Chapter 93
Orville felt exhausted. This exhaustion was not from being suddenly thrust into the stark truth and darkness, from the immense shock and the helplessness of being unable to defend himself, but rather from the exhaustion he had felt ever since graduating from college and starting work at the prosecutor's office—a kind of exhaustion of gradually losing himself.
Back then, the relationship between Parliament and the military wasn't as tense as it is now, and the sons of prominent families got along quite well, even hanging out together in small groups.
At the Capital Military Academy, Shen Shiqian destroyed three mechs in his first year, yet he still stole the show in the league, earning him both love and hate from the teachers; Finoqi Fanster was the best marksman, but because every girl he liked was either already in a relationship or had a boyfriend, he was jokingly called a "true love detector"; Lucian Jude was obsessed with mechanical research, and because of his beautiful and alluring face, he often lured younger students to ride in the mechs he developed, repeatedly daring to do so despite being warned each time…
Orville stood out starkly against the backdrop of their group, earning him the undisputed title of perennial runner-up. But knowing he was destined for Parliament, he didn't care about the rankings or what others said. Then, a new type of aircraft blasted a senior student preparing for the combined sports league into the intensive care unit, forcing the teachers to choose the best among the worst, selecting a few students from their grade to form a team – a precise combination of individuals.
A genius's aura isn't absolute. In a league where teamwork is paramount, experience and chemistry are the keys to victory. Lucian's clever tactics were completely dismantled, and Finoqi broke down in tears while hugging Orville. Only Shen Shiqian and Orville managed to score a few points throughout the match. This wasn't something to remember; it was more of a youthful embarrassment. However, the four of them were occasionally compared afterward, but their camaraderie during the game allowed them to laugh it off without a care, until they graduated from the academy.
Shen Shiqian established himself in the military through his strength and methods, gradually rising to the position of marshal and becoming a highly sought-after new war god; Lucian resigned after a year at the Academy of Sciences, finding it boring, and his junior classmates who admired him donated a laboratory for him, recruiting a group of eccentric people who opposed the Academy of Sciences, causing big news from time to time, which everyone had seen and laughed at, and was no longer surprised by him; Finoqi became unemployed after graduation, traveling around saying that she was determined to find true love, and along the way she helped the imperial authorities catch many fugitives, and was even voted one of the ten most touching people in the empire because she is still unmarried.
Orville, on the other hand, remained as dull as ever. The nature of his work required him to be meticulous, serious, and composed. Parliament was a crowded vortex of power, and as a subordinate of the Ceylonka family and the Bruce family, he didn't need to stand out or be conspicuous.
However, when others compare the four of them together, he can no longer maintain his former composure. This is because the others have their own pursuits and ideals, embracing everything or breaking free from worldly constraints, acting as recklessly as they did back in the academy. Only he has been molded into a fixed form, and he has no choice.
The lost self always needs to be filled with something, so he doted on Joshua, never refused any trouble that came his way at work, did his best to fulfill his duties, believed that he had not let anyone down, and lived a more and more tiring life in a paranoid way.
But the parliament itself is a huge melting pot, and everything he insisted on was actually meaningless. His integrity was a pre-designed, fixed path, just a role needed for the reputation of the Ceylonese family. He was busy, stuck in his ways, and couldn't even maintain his own self-healing.
This is perhaps what makes him most upset.
He finally admitted that behind his glamorous facade lay utter failure, and then, with great difficulty, he rediscovered his voice:
"Is there... anything I can do?"
Feng Ran gave him a careful look.
What do you want to do?
"I want to... save them."
Although Orville himself knew that this was difficult, because it was physical exhaustion, an incurable disease that scientists had been trying to cure for hundreds of years without any progress, and because now that it was infectious, these people might be isolated and abandoned by the Empire.
But he still wanted to place his hopes on Feng Ran; this time, it was his own choice.
She couldn't quite explain it. Watching others break down, despair, repent, and atone wasn't as interesting as Feng Ran had imagined. Perhaps it was because she and Orville didn't really have any grudges between them, and she even found the arc of light that shattered and then reforged somewhat annoying.
Feng Ran remained calm and composed: "Okay, then you can be the one to test the medicine on them."
"good."
/
The development of adaptive drugs has been progressing very slowly due to the lack of experimental recipients. Fengran does not think there is anything wrong with fusing some alien genes to modify the human body. Survival of the fittest is just a way of human evolution, and it is better than all of them dying out.
To study the conditions for interspecies gene fusion, Xiao Jiu had already had four and a half tentacles severed. Exhausted, she was slowly regenerating in a special nutrient solution. Every day, she would stare at Feng Ran with her small eyes, looking mournful. The Spartan regeneration training under dire circumstances seemed to have even increased her intelligence. She would even slap Ting Yun when Ting Yun was testing medicine on her, and then pretend nothing had happened when Feng Ran glanced at her.
In the center of the temporary laboratory base stood a huge alien crystal core dissected from the A-level alien species Serbian. Feng Ran's original plan to use the crystal core to build a mecha had to be put on hold, and the adaptive drug would have to be made from crystal powder shavings from this body to serve as a charging catalyst.
The special nutrient solution given to Xiao Jiu also contains this ingredient. Even though most of its physical characteristics as a Kraken have degenerated, the fact that it can still absorb energy in this way indicates that the energy flow pathways of the alien species within its body still remain. Sure enough, the previous eating of carrots and cucumbers was just an illusion. This guy won't starve to death even if he doesn't eat.
