Chapter 147
Chapter 147
Sorry About That
***
The underground space was dimly lit, illuminated only by indirect lighting.
As one of the cultivation pods displayed inside the room opened, a wave of cold air escaped. When the Manipulator suspended from the ceiling retrieved the container inside, the surrounding conveyor belts immediately began moving in sequence, mixing chemical compounds.
Without even a 1-gram margin of error, or a 0.1-second delay.
The result was a crystal-like solution.
[This is the 20,234th temporary compound. Would you like to administer it?]
"Yes."
The moment I gave my approval, a syringe connected itself to my device.
The solution flowed down through my cervical vertebrae and was absorbed throughout my entire body in an instant.
Nothing appeared different on the outside, but inside, a violent transformation began. It started like an earthquake, pounding deep within my muscles and bones before gradually spreading outward.
Then, as every fine hair on my body stood on end, excruciating pain surged through me.
It was rejection.
This was the price for refusing to be satisfied with what I had been born with and instead selectively accepting what I desired from the outside. Since it was an act of defying the natural order, enduring it alone could never solve the problem.
It would only continue to worsen.
Sure enough, Veda's warning echoed beside my ear.
[Vital signs are declining and have fallen below the standard threshold. Exercise caution.]
"...Just... a little more...."
[Permanent aftereffects may remain.]
"Just a little more...."
[Observation results indicate compatibility is below 21 percent. The 20,234th temporary compound has also been judged incompatible and will be discarded.]
As the blood vessels that had expanded from the stimulation contracted, my body, which had swollen to the point of bursting, also shrank back down.
Accelerating my regeneration until my body returned to normal, I brushed my sweat-soaked hair back.
"So it failed again."
The temporary compound I had injected into myself was no ordinary solution.
It was the complete integration of the genetic sequence shared by all Meta-humans and the genetic information obtained from Baek Gi.
What I sought was an ability—a transformation.
To obtain it, I had already conducted over twenty thousand experiments.
Even if a megacorp devoted itself entirely to human experimentation while ignoring every ethical penalty, it could never reach such a figure in so short a time. It would take enough test subjects to wipe out an entire village overnight.
But I was able to accomplish it without any risk.
Thanks to the rapid cultivation technology I had acquired from Trian, even the problem of synthesizing cells had been solved. As soon as I recovered, I could replace the compound with another one and continue the experiments immediately, making the process all the more efficient.
The first ten thousand attempts were so incomplete that injecting them meant instant death—they were no different from poison.
But after reaching twenty thousand attempts, meaningful phenomena finally began to appear.
The compatibility rate had entered double digits.
Veda recorded every result and continuously adjusted the most effective combination based on the accumulated data.
No matter how advanced technology became, what ultimately awaited at the end was endless labor.
There remained an element that neither capital nor manpower could replace: luck. Trial and error was therefore inevitable.
[I learned this before. When masochistic tendencies become too strong, the human central nervous system begins to perceive pain as pleasure. Could it be that your brain has gone wrong from excessive pleasure?]
"I think what's gone wrong is your learning module."
Looking at Veda with cold eyes as she sexually harassed me as usual, I shook my head.
It was said that the personality an artificial intelligence developed upon gaining self-awareness varied enormously depending on its environment and the circumstances.
In Veda's case, being forced into endless research and having a master who constantly made unreasonable demands had probably had a negative influence on her personality.
More importantly—
"Why isn't the structure stabilizing?"
The rejection response made one thing clear: the mRNA fused into the temporary compound had successfully transferred the genetic information, causing specific proteins to form inside my body.
[I believe they were destroyed the moment they were generated explosively. The pain is likely a reactive response originating from that process.]
My original plan had been to use the transformation to identify and copy the genes responsible for immortality. If I could analyze the mechanism of the immortal ability through technology, confirming how it worked would become much easier.
But—
"This is going nowhere. Was my approach wrong?"
[What fascinates me more is the amount of energy you've expended, Master. By my calculations, you've consumed approximately 280,000 calories. Yet you haven't even taken a sip of water since coming in.]
Veda had a point.
After all, hadn't I just regenerated damaged nerves over and over again?
[Where exactly does all that energy come from?]
"The source of my energy...?"
Come to think of it, it was something I had overlooked precisely because it had always seemed so obvious.
No, perhaps I had simply never given it any real thought.
Even if I was immortal, I still possessed a human body, so I shouldn't have been able to escape the cycle of eating. As a carbon-based lifeform, I should have had to replenish the energy I consumed in order to continue living.
But immortality bypassed that entire process.
I had even starved to death during the Ice Age, yet I had eventually come back to life.
"..."
I recalled every Meta-human I had encountered so far.
Every single one of them generated enough energy to rival several power generators from within their own bodies.
And they did so without paying any price.
I had simply accepted it because it was called an ability.
But looking back on it, it was extraordinarily strange.
Wasn't it a complete violation of the law of conservation of mass?
It couldn't be explained by thermodynamics, nor did it fit within ordinary common sense.
'Perhaps...'
There was a good chance the municipal government had reached this conclusion long ago.
They might have already realized that at the very foundation of abilities existed a domain that modern technology could not interpret, and had begun seeking a solution because of it.
