The Mad Scientist of the Factory (3)
“Ah, that thing……”
Yoon Changwon glanced back at Yang Jaeyeol before speaking.
“Something came up, so it looks like we’ll have to wait a few more days?”
“But then the vaccine development will be delayed……”
Dr. Jang let out a sullen complaint at the unexpected answer. Yoon Changwon replied with his trademark sly grin.
“It will, but what can we do? Things got tangled up like this.”
Ah…! So he had them fetch that serum to give to this bastard?
Only then did Yang Jaeyeol understand the purpose of the blood. At the same time, he felt even more ashamed in front of Yoon Changwon. Whatever the circumstances, the fact that Yoon Changwon had been forced to ask a favor from this piece of shit was entirely due to his own mission failure.
“What? You said you’d get it within a week…… Ah, is it because you’re not satisfied with the research results……?”
Dr. Jang, who had completely misunderstood the situation, blinked in confusion, at a loss for what to do.
“……If that’s what you’re thinking, it’s a misunderstanding. I’ll explain some additional characteristics I haven’t mentioned yet. First of all, each of these larvae can consume 45 grams of food per day. That number might not mean much at first glance, but if you reorganize the threats we’re facing in reality into numbers and think about it again, it should hit home. Based on last year’s figures, the total number of cattle raised domestically was 4.02 million……”
Worried that his research might have been undervalued, Dr. Jang prepared to launch into another lengthy recitation of statistics. And from the very beginning, completely fresh!
Do I really have to listen to this son of a bitch’s sermon again?
Just as Yang Jaeyeol felt a wave of anxiety, Yoon Changwon raised his hand to stop Dr. Jang.
“No, no. There’s no need for that. I’m satisfied with everything. It’s excellent. It looks like it could be commercialized right away. Orders will come in soon, so just focus on developing more menu items.”
Yoon Changwon, who had cut the man off, tapped his wristwatch.
“I’d love to hear more, but I’m a bit pressed for time today. There’s a meeting, an inspection, and I’m insanely busy. This wasn’t even supposed to be a day I could come, but I forced it because I wanted to see you, Dr. Jang. So let’s save the detailed explanation for next time…… All right?”
“Since you’ve already come all this way, it would be better if you listened to everything in detail before leaving. I have a lot of materials I’d like to explain……”
“No, well…… This much is practically the same as hearing it in detail. It’s fine! We really have to get going now, so Dr. Jang, you should go back to work. Don’t worry about us.”
Yoon Changwon soothed Dr. Jang with his characteristically relaxed attitude, then made a show of gathering his things and standing up.
“I’ll get the blood for you soon. If there’s anything else that’s inconvenient or you need, you know what to do, right? Just call me.”
“Ah, is that really all right?”
Dr. Jang asked, his face still unable to shake off its anxiety.
“Of course! This factory is my main business, and you’re the person in charge here. I can’t stand to see you uncomfortable, Dr. Jang.”
“Ah, then…… Just a moment, please wait.”
Only now relieved, Dr. Jang grabbed the walkie-talkie tucked in his belt and gave an order.
“It’s me. Bring what we prepared.”
What we prepared?
Yang Jaeyeol blinked again, wondering what it could be. A moment later, the plain-looking secretary whom Yoon Changwon had sexually harassed entered carrying a paper box with both hands.
“This…… is the snacks you had today. It’s nothing special, but they’re still valuable items, so I thought I’d let the others have a taste as well. Of course, you may have some too, Chairman Yoon.”
Dr. Jang received the box from the secretary and offered it to Yoon Changwon while bowing politely. Watching the scene, Yang Jaeyeol couldn’t close his gaping mouth. He had wondered what the man was going to do after telling them to wait, but it turned out he was going to give them this kind of worthless shit. And the box itself…… fuck, it was ridiculously large and heavy with no sense of style whatsoever. Just how many thousands of those things had they ground up to make this much?
“Oh my, you really prepared all this for a busy man?”
Yoon Changwon tossed a compliment at Dr. Jang and jerked his chin at Yang Jaeyeol to take it.
Thud!
Yang Jaeyeol accepted the paper box with a displeased expression. Even though he tried not to think about it, the image of those bugs gnawing on the zombie corpse kept flickering before his eyes. Inside this box…… and inside his own stomach…… those bugs were there.
“We’ve received everything we came for, so we should get going. Keep up the good work.”
Before stepping into the hallway, Yoon Changwon didn’t forget to give the secretary’s ass a firm slap and wink at her.
“Here, Director Yang!”
As soon as the two men stepped out the door, the ABHT team member who had been waiting at attention rushed forward and took the snack box from Yang Jaeyeol.
“……Didn’t I tell you?”
Once they were in the back seat of the car after walking down the hallway, Yoon Changwon turned to Yang Jaeyeol with a sly smile.
“The guy’s completely insane.”
“Ah, yes.”
Yang Jaeyeol answered with a business smile and nodded. Even as he did so, he kept his mouth shut and secretly scraped his tongue against his teeth. The unpleasant residue left on his tongue made his stomach churn.
“It’s fine! I ate some before and I was perfectly okay.”
