Chapter Nine
"Good evening, everyone. I would like to draw your attention to the man lying in the balcony seats with a high powered sniper rifle. Please, please. Don't be alarmed." Shinwoo said, holding his hands up to calm everyone. When they were settled down again, Shinwoo began to speak once more.
"He is only here for the demonstration I'm about to give. Do pardon me for removing my shirt. However, I'm certain that none of you will believe that this is real unless you see that there is nothing else protecting me. Now, do you see this jacket? It seems just like a winter jacket, perhaps made of wool or some other warm material." Shinwoo said, taking off his shirt to reveal a fairly emaciated body, the result apparently of skipping many meals. This was just his alias, Mathis Park, though.
"Ironically, it's quite cool to the touch, and adjusts itself to the weather. In the summer, it will keep the individual cool. In the winter, it will keep you quite warm, without encumbering you any further. Perhaps a few of you would try it on for me and ascertain this?" Shinwoo asked, handing it to a woman with thick glasses, who scowled, but put it on, surprised at how cool it was, despite its weight.
Shinwoo had changed into his scientific pseudonym, Mathis Park, the half-French, half-Korean scientist. In this alias, he had long black hair that seemed to have a mind of its own, and flew everywhere, and a thin face and dark green eyes that had dark circles under them from long nights spent in the laboratory.
His frame was skinny, and even gaunt from missing meals in the name of his science. He had a deep, gravelly voice, but a friendly smile that contrasted with his sharp eyes. His hair was beginning to gray, indicating that he was in his mid-thirties, and he had a long scar across his left eye that had left it blind, and thus, he wore an eye patch over that eye.
He then passed it to three more scientists, two men and one woman, who all agreed that it was not hot, even when they sat in it for a few minutes. Shinwoo then put it on, and stood on the stage, giving the signal. Takeo then fired the sniper rifle, hitting Shinwoo dead on, right on the heart. However, the bullet simply stopped immediately upon hitting the vest. Shinwoo then took the bullet, and showed it to the crowd, indicating that it was an armor piercing sniper round.
Although it hurt to get hit so hard, the bullet didn't pierce the coat, and Shinwoo took it and handed it to a woman, who inspected the bullet with amazement, seeing that it was an armor piercing round.
"Sir… Are you saying that this jacket will protect even from armor piercing rounds?"
"Yes, ma'am. Anything but a tank shell or a bomb. Though, I suspect that a railgun would destroy the jacket as well." Shinwoo said to uncomfortable laughter at the morbid joke from the audience.
"Is there a way that one could reach you to discuss buying some from you? We would like to buy one to run our own independent diagnosis on it." Came a voice from the audience. A man in a military uniform stood up, bowing politely.
"Captain Seong Yunshi, sir, Third Company, Korean Navy."
"Good evening, Captain. Of course, you can reach me by my business email mathispark ."
"What I would like to show you next is a fully functional tidal turbine. I've already discussed prices on it with several state and city governments. It includes no metal in it, and therefore, will not rust in the water, and has access to wi-fi so that it can send a signal in the event that the mechanisms malfunction. Of course, the loss of power would likely be enough to indicate that. I have brought a miniature model to show you its efficiency.
"This is a miniature tide pool that I created for this demonstration. At the bottom is the tidal turbine, and a building connected to it." Shinwoo said, flicking the switch. The scientists at the front of the room heard the tidal turbine begin to work, and saw the lights in the building flicker on, and then stay steady. This was truly an amazing man, they thought.
"Thank you. Please contact me at my email address if you have any further questions. Have a pleasant evening." Shinwoo said politely to applause from the crowd, all of whom seemed highly impressed by Shinwoo's display. He was considering displaying the next generation computer that night, but he decided to work on improving it a bit more. He wanted to give it a feature that allowed it to respond directly to the user's thought patterns.
He hadn't managed to create a version of the computer that could do that, but the computer weighed only 0.45 kilograms (about 1 lb). It could easily be lifted in one hand, and had a remote charger, which meant that it didn't require a cord to charge it. It only needed a remote plug about the size of an iPhone wall plug, and a USB plug about the size of a remote mouse plug.
Furthermore, it stopped sending electricity when the computer was at 100%, and started charging it again when it alerted the person to low charge at 20%. Shinwoo was sure that it was the most advanced computer on the market. It turned on almost instantaneously when turned on, and was all but immune to computer viruses, mainly because it was a unique computer, and didn't use parts from any other brand of computer, and so, it would be pointless to make a virus compatible with it.
