The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

Bang! Crash! Boom!

Those who had lost their senses to demonic energy swarmed like bees, swinging their blades.

Their movements could hardly be considered those of martial arts practitioners, but their numbers were overwhelming.

“Kill them.”

With each command from the bishop, the demonic cult members multiplied.

My comrades fell one by one to the relentless assault.

“Argh, they’re too strong!”

“How are we supposed to break through this?”

Even the great swordsmanship of the Namgung family and the swift blade of Jeom Chang fell powerless.

In the end, only the Shaolin warrior monk and I remained standing.

“I’m sorry… If only I had been a little stronger…”

The Shaolin monk, who had protected me with his last ounce of strength, finally fell with his dying words. I had no time to mourn him. I could only rush through the opening he had created with his death.

‘Damn it. If only I had my Flying Daggers, I could have taken him out long ago!’

In my current state, I couldn’t attack the bishop from afar. My only option was to clear a path by dealing with the small fry.

Slash! Swish! Thwack!

Thanks to my fallen comrades, I had at least figured out the bishop’s sword techniques.

I dodged his explosive attacks one after another, charging towards him.

Swoosh!

I swung my sword horizontally.

My blade, honed to the pinnacle of agility, reached the tip of the bishop’s neck.

It was before he could recover his weapon from his previous attack and regain his stance.

Plum Blossom Fragrance for Ten Thousand Miles.

I unleashed my ultimate technique with all my might.

The bishop’s energy was completely depleted.

A brilliant plum blossom effect appeared where I had severed his neck.

“Woohooo! I finally did it!”

I jumped up from my chair, shouting in triumph.

Overwhelmed with joy, I waved my arms wildly, cheering.

Until now, I had always complained about the Plum Blossom Fragrance effect whenever I used my ultimate skill, but today, I couldn’t care less.

Who cares if the petals that should gently spread their fragrance are fluttering about? As long as it deals high damage! If I had been just 3% short on damage, it would have been me dying instead.

“Wow, everyone else died, but you still managed to clear it?”

“As expected of our guild leader!”

“How did you dodge that last attack? There wasn’t even a gimmick!”

The excitement of my guild members came through the computer speakers.

Those who had died early on had been watching anxiously for a long time, wondering if I would succeed.

“Hahahaha, there is a gimmick! The patterns are quite diverse, so it wasn’t obvious, but I figured it out when Blue Wind Young Master and Kyu Kyu died!”

“Huh? Really?”

“But the Murim Alliance that got the first clear said there wasn’t one?”

“They probably just brute-forced it with their specs without realizing. It seems they didn’t discover it, so I’ll summarize and post it on the strategy board.”

“Oh, are you going to share it all?”

“We’ve already claimed the rewards for the top three clears, so why not?”

The game I was playing, Central Plains Online, had updated its first raid just a month after launch.

Although there were already a few users who had reached max level, even the average heavy spender hadn’t yet fully equipped their gear and skills.

Releasing a raid with quite difficult gimmicks at this point meant that even the server’s top 1 and 2 guilds, with their overwhelming specs and 7-day-a-week grind, took a full 8 days to clear the raid.

Competition heated up among the remaining guilds to claim the special rewards given to the top three.

And just now, my guild, “Sichuan Tang Family Update Waiting Alliance,” achieved third place, ending that competition.

‘Sigh… I never intended to be a raid leader.’

I had definitely started the game with a casual mindset.

The clinic had stabilized, and I had changed my work schedule to 4 days a week, so I had quite a bit of free time, right?

But as I played, I became ambitious, leveling up and gradually improving my equipment.

Once I had basic gear? I needed to get better gear. To get better gear? I had to enter dungeons where it dropped. To do that, I had to join an alliance and recruit party members.

‘Oh, my fate.’

Joining the top 1 or 2 raid groups that cleared content competitively wasn’t an option.

I’m not a professional gamer! Maybe if I were a college student who could skip classes and focus on gaming 24 hours a day, but it wasn’t something the chief director of a Korean medicine clinic should be doing.

So I just joined a raid group that accepted anyone…

– I’m quitting the game. It’s too difficult for me. Divine Physician should be the guild leader.

