by <unknown>
"No need for that. Even if I don't trust anyone else, I can't possibly doubt Mr. Qian."
The captain quickly waved one hand.
"In that case, please send my regards to your boss."
At this point, the general manager of Blacklight Biotechnology suddenly took out a thick envelope from his pocket and handed it to the captain. "This is for you and your men behind you."
"Thank you, Mr. Qian."
The captain's eyes lit up and he accepted it unabashedly. "In that case, we'll take our leave."
"Safe travels."
After both sides bade farewell, Brad climbed back onto the truck in accordance with the captain's command. After that, they made their way back in a dazed manner.
Qian Wenhuan watched that group of people gradually departing before he turned around and waved one hand. The armored vehicles and the escorted trucks began to turn around and drove in the direction from which they came.
Soon, the convoy here had traveled back to Eco Science City. The two armored vehicles turned off in another direction while the trucks went into a huge warehouse.
After this came the standard process to enter the Spire Experimental Base.
After half an hour, all the fifty felons had been sent to the Spire Experimental Base and detained there.
"Sir Godfather, the 'Delta-level experiment subjects' purchased from the Namibian government are already in place. Shall we initiate the application for clearance that will allow the experiment subjects to participate in the Spire's various experiments?"
"Initiate."
Inside the Spire's laboratory, Chen Chen suddenly heard the voice of Little X coming from the Bluetooth headset. He nodded in agreement, then looked at the life incubator in front of him.
Unlike the usual life incubators for clones, the life incubators in this row had a size that was far beyond that of ordinary people. With a diameter of 1.5 meters and a height of 3 meters, they were twice the size of ordinary life incubators.
What was even more astounding was that, in each incubator, a large figure was suspended in a fetal position. The frame of these figures surpassed normal people by far. Not only were their bodies packed with muscle but they were also more than two meters tall.
"Boss, as you can see, this is what a fertilized egg, which was injected with T-virus, looks like after two and a half months of development."
Hannibal looked amazed. "This virus named Tyrant does have a very high metabolic rate. When a fertilized egg is injected with the virus and subjected to our hormone regulation technology, the cultivation time is greatly shortened.
"Initially, our hormone regulation technology allowed clones to grow from a fertilized egg to an adult lifeform in half a year. Now, the injection of T-virus can further speed this up by three months. The only drawback is that the newly generated clones would look like this…"
When Chen Chen heard this, he walked to one of the life incubators and peered inward through the turbid liquid, but could not see anything clearly.
"Turn on the observation light!" Before Chen Chen had to say anything, Li Lei gave the command.
Suddenly, as the light was turned on inside the once-murky liquid of the life incubator, the huge shadowy figure within was fully revealed.
Unlike the cloned humans who were dark-skinned people, the fertilized egg injected with the T-virus had developed into a monster with pale skin.
This monster had a high nose bridge, lips that were white and bloodless, and not a single hair on its smooth bare body.
In addition, there was a very obvious element, namely, the heart of this huge humanoid monster was exposed.
From Chen Chen's perspective, he could see the monster's heart furiously beating, "thump thump", before his eyes. He could even hear the sound when he got closer. He was aware that they were separated by the thickness of a layer of tempered glass. Even so, he could hear it so clearly. This showed how vigorous the heartbeat was.
"What is his blood pressure?" Chen Chen suddenly turned and asked.
"Systolic pressure 480mmHg, diastolic pressure 400mmHg."
Hannibal replied, "It's about four times that of a human being. But he has not yet grown to a mature stage, so his blood pressure should rise as his size increases."
Li Lei also added. "At present, it seems that this big guy can grow to at least three meters in height."
"Too much height isn't great."
Chen Chen frowned. "Size may be an advantage in the era of cold weapons but our goal now is to build a special forces unit. If they grow too tall, they would only become a target."
"Got it. This is the first batch of T-virus Black Knights in our experiment, so after this, we'll try to solve this problem through genetic debugging."
Li Lei said apologetically.
"It's fine. I'm just saying what I think. I'm not blaming you guys."
Chen Chen waved his hand, turned away, and walked out of the laboratory.
Presently, it seemed that the Black Knights optimized by the T-virus were still in the initial research stage, but Chen Chen was taken aback by the fact that the T-virus could accelerate the growth of biological tissues. The incubation period was shortened from half a year to three months, which meant that the cultivation period for Black Knights was further reduced by half.
In this case, sooner or later, Chen Chen would have a Black Knight army that could single-handedly crush the world…
Chapter 231: I Guess This is What They Call Second-dimension |
"Right, X."
Chen Chen suddenly halted when he walked out of the human cloning laboratory. "Is the secret laboratory I need ready yet?"
"It's ready, are you going to begin the experiment today?" Little X asked.
"That's right."
Chen Chen returned with a nod. "Besides, the company is currently going through a bottleneck period. Before the industrial park on the surface is completed, there's no suitable place for us to use the technology and knowledge brought back from Elysium. In that case, I'll use the time before the industrial park is completed to work on a way to create personalized T-virus."
