I Have A Super USB Drive

by <unknown>

  "Yes, my second uncle has a son and a daughter. My parents should have their numbers. I'll ask my parents now…"

  The police officer nodded.

  After a few hours of making his statement, Chen Chen left the police station and returned to the hospital.

  As soon as Chen Chen returned to the ward, Chen Chen's father asked anxiously, "What's going on? Little Chen, what happened to your second uncle and aunt?"

  "It's just an accident, nothing serious. Perhaps the police are even mistaken?"

  Chen Chen frowned. "Just take care of Mom now. We'll wait for an update from the police."

  "That…"

  Chen Chen's father only felt flustered. "Could it be that the police made a mistake and it was another car that had an accident?"

  "That must be it."

  Chen Chen nodded and comforted his father. "Dad, don't worry. God looks out for those who are good. They must be fine."

  "But… But why can't I reach them on the phone?"

  Chen Chen's father did not relax after Chen Chen's words. Instead, he became even more frantic as he paced around the room.

  "Maybe both of them turned off their phones. After all, there's so much pressure in modern society. It's common to turn off your phone when there's nothing to do to find your peace of mind."

  Chen Chen slowly walked to his mother's bed and peeled an orange for her. "Mom, are you feeling better now?"

  "I'm completely fine. Just take care of your dad now. Look at how he's panicking…" Chen Chen's mother could not stand it.

  "What's the big deal?"

  Chen Chen's lips twitched and he suddenly beamed. "Oh right, didn't Second Aunt want to borrow a million from us for business? I'll agree to that."

  "Ah, Little Chen, it's not easy for you to make money either. You'd really agree?"

  His mother asked worriedly.

  "Sure, why wouldn't I agree?"

  Chen Chen chuckled. "Mom, I'm not that stingy. Plus, this money can be left to my cousin, Chen Shan. With this sum, she won't have to worry about her future anymore."

  "My child, how can you say that…"

  Chen Chen's mother immediately understood what Chen Chen was implying and could not help but chastise him.

  Chen Shan was the youngest daughter of Chen Chen's second uncle. She was the same age as Chen Chen but was a little younger. When they were kids, she had also played with Chen Chen and she had not inherited her mother's shrewish temper.

  Then, as they grew up, the relationship between the two turned distant due to years of separation. Now Chen Chen had not seen his cousin for about four or five years.

  Chen Chen's second uncle also had an eldest son, who was 28 years old this year. Still, Chen Chen was not close to him, so naturally, he would not have any share of the money.

  At this point, Chen Chen looked at his father, who was still fretting endlessly and shook his head.

  Chen Chen's loving, righteous father surely did not know that his second brother and sister-in-law had died long ago. Not only that, but they were also cremated on the spot. Their ashes were probably already scattered by the wind.

  …

  A few days later, Chen Chen's father still had to come to terms with this cruel fact.

  After attending the funeral, Chen Chen once again persuaded his parents to go to Namibia for a holiday.

  Chen Chen's parents hesitated for a while before they agreed.

  After all, it was a city built by their own son. Now that they were invited, as parents, they had every reason to visit the place where their son was making a living. Anyway, they were not going to stay there permanently.

  Thus, Chen Chen rested at home for a month, then returned to Namibia again and settled down with his parents.

  To allow his parents to use the Medpod 3000, Chen Chen even deliberately disguised the Medpod 3000 as a CT machine and repaired his parents' bodies under the pretext of a physical examination.

  The restoration provided by the Medpod 3000 was much more advanced than any health-preservation technique owned by Chen Chen. In only one day, Chen Chen's parents transformed from their 50s to their 30s at a speed that was almost visible to the naked eye.

  Even so, on second thought, Chen Chen still used a memory eraser to erase a short period of memory in his parents, making them think that they had undergone the "Age-reversal Treatment Project".

  Nonetheless, Chen Chen's parents were still shocked when they saw their younger faces. Chen Chen said that, if they wanted, he could perform this kind of surgery on his parents' relatives for free, including Chen Chen's paternal and maternal grandmothers.

  Of course, Chen Chen's parents were one hundred percent in favor of this.

  After fulfilling his wish to treat his parents, Chen Chen finally felt relieved.

  With the Medpod 3000's restoration, Chen Chen's parents' bodies had reached their best condition, which was equivalent to extending the lifespan of an ordinary person by 20 years.

  Of course, the effects of repairing the body once or twice with the Medpod 3000 were not very obvious. What was truly formidable about this machine was that it could perpetually preserve the human body in an optimal state of health.

