Super Genius DNA-Chapter 106: Laboratory One (8)

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The door of the safe opened. The bacteria was in a sealed tank containing liquid nitrogen, and it was sealed two more times with the casing Gil Hyung-Joon put on it. As Gil Hyung-Joon was about to take out the bacteria...

Slam!

The office door flew open. Kim Hyun-Taek appeared with an angry face. Beside him, Gil Hyung-Joon’s secretary stood beside him, flustered.

Gil Hyung-Joon was startled at first, but dropped his head like he was ashamed.

“Director Kim... I’m sorry.”

“...”

Kim Hyun-Taek glared at Gil Hyung-Joon silently, then walked right up to Young-Joon. Then, at that moment...

Paa!

Rosaline suddenly popped out and stood between them with her arms spread out like she was defending Young-Joon from something.

‘What?’

Young-Joon was more surprised by Rosaline’s reaction than Kim Hyun-Taek.

—Get out of here!

Rosaline shouted.

‘What is it? What are you doing all of a sudden?’

—It’s a pathogen. But I can’t figure out what it is.

‘A pathogen? Lab Director Kim Hyun-Taek is a pathogen?’

—A pathogen entered Kim Hyun-Taek’s body. I don’t know what it is for sure, but what I am sure of is that Kim Hyun-Taek is infected.

Young-Joon distanced himself from Kim Hyun-Taek slightly.

‘Can Director Gil or I get infected?’

—There is no pathogenic response from the aerosols coming out of his body right now. You won’t get infected because you’re here right now, but... It’s better if you leave this room. I’m worried.

‘I have to know Kim Hyun-Taek’s condition. I can’t leave by myself.’

—Then I’ll use some fitness.

Rosaline said as she glared at Kim Hyun-Taek

Pzzzzz.

Young-Joon’s fitness, which had recovered to five, began falling in seconds.

Rosaline looked through Kim Hyun-Taek’s entire body. His immune cells were running wild all over his body. If his body was a country, this was like a state of disaster; it was like a huge tsunami hit, or like ashes were pouring down all over the country due to a large volcano erupting. His immune cells couldn’t even clearly discern the enemy; they were just excited due to the emergency and were running around, destroying places at random. His organs were damaged in places, and internal bleeding was happening.

‘If he’s infected, is it anthrax?’

—No, it’s not a living thing. I would be able to feel it if it was a living thing.

‘He was healthy just a moment ago. Can this happen so suddenly?’

—That is also strange. However, it is certain that he will be in danger if this continues. We need to suppress the immune response first.

‘Wait... The black dot we saw during Simulation Mode... Is it that?’

—It could be.

‘Let’s check the infectiousness. Turn on Simulation Mode.’

—It is an unknown pathogen, so you may not be able to see it accurately. And you will not be able to see a wide range because you don’t have much fitness left.

‘Still, let’s try.’

[Activate Simulation Mode.]

With the message window, a shocking image appeared. The only range that could be observed with the remaining fitness for Rosaline was Gil Hyung-Joon’s office. Within that range. Kim Hyun-Taek appeared as a black dot. It was as dark as a black hole; compared to this, the Bacillus anthracis that was in the safe beside him was white. freewe bnovel .com

‘What is this...’

Gil Hyung-Joon approached Kim Hyun-Taek with caution.

“D-Director Kim... You don’t look so good...”

Kim Hyun-Taek ignored him and spoke to Young-Joon.

“Doctor Ryu, don’t touch anthracis. This is connected to the United States military. Just bury it as a secret. Don’t poke around.”

Blood trickled down from his nose.

“Director Kim! Your nose is bleeding!” Gil Hyung-Joon shouted in surprise.

Young-Joon slowly rose from his seat.

“You touched the cell line tanks downstairs. Did you touch something dangerous? What did you do? Tell me the truth,” Young-Joon said. 𝓯𝙧𝒆𝒆𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝓸𝓿𝒆𝓵.𝙘𝓸𝓶

“... I didn’t do anything. I haven’t been feeling well ever since meeting Doctor Ryu earlier,” Kim Hyun-Taek said as he wiped the nosebleed.

—He is not lying.

Rosaline said in a trembling voice.

—Ryu Young-Joon, I don’t have a good feeling about this. Get out of here.

