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CHAPTERFIFTEEN

❝BIO-ENGINEERINGQUANTUM

PARADOXFACILITY:PARTTWO❞

Woohyun tried his best not to cry as his current predicament worsened. He eyed the ropes that dug into his wrists and ankles painfully. His skin grew red and raw as the slightest of movements rubbed against it.

The brunet wondered if the man in front of him would be willing to switch the ropes to something different. Different like wires, or perhaps leather.

Maybe wires weren’t the best replacement of natural fiber ropes.

Woohyun felt a painful pinch in his arm as the blond man in front of him injected some sort of blue substance in him.

“That shouldn’t have hurt,” the man mumbled, stuffing the needle into his lab coat pocket.

But it did hurt!

Woohyun wanted to complain about the rough treatment but only a jumble of muffled words could be heard from behind the rag that was stuffed in his mouth.

He mustered up his best glare and scowled at the man with the long, brown hair that was tied into a ponytail, standing in the corner, watching as Woohyun was about to be experimented on.

Damn you… Who was he again?

Oh yeah. Woohyun mentally nodded.

Damn you, Lee Taemin!

“Now this should hurt,” the blond smiled creepily, picking up another needle. The liquid inside the vial was an ugly shade of green. “Hopefully, this won’t kill you like the last fifty people we injected this into.”

The brunet squeezed his eyes shut, whimpering as he felt the man grip his arm.

How did Woohyun get himself into this you’re probably wondering, right?

Well, it all started with a wish.

A wish that ruined his life!

Damn that Mr. Shooting Star! Woohyun cursed, mentally waving his fist in anger.

Woohyun wondered what he did to deserve such a fate as this. If he knew what was going to happen to him after he made that wish, he would had just asked for something simple.

Simple, like being Brad Pitt’s mistress.

…Maybe mistress wasn’t the right word since, according to Woohyun’s knowledge, he was not a woman.

What’s the male equivalent to a mistress?

Woohyun shook his head as he digressed from his current situation.

The brunet tried his best to back away from the blond scientist but being tied to a metal chair that was bolted to the ground proved to be quite difficult.

You’re still wondering how Woohyun ended up in this plight, right?

Well, besides Mr. Shooting Star, there were three other people to be blamed for this dilemma.

Jang Dongwoo.

Lee Hoya.

And Kim ing Sunggyu.

If Woohyun somehow survived this, he was going to make sure Sunggyu died an awfully painful death.

The brunet could not understand how that man was the leader of INFINITE. From the moment they stepped foot into the BEQP, everything went downhill, and it was all Sunggyu’s fault!

Well…

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t completely Sunggyu’s fault. Heck, the man saved his life, again. But Woohyun needed someone to blame for his current predicament, and Sunggyu was the perfect candidate, especially after he got distracted and lost Woohyun and Taemin!

Despite the fact that he might die from whatever the scientist was about to inject into him, Woohyun couldn’t help but reminiscence about the series of unfortunate events that took place not too long ago. 

Woohyun watched as Dongwoo slowly and quietly opened the door and poked his head out. Not even a second later, he quickly pulled back into the hallway.

“Well?” Sunggyu asked, hoping that the coast was clear enough for them to figure out where they were going next.

“It’s empty. There was not a guard in sight,” Dongwoo confirmed.

“Did you see anything? Anything like an elevator or a stairwell or something?”

Dongwoo smiled, “I saw some elevators on the opposite side of the room!”

“Great. You guys ready?” He eyed his companions momentarily before gripping the door knob. They all nodded.

Sunggyu twisted the doorknob and opened the door. He briefly eyed their new surroundings before spotting the elevators across from them. A second later, they all rushed to the lift. Sunggyu pressed the down button for the elevator.

A number appeared on a screen above the doors, indicating that the lift was approaching from the twenty-fifth floor. Dongwoo and Hoya had their backs to the elevator, keeping an eye out on their surroundings.

“Exactly what are we going to do once we get to the lower levels?” Woohyun asked, watching the lift number count down.

“Find Dr. Wu Yifan without causing a ruckus and hand you over to him in exchange for information about the experiments. Then we’re going to take you back and get the hell out of here. Maybe blow up a couple of rooms in the process,” Sunggyu answered, eyeing the countdown as well.

The elevator passed the eighteenth floor.

“What does this scientist look like?”

Before Sunggyu could answer, Dongwoo suddenly shoved a newspaper clipping into Woohyun’s face. Hearing the zipping of a book bag in the background, the brunet didn’t even need to ask where the second-in-command got the paper from.

