American: Native Empire

Chapter 152: Penicillin.

I’m a licensed teacher now.😊 Thanks to galaxytl, translator community and readers for your support.🙏 You helped me pass my exam with confidence. As a token of gratitude, I’ll give 5 chapters each for my novels today. Enjoy😍!

---

The world situation was complicated, but Kim Ki-woo was investing most of his time in research.

He didn’t build a huge research complex in the Imperial Palace just to create one telegraph.

Of course, there were many researches going on in various universities and institutes, and Kim Ki-woo had no intention of interfering with them. 

But the research he was doing now was different.

‘I wish I didn’t have to get involved.’

The research on microorganisms had already progressed considerably. 

So Kim Ki-woo had high hopes for the scientists. 

He hoped they would develop antibiotics.

But unfortunately, they didn’t reach that point.

‘Well, in fact, it was a coincidence that penicillin was discovered in the original history.’

The discovery of penicillin, which was called the greatest discovery of the 20th century, was actually a result of a series of coincidences.

A British biologist, Alexander Fleming, happened to leave a dish containing staphylococcus outside the incubator when he went on a summer vacation. 

Just because he was too lazy to put it inside.

And by another coincidence, his laboratory downstairs was studying mold. 

And luckily, a blue mold flew up to the upper floor and landed on the dish where the staphylococcus was.

Coincidentally, that summer was cooler than usual. 

Just right for the mold to grow.

And Fleming returned from his summer vacation and saw this accidental result with his own eyes. 

The staphylococcus that had been cleanly melted by the blue mold.

‘If it wasn’t for this coincidence, antibiotics might have been developed much later.’

And unfortunately, this coincidence did not happen in the Empire so far.

‘But I can’t wait any longer.’

Even at this moment, people were dying of various diseases because there were no antibiotics. 

In other words, developing antibiotics was a matter of saving countless lives.

“Have you arrived?”

“Yes. How’s the experiment going?”

“See for yourself.”

Following the leader of this research, Bright Moonlight, Kim Ki-woo entered the laboratory.

Bright Moonlight was an authority on microbiology and had a say in vaccine production, so Kim Ki-woo appointed him as the leader.

“Ho-ho. It’s melted cleanly.”

“Yes. We conducted experiments on various bacteria and obtained similar results.”

Kim Ki-woo nodded. josei

It was knowledge he already knew.

‘Heh. You’re not surprised as usual.’

Bright Moonlight looked at Kim Ki-woo’s calm expression and inwardly admired him.

When he was selected as the leader of this research and heard an explanation from Kim Ki-woo about the research, he couldn’t hide his curiosity.

What was the point of culturing this mold and injecting it into bacteria?

But as the experiment progressed, he was shocked. 

He saw with his own eyes that various bacteria melted when he used one of the molds, blue mold.

‘How do you know such knowledge…’

He was curious about the knowledge in Kim Ki-woo’s head.

How much more amazing knowledge there would be.

“Good. But it’s not easy to culture this mold.”

“That’s right. Not only culturing it, but also purifying it is not an easy task. It’s very sensitive…”

“I see.”

This was something he had anticipated from before.

Kim Ki-woo had absorbed a lot of knowledge before boarding the time machine. 

And among them, the knowledge about penicillin was very important. 

So he knew very well about penicillin.

‘And I also know how to solve this problem.’

Penicillin mold is not all the same mold. 

There are different strains.

And each strain had different effects and abilities to produce penicillin.

“First of all, you continue to experiment with blue mold. Purify it and test it on animals as well.”

“Yes.”

***

As time passed, the research on penicillin progressed. 

Penicillin extracted from cultured blue mold was injected into animals and yielded meaningful results.

And finally, in human trials, they saved patients.

“This is a miracle!”

“Oh… To be able to kill bacteria inside the human body.”

“If this is commercialized… We might be able to save people who are dying from various diseases.”

The researchers couldn’t help but be astonished by the effect of penicillin. 

This was a different kind of innovation from vaccines.

But there was something blocking their way, which was mass production.

“No matter how hard we try, the amount of purified antibiotics is very small, right?”

As a result, they even filtered and recovered the urine of clinical patients who had been given penicillin.

But when Kim Ki-woo intervened directly, things began to change.

“Add this.”

“This is…”

“A substance extracted from corn.”

“Corn?”

“Yes.”

The bright full moon’s eyes shone with confidence. 

He was sure that Kim Kiwoo’s help would have a tremendous effect.

And he was right. 

Not long after adding the corn extract, its efficacy became evident.

“Wow!”

“Oh my goodness… I never thought we could purify so much penicillin!”

Thanks to the corn extract, the amount of purified penicillin increased by more than 10 times.

‘As expected, it’s very effective.’

Kim Kiwoo smiled contentedly after receiving the report.

Of course, he was not done yet. 

He had been working on two things simultaneously while the penicillin research was progressing.

The first one was finding a penicillin strain that could be mass-produced.

“…You mean melons?”

“Yes. Search every corner of the country and find them no matter what. Don’t throw away the rotten ones either. Bring them here.”

He instructed his inner minister to collect melons from different regions.

