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Chapter 241: Brain Death (6)

Carpentier scratched his head.

“It is pretty early. Maybe he hasn’t come to work yet,” Miguel said.

“Alright. In that case, let’s save the data in the fMRI now and report back to Doctor Ryu later.”

“We have to be careful with removing the life support devices before we transplant the heart and lungs anyway,” Miguel said.

“Yes. A-GenBio is probably making the artificial heart and lungs right now. Once they’re ready, we’ll proceed according to your clinical opinion. Let’s report the fMRI data to Mr. Ryu first, get his approval, then...” Carpentier said.

Creak.

The door to the hospital room opened. Park Dong-Hyun and Jung Hae-Rim from the Life Creation Team walked inside.

“Oh, I didn’t expect anyone else to be here,” Park Dong-Hyun said.

“You’re here early,” Carpentier said, greeting them with a smile.

“Of course. We’re here to check the fMRI. Soon-Yeol, Principal Cheon, and Lead Bae are coming up right now.”

“So, we’re waiting for Doctor Song and Mr. Ryu?” Carpentier asked.

“Doctor Song stayed up all night, so she went home to wash up. Mr. Ryu isn’t coming today,” Jung Hae-Rim said.

“He’s not coming?”

“Yes.”

There was a moment of silence.

Carpentier looked at the two of them like he didn’t understand.

“Am I not understanding something because my Korean isn’t good enough?”

“He’s not coming today,” Park Dong-Hyun said in English.

“Wait, why? Is something wrong?” Carpentier asked.

“Well, to my surprise, our CEO took the day off. Some of the executives are jokingly talking about making today a company anniversary” the Presidential Vacation Day...”

“At this time? When we’re trying to bring a brain-dead person back to life?”

“I think he sent out an email this morning to the people working on this project. I think I saw your email address, too, Doctor Carpentier.”

“I should check my inbox.”

“He basically said to proceed independently in accordance with Doctor Miguel’s opinion. He said that we don’t have to check in with him since Doctor Carpentier is running this project. He also wrote us the clinical procedure afterwards. He says to do a heart and lung transplant first, then remove life support, which will put him in a vegetative state. And after that... Well, we wait.”

Park Dong-Hyun shrugged.

“But how come our CEO used his day off? From what I remember, he worked on Christmas and Chuseok[1], too.”

“He’s a workaholic and a real scientist obsessed with research. But today, I don’t know...”

Park Dong-Hyun tilted his head in confusion.

“He said something important came up and to not look for him today.”

*

“Wake up.”

Rosaline, who was standing beside Young-Joon, poked him in the shoulder.

“Ah... Um, just ten more minutes. I barely slept yesterday,” Young-Joon mumbled, half-asleep.

Then, a message popped up in front of his eyes, even though they were closed.

[280% Overexpression of Cortisol]

“It’s a stimulant hormone released from the adrenal cortex. It activates the sympathetic nervous system and puts you in a state of alertness. It has very little effect on the body, and it’s a wake-up pill that is secreted in the morning. You’re not sleepy anymore, right?” Rosaline asked.

“You really are...”

Slowly opening his eyes, Young-Joon chuckled as he saw Rosaline’s cheeky smile.

“You act just like Sae-Yi.”

He patted Rosaline’s head.

“She also used to come to my bed on the weekends and wake me up with her chatter.”

“I don’t have a lot of time,” Rosaline said.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

Young-Joon sat up.

“But it’s because you bothered me so much last night that I couldn’t sleep.”

“I’m sorry.”

Young-Joon stretched and stood up.

“Let me get cleaned up, then we’ll go out. You’ll behave yourself today, right?”

“Yes.”

The night had been hell. Even the ride home was not easy.

Rosaline made a fuss about how her ears were plugged as they took the elevator down to the underground parking lot at A-GenBio.

“This is caused by the eardrum retracting inward as the increased pressure in the outer ear exerts a force against the middle ear, where the pressure is relatively low. The eustachian tube has to open to regulate the pressure. The human body has such an interesting system.”

“Sure...”

“Can I push the elevator button?” Rosaline asked.

“I already pressed the button for the fifth floor of the basement. The car is parked there.”

“No, the other buttons.”

“... No.”

Rosaline was a little disappointed, but she pushed the open button repeatedly when she got to the fifth floor of the basement.

Then, she screamed when Young-Joon sat her down in the passenger seat.

“Ah!” she said. “I think I’ve mentioned this a couple of times in my messages before, but there are some organic compounds in this car that are a bit harmful to humans, like formaldehyde from the preservative-treated leather seats and ethyl benzene from the adhesives in the plastic material and safety glass. You have to get this smell out.”

“Al... Alright...”

“I could do some simple chemistry myself to get it out, but I don’t want to do it because I need to save my fitness. Do you mind if I open the window?”

“Sure.”

Then, Rosaline opened the window. She stared at the window, which lowered with a mechanical sound as she pressed the button.

“Hehe.”

Then, she began to play with the window, opening and closing it.

“Is it cool?”

“Well, not the window itself; that’s kind of just an engineering thing, but it’s fun,” Rosaline said. “It’s cool that my finger is pushing a button in this physical world to move a window.”

“Yeah?”

“If you could cruise around other galaxies in a space probe the size of a planet, or get warm beside the Sun like it was a bonfire, you would do it all day.”

Rosaline bucked and unbuckled her seatbelt about fifteen times, and she made a scratch in the leather seat with her fingernails and other tools.

