As Lee Ji-hyun walked with Kim Ga-young and Yoo Geum, she looked around the surroundings. It seemed that Lee Ji-hyun was also visiting the research center for the first time, just like me. The closest facility was the Deep Sea Biology Center, followed by the Seafloor Pollution Center and the Rare Earth Center. Yoo Geum quickly said that our goal was the cargo elevator and the escape boat located before the Seafloor Pollution Center.
Yoo Geum mentioned that Kim Ga-young worked at the Seafloor Pollution Center while Yoo Geum worked at the Deep Sea Biology Center. As Kim Ga-young walked quickly, she said to me and Lee Ji-hyun,
"Our center is often called a money-eating hippo, but we were planning to make a significant presentation this afternoon. We were going to present on how much damage each country has caused to the seafloor by compiling all the events since the Industrial Revolution."
Yoo Geum suddenly stopped, gasping and grabbing Kim Ga-young, which made me, who was walking without much thought, almost trip and fall. In the distance, a person was lying on the corridor floor with blonde hair that reached down to their waist.
Lee Ji-hyun and I quickly approached and slowly turned the person lying on the ground to face us. I was startled and stepped back. Lee Ji-hyun also covered her mouth and retreated upon seeing the body.
I took several deep breaths to calm myself and, once I was stable, checked the person's pulse and breathing. The woman appeared to be dead. No, she was dead. I was shocked because the body had a shape I had never seen before.
It was as if parts of her body had been eaten away, leaving circular holes the size of an adult male's palm. Large sections of her left face, and parts of her abdomen and chest where organs should have been, were missing.
Can flesh be removed in such a circular pattern? Even her thighs were deeply gouged, revealing white bones. What could have done this? Kim Ga-young, who seemed to be in a daze, shouted at Lee Ji-hyun and me, who were examining the wounds.
"Don't touch it!"
Lee Ji-hyun, startled, stumbled and sat on the floor. The internal organs were visible through the holes in the body. Strangely, there was almost no smell of blood, only a faint ammonia odor. I flinched at Kim Ga-young's words and took a step back, almost as if apologizing.
"I didn't touch the wound."
I wasn't crazy enough to touch the wounds of a deceased person without gloves, especially when I didn't know how they were injured. Yoo Geum, recognizing the person's partially remaining face, sobbed.
"It's Angela Malone. She's the director of our center. I didn't particularly like her, but she didn't deserve to die like this."
Lee Ji-hyun, who had been examining the thigh wounds, measured the size of the wounds with her fingers and then the length of the wounds on the lower abdomen, and said in a puzzled tone,
"The wounds are about 20 cm in diameter and are perfectly circular. They look like they were made artificially."
Kim Ga-young seemed to be in a daze but slowly approached Angela upon hearing this. I pointed to the circular wounds and asked,
"Do you know what could have caused this?"
"This is called an O.B., an organic compound decomposer used in our lab. It's originally used to break down food waste and protein-based materials. It's used to process waste generated in the lab. It's not meant to be used on humans. ... Don't touch the wounds. The microorganisms are still decomposing the flesh."
"Microorganisms?"
"Food waste is 80% water. After removing the water, the remaining parts are broken down by microorganisms. Commonly used microorganisms for food waste include marine bacteria like Micrococcus luteus, Streptomyces, Penicillium, Debaryomyces hansenii, and Rhizopus oligosporus. The problem is that these microorganisms don't decompose as quickly as humans produce waste. They are tiny, but humans generate a lot of waste from a single meal. The microorganisms need to produce enzymes like amylase, protease, cellulase, and lipase to break down the waste effectively. If the pH level is too harsh for the microorganisms, or if there's high salinity, or if there are substances like chili powder, pepper, or mustard, which have antibacterial effects, the microorganisms still need to survive and produce the required enzymes. If they can't decompose the organic polymers quickly, it can lead to bad odors, with nitrogen and sulfur compounds being released from the waste. These can be particularly harmful to the human respiratory system. Do you understand so far?"
Lee Ji-hyun looked at Kim Ga-young with a confused expression, and I barely managed to nod, though I wasn't sure if I understood correctly. What? Lipase? That's used to break down fats.
Amylase is used to break down carbohydrates in saliva. I know this well from working in a dental office.
