Chapter 275: New Way of Thinking
The reason Chen Chen had extracted the black goo was ultimately to use it as a longevity technology.
Why was Chen Chen obsessed with longevity? In other words, why did human beings pursue longevity?
It was because this was an inevitable phenomenon.
As science and technology became more advanced, mankind was bound to be unwilling to live for only a brief one hundred years. Compared to the span of time measured out in hundreds of millions of years, a hundred years was like the twinkling of an eye, almost meaningless.
Furthermore, with the development of science and technology, the acc.u.mulation of knowledge became increasingly difficult. In ancient times, people could inherit the wealth of knowledge acc.u.mulated by civilization in just ten years of diligent study.
However, in modern times, a nine-year compulsory education could only build a mere foundation. Human knowledge had been divided into hundreds of branches. One person could only obtain achievements in a few branches in one lifetime.
The acc.u.mulation of civilization’s sum knowledge would only grow more abundant. Did it mean that in the future, a person would have to undergo compulsory education for decades?
By the time someone had painstakingly acquired the knowledge of a field, would they be near their deathbed then and be cremated and buried in just a few years?
Clearly, no one wanted this. If human civilization were to move forward, the need for longevity would become more urgent. This was a general trend that would not be shifted by anyone’s will.
According to what Chen Chen knew, there were probably three options for human beings to attain immortality.
Number one: keep their bodies and undergo genetic evolution.
It was true that the conventional means of human evolution employed reproduction as a way to make different groups evolve simultaneously. However, this did not mean that humans could not choose more efficient ways of evolution such as genes.
Humans could use genetic technology to strengthen themselves, putting humanity ahead of the pack. Evolution would occur in advance, thereby extending life.
This was the most ideal path.
Why so? As the human body was a sophisticated and complicated machine, it was composed of organic matter, not steel.
Perhaps this body was extremely fragile that a bullet or a sharp knife could terminate human life, but human beings also had the ability to multiply and evolve. They were capable of thought, consciousness, creativity, and personal agency.
All this was made possible by that fragile body.
The human body was a jewel born through a process of evolution that took millions of years, the most magnificent miracle of nature.
As long as human beings had complete bodies, there were unlimited possibilities.
Number two: Flesh was out, machines were in.
Although the potential of this path was not as great as the first option, it was a path that more readily promised longevity and even something close to immortality.
For example, the bionic technology that Chen Chen was zealously developing — replacing old organs was like replacing the parts of a machine. In this way, life could last longer.
If one were to be even more radical, one could also choose to keep the brain only and replace the entire body with machinery, so that the lifespan of human beings would be equal to the lifespan of the brain.
The lifespan of the brain alone was one hundred and fifty years. If this was combined with some special technology, the lifespan of the brain might be doubled a few times.
Nevertheless, although this method would easily allow people to live longer and further ensure the security of existence, it lacked part of the potential that all life should possess. Thus, unless civilization was at its end, Chen Chen would not regard this path as the main one.
The third and last path was the method of soul sublimation.
The rough idea of this path was: abandon the body and exist in the world in the form of a soul. Human beings would develop into a ubiquitous, yet incorporeal civilization.
It was just that modern science had not yet confirmed the existence of the soul, so this path was just an idea for now.
Chen Chen still remembered what Professor w.a.n.g Xi said: “We humans are still completely ignorant in the face of the boundless ocean of truth. Perhaps a distant, impossible dream like immortality is only the first step in the search for truth...”
It was this statement that sparked Chen Chen’s desire for longevity.
Chen Chen came back to the present. Now, he was staring at a humanoid monster covered in black armor in the isolation room, whose head was like a winter melon. Chen Chen’s expression was a probing one.
This monster had still been an ordinary human a day ago.
His name was Patton. He was once a murderer sentenced to life imprisonment. He was later purchased by Chen Chen and kept in the Delta-level experimental dormitory of the Spire Experimental Base.
Still, this Delta experiment subject started his journey mutation after being injected with five milliliters of black goo yesterday.
The experimental subject first showed pathological signs of flushing and fever, then hemorrhages all over the body, confusion, and finally a descent into a state of shock.
Within the body, the proteins of the experimental subject were rapidly converted into the prion protein of the black goo. At the same time, these prion proteins began to decompose the DNA of the experimental subject and combined with the DNA fragments, forming a retrovirus that only affected the experimental body itself.
After that, because of how the retrovirus functioned, the subject started to undergo violent physical mutations. During the mutation process, the subject developed an intense sense of hunger and any organic matter and protein were devoured as sustenance.
By this morning, the subject drifted between sleep and consciousness, then finally lost all rational thought and became an ugly monster with low intelligence and no humanity.
“The black goo promotes the forceful and rapid division of biological cells, greatly increases the mutation rate, produces all kinds of abnormal cells, and eventually produces a new organism...”
While he described the functions of the black goo, Chen Chen looked at the monster in the isolation room and sighed. “However, when the genes of the organism itself are altered in an instant, the combination of individual proteins, enzymes, and the DNA itself would cause tens of thousands of unpredictable results. Therefore, it’s no surprise no matter what the experimental subject becomes, but... This appearance is really ugly...