  Therefore, repairing the body once a month or even once a week, was the best form of maintenance. After all, as long as the body was kept in its best condition for a long time, one's lifespan would naturally become longer.

  For example, the wealthy in Elysium could easily live past 250 years.

  Chapter 265: Sirolimus |

  Over in Namibia, various orders for laser components required by Chen Chen had already been sent out but it would take a long time to receive the said orders for now. After all, Chen Chen needed high-precision laser lenses and other such components.

  Each of these components was extremely valuable, so their production time was naturally extremely lengthy.

  Chen Chen assigned bodyguards to accompany his parents in their travels around Namibia and he once again went to the Spire Experimental Base.

  In the month that Chen Chen was absent, Little X had performed an injection experiment with the modified T-virus.

  However, unfortunately, in that experiment, Chen Chen's clone could not withstand this modified T-virus at all and directly became a zombie.

  Presently, Chen Chen was looking into the isolated room. A fully rotting, aimlessly wandering zombie that looked almost identical to Chen Chen was in there. Chen Chen felt like crying and laughing at the same time.

  "Sir Godfather, after this zombie was fused with the T-virus, we've checked his DNA and found three errors in total."

  Little X's voice rang out, "Now that these three errors have been corrected and these corrections have been implemented in a virus numbered T-002, should I conduct a second experiment?"

  "Go ahead."

  Chen Chen nodded. T-002 was the name Little X gave to this modified version of T-virus. The original full name of the T-virus was Tyrant-Virus. Chen Chen's first genetically modified version of the T-virus was thus named T-001 accordingly.

  T-001 was later reported to have failed. After improvement, it became the current T-002.

  Just then, Chen Chen suddenly asked again, "By the way, how many of my clones are left?"

  "Do you mean the clones that haven't been injected with T-virus?"

  Little X said, "Back then, you made a total of five cloned fertilized eggs that were fused with T-virus and five cloned fertilized eggs that were not. Now, there are four clones left that have been fused with T-virus and three normal clones that haven't been injected with T-virus."

  "Three?"

  Chen Chen pondered. "Make ten more normal clones. After all, the incubation of normal clones takes half a year. Incubating them in advance will prevent a future shortage of clones."

  "Understood."

  After Little X agreed, several Black Knight assistants immediately stepped forward, opened a life incubator, and took out a clone of Chen Chen.

  After strapping this clo
ne to a stretcher and connecting various life-sustaining equipment, a Black Knight took out the modified T-virus that had already been prepared and injected it directly into the clone.

  "The clone's blood pressure is normal…"

  "Heartbeat is normal…"

  "The brain waves are in a normal sleeping state — delta waves. The frequency is 1-3Hz, the amplitude is about 20-200μV..."

  Little X kept reporting the readings of the clone's body. Chen Chen was also watching silently from the side with his arms crossed.

  However, over time, the physiological characteristics of the clones began to change.

  "The body temperature of the clone is rising sharply and its immune system is starting to function. It's competing with the T-virus for control of the body!"

  "The blood pressure of the clone is rising rapidly. The current systolic blood pressure is 180mmHg and the diastolic blood pressure is 140mmHg!"

  "The heart rate has accelerated to 120 beats per minute and it's still rising!"

  Two or three hours passed in this manner.

  "Oh no, the clone's heartbeat has stopped. His immune system has collapsed and he's transforming into a zombie!"

  The second experiment had still failed.

  As Chen Chen observed all this silently, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration. "By the way, have you tried using immunosuppressive agents on the clones?"

  "Immunosuppressive agents?" Little X asked in surprise.

  "That's right."

  Chen Chen nodded. "I've been thinking about why our customized T-virus cannot be fused with the experimental subject. Apart from genetic problems, is there a certain hindrance from the immune system?

  "It's like when there's a newly implanted human organ. Various immunosuppressants are needed to reduce the possibility of rejection and increase the survival rate of the implanted organ. And if there's no assistance from immunosuppressants, the newly implanted organ would be rejected because of the immune system's attack."

  Chen Chen continued to explain, "The same goes for this T-virus. After all, this virus is customized based on my genes. It stands to reason that there shouldn't be such a violent response. Then is it possible that it's because the immune system is resisting too intensely?

  "If an immunosuppressive agent is used, could we reduce the intensity of the conflict between the immune system and the T-virus in the body, so that the body could last longer?"

  "We can try that."

  Little X replied, "So do you want to start the third experiment right now?"

