LIGHTNOVELWORLD Episode 140 - 「White Blood」 (1)
After the launch event, episodes 1 to 3 of 「White Blood」 were released on Netflix starting at 4 PM that day. Comprising a total of 12 episodes, 「White Blood」 would release three episodes each week over four weeks.
Yeon-woo’s fans, who had been eagerly waiting with pounding hearts since the night before, and many others, who clicked on the Korean-style fantasy drama with a mix of anticipation and concern, saw the familiar Netflix logo as the series began.
The first scene started with a man running through a dreamlike, purple-hued desert. A hazy shimmer followed the man, shooting something at him, which he deftly dodged.
Boom─.
As the man dodged, something struck the sand dune, causing it to explode and scatter in all directions. Ahead of the man, an ancient castle appeared like a mirage. The man in black hurriedly entered the old castle.
The scene then transitioned to the ‘one-take scene’ that Yeon-woo had spent an entire day filming for just one minute of runtime.
“Wow.”
“Amazing. The action is incredible.”
“Hey, this is just the first scene of episode 1. They must have poured their souls into this. But since it’s a fantasy, the story will probably go downhill as it progresses.”
College students gathered in their club room, watching 「White Blood」 on Netflix via a projector, nodded in agreement with the last friend’s comment.
“Yeah, we’ve been fooled by Korean fantasy before. Remember when we watched 「Valdor」 and ended up disappointed? The story was a mess.”
Meanwhile, on the projector screen, Yeon-woo’s character was being shot at by androids and fell like a puppet with its strings cut beneath the old castle.
As he was swallowed by the gap in space-time, the screen went black, and a moment of silence followed, only to be broken by the murmur of a courtroom. The scene then transitioned to the courtroom.
When Yeon-woo, as Jeong Do-jin, walked out with the clanking of chains, exuding a tiger-like presence, the charisma that seemed to burst through the screen was overwhelming.
Following that, Do-jin and Ella rode a hoverbike, dodging android attacks as they raced through a medieval town, reminiscent of a Hollywood car chase scene.
“…Hey. This is actually pretty good.”
“Yeah. It feels like watching an American movie.”
The students, who had been skeptical about the fantasy genre, began to open their minds, impressed by the unexpectedly sophisticated CGI and excellent acting. They were soon fully immersed in the screen.
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“Narrator. So, you’re saying there’s a direct path to the heart if you go past the thigh?”
[It’s called the Cardiac.]
“Cardiac means heart.”
In this world, all names were like this. The heart was called Cardiac. The thigh was Femoral. The calf bone was Fibula. Thanks to the place names borrowed directly from medical terms, Jeong Do-jin, whose main profession was a doctor, could tell where he was.
Ella, riding behind Do-jin and watching him converse with the narrator, tilted her head.
“Mister, who are you talking to?”
“Why am I a mister?”
“I know the way to Cardiac.”
“What? You know the way?”
The fastest route from the thigh to the heart was through the femoral vein, also known as the great saphenous vein.
Rumble─.
At that moment, a loud noise accompanied by a severe shaking of the ground occurred.
“Ah! It looks like the Great Tremor has started!”
The Great Tremor referred to a significant vibration that lasted for a week in this world.
“I see. Has it already been a year again?”
“A year? What do you mean?”
The cause of the Great Tremor was actually the heartbeat of Do-jin’s younger brother. Although he hadn’t calculated it precisely, Do-jin perceived that one heartbeat outside the body equated to roughly a year inside the body. Thus, he simply considered it as a year passing.
In the outside world, only a few seconds would have passed, but in Do-jin’s perception of time, he had already been trapped inside the body for six years.
“Mister, what do you mean by a year?”
“It’s just something. Anyway, you said you know the way to Cardiac?”
“Yes. When delivering oxygen, the adults heading towards Cardiac go that way. Once, I even had to make an urgent delivery right up to the entrance!”
Do-jin nodded at Ella’s words.
“That’s good. I need to go there.”
“Then let’s go together! I really want to leave this tedious village.”
Do-jin scratched his cheek awkwardly at Ella’s words. But hadn’t they already left the village quite a distance behind?
“Hmm…”
“Please!”
Ella shook Do-jin’s waist from the back of the bike. Since entering the body, this was the first cell that approached him without fear.
Especially since red blood cells were usually so timid that they would shrink away just by looking at him…
“Alright, but if you become a hindrance on the way, I’ll leave you behind immediately.”
“Yay!”
Riding the hoverbike, they followed the path Ella indicated for quite a while.
“Here it is!”
Hearing Ella’s voice from behind, pointing with her tiny hand, Do-jin stopped the bike.
“Get off.”
“Yes!”
As Ella got off, Do-jin activated the bike’s miniaturization function. He pointed towards the forest path and asked Ella.
“Is this the right way?”
“Yes! If you pass through that cave over there, you’ll reach the femoral vein.”
Seeing Ella nodding energetically, Do-jin took the lead and started walking.
“How do you know such a path?”
“It’s a shortcut. Our village chief is lazy and sometimes forgets to order oxygen deliveries until it’s too late.”