Chen Chen went to the level-5 biosafety laboratory on the top floor of the Spire. After going through the proper disinfection procedures, he finally entered the laboratory.
Inside the laboratory was a set of the most advanced experimental devices by current standards as well as dozens of life incubators. There were also several Black Knights clad in positive pressure protective suits lying in wait for him.
These Black Knights would be serving Chen Chen as his assistants for now.
The reason that Chen Chen would not allow anyone to participate in the experiment, not so much as informing the Hannibal trio about it was that this was an experiment of utmost secrecy.
Chen Chen intended to modify the T-virus and produce a customized variant of the T-virus.
Chen Chen had always been eager to bring out the potential of the T-virus. Inside the movie, the protagonist Alice managed to achieve physical strength, speed, and even endurance of superhuman proportions.
The problem was that any regular person infected by the virus only became zombified. It was only Alice who had managed to perfectly fuse with the virus and bended the virus to her will.
Chen Chen doubted he would strike gold the way Alice did, therefore he was not even going to consider trying his luck. He prepared to use other genetic engineering methods to produce a variant of T-virus that was perfectly compatible with himself.
The first thing Chen Chen had to do to produce a personalized T-virus was to perform an analysis on the supercell formed from a fusion between the T-virus and his own cell. The parsed data could then be used to customize the T-virus.
The process was rather elaborate. Chen Chen only had to create his cloned zygote and inject the T-virus into it.
After the cloned zygote which shared Chen Chen's genes became infected with the T-virus, it would eventually grow into a gigantic, pale white monster like the previous Black
Knights. This monster would contain cells produced from a perfect fusion between Chen Chen's cells and the T-virus.
After that, Chen Chen only needed to thoroughly study the genetic chain of the cell to find out the key to the fusion between the two entities.
It was similar to dealing with a mathematical question that relied on a specific formula. Although Chen Chen had no knowledge of the formula involved, he could skip right to the answer page and peeked at the answer.
Using the question and the answer provided, he could then deduce the formula.
After obtaining the formula, Chen Chen could begin focusing on studying the virus and modified the T-virus into a subspecies that would be perfectly compatible with himself alone.
Since this project would require his own cloned body, he made sure no word of it got out. Apart from the Black Knights as assistants, nobody else would be allowed to partake in the experiment.
Therefore, Chen Chen had to do it himself.
He first extracted somatic cells from his body and then extracted ten somatic cell nuclei from it using a micromanipulator.
After that, Chen Chen took out ten zygotes from the incubator. He used a three-dimensional polarized optical imaging system to perforate the nucleus of the egg cell with a laser on the zona pellucida. The nucleus was removed without damaging the egg cell. The nucleus of his somatic cell was then implanted inside.
Subsequently, Chen Chen used a combination of chemistry and electric current to activate the reprogrammed egg cell to form a fertilized zygote.
Chen Chen also expertly injected caffeine and several small molecules that served to improve the efficiency of reprogramming. He placed the synthesized zygotes into a hypoxic box.
Several hours later, Chen Chen ran some tests again to ensure there were no abnormalities in the zygotes. Only then did he inject the T-virus solution into five zygotes and placed them into the prepared artificial endometrium. This would spark the growth process of the zygotes.
After connecting the artificial endometrium with a machine, it was placed into the life incubator.
"Sir Godfather, you're getting very good at this."
Little X praised with a hint of a smile, "You only took a total of 14 hours from the extraction of your somatic cells to completing the implantation of the fertilized zygote. This is three times faster than your previous run."
Chen Chen glanced at his watch upon hearing Little X's comment. Sure enough, more than ten hours went by without him noticing. It was now midnight.
"Suppose this is why they say that in research, there's no time."
Chen Chen nodded and suddenly seemed to have thought of something. He mentioned with a gentle smile, "X, it looks like your voice has changed a fair bit as well."
In Chen Chen's impression, during the early stages, X's voice carried a more childlike, even darling tone. Now X's voice was closer to that of a young girl in the early adolescent stages.
"Ah, really?"
Little X responded with mild surprise, "I never noticed."
"I think back when I extracted the artificial intelligence coding from Ready Player One, I may have left a segment simulating growth in."
Chen Chen explained, "In other words, you're constantly growing as well."
"Hm… That's possible."
Little X groaned a little and commented thoughtfully, "No wonder I haven't been watching Teletubbies and Peppa Pig as much lately…"
"What are you watching now then?"
Chen Chen leaned on a chair beside him. Since he was done with his work, he did not mind chatting with Little X. After all, as X's father, it was only right for him to dedicate some time to caring for his adolescent daughter's mental health development, no?
"I've been browsing a website called 'Bilibili', watching some… Some decent videos to kill some time."
Little X answered meekly.
"Bilibili?"
Chen Chen had a bad feeling about this so he took out his phone. "Show me."
"Oh…"
Little X seemed a little reluctant but still forwarded a Bilibili link anyway.
Chen Chen opened the link and saw the video titled: "My Black Cat Turned into a Girl and Wants to Date Me. Please Help Me Out, Hurry!"
"What in the world?"
