White Blood (5)
While White Blood launched and surged along a path of soaring popularity, Yeon-woo was exchanging information with Han Hae-un, quietly weeding out Baeksol's moles hidden throughout the entertainment industry.
They had managed to assemble a list of several names, but the problem was telling who among them was an actual mole and who was simply an ordinary party-obsessed drug addict.
Jeon Gi-hun, who had originally been cast as Dipangdal, had looked for all the world like an ordinary actor with nothing suspicious about him. If anything, the public reputation he enjoyed had been rather favorable.
There have to be a few key figures in the industry serving as Baeksol's drug-supply hubs…
Among them would be not only suppliers, but also recruiters who lured people in with drugs, and direct underlings who manufactured incidents for Baeksol to exploit—exactly as they had in the An Jun-ho case.
To be certain, I need to hear it from someone who was there.
If he could definitively isolate even one of them, he could map their connections and pull the whole chain free the way one digs up sweet potatoes, vine after vine.
And Yeon-woo knew of one direct victim.
I need to meet An Jun-ho.
The odds that Baeksol would still be watching a discarded pawn more than two years later were close to zero. Even so, he could not simply show up unannounced. It would be better to arrange a natural pretext.
A week later, episode four of White Blood opened in the banquet hall of the royal palace.
With the crisis that had tormented the entire kingdom for six years finally resolved, a festival was underway.
Ella, experiencing such a splendid celebration for the first time in her life, darted about in high spirits. The true hero of the feast, however—Jeong Do-jin—sat in a corner of the hall with his legs crossed, perched on the stairs.
"So this is where you were."
Do-jin looked at Akhenaton.
"By the way—when can we start using the Hepatic Vein?"
"Activation is nearly complete."
"Then we should get moving soon."
Do-jin rose from the stairs. He had not remained out of any interest in the banquet. The moment the matter was settled he had wanted to leave; he had simply been waiting for the hepatic vein—long out of commission—to return to normal function.
Akhenaton hesitated, then spoke.
"Um… my lord. Before you depart, would you be willing to meet an elderly man for a moment?"
"An old man?"
"Having heard the tales of your exploits at Rock Mountain, he earnestly begs an audience with the god. He is known among the people as a sage for his vast knowledge, but he is too frail to come himself."
Curiosity stirred in Do-jin.
"Come to think of it, you all have surprisingly varied ranks and positions. If you're a prince, does that mean there's also a king of the red blood cells?"
"Yes, of course. After His Majesty departed for Cardiac, the passage was sealed, so I have been handling affairs in his stead ever since."
Cardiac meant the heart—a place Do-jin would have to pass through eventually anyway. He nodded and answered Akhenaton's request.
"This sage. If he's nearby, I'll meet him before we go. I don't have much time to spare."
Akhenaton nodded and pointed to a tower behind the palace.
"He is there. I will guide you at once."
Do-jin nodded, glanced once at Ella—still happily dancing among the other red blood cells—then followed Akhenaton.
I should leave Ella to enjoy herself while we're gone. Or maybe she could just settle here for good.
When Do-jin followed Akhenaton into the tower, a red blood cell whose white beard trailed all the way to the floor struggled to raise his upper body from where he had been lying.
The one called a sage spoke of legends—of how the sword and gems Do-jin carried were artifacts that, gathered in one place, would grant tremendous power.
There were three gems in total.
Blue stone, purple stone, white stone.
Including the black sword he already possessed, that made four.
So only the white gem remains.
Do-jin stared blankly at the sword in his hand, then asked the sage,
"Do you know where the white gem is?"
After briefly searching his memory, the sage continued.
"It is said to lie at the bottom of a vast river that stretches on endlessly, without end no matter how far one travels."
Do-jin tilted his head.
"A river that large—wouldn't that be a lake or a sea?"
After thinking a long while, the sage shook his head.
"…This humble one is too ignorant to know what a lake or a sea might be."
"Well, I suppose there wouldn't be lakes or seas inside a body…"
As he spoke, Do-jin realized something. There were. Two places came to mind at once.
"The bladder and the stomach."
But if the sea the legend pointed to was the bladder or the stomach, the problem was what those "seas" were made of.
"One is urine, the other is stomach acid…"
He absolutely did not want to go to either.
An endlessly continuing river… Then maybe the carotid artery…?
In any case, none of those places were somewhere he could simply decide to go right now.
After finishing his conversation with the elder called a sage, he returned to the banquet hall to find Ella waiting.
"I thought you abandoned me, mister!"
Do-jin scratched his head.
"Hmm? It wasn't like that. Wouldn't you be fine living here among these red blood cells?"
"I'm going to keep traveling too!"
"Mm. Well, suit yourself."
Do-jin nodded indifferently and shrugged.
"Then pack your things so we can leave now."
"Things? I don't have any."
"Grab a few oxygen packets at least. We solved the kingdom's crisis—we should collect our commission fee."
The word "commission" made him feel like a mercenary. Do-jin let out a short laugh and looked at Akhenaton.
"Akhenaton. Pack some high-quality oxygen for her to eat while we travel."
"Yes, understood."
After making preparations to leave, they followed Akhenaton toward the Hepatic Vein through the warp they had used before.
Then the Narrator's communication came through.
After acquiring the purple gem, communication had been cut off for a while; now the Narrator's voice was connected again. Do-jin nodded.
Got it. What were you doing that you're only contacting me now?
