LIGHTNOVELWORLD Episode 141 - 「White Blood」 (2)
As the first episode ended and the screen darkened, the only sound in the student lounge was the gulping of students swallowing their saliva.
“···That was awesome.”
At the voice of one student breaking the silence, everyone nodded in agreement.
“Honestly, I thought it would be cringy, so I was hesitant to watch it, but at this level, I think we can watch the next episode.”
“Did you see the action scene where Ryu Yeon-woo fought the machines in the beginning?”
At that, the friends nodded.
“The quality in our country has really improved.”
Feeling a bit unsatisfied, they licked their lips as their friends looked at them.
“···Ji-woo, what are you doing? Hurry up and click the next episode.”
“Oh, geez. We can watch the next episode right away. Thank goodness.”
They had forgotten that it was a Netflix series, allowing them to watch the next episode immediately.
The friend closest to the computer manipulated the mouse to click on the next episode, and Episode 2 started playing.
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A massive tremor shook the entire space.
Boom─.
Screech─.
“Ahhh!”
“Eek!”
The screams of the red blood cells inside the elevator reached Do-jin’s ears, who was clinging to the ceiling.
The body of the elevator, which had been cruising inside the light pillar, swayed violently from side to side, causing the red blood cells inside to collide with each other and bounce off the walls.
‘What the hell? What’s going on?!’
[It seems to be due to a major tremor. Sometimes, the orbital elevator fails to fully receive the power of the femoral vein and detaches. It’s very dangerous.]
Even without the narrator’s explanation, Do-jin could feel the danger through the violently shaking orbital elevator.
‘Damn! Is the vein not functioning properly?!’
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a type of blood cancer that originates from lymphoid lineage cells.
Due to various complications, it seemed that the body had already lost some of its functions.
In the outside world, the current situation might be a matter of microseconds, posing no immediate threat to his brother’s life. However, inside the body, even a small issue could be catastrophic, causing the orbital elevator to shake violently as it received force in the wrong direction.
Other orbital elevators, which had departed later, zipped past at incredible speeds.
The one that Ella and Do-jin were on had already deviated from its course and seemed to have lost its functionality.
The orbital elevator twisted and deformed, unable to withstand the force, causing the door to be torn off. Red blood cells were sucked out through the gap like passengers from a breached airplane.
“Mister!”
Among the red blood cells flying into space, Do-jin spotted Ella’s twin pigtails fluttering.
Do-jin kicked off the side of the elevator and flew towards Ella.
“Hey, cell! Look this way!”
“It’s Ella!”
Although he was flying towards Ella, the speed at which he had been ejected made it difficult to close the distance quickly.
“Mister! Behind you!”
Looking in the direction Ella was pointing, Do-jin saw a large fragment of the orbital elevator hurtling towards him.
“Damn.”
There was no other choice.
Despite it being on the verge of breaking, he drew the sword from his waist.
‘I’ll have to find a new sword somewhere.’
It was the sword that had fallen in front of Do-jin’s eyes when he first came to his senses inside his brother’s body six years ago.
He had relied on it a lot while making his way from the soles of his feet to his thighs…
“But I can’t die here.”
He swung the sword horizontally with all his might towards the incoming fragment.
Thud─.
Slash─.
With a powerful collision sound, the fragment was deflected, but the sword shattered into pieces.
“Huh? Mister!”
At that moment, Ella’s voice came from behind.
When Do-jin turned around, he saw that the brooch Ella was wearing was emitting a brilliant blue light that overshadowed the purple pillar of the femoral artery.
Ella, clinging to the brooch, flew towards Do-jin, and the blue gem attached to the brooch detached, attracting the scattered fragments of the sword in the zero-gravity space.
Zing─.
The fragments of the sword and the gem gathered and merged as if they had always been one, forming a new sword with a black blade and a blue gem embedded in it.
“Eek! My brooch!”
“Is that important right now? Hold on tight.”
Escaping this space was the top priority.
If they collided head-on with another orbital elevator passing by at tremendous speed, they wouldn’t even have time to pick up the pieces.
Ella looked at the spot where the gem of her golden brooch used to be, tears welling up in her eyes.
Do-jin grabbed Ella firmly with one hand and swung the sword towards the edge of the purple pillar of the femoral vein.