  "Let's do that. As for the choice of immunosuppressive agents…"

  Chen Chen thought for a while. "Let's try sirolimus first and use it in conjunction with cyclosporin A and FK506."

  "Got it!"

  Sirolimus was a compound that was first isolated from a bacteria unique to Easter Island. With the emergence of antibiotics at that time, a collective search for new antibiotics had just begun in human society.

  At that point, the act of searching for various bacterial drugs was called a "scientific expedition". There were many scientific expedition teams all over the world, who aimed to collect mud from all over the world, then separate microorganisms and microbial secondary metabolites to find new antibiotics.

  In 1964, one such scientific expedition team came to Easter Island.

  After this group of scientific research personnel arrived on the island, they quickly discovered that the residents on the island were barefoot and reared many horses.

  Since they were barefoot, they would sustain frequent injuries to the soles of their feet. Moreover, horse dung contained a lot of bacteria and viruses, and raising horses would greatly increase one's chances of contracting tetanus. However, after investigation, this scientific research team found that the residents of Easter Island did not have any infections.

  Could it be that there was a new type of antibiotic on this island?

  Therefore, the scientific expedition team began to dig up mud and collect soil samples.

  Even so, when this group of people walked past the stone statues on Easter Island, they found that there was a piece of ground at the foot of the statues that was in shadow all year round. One of them collected a handful of the soil. After inspection upon his return, he found that the soil had antibacterial effects.

  Thus sirolimus was discovered.

  Subsequently, sirolimus went through several crises. First, as an antibiotic, it was found to have the side effects of suppressing immunity. After that, it was noticed by surgeons and finally, its true role was realized — a superior immunosuppressive agent with fewer side effects.

  However, since 2006, many scientists had once again discovered that sirolimus had the ability to extend human lifespan. A large number of laboratories had conducted related studies and discovered that everything from nematodes to worms, to fruit flies and even mammalian mice, would live longer with sirolimus!

  The most notable of these was the research on mice. Experiments had found that for white mice that were close to death, taking sirolimus had the effect of forcibly extending their lifespan, which almost no drug could accomplish.

  The specific function of sirolimus was that it could slow down the hardening of tendons and the degeneration of liver function, two factors that were precisely the two major signs of aging.

  Scientists had also discovered that the restriction of calorie intake could delay cell aging to a certain extent. A series of human bodily reactions would switch the body to a state akin to a "low-speed gear", allowing more energy to be conserved for long-term survival. Sirolimus could perform a similar role…

  Chapter 266: Lucky |

  In 2009, Nature magazine had published several theses on sirolimus.

  A group of scientists separated nearly 2,000 twenty-month-old white mice which were the equivalent of a sixty-year-old human into two groups. One of the groups was fed with food mixed with sirolimus.

  The results of the experiment proved to be rather surprising. The average lifespan of the group of mice which ingested sirolimus displayed an increase of 14% over the other group.

  In the last century, scientists discovered two methods for prolonging the lifespan of mammalian species. The first method is by "repairing" the genes while the second method was by monitoring their diet, lowering their fat intake.

  Needless to say, the gene repairing solution was only viable with the assistance of devices like the Medpod 3000.

  The purpose of reducing fat intake was to minimize the activation of a protein molecule known as TOR.

  TOR was a signal molecule naturally produced by the human body. Its purpose was to regulate the growth of each cell of the eukaryotes. When TOR was activated, it caused the cells to synthesize biomolecules. This increased the mass and volume of the cells and also synthesized protein and nucleic acid which led to the cells growing bigger and heavier.

  Assume the human body was a piece of intricate, large machinery. Even if energy could be infinitely drawn from its surroundings, each "component" of the machine would still experience wear and tear over the years. What the activation of TOR did apart from fulfilling the basic needs of life was essentially overclocking the components, causing the machine to age at a faster rate.

  The reason sirolimus was able to extend the lifespan of the mice was very likely due to it "deceiving" the body of the mice, leading them to believe that there was a lowered intake of fats.

  With that said, all of these data were not supported by a proper human clinical trial. All of the applications for conducting a clinical trial on sirolimus' effects of prolonging human lifespan were rejected by the officials.

  Nevertheless, in the duration between 2010 to 2020, there were still the occasional rumors of doctors secretly taking sirolimus.

  However, after a decade had passed, the theory of sirolimus being a "life-extending drug" was once again debunked.

  Clinical Medicine Journal had published a thesis in April of 2020 stating that severely