Second, and most importantly, it was mainly made of biomass, which made it essentially immune to malware. He was proud of his inventions, and intended to improve upon the ones he had already made, and continue to make new ones. He was working on the plants he had grown, turning them into pill form so that he could begin to distribute them.
He knew that medicine for things like Alzheimer's and other degenerative diseases already existed. But it was expensive, and people in such situations often didn't have much money. He had the opportunity to help, and he fully intended to do so. But now, he had to go home, and see Seira. He hadn't seen her all day, and he missed her already.
As he walked in the door, he smiled at Seira, seeing that she was with a student at the moment.
"Hello… Mathis…" Seira said with a smirk. Shinwoo gasped. He had forgotten to change back to Shinwoo. He ran into his room, and looked in the mirror, going by a photograph of himself, and turning back into Han Shinwoo.
"Miss Seira? Who was that? He's not your boyfriend… I've met your boyfriend, and he has red hair and blue eyes."
"He's related to Shinwoo… Now, let's finish your practice. Do some more scales. You want to be able to play the scales on the piano without looking." Seira said. Xinlin nodded, and positioned her fingers, looking away, and playing her scales.
When her lesson was over, Seira smiled, and said that time was up.
"Excuse me, Miss Seira… This is probably rude of me, but… How is it that you have so many instruments in your apartment? It is not a huge abode, yet you seem to have every type of instrument. I have seen you teaching violin, guitar, cello, viola, ukulele, and of course piano. But I've done the math, and I don't think there is enough room in your apartment for so many instruments."
"Cheung Xinlin … My apartment is larger than it seems. In addition, you have only ever seen the front room, so you wouldn't have an accurate impression of the whole apartment."
"That's true. Sorry. I did not mean to intrude."
"It is not a problem. Have a good evening. Hello, Mrs. Cheung."
"Good evening, Miss Seira." Mrs. Cheung said quietly.
"Is Xinlin gone?" Shinwoo asked. Seira nodded, getting started boiling some water. It was good that Shinwoo wasn't out in the common area when Mrs. Cheung came to pick Xinlin up. She tended not to approve of Shinwoo. Although he was a successful businessman, even at such a young age, she didn't approve of the two of them cohabiting before they were married.
She was a very traditional woman, raised in traditional Chinese values, and as such, Shinwoo, being such an informal person in the first place, and living with a woman despite the fact that they weren't married were two unacceptable things for her. She liked Seira, though, seeing her as a very proper young woman. Little did she know that Seira was likely more than four times older than her.
"Ah, good. That woman never liked me. I could never figure out why, but she seems to have a real problem with me."
"Well… It is unimportant. How did your science conference go?" Seira asked, pouring water in a teakettle, and taking out some loose tea leaves, and putting them in sachets, boiling the water rapidly using her telekinesis.
"It went well. Lots of scientists were there, and a few military agents. I was… A little distressed that the military was there. I never wanted my inventions to be used for hurting people. But, I did showcase a hyperdense bulletproof vest, so I guess it was inevitable. The police are one thing, but…"
"Perhaps you should look at it as the military trying to save lives? After all, bulletproof vests have no ability to take lives, only to save them. What else did you display?"
"I showed off my tidal turbine. I suspect that even a turbine as small as the one I displayed there could power the whole northern half of Seoul. The full sized turbine should easily power all of Seoul and still only be at about 50% capacity usage."
"That is impressive, Shinwoo. But if you don't want to sell to the military, why did you not just refuse to sell to them?"
"Well, I could have done that, but it would have made problems later on. So, do you have time to teach me to speak your language tonight, Seira?"
"Yes. Dinner is almost ready. I will go over some lessons with you tonight. You are learning much faster than I expected, and since neither of us need sleep, we can easily go late into the night if you like.
"Sounds good." Shinwoo said, helping Seira to set up the table and the tea cups, and then sitting down to drink the tea with her. Neither of them needed to eat, but they both enjoyed tea, especially since Seira was so skilled at making it. Her tea was rich and flavorful, and filled the entire house with an intoxicating aroma. Shinwoo had even experimented with making new types of tea leaves, mixing tea with mint and other spices as well as chocolate and various other plants to make interesting flavors.