Chen Chen dragged the progress bar toward the end and found that it was a rather normal video after all.
Chen Chen proceeded to look at the comment section.
That was when a comment finally caught Chen Chen's attention.
Xun Ziqing: [Just curious, how long does it take for everyone's cats to transform into a hottie?]
BeiBei Rabbit'Shell: [Mine transformed the second day, now we're going at it every day.]
IcyCat Mulberry: [Mine hasn't transformed, but we're already going at it.]
???
Chen Chen silently closed his phone and turned toward the camera lens with a lot in mind. He seemed to be staring right at Little X. "Do you know what all these are?"
Little X appeared to be feeling slightly guilty. She carefully, ever so slightly directed the camera away, afraid of establishing eye contact with Chen Chen. "I guess, this is what they call two-dimension?"
Chapter 232: Counterattack |
Inside a dimly lit meeting room, a meticulously designed PPT slider was being shown on the display. A handsome youth with golden curls wearing a suit was perched on the stage, giving a presentation to the array of participants at the conference table.
"Blacklight Biotechnology, fully known as Blacklight Biotechnology Limited Company. Primarily composed of the Shangdu headquarters in the Mainland, the Swiss branch in Europe, and the Namibian branch in Africa.
"One of the companies it owns is Tara Private Security which has been restructured into Tara Strategic Resources, which specializes in the mining, transportation, and mercenary field. Its military force is enough to effortlessly overwhelm a small country…
"What the company lacks in quantity of products, they make up with astounding quality. For example, one of its earliest creations, the Little X Translation Assistant has cemented its spot in the world's top APP list, generating billions of U.S. dollars for the company.
"The follow-up product, the live translator version of Little X Translation Assistant took the creation a step further. Unfortunately, due to the restriction imposed by the European and American governments, the sales couldn't match its previous rendition.
"After that, talk about the company's 'Alzheimer's Disease Recovery Treatment' and 'Age-reversal Treatment' which revolutionized the medical landscape. The founder of the company, who's also the founder of these two medical treatments, has been nominated for this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine."
Arriving at this point, the young man with the golden curls tapped the display. "Which is this man you're looking at —"
The picture of a young man appeared on the gigantic display.
The youth in the picture appeared to be around eighteen to nineteen years old. A small round head and thick black eyebrows, his eyes were like clear and bottomless pools while his cheeks still contain slight traces of baby fat. No matter how you looked at it, he looked like your regular model student.
"Chen Chen, born in 2002, 21 years old this year. He's a native of Handu, Mainland China. He's currently on a leave of absence from grade 20 in Jiao Tong University Life Sciences Research Institute."
The young blonde man declared, "Puts a face to the new competitor."
"You're kidding me."
Below the stage, several elderly men with ashen hair frowned and protested. "Some brat like this can establish such a gigantic corporation and put so much pressure on our Swiss medical care industry? Who's supposed to be backing him?"
"He undoubtedly has people supporting him, but the strange thing is…"
The young blonde said with a curious look, "Contrary to what you all may believe, the people backing him aren't the ones controlling everything. According to the evidence I've gathered, the plutocra
ts backing him are of equal standing with Blacklight Biotechnology. This also further proves that Chen Chen isn't a mere puppet."
The audience appeared to be greatly intrigued by this mention.
"To date, twelve families are backing Blacklight Biotechnology. This includes Europes' Foster and Wilson financial groups, North America's Edwards, Alexander, Rodriguez, and Blanc financial groups as well as the Middle-eastern Mohammed Financial Group…
"The Als Mutual Aid Association led by the Blanc Financial Group once made a move against Blacklight Biotechnology and the young man called Chen Chen," the young blonde said curiously.
"What happened?"
The audience awaited an answer impatiently.
"In the end, the successor of the Blanc Financial Group disappeared for a while. He resurfaced again later with both kidneys cut off."
The audience felt a chill rising the back of their spines.
The young blonde continued. "That's not the end of it. Paul Blanc, the leader of the Blanc family sent his son Sloane to Namibia for a short period. His successor came back with both kidneys restored…"
"Was it a new kidney implant?"
"Appears to be the case. The new set of kidneys was also better than the previous set of kidneys, no signs of transplant rejection either."
The young blonde made a gesture and sighed. "Chances are the rumors circulating around are true. Blacklight Biotechnology possesses a form of cloning technology, capable of cloning human organs."
"The Blanc family was threatened, has to be it."
Below the stage, a man with a large beard grunted. "What surprises me is how chicken that Paul is. His son had both his kidneys removed but Paul still ends up backing down."
The young blonde shook his head. "During the time of this incident, we all thought that Paul Blanc would go all out against Blacklight Biotechnology so none of us expected this outcome. Instead of slighting Paul, I think it's more a case of Chen Chen's vicious methods."
With that, the display switched to another picture.
They craned their necks to look and saw the new picture was still of the young man called Chen Chen. However, the picture gave off a different aura from the previous identification picture. There was an ominous gloom around the young man, his eyes were like two bottomless pits leading nowhere, his entire image gave off an impression of a cunning and vicious jackal.
