Cars are lined up on the Inner Circular Road.
The interchange where vehicles exit from the elevated road to the regular road. It is a section that is always congested because cars crowd together.
Slowly, at a speed that makes it impossible to tell whether they are cars or grubs, the cars move.
It is a section where it takes more than five minutes to travel one kilometer.
‘If it weren’t for this bottleneck, commute time would be cut in half. At this speed, walking would actually be faster.’
Choi Moo-gyeol, holding the steering wheel, thought that and glanced at the rearview mirror.
About five more cars were lined up behind him.
At that moment, far off at the very back end, a dump truck was coming.
‘Hm?’
It was clearly the timing when it should slow down.
‘Why isn’t that car slowing down?’
The momentum of the dump truck bearing down was not ordinary.
Could it be drowsy driving?
While he was thinking that, had about two seconds—no, three seconds—passed?
The truck still had not stepped on the brakes.
“Fucked.”
Although he was the kind of person who did not usually swear, the curse popped out before he knew it.
He had a foreboding of an ominous accident.
The car at the very back was a guaranteed accident, and in a situation where cars were lined up like this, even he might be affected by the aftermath.
Was this the moment he had to make an emergency escape?
But opening the driver’s seat door and running out of the car now was an act of suicide.
Unlike this lane exiting the Inner Circular Road, in the lane right next to it, which was not congested, cars were passing at a fierce speed.
It was a situation in which he could neither pull the car aside nor extricate himself and run out.
‘What should I do now? Am I just going to die here?’
He could not die yet.
There were still things he wanted to try.
He resolved to do the best he could in the current situation.
After bracing the steering wheel firmly with his arms, he crouched as much as possible in the driver’s seat and lowered his head.
Because he thought that if he curled his body as much as possible like a pill bug and made his surface area small, he might be able to minimize the impact.
Just as he took a posture prepared for impact.
CRASH—!
A roar struck his eardrums.
It was the sound of the truck ramming the car at the very back.
“Whoa—!”
SCREECH—!
The truck driver only then woke from sleep, was startled, and tried to brake, but a massive heavy truck with momentum does not stop easily.
SCREEEECH—!!
THUD! BANG!
Along with the unpleasant screeching sound produced by the sudden braking, it kept advancing, pushing the car ahead into the other cars.
“Aaaagh—!”
People’s screams were heard.
THUD, CRASH, THUD, BANG!
The car ahead into the car ahead of it, and that car into the next car ahead.
Rear-end collisions occurred in a chain.
Eventually, the impact chased all the way to the car I was in.
CRASH!
In an instant, my vision went hazy, and an enormous force was transmitted through my entire body.
The fortunate thing amid misfortune was the angle of the car behind that hit my car.
Because my car was pushed diagonally and rammed into the rear of the car ahead, it was able to avoid being completely crushed and flattened.
The car windows shattered, and glass shards poured down over my body.
THUD! CRASH!
A massive eight-vehicle pileup.
In an instant, the road became a pandemonium.
* * *
“Ah…… Euaaah…!”
“It hurts, it hurts……!”
“……save…… save me…….”
Amid the pandemonium of screams and groans mingled together.
Creak—
Rattle.
The door of an SUV stuck in the middle, crumpled, opened.
And a person, covered in blood, staggered out from the driver’s seat.
It was the scene of a massive eight-vehicle pileup disaster.
A total of nine cars were severely crumpled and wrecked, though to varying degrees.
Splat—.
Blood welling from his head fell to the ground in a handful.
The man who had gotten out of the driver’s seat was bleeding profusely from his head.
Because the windshield had shattered and glass shards had poured over his head, causing countless wounds.
But although the man staggered, his consciousness alone was clear.
The pill-bug posture he had taken to prepare for the collision had helped.
He took out his cell phone and called 119.
“This is Wolgok Ramp. A traffic accident has occurred. It’s a chain-rear-end collision. There are nine vehicles in the accident, and at least nine or more injured. I’m also a party to the accident. I’ll wait for the rescue team while checking people’s conditions. Please send several ambulances quickly. The situation here is very bad.”
Even while injured, he explained the complicated situation concisely and quickly.
After hearing the details, 119 said they would send the rescue team as quickly as possible.
The man who ended the call touched his head.
‘It’s warm.’
The hand he used to touch his head and then removed was soaked with blood.
‘There is no concussion, but there are lacerations, abrasions, and contusions.’
After briefly diagnosing his condition, he decided to first look for the emergency kit in his car.
Meanwhile.
The driver who had been in the very front car came out holding the nape of his neck with one hand and a cell phone in the other.
He was relatively lightly injured.
It was thanks to the car’s position being at the very front.
“Ah…… What kind of bolt from the blue is this?”
And the driver also got out of the truck at the very back.
He, too, was physically unharmed.
It was thanks to the dump truck’s solid frame and considerably high body.
While the people stuck in the middle were crossing the threshold between life and death, only the party who caused the accident was unharmed.
The truck driver, without even having time to feel such irony, let out a sigh of relief at having survived.
But soon, upon recognizing the miserable state of the cars ahead of him, he covered his face with both hands and began to despair.
“Ah…… What do I do? What do I do! Ahhh……!”
It was the worst day of his life.
* * *
Choi Moo-gyeol always carried an emergency kit in his trunk.
It was because of his experience of a car accident in childhood that changed his life.
When he entered society, earned money, and bought his first car, the first thing he did was pack an emergency kit in the trunk.
