The laboratory smelled of scorched metal and sterile death.
Kang Minjae sat slumped in his wheelchair, body frail, skin pale as parchment, and wires trailing from his temples like puppet strings. Machines beeped softly in the background—his heart, his brain activity, the failing shell of a man who once terrified the underground science world.
Dozens of failed vessels lay preserved in thick glass tubes around him. Perfect bodies. Flawless skin. Ideal muscles. Dead. Every one of them.
"One hundred twenty-seven failures," Minjae whispered, his voice rasping. "But the final equation… is complete."
He turned his gaze to the last chamber. A boy—sixteen, tall, lean, with symmetrical features sculpted like marble. Not born. Built.
Seo Raon.
He wasn't just perfect—he was Minjae himself, transferred into new flesh, reconstructed through mind-mapping, nanotech, and a century's worth of forbidden bioengineering. His last invention. His first success.
Minjae coughed blood into his hand. His vision blurred.
"Activate transfer protocol," he murmured. "Codeword: Raon."
The lab's AI, emotionless and obedient, responded.
"Initiating consciousness migration. Transfer will commence in 3... 2... 1..."
Pain struck his brain like lightning.
Minjae screamed—but no sound escaped. His soul was being pulled from his dying brain, unzipped like a hard drive. Everything he was: memories, intelligence, cruelty, dreams, and rage—poured into the vessel.
Then…
Silence.
Light.
And breath.
He opened his eyes.
No longer as Kang Minjae.
But as Seo Raon.
He flexed his fingers. The skin was warm. Smooth. Every nerve responded with mechanical precision. He stood, naked but divine, and gazed into the mirror.
No blemishes. No wrinkles. No human weakness.
"…Beautiful," he said, his voice calm, chilling.
Behind him, the real Minjae's body spasmed and died.
The past was gone. The monster was reborn.
And no one would ever know.
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