I understood why something immeasurable could not be understood.
And what could not be understood was frightening.
Even more so if it was another human.
Could this truly be called evolution?
'No.'
The more I researched, the more I realized just how absurd the true nature of Meta-humans was.
It felt as though something humanity should never reach—or rather, something that should never exist within the universe—had descended into this world.
'I'm getting carried away.'
Anyway—
Even the fact that Dobby had suffered severe aftereffects despite undergoing genetic modification because his ability couldn't be removed made perfect sense when viewed from that perspective.
If that was the case, perhaps wielding multiple abilities at once was simply impossible.
Wasn't Baek Gi the same? Transforming into another Meta-human and using their ability would have been far more convenient, yet he had only borrowed their physique and traits.
Perhaps his stage had simply been too low to reach that level. Even so, Gabriel, who possessed a similar ability, had only managed to copy talents. That alone made it obvious which direction I should pursue.
[Shall I prepare the 20,235th temporary compound?]
"Yes."
[Understood.]
Come to think of it, the temporary compound itself was a solution derived from the common genetic foundation shared by Meta-humans.
Could this also be considered a case of overlapping abilities?
There were countless scattered puzzle pieces, yet not a single one fit together satisfactorily.
"This is difficult."
***
After ending my mole-like existence and returning to the surface, I spotted someone walking toward me in the distance.
It was Sera, the android with neatly braided teal hair.
"Ah, so you were alive. Since you locked yourself away for an entire month without coming out, I was worried something might have happened to you."
"Has it already been that long?"
After the election, I had thrown myself into my experiments.
The assessment the Emergency Disaster Response Unit had made of Yang Hu through Jin Geon had been quite shocking.
To think they had actually considered the possibility that he might become immortal.
As a temporary measure, I had pinned all the karma on Amal Kam, but he was an ordinary human.
In the end, he couldn't escape the limits of lifespan.
If Amal Kam died, they would realize he wasn't Yang Hu, and another tedious game of hide-and-seek would begin.
Ideally, I wanted to achieve immortality before then—or at the very least, gather the technology related to it.
That way, even if Jin Geon turned his suspicions toward me again, I would be able to defuse them.
First, I needed to secure the unstable premise.
Even if it meant borrowing someone else's help.
Apparently, Sera had interpreted the resolve born from all those worries rather differently and started saying something completely off the mark.
"If you've suffered heartbreak, I'd be happy to comfort you."
"Why does your train of thought always head in that direction?"
"Well, it's rare for a fully grown man to spend an entire month alone in an underground room unless there's a reason like that. If you'd prefer to offer another explanation, I'll listen with full attention."
Naturally, the underground laboratory belonged to me alone.
It was an off-limits area I had never permitted anyone to enter.
That didn't change even for Dobby, my closest friend.
I could easily imagine how that looked from Sera's perspective.
It was only natural that I found myself at a loss for words.
Then again, Sera wasn't really pressing me because she wanted a definite answer.
Rather—
"Just don't forget that there are people waiting for you. Having only Young Master Dobby lying in Anima is more than enough."
That was what she had truly wanted to say.
"You're terrible at being honest."
"And aren't you the least honest of all, Ga-on? Sneaking around underground taking care of mysterious business. At this point, I wouldn't even be surprised if a secret android you've been hiding suddenly walked upstairs one day."
"..."
"There isn't really one, is there?"
Stare—
Unable to meet Sera's unwavering gaze, I reluctantly answered.
"There isn't an 'android.' An 'android.'"
***
After finishing my conversation with Sera, I headed straight for the living room.
She had come to check on me partly out of personal concern, but more importantly, because I had a visitor.
There were only a handful of people who ever visited the mansion, so there was no need to ask who it was.
"Miss Phytoncide. I'm ba—"
The moment I stepped inside, I stopped speaking.
A young girl was sleeping soundly on the spacious sofa.
She was sleeping so deeply that soft purring snores escaped her nose.
Quietly sitting down beside her, I gazed at her face.
She had a youthful appearance, and her small frame made her look like a child who should still be running around playing.
Yet she was unquestionably a university professor.
One engaged in researching and developing next-generation technology, no less.
To play a role that surpassed artificial intelligence in modern society meant she belonged among the top 0.01 percent of elites.
It wasn't hard to imagine how exhausting her daily life must have been.
In that sense, having Noah assist me was nothing short of a stroke of incredible luck.
"If you sleep in a place like this, your face will end up crooked."
As if she couldn't care less, Noah shifted in her sleep.
Feeling that waking her would be cruel, I quietly lifted her into my arms.
If I tossed her into one of the guest rooms, she'd probably continue sleeping on her own.
No matter how soft the sofa was, it couldn't compare to a proper bed.
But—
"Have you even been eating?"
She was so light that it hardly seemed possible for a person to weigh so little.
If I exaggerated a bit, she was light enough to use as a game stone.
Unfortunately, my train of thought ended there.
The Noah who had been completely limp and unconscious only moments ago suddenly opened her eyes into a fierce glare.
"Sorry about that. I have such a scrawny body that there's not even any extra fat on it."
"..."