“So Philistines entered the botulinum toxin market similar to when Woongdam Pharmaceuticals did?” Young-Joon asked.

“Are you suspicious of Philistines?” Hong Myung-Woon asked.

“Yes.”

“It’s not them. We’ve already looked into that.”

“How do you know it wasn’t them?”

“Because there’s no connection between us. Most of the employees there are Arab, and they only have a few people who speak English, even at this point,” Hong Myung-Woon said. “When they first started out four years ago, they probably only had around ten employees. So to fly all the way from there to Korea and come to LifeToxin, one of the biggest pharma…”

Hong Myung-Woon paused. He glanced at Young-Joon timidly, then continued.

“Um… A mid-sized pharma company, and steal a stock of the

botulinum

strain? It’s impossible. I admit that our company’s security isn’t that great, but it’s not completely flawed.”

“You said Asham, the delivery company, goes in and out of there?” Young-Joon asked.

“No, Asham is…”

Hong Myung-Woon opened his mouth to say something but stopped.

Hesitantly, he said, “It can’t be. The head of Asham basically runs his company almost as a hobby.”

“As a hobby?” Young-Joon asked.

“He’s a Saudi prince. He wasn’t just born with a silver spoon; he was born with a diamond spoon in his mouth… That’s who Abdul Asham, the CEO of Asham, is,” Hong Myung-Woon replied.

“I see.”

“There’s no way someone like that would have ordered his employees to steal a strain from someone else’s company in Korea.”

“Maybe the delivery person just stole it because they got money from Philistines.”

“No way. It’s too big of a crime for an ordinary person to commit. Most of the delivery people are simple people who don’t have a high school education and are just trying to feed their families by making deliveries. What would those people have to gain by doing something crazy like that? Philistines probably didn’t have the money to do that when they founded the company.”

Hong Myung-Woon waved his hand in doubt.

“Was the strain that was stolen stored in liquid nitrogen?” Young-Joon asked.

“Yes.”

“...”

It definitely wasn’t a crime that just anyone could pull off. It wasn’t even about getting through security; it was difficult because they had to find and take out an extremely toxic bacterial strain in a liquid nitrogen tank, store it so that there was no infection or bacterial death, and then take it back to the Middle East. It definitely wasn't something that an ordinary person could do, but it seemed pretty likely that the strain had made its way to Philistines.

‘Then maybe…’

“Asham is an international transport company, so they probably have a lot of different ethnicities, right?” Young-Joon asked.

“Yes, they do,” Hong Myung-Woon said.

Young-Joon nodded.

“Alright. Thank you, Mr. Hong.”

“But this strain’s DNA data… Did you send it to Woongdam Pharmaceuticals already?” Hong Myung-Woon asked. “If you haven’t, I would like to contact them now so that we can finalize the lawsuit and wrap it up…”

“I already sent it.”

“... I see.”

“Yeah. It’s going to break your bank a little, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”

* * *

After Hong Myung-Woon left, Young-Joon received Prime Minister Felus’ contact information from Kim Young-Hoon and called him himself.

—Hello?

“Hello, this is Ryu Young-Joon.”

—Mr. Ryu!

“I heard from Mr. Kim that he asked you to look into a scientist named Isaiah Franklin in and around Egypt.”

—Yes.

“Have you found anything?”

—I couldn’t find a link between her and Philistines. Isaiah Franklin joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and engaged in terrorist activities, but it’s hard to trace her from that point on.

“Is there any record of her before that?”

—Not in Egypt, but… Well, it might not matter, but there’s a record of her working in Saudi before.

“In Saudi Arabia?”

—She worked at Asham, an international transport company.

“Did you check her employment records?”

—No. We asked the employees at Asham headquarters if they knew about Isaiah Franklin, and they said they did.

“Really?”

—It’s a company with a lot of foreigners, but it’s rare to see a young, blond, white woman. It’s a very male-dominated industry to begin with, so you don’t see a lot of women working in transport and distribution. Isaiah Franklin worked there for a few months, and apparently, she was quite famous among the locals.

“Oh…”

Young-Joon rubbed his forehead in thought.

—And I’m not sure about this, but I heard that Isaiah Franklin was very close with Abdul Asham, the owner of Asham.

“Really?”

—Yes. She used to ride around in his car, and Abdul pulled some strings to get her a job. It’s not a publicly traded company, just an oil tycoon’s hobby, so he could do whatever he wanted.

“Alright. Thank you, that was very helpful,” Young-Joon said.

—Um… When can we start the brain death clinical trial?

“I was told that the Next Generation Hospital is in the process of scheduling the traveling doctors. They will probably contact you by the end of the week with a confirmed date.”

—Thank you.

“And I think I will accompany them,” Young-Joon said.

—You will also come?

“Yes. Professor Miguel is not here, so I am going because they will be using a different technology to inject stem cells into the subventricular zone.”

—I see. Thank you.

Young-Joon then hung up the phone.

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

—You’re not going because of the stem cell injection but because of Philistines, right?

Rosaline sent him a message.

“Yeah,” Young-Joon said. “I’m going to go and get Doctor Ref.”

—But she’ll be hiding, and Philistines will pretend not to know.

“We’ll turn Asham upside down,” Young-Joon said. “I’m going to get Doctor Ref there, and when I confirm that they took the strain, I’m going to contact the CEO of LifeToxin and have him sue Philistines.”