Slash─.
As the black blade cut through the surface of the light pillar, the gap opened up, and Do-jin and Ella were sucked in forcefully.
“Ahhh!”
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Meanwhile, on the internet, speculation about the gem that had merged with Yeon-woo’s sword was rampant.
─I think that’s a strengthening stone.
└ LOL, what is this, a game? So, it’ll explode if he tries to enhance it later?
└ ???: Oops, my hand slipped.
─Since it’s something inside the body, it must be an important clue, right?
└ I’m a practicing doctor. I suspect it’s a medicinal component used for leukemia.
└ Yes, yes, I’m the hospital director. Without verification, who knows?
─But meanwhile, Ella is so cute. She seems like a rookie.
└ For real, the casting is perfect.
─What are the posts below talking about?
└ There’s a new Netflix series called “White Blood” starting today, starring Ryu Yeon-woo.
└ If it’s Ryu Yeon-woo, it’s worth watching.
The speed at which posts were being generated increased, drawing more people to click on “White Blood.”
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Thud─.
A massive object plummeted through the atmosphere at incredible speed.
It wasn’t a meteor; it was Do-jin and Ella.
“Ugh! I’m dizzy!”
Ella, clinging to Do-jin as they spun through the air, screamed.
After being sucked through the gap in the light pillar, they emerged in the atmosphere of a remote planet.
They were rapidly descending through the atmosphere, getting closer to the ground at breakneck speed.
“Narrator! We’re going to die at this rate! Can you calculate a way out?”
[To decelerate the current falling speed, you need to apply reverse thrust.]
Do-jin responded with a bewildered expression.
“Do I look like a robot? How am I supposed to apply reverse thrust?”
[You’ll have to figure something out.]
Thinking quickly, Do-jin remembered the miniaturized bike attached to his waist.
“Narrator! What would happen if I summon the bike in this situation?”
[Since it is moving at the same velocity as you, there should be no issue with boarding it mid-air. You’ll experience a bit more air resistance momentarily, but the mass won’t affect free fall.]
Do-jin was well aware of Galileo Galilei’s free fall experiment.
He wondered if the absurd over-technology of “miniaturization” could actually apply here.
There was no time to be leisurely as the ground rapidly approached.
Quickly, Do-jin pulled the bike from his waist and summoned it mid-air.
“Ella! Hold on tight.”
“Ugh! I feel like I’m going to throw up.”
“If you throw up on my back, I’ll make you disappear! Seriously!”
He swiftly positioned himself and mounted the summoned bike, initiating reverse thrust.
Zing─.
As he pulled the accelerator to the limit, he felt the maglev engine overheating from resisting the tremendous speed.
The speed gradually decreased.
However, with the ground fast approaching, it seemed insufficient.
Do-jin stood on the seat of the falling bike and grabbed Ella.
‘At this speed, it should be manageable.’
Focusing all his energy into his legs, he grabbed Ella and leaped into the air.
The bike, propelled like a missile, shot towards the ground at incredible speed, and the recoil sent Do-jin flying in the opposite direction.
Thud─.
With a loud impact and the sound of rolling, Do-jin and Ella tumbled several times across the sandy ground before making a rough landing.
Ella, sprawled on the ground, suddenly sat up and vomited a clear substance onto the sand.
“Ugh.”
Do-jin, lying down and glancing sideways at her, thought to himself.
‘They only consume oxygen, so is that oxygen she’s throwing up?’
With such a random thought, he looked up at the high sky.
A faint purple streak passed across the blue sky.
Shaking his head, he looked at the distant femoral vein.
‘We fell from there, but somehow we survived.’
Do-jin struggled to get up.
Every part of his body ached.
“Phew. Where on earth are we? Narrator.”
[This is the Liver region.]
Hearing the narrator’s explanation, Do-jin looked around.
No further explanation was needed.
Liver. It was the liver.
“So that’s why it’s so hot.”
Looking around, all he could see was sand.
While it is commonly known that the brain consumes the most energy among the body’s organs, in reality, the liver’s energy consumption is the highest.
Therefore, it was natural for the temperature to be significantly higher than in other organs.
