Chapter 103: Laboratory One (5)
Burning with global humiliation and anger, the public swept over A-Gen. The worlds interest in this drug called Cellicure was huge right now. It was the only cure that had seeded in curing end-stage liver cancer. Additionally, it had no side effects, it was precisely delivered to the liver, and it didnt even cause problems in cancer cells that had metastasized to the bone. Of course, it had to be monitored carefully as only data from Phase Two of the clinical trial had been released, but it seemed clear that Cellicure was going to save countless liver patients in the future as it was safe enough to be used on a nine-year-old childcking immunity and strength.
It was one of the top items among the drugs that A-Bio conducted clinical trials on, but A-Gen tried to get rid of it. It was none other than a scientist who worked in the pharmaceutical industry who tried to get rid of a great drug with that much potential.
Remove Kim Hyun-Taek!
Remove him!
Remove him!
Investigate the research ethics vitions!
Investigate it!
People had already gathered outside A-Gen and Lab One to start protesting. There was a signature campaign criticizing Yoon Dae-Sung, and the petition to the Blue House to start an investigation was instantly signed by three hundred thousand people. Foreign media like Fox News also covered this huge scandal in depth.
Simultaneously, another issue blew up as well. It was about the legendary thirty-year-old Scientist who had fought against theb director alone when everyone at Lab One stayed quiet after it happened.
Is that actually possible? Hes the CEO of A-Bio and the top scientist in the world now, but he was just a Scientist at the time, and he criticized theb director to not do something like that?
This story came up in the fan club from time to time. It was the backstory of how CEO Ryu Young-Joon left Lab One at A-Gen. It was just like hearsay, but I cant believe it was real.
That seems even more amazing than curing incurable diseases. How can a thirty-year-old young man who just graduated from school and got a job have such courage?
Was he able to make apany like A-Bio because he had that kind of courage, or was he able to act that bravely because he was a genius smart enough to found apany like A-Bio?
Anyway, the one thing for sure is that we have to destroy Kim Hyun-Taek. They have to arrest him and investigate.
Seriously, Cellicure wouldnt have been able toe out into the world if it wasnt for Ryu Young-Joon.
Thoroughly investigate how high up this incident goes. If the CEO approved it, they have to cut off his head, too. How could scientists who make medicine try to erase a drug like Cellicure to keep their livelihoods?
I thought Schumatix were crazy bastards when they tried to attack Ryu Young-Joon by nting a tumor in a a patients eye, but Korea is the same fuck lololol the CEO of A-Gen should just go die.
This is how the public is reacting, Kim Young-Hoon said.
A-Gen was having an emergency board meeting. Rain was dripping down the window. The heavy, depressed atmosphere was the worst.
Key shareholders from Berkshire and SG Group red at Yoon Dae-Sung like they were going to chew him up.
Mr. CEO, please exin, Kim Young-Joon said.
I dont know anything about this, Yoon Dae-Sung denied.
The CEO didnt know about purchasing all the rights of a new drug thatpleted Phase One?
Lab Director Kim Hyun-Taek had the final approval.
What Yoon Dae-Sung said wasnt wrong. Kim Hyun-Taek discussed it a lot with Yoon Dae-Sung when purchasing Cellicure, but Kim Hyun-Taek had the final approval. That was how Yoon Dae-Sung did business; it was a defense strategy to keep him from being med in the future. This was also the reason why he threatened Celligener and lowered the price; it was to lower it enough so that Yoon Dae-Sungs approval was not required underpany policy and it could be taken care of with Kim Hyun-Taeks budget.
This isnt something that you can get away with by just saying that you didnt know. As the CEO, you have the final responsibility, Kim Young-Hoon argued.
I know. Should I resign? Yoon Dae-Sung said.
... Eh.
<em>Sigh</em>.
The directors grunted disapprovingly.
It will be a problem if you suddenly let go of the CEO position. You have led thispany for decades, so it will be difficult for people to get used to the new system and there will be quite a lot of knock-back, Alex said.
What if Director Ryu Young-Joon fills the CEO position? Kim Young-Hoon asked.
