Life Game In Other World
Chapter 469: Glimmering Light (Extra Large - , Asking for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 469: Chapter 469: Glimmering Light (Extra Large Chapter, Asking for Monthly Votes)

This report seems very important and was placed directly in the root directory.

He Ao opened the report and quietly began to read.

The content of the analysis was straightforward, dealing with an exceptionally academic issue.

"Organ transplantation" could extend the lifespan of an "elderly" person whose life was nearing its end by how much?

The report mentioned the research background at the beginning: the ultimate fate that every individual human will eventually face—"aging and death."

Over the past centuries, scientists from the Federation have proposed more than three hundred hypotheses regarding the causes of human aging, each with its own rationale.

But an undeniable fact that everyone agreed on was: aging is the ultimate result influenced by multiple factors and is irreversible; all that humanity could do is "delay death."

The most mature technology in the Federation for delaying "death" is currently Full Body Prosthesis, replacing everything except the brain with mechanized body parts.

It is commonly accepted in the Federation’s scientific community that the main cause of "aging to death" in humans is the failure of bodily organs, primarily the heart. Heart failure leads to insufficient oxygenation throughout the body, ultimately resulting in the overall death of the organism.

When considering only the brain, it is generally believed that the brain has a lifespan of over 120 years, and, in some special cases, can survive for over 200 years while maintaining function.

So, in theory, a Full Body Prosthesis could extend human lifespan to over 120 years.

However, in reality, since the Federation has not yet been able to perfectly replicate the cranial environment with mechanical devices, currently, the lifespan of full body prosthesis users mostly falls between 70 to 80 years, which is in line with the Federation’s average lifespan.

Furthermore, if the Mechanical Modification recipient is not using a "high-grade" Mechanized Body, or cannot afford the expensive long-term maintenance costs of high-grade Mechanized Bodies, this expected lifespan could even drop to 40-50 years.

Therefore, aside from certain individuals with high-level paralysis or those on the brink of death, few people consider a Mechanized Body as an option for "life extension."

All these points were content in the report, which after discussing the pros and cons of various longevity methods, mentioned they had utilized a new method for "life extension."

They performed "External Cloning" of organs, replacing the owner’s original aged organs with freshly cloned, vibrant ones to achieve the purpose of extending life.

The latter part of the report focused on the benefits of this method, for instance, it listed numerous experimental data points, indicating that replacing the heart could extend the user’s life by 2-5 years, and a full-body organ replacement could add 5-10 years to their lifespan.

Moreover, this service was not a one-time offering; after the new organs aged, it was still possible to continue with cloned organ transplantation.

In addition, the external cloning was not limited to important internal organs like the heart; the skin is also an organ, and through cloned skin transplants and a series of surgeries, a person in their sixties or seventies could maintain the youthful and tender appearance of a twenty-year-old.

Certainly, private organs could also be cloned, allowing an eighty-year-old to regain the virility of their eighteen-year-old self.

The report concluded that this method of cloned organ transplantation could extend the lifespan of an average person to 150 years or even more.

After closing the report, He Ao took another glance at the report title, "Life Span Replacement Efficiency Analysis Report."

Replacement should imply an exchange between two sides, but the report focuses solely on one party, resembling more an advertisement than a study.

After pondering for a while, He Ao began to sequentially open the files within this storage device.

The report must have had parts omitted, later turned into an "advertisement"; it was just that since it wasn’t put to use directly, the file name wasn’t changed.

By reviewing other data files, it should be possible to piece together the contents missing from the report.

Although He Ao had already formed a rough hypothesis about the content that was redacted, he still needed to confirm his guess.

These folders were not named specifically, but rather marked with a series of acronyms and numbers, which He Ao didn’t understand. Fortunately, the file content was not encrypted and was in text that He Ao could understand.

At this time, Roger also came over, as the materials involved his field of expertise, and he was very interested.

Since this information contained a lot of professional jargon and experimental data that He Ao was unfamiliar with, he directly copied a set of the data for Roger to help analyze.

Meanwhile, he continued to look through other files that he could understand.

