Chapter 33

Noah immediately made an emergency call to Chief Executive Snow.

He rarely contacted the management committee on his own initiative, so Snow was almost "flattered" and immediately stopped what he was doing to connect to the video call.

Noah, on the other end of the screen, was so excited that his face turned red. He immediately asked, "What exactly is the relationship between Pat Sue and Claire?"

Snow paused, then realized: "...You noticed?"

"Su Yue unlocked the genetic lock in the stone house's storage room. The password on it contains my and Claire's complete genetic information... Did you send Pat Su Yue? Is he actually Claire?"

Snow readily admitted, "Yes. Pat Sue is indeed a clone of Pat Claire."

Sure enough… the huge weight that had been hanging over my heart for so long finally lifted, but more questions followed: “But in that accident back then, Claire was annihilated by antimatter, leaving not a single cell behind. How did you clone her?”

“It’s a long story,” Chief Snow pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, a barely perceptible smile playing at the corners of his lips. “Would you like to hear it?” It was rare for Noah to take the initiative to come to him; he had been waiting for this day for a long time.

"Then let's get to the point," Noah said, his tone clearly impatient. "Otherwise, why would I call you?"

Chief Snow was momentarily speechless, then sighed helplessly, "Alright." His gaze behind his glasses calmed as he looked at the screen. "Back then, to help you find a matching guide, I searched the entire gene bank and spent a full twenty-three years... Checking the match rate between Sentinels and Guides requires blood tests, in other words, I once drew Claire's blood sample."

Noah: "I know, it's a routine checkup, a 20ml tube should have been used up long ago."

“We’ve used them all up,” Chief Snow nodded. “But the process of finding you a guide was so difficult that it left a deep scar on me. After that successful pairing, I kept all of Claire’s experimental data, including those disposable blood collection tubes. After Claire’s accident, the administration was at their wits’ end with your situation. They wanted to re-pair you, but you rejected other guides, and Claire didn’t leave any biological samples… Then, I had a flash of inspiration and found those discarded blood collection tubes, from which I collected about 1 milliliter of dried blood.”

“…1 milliliters? And it’s dried-up blood?!” Noah was dumbfounded.

“Yes, only 1 milliliter, and it had long since dried up. Although our clan’s cloning technology is advanced, even the most skilled cook cannot make a meal without rice. At the time, I was not confident, but seeing your half-dead, death-seeking appearance, I decided to take the risk.” Chief Snow paused slightly, recalling the hardships of the experiment back then, and couldn’t help but sigh, “Ordinary clones can be completed within ten years, but Su Yue’s project… from extracting effective gene fragments from waste blood to cultivating a successful embryo, it took us a full sixty-five years.”

Both ends of the communication fell silent.

A few minutes later, Noah spoke, his voice hoarse: "You successfully cloned Claire, why didn't you notify me first?"

Snow sighed, “How I wish I could have! But at the time, it wasn’t entirely successful. There were three main problems. First, Su Yue was born male, unlike Claire. I don’t know if you could accept that…”

Noah immediately interrupted, "I'd take Claire even if she turned into a cat or a dog!"

“Good, good,” Chief Snow continued. “Secondly, because the cloned sample is incomplete, we cannot extract the original’s complete memories; we can only piece together some basic memory fragments. In other words, Su Yue’s memories are incomplete; he is like a patient with amnesia, not ‘complete’.”

Noah interjected again: "He has hands and feet, a heartbeat and he can breathe. He's perfectly healthy! So what if he has amnesia? Everyone gets sick before!"

“As researchers, we must rigorously evaluate every aspect of the project,” Chief Scientist Snow suppressed his urge to punch someone and continued, “Third, and most crucially: Before the age of four, Su Yue’s guide characteristics were extremely unstable, appearing and disappearing intermittently, and he was more sensitive than other children his age. We could only find him foster families and observe him secretly. It wasn’t until a year later that his condition gradually stabilized, and it improved with age. When he was fifteen, I drew his blood again for comparison and found that the match rate with you had risen to 80%. At that time, I thought it might be time to tell you. But…”

Two accusing beams shot from behind the glasses: "I remember that time we talked on the phone, and I told you we'd found a candidate with an 80% match rate, but you didn't even let me finish before you started yelling at me..."

Noah recalled that it had indeed happened and looked embarrassed: "...I'm sorry, I was emotionally unstable at the time and never thought that Claire could... 'come back'."

“I know you’re not in good shape, so I didn’t dare to tell you rashly,” Chief Snow said. “The reason I arranged for you to inspect Area A7 was actually to let you meet Su Yue.”

Noah covered his face with his hands, making a choked sound that sounded like both crying and laughing.

After a long while, he calmed down, looked at the screen, and said sincerely, "Thank you, Chief Snow."

Chief Snow adjusted his glasses again: "It's my duty. As a top-tier Sentinel, you've made outstanding contributions to the Crystal Clan, and the management will naturally do its utmost to assist you. So, what are your plans next?"

Noah's eyes shone brightly: "I'm going to take him home."

"So, you're saying you're willing to accept him as your guide?"

"Of course!" Noah's tone left no room for argument.

Snow's chief kindly reminded everyone: "Your current match rate is 80%."

"It's alright." Noah revealed a long-lost, sunny smile, declaring confidently, "He's mine. Even if the initial match rate is only 10%, I'll keep him and raise it to 99%!"

Snow paused, his lips pursed, trying to maintain his dignity as the chief, but the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up slightly.

Okay, that's great.

After sixty-five years of hard work, they finally received the acceptance review and the most satisfactory affirmation.