Like a kind of talisman.
‘……But getting the emergency kit out isn’t easy.’
A trickle of blood ran down from his forehead again.
Due to the vehicle collision, the trunk side was completely crumpled, making access from the rear impossible.
Instead, he went in through the open front seat, put his hand beside the back seat, and pulled.
Rattle—!
Fortunately, the less crumpled left rear seat folded forward.
The hand he pushed under the crumpled body barely reached the emergency kit.
‘The kit is smashed up too.’
The lid of the plastic container had completely crumbled, but he could still take out some of the necessary items.
Those were bandages and scissors.
‘If I delay too much, people’s conditions will become more critical.’
Without even applying antiseptic, Choi Moo-gyeol wrapped the bandage directly around his injured head, performing only temporary hemostasis, and came back out of the car.
The driver of the very front car, flustered and on the phone with an insurance company, caught his eye.
“Hey, mister! Are you hurt?”
“M-me?”
“Yes.”
“My neck feels really bad, maybe I twisted it…….”
“Not that kind of thing—I mean serious injuries.”
“Isn’t this serious enough?”
“Compared to the other people here, you look okay. Let’s check on people’s conditions together.”
“Mm, okay.”
And Choi Moo-gyeol spoke toward the truck driver.
“You! For now, stop hesitating and help too!”
“What, who are you to suddenly call me ‘you’……”
The truck driver was already feeling dirty, and some young punk calling him “you” at their first meeting made his mood instantly sour.
But he flinched again at the gaze of this bandage man staring intently at him.
Eyes that were transparent yet intense and shining brilliantly.
There was somehow an eerie aura.
‘He seems like either a lunatic or a clear-eyed psycho…… I shouldn’t mess with him.’
The truck driver lowered his head and asked.
“……Yes. But what should I do?”
“First check whether the accident victims are conscious and breathing! Start from the back!”
“Yes, yes.”
“If anyone’s body is crushed under the vehicle, don’t try to pull them out by force! Ah, first, if you have a safety triangle, set that up first!”
“Understood…….”
Thus, the three people who were relatively unharmed began doing their best to manage the people until the ambulance arrived.
The first driver, who had been checking the interior of the second car, said.
“Ah, I think this person can be taken out.”
“Before pulling them out carelessly, we must first check what fractures or injuries they have.”
Choi Moo-gyeol brought his fingers near the nose of the person stuck in the second car and checked their condition.
“They’re unconscious, but breathing is maintained……”
Starting from there, the three people diligently pulled out those who could be taken out of the cars and helped those who needed first aid.
Within about ten minutes, the rescue team arrived, and police cars also came and managed the situation.
The paramedics muttered as they looked at the scene as soon as they got out of the ambulance.
“It’s a real mess…… Let’s hurry.”
Then, around the middle, they found a person managing the injured.
Moreover, blood was smeared all over that person’s body, and red blood was seeping from the white bandage wrapped around his head.
A paramedic hurriedly approached and asked.
“Wait, are you a patient managing patients?”
“There’s some bleeding, but I can endure it. It’s nothing but abrasions.”
“Abrasions in a large accident like this? You look like you’ve lost quite a lot of blood.”
“My weight is eighty kilograms. My blood volume is approximately six point five liters, about eight percent of that. As long as I don’t lose one liter of blood, I’m fine.”
The paramedic was momentarily dumbfounded.
“……May I ask what you do?”
“I’m the person who reported it to 119.”
“Ah…….”
“Please transport the patients to Hankook University Hospital quickly. There are also many patients who need emergency surgery.”
“Uh, we were already planning to transport them to the Hankook University Hospital Emergency Room. But how do you know that the closest hospital from here is Hankook University Hospital?”
“Because I was on my way to work there.”
Doctor Psychopath Choi Moo-gyeol.
He said that with an unconcerned face.
It was the commute of a very unordinary day.
* * *
Hankook University Hospital Emergency Room.
Weeeee—!
The sound of sirens struck the doors first, and a procession of ambulances entering the hospital’s main entrance formed a line.
“What, is it a mass casualty accident? Ambulances are coming in endlessly!”
From the emergency medicine doctors to the nurses, everyone was in an uproar.
The door of the first ambulance opened, and they were transferring an unconscious patient onto a stretcher cart.
A person with a bandage wrapped around his head got out along with them.
“Huh?”
The emergency medicine doctor said upon seeing that.
“Why is Dr. Choi Moo-gyeol coming out from there?”
“I was at the scene.”
“You’re covered in blood—are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“No, don’t you need treatment?”
“Treating the critical patients comes first. It’s not a life-threatening injury.”
“Ah, understood. For now, go rest a bit.”
“Among the patients, there are people who need neurosurgery. I’ll prepare for surgery immediately.”
“What? Are you sure you can operate in that condition? Why not leave it to another doctor? Dr. Choi isn’t the only one in Hankook University Neurosurgery.”
“I can’t. There are so many patients that even if neurosurgery goes full throttle, it won’t be enough.”
“Fine, understood.”
Because the emergency medicine doctor had another patient in front of him that needed care, he didn’t ask any further.
He checked the condition of the patient brought in on the stretcher and muttered.
“Even while injured like that, he secured the airway perfectly.”
Watching Choi Moo-gyeol’s receding figure staggering inside with a bandage wrapped around his head, the emergency medicine doctor shook his head from side to side.
