Chapter 146 - 136 The First Person to Eat Crab

Lille had dedicated nearly every minute and second of his time to constructing a new auxiliary heart based on Lizard Serum.

As it was still unknown what the difference in the flow of time between the two worlds would become, he had to hurry to get this device done.

Overall, its structure was quite simple and could essentially be seen as a minor modification to the original prosthetics.

Although technology in 2011 didn’t offer much in the way of bioplastics, if done well, it was possible to hide those small components that would cause a massive immune reaction inside the auxiliary heart.

Designing was a complex process, but the real trouble was how to implement the modifications:

The prosthetics were directly in the body, and naturally, the modifications had to be made inside the body too— but who would perform the surgery?

Lille came up with a method: performing the surgery on himself.

He wouldn’t lose consciousness or sanity due to the pain from the surgery, which was a rather advantageous condition.

Secondly, he had a rather advanced spinal prosthetic installed in his body which, if handled well, could almost control every nerve in his body.

He thought of the only way: to preset some programs, then create a behavior chip, and execute the surgery in a semi-automatic fashion.

However, this meant he had to transport the Cyberpunk World’s prosthetic surgeon’s glove over—

Eliminating those replaceable tools and expansion parts, and ensuring functionality, the glove’s total weight was 500g, thanks to Lille’s initial choice of a glove instead of replacing the entire arm.

Nevertheless, the available Technology Points were still not enough.

Consequently, Lille spent a vast amount of time cramming genetic engineering knowledge and spent an entire day in Professor Conner’s lab, successfully cultivating a second transgenic frilled lizard.

[Basic Theoretical Knowledge Acquired: Molecular Biology (Professor Conner)]

[Reward Technology Points: 100]

[Practical Engineering Technique Acquired: Cross-Species Gene Modification (Professor Conner)]

[Reward Technology Points: 100]

[First Completion of Cross-Species Gene Modification]

[Reward Technology Points: 200]

[Current Technology Points: 620]

All day, Hammond, Peter, and Professor Conner watched as Lille transformed from a beginner in this field into an expert.

Not just an expert, without any assistance from others, Lille smoothly completed the synthesis of the Pharmaceutical and injected the frilled lizard.

Conner did not provide Lille with any guidance in engineering, but Lille learned quickly and performed to a high standard.

The second frilled lizard ate its first meal after its genetic modification, and Hammond said blankly, "Uh... Boss, I should probably call you boss now.

Are you really... a high school dropout?"

Of course not—Lille said to himself inside. Strictly speaking, his highest educational qualification was higher than anyone present.

However, times of war and times of peace were hardly comparable.

Lille spread his hands, "Of course—you have to admit there are geniuses in this world. We can use this frilled lizard for publicity or as an additional observational sample."

"Okay..." Hammond said resentfully, "Good thing I didn’t choose to pursue further education back then, it would have been pointless anyway; it’s all innate."

"That’s enough." Lille took off his gloves, "Let’s get a report on the situation."

Hammond was the first to report, "I’ve found sellers for the experimental equipment, and thanks to Professor Conner’s influence, the purchasing permits for these devices have been easier to obtain.

However, transportation will take a few days. We can first consult with the engineering team about expanding the zoo and laboratory.

I have some candidates in mind, but you said you had other arrangements, boss."

Lille nodded and gestured for the next report.

Professor Conner was second to report, looking quite troubled.

"The experiment has been reported to the school, and there’s no issue with the ethical review, but the problem is I can’t find any volunteers."

As expected.

Donating blood is rare, to begin with, let alone bone marrow donations.

And as for organ donations... those are even harder to come by than marrow.

Asking hospitals or donors to give up the chance to save patients, to send precious organs to the laboratory for research?

They didn’t have such influence—if there was more time, maybe someone would have been willing, but not now.

"No worries, I’ve found some."

Lille took out several signed volunteer donation agreements—

"You might know I have some influence in Hell’s Kitchen. I had my people talk about this in the community, and we have a total of six donors."

This is where the benefits of being kind came into play.

Rich people could use money to bring others over, but those people are mostly compelled by desperation to do such things.

If you improve people’s lives, then you don’t need to worry about finding volunteers at all.

Not to mention, Skye, John, and Anthony, as well as their families, were willing to volunteer—though using Skye’s marrow for experiments might raise other issues.

Conner’s eyes revealed his surprise, and so did Hammond’s—his esteem for Lille had just gone up another notch.

This boss had vision.

Solving problems with money was a simple and crude method, and quite blunt.

As a dreamer who had been poor for a long time, Hammond appreciated Lille’s method of finding volunteers much more.

In his eyes, using money to get people to do things was no different from getting a woman with money; he didn’t disdain the act, but he preferred to attract women by his own merit.

