Chapter 2
Although the voice was somewhat different, his appearance was even more so.
Still, Si Chen managed to discern that the man in front of him was the one he had met in the restaurant just now.
He couldn’t help mocking, “Aren’t you afraid that news of this will spread and no one will want to do business with your boss?”
Si Chen inwardly weighed the possibility of shouting for help or calling for the police.
This street usually had a good flow of people, but no one has passed by so far, which seemed to hint at something.
Shen Yanxing raised his eyebrows. “I’m a temporary worker, didi.”
Si Chen was pushed into a minivan.
When Shen Yanxing discovered that Si Chen wanted to call out for help, he didn’t even bother pretending and immediately switched from a knife to a gun.
If it was death anyway, Si Chen chose to die later.
Despite its humble exterior, this car had a nice interior. It looked to be a high-end product.
Shen Yanxing fastened his seat belt for him. It was “x” shaped and after it was strapped on, Si Chen couldn’t even move his arms.
The driver’s voice was a hoarse electronic sound. “You’ve got him?”
Si Chen looked calmly at his surroundings.
The car started slowly and a cloth was placed over Si Chen’s face, blocking his view.
“Let me introduce myself,” Shen Yanxing sat beside him. “My name is Shen Yanxing. En, and I’m from Weeds.”
Weeds, a violent gang that was often on TV. Their members were mainly mine workers and vagrants in the Disaster Zones.
Because a report to the Security Bureau leading to a successful arrest would entitle you to a reward, its members were also known as walking jackpots.
Si Chen said nothing but in fact, he could smell it. The wet black cloth covering his face contained medical ether.
Barring anything unforseen, he would be unconscious in just a few minutes.
“If I tell you that we mean no harm, you probably won’t believe me. But we do need your help. These days, it’s really difficult to find someone who has no background specializing in genetic biology, who can cut and transplant genes and who we can use immediately. I ask that you be generous enough to grant us your forgiveness.”
Shen Yanxing’s voice was faint, “I can’t tell you too much and this is for your own good. We need your help to do an experiment. I promise it won’t put you in personal danger.”
Si Chen remained still but his heart sank heavily.
He did believe that the other party was keeping him in the dark for his own good. After all, the more he knew, the more likely he’d be killed to ensure his silence.
Si Chen moved his fingers slightly. “Alright. But I need to ask my team leader for leave first. Since you’ve investigated all about me, you should know that my financial situation is not very good. Work is very important to me.”
“You work in a laboratory under the Serpent Staff Group. Smuggling gene medicines is against company rules.” Shen Yanxing opened the freezer beside him, held up a tube of medicine and looked at it under the overhead lights. “If you’re found out, you’ll be fired. Compared to that, being absent without leave is but a small matter. But don’t worry, we’ll take care of it. After all, it would troublesome if someone were to call the police. You’ll still be able to go to work as usual after all this. ”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Perhaps Shen Yanxing’s attempt at comfort was having an effect or perhaps the anesthetic had begun to kick in, Si Chen’s breathing and demeanor gradually calmed.
He was asleep or at least he appeared to be on the surface.
Si Chen has been in poor health ever since he was a child. But he was very good-looking and this made all the staff of the state orphanage partial to him.
This partiality caused him to have no friends his own age. Every night, he would be pinned down on the bed and have his mouth and nose covered with a water-soaked towel.
It left no scars and no one would file a complaint. But it caused pain nonetheless. Later, Si Chen learned that it was called waterboarding.
He couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe but the children’s malicious sneers filled his ears.
After repeated near-death experiences, Si Chen had learned to hold his breath longer and to realistically fake unconsciousness.
They were not so pleasant memories. He didn’t expect it to come in handy at this time.
Shen Yanxing took off the black cloth. He pried open Si Chen’s eyelids and took a look. The whites of his eyes were turned up; his breathing was calm. He was clearly passed out.
He put the cloth back on again, covering Si Chen’s eyes.
“I still think it’s too dangerous to let outsiders come,” the driver said.