Rosaline’s shoulders trembled slightly. She was terrified.

“Ugh...”

Kim Hyun-Taek suddenly grabbed his chest, then began coughing severely.

“Cough!!”

He coughed up a handful of blood. Then, he slid down and collapsed onto the floor. He was most likely unconscious. Gil Hyung-Joon’s secretary was calling 119.[1]

* * *

Young-Joon was watching the security camera footage from the CCTV in front of the Life Creation Department at Lab Six with Gil Hyung-Joon. Cameras weren’t installed inside the experiment lab, but there was footage of the front of the elevator and the hallway. Young-Joon was recorded getting on the elevator after meeting Kim Hyun-Taek in the experiment lab. As soon as the elevator began going up, Kim Hyun-Taek appeared in the hallway. He took out his phone and called someone for a while before shaking abruptly and dropping his cell phone. He coughed and flopped down, but managed to get up by using the wall and barely walked to the elevator. Kim Hyun-Taek had come to Gil Hyung-Joon’s office like that.

Knock knock.

Someone knocked on the office door. Nicholas came in with a serious face.

“Mr. CTO?”

Gil Hyung-Joon was surprised.

“Where is Director Kim?”

“He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance just a moment ago,” Young-Joon replied.

“What brings you here, Mr. CTO?”

“I got a call from Director Kim. He told me that Doctor Ryu knew about the anthracis and demanded to know whether I told him. Then, he began coughing severely and hung up, saying that he was feeling horrible,” Nicholas said.

He glanced at Young-Joon with a bitter face, then said, “Mr. Ryu, can I have a word with you outside?”

He went to the executives’ rest area and began talking.

“I heard that you already know quite a lot about the anthracis,” Nicholas said.

“I only know that it exists. They said it was a biological weapon,” Young-Joon replied. “Who told you?”

“I just happened to hear about it.”

“...”

Nicholas quietly stared at the side of Young-Joon’s face. He seemed to be focused on something and looked like he was lost in thought.

Nicholas smiled.

“You already don’t care about the anthracis.”

“Pardon?” “I heard that Director Kim collapsed.”

“... Yes.”

“You’re wondering what kind of disease would put someone in such a bad condition that they bleed and faint all of a sudden when they were completely healthy when you met them a couple hours ago?”

“Um...”

“That seems like you, Mr. Ryu. I came here to talk about the anthracis, but should we talk about it next time if there’s a lot on your mind?”

“... It’s alright. I will ask you something since you’re giving me the opportunity to. Were you involved in developing that?”

“No. It happened a long time before I came to A-Gen. I knew about it, but I kept it buried.”

“You can’t do that.”

“I know.”

Nicholas calmly nodded.

“Mr. Ryu, why don’t you leave this to me?”

“To you?”

“As you may already know, CEO Yoon is an old friend of mine. I have been recommending that he confess to all these illegal research projects.”

“...”

“It is something that I was going to take care of before I left the CTO position. Director Kim and CEO Yoon will all be punished for their part in the research.”

“Are you asking me to pretend I didn’t see it and wait? I cannot do that.”

“You are the new wind in science. In the past, there were a lot of people in the scientific community who wrote papers with experimental data that could not be reproduced and poor statistical methodology and committed fraud.”

“...”

“A lot of the time, science sought after money rather than the truth, and it sometimes combined with politics or ideologies and yielded horrendous results like the Holocaust or nuclear weapons. This bioweapon is one of them,” NIchoals said. “You have continuously fought against that, but honestly, I have always wanted you to use your strength to create something new rather than spend energy fighting those things. You are the future of the scientific community. I wish that you wouldn't dirty your hands with blood to fight with the powers in the messy past.”

“...”

“Even old people like me can clean up the past. However, the only person who can make the future is you, Mr. Ryu. You understand what I’m saying, right?”

Young-Joon frowned and thought about it hard.

“Mr. CTO, I do not enjoy fighting against huge powers like A-Gen’s management. Who in the world would like that? But the reason I have insisted on research ethics and conflicted with them is because it’s right. This isn’t something I can just turn a blind eye to. Troubles always happen afterwards if you don’t correct the wrongdoing in science early on.”’

“I know. I’m not asking you to ignore it. I am only asking you to let me finish it since my term as the CTO isn’t over yet.”

