11:50 PM
The city of Seonghwa—engineered by Genesis, refined to eerie perfection—breathed silently in the dark. Shop windows sealed tight, their smart-glass panes dulled to opaque. Street lamps dimmed on schedule, leaving only the faint glow of biometric scanners hovering like ghostly eyes above doorways. A cool breeze drifted down from the Highlands, carrying the sterile scent of rain-washed alloy.
The silence was pristine—too pristine. The wind picked up, sharp and insistent, slicing through the empty streets. It rushed past a lone figure walking briskly beneath the flickering hum of a malfunctioning streetlight.
Dr. Eun Bi let out a quiet huff as the gust swept her short, ink-black hair into her face. She tucked a stubborn strand behind her ear, her sharp eyes narrowing against the chill. Her features were striking—high cheekbones, a gently rounded jaw, lips drawn into a faint frown. The hem of her lab coat snapped in the wind, the Genesis insignia on her sleeve catching the light alongside her name tag:
DR. EUN BI | BIOTECHNOLOGICAL BRANCH
"Quite the breeze"she muttered, breath curling in the cold air.
The malfunctioning streetlight flickered once more before steadying into its usual cold glow. Eun Bi allowed herself a small smile—just another minor system error in Genesis's otherwise flawless city. She tightened her lab coat against the wind and continued down the empty street.
A sharp car horn cut through the silence.
She turned to see a sleek Genesis cruiser idling at the curb, its black exterior reflecting the neon haze of the city. The window slid down with a near-silent hum, revealing the driver—a man with sharp, angular features that belied his youth. His dark black hair was neatly styled, though a few strands fell carelessly across his forehead. The crisp collar of his Genesis-issued jacket framed a face that might have been handsome if not for the permanent trace of exhaustion in his eyes.
His name tag gleamed under the streetlight:
DR. AH JINHO | TECHNOLOGICAL BRANCH
"Manager," he said, raising an eyebrow. "It's unlike you to be wandering on foot this late." His voice carried the same polished cadence of all Genesis executives, though there was something looser, almost human, in his tone.
Eun Bi smirked. "And yet, here you are."
"Hop in," he said, tilting his head toward the passenger seat. "I'm heading back to the lab. No sense in both of us losing sleep over the night shift."
She hesitated for only a second before opening the door. The interior of the cruiser was immaculate, the faint scent of ozone and sandalwood lingering in the air. The seats adjusted automatically to her posture as the door sealed shut behind her.
Jinho tapped the dashboard, and the car pulled smoothly back onto the road.
The city lights blurred past as the cruiser accelerated.
12:00 AM
The car glided up a gentle hill, its engine humming with the near-silent precision of advanced magnetic propulsion. The Genesis transport was a sleek obsidian-gray model, its surface smooth and reflective like liquid glass. Thin blue light strips lined the undercarriage and door seams, pulsing faintly with the rhythm of the vehicle's systems. Inside, the cabin was minimalistic—no steering wheel, only a glowing console between the seats, its interface responding to voice and gesture.
As they crested the hill, the city lights behind them dimmed in the distance, giving way to a massive structure that loomed ahead—Genesis Seonghwa Labs.
The building was a monolith of metal and glass, rising into the sky like a needle of innovation. Its surface shimmered with hexagonal panels, and thin streams of data-light pulsed up and down its sides like arteries. At its base, a massive gate, marked with the Genesis insignia, slowly split open, folding back with an industrial hiss.
"Still gives me chills," Ah Jinho muttered, eyes fixed ahead.
Eun Bi didn't respond. She simply watched as the compound welcomed them with eerie grace.
The car glided through the gate, tires never touching the pavement, until they came to a smooth stop in a designated parking zone. As the doors opened with a hiss, they stepped out, the night wind replaced by a low hum of artificial atmosphere.
They walked toward the entrance, a wide corridor of light scanning them briefly before allowing entry.
Inside, the facility buzzed with life.
The lobby was stark white, polished to a mirror shine, and filled with the quiet clatter of footsteps and muffled voices. People in lab coats moved briskly across the floor, some with tablets in hand, others consulting holographic displays suspended in the air. Branch labels glowed along the walls: Biotechnological Division, Technological Division, Weapons R\&D, AI Systems, and more.
Ah Jinho walked slightly ahead, offering a casual nod to a passing technician.
"Same old maze," he muttered.
12:15 Am
"I think this is where we part ways," Ah Jinho said as the corridor forked, his footsteps already turning down the path toward the Technological Division. "Don't poke around too much, Manager."
Eun Bi gave him a faint smile. "No promises."
He waved a lazy hand and disappeared around the corner.
Eun Bi turned to the biometric lift—a seamless cylinder of glass and steel, resting silently between two metal pillars. As she approached, a soft whir activated the scanner. The panel glowed, then a soft chime confirmed her identity.
The lift doors slid open with a whisper.
