“Why?” When Jiang Chen heard that, he was eager to know.
“It’s the nature of humans as creatures – the more interaction they have with other humans, the harder it is to accept loneliness.” Sun Baoyi sighed. “No matter how you decipher human nature, no matter how indifferent you are… it’s not something you, as a twenty-year-old, can understand.”
Jiang Chen looked at him with questions still in his eyes while Jiang Chen waited for him to continue.
“In the story, I mentioned that I saved a merchant.”
“Yes.” Jiang Chen nodded.
“We later became friends, and he invested in this clinic.” Sun Baoyi paused for a moment and let out a sigh. “Not only him, but also the crippled hunter, the merchant from the Northern Alliance Area, the female gunslinger from the Black Street Bar… I remember their names, even if some of them may have already died or left for places afar. Regardless, my memories are still there. The more people you know, the more you can’t let them go. I admit everything is terrible, but it’s not despairing to the point where you don’t have the will to live.”
“Is that just because of the relationships you have?”
“Don’t describe it so simply.” Sun Baoyi shrugged. “If you had to lay in the hibernation chamber for 1000 years, would you be willing to let everything go here and head for a different future alone?”
When Jiang Chen thought about Sun Jiao, Yao Yao, and the people loyal to him, he shook his head.
“I kind of understand now.”
Sun Baoyi nodded.
“Although I decided to stay in this era, I didn’t immediately leave the fallout shelter. Instead, I used the only quantum computer left and restarted the experiment again.”
“What about the samples? Since your experiment, the samples… those people were all killed. ”
“I’m the sample.” Sun Baoyi looked at Jiang Chen, took out a small bottle from his pocket, and placed it on the table. “This is the secret to immortality.”
Jiang Chen’s eyes locked onto the thumb-sized bottle.
A crimson liquid was inside.
“This is…?”
“You’ve heard about hidden genetic codes before, right?”
Jiang Chen nodded.
“This is a hidden DNA code expressed in a special manner after the injection of a genetic vaccine. A lot of mercenaries and soldiers take it to increase their combat abilities. Take a guess – if you unlock it to the third level, the last level, what would happen?”
Without giving Jiang Chen time to think, he tapped the small bottle with his finger gently.
“You will become a God.”
Because of his stern expression, Jiang Chen held his breath before letting the words out difficulty.
“That is… absurd.”
But then, Jiang Chen suddenly recalled the man who referred to himself as God.
“If you think that’s absurd, it depends on your definition of God,” Sun Baoyi said emotionlessly. “Although it’s comical to define God through science, we still gave God a crude meaning. A being who can do things humans can’t do is hence referred to as ‘God’.”
“For example, the leader of the Dusk Church could use spiritual energy to explode a hundred blood crystals to trigger an explosion that could wipe out an entire province from the map. Absorbing energy from crystals is as easy as drinking water…”
Jiang Chen asked Sun Xiaorou before – with her second level genetic code ability, she couldn’t even explode one blood crystal, let alone hundreds of them.
Of course, the definition of God wasn’t only limited to destructive power.
“So you mean…” Jiang Chen looked into Doctor Sun’s eyes. He had an idea of what Doctor Sun meant.
“Looks like you guessed it. Yes, we researched the ‘side effects’ of genetic vaccines before the war. Based on the genetic map, we concluded that once the genetic code ‘resilience’ evolved to level three, the ‘immortality’ ability could be unlocked.”
Sun Baoyi paused briefly, then continued.
“With current technological capabilities, the abilities in the genetic code can be transplanted. The only material required is 100mg of serum.”
From one perspective, immortality was something only reachable by a God. But more surprisingly, this ability only reachable by a God could be transplanted surgically.
Jiang Chen looked at the bottle on the table and fell into deep thought.
Therefore, the girl mentioned in the diary should be Sun Jiao – she should’ve been just half a year old. And the other “samples” in Fallout Shelter 071 should be normal people with the genetic code “resilience.”
Jiang Chen had an idea of the kind of experiment Doctor Sun performed that caused all the samples to die.
Sun Jiao told him before.
In order to increase the effect of the genetic vaccine and unlock the next level of genetic code, aside from going through high-intensity training, the fastest and least technical way would be to “seek your own death.”