Roger did not expect that merely peeking out of curiosity could stir up such a situation. He sighed, sat down on the couch with the wristband that had the copied data.

After assigning the data-rich and highly technical files to Roger, He Ao began to work through the more text-heavy content.

These files were exceedingly detailed, filled with various reports and experimental records, and even included some internal documents from Stars Pharma. Even with He Ao’s ability to speed read, reviewing these files took up a great deal of his time.

During this time, Ennie finished taking a shower and came out. After glancing over at the two engrossed in reading the materials, she carefully went back to the bedroom.

The entire reading process lasted until about five or six in the morning.

During that time, due to the bracelet running out of battery, He Ao even dug out an old tablet that hadn’t been used in a long time.

By the time he had finished reading all the materials and stretched his body, the sky was already turning a pale white.

At this moment, the desk was covered with various documents and papers, most of which were drafts that Roger had used to verify and cross-check some type of data.

He Ao put down the bracelet, stood up, and went to make two cups of instant coffee, placing one in front of Roger, then yawned and sat back on the couch.

He shuffled through the pile of drafts on the table, picking out the key points he had recorded throughout the night.

Roger looked up at He Ao, dragged his own drafts closer to himself, and then continued to read the materials.

He Ao, holding his coffee, took a sip and looked at the key points he had noted down.

At this point, Ennie’s room door slowly opened, and she, sleepy-eyed, glanced at the two fully focused on reading materials in front of the coffee table, before carefully heading to the kitchen.

He Ao’s gaze still lay on his own handwritten notes.

The reports documented many miscellaneous matters, but the useful content could generally be divided into three parts: "the business of the Research Institute," "Mar’s Plan," and "some miscellaneous notes from Reid."

Understanding the business of the Research Institute required analyzing data materials along with Roger, and He Ao identified two critical points from those documents.

One was that everyone at the Research Institute, including the staff, doctors, and patients, had been contaminated by some unknown force, with longer stays resulting in deeper contamination.

This information came from a report submitted separately to Reid by a researcher with transcendent abilities, which Reid had locked in a supercomputer inside a safe, with only one comment made by Reid, "Resolved."

The issue that was "resolved" was naturally not the contamination, but more likely the person who raised the issue.

When He Ao had seen Kors’s soul previously, he noticed that Kors was contaminated to some extent, which explained his great obsession with the experimental project, and this "contamination" was very likely coming from the Fountain of Youth.

Of course, it could also be coming from Reid, who had been "altered" by the Fountain of Youth.

However, the reports indicated that as long as the exposure time was not too long, the contamination would not be too severe.

While He Ao was reading this, his fully charged bracelet vibrated, a message from Kors: "Did you succeed?"

Because Kors harbored unexpected expectations in his heart, he was quick to react when the Research Institute caught fire, and he managed to escape the institute amidst the chaos successfully.

He also sent a message to He Ao around two or three in the morning the previous night, but at that time, He Ao’s attention was focused on data analysis, so he didn’t see it.

He Ao was also aware that Kors’s messaging him was not genuinely out of concern for his health, but rather, Kors desired the research data from the institute, which had become his obsession.

Previously, when the data was in Reid’s hands, it was a core secret, and it was certain that Reid would not share it. But now that He Ao held the data, it was not particularly precious to him.

Getting the data from He Ao was much easier than getting it from Reid, and this was why he was willing to help He Ao.

Since it was impossible to achieve his goal by any means, it was better to take a risk on the one with a higher probability of success.

After a night of reading, He Ao had already roughly determined that without the Consortium and the Fountain of Youth, Mar’s Plan could not proceed.

He thought for a moment, then replied, "I still have some things to handle in the next two days. Someone will contact you in a couple of days."

There was no immediate reply from the other end, and after a while, a single word was sent back, "Okay."

After responding to Kors, He Ao turned off the bracelet.

He returned his gaze to his manuscript and continued reading.

Another critical point He Ao noted about the business of the Research Institute was that it was the final place where the Life Elixir was formulated.

