“Why? Is there any change?” asked Hyunwoo.

Hyunwoo quickly went over to his father. What Duyoung pointed at was the data showing an octane rating.

It was marked as 98.99.

Duyoung then showed him another dataset, where the octane rating was ‘92.11’ ‘92.13’ ‘92.07’ etc.

Hyunwoo’s eyes opened wider with big surprise because he noticed a much higher octane rating in that one bucket of gasoline.

Holding Hyunwoo’s hands, Duyoung was overjoyed.

“Done! This is a tremendous success if the octane rating went up like this in two months. Maybe I can commercialize the test results.”

Hyunwoo felt good because he knew how much time and energy his father spent on this research.

But it was too early to uncork a bottle of champagne because the gasoline that caused the octane rating was the one contaminated by a battery.

What the heck is this? Hyunwoo mumbled.

Duyoung said, “Let me test it in a separate condition. This time I think I have to have only seven days of testing. I think it’s long enough to get the changes in gasoline.”

***

Insan got a call from someone.

Confirming the caller, he made a satisfied smile as the caller was an assistant for Duyoung at Haenim School.

The boy gave him a piece of very important information. Insan was surprised

“Are you sure? Got it. If you confirm your bank account tomorrow, you will see that I’ve wired 500,000 won in your account.”

After the call, Insan called somebody outside. The person Insan called was the manager of the intelligence team of Singyong Co. When he heard the good news from Insan, the manager raced to president Munsik Choi’s office.

“Chairman, I’ve got great stuff about Duyoung Jang.”

Reading a newspaper, Musik opened his eyes wide suddenly. Given the manager’s rush to his office, he felt it must be some valuable tip on Duyoung.

“What is it?”

“It seems that Duyoung has discovered some important clue on green oil.”

“Which clue?”

“We have not yet discovered it because he has kept it under wraps. But it looks like he is using microorganisms to test it.”

Munsik was well aware of microorganisms in connection with petroleum. In fact, there existed lots of microorganisms in petroleum, and some of them were used for industrial purposes.

“Who did you say was the informant?”

“A guy called Insan Park. He was Duyoung’s right-hand man when Duyoung was in the thick of research on green oil.”

Munsik felt Insan was dependable.

“Don’t try to be penny-wise. Just give him lots of money for his efforts. Handle this matter without causing any trouble.”

“Got it, chairman.”

“By the way, did you get any information on the takeover of Bando Oil?”

As if he anticipated the chairman’s question, the manager gave the relevant file to Munsik. It contained reports about the trend of its stock changes and rival companies’ strategic move.

In fact, the manager was busy these days gathering all the tips about Bando Oil. The car fuel market would be greatly affected by who took over Bando Oil.

As a result, Munsik was preoccupied with the issue of Bando Oil these days.

The two most promising firms were the biggest business conglomerate Ohsung and the powerful private US equity firm OneStar.

Regardless of which company would succeed in the takeover, it would be a big danger to Singyong. Given the choice, however, OneStar’s takeover would be more beneficial. They would rather sell it for a huge profit instead of running it.

That’s why Munsik met OneStar executives often and helped them.

“Did Assemblyman Chulmo Kim meet Taesu Ahn again?”

“Yes, sir. It looks like he is mobilizing new female talents to sway Mr. Kim. I guess he must have spent a lot on kickbacks, too.”

It was a foolish thing to compete with Ohsung Group using money. Besides, Mr. Kim was a politician powerful enough to be mentioned as a presidential candidate in the next elections.

So, Munsik had to take extreme caution not to offend Mr. Kim.

How can I stop them?

Lost in thought for a moment, Munsik snapped his fingers.

Yea, let me have OneStar play the role here.

If he presented OneStar as his lobbying agent, Singyong could be safe from any backlash and put pressure on Ohsung Group and Mr. Kim at the same time.

Munsik thought it might be better to drop Mr. Kim from the race if it was possible. Though Kim had no grudge against Singyong, he tended to be overly leaning toward Ohsung Group, which was a headache for Munsik.

Munsik called someone at OneStar.

