Chapter 114 : Contract (1)
The ones he met at the airport lounge looked sullen. Woojin looked at Sekhmet who was still pale after returning from the brink of death. She spoke first when Woojin looked at her.
“What were you thinking?” she asked in a cold voice.
Woojin replied, “Avatars must coexist with humans. We cannot use them as specimens to experiment with creating more Avatars.”
“Is that the reason why you burned all those test reagents without even asking us?”
Woojin nodded and Sekhmet turned to Bihyung.
“We cannot let this one slide.”
Woojin then moved his body closer to her.
“Let me ask you something. This project doesn’t help you. The Avatars created from this project cannot be your Avatars. They are new Avatars.”
Sekhmet was at a loss for words. Making an Avatar was not an easy task for the gods themselves. So if they could find a way to create Avatars artificially and find a way to take their place, then they didn’t need to worry about their Avatars being killed. At least that’s what they were hoping to do when Bihyung burned them all. That’s why they were confronting Woojin.
Woojin sharply said, “Let me make this clear. I don’t think you people understand the gravity of the current situation. That’s why you all have absurd ideas.”
Geb then intervened, “You cannot make our noble intentions of helping you into something corrupt like that.”
“I’ll apologize if I did. I must assume that you understand why Bihyung had to take such action.”
“Hmph.”
Both of them couldn’t answer and Woojin continued, “Create an Avatar and find a way to take control of it afterward? Honestly speaking, I agree the idea is great if we can do it without sacrificing innocent human lives.”
“Do you think it’s possible?”
“It’s only in the testing phase. So, if you are going to help, then help us further on this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let us study the blood of Egyptian Avatars. Doctor Wu created a reagent, but we have Doctor Ahn who is a more talented scientist. If we are lucky, we may be able to create the right formula that might work for you.”
Sekhmet turned to Geb and he nodded. Sekhmet answered, “Then will we share the ownership of the newly-created reagents?”
“If we succeed, yes. But you have to promise this to us.”
“About what?”
“We need to have the consent from the human who will be turning into an Avatar.”
There were people out there who would be willing to do it for money or to avenge someone. Woojin didn’t want to keep them from finding those individuals either. He thought if there were people who needed to choose such desperate measures, it was better for them to get such a chance. He too would have agreed if he was asked the same thing in the past when he lost his family.
Sekhmet agreed, “Good. We’ll keep the promise.”
Woojin then turned to Miho. She took the bag out and pulled out a syringe. Sekhmet laughed, “Oh? So you knew we would agree?”
“There’s no reason you wouldn’t.”
Woojin then got the blood samples from all the Avatars he had met in Egypt.
“We’ll use the blood to study it and give you an update on our findings. But I need to ask you to help us with one thing.”
“What is it?”
“What we need besides your blood is the blood of spiritual beings, especially that which is given voluntarily. Can you help us get it?”
“That won’t be hard. We’ll get blood from spiritual beings that live within Egypt.”
“That will be great.”
Sekhmet then crossed her legs and said, “Then let’s talk business.”
Woojin took out a tablet and showed it to Sekhmet. She narrowed her eyes.
“We have two farms here in Egypt?”
Egypt had too many Avatars to work on the Avatar Project, so they created monster farms instead and created labs for the Avatar Project in nearby countries. However, after they failed to protect Doctor Wu, they would most likely to try to make as many as Avatars they could while it lasted. Woojin needed to move quickly to stop it.
The farms were going to be handled by the Egyptian Avatars while Woojin and his team will move onto the other labs. Egypt agreed to support them with whatever they needed.
Sekhmet got up from her seat and gave Woojin a spiritual stone. She smiled.
“Geb fought with you, but it’s you who got him. And considering the fact that you saved our lives, we cannot take this as our own. This is yours.”
Woojin received Shango’s spiritual stone. It was obvious that it held powerful spiritual power within. Feeding it to his Fang would greatly increase his powers.
Doctor Ahn was excited. He didn’t expect to get this many types of blood at once. He was already full of many creative ideas after looking into Doctor Wu’s memory and he now had some specimen to study. He was especially astounded when he checked Marco’s blood. Marco had a powerful resistance. Doctor Ahn wasn’t sure about where Marco could use the characteristic to resist against the spiritual power, but he knew one way it could be put to use. He quickly mixed it with some other ingredients and injected it into the twelve Avatars.
They needed powerful resistance to fight their hypnosis. And while everyone gathered, the twelve Avatars were injected with a mixture of Marco’s blood. They were already moving over with their jet so they had nothing else to do anyway.
One of the twelve Avatars opened his eyes, “Where are we?”
“We are on a plane.”
The man got up and turned to Woojin. He then turned back and saw the others who were waking up. Memories were coming back to him. He was told that he had become an Avatar. He then remembered being shocked and running rampant toward his kidnappers and was pinned down. That was the last of it.
“Did I make some kind of mistake?”
“You were hypnotized. You almost killed us, and all of the refugees.”
The man was shocked, and so were the others. The reason they ended up at the refugee camp was because they wanted to run away and save their own families. But now, their families were all dead. Despair gripped them. Woojin said, “You can rest and tell us when you calm down. It is up to you if you want to fight against the ones who did this to you or if you want to run away and hide.”
The man looked up at Woojin and asked, “Those men were strong. I remember a bit, but I didn’t even come close to defeating them. How can we fight such men?”
Woojin answered, “If you have the will to do it, you can. We’ll provide you with the methods to fight.”
The man looked eager to work for his vengeance. He replied, “I will fight.”
“What is your name?”
“I’m Tom.”
Woojin placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Tom. Thank you for your decision. You can rest for now.”
Tom and the other Avatars were given time to rest and Woojin walked over to Doctor Ahn. The doctor was checking their data. Woojin asked, “How are they?”
“They’re good. Marco’s blood... it’s an unexpected finding.”
“Can I ask you something else?”
“Yeah.”
“Egyptian Avatars will give us the blood of spiritual beings. Can you work on the Avatar Project so we can make Marco become an Avatar?”
“I’m not sure if I can. But if we can get something to replace the dragon’s blood, we might be able to do it. Are you thinking of that plan because of his power?”
“Yes. If he can resist spiritual power when he’s a human, he might become more powerful when he becomes an Avatar.”
“I see.”
Doctor Ahn then went back to his studies. He didn’t tell Woojin yet, but he had found one thing. It was an idea about another project. It was still in the early stages, but this was only for Woojin. If it reached completion, it was going to give Woojin wings to soar.