Kim Ga-young seemed to be trying to explain as simply as possible for our benefit, but it was hard to understand because it was so different from my field of study. From what I gathered, Kim Ga-young was likely researching marine microorganisms at the Seafloor Pollution Center. Kim Ga-young muttered in a daze,
"Our team isolated a new microorganism from marine life that can efficiently break down proteins. We isolated a strain of a new Bacillus with protein-degrading activity and studied it for a long time. Breaking down proteins takes an enormous amount of time. Until the early 2000s, research focused on the synthesis and function of proteins. Studies on protein degradation have only been around for less than 50 years. The process of isolating the proteasome, a complex of protein-degrading enzymes, was only recently revealed."
"So, this shouldn't have hit a person, but it did?"
Lee Ji-hyun cut off Kim Ga-young's lengthy explanation, looking horrified. Kim Ga-young quickly nodded.
"Yes. It's used to decompose organic compounds."
Hearing this, Lee Ji-hyun looked at Kim Ga-young with a slightly exasperated expression and asked again,
"Are humans organic compounds?"
"......Yes, inorganic compounds are also included."
Oh. Yoo Geum, hearing this conversation, smiled faintly for the first time since discovering the body. She sniffed and shook her head at Kim Ga-young.
"Ga-young-ssi, people won't understand if you explain it like that. Just think of it as if the person was shot multiple times with a gun loaded with flesh-eating microorganisms."
......Now I understand why she said not to touch it. The microorganisms must still be decomposing the flesh around the wounds. Lee Ji-hyun quickly asked Kim Ga-young,
"Is there any way to stop this? If Angela didn't shoot herself with this microorganism gun, then someone else must be around here."
There was nothing around Angela except a broken pad lying on the floor. Kim Ga-young seemed a bit flustered by Lee Ji-hyun's question. Looking around, she seemed frightened and blurted out,
"But we use this in a fume hood, and the nozzle isn't that large. And how to handle it safely...... Can you wash it off with water? You should avoid it touching your body. Otherwise, it's useless. But someone with such a personality might have modified it to use on a person's body...... I don't think any of our researchers would do that. But, of course, while some might want to kill their colleagues, would they really shoot them with this? Angela wasn't even our supervisor."
As Kim Ga-young questioned all the researchers she knew, I sniffed and asked Lee Ji-hyun,
"......Why isn't there a smell of burning?"
Lee Ji-hyun sniffed around and frowned. She hesitated for a moment before saying to me,
"I have a sinus problem, so I can't smell well."
Ah. I see. Yoo Geum, showing empathy for my confusion, said,
"I've noticed a slight smell of burning since we entered."
Good. I'm not the only one who can smell it. I thought this place was always like this. Lee Ji-hyun asked Yoo Geum,
"Where is the smell coming from?"
"I'm not sure. It seems to be coming from the entire building."
Lee Ji-hyun frowned and, looking at the long corridor and the labs, said,
"Let's head straight to the cargo elevator. Ignore any other bodies we come across. We can't take them with us, and there's no way to save them."
We started walking in the direction Kim Ga-young suggested. The Deep Sea Biology Center, Seafloor Pollution Center, and Rare Earth Center were each built as 7-story buildings in an L-shape, connected by a bridge. We were told that when entering from the main building, we would start on the 4th floor of the Deep Sea Biology Center.
We could cross to the 3rd floor of the Seafloor Pollution Center via a bridge on the 3rd floor of each center. The escape boat and external elevator were located in the Seafloor Pollution Center. This design is really inconvenient. What? So, if I were working on the 7th floor of the Rare Earth Center and had to escape like this, I would have to go down to the 3rd floor of the Rare Earth Center, cross the bridge, and enter the 3rd floor of the Seafloor Pollution Center to escape?
We were walking around the square 4th floor corridor of the Deep Sea Biology Center. As we walked to cross to the 3rd floor of the Seafloor Pollution Center via the 3rd floor of the Deep Sea Biology Center, we found a staircase and started descending. Lee Ji-hyun quickly went down first.
"Why didn't they build an escape boat port or an external elevator for each center?"
The stairs from the 4th to the 3rd floor were high, so there were many steps. Stairs. No, descending stairs. This is something that happened in a dream. I grumbled as I walked down the stairs, and Yoo Geum laughed.
"You'd be surprised to know how much each of our centers cost. I can't even afford a single toilet here. No one expected this place to be flooded. We came here to avoid being submerged, but we ended up inside the sea."
Kim Ga-young, frowning and seemingly in pain, slowly descended the stairs to the 3rd floor of the Deep Sea Biology Center.