Yoon Changwon patted Yang Jaeyeol’s shoulder as if he knew exactly what the man was thinking.
“Ah, no. I’m fine. It doesn’t bother me.”
Yang Jaeyeol waved his hands, pretending to be calm. He didn’t want to look like a petty coward in front of his new superior.
“Mine wasn’t even snacks, it was meatballs. It feels a bit gross, sure, but there were no side effects.”
“Oh dear, even something like that……”
Yang Jaeyeol laughed awkwardly. He wasn’t sure whether Yoon Changwon had really eaten such a thing, but just hearing the words brought him a small sense of relief and comfort.
“That guy, you see. There’s something wrong with him here. Like a really big screw is missing.”
Yoon Changwon tapped his temple.
“He’s a genius, but he doesn’t have that thing where he considers how other people feel. Or should I say he doesn’t understand other people’s emotions at all? And what else…… he acts like he doesn’t know anything about morals or stuff like that. Look at him now. Would any sane person dare to suggest raising bugs on zombie corpses and eating them? There’s a separate name for bastards who don’t know how other people feel……”
“Are you perhaps referring to psychopaths……”
“Oh, yeah. That must be it. Anyway, Director Yang, you’re sharp. When did a guy who used to do sports study words like that? Let me think, I should give you a prize……”
Yoon Changwon grinned as he pulled out a cigarette and offered one to Director Yang as well.
“Here! Have one. It’ll help get rid of that gross feeling in your mouth.”
This was the charm of this man that set him apart from Chairman Hwang. His relaxed and bold temperament that wasn’t bound by formalities. At least on the surface.
“Ah, yes! Thank you, Chairman!”
Yang Jaeyeol lit the cigarette for Yoon Changwon first, then put one in his own mouth. As the bitter taste of tobacco filled his mouth, the nausea finally began to subside.
“I first met that guy at some conference or whatever, and he kept yapping on and on like that back then too. But almost nothing he says is pleasant for others to hear. He just goes on and on day and night about how great he is.”
Yoon Changwon exhaled a long stream of smoke and gazed out the window as he recalled his first meeting with Dr. Jang.
“And if someone contradicts him even a little? His face turns bright red and he starts laying out these long arguments. While other people are frantically flipping through papers or computers to barely get out a word or two, this guy doesn’t look at anything and just keeps talking for ten, twenty minutes straight. Even if the moderator tells him to stop, he won’t! He says stopping there might cause misunderstandings. Watching that, I thought, ‘Ah, this guy. He’s something special.’ You saw it earlier too, right? Spouting off all those numbers without looking at anything. He repeated it twice and didn’t miss a single syllable.”
“Ah, yes. It was certainly impressive……”
While expressing agreement with his opinion, Yang Jaeyeol deliberately dragged out his words to subtly convey a sense of dissatisfaction.
“No matter how impressive, why would you put a guy with that many screws loose in the position of highest authority?”
Yoon Changwon immediately read his true thoughts and asked. Yang Jaeyeol shrugged his shoulders awkwardly.
“No, it’s not that. I was just…… curious what aspects of him your insightful eye saw positively……”
Calling him a genius or whatever was one thing, but appointing him as the person in charge and giving him full authority was another story entirely. Was it even possible to have smooth secret conversations with a guy who made your stomach twist even during simple communication?
If his abilities were truly that valuable, it would be better to put a smart and quick-witted guy as the boss and just have that halfwit of a doctor focus solely on research……
“Didn’t you feel it while listening to him talk? What kind of person he is?”
Yoon Changwon asked. When Yang Jaeyeol didn’t immediately understand, Yoon Changwon flicked the ash from his cigarette into the ashtray and explained in more detail.
“That guy has to say everything from 1 to 100 in the exact order he knows it. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…… He has to count all the way to 100 to reach 100. He can’t start from 20, and he can’t skip thirty numbers in the middle. And if you don’t let him count all the way to 100, he throws a huge fit. So he either doesn’t do it at all, or he can’t do it sloppily.”
“Yes. That’s exactly how he seemed.”
Yang Jaeyeol nodded immediately. When the man had recited twice how many cows, pigs, and chickens had been raised and how many tons they weighed, it had genuinely made him furious, but after hearing Yoon Changwon’s explanation, it started to sound like an advantage.
“And while he has strong pride, he doesn’t have excessive greed. You saw that secretary’s face earlier, right? I told him that since he has to stay cooped up in this remote place, he could pick any girls he liked and bring them with him. Any guy with a dick would naturally think the same thing, right?”
Yoon Changwon spread both hands and made a groping motion in the air as he continued.
“But he picked that one. Said she had some certification that would be helpful. I looked into it carefully, and all the secretaries and female employees were like that. There aren’t even that many female staff to begin with. And…… what about the state of that VIP room? They call it a VIP room, but you’d believe it if someone said it was a warehouse. Well…… it was originally a warehouse.”
Yoon Changwon let out a snort of disbelief as if the thought still amazed him. Indeed, even from Yang Jaeyeol’s perspective, that VIP room had been excessively plain. If the VIP room was in that condition, Dr. Jang’s own quarters must be even more shabby.
