Chapter 161: R-Project 3
They were having a family dinner, and Doyeol spoke first, "Eunseo."
She raised her head, and Doyeol smiled at her.
"I heard about what you did with the Chinese. Soon, W.A.N.C.S. and the U.N. will put pressure on them."
"That’s fast," she said.
Doyeol forked the asparagus and ate it nonstop.
"We established Guardians, but the company belongs to others as well."
"Right."
It was using Robotics engineering, and worldwide corporations were helping out covertly. She knew it already. The world’s most powerful families were also connected to it.
Doyeol smiled and said, "Don’t worry about the Chinese."
"Sure. Thanks for paying attention."
"Whoa! Our Eunseo said thanks!" Sukhoon shouted, surprised.
Eunseo looked at him coolly, and he turned away and drank his glass of wine. Doyeol looked at the two and smiled.
"The Regeneration Project is a success."
"Really?"
Eunseo displayed a rare response, and Doyeol looked at her.
"Yes, the initial experiment is over."
Sukhoon looked at Eunseo.
"I can see your high kick again."
"Big brother," Eunseo said in a somber tone, and Sukhoon turned around again.
Doyeol explained some more, "Within the Regeneration Project, we have a special project. It’s called the R-Project."
"R-Project?"
Doyeol nodded slowly and put his fork and knife down.
"The world knows about the Regeneration Project, but we will use an R-Potion from the R-Project on you."
"Is it effective?"
"It’s regeneration far beyond human imagination, and you will have strength many times that of ordinary humans."
Sukhoon put his wine glass down and looked at Doyeol.
"Big brother, that sounds very dangerous!"
"The initial experiment is over, and I don’t want Eunseo to get hurt again! There will be many who oppose Guardians."
"If it’s that dangerous, I will take her place."
"You can’t," Doyeol answered curtly and continued, "We will do it after the meal."
Sukhoon looked at her, and she adjusted her glasses.
"Sure."
---
Junhyuk only did a few things at Guardians HQ. The administration of iron soldiers was handled by Elise.
He picked up the phone calls and transferred them to Eunseo. However, Eunseo hadn’t come to work that day. His superior wasn’t there, so it was his job to play around. Still, he couldn’t just play. Zaira was watching everything that happened in that place.
Junhyuk browsed for dual swordsmanship on his smartphone. The WMA (World Masters Athletics) was reenacting middle age swordsmanship, and he spent his time watching it.
Knock, knock!
Junhyuk heard the knocking, and the door opened. Elise walked in.
"Do you have time?"
He looked around.
"It looks that way?"
"How about lunch with me?"
Junhyuk nodded and got up. He was curious about Elise. She had made the iron soldiers and was Zaira’s owner. She was a true genius scientist, and that piqued his curiosity. He followed her to the company restaurant and saw a woman already dining there.
"Hello," Sora greeted him, and Junhyuk greeted her back.
She was eating a lot of beef, and Junhyuk smiled and said, "You have a good appetite."
Sora smiled.
"I started running again, so I’m not worried about getting fat."
Elise helped her out.
"She is exercising a lot. She won’t get fat from eating that much."
Junhyuk nodded. He also exercised a lot, but people didn’t know about it. He trained by what Artlan had taught him and also ate a lot, more than anyone he knew.
Junhyuk also took a plateful of beef, and Sora said, "You must also exercise a lot!"
When she looked at him, he didn’t have huge muscles, but his muscles were as hard as stones.
She smiled and asked, "What sport do you play?"
"I just exercise for my health."
She stared at him. Sora knew what kind of person he was. He had been to the Dimensional Battlefield.
She couldn’t reveal the truth about him, but he had powers. Sora was running again because she knew she would be going to the Dimensional Battlefield and she wanted to survive. Doyeol had told her about that place where they treat human lives like that of flies. She couldn’t rest if she wanted to survive. Jeffrey had also taught her about things there. He told her about heroes, and that she needed to get along with them.
She didn’t know which heroes she would meet, but Junhyuk might have more advice for her, so she wanted to get along with him. However, she didn’t have the chance to meet him often. She wanted to ask him about the battlefield, but she had signed a confidentiality agreement, so she couldn’t ask him anything.