***

Duyoung wished ten days would quickly pass, so he could check the test results as soon as possible.

And when the ten days passed, he connected the gasoline with the test equipment and check for any change. Hyunwoo also stayed with him to confirm the results.

About two hours passed when Duyoung came up with the test results.

Duyoung and Hyunwoo were so happy as if their hearts were breaking. Finally, they might be able to find the perfect condition to create green oil.

But…

“What the heck is this? What’s wrong?”

“What happened? Nothing changed in the value of gasoline…”

At his asking, Duyoung couldn’t answer because he had no idea at all.

“Was it because the test period was too short?”

Duyoung shook his head.

“The conclusion is just one. There was a difference in conditions in the changed gasoline and the original gasoline.”

Hyunwoo’s eyes opened wide with surprise at his remarks. Maybe Mingyu might have put some other stuff in the gasoline, which might solve the puzzle.

Hyunwoo quickly called Mingyu, who was doing an experiment alone.

As soon as he came over, Duyoung asked him quickly, “Jaemin, did you put other stuff than a battery in the gasoline back then?

“No, I put nothing except for the battery.”

Duyoung asked him again because he might have forgotten.

But Mingyu confidently replied, “I can assure you I didn’t put anything else in gasoline. I just put it here on purpose, assuming the battery might be recharged as it had discharged all its electricity.”

“I’m sure you threw something else here. Try to recall it. This is a very important test.”

Suddenly Hyunwoo stopped Duyoung, “Dad, stop it. Mingyu, you can go now. Just let us know if you can recall anything.”

“Got it,” said Mingyu, leaving the room.

Duyoung was surprised at Hyunwoo’s sudden intervention.

“Why did you…?”

Duyoung came up to Hyunwoo to ask something but stopped. Hyunwoo was gesturing toward him with his eyes as if he had something to say only for Duyoung’s ears.

Only then did Duyoung let Mingyu out.

When he left the room, Hyunwoo locked the door and said in a very low voice.

“Mingyu is right.”

“What do you mean?”

Duyoung also spoke very low.

“Don’t you remember what Jaemin said? He said he put a discharged battery there. Which battery did you put in? Was it a new one?”

At that moment, Duyoung’s jaw dropped.

Hyunwoo was right. He used a new battery for a more accurate experiment. Maybe he might have failed because of the difference in battery condition.

“Oh, it might be because of the battery. Let me test with discharged batteries.”

“Good, but it’s too late now. Just do it tomorrow.”

“Sure, will do.”

Both of them came out of the lab.

They saw Mingyu hovering around over there.

Approaching him, they asked a favor of him.

“Mingyu, the security of our test here is very important. You should keep to yourself what you and we talked today in the lab. This should be shared only among you, me and Hyunwoo.”

With a bright smile, Mingyu nodded, “Got it. I’ll keep it secrete absolutely.”

The next day Duyoung resumed experiment early in the morning. This time he tested various batteries ranging from partially discharged to completely discharged ones.

Again ten days passed. Hyunwoo and Duyoung checked the test results.

Duyoung yelled for joy before he knew.

“Done!”

And then he quickly lowered his voice, looking around. Fortunately, there was none around the lab.

Hyunwoo, too, checked the value of the gasoline. He couldn’t close his mouth at the surprising results.

“The rating of octane is 98.53.”

What was more surprising was the rating of octane went to 98 from 92. The speed of change was quicker than expected.

It was three months after the test that Duyoung called Hyunwoo again. The winter passed already, and the spring was just around the corner.

Hyunwoo rant to his father’s office.

“Are you done now?”

Duyoung nodded his head, full of confidence and hope in his eyes.

“I’ve found the best environment in which microorganisms react.”

Duyoung showed him several pieces of research paper.

They contained several numbers and graphs, which Hyunwoo could hardly understand.

Hyunwoo asked only the important points.

“Can you commercialize it right now?”

Duyoung again nodded, “You can build a factory right away. But I would like to solve the last puzzle.”

“What is it?”

Duyoung showed him the wires he used for the experiments. There was lots of debris stuck around the wires discharged by microorganisms.

