Episode 15: In Search of Viktor
Hoon first came across the name Viktor Sorel because of a single paper.
It was during his time studying at Dasol. While reading papers on the relationship between the hypothalamic appetite circuit and the prefrontal cortex, one researcher’s name kept coming up: Viktor Sorel, a professor of neuroscience at Charles University in Prague.
His papers were different from the others. He didn’t stop at mere measurements. He dug deep to the very end to understand why those results emerged. And in his conclusions, he always left open-ended questions.
Those open questions overlapped with the questions Hoon had.
He found out from academic databases that Viktor had resigned from Charles University. His affiliation had changed. No, it had disappeared. At some point, there were no more papers published under his name.
It took time to find out where he was. He couldn’t contact his colleagues at the university. Any digital tracking would leave a trail. Eventually, he managed to make indirect contact through a network of Korean students in Prague.
Through one person, then another. It took a month just to find out that Viktor lived somewhere near Prague’s Old Town.
Hoon arrived in Prague at the end of May.
It was spring in Europe. The Vltava River flowed. There were red rooftops. It was an old city. It smelled of layers upon layers of history. As Hoon walked through the city, he wondered what this place meant to Viktor.
The place where he was born and raised. The place where he studied and taught. And now, the place where he was hiding.
* * *
The address was in an alley behind the Old Town.
It was an old building. Five stories high. There was no elevator. He found the apartment at the end of the third floor and knocked.
There was no answer.
He knocked again.
he heard something fall over inside. Then footsteps. The door opened.
It was Viktor Sorel.
He was in his early fifties, but looked older. His hair was disheveled. He had several days’ worth of stubble. His eyes were bloodshot. He was holding a glass in his hand. It was empty. He opened the door and looked at Hoon. He was Asian. He seemed taken aback.
He said something in Czech. Hoon didn’t understand.
He spoke in English.
“Mr. Viktor Sorel, right?”
Viktor looked at Hoon. For a long time.
“Who are you?”
It wasn’t a question. It was just a statement.
Hoon said.
"I read your paper. The one about downregulation of the prefrontal cortex."
Viktor’s expression shifted slightly. His hand, holding the glass, paused.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
“That paper was right. It’s possible.”
Silence fell.
Viktor looked at Hoon. From top to bottom. From bottom to top. It was the gaze of someone making a judgment. He was drunk, but those eyes were alive.
“Come in.”
* * *
The room was dark.
The curtains were drawn. Books were piled up. It wasn’t just piled up. They were in a heap. On the floor, on the table, on the chair. Empty liquor bottles lay among the books. There was an ashtray. It was full.
Viktor pushed the pile of books off the chair. It was an invitation to sit. Hoon sat down. Viktor sat on the sofa. As if collapsing.
“Korean?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you come all the way here?”
Hoon said.
“Because I need you.”
Viktor snorted.
"No one needs me. Not these days. I don’t even need myself."
Hoon took a moment to process what he’d heard. He realized he shouldn’t try to persuade this man of anything right now. He wasn’t in the right state of mind.
“I heard you sold your research to an AI company.”
Viktor’s expression hardened.
“Where did you hear that?”
"There was a point when your paper publications suddenly stopped. And then a research institute at a specific AI company released research along similar lines."
Viktor set down his empty glass. He looked toward the window. A little light was filtering in through the curtains.
"Can you prove it? That the research is mine."
“No.”
"Then why are you telling me this?"
"Because you know. Even if I can’t prove it, you know."
A long silence followed.
Viktor covered his face with his hands. He stayed like that for a long time. Hoon waited. He didn’t rush him.
Viktor lowered his hands and said,
"I needed money. My research funding had dried up. The university wouldn’t support my line of research. That’s when they came to me."
“‘They’?”
“An AI company. I won’t mention the name. They said I just had to steer my research in the direction they wanted. They said it wouldn’t be that different.”
“Was it different?”
Viktor smiled bitterly.
"It was completely different. My research was about how humans can reprogram themselves. They turned it on its head. It became about how to control human circuits from the outside."
