Chapter 356: Ultimate Collaboration
n.o.body could resist the allure of extending their lifespan.
Regardless if they were billionaires with more money than they could spend in their lifetimes or the bottom of the barrel stuck in poverty, high position officials possessing great influence or common people just trying to live another day...
Whether their nature was kind, greedy, charitable or downright despicable...
n.o.body would resist the allure of a prolonged life for this was the instinct of humans. It was especially the case for the ones with access to insurmountable wealth with enough power to quake the world with just a stomp of their feet.
This was the reason for G.o.d’s Forbidden Zone’s existence.
To continuously invent new biotechnologies to extend the lifespan of its members. In return, these wealthy t.i.tans could also offer great benefits to G.o.d’s Forbidden Zone, which was in turn used to further develop greater technologies.
There was no need to worry about whether the technologies would become restricted to the upper-cla.s.s elites only. The construct of capitalism was not selective, as long as these technologies existed, they would never linger in the hands of the ones above forever.
Even if the initial pricing was unsustainable for the commoners, the capitalists would find some ways to decrease its production cost to allow the commoners to use it.
This was not a commentary on the kindness of the capitalism ideal, but it was merely a part of its profit-seeking nature.
After all, the system of capitalism demanded that people began using a product or service to generate a stream of profit.
While many people believed that this system would lead to a stagnation where the rich only get richer while the commoners become effectively cut off from any opportunities to climb up the ladder, this concern was largely unwarranted.
The construct of society was ever-changing. There was no such thing as an eternally indestructible landscape or infinitely expandable wealth. Even the ancient dynasty of ancient times underwent significant changes. There was no reason to a.s.sume this would not be the case for the rapidly-evolving modern advanced society.
The truth of it was that whether it was for worse or better, as long as society was constantly evolving, a chance to rise the ladder would always present itself.
This was the ideology that was coursing through Chen Chen’s mind. When Chen Chen saw Musk getting up from the fully-automated medical platform, he quickly stepped up to congratulate him, “Congratulations Mr. Musk, how does it feel to return to thirty-years-old?”
“It’s miraculous...”
Musk pushed himself up with his expression locked in amus.e.m.e.nt. He clenched his fists in disbelief before getting up on his feet and started hopping in place to test his new body. He was completely unbothered that someone was watching him. He was acting like a fascinated teenager.
Even in the past, Musk’s body was considered well taken care of. Despite being fifty-three years of age, he looked like he had just entered his forties. This was largely attributed to his usual strict discipline in balancing work and rest.
Despite his best efforts, the years of fatigue still acc.u.mulated into hidden trauma in his body, including high blood pressure and diabetes.
From today onward, none of these issues were present anymore.
With this in mind, Musk stepped in front of the full-length mirror perched by the wall. He immediately noticed that all of the wrinkles around his eyes, even the murkiness in his eyes had disappeared...
Even his physique was greatly improved. His body was surging with a youthful vitality that he had longed for so long.
“This therapy session has extended your lifespan by at least a decade.”
Chen Chen stood beside Musk and explained, “The purpose of this device is to optimize various functionalities inside the body. This is an optimization on a cellular level that maintains your body at its peak condition.”
“Only a decade?”
Musk was taken aback by this. “I thought the age-reversal treatment can at least extend my lifespan by three decades?”
“This isn’t the age-reversal treatment .”
Chen Chen suddenly smiled. “The strength of the age-reversal treatment technology lies in how it replaces old stem cells with new ones. It continuously optimizes the body and by doing so, extends the person’s lifespan by three decades. However, this increase is only theoretical and may not be as effective in practice.
“However, the optimization technique used in the fully-automated medical platform can repair the cellular damage in your body. The catch is that it’s only a one-time measure, therefore a singular use of it may not be as effective as the age-reversal treatment technology. Its true advantage lies in its additive effects.”
“Additive?”
Musk quickly grasped Chen Chen’s meaning. “I get it, so if I optimize my body every day, that means that I can achieve a longer lifespan that way?”
“Exactly.”
Chen Chen tipped his head affirmatively. “Daily use may be overdoing it, but if you maintain it at once a week, you should theoretically be able to live more than two hundred years, maybe even three hundred years. Also, even at your deathbed you can still retain a youthful appearance and physique.”
This seemed to have piqued Musk’s excitement, just as he was about to say something, Chen Chen suddenly shook his head. “Mr. Musk, I know what you’re going to ask next. I regret to inform you that we’ll not be selling this machine. Would you believe me if I told you that we truly don’t have the capacity to ma.s.s-produce it?”
“If you can’t ma.s.s-produce it, how did the first fully-automated medical platform even come to be?”
Musk asked, a frown surfacing on his complexion.
Instead of answering, Chen Chen only smiled wordlessly.
