Confessions of a researchaholic

This is a story-let inspired by real-life events.

He likes to work out at the start of every day, without which he would could not ignite the engine of this body and mind and feels awful throughout the day.

Later last year, he started to notice some soreness at his lower back when he was dead-lifting.
He thought that was caused by misaligned posture, or maybe he is just getting old.

One night, while tossing and turning in bed, he accidentally felt a small lump at his lower back.
He went to see a doctor, who told him that it was a benign nerve tumor and he could either live with it or have it removed.

Later that night, he dreamed about the back lump trying to tell him that it was not an ordinary nerve tumor but an extension of his brain, which was formed after he ate some san-nakji (live octopus) during a recent trip to an Asian country known for that cuisine.
Specifically, since octopus was eaten a live, parts of the genes encoding distributed brains was spliced into his DNA along with his recent mRNA covid vaccination, which he injected per requirement just prior for the trip.

After some pondering, he opted to remove that lump, brain or not.
To the chagrin of the surgeon, he asked to take the lump home after the surgery, and ate for dinner, but cooked in a tako-yaki style, not raw like san-nakji.

As to whether the nerve tumor is really a brain, he does not know yet, but will see if he will become more or less creative and productive, especially for his lower body movement.
For now, at least he no longer feels the squeeze of the lump.

Reading at night I
heard animal chewing sound
from crawl space below