Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 596 - 240 Therapy

Chapter 596: Chapter 240 Therapy

In 2044, Yawgmoth expressed his difficulty in understanding why anyone would reject Plan A’s HIV infection.

Because a person, regardless of whether they chose Plan A "HIV infection," Plan B’s "drug and radiation destruction," or the then-undeveloped "189:3 Potion to reverse the immune system lifecycle" during the "immune system goes offline" stage, would have to face the Virus cocktail in the second stage of "gene implantation."

And within the Virus cocktail, there must be "its prototype," a substance with a mortality rate far higher than that of HIV, namely rabies (improved version).

Different viruses have different affinities for different cells.

The rabies virus is a neurophilic virus. It has extremely strong neural affinity, typically bypassing blood circulation and violently invading the brain through retrograde neural transport.

Compared to many viruses in the same neurophilic category, such as the Herpesviridae and Picornaviridae families, rabies virus has a significant advantage: speed.

It almost exclusively attacks neurons and can infiltrate the brain with the fastest speed and spread rapidly.

From the onset of symptoms to death, the patient almost never lasts beyond 24 hours.

As for the "incubation period," that is, the time "from infection to symptom onset," it actually depends on the quantity and concentration of virus the infected individual receives.

If a sufficient amount of pathogens are artificially injected, the incubation period can be considerably shortened.

Moreover, the incubation period of rabies is inherently short—what was once thought to be a "ten-year incubation period" is now believed by recent research to be more likely the result of record completion or misreporting.

It can enter the neuronal system very quickly.

And this is exactly the characteristic needed for gene modification surgery.

Due to differences in metabolism, cells in different parts of the human body renew at various rates.

Neurons undeniably update at the slowest rate.

The lifespan of neurons is almost the same as that of the human body; they hardly split and do not easily repair when damaged.

This is entirely to ensure the stability of the neural network structure, forsaking repair capabilities.

Their proto-oncogenes are quite inactive.

This is also why the nervous system hardly ever undergoes cancerous changes, and even if glial cells become cancerous, they are usually benign tumors.

And this characteristic also causes the nervous system to convert at a much slower rate than other parts of the body during Metal-based surgery.

The remedy is the rabies virus.

Theoretically, it is feasible. Anyway, no pathogen can withstand the extremely high body temperature of the Benchmark Man and will self-destruct, so as long as he can get through this hurdle, Yawgmoth guarantees there will be no harm.

But this is where the problem lies.

The mortality rate of rabies is also very high, approaching one hundred percent.

The blood-brain barrier protects the brain from external infections but also blocks the entry of immune cells.

If immune cells were to appear near the central nervous system to destroy cells infected by the virus, the damage they cause to the neural network would be greater than that of the virus itself—the principle of immune cells is "kill if there’s a possibility of infection."

Only antibodies can enter the brain.

But this small amount of antibodies is not enough to turn the tide against the havoc of the rabies virus.

Once rabies strikes, the mortality rate is close to one hundred percent.

Generally speaking, to avoid death from rabies, one can only step ahead before the onset of the disease and produce enough antibodies to suppress the virus.

But the method proposed by Chen Feng... undoubtedly requires the disease to manifest.

After all, it necessitates a concurrent transformation of all the brain’s neurons.

Since the brain controls all aspects of the body, once it is damaged, death is likely. The condition for "death due to rabies" is actually "an infection (destruction) rate of cells sufficient to cause death."

This moment is still far from "infection of all brain neurons."

In other words, it’s akin to expecting the patient undergoing the surgery to survive for several weeks in the state of "rabies onset."

While ensuring the speed of virus transport, one must also ensure that the virus will not destroy the neural network of the brain, or "cannot be fatal until the transformation is complete," in the hopes that after the transformation, the Benchmark Man would naturally eliminate the virus due to the rise in body temperature.

This is undoubtedly a daunting task.

But it’s also not "impossible."

Others at Superman Enterprise accessed Yawgmoth’s research records. To complete the "Virus cocktail" and to provide an account for HIV research investors, Yawgmoth had created many "reduced potency versions" of viruses.

He had a mature method that could be applied to most viruses.

Yawgmoth always liked to start from foundational principles and think deeply.

So, that left only one problem.

They could only culture the rabies virus weakened in destructive power, following that procedure, but there was no time to undergo several phases of experiments according to the new drug development process. As soon as they confirmed that "primates used in experiments could survive for a few days after onset," they had to inject it into Yawgmoth.

They didn’t even have the time to confirm "whether irreversible central nervous system damage would occur"—at that stage, the "Small Rejuvenation Pill project" had only developed signaling factors that could be used in the peripheral nervous system. The Restoring Enzyme that could safely act on the central nervous system would not be developed by Yawgmoth for several more years.

It was a gamble on the future. Although there was the excuse of "saving people," it was undoubtedly standing on the edge of ethics.

Externally, it would also be easy to criticize.

If successful, all would be well, but if it failed, those who implemented the plan would bear the burden for life.

At this time, Niyaguti unexpectedly stepped forward to undertake this task. Through her connections, she obtained a strain of the rabies virus from bats, known to have the lowest virulence. She even excluded most of her assistants from the laboratory, leaving only a few technicians—these individuals held very low positions and were not yet "qualified to bear responsibility."

The same went for animal testing.

She nearly completed the entire process alone.

Once she found an "improved virus that wouldn’t immediately kill the host after sickness onset," she rushed to Yawgmoth’s side right away.

In the end, she was the one who personally injected the virus into Yawgmoth’s spine through subarachnoid space injection.

Even if Yawgmoth died, the responsibility would not spread to others.

The final outcome turned out to be good.

Although in that era, Yawgmoth received all the glory in the field of biology, Niyaguti could also be considered a "genius scientist."

Yawgmoth survived, and even without any sequelae—the only problem he faced was having several holes drilled in his head.

The protective team used two methods to maintain the temperature inside his cranial cavity. First, they extracted blood from the arteries supplying the brain, cooled it outside the body, and then returned it.

Second, they drilled holes directly into his skull and inserted tubes filled with cooling fluid.