Chapter 239: Brain Death (4)

—Wait...

Rosaline flinched.

‘Why?’

—The cerebrospinal fluid is refluxing as the needle goes in. We can’t inject stem cells now.

‘What?’

Surprised, Young-Joon checked the monitor again. A machine called a dynamic digital radiography took pictures of his nose and upper eyes, sending those pictures to the monitor. It could zoom in on a very small area and take high-resolution images, even the space between the olfactory bulb and the cribriform plate, but there was one problem: the flow of the liquid was not measured accurately.

Normally, the chances of something going wrong with such a tiny microneedle were very slim, but they hit the jackpot with extremely bad luck.

“Damn it.”

Young-Joon took a closer look after Rosaline mentioned it, and now he could see it, too. In Synchronization Mode, he could see the cerebrospinal fluid flowing in the opposite direction at a very slow speed.

“Wait, stop!” Young-Joon shouted.

If the stem cells were injected now, they were going to reflux and not travel to the subventricular zone. It didn’t matter if they ended up in the wrong place, as these stem cells had the same safety mechanism in place as the glaucoma treatment, but failing the experiment was problematic in many ways.

“Stop?”

Miguel stopped the injection and turned to Young-Joon.

“The volume of that needle might have caused the cerebrospinal fluid to reflux. It should return to normal in a moment. Let’s wait for thirty seconds.”

—We can’t.

Rosaline intervened from the side.

‘We can’t?’

—There are only eighty thousand stem cells left in that syringe.

‘...’

—There is a lot left because we stopped the injection quickly, but we need the twenty thousand we lost. The medulla will be recovered with that amount, but the treatment will only get Kim Hyun-Taek into a vegetative state. We can’t do that difficult procedure twice.

Rosaline explained to Young-Joon.

‘But...’

—I’ll go.

Rosaline jumped up to the vent.

‘Rosaline?’

—Don’t worry.

She moved straight for the air filter connected to the operating room.

Sterile HEPA filters used air decompression and airflow to prevent foreign particles from entering the operating room. The airflow was powerful enough to keep out most dust, bacteria, and viruses.

But not to Rosaline.

—The wind is quite strong.

‘It cycles over twenty times an hour, since it’s a high-risk surgery that involves the brain. You can still stop and come back.’

—It’s alright.

Rosaline flew straight through the fierce gust of wind that rushed in from the front. Ironically, Rosaline had infiltrated the operating room through the air purification system designed to keep the outside out.

—I’m going into this man’s body twice.

Rosaline then entered Kim Hyun-Taek’s nostrils, crossed the squamous mucosa and the superior nasal concha, and reached the olfactory epithelium.

—I’ve arrived.

She stuck her head through the gap between the cribriform plate and checked the flow of the cerebrospinal fluid. It was flowing very slowly, like a sticky, viscous liquid, out of the subventricular zone in the opposite direction. It was full of induced pluripotent stem cells.

Rosaline dived into the cerebrospinal fluid. It was a tiny amount of fluid flowing through the lymphatic vessels, barely visible to the human eye, but it was like a mighty river to the cells.

Rosaline swam against the cerebrospinal fluid that was flowing in the opposite direction, dodging the stem cells floating around her.

—The cerebrospinal fluid is produced in the central cerebral aqueduct called the choroid plexus. It’s a type of venous plexus in the fourth ventricle.

Rosaline explained to Young-Joon.

—And the choroid plexus also regulates the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. Since our destination is below the fourth ventricle, I’m going to hit the ventricle.

Rosaline was right in front of the choroid plexus. She placed her hand on the tissue and used her fitness.

—Overexpression of CSFF1.

—Overexpression of CSFF2/3.

The triggered genes made several biopolymers, which burst out and mixed into the cerebrospinal fluid. They stuck to the lymphatic vessels, which the cerebrospinal fluid was flowing through, and began to regulate it.

Krrr...

Rosaline could feel the wave of fluid rushing in her direction from the far end.

—It’s done. Tell him to inject it again.

