Life Game In Other World
Chapter 454: Mars Plan, Seeking Immortality? (Long - )

Chapter 454: Chapter 454: Mars Plan, Seeking Immortality? (Long Chapter)

"Over there!"

The portly security guard trembled as he raised his hand, pointing behind him, "Go straight to the end, then walk along the wall, keep going for about five or six minutes, and you will see it."

"Thank you."

He Ao nodded in thanks, bypassing the portly security guard and heading down the path indicated.

The portly security guard turned to glance at He Ao and, trembling, got up, patting the dust off himself, "Is it easy for me to earn a living, huh..."

······

Unaware of the portly security guard’s actions, He Ao quickly reached the end of the path, passed by a row of parked cars, and arrived at the wall.

The wall had a slight curvature overall, suggesting that the underground space of the hospital maintained a strict correspondence with the ground above.

As he walked, He Ao occasionally summoned his Divine Sense to check the condition of the ground.

In the murals recorded by the Andavi family, the original Fountain of Youth seemed to have collapsed during the fight between the Stonemason and the foreign Angel, buried under the rubble.

If it was buried, then digging a little deeper during construction might have uncovered the Fountain of Youth.

After all, the Andavi family, with their lesser productivity nine hundred years ago, could not dig it out, but that didn’t mean a modern construction team couldn’t.

However, as He Ao looked along the way, he didn’t notice any obvious energy traces.

This proved that at least in the shallow areas near the underground parking lot, there was no strong energy leakage.

It was unclear whether this was due to thorough sealing or simply because there was no energy here at all.

He Ao crouched down, gently tapping on the ground beneath him.

The sound returned was dull, devoid of any echo; it seemed there was no other space below, and the underground parking lot was indeed the bottom layer.

The sewage system planning of Limen City didn’t pass through here either.

He Ao stood up, sweeping his gaze around.

The entire underground parking lot seemed normal, with no restrictions on personnel movement and no special individuals walking about.

It was just like any ordinary underground parking lot.

If the entrance to the Fountain of Youth were here, it shouldn’t be this calm.

He Ao shook his head and continued forward.

As he moved on, the curved wall gradually straightened, as if an additional vertical wall had been added, sectioning off part of the circle.

The sectioned space was likely the mortuary.

Continuing forward, after just a few steps, He Ao saw a silver double-leaf iron door in front of him.

He Ao pulled at the latch; the door was locked.

He lowered his head to look at the bottom.

The shadow of the nearby drainpipe was reflected in the crack beneath the door in the light.

Night Walk!

The next second, He Ao was in a silent, vast room.

The room contained only a quiet robot in hibernation and row upon row of cold, silver-grey metal cabinets.

These metal cabinets were densely packed, reaching from the floor to the ceiling, silent and still.

Each metal cabinet bore a number, which represented the deceased inside.

In life, a person has a name, and in death, they receive another.

Most major hospitals in the Federation have already automated mortuary storage and retrieval.

The remains of the deceased are stored in morgue cabinets by intelligent machinery like goods, and then, when needed, they are retrieved again.

The whole process requires virtually no human labor.

He Ao walked quietly through this silent and oppressive environment, with the central air conditioning blowing cold air, maintaining a constant temperature.

The surroundings were so quiet that neither intelligent security systems nor wandering employees could be seen.

Generally, no one thinks of coming to the morgue for ’fun’, and there are strict access controls in the corridor leading to the morgue, which bar most ’visitors’ without permission.

The low probability of ’unexpected visitors’ means safety, and safety means there is no need for expensive intelligent security systems.

And even if a corpse went missing... the loss incurred would be minimal.

Spreading the incidental costs over a longer period, if the loss incurred by an accident is lower than the expenses of installing and maintaining a security system, then for a conglomerate, this would be considered a ’cost-effective’ business.

Therefore, the overall security in the morgue appeared somewhat weak, with just a few cameras with clear blind spots, which essentially left it in an unguarded state.

He Ao easily evaded these cameras and entered the interior of the morgue.

He stopped in front of a body cabinet marked as in use and pressed the check button on the cabinet.

This check button is generally used by staff to inspect the condition of a body.