Shen Yanxing: “But we don’t have a better choice.”
The driver’s mechanical voice was cold and heartless. “And you still won’t agree to cut the grass and pull it by the roots. Faceless, I never knew you to be so indecisive.”
“There’s no way around it.” Shen Yanxing closed his eyes and let out a sigh, “After all, this was my… favorite junior back then.”
Zhuangshan District.
In the past, it was the most prosperous city on the east coast. However, due to the frequent High Dimensional Invasion incidents, this place had been classified as a “Severe Disaster Zone” and was perpetually kept in isolation.
People here don’t think about tomorrow, let alone peace and order. The populated area was permeated with an air of extravagance and extreme debauchery.
Later, Si Chen really did pass out. He didn’t know how long he’s been in the car, all he knew was that when he woke up, he was hungry and his stomach ached.
Shen Yanxing wasn’t intentionally mistreating him; he fed Si Chen a tube of chocolate-flavored nutritional supplement.
Although it was just a nutritional supplement, it was probably more expensive than the synthetic meat Si Chen ate in the staff cafeteria.
“We’ll be there soon. You can sleep some more.”
The reason why Shen Yanxing chose this place in the Zhuangshan District was because there had just been a 3A level High Dimensional Invasion incident in the area.
Because every Space Fold is certain death for ordinary people, danger levels only go from A to 5A. Higher up is marked as S.
According to research, the area where a Space Fold has just occurred would temporarily be a Safe Zone. And because it was the site of a recent catastrophe, the outside world basically had no way of gathering news about the situation inside. In short, there was no better place to conduct unsavory operations.
At this time, Zhuangshan District was much more depressed than before.
There were few cars on the street. The place where the High Dimensional Invasion incident occurred was cordoned off; some fully intelligent mechanical security guards were scattered here and there.
The car drove straight into the basement of a hospital. What used to be a morgue had been converted into an operating room.
Shen Yanxing brushed his fingers over the gene editor they’d smuggled back from the Safe Zone. “It’s a phased-out model but it still cost so fucking much. Damn it.”
The gap in resources wasn’t only in education but also in technology.
Like the gene repair fluid that citizens in the Safe Zone can buy with just a thousand credits; residents in other zones would have to spend tens of thousands if they wanted one.
The driver replied, “We already had a researcher selected but unfortunately, he died.”
The driver didn’t even say how the man died.
Human life was worthless in this world. Just like the weeds on the side of the road; a few more, a few less, no one cared except the weeds themselves.
When Si Chen fully woke up, he found himself lying on a smooth metal platform.
He was wearing protective clothing, like ones worn for experiments and surgery. A bright lamp was shining above his head.
Si Chen stood up, propping himself up with his arms. His head ached slightly, after effects of being knocked out by the ether.
He found out that there were two people lying beside him.
As was his habit, he begun to observe his surroundings. There were no windows and the walls were covered with black spots due to age, but it was still considerably clean.
There was a mechanical eye, a surveillance camera, staring at him silently in the corner.
The entire basement wasn’t big and it had a vent. Aside from the work room filled with tools and instruments, there was also a small bedroom.
Si Chen walked around and had a look. Although the manufacturer’s label had been erased from these instruments, there was no doubt that they were ones produced by the “Serpent Staff Group” that he worked for.
A Type X-II gene editor, a model that had been phased out for two or three years.
During Si Chen’s university years, he’d practiced on this model for a couple of years. Students nowadays probably had no idea how to operate one.
The X-II was also the last editor of the X-series. They now all used the V-series.
The need for manual operation was greatly reduced with the V-series models, replacing most of the manual calculations with one performed by AI. It’s introduction had triggering a wave of layoffs within the company.
At the time, Si Chen’s mentor also sighed, “These machines are going to gobble up the people. Technological progress is a good thing, but it might not always be.”
Si Chen walked to the operating table, where there were two similar-looking people lying side by side.
Oxygen tubes for life support were connected to their their faces. Both were in a coma, beside them was an electrocardiogram device that recorded their vital signs.