“He doesn’t even know how to use shortcuts like filling other desires when given an opportunity like this. Because using shortcuts isn’t part of the process of going from 1 to 100 in order. So when we get something truly valuable like that immune person’s blood, we can just leave it to him. There’s no chance he’ll slack off or skim anything. Can you even imagine that tactless bastard stabbing me in the back?”
While Yoon Changwon chattered on, the car carrying them arrived at the outer parking lot. Yang Jaeyeol quickly got out first, opened the VIP seat door, and asked.
“By the way, Chairman Yoon…… This might be presumptuous, but can that guy really make a vaccine with the immune person’s blood?”
“Well…… He says he has an idea, but I don’t know. There’s certainly a possibility he can’t make the vaccine. But he’s not the type to not do it if he can. For me, that’s enough. In truth, there’s no one you can entrust with something and have a 100 percent chance of success. I can be satisfied with that level. ……Hey, throw that thing over there.”
As Yoon Changwon got out of the car and walked toward the helicopter, he pointed at a large trash container in the corner. It seemed that while he trusted Dr. Jang, he wasn’t fond of the man’s gift.
“Ah, yes!”
The ABHT team member who had been following behind him carrying the bug-snack paper box quickly ran over to the trash container. As the man threw the paper box into the container, Yoon Changwon said,
“It might turn your stomach, but it could still make money, don’t you think?”
“Ah, yes! Definitely!”
Yang Jaeyeol nodded vigorously. Taeyang Group had agreed to settle accounts once normal times returned and was supplying an enormous amount of provisions to the military and survivors. If they could reduce material costs by even 30 percent on that massive quantity of food, it would be an incredibly profitable business.
“For now, we’ll process them into things like meatballs or hamburgers and supply them as combat rations for the soldiers. Later, once the world is somewhat stabilized, we’ll export them abroad too. Those bugs will fly off the shelves even if we price them high. Foreigners must be suffering from the corpse problem just like us. How else would they dispose of that many corpses without them?”
Yoon Changwon tossed his cigarette butt onto the parking lot floor, wiped his mouth, and muttered.
“Good grief…… You really do live and learn. Who would’ve thought I’d end up making money selling bugs.”
“Why aren’t they back yet?”
On the theater rooftop, Yubin glanced at his watch and bit his lip anxiously. It was 4:58 p.m. More than fifty minutes had passed since Sheriff and Jinwoo had sent their last radio transmission before entering the underground at Saga-jeong Station. That was more than enough time to walk three subway stops.
“They should’ve been here ages ago……”
He didn’t want the boys to rush and get themselves into danger, but this kind of delay beyond calculations also made a person uneasy.
Had something happened?
Yubin cast his gaze toward the subway station and idly tapped the radio. Since they were kids who had gone out into a world covered in zombies and happened to ‘meet someone,’ it was only natural to worry that they might have gotten caught up in yet another bizarre and strange incident while traveling along the underground tracks.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-! Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-! Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-!
Gunfire was still ringing out nonstop from the direction of Children’s Grand Park. It seemed they were simply opening fire the moment zombies came within a few hundred meters. Thanks to that, Yubin had been tormented by the sound all afternoon, and a large number of zombies were still swarming and tangled together around Children’s Grand Park.
“What the hell is their objective?”
Yubin rubbed his numb ears with his palm and glared in the direction the gunfire was coming from. What was strangest was that they didn’t seem to be closing the distance, nor did they appear to be moving laterally. If they weren’t conducting a search, why were they wasting an entire day’s worth of time and bullets in a city completely overrun by zombies?
“Do whatever you want, just don’t cause any unnecessary trouble. Otherwise we’re all fucked.”
Yubin sent a silent plea toward the enemies whose location he couldn’t determine. If those bastards set fire to the cars clogging the roads, every zombie in the vicinity would swarm toward the heat like a tidal wave. Then they would be trapped inside this theater for days, and it would become difficult to reunite with Jinwoo and Sheriff anytime soon.
-Chzzzzzt!
Just as Yubin was wrestling with his anxiety, a receiving tone came from the radio.
-Chzzzzzt! Hey, Yubin! Can you hear me? You okay? The gunfire sounds insane from here?
It was Sheriff’s voice. Yubin’s face brightened as he responded.
“Yeah! I hear you loud and clear, Sheriff! Where are you guys? Did you make it to Gunja Station?”
-Chzzzzzt……! Yeah! We’re at Gunja Station! Can we come out now? Are there any zombies nearby? Chzzzzzt……!
“Yeah! I don’t see any that we need to worry about!”
Yubin shouted after turning his gaze in the opposite direction and scanning the road.
“Can you guys move right now? You’re not hurt or anything, right?”
-Chzzzzzt……! No chance of getting hurt. We just walked straight through the underground…… Chzzzzzt!
Sheriff replied casually. Yubin leaned out over the railing, meticulously checked the area around the building once more, then quickly ran down the stairs.
“Then wait just a bit! I’ll head over there right away!”
After that, he opened the door on the fourteenth floor and reached out toward Mingu.
“Hyung, I’ll be back! Give me the bag!”