An elderly corpse popped out.

He Ao looked at the corpse, which bore no specific obvious wounds, apparently having died from illness.

He activated Super Memory and glanced over it once.

The corpse had no soul, not even a trace of shadow on its body.

The soul of a person dissipates quickly after death.

He Ao pushed the cabinet back and, after a moment of thought, opened several more cabinets with time displays indicating the bodies had died only within the last two days.

It was the same with all of them; not a shred of soul remained.

After death, most souls dissipate quickly, but when a soul is already very thin, the rate of dissipation slows down and the whole process can even last up to seven days.

Completely dissipating within one or two days did not make sense.

He Ao pushed these bodies back and looked up at his surroundings.

A row of cold body cabinets standing tall reached up to the ceiling, stretching out along his line of sight, extending into the dim and dark depths of the light.

The densely packed body cabinets resembled trees made of corpses, forming a deep, dark forest.

For an instant, He Ao thought he heard chaotic, mad mutterings in his ear, as though an ancient curse lingered beside him.

The distant light seemed to go out, the surrounding colors dimmed in an instant, and the whole world appeared to consist only of He Ao and the narrow corridor constructed of body cabinets stretching endlessly into the darkness ahead of him.

Slender, phantom-like limbs stretched out from the cabinets, trembling like catkins.

The cold wind brushed against He Ao’s cheek once more, like the whisper of death.

Those with stronger souls and higher sensitivity are always more prone to see things they shouldn’t.

He Ao shrugged.

He lifted his foot and naturally walked towards the abyss-like end.

The next second, the oppressive and terrifying scenery instantly faded, and the mutterings in his ear disappeared.

The central air conditioning blew air tinged with the scent of the dead, and He Ao’s surroundings returned to the silent appearance of the morgue.

The cabinets that had extended phantom limbs returned to their normal state.

Can’t handle it...?

He Ao smacked his lips.

Just when he was thinking that he lacked clues, it seemed as if someone was coming to deliver them right to his face, and then the illusion disappeared in an instant.

Just a little scare for the faint-hearted, huh...

But it was not without clues; this place might be related to an existence ranked higher than an Angel.

Only such beings could, through contact with related clues, bring forth such an environment that allowed a glimpse into the mysterious divine.

If it had been someone slightly weaker, they might have been influenced by it and turned into the creature’s monster.

Sometimes having a strong soul is not a good thing, especially when coming into contact with things directly related to high-ranking beings.

He Ao looked around a few times and opened several cabinets, this time without triggering the environment.

It seems that the connection to the illusion can only be triggered once.

He glanced at the time,

Kors’s surgery should be just about finished.

He turned and walked towards the exit of the morgue.

...

Stars Supreme Hospital Building A, fifth floor

An elderly doctor with a slightly receding hairline and half-gray hair had just changed clothes and was walking out of the changing room when a young resident approached him, holding the hospital’s internal phone, "Professor, someone is looking for you, says they’re your friend."

"My friend?"

The elderly doctor was taken aback and took the phone, "Hello, this is."

"Dr. Kors?"

A somewhat hoarse voice of a middle-aged man came from the other end of the phone.

Kors subconsciously felt that this voice sounded familiar, belonging to a person whose memory had made a deep impression on him.

But he met too many people and heard too many voices in a day, and for the moment, he couldn’t remember to whom the voice belonged.

"Yes," he nodded softly, "Who are you?"

"I am your ’patient,’" the voice on the other end said calmly, "We have met before, seven days ago, at the Research Institute, when I was lying on the operating table and you were holding the scalpel."

Kors’s body stiffened in place, the hospital corridor was bustling with people coming and going, but he felt as if the world had fallen into sudden silence.

"Doctor, I have some matters I would like to consult with you about, I’ll be waiting at the front desk."

The caller, noting Kors’s lack of response, did not seem puzzled but simply added in a soft voice.

Then the other party hung up the phone.

"Beep beep beep—"

Amidst the beeping sounds of the phone, Kors was still holding the phone, standing frozen and expressionless.

"Professor? Professor?"

The young resident called out softly next to him.

