Chapter 7
“Mincheol, hyung.”
“Oh, you're here?”
When I arrived back at the Seonggwang Biotech laboratory in Hwaseong.
Mincheol, my fellow new hire who was two years older than me, had already arrived on-site and was getting ready to work.
Maybe the department head hadn't told him about my resignation or Awakening, because Mincheol treated me as he always did.
“Who's inside?”
“Manager Shin.”
“What, that guy came?”
“He says he's going to kill you.”
I snorted and brushed it off.
That scrawny manager wasn't scary.
Even less so now that I'd Awakened.
Anyway, they said they were short-handed, and it really seemed they were. Even that slacker manager had come out to the site.
“By the way, what's going on? Yesterday, I figured it was because the chairman of Seonggwang Group was coming. What's today, is the vice chairman coming or something?”
“I heard from the security guard that things were a complete mess yesterday. From what I heard, the briefing in front of the Seonggwang chairman went terribly. So he got furious and ordered them to shut it down immediately.”
“Could this be the process of ‘shutting it down’?”
“When the chairman himself orders it, what else can they do? They have to at least pretend to shut it down. I heard the researcher in charge was fired on the spot. The chairman immediately called the contractor and told them to clean it all up.”
“That researcher was unlucky.”
Of all times, they had to make a mistake during a demonstration right in front of the chairman.
“Yeah. Shall we head in?”
I planned to recover the bacteria from outside while we cleaned up inside.
It could be called theft, but strictly speaking, I'd brought dead bacteria back to life. If I didn't recover them and instead unsummoned them, they'd be completely useless.
Better to recycle them, so to speak, rather than unsummon them and turn them into trash.
“So which area are we cleaning?”
“Room 2029.”
“Huh?”
If it was Room 2029...
It was definitely the last lab where I'd gotten the bacteria.
“We're cleaning that place?”
“Yeah. Everything. Why, is there a problem?”
“N-No... What problem?”
That's what I said, but...
This... might actually be a problem.
**
Barely more than a day had passed since I'd returned to Room 2029.
The manager, who was busy cleaning up with his bony frame, spotted us and shouted in a high-pitched voice.
“Get here earlier! Earlier!”
“Yes, yes, sorry about that~”
Unlike Mincheol, who gave a breezy smile, I couldn't smile.
The space that had been a normal laboratory just yesterday was now a complete ruin.
Was this really what happened over one mistake?
And the bigger problem was...
For some reason, it felt like that mistake was my fault.
Shit, what do I do?
The manager shouted at me as I stood there, dazed and half-panicked.
“Kim Segyun! Are you just going to stand there?! Aren't you working?”
Phew. Right... First, I'd do what I could and then figure out how to fix this.
It was while I was sorting through the waste that...
“Ah, this one's for incineration. Be careful. It's sealed, but I heard the bacteria inside are still active. They said to incinerate the whole thing.”
The Petri dish Mincheol handed me.
I could feel the bacteria inside wriggling happily toward me.
I made the bacteria poke a small hole in the dish and brought them into my hand.
I put the empty dish in the incineration bin.
“Inventory.”
Then I stored the bacteria in the small opening I'd made in my inventory.
Recovering my 2.8-billion-strong bacterial legion had been absurdly easy, but I wasn't particularly happy.
Another hour or two passed, and the waste inside the lab was completely cleared.
“I'm heading out first. You guys finish up and come after.”
After the manager left, Mincheol patted my shoulder and said,
“Good work.”
“You too, hyung.”
“Want to grab some sundae-guk before we go?”
“Next time. I'm a little busy today.”
“Yeah, okay. See you tomorrow.”
Though I was quitting tomorrow.
I was in no state of mind to say goodbye.
My thoughts were a mess.
I'd been worried, but I hadn't expected that snowball to roll this far.
After seeing Mincheol off, I stayed in the lab for a while, lost in thought.
How do I fix this?
Can this even be fixed?
Should I say it was my fault?
How much responsibility should I take?
It was just as I continued to agonize over it.
I sensed someone behind me.
“Mincheol, you haven't left ye— huh?”
There stood a woman with tears welling in her big eyes.
She was short, probably not even 160 centimeters.
She looked like a small animal, a rabbit or a hamster, and as our eyes met, she said in confusion,
“Um, I...”
“Who are you?”
“I’m... a researcher here... or, I was. You’ve already finished cleaning up...”
A former researcher...
So this was her.
“I-I’ll just grab a few things I left behind...”
“Excuse me...”
“Yes?”
“Could I talk to you for a moment once you’ve gathered your things?”
“Huh?”
“I think I made a big mistake.”
In the end, I decided to tell her the truth.
I didn't know what would happen... I really didn't.
I hoped it was something that could be fixed.
“So, yesterday... I think I accidentally dropped and broke something that was here.”
“...What?”
There was no need to mention Awakening or my ability, so I simply told her the facts.
“I picked it up right away and put it in another Petri dish... but I thought that might have caused the problem...”
“N-No, that couldn’t be it.”
At my apology, she instead wiped the tears from her big eyes with her sleeve and stared at me wide-eyed.
“That bacterium is an obligate anaerobe. It should die the moment it comes into contact with air. But that bacterium... it was definitely alive. If it had died, I would’ve brought out another sample for the demonstration.”
So that's what happened...
In other words, if they'd simply died, there wouldn't have been a problem. But because I'd needlessly kept them alive as undead, she thought they were alive and took them to the demonstration.
That made it even more my fault.
What should I do?
As I wondered whether I should reveal my ability, I heard a voice that sounded resigned.
