The Surgeon’s Studio

There was an option to purchase intensive training time for surgery in the Shop but the price… was too expensive—3600 experience points for one hour.

 He could buy a set of surgical equipment with the experience points for four hours of intensive training.

 Zheng Ren’s heart shattered instantly after calculating how much a set of surgical equipment was worth. Upon further calculation, he realized one second was basically equal to one experience point. Damn, the System sure knew how to settle its accounts.

 After going through his heartbreak, Zheng Ren soon noticed a new change in the Shop—the addition of interventional radiology to the original hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery.

 Zheng Ren was unfamiliar with interventional radiology.

 He only had a superficial understanding of it, such as percutaneous coronary intervention in coronary heart disease and the insertion of a stent to relieve jaundice in biliary obstruction.

 Apart from those, Zheng Ren had no clue what it was.

 Interventional radiology had been introduced in Sea City General Hospital once. There was no specific department for it, as only a few radiologists in the radiology department were involved in its training.

 After treating a few cases of ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma with intraperitoneal hemorrhaging, as well as pelvic fracture with bladder rupture or hemorrhaging, interventional treatment for uterine fibroids had been introduced as well.

 However, after a forty-five-year-old radiologist was diagnosed with hematologic malignancy, they gave up on treatment with surgical methods involving radiation exposure such as X-rays.

 He was merely forty-five years old, after all, which was arguably the best age for a surgeon but had unfortunately been diagnosed with hematologic malignancy due to excessive radiation exposure. Everyone who listened to this story would be afraid of this kind of surgical technique.

 What was the point in learning it anyway? Zheng Ren only wanted to put more effort into mastering cholecystectomy.

 Rome was not built in a day and the same applied to surgery as well. After 20.83 days, Zheng Ren had merely become proficient in open cholecystectomy and laparoscopic cholecystectomy for simple acute cholecystitis.

 Proficient, but far from perfection, like how he was for appendectomies.

 Well, that was useless. Zheng Ren had no intention of investing any of his precious training time in interventional radiology.

 He felt some regret even though his current standard had reached the level of a deputy chief surgeon in cholecystectomy.

 However, he was afraid that the System may suffer a system meltdown again and demand he perform ten perfect cholecystectomies…

 When that happened… F*ck…

 After careful consideration for some time, Zheng Ren finally gave up the opportunity to purchase training time for interventional radiology.

 Every penny had to be broken in half before spending; that was the mindset he had after prolonged poverty. His heart would shatter in a moment if he was asked to use ten thousand experience points to learn non-essential interventional radiology.

 More importantly, he did not have enough “money” to learn it even if he wanted to.

 That was all for now. Zheng Ren was ready to leave but before that, he wanted to know his current general surgery standard.

 

There was a huge increase from 1067 to 1360 skill points in his general surgery skill tree, presumably due to an improvement in proficiency after his intensive training in the System, just like what he did with appendectomy last time.

 Zheng Ren was glad he had taken a step further to achieve the Expert rank as he still yearned for the superb surgical manipulation he had performed under prime experience. How he wished he could reach the peak one day and command a view of the medical world.

 Looking at the skill tree carefully, Zheng Ren noticed a tiny branch spreading out of the skill tree.

 The branch originated from the general surgery skill tree and connected with various other skill trees—internal medicine, vascular surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, neurosurgery, and many more—like a deep-seated tree root.

 Huh? What was going on?

 Zheng Ren was momentarily stunned and quickly took a closer look.

 It turned out to be a branch of hepatobiliary interventional radiology… Zheng Ren stomped his foot, annoyed. Interventional radiology again!

 However, it actually made sense when he thought about it. After mastering hepatobiliary interventional radiology, he could spend some time learning anatomical structure from other subspecialties and start performing surgery afterward.

 The principle was the same.

 However, Zheng Ren remained uninterested. His goal was limited. Cholecystectomy was his only priority for the time being.

 Before Zheng Ren could summon himself back to reality, the emotionless System appeared unexpectedly, which gave him a shock.

 [Free customized lead apron with purchase of intensive training for interventional radiology.]

 Er… Was this a buy one, get one free promotion or a clearance sale?

 There was no such thing as a free lunch. Zheng Ren dropped the idea of getting free items from his mind almost instantaneously, rolled his eyes at the Great Shining System Deity and left the System.

