Chapter 27
Well, as expected, she really did mean she wanted me to come see some bacteria.
But was it just me, or had the place changed quite a lot compared to before I went to Hawaii?
“It looks like a lot has changed.”
“Yes, we brought in a lot more samples to start with. I think we’ve got about as many samples as we had in the old lab now. It did cost quite a bit, though...”
She shot me a sidelong glance, and all I could do was smile.
“Don’t worry about the money. Our company is making plenty.”
The market’s response to PowerQ Elixir had been better than I’d ever imagined.
We’d set the price at around 20,000 won per bottle, making it affordable, and thanks to Ms. Lim’s new recipe, we’d cut the amount of elixir used to less than half.
Sure, companies like Seonggwang had immediately started preparing copycat products after seeing ours become a hit, but I wasn’t too worried.
First, PowerQ’s brand value was so strong that few products in the energy drink market could hope to compete with it. Second, there was Ms. Lim’s new recipe.
Compared to the product she’d developed at Seonggwang, it used less than half the amount of elixir while actually doubling its fatigue-recovery performance.
The law required us to list the proportion of elixir, so at first, customers might gravitate toward copycat products with a higher ratio. But then we could just start a price war.
Even a 20% discount would be impossible for our competitors to match.
Why? Even if they just made a product with elixir, they’d be guaranteed a steady profit. Using that precious elixir to undercut us would mean taking a loss.
By contrast, we were already making twice as much from the same amount of elixir, so a 20% discount wouldn’t be a problem at all.
And we were getting the elixir itself at an absurdly low price... No, it practically cost us nothing...
To put it extremely, we could sell it at a 90% discount—2,000 won, the same as the old PowerQ—and still make a profit.
A product like that was selling well at full price, so our sales were great, but our net profit was insane.
Our profit margin was on par with those of major IT companies and financial firms.
And if push came to shove, I had my own money, too.
In fact, even after all that income, my personal wealth was still overwhelmingly greater.
Rather than leave it sitting in the bank, I planned to invest more in research and development and business expansion.
To sum it up...
Our research-obsessed CTO had struck a gold mine.
When I gave her the gist of it, her face brightened in real time, almost like a gradient.
“I’ve never heard anyone say that to me before.”
“...Say what?”
“That I can do research without worrying about money. At Seonggwang, they were always breathing down my neck about the budget.”
Don’t look at me like I’m the first person who’s ever said this to you...
It’s making me uncomfortable.
Honestly, I still didn’t understand.
How had someone this talented failed to get proper support at Seonggwang Bio and ended up being pushed out?
Were the executives there blind?
An MIT graduate and a microbiology expert Awakened in alchemy.
She was the kind of person who’d be hard to find no matter where you looked. I’d hit the jackpot thanks to her, but I was still curious.
“I haven’t asked you until now, but how did things end up going so badly at Seonggwang?”
“The director who brought me on was demoted...”
“Ah.”
That explained it in a word.
I’d figured it was probably something like that. She’d been pushed out by office politics after all.
“To be precise, the head of the Bio Division who appointed the director was the first to step down.”
“So they replaced the whole chain of command from the top down.”
And in the process, the fallout had reached Ms. Lim, too.
I’d heard that it wasn’t common, but it did happen sometimes at big companies.
Of course, it probably only happened when there’d been some enormous incident or during a company succession...
“Was there some kind of problem?”
“Yes... A major incident...”
When she trailed off, I didn’t press her for more.
She must have had her reasons.
“Anyway, Ms. Lim, you got caught up in a snowball that started rolling from the very top.”
“Yes, that’s right...”
“You’re not having a hard time here, are you?”
“Well...”
She glanced at me and couldn’t bring herself to continue.
What was this? Was someone giving her a hard time?
“Why? Is something going on?”
“...I’d like it if I could see you more often...”
“Who?”
The moment I followed the direction her finger was pointing, I couldn’t help tilting my head.
“Me?”
“...Yes.”
“......”
Wasn’t this less like flirting and more like a proposal?
The problem was, I wasn’t interested in romance yet...