“However, after being infected by the black goo, the test subject exhibits extremely high energy metabolism efficiency and cell division rate, both unprecedented in the human body.”
Little X added. “Before the black goo was injected, the subject weighed 55 kg. After the black goo was injected, the subject spent five hours consuming food equal to his own weight. Only half of this amount was converted into useless urine and excrement that were discharged from the body. All the rest has been converted into the bodyweight of the subject.”
Chen Chen looked at the report in his hand. Sure enough, the bodyweight after the mutation had now reached 80 kg, which was 25 kg more than before.
“This is probably why the alien grew so fast.”
As he observed the enlarged test subject, Chen Chen pondered aloud. “In the movies, the aliens can often grow, in a few hours, from a small size into a beast that weighs hundreds of kilograms. Although the movies rarely show the aliens eating, it now appears that the aliens still need to eat, with a greater eating capacity than humans.”
At this point, Chen Chen suddenly took two steps forward, walked to the window of the isolation room, and looked at the subject carefully.
As Chen Chen approached, the test subject in the isolation room suddenly burst out in a screech and immediately pounced toward Chen Chen!
“Bang!”
There was a loud impact as the test subject hit his head on the gla.s.s of the isolation room. A large amount of light yellow blood splattered on the gla.s.s.
“Intelligence is very low.”
Little X sounded rueful. “And the blood isn’t corrosive. Besides a head that’s somewhat similar to the alien’s, the experimental subject before us can only be regarded as an alternative zombie at best.”
“That’s to be expected. In the movie, the process of the aliens’ birth requires the partic.i.p.ation of the Engineers.”
Chen Chen explained, “The alien exoskeleton has a mechanical aesthetic, which is derived from the exoskeleton structure worn by the Engineers. Later, in Alien: Covenant, there’s a spore plant infected by the black goo. After the spores infect the human body, a white alien form without a mechanical-style exoskeleton will be born, which ill.u.s.trates the problem.
“Thus, the acidic blood of the alien may also come from the Engineers.”
With this in mind, Chen Chen snapped his fingers lightly. “Okay, let’s dissect this monster into sections. I need a diagram of his organs and a gene map...”
“Understood.”
...
This took a few more hours. When Chen Chen walked out of the laboratory, he heaved a long sigh.
To Chen Chen’s disappointment, when the subject was completely dissected and sliced, Chen Chen did not find anything unusual. The subject did undergo genetic recombination, but after the recombination, it was just a savage beast without intelligence.
Even its brain structure had become much smaller and its plasticity was not as good as human’s.
Still, Chen Chen knew that this was a normal phenomenon. Human beings could be regarded as the supreme product of the Earth, the only high-level life form. It was impossible for the black goo’s mutation to make humans even better than before.
The only thing that surprised Chen Chen was that the test subject was originally a male, but when it was dissected, an immature reproductive organ was discovered in the body.
It was a cyst structure that existed in the lower abdomen. After opening it, he found that there were dense piles of larvae that looked like tadpoles.
Those tadpole-like larvae were fully transparent. Their biological structure was simple, but they were alive. They were first conceived in the cyst but would be released later at a critical time.
Looking at the structure of this cyst, Little X could roughly determine that when these tadpole-like larvae matured, they would be ejected through the belly b.u.t.ton of the test subject before they penetrated their target’s body as parasites.
This was how this new species reproduced — parasitic reproduction that was similar to the aliens, simple yet horrifying.
At present, it seemed that Chen Chen could forget about using the black goo to strengthen the human body. Drinking it would certainly be a fatal move. Its lethality was comparable to paraquat. However, if it was used to develop chemical weapons, that should be relatively easy.
Next, one of Chen Chen’s research directions would be to combine the black goo with spore plants to form the kind of spores that could parasitize the human body, as in the movie Alien: Covenant.
He wondered how David in the movie discovered this idea. After parasitizing the human body, the spores would not cause humans to mutate but instead form an embryo in the human body.
Following that, the embryo would grow silently, until it was able to break away from the human body. Then it would break out through the back or chest and grow into a white-skinned creature, like the alien.
Chen Chen had to admit that he still had a long way to go in terms of researching the black goo.
Even so, at present, it appeared that the reproduction method of the monsters produced by the black goo was parasitic reproduction. Even the perfect creature that was finally born — the Alien — was the same. This reproduction method reminded Chen Chen of a virus.
A virus called Golgotha or G-virus for short.
This virus was almost the same as the black goo. It could also mutate biological genes, resurrect the dead, and even give birth to a new species on the basis of infecting a life form.
It even earned itself a label: a “thoroughly evil substance” that went against G.o.d.
The crucial thing was that the G-virus was modified from the T-virus.
“I could try to combine the black goo with T-virus. Maybe there will be new discoveries...”
Chen Chen had a flash of inspiration and he started to muse in silence.