Woohyun inspected the article. It was slightly wrinkled and dated. The title of the article was, BEQP’s Newest Head Scientist.

It was published in 2856 SE. Six years before the time Woohyun was currently in.

Right below the title was picture of a young man with short blond hair that framed his face nicely, perfect unblemished skin, serious eyes, a slim nose, thick brows, and soft cheek bones.

Woohyun had to stop himself from gasping out loud. , he’s hotter than me.

“He’s a bit older looking now, but that’s what he looks like,” Sunggyu informed.

The elevator passed the tenth floor.

The article read:

“It was just announced yesterday afternoon that Wu Yifan, better known as Kris Wu, was promoted to being the head scientist of the BEQP (Bio-Engineering Quantum Paradox). The other head of the BEQP is Kim Joonmyun. Wu, age 23, is best known for further developing the Raychaudhuri’s theorem and exotic matter.”

A gentle beeping noise alerted the group that the elevator had reached their floor. The doors slid open, allowing them to walk in.

Woohyun folded the newspaper clipping and stuffed it into his pocket as they entered the lift. Hoya and Sunggyu took the front while Woohyun and Dongwoo stood in the back. The elevator was completely barren and white just like the hallway. It was big and spacious as well. Opposite of the doors was a glass wall. Woohyun could see all of South Hallow.

“I’m assuming these represent the underground levels.” Hoya was referring to the elevators buttons. They ranged from the lowest of the underground levels, B5, to the forty fifth floor. As Hoya reached to press the button, the elevators closed and began to shift.

“What’s going on?” Woohyun panicked. He felt gravity push him down slightly as the lift ascended.

“Someone must’ve pressed the button,” he heard Hoya replied. He pressed the B5 button, making it glow white.

“Be prepared for a possible fight when this stops,” Sunggyu warned.

As the elevator continued to go up, Woohyun turned around and gazed at the city before him. What he was seeing was much different than what he saw when he was outside not too long ago. This view was much more similar to that of when he first arrived in South Hallow.

Despite being on the fifth floor, when the brunet looked down, he could not see the streets that he and the others traversed earlier. The building went on and on. Cars flew past to and fro in the distance. The only ground Woohyun could see were the walkways and bridges that connected the skyscrapers to one another. They were crowded with pedestrians. The young man wasn’t sure how long since they left the INFINITE headquarters, but it appeared that the sky was gradually fading from a dark shade of sunset to dusk.

Woohyun brows furrowed as something just occurred to him. Why were their previous surroundings extremely different to what he was seeing now? Why did the car they took to the broadcasting station drive on the ground while there were cars that could fly?

“The higher we get, the more advance South Hallow will look,” Dongwoo began. Woohyun glanced at him before observing the city more. The second-in-command of INFINITE always seemed to find the right moment to explain something about South Hallow to Woohyun. “South Hallow is split up into sectors, and the higher the sector, the more advance and civilize it may appear. The higher you are in the city, the more money people have. The higher you live, the richer you are.

“Each sector looks different. There are ten sectors. Most government officials and delegates live in the tenth sector while our headquarters are situated on the second. As I’m sure you saw, the neighborhood by HQ wasn’t the best looking. The earthquake had nothing to do with how it looked.”

Woohyun frowned, remembering how devastated the area looked. Everything was in ruins. “What about that place by Leeteuk’s house? What sector was that?”

“I believe that was sector four. It’s not a bad area; Hoya isn’t that the sector you’re from?”

Hoya nodded, looking over his shoulder. “Yeah, sector four isn’t all too bad compared to that of one and two. People from the upper sectors don’t mind traveling down to the fourth. But that’s as far as they'll usually travel down the sectors.”

“Sector one through four is considered poverty-stricken,” Dongwoo continued. “Sector five to seven is middle class and sector eight, nine, and ten is upper class.”

“Where are you from?” Woohyun asked, turning to him.

“Sector five, near the outskirts.”

“What about you, Sunggyu?” He glanced at the elder, whose back was still facing them.

“Sector ten,” he mumbled a moment later.

Woohyun was surprised. He wasn’t expecting someone so psychotic and violent to be from the richest sector in town. Comparing to what he has seen in sector two and from what Dongwoo was telling him about the highest sectors, he wondered what exactly happened to Sunggyu in the past that made him turn his back on being a wealthy member of society and becoming the leader of a group that opposed it and its people.

W