Chapter 131 Coffee Now, this whole game is under your control...
Three days later.
Miyano Shiho stood in front of the antique full-length mirror on the second floor of Zishan Hill, looking at her reflection expressionlessly.
Three days later, Vermouth's body hadn't even cooled down yet, but the changes on his side were already outrageous.
"What kind of setting is this..." she muttered, pulling up a strand of hair that had changed from brown to strawberry blonde.
My hair, which grew two inches overnight, now has a built-in soft filter that automatically creates perfect waves no matter how I comb it. It's totally unscientific.
Then, she didn't sleep. Or rather, she didn't need to sleep.
It was as if her brain had activated a physical hack, the CPU firing non-stop around the clock, processing information at a speed that would make any supercomputer call her "Big Brother." The experiment enhanced everything about her: cell regeneration, cognitive function, and sensory perception.
And, obviously, there's also the hair self-beautification feature.
As expected, she is a top Hollywood actress who loves beauty very much and would spend three or four hours on her hair.
Knock, knock.
A knock on the door interrupted her self-reflection.
"Come in," she called, not even turning around. "The conditions are: bring coffee, plus a scientific paper on why I suddenly became a Hollywood Golden Age pin-up girl. 3,000 words minimum, and the duplication rate cannot exceed 5%."
The door opened. Kudo Shinichi, handsomely dressed, arrived with a tray containing two cups of coffee and a stack of newspapers.
"I brought the coffee." He placed the tray on a side table. "The paper will probably have to wait until the Nobel Prize Committee approves a special project for you."
Shiho took the coffee and nodded. "I can't wait that long."
"According to the doctor's preliminary analysis, you probably have several centuries to wait." Kudo Shinichi wanted to make a joke, but the reality was too sci-fi, and his joke didn't sound funny at all.
Shiho took a sip of coffee and immediately frowned.
“It tastes wrong.”
"It's the same brand you usually drink."
"No, I mean, I can taste the caffeine molecules dancing on my tongue." She sighed and put down the cup. "Everything about this is... too much. It's too much. The sensory sensitivity is so high that it's disturbing."
Kudo Shinichi's gaze swept over her inch by inch, as if scanning a crime scene.
"Super-sized Human Observer" was the title he had given himself over the past three days, and he felt at ease in this retro club that he had once considered outdated and had questionable clientele.
Shiho put down her coffee cup and sighed.
"You're adapting," he finally said, concluding. "The doctor said the formula is still stabilizing in your body."
"The doctor talks a lot." Shiho walked to the window, overlooking the early morning traffic in the suburbs of London. "He kept many of these things secret from me for years."
"That's to protect you."
"That's information control. There's a difference." She turned and faced Kudo. "Where's the newspaper?"
Kudo looked embarrassed, sighed, and then spread out several newspapers on the bed. The front page headlines of each newspaper were different versions of the same story:
[Breaking News] Legendary Hollywood actress Sharon Wynyard passed away suddenly!
The mysterious death of a movie star marks the end of an era.
The ownership of Wynyard Manor's assets remains a mystery, and the mysterious heir has surfaced!
"Did Scotland Yard find her body?" Shiho asked sharply.
"No. The doctor handled that... situation." Kudo's expression was strained. "These reports are an official smokescreen from the Zishan Slope Network. Their influence in the media seems absurdly large."
"Of course." Shiho skimmed the article, the carefully written half-truths making her want to laugh. Sharon Wynyard, at the age of fifty-eight (an age that was practically a lie), had passed away peacefully in her sleep. Her estate, valued at hundreds of millions, would be inherited by a distant relative, a promising young biochemist named Shiho Miyano.
"This is ridiculous." She threw the newspaper aside. "She is a blonde, blue-eyed white woman, and I am Asian. Who would believe that I am her relative?"
"Aren't you a mixed-race person? And as long as the documents are complete and well-documented, people will believe anything," Kudo continued. "With the resources at Zishanpo, we can make this document more real than gold."
"Speaking of resources..." Shiho walked over to her desk, where a mountain of documents lay. "The scale of this network is beyond my imagination. They have research institutes in seven countries, agents at top universities worldwide, and access to funding so extensive that it would make most governments envious."
"Now, this whole game is under your control." Kudo's tone clearly showed "I'm so worried."
"This key is in charge." Shiho stroked the silver chain around her neck. The pendant was a small key that Vermouth had placed in her hand before her death. "It's just a symbolic position. The key holder is responsible for directing work direction and allocating resources."
"And inherit billions of dollars in assets and a collection of antique cars." Kudo added coldly.
