Part 46: Truth Unveiled

The investigation is on TV!
So, it's finally begun!

Reporter: "I'm Will Anderson, reporting live from the Hands of Asclepius headquarters. Police will be arriving soon to conduct an investigation of the charges filed against the HOA. Both the HOA and Acropolis Pharmaceutical are being indicted for violating international law. This news has shocked many, as they played a major role in averting medical terrorism."

Fun fact: the MC in Miracle Surgery was Richard Anderson. Coincidence?

Yeah, I'm sure no one anticipated this.

Reporter: "The police have just stepped inside the building... Yes, it appears the investigation is underway! The officials don't appear to be encountering any resistance, so things should continue smoothly. But, behind the agents we do have what appears to be an entire staff of medical advisors. This is likely a safety measure being taken to caution against any potential GUILT threats."

...It's Derek and the others... They're putting themselves in danger again...
I just hope everybody stays safe...



...It must have been very hard on you.
Yes, but I'm glad that this day has finally come. Angie, I'm sorry. I've been deceiving you all along...
...... Your actions were very brave, Father. I'm not bitter in the slightest.
But Professor, what convinced you to take on a task like this?
I knew from the start that it would be a dangerous gamble... But, I also knew that this was the only way to solve the mystery of the GUILT inside Emilio Juarez.
You've had your doubts since way back then?
Yes. Victor and I were researching it from all possible angles...And we arrived at a conclusion we could not dismiss. The key was Emilio's new liver. It was the most likely source of the new GUILT. We figured it had been tampered with, as well as the test results. The organ was supplied by Acropolis, to whom Elysium had outsourced their testing... So, in order to get closer to them, I accepted the offer made by the Hands of Asclepius.


We never see Nous' benefits, but from that exchange and Emilio's operation it's probably something about improving cognitive function.

I see...
I had believed that I would find a Delphi agent among them... But it ended up being Acropolis that was responsible for all the illegal activity. Who would've thought that GUILT was the driving force behind the HOA ability enhancement program?
When did you realize that, Father?
I caught on when cases of the new GUILT started being reported to the Hands of Asclepius. The information came directly to us, through Acropolis's marketing network. None of the reports specified that those cases were GUILT-related... But it was clear to our eyes. It was a horrifying realization.
We're working on a countermeasure for the new GUILT back at Caduceus.
I'm glad to hear that. It's the HOA doctors who are in the most danger. The new GUILT controls the nervous system, and denatures the brain. Its effects could be perceived as beneficial, but if it were to become malignant--



What's wrong!?
We've found a potential GUILT victim!
...We'll be right there! I knew this wasn't gonna go smoothly!
Let's hurry, Dr. Stiles!



Urgh... My... head...!
Stop struggling, sir! You have to calm down! These men were struck by a sudden onset of pain!
Dr. Stiles...! Those men on the floor... They're HOA doctors!
My head... My head!!! Aghhh!
This must be what Professor Blackwell was talking about!
Ngh... It hurts...! Ughh... *collapses*
Doctor! What are your orders!?
We need to treat them immediately! Anyone without protective gear has to stand back!

HOA Doctor: "Ugh... ah... my... head..."

There doesn't appear to be any external damage to his head.
His breathing and heartbeat aren't impaired... Could it be his brain?
We'll need a CT scan of his head. He also needs a sedative, as soon as possible. There's a high probability he's suffering GUILT-induced brain trauma.
Professor... Angie, let's get to the facility examination rooms!
Yes, Dr. Stiles!

Operation Video


Aneurysms. Yay.

...Wait, why does it say 10 minutes?

The shadows on his brain indicate aneurysms! They must be causing the pain!
This will be an open-skull surgery... Let's be careful; we don't know how GUILT is affecting his system.
We have to hurry, Doctor. Cerebral hemorrhage has been detected. The patient may suffer any number of irreversible side effects if we don't treat him quickly. There are two objectives for this operation:

• Stop the brain's hemorrhaging.
  
• Excise the aneurysms and suture the blood vessels.

We'll be operating on three patients in a row.





Three aneurysm patients.

In a row.

Within 10 minutes.





Since we're operating on the brain, we don't have to do the incision and suture. That's nice.

Let's get started. We have several operations to perform, so try to work efficiently.



Here's a reminder of how aneurysms work: the aneurysm will steadily grow and it'll burst if it gets too large. Injecting the sedative will make it smaller. Once it's small enough, we can cut and remove it.

Removing the aneurysm will eliminate the risk of it bursting. A burst aneurysm doesn't need to be injected/cut/removed, but it'll tank our vitals by 20. Somehow still not as much as a burst blood pocket/hematocele.



We can then drain the blood pools, reconnect the blood vessels, and suture them together. It might just be me, but it feels like the suturing here is very finicky. Much more finicky than our first aneurysm operation.

By the way, if you get an aneurysm small enough for cutting but let it grow back you'll get a guaranteed Bad for the suturing. This probably also applies if you drain the blood but let it reform, but I'm too to check.

Total Aneurysm: 2

We've treated everything in our view, but aneurysms have formed over a wider area. Use the magnification tool to search for the others.



Aneurysms come in waves, with the second and final waves appearing only after everything before them have been treated. You might read that sentence thinking that "the second wave is the final one", but "the second wave is NEVER the final one" is a lot more accurate.

