Chapter- 20

All these years, she was experimenting with many combinations of structures of human with animal structures with the help of an instrument called 'Realpossilism', this instrument is an advanced and expensive instrument, which she bought spending all her money on it, and for that, she had to live on instant Ramyeon and ( Instant noodles) and some remaining baked cookies packets for a month.

Similarly, she bought high-tech instruments, when she had enough budget and she used to buy some instant food packaged items before the purchase of the instrument.

With the help of 'Realpossilism', through just a minute or a tiny piece of a living being, it can sketch its structure and it has a separate input box, where chemical solutions can be put inside, the computer inside it will show you the chemical's effect on the living being on its large computer screen.

She has made approximately 500 chemical solutions, which failed to show the results she desired, but she learned about the errors and fixed them every time she made another chemical solution.

To make a chemical solution, at least it took her 2-3 weeks. She used to make chemical solutions, in which different combinations of DNA were used.

This experimentation was possible through some biotechnological concepts, which are:

# PCR ( Polymerase Chain Reaction)

# r-DNA ( recombinant DNA)

# DNA Chip

Saeng used r-DNA technology for making artificial DNA through combinations of different DNA genetic materials from different sources.

This technology was the inventor of different hybrids of DNA, and this process is quite tedious though.

This technology comprises tools like Restriction enzymes, Vectors, etc., these tools help in the production of new artificial DNA.

Restriction enzymes are like molecular scissors, which can cut at particular locations in DNA, which leaves a gap in the DNA, in which desired DNA can be inserted into another DNA.

Vectors are like transport vehicle, which carries one DNA and helps it move into another DNA's location, and then after the work of molecular scissors, these two DNAs are brought closer and integrated through the help of molecular gum called DNA ligase.

But a single new DNA cannot show or predict the possible effect or result upon living organisms in that instrument, so with the help of another concept " PCR ', it was possible.

PCR technique, is the technique through which single DNA can be amplified ( multiplied ) into a large number of copies of that DNA. The tools involved in this process ;

Template DNA ( Reference DNA )- The DNA, is used for multiplication purposes due to its significant coding sequence within it.

Primers - The Initiators, initiate the process by binding with reference DNA and initiate the duplication of reference DNA, which is continued by DNA Polymerase, which is an elongator, that properly makes a duplicate chain sequence complementary to the reference DNA strand.

This technique process is to first melt the double-stranded DNA (template DNA) at high temperature in a PCR machine. Double-stranded means two complementary chains of DNA are intertwined with each other, so this DNA is then provided with primer and DNA polymerase, which initiates and duplicates the template DNA ( which is right now, single-stranded), then this cycle is repeated 30 times to produce a large number of DNA copies.

After this technique, we need to measure the level of expression of the DNA it will estimate the percentage of the effect of DNA in the living organism. This technique is DNA Chip technology, which measures the level of expression of a large number of genes at the same time.

This technique involves a DNA chip and template DNA. DNA Chip is a collection of microscopic DNA spots attached to a solid surface. In, this technique, detects DNA or RNA that may or may not be transformed into expressive material (protein). It can also detect, whether the presence of mutated DNA ( Hybrid) is present or not in an individual organism.

Then after checking the expression level of the target DNAs, she puts that DNA in artificial cell fluid chemical solution, which is then inserted into that 'Realpossilism' instrument, and along with collected minute traces of living beings already submitted into that instrument, so, then the instrument is switched on, then the instrument after 5 hours, shows brief profiling including possibilities, effects, percentage, composition, along with a computerized image of a hybrid creature on the computer screen.

Finally, 2 months, before this apocalypse phenomenon, Saeng found the perfect solution, which will turn humans into animals for temporary hours, then only they will realize that only the body is different, but the heart is the same and has the same emotions and instincts.

As per policy, she took a 2-3 month break after working overnight for more than 2 months. Within these 2-3 months break, one tiny error made an impactful effect on her experiment.

As, her instrument room, present on the first floor, had a small guest one day, which was a baby wolf. As the location of that building is quite abandoned and far away from her home, so, on a fine day, a zoo ambulance vehicle was bypassing the road to that building, but suddenly their vehicle stopped as one of the tires was punctured, the driver was fixing but a baby wolf, who was unconscious due to some reason in that vehicle, became conscious and was frightened inside the closed space.

