Chapter 9: Treating the Flu (1)

“Haha!” Choi Myung-Joon laughed out loud.

“Oh, did you really create life or something?”

“Ahahaha!”

The scientists who gathered around to watch the situation burst out in laughter.

‘Well, actually, I really did create life, but that’s different since I can’t prove it.’

“I will do that for you next time,” Young-Joon said.

“If the Life Creation Department didn’t create life, what are you so confident about?”

“We will win the Award for Exceptional Performance at this year’s seminar.”

“...”

Everyone went dead silent as if someone had thrown cold water on them. Even Choi Myung-Joon was dumbfounded at how confident Young-Joon was. It would be surprising if they won something just within Lab Six, but he was saying that the Life Creation Department was going to present the best results among all the labs at A-Gen.

“Are you serious?” Choi Myung-Joon asked Young-Joon.

“Why would I bluff when I have to show what I have in two weeks?”

“You. Did something go wrong in your brain because of what happened in the Anticancer Drug Research Department?”

“You’ll see for yourself in two weeks at the seminar.”

“Ha! Alright. I look forward to it.”

“You can’t just end it there. Get the footage and apologize.”

“You already know that this isn’t about the spilled food anymore. See you in two weeks. If you really win something, we will apologize

and

give Koh Soon-Yeol money for dry cleaning.”

Young-Joon glanced at Koh Soon-Yeol’s shirt. To be honest, it looked like something he would have bought for five thousand won at the flea market or something.

“Soon-Yeol, this is from Comme des Gar?ons, right?” Young-Joon asked.

Seo Yoon-Ju’s eyes widened in bewilderment.

“What are you talking about? How is that Comme Des Gar?ons? It looks like something he pulled out from clothing donations or something! Plus, it doesn’t even have the brand logo!”

“It fell off because it was a limited edition that was released with a vintage concept. The logo was barely sewn on. Even a worn one costs two hundred thousand won, right?” Although none of it was true, Young-Joon kept going. “Poor Soon-Yeol. You probably won’t be able to buy the same one since it was limited edition. You’re going to have to do the legwork to buy something that looks similar. It would be a huge loss to our team if a highly-valued employer like Scientist Koh Soon-Yeol were to get tired after looking for that shirt. Soon-Yeol, you should get like four hundred thousand won, right?”

“Hahaha!” Choi Myung-Joon burst out in laughter. He said, “I heard that the Life Creation Department was weird, but a really strange person joined the team, huh?”

“Well, I wouldn’t have cursed at Kim Hyun-Taek if I was ordinary. I am quite extraordinary.”

“Doctor Ryu Young-Joon, was it? I’ll remember your name. Let’s do what you said. We’ll give you four hundred thousand won if the Life Creation Department wins the grand prize.”

“Alright. Let’s do that.”

“We’ll see. Let’s go, Yoon-Ju.”

Choi Myung-Joon took Seo Yoon-Ju and walked away.

As the crowd dissolved, Park Dong-Hyun grabbed Young-Joon so strongly he was basically holding him by the collar.

“Are you crazy? Why did you do that?”

Jung Hae-Rim also shouted, “What are you going to do, Young-Joon!”

All Young-Joon did was smile.

“Just wait a little bit. Trust me.”

“No. Whether you are good or not, Doctor Ryu, how can you yield results when you’ve only been here a week?! How can we trust you?!” Park Dong-Hyun shouted in frustration.

“The Nobel Prize.”

“What?”

“You said it was Nobel Prize-worthy,” Young-Joon said.

“If I present results like that, getting the Award for Exceptional Performance should be a piece of cake.”

* * *

It was Saturday morning.

Young-Joon was working on Rosaline’s status window. During the week, he used his cell fitness for his embryonic stem cell experiments, but he had no use for them during the week as he had done everything he had to do. However, Young-Joon had no intentions of wasting time with his fitness fully charged.

He increased his maximum cell fitness value to 2.1 by injecting ATP into his veins, but it didn’t change the fact that Rosaline’s maximum fitness value was 1.5. As such, he decided to investigate all kinds of diseases within the range of 1.5 during the weekend. He was thinking about developing an important drug unrelated to A-Gen.

The way to develop a new drug without A-Gen’s help in a goshiwon with no lab equipment, let alone a TV?[1] All Young-Joon had to do was commission an agency that did experiments for the customer. He could create the drug by commissioning it to a chemical company, show its effectiveness through animal testing, and then patent it.

Young-Joon was thinking of selling it to another pharmaceutical company. He would get billions of dollars at the least. This was to get some money quickly as it would take too long for him to earn money from stem cells. He didn’t have the option to sell stem cells as they were too valuable to waste like that and because the only company in the country with the infrastructure to do stem cell research was A-Gen.

‘I will put an end to my poverty by this weekend.’

The reason he limited it to the end of the weekend was that he was going to be busy with his stem cell experiments and preparing the presentation from Monday.

“Tell me how to cure liver cancer,” Young-Joon ordered as he stared at Rosaline’s status window.

[You do not have enough fitness.]

[Liver cancer is too complicated to analyze at once.]

“Hmph. Then lung cancer.”

[You do not have enough fitness.]

[Lung cancer is too complicated to analyze at once.]

‘Maybe it’s too much to target cancer.’

Cancer was such a complicated disease. It was like a puzzle, as there were too many causes and variables intertwined.

What would be easier: curing every type of cancer or curing all diseases except cancer? Personally, Young-Joon thought it was the latter. It would be a different story if Rosaline’s maximum fitness increased as she leveled up, but it didn’t seem like cancer was something he could do with how much power he had right now.