—So the reward for Woongdam Pharmaceuticals will come out of Philistines’ pocket.

Young-Joon picked up the phone and called the secretary’s office.

—Yes, this is Yoo Song-Mi.

His secretary, Yoo Song-Mi, picked up the phone.

“Secretary Yoo, please contact the public relations office right now and send them a press release saying that Lab Seven of A-GenBio has created an incredible item.”

—An incredible item?

“It’s a next-generation power generation system that is sustainable, pollution-free, consumes less land area, and can be moved from region to region since it’s easy to install and disassemble.”

—Pardon?

“Tell them we are revealing the chlorophyll solar cells,” Young-Joon said.

* * *

CERN, or the European Organization for Nuclear Research, was located on the border between Geneva, Switzerland, and France. It was basically the heart of the physics community, and it was the largest particle physics laboratory in the world.

In mid-January of this year, Doctor Piviroba, a world-renowned nuclear physicist and a Nobel laureate, received a letter from the Nobel Prize committee asking him to nominate a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Physics. Piviroba nominated Young-Joon for the prize.

“He’s a biologist, you idiot.”

Harrington, his fellow scientist, scoffed at the absurdity of his recommendation.

“But there aren’t any other good people, so there’s nothing I can do,” Piviroba replied, laughing.

“What did you write as the reason for the nomination?” Harrington asked.

“For figuring out how to track glucose protons with the MRI.”

It was the method Young-Joon used to find cancer cells that had metastasized in Lee Yoon-Ah, the liver cancer patient.

“Do you honestly think that’s an item worthy of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics?”

“Not really, but… Ah, I don’t know. The nineteenth century was the age of physics, the twentieth century was the age of chemistry, and the twenty-first century is the age of biology. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has already been taken over by biology a long time ago. It’s time for physics to join forces with biology now,” Piviroba said. “This could be the start of that. There aren’t any other good candidates, do we?”

This conversation was held on a snowy morning in January. Up until this point, Piviroba didn’t think Young-Joon could actually win the Nobel Prize in Physics. His nomination was a playful rebellion and warning to the physics community, which was slowly falling into a mannerism.

But now, Piviroba didn’t know anymore.

Piviroba, who stopped by the coffee shop on the ground floor of CERN on his way to work in the morning, saw a shocking news report on the TV.

[A-GenBio invents chlorophyll solar cells]

‘Is that the chlorophyll I know?’

Piviroba took out his phone, his eyes narrowed. His hands were trembling. He hadn’t even taken a look at it properly, but he felt like he already knew what kind of crazy invention this was. The scientists in the break all had a look of horror on their faces.

Piviroba checked the news on his phone.

[CEO Ryu Young-Joon promises to make electricity a public good as common as air.]

[It will be possible to replace all power plants with solar cells if ESS systems are widely deployed and the generated power is stored.]

[The power generation efficiency relative to land consumption of chlorophyll solar cells is twelve times that of existing technology. At one hundred square meters per 1 MW, it is the highest efficiency of any power plant in existence.]

[A-GenBio succeeds in making chlorophyll, which replaces silicon, lightweight so that it can be loaded into a vehicle and used as a mobile solar cell.]

[Unlike conventional solar cells, it absorbs light at almost all wavelengths, with nearly one hundred percent energy conversion and no heat island effect.]

[It is highly likely that chlorophyll solar cells will permanently phase out fossil fuels from power plants.]

[Once installed, they are semi-permanent, requiring no further expenditure…]

“... What the hell is this…?” Piviroba muttered, looking dumbfounded.

Clang!

A sharp noise came from behind Piviroba. Harrington dropped the jar of jam he was holding to spread jam on his toast. He was also watching the news on his phone, which was in his hand.

“They made a solar cell? A pharmaceutical company? And the efficiency… What is…”

* * *

Electricity generation was the backbone of many other industries. As such, it was often run directly by governments or managed by state-owned enterprises in most countries.

A-GenBio mass-produced the chlorophyll solar cells and distributed them to governments around the world. It was a promotion for prototype testing targeting governments.

Compared to thermal power plants, these solar cells produced zero pollution and required less land area; compared to hydro or wind power, it was less location-specific than hydro or wind power; compared to nuclear power, it was completely risk-free.

It had the highest energy conversion efficiency of any power plant; it was the cheapest to install and maintain; it was semi-permanent and required no additional resources; it could be installed, dismantled, and moved; it could be used on a smaller scale depending on the number of modules; it could be personalized; and it was lightweight and stable…

“Simply put, it’s superior in every way for every power plant.”

David, the CEO of Conson & Colson, was astounded as he read the newspaper.

“Ha. Is he Pikachu or something? He just pulled electricity out of his pocket like it was nothing.”

David folded the newspaper and threw it aside.

“Our neighborhood monster is taking over the neighborhood next door,” said Benter, the CTO.

“No. Doctor Ryu is focused on biology. This is going to be something medical,” David said. “If he were to do something with this…”

As a representative in the pharmaceutical industry, David knew what it meant to make solar cells lightweight and maximize their efficiency so they were portable.

“They’ll probably use it to make a cold chain,” David said. “Will he sell the solar cells to a company like Asham, or will they monopolize them and start their own cold chain transportation business… I wonder how they will use their power.”