LIGHTNOVELONLINE Episode 143 - 「White Blood」 (4)
As 「White Blood」 began to gain popularity on the internet, trend-sensitive YouTubers were the first to react.
“Ah, it’s not even a day I usually stream, but why are there so many messages in the community? I started a live stream because you all wanted it.”
As CineKing, a YouTuber who specializes in reviewing movies and dramas, started his live stream, viewers began to join.
─Oh, he’s streaming!
─Did you watch White Blood?
─Please explain the mysteries of White Blood.
─Kingha!
“Of course, I’ve watched all of White Blood. But do you know what’s unique about this drama? Even after watching up to episode 2, there are only two main characters.”
─True?
─Now that you mention it, only Ryu Yeon-woo and a little girl appeared.
─It’s Jeong Do-jin and Ella.
─Ella is so cute, LOL.
“And in this episode, Axis’s Dong-ha appears for the first time. We need to keep watching to judge his acting skills… So far, it’s been good, right? If I say something wrong here, I’ll be in trouble.”
─Oh no.
─Shut his mouth.
─Something big is coming.
─Don’t mess with Dong-ha…
“Anyway, I think the role of Akhenaton will be an important guide in the future. Although the narrator in the drama tells us, Jeong Do-jin and Ella know very little about this world. Since I was in the middle of watching it, I’ll finish it and then come back to the stream.”
====
***
====
“What do you mean by pterosaurs? Are you perhaps referring to these creatures?”
Akhenaton pulled out a specimen of a taxidermied bird from under the table.
The pterosaur’s corpse was about the size of a palm.
“Ah! The gray monster that chased us earlier!”
Ella pointed at the specimen with her finger, and Do-jin nodded.
Though the size was vastly different, it was indeed the creature that had attacked them right after they fell into the desert.
“It seems you’ve already encountered them. However, these creatures are not monsters. They are indispensable workers and cleaners of the desert.”
Do-jin’s eyes gleamed at Akhenaton’s words.
He had been wondering why his sister’s liver was home to pterosaurs ever since he arrived in the liver region.
“What exactly are they?”
“These creatures belong to a species called Transaminase.”
Do-jin’s expression twisted upon hearing Akhenaton’s words.
“…This is Transaminase?”
“Uncle, what’s that?”
Ella asked, and Do-jin, looking bewildered, answered.
“…Liver cell enzymes.”
“Ugh, asking one question just makes me have two more I don’t understand!”
Transaminase. Simply put, these are important enzymes found in the liver.
When you go to the hospital for a ‘liver function test,’ they measure liver cell enzymes like AST, ALT, and LDH.
“So, are there perhaps three types of these creatures?”
At Do-jin’s question, Akhenaton looked slightly surprised and nodded.
“It seems the black god knows a lot about them. Although they look similar, they are divided into three tribes. The ones causing trouble now belong to the Alanine tribe.”
Akhenaton sighed and continued.
“At some point, their numbers began to increase, and they started rampaging, attacking anyone trying to enter or leave.”
Alanine Transaminase (ALT).
‘So, the reason the orbital elevator to the upper world, or the vein, is blocked isn’t because of them.’
The causality was actually the opposite.
There was another reason for the increase in their numbers.
It was reasonable to assume that the ALT levels had risen because the pathways to and from the liver were blocked.
ALT levels surge when there is a decrease in blood flow to the liver or when exposed to drugs with hepatic toxicity.
The priority was to find out what was wrong with the pathways in and out of the liver.
“Akhenaton, guide me to the hepatic vein that connects to the inferior vena cava.”
“Excuse me? I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Do-jin sighed and shook his head.
“The hepatic vein that connects to the inferior vena cava.”
Upon hearing Do-jin’s words, Akhenaton’s face lit up with understanding and he nodded.
“That is the very favor I wished to ask of you. After years of prayers to solve the kingdom’s food and supply shortages, the oracle was the answer I received.”
‘Help the black god who descended from the sky.’
Looking at the characters floating in the crystal ball, Akhenaton politely gestured with his hand towards Do-jin.
“Let’s go. I will make the preparations immediately.”
Akhenaton sent an urgent transmission somewhere and then opened the door to the reception room.
“Prepare the short-range warp!”
“Yes!”
As the red blood cells bustled about, Do-jin followed Akhenaton into a vast hall where a human-sized crystal was spinning furiously in the center.
“It’s ready!”
A red blood cell manipulating something in front of it signaled, and Akhenaton, nodding, emitted a blue light from his hand and infused it into the crystal.
