It's Monday, the start of the week. Let's enjoy it so that the rest of the week will branch out following the mood~
XG 129 - Freaking tailor-made for them
"How do you feel?"
"Can you be more specific?" Wong Xue Guo stared at Chen Yibo seated opposite her, holding onto a thin stack of paper with questions printed on it.
"Do you feel any discomfort?" Chen Yibo continues reading from the paper.
"No."
"How about your injuries?"
"Feels almost as if they did not exist in the first place."
"How is your mood?"
"Seems normal."
"Do you feel tired?"
"Nothing out of ordinary."
"Do you feel hungry?"
"Not particularly."
The scribbling suddenly stopped. Chen Yibo raised his head to look at Wong Xue Guo, clearly thinking about something not good. "Did you eat anything after waking up?"
"Is drinking water considered?"
Chen Yibo's expression looked even more severe. "Do you feel tired or drained when Woojin uses his ability on you?"
"Not exactly? Just getting an emotional burden from his own fear instead of mine. I got a little dizzy from the memories and emotions, but they quickly left after that."
"Can you clarify what you just said? You mention that you are feeling his fear instead of yours."
"Yes, I could see his memories that he feared. I saw he was bullied."
"It's different from Beom Seok's experience with Woojin's ability." Chen Yibo was informed about Woojin's ability, including his backlash. But no one had said anything about Woojin able to see their memories unless he was hiding that part of his ability. "Perhaps you could see his memories because of the backlash."
"You could be right since it's also different from my first experience of his ability at the church too."
Chen Yibo returned to the questionnaires. "Do you feel hungry or thirsty after that?"
"Not really. Food was the last thing in my mind at that time." She was busy thinking about how not to ruin her image in front of Woojin and strive to remain as cool as possible.
"Xue Guo, during your six days of unconscious state, you have not eaten any solid food, but we did insert a nutrient drip for you. However, even with it, you should have felt hungry." If Chen Yibo was not called away, he would have brought food for her when she took a shower earlier.
Wong Xue Guo's eyes widened in realization. "I don't feel tired or hungry like how those people experienced during their gene activation."
"Yes, that is a surprise." Chen Yibo quickly jotted down the information. "Or maybe you will not feel hungry or tired until your genes become fully activated. Perhaps that is another advantage of awakening the Alpha gene naturally."
Miu and Grandpa Song's experience was not informative, as both of them could not remember much of their experience back then. White hair and weight loss do not seem unbelievable after surviving a fatal accident that took a toll on their health, especially when Miu lost her parents at the same time.
"Now that you say it, my mind is telling me I need to eat. I think my stomach is starting to tell me it wants to be fed."
"I will bring you some food after we finish answering the questions. Are you alright with it?"
"I have no problem with it."
"Do you feel anything different about yourself?"
"Be specific, please?"
"Change in strength? Or your eyesight?"
"Um... nope for eyesight." Wong Xue Guo testingly lowered her glasses and looked around the room, but it was still the same blurry scene she was used to seeing every time she woke up. "As for my strength, how am I going to test it? There are some moments when I'm able to lift up a chair with one hand but need two hands on other days. And didn't your elder brother test that my bone strength got better?"
"Data could not tell much when it comes to gauging physical strength. It will be easier to understand if you demonstrate it. Xunsu will find a way to help you measure your strength. Do you have an inkling of what your ability would be?"
"Nope. I'm letting it roam free, so don't ask," Wong Xue Guo complained. She had been trying not to think too much about what cool abilities she could have wanted so that she could avoid influencing what her ability would end up being.
Chen Yibo chuckled. "Got it."
Fudge. How could she suddenly think his chuckle sounds good?!
Oh, my heart is hopeless.
Chen Yibo asked some more questions before leaving to find her some food. She absently thought that she could go find it herself, but he had already rushed away before she could even open her mouth.
Chen Yibo was the type to spoil his girlfriend.
Quickly cutting off the thought that would come after that, she decided to find Chen Yibo instead of waiting alone in this empty room that would give her imagination the opportunity to roam free. She was also curious about how the discussion between Woojin and Teacher Jang was going.
Chen Yibo had just left after passing the questionnaire sheet to his elder brother before grabbing a lunchbox. Seeing Wong Xue Guo passing by, Chen YiWen told her to just wait in the meeting room for Chen Yibo and her food, since he would definitely come here again. So she accepted his invitation after sending a message to Chen Yibo's phone and spend the waiting time examining Chen YiWen's expression while he read the questionnaire.
She watched with fascination as Chen YiWen's face turned more and more serious as he read on, before excusing himself to find his father and gather the rest of his team members to discuss her questionnaire sheet.
When the questionnaire sheet landed in the hands of Director Chen and his team, everyone was bursting with joy.
Woojin's ability was freaking tailor-made for them, okay!
No hunger, no extreme weight loss, no white hair, this was the better version of gene activating! Many had felt a great sense of loss when they had to allot a large amount of food for the testers and Woojin's ability arrived timely to heal their anguish!
When Chen Yibo came back to the meeting room with her lunchbox, everyone was discussing what to do next in their energized version. He passed her the food and sat beside her, both of them silently watching more and more people entering the meeting room, causing the discussion to grow more heated as it goes.
"Director Chen! Let's start testing using Woojin's ability!" A team member urged excitedly.
"How is the discussion with Woojin?"
Woojin was surprisingly obedient once Teacher Jang opened his mouth. Letting them stay in the protected lab in exchange for using his ability on them was not a bad bargain. Before the exchange was finalized, they had to test if his ability could help the potential 'Awaken' to achieve a hundred percent activation rate.
Most of them were on board with Wong Xue Guo to continue being the tester. However, there was a risk of what would happen when her gene activation surpassed a hundred percent. Would she react the same as being overdosed or would she be fine since it would only be activating the gene that had already existed in her body?
"Booster genes and natural genes are naturally different. Just like Madam Miu and Mr Song, they did not die after their gene completely activates naturally, other than having white hair and weight loss. It shows that in their body, the number of genes needed to possess an ability is already enough. On the other hand, the booster is to trigger the dormant gene to 'wake up', and we are injecting more than the body needs. That could possibly explain why the testers would need to eat a lot to have enough energy to deal with the extra gene in their system."
Although they had not seen anyone die from gene overdose yet, no one dared to try and choose to believe in Director Chen's words. As for Director Chen, he naturally knew of it thanks to his good friends with knowledge of the future. That version of the future had likely tested mostly everything to figure out how the Alpha gene works.
And so, after Wong Xue Guo finished her meal, she was ushered to Woojin's prison room once again. Chen Yibo suggested doing it after a night's rest, but she refused since she felt alright.
She greeted Woojin with a polite smile, as they were going to cooperate and it would not do well to continue treating him like an enemy.
Woojin also understood but his reply to her polite nod was to look away, which was already good when she had previously strangled him while provoking him with cruel words. He rubbed his cheek to hide his tugging lips that exposed his excitement. His chin could not stop quivering from the anticipation of using his advanced ability.
As Wong Xue Guo was not an Awakened person, it means that it was his ability that allowed Wong Xue Guo to take a peek into his fears visually. From her tone, today was not the first time she was exposed to his new ability, and that should be when they were in the church.
For them to peek into his fears instead of hers, it should be due to his backlash. If he controlled his fear and used his new ability correctly, he would be able to see her fear instead.