– What?

And that’s how it happened.

Somehow, my PVP videos circulated in the game community, leading to join requests from fairly dedicated players. As we played casually together, we ended up becoming the server’s 3rd ranked guild.

“Wow! The rewards are here!”

While chatting with the raid members over voice, the cutscene played.

Since it was everyone’s first clear, the boss’s story dialogue appeared.

“I wonder what equipment dropped!”

The moment I clicked on the bishop.

An effect indicating mythic-grade equipment filled the screen.

I had expected this much. The first clear always guarantees at least one highest-grade equipment.

The question was, which class would it be for?

“Kyaaaah!”

Dragon Blood Plum Blossom Sword!

It’s mine, isn’t it?

I’m not sure what the connection is between Huashan and plum blossoms since I skipped the story, but anyway, it was the Huashan Sect’s weapon from this raid’s set equipment.

“Shall I bid?”

The rule was that the 12 raid members who entered together would bid on the equipment they wanted, with the person who contributed the most taking it.

“Hehehehehe, thank you.”

Since it was obvious that I, with the highest contribution, would bid on it, the other raid members gladly conceded.

“Of course, the raid leader should get their weapon first!”

“How did they know to give the guild leader’s equipment first?”

“Thank you~. Please share the steel and gold coins among yourselves, minus my portion!”

The next most enjoyable moment after clearing.

The raid members rejoiced as they divided the spoils.

“Wow! We finally cleared it.”

“How many attempts did it take? I have to go to work tomorrow, this is trouble.”

“Huh? Blue Wind, you’re a working adult? I thought you were a student like Kyu Kyu?”

“…I’m a working adult with a 3-hour round-trip commute. Doesn’t the raid leader have to go to work?”

What, really? I thought they were at least college students since they were always online when I logged in.

Blue Wind Young Master was the user with the highest login rate and who spent more than me on the Jeom Chang class, while Kyu Kyu was our guild’s only tank, a Shaolin monk.

“The guild leader said they work 4 days a week.”

“That’s nice! Change everything to that!”

“Haha, I do have work tomorrow, but I got a new weapon, so I want to hunt a bit more. And write the strategy guide.”

“Since it’s come to this, I’m going to pull an all-nighter too! Let’s grind together!”

Blue Wind Young Master shouted loudly as he switched his equipment for hunting.

Is that person okay?

I mean, I can stay up all night and recover with qi circulation, but still.

Of course, unlike me and Blue Wind Young Master who couldn’t calm our excitement, most raid members naturally logged off.

“Haha… We’ll head off to bed.”

“My stomach doesn’t feel good, maybe from the tension. I’ll take some digestive medicine and sleep.”

“Oh, Kyu Kyu. If you weren’t feeling well, you should have said we could take a break!”

“I thought we were about to clear it. I’ll be fine after taking some medicine.”

After chiding Kyu Kyu, I started writing the strategy guide.

◆◇◆◇◆

An hour later.

“Wow, how did the guild leader discover this?”

“Huh? Kyu Kyu, you haven’t gone to bed yet?”

“No. I felt better after drinking some Whal Myung Su. I was hunting with Blue Wind. Since our equipment is lacking, we need to level up quickly.”

Kyu Kyu, who must have set up notifications, read my post as soon as I uploaded it and expressed admiration.

“Oh? You’ve already posted it?”

At his words, Blue Wind Young Master also rushed to the strategy board.

“Ah~ this kind of gimmick… Gasp, you’re saying there’s a timing when he changes stance after striking vertically? The Vajra Invincibility disappears regardless of the motion at this time? How did you figure this out?”

Well, I couldn’t exactly say it’s because there’s actually a gap after such a big move…

“I have a good eye for detail. Ah, that’s exactly when you need to throw the Flying Dagger! It was so hard to get close because of the mob respawns. If it weren’t for Kyu Kyu, we might have failed again.”

“Hehe… You’re too kind.”

“Hahaha, that’s right. Our Divine Physician has divine eyes and divine skills! But guild leader, are you really eagerly waiting for the Sichuan Tang Family update?”

