"Jeonghyeon. Perhaps this world is about to face a situation it has never seen before."
When I was called to the lab, the first thought that came to me at the doctor’s words was, What is he talking about…?
No, he isn’t the kind of person to say something like this. Is he serious?
"First, you’d better look at this."
As he said that, the doctor took out a tablet, opened something, and handed it to me.
It was some long document. Judging by the page count, it was over fifty pages.
"Read only the first three pages. The rest is all supplementary explanation."
I did as I was told. But the contents… made me wonder what on earth this was supposed to mean.
Project C.E.
C.E. was short for Carbon Eater. A global project led by the WTO and carried out by a multinational consortium.
Project C.E. was about carbon reduction.
A project to capture carbon with massive amounts of vegetation in order to reduce carbon, one of the culprits blamed for the Earth’s rising temperature.
That was the gist of it.
They would spray a catalyst and make large-scale vegetation flourish in places on Earth that were not being utilized.
"Did you finish reading?"
"Yes. But…"
"This is a dangerous plan. The theory itself sounds like something a middle schooler who has only just realized the severity of the problem would come up with. What’s even more horrifying is that they’re actually going to carry it out."
Doctor Lee Chanseop. My father’s closest friend and a doctor of molecular biology.
A man I was grateful to, who had looked after me in place of my deceased parents.
"That’s why I’m going to America. I can’t stop this. By the time they realize it’s wrong, it will already be too late. So those of us who think alike are going to gather our intentions and look for a way to survive. So… won’t you come with us?"
"America? Why America?"
"The conditions are better over there. I’ll explain the details slowly."
The doctor seemed to assume I would naturally go with him.
Unfortunately, however, I had other thoughts.
My heart was also pounding, and I was feeling a strange thrill.
"Is it certain that things will go wrong?"
"I can only hope they won’t. I only hope that what I’m doing is nothing more than groundless worry, and that we’re all just making fools of ourselves together."
"May I take a closer look?"
"Go ahead."
I turned the tablet back on and began to read. The doctor sighed and sank into his chair.
It took about twenty minutes to read it all. I had skimmed over the difficult parts as appropriate, and it still took that long.
But the contents were quite serious.
So serious that I even thought, if this were a prank, wouldn’t this much effort make it art?
"I’ve stepped down as director of the institute. I’ve put my house on the market as well. As soon as it sells, I intend to go to America. It’s in a place where a house sells once you list it, so it shouldn’t take too long."
The doctor’s words were even more serious than the contents on the tablet.
And hearing that made the contents on the tablet begin to feel even more serious.
Just how certain does he have to be to act like this?
The doctor I knew was not such a careless man.
He was so cautious that even his family always had a word or two to say about it.
"So it really is true."
"I sincerely hope I’m wrong. I sincerely hope I regret this moment. I hope I end up blaming myself, thinking, I shouldn’t have stepped down as director back then, I shouldn’t have come to America."
A reality growing heavier and heavier. A fear taking physical form.
The doctor was frightened. It was quite rare to see a man over fifty so afraid of something.
"I’m sorry, but… I don’t think I’ll be going."
"You won’t go?"
"No."
"May I ask why? I did think you might say that. But I simply couldn’t figure out the reason."
"Well. Even if that worst-case scenario does happen, I’d like to prepare in a place I know at least somewhat well. America feels a little unfamiliar to me at this point."
That wasn’t the truth. I had another reason in my heart.
But even if he was someone like a father to me, I couldn’t reveal those feelings.
It would be rude. It would be a betrayal.
"I see."
It probably wasn’t a reason he could accept, but the doctor let it pass.
Then he held out a USB drive to me.
I took it and looked at the doctor’s face, and he sighed before speaking.
"I don’t think you’re the sort to share something like that with just anyone. Still, just in case, I’ll tell you once more. Don’t share that anywhere."
"Yes."
"All right. You may go now."
I rose from my seat. Then I returned the tablet to the doctor and bowed politely.
"If you change your mind, tell me anytime. I can easily take one more person with me."
I gave the doctor a broad grin.
That was probably answer enough.
Seeing my smile, the doctor must have become certain that I would never do that.
He was someone I was grateful to. That gratitude was probably beyond words.
In my barren world, the doctor’s family had been the only place like a refuge.
It was likely thanks to the doctor’s family that I had lived until now without going astray.
After returning to my studio apartment, I read the contents of the USB drive the doctor had given me.
There was quite a lot of material inside. So much that the fifty-page document I had seen on the tablet seemed cute by comparison.