The room fell silent. The faint sound of cars could be heard from the street.
Hoon spoke up.
"Do you know where that research is being used now?"
Viktor looked at Hoon.
"I don’t want to know."
“You have to know.”
“Why?”
Hoon said.
"Because you're the one who can write what's written upside down the right way."
Viktor looked at Hoon for a long time.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about."
Hoon took something out of his bag. It was a notebook. His notebook. Pages where he had tried to connect qi and neuroscience. And pages he had written after his awakening.
He placed it in front of Viktor.
"Read it. Let’s talk after you’ve finished."
Viktor looked at the notebook. He didn’t pick it up. He just looked at it.
"It’s in Korean."
Hoon thought for a moment.
“I’ll explain it to you. Do you have time?”
Viktor looked around the room. At the bottles of alcohol, the piles of books, the window with the curtains drawn.
“All I have is time these days.”
* * *
For two hours, Hoon spoke.
Viktor didn’t interrupt. He got up midway to get a drink but stopped himself. He sat back down. He just listened. At first, he had his arms crossed. As time went on, his arms relaxed. His body leaned forward.
Viktor interrupted for the first time when Hoon was explaining the mechanism of awakening.
"Wait a minute."
Hoon stopped.
“You mean permanently strengthening the downregulation of the prefrontal cortex?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s within 72 hours?”
"It seems 72 hours is the tipping point. I don’t know the exact reason, though."
Viktor paused to think. His eyes changed. It seemed as if the intoxication was wearing off. Or perhaps it was receding into the background.
"What about autophagy?"
"It seems to happen simultaneously. It looks like a recalibration is taking place at the cellular level over those 72 hours."
"Do you have any proof?"
"I am the proof. And two others."
Viktor looked at Hoon.
"Did you do it yourself?"
"Yes."
"How long has it been?"
"It’s been five months."
Viktor looked Hoon up and down. It was a genuine gaze. The gaze of a neuroscientist.
"You haven’t eaten anything for five months?"
"No solid food. Just water and the occasional juice."
Viktor stood up. He walked past the pile of books and opened the window curtains. Afternoon light flooded into the room. Viktor looked at Hoon as the light fell on him.
"Prove it."
Hoon said.
“How?”
"If you’re in that condition, I can have you examined. A blood test. An EEG. We don’t have the equipment here, but I know a place. My former colleagues. If I ask them, we can have you examined in secret."
Hoon looked at Viktor.
"Will you do it?"
Viktor thought for a moment.
"If what you’re saying is true."
“If I’m right?”
Viktor looked around the room once more. Bottles of alcohol, piles of books, an ashtray. Then he looked at Hoon.
"If you’re right—there might be a way to correct my research, which has been written backwards."
Hoon nodded.
Viktor said.
"Let’s go early tomorrow morning. The lab isn’t far."
He picked up an empty glass from the table and set it down again.
He said as he put it down.
"I guess I shouldn’t drink this today."
Hoon said nothing.
Viktor looked at Hoon properly for the first time.
“What’s your name?”
“Hoon.”
"Hoon."
Viktor repeated the name once more, as if memorizing it.
“If it’s proven, I’ll do it too.”
"For 72 hours?"
"Yes."
Hoon looked at Viktor. He was a man steeped in alcohol. He didn’t look well. Seventy-two hours wouldn’t be easy.
But this man had something stronger than that.
The desire to reclaim what he had sold.
If that was stronger than 72 hours, he could make it through.
"See you tomorrow."
Hoon said as he stood up. Viktor nodded.
Hoon left the room. The hallway was dark. As he descended the stairs, he caught the scent of the old building.
The Prague evening was settling over the streets.
Hoon thought as he walked.
Viktor had asked for proof. That was good. People who ask for proof become the most steadfast when they see it. Those who come with doubt and verify things for themselves stay longer than those who come with faith.
He looked forward to tomorrow.
Author's Note:
New episode drops daily at 7 AM (Philippine Time, UTC+8) until Part 1 concludes (Ep. 55) on July 25th.
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