Chapter 98 (revised, one thousand words added)
[sorry!!!]
In the system space, the light ball knelt down on the ground like a shovel, performing a very difficult action for both the system and the ball.
Its electronic sound sounds heartbroken: [I never thought that old guy, no, that Karasuma Renya, his ancestors were actually related to the mysterious side!]
[The drift from the parallel world has merged into this world. Although its energy has been almost exhausted over the years, and the few remaining threads are about to break... Anyway, I will report this bug to the main system as soon as possible! Wuwuwu, please don't give up on me!]
Kono Seiryoshi didn't listen carefully to the sobbing apology from behind the system; his attention was completely focused on the report in front of him.
...Does this stone mask look a little too familiar?
Sure enough, they are the same two collected in the Fuuki Foundation headquarters!
He didn't expect to see things from his hometown here, and he felt a little complicated.
The "drifting object from the parallel world" mentioned by the system is this mask. According to legend, once worn, it can make humans evolve into immortal creatures. Later archaeologists regarded it as an item used for ancient people's sacrifices. The Fengji Group acquired two when investigating the box, but has not verified this rumor yet.
It was the same mask he had seen before. There were no holes on the stone surface for wearing the mask. There was a scorpion-tail-like protrusion on the forehead, and the holes in the eye sockets were pitch black, and no light could penetrate.
He remembered that the name was Stone Face.
The scan results of Seiyoshi Kono taking off his mask.
During the two days in the nursing home waiting for the system test results, he stayed in his room and sorted out the timeline and memory from beginning to end. Although the details were still a little fuzzy, there was no big problem overall.
He found himself in a misconception - in the two copies of this world, he used the same name and looked basically the same. From his perspective, everything was just a game at the beginning, so it was normal for the two characters created by the player to be exactly the same.
But this is reality, how should we explain it?
Saint Wine's life was longer and simpler than he had originally expected - he lived for only one purpose.
The memory begins when Kono Ru meets Karasuma Renya. At that time, Karasuma was not a skeleton lying on the bed, nor was he a lunatic old man who longed for immortality to the point of insanity. The young son of a powerful family had just inherited his mother's villa. He was full of ambition and high spirits. He met a skinny street child in a foreign country. Out of pity, he took the child, who was almost frozen to death on the street, back home.
The Karasuma family was rich enough to rival a country, so they would not mistreat an insignificant orphan. He learned to read and write under the old butler, and after showing his talent for learning, he was intentionally trained in business and law so that he could help manage the Karasuma family's industry in the future.
The incident happened one day many years later, when the elderly housekeeper was sorting out the relics left by the previous head of the family's wife and accidentally touched one of the masks.
Amid the servants' terrified screams, the blood-stained butler staggered out of the warehouse and turned into ashes in the sunlight.
The scene was so horrifying that the public felt as if its mind went blank.
The next moment, his arm was suddenly grabbed tightly by someone, and Karasuma Renya's trance-like murmur echoed in his ears: "Did you see his height, hair, and muscles..."
——Before they turned into ashes, they all returned to their prime.
The butler's death was disguised as a sudden death from an illness. The servants who witnessed the scene that day received a high amount of hush money, and the mask was taken away by Karasuma Renya for safekeeping.
Gong Yeru vaguely guessed what he was going to do. After that day, his classes were replaced by obscure medical textbooks.
The mask disappeared, and the butler's tragedy seemed to have never happened.
From the perspective of later generations, both Karasuma Renya and the family behind him were at the peak of their development at that time, and there was no need for them to urgently pursue immortality, especially with the help of such dangerous tools.
In the first ten years, Karasuma Renya acted exactly like that. He searched all over the world for various art exhibitions, not missing any rumors about immortality or curses, but he only investigated them and did not investigate further.
But it is unknown when he started to become irritable and no longer restrained his ambitions in politics and business. He rapidly expanded his power and even secretly established an underground organization that was exclusively for him to command.
In the upper class circles at that time, it quickly became a trend to be proud of being invited to the Karasuma family's banquet.
Kono Ninja only heard about this later. Karasuma Renya built several research institutes to allow him to concentrate on drug and human experiments, but the price was that he was almost cut off from the outside world.
When he came back, Karasuma Renya seemed like a different person, talking to him endlessly about alchemy and religion - tracing back to the source, he investigated the true meaning of the mask.
Finally, he walked up to a mural, reached out his hand and touched it lovingly, his eyes flashing with a brightness that ordinary people could hardly understand.
"There is a sea between heaven and the real world, a sea of blood. Humans must swim across this sea of blood before they can reach the other side."*
"That would allow humans to become equal to gods. Immortality is only the most basic step."
"Yuki, you will listen to me like before, right?"
The look he gave me was like a fire burning on the sea, fierce and substantial.
The public fields are as silent as a whim.
"Yes, sir."
After returning to the laboratory, he started a new experiment at the suggestion of Karasuma Renya.
The only difference is that the experimental subject is changed to oneself.
In the first few years after being brought back to the annex, he often wondered why Karasuma Renya chose him - if someone like Karasuma still retained such abundant compassion, the annex would probably have been filled with homeless children.
When he grew up, everything had its answers.
——His growth stagnated.
Cells naturally differentiate, grow, and mature, but it seems that there is no aging or death process at all, and they just stagnate.
Thinking about it this way, the place where Karasuma Renya met him didn't seem to be an ordinary street at all.