The imperial order was powerful. 

As soon as Kim Kiwoo gave the order to his inner minister, the Ministry of Internal Affairs became busy.

“Go and get all the melons you can find!”

“Hurry up!”

They wondered why Kim Kiwoo needed melons, and why he even wanted the rotten ones, but they did not question him.

It was enough reason that Kim Kiwoo wanted it.

The power of the imperial order was amazing.

“Haha…”

Kim Kiwoo chuckled at the sight of the melon field in front of him.

It had only been a few days since he gave the order, and they had brought so many melons.

“The rest of the melons will arrive soon.”

“I see. Stop bringing more melons when they arrive.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Good job.”

Kim Kiwoo patted the inner minister’s shoulder and turned his gaze to the bright full moon.

“What do you think I called you here for?”

“To obtain a blue mold strain from these melons, I suppose.”

“Haha. You’re right on point.”

“I guessed it when you ordered to get melons. Otherwise, there would be no need to bring all the rotten ones as well.”

“That’s correct. I think we can get a lot of penicillin from the blue mold that grows on these melons.”

“I see.”

The bright full moon’s eyes sparkled. 

He felt like he could see the success of mass production that had been plaguing him for a long time.

And soon after, a blue mold strain that was found in one of the rotten musk melons produced a huge amount of penicillin very stably.

‘Now that we have established a new fermentation method, we can distribute penicillin to the public.’

And Kim Kiwoo knew a fermentation method that could mass-produce penicillin: the deep-tank fermentation method.

“Hmm. It’s almost done.”

“Yes, it is.”

Kim Kiwoo nodded as he looked around the deep-tank fermenter that he had built in the research complex.

The principle of deep-tank fermentation method was simple. 

As its name suggested, the deep-tank fermenter was large and deep. 

It was different from the previous process that used several thin culture plates.

What made this possible was power. Using power to stir the culture liquid at the bottom of the fermenter.

If air was blown into it, blue mold could be cultured in large quantities.

A few days later. 

The deep-tank fermenter was completed and immediately tested. 

And soon after, the results were clear.

‘It’s a success.’

Kim Kiwoo smiled contentedly as he looked at the large amount of blue mold that had been cultured.

The mold looked so lovely to him.

“…You finally succeeded in mass production.”

“You know what to do next, right?”

“We have to purify these and produce antibiotics.”

“I won’t interfere anymore from now on. So take responsibility and produce antibiotics.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Leave it to me.”

Kim Kiwoo patted the bright full moon’s shoulder confidently and left his seat.

***

With a suitable strain for penicillin production found and deep-tank fermentation method established, as well as extraction technology matured, penicillin literally poured out in no time.

And when enough quantity was accumulated, Kim Kiwoo revealed the identity of penicillin.

“Antibiotics?”

“They say if you take this, your illness will be cured?”

“Wow…”

The imperial citizens were shocked by Kim Kiwoo’s editorial in The Imperial Newspaper. 

The efficacy of penicillin written in the editorial was truly amazing.

Of course, Kim Kiwoo also warned about resistance. 

Penicillin was not a cure-all, and if you kept taking it, its effect would decrease. 

So he told them to only take it when necessary.

“…So humans have conquered even diseases now.”

“Your Majesty, you have personally researched it, so it must be as effective as the newspaper says.”

The next day after the article about penicillin was published, penicillin officially entered the market. 

And as expected, the reaction was explosive.

“Give me antibiotics!”

“Me too!”

I had anticipated this and stockpiled a large amount of penicillin and sent it to various parts of the country in advance, but in major cities, it was sold out before the day was over.

People who were not sick also bought it out of curiosity and to prepare for any possible emergency situations.

And many patients who had been suffering from various diseases saw the full effect of penicillin.

“Oh, great spirit!”

“I’m alive… Thank you, thank you so much…!”

They praised Kim Ki-woo and praised him again as they felt their illness being cured. 

From their perspective, Kim Ki-woo was truly a benefactor of life, so it was a natural reaction.

“Haha. I expected it, but the profit is really astronomical.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. It’s only been a few days and it’s like this… I wonder how much profit we will make in the future.”

The finance minister’s expression was stained with anticipation.

Kim Ki-woo did not develop penicillin so quickly for money. 

That’s why he set the price of penicillin very low.

But since it sold so much, the sales of penicillin were literally astronomical.

‘The money is rotting.’

The government controlled major industries and taxes were steadily coming in, and when vaccines and antibiotics were sold, the government’s finances were unbelievable even with two eyes.

He wondered if he could spend all this money…

“It’s not good to have too much money piled up.”

“Your Majesty…”

“Let’s increase the scale of public works, such as building bridges and canals. Finance minister, you know that and prepare for it.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

It was something that had to be done anyway for the development of the empire. 

Especially on the mainland, there were too many rivers, so waterways had to be improved.

“That’s enough for now. You can go.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

After the finance minister left, Kim Ki-woo buried himself in his chair.

‘The already steep population growth rate will rise even more.’

Many lives would be saved because of antibiotics, so this was inevitable. 

Kim Ki-woo was sincerely curious about how many people would be in the empire in a few decades.