Musk knew better than to dig further into the matter because he knew he was not going to get an answer. He started to go through the procedures of enlisting himself into G.o.d’s Forbidden Zone.
Musk felt a sense of relief after completing the appropriate procedures as he was worried that Chen Chen was going to name some absurd condition. After all, he was now at the mercy of the negotiator and had little say in the matter.
Fortunately, the other party kept their word.
Musk began flipping through the handbook for G.o.d’s Forbidden Zone. He was floored by the details of all sorts of biotechnology achievements of the organization. Most of these biotechnology advancements were never seen anywhere else in the world. They could be easily utilized to pull someone back from the brink of death and restore them of the boundless vitality of youth.
Fortunately, most of these technologies apart from the age-reversal treatment technology had yet to be publicized. Musk was convinced that they would flip the landscape of the federation on its head.
“Are you not worried about the other members of G.o.d’s Forbidden Zone leaking these?”
Musk asked.
“The G.o.d chip will stop them.”
Chen Chen answered nonchalantly, “Also, the upper hierarchy members that have not have the G.o.d chip don’t know that much anyway, you’re the exception.”
“I’m the exception?”
Musk immediately caught Chen Chen’s meaning, his expression turning hard as he asked, “Are you trying to a.s.similate me?”
“No, I just want us to become close business partners.”
Chen Chen shook his head, not trying to feign his intentions. “If possible, I’d like to have Blacklight Biotechnology become a shareholder of s.p.a.ceX. Once we unite our strength, we have a good fighting chance against the Earth Federation, even...”
Chen Chen suddenly lowered his voice, his vicious ambition glittered in his eyes as he said, “Even suppress the reign of the Earth Federation while we gain a monopoly over the galaxy!”
Musk became appalled the moment he heard this. His pupils shrunk into a tiny circle as he looked at Chen Chen in utter disbelief. He wanted to tell him that it was impossible, but his throat turned dry and coa.r.s.e as he was trying to speak.
He could not say anything...
He had to admit that Chen Chen had him convinced.
After that, the two men stopped discussing the matter since the message was already clear and well received.
“Alright, we can leave now.”
Chen Chen waited for Musk to recollect himself before he suddenly said with a mysterious look on his face, “But before leaving, I’d like to show you one last project that may be of great interest to you...”
With that, he took the lead.
This time, Chen Chen took the elevator in the Spire Experimental Base and took Musk to the top of the spire.
When the elevator doors opened, Musk immediately winced and instinctively shielded his eyes with his harm.
A sheet of blinding light broke into his vision.
When he adjusted to the brightness, he suddenly realized that this light was not harsh and nor nagging to the eyes at all.
It was a pure blank white s.p.a.ce.
Whether it was the walls or the ceiling surrounding him, even the floor themselves were like blank white canvas. They were completely speckless and a.s.sumed a pure white texture.
There seemed to be no source of light present in the room but at the same time, the surrounding walls and the floor seemed to be the light source on their own.
Inside this room, s.p.a.ce and dimension had lost their meaning. It seemed to be so small that you could reach its corner just by stretching out while simultaneously so large it seemed to engulf the world inside it.
This was the wondrous sight that Musk beheld when he stepped out of the elevator.
Musk subconsciously looked behind him and saw that the doors of the elevator were designed like the walls as well. When the elevator doors shut, they seemed to have disappeared into the walls and fused into the room.
“What is this place?” Musk asked.
“You’ll know soon enough.”
Chen Chen kept it mysterious as he snapped his thumbs. A creaking sound instantly came from the ground a short distance from where the two men stood.
Musk immediately turned toward the sound and saw a pitch-black object surfacing out of the ground.
It was a pitch-black spherical object approximately a meter in diameter, its surface was extremely smooth and without any crevices.
The black sphere stood out like a sore thumb inside the blank white room, like a floating blackhole.
“This is...”
Musk’s curiosity was slowly growing. Just as he was about to ask something, he caught a glimpse of blue light flaring past his eyes.
The ray of blue light dissipated as abruptly as it appeared. He only caught it for a brief moment before he lost sight of it.
“What’s going on?’
Musk was slightly startled and turned to Chen Chen beside him to ask.
He held his breath the moment he turned to look at Chen Chen.
What he saw was the ray of blue light shooting past the top of Chen Chen’s head. What was shocking was that the top portion of Chen Chen’s head seemed to have been replaced by a flash of blue light!
Musk rubbed his eyes in disbelief when he saw this. When he had done that, he saw Chen Chen standing still in place in one piece. The image he saw just now of Chen Chen with half a head missing seemed to be his mind playing tricks on him.
“Keep your cool, Mr. Musk.”
Chen Chen chuckled softly. He then turned around and pressed a b.u.t.ton somewhere on the blank white sheet of the wall. The elevator door opened again as if obeying his command.
“Let’s head out.”