All kinds of data, papers, reference materials, quotations, and so on.
Those materials were quite merciless.
They were not things an undergraduate like me could read.
Materials meant solely for experts.
Even they would have to clutch their heads and wrestle with them for a long time.
But I found looking at them rather enjoyable.
It felt as though vitality was returning to my meaningless life. In other words, for the first time since my parents died, I felt as if I had found something I wanted to do.
So I clung to them in order to understand those materials.
It wouldn’t be easy, but with this much material, there were plenty of places I could get help from.
Three months later, the doctor truly disposed of everything and went to America.
On the day he left the country, at the airport, the doctor’s family told me to take care of myself, looking genuinely regretful.
His wife especially did. Since she had treated me like a son, it made sense that she would feel that way even more.
"I wish you had come with us too, Oppa."
The doctor’s daughter, Yeongju, said that as if she were truly disappointed.
Hm. If Yeongju had been a little prettier, would I have followed them? The thought crossed my mind for a moment.
I don’t know. I’d never thought about something like that before.
And so the doctor left. Going to America on a one-way ticket.
I felt stranger about it than the people actually involved.
In other words… it felt as though something had been torn away.
The emotion I felt was clear.
It felt as though the stove that had warmed at least one corner of my heart had gone out.
Because of that, my heart, now deprived of that warmth, began to cool coldly.
A heart that seemed to dry up completely. Emotions turning arid.
Even the way I looked at the departure gate where the doctor’s family had disappeared changed a little.
The way I looked at the countless people here was the same.
Did they know? Did they know this world was on the verge of facing an unprecedented crisis?
They wouldn’t. There was no way they would.
Even if they did know, they would probably understand it as nothing more than some common conspiracy theory.
Honestly, if I stood in front of all these people and said, The world is going to end because of future climate problems and an international organization’s bungling! who would take me seriously?
Airport security would arrive first. And I’d be kicked out of the airport.
On the way back from the airport.
I examined people’s faces one by one, just enough that it wouldn’t look like I was picking a fight.
I looked for a long time, but not a single face remained in my memory.
Come to think of it, not much time had passed, yet I couldn’t remember the faces of the doctor’s family either.
What did they look like? Why can’t I remember?
And so I returned to my daily life.
But there was a change. I gave up preparing for employment.
It was a good excuse. I hadn’t wanted to do it anyway, so this worked out well.
Fortunately, I had my parents’ inheritance and the death insurance payout. So in truth, it didn’t matter if I didn’t do something like work.
In fact, the reason I had tried to get a job, work, and present myself as a proper member of society was also because of the doctor’s family.
My reins had come loose. The minimal leash that had been holding me back had been undone.
But that didn’t mean I would immediately run wild or make a scene.
I’m a refined person, after all.
Besides, things were going to get interesting from now on, so there was no need to cause such a fuss.
And so I graduated from university. Then I continued to focus on Project C.E.
The project had begun three months ago, so it should be well underway by now.
So while building up the relevant knowledge, I also checked the trends over there.
It was proof that the world had improved.
Even just sitting in my studio apartment, fiddling with my laptop and phone, I could learn about news happening somewhere in the world.
On top of that, perhaps because Project C.E. was a multinational consortium, quite a lot of information about its activities had been made public.
There were also many social media posts proudly uploaded by the people involved.
I scraped all of that information too.
All of it would become an asset to me. I had to know what they did, where, and how, so that I could later identify causal relationships.
So I enjoyed myself as I gathered the information one piece at a time.
Wishing for the world to end.
Wishing for something overflowing with dopamine to happen in this tedious life.
One year.
Project C.E. produced results unexpectedly.
The plants, whose growth had been accelerated until they covered vast areas, were effective enough to show meaningful indicators in the data.
Of course, it had only been one year. It was unknown whether that data was accurate, and the environment and climate had so many variables to begin with.
So the data they claimed did not serve as proof of Project C.E.’s success.
The rebuttals from the opponents were the same.
Two years.
Consistent data established a certain degree of credibility.
Carbon had definitely decreased, and just as they claimed, everything seemed to be getting better.
Of course, even with something like this happening, most people had no interest in it.
Only guys like me would care.
During that time, I contacted the doctor quite a lot.
The doctor continued to provide me with new data and materials, and he also sent along experts’ comments on them.
Of course, since the doctor was on the skeptical side, I had to take into account that the materials were biased in that direction.
And then, in the third year.
Strange things slowly began to happen in the world.
Things that no one would think were connected to Project C.E.