A mechanical voice came from above Si Chen’s head. “I’m sorry again for waking you up in such a way.”
Shen Yanxing looked at the monitoring screen and said slowly, “Si Chen, these two people lying on the operating table, the one marked red is A and the one marked blue is B. We need you to make B’s genes exactly the same as A’s. It should pass any simple medical test. Do you understand?”
A was one of the candidate successors of the Song Family. A first-class citizen, 18 years old, just about to leave home to go to school in another Safe Zone; B was an orphan, a refugee. The Song Family was the main shareholder of the Khaos Group, one of the four conglomerates.
Shen Yanxing paused and then continued, “You’ve been to college, so you should know that there three main paths for the Glorious Evolution.”
“The first is mechanical transformation, the second is biological transformation and the third is the very rare spiritual transformation.”
“A has undergone biological transformation. He’s had a High Dimensional organism implanted in his body.”
The so-called biological transformation is the implanting of High Dimensional organisms into the human body. By coexisting with monsters, evolution is achieved.
In fact, there was another reason why the young master of the Song Family was hurrying to school before it even started.
He had begun to show signs that something inside him was waking up. Although he was born to one of the Great Families, it was only to a collateral line. His rank among the heirs was past a hundred. In order to improve his competitiveness, no expense had been spared to buy this “high-dimensional organism” and have it planted into him.
But since he hadn’t tamed it himself, it was inevitable that their compatibility wouldn’t be very high.
“We need you to transplant it to B. You’ve got one week, is it enough?”
Shen Yanxing was not worried that Si Chen would take the organism for himself.
Si Chen’s body had yet to undergo any modification. His physical strength wouldn’t not be able to withstand the intrusion of a High Dimensional organism. He wouldn’t attempt it unless he wanted to die.
Truthfully, time was tight. This was already the most lenient deadline they could offer.
Sooner or later, the Song Family would find out that one of their heirs was missing.
Si Chen looked between the two experimental subjects. Finally, he said slowly, “I don’t want money for the tuition but I do need that mechanical prosthetic eye. In addition, I want a level 5 evolution fluid for every day of this project.”
Thanks to the gifts left by the High Dimensional Invasions, the Serpent Staff Group has developed all sorts of fantastical concoctions.
Strictly speaking, taking evolution fluid was also a sort of “biological transformation”.
Evolution fluid can allow ordinary people to gain stronger physiques and greater strength. It can also cure most diseases, including nuclear poisoning, Ebola, rabies and other severe diseases that were once incurable.
Gene medicines are graded from 1 to 10. Anything beyond grade 5, aren’t even in market circulation.
The list price for a tube of level 5 gene medicine is 1 million. But the actual transaction price was much more than that.
The driver said angrily, “What the fuck do you think you’re saying?! You think this just a matter of money? Do you have any idea of the manpower we’d have to mobilize for seven Level 5 evolution fluids? We’ll have targets painted on our backs!”
There was a long silence over the intercom.
Si Chen bent down. He leaned on the table and coughed loudly. Bulging veins appeared on his slender pale neck.
“I’m just tired of being sick all the time.” His voice was calm but there was an indescribable sadness. “I’ve been in poor health since I was a child. I have a lung problem and this cough just won’t stop. I can’t run or move, so all I can do is read.”
“I worked harder than anyone to get a chance. In the end they told me, you’re not in good health, it’s impossible for you.”
Shen Yanxing’s fingers pinched the palm of his hand, forcing him to disengage from this feeling of empathy. “Fine, six days.”
Si Chen didn’t look up but laughed silently. “Thank you.”
Thanks for the chapter!
At this point I think anyone would be terrified of being killed after performing the operation, no? His only leverage is the operation. Once it has been performed what can he use to barter his freedom? It’s game over, right? But here our hero is calm and laughing. I wonder what’s going on in his brain.
What a manipulative MC, I’m in love!!! 💫
I hope those kids who bullied him with torture have horrible deaths 👹
I’m lost in this medicinal jargon