Yoon Dae-Sung flinched. However, Alex was against the idea.
I believe someone like Doctor Ryu would do a good job, but he cannot be the CEO of twopanies at the same time.
We can merge.
Then it bes a very slow response. Merging a bigpany like this doesnt happen overnight. The stocks of A-Gen will plummet while were doing it.
The directors were all torn about what to do.
Yoon Dae-Sung lowered his head. To be honest, he wanted to let it all go. He was tired in a lot of ways. He felt doubtful about everything he had done in the past as he watched Young-Joon, who was growing rapidly. All the dirty things that were hidden in the shadow of the old A-Gen; it had festered for a while, and it was now like a huge infection that was difficult to fix. Yoon Dae-Sung wanted to let Young-Joon destroy it all and take control of thepany, but Yoon Bo-Hyun, his son, always weighed on his mind whenever he thought of that.
Lets hold Lab Director Kim Hyun-Taek responsible and dismiss him. And appoint Director Ryu Young-Joon as the Lab Director for Lab One. We can calm down the public if we move fast, Yoon Dae-Sung said.
Can Director Ryu be the CEO of A-Bio and the director of Lab One? Kim Min-Hyung asked.
Its not a problem ording topany policy.
I was asking whether the amount of work would be too much for him.
He has already used many of A-Gens facilities at his disposal. And as A-Bios office building was originally purchased for Lab Ones expansion, Lab One and A-Bio are close to each other.
* * *
Kim Hyun-taek was packing up his things at his office. This was before the board of directors made their decision. He already knew what was going to happen.
<em>I lost.</em>
This was it for Kim Hyun-Taek. He knew that Young-Joon was not behind the whistleblowing; he didnt show any signs of doing so when he came here before and got angry at him. The program blurred out the whistleblowers face and changed their voice, but a fellow scientist would be able to sort of make out who it was. Kim Hyun-Taek thought that it was probably Park So-Yeon.
<em>Sigh</em> Kim Hyun-Taek let out a deep breath.
He didnt know that she would stab him in the back with a huge knife right before she left. He knew that she broke up with Young-Joon, but maybe she still had feelings left for him. Or perhaps she was also the type of person to cause a fit about vitions of research ethics since people date people simr to them.
It didnt matter what it was anymore. It was toote now.
<em>Zip.</em>
Kim Hyun-Taek zipped up his bag and sat on the chair. Professor Shin Jung-Jus weeklymentary was ying on the radio.
A lot of people are curious about what the Life Creation Department is, the department that CEO Ryu Young-Joon was demoted to when he was a Scientist.
Yes, Professor. What does that department do?
From what I have found, they artificially synthesize life, just like their name.
Is that possible?
Of course, its not easy. Its in Gods domain, is it not? Theoretically, it is possible to an extent. Professor Craig Venters team has already seeded in rebooting a bacteria by putting in artificial DNA into a bacterial shell.
Shin Jung-Ju said.
Are you saying that they resuscitated bacteria?
Yes. And actually, the idea of a living thing is not a biologically defined word.
Is that so?
Yes. Biologists have defined a living thing over one hundred times, but there were always exceptions.
But Professor, we have an idea of what living things are. I mean, for example, whether they produce offspring.
Self-replication is one of the most basic characteristics of life. But thats not enough. If so, are infertile people nonliving things?
Ah
The interviewer was at a loss for words like she was shocked.
Shin Jung-Ju went on.
The most well-known example is a virus. The biologicalmunity still has not decided whether to ssify it as living or nonliving.
Really?
Yes. Viruses are just huge molecr lumps made of protein and genes when they are floating in the air, but they suddenly perform biological phenomena when they go into the host cell. They also self-replicate.
Thats fascinating.
Anyways, Im saying that creating life isnt all that ridiculous. You can seed if you find the exact boundary. If a genius like CEO Ryu Young-Joon stayed in that department
Stupid. If he stayed there, he would have ended up as a failure. How can you create life? Kim Hyun-Taek said mockingly. He grabbed his bag and got up, but paused.
