Chapter 175: GSC (7)

Chapter 175: GSC (7)

After the press conference, Yoon Bo-Hyun went to the main lobby of the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Scientists who were attending the GSC International Conference were coming down from the floor above for a break.

Yoon Bo-Hyun had also planned this. Reporters swarmed to Young-Joon, fighting to get there first, as he came down into the lobby.

“Doctor Ryu!”

Their countless microphones were aimed towards Young-Joon like they were going to pierce him. Camera flashes fell on his face.

“Please comment on the anthracis in Africa!”

“There is news of the anthracis fence causing an anthrax epidemic in Africa. Is this true?”

“Is it true that you developed the anthrax bioweapon?”

“How do you feel right now!” n0ve(l)bi(n.)co/m

“There was an exposé from an insider that you are a murder suspect! Any comments?”

“...”

Young-Joon stayed quiet. His eyes stared past the crowd to the other side where Yoon Bo-Hyun was standing. They stared at each other for a few seconds.

* * *

“What the fxxk is that...”

Park Joo-Hyuk let out a sigh as he watched the TV. Several A-Bio employees were standing in front of the large TV in the break room.

“Oh no...”

“Is that true?”

“Are you kidding?”

“Wait, who’s Yoon Bo-Hyun? Some stupid nobody...”

“I’ve never seen him at A-Gen...”

The employees murmured amongst themselves.

“Mr. Kim,” Cheon Ji-Myung said to Park Joo-Hyuk. “How much do you know about what’s on TV right now?”

“I don’t know anything,” he replied. “That little piece of shit who just showed up out of nowhere. What the hell is he doing?”

Park Joo-Hyuk frowned.

“How’s the public reacting? Do you know anything?” Cheon Ji-Myung asked.

“I don’t know. I think I have to go down to management and see.”

Park Joo-Hyuk quickly ran up the stairs to management. The office phone lines were burning. People were chaotically running around with documents and taking calls.

“Return fire immediately! This is some bullshit from a crazy nobody who doesn’t know anything!” shouted Lee Chan-Yeol, the executive manager of management. “Send out press releases now! How is the public reacting?”

“They are defending Doctor Ryu so far.”

“Of course they are. It’s all a fxxking conspiracy theory. The CEO has done so much for people. He’s saved so many lives, and this conspiracy theory will blow over. I want you to send out a press release saying that we deny all allegations.”

“Yes, sir.”

The employees pounded away at their keyboards.

* * *

The world was turned upside down, and not just in Korea. It included the United States, where the A-Bio Cancer Laboratory was located, Sweden that gave Young-Joon the highest medal in the country, Mumbai that established a statue of Young-Joon for his work against HIV in Kamathipura, the Congo that was successful in containing the spread of Ebola, along with the International Vaccine Institute and the World Health Organization. It was like a bomb had hit countless countries and organizations.

—This is nonsense. Why would Doctor Ryu harm him?

—An anthrax bioweapon? There’s no evidence of that.

“These are people who still believe in the moon landing conspiracy theories in the twenty-first century. There’s also the fan myth[refThe fan myth is a popular misconception in Korea that having an electric fan running in a room while sleeping will kill someone due to the lack of oxygen.[/ref] and the myth that the CIA is spreading the flu to curb population growth. There are quite a lot of people who strongly believe in nonsense like that,” Yoon Bo-Hyun said. “And that’s Ryiu Young-Joon’s weakness. He’s too smart, too perfect, and too moral. He’s too much of an elite, even though all his power comes from the support from the public and most of them are ignorant.”

“...”

“The truth may eventually come out, but not until the two companies merge and elect a CEO.”

“Y—you crazy bastard!”

Nicholas finally lost his cool and grabbed Yoon Bo-Hyun by the neck.

“Do you know what you’ve done?”

“I know! I’m protecting this company instead of my father!” Yoon Bo-Hyun shouted.

“...”

“Division Manager Ji Kwang-Man and Director Kim Hyun-Taek all went down during the battle. My father raised the white flag, but not me.”

Yoon Dae-Sung let out a sigh like he had given up.

“People don’t hate the villain; what they hate are hypocrites. When someone better than you behaves admirably, you respect and follow them, but that doesn’t last long. They change as soon as you give them a few shreds of suspicion, like that person has murderous intentions, or that person has developed a weapon that causes a plague,” Yoon Bo-Hyun said. He added, “Go hide if you can’t fight, but don’t get in my way.”

Nicholas let go of Yoon Bo-Hyun. A silence from exhaustion filled the room.

“Bo-Hyun,” Yoon Dae-Sung said quietly. “You made a big mistake.”

“Do you still think that? Even though I backed him up into a corner like this?”

“The reason that Doctor Ryu is not finishing you off right now is because his priority is the anthrax epidemic in Africa. He doesn’t even consider you his opponent. To him, you’re nothing but a small fruit fly.”

“...”

“You still don’t have an idea of the kind of power he has.”

Yoon Bo-Hyun clenched his jaw.

“Father, I...”

“Does Doctor Ryu just seem like a genius scientist to you? No matter how incredible a scientist is, they can’t make a company like A-Bio in just a year. He’s not good at science; he’s just incredibly intelligent.”

“...”

“I won’t get out now. It would be ridiculous for me to turn myself in and try to find a way to live alone. I will stand by your side, and I will leave with you when you fall, Yoon Dae-Sung said.

Yoon Bo-Hyun stared at him with disappointment.

Nicholas silently agreed with Yoon Dae-Sung. When the anthrax bioweapon came up, Young-Joon would have already figured out that it was something A-Gen had developed in the past. But Young-Joon hadn’t contacted Nicholas yet; he hadn’t asked Nicholas, who had access to all of A-Gen’s research notes, to expose the anthrax bioweapon development because he could destroy Yoon Bo-Hyun without embarrassing Nicholas.

* * *

Young-Joon didn’t leave the country during the talk of him being detained and all that. But there was one person who did get on a plane to the Congo. It was Doctor Messelson. He was reading the email Young-Joon had written the day before.

[The whole genome sequence of the anthracis in Africa is as follows:

ATTGTACTGCTCCATTTACATTGGGGGATCAT.......]

The email attachment contained 5.23 million letters of DNA data. Not only that, it also described what materials were made in each location, how much they were expressed, and what their three-dimensional structure looked like.

‘...’

When he first got this file, Messelson thought Young-Joon had actually designed a bioweapon because it was physically impossible to make something like that overnight.

But he changed his mind after some more thought. He couldn’t have made this data, even if he was the developer—even if he was Young-Joon. This was data that scientists who have worked on anthracis for five to ten years would barely get, which meant that there was a separate scientist who produced this data. In reality, this was the result of using Rosaline, but to Messelson, it seemed like Young-Joon already held the evidence to clear his own name.

“I’m not the one who created the anthrax bioweapon. However, I think it’s true that something like that is going around Africa,” Young-Joon said to Messelson. “I obtained this data through a route I cannot discuss right now, and since it’s a little difficult for me to leave the country now, I am leaving the heavy lifting to you, Doctor Messelson.”

“That’s fine. Leave it to me, Doctor Ryu. I’m the expert on anthracis and bioweapons,” Messelson replied.

And when he was on the plane, Young-Joon held a press conference.