Back in my graduate student days, I remember how much I struggled to find a research topic no one else had explored. That’s why I even tried dissecting a shark…….
Thinking about it now, it’s almost funny. Just a few days ago, literally dozens, maybe hundreds, of doors to new worlds opened up.
It’s a new era of exploration.
I placed the Magic Stone I’d found at the ruins onto the Desk, and next to it, I powered on the Tablet to display the Blueprint.
There’s still so much to research, so much we don’t know, but the next Gate is going to open in just a few days.
There’s something I have to finish before then.
The Hunter Rifle.
On the first day the Gate opened, I put it together clumsily, even without a Magic Stone.
Even if it’s still a Gauss Rifle Prototype that can’t be mass-produced yet, if I bring a working version, it’ll be helpful.
“Speeding up development comes first.”
Before my regression, it took me months to figure out I needed this and to develop it.
Now, I didn’t have to worry about that at all.
No need to go through trial and error. After all, the basic concept for the Gauss Rifle Prototype existed even before the Gate incident.
It was only an experimental prototype then.
That version wasn’t practical at all, but since we can use Mana now, that’s no longer important.
This time, I have a proper Magic Stone secured, so making one shouldn’t be difficult.
I picked up the ‘Prototype Hunter Rifle’ I’d brought last time. The frame was already set.
At the Research Institute, when we needed equipment or experimental devices, we often printed parts with the 3D Printer and assembled them ourselves.
I’ve done this kind of work many times.
“Well, I didn’t use to make weapons, though.”
All I have to do is figure out how to connect the Magic Stone here.
The key is the coil that applies a magnetic force toward the barrel.
Now, with the Seeker’s Trait Activation, I can inject Mana into the Magic Stone to control it and use the Magic Stone as an energy source.
– Click.
As I used the Trait again, the Magic Stone encased in copper coils was connected to the Prototype Hunter Rifle.
Mana flowed from the coil attached to the rifle’s barrel.
[Prototype Hunter Rifle]
[B-Grade]
It’s done. I lifted the completed device.
***
The Researchers looked understandably impatient.
Of course, they wanted to dissect a Monster.
In my previous life, as soon as we secured a Monster carcass, we pulled several nights of overtime.
We couldn’t hold back our curiosity about the unknown.
“Looks like we’ll be working late tonight too.”
I put on my protective suit and, still gloved, entered the Heo Boo Room.
In the Heo Boo Room were me and Dr. Min.
And on the Desk, the dead Monster.
“Alright, let’s begin the dissection.”
Dr. Min nodded, and I picked up the scalpel.
I’ve dissected Monsters many times, even before my regression…….
But somehow, it always feels new.
“Where are the other Doctors?”
“They’ll be here soon. Right now, they’re studying objects retrieved from the Gate.”
“Dr. Min, what was your field of study again?”
“Materials Engineering.”
At the Supernatural Science Research Institute, people worked on a lot of things regardless of their specialty.
With only four permanent Researchers, it wasn’t possible to have a specialist for every situation.
So, we just had to help each other out and cover each other’s weaknesses. That’s how it was.
We started by dissecting a relatively intact Orc corpse.
Several longitudinal scars were visible on the Orc’s torso.
“Let’s start with the head first.”
With that, I picked up the saw and began separating the Orc’s head from its body.
Dr. Min grabbed the handle on the other side of the saw to help.
“Why are you starting with the neck?”
“In case it comes back to life.”
“Does that make sense?”
I shook my head.
“Well… Monsters roaming around Seoul doesn’t make sense either, does it? It’s better to be sure.”
There are several types of Monsters that regenerate.
I haven’t seen Orcs regenerate, but with all the weird ones out there, I wouldn’t be surprised if they could.
We continued sawing, and soon the Orc’s head was separated from its body.
I immediately checked the cross-section of the neck. The Research Institute staff approached and took photos of the neck and head cross-sections.
Up to this point, there wasn’t much we could learn.
But once we open up the torso and conduct pathological tests, we’ll learn a lot more.
“How fascinating.”
“Is the cross-section similar to a human’s?”
Dr. Min brought up an image of a human neck cross-section on the Tablet.
I flipped over the Orc’s head to compare the section with the human image.
“It’s pretty similar. There’s the esophagus, the trachea, maybe not exactly the same, but…”
Dr. Min stared at the Orc’s head.
“I’m actually more curious about the brain. We’d have to open up the structure to compare it with a human’s.”
“We said we’d go from the top, so—”
Let’s open the skull.
I drew a line on the Orc’s scalp with a knife, then picked up a screwdriver and hammer and started chipping away at the dead thing’s skull.
“But can you really see anything in the brain of a dead animal? Don’t you need to get a 1/ micrograph from a living one?”
Dr. Min shook his head.
“It’s already dead, right? We can’t see its brain activity, but we can examine its macroscopic structure. If we’re lucky, we might see the internal nuclei. The real question is how we’re going to open this up.”
There aren’t that many ways to do it.
I took the hammer and screwdriver and started making an incision line around the Monster’s skull.
Tap, tap, tap.
“This is taking longer than I thought.”
“Should I get the power saw?”
“No. The feel… well, that sounds weird, but… anyway, we have to be careful not to damage the brain.”
