Chapter 13.1 - Awakening
The laboratory that was usually always brightly lit was now dark and gloomy. Only a single beam of light illuminated the experimental table in front of Helen, with all other light sources coming from test tubes and culture apparatuses. These liquids that were glowing with different colors all had some type of grotesquely shaped tissues growing within them.
Helen calmly sat there while lightly rubbing her forehead, alleviating the bits of pain that had surfaced. After resting a few minutes, Helen pulled up a few files from the intelligence system and carefully analyzed and compared them. These were all extremely unusual sperm analysis reports. All types of indicators were crammed together, numbering over a thousand. These reports that would take an ordinary person an entire day to read through only took Helen’s abnormal brain a few seconds to read through once, and then she used less than ten seconds to finish comparing everything.
These examination reports were, of course, all of Su. Right now, he had pretty much become the center of Helen’s life. Sometimes, Helen even began to doubt, between her and Persephone, who exactly paid more attention to Su. Of course, these two women’s definition of ‘paying attention’ was definitely different, or at least, when it came to Su’s body.
Obtaining Su’s sperm wasn’t difficult. Forget about the fact that she had just completed a series of major surgeries that could be said to have given Su a new body, even during normal examinations, Helen could still easily obtain any specimen she needed from Su’s body. Compared to her old rival Dr. Connor, Helen definitely didn’t lack materials, yet the progress of her research on Su was similarly slow. This made her feel a bit dispirited.
Under these various tests, no matter which cell was obtained, they all similarly either had offensive capabilities or they would quickly die, displaying characteristics no different from intruder cells. Before Persephone’s pregnancy, Helen even suspected that Su didn’t have the ability to impregnate a woman at all. The so-called sperm could only be called one from its physiological structure and matter. However, its behavioral patterns definitely didn’t have anything to do with reproduction.
The egg cell in Persephone’s belly was like a bomb, one that completely scattered and smashed apart the model Helen painstakingly created.
Life is a strange thing. A single cell would only respond to a single, or maybe a few types of stimulus, and the reaction was relatively fixed, just like how a senary or octal power switch was simple and mechanical. However, when tens of millions of cells combined together, it might produce entirely different actions and characteristics. When millions and millions of cells converged, forming a whole entity, they would even produce intelligence!
After thinking for a moment, Helen wrote on the report that just came out, “Current sample experienced a 175% increase in activity, offensive attribute very high. Length of survival a minute and seventeen seconds, divided 66 times…”
She paused again for a while, and only then did she write in the remarks section, “Biological behavioral patterns abnormal, however, signs of entering second evolution clear. Suspect that the single cell’s irregular activity is still under the control of the main body to some extent.”
Helen tapped to close the document, and what followed was a long string of encryptions. All documents related to Su were encrypted with the most complex algorithms. Even if all of the Blood Parliament’s computing centers were used, without using up a year or two of time, they could forget about cracking Helen’s algorithm.
She stood up and walked to a corner of the laboratory before lightly pressing on the wall. The wall quietly moved to the side, revealing the several tens of culture apparatuses behind it. Without counting them, Helen knew the quantity and all data related to them even if she closed her eyes. The environment within all 60 of these culture devices were completely different. Unusual life forms of varying sizes could be seen in some of these culture devices, and they looked more like a few strange pieces of flesh. Most of these culture devices looked empty without anything in them. However, on the optical screen on the side, there was an expanse of green icons, which left Helen rather satisfied. This meant that all of these culture devices maintained a normal growing state.
Under the glow of the culture fluid, Helen’s face that was usually completely expressionless had a trace of tenderness.
Like usual, this was a deep and peaceful night. However, before Dr. Connor could enjoy this rare opportunity to get some sleep, he was woken up by an ear-splitting doorbell. In reality, the doorbell sound was a relaxing violin tune, but in the ears of the doctor who hadn’t even slept for an hour yet, it wasn’t much different from a strike of thunder!
The doctor groaned, and while holding his head that felt like it was going to explode, he crawled out of bed with difficulty. He was really hoping that the people outside accidentally pressed his doorbell, or even that it was a practical joke. However, after becoming a bit more clear-headed and recovering some of his reasoning, he knew that this was impossible. The doctor was sleeping in the laboratory room and not in the spacious and luxurious villa in the city. The number of people in the biological laboratory who had the authority to stand in front of his gate did not number more than ten, and among them, only half could press his doorbell.
The doorbell continued to sound, continuing without any sign of stopping.
Dr. Connor muttered a string of curses as he tightened his night clothes and dragged his sixty year old body across the spacious and luxurious living room towards the door. The identifying device released a dull red light that surrounded the doctor’s body. Two seconds later, the body comparison was successfully completed, and the doors immediately divided into four parts, withdrawing into the walls.
The one standing here was the doctor’s middle-aged assistant. His snow-white experimental uniform was covered in creases, and there were several holes on it as well. His hair was a mess, and his face was covered in sweat. There was even a rather inconspicuous bruise on its cheek. It seemed like while running here at full speed, he accidentally tripped, falling down quite hard as well.
Connor’s brows tightly locked together. He looked coldly at his usually calm assistant, and then he swallowed all of the harsh words he was going to spew out. However, his face was clearly unhappy. The doctor hated it when those under him acted in a disorderly manner the most, but from the assistant’s appearance, it seemed like he had something extremely important to tell the doctor. As a result, he wanted to see exactly what it was that he had to be woken up.
From the middle-aged assistant’s red face and heavy breathing, it looked like running here left him quite exhausted. Without waiting for his breathing to slow down, he immediately said, “Doctor! Gene lock… The gene lock is currently releasing!”
Doctor Connor’s eyes immediately looked like they were about to jump out from their sockets. He suddenly grabbed the assistant’s collar and roared, “What did you say?! You idiot, why didn’t you tell me earlier?!”
The doctor felt his aged body suddenly erupt with inhuman power. He flung the assistant onto the ground and sped towards the central laboratory. He, who usually cared about his outwards appearances, didn’t notice that he was still wearing his night clothes, and that his feet were completely bare.
His assistant laid paralyzed on the ground, his arms clutching his throat and breathing with difficulty. Just now, the doctor almost choked him to death! The assistant watched as the doctor passed through the ten meter corridor like a gust of wind and then disappear around the corner. However, his throat was still in great pain, so he couldn’t even release the slightest sound. As expected, as soon as the doctor just rushed around the corner, a series of crashing noises rang through the air.
Several minutes later, the assistant dragged his staggering feet to Doctor Connor’s office. The doctor stood at the center of the office, spellbound as he watched the optical screen that occupied an entire wall. On that screen, one could see the gene lock that had countless strands of genes spiraling around it release genetic fragments. It was also following some type of mysterious pattern to assemble new genes.
The doctor was lost in his thoughts as he observed the mysterious diagram, muttering, “Martin, don’t you think that this is humanity’s most beautiful picture?”
“Not only humanity!” The assistant stressed. His face was full of intoxication.