“So, everyone in the village who delivers oxygen knows this path?”
Ella proudly put her hands behind her back and slightly puffed out her chest.
“I’m the only one who delivers oxygen.”
“Huh?”
Do-jin didn’t know much about the ecology of the red blood cell village, but he knew that oxygen was heavier than it seemed. Although it looked like transparent glass beads, it felt as heavy as solid metal balls when lifted.
“How much do you carry when you make deliveries?”
“Hmm. I fill two basket backpacks to the brim and deliver them.
In reality, it was a weight that would require five strong adult men to lift. It was clear that the young girl in front of him shouldn’t be able to carry such a load.
“Are all red blood cells as strong as you?”
“No! I’m unusually strong. That’s why the village chief gave me the privilege of delivering oxygen.”
Do-jin didn’t know why this girl was stronger than others, but it was a typical case of being taken advantage of.
“So, do you get anything extra for delivering oxygen? Like money or something?”
“Money? What’s that? When I deliver oxygen, I get to leave the village! I can see trees and grass like this.”
Do-jin thought for a moment and then nodded. He had a guess about the girl’s nature. She was strong, cheerful, and quick to smile.
“Hmm, you’re an idiot, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not!”
“Then are you a pushover?”
“What’s that? Oh, I found this interesting thing while collecting oxygen. Isn’t it pretty?”
Ella, who was smiling brightly, pointed to a blue gemstone brooch hanging alongside a purple cloth on her red cape.
“Not really.”
“Why not? It’s shiny and pretty.”
“It’s not pretty.”
As they walked, exchanging playful banter, they soon saw the end of the cave. Occasionally, Do-jin would converse with the narrator when communication came through, but talking to a tangible person after six years in this world felt mentally refreshing. Although Ella was technically a cell, not a person, the long-awaited conversation felt awkward, leading to curt remarks.
Do-jin stopped as he reached the end of the cave.
“Ouch!”
Ella, following behind, bumped her forehead against Do-jin’s back and pouted.
“Why did you stop so suddenly?”
Ella complained, but Do-jin was too mesmerized by the sight before him to respond.
“Hehe, it’s really beautiful, isn’t it? The Femoral Vein.”
The Femoral Vein, the fastest route from the thigh to the heart, was a pathway to ascend to another dimension. It was like an orbital elevator.
“What kind of vein looks like this…?”
A colossal pillar of light stretched endlessly upwards, pulsating periodically with a violet hue, piercing the sky and surging towards a higher dimension.
“…It looks just like a quasar I saw on the internet.”
Do-jin recalled an image of energy being emitted from a supermassive black hole in the form of jets due to the immense magnetic fields and explosive energy of the accretion disk. The sight before him was exactly like that.
“You always say words I’ve never heard before. Quasar?”
“Is this why they call the human body a microcosm?”
“Another word I don’t know.”
Ignoring Ella, who was hopping and waving her hands in front of him, Do-jin walked forward.
“Let’s go together!”
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The entrance to the orbital elevator was guarded by the White Blood Corps, so there was no way to approach it directly.
While he could handle those guys, doing so might stop the orbital elevator’s operation, so Do-jin needed to board it secretly.
“Mister, you have to get on properly. Promise!”
Ella, who wanted to leave the village and go on an adventure but was too scared to go alone, repeatedly urged Do-jin to be careful. Do-jin instructed Ella to board the elevator first while he timed his jump from the cliff top closest to the elevator.
“There she is.”
In the distance, he saw Ella blending in with other red blood cells, going through the checkpoint, and boarding the elevator. Her twin-braided hair bobbed up and down with each step, making her easy to distinguish from the others.
“This should be the right spot. Narrator, calculate the timing for me.”
[I’ll analyze your running speed and the movement of the femoral vein to tell you the exact moment to jump.]
Do-jin nodded and took a few steps back to prepare for his leap. Soon, the narrator’s voice echoed in his ear.
[Now.]
“Hup!”
With a powerful push off the base of a tree behind him, Do-jin shot forward like a bullet. The wide, white cylindrical elevator resembled a whipped cream cake. As Do-jin leaped, the elevator doors closed, and it began to operate.
Vroom─.
Thud─.
As the elevator started its magnetic levitation, Do-jin, leaping in a parabolic arc, landed precisely on its roof just as it ascended about 30 meters into the sky.
[Hold on tight. The pressure will be immense.]
“Pressure? What pressure?”
As soon as the narrator’s voice finished, the light pillar of the femoral vein began to glow violet, and the orbital elevator inside it was forcefully propelled upwards.
“Ugh!”
Do-jin gritted his teeth, enduring the pressure that he was sure surpassed any human-launched rocket. As they ascended, the planet they had departed from shrank to a dot, and the violet light pillar of the femoral vein extended beyond the universe.
Time passed.
‘How much longer?’
The pressure was so intense that he couldn’t even open his mouth. Do-jin asked in his mind, and the narrator responded.
[It seems we’re about halfway there.]
At that moment, the orbital elevator began to shake violently.