The method of formulation was related to the silver metallic boxes placed inside those "volunteers."

It seemed that those metallic boxes were not solely for containing "small organs."

Apart from the Research Institute, there was also an abundance of Mar’s Plan materials in the documents.

First and foremost, the leader of Mar’s Plan was a person codenamed "Doctor." In several of Reid’s reports and research materials on Mar’s Plan, this "Doctor" was mentioned, and multiple times it was stressed that without the "Doctor," there would be no Mar’s Plan as it is now.

From this, it could be inferred that "Doctor" seemed to be the key person driving Mar’s Plan, and it was highly likely that he had a deep connection with the Fountain of Youth.

Secondly, these materials subtly mention the manufacturing method of ’Strengthening Potion’:

By extracting and purifying the blood of a powerful exotic beast through some special method and then mixing it into some Life Elixir, a potion can be created that forcibly enhances one’s strength.

The Strengthening Potion can be injected or consumed directly, but drinking it causes strong burning sensations in the esophagus and stomach,

However, that is as far as the information on the Strengthening Potion goes; there is no related crafting process or data.

Besides the aforementioned points, these materials also mention the manufacturing method of ’Life Elixir’.

A certain amount of ’Qi’ and ’Fountain of Life’ are mixed at a ratio of one to two, and then sent to the Research Institute for special mixing.

The ’Fountain of Life’ mentioned here is guessed by He Ao to be the Fountain of Youth after some sort of dilution treatment.

And ’Qi’ should be the ’Qi’ from Martial Arts, as He Ao guessed.

However, contrary to He Ao’s original assumption, this ’Qi’ does not come from any Martial Artist; these research materials mention that the Qi comes from some ’giant machinery’ capable of producing ’Qi’.

He Ao had once seen a book on Martial Arts in the underground library of Elijah, authored by one of the founders of Stars Pharma, so it was understandable to him that Stars Pharma could cultivate Martial Artists.

But the idea of a ’machine’ that produces ’Qi’ puzzled him.

He vaguely felt the need to go and see this ’machine’.

In addition to this Qi-producing ’machine’, the materials also mentioned another item of interest to He Ao, the ’test tube’ containing Life Elixir.

The document says they are ’custom test tubes’ crafted with pieces of the Soul Devouring Pearl mixed in.

There is no explanation of what the Soul Devouring Pearl is, but He Ao couldn’t help but think of those marbles he had found in the hospital.

He reached out and touched those marbles, which were filled with a faint purple mist inside the translucent beads.

This ’marble’, it seems, is used for collecting souls.

"Ah!"

At this moment, Roger stretched with a long yawn, grabbed the coffee beside him and gulped it down before letting out a belch, "This workload is too heavy. The last time I had to analyze so much data was the previous time."

"Listening to you is just like hearing a confession."

He Ao laid the manuscript he was holding on the table, "You could have used a computer to assist with the calculation."

"For some data analysis, computers aren’t necessarily faster than me,"

Roger stood up, stretched, and made a series of cracking sounds from his body.

"How did it turn out?"

He Ao took a sip of his coffee and asked softly.

"I figured out the best formulas for cultivation and the best timing and methods for mixing Life Elixir, something the Research Institute hasn’t done yet. But I know that’s not where your interest lies,"

Roger plopped back down on the couch, casting the projection from his wristband onto the table,

"Summing up what the Research Institute has done, it boils down to a few points, the most important of which is," he raised a finger, "this Research Institute is a ’large organ cultivation factory’."

"Hmm?"

He Ao lifted his head.

"I know you must have deduced this conclusion by now, so let me tell you more specifics,"

Roger said slowly, "The organ cloning technology developed by Stars Pharma is quite interesting. They use something called ’Fountain of Life’ to infuse non-viable cloned organs with life, making them ’viable’.

"However, this method can’t be used just like that; it requires infusing the Fountain of Life into the organ before it grows into its normal shape and then implanting the organ into a living person’s body so that the living person can sustain the organ."

This answer wasn’t too surprising for He Ao, who quietly asked, "Does this behavior have any effect on the person sustaining the organ?"