“Debris like this gets stuck around the wires and stop microorganisms from being exposed to the current. I haven’t yet discovered a way to remove it. If I can’t remove them, I have to change the wires every time, which is pretty cumbersome and raises the production cost.”

Hyunwoo’s face was a bit distorted when he heard of the production cost. No matter how good a product is, it would be difficult to sell it without a good production cost.

But that was something Hyunwoo could not solve.

“Don’t be too impatient, Dad. You won’t get good results even if you hurry.”

“You’re right. Let me take some time to work on that. Can you throw them away when you go out?”

Duyoung asked him to throw away a pile of wires stuck with debris.

Hyunwoo was about to throw them into a trash bin.

But he stopped and looked at them again. He felt he should not dump them for some reason.

“Is there any way I can use them for something?”

Hyunwoo felt he could find it.

Since then he began to find ways to use the wires only. Though he could not analyze the components of wires like Duyoung did, he could test the physical characteristics.

After some testing on his own, Hyunwoo brought the wires back to Duyoung.

“Dad, I think we can commercialize them. They are too good to be dumped in the garbage.”

Hyunwoo briefed him about his findings.

In fact, Duyoung didn’t pay any attention to wires or wire debris. He only focused on gasoline.

Hearing Hyunwoo’s explanation, however, he felt the debris could also be used well.

“I didn’t know the wires had such characteristics.”

“Yea, if you use gasoline alone, the production cost is high, but if you produce the wires, too, don’t you think the cost can go down?”

Duyoung agreed. He could produce two products at the same production cost.

“Anyway it will take lots of time to test gasoline, so let me work on the wire debris when I have free time.”

Duyoung resumed the research.

***

Very late at night, there was a myriad of twinkling stars in the night sky.

There was a remote villa in the mountain in the outskirts of Kyonggi Province.

Sometimes, the light was turned on inside, but it was dark today. There were some street lights on the way leading to the villa, but there were no lights.

Without the starlight, it would have been impossible to see one inch ahead as it was so dark.

Then there was a shadow moving furtively in that darkness. Even though there was nobody around, the guy silently went into the villa, hiding his body. Then he noticed a security camera was working and let out a sigh of relief.

Good. Nobody is inside the house.

He incapacitated the existing camera instantly then he slipped out of the villa ten minutes after reworking the camera with a new system.

The villa, where the security camera began to operate again, was shrouded in silence again.

Several days later, a luxury sedan arrived at the villa.

The sedan pulled over and a middle-aged man and a woman, who seemed younger than his daughter, got out.

Leaving them alone, the sedan left the scene.

“Shall we go in?”

“Yes.”

The middle-aged man put his arm around her waist. While walking to the villa, he groped her body up and down. Sometimes, he clenched her bosom and sometimes her buttocks.

But the woman looked blank. Hiding her lonely eyes with effort, she reluctantly had sex with him.

Several days passed after that.

Assemblyman Chulmo Kim got a call from a stranger. It was a threatening call.

“I’ve obtained a sex video of you. Wire 100 million into the account I give you. Then I will get rid of the original video.”

Kim didn’t bat an eye. As he had more power and status, he sometimes received such threatening calls. On such occasions, he totally rejected them.

But this time he felt something strange. The other party reminded him of the exact date, time and location where he had an affair with a woman.

“How did you know all this?”

“I don’t want to talk with you about this long. By midnight tonight, send the money.”

The phone was hung up.

Though Kim called the number, it was a fake.

“Damn it. What should I do?”

He had no time. And he had to particular way to handle this threat.

He had no other choice but to wire the money. The other party received the money but didn’t keep his promise.

A little later his advisor called him urgently.

“You’re in big trouble, congressman. A sex video with your face in it is circulating the internet now.”

“What? Sex video?”

The situation escalated quickly. Chulmo and Yonji Choi were ranked the top search words on the internet, and the sex scandal involving had been downloaded by lots of people across the country.

Though Kim denied it shamelessly, the picture of the video was so sharp that nobody believed him.

Nonetheless, Kim resisted and denied, “It’s not me. Never, ever!”