At the simple answer that reached his ear, Do-jin had nothing to say. He looked at Akhenaton.
"Akhenaton, we need to leave quickly. Activate it."
"Yes, understood. But who…?"
"Don't know. Sometimes I hear the voice of a god in my ear."
At the incomprehensible words, Akhenaton tilted his head and operated the control panel to summon the orbital elevator.
This time Do-jin boarded comfortably, without hanging from the roof. When Ella climbed in after him, Akhenaton entered as well.
"…Why are you getting on?"
"Pardon? Of course I must come along. I have received a revelation to assist the god."
"…I get the feeling the baggage keeps increasing."
At the word "baggage," Akhenaton hurriedly waved his hands.
"I am very useful! I can use illusion magic like this, and I have other convenient abilities as well."
When Akhenaton floated a crystal orb and cards into the air, his form vanished and reappeared, glowing blue before returning to normal.
"If you leave, who will manage this place?"
"The practical work has always been handled by those assigned to each duty."
Since the man himself insisted on going and there was no real reason to stop him, Do-jin pressed his forehead and sighed.
"Ha. Fine. One or two—what difference does it make."
Once Akhenaton and Ella were aboard, the orbital elevator's doors closed and it began to depart.
Wooong—
Accompanied by a resonant hum and a slight vibration, there was a sensation of rising upward. Satisfied with the comfortable ride, Do-jin nodded to himself and muttered,
"Hmm. So this is what comfortable feels like."
"Pardon?"
When Akhenaton asked back, Do-jin pointed a finger upward.
"Last time I rode this, I was on the outer roof."
"…Pardon? The roof?"
Akhenaton looked down out the window. Within seconds of departure, the Liver region had already grown so distant it looked like a single tiny dot.
They were flying at such tremendous speed—and last time he had been on the roof? What on earth was he talking about. At the incomprehensible words, Akhenaton's head tilted.
"So this place is called Trachea, then?"
"Yes, that is correct."
The place they arrived at via the orbital elevator was the trade city of Trachea.
Trachea was the airway—the character for energy, the character for path. Literally: the road through which energy enters.
The tubular passage connecting the larynx to the lungs was the route through which oxygen entered from outside, so from the red blood cells' perspective it overflowed with resources—the wealthiest region of all. Oxygen was both their food and their currency.
"We've finally arrived."
Narrator. You said the red blood cell king of the Liver region that Akhenaton mentioned and the king you spoke of are not the same person, right?
Just how remarkable a cell must he be for his very name to be Cardiac—the heart.
Thinking various thoughts as he stepped off the orbital elevator, a vast city unfolded before his eyes.
Meanwhile, at home, Yeon-woo was arranging a natural meeting with An Jun-ho.
Looking at the group chat with Han So-hyun and Son Jin-uk, he set down his smartphone and nodded.
"Hmm. Next week. That should take care of the An Jun-ho matter."
They had agreed to set a date soon and all go meet An Jun-ho together.
Then he resumed the paused White Blood to continue monitoring, recalling when they had filmed that scene.
Looking at the content, it was nothing special—but it was surprisingly difficult. There wasn't even any flashy action.
With CG applied, the trade city of Trachea looked convincingly complete, but during actual filming they had to shoot inside an empty chroma-key space with nothing there. Because of that, the actors' gazes and breathing had not matched up.
"Wow! Look at that! The houses go all the way up to the sky!"
"Han Byeol, the buildings are that way."
"Ah! I'm sorry!"
The objects that would serve as background screens were manageable—after enough takes, they could memorize the approximate virtual positions. But the scenes of walking among the various pedestrians who would be rendered as peculiar cells had no real solution. Because they filmed first and then overlaid the CG to match, memorizing was impossible.
After long deliberation, the method they finally devised was for Yeon-woo, walking in the lead, to act according to instructions.
I need to provide usable footage through my acting first. Then Director Jeong Yo-han can layer his imagination on top of it.
As Yeon-woo walked ahead, using ventriloquism to describe the imagined situation before him without moving his lips, Dong-ha and Han Byeol following behind moved in accordance.
"The person walking toward us is a huge, fat cell."
When Yeon-woo passed first, Dong-ha and Han Byeol followed, stepping aside as if the path were narrow.
"Next is a cell oozing sticky liquid."
When Yeon-woo spoke while carefully dodging as if a sticky cell were truly there, Han Byeol reached out with a curious expression as if to touch something, and Dong-ha snatched her hand, hurriedly stopping her, then followed Yeon-woo.
"Okay! Cut! Wow, that last one should look great on screen!"
At the never-before-seen spectacle, Ella's eyes sparkled.
"Look at that! The houses go all the way up to the sky!"
Amazed by the towering high-rise buildings, Ella shook Do-jin's arm. Seeing that, Akhenaton fretted and tried to stop her.
"M-Miss Ella. Please do not seize and shake the god's sacred body so rudely."
"What's a sacred body?"
Watching the two blankly for a moment, Do-jin turned his gaze away.
Trachea appeared to be a civilization similar to modern society, or perhaps a bit more advanced. Cars traveled along well-paved roads, and it was extremely crowded. Even now, cells in all manner of attire were passing by around Do-jin.
Fortunately, they don't seem interested in me.
Even seeing Do-jin's appearance—his top tattered from being mauled by a pterosaur, covered by a pitch-black cloak—they paid him no particular attention, not even glancing his way as they went about their own business.