So, when the driver opened the back door, where patients are laid upon the stretcher bed, and also some extra tires and emergency items are kept beneath the bed, then he took out an extra tire and closed the door, due to rush, he forgot to lock it, so the baby wolf when awake, then he pushed the door with his all force, and ran away from the vehicle, on the road to that abandoned place, which driver noticed, and he immediately locked his vehicle, then ran following that baby wolf's paw prints upon the dusty road.

The baby wolf ran and ran until he noticed an abandoned building, he ran inside by slipping through the window located at a tall height, then he used his claws to cut through the glass panes and entered inside, which was the instrument room, and the lights were on my fault, that baby wolf then he jumped up on the stretcher and laid there for few minutes.

Then he felt thirsty, so he scanned the room, then he found a glass bottle placed near that 'Realpossilism' instrument, so, he jumped to reach the bottle, but he fell on the floor, making the bottle fall, and all solution was spread on the floor, he licked the whole liquid solution, then jumped on the stretcher bed and laid and felt his vision blur and he became unconscious.

The same day, at night, the wolf woke up and his vision returned, then he noticed that his paws were gone and turned into human hands, which were fully covered with his orange fur, his body structure was the same but he had human features. When he looked at a cracked glass piece lying scattered on the floor, he observed his reflection.

The reflection of a new image, made him more scared and panicked, as he had a wolf body structure, but had human features like human legs, hands, and face, which were covered with orange thick hair, and wolf-like eyes, so, overall he looked like physical Mari-am ( Human-animal hybrid creature).

Then, that wolf-human creature jumped from the window and landed safely on the ground and ran fast as he can from that place, he ran and ran, used to stop when he was hungry and hunted some chickens, etc., then when after one day, he arrived at Hanbat Arboretum, where he stayed, then due to coming in contact with saliva, while stealing foods of the animals kept in that place, they also transformed, this was slowly happening, as it was closed to the public for some repairing works.

Slowly, some of the transformed animals ran away from that place and roamed in the small towns, villages, then through their spit, or blood traces coming in contact with humans, they transformed, on the same day, the majority of animals present in Daejeon spread around, mostly in the Daejeon -O-World, which is normally filled with humans, then due to those animals, humans transformed into an animal, which was due to mutation occurrence in their body after the contact of mutated DNA carrier present in the saliva. And the rest is history.

At the present moment, after some time, she walks out of the building and locks it back, and then started walking back to her home, while walking back home, she came upon a location where a dam was present, which was 'Daecheong dam' over the gap river, which was illuminated with lights and water jets of the fountain flanking the crossing.

Saeng decides to stay there as long as she wants as she finds the sound of flowing water, quite satisfying and calming to her ears.

Then suddenly she feels a shadow beside her.

She just turned back and finds Si-U staring at her, he came closer to her and stood a little close to her, she observes that his eyes were filled with fear and he looked tired and his hair was messy and wet and he looked a little pale.

He stared at her and suddenly he embraced her in his arms and hugged her tightly, she felt water drops trickling down his bangs and falling upon her cheeks.

She felt a different kind of warm inside her belly and felt her cheeks warming, she also felt a rush of heat in her body, her heart started beating fast and she felt like she is falling sick due to extreme warmth but somehow she felt habituated as she felt when her parents hugged her and Mi-Ok hugs her.

But this embrace felt different from those, she felt like staying there and don't let him move away. She also then hugged him back and his cheeks flushed at her acceptance.

He felt happy to find her safe after looking for her everywhere.

After some time, she felt his arms removed away from her.

So, she also released her arms and looked into him, Si-U laughed, which made her think that her sickness may be transferred to him also, as he was acting so unusual.

He then points out that her cheeks are red, which he has never seen until now, she then took out her phone and clicks the camera icon and notices that he was right, she has never seen any kind of redness in her body, which was unusual, this made her suspicions confirm that she was sick somehow.

Si-U was staring at her with fondness as she was observing her reflection in the camera as it is the strangest thing in the world.

Then Saeng was going to put back the phone inside but Si-U grabbed the phone from her and stood beside her and told her to look forward, she was puzzled at his demand, but she obeyed, then he clicked the camera icon and clicked a picture of them.

He gave back her phone and then they stayed there for some minutes and had a conversation, where they were discussing the apocalypse phenomena, however, Si-U felt something weird after listening to her hidden meaning statements, which may hint him that she is after something.