Although he wasn’t very good at this.

Lille continued, "Regarding the construction team, there has been widespread unemployment among workers recently, with Hell’s Kitchen being particularly hard-hit.

After the incident with United Construction Company, another batch of people was laid off. We can recruit workers from among these people.

As for qualified contractors, you just need to post an ad in the newspaper, and you’ll get a whole bunch of companies on the brink of closure knocking on your door. I don’t need to teach you that, do I?"

"So... we find a contractor and then ask them to recruit temporary workers from the unemployed in Hell’s Kitchen?

Interesting idea, boss, you should form a union yourself."

Lille then brought out another document, pointing to a line on it: Hell’s Kitchen Workers’ Mutual Aid Association.

"In fact, I’m already on it. In collaboration with the NYPD, I’ve hired a few unemployed electricians. Now, by adding a few construction workers, we can register such a union.

The ctOS system will sort and select workers that meet our criteria, and you can conduct further interviews.

Then I need you to communicate with the president of this mutual aid association; he’s a newbie, but I think he has some potential."

And this president of the union was the very Anthony who loved to give speeches.

Hammond nodded again in admiration.

"Boss, you’d make a great CEO if you didn’t focus on research and ran the company full-time."

Lille smiled, "Any more questions?"

Conners and Hammond exchanged glances and shook their heads.

There was virtually no confusion or uncertainty about the bigger picture. Working in such a team was reassuring and motivating; they just wanted to dive right into the next phase of work.

"If there are no questions, let’s adjourn. Professor Conners, Peter, let’s do another sample on the new subject."

Peter, however, raised his hand: "Um... sir, will this take a long time?"

Lille thought for a moment and said, "It’s four o’clock now, We should finish by five-thirty, six at the latest. Do you have plans?"

"I am attending a dance—the graduation season, you know, there are lots of events."

"Then let’s be fast—" Lille stood up from his seat and put on his gloves and mask again, "You can’t miss events during the graduation season, professor, we shall not take a break."

Professor Conner smiled as well, "If I didn’t know better, I would think you were the one going to the event—ever thought about returning to campus?"

Lille shrugged his shoulders, beginning to work with the machinery: "I am already on a campus, friends with shared visions, researching meaningful things together. Can there be a better campus life than this?

Peter—get the electron microscope up and running."

Lille took a sample and placed it into the electron microscope.

Peter watched Lille, who was engrossed in his work, with envy welling up inside—

He was still too young and didn’t have enough knowledge to support him in participating in research; he could only do the menial tasks.

If only he could do more.

"Sir, how do you manage to be so... perfect?"

Lille, looking through the electron microscope, was taken aback by the question, looking at Peter oddly: "Perfect?"

Peter realized he had used a strange choice of words and immediately said, "No, not that. I mean, you always seem to be so enthusiastic and energetic..."

What Professor Conners considered a setback, Lille saw as a milestone;

When there were problems purchasing subjects for experimentation, Lille simply bamboozled the other side into handing over both their people and territory;

Even with a limited time to live, Lille never showed even a hint of impatience or lose his composure—

In contrast, he himself seemed to be in a constant state of anxiety and worry, frequently becoming gloomy within minutes.

But after all... if they were to compare, his issues seemed to be nothing compared to Lille’s!

Lille patted Peter, "You’re young, so you’re more focused on what you don’t have yet.

But look around you, don’t you already have many things others can only dream of? A rich heir as a brother, outstanding grades, an internship opportunity that others can’t even beg for... there’s so much.

Have some confidence in yourself."

Peter just nodded. His uncle often said the same to him.

But like all teenagers, he felt as if he was taking it in, but that was only what he thought.

Watching Lille bend over the monitor again, he spoke up, "Sir, do you think human experimentation would accelerate the development of the Lizard Potion?

I mean, the sooner we finish development, the more people we could potentially save."

This time, Lille didn’t look up, just said, "It would—but rashly ignoring ethics under uncertain circumstances will only lead to more severe consequences.

We won’t undertake human experimentation lightly, because even sacrificing a single life is serious.

The first person to eat a crab is considered brave, but as scientists, we should try to understand as much about the crab before we eat it."

A young volunteer sacrificing himself for an experiment is a memorable thing.

But like in the Cyberpunk World, with hundreds of thousands sent into laboratories to test various technologies on disabled soldiers, they are just a statistic.

The two scenarios seem worlds apart, yet the relationship is quite subtle.

You can put people on the test bench in extremely unsafe experimental conditions, and of course, you can send up the second person, and everyone will follow suit.

Breaking the ethical bottom line is very hard to mend.

Peter strongly agreed.

But his subconscious focused more on the notion: the first person willing to volunteer must be a hero with a great spirit of sacrifice.

The first person to eat a crab is always very brave.