The Secret Investment Formula of a Chemical Genius - Chapter 165
Only Krnovel
Episode 165 The Prophet
Late at night, when there are few people on the streets.
The sky was gloomy and overcast all day long.
As I stretched out my hand, a drop of water fell down on me.
A bitterly cold rain that signals the end of autumn.
As if to warn us, a few drops of water fell, soon turning into a heavy rain and falling to the ground.
I took out the umbrella I had kept in the car, opened it, and raised my head.
A small three-story building.
Even in the pitch darkness, the sleek gray building with not a single sign on it stood out from the other buildings around it.
For a moment, I looked up at the building and then slowly walked towards it.
Starting with the death of his father, extraordinary events that cannot be explained by science.
So I was suspicious.
if…….
I wonder if my father is still alive.
I wonder if you are pretending to be dead and wandering around me like a shadow.
700°C.
The high temperature generated during the cremation process.
It causes enormous stress and damages DNA.
Therefore, it is virtually impossible to compare the DNA of heat-treated bone powder.
I folded the umbrella I was holding and swung my arms vigorously to shake off the moisture.
Pitter-patter! Water droplets splashing up chaotically from the floor.
But should I say I was lucky?
At that time, the nursing home sent me a box of my father’s belongings that he had used while he was alive.
Among them were the clothes my father was wearing when he died.
White underwear.
A few strands of gray hair stuck in there.
I took the hard-earned sample and pulled out my hair, and sent it to the genetic research lab.
And after a while.
The document I received contained the results of the ‘Paternity Test.’
Just in case.
Since we requested cross-validation from multiple research institutes, the possibility of errors was virtually zero.
Ultimately, this result means only one thing.
The death of my father, completely and impeccably.
I slowly walked up the stairs.
Thud thud.
Like an echo in a cave, the sound ringing in my ears was particularly jarring today.
Let’s get to the 3rd floor.
The iron door was half open, as if it already knew I was coming through the CCTV.
“Welcome, sir.”
I stared blankly at Director Baek Hee-seong.
Crumpled shirt.
Red, bloodshot eyes.
A dark, dark beard mark under the philtrum.
“Did I push you too hard for results?”
After hearing what I said, Director Baek Hee-seong looked at the full-length mirror in the corner and laughed bitterly, saying, “Ah!”
“I’m the type of person who, once I get hooked on something, I have to see it through to the end.”
“Thank goodness. For a moment, I thought I might have become a bad boss who orders people around without giving them a break.”
I handed him the paper bag I was holding.
“It’s bread that you can eat as a quick snack and warm chamomile tea that helps you sleep well. I feel like I get to eat it every time.”
“Thank you. I was just going out and was wondering what to eat.”
Director Baek Hee-seong, holding a paper bag, entered the multipurpose room on one side of the office and brought out bread and tea on a plate.
The sound of rain hitting the window.
A blue flash across the sky.
Under dim stand lighting.
The two of us chewed our red bean buns in silence without saying a word.
“It’s delicious. I don’t think it’s a brand.”
Director Baek Hee-seong, who had been looking stern, relaxed slightly as if his face was slightly clouded and he leaned back against the sofa.
“It’s a bakery near my house. The owner there is very good at making bread, so I visit there often.”
“I guess I should go there sometime too.”
I met eyes with Director Baek Hee-seong, savoring the sweet scent of chamomile faintly brushing my nose.
He jumped up from his seat and grabbed the laptop that was on the desk.
“Do you remember what the CEO instructed you to do?”
“There’s no way you wouldn’t know. I asked you to do it.”
Long time ago, when my mother was discharged from the hospital.
We headed to the Bongandang (奉安堂) where our father’s remains are kept.
He said he would give his mother some alone time with his father.
While I was looking away for a moment.
A photo that was stuck between my father’s urns.
Coincidentally, the CCTV inside the Bongandang at the time also did not record for an unknown reason, so it was impossible to know who did it.
I had asked Director Baek Hee-seong to investigate him.
“You asked me to look out for anyone acting suspiciously.”
“Yes, it was.”
Ambiguous instructions with unclear purpose.
“At the time, I didn’t understand what the representative meant. So I had to look through all the CCTVs near Bongandang and the black boxes of the parked cars one by one.”
By checking the video recorded in the black box of the car that was parked at the time, we were able to find out the license plate number of the other car.
They said they found every single vehicle that was there at the time.
“You must have had a hard time.”
“It was a bit of a struggle. But it wasn’t boring because there was something fun to track down, and… … .”
Director Baek Hee-seong pressed the space bar with a “bang!” and turned the laptop towards me.
“I discovered this.”
Black clothing that doesn’t suit you at all in hot weather that makes you sweat even when you’re still.
But the problem wasn’t the clothes.
“… …Can you zoom in a little bit to see it?”
“Of course.”
Director Baek Hee-seong took a close-up of the man’s face that appeared in the video.
Black spots blooming all over the face.
A tightly closed, straight mouth that seems to show a stubborn personality.
Gray hair.
“When I first saw this, I couldn’t believe my eyes. As you know, sir, this person could never appear in this black box footage. So at first I thought it might be someone who looked like him.”
Director Baek Hee-seong typed on his laptop with a blank expression.
Lines were drawn all over the man’s face in the video.
“This is the facial recognition program I use.”
The extracted image started to overlap with another photographic image.
and.
The phrase “87% chance of matching” appears at the very top of the program.
“… … .”
“87%, even if it doesn’t match perfectly, at this level, they are practically considered the same person on site.”