It was only when you teetered between the edge of life and death that the hidden genetic code could be exposed.
The simplest way would be to throw the group of people into an “arena” to fight, and the people who survived to the end would have the highest probability of reaching the “God” boundary.
When Jiang Chen thought this through, the benevolent smile on Doctor Sun’s face gave him a petrifying chill.
To be able to perform the experiment on the people he lived with, this guy isn’t human at all…
Sun Baoyi read the repulsion in Jiang Chen’s eyes and he had a smug expression. “It’s an inhumane experiment, right?”
“Is it not?”
“I’m delighted you think this way. If people who shouldn’t control the secret to immortality got control of the secret, that would be a disaster to civilization.”
“Is that really what you think?” Jiang Chen was puzzled.
From his own memoirs and the diary of the director, if the alignment chart (1) was used to describe his personality, Jiang Chen could absolutely define him as an “absolute neutral.” He discarded all the weaknesses in human nature and viewed selfishness and apathy as natural; his contribution was just not proactively being evil…
But his reaction after he left the fallout shelter the second time was completely different.
Jiang Chen thought he belonged to “neutral order” now.
Sun Baoyi didn’t directly answer Jiang Chen. Instead, he said gently, “Human nature is a burden to survival, but without this burden, the seed of civilization will not germinate.”
“I feel like I’ve heard this before.”
“I guess he’s another observer.” Sun Baoyi laughed.
Jiang Chen nodded and brought the topic back to the genetic code.
“Did you unlock the third level?”
Sun Baoyi shook his head.
“How’s that possible?”
“Then how did you not age at all in the past ten years?” Jiang Chen was confused.
“Did you remember the explanation for ‘resilience’ in the EP?”
Jiang Chen tried to recollect his memory of when they returned from the sewers and Sun Jiao explained Jiang Chen’s abilities.
“Expending life in exchange for healing non-critical wounds in a short period of time?”
“That’s right.” Sun Baoyi nodded, pleased. ” When evolved to the second level, new abilities will be unlocked.”
“Revival?”
“That’s not the right word.” Sun Baoyi waved his finger in disagreement. “Aside from fixing damaged organs, the ability also fixes DNA telomeres. From a macro perspective, it greatly increases your vitality.”
“Therefore…”
“That’s right – I’m only at the second level. But even with just level two unlocked, I gained around five hundred years in life… as long as I don’t repetitively use ‘resilience’ and ‘revive’.” Sun Baoyi shrugged. “With the second level, all I can give you is the key. As long as you transplant ‘resilience’ into your body, you’ll have a chance of gaining immortality.”
“A chance?”
“That’s right.” Sun Baoyi nodded. “You can only gain the ‘key’ from another person. As for how many doors you can open, that’s up to yourself.”
Jiang Chen looked at Sun Xiaorou.
From her expression, he received an affirmative reply.
After he hesitated for a moment, Jiang Chen asked.
“If the genetic code is changed to ‘resilience,’ what would happen to the previous ability?”
To be honest, he was unwilling to give up “fury” and “invictus,” two combat abilities that almost allowed him to cheat.
Sun Baoyi woke him up from his greedy fantasy with laughter.
“Since it replaces, the previous ability will disappear.”
“I finally unlocked level two.” Jiang Chen’s smile was mixed with bitterness.
“I found a shortcut to unlock the second level for ‘resilience’ – you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Is that so…”
“If you want to replace the genetic code in your body, I can do the operation for you.” Sun Baoyi pushed the bottle beside Jiang Chen gently. “Of course, if you don’t trust me, you can take the technology and perform the operation with other doctors.”
Jiang Chen played with the serum in his hand and abruptly asked, “Can I ask a final question? If I evolve ‘fury’ to the third level, what ability would I obtain?”
“Fury… the frequency of this genetic code is high, but people rarely evolve it to the second level, let alone the third level. I see that you must’ve evolved it to the second level?” Sun Baoyi was quite intrigued.
“Yes.”
“Because there’s no precedent, I can’t predict what ability you will have… but I’m certain it must be an ability that approaches the territory of ‘God’,” Sun Baoyi said with certainty.
[Should I change my ability?]
Jiang Chen stared at the 100mg of serum and fell into silence.
(1) Alignment chart – The meme that include choatic evil, absolute neutral, … and seven other states.