“Um... I’m sorry...”
“You said you’d help with my research often... but you always looked so busy, CEO, so I couldn’t ask...”
“Gah!”
Ah, right...
I’d definitely said that when I brought her here.
I’d promised to help with her research using my ability to control bacteria.
And I’d been out and about this whole time, so I had no excuse.
On top of that, I’d gone and chugged a whole bowl of romantic implications...
“I’m sorry. I really have no excuse.”
I’d made a promise and failed to keep it. I wouldn’t have an excuse even if I had a hundred mouths.
“N-No, it’s all right. I understand...”
“To make it up to you, I’ll help with your research all day today.”
“Really?!”
Ms. Lim grabbed me, her eyes lighting up.
Where did she get that kind of energy?
“Then, um... from here... to here...”
As if she had no intention of letting me take back my offer, she immediately led me over to one of the bacteria samples.
And after that...
I was thoroughly put through the wringer with research.
**
“The sun... is rising...”
“Oh my, it is.”
Thirteen hours had already passed. Why was she still so full of energy?
I felt like I’d spent almost the whole night using nothing but Undead Rise.
Fortunately, it had been worth it.
[The proficiency of the unique skill Undead Rise has increased to B.]
[Proficiency B Effects: (1) You can maintain a total of 5 types of undead. (2) You can consume mana to temporarily strengthen your undead.]
The proficiency of the Undead Rise skill had increased to C.
On top of that, the effect of Avicenna’s Scepter brought its proficiency to B.
Surprisingly, its effects hadn’t increased when it went from C to B, but the number of undead I could maintain had jumped from three types to five—an increase of two.
I’d found plenty of useful bacteria, and the dungeons were getting much harder as their stages rose. It was a godsend to gain proficiency when I was struggling to clear them with only three types.
There was only so much I could do by repeatedly reverse-summoning and resummoning them.
“My skill proficiency went up, so apparently I can add two more types now.”
“Oh my! Really? In that case...”
This woman was dangerous. Her eyes had a certain gleam to them.
First, I had to calm her down...
“I need a type that’ll be useful in dungeons. Can you recommend one?”
I’d been adding them one at a time, but suddenly I had two new slots, and I couldn’t decide what to choose.
One candidate was the new bacteria I’d found in Hawaii.
It produced a huge amount of methane, so if I used it well, it might be as powerful as a large-scale fire spell.
It shouldn’t be hard to get more samples, either. I could ask the chairman of the Hawaii State Hunters Association to arrange it.
The other one was the problem...
“What do you think of Clostridium botulinum?”
Looking at the description Ms. Lim showed me, it was a strain that produced botulinum toxin.
It produced one of the most vicious toxins around, with a lethal potency hundreds of millions of times greater than cyanide—just one nanogram could kill a person—but it was better known for its medical uses.
The famous Botox was made by diluting the botulinum toxin produced by this strain.
I knew because we’d summoned it during our research earlier.
Ms. Lim was using it in her research on stroke treatments.
“Hmm. I already have No. 1. Wouldn’t it be a little weaker than that...?”
Even a paralyzing toxin hundreds of millions of times more lethal than cyanide was no match for a predator that could break things down at the molecular level.
Of course, I knew it was highly toxic, but whether you paralyzed a monster with poison or broke it down, the end result was the same, wasn’t it?
Besides, No. 1 even worked on inanimate objects like golems.
Ms. Lim just smiled and said to me,
“Wouldn’t weaker actually be better?”
“...Pardon?”
“You don’t always need overwhelming power, do you? Sometimes you just need to intimidate someone, or subdue them without killing them. And there may be opponents you can’t afford to break down.”
“Oh! You’re right!”
Now that I thought about it, it might not be a bad choice.
If I had to name No. 1’s fatal flaw, it was that anything it broke down was gone for good. There was no bringing it back.
As Ms. Lim had said, being too powerful was the problem.
For example, if I got into a minor argument with someone, I couldn’t just turn them to dust, could I?
I wasn’t a psychopath.
And even setting that aside, there was the issue of dungeon by-products.