“…He’s not just a fortune teller, but a magician.”
The crystal began to glow and spin with the blue light, and soon transformed into a circular mirror-like portal.
“I will enter first and create a safe zone! Please follow me!”
With a gesture from Akhenaton, robust red blood cells wielding spears led the way through the portal, and Akhenaton followed them.
“Ella, let’s go.”
“Yes!”
As they advanced towards the mirror, the world flipped in an instant, revealing an entirely different landscape.
In the middle of the desert stood a massive, charred rock mountain, and Akhenaton was standing with his arms raised towards the sky.
“I’ve cast a spell to keep them from seeing us in this area! If we step out of this zone, they’ll immediately notice and start attacking!”
When Do-jin looked up, he saw a transparent net, resembling a summer mosquito net or a giant tent, enveloping him, Ella, and the red blood cell soldiers wielding spears.
Above them, the sky was pitch black.
No, upon closer inspection, it wasn’t the sky; it was filled with pterosaurs.
They were so densely packed that Do-jin momentarily mistook it for night.
“…That’s a lot of them.”
Meanwhile, Yeon-woo, who was monitoring this scene, recalled the time of filming.
Honestly, he could tolerate most other scenes, but this one was the most embarrassing to shoot.
‘Wearing a skin-tight suit, running around an empty set, swinging a sword at nothing…’
The problem was that due to the intense movements, there was a risk of safety accidents, so external personnel came to observe.
He remembered the private medical team who had been whispering and tilting their heads.
“Hmm, I hope they get to see the edited scene.”
He wanted to clarify that he wasn’t a weirdo.
Anyway, since it was Yeon-woo’s first time watching the edited scene, he focused back on the screen.
Akhenaton had brought them to the rock mountain with the hepatic vein as per the oracle, but he had no idea how to deal with the overwhelming number of Alans.
“Narrator, how strong are the Alans?”
[I’ve never seen Alans fight anything, but a hundred of them would be about equal to a Level 1 white blood cell.]
Do-jin drew the sword from his waist.
“Ella, stay here.”
“Okay!”
And with that, Do-jin began walking towards the edge of Akhenaton’s protective barrier.
A red blood cell soldier holding a spear urgently reached out.
“If you go out there like that!”
As Do-jin stepped out of Akhenaton’s zone, the black sky rippled for a moment.
Crack─.
The sound of countless Alanines flapping their wings overlapped, creating a noise that seemed to tear the air apart.
A part of the black sky collapsed, forming a column like a waterspout rising from the sea, and plunged towards Do-jin.
The Alanines descended in unison, forming a single stream as they rushed towards Do-jin.
Seeing this, Do-jin grinned and gripped his sword with both hands, swinging it upward with a powerful force while simultaneously spinning his body.
The powerful wind pressure generated by the sword strike collided with the descending Alanines, splitting them into two streams.
“Gah!”
“…This, this is.”
The eyes of the red blood cell soldiers watching the scene widened as if they were about to pop out.
It was the most unbelievable sight they had ever witnessed in their lives as red blood cells.
The soldiers looked at Prince Akhenaton, seeking an explanation.
However, Akhenaton was quietly staring at the ground, muttering incessantly to himself.
“The humble Akhenaton beholds the god. The humble Akhenaton beholds the god…”
In the desert, Do-jin had held back from fighting properly to avoid harming Ella, but it was a different story when he was alone.
The combat androids that had chased Do-jin in the castle were Level 4 white blood cells.
According to the narrator, each level increase resulted in a tenfold difference in combat power compared to the previous level.
This meant that one Level 4 white blood cell was equivalent to a thousand Level 1 white blood cells.
Even with his weapon damaged, Do-jin had fought evenly against four Level 4 white blood cells.
There was no way he would be overwhelmed by the Alanines, who only had numbers on their side.
After splitting the descending Alanines into two streams, Do-jin sprinted up the rock mountain at an incredible speed.
“There must be a cause on this rock mountain! Narrator, do you have any guesses?”
[No, I have no information on the current abnormal phenomenon.]
There was no other choice. He had to find out by confronting it head-on.
Crack─.
This time, the black sky split into multiple directions as the Alanines pursued Do-jin from various angles.
Do-jin leaped across the rock mountain as if flying, using his sword’s wind pressure to fend off the Alanines’ attacks, and when that wasn’t enough, he mercilessly cut them down.
