Chapter 4: Scientist Ryu Young-Joon (4)

There were about eighty messages piled up. At the end of all those long messages, he could find these messages.

[Body normalization complete: 3h 44min.]

[All organs have been normalized to their optimal condition.]

[The expression level of CYP2E1 will be controlled continuously for 3 days.]

[Rosaline has broken down and destroyed the remaining 1.7 mg of Prednisolone and 22 mg of Pentoxifylline.]

[The liver is in optimal condition and does not require treatment.]

𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

This was everything. Young-Joon read all the messages, then closed all the windows and just left the status window open. He was confused, but he decided to focus on one category of the status window first.

[Gene Expression Control: Suppression of CYP2E1 Expression (44%)]

One cell in the human body contained around twenty thousand genes, and CYP2E1 was one of them. It was a gene that was involved in the detoxification of alcohol. If this gene worked well, alcohol could be broken down rapidly. Young-Joon’s liver had overworked this gene to detoxify the large amount of alcohol accumulated in his body due to drinking three bottles of soju every day during his one-month suspension.

Much like one’s arm muscles would grow if they lifted weights every day, a gene would also grow into a monster if it was overworked. The CYP2E1 gene in Young-Joon’s liver had become too powerful, and something being too powerful meant that it was harmful to the body. For example, someone who was using this gene too much could suffer a hemorrhage in their liver after taking a few tablets of Tylenol.

In fact, Antonio Benedi, from the Bush administration, who drank a glass of wine every night, had almost died because of that. He had fallen unconscious for a few days after taking the appropriate amount of Tylenol for his cold. That was why Rosaline had suppressed this gene; Young-Joon could have died after taking Tylenol because of a headache. Chills ran through his body now that he thought of it that way.

‘Let’s look at the messages again. The next message after everything about the levels and stuff.’

[You, the owner of Rosaline, can consume cell fitness to gain insight into processes of life or control the expression of genes.]

‘I can consume cell fitness to gain insight into processes of life or control gene expression?’

Young-Joon glared at Rosaline’s status window.

[Cell Fitness: 1.3]

Looking closely, Young-Joon could see a small gauge beside the number. The bar in the gauge kept getting longer, then returned to zero as soon as it reached the end.

[Cell Fitness: 1.4]

The fitness increased. The cell fitness value indicated how healthy the cell was: how strong the cell membrane was, whether the digestive organelles inside the cell were working properly, and if it was properly adhered to the plate if it was an adherent cell.

‘You’re saying I can use this fitness level?’

Young-Joon tried to find out how he could use it, but it wasn’t easy.

[Cell Fitness: 1.5 (MAX)]

Soon after, the fitness of the cell reached 1.5. The bar did not increase anymore; it seemed like the maximum amount of the cell fitness was 1.5.

“

Sigh.

”

Young-Joon thought his head was going to explode from the amount of stress he had been under.

‘Am I mentally ill?’

Young-Joon was a scientist inside and out. The most reasonable explanation for this situation was that the extreme stress he was under had created some sort of disorder in his brain, causing him to go crazy.

It was definitely a possibility. With the betrayal of his company and colleagues, a month of suspension and departmental transfer, the dreadful burden of his debt, and extreme depression, he must have felt like he deserved something after all this; his reward system was probably in play right now. Wanting compensation for his recent troubles was probably what was creating these hallucinations and fantasies.

[I am going to get a close examination tomorrow morning. I’m sorry. I will return as soon as possible.]

Young-Joon sent a text message to Park Dong-Hyun.

* * *

On Tuesday morning, Young-Joon visited the psychiatric ward. Although it had only been about thirty minutes after they opened, there was already a patient waiting. He was in very thin clothing for the cold winter weather. He was pale and drawn, but he was a large man; he was quite chubby and looked to be about one hundred ninety centimeters.

Young-Joon stood behind him and waited for a little while before checking in.

‘I can’t even see the nurse’s face because of this guy.’

As trivial thoughts were going through his head...

[Schizophrenia]

A message window suddenly appeared in front of the man’s back.

‘Schizophrenia?’

It was commonly known as the mind-splitting illness. It was one of the worst and most horrendous mental illnesses, even being nicknamed the “Cancer of the Mind”. It caused endless auditory and visual hallucinations, and people who suffered from it were known to do a variety of things when they were unconscious.

I keep seeing hallucinations of these messages... Do I have schizophrenia?’

Young-Joon smiled bitterly.

After waiting a little while, it was Young-Joon’s turn to check in.

“Hello, have you been here before?”

The nurse at the counter greeted him. Young-Joon could tell that she had a cold because of her nasal voice, seemingly caused by a stuffy nose.

‘The nurse has a cold and this patient has schizophrenia... It’s truly a general hospital.’

“It’s my first time here.” Young-Joon answered.

“Please fill this out.”

Sniffling, the nurse handed Young-Joon a small piece of paper. It had spaces for him to write his name, phone number, address, and a short medical history. As he was standing at the counter, filling it out, the nurse took out some cold medicine and swallowed it with a glass of water.

Bleep!

All of a sudden, a message popped up in front of his eyes.

[You can gain insight into the molecular biological phenomena using synchronization mode.]

[Synchronization Mode: Would you like to gain insight into the cold medicine? Fitness consumption rate: 0.1/second]

Young-Joon squinted his eyes. The button on the message was blinking as if it was prompting him to press it.

‘Alright, I’ll keep note of this and tell the doctor that I’m having hallucinations like this when I see him.’

However, at the same time, Young-Joon was intrigued. Then, he poked the synchronization mode with the tip of his finger.

[Activate Synchronization Mode: Gain insight into the cold medicine.

A message popped up.

Bzzz!

