Chapter 18

Max returns to U-GIN the next day, and the receptionist leads him to Helen, who was completely involved in her work.

She hears Max walk in and says, "Wear the lab coat and get a notebook to take down notes. Stay alert; I am not going to repeat anything again."

Max does as he is told and follows behind her as she explains to him the basics of cell cloning, DNA reading, and human anatomy. These weren't topics anyone could learn or teach in a day or a week, but Helen tried to simplify them as much as possible, and Max was able to absorb all the information with his enhanced thinking.

At the end of the day, he had gained a lot of new information from Helen. It was late at night, and both Helen and Max were completely tired.

Max was mentally tired from his continuous use of his enhanced thinking, while Helen was going around working while also explaining things to Max. She was both physically and mentally tired.

Helen and Max walk out of the small lab, and since the lab was small and overcrowded with various equipment, there was no proper sunlight or ventilation. 

When they came out of the lab, they felt like they were in the countryside after living in a city for years, breathing the fresh air.

Helen says, "Well then, Max, I will see you tomorrow."

She starts walking but stops when Max calls out to her and says, "Helen. I think we should get something to eat. You look so weak that even a gentle push from a kid could make you fall."

Helen says, "Max, just say that you want dinner and don't have money."

Max says, "If that were the case, I would've shamelessly asked you for money for food."

Max wasn't ashamed of eating with her money since she was going to get $7 million from him, and she also didn't care much since they were going to work together from now on.

Helen says, "Fine. There is a Yangnyeom fried chicken spot nearby that stays open till late."

Max says with excitement, "Oohh. I always wanted to try the authentic, famous Korean fried chicken."

Helen then asks, "Are you sure? Although it won't be as spicy as the noodles you ate yesterday, it might still be spicy for foreigners. The sweetness in it doesn't help with the spice."

Max says, "Definitely. I always have a policy of trying every dish that catches my eye. I am the type of person who does stuff and regrets doing it later."

Helen says, "Alright then."

Helen then takes Max through an alley, where all the stalls were closed, but there was light from the single stall open in the distance, with a few customers nearby.

They got to the stall, and there were two women running the stall. One woman was frying the chicken, while the other was mixing the fried chicken with the sauce.

They had two flavors: the original Yangnyeom and the spicy garlic flavor. Max could tell that the Yangnyeom was more famous since the container with the Yangnyeom was three-fourths empty while the other sauce was the opposite.

Helen walks to the lady, and it looks like Helen is their frequent customer. The woman looks at Helen and then looks at Max with a surprised look.

She then turns to Helen and says something with a curious tone. Helen says something back in Korean, and her tone is dismissal. They conversed back and forth, while Max didn't understand anything.

Max stood there until Helen returned with two servings of Yangnyeom fried chicken. Max looks at the fried chicken with excitement; the bright red color did remind him of the spicy noodles he ate the previous day.

He picks up a chicken wing, which has steam coming out of it. Max takes out the bones of the flat wings, a trick he had seen online. He then eats the whole wing, and the spice hits him immediately, but it wasn't as extreme as the fiery noodles.

It was spicy for him, but it was tolerable. His nose runs and his eyes start watering, but he still doesn't stop eating. He reaches out for one more, and seeing his state, Helen gets a few tissues for him from the stall owner.

Max finishes all his fried chicken and even goes for Helen's portion, which she didn't mind since she didn't eat too much to avoid getting fat.

Helen then pays for the food and bids farewell to the stall owner. Max offered to walk Helen back home, which she politely refused, but Max insisted on doing it for feeding him.

As they walk through the streets, illuminated by the street lights, Max starts a conversation, asking, "So, what do you do in your free time?"

Helen smiles and says, "Unlike you, Max, I have a dream I want to achieve, and I don't have any free time."

Max says, "First of all, that's hurtful because you don't know anything about me. Second of all, I too have dreams I want to achieve, so I am not as jobless as you are thinking."

Helen says, "That's true. I don't know anything about the person who will soon acquire my company."

Max says, "Well, all you had to do was ask. Where do I begin?"

He then narrates the most important plot points of his life, leaving out the Carol and Skrull incident.

Helen then says, "Sorry to make you remember all that," with a tone of guilt.

Max says, "It's fine," with a smile to encourage her.

They then continue walking, with Max asking her about her life outside of the books and lab. Before long, they stopped near the building Helen lived in, which was completely run down and didn't look like a great place to live.

Max sees the building and says to Helen, "When you get the money from me, make sure you shift from here."

Helen says, "You didn't have to say that, Max. I am dying to vacate this place and find a new one."

Max then says, "Good night, Helen," and flies off. 

Helen looks at Max's figure flying off and says, "I also want to fly."

Max visits Helen every day for the whole week, and with each passing day, he gains more information, and Helen is shocked to see the rate at which he is processing and understanding information.

She taught him about cell structure, DNA structure, and how to clone a cell. These are the things she is working on currently, as these were the main things for her regeneration cradle.

He also learned about the human anatomy and how the muscles should be structured, and Helen answered this too, since the regeneration cradle should generate the perfect amount of muscle cells to regenerate. If the muscle cells are less or more, it would become a problem.

Max absorbed all the knowledge and learned how to clone DNA. He also learned which part of the DNA was responsible for what feature in a human and how he could grow his muscles on his own correctly. 

He figured this out by making a clone of himself and experimenting with it. The easy part was the muscle growth. He first grew the muscles to the maximum he could and started shrinking them by decreasing the distance between the atoms. This would've been a lot easier with the Pym particles, since Max has to constantly maintain the distance by exerting the force required to counter the repelling forces between the charged particles. Max, however, dropped the idea of Pym particles since the effect they brought was temporary.

He changed the muscle structure inside the body of the clone, and he could see the visible bulking up of the body. His whole body was now like that of a supplement bodybuilder, with bulky muscles. He then used all his power to force the atoms closer to each other, shrinking his muscle cells until they were of perfect mass and density.

Max looked at the clone, which now looked a lot like Henry Cavill from the movies, even his build. With Max satisfied with the results, he tries to replicate the same with his body. He first created muscle cells, and his body bulked up abnormally. He felt it was difficult to even move his fingers. 

He then shrunk the muscle cells, and his form slowly became leaner than before until it stopped at the exact physique the clone had.

Max looked at his hand and clenched his fists. He could feel the increase in power and swing his hands, his arms blurring like those of normal humans. He also felt that the amount of electricity he could store inside himself had drastically increased, since he sensed that he was drawing more power from the cube for a longer duration.

Max then walks, takes a step forward, and booms. The floor beneath him cracked, and the whole building felt minor tremors, waking up everyone.

Max couldn't control his strength, and it was complete chaos all over again, just like when he became Electro and returned home. He then slowly lifts his leg and places it on the ground, being careful not to crack the floor again. 

In this manner, he slowly moves to the bed and slowly sits on it. He could hear the bed squeak, indicating his increase in weight.

Max says, "I first have to learn to control my strength again."

He then spends the rest of the night trying to control his strength.

The next day, he goes to Helen's office since the papers are ready. 

Helen looks at Max's improved physique and asks, "Did you take some forbidden substances to bulk up?"

Max replies, "No. Nothing. I just worked really hard, and this is the reward."

Helen says, "No amount of hard work can cause such a drastic change in physique overnight."

Max says, "I promise none of this is from any substance or supplement."

Helen let go of the matter since it wasn't her body. She did say to herself, 'He looks more handsome though.' appreciating his looks.

They both then enter the office, where Helen's attorney is waiting for them with the papers ready. They go through the papers and sign on them. Max transfers her 7 million dollars, which in Korean currency is a lot more. 

Max was excited to continue testing the knowledge he just gained from Helen, so he left and returned to the hotel. With the physical strength taken care of, he then moved on to the next thing he wanted to try out.

Max wanted to change his DNA for different powers now that he has complete control of his own body. He changed the DNA structure and combination. He was able to do a lot of combinations in very little time with his enhanced thinking and the unlimited energy provided by the cube.

The changes in the DNA he made reflected on his appearance, like his height, facial expressions, color of his pupils, and various other things. There were also some deformities that were painful to watch, since ultimately he was changing his own DNA, and it looked like he was doing all those hedous things to himself.

In the end, he found the genetic modification that happened in his case, and while assessing the DNA of Carol, he also managed to find the DNA structure and composition that resulted in her powers.

He got a strand of her hair when they were spending their time together after the fight. He could've asked for her blood, but he wanted to avoid unnecessary questions and suspicions.

He studied Carol's DNA and found the DNA structure and components that were responsible for her powers. 

For every scientist trying to recreate the powers of a person, the easiest part is to find the DNA components that result in the power, but the difficult part is to replicate the component.

Max didn't have this problem since he could control how the DNA was changed. He was done studying the DNA structure of Carol, which he studied every night after his classes with Helen. With the study of Carol's DNA finished, he was ready to replicate it. He creates a clone of himself and stands before it.

He takes a deep breath before sighing and saying, "Let's hope that it works."