‘I wish I could increase Rosaline’s level or something.’

Bleep!

Rosaline’s status window suddenly rang.

[Rosaline requires the following nutrients: Vitamin B6 0.7 mg, Zinc 3 mg. Reward: 0.8 Fitness.]

Currently, Rosaline’s fitness was at 1.5, the maximum value. That was why Young-Joon was intrigued.

‘What would happen if I didn’t use any fitness and took it?’

He could ingest vitamin B6 and zinc through food, but it would be difficult to measure the quantity like that, and he didn’t know when he would get another message like this.

‘Maybe I should get a multivitamin supplement from the pharmacy.’

* * *

Ring.

The bell on the pharmacy door rang.

“Hello!” Song Ji-Hyun shouted with a friendly voice. She recognized him when Young-Joon approached the counter.

“Oh, you were here last week, right? The probiotics?”

“Oh, yes, that’s right. Could I have a multivitamin supplement with vitamin B and zinc?” Young-Joon asked.

“Give me a moment.”

As Song Ji-Hyun walked over to the shelf and grabbed a bottle, she asked, “The probiotics you mentioned before... How did you know that stuff?”

“I work at a pharmaceutical company.”

“I actually asked the scientists at our company after what you said. They told me that there have been no advancements since I stopped working. They thought that bifidobacteria wasn’t working very well.”

“Is that so?”

It was just as Young-Joon expected.

“But there are still a lot of pharmaceutical companies that are going after bifidobacteria. The fact that it doesn’t work seems to be pretty important information, so why did you tell me that? Isn’t it a company secret?”

“Well, I don’t know if it’s important information or a company secret. I’m not part of the probiotics department anyways.”

“Then, what is your department?”

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

“Um... It’s related to stem cells.”

“Stem cells... That’s a totally different field from microorganisms.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then how do you know so well about probiotics?”

Young-Joon pulled out his credit card and made up some excuses as he completed the transaction.

“Well, it was just a thought that came to mind as I was reading some papers.”

Young-Joon took out a pill from the bottle and popped it in his mouth.

[Vitamin B6 and zinc supplemented.]

[Rosaline’s Synchronization +1%]

[Rosaline has leveled up.]

[The maximum fitness value has increased. (1.8)]

[The Vitamin B6 is pure. Fitness is additionally increased. Rosaline Fitness: +0.1]

[Cell Fitness: 1.8]

‘Hm?’

Young-Joon looked satisfied as he read the unexpected messages.

‘Where are these vitamins from? I like them.’

“These are from Dongkwang Pharmaceuticals? Benefit Alpha?”

“Yes.”

“Doesn’t A-Gen have the best product in the vitamin market right now? I thought you would give me Power Nature. It’s advertised a lot, too.”

“There are a lot of people who come for that. But it has virtually the same ingredients as Benefit Alpha. But it’s twice as expensive. I can give you Power Nature if you want it.”

“Oh, that’s alright. And I don’t like A-Gen anyways.”

“Really?” Song Ji-Hyun tilted her head in confusion like she didn’t expect it.

Young-Joon said, “Like you said. Power Nature is expensive because of the brand name. It’s not made out of anything amazing.”

“Yeah, I agree. I don’t like A-Gen either. But it doesn’t affect what I prescribe or anything, though,” Song Ji-Hyun agreed.

“Really? Why don’t you like A-Gen? Their management is terrible, but they are good at what they do. They’re not too bad from a pharmacist’s perspective, no?”

“That’s right. But I don’t like them as an employee from another pharmaceutical company. A-Gen is good at doing bad things, too.”

“Bad things?”

“Like making a competitive drug from a venture pharmaceutical company vanish.”

Young-Joon was so shocked that he almost choked.

“They did that to our company,” Song Ji-Hyun said as she stared out the window with a bitter face.

‘No, it can’t be, right? What if?’

Young-Joon sent a report on a new drug for liver cancer when he was part of the Anticancer Drug Research Department. And Kim Hyun-Taek, the lab director, and A-Gen’s management bought it to destroy it. It was Cellicure, the new liver cancer treatment drug from Celligener.

“Um, are you...”

As Young-Joon was about to ask Song Ji-Hyun about her company...

Ring!

An old man entered the pharmacy. He was wearing several layers and was very pale.

“Achoo!” the old man sneezed quietly.

Zing!

“Agh!” Young-Joon's head throbbed. He grabbed his head with both his hands in extreme pain.

[Danger!]

A message blinked in front of his eyes. The saliva droplets that the old man spat out when sneezing came into his view. Young-Joon was dizzy. He could barely hold onto his consciousness as his head was throbbing with pain similar to very intense anemia.

When Young-Joon opened his eyes, everything looked white, as if it was covered in snow.

Song Ji-Hyun greeting the old man sounded like static from an old radio. But Young-Joon couldn’t see her face; everything was white as if he had cataracts.

Crinkle...

Young-Joon heard the sound of paper crinkling from somewhere. His eyes hurt. Then, his focus returned but was slowly drawn to a black dot in the middle of his view. It was weird; it was as if he was looking through an extremely precise microscope. He saw a circular structure in front of him that had several receptors protruding from its shell.

[Flu A Virus]

A message popped up.

“Ack!”

As Young-Joon covered his eyes and screamed, Song Ji-Hyun and the old man stared at him in surprise.

“

Wheeze... Wheeze...

”

Young-Joon felt like blood was now getting to his brain. He could see clearly now.

“Oh my...”

‘What did I just see? The flu virus?’

1. A goshiwon is a single room occupancy in Korea. It is known to be very cheap and extremely small. ?