Warlord – Chapter 76
Victor had made a simple hamburger with bread and meat for the lunch. He had opened the clinic and his life was back on track. However Victor felt that his clinic was deserted because Catherine wasn"t here with him.
He had buried the ashes of Catherine on the cemetery at the seaside after cremating her body.
Victor had two rings now. One was his own while the other belonged to late Catherine. He felt as if Catherine was accompanying him as he looked at the second ring.
Victor carefully put the last bread crumbs into his mouth. He heard the sound of the heavy motorcycle roar up and the curses of the residents on the streets. However no one wanted to do anything because of the blood on Zero"s body. Victor saw Zero carrying over Leah.
“He did it.” Victor quickly rushed out of the clinic. But his heart sank when he saw that Leah"s body wasn"t responding to anything.
Zero rapidly said: “Save her …”
At the same moment Zero felt as if all the strength that he had was exhausted. His body fell to the ground. Leah"s body rolled up twice and stopped. Foam came out of Zero"s mouth.
Victor quickly put rough cloths in Zero"s mouth so that he didn"t bite his tongue. He wanted to grab and drag Zero"s body but Victor retracted his hands the moment his fingertips touched Zero"s body. It was because of the high temperature. High fever wasn"t a good thing. According to Victor such a situation happened only on 2 occasions. Either the body was going through a genetic shock or the genes were collapsing. The only thing that was unclear to Victor was what kind of situation was going through Zero"s body.
…
Zero recovered two days later.
He saw the same dream for the last two days. The woman was always in front of him. However at the end of the dream Leah"s figure covered in blood appeared.
Zero awaken in Victor"s messy room.
He jumped up from the bed to find himself in good condition. All the injuries in his body were cured. Moreover he had received five evolutionary points after the battle with Aaron. He had three extra evolutionary points which made him have in total 8 evolutionary points.
Zero knew that it was impossible to get so many evolutionary points from the battle with Aaron. He guessed that it was because of the crazy state that he was in.
He found that another ability was generated. He stretched out his hand and suddenly orange flames poured out from his palm. Although his hand was wrapped in flames but he didn"t feel cold. It was as if the flames were part of his body.
“h.e.l.lo! Since when you have began to play around with abilities from element domain? Is is the well-known fire type element?” Victor joined the room. It seemed as if he hadn"t slept for the last few days.
Zero thought of Leah as soon as he saw Victor. The flames were extinguished as he asked in haste: "How"s Leah?"
“Bad.” Victor replied in a serious tone: “Before that, tell me. Is this your first time going through a genetic shock?”
“Genetic shock?” Zero was puzzled.
“Don"t you know what a genetic shock is?” Victor looked at Zero as if he was a monster.
The so-called genetic shock referred to the process where a large-scale genetic change appeared in the body. The genes recombined and re-arranged themselves. In the process they would release additional s.p.a.ce within the formation where the special abilities were formed. The ability users got their evolutionary points because of this process.
Afterwards the genes would fix down. Of course, the new abilities could be achieved with the transformation of evolutionary points. But in general ability users would now go through a second genetic shock.
At best, an ability user or a creature in the wilderness would go through two genetic shocks. Each genetic shock meant rebirth. The survivor of the genetic shock would get new abilities and their previous abilities would improve in terms of quality.
According to the known current statistics there were no more than 100 individuals who had survived two genetic shocks. It was more scarce in terms of individuals who had lived past three genetic shocks.
Victor confirmed that Zero had gone through a genetic shock. Victor believed that Zero had gone through the second genetic shock.
However, it was Zero"s first genetic shock.
The genetic shock didn"t have anything to do when he became an ability user. Zero speculated that it was because of the modifications made to his body. Somehow the abilities directly emerged on his body without a genetic shock. Because of Leah"s death Zero was agitated. Unknowingly the first genetic shock appeared on his body.
Zero found out that everything what Victor said about genetic shock was true. All the attributes of his abilities had enhanced. His overall combat strength had been doubled.
Zero was more concerned about Leah"s state. But her situation was really bad as Victor had stated.
Because of Hans"s blood a self-healing ability had appeared on Leah"s body. This ability was enough to heal the wounds on the surface. However, Victor found out after the diagnosis that Leah was dead but her body still appeared alive.
It was a very difficult phenomenon for Victor to explain. Leah"s organs had stopped working but her flesh kept regenerating. Victor said that it was because of the incomplete transformation. Her body was regenerating without a conscious control as she was dead. As a result made tissues were healing up without a stop.
The growth rate of these tissues slowed down and gradually stopped as the nutrients and energy in Leah"s body was exhausted.
“There may be a way to save her.”
“What way?” Zero"s eyes lit up.
Victor said: “I am not sure about 100% success but I think we can save your wife. Because of the cell invasion the cell activity in her blood was very high. I have extracted three tubes of her blood. I hope I can extract the genetic information from the blood and we can clone Leah."
“Clone? Do you mean we can clone humans?” Zero was surprised. According to the limit memory of Zero the cloning technology wasn"t used in humans in the old era. He didn"t expect the same technology to be developed after the Catastrophe.
Victor nodded: “Yes, it is cloning . The technology is perfect now. Many n.o.bles maintain their own lives through the cloning of their organs. Although complete cloning is very rare but its possible. It"s just I don"t have necessary equipment. We just need money…."
Zero took a deep breath: “How much money we are talking about?”
“I can"t go with this project alone. I need an expert in human body and genes. Moreover we have to purchase equipment, materials and have to account other related costs. The most conservative estimate should be around 10 million.” Victor laughed. He didn"t think that Zero could afford it.
“If you deduct the equipment and materials?” Zero asked.
Victor replied: “We will need at least 8 million. In fact, equipment and materials aren"t that expensive. We need to do tests. There are going to be failures in the complete cloning."
“How long do I have?”
“Probably, three years…” Victor said as he stretched out his fingers.
8 million dollars in three years. Zero had less than 10,000 in his credit card. They needed at least half of 8 million to start the basic operations of the project.
“Are you really planning to get that much of money in three years?” Victor frowned.
“I think you will also consider all sorts of possibilities if you could bring Catherine back."
“Yes…But how are you going to get that much of money?”
“I don"t know…” Zero continued: “But I think there is someone who can lend me some money…"
“Who is so generous?” Victor didn"t believe that anyone would be willing to lend that much of money to Zero.
Zero looked at him: “Do you know where the headquarters of the Parker Conglomerate is?”
Victor had heard about the conglomerate: “I have heard that their headquarters is in the north… I think Maestro should have the specific information about their location. ”
Zero slowly nodded as Aaron"s figure pa.s.sed in front of his eyes.
North! I will definitely find you even if I have to come to the other side of the earth!