thought, Hyunjong nodded.

“Alright. I’ll use my research funds. I’ll be the second author. That works, right?”

“Ah… Really?”

“Really. It’s an interesting paper, isn’t it? It would be helpful.”

“Thank you… Thank you very much.”

“Yeah, that’s one thing. When will you write this one?”

Hyunjong’s face turned slightly more serious.

It was the face he showed when talking about his own field, which he had dedicated his life to, not just any other field.

Seohyuk, looking at Hyunjong’s face, answered confidently.

“Now.”