69: experiment

Lu Chuan watched He Jingrui, who was as crazed and bloodthirsty as a beast, and very submissively crawled back into the pit to hide.

“Is this the ‘autophagy’ you mentioned, System?”

“Has the Host noticed the faint red mist around his body, combined with his vacant eyes and beast-like behavior? These are all very consistent with the characteristics of ‘autophagy’.”

Listening to the System’s explanation, Lu Chuan couldn't help but rub his temples.

He had too many questions to ask, and he felt a surge of irritation.

Why was He Jingrui here? What was this “autophagy” state? But the System wasn't omniscient; it could only respond to Lu Chuan’s questions with silence.

Lu Chuan didn't expect the System to answer, but he looked at the frenzied He Jingrui in the distance, and his brows couldn't help but furrow into a frown again.

“System, can someone in the state of ‘autophagy’ regain consciousness?”

“Yes, as long as he tastes sufficiently delicious food before his vital energy is depleted, satisfying the rampaging Gourmet Cells in his body, he can regain consciousness.”

Hearing the System say this, Lu Chuan immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

To be fair, although He Jingrui was both cheap and foolish, the two were old acquaintances, so he naturally couldn't bear to see him in trouble.

“How long can he sustain this state?”

“Based on his current state, he should be able to last another 6 hours.”

A smile finally appeared on Lu Chuan’s face.

There was enough time!

Lu Chuan touched the lotus pods in his pocket, then simply lay in the pit and waited.

About half an hour later, the commotion ahead subsided, then gradually fell silent.

Lu Chuan waited a few more minutes, and when he poked his head out again to check, he found that He Jingrui and the group of exotic beasts were no longer there.

He immediately stopped delaying, got up, and sprinted towards the direction of the crack.

Seven minutes later, the crack in the cliff face appeared before his eyes.

Lu Chuan picked up the fruit on the ground with one hand, then strode into the crack.

After passing through a gradually narrowing crevice, light reappeared before his eyes.

Lu Chuan poked his head out of the crack, and after confirming there were no wild boars nearby, he quickly threw the fruit into the basket he had placed in front of the crack earlier, then hurried down the mountain.

Returning to the foot of the mountain, he got on his tricycle and sped home.

---

Magic City, a bustling modern metropolis, and a secret research institute buried underground, unknown to the public.

Ye Chen, dressed in a white lab coat like a scholar, was fully engrossed in his experiment.

In front of him was a ten-centimeter thick, highly transparent tempered glass wall, behind which was a sterile laboratory.

At this moment, on the central platform of the laboratory, lay two beasts of vastly different sizes.

One was a huge wolf-headed beast, its body covered in silvery fur.

The other was small, but even with its eyes closed and quietly lying down, it still exuded the subtle, imposing presence of a beast king.

Under Ye Chen's control, several robotic arms extended from the ceiling, holding test tubes and injecting different reagents into the two exotic beasts.

A few minutes later, some spinal fluid was extracted from their bodies.

Perhaps due to the intense pain, even the two exotic beasts under deep anesthesia showed faint signs of waking up.

Ye Chen continued to operate, oblivious, until both the large and small syringes were filled with spinal fluid, then he stopped, satisfied, and said:

“The rest is up to you, Ye Yi.”

Behind him was a young man who looked exactly like him.

“Understood, original body.”

Ye Yi stepped forward, took Ye Chen's previous seat, then excitedly began performing various experiments on the two exotic beasts, occasionally recording experimental logs on a tablet.

Meanwhile, Ye Chen stretched, then left the room and went to another location.

A few minutes later, Ye Chen appeared in a clinical laboratory spanning about a thousand square meters.

He walked through rows of neat experimental capsules towards the central control panel.

Ye Er and Ye San, who were observing experimental data at the control panel, quickly made way when they saw Ye Chen approach.

“How are the human rejection experiments progressing?”

Ye Chen didn't look at the complex experimental data, asking the two men, who looked exactly like him, directly.

“Except for experimental subjects numbered 12, 34, 56, 67, 83, 101, 123... these twenty subjects, all other subjects were successful.”

Ye Chen nodded, then looked expressionlessly at the hundreds of unconscious death row inmates in the experimental capsules and said:

“Immediately begin the next step of the experiment: inject the separated exotic beast spinal fluid into their bodies.”

“Yes!” “Yes!”

Ye Er and Ye San nodded respectfully, then rapidly operated the incredibly complex workstation.

The next moment, every experimental capsule, spreading outwards from around the three of them, was filled with a thick, greenish liquid.

Then, a small robotic arm extended from inside each experimental capsule, injecting a very small dose of reddish spinal fluid into each experimental subject.

Afterward, the robotic arms retracted, stirring the thick, greenish liquid to make it even murkier.

At this point, Ye Er lightly tapped a spot on the workstation with his finger.

The next moment, a large section of the floor in front of the workstation flipped backward and stood upright, becoming a monitoring “wall” integrated with 200 screens.

The numerous screens on the wall clearly showed the figures of the experimental subjects in each experimental capsule.

With the injection of the spinal fluid, most of the experimental subjects began to show signs of pain and even full-body tremors, except for a few on individual screens who showed no reaction.

Ye Chen's sharp eyes scanned up and down, and his powerful memory allowed him to record all the changes in every experimental subject.

After a long time, most of the screens gradually turned red, then were one by one turned off by Ye Er.

At this point, only a dozen or so screens were still displaying footage.

However, seeing the increasingly distorted and terrifying expressions of the experimental subjects within, and the gradually increasing crimson in the greenish liquid, the situation was clearly not optimistic.

Ye Chen still watched all of this expressionlessly, but a storm of thoughts raged in his mind.

Various factors that could lead to experimental failure were constantly being dialectically analyzed and understood by him.

After a while longer, all 200 screens went black.

Ye Chen rubbed the bridge of his nose, allowing his rapidly working brain to rest for a moment.

Ye Er and Ye San, meanwhile, opened the experimental log and placed their hands on the keyboard, then looked at their original body with eager anticipation.

A few minutes later, Ye Chen opened his eyes and said:

“Begin recording.”

“The 3592nd hongjun particle activation experiment, possible failure factors are as follows:”

“One, the experimental subjects were in a comatose state, with weak control over their bodies.”

“Two, rejection reactions could not be completely eliminated, leading to incompatibility between the human immune system and exotic beast cells.”

“Three, exotic beast cells are suspected to possess autonomous consciousness...”

“Four...”

“Five...”

“...”

“Nine hundred thirty-one...”

“Summary: It is recommended to include volunteers with strong willpower and robust bodies in the next experiment to further reduce human immune response and eliminate the activity of exotic beast cells...”