54: bet

Reno's pupils constricted suddenly. He stared fixedly at Chen Feng, the color draining from his scar-covered face bit by bit.

"What... did you say?" His voice was as hoarse as two pieces of metal rubbing together.

"I said," Chen Feng's tone didn't change in the slightest as he calmly repeated, "if the [Law Rejection Reaction] really occurs, if A Yong's gene chain collapses and he turns into a monster we don't recognize, you must be the first one to act."

"This is the first guarantee of our cooperation."

"To guarantee that you won't develop inappropriate emotions toward a monster you 'personally resurrected,' thus affecting the plans of all of us."

These words were like an ice blade, piercing through the feverish hope that had just ignited in Reno's heart and exposing the cruelest reality beneath.

He clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles turning pale and making a cracking sound from the excessive force.

After a few seconds of dead silence, he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, all his emotions had been suppressed, leaving only a steel-like resolve.

"I... understand." He squeezed those three words out from between his teeth.

"Very well."

Chen Feng said no more. He quickly utilized the system's functions to transform that scrawled extraterrestrial manual in his mind into a set of clear, actionable surgical steps.

"Step one: Establish a Law Buffer Zone."

He picked up the [Catalytic Stabilizer] containing green liquid and connected it to A Yong's crude life-support system.

"Zzz..."

Accompanied by a slight electrical hum, the green liquid was slowly injected. The air around A Yong's broken body seemed to warp imperceptibly, and a weak energy field invisible to the naked eye was quietly forming.

"Buffer zone established. Preparing to inject the core agent."

Chen Feng picked up the syringe containing the ghostly blue gel. The needle reflected a cold glint under the dim light of the cold storage.

He pierced the needle into the artery in A Yong's neck, then slowly and steadily pushed the plunger.

The ghostly glowing gel, like a living blue snake, followed the blood vessel and burrowed into A Yong's lifeless body.

At first, everything was unusually calm.

The nearly flat line on the vital signs monitor even showed a faint recovery.

Reno held his breath, the fire of hope reigniting in his eyes.

It's working! It's really working!

However, this hope lasted for less than ten seconds.

"Argh—!"

A painful roar that didn't sound human suddenly erupted from A Yong's throat!

His body was like a fish thrown onto the shore, twitching and arching violently, making the metal table clang loudly.

A more terrifying sight occurred!

Beneath his shriveled skin, it seemed as if countless living things were scurrying frantically, his muscles and blood vessels twisting into bizarre braids! A series of tooth-gritting "cracking" sounds of bones shattering and then being forcibly reorganized came densely from within his body!

"Beep! Beep! Beep! Warning! Warning! Target vital signs abnormal! Unable to analyze!"

The monitor emitted a piercing alarm, and all the values on the screen instantly turned into a chaotic mess of garbled code!

"A Yong!" Reno's eyes nearly split from his sockets. He instinctively thought that Chen Feng's "poison" had killed his brother!

"What did you do to him!" he roared, his fan-like large hand reaching out suddenly to grab Chen Feng's collar.

"Don't move if you don't want him to die!"

A cold light flashed in Chen Feng's eyes. With a backhand slap, he precisely knocked Reno's hand away. His strength wasn't great, but the timing and angle were incredibly tricky.

While growling, he had already grabbed the last spare agent—the tube of [Energy Supplement] he had extorted from Xilos!

He had bet correctly!

The violent genetic reorganization was frantically consuming the last and most core bit of life energy in A Yong's body! This tube of supplement wasn't the last straw that broke the camel's back, but the only weight holding up the collapsing scales!

"Pfft!"

The needle was roughly stabbed into the life-support system's port, and the blue liquid was instantly pushed in.

A miracle happened.

With the injection of this pure energy, the violent reaction inside A Yong's body quickly subsided, like a raging fire doused with a bucket of cold water.

His body stopped twitching, and the surging beneath his skin gradually ceased.

But... the piercing alarm from the monitor also stopped.

On the screen, the line representing the heartbeat, after one last weak beat, completely flattened into a cold, straight line.

All values returned to absolute zero.

The color on Reno's face drained away completely in an instant.

He stared blankly at the straight line, then at A Yong lying on the table without a sound. In his large pupils, only endless desolation and despair remained.

It's over... everything is over.

Just as Reno thought he would fall into this abyss of despair forever—

"Thump!"

An incredibly powerful heartbeat, like a war drum, suddenly boomed from the monitor's speaker! The dead straight line on the screen also jumped violently upward!

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

One, two... the heartbeats became more frequent and more powerful, as if they didn't come from a dying person, but from a primordial beast about to wake up!

A Yong's chest began to rise and fall steadily and powerfully with that drum-like heartbeat.

He still hadn't woken up, but his vital signs showed that he was stronger than any of the strongest Guards in the mining area!

Reno's body trembled violently. He had gone from hell to heaven, from despair to ecstasy; the massive emotional impact made him almost unable to stand steadily.

He turned his head suddenly, looking at the man beside him who had remained expressionless from beginning to end.

That look was no longer one of cooperation or awe.

It was as if he were looking at a... miracle-performing god walking among mortals.

The surgery was over.

Chen Feng withdrew his gaze and looked at A Yong's body, his brow furrowing slightly.

A Yong's life was saved, but on the surface of his exposed skin, some never-before-seen faint patterns, like precise circuit diagrams, appeared, flickering in the dim light.

His consciousness sank into the system.

[Scanning target...]

[Report: Target gene sequence stable, high-intensity vital signs established. Warning: Fragments of unanalyzable high-dimensional information have mixed into the gene sequence; the state of existence has undergone a permanent change.]

Chen Feng watched all this silently.

He had saved A Yong.

But will the one who wakes up still be the same A Yong?