This time, through my proposal, the research that the true head of Black Cell had always genuinely desired was about to begin.
The experiment to turn non-powered individuals into superhumans.
Of course, what I was doing was undeniably dangerous.
One wrong move, and countless test subjects would die because of this research.
'But if I move proactively here, both the process and the outcome will be completely reversed.'
The truth is, the research Black Cell intended to conduct was evil on an entirely different level from what exists now.
It was research openly carried out by a future Director with nothing left to lose.
Remarkably enough, she would succeed in creating a superpower-awakening drug with a sustained duration —
and then, for the sake of data collection, she would scatter that drug across civilian neighborhoods.
That was the root cause of most of the incidents that occurred throughout the comic.
So what would happen if that drug were created while Black Cell was still intact?
With me — the brake — present, no less.
It seemed certain that countless people, both now and in the future, could be saved.
Besides, villains in typical superhero comics tend to monologue at an almost absurd length to justify their own righteousness —
so I had a rough idea of how that awakening drug was made.
Of course, I was still a junior barely a year in, so anything I said would likely be dismissed, or worse —
the situation could deteriorate into something far more catastrophic.
But now, the Director's pitch-black authority stood firmly behind me.
They say that the day after you make up your mind is an auspicious one.
Every other day is inauspicious.
As luck would have it, the board was already well set.
Recalling the lines the future Director had muttered to herself in her monologues — lines I'd memorized to secure my footing in Black Cell more quickly — I went to find the Chief Researcher.
"Oh, Maxwell, come in."
"Good day, Chief Researcher."
Thanks to my attendance at the late-night meeting held previously, the Chief Researcher was well aware that I was on the Director's direct line.
He didn't particularly mind my overstepping of authority, and on top of that —
"Tsk, tsk, tsk… You must have had a rough time because of Director Eileen."
"I'm truly grateful for your concern."
"Even so, please do come to me first next time."
Given what the Director was like, he actually looked at me with something closer to sympathy.
Regardless, it was time to leverage my backing.
"So, the research that came down through the official memo —"
"It's research I had already been conducting before I joined Black Cell."
First, become famous.
Once you do, people will applaud you even if you take a dump.
That saying exists for a reason.
Given that I currently inhabited a body carrying the title of Genius of the Century —
whatever I said was perceived as something on an entirely different level from what an ordinary person might say.
Whether this landed precisely as intended, the Chief Researcher adjusted his glasses and looked thoroughly intrigued.
"Could you tell me how far along it is?"
"I'd say roughly fifty percent."
"Th-that far along already?"
"In exchange, I believe it's beyond what I can manage alone."
The excuse I had prepared for public consumption was as follows:
The glory was too large to eat alone.
In short — let's share it.
In this way, under the guise of humility, I placed the ambition for recognition that any scientist would desperately want onto one side of the scale.
And being the core executive of Black Cell that he was, the other party grasped exactly what I wanted in an instant —
and placed the authority to lead the research on the other side.
"If the experiment succeeds, I'd benefit just by being listed as a co-author without lifting a finger… but Maxwell, I'm not sure whether you'd be all right with that."
"This is more than enough for me."
"Hmm…."
The Chief Researcher, who had no desire to make an enemy of me, promptly offered his candid advice.
"The senior researchers may grow jealous of you."
"Given that a rolling stone is displacing the settled ones, I understand."
"Heh. The way you say that — you must be genuinely confident. All right then, let's hear it."
And so, the deal between the Chief Researcher and me was struck.
With the Grim Reaper known as the Director hovering around us both, this promise would certainly be kept.
Then the Chief Researcher handed me his business card.
[ BLACK CELL ]
[ Chief Researcher: Dr. Cain Kreuz ]
"I hear the Security Director gave you his card as well. I do hope we can maintain a good relationship going forward."
When a superior hands their card directly to a subordinate, it typically means: if something comes up, contact me directly without going through the middle management.
Dr. Cain, too, was signaling that he would serve as my backer.
Now I had gained an unexpected windfall.
What goes around comes around.
I told Dr. Cain what the future Director had discovered —
and the doctor, hearing something he had never anticipated in the slightest, was visibly shaken.
"W-wait a moment… So you're saying that superpowers don't originate from DNA or brain cells?"
"If either of those had been the answer, the world's leading research institutions — or this very facility — would have already figured it out. So I approached it from an entirely different angle."
With the Chief Researcher's intense gaze fixed on me, I spoke of a particular element of the human body.
"Are you familiar with vestigial organs?"
***
Vestigial organs.
As organisms undergo repeated evolution, the organs no longer necessary for survival shrink —
degenerate — and ultimately lose their function.
As I said before, words spoken by the Genius of the Century carry an inherent persuasive weight all their own —
and Dr. Cain looked as though he'd been struck over the head with a hammer, a fierce surge of inspiration clearly igniting within him.
"As you know, Chief Researcher, vestigial organs are not entirely useless. Of course, they've degenerated to the point of being nearly ineffective, but they still perform their original role or some other function. Or —"
"R-rarely, they become the foundation for evolving in a completely different direction… that was it."
Thud!!
The doctor shot to his feet as though he could no longer remain seated, and began pacing the room without pause.
He immediately dove into the data Black Cell had accumulated over decades, the failures of the past —
rapidly sifting through internal research records.
Of course, that was work that would take a very long time.
"M-Maxwell, I'm sorry, but…."
"Call for me when you're ready, and I'll come back."
"I truly appreciate it!"
I accepted the doctor's request for leave without hesitation, and spent the time comfortably with the children.
One week later.
Whether he had found something, I was summoned back to the Chief Researcher's office.
The interior of the room was in complete disarray —
and the doctor himself had disheveled hair and was drenched in sweat from head to toe.