He didn’t even know what he was looking for, but as he scoured the rock mountain, he eventually reached the peak that had seemed impossibly high.
“Whew, I should have just run straight to the top.”
Upon reaching the summit, the cause of the Alanines’ frenzy came into view.
A powerful aura emanated from a brilliantly glowing purple gem floating in the air.
Do-jin had seen such a gem before.
Although the color was different, it had once been attached to Ella’s brooch and was now embedded in his sword as a blue gem.
“What on earth is this thing? Narrator.”
[I still don’t know. I’ll gather as much data as I can.]
As Do-jin approached the purple gem, all the Alanines lunged at him as if to protect it.
He slashed, deflected, and parried as many as he could, but there were so many that his uniform began to tear in places from their beaks.
“Hup!”
Pushing through the swirling black wave like breaking through a violent storm, Do-jin shouted and swung his sword, advancing forward.
He was almost at the gem, but the Alanines’ attacks grew fiercer, and his tattered uniform revealed the muscles of his upper body.
Small cuts began to appear on his exposed skin.
And it wasn’t just Do-jin’s uniform that was torn.
“Gah. This is crazy. What kind of reward is this!”
Yeon-woo’s fan club manager, Yeonujina, felt like she was about to get a nosebleed from the unexpected fan service scene(?).
Meanwhile, the fan cafe Woo’s was on the verge of crashing due to the flood of real-time posts.
Nickname ‘Yeonujina,’ Lee Jin-ah, was using dual monitors, watching 「White Blood」 on one screen and managing the cafe on the other.
Every time she refreshed the page, it was like a dam breaking, with posts and level-up requests pouring in.
─ Did anyone see ‘that scene’…?
─ This is insane! I’m about to die of happiness.
─ Requesting level-up!
─ He ripped it, no, it got ripped.
─ [Spoiler Alert]
─ Hello, I’m new here.
Although she thought that everyone couldn’t be watching at the same time since it was released on Netflix, it seemed many members had started binge-watching from the initial release point, causing a sudden spike in traffic.
“What’s this spoiler alert? I’ve already seen it.”
When Yeonujina clicked on the post, a gif file of Yeon-woo, playing Jeong Do-jin, with his torn uniform appeared.
「Jeong Do-jin: I’ll be back after dealing with the Alanines! But the one being dealt with was me, the viewer.」
Lee Jin-ah chuckled at the post and clicked back, only to find that the post had been pushed two pages back due to the real-time influx of new posts.
With dual monitors surrounding her, Lee Jin-ah was caught between continuing to watch 「White Blood」 and managing the chaotic cafe.
They say life is the C between B and D.
B (Birth), D (Death), and C (Choice).
Lee Jin-ah, before being a manager, was just a fan.
There were only a few minutes left of the three episodes released this week.
“Ugh! I can’t resist this.”
Lee Jin-ah pressed the spacebar to resume the drama.
====
***
====
In a tattered state, Do-jin approached the gem emitting purple rays, swinging his sword wildly with his right hand while snatching the floating gem with his left.
Suddenly, the Alanines that had been desperately charging at him came to an abrupt halt, as if by magic.
The purple gem in his hand vibrated violently as if demanding to be released, emitting intense heat.
“Ugh!”
The vibration and heat were so intense that Do-jin dropped the gem.
The dropped gem emitted purple light rays in all directions, and the numerous Alanines, which had been frozen in place like statues, began to move again.
Flash─.
Then, the blue gem embedded in Do-jin’s sword emitted light and absorbed the energy emitted by the purple gem.
Click─.
And the purple gem naturally flew into the sword, embedding itself below the blue gem.
“Phew. Is it resolved? Damn, there were so many of them that my clothes got torn and I got wounded… Huh?”
Do-jin tilted his head in confusion.
Although he wasn’t seriously injured due to his strong physique, he had been pecked all over by the Alanines, but now all those numerous cuts had vanished in an instant.
“……”
The numerous pterosaurs looking at Do-jin with wide eyes weren’t an illusion.
If it were an illusion, then the fact that his uniform was torn wouldn’t make sense.
‘Then, what changed was…’
He looked at the pterosaurs again.
“Kik?”
The pterosaurs, which had charged at him as if to kill, now looked at Do-jin and tilted their heads like owls, as if they didn’t remember attacking him.
Then, Do-jin looked at the sword he was holding.
The handle’s upper part now clearly had the purple gem embedded alongside the blue gem.
“…So, the blue gem strengthens the sword, and the purple gem heals me?”