Most of them turned out well, and those that didn't, he could just reabsorb, and not worry about them. He also used the members of Frankenstein's house to test the flavors of new herbs, teas, and other plants. Shinwoo smelled the tea, breathing in deeply. This was a new tea that he had just perfected the other day, and this was, if anything, a trial run for it. It smelled good. So Shinwoo blew on it, and took a sip.
Most of the tea that he made went to Rai, who loved tea, and even Frankenstein had indicated that he was impressed with the quality of Shinwoo's tea leaves, and with the taste. Seira spoke various sentences in the Noble Language, and Shinwoo had to translate it, then answer. For three weeks, he had been working on the basics, nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, sentence structure, etcetera.
The sentence structure was very different. Verb-Object-Subject. So instead of saying "she loves him", they would say "Loves him she". The sentence structure was like the ancient Mayan languages. However, their accent was much more similar to a mix between an Irish and Welsh accent. He was quickly acquiring the accent as well. It was a beautiful accent, in his opinion, able to set even the most stressed, tensest person at perfect ease.
"Okay… So, I designed a potential idea for how your house could look. But, I would like to get your opinion on it." Shinwoo said, taking out a roll of paper, and putting it down on a portable desk, putting rocks on the side, and showing Garda and Muzaka the three level house that he intended to build for them. The two Werewolves looked over the home. It was… Huge, to say the least. They didn't need even close to that big a house. Shinwoo was thinking of grandiosity befitting a human lord or king.
Muzaka wasn't terribly interesting in something so grandiose, especially since its three stories were above ground, and it had two stories that went underground.
"Han Shinwoo… Were you really thinking that we needed this much space? What on earth could we possibly need this big a house for? Especially when it's just the two of us." Garda asked, laughing. Shinwoo blushed slightly.
"Was I wrong in believing that Werewolves tend to have more children than humans? Wolves tend to give birth in litters of 4-6 pups. Do Werewolves not do the same?"
"No, you… Are right in that regard. However… We… Give birth less frequently. If we really gave birth as frequently and to as many as you seem to give us credit for, we would quickly overrun the human race.
"I cannot speak for the size of the Clan today, but 820 years ago, there were fewer Werewolves even than there were Nobles. We were a proud race, and tended to only breed with other Werewolves. I… Was an exception. I made a child with a human woman, and a half-Werewolf child was the result.
"Werewolves mates tend to only have one litter of pups in a lifetime, though… Naturally, there are some exceptions. Take for instance the Werewolf Lord. He or she can often expect to take more than one mate if they desire, and can produce young with each mate. It is arguably the same in a wolf den. As it is, Garda and I are unprepared, as yet, to have children. And the odds of us having enough children to warrant this much room in the house is slim to none."
"Okay. Well, that's what these consultations are for…" Shinwoo said dramatically with a laugh, taking out more paper, and drawing up a home that was still large, but wasn't quite the mansion that he had designed before. When he was finished, Muzaka and Garda looked over it again. Muzaka and Garda laughed along with him, finding his laughter to be infectious.
Two floors, a large common area, a decent sized kitchen for when they needed it, although given the woods behind the house, they would likely be hunting for their food. There was a strongly built dojo underground that didn't look like it would break even in the face of Muzaka's power.
"Now, the dojo is specially made. The material I'm using to make it, well… Biomass, naturally, but it will be approximately as dense as the inner core of the earth, but will have soft material on the inside to absorb noise and impact."
"Do we really need a dojo, Shinwoo? We'd mostly be fighting outside. We can see perfectly even in the dark, and we don't really get too cold, even in the middle of winter."
"See? It's good we're talking about this." Shinwoo said with a laugh, removing the bottom floor and redrawing it as a basement."
"Every home needs a basement. It sets up the base for the house and stabilizes it." Shinwoo said.
"Now, where exactly do you want the house? I can dig more than one hole, but I don't want to have to. It detracts from the beauty of the property. Now, you have the zoning permit and the deed to the property?"
"Yes, and we can dig the hole. You're doing so much for us, Shinwoo." Garda said, smiling politely, and looking around for a shovel."
"No, ma'am. I wouldn't dream of it. There are no shovels, and besides, it will be much faster if I do it alone. Now, where do you want the hole?" He asked again. The two Werewolves thought for a moment, and finally, Muzaka pointed to the center of a ridged hill. He was thinking of how to make it defensible."
"Muzaka, that's… A good place to put it, as good as any, I suppose, but… In modern day Korea, there's little need to make it so tactically defensible. Just pick a nice place, maybe one where you can get a nice view."
