Biohuman

Chapter 166 The Numbers Deal

"You're really gonna try to strike a deal even when you know you're in no spot to do so?" Dr. Valentin asked. He kept his hand out and studied Lee Seng's eyes. The ruby and sapphire irises stared back at him. Lee Seng sighed and pulled out of the uncomfortable spot and started to slowly move across the office. "You're already getting what you want by being here. Don't antagonize me and the others because you're not getting your way. Just take the deal the Numbers have made for you and everything will go as smoothly as possible."

"If I do that, we'll all get attention, no?" Lee Seng glanced at some books on a shelf and moved his finger across it, checking for dust. Lee Seng turned around and crossed his arms together. "The last incident happened and I never heard anything strange about it on the tabloids. What did you even do for those people? Compensate with them a lot of creds and tell them they died to some unknown monster?" Lee Seng licked his lips and started to pace, again.

"You had the luxury of all of them being dead. You don't have the luxury in this one. Someone will talk even though you compensate them. Someone will give in and leak what happens. Then what? I'm already the Creator's failed son in the eyes of most, honestly all, of Capitol City." Lee Seng stopped next to the raised metal bed and looked at Dr. Valentin. The doctor narrowed his eyes and was contemplating the 'what if's'. He sighed and turned around. HIs perplexed look fading and quickly replaced with a stern look.

'That look isn't the look you want to see from the nice guy.' Keng commented. Lee Seng could feel his eyeballs rolling inside of his head at the comment.

"Did you hear all of that?" Dr. Valentin spoke. His eyes seemed to look to the corner of his eyes and then move back to Lee Seng. Lee Seng's ears twitched and he immediately sighed.

"It doesn't matter what you think will happen. We need to do what we have to do." Dr. Valentin spoke. He pulled his phone out and showed it to Lee Seng.

'Fuck, he was on the phone with all of them…' Lee Seng turned away from the doctor, letting out a sigh. Dr. Valentin tapped his phone and the phone grew loud.

"He doesn't need to worry about what will happen. Measures are in place in case anyone leaks the Protocol. That's our top concern." Nicole's voice spoke over the phone.

"We need to make sure the Protocol doesn't leak out to the world. They'll question if the serum will do the same thing to them." Scarlet added.

"I agree. They'll think the serum released to the whole world will create monsters." Dr. Valentin's eyes watched the uptight Lee Seng's face stay stern while his shoulders raised. "By the way, he found out, so you're all speaking to him too now." Lee Seng slightly turned and cleared his throat.

"We are doing this to protect you, Lee Seng." Scarlet spoke. "We wouldn't have gone through tight measures if we didn't care."

"Care?" Lee Seng scoffed. "All you care about is making sure the Protocol stays safe." He moved towards the door and grabbed the handle.

"Where are you going? We're not done here." Dr. Valentin's asked, loudly. Lee Seng kept his eyes on the door. His frustration was starting to ooze out of him and he didn't need to prove the Numbers right, again.

"You already made the decision without me being here, anyways. Do whatever you want. None of you care about my image anyways. Save me by saving your asses." Lee Seng pulled the door open.

"It isn't like that. We need to –" Alex's voice spoke out of the phone as Lee Seng stormed out of the room. His heart ached. He could feel his frustration coming out and the sadness that followed suit.

'Dammit,' Lee Seng wiped his eyes. 'Save your face by saving the Protocol's secret first.' He could hear Dr. Valentin behind him. Lee Seng picked up the pace and started his way back to the telepad.

"Lee Seng! Trust me it isn't what you think it is!" Dr. Valentin shouted. Lee Seng moved past the front desk and towards the entrance to the telepad. He opened the door and loudly closed the door behind him. He was huffing as his cheeks twitched. Lee Seng took a deep, shaky breath in and held it for a couple of seconds before he let it out. He continued to do this until he got control over himself.

'Calm down.' Lee Seng kept telling himself. 'It'll be okay.' He thought about standing there for a while, but decided against it. He moved onto the telepad and pulled his phone out and began to input his destination back to the Third Year building. He scrolled and noticed there were a couple of telepad options.