 …

 Zheng Ren was not tired at all after leaving the System.

 Despite thirty hours of emergency surgery in Sea City General Hospital and twenty days of intensive training in the System, Zheng Ren actually felt energetic and his body brimmed with vitality.

 He could almost confirm his speculation that the System possessed an ability to replenish his health bar and mana pool when the host was in the mysterious world.

 Should he go to work or continue his rest at home? In the end, he had decided to take a shower first before departing for the hospital.

 He had not seen the postoperative patients in the general surgery department yet. As a surgeon, he would not be able to eat if he did not personally check his patients after surgery.

 “Knock-knock-knock!” The knocking was soft as if the visitor was checking if Zheng Ren was asleep.

 That must be Little Zhao, so Zheng Ren stood up and answered the door.

 “Bro, you haven’t slept yet?” asked Little Zhao charmingly.

 They had been renting this house together for more than half a year. Before he rented the house, Zheng Ren had some wild thoughts about living under the same roof with a beautiful woman, a common plot in romance novels.

 

However, whenever the landlord brought ladies over to check the house, they would always refuse and escape faster than rabbits upon seeing Zheng Ren, which made him wonder if all pretty women were similarly reserved or if he was simply too plain-looking.

 In the end, Little Zhao had become Zheng Ren’s housemate.

 Little Zhao was a good man who would share his food with Zheng Ren whenever he could not finish them in the live broadcast. From that, Zheng Ren had been able to save up some money.

 “What’s the matter?” asked Zheng Ren.

 “Are you tired?” There was a gleam in Little Zhao’s eyes, suggesting that he indeed had something on his mind.

 “Just tell me what you’re thinking of. Look at you, it’s obvious you’re up to something,” Zheng Ren teased with a grin.

 “I’ll come in and tell you.” Little Zhao squeezed past him without waiting for an invitation and sat on the bed, his expression becoming troubled. “Bro, the popularity of the food and drink broadcast channel has been decreasing recently, so I want to start a new livestream.”

 “Go ahead, but I don’t have money for the investment.”

 “I don’t need your investment.” Little Zheng quickly dismissed Zheng Ren’s worry. “There was a livestream video yesterday that went popular instantly.”

 “Okay?”

 “An online streamer went to the hospital for medication and happened to see your consultation, so he broadcasted it live and the result was very good,” Little Zhao explained his intention.

 There was no point in hiding secrets since they were close to each other.

 “It’s not allowed in the hospital.”

 “I don’t need permission. You can’t stop me from consulting a doctor, right? I’ll just sit outside the emergency department every day and start a livestream if there is any interesting gossip, or I can just read online novels to pass the time if nothing happens.”

 It seemed like Little Zhao had planned it thoroughly, so there was nothing Zheng Ren could say about it.

 “Go ahead then, but I can’t give you the green light from the hospital’s perspective. You’re on your own out there.”

 “I just want to know if there is enough interesting gossip in the hospital. If I don’t start my livestream in the next two days, I’m going to starve to death.” Little Zhao was getting more troubled and disheartened. It was what usually happened to those born at the bottom of the social hierarchy. He had a long, miserable past.

 “Bro, you also know that I’ve got a girlfriend but I don’t even have enough cash to visit her. I have a really tough life.”

 “Stop. I don’t even have a girlfriend and have to rent a house together with you. Don’t you think you have it better than I do?” Zheng Ren quickly interrupted Little Zhao so that the wounds Xie Yiren had unintentionally inflicted on his heart yesterday would not burst open.

 1“This sort of situation is common in the hospital and you’ll meet all kinds of people, especially in the emergency department. If you want to go there for your livestream, let me teach you a trick.” He smiled and added, “You’ve to establish a good relationship with the security guards.”

 Under normal circumstances, the doctors and nurses would not bother with trivial matters such as live broadcasts in the hospital.

 What a joke. How would they have time for such a matter when the emergency department had to handle around one hundred to two hundred patients on busy nights? In any case, a livestream would not affect the patient’s safety.

 2The excited Little Zhao replied quickly, “Of course, no problem. I’ll still follow the rules.”

 “I’m going to the hospital to check on the postoperative patients. Do you want to come along?” asked Zheng Ren.

 He could save some fare if Little Zhao, who owned a scooter, wanted to tag along with him. That was what Zheng Ren had in mind.

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