Total Aneurysm: 4



The rest of the waves appear after an aneurysm from the wave right before it is reconnected (but not sutured).

Total Aneurysm: 6



...I honestly don't remember why I bothered raising vitals here. Time is very precious in this operation, and you really don't have the luxury of raising vitals for the first two patients.

All aneurysms have been treated! We're done with this patient!

Angie, didn't you listen to what I said? The final wave ALWAYS appear once everything else have been treated.



Yeah, that's what I thought

The final wave likes to throw a bunch of aneurysms at once. To prevent them from bursting, we have to cut all of them before finish treating them. If you try to fully treat them before moving on, they WILL burst.

Total Aneurysm: 10 (there's one more barely visible on the left).

...The aneurysms have stopped forming. This patient should be alright now. You're working at a good pace. Please keep it up as we move to the next patient.

You got all that? Do you understand how aneurysms work now? I hope you do, because that operation is the warm up



A number of enlarged aneurysms have been confirmed... Please treat them in the same manner as the normal ones. But, you'll have to be careful... When the larger ones are excised, the blood vessels separate, making anastomosis more difficult. That means we'll have to use synthetic blood vessels to connect them.

Enlarged aneurysms (hereby called 3neurysms) are a lot more pain in the ass than regular ones even though they're still much better than their NB version. They'll take longer to burst, but it can go to absurdly large sizes such that you'd need 5 full syringes to make them small enough for cutting. This aspect isn't present in NB.

They also has a special 3-pronged synthetic vessel, where we have to suture each of those prongs. In NB, we have to rotate the synthetic vessel before placing it so the orientation'll match up with the blood vessels. They'll also randomly start bleeding and tank our vitals. I'm very thankful this game doesn't follow that.

Total Aneurysm: 12

Treatment is complete for the area in view. ...But, just like the last patient, the aneurysms have formed over the entire brain. Let's use the magnification tool to find them. Hurry, Doctor!



You might notice that the picture quality is pretty throughout this operation. The reason for that is because I fucked up during the resizing process and I lost both the original pictures and footage

I'm too to recapture the screenshots and resizing them properly for hopefully obvious reasons, so . The video's perfectly fine, though.

Total Aneurysm: 15



At least you get a better experience of how bad this operation is!

Aneurysm Count: 17



Here's your look at the synthetic vessel. The suturing is even more finicky than usual.

Aneurysm Treated: 18

Treatment of all aneurysms is complete. But knowing what happened with the last patient... To be on the safe side, we should wait a moment or two.

Angie is learning!



For this part, we have two choices:

• Let the 3neurysms burst, which we'll survive if we start this final wave with at least 70 vitals. This option will save time so you can go for the "under 7 minutes" bonus. However, it'll make us lose the "no bursts", so you're not getting an XS this way.
  
• Use HT and treat the aneurysms leisurely. This gives you a fighting chance at getting XS, but the third patient will be much harder.
  
• Neither. This method involves you going frantically back and forth until you suddenly realize that the 3neurysms just grow way too fast.

I'm sure you can see which option I've chosen.

Aneurysm Treated: 22

There are no more signs of aneurysms. All treatments are complete as well. You're on a roll! Let's keep it up for the next patient!



Pus has formed in the affected areas! ...Tumors have been confirmed as well.
We'll need to treat the tumors as well as the aneurysms. But, we can't ignore the pus and inflammations either... Let's do this, Doctor!



Yep. Now we're dealing with aneurysms AND tumors

Aneurysm Treated: 24
Tumors Treated: 2

Treatment of this area is complete. But, I think we should perform a thorough search on this patient as well. Please look for other affected areas with the magnification tool.



At least there's no 3neurysms and small tumors this time. I can totally see NB heaping all of them at us simultaneously.

Aneurysm Treated: 26
Tumors Treated: 3



As usual, the aneurysms come in waves. However, I don't know if the tumors do too. I think the only operations so far where tumors come in waves are the ones where the drain broke.

Aneurysm Treated: 27
Tumors Treated: 4



Speaking of that operation, I probably could've made a tally of how many blood pools appear in that operation. Oh well.

Aneurysm Treated: 29
Tumors Treated: 5

Treatment of aneurysms and tumors is complete. We can't let our guard down, though. If this is anything like the last two patients, the possibility that more may form is--

--is pretty much guaranteed.



Aaand that's the usual "No Miss" bonus gone. Great.



Anyway, this final stretch drains vitals very quickly, which is why some people prefer to use it here.

Aneurysm Treated: 33
Tumors Treated: 8







Even with 33 aneurysms (), this is defintely much more enjoyable than that door operation, though.

And despite everything I said in this update, this operation is nowhere near top 5 hardest operations to pass. To XS is a different story, though



How foolish. They were trying to hide their symptoms with medicine that hadn't even been finished. They must have known the risk of triggering GUILT...
All of these people just wanted to improve their skills as doctors...
Don't worry, Angie. I'm sure that once this is over, they'll be able to get themselves back on track.
Yes... But this won't end until we find the man who led them astray... Patrick Mercer.

Well that was a hard operation. I remember people saying aneurysms are unfair because they don't know that the aneurysms won't burst once you cut them. So they fully treat one aneurysm before moving on with the next.

I wonder how that people will fare in this operation? Seems like it'd be impossible, wouldn't it? Let's find out!

I think it's the only time I ever got a C in this LP :v: