The lab doors opened when Si Oh placed his blood on the verification machine. The blue light and the smell of blood welcomed him. He made his way to Mr. Lee, who stood with experiment reports in his hands.

"Boss, the experiment shows great results," Mr. Lee said and handed the reports to his boss.

"I will be the judge of that," Si Oh replied with a cold gaze in his eyes and snatched the reports from Mr. Lee.

After analyzing the reports, a smile crept onto his face. He walked up to him and patted his back.

"Good job," Si Oh said.

"Thank you, boss" the man replied, smiling.

"Give me the prototype and the antidote. I have to test it on myself before ensuring the quality of the product," Si Oh said.

Si Oh threw away his coat and opened the buttons of his shirt. He rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt to reveal the gorgeous veins on his muscular arm.

He administered the drug, and slowly but gradually, the effects started to unfold. His eyes became darker, and his veins became more prominent. He tilted his neck from side to side and got rid of his shirt.

The effect of the drug took him by surprise as he suddenly felt as if the whole world was dancing right before his eyes.

He held onto a chair to quickly compose himself, and a few seconds later, he was back to normal as this was not his first rodeo.

He positioned his body to do pushups and slowly lifted his legs off the floor. He balanced his entire weight on his hands and began doing pushups.

A few seconds later, he lifted his legs in the air right above his head. It was like a pushup with a headstand.

The sight of him doing such a strenuous exercise shirtless and effortlessly proved the drug's potency and highlighted his undeniable handsomeness.

He got up on his feet, opened a cold water bottle, and started to pour it on his body. The water swiftly made its way from his hair to his waistline.

After cooling off, he drank the updated antidote version. He gulped down the entire bottle of the blue liquid in one go.

His eyes returned to their usual color, and the muscles in his body relaxed. He picked up his shirt off the floor and walked towards Mr. Lee.

"You are truly a genius. This is a lot better than the previous one. You have done a phenomenal job," Si Oh said, smiling.

"Thank you, boss," Mr. Lee replied, bowing. He was unsure whether to look at his eyes or his shirtless body in front of him, so he decided to bow down and look at the floors instead.

He entered the experiment room and saw the security guard and the masked man drinking water like a madman. He kicked open the door and went ahead to greet them.

"How are you guys doing? Remember I promised that I would come to meet you," he said.

"Sir, please forgive me. I was wrong, please. My wife and kids must be waiting for me," the security guard said, begging.

After listening to his plea, Si Oh's patience snapped. He threw the bottle off his hands and pinned the man to the wall, picking him up by his neck.

"Your wife and kids, huh? The wife you have been beating ever since you got married and the kids who you tried to sell in the black market are waiting for you indeed. They are waiting to hear that you are dead, and today I will make their wish come true," Si Oh said, rage filling his eyes.

"She is lying, sir. I have always been a great husband and dad," the man replied, trying his best to breathe through the strong grasp of his boss's hand wrapped tight around his neck.

Si Oh let go of his neck and dragged him by his hair to Lab 2. He went up the stairs of the experiment center and stopped by a large tank in the middle of the lab.

The man screamed in agony, and Si Oh picked him up by his throat again. He placed him just at the top of the tank.

"People like you are the reason why I don't believe in being good anymore. I have seen all your details myself, and don't worry, your family will be under my direct supervision. I will make sure to provide for them. Say hello to the devil from my side," Si Oh said and let go of his grip on the man's neck.

"Now," Si Oh signaled Kyle, and the top of the tank opened up and engulfed the man inside. The blue lights shimmered as the man entered the tank.

He cried for help as the electric eels found their prey. The tank filled up with yellow and blue lights as the eels gave him what Si Oh likes to call the "Shock treatment". The man's blood started to paint the blue tank red.

Si Oh smiled, looking at the man's agony, and ordered an employee to clean up the tank when the job was done.

"My precious little eels never fail to amaze me. Saranghae, my sweethearts," Si Oh said, smiling at the tank before going back to his office.

(Saranghae: I love you in Korean)

Meanwhile, Hee Sik was trying his best to help the chief police officer who was lying unconscious in his chair.

By the time they reached the hospital the chief's condition had already worsened. The doctors were unable to understand the symptoms as the blood reports were normal except for over-hydration.

When Hee Sik was about to call Nam Soon, someone held him by his wrist with a weak grip. He turned around to see that the chief had regained consciousness.