And he bent over backwards to press on the politicians, prosecutor’s office and the press to ignore the scandal.

But things got worse and worse. Several days later his advisor, brought him more shocking news.

“Another terrible thing happened.”

“What is it this time? Is there anything that is more shocking than this?”

Kim threw a tantrum all of a sudden.

His advisor flinched for a moment, but he could not sleep on the shocking news.

“Yonji committed suicide.”

Kim just squat down on the floor feebly.

“Damned wretch!”

***

Hyunwoo had dinner with the staff of Ani & Funny on that day.

Then he noticed a TV news item about the Yonji Choi list, a hot topic these days.

Yonji was a new female star who appeared on TV ads recently, but when her sex video was revealed, she committed suiside as she could not overcome it.

The police started an investigation and found her diary in her house. The diary had a shocking list of people that she was forced to have sex with.

Among them was National Assemblyman Chulmo Kim.

What was more shocking was that Yonjin had to do it at the coercion of Taesu Ahn. She was dreadful of the contract under which she had to pay a huge cancellation fee if she didn’t follow Taesu’s direction.

Her diary contained lots of names of celebrities including politicians, powerful businessmen and presidents of some media companies.

The prosecutors’ office started the investigation and arrested Taesu on charges of coercing her to have involuntary sex with people.

All the figures listed in her diary including Chulmo Kim were investigated, but all were freed without any charges. The prosecutors’ office concluded that her diary had no specific evidence.

After all, the Yonji Choi case was closed with the arrest of Taesu Ahn in three months.

“Son of a bitch!”

Kyungsu cursed at them in an angry voice.

Other staff reacted likewise.

“How can this country be called just when such dirty skanks have top positions in society?”

“This time we have to replace all the politicians.”

“So sorry for the female star.”

Hyunwoo felt the same way, but that was the sorry state of the country that he could do nothing about.

The news was still coming out from the TV.

This time there was a report on Bando Oil.

Bando Oil had been on the verge of bankruptcy for several months. As a result, its stock plummeted. It was had once been valued at 50,000 won per share, but it was down to 10,000 won now.

In the meantime, the news broke that OneStar became its biggest shareholder.

Hyunwoo frowned at the news.

OneStar was of the same family as DonStar, the evil US private equity company.

“Damn it. OneStar! I wonder if they manipulated the stock prices of Bando Oil.”

There was a real possibility. In fact, OneStar artificially dropped the stock price of Bando Oily by spreading malicious rumors about the company to buy it at a cheap price. It was the same method that DonStar employed when it took over Korea Exchange Bank.

Hyunwoo was really enraged.

Ani & Funny staff including Kyungsu burst into anger at the malicious business practices of OneStar.

“Dirty skanks! I wish our president took over Bando.”

“Yea, you’re right.”

Hearing their complaints, Hyunwoo agreed.

Actually, his father was on the verge of developing new green oil.

Whenever Hyunwoo asked him about the progress, Duyoung kept repeating ‘Not yet.’ But Hyunwoo knew his father did the research so well that his father could start a business immediately. If his father made the final decision, Hyunwoo would start an oil refinery business.

But it was too late. OneStar already took over Bando Oil and emerged as its largest shareholder.

After dinner, most of the staff went back to the office for late work, but Hyunwoo headed home.

When he arrived at home, his father led him into his room as if he was waiting for his son urgently.

He was in an excited mood today.

Hyunwoo became as much excited, looking at his father.

“Any good news?”

As soon as he sat, Duyoung said in a low voice,

“Done. I’ve discovered the best environment for microorganisms to work. I can reduce the time by half. I also checked the debris around the wires. It is not an ordinary substance. I think the tensile force is much stronger than a spider web. And it’s very strong against heat. I think I can find ways to use them as a product.”

“Do you think you can commercialize the wires?”

“Yeah, that’s true. I think you can hit the jackpot with the proper application of the wires.”

Hyunwoo felt as if his heart was breaking with joy. It was the sweet fruits of Duyoung’s intense research on the wires ten months after he discovered microorganisms.