"It reduces lifespan,"

Roger said calmly, "Disregarding the ’cloned organ’ damaging the normal organ and the increased risk of illness due to foreign bodies within the host, after sustaining an organ, the host’s lifespan significantly decreases."

He Ao: "Do we have specific figures for the decline?"

"Taking the heart as an example, an organ that requires long periods of intense function, it takes about three months to raise a cloned heart until it passes the crucial growth stage," Roger leaned on the sofa, looking out at the gradually brightening sunshine,

"According to data from the Research Institute, the direct reduction in lifespan caused in these three months is roughly 5-10 years. Most donors see a reduction of about 8 years. Of course, this is without accounting for complications and damage from the loss of their own organs. Including these two factors, the average lifespan reduction is around 12 years."

However, transplanting this cloned heart to the original clone host can only increase their lifespan by 2-5 years.

In this moment, He Ao suddenly understood what the term ’lifespan exchange efficiency’ in the report meant.

If you calculate based on the maximum wear, twelve years converts to two years, with a maximum loss of over 80%.

This is essentially a transaction: the Research Institute asks the poor to cultivate ’organs’ for them, and the so-called ’subsidies’ they provide are actually purchase fees, buying the life of the poor.

They buy life from the poor and then resell it to the rich.

He Ao opened up the report on ’lifespan exchange efficiency’ to show Roger.

Roger looked at the report somewhat perplexed, then gradually, his expression became grave, "This is..."

"Trading life."

He Ao said calmly.

He glanced at the Soul Devouring Pearl in his hand; there was a high probability that such pearls existed within the Research Institute, and likely, the souls of those volunteers would be ’taken’ after their lives were exhausted.

Roger fell into a brief silence, not knowing how to describe his feelings at the moment.

He instinctively felt that such things should be unreasonable, but he was startled to realize that in some sense they were ’reasonable.’

He sighed and sat back down on the sofa, "They can’t find work, they have no future, they can’t bear the burdens of life, they can’t repay their loans or support their children, so they are forced to sell their lives for a meager income in order to survive the current crisis. As for the future, it’s no longer something they can consider."

In his years as an underground doctor, he had seen many people who, unable to survive, were forced to take risks and do dangerous things. What they did wasn’t much different from ’selling life.’

But none of those things made him feel as uncomfortable as ’trading life’ did.

He quickly realized the source of his discomfort.

Those who took desperate risks were after all a minority, but this ’trade of life’ could be scaled up, like industrial products quickly expanding across the entire Federation.

If such a practice truly spread, countless desperate people would inevitably step into this ’life shop’ to sell their lives cheaply.

The consortiums would undoubtedly, like vampires, purchase these ’lives’ at the lowest price and then sell them at a high price.

And those who had nothing left and were burdened with heavy loans had no other choice.

Having seen such schemes before, Roger could almost foresee the consortiums pushing those who had not yet fallen into despair even further into it, to secure the ’lowest price’ lives.

The birth of this ’trade’ could plunge countless desperate people into even deeper despair.

Roger subconsciously felt that the world shouldn’t be this way, but he was starkly aware of his own powerlessness.

In the present, where development of artificial organ cloning was limited, this ’trade of life,’ which could generate massive profits, was bound to be vigorously promoted by the consortiums.

The world shouldn’t be this way, but he couldn’t change it.

His power was not enough to challenge behemoths like Stars Pharma, let alone the Consortium Alliance that might be united with it.

"Dad, Uncle Roger, we could approach the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

A soft voice came from behind, Roger turned around and saw Ennie standing behind the sofa with a plate of egg sandwiches in her hand.

She didn’t know how long she had been standing there, but she seemed to have heard the conversation between He Ao and Roger.

Roger rubbed his brow, unsure of how to respond to his newly recognized ’little niece.’

He knew all too well what the Federal Bureau of Investigation would care about and what they wouldn’t.

But He Ao looked up, gazing into his daughter’s eyes. In those pretty light brown eyes, there was a glint of bright light.