"Listen... Hee Sik," the chief said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Chief, are you okay?" Hee Sik asked, worried.

"Doogo... Search at Doogo," he replied.

He felt empty as the chief's hand fell off to the side. The chief's pale face and half-opened eyes still stared in shock at Hee Sik as soul left his body.

Before Hee Sik could say anything, the code blue bell rang, and doctors came rushing inside the room. A nurse asked him to stay outside the room as the doctors tried their best to bring the chief back to life.

"Charge to 200 Joules," the doctor said.

"Charged," the nurse replied, after applying gel to the machine and charging it.

The doctor put the shock in the chest region, and the body rose in response. Hee Sik saw the chief, who loved him like his own son, die right before his eyes as the doctors declared him dead. He fell as his legs gave up.

"Are you okay?" Nam Soon asked him. She was a little out of breath since she ran all the way here hurriedly.

"He is dead," he replied.

The whole narcotics department had reached there along with Nam Soon, and Hee Sik's words broke them down.

"Doogo. He said to search at Doogo before dying," Hee Sik said with tears rolling down his face.

He got up and rushed to the chief's house in the hope of finding something, anything that might bring peace to his soul.

He opened the door and started to search. He threw away the papers on the desk and found a camera with only one video in it.

"Hello, team. By the time you find this video, I might not be a part of the team anymore. I know what I am about to say would make no sense as a police officer but I had to do it to collect evidence. After accidentally tasting the white powder in the station back when it came for testing, I started to show extreme dehydration. No amount of water I drank quenched my thirst. I started to desire more of that bitter white powder, so I reached out to some sources to get it. The dealer who gave me the drug had several transactions in her account with Doogo Logistics. I believe that Doogo might be behind this drug situation. I... Ah"

Hee Sik watched as the video ended after the chief clenched his chest, having a sharp pain.

"I will get to the bottom of this," he said with determination in his voice.

"He is not picking up the call," Nam Soon said to the team sitting at the Hospital.

"I hope he does not do anything dangerous on his own," one of the team members said.

"Don't worry. I know he won't do anything wrong," Nam Soon said, assuring the team before going back to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GANG NAM SOON'S POV :

After going through the reports, I am damn sure that it is the same drug, but the thing which scares me the most is the fact that it might be just the beginning.

What haunts me is that nothing life-threatening has happened to me yet, even after receiving the note that Level 2 has started.

If Level 1 was to place a self-destructive bomb in Si Oh's car, then I know that sending a human head is not the end of Level 2 but rather just the start of it.

I don't even know what I should be prepared for anymore. Is that woman going to send a bullet or a bomb at me? Who even is that woman, and what did I even do to enter Level 2? What kind of Squid Game shit is this?

I'm so annoyed at the whole situation. My two patients, the chief of medicine and now chief police officer-all of them died, and being a doctor I could do nothing to save them.

After going through years of education, it is so painful for me to not be able to help patients.

I never had time to even look at myself in the mirror when I was on my journey to become a doctor let alone think about dating and now that I finally started to have feelings this chaos is going on.

I don't even know what to do about Si Oh. Why would he be so sweet and kind to me if he was the drug lord? How dare he make my heart race with that cute smile? God. Did I just call him cute? Uhh. I don't know what I am doing and what I am doing to do.

Nothing is certain anymore. I don't even know who to trust. I just hope that everything falls into place without any more damage than what has already been done.

I started walking towards the ward when news headlines caught my eye.

"We must preserve our heritage and culture," a man said to the news anchor.

Heritage. It all started there- the masked man, the chase to the building, my bracelet being stolen, the drinks being spiked with drugs, and the revelation about Si Oh dealing with drugs.

It's like someone has been planning all of this all along. How could the masked man enter such a high-profile party and spike the drinks without being noticed by the well-trained security guards?

Unless the security guards were ordered by someone to ignore these malfunctions, it would not have taken place.

I might be wrong, but I believe that Heritage Club had something to do with it, and I cannot sit still until I find out the truth. Heritage Club, you are not going to get away with this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RYU SI OH'S POV :

I was so exhausted today after going to the lab. It was rewarding to test the drug and know that the quality has improved enough to launch the antidote into the market now.

I was glad, but at the same time, the drug takes a toll on me each time I use it. I obviously cannot let it show, but I feel a bit drained of energy afterwards.

The spike of energy that the drug provides does not last long, and the intake of the antidote thereafter makes me dizzy. It's like having coffee right after waking up and feeling drowsy again by afternoon.