Elise was next to them. She didn’t bring anything up and just continued eating. As Sora ate, Elise ate a salad and asked him, "You’ve resigned?"
"Yes. When they find a replacement, I’ll quit."
Sora looked at him. She would also quit if she had the money he had at that point. However, she needed to get a few mana stones, or a really big one.
Elise smiled.
"That’s too bad. We didn’t even have dinner outside."
"Maybe for my goodbye party?"
Elise took out a business card and whispered, "We’ll have drink together. Give me a call."
Junhyuk smiled and gave her his business card.
"I don’t have a new business card."
"That’s OK. It’ll be valuable if you don’t use them in the future."
Sora was chomping her food down and extended her hand. Junhyuk laughed and gave her a card as well. She took it and smiled.
"I’ll give you one when I get a business card."
"You can give me your number."
Junhyuk handed her his smartphone, and Sora typed her number in. Elise watched the exchanged and asked him, "You were watching the iron soldiers. Did you find anything new?"
He realized she kept records of the people who watched the iron soldier videos. He had a high-end computer in his office, but he wouldn’t use it from then on.
"Concerning China, I was watching to see if we have evidence to support us. However, there are strange things left over by the monsters’ corpses."
Elise smiled.
"You watched it carefully. Right. Our research is not only to kill the monsters. So far, their body’s are foreign to us, and they possess a high research value. We could use them to research armor, and we may also learn other valuable things."
She pulled out a mana stone. It was really small, and the color wasn’t clear, but he had seen it on the screen. Junhyuk wasn’t expecting to see it, and Sora was surprised as well.
"That...?"
"It’s from the a monster’s corpse. We call it a mana stone and we get energy from it," she said and placed it on the dinner table. "This could propel changes to the scientific world that could save us centuries of research."
She tapped it with her finger and continued, "I think the monsters are gift from God. Scientists will applaud their appearance."
"They are too dangerous to be God’s gift."
"We can control them. Don’t sell scientists short. We can know something is dangerous, but also be able to control it."
Junhyuk looked at Elise. She was one of Doyeol’s people, so she might know everything about him.
"You mean the mana stone is not known to the scientific field. Why are you telling us?"
Elise smiled.
"If you see it on the road while walking, bring it to me. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s worth $1 million. It’ll be like winning the lottery."
She lowered her head and said.
"The scientific world doesn’t know of them yet, so I’ll purchase them myself. Do you understand?"
"Sure."
Elise tapped her business card in front of him.
"When you find some, call me. I will pay for them."
Junhyuk learned something strange about her tone. His eyes beamed, and she smiled. They exchanged looks as if they were talking just to each other. This woman isn’t just working for Doyeol.
He picked up the card and said, "I will call you... if I find some."
"Stones similar to those are OK too. We don’t know much, so if you find anything strange, call me."
Junhyuk nodded and got up.
"How about some coffee? Which kind do you want?" he asked.
Elise smiled.
"Espresso, please."
"Milk coffee for me," Sora said.
He got them their coffee and smiled at Elise. He had to be careful with her. Junhyuk drank his coffee, and he smiled every time his eyes met Elise’s.
---
Junhyuk played all day long, and it was time to go home. He always got off work on the dot and wished every day was like that day.
When he walked outside, a car arrived.
It was Eunseo’s, and Junhyuk was getting off work. He wanted to greet her, so he waited for her.
The car parked, and people came out.
Dohee and the security team members got out first and took the wheelchair out. Junhyuk walked over, and Dohee took Eunseo to the wheelchair. He wanted to greet her, but he stopped suddenly.
Eunseo had had twenty health and ten mana. He had been surprised before, but now she had seventy health and ten mana.
She had been late that day, but she couldn’t have increased her health like that in one day.
She looked at him.
"Going home?"
"Yes. It’s after five."
He always left work promptly, and Eunseo shook her head.
"Anything happen?"
"No. No one called either."
"Yeah? You may go."
She nodded and went inside the building. He watched her with eyes slightly widened.
"What’s going on here?"