'I need my backpack and clothes.' Lee Seng reminded himself. He tapped the option near the gymnasiums and readied himself. He hit go and in an instant was enveloped in light that quickly died. Lee Seng found himself in a similar huge room and stepped off the telepad. He pulled his map off and noticed he was near the middle of the gym section. Lee Seng wandered around for a while until he found himself in a familiar space and followed it to his Glass class area. He glanced at the time and noticed only thirty minutes had gone by.

9:31pm

Lee Seng passed the other gyms and noticed some of them were still in use. He stopped in front of the gym he was in for class. It wasn't in use according to the tablet that listed if it was reserved and used by whom.

'I could train more since I don't have homework due… Plus, I know there's telepads so if I get locked out, I can just teleport.' Lee Seng thought. He shrugged and moved over to the gym. The doors easily opened and the gym lit up. It looked like all the other gyms and there wasn't a trace of the bot anywhere. The familiar noise of the AI whirring to life alerted Lee Seng.

"Hello, please state your identity to begin private gym use." The AI spoke.

"Lee Seng Chang." He answered as he moved further into the gym. The room pulsed to the AI's wavelengths and a small ding noise followed by a green pulse occurred.

"Welcome Lee Seng Chang. What would you like to do today?" The AI asked.

"Track course."

"Track course… I will begin adjusting the gym to your specifications. One moment please." The room began to shift and change on the outer perimeter of the area into a track and field space.

"Finished. Anything else I can help with?" The AI asked.

"Is there a way for me to connect my music onto the speakers?" Lee Seng asked.

"Link to the WiFi and connect to the Gymnasium room and you'll be able to access the speakers there."

Lee Seng moved over to the familiar track and followed the AI's instructions. He successfully connected to it with the chime of the AI telling him and shuffled his playlist. He began his jog quickly moving into a "comfortable" run. Lee Seng began to recall the day and sort through everything in his head. He had a normal second day of school. His Glass class was the only thing that was new about today and he didn't think much about it.

When he began to recall the events of the class, he kept getting stuck on the bot. The bot's words echoed in his head.

"Voice recognition acquired…" The bot hissed. "Difficulty level increased…" The bot's armor began to glow red. Lee Seng shook his head. The fight flashed in his head and in an instant, he came to a stop. His stomach ached with each flash of the bot's hit, forcing Lee Seng onto his knees. He grunted and reality and the memory blended.

'It isn't real.' Lee Seng thought to himself. 'You're just processing what happened today.' Lee Seng pulled himself back to reality and continued to clutch his stomach. He could feel his stomach growling. He adjusted himself to sit and looked up at the scoreboard. The scoreboard had counted twelve laps around the gym. His stomach growled again and he nodded and forced himself to stand.

"Shut down." Lee Seng spoke. He checked his pockets and noticed it was still on him and moved out of the gym. He forced himself into the locker room and moved over to unlock his locker. He pulled his things out and closed the locker and moved out of the building. Lee Seng glanced at his phone and wondered if there were any stores nearby. He pulled the map app out and noticed there was a convenience store off the main street. Lee Seng exited through the front entrance of the Academy, passing the closed cafeteria and moved out of the doors. He wandered down the sidewalk and turned left. He passed by students still wandering about and stopped at a four-way crosswalk light.

He waited for the crosswalk light to turn green and then continued down the main street until he reached a convenience store. He walked up to the glass store and saw there were some people in the store. He opened the door and listened to the familiar chime ring as he stepped into a warm store. Lee Seng wandered over to the hot food area.

'Breakfast, lunch and dinner options here.' Lee Seng nodded. He picked up two sausage, egg croissant sandwiches from the breakfast area and then two sausage in hotdog buns, neatly wrapped up. He grabbed two servings of cheesy potatoes and moved over to grab a fruit punch drink. Lee Seng waddled up to the line and waited for the last person to pay.

"Hello, find everything alr–" The cashier stopped and stared at Lee Seng's tail as it casually hovered behind him. Lee Seng dumped his stuff onto the counter and looked at the girl. She was staring.

"Mmm, can you ring this up, please?" Lee Seng asked. The cashier snapped out of it and nodded.

"Oh, yeah, yeah." She began to scan everything and put it into a plastic bag. "That's gonna be 1450 credits." Lee Seng pulled his phone out and tapped the card option and lifted it over to the cashier. She scanned it and then nodded. "Want your re-receipt?"

"Nah, thanks." Lee Seng slipped his phone into his pocket as the cashier moved the bag over to him.