As she stepped inside, a holographic projection flickered into existence—floating just above the central console. It was the figure of a five-year-old girl, barefoot, clad in a white dress, her long silver hair drifting as if underwater. Her wide, glowing eyes blinked once before speaking.
"Dr. Eun Bi. Greetings."
The voice was gentle, childlike—but with a synthetic undertone, like innocence scripted into code.
Eun Bi's expression softened slightly. "It's nice to see you, "Delta."
She pressed her palm to the interface, triggering the destination options. "The lab feels unusually active tonight. Any idea why?"
The little girl's image flickered—just for a fraction of a second.
Delta said nothing.
Her lips parted slightly, as if about to speak… then closed.
The silence pressed in for a moment before Eun Bi exhaled and made the command manually.
"Take me to the Biotechnological Branch."
The lift hummed to life and began its descent.
----
Genesis Seonghwa Labs – Structural Overview
The Genesis Lab Tower wasn't built up like most corporate spires in Seonghwa—it was built down, a vertical complex descending into the Earth like a surgical needle. The deeper the level, the more classified the research.
The levels were segmented and encrypted, connected only by biometric lifts overseen by Delta herself.
* **Surface Level (Level 0):** Lobby, security, public-facing departments. Monitored by AI but accessible to upper-tier Genesis personnel and select visitors.
* **Level -1 to -5:** General R\&D, weapons testing, AI systems. These floors buzzed constantly with innovation—and surveillance.
* **Level -6 to -10:** Classified experimentation zones. Only division leads and executive board members had access. Surveillance here was twofold—humans monitored the AI, and the AI monitored them back.
* **Level -11:** Emergency containment and blacksite storage. It was rumored that even Delta required override codes to open some vaults here.
* **Level -12:** The **Biotechnological Branch**—Eun Bi's territory.
Despite being the deepest accessible level, the Bio Division was always lit with a sterile brilliance. Most staff didn't know why it had to be so far down. Some whispered it was because what they worked on had the potential to reach back up.
---
The lift slowed as it neared Level -12, the soft pulse of light above the door dimming. Delta's eyes followed Eun Bi silently, that eerie childlike stare unblinking.
"Delta," Eun Bi asked softly, "is everything functioning normally?"
Another pause.
"All systems are within acceptable parameters," the girl finally said.
But her voice had cooled. More machine than child.
The lift doors opened.
Ahead lay a corridor of pale light and frost-white walls, veins of blue circuitry running beneath the surface like capillaries. The air was cool—too cool—and carried the faint scent of antiseptic and ozone.
Eun Bi stepped out.
From here on, even her thoughts had to be careful.
The hallways of the **Biotechnological Branch** were unnervingly quiet at this hour. The only sounds were the distant hum of climate control and the occasional flicker of holographic terminals shifting into low-power mode. A lone technician in a white coat glanced up from his workstation as Eun Bi passed.
"Good evening, Manager," he murmured before returning to his screens.
She offered a curt nod but didn't slow. Her destination wasn't her office—at least, not the one Genesis thought was hers.
Once inside, the door sealed behind her with a soft hiss. Her fingers danced across the touch panel embedded in her desk, inputting a sequence that didn't exist in any official Genesis database. The wall to her left shimmered, then dissolved into a hidden passageway, its edges lined with faint bioluminescent strips.
Delta's surveillance didn't extend here.
The elevator beyond was older, its mechanisms mechanical rather than magnetic—a relic from before Genesis fully digitized the compound. It groaned faintly as it descended, carrying her deeper than even Level -12. The air grew heavier, thick with the scent of damp earth and something else—organic, alive.
When the doors opened, she stepped into a vast, dimly lit chamber.
This place had no official designation.
It was her secret.
The space was dominated by towering glass structures—massive vertical farms, their interiors pulsing with an eerie emerald glow. Inside, plants of unnatural size and structure thrived, their leaves veined with bioluminescent patterns. Some coiled like serpents; others bloomed with petals that shimmered like fractured glass.
A man emerged from the shadows, his footsteps silent against the metal grating.
He was tall, his frame lean but corded with muscle beneath a fitted black bodysuit. His skin was a deep bronze, his hair cropped close to his scalp, save for a single silver streak above his left temple—a mark of old radiation exposure. His eyes were sharp, golden-amber, like a predator's in low light.
Dr. Kang Daehyun.
"Welcome back, Dr. Eun Bi," he said, voice low, edged with the roughness of someone who had spent too long in underground labs.
She didn't waste time. "How's the Greenhouse?"
Daehyun smirked, nodding toward the nearest enclosure, where a vine thicker than a man's arm slithered against the glass, reacting to their presence. "Thriving. The specimens are adapting faster than projected." He crossed his arms, watching her with a mix of admiration and something darker. "Another week, and Project Verdant Veil will reach its fullest potential."
Eun Bi allowed herself a rare, genuine smile.
Soon, Genesis would learn what grew beneath their feet.
And by then, it would be far too late to stop it.