"You're right, Shinwoo… Hmm… What do you think, Garda?"
"It doesn't really matter to me where we put it. If you want an earthen wall around our home, then, I suppose that's fine with me. We've got the earth on one side, and the forest on the other that way."
"What do you really want, Garda? Come on. Don't hesitate."
"Well… How about at the top of the hill? It's still defensible, though, naturally to a lesser extent, and we get a great view." Garda said. Muzaka nodded.
"That sounds fine. Shinwoo?"
"One hole coming up." Shinwoo said, leaping in the air, and doing a wide, sweeping motion with his arms, gouging out a huge hole in the ground. Shinwoo went up to the hole, looking down at it analytically, cocking his head to the left, then the right, moving his hands around, then finally nodding with a satisfied smile.
In the next minute, he began to build the house, touching the ground inside the hole, and watching as a large room sprang out from his hand, quickly surrounding him. Inside, he built stairs up to the next level, and then went up the stairs, beginning to build the next level, walking around and building each of the different rooms, setting up the wires and lights. Shinwoo had learned a short while ago that there was almost nothing that he couldn't do with biomass.
One thing he couldn't do was build light bulbs. He could have made bioluminescent bulbs, but they would have always been on, and they wouldn't have provided enough light. They would have to go to the store, and buy light bulbs. However, he could, and would build furniture for them. He just had to find out what kind of furniture they wanted.
Finally, he went to the second floor, and did the same thing, building rooms and setting up the wiring, connecting it to the roof, where he was putting up solar panels. Furthermore, he was setting up a small geokinetic turbine to gather energy from the earth's own rotation underneath the house. That way, even during the rainy season, there would never be a shortage of energy.
Shinwoo then set up the well, going deep down into the earth to a huge oasis, where he sent a biomass pipe, which would connect to the house itself. When he was finally done, Shinwoo came out, and brought Muzaka and Garda in, where he talked to them about where they wanted the furniture, and what they wanted it to look like. Finally, they decided on a modern look.
Shinwoo set up the couch and chairs in the common room with a leather surface, then went to the bedrooms that Muzaka and Garda designated, and set up beds, and bureaus, and everything else. When he was finished, he went outside, and admired his work. He had done a good job, even for his first time. The two Werewolves came out, and looked over the house admiringly.
He had made the outer walls ten times denser and fifty times stronger than steel, and the windows, despite being clear, were ten times stronger than steel. Despite this, the house wouldn't bake in the summer, allowing for excellent ventilation when needed. In fact, the house was covered with sensors that would adapt to the weather.
In the hot summers, it would become airier, and allow for nice breezes to come through, even when the windows were all closed, and in the winters, it would tighten up, and keep them relatively warm, even without the heat being on, although there were heaters in the house, mainly to heat the water, but also for the benefit of sending hot air through the house.
"Shinwoo… This… This is… An amazing house. Are you sure we can't pay you anything for it? All this work, I don't feel right getting it for free." Garda insisted.
"Well, if you insist, I'll only take 1,100 Won. Not a Won more."
"1,100 Won? That's only like 1 American Dollar." Muzaka said incredulously, having been thinking the same thing as Garda.
"Exactly." Shinwoo said with a laugh. The two Werewolves looked at each other.
"You might as well be giving it to us for free, then!"
"If that's what you want." Shinwoo said, shrugging. The two shrugged, and Garda took out 1,100 Won, and handed it to Shinwoo, who laughed, and handed it back to her.
"I was joking. You seemed so serious about this. Seriously. We're friends. I don't take money from my friends. Besides, it was a one hour job at most, and it was free for me. Oh! You'll still need to buy light bulbs. I can't make those with biomass.
"Well… I could. I could make bioluminescent bulbs that would lend a bit of light to the house at night. However, it wouldn't really be enough light to see well by."
"Shinwoo… We can see in perfect blackness, and by the light of the moon. In perfect blackness, we see in black and white.
"But by the light of the moon, we can still see in more colors and with greater acuity than any human. Do what you want to do. The amount of light is irrelevant. Just as long as we can turn them off when we need to." Muzaka said. Shinwoo nodded.
"You know, I bet I could make bioluminescent light bulbs that are as bright as regular ones." Shinwoo said, teleporting back into the house, and touching the ceiling, breathing in, and feeling the entire house, then breathing out, and creating bioluminescent bulbs in all of the sockets, setting them to be activated by electricity. Then, when they turned the lights out, the bulbs would die out over a period of maybe five seconds at most.