The moment the door to the Chief Researcher's office clicked shut, the scientist fixed me with a sharp gaze —
and asked me to confirm what he had found.
"…The third eye. The seat of the soul."
"You mean the Pineal Gland."
The Pineal Gland sits at the very center of the brain — reduced to the size of a small bean, likely due to its degeneration —
yet it is the site that produces the key hormone responsible for inducing sleep.
However, in lower vertebrates —
that is, in amphibians and reptiles — the Pineal Gland functions as a photoreceptor, sensing light.
"If we apply the fact that superpowers grow stronger in response to emotion to this… n-no, wait — Maxwell, what do you think?!"
"Truthfully, the appendix is also highly suspect."
"Ha! You mean the cecum side!"
In the lower right abdomen, at the point where the large intestine begins —
the slender pouch attached to the end of the cecum is called the appendix.
Originally thought to serve no function whatsoever, it has since been found to play a role as an immune organ.
Of course, removing it causes no particular problems, and appendicitis originates precisely here.
In any case, within this world, the two vestigial organs mentioned above serve a remarkably peculiar role.
But here lay one enormous problem.
To uncover those roles, one would need an exceptionally deep knowledge of biotechnology —
and naturally, I had none whatsoever.
But was there any need for me to step forward on that front?
"Maxwell!!! I'm starting the experiment right now!! Can you assist me!!"
"Of course, Chief Researcher."
An authority in biotechnology was moving in my stead — and the situation I had truly been aiming for had arrived.
***
Around the time Maxwell was speaking with Dr. Cain —
nearly all of the new researchers who had joined Black Cell had finished settling in —
and the underground research complex had grown considerably restless.
"So we're finally getting into the actual experiments."
"For the advancement of the age…."
From this point on, the new recruits would begin justifying the sins they were about to commit —
"The chicks have finally got some life in their eyes."
"I was getting tired of playing babysitter anyway. Good timing."
"I heard a fair number of test subjects came in this time — is that true?"
"Apparently they weren't captured. They were outright purchased from the Chinese side."
— while the veterans, already sunken deep into the abyss, regarded the test subjects as nothing more than consumables.
And just as the pain, screams, and cries of countless people were about to ring out —
Clang!!!
"Everyone from Team One and all senior staff — follow me, now!"
"Chief Researcher?"
"What's this all of a sudden…."
"Isn't that Maxwell behind him?"
Dr. Cain, who oversaw the entire research complex of Black Cell, had suddenly appeared alongside Maxwell.
All the researchers were bewildered —
but they fell in line with whatever the doctor said,
and strained to overhear the exchange between Cain and Maxwell.
"Now I finally understand why you said it was only fifty percent complete, even though you'd nearly figured it all out."
"A hypothesis is only a hypothesis until it's proven. But outside, there are no large-scale research facilities like this — and there was no way to obtain the test subjects I needed."
What on earth were the two of them talking about?
In any case, a Black superhuman in a vegetative state — sold off by some destitute parents — was brought up onto the examination table.
"Heh heh heh… A rare specimen like this is impossible to obtain in the private sector."
"And yet somehow you managed to acquire that."
Where both their gazes landed was a device prominently marked with a radiation symbol —
and Dr. Cain, now understanding at last why Maxwell had joined Black Cell, finished the preparations for the experiment.
"Shall we begin, Doctor?"
"Of course. First, let's —"
An experiment that would only succeed in the future had been pulled back into the present.
Under Dr. Cain's direction — guided by Maxwell's counsel — researchers who had honed their formidable skills through countless human experiments set to work.
And as the experiment stretched on for days, the upper echelons of Black Cell took notice of the situation.
"The Chief Researcher and Maxwell are moving together?"
"Yes, Director Eileen."
"And on top of that, it's an experiment with all of Research Team One involved…."
It was an entirely unexpected combination —
and Team One was the most capable among all of Black Cell's researchers.
If all of them were in motion, something significant had clearly occurred.
And so, the witch moved to grasp what was unfolding in her own backyard.
"With this much commotion, I suppose I can afford to have some expectations."
"Shall we head down to the underground facility?"
"Of course. It's not an inspection, so let's go directly."
"Understood, Director."
Director Eileen descended to the underground facility together with her secretary.
They passed through corridors like a labyrinth and dozens of security doors —
and came upon the special agents standing guard along the way.
The agents, prepared for any contingency, kept Director Eileen under close protection.
At last, just as the Director's party was entering the research complex —
Waaaaaaaaaah!!!
A strange roar of cheering echoed through the underground complex.
The facility was ordinarily dead silent, so everyone sensed something was off — and upon tracing the commotion to its source —
"Maxwell!! You truly are the Genius of the Century!!"
"T-to think that we would make a discovery this great —?!"
"The results are completely unlike anything before!"
"If we continue the research on this foundation…."
They found researchers in a state of intense excitement, embracing one another.
Naturally, Director Eileen and Secretary Min Chae-rin were bewildered —
as were even the special agents —
but Maxwell, whom Dr. Cain was enthusiastically embracing, spotted the Director's party —
and calmly informed the doctor of their arrival.
"Chief Researcher, the Director has come."
"Is that truly so?!"
Dr. Cain, overflowing with joy, sprinted toward his superior and cried out.
"Director Eileen!! We've finally discovered it!! N-no — we've gone and discovered it!!"
"What on earth is it that has you like this? First, calm down —"
"The — the cause of superpowers!!"
In that instant, Director Eileen's breath stopped.
But the doctor declared their achievement.
"We have solved one of the secrets of superpowers!!"
And so, in that underground space filled with sin, cheers and fervor blazed up in a strange irony.
As time flowed slowly onward, Director Eileen turned her gaze to Maxwell —
and as she watched him offer a small nod of greeting, the corner of her mouth trembled ever so slightly.