Chapter 20: Frog Brothel Island

“Hey Gaia! Have you finished sanitising pool three?” Noah called out as he finished pouring a thirty-kilogram bag of sugar into the second pool.

Gaia shot Noah a look of annoyance before exploding with golden energy, the concrete walls charring black. “There, ya happy?”

Noah sighed at the sight of semi molten concrete below Gaia’s feet. He was relieved the concrete in this building was thick enough to withstand the burst of energy, otherwise he’d have to worry about its structural integrity being compromised. However, the old ‘frog brothel’ as Gaia had named the place was built to stand the test of time.

“Okay, okay, just hop out now and let’s start the reaction in the first two pools.” Noah said as he pulled out the barrel of ‘pure’ rejuvenating gel which could act as a catalyst to turn the entire pool into gel. After pouring a cups worth into the sugary pool, he watched as the water slowly turned from clear to a pale yellow, and then into a beautiful pearlescent gold. Though he noticed there was something off about the gel. When Noah reached down and touched it, the gel felt runny, like jelly that wasn’t left in the fridge long enough.

Noah tilted his head back in thought, wondering what had gone wrong, before his eyes noticed the bland, industrial roof looming over their heads. The warehouse had sufficient light overall, with large windows on both sides, however the roof blocked the majority of the sun’s rays.

“Hey Gaia, I think it’s the roof. There’s not enough sunlight for the gel to fully form, so we’ll need to install some windows above the pools. But we don’t have time for that.” Noah said as he combed his hand through his hair in frustration.

After the group had their fun at the beach, Noah received a barrage of calls from government officials asking when he would be able to supply the gel. In order to save face, Noah had said production is underway for the initial samples, meaning they were now in a rush to make the gel for when the transport ship came to collect in two days.

“I suppose blasting a hole in the roof is a bad idea. Well, what about we make the light ourselves? Thanks to your racial ability, we should be able to generate enough energy on our own, and faster too.” Gaia said as she wiggled her fingers through the unfinished gel.

Following Gaia’s idea, the two of them begun radiating as much light as they could, which was surprisingly difficult without setting the building on fire. After briefly stopping when Noah noticed Gaia was beginning to boil some of the gel near her, he asked her to merge with him so she could supply the energy while Noah controlled it.

This worked better as Noah had gotten more adept at controlling the energy ever since the Void enhanced his body. Though, he didn’t know how to feel about becoming less human as a result.

A warm light radiated from Noah’s body, seeping into the gel which begun to forcefully suck the energy Noah was creating. It was like an aggressive form of photosynthesis. After almost completely draining his energy stores, Noah collapsed onto his behind next to the pool, huffing and puffing like he’s just ran a marathon. Gaia re-emerged from Noah’s body, also looking exhausted, her body was even slightly translucent.

“I guess, considering the volume of gel, a lot of energy was necessary. Though I didn’t expect it to start draining me like a vampire. Next time, I’m just gonna blow a hole in the roof.” Noah grumbled as he took a swig of water from a water bottle he pulled from his inventory.

“Here here!” Gaia chuckled weakly. “But at least we’re done for now, the third pool can wait until tomorrow. Though I think we are going to have to re-evaluate our busines model. This isn’t very… scalable.”

Noah nodded in understanding. He had certainly been naive thus far. Even though he was given this island to start his gel production, there was no infrastructure here, except for the small hydroelectric plant, this warehouse, and a harbour. Initially, he had thought this was just a compromise between the US and China as neither of them wanted to give the other the upper hand in the development of any potential technology Noah could give them, so they put him smack bang in between the two superpowers spheres of influence.

This was true to an extent, but it was more of a last resort. Unless Noah announced he would cooperate with the entire global community, the nations around the world would rather suppress him, so as to not disrupt the current global power dynamics. He’d already said he would, but actions speak louder than words.

“You’re right, but we’re probably going to piss off a lot of people… at least initially.” Noah muttered.

“You mean China huh.” Gaia said as she sat up, splashing her feet in the rejuvenating gel playfully.

“Yeah, though it can’t be helped. China’s investment policies are too… restrictive, there’s too much government intervention. So, if we want to gather investment from the global community, to make sure as many people as possible have a stake in our products, I think the US is the better choice.” Noah looked over at Gaia for comment.

Gaia nodded her head. “Well, I agree in general. Though I’m sure if you asked the Chinese government, they’d be more than willing to cooperate with us, considering our unique position.”

Noah shook his head, closing his eyes to think. “Yeah, they would… but remember, my goal isn’t just to make a bunch of money, my goal is to help make the Earth a better place. If my decision to move into the US market scares China enough, there’s a chance they’d reform some of their more… backwards policies, to make their country a more attractive investment location.”

Gaia’s eyes widened. “Oh, you’re talking about human rights abuses and stuff, right? I’m sure you’re aware but, the US isn’t so squeaky clean itself.”

Noah let out a weak laugh. “Yeah, and what country is? You can name any country and a quick google search would find some big black mark on its record, many in the not too distant past. The US is just a decent starting point for now. It’s the second largest economy, it’s already open to heavy foreign investment and I think I have a good way to make most people happy. But all this will have to wait until AFTER we get this done.”

“Huh, look at you Mr politician.” Gaia smirked before Noah pushed her into the pool of gel.

“Now that you’re already in, mind salting the gel for me? Thanks.” Noah smirked at the now soaked Gaia.

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Two days passed as Noah and Gaia finished the last batch of gel. Since they ended up with some spare time, they managed to alter the roof of the facility to allow more sunlight inside. Even though it was unlikely they would be using this island for mass production once their plan was enacted, Noah felt it was a good location to grow the pure gel (unsalted gel) as it was away from civilisation. It could also be used as an experimental site for other plants and products such as the purification tree.

A loud horn interrupted Noah and Gaia as they were eating lunch. When the two of them walked over to the seaside window, they could see an oil tanker anchored off the coast.

“Speak of the devil.” Noah smiled

A medium sized boat was dropped from the side of the massive oil tanker, dragging a large dredging pipe alongside it. The tanker was commissioned by the UN to transport the gel back to New York, where it would be processed and packaged for this initial sample.

Noah had found out through his contact Gary that each country was allocated a percentage of the available gel based on their population size. Turns out China and India can get along sometimes, as both of these countries joined hands to push this clause through in the agreement. To ensure the first gel samples would be as popular as possible, Noah and Gaia had decided to fill the pools with the high-end cosmetic grade gel, which was the grade that was given to Dr Lane and Dr Fen and presented to the UN. This was also released to the public, which caused the reservations to increase even further.

When the boat reached the shore, Noah and Gaia greeted the workers and they quickly hooked up the pipe to the large drainage outlet on the side of the building. After removing the lock on the drain, the gel was gradually sucked out of the pools and through the long pipe towards the tanker.

“Hey Gaia, what’re the reservations at now?” Noah asked cautiously as the ship’s crew worked in the background.

“Umm let’s see. Hmm, only 38 million.” Gaia said as she tilted her head to the side in thought.

“Well, fuck.”

“’Well, fuck’ indeed Noah.”