Chapter 107 Silver Bullet

"I don't know." Hagiwara quickly pretended that Jinpei's laughter had nothing to do with him, and tried to divert the attention of the Wind Guardian: "Wind-chan, let's see what benefits this electric engine will bring to the vehicle!"

"Hmm! We could also upgrade the car windows. Maybe the reason it was so cold in the car today is because the windows weren't upgraded to level 2." Feng Xingshou thought of the cold wind that blew into the car as soon as they drove onto the snowy highway earlier today and couldn't help but guess.

Hagiwara nodded in agreement: "I guessed so too."

"..." Matsuda watched his childhood friend's shameless behavior from the side, glancing at him several times with his crescent-shaped eyes, barely holding back from teasing him and embarrassing him. He was like a peacock spreading its tail feathers, wanting to show off its beautiful plumage whenever it got the chance. o(￣ヘ￣o＃).

Feng Xingshou had no idea that he had unintentionally interrupted Hagiwara's plan to show off his extensive knowledge. Now that they didn't object, he simply led them out of the car to upgrade the electric motor and windows.

However, as soon as they got out of the car, the two of them seemed quite resistant to the cold and did not show any signs of being cold. Feng Xingshou, on the other hand, couldn't help but shiver. While quickly selecting the upgrade manufacturing, he rubbed his hands together like a fly and said, "It's only been a few days, how come it's already so cold?"

"The damp and chilly feeling is even stronger than a crisp, heavy snowfall. It's already this bad at the very beginning. It seems we should stay in the car as much as possible from now on." Hagiwara thought firmly to himself, "No matter what happens in the next instance, I must get some warm clothes for Fuu-chan."

Matsuda looked at the newly replaced car windows and immediately pushed Kazesei into the car: "Alright, the upgrade is complete. Let's go inside the car to see what changes have been made."

"Oh!" Feng Xingshou didn't want to 'enjoy' the sleet outside while dressed in thin clothes, so he immediately followed his force back to the car and carefully examined the changes in the car.

From the outside, apart from the windows having a more textured and thicker feel, and a ring of high-grade rubber-like material sealing the connection between the window glass and the body, the car seems to have remained unchanged.

However, after Hagiwara and Matsuda inspected the car's control panel and activated all the applications, they discovered that the car not only retained its original fuel power but also had a new electric power function.

In other words, if the vehicle encounters any situation that causes the fuel engine to malfunction, they can directly start the electric power to take over the fuel engine and continue driving, without being stranded because of a problem with the fuel engine.

Seeing the new feature, the two of them naturally wanted to try it out. Unexpectedly, after trying to activate it, the game automatically popped up a reminder again: [Note: The electric power engine requires an energy cartridge to start. No energy cartridge detected; the electric power engine cannot start!]

"Energy Box? What's that? I haven't collected one since the start of the game." Feng Xing Shou frowned slightly, trying hard to recall if he had collected any of these things in the past few days.

Hagiwara, however, stroked his chin a few times with one hand and said thoughtfully, "I do have a vague impression of him; it's like I've seen him somewhere before."

.

"Do you remember? You didn't see it while building a model or playing a game, did you? I recall some Gundam models would include puzzle pieces like energy boxes or energy cores to make them more realistic." Energy

Matsuda was familiar with the word "box".

This thing often appears in some science fiction games and anime on Earth, but such a product of people's fantasies about future technology simply does not exist in the real world.

"Clap!" Upon hearing this, Hagiwara clapped his hands, his purple eyes sparkling: "I've got it! The day Kaze-chan saved me, I helped her carefully check this game panel."

I've seen the "Energy Box" category before in the energy category of the processing and production section of a manufacturing plant. It seems this energy box is something that needs to be manufactured in a factory after obtaining the blueprints.

"Following the pattern of games, since it doesn't directly consume fuel to generate electricity, but instead is manufactured through blueprints, it seems that this energy box is most likely a portable and efficient energy source that is more efficient than fuel."

"It's at least more efficient than the fuel we use on Earth right now. In fact, future developments might even see fuel being phased out, with energy cartridges becoming the primary source of power." After hearing Hagiwara mention where he had seen the energy cartridge, Matsuda immediately realized its potential.

Feng Xingshou wasn't particularly surprised after understanding: "After all, they are a high-tech civilization that can enter our planet. It would be strange if they still used diesel and gasoline like we do, wouldn't it?"

"Heh...that's true." Hagiwara chuckled and summarized the matter meaningfully: "In any case, we can wait and see when the game organizers release the blueprints for the production and manufacturing of these energy boxes."

"Since they've already given us the blueprints for the electric engine, they shouldn't be hiding the blueprints for the energy box." Matsuda glanced at his phone, thinking about how much his junior schoolmate ate yesterday.