The income of Pavel has always heavily depended on drugs, which took countless lives, but they never thought about making an antidote to cure people of this addiction.

I read somewhere about coffee being the unicorn's blood because though it keeps you alive, you are cursed the moment it touches your lips, and guess what, drugs are not so far behind.

Just a bit is enough to make you addicted, and Pavel has always made money because of this. They make people addicted to their drugs, and it keeps their sales up.

That's why I wanted to make this antidote and I am so glad that after trying for so many years, Mr. Lee and I have finally succeeded in doing so. I am on cloud nine right now.

If only I could share this joy with someone. If only I could embrace Nam Soon, but right now, things are not great between us. I would do everything I could to earn her trust.

Amidst all this, I got a message from the landlord that maintenance work will be going on in the building tomorrow, so there might be some technical issues. As if I already did not have enough issues on my plate.

I was about to go to bed when I felt like I saw someone running out of the building in black clothes. Is it the same girl who tried to shoot me the other day?

"Kyle, there is a person who is running out of the building in black clothes. Don't let that person get away," I said, and Kyle went running downstairs to catch the person.

"I don't wanna die, Anton" a voice rang in my head. This voice. I guess I need to sleep.

The chime of the phone woke me up, and I got up to check the message.

Kyle: "Boss, we have caught the person, and we will start interrogation tomorrow."

Ryu Si Oh: "Ok. Good work. Are you okay?"

Kyle: "Boss, I'm okay. I just had to run a lot to catch her, and she even sliced her knife in my leg, but there was not much blood."

Ryu Si Oh: "Kyle, just take the day off today and get your injuries treated. I'll send some extra money."

Kyle: "Thank you, boss."

With that, I returned to my sleep. I woke up early in the morning and got ready for the day.

I entered the flat's lift and noticed an old man was already standing inside. I pressed the button, and the doors closed. After a few seconds, the lights went off and the lift stopped.

I turned around to help the elderly man only to see that he had removed his wig and was quite young.

I felt a sudden stab of the needle in my thigh and saw that the man had injected me with something. He then placed a knife straight at my throat.

One wrong move, and I die. I laughed and kicked him in his torso to knock the knife out of his hand.

The knife fell, and I took out my gun and pointed it at him. The man struggled to remove my gun from his head, and he made his best efforts to try and point the gun at me.

He punched me in my legs, which made me lose my balance a bit, and he snatched my gun and turned my body around. He kept the gun pointed at my head.

"Cooperate, and I will give you an easy death," the man said, gritting his teeth.

I took hold of his arm and smashed him on the floor of the lift, which shook the lift. The man continued to struggle, but the gun was still in his hands.

Between all this fighting, the ropes of the lift must have been a bit damaged because the lift started to sway from one side to the other.

I quickly snatched my gun and pointed it at him.

"Who sent you?" was all I could say before the man started to move his body up and down, which broke the remaining strands of rope of the lift. We were on the verge of death now.

"Does it matter?" the man replied.

I aimed my gun at him. It was hard to breathe after fighting in such a confined place, and I had still not fully recovered from the drugs I tested yesterday. My whole body trembled, and whatever he injected me with started to show its effects.

I started to lose control of my body, and my movements were not co-ordinated.

"Ha..ha...ha," the man started to laugh at my condition.

It took me a few seconds to compose myself, and I slashed my thigh to take help from pain to regain my consciousness.

The man's expression changed as he finally understood the kind of maniac he was fighting against.

The blood started to flow, and I charged at him with my weapon only for him to shatter my entire world with just one sentence. I fell on the floor, and I felt as if someone was choking me.

The entire fight was nothing compared to the shock that the one sentence gave me. The lift had given up by now, and we started falling. His words started ringing in my head. Is it true?

The man leaned towards me and said, "Binbin is alive."

Author's Note : Hello everyone ❤️

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for showing so much love and support to my story. Thankyou for 1k reads. 🤗 I hope we get to celebrate more such achivements in the future. 💘

Secondly, I'm sorry for the delay in Chapter 13. It won't happen again in the future. I will update regularly like I used to. 💖

Q. Do you think the man is lying or is Binbin really alive?
Q. Do you think the punishment to the security guard was justified ?
Q. What do you think about this chapter?❣️

Thankyou for reading this chapter.🩷 I hope you guys liked it. If you did, please don't forget to vote, comment, follow and share. Your vote and comment means a lot to me.

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