Ella, having expelled all the oxygen, stood up from the sand with tears welling in her eyes.
“Sniff, I lost my brooch and my oxygen.”
Hearing Ella’s words, Do-jin looked at the sword still in his hand.
“Come to think of it, why did the sword and the gem suddenly merge? Narrator, do you know?”
This is information unknown to me as well.
At the base of the black blade, the blue gem was embedded as if it had always been there, shining brilliantly. The sword, which had been cracked in various places, now looked as good as new.
‘No, it’s in much better condition than when I first got it. It’s sharper and sturdier.’
Gaining something often means losing something else.
‘It’s a shame to lose the bike. Level 3 White Blood Cells don’t appear easily.’
It was a means of transportation he had painstakingly captured from a Level 3 White Blood Cell that had pursued him when his wanted level was at its peak.
“Still, reaching the liver is quite an achievement. It took six years to get from the soles of the feet to the thighs.”
There was no point in lamenting what was already lost.
Thanks to it, he had saved his life and finally reached the torso.
And although the reason for the gem merging with the sword was still a mystery, he had gained a stronger sword in the process.
“Ella, if we get the chance, I’ll get you a new brooch.”
“Really? You promise, Mister? But what’s that over there?”
Ella pointed behind him, and Do-jin turned around.
Far off in the distance, he saw black dots flapping their wings in the sky.
“Those are birds.”
“Birds? What are those?”
“A bird is an animal with wings…”
Wait, had he seen any animals, let alone birds, in the past six years inside the body?
Do-jin turned back again.
The number of birds had increased and they were getting quite close.
“…Hmm?”
He could almost hear the flapping sound.
The birds were getting closer and closer.
“…They’re not birds?”
Squawk─!
They made bird-like sounds, but their size was quite large.
“They’re really big.”
Squawk─.
Squawk─.
The creatures approaching Do-jin and Ella with gleaming eyes were not birds.
With grayish-white skin and sharp beaks, their wings were awkwardly feathered, resembling bat membranes.
‘What the… They look like giant chickens with half their feathers plucked.’
Do-jin found the right word to describe them.
“…Pterosaurs?”
Why was his brother raising pterosaurs in the liver?
The sudden appearance of pterosaurs even made the Netflix viewers burst into laughter.
─Suddenly, pterosaurs
└ LOL, what is this drama even about?
└ It’s fun so far, but if they can’t wrap up the story later, people will say it went off the rails.
└ Considering all the movies Ryu Yeon-woo has starred in have been hits, he seems to have a good eye for scripts. They’ll probably tie up all the loose ends.
─I’m a practicing doctor. I suspect the pterosaurs are a virus.
└ This person keeps posting. Are they really a doctor?
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The creatures, now close, began to descend all at once.
The once clear sky, where the purple femoral vein could be seen passing through space, was now blackened by them.
“…Ella.”
“Yes?”
“I think we need to run.”
Do-jin grabbed the back of Ella’s neck and pushed her forward.
“Run!”
Do-jin and Ella started sprinting across the desert frantically.
Swoosh─.
From the sky, the sound of the creatures slicing through the air could be heard, and like seagulls diving for shrimp crackers, they gleamed with predatory eyes as they dove.
The problem was that the shrimp crackers were Do-jin and Ella.
Do-jin swung his sword with all his might towards the sky.
Screech─.
With a powerful sword wind, the creatures that had come close were pushed back, and realizing their prey wasn’t easy to catch, they ascended again, circling above Do-jin and Ella.
“Damn, we’re in the middle of a desert.”
It was daunting to think where they could go with such troublesome creatures overhead.
At that moment, the sandy ground beside Do-jin and Ella began to tremble, and something suddenly burst out of the sand.
It looked like a wooden door, similar to a manhole cover, opening from the ground.
A man’s head, dressed in red, popped out from the opened hole.
It was a red blood cell.
“Come in here! Quickly!”
Seeing the red blood cell urgently beckoning them, Do-jin pushed Ella.
“Let’s get in there quickly.”
He didn’t know what was down there, but there weren’t many things in this world that could put Do-jin in serious danger.
Unless there were Level 4 White Blood Cells.
As Do-jin and Ella jumped into the wooden manhole in the middle of the desert, the screen faded to black.