He didn't care why he was created and was busy in the laboratory day and night.
Maybe the new drug worked, or maybe it was his own physical condition that was at work. In any case, the experiment was a success.
Karasuma Renya obtained artificial life forms that could be produced in multiples, each with the same genes as Ru, but due to genetic factors designed in advance, none of them could survive adulthood.
Yes, this is enough for the test doll.
There were roughly two factions regarding how to proceed with the experiment, and both studies were ongoing until Karasuma Renya's death.
Another group secretly tested the mask, but unfortunately, no matter what method they used to stimulate it, the mask did not react at all and turned back into a piece of stone, which made Karasuma very angry.
The last dinner held in the annex invited many scholars and celebrities from all walks of life. The centerpiece of the exhibition was only the simple stone mask.
Karasuma Renya wanted to solve the mystery that had troubled him for most of his life, but the final result still disappointed him.
That night, the villa was flooded with blood. Gong Yeru stood at the door, letting the bloody evening breeze blow across his clothes.
Karasuma Renya has gradually lost his patience. He began to replace his blood and organs, take drugs that have not been fully researched, develop software that can store consciousness, use various mysterious props... science, magic, spells, using all means and methods to transcend the limit of life and prolong his life for twenty years.
Until the time before his death, his body, which would decay at the slightest touch, could not move in the nursing home.
But even so, Karasuma Renya looked at the young man holding a book beside the bed, and as if in hysteria, a hoarse voice like the cry of a crow came out of her throat, "...It's still the same as before."
Gong Yeru's fingers did not stop turning the pages of the book, "You too."
Listening to his sarcastic words, Karasuma Renya looked at the falling snow outside the window with cloudy eyes and said very slowly:
"It was the same weather when I picked you up, so I gave you this name. Do you remember what happened before that?"
"No, sir."
"Ha... well, just remember why you are alive."
He would take a break to catch his breath after every sentence, and when he got tired he would squint his eyes:
"That scientist named Freya seems to have discovered something very interesting... What are you going to do after I die?"
Gong Yeru finally changed. He put down the book, thought for a while, and replied, "If you die, all this will be meaningless."
"I'm afraid you'll go to hell after you die for what you've done for nearly a hundred years."
"...No." Karasuma Renya slowly opened her eyes, "No one can judge me."
He has accomplished what no human being could accomplish, and no one is qualified to judge him.
He seemed to want to laugh, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he burst into violent coughing, and his tone became unclear and fragmented.
Putting his fragmented words together, he said:
"You're going to hell with me."
…
The image on the electrocardiograph returned to a steady straight line, and the old crow, who should have died long ago, finally stopped breathing.
Gong Yeru stood up and closed the curtains, as if he didn't notice.
The music ended, and the last ray of light faded into the darkness.
"I've been in hell, sir."
…
The news of the boss's death was sealed in the sanatorium. After that, the management of the organization's hidden base in North America was replaced, and all the test subjects were destroyed.
While checking the data, Shengjiu discovered a piece of false data, as if someone was deliberately telling him that there was something wrong with the test subject.
The samples must be cleared and the genes cannot be leaked, so everything must be destroyed in the most thorough way possible.
Holy Wine never shows up, has a strict cleanliness habit, and rarely comes into contact with people - the ultimate reason is his own physical condition. Blood, hair, and skin cells can all be exposed.
When the boss was alive, he occasionally went out a few times, and each time he habitually cleaned the room he stayed in.
Of all the cleaning methods, he liked fire best. He loved the indiscriminate burning without reason.
Because Shengjiu hates code members who act on their own, he gave the task of clearing the test subjects to a low-level killer. Anyway, he only cares about the results.
It was 4 p.m. Tokyo time, and when the sniper sent him a text message after completing his mission, it was midnight in the United States.
Before he could click to check, he suddenly felt a dull pain in his chest, followed by a violent cough that seemed to carve his lungs out.
The surging blood began to seep out from the gaps between the fingers, and there was not much time left.
He spent a century with Karasuma Renya to create the latter's dream of heaven as the creator. If he failed, it must be destroyed immediately.
…
【Files ‖ Reports】
[Warning: Only the leader and members approved by the leader have access rights]
【Input key: Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch"intrate.】
[Secret key is correct]
…
Test subject 124459 failed
After 3 minutes, the whole body is thoroughly checked for corrosive chemicals.
Test subject 124460 failed
10 minutes after the heart stops beating, the magnetic field changes
Test subject 124461 Success
■■■■Also maintain the original physical ability Cell activation test adjustment
Test subject 124462 failed
Incineration of whole body cancer due to uncontrolled cell activation
The 124463rd experiment was temporarily suspended due to various factors.
…
The research report, which had previously yielded no trace, only revealed the tip of the iceberg after he remembered the real password.
The mission progress is stuck at a precarious 30%.
The boss is long dead, the second-in-command is up to something, the organization's best assassin is not happy with him, the elite employees are all undercover, and he knows all the secrets, and he doesn't have many days left to live...
Kono Seiryoshi covered his face, sighed heavily, and for the first time he thought, "Whoever wants to do this job can do it, but I don't want to do it anyway."
The sound of the train arriving at the station interrupted his melancholy sigh.
Life was so hard that he didn't even care about motion sickness.
What are you going to do next?
The light ball coughed twice: [Go meet the undercover.]
Kono Seiryoshi: "..."