Since it was related to her eating and energy consumption, she simply said, "Now that we've checked the car's condition, let's start preparing lunch! It's already 1:30 PM, we can discuss other things after lunch."

"Then I'll go prepare it. Is there anything you'd like to eat?" Feng Xing Shou asked while sensing the storage status of his spatial backpack.

Thinking of the lobster he had for lunch yesterday, Hagiwara immediately said, "Any ingredients are fine, just give me a normal lunch."

"A normal portion is fine." It's true that they are close friends; they are very much in sync in this regard.

-_-|| I wonder if those two have developed a psychological trauma from eating that giant lobster yesterday! Feng Xing Shou secretly complained to them in his heart, but on the surface he pretended to be serious and said, "Understood, then let's have rice and tomahawk lamb chops for lunch today, along with two stir-fried vegetables and seaweed and egg soup!"

I'll heat up a pancake for myself while I'm at it; I still prefer noodles to rice!

Upon hearing about the lamb chops, Hagiwara and Matsuda breathed a sigh of relief. After Kazesei entered the kitchen extension area, they closed the kitchen sliding doors to prevent oil fumes from spreading.

Matsuda suddenly asked Hagiwara, "Hagi! How much do you know about that silver elixir of immortality?"

Since getting on the bus, the junior schoolmate had only briefly mentioned to him the major events that occurred in various countries around the world between his 'death' and 2025, and the terrible consequences they caused, without describing the specific details.

Matsuda's impression of the silver anti-aging drug was that it was developed and sold by a pharmaceutical company with official Japanese backing. He didn't notice any drawbacks for the first few years, but later he discovered that it would damage human genes.

This creates an artificial immune deficiency, causing the patient to either die from the immune deficiency or become trapped in it.

Survival in a sterile chamber... Aside from these, who developed this drug? What aspect of immune deficiency is being referred to? Matsuda knew nothing about any of these.

.

"I had just been rescued by Feng Jiang at that time, and we weren't very familiar with each other yet, so our conversations weren't very deep! It was just that during our conversations, she mentioned a few things when she was telling me about some memorable past events."

The actual name of the silver anti-aging drug is 'Silver Bullet'. It was initially launched in the United States and Japan on May 4, 2016, by Mi-Nihon United Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. as a treatment for all types of cell cancer.

It was regarded as a life-saving drug by cancer patients in both countries. Later, people discovered that after taking this drug, the cancer patients looked much younger, all of them in their 20s to 30s.

As you know, Japan and South Korea are obsessed with cosmetic surgery. They even put on makeup when they go out to throw away the trash, feeling it's impolite to go out without makeup. If you look good enough to meet Japanese aesthetic standards, you're more likely to find a job.

They see it as conformity, making them less likely to be laid off...etc.! Many people have also undergone cosmetic surgery for this reason. When I had my accident, Japanese women had already developed this habit through the medical aesthetics industry, and it will probably only get worse in 2016.

Even if the silver bullet wasn't released for anti-aging and immortality, but for treating cancer! As long as it can restore youthful beauty, they naturally won't miss out on any drug that can make them younger.

In short, what Tingfengjiang means is that after some people discovered the excellent anti-aging effects of the initial anti-cancer miracle drug, they started taking it as a beauty drug for anti-aging and maintaining youth. No one would dislike being young and beautiful, and wealthy capitalists prefer youth and longevity.

In addition, the drug was not expensive at the time, and ordinary people could save up several months' wages to buy a dose. With the active promotion of those privileged individuals, the approval process for the drug in various countries was very fast, and the number of people taking the drug was large.

Only in countries like Feng Jiang's, which have particularly strict drug approval processes and place great importance on the genes of natural persons, and which have become especially strict with approval processes after discovering that this drug involves genes and cells, has it not been made available to the general public.

However, many wealthy people and celebrities, in order to regain their youth, would rather go abroad to buy and take medicine than abide by the laws and regulations of their respective countries, resulting in many deaths in August 2019.

"Something happened at a research institute in the United States that led to researchers stealing the virus that the institute was studying and spreading it in the community..." Hagiwara thought for a moment before answering Kojinpei's question.

But at this point, he paused with a somewhat cold, ashamed, and embarrassed expression before continuing, "That research institute was studying the pneumonia virus from the biological weapons research materials that the United States took from Japan back then."

"Could it be?" Upon hearing this, Matsuda came up with a very surprising deduction.

Hagiwara nodded: "Just like you guessed, the virus was initially leaked in the community near the research institute. To cover up the truth, the US government lied and claimed it was due to e-cigarette pneumonia."

However, people soon discovered that if this pneumonia was indeed caused by e-cigarettes, then only those who liked to smoke e-cigarettes would be sick. But this happened less than three days after the first case of e-cigarette pneumonia appeared.

Two children in that community also developed the same pneumonia and were admitted to the hospital in critical condition; despite several attempts to resuscitate them, they could not be saved.