In Feng Ran's view, the ability to survive by relying on two different energy cycles is simply the most ingenious design of the Creator. After all, aliens can even survive in chaotic and extreme places like the edge of a black hole, so in her opinion, their energy utilization efficiency is many times higher than that of humans.
Although modern medical technology has greatly extended human lifespan and concentrated and refined the essential nutrients and energy into nutritional supplements, the concentrated solution must contain sufficient amounts of protein, glucose, fat, vitamins, electrolytes, and trace elements. No matter how it is formulated, it will never taste good, and there is also the problem of imbalance in its application.
However, the alien species uniformly transforms and stores all the substances they can utilize into "energy." The crystal nucleus is the medium for storing energy, and this medium itself is lossless; it is a concentrated crystal of "energy."
Of course, given the fragility of human cells, using this circulatory pathway is an incredibly difficult problem, akin to defying nature itself. The challenge is immense, but it is precisely because of this difficulty that it excites and ignites a sense of urgency.
After all, although it is difficult, it is not entirely impossible. If the human body cells can withstand the impact of this "energy" when it is used, and maintain the strength of the reshaped body, then Fran's breakthrough drug would not have caused the aftereffect of physical exhaustion.
Ultimately, it can only be blamed on the fact that the human body is too weak, and the drugs can help them evolve towards greater strength, so what's wrong with that?
"Xing Tong, do you think it's possible for us to gather the people who previously bought Fran's potion and developed physical weakness to study their tissue cells?"
“Master, the possibility is not zero, but it will be very difficult to implement because these patients are currently under the management of the Bureau of Supervision. Their personal freedom is even restricted during treatment due to the illegal use of banned drugs. At most, we can try to steal some sample tissues and data.”
"Moreover, according to the research report provided by Fran, the breakthrough drug actually has strong side effects. It was only because a sufficient amount of anesthetic was used to transition the pain generated during the energy shock that it did not seem suspicious. The sustained-release component provided a layer of protection for the internal organs, which prevented immediate death."
Feng Ran looked at the test data that these people had left at the hospital: "But compared with congenital physical failure, don't you think the physical data of these cases looks healthier?"
Tingyun: "Patients with congenital physical weakness don't have the conditions to develop to a healthy and mature state, which is more painful than those who develop it later in life."
Tingyun's assigned job in the lab was to continuously collect and grind powders, dilute them to different concentrations, and then use them for the wind-fired experiments. This was the only simple task he could perform as an assistant. It had been a long time since he last entered the lab, and everything that had happened in between felt like a lifetime ago; even understanding Fran's research report was a bit of a struggle.
Feng Ran shook his head: "Congenital physical weakness is usually accompanied by weak mental strength. The strength of mental strength will only be gradually manifested after the brain has fully developed. There is nothing wrong with weak mental strength itself. What can be diagnosed is that the physical constitution is stronger than that of the average person. There are almost no diagnosed cases below Grade B physical constitution, so there should be no such thing as initial health differences."
Tingyun also came over to study the scan images in the data with her: "The causes are different, right? Isn't congenital failure a genetic disease? Once the mutated gene is translated and activated, all the cells and tissues in the body begin to fail. Acquired failure is basically caused by infection, and there is also a sequence of failure."
Xing Tong: "Yes, acquired failure usually starts from the areas where energy is concentrated, such as the heart and liver. As the blood vessels spread, it affects the whole body. The spleen and stomach are in the middle and late stages of being eroded. Therefore, patients with acquired failure have a higher average nutritional intake than patients with congenital failure! However, the pathogenesis of failure caused by foreign viral infection is closer to that of congenital failure. The body's energy production and consumption tend to be balanced according to individual constitution. However, the damage that viruses do to human cells is difficult to be immune to and healed. In addition, it also drains the body's inherent energy, which disrupts this balance and causes the failure to worsen, eventually leading to a collapse of the body's constitution."
Feng Ran: "But there are basically no cases of congenital failure in S-class and above, right?"
Ting Yun was greatly shocked when he heard this statement: "Do you really have a concept of S-class? There are probably less than a thousand S-class people in the hundreds of millions of people in the entire empire. If an S-class person really suffers from congenital failure, the Academy of Sciences will be the first to be pulled out to operate."
Feng Ran scoffed at this hierarchical system.
"Oh, so you mean A-grade and B-grade are everywhere, worthless, so you just die if you want?"
Tingyun said sullenly, "That's not what I meant."
Feng Ran ignored him and turned to Xing Tong: "Isn't Orville just an S-rank?"
Xing Tong quickly deduced Feng Ran's thoughts, and responded with an excited and high-pitched voice, providing a lot of emotional value: "Yes! Master! But I think the experimental data from only Orville is not rigorous. We can call Hilde back too!"
Feng Ran considered the possibility for a moment, then asked, "Did he vote back then?"
Xing Tong: "I've voted."
The next second, the master and servant, along with their machine, simultaneously revealed wicked and somewhat eerie smiles, making one reasonably suspect that they had gone mad during the development of the potion.
Tingyun silently returned to his workstation and continued grinding, pretending that nothing had happened. As expected, he still couldn't understand the realm of genius.
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