Shiho paused. "Car collection?"
"The garage is downstairs. Twelve cars, all classics. That Rolls-Royce is just the appetizer."
Shiho couldn't help but raise the corner of her mouth. "I can't drive at all."
"It's okay, you have plenty of time to learn." Kudo said calmly. "Probably several hundred years."
The effect of these words was immediate, and the air instantly cooled. Shiho turned around and looked at herself in the mirror with a purely scientific, emotionless gaze. "I have to get back to the lab. This formula requires further analysis."
"Shiho, you haven't left this building in three days."
"I'm busy."
"You're running away," Kudo said softly, approaching. "You're running away from the professor, from your department, from the fact that you're now the owner of a secret club, and you might have gained immortality along the way."
"I'm not running away. I'm processing the information."
"Let's do it while we have breakfast," Kudo suggested. "Let's find a place that doesn't look like it's been transported from the Prohibition era."
Shiho was about to refuse when there was a knock on the door.
A young woman dressed in a vintage waiter's uniform pushed the door open, carrying an equally vintage telephone on a silver tray.
"Excuse me, Ms. Miyano. It's a call from Dr. Agasa. He said it's urgent."
Shiho took the phone and raised an eyebrow at the outdated rotary dial. "This place really nails the aesthetics."
"Yew Hill is always in an ambiguous state of time." The waitress answered seriously, repeating what Vermouth said when Shiho first came to Yew Hill.
"I heard." Shiho put the receiver to her ear. "What is it, Doctor?"
"Shiho! Come to the lab immediately! It's urgent!"
Dr. Agasa's voice exploded from the receiver of the old-fashioned telephone, and the sound quality was surprisingly fidelity.
"Get to the point."
"It's inconvenient to talk over the phone! Don't believe what those guys in Zishanpo say about the safety line, it's like a sieve!" Agasa lowered his voice, "It's about... the long-term effects of the formula."
Shiho's fingers tightened around the receiver. "Thirty minutes."
"And Shiho?"
"Um?"
"Solo dungeon, don't team up."
Click. The call went dead.
Shiho put the heavy receiver back on its cradle and narrowed her eyes.
"Looking at your expression, does the sky seem to be falling?" Kudo Shinichi asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't know if it's collapsed, but there's definitely something there." She walked to the closet. The wardrobe left by Vermouth was incredibly large. She casually pulled out a trench coat. It was of excellent quality, perfectly sized, and impeccably tailored. Given Vermouth's control, it was likely custom-made to her measurements.
"I'll go with you," Kudo said, already picking up his jacket.
"The doctor specifically told me to play solo."
"The doctor's ability to keep secrets is inversely proportional to the amount of hair he has. Are you sure you want to trust him?"
Shiho paused, thought for a moment, and nodded. "Okay. But if it's about science, you should just shut up."
"Translate: 'It's dangerous, but leave it alone'?"
"Using that formula? It's absolutely a high-risk event."
When they arrived, Dr. Agasa's laboratory was strangely quiet. The usual chaotic scenes of graduate students and assistants disappeared, and the air was filled with only the humming of instruments.
"The doctor has cleared the area." Shiho scanned the now empty space. "It looks like the melon is quite large and he doesn't want passersby to watch."
"Your paranoia needs treatment." Kudo complained in a low voice and followed her through the quiet corridor.
They found Dr. Agasa in the highest security laboratory, hunched over, staring motionlessly at a microscope.
When the two came in, he raised his head and when his eyes swept over Kudo, he just sighed tiredly.
"Tell me, what big news of the century have you discovered?" Shiho went straight to the point.
"Things that science can't explain." Agasa pointed at the microscope, "Seeing is believing."
Shiho leaned over, leaning closer to the eyepiece, her fingers delicately turning the focus wheel. The moment her vision cleared, her breath hitched. The cellular structure was in a constant state of regeneration, a pattern she was all too familiar with.
"Vermouth's cells." She straightened up. "A sample before degradation."
"That's right. I've been watching them for three whole days." Dr. Agasa adjusted his glasses, his brows knitted into a knot. "Now, watch carefully. I'll add your serum."
His movements were steady. A new slide was placed in place.
A drop of Shiho's blood fell from the tip of the pipette and hit Vermouth's cell sample.
The microscope's field of view exploded instantly.
Vermouth's collapsing cells collectively halted their self-destruction program and began repairing themselves. They multiplied and replicated, perfectly replicating the structure of Shiho's strengthened cells. The entire process was so fast it felt like hitting 20x speed.