Rosaline told Young-Joon.

“I think it’s okay now. Let’s do the injection again,” Young-Joon said.

And in his head, Young-Joon spoke to Rosaline.

‘But are you okay? You have to get out now.’

—The flow of the cerebrospinal fluid will get in the way, but I went through the HEPA filter

Rosaline shrugged like it was nothing.

She could feel tremendous biopressure from where the cerebrospinal fluid was coming from. Eighty thousand stem cells, injected by the microneedle, were being pushed this way by the flow of the fluid.

—I’m going back now.

Rosaline tried to move back across the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, and at that moment... An accident that neither of them could have predicted opened.

—Oh...

Rosaline halted.

A massive surge of ATP was washing over her. The differentiation of stem cells to repair the brainstem relied on large amounts of ATP. But this much this fast?

—This is...

‘What?’

Young-Joon could see Rosaline’s fitness spiking through the status window.

—I can’t control the fitness. There’s too much ATP that...

Rosaline began cutting out.

—Ryu Young-Joon! Help me...

Bleep!

Boom!

The message window disappeared. A rush of cerebrospinal fluid swept over Rosaline.

“We’re done,” Miguel said.

“...”

Young-Joon froze, speechless.

“Doctor Ryu?” Carpentier said, standing beside him.

“Yes,” Young-Joon said. “Good work... Thank you, everyone. Let’s clean up and get some rest.”

* * *

Rosaline sat in the subventricular zone and thought. She didn’t expect the ATP to spike so quickly. Most of the tissue in the subventricular zone was already dead. When she looked at it in Synchronization Mode, she definitely thought she had plenty of time to escape.

‘When exploring the root of life, can something happen that even I can’t predict?’

Rosaline looked at the rapidly growing stem cells.

‘Or did something happen to my powers because I absorbed the pathogen’s DNA?’

Rosaline stood up and sent Young-Joon a message.

“Ryu Young-Joon!”

But he didn’t respond. It seemed like their connection was severed.

Rosaline took a closer look at the pathogen’s DNA.

DNA was the language of molecular biology. Like the code of a computer program, it contained key information about the encoded genes.

Rosaline turned on the genes inside the DNA, then dropped them outside the cell.

‘Oh.’

Rosaline understood the situation and nodded.

‘I wasn’t wrong.’

The difference between a fertilized egg and a stem cell was that stem cells were pluripotent, meaning that they could differentiate into any type of cell.

However, implanting a stem cell in a woman’s uterus did not result in a baby; a fertilized egg had more power.

A fertilized egg was totipotent, not pluripotent. It could produce stem cells that could differentiate into all human cells, and it could also produce a placenta. The placenta was attached to the wall of the uterus and collected the mother’s nutrients to feed it through the umbilical cord. The power to suck nutrients from the world was totipotence, and the DNA of the pathogen had this power.

‘No wonder Kim Hyun-Taek’s body was destroyed because of this.’

This was not a disease-causing pathogen, like a virus or bacteria, but a rampaging force that was absorbing the world’s energy to create new life.

The huge amount of energy was stored in the pathogen as ATP, which reacted when Rosaline entered the body.

‘Because this DNA and the energy it contains were mine.’

Now that Rosaline knew why this happened, she knew how to get out.

Rosaline triggered the pathogen’s genes.

* * *

“Doctor Ryu?”

Song Ji-Hyun was surprised to see Young-Joon. He had shown up to the Next Generation Hospital at this late hour. And he had a stern expression on his face.

“You didn’t leave yet, Doctor Song?” Young-Joon asked.

“Yes... Something might happen to Kim Hyun-Taek while I’m gone.”

“Nothing will happen at least until the morning. We’re using an fMRI to measure cerebral blood flow, so it’ll be okay,” Young-Joon said “The medical staff at the hospital all went home except for the people on-call, so you can go home now.”

“Sure, but a little bit later,” Song Ji-Hyun said.

The two sat down next to the hospital bed where Kim Hyun-Taek was lying and remained silent for a while.