But she did it purposely as she wants him to figure it out. Because she needs to bring this out to the world as her purpose is not to hide like a coward and rule over society something like the other villains do.

She just wants to execute her plan and her message properly and smoothly and directly to society.

But Si-U ignores the hidden signs as he thought it was just his mind playing tricks as he just wants to focus on the safety of his loved ones and nothing else.

After some minutes, they separate to their different ways, Si-U reaches home safely and Saeng doesn't return home but back to her building as she felt she needs to do other remaining things fast as time is ticking fast.

And she decides to stay there the whole night. She thinks of Yeong's mom, she calls them but no one answered, she then just sends a message to that lady's phone, and she then resumes her work.

Another scene is shown, where U-ram and Mi-Ok are talking about their college days and then move back to their childhood stories, but soon their sweet conversations turned into bitter arguments when they started to mention Saeng's role in their life.

Mi-Ok defends her friend and U-ram expresses his frustration and grudge against Saeng.

Si-U, on the other hand, made sure that the home is properly locked with a protection system and another handful of items given to all of them in case something or someone invades somehow.

Si-U recalls his memory of a moment spent today with Saeng, which made him feel warm and sweet inside, and then he sends a message to Saeng about sending him that photo in her phone that they took today.

On the other side, her phone rings with a message notification but is inaudible to Saeng as she is busy with research or figuring out something.

After some time, she checked her phone and read Si-U's message and sent him that photo and then opened the music app and played some of the songs that she finds habituated to.

She feels soothed hearing the music playing out in the lab room, at a low volume yet audible to her.

She then suddenly hears a romantic song playing out, which recalled her memory of Si-U hugging her tightly yet she felt warmth, which warmed her heart somehow, a smile peeks upon her lips, which is unnoticed by herself, she is lost in that moment, suddenly her cheeks feel warm and she raises her hand to check her temperature.

But she notices again that redness appeared on her palms, which made her face squint in confusion, she felt confusion and curiosity developing inside her, and her neutral expression is gone.

As she was lost in thought, she heard another notification sound, she checked her phone and found another message from him, which was a request from him to come to meet him as it is urgent, and was written- please don't be neutral, come for our dear friend, she needs you.

This panicked her but her voice was unchanged and just hummed, she felt some kind of nervousness inside her, she packed her handbag and rushed out of the building, and locked it before she walked away.

She then walked fast and after half an hour, she arrived at their apartment as she had the address of her friend but never visited her.

She knocked on their door but no one opened it, then she felt again something gripping her heart inside, she then called him, but Si-U was also not answering the call, which made her panic more.

She rushed into the streets, going through every street to find Mi-Ok and Si-U but she couldn't find them. She then arrived near a closed café named lion café, she looks around that place but found no one.

Suddenly she hears some kind of noises coming from a park nearby that cafe, she hurried inside and walks casually into the scene where a horrifying act was going to happen, she runs and crashes into a big alligator, who was more like a human structured and tackled him down as she is not weak at all.

She has learned enough to protect herself from humans, but this animal looked like a human, full of hate and revenge burning in his beautiful green eyes, which were like humans but had a pupil structure like the alligator.

Then she hears a painful grunt, that was from that same boy who has grown quite fond of the Saeng, she reacted first when she saw that the alligator-looking human was looking hungry like a predator but not for good but more for revenge.

Si-U was trying every way to protect himself but he seems to be stronger than him, then suddenly he was pushed by someone, and that someone tackled him with quite a force, making the alligator stumble a little, then Si-U noticed that it was Saeng who was trying to save him.

It made him feel good somehow, that she cares enough about him, she turned her head towards him for a few seconds, and he observed in those seconds, her expression, which was filled with worry, anger, confusion, and resistance, which was quite overwhelming.

He then looks around to find something useful to help her defeat this monster.

His eye caught upon a metal rod, which was lying in the bushes, he grabbed it smoothly without making any noise, then he stood and raised his metal rod to beat that monster away from her.

He rushed toward them and attacked unexpectedly that alligator, which made him trip upon the bench and made him fall on the sand, but the alligator stood up soon and started to attack him again and they were holding a serious fight where both of them got injured.

Saeng tried to solve the situation by ordering Si-U to stop, but he didn't, the alligator noticed her presence again and went for her. Si-U rushed towards her but Saeng pushed him away, which made him fall hard upon the stone.