In fact, that was an even more serious drawback when it came to clearing dungeons.
Until now, dungeon by-products hadn’t been very important, but the farther up I went, the more important they would become.
If I was careful, I could break down only a specific part of a target to subdue it, but that wasn’t easy.
And there was no guarantee I could preserve the by-products intact in the process.
It was a case of ‘the bacteria are too powerful.’
“A damage skill with a moderate amount of power... This seems perfect, actually.”
“If we adjust the amount of botulinum toxin it secretes or the number of individuals, we can make it produce only a paralyzing effect.”
No. 2’s binding ability was useful, but paralysis was more reliable, if possible.
Just because you’d tied someone’s feet down didn’t mean they couldn’t move their hands.
Since I was at it, maybe I should summon it now.
[Would you like to use the Undead Rise skill?]
[Target: 177,236,512 corpses of Clostridium botulinum Type A.]
[Currently maintained undead]
(4) Clostridium botulinum Type A
─Population: 177,236,512
─Description: An anaerobic strain that secretes botulinum toxin. Type A is used to produce botulinum toxin for general medical purposes. It has been turned undead, overcoming its weaknesses.
─Ability: Produces 0.0063 ng of botulinum toxin per second per 100 million individuals (base: 0.00006 ng, with Control’s 205% effect applied).
I didn’t think I’d need it right away, so I just raised it as undead and put it in my inventory along with the scepter.
There was something else I needed to do right away.
“CTO, you should head home. I’ll give you a ride, so let’s go together.”
I needed to go home. I was dead tired.
“Already?”
This woman was terrifying.
“I’m not doing any more! No, I can’t do any more!”
“Tch, all right.”
At this rate, I wouldn’t live long if I kept visiting the lab often.
I’d better come only once a month.
**
The next morning.
It had already been four days since I’d returned to Korea, and I still hadn’t heard from Zephyros.
I’d been busy handling company business and hadn’t reached out either, but by now I was getting a little worried.
Was the guy even still alive?
When I called, he answered surprisingly quickly.
─Hello.
But his voice didn’t sound too good.
“You sound like you’re about to die.”
─...I’m dying.
“What happened?”
─You know what happened. The Stage 50 dungeon.
“Did you get hurt in there?”
I hurriedly asked, startled, and he let out a deep sigh before replying.
─I’m always like this.
“...What do you mean, always?”
─The Cheongpung Sword Style is all about high mobility, so it puts a lot of strain on your muscles. Even when I was active, after a day in a dungeon, I’d be bedridden for two days... I guess I really am old. I still can’t get up on the third day.
“...So you’re saying it’s muscle soreness?”
─It is. Muscle soreness so painful it feels like I’m going to die.
Back when I was just watching him as a fan, there was no way I could’ve known he had to deal with this.
So he’d been going through all that.
─That damn thing is why I retired early.
I couldn’t believe it had been that bad.
Then again, he was still an incredible Hunter, capable of casually clearing a Stage 50 Gate with a few old comrades from his glory days. If he’d retired, he must have had a reason.
“I could at least come visit you...”
─What’s a big burly guy like you coming to visit a sick man for? Forget it.
“Tch. Then at least make sure you take some medicine.”
─I’ve taken plenty of painkillers. But they don’t work on this muscle pain. I’ve tried every over-the-counter medicine there is. Even medicine worth hundreds of millions of won only helps for a little while. It’s not like I can take drugs, either.
“Your resistance is high because you’re a Hunter, too.”
In reality, even most opioid painkillers barely worked on Hunters.
They counted as poison, so poison resistance weakened their effect.
─Seriously, these damn muscles... I wish I could just paralyze them.
“Paralyze them?”
Come to think of it, I’d just gotten my new No. 5.
The effect of the botulinum toxin produced by Botulinum was...
It blocked nerve signals to the muscles, causing temporary muscle paralysis, didn’t it?
Maybe...?
“I’ll come over now. Can you see me for a bit?”
─Didn’t you hear me? I can’t even get up...
“You can see me lying down.”
I’ll get you up.