<em>The Life Creation Department</em>
A strong sense of curiosity came over him. All of this began when Young-Joon, who left Lab One, came here and suddenly showed up with induced pluripotent stem cells. There was no logical exnation, but Kim Hyun-Taek thought that something must have happened there.
<em>Maybe I should visit before I leave.</em>
Kim Hyun-Taek wanted to slowly follow Young-Joons trail at the Life Creation Department. Also, he had to go to Lab Six to drop off something anyway.
* * *
[Rosaline Lv. 16]
Metastatic Status: Heart (9%), Liver (47%), Brain (9%), Kidney (15%), Spinal Cord (8%)
Synchronization: 20%
Cell Fitness: 10.0
Young-Joon filled the fitness, which recovered with time, to the maximum.
Should I try it? Young-Joon asked Rosaline.
Rosaline was sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch and stared at Young-Joon with a nervous expression. Simtion Mode: they needed to test it in advance as they didnt know how and when they would use it.
When Young-Joon was about to press the button, a message window popped up.
[You can eject a portion of Rosalines cells that exist in your body and gather information about the environment. They can move at the speed of sound and observe the microworld to identify biological phenomena.]
[Fitness consumption is extreme, and you will lose Rosalines cells if you consume more than your fitness limit.]
[In the case that you lose Rosalines cells, there may be losses to your metastatic status or synchronization, and Rosalines level may decrease.]
<em>Theres quite a risk.</em>
But since the mother cell will not disappear even if you really overuse it, you can still increase the level and recover your current condition with time.
Rosaline said.
Of course, I wont be able to leave until I grow that much
<em>Ill be careful.</em>
Reassuring Rosaline, who was dejected, Young-Joon pressed the button from the status window.
[Activate Simtion Mode.]
What are you going to look for?
The most dangerous infectious disease in the world right now.
This proximity cannot be analyzed with your current fitness. Please reset it in the Seoul and Gyeonggi[1] region.
Thats it? Even though I built my fitness to ten?
Thats right.
Didnt you say something about observing the number of possibilities globally and whatnot?
Then, you will have to level up a lot.
Alright. Lets focus on checking that this simtion works well, Young-Joon said. Activate it in the Seoul Capital Area. A-Bio will probablye up, right? Since we have HIV that we used for experimental purposes.
<em>Pssh!</em>
His visionpletely faded out into ck. Young-Joon could feel millions of Rosalines cells being ejected from his body. The topology information and senses they were obtaining in real-time came into his head one by one.
There were thousands of research institutes in the Seoul Capital Area. Rosaline searched for biological elements throughout them.
<em>Shrrr</em>
A big map formed in front of Young-Joons eyes. It was a circr map that included half of Yangpyeong-gun in Gyeonggi-do based on the current location of Young-Joon, which was A-Bio.
For the level of danger, I willprehensively consider the infectiousness, and the individual and societal burden it could cause. Please individually set the weight of each element afterwards.
<em>Bleep!</em>
Gray dots began popping up one by one.
Each dot represents a pathogen that can cause disease in a person.
Rosaline said.
The dot increases in size as the amount of pathogens increases, and the color gets darker the more dangerous the pathogen is. And I wont mark diseases weaker than themon cold.
Dozens of dots showed up, but they were mostly very light gray.
<em>Bleep!</em>
This ones pretty dark, said Young-Joon as he looked at the brick-colored dot on A-Bio.
This is HIV.
Its not that big of a deal if you look at it like this.
It is because the virus here is for experimental purposes. If you go to Africa, the Sub-Saharan region will bepletely gray.
<em>Bleep!</em>
A much darker gray popped out from A-Gens headquarters.
What is that? Young-Joons eyes widened.
There isnt ab at A-Gens headquarters. Why is there such a dangerous pathogen over there? What species is that? Why isnt the name showing up?
I have never seen that pathogen either. And it is already dead. The corpses are preserved in a liquid nitrogen container.
Even if youve never seen it before, it must have a rtionship with other organisms, right? What is it most closely rted to?
The most closely rted organism is <em>Bacillus anthracis</em>.
1. a province near Seoul in Korea