The First Barrier [D-699 / Laboratory]

The first experiment failed.

Some tissue grew rapidly.

But the core died.

Taekyung clenched his jaw as he stared at the microscope image.

Growth had accelerated, but vascular supply had not kept up.

(Taekyung) : “Discard it.”

The second experiment failed too.

This time the cells survived, but their electrical activity was far too irregular.

They had not matured quickly.

Their circuits had simply become disordered.

(Taekyung) : “Again.”

Third.

Fourth.

Fifth.

Taekyung began practically living in the lab.

He slept two hours on the sofa, woke, and changed the culture medium.

Meals became cold convenience-store rice balls.

He came home after Hajun fell asleep and left again before he woke.

(Jian) : “Look at your face.”

One dawn, Jian stopped him at the front door.

(Jian) : “At this rate, you’re going to collapse first.”

Taekyung leaned against the wall without even taking off his shoes.

(Taekyung) : “Just a little longer.”

(Jian) : “A little longer for what?”

Taekyung didn’t answer.

There were still no results.

It was too dangerous to give her hope.

[D-672 / Laboratory]

Taekyung changed direction.

He stopped trying to accelerate developmental signals alone.

Instead, he let vascularization and supporting-cell development catch up first.

Before making the neural tissue grow,

he built the pathways that would keep it alive.

A few days later,

Taekyung froze in front of the analysis screen.

Necrosis had decreased.

Electrical activity was more stable.

They were still far from the goal.

But for the first time,

the tissue had survived while development accelerated.

Taekyung exhaled slowly.

(Taekyung) : “It worked.”

His voice trembled.

More accurately,

he had barely passed the first barrier.

Far larger problems still waited ahead.

Could this tissue form truly normal circuits?

Would its vascular network endure as it grew?

If it were ever placed inside Hajun’s brain, could it integrate with the neural network already there?

There were endless things left to prove.

Taekyung opened the first page of his research notebook again.

D-672.

Under it, he wrote:

‘Developmental acceleration, first-stage stabilization.’

A moment later, he added one more line.

‘Now it begins.’