“Ugh.” Young-Joon groaned. He felt like electricity was running through his head.

[Fitness is quickly consumed in Synchronization Mode.]

[You can observe things happening in the microworld in units of ?ngstr?m (?), dalton (Da), and picoseconds (ps).][1]

[You can call upon any molecular biological phenomena and understand it intuitively in Synchronization Mode.]

Young-Joon could see an image of the cold medicine traveling into the nurse’s stomach. This medicine was an all-in-one cold medicine; it contained a number of different drugs to control the various reactions that would occur while removing the cold virus from her body.

Ibuprofen, a type of fever and pain medicine, began circulating in her body; her fever would come down soon. Her body temperature was at 37.4 degrees Celsius, a mild fever. The white blood cells in her body were tracking the cold virus and removing it.

However, her body temperature would fall one degree when the fever medicine began to work, and soon, the efficiency of her white blood cells would decrease by twenty-eight percent.

It also contained carbocysteine, an expectorant and an anti-inflammatory; it would remove phlegm and alleviate the pain from the cold by suppressing the reaction to the infection.

Next, it contained chlorpheniramine maleate, an antihistamine; it suppressed nasal blocking and mucus.

Lastly, it contained dihydrocodeine phosphate as an agent for airway dilation; it was good for stopping coughs.

However, Young-Joon could see more than that right now: the codeine was turning into morphine in the nurse’s body.

‘Morphine!’

It was a type of addictive drug.

Bleep!

[You have consumed half of your fitness.]

A message appeared. Young-Joon flinched, startled, then raised his head.

[Synchronization Mode finished.]

Then, the analysis of the cold medicine came to a stop automatically.

“...”

“Have you finished?” The nurse asked.

“Oh, give me a second.”

Young-Joon wrote the remaining information with a trembling hand and sat on the couch provided for patients to wait. He was lost in thought for a little bit, then chuckled.

‘Codeine turning into morphine... That makes no sense. Of course, I am crazy.’

Then, Young-Joon pulled out his phone and googled codeine.

[Dihydrocodeine medicine, Why?]

There was a news article about it.

“...?”

Thinking that there was no way, Young-Joon clicked on the article.

[The European Medicines Agency has banned the use of codeine-containing medicine in children. Following the recent discovery that codeine turns into morphine inside the body, there is no way of telling what kind of effect it will have on children.]

“It... It’s true?!”

Young-Joon was bewildered. It was something that he did not know, but he had figured it out after taking one look at the cold medicine.

‘Wait, I still can’t believe it.’

Young-Joon looked around. He wanted to try it one more time. If he could activate this [Synchronization Mode] anywhere he wanted...

[Schizophrenia]

Young-Joon stopped when he reached the schizophrenia patient.

[Synchronization Mode: Would you like to gain insight into schizophrenia? Fitness consumption rate: 0.2/second]

Young-Joon pressed the synchronization button.

Click.

The auditory hallucinations that the patient could hear began ringing in his head as well.

-Elvis ended up hitting Sammy at last. It is because you acted like an asshole.

-Hehehehehahahaha.

-Five. Twenty-three. Seven. Six. Forty. I’m behind you. No, not there, but beside. Yes, there... There’s a murderer there!

-I... miss you so much. I always think of you when I pass the cherry blossom tree and the lake we walked beside together.

-Cats. Books. The sole of a shoe. It’s stained. It’s dirty. Cat spit. Books. Ripped books. The sole of a shoe. It’s dirty.

-How did you find me? You’re looking inside my head right now, right? How did you get in?

Thud!

[Danger!]

[Synchronization Mode terminated.]

Young-Joon’s heart was pounding hard.

“

Wheeze... Wheeze...

”

It was shocking. Young-Joon had learned that this was the state that schizophrenia created. The sentences did not make sense at all. It was a completely random word vomit, but some of the thoughts made sense by chance.

‘Hearing auditory hallucinations like that would make a normal person go mad in a few days.’

Young-Joon calmed his breathing and read the message in front of him.

[You are a novice in using the Synchronization Mode. Rosaline is guiding you with your safety as the priority.]

[You heard the auditory hallucinations of a schizophrenic patient. Your heart rate increased significantly from experiencing too much of a new kind of stress.]

[Rosaline has stopped Synchronization Mode in concern for your health.]

[Press the button if you wish to resume.]

Young-Joon gulped and pressed the button. He could hear auditory hallucinations once again; in addition, he could now see other things as well, such as the patient’s brain. They were things that he could not pay attention to before because of the auditory hallucinations.

Young-Joon took a closer look. He could see that dopamine, a neurochemical used in signaling between neurons in the brain, was not functioning properly.

The patient was currently unconscious. He was epileptic and his hand was trembling. Too much neurotransmitter was being released from one part of his brain, including the temporal lobe, and it had paralyzed the brain. It was similar to when a city experienced a power outage due to a sudden surge of electricity.

Young-Joon was a scientist, not a doctor. He did not have the necessary knowledge to diagnose the man’s condition. However, all doctors did was produce diagnoses based on things like seizures and EEG data and treat what they thought was the problem. What Rosaline showed him was something much more clear and specific than that.[2]

‘A straight line is the closest distance between two dots.’

It was something that could be understood intuitively. Just like one did not need a mathematician to prove this axiom, Young-Joon also did not need a doctor to tell him what was going on.

‘This patient is in danger.’

1. The ?ngstr?m (?) is a unit of measurement equal to one ten-billionth of a meter, a dalton (Da) is a unit of mass equal to 1/12 of the mass of one carbon atom, and a picosecond (ps) is equal to a trillionth of a second. So... extremely small. ?

2. EEG is an acronym for electroencephalogram, a test that measures electrical activity in the brain. It is used to measure the communication between brain cells. ?