“It’s ironic, isn’t it?” Song Ji-Hyun said.

“What is?”

“Your demotion and legendary success started when Kim Hyun-Taek destroyed Cellicure, and I was the developer of Cellicure. I think we were probably the two people who hated Kim Hyun-Taek the most in the world.”

Song Ji-Hyun chuckled.

“But now, we’re sitting here side by side, watching Kim Hyun-Taek’s progress. I find this situation weird and strange.”

“...”

Young-Joon nodded.

“The department I was in was the Life Creation Department. At first, I thought it was a really nerdy name. Creating life? It’s like building castles in the air.”

“It is something that sounds more like religion than science,” Song Ji-Hyun replied. “Looking back on it now, it seems like one huge metaphor, life creation or brain death.”

Young-Joon said, “Kim Hyun-Taek was just one of many villains in this industry. Science has been the servant of the powerful, working to fool the public and protect vested interests.”

“...”

“Recently, one of my teachers told me that anything with the word ‘scientific’ in it becomes more credible, and it’s true. In any case, the development of new technology advances civilization, but it only distributes the technology, not the science. The world has been missing a few screws for a long time, and it wasn’t safe.”

Young-Joon let out a small sigh.

“Doctor Ryu, you may think I’m too obsessed with research ethics, but I think science without ethics is akin to brain death.”

“Yes..”

“And we’ve been resurrecting it in the scientific community for a while. Just like how I made stem cells in the Life Creation Department, A-Bio or Celijenner may be the stem cells that will bring the scientific community back to life.”

“That’s very metaphorical.”

“There’s nothing more literary than science.”

Young-Joon grinned.

“And I lost that symbol today.”

“Pardon?”

“My favorite friend disappeared today.”

“They disappeared?”

“They’re missing. They were a really good person.”

“Oh...”

Song Ji-Hyun was flustered.

“You did look depressed when you came in earlier.”

“Did I?”

“Yes.”

“... Doctor Song, could you bring me a warm cup of water?” Young-Joon asked.

“Of course. Just a minute.”

When Doctor Song stepped outside, Young-Joon stood up. He pulled out a sterilized iron canister from his pocket.

Click.

He opened the lid, and there was a fine needle inside. It was just the pin part of the syringe.

Young-Joon picked it up and walked over to Kim Hyun-Taek.

[Activate Synchronization Mode]

Rosaline didn’t reply since she disappeared, but the feature was alive and well. All he needed to do was stick the pin he had into the subventricular zone. If Rosaline was stuck there, he could pull her back out with this.

“...”

Young-Joon’s hand trembled.

‘Was this a really good idea? Was this okay? Would this hurt Kim Hyun-Taek? Will the treatment fail?’

All sorts of worries went through his mind.

Rosaline was his savior who had helped him devotedly, and Kim Hyun-Taek was the villain who had demoted him to exile. Did it make sense to hesitate in this situation because he was worried about Kim Hyun-Taek? Especially when he was basically a corpse?

“...”

Young-Joon’s fingers were sweaty. He breathed heavily as he stared at the analyzed subventricular zone and the route leading to it in Synchronization Mode.

Clatter.

He finally put the needle down. This was against bioethics.

Tears formed in Young-Joon’s eyes.

“

Sigh...

”

He took a deep breath.

‘Rosaline is in a difficult situation, and I can’t even help her?’

Young-Joon clenched his fists tightly.

“Who’s helping who?”

“Ack!”

Young-Joon screamed and fell to the floor when he heard a voice from behind him.

Rosaline was sitting in the guardian’s chair, smiling cutely.

“Why... Why are you naked?” Young-Joon asked.

“Because the clothes I’ve been wearing are remnants of what Ryu Sae-Yi was wearing in your trauma.”

Rosaline jumped out of the chair.

Thud!

They could hear the sound of a nine-year-old child’s foot hitting the floor of the hospital room.

“Ahh!”

Rosaline shuddered at the feeling.

“...”

For a moment, Young-Joon’s brain stopped working.