"Ah! Yes."

Kors snapped out of it like a man waking from a dream.

He held his forehead and rubbed his brow as if experiencing dizziness.

The young doctor immediately reached out to steady him, "Professor? Are you feeling unwell?"

"No, it’s nothing."

Kors shook his head, "Maybe I just didn’t sleep well last night, I need to go downstairs for a bit."

Saying this, he started to walk forward.

"Professor, the phone!"

"Oh, right, here you go."

----

After waiting for about fifteen minutes, He Ao saw Kors at the front desk.

The other party was slightly taken aback at the sight of He Ao, but quickly recovered, walked over to him and looked at He Ao, hesitant to speak.

"There’s a coffee shop outside the hospital, shall we talk there?"

He Ao smiled and suggested before Kors could speak.

Kors looked at He Ao’s smiling face and knew that He Ao didn’t want to expose this matter. He nodded gently, "Okay."

He made a phone call to arrange some things and then followed He Ao out of the hospital.

They quickly reached a café outside the hospital.

He Ao ordered a black coffee, while Kors ordered a milk.

The café offered private rooms, and they took a small one. He Ao checked and confirmed there were no cameras in the room.

The black coffee and milk were served quickly.

Kors took a sip of his milk, and as time passed, his emotions gradually calmed down.

"So, what do you want?"

Being an underground doctor wasn’t exactly honorable, and it was related to institutions like the Research Institute, which was in a gray area. If the news broke out, it would be a fatal blow to the medical reputation he had built over half a lifetime.

"Doctor, relax," He Ao said softly, "I just want to understand the ins and outs of this matter, like... how did you become a ’Doctor’ at the Research Institute?"

He paused for a moment and added, "With your current status and identity, you shouldn’t be lacking in wealth and property."

"It started with a research project."

Kors glanced at He Ao, his voice hoarse, "There is a secret research project within the Stars Group. Reid was one of the leaders of part of the project. That was probably more than a decade ago. I wasn’t as high-ranked as I am now, and he invited me to join the research."

"It seems like a very important research project."

He Ao sat upright—

Kors was already a well-known figure in the Federation’s medical field.

If he joined the research when he was younger, driven by certain benefits, that could be understood. But the fact that he was still part of the research project at his age and status suggested that the project itself was very appealing to him.

"Yes!"

Kors took a sip of his coffee and looked out the window.

The private room had a substantial one-way floor-to-ceiling window. Through the window, one could see the hustle and bustle of the streets and patients coming for treatment.

Most of them were elderly with graying hair.

He Ao followed his gaze for a moment, then turned his head, smiling and asking, "So can I know the theme of this project?"

"In theory, I signed a confidentiality agreement and shouldn’t tell you, but it seems I’m not in a position to make decisions right now,"

Kors turned back to look at He Ao, chuckled hoarsely, and paused for a moment as if contemplating something,

"The project is called ’Marls Project.’ Its theme is simple,"

"Immortality."

After speaking, he watched He Ao’s face, noticing that He Ao’s expression hadn’t changed much.

He was puzzled, "You don’t seem surprised."

"Isn’t it normal for a medical conglomerate to research immortality?" He Ao shrugged,

"When science and technology have advanced to a certain level, or even without needing to advance to a certain level, there are always those in possession of wealth and power who want to hold onto it forever.

"In ignorant times, those charged with researching immortality were certain charlatan priests. In the modern age, naturally, this task would fall to medical conglomerates. As the Federation’s largest medical conglomerate, it’s not strange for Stars Pharma to have a plan studying immortality.

"The key is"

He Ao’s gaze was fixed on Kors across from him, "What have you all researched?"

"To be precise, it’s what ’they’ have researched."

Kors looked out the window, his gaze deep,

"Over the decade, I’ve never been part of the research core; I could only see ’them’ taking out the core results one by one. Of course, by ’chewing over’ these core results, I also attained my current status."

He Ao watched the Elderly Doctor before him, picked a sugar cube from the table, added it to his coffee, and gently stirred with the spoon.

This Elderly Doctor didn’t seem as virtuous and indifferent to fame and wealth as he appeared on the surface.