Somewhere inside the facility on Ibis island:

*Cling*

Both glasses touched, slightly stirring the wine inside them and causing the one in Jieqiong’s hand to drop a little before she took a sip, staining the expensive looking tablecloth a blood red color. Yebin didn’t even notice, as she was too busy gulping down the contents of her glass animatedly.

“Ahhhh…”- She sighed, pleased – “Couldn’t have chosen a better moment to open this bottle, am I right?”

Jieqiong nodded, taking another sip before leaving her cup on the table.

“I assume you’ll be staying with me for the rest of the night?”- Yebin looked ecstatic - “We need to celebrate! We are going to be rich!”

“Well…  not exactly”- Jieqiong had her doubts about it, everyone knew how thrifty the government was with this kind of investigations, more so if they were secret ones.

“Aw, come on girl!”- But Yebin didn’t seem to be plagued by those kind of thoughts, it had been a while since Jieqiong saw her friend in such a happy mood - “Believe me, I spent the entire night checking the whole mechanism, this time it’ll work for sure… Just imagine it, infinite energy at our disposal…”

But it wasn’t that strange, after all, they were just a few minutes of approaching the discovery of the century.

The third energy.

With the alarming rate in which fossil fuels were draining, it wasn’t a surprise that governments from all around the world started searching for alternate ways of producing safe energy. Of course, most of them just turned their eyes towards nuclear power – the so called, “second energy” – but they were ultimately unable to push its limits, nuclear fission was hazardous after all, resulting in hundreds of accidents.

But some other countries saw the potential failures of associating with nuclear power and started looking for other alternatives. That’s where the third energy comes from. Both the US and south Korea had been working in secret for the last thirteen years, working to create the perfect energy source.

That’s where Yebin and Jieqiong come in.

“If you say so…”- Jieqiong chuckled, finally a little bit more infected by her partner delight - “Pour me some more”

“That’s my girl!”- Yebin stopped daydreaming once she heard Jieqiong, she swiftly swiped the old wine bottle from the table before filling Jieqiong’s cup to the brim. - “Now let’s get this thing into work”

She stood up, leaving the bottle on the floor rather than on the little table before walking towards the digital panel on a nearby wall, just one of the many perks of having your own office.

They were relatively new to the project, having been there for only three years. It was no surprise that Yebin was called right after she graduated to be part of it, she was considered a prodigy after all.

The south Korean government offered her everything she could have wanted in exchange for her help… and her silence. But there was a catch, Yebin would not accept if they didn’t allow Jieqiong to come with her.

It wasn’t like Jieqiong was not a smart woman, she very much was, but she wasn’t anywhere near Yebin’s level. Still, the south Korean representative didn’t even flinch at Yebin’s request, accepting almost immediately, which showed how desperate they were to have Yebin working for them.

Or so Yebin had told her and, to be frank, she was prone to bragging a lot, so Jieqiong didn’t exactly trust her words. She was her best friend nonetheless, and she wouldn’t change that bratty snob for anything in the world.

It didn’t take much for Yebin to adapt to the new environment, yet the same could not be said for Jieqiong, who struggled the first year with getting her still raw, theoretical knowledge polished to a level where she could at least maintain a solid conversation with the rest of her colleagues.

“Lead researcher Yebin speaking…”- After a few touches, the screen lit up, sporting a bright light-blue color, as the word “Connecting” flashed intermittently. A young looking woman, which Jieqiong recognized as Yebin’s assistant, appeared on the screen - “Is the reactor ready to be activated, Sungyeon?”

“Yes it is, lead researcher”- The girl chirped with a smile on her face - “Should we proceed with the level 2 activation?”

“Raise it to level 3”- Jieqiong choked as she was sipping wine, thus staining the expensive tablecloth once again.

“Level 3? Isn’t that too much energy for the energy-stabilizer to handle Ms. Yebin?”- Sungyeon tilted her head, clearly not fully aware of what “level 3” actually implied.

“Don’t worry about the stabilizer, I’ve already made the required modifications, just go on with what I ordered”- Yebin said, giving no room for back talk.

“As you wish, we’ll raise the energy production”- Sungyeon’s face disappeared as the call came to an end.

“What? Level 3? Won’t that overload the entire thing?”- Jieqiong got up, walking towards Yebin before seizing her by the shoulders - “Yebin, this is serious, are you sure this will work? We don’t know what could happen if it fails, maybe we’ll blow up along with the generator…!”

“Relax Jieqiong, you know me, I’m the best scientist South Korea has to offer”- It wasn’t a lie, but still, Jieqiong wasn’t about to let Yebin commit madness - “I can’t fail, I won’t fail”

Jieqiong wasn’t sure if, even with Yebin’s intellect, it was a good move to push the stabilizer. As much as they worked, the third energy generator was still unfinished, the only test they had carried out were those with a limited amount of energy. Yes, it had worked, but at those meaningless levels of energy nothing of value could be attained.

The heart of the third energy, the very core of its mechanism, was to extract the energy from the ions in the atmosphere, controlling the ion