Side Story: The Underground Processing Lab
Hidden beneath the Shared Property Facility—beyond the facilities dedicated to training female livestock—lay a separate underground laboratory known as the Processing Lab. Due to its profound ethical issues, it remained completely concealed from the public eye, with knowledge of its existence limited to an extremely select few. In numbers, that meant roughly 28 people, including the researchers... and today, one more had been added, bringing the total to 29.
"Yeah, yeah, got it, Dad. I'm almost there, so I gotta hang up. Don't worry~ Yeah, I know. Bye!"
The woman driving along the winding mountain road gazed at the Shared Property Facility visible in the distance, a smile brimming with anticipation on her lips. Jeong So-yeon, the new researcher. She had graduated from a prestigious university with top honors and beaten 500-to-1 odds to land a position here.
"This is gonna be amazing. Hehe."
The Shared Property Facility stood deep in the remote mountains, far from society, living up to its nickname of an impregnable fortress with its crude yet sturdy castle-like walls. Up close, its imposing presence was no joke. Jeong So-yeon pulled up to the main gate and swallowed hard as guards approached. They were hulking mercenaries in bulletproof vests, armed with rifles, clearly the product of intense training.
A place requiring such stringent security... a dangerous site where the slightest misstep could spell disaster... With the facility she'd only heard about now right before her eyes, So-yeon couldn't hide her tension.
Tap tap—
She handed her employee ID to the guard at the driver's side window. The photo showed a youthful beauty with wavy light-brown hair, heavily Photoshopped. The puzzled guard alternated glances between her and the card before scanning it with his terminal to verify her identity again.
"Identity confirmed. Opening the gate."
"Thanks."
"By the way, I recommend updating that photo to something recent. Unless you want to get held up every time you come and go."
"Got it."
So-yeon replied curtly to the guard's thorny words, her face souring as she drove inside.
She parked in the staff underground lot, navigated layer upon layer of security checkpoints, ascended to the surface, and waited for her contact in the main building of the Shared Property Facility.
Top floor, 10th story. Sipping coffee, So-yeon surveyed the facility.
"Not what I expected..."
The training of female livestock happened indoors. The ones outside were just light-offense criminals doing 'general labor.' Occasionally, special livestock being moved by handlers came into view, but she couldn't spot any of the harshly punished ones she'd imagined suffering in the open.
Moments later, the door opened.
"Jeong So-yeon?"
"Yes, that's me."
"Ah~ Nice to meet you. I'm Kim Jin, lab director, and I'll be showing you around the Processing Lab today."
"Yes! Nice to meet you too! Looking forward to working with you!"
Lab Director Kim Jin. Despite his youthful name, he was a white-haired man in his sixties. Dressed in a white coat, he looked more like a doctor than a researcher. He had been there since the facility's inception, one of the founding members whose life was intertwined with it. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he built the foundation of the Processing Lab—a legend known to everyone at the Shared Property Facility.
Shaking hands with such a figure made So-yeon's heart race.
"Follow me for now. The Processing Lab is way down in the facility's depths, so it'll take a bit to get there."
"Yes, sunbae-nim!"
"Haha, no need for that... I'm basically retired, just managing things now. Call me comfortably."
"Still..."
Back in school, So-yeon had read Kim Jin's autobiography and dreamed of becoming a researcher at the Shared Property Facility. She wanted to be like him—to contribute greatly to society, to advance the nation's technology, to become an exceptional person...! With her life's role model right there, it was only natural to feel reverence.
Bubbling with excitement, So-yeon boarded the elevator with Kim Jin. It had a card reader; when he tapped his access badge, it descended to a level below the basement without needing a button press.
"How far down does this go?"
"All the way to a spot that could withstand a nuclear blast. Can't have info on the Processing Lab leaking out, after all."
"I see..."
Upon signing her employment contract, So-yeon knew better than anyone the dangers of the Processing Lab. Its very existence was top-level classified. Everything seen, heard, felt, or otherwise experienced on the job had to remain secret. No photos or documentation allowed, and violating that meant being turned into something beyond even a 'special livestock' under the nation's Special Disposition Law, per the contract.
In other words, do the forbidden, and you'd end up as Processing Lab female livestock.
"Almost there."
"Yes! I'm so excited right now!"
"Excited? Haha, don't get too excited."
"Huh..?"
Kim Jin stroked his chin, his expression uneasy.
"Well, since you're a woman... you might be shocked at first. But you know once you're in, no quitting until the contract expires, right?"
"Yes! I know."
"Good, then."
Why's he scaring me like that...? So-yeon tilted her head, clenching her fists in resolve.
Basement 5... Basement 10... Basement 20... The elevator plunged endlessly before arriving at Basement 50. Ding— A clear chime like a bell rang out, and the doors slid open. Light so bright it was unimaginable for underground blinded her eyes. The ceiling brimmed with LEDs, and white marble floors stretched down the corridor. Flanking it were Processing Lab rooms with full-glass walls, researchers visible inside.
Men in white coats... men in gas masks and thick gloves, doing who-knows-what... men in full hazmat suits working diligently... A variety of researchers at work.
"Sunbae-nim, is this the Processing Lab?"
"Yes, the entire Basement 50 level."
Kim Jin walked ahead, scanning for an open lab. He stopped at one near the corridor's end.
Before opening the door, he checked her resolve one last time.
"Jeong So-yeon, you know exactly what the Processing Lab does, right?"
"Yes! I've heard the explanation, sunbae-nim."
"Say it in your own words."
"Uh..? Well... The Shared Property Facility has regular livestock and special livestock, and the unruly special ones get dragged here for brutal training and torture."
"Correct. On the surface."
"Huh?"
So-yeon couldn't grasp what he meant.
"What you just described... that's for criminals who still have human rights."
"What? You mean there are criminals without human rights..?"
Kim Jin nodded instead of answering.
"Think about the purpose of the Shared Property Facility. Criminals serve sentences in the slave reception center proportional to their crimes. So what happens to those whose crimes can't be quantified that way?"
"People like that exist..?"
"Haha, I made it too complicated. Simply put, people sentenced to life imprisonment or death."
Life imprisonment or execution. Human scum who'd committed unforgivable crimes, never to return to society...
"Life prisoners who accept their fate as female livestock get treated like special livestock. But for death row..."
Creak— Kim Jin opened the Processing Lab door, smirking.
"Under the facility's authority, we revoke their human rights and turn them into lab subjects."
"Wait, is that even possible..?"
"It is. Because it's a national facility."
They were doomed to die anyway. On their final road, they contribute to society—instead of execution, death row inmates have their rights stripped and reborn as Processing Lab test subjects.
"Words alone won't make it clear. I'll explain as you see for yourself."
"Yes, sunbae-nim!"
"It might shock you at first... but someone as passionate as you will adapt quickly, I think."
Kim Jin patted her shoulder encouragingly. So-yeon, inwardly tense, smiled brightly, bolstered.
They entered the Processing Lab together, and she...
"Eh..?"
"Surprised? This is the true nature of the Processing Lab."
...stared at body parts that could no longer be called human—fragments that had once been 'human'...
"Uwaaagh!!"
...and vomited.