The photo he used to contrast the man in the black box footage was a photo of my father that I had given him a while ago.
“This makes absolutely no sense… … .”
A person who was thought to be dead is walking the streets alive and well.
Director Baek Hee-seong bit his lips tightly at the incomprehensible phenomenon.
I looked away from my laptop after staring at it for a while.
“You don’t have to take it so seriously.”
“The representative… … .”
“I told you about my father’s amnesia before, Director. Do you remember?”
A very stiff expression.
I opened my mouth in the most relaxed voice possible.
“……yes.”
“There was something I couldn’t tell you at the time. Most of my father’s memories were lost, but not all. He told me about a memory from when he was young, when he played with a younger sibling who looked exactly like him.”
“Identical twins!”
A surprised Baek Hee-seong pointed with his finger at the old man appearing in the black box.
“Then, is this the person who appears here?”
I nodded.
“I’m guessing that he might be my father’s identical twin brother.”
In that moment, a puff of wind escaped from his mouth.
“Ha, I didn’t even know that.”
“Do you think, sir, that this man is my father?”
Even with his joking remarks, he kept brushing his chest.
“It was so similar. Why didn’t I think of that? That’s just common sense.”
Common sense… … .
“Do you happen to have any other footage of this person?”
“No. This car’s black box only recorded one.”
“Can I take the original video? Since it’s related to my family… … .”
“Of course you should do that!”
Director Baek Hee-seong, whose suspicions were completely cleared, smiled brightly and handed me the USB.
“Shall I continue looking for your father’s brother?”
I shook my head.
“No, there is no need for that. He must be well aware of my father’s existence, since he has shown up at the shrine… … But he does not appear in front of me, so it seems he is avoiding meeting me.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Thank you for your hard work late at night. Now, please go in and get some rest.”
Director Baek Hee-seong smiled awkwardly, stroking his rough beard.
* * *
A dark room with the lights off.
I looked at the bluish monitor with a blank face.
Black box footage received from Director Baek Hee-seong.
I compared the image of the man in it with a photo of my father.
Match probability 99.9382%.
Commonly.
In the case of identical twins who split from one cell.
We tend to think that our genes are 100% identical, but that’s not actually the case.
Although identical twins share quite similar genes, studies have shown that some express completely different genes.
Especially in the case of identical twins who grew up in completely different environments.
There are often cases where people appear to be completely different people as they get older.
But, it doesn’t necessarily have to be this scientific analysis and reason.
I could tell.
This man appears in the black box.
The fact that he is a ‘father’.
I put on my glasses and stared at the monitor for a long time.
Things fit together like puzzle pieces.
At first, I thought my father had the ability to see the future.
Prophet.
A being who sees a future that others cannot see and plays with fate.
Like Nostradamus, the famous French prophet known worldwide for predicting various events, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
I guessed that my father must have had similar abilities.
But I found it in the basement of my house.
Looking at a picture that could never exist in this time zone.
I realized that that wasn’t all.
‘Father can travel through timelines.’
At the time, it was just a guess.
Just one photo.
Because it was difficult to judge everything based on that alone.
but…….
Not anymore.
My father appeared before my eyes, looking completely normal.
At this time, my father has definitely passed away.
That is an indisputable truth.
But what about my father in the past?
What if my father in the past had the same abilities as my father in the present?
perhaps…….
Maybe, it is possible to come from the past to the present?
Then you can meet your father in this time zone too.
‘My living father!’
Let’s acknowledge that fact in our heads.
My heart started pounding like crazy!
At that moment, a tingling pain was felt on the back of my hand.
Fingernails that dig into the flesh while being clenched.
… … I was so excited.
I frowned.
I quickly stopped the blood flowing on the back of my hand with toilet paper and sat back down on the chair.
What on earth is it?
One question was answered, but many more questions sprang up like tree branches.
With such abilities, why did he live such a fugitive life?
Why does it always float around me like a shadow, but never actually appear in front of me?
What on earth is the identity of the man with gray hair who looks exactly like me in the photo?
A tangled web of questions.
I looked at my father in the video.
From him.
No answer came.
* * *
A large hand moving back and forth in front of my eyes, like a car wiper.
“why?”
“Where the hell are you selling your mind? How many times have I called you?”
“I’m listening.”
Then Taekang snorted.
“My father was like that too. He would always lie on the sofa with his eyes half-closed, and when I called him, he didn’t answer. So I knocked on him. Do you know what he said? He said, ‘I’m listening.’ It was the same answer someone just gave.”
I frowned at the guy who was laughing heartily.
“What’s going on?”
“Please review the documents submitted by the companies that applied for the bid notice.”
The documents that Taekang brought in his arms.
When I saw the sheep, I sighed.
CCUS cluster to be built in San Joaquin Valley, USA.
Since CZTERA is the main focus.
We negotiated with the United States to take charge of the design, construction, and selection of the construction company.
“… …Why are there so many?”
“It has to be a lot. It’s a construction project worth 250 trillion won.”
Is it good?
I was shaking my head as I watched the guy talking nonsense.
Knock, knock! A knock was heard outside.
“Come in.”
The door opened and Manager Kim Seong-jae came in.
“What’s going on?”
“There is someone who wants to speak to you, sir.”
I’ve been getting a lot of calls looking for me.
As for the average person, Manager Kim Seong-jae was filtering them out appropriately.
Since you came all the way here to find me, I decided that it wasn’t something I could handle on my own.
“Who is calling?”
“That’s… the Nobel Prize Committee.”
“… … !”
“… … !”