*Saitama, Japan*

The classroom was dead silent. All of the students were busily taking notes in their notebooks as a tall woman in business casual attire was pacing around the room and looking up to the ceiling as if she was reading little notes up in the air.

“Even though humans have barely lived on the vast majority of the planet’s life, their narcissistic nature and adaptability is what kept them alive for so long. But let me ask you this,” she asked a random girl who was shocked that her professor was so close to her.

“Given that humans have lasted for so long, how did the other animal species survive harsh changes in the environment? Jellyfish, cockroaches, and tardigrades just to name a few. What made these animals any different compared to the dinosaurs?” The tall and skinny professor approached the random student, her face only inches away from her nose.

“That everybody, is evolution. That little thing the Catholic Church keeps denying exists. Whether you’re religious or not, you have to admit that overtime an organism has to adjust to its environment in order to survive. Unlike the regenerating cockroach, humans have yet to show signs of physical evolution but the signs around us show that it is time we adapt to our environment. Global warming, air pollution, and random catastrophic disasters to name a few are killing hundreds of people every day and in order to survive this every changing world, we as humans need to adapt to our environment and survive.” The professor was very passionate with her speech that she almost forgot she was supposed to talk about the early stages of humans today.

“Professor Choi,” a random student asked. “for decades people have always adapted to its environment with the help of technology. Isn’t that the same thing as evolving with a cockroach?” Professor just looked at her student and shook her head in amusement.

“I believe you confused my words. I’m not talking about technological evolution. I’m talking about having a nuclear bomb dropped on us and being able to survive without a scratch and survive without water for months.” By now all of her students were staring at her as if she was spouting nonsense.

“The abilities of the gods. Regeneration, invincibility, intangibility, even flight. I believe with untapped potential of the 90% of the human brain we don’t use, human beings can harness abilities that were only possible in legends.” Professor Choi saw a familiar face with long blonde hair next to the exit and had to clear in order to wrap up her lecture.

“Alright class, we’ve ran out of time. Be sure to review your notes for next week’s exam.” They all eventually left the lecture hall and the woman at the doorway approached the professor who was busy packing up her things.

“Sooyoung…”

The professor looked up to see her long time friend with a frown on her face. “I know Hyo, I was going off track again, but I really think it’s possible. Science has shown that the human brain only uses 10% of its capacity and by only unlocking one more-”

“Choi Sooyoung.” The woman said sternly. Her lower lip began to tremble and her breathing was shallow.

“Hyoyeon? What’s wrong?” Sooyoung asked, feeling a little scared.

“It’s your dad, Soo…” Hyoyeon had to take a deep breath before uttering her confession.

“He’s dead.”

***

Sooyoung was rustling through some random papers on her father’s desk. Her and Hyoyeon were at her father’s old apartment and Sooyoung was trying to gather some research papers.

“Soo, can you tell me what the hell you’re doing?”

“It’s my dad Hyo." Sooyoung picked up her father's spare pair of glasses and put it in her coat pocket. "Ever since he left me and my mom for Korea, he was always so obsessed with the theory of human evolution that eventually he was spouting crazy talk.”

Hyoyeon looked at her friend quizzically while she was digging through manila envelopes. “Sounds like the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”

“Don’t remind me. Anyways, yes I do believe in his theory of human evolution to an extent. He was actually obsessed that there were people out there who had extraordinary abilities and was trying to come up with an algorithm in order to track them all.”

“An algorithm? How would a random math equation help him find special people?”

Sooyoung grabbed a few of the papers she was looking for and was now searching through the file cabinets. “Believe me, I didn’t understand either but apparently he traced some DNA from the first human ancestors in Africa and was working from there.” Hyoyeon could only stare as her friend was mindlessly looking for anything that looked recent enough to connect with her father’s studies.

“Look Soo, you’re my friend and my colleague at the university. Ever since we were in kindergarten, your father taught both of us about science and evolution.”

Sooyoung didn’t slow down her pace as she was talking to her friend. “Yeah, so?”

“Your dad was a great guy and a genius for our generation, but I think he was two clicks away from being mentally insane. The whole reason he went to the Korea was because he was chasing some fantasy characters you would find in a comic book.”

“Hyo I know what you’re saying, but in my heart I always felt that my father was speaking some truth. Just a few days ago, I spoke with him on the phone. He claimed that someone was following him and was scared they wanted something from him,” Sooyoung explained as she was checking his old computer for anything relevant.

“Soo, maybe he finally snapped and was just paranoid. The report said he was stabbed after he finished driving his taxi cab in Seoul. It could’ve just been bad luck.”

“No Hyo.” Sooyoung saved a few files on her flash drive. “My father knew something and whoever killed him thought death was the price to pay in order to get it from him.” She was organizing the stack of papers she collected and made sure everything in the room was in order.

“You’re still going to Seoul for that conference in a few days right?

Hyoyeon nodded with her eyebrow arched. “Why?”

“I’m coming with you. I need to know that my father didn’t die for nothing. I need to find out what he had and figure out who killed him!” Sooyoung said with passion in her eyes.

“Choi Sooyoung! You can’t just leave your job and your mother here alone. You have a life here!”

“Hyo,” Sooyoung placed her hand on her shoulder, “I need to do this.”

Sooyoung left the apartment, leaving Hyoyeon to stare at her colleague in disbelief.