“Doctor Lee, you really are strange.”
What’s strange about that? It’s true.
Tap tap, tap tap. Tap tap tap tap tap.
With the final blows, the incision line circled the skull and met on the opposite side, and the subject’s head cracked open a bit.
Dr. Min used forceps to pry open the subject’s head.
Squish.
With a displeasing sound, the top part of the skull came off.
Dr. Min handed the skull cap to me.
There was a membrane visible inside the bone, but it was almost open. We cut the meningeal membrane with surgical scissors.
At last, the Monster’s brain was exposed.
I used the Seeker’s Trait on the open Monster’s head. There’s nothing better than this to boost my Enlightenment progress.
[You have dissected an Orc.]
[Seeker’s Trait +20.]
[Enlightenment progress: 60/100 to Stage 1.]
Perhaps because I was up close and performing the dissection myself, the Seeker’s Trait increased by quite a bit this time.
If I dissect more specimens, that would be good. Dissecting another Orc might not raise my Trait as much, though.
“This is more similar to a human’s than I expected. I thought Orc blood would be green, honestly.”
“Right?”
“Ah, we should consider that too. If we chemically analyze Monster blood, maybe some—……”
Dr. Min seemed to know where I was going.
“Like how some organic phosphate compounds are less harmful to humans but kill insects, you think we might find a chemical that selectively kills Monsters?”
“Yes. How did you know?”
Dr. Min looked surprised, as if wondering how I guessed his thoughts, but I just shrugged.
“I’ve heard that before.”
We stored samples of the Monster’s biological tissues in specimen jars.
Cerebrospinal fluid, spinal cord, hair, blood, and so on.
Now, only the brain remained…….
“What should we do with the brain?”
“Let’s slice it to show the cross-section and preserve it. If we show it later to a Neurologist or Doctor, we can analyze the Monster’s brain structure.”
“Should I just pull it out?”
I nodded.
Dr. Min carefully grabbed the Monster’s brain and pulled it out.
One of the Research Institute staff brought over a Formalin bucket, and we submerged the Monster’s brain in Formalin.
One thing to watch for is that under the brain is the pituitary gland, which secretes hormones; if you’re not careful, it can detach while separating the brain and skull.
It’s about the size of a fingernail and easy to lose.
And—
“As expected, it fell off.”
I transferred the Orc’s pituitary gland to a separate specimen jar.
That should go to Pathology as well.
Under a microscope, we can observe the pituitary’s neural tissues and, more importantly, chemically analyze the hormones inside.
“So, Dr. Min. See anything?”
“Structurally, it looks similar to a human brain. I can distinguish the brain regions and even the cerebellum’s location. The frontal lobe seems a bit smaller than in humans, but I can’t say for sure.”
I placed the Monster’s brain on the scale.
Kind of a predictable result.
From what I remember from my previous life, the Orc brain was more animal-like than human, but that didn’t necessarily mean it was less intelligent.
In some ways, it was surprisingly similar to a human’s, but the neural structure of the regions responsible for cooperation and language was different.
If we analyze it again, we’ll probably get similar results.
“The weight is 1.5 kg. Same as an average human brain, but considering an Orc’s body is larger than a human’s, their brains are relatively small.”
Dr. Min didn’t take his eyes off the scale as he continued.
“Chimpanzees, with just a 2% genetic difference from humans, never managed to build a civilization. If these creatures are dumber than humans, how could they have built a civilization?”
“I don’t think these creatures have succeeded in developing a civilization on par with humans.”
We closed the Formalin jar.
“Put this in the refrigerator, please.”
Time to resume the dissection.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“Yes.”
Dr. Min sat down in front of the Desk.
“Creating a unique poison to kill Monsters might work, but isn’t it more important to return the favor for what the Gate is doing to our world?”
I nodded.
That was the operation humanity tried to carry out in my previous life.
It was cut short before we saw any real results, but I thought the idea was sound.
“You mean Terraforming, right?”
“The Gate is trying to change our ecosystem for themselves, so we should do the same in return. Like sowing clover and ivy—introducing invasive species from our world into theirs.”
By using Earth’s species to alter the Monsters’ world, we could transform their environment to resemble Earth’s.
It’s a plan we could fully execute.
***
The experiments continued for a while, and after some time, a Research Institute staff member carefully entered the Heo Boo Room.
“Doctor, I’ve been looking for you.”
“What is it?”
“The government just called. From the Central Disaster Response Headquarters. They asked if you could join a video conference right now…… Is that possible?”
The Research Institute staff scratched his head awkwardly.
I was still wearing my vinyl gown.
Even had spots of blood on my hands and gown.
Well, maybe I looked busy to others.
“I can do it now.”
I wasn’t in a situation where I couldn’t do a video call.
Better to get troublesome things out of the way quickly.
“Then I’ll bring the camera.”
I nodded.
Actually, there was something I definitely needed to secure in this meeting.
I had to convince the government officials and have the Supernatural Science Research Institute upgraded to a Ministry-Level Department.
For the future, it was essential to make the Research Institute the core organization in responding to the Gate incident.
Some of the scenes described might be uncomfortable for certain people.
And Dr. Lee… are you planning to get ahead of the trend or what?