Chen Chen beckoned Musk to follow before taking a step into the elevator himself.
“Didn’t we just come in here?”
Musk was getting more confused. He felt like a villager arriving at a large city for the first time. Although he felt like he was constantly kept in suspense, he did have to admit that the technology that he was looking at had exceeded the realm of his scientific knowledge.
“What happened back there wasn’t your mind playing tricks on you. What happened was that we’ve already left the Spire Experimental Base when you saw the blue light flashing.”
Chen Chen answered coolly. Shortly after that, they heard the elevator opening with an abrupt “ding”.
What the elevator doors revealed was not the Spire Experimental Base they were previously in, but the lobby of an office building.
From inside the lobby, one could peek out of the windows to see the road and the busy traffic outside.
This was... The surface!
Musk was in utter disbelief. He promptly dashed out of the lobby of the office building and took in everything he was seeing. His ears were filled with the conversations of pedestrians m.u.f.fled by the sound of bustling engines and moving cars. The sound of the city, an all-too-familiar sound that also sounded so strange and foreign to him at the same time.
At this moment, what Musk knew of the world was completely flipped upside-down.
...
Musk only returned to the airport a day later, he stood outside his private jet.
“I shall remember this experience for the rest of my life.”
Musk said as he looked at Chen Chen, his expression was a mixture of a thousand emotions.
“My pleasure.”
Chen Chen nodded and extended his hands for a handshake. “Here’s to our cooperation?”
“Here’s to our cooperation!”
Musk answered Chen Chen’s firm handshake. After that, he turned around and entered his jet with his bodyguards escorting him. He did not turn back to steal one last look at Chen Chen.
Not seeing any other reason for him to linger around, Chen Chen entered his car as well.
When it came to these two men, there was not the usual sense of comradery that people would expect to see.
This was largely unsurprising since people in their positions would hardly feel any attachment for the other person just because they had been spending time together for a day or two.
Even if there was a public display of friendship, chances were that it was just a show they put on for members of the media and the world.
Blacklight Biotechnology’s security department did a commendable job as there was not a single media member present at the scene. Even if there were, the two of them would not be bothered to put on an act.
By the time Chen Chen’s vehicle had exited the vicinity of the airport, Musk’s private jet had taken off as well and headed into the boundless sky.
Upon Musk’s return, his company s.p.a.ceX would embark on an unprecedented collaboration with Blacklight Biotechnology. The announcement would quake the world down to its very core.
There was a good reason Chen Chen would willingly let Musk go after revealing so many secrets to him.
A stark observation was that Chen Chen had never disclosed the existence of Medpod 3000 to anyone in the Disciple Council. Apart from Chen Chen and his parents, Musk was the fourth person to ever use the fully-automated medical platform.
The only reason for that being the case was because this man was capable enough that Chen Chen could justify this heavy investment to collaborate with him.
With that said, Chen Chen was not going to share the technology he had instantiated from the movies anytime soon as he was not so n.o.ble in that sense. The collaboration with s.p.a.ceX was just a stepping stone for Chen Chen to make up for the foundation in aeros.p.a.ce which he lacked.
As Chen Chen continued to inject capital into s.p.a.ceX, the company would eventually become Chen Chen’s tool, like slowly boiling a frog in a hot pot.
Besides, Chen Chen had not shown his full deck just yet — there was another teleportation room on top of the one they had just been in.
One was located at the top of the Spire Experimental Base while the other was placed in the Lycra office building in Eco Science City.
Both teleportation rooms employed a similar design with four white walls surrounding a vacant room with only a black sphere in its middle. Without having any point of reference, Musk was transported to another teleportation room without even being aware of it.
While he was being teleported, Chen Chen left another gift inside Musk’s brain...
A modified G.o.d chip.
Based on the original plot of Gantz, the ones selected by the black sphere all had a chip implanted in their brain. Whenever they leave the vicinity of the battlefield designated by the black sphere, the chip in their brain would emit a shrieking alarm.
If the alarm could not dissuade these perpetrators, it would self-destruct and blow apart the brain of its host as punishment...
This was the black sphere technology. When transporting people, it could also implant foreign objects into the person without disrupting the body structure of the person.
This was how Chen Chen had caught Musk off guard.
The modified G.o.d chip was placed in Musk’s occipital cortex while the artificial AI inside it continuously collected Musk’s brainwave. In the event that Musk plotted something against Blacklight Biotechnology or G.o.d’s Forbidden Zone, Little X would be immediately notified.
In severe cases, the G.o.d chip may take over Musk’s body or self-destruct to prevent the secrets of G.o.d’s Forbidden Zone from being exposed.
This was the card Chen Chen had kept up his sleeve.
With that said, Chen Chen would not do any of the above if Musk kept up his part of the deal. If the existence of the chip was discovered, then there would never be an end to the conflict between Chen Chen and Musk.