“...”

“I have only seeked honor when doing research. Please let me cleanse the dirty things with my own hands before I resign.”

After thinking about it, Young-Joon said, “Alright. Please make me a promise that Mr. Yoon, Kim Hyun-Taek, and those involved in this incident will be arrested before you leave your position.”

“I promise you.”

“Then I will leave it all to you, Mr. CTO. Since you are still the CTO and the chief officer, I think it’s right for you to finish this. However, I will keep an eye on this incident. If any problems arise, I will do it myself.”

“Alright. Thank you for understanding. I will repay this debt in the future.”

* * *

Kim Hyun-Taek’s condition was much worse than expected. He was declared brain-dead.

Young-Joon went to visit Kim Hyun-Taek and monitored his condition with Rosaline.

‘This guy. He was touching Rosaline v4.87?’

Young-Joon said to Rosaline.

‘He’s not going to get up all of a sudden and say that he can see messages or something, right?’

—Never.

Rosaline said, horrified.

—Creating life is not that easy. It is also not an event that can happen twice at the same time.

‘Really?’

—The point where the common ancestor for all living things on Earth appeared was 3.8 billion years ago. A new living thing has never been created during the 3.8 billion years. There is no way that it would be made twice in a year. It’s a miracle that I happened as well.

‘I guess the probability is too low.’

—And Kim Hyun-Taek is basically dead already. The machines are maintaining his breathing, but it will be difficult to cure him with current medicine.

‘And you can?’

—I don’t know. You don’t have enough fitness.

Rosaline popped out in the form of Ryu Sae-Yi, then climbed up onto Kim Hyun-Taek’s bed. She observed his face up close. She frowned.

—Ugh... There’s so much grease.

She quickly came down.

‘Do you have any predictions about what this disease could be?’

—I wouldn’t call it a prediction, but... Just IMO[2]

‘Where did you learn things like that?’

—I heard Park Dong-Hyun use it before.

‘... So, what do you think?’

—This is the pathogenicity of my existence that was created at the same time I was born.

Young-Joon squinted.

‘Pathogenicity?’

Young-Joon asked like he was confused.

‘What are you talking about? Explain it in detail. You’re pathogenic?’

—I am the second creature that has been created on this planet. It can be said that I am a competitor to all existing populations of life in that I have a completely different set of genes.

‘...’

—Let’s say that at the end of the Cretaceous period that reptiles dominated, a powerful competitor called mammals appeared.

Rosaline said.

—It’s a mouse fighting a T-Rex if you look at it closely, but from afar, it is a battle between a class called reptiles and a class called mammals. From a macro-perspective, all mammals are competitors to reptiles.

‘Hm...’

—This perspective may be awkward for humans as it is too vast. Anyways, from the point of my appearance, I became an enemy to all living things on Earth.

Rosaline said.

—But Ryu Young-Joon, reptiles are enemies to mammals, right?

‘That’s... true...’

—But why have I been cooperating with you to increase the lifespan of humans all this time? Mankind is the most powerful opponent among my enemies. I didn’t feel any aversions. Why was that? And the countless living things I have met did not show any signs of rejection towards me. That was also fascinating.

‘...’

—What if the pathogenicity I had separated and split off in the early stages of the mother cell development? What if that is the reason why the living things on this land do not recognize me as an enemy and I feel no aversion in helping you?

‘Then, that pathogenicity was left at the Life Creation Department and later infected Kim Hyun-Taek?’

—Yes. Because it is not a living thing but the property of causing diseases itself, it will just keep destroying everything.

‘I can’t really imagine it with the knowledge that I have.’

—Think of it as a Player of Life, not as a scientist.

‘And the Life Creation Department was used for a long time after you were created. No one had any problems.’

—I’m not sure of that. But since I kept growing, if we think that the pathogenicity has also grown...

Young-Joon rested his chin on his hand and became lost in thought. After contemplation, Young-Joon asked Rosaline a question.

‘If everything you said was right, can we cure Kim Hyun-Taek?’

—You don’t like him. You’re going to cure him?

‘I have to save him to make him take responsibility and get punished for the incident.’

—You’re not normal either.

Rosaline said like she was baffled.

1. 911 is 119 in Korea ?

2. IMO is an abbreviation for “in my opinion.” ?