It was dawn when Young-Joon returned to his apartment after a whole lot of suffering. He first checked to see if anyone was home. His parents were still traveling, and Ryu Ji-Won was sleeping over at a friend’s house.

‘What a relief.’

He didn’t have the words or the strength to explain Ryu Sae-Yi, who had returned with red hair.

“I know my mom didn’t throw Sae-Yi’s clothes away. I think she takes them out sometimes.”

Young-Joon pulled Ryu Sae-Yi’s old clothes out of the closet.

Rosaline’s jaw dropped.

“Can I try them all on?”

“Yeah, but don’t make a mess.”

Young-Joon gave her the clothes and went into the bathroom to take a shower.

That was the mistake.

When he came back, the front of the closet was a warzone.

“Why did you take out Ji-Won’s old swimsuit...”

Even with all those clothes scattered on the floor, Rosaline was wearing nothing. She was naked, jumping on the bed like a trampoline.

“Whoo!”

“You...”

Young-Joon felt a little dizzy. He brought Rosaline inside, teaching her that she had to wear at least some clothes, even inside the house.

“Fine,” Rosaline answered half-heartedly, then ran into the washroom.

Then, she turned the dry washroom into a waterpark.

“Oh my god...”

The hot water even burned Rosaline.

“I got a burn on my shoulder,” she said, pointing to her shoulder. “I turned the faucet and the hot water just spilled out.”

“But why are you smiling so much?”

“It was so fun. The feeling of water splashing was... It’s a whole new world.”

“You’re not going to treat it?”

“It’s only a first-degree burn anyway. It’s red and aching a little, but it doesn’t really hurt that much. In fact, I’d like to keep feeling this pain.”

“... Then, let’s get some ointment on it and stop the heat.”

“Okay.”

Young-Joon brought some ointment and an ice bag and sat down beside Rosaline.

“It’s going to be a bit cold.”

“Okay.”

Rosaline’s shoulder was petite and soft.

“Now that I see you, you’re pretty skinny.”

“I copied Ryu Sae-Yi’s body type.”

“Well, she was sick.”

Young-Joon gently rubbed the ointment into Rosaline’s shoulder.

“You like having a body?”

“I love it.”

“How long do you think it will last?”

“The ATP doping will last three days at most,” Rosaline said. “It’ll probably disappear without a trace by the end of this weekend.”

“Hm.”

“It will take a long time to build my next body, and even longer if I use Synchronization Mode or Simulation for new experiments. I won’t tell you to save your fitness because you’re important to me, too.”

“... What do you want to do most with that body?”

“Hm.”

Rosaline thought for a moment.

“I want to go to school.”

“School?”

“I want to see how humans build and reproduce knowledge. And I’m curious about what children this age study.”

“You’ll be really bored if you take those classes. And what did the teacher teaching you science do wrong?” Young-Joon said, laughing.

“But I still want to go.”

“But there’s no way you can go to school in three days, and... Is there anything you want to do this time in particular?”

“What do I want to do?”

“Let’s spend the whole day tomorrow doing whatever you want to do.”

Rosaline’s head snapped toward him.

“Really? Tomorrow? What about Kim Hyun-Taek’s clinical trial?”

“Our scientists are not ordinary people. Even if I’m not there for a day, they can handle a clinical trial that’s quite far along in its trajectory. And the company... I can ask Director Kim and Pak Joo-Hyuk to take care of it,” Young-Joon said. “As for the trial, I’ll have to write them an email to let them know how to proceed.”

“Yay!” Rosaline exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

“So, where do you want to go?”

“Let me think about it!”

“We can go to two or three places. I’m going to use my vacation day tomorrow,” Young-Joon said. “I’ll help you write an email, and I’ll send some cells to Kim Hyun-Taek right now to see how he’s doing,” Rosaline said.

*

Carpentier read the mail slowly.

Young-Joon was being a prophet again.

—To Doctor Carpentier. Around eight in the morning, the fMRI will show an increase in cerebral blood flow in the medulla area, with the processing value of the BOLD (Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent Signal) exceeding 7.5.

‘My god...’

Carpentier clicked his tongue. Chills ran down his spine because Young-Joon was correct.

—Life support can normally be removed at this point. However, in Kim Hyun-Taek’s case, I think it will be better if a heart and lung transplant is done first.

—Doctor Hwang Yoon-Sung’s physical examination indicates acute myocardial injury with a sharply elevated cTn. He also indicated acute ischemia, regional wall motion abnormalities, and coronary thrombosis. He also had pulmonary arterial hypertension and emphysema due to this, which is why he requires both a heart and lung transplant.

Carpenter wrote back to Young-Joon.

—The team is currently de-differentiating Kim Hyun-Taek’s somatic cells and differentiating them into the heart and lungs. They’ll probably be done tomorrow morning, at which point we’ll perform the transplant, take him off life support, and monitor his progress.

*

“He was already pronounced dead because his heart and lungs were on the verge of death and his whole brain function was gone,” Young-Joon said on the way out of the house. “It must be a lot of pressure for Professor Carpentier to be the one in charge of bringing him back to life. All they have to do today is just a few simple treatments, but I still feel bad.”

“He’ll do well, don’t worry,” Rosaline said.

“Of course he will. Carpentier is a Nobel Prize recipient, and we have the best surgeon in the world, Professor Miguel. The Life Creation Team is the best at making artificial organs in the world, and we even have Doctor Song, who was better than the old Rosaline.”

“Exactly!”

“So where should we go?”

“I want to go to the lab,” Rosaline said.

1. Chuseok is an autumn festival similar to Thanksgiving ☜