Blue Wind Young Master also chuckled as he spoke.

It wasn’t the raid group name I had created, but I was indeed waiting. That’s why I joined right away.

“They should release it by the end of this year, right?”

“You believe that? They said it would take a year to release, but it took 4 years. I’m betting on the end of next year.”

I had no rebuttal to Blue Wind Young Master’s words.

Ah, Flying Daggers! Give me my Flying Daggers!

Even in a game, how can I bear this frustration of only being able to do melee damage?

“Guild leader, do you mainly play ranged DPS in other games?”

“Yes. I’m pretty good at aiming and hitting targets.”

“You’re amazing at melee too… I’m curious. Oh, if you mainly play ranged, why not make an alt in the Mo Shan Sect? You could use talisman techniques.”

“Go! Where did you learn such evil arts?”

Talking nonsense about the Mo Shan Sect.

No, it’s ridiculous that they made the Mo Shan Sect, which isn’t even one of the orthodox sects, before updating the Sichuan Tang Family.

Even if they wanted to create a class similar to a mage.

“Ah, so our guild leader is one of those who consider the Mo Shan Sect as an evil sect. But isn’t the Sichuan Tang Family also not exactly orth-“

“Kyu Kyu?! What strange wuxia novels have you been reading? Let’s talk again after you’ve read the 10 orthodox wuxia novels I recommend!”

“Eek, I’m sorry!”

I spent the entire night playing Central Plains Online, chatting with these two night owl users.

It was a very lucky day.

I got my weapon, and just before logging off, in the dungeon… no, cave we entered, Kyu Kyu also got a legendary equipment piece.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Hello, hello! Good morning~”

I went to work after staying up all night enjoying the game.

It was the first time this had happened since I started playing Central Plains Online. While pulling an all-nighter once or twice isn’t a big problem for me, managing one’s condition is an important virtue for a doctor.

“Doctor, you seem to be in an extremely good mood today. Did something good happen?”

Oops, was it that obvious? I thought as I cupped my cheeks with my hands, realizing my mouth was stretched into a wide grin.

“Hehe, yes. Something really good.”

“Wow, did you go somewhere nice?”

“I did go somewhere~ And I got something amazing too!”

“Ooh, is the Doctor flexing? What did you buy?”

As I turned on my phone to show them something, Seol Yu-hee and Gong Na-ri waited with great curiosity.

“What could the Doctor have bought? Did you win something like an herb drying rack?”

Seo In-ae said with a smirk, but it was something incomparably better than that.

I showed off my character to the employees, displaying dozens of screenshots I had taken yesterday.

“Ta-da! Mythic weapon! Dragon Blood Plum Blossom Sword!”

Isn’t it so cool? The design is insane! Of course, the damage is insane too! The demonic cult members were sliced through so smoothly.

“…”

However, the reaction of the employees after seeing 50 screenshots of the character equipped with the weapon was disastrous.

Even Seol Yu-hee, who faithfully follows everything I say, and Gong Na-ri, who possesses the exceptional employee skill of ‘Flattering the Boss’, were at a loss for words.

“What’s this? Why are you reacting like this?”

“Haha… So Yeowon plays games?”

That was all Hwang Sang-hoon, who had come out of his consultation room, had to say.

“Yes. This is the third mythic weapon on the server, and the first for the Huashan Sect sword…”

I tried to explain how amazing the Dragon Blood Plum Blossom Sword was.

Hwang Sang-hoon nodded with a gentle smile.

Even someone as socially inept as me could tell.

He wasn’t interested at all but was listening because it was the Doctor speaking.

No! How can there be no one who likes games among five employees in a Korean medicine clinic?

I gave up on showing off and asked glumly.

“Nothing unusual happened yesterday, right?”

“Yeah. The InBody machine broke down so we called for repairs, and…”

Hwang Sang-hoon poured out the details as if he had been waiting for this moment.

“Jin Min-jung left early due to personal reasons, so Seo In-ae covered for her, and… someone from the insurance company came by.”

Insurance company? What’s this about?

If something like that happened, you should have called me!