It was to be a dangerous experiment, and a one of a kind mission. The kind the future development of mankind hinged upon.
And just like any other mission that involved exploring an unknown territory, a human sacrifice was needed. Which was me.
Freshly graduated from a Korean military school, I had high ambitions for the contributions I'd make for my country. But in none of my dreams did I expect that the opportunity I'd be presented with, would be even higher than those ambitions.
Two major laboratories unknown to the world yet funded by multiple powerful nations were heading this experiment.
Inter-Dimensional Research Organization and The Cellular Alteration Laboratory of Bioengineering.
The former, IDRO, up until a few years ago mainly dealt with discovering other dimensions and with theories on how traveling there could be possible, atleast that's what I heard from the doctor who was giving me a thorough physical checkup in this underground laboratory on one of the Andaman Islands.
They were letting me know info that I guess would be necessary for any military official who was to undertake what most might consider an insane mission.
And I was just a newbie with the most chances of survival of those my age, also making me the most reliable official that's also expendable.
"Alright, kid, any other questions?" She asked me as she led me through a hallway and into a room full of researchers, test tubes, monitors and weirdly enough... glowing minerals of some kind.
"Yeah," I pointed at myself, "just how exactly are you guys planning on getting an entire human to a different dimension?"
"Hah! I didn't tell you that, did I? Well, that would be too difficult to explain it to you without taking an entire day. But in short, we discovered some minerals underwater right at the center of the Bermuda triangle—"
"How did you—"
"That's not for you to know. Well, these minerals have some interesting properties, apart from pulling down any and all objects above it, when its underwater. You know the funny thing though? There's not a single wreckage of anything the Bermuda triangle pulled in. And tell me what that implies, kid?"
"The minerals are absorbing it?"
"Try again."
" They are sending those objects to a completely different place?" I couldn't keep the awe off my face as I said it.
"Exactly, knucklehead, " she pulled me along and sat me down on what seemed like a gigantic chair with tubes, surgical equipment held by mechanical arms, wires that they were waiting to be inserted into something with their sharp pointy pins, and much that I couldn't make sense of.
"Now, with all the answers you're allowed to know given to you, let's commence this. Assistant Gerard? Start up the device," and just as she was inserting a needle to the side of the neck, she continued, " and relax kid, you're an army boy, this won't hurt".
But it did. It was pain beyond any torturous training I'd gone through during my compulsory army service and during my military school. I heard sounds of popping inside my head and a burning sensation traveling through my veins.
"Wake up kid, it's not over yet."
My eyes opened drowsily to the sound of that voice.
"It's a good thing you fell unconscious before the most painful procedures. Or we would have had to administer some strong anesthesia to you."
"Is it over yet?" I barely managed to stand straight as she unbuckled me from that cursed chair. I probably would never be able to shake off a fear of needles from now on.
"Did you even hear me?" She passed me a canned bottle of juice, " we just finished surgically altering your body a bit. Took 3 days, but it's a good thing you were unconscious after the first two hours and numb due to the injection I gave you at the start."
"So what did you alter?" I felt my head becoming clearer, whatever was in this juice was some really good stuff.
"Some major portions of your nervous system, slight modifications to your brain, and a few other things," she said as if this was a small talk we were making over cups of coffee on a pleasant Sunday morning in a cafe, and not a government issued top-tier secret mission being carried out in an underground lab.
"We call it the "Kaiju System", and that's what you can call it when you need to talk to it?"
"Wait, talk to it?"
"I'm not finished," she pulled me along and lead me to another room, this one requiring a passcode, her retinal scan, fingerprint scan and ID card to open.
Sheesh, this was pretty highly guarded.
"You'll understand when you finally interact with it for the first time. For now it will take a few hours for it to activate. And here we are!"
We stood face to face infront of a giant circular portal that was powered by the very same minerals I had seen earlier.
"There's a moderate chance you could die right after walking through it, since none of the technology we sent through it survived. So just in case this was your last moment of life, any last wishes?"
There was concern in her eyes. And that surprised me. I didn't think anyone could become a researcher of such high calibre unless they were cold hearted. Plus, she was cute.
"How about you agree to go on a date if I survive through this?"
This caught her by surprise. "Well I wasn't expecting that. Alright, yes. But you do remember that even if you do survive that your mission entails you spending atleast a decade in that dimension?"
"I do. It's an insane mission. But you aren't old enough to die on me in a decade. Probably 35?"
"Thirty two, kid. Go on, " she patted me on the back, "I wish you make it back in one piece."
"See ya, Doctor Jisoo."
"See you too, Officer Taeyang."
And I stepped through the portal.