Chapter 8: Chapter 008: School Life
Two weeks later, at Midtown High School, Nikolai walked calmly through the school hallways.
He had already reported to the main office and decided to come to the school personally, due to the excruciating boredom of the last few days.
The operations at the base are going smoothly, it shouldn't be a problem to have everything ready in two or three more weeks.
Students passed by him laughing with their friends and classmates, each occupied with their own affairs, Nikolai breathed in this peaceful atmosphere once again.
"I wouldn't mind living peacefully like this, unfortunately, this is a dangerous world where I could die from the sneeze of any dimensional being."
'From the news, I can see that this universe seems like a parallel universe separated from the sacred timeline, mutants, Oscorp, Stark Industries, and even the Fantastic Four exist in this universe.'
All these are both opportunities and challenges, one wrong step and he will end up in a coffin, or worse, in a laboratory as the main producer of guinea pigs.
Thinking about this, Nikolai added several layers of paranoia to his mind, at some point, he began chanting a mantra.
"Discretion.. prudence.. low profile.. absolute secrecy.."
While murmuring the paranoid-man mantra, he arrived at his science class, Professor Brown is a middle-aged man with gray hair and wrinkles on his face.
But this does not prevent him from being as energetic as a child on a sugar overdose.
"Good morning, class!" exclaimed Professor Brown, his eyes shining with excitement.
"Today we have a very special experiment, we are going to synthesize aspirin in the laboratory, aspirin is a medicine that has saved countless lives and has a fascinating history." He explained with a blush covering his face.
Nikolai took a seat, next to him was a girl he immediately recognized as Gwen Stacy, who has been Spider-Gwen in various comics and universes.
Professor Brown continued his explanation.
"Aspirin, or acetylsalicylic acid, is an analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic, it was first synthesized by the German chemist Felix Hoffmann in 1897, working for Bayer company, can someone tell me why it is so important?"
Gwen raised her hand. "Because it is one of the most widely used drugs in the world, and it also has anticoagulant properties that help prevent heart attacks and strokes."
"Exactly, Gwen!" said Professor Brown with a smile.
"Today we will see firsthand how aspirin is synthesized, you will work in pairs, here are the materials you will need: salicylic acid, acetic anhydride, sulfuric acid, and distilled water, don't forget your gloves and safety glasses."
Professor Brown had written the instructions on the smartboard and also projected a diagram of the aspirin synthesis process on the classroom screen.
They began to work in silence, following the instructions step by step.
Nikolai and Gwen put on their gloves and safety glasses, as they prepared the materials, Gwen decided to break the ice.
"Hi, I'm Gwen Stacy, I don't think we've introduced ourselves before." she said, offering a shy smile.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Nikolai Petrov, you can call me Nick." He responded with a smile.
"Do you like chemistry?" asked Gwen while weighing the salicylic acid.
"Yes, I find it interesting," Nikolai replied, carefully measuring the salicylic acid. "It has many practical uses."
"That's great, it's always good to have someone who shares the interest." said Gwen, adding the acetic anhydride to the mixture.
'Maybe he can be my friend..' Gwen thought in her heart.
They both began working in silence, with Nikolai measuring the salicylic acid and Gwen adding the acetic anhydride.
Both were very meticulous in their movements, focused on not making mistakes.
"Now we add a few drops of sulfuric acid to catalyze the reaction." said Nikolai, carefully pouring the corrosive liquid with a pipette.
"You have everything under control, huh?" commented Gwen, watching the mixture bubble slightly, Nikolai just shrugged with an innocent smile.
Professor Brown approached their table. "Excellent work, guys, this is science in action, remember, chemistry is fundamental in medicine and many other fields, never stop exploring and learning."
Finally, they filtered the crystals and washed them with distilled water. "We need to dry the crystals to get pure aspirin." said Gwen.
"Hm, then we can check its purity." added Nikolai, enjoying the process.
As they finished the experiment, Gwen looked at Nikolai with curiosity.
"Nick, I heard you didn't come to school because of an illness, are you okay?" Gwen asked, from the rumors she heard, Nikolai had suffered a strange and sudden terminal illness.
Nikolai smiled and responded noncommittally. "Hm, that's right, I just needed time to rest, what's up, are you worried about me?" Nikolai asked with a mischievous smile.
"Uh! What? What are you talking about.. it's just curiosity.." Gwen said in a low voice like a mosquito.
"Hahaha, just kidding, look, it's ready, it's time for the next step!" Nikolai said and, at the right moment, Professor Brown arrived.
"Now, guys, let's move on to the next step, we are going to heat the mixture in a water bath at 70-80 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes, this will facilitate the reaction."
After heating the mixture, they removed it and let it cool, then, they added cold water to precipitate the aspirin.
"Now we are going to filter the mixture to separate the crystals," said Gwen, preparing the Buchner funnel and filter paper.
They filtered the mixture and washed the crystals with cold water.
"Everything seems to be going well," commented Nikolai while observing the aspirin crystals.
"The next step is recrystallization to purify the product," explained Gwen, dissolving the crystals in hot ethanol.
Finally, after letting the solution cool and allowing the aspirin to recrystallize, they filtered the crystals again and let them dry.
"And so, guys, we have synthesized aspirin, with one or two accidental explosions, but.. excellent work everyone." announced Professor Brown proudly, just in time for the bell to ring.
Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong!
"Sigh.. I thought I would die." Complained one of the boys who had some complications.
"Haha, John, you looked like a Parkinson's patient, hahaha!" The students laughed as they quickly left the classroom.
Nikolai and Gwen also left, the next class was literature, which ended as soon as it began, after that they went to the cafeteria for a simple lunch.
Unfortunately, they didn't share any classes in the afternoon, Nikolai enjoyed the peaceful environment until it was time to go home.
He rode his electric bike and arrived at the factory in an hour, upon arrival, he was greeted by Kai, who seemed exhausted after a few days of hard work.
"Boss, the development of blockchain technology is going well, we have implemented security measures and the main nodes are operational," reported Kai.
"The development of the computer virus was completed today."
"Good job, come on, we have to finish this in a maximum of two weeks!" Nikolai said and passed through the plastic curtain.
The clones' work area is now filled with several servers with powerful GPUs, all orchestrated by Nikolai, in the future he will try to acquire a quantum computer, but for now, this is enough.
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