He came back out, giving a thumbs up, having tested the bulbs himself, and finding that they worked perfectly.
"Now, the mechanisms inside the house, including the solar panels and the geokinetic turbine are self-repairing to some extent.
"However, if you ever have any issues with either of them, you'll get an email report about it, and you just need to call me. Oh, right… Do you guys have email addresses?"
"Yes." Muzaka said.
"No." Garda replied at the same time.
"Ah, well… If one of you has email, that's fine. Do you have a computer?"
"No…" They both said at the same time. Shinwoo nodded, and took one out of his bag.
"I… Thought that might be the case. Here. It's the newest model of my laptop. It weighs about 0.45 kilograms, and plugs into the wall remotely.
"Take this. It's the charge remote. It plugs into the wall, and can connect to the computer from as far as 500 meters away. It's best if you keep it plugged into the same room as the computer is in. It has a keyboard, and will respond to a mouse, which automatically connects to it. Here's the mouse, by the way. It's biomechanical, so it's all but immune to malware.
"You'll need to get a printer if you want to print documents. But, it should connect to any printer in the house, and I can help set it up if you need me to.
"Shinwoo, we can't…"
"No, no. I insist. I need someone to test it. I've done a few preliminary tests on it. But I'd like it if more people had one to give me feedback.
"So far, Tao, Principal Lee, Ras, Ikhan, and Takeo have one. But the more people who are in the trial run, the better. With more people comes more and more accurate data for me to work with. That way, if there's an issue with any of the computers, I'll know. I'm making more to give to my other friends. That way, it won't be just computer geniuses who are testing it. I need average people to test run it as well. Please, I have one for both of you, if you like."
"You need us to test it for you?" Muzaka asked. Shinwoo nodded. It wasn't far from the truth.
"Well… Okay, then…" Garda said, taking the computer and thanking him for it. She had never used a computer before. She looked at the keyboard. It was all in Korean. She didn't understand the first thing about using such a keyboard, though Muzaka seemed to have a good idea of what he was doing.
"Um… I-I hate to sound ungrateful, Shinwoo, but… I can't read the keyboard. I'm only nominally proficient with Korean. I can speak it relatively well, but I'm barely beyond illiterate at reading and writing it."
"Ah! Of course. Well, give me back that computer for a moment?" Shinwoo said, taking the computer, and breathing deeply, then breathing out. Looking at it, he handed it to her.
"Does the Latin alphabet suit you better? You can read and write in English, right?"
"Yes. Better than I can in Korean. I-I'm sure that Muzaka can help me with that."
"Nonsense. I can help. Hold on a minute, Garda." Shinwoo said, walking up to her, and touching her forehead with his fingers, and imbuing her with knowledge of not only Korean, but modern English as well. She should have now been fluent in both languages."
"Is that better? You really should get used to speaking, reading, and writing in Korean." Shinwoo said, taking the computer and changing it back to Korean. Garda smiled gratefully.
"Thank you. You know, I'm really fortunate to have good friends like you, and your friends. When I woke up, I didn't even know what a cell phone was. I thought it was some sort of dark sorcery or something. You guys really were the best thing for me."
"No problem at all. Hey, by the way, are you two planning on continuing to work at Principal Lee's school?" Shinwoo asked. Muzaka nodded.
"Yes. We cannot simply give up our jobs so easily. Besides, it's nice to work like normal people. It pays well, and… As powerful as we are, we still need to eat, and we still owe money on the property. There are taxes to pay on our land, and whatnot.
"As minimal as our taxes will be, mainly due to the fact that our home is self-sufficient, we still have to pay money every… Month, or year, or whatever."
"I understand. Well, I'll let you get settled. See you later." Shinwoo shouted, teleporting away. He had a few things to do that day. He intended to finish his pet project for the moment.
He had been creating nanomachines that responded to the body's own needs. So, they could immediately travel through the blood stream to an injury, and cause it to heal. The machines, in the end, would act like stem cells, and replicate muscle, tissue, nerves, and bone if necessary, and repair the wound fully.
It was a revolutionary medical breakthrough, and the lives that could be saved, and also improved with it would make it all worth it. Now, he just had to talk to Frankenstein about his opinion on Shinwoo's next big idea.