"Impossible," Shiho whispered, "The transfer is complete. Vermouth is dead."
"Physically, that's the case," Dr. Agasa corrected. "But the formula has created a dedicated network connection between you and her at the cellular level. In plain words, she's been backed up in your body."
"……ha?"
"What I mean is, purely theoretically, I emphasize, purely biological cell theory. As long as we determine the theoretical path and then operate more meticulously, Vermouth's consciousness can be reconstructed."
Dr. Agasa took off his glasses and wiped them vigorously with a cloth, his palms sweaty. "Her cell blueprint, with you as the server, has been saved by the formula. In computer terms, it's a system backup."
Shiho stared at him, her CPU fan whirring. "You mean... she can reload the game?"
"Scientifically, the technology is feasible. Ethically... that's a question of another dimension." Dr. Agasa's eyes quickly swept over Kudo, and the detective's face had turned from pale to blue.
"Stop!" Kudo finally exploded. "Are you saying you want to resurrect Vermouth? This isn't science. This is playing a real-life Frankenstein version of Resident Evil!"
"Trivia: Frankenstein is the name of the creator, not the monster," Shiho corrected casually, her mind already racing towards new possibilities. "Besides, this isn't a resurrection. It's a cellular reconstruction based on an existing template."
"This sounds like the development of a B-grade horror movie!" Kudo insisted.
"All groundbreaking science seems like heresy at first." Shiho turned to face Dr. Agasa and narrowed her eyes. "What do you need?"
"Hey, Miyano, are you serious?" Kudo raised his voice by an octave.
"I'm evaluating the scientific feasibility," she responded coldly. "The ultimate goal of the formula is balance. If repairing her cells is a scientifically sound option, then perhaps it's the only solution to the 'balance' that Vermouth and her ancestors spoke of."
"Or it could create a cosmic mess!" Dr. Agasa warned, "This formula is unethical. Forcing a repair might ruin your own enhanced state."
"The worst that can happen is that I die?"
"That's Plan B. Plan A is... the emergence of a shared consciousness. You and her, two souls squeezed into one body." Dr. Agasa shuddered when he said this. "When the Ethics Committee hears about this, they'll have to perform a mass fainting scene on the spot."
"That's brilliant," Shiho interrupted, the glint of a mad scientist rekindled in her eyes. "Two consciousnesses, sharing a single set of enhanced cells. This is the ultimate balance."
She turned and leaned back over the microscope.
"Maybe he's the ultimate psychopath," Kudo muttered.
Two consciousnesses in one body, this is typical schizophrenia.
Shiho ignored him, her mind already running through various procedures and risk response plans. "I need to see the research files on Zishanpo. Vermouth must have considered this possibility."
"Miyano-kun," Dr. Agasa began cautiously, "perhaps we should calm down. This formula has changed you in ways we don't understand yet."
"How has it changed?" Shiho asked back, "I'm still me. Just... more like me."
"Are you sure?" Kudo whispered. "Three days ago, you frowned at the idea of resurrecting a person through biological experiments. Now you think of it as a super fun puzzle game."
Shiho paused.
Kudo Shinichi is a detective after all, and his observations are very detailed.
Perhaps the formula affected more than just her cells? It also reshaped her thought patterns and reformatted her moral hard drive?
Or is this just the curiosity of scientists, the normal enthusiasm when facing the unknown?
"I need time to think," she said finally. "I need to read the entire record."
Kudo added: "Let's not forget that science without ethics is what got us into this mess in the first place."
Shiho met his gaze, her concern hidden beneath the detective's calm expression. For a moment, she seemed to see her past self, the cautious, rigorous, and methodical scientist.
Then she remembered Vermouth's last words: "To find the balance we cannot find."
Maybe, this is the answer.
It’s not just the final balance of the recipe.
It is also a balance between scientific ambition and human reason.
She looked at the two people in this world who were willing to risk their lives for her and made a decision, "I'll read the research and then make the decision."
"And then?" Dr. Agasa asked.
Shiho reached out and gently touched the key around her neck, feeling its weight, both physically and mentally.
"Then we'll know whether Yew Slope can squeeze in another one, and how strange and impossible it will seem to the world."
Behind her, Kudo Shinichi grabbed his finally-made handsome hair and sighed with resignation. He knew he was witnessing the beginning of something both glorious and terrifying.
"Promise me one thing," Kudo Shinichi said as they left the lab. "If you do get her back, don't let her touch any of your classic cars. Driving with that face on is scary enough."
Shiho laughed. Her soft laughter echoed in the empty corridor.
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