“Besides, even if that had happened, it wouldn’t matter.”
“Pardon?”
“Common sense says that even if it was a demonstration for the group chairman, a project wouldn’t be canceled and someone fired just because one demonstration went badly. They’d use a different strain and demonstrate again, and I’d write a few incident reports. That’s all.”
That did seem strange.
That's why I'd assumed she'd made some huge mistake.
Well, it was a huge mistake, but...
“This project hasn’t made any progress in five years. I couldn’t give up on it, so they took this chance to find fault with me and scrap it. So... don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault, sir.”
Hearing that made me feel a little better.
But seeing her, looking like she’d lost her job and was on the verge of death, made me feel uneasy at the same time.
“Still, if there’s anything I can do to help...”
“Yes, yes.”
She answered, but she didn't seem to think I could be much help.
Even I thought that if some construction-waste collector suddenly said to let him know if I needed help, I'd probably just ignore him.
Still, things were different now.
As an Awakened, I was sure there was something I could do to help.
As I thought about it, I noticed she had gathered an armful of her belongings.
There weren't that many things, but she was small, so they looked like more.
“Let me carry those for you.”
“No, they’re not heavy.”
“At least let me help with this much.”
“...All right.”
When I took her belongings, I noticed the file folder on top.
‘A Study on Maximizing the Utilization of Dungeon Waste Using the Perpetuus Exomodulus Bacterial Strain’
Using dungeon waste?
As an employee of a dungeon-waste disposal company—well, former employee now—I couldn't help being curious about the title.
“It seems that bacterium was meant to process dungeon waste or something?”
“Huh? How did you know?”
“It’s right there.”
I pointed with my chin at the document on top. After looking startled, she gave a small, rueful laugh.
“Yes, that’s right. We were developing it for that purpose.”
“That’s fascinating. I’m curious what it’s used for, too.”
“You’re curious?!”
At my words, her eyes lit up and she dashed over to one side of the office.
“It should be here... Here it is. Do you know what this is?”
“What is it?”
It looked familiar.
It just looked like dog poop.
It was a brown, lumpy thing that looked exactly like that, but she’d been depressed and was suddenly so excited that I couldn’t bring myself to dampen her mood, so I kept quiet.
But then, at her next words.
“This is the raw material used to extract the famous Elixir.”
I couldn't help being shocked.
That was the raw material for Elixir?
The byproduct dropped by monsters hunted by Ahmad Triain in a French Stage 57 dungeon?
“Huh? Then...”
“Yes, it was directly imported from France.”
“Isn’t that incredibly expensive? Is it okay to leave it lying around like this...?”
“Ah, of course we already extracted all the Elixir components inside. This is just residue.”
Of course. I should’ve known.
“Ah, I see. But why...”
“There’s still a lot of Elixir component left inside this. It’s just that modern science can’t extract it.”
“What? What do you mean? There’s a lot left?”
That dog poop... now that I thought about how familiar it looked, it seemed like something our company collected in bulk and disposed of, too.
If it still contained Elixir, there was no way it would've made it all the way to our company.
“It’s hard to explain... Think of it like this.”
She took a notebook from her pocket, drew two overlapping circles, and continued explaining.
“This side is the Elixir component, and this side is the monster’s cells. So what’s in the middle?”
“The Elixir and the monster cells are combined?”
“That’s right! But with current technology, there’s no way to separate the two, so we extract and use only the pure Elixir and throw the rest away.”
“Then what you were researching was using bacteria to separate those two combined parts?”
“Exactly!”
As she excitedly explained, she seemed to realize she’d gotten carried away. Her face reddened, and she lowered her head.
“I-I’m sorry. No one’s been interested in my research lately...”
“No, it was fascinating. But can I ask why it failed?”
“The first problem is that it’s an obligate anaerobe. It dies as soon as it’s exposed to air. But that’s easy to solve by keeping it in a vacuum, so it’s only a minor problem. Some other bacteria can break down organic or inorganic matter, but there are none that can break molecular bonds as finely as this one.”
Break molecular bonds with precision.
Hmm, that was true.
I already knew from experience that this thing could grind up absolutely anything.
“Actually, the second problem is bigger. Being an obligate anaerobe can be solved by maintaining a vacuum, so that’s a minor issue. But the second problem is...”
“What is it?”
“With current technology, it can’t be controlled. We need it to break only specific molecular bonds, but it breaks all molecular bonds, so it’s not easy. We’ve been at a standstill for five years.”
The problem was that it couldn't be controlled...?
But I could control it.
My undead bacteria could even move freely through the air.
Then...
This might...
“Um, can I take this?”
“Huh? This?”
“As a souvenir...”
“Go ahead. It’s waste anyway.”
She watched me pick up the waste containing Elixir—no, dog poop—as though I were coveting something ridiculous.
But to me, it no longer looked like waste.
Well, it still looked like dog poop, actually.
Maybe it was dog poop that could become golden dog poop.
“Come to think of it, I still don’t know your name.”
“Oh, I’m Im Gyuseon.”
“I’m Kim Segyun.”
Gyuseon immediately burst out laughing, then blushed.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“I’m used to it. Did you bring a car?”
“No, I was going to take a taxi.”
“I’ll drive you. If you don’t mind my junker.”
“I-I don’t mind...”
“I want to talk more about dog poop... I mean, Elixir, on the way.”
“Gasp! Then let’s go!”
I had no knowledge of this field at all, so I did need someone who could help me.
She might even become a good business partner.
I’d better treat her well.