September 17, 2001

  As the plane landed at Pyongyang International Airport, Gamamusa and Gamagogi walked through the streets of Pyongyang. The streets were desolate, with hardly any people around. Gamamusa rode in a Pyongyang taxi with GGamagogi heading toward Gamagogi’s university. Gamamusa was puzzled. “...Why aren’t we going home? Do you have work to do at the lab?” Gamagogi nodded, a pleased expression on his face. “...There’s something I want to show you. I think it’s time you saw it. After all, you’re the one who’ll be my successor.” Gamamusa felt a twinge of doubt and confusion at his words, but he soon forgot about it.

  The taxi stopped at a corner of the university campus. After retrieving the carry-on bag from the taxi, Gamamusa followed Gamagogi to the university’s research complex. A few researchers working there glanced at them. Some looked at Gamamusa with pity. “...Here we are. This is it.” Gamagogi pulled out a few plastic containers displayed in a corner of the lab. Inside, grass was dissolved in a foul-smelling liquid. The odor made Gamamusa slightly nauseous. Gamago took Gamamusa’s hand. “Bear with it. If you can’t handle something like this, how will you accomplish great things?”

  …

  'Moo~' Goyeun was on a farm tour with researchers from the microbiology research institute. She pinched her nose at the stench of the cows and their crowded pen. “...Ugh, this smells awful. How can it be this bad?” Her colleagues grabbed her shoulder. “Hold your breath. This kind of tedious work is necessary to collect the microbial samples we use in the lab.” Goyeun took a deep breath. She didn’t want to embarrass herself as a representative citizen of South Korea when everyone else was enduring it.

  The researchers inserted gloved hands through cannula holes in the cow's abdomens, scooping out handfuls of digestive fluid mixed with grass. They began transferring it into large plastic bags. Goyeun joined in, to help moving the material. When they finished, Goyeun and the researchers tied up the plastic bags and loaded them onto a truck. “...Well done. You did great, for a newbie! Now we’ll take these back, put them in a centrifuge, and separate the microbes.” Goyeun, feeling proud, followed the researchers onto the truck.

  “By the way… what are these microbes we collected usually used for?” Goyeun asked as she placed the material from the cow’s rumen into a glass container and loaded it into the centrifuge. The microbes began spinning at high speed. “Well… these microbes are used in a lot of research. Energy, chemicals, animal feed, and so on… they’re applied in many fields. Especially for cow feed, we sometimes include gut microbes to aid digestion.” Goyeun was intrigued. “Feed them back to the cows? That’s fascinating. What would happen if humans ate it?” The researcher took her question as a joke. “Haha… well, no one’s tried it, but if you actually ate it, you’d probably die, right?”

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  …

  “We actually tried feeding it to people,” Gamagogi said nonchalantly, pointing to the substances in the plastic containers with the face of a sociopath. “In the process, quite a few people got stomachaches. Well… luckily, we gave them emetics, so no one actually died.” Gamagogi pulled out an IV bag. Instead of saline, it contained partially digested grass, microbes, and gastric acid from a cow’s rumen. “When we realized eating it didn’t work, our researchers put the digestive solution into IV bags and connected it to veins via needles. Since it contained carbohydrates dissolved from the grass, people could survive to some extent, but they ended up suffering from bacterial infections. I tried it on myself too, and for some reason, I was fine.”

  Gamamusa stared at Gamagogi in disbelief, then glanced at the other researchers in the lab. By now, the researchers had stopped their work and were looking at them. They shook their heads, clearly fed up with these absurd experiments. Gamamusa turned back to Gamagogi, but Gamagogi continued with a calm expression. “...Recently, people in our republic have been starving to death in droves. To save our people, we need to find a way to let them oit of starvation, even if it means feeding grass.” Gamamusa began to understand as he listened. He knew his homeland was poor, but he hadn’t realized it was this dire.

  “...Sir, I hate to say this, but… isn’t there a more hygienic way?” Gamagogi looked puzzled at his words. Gamamusa placed his hand on the plastic container. “First, instead of just throwing grass into the microbes, soak it in amylase from saliva and put it in a grass grinder for eight hours. Then, put it in this plastic container to ferment for another eight hours. After that, filter out the grass residue through a sieve, add chemicals to wash it, and put it in a dryer to dry it completely. Once all the moisture is gone, grind it in a blender into a fine powder. Wouldn’t that make it like flour, so you could bake bread or use it in other foods?”

  Gamagogi listened carefully to his words, his expression shifting as if he’d had a revelation. “...Ho, so you’re saying that we should replace the digestive system with a digestive engine? I hadn’t approached it that way. I was just thinking of using IV bags to create a second stomach like a cow’s rumen… but if we follow your idea, we might create a truly useful invention.” The researchers perked up at his words. They weren’t sure if Gamamusa’s invention would succeed, but at the very least, it might put an end to Gamagogi’s insane and failed experiments. Gamamusa shrugged. “Well… I’m good at imagining things, but I’m not confident in actually making them like you, sir.” Gamagogi smiled warmly and patted Gamamusa’s head. “Heh…and humble too. Alright, if this actually gets invented, you can name it whatever you want. What would you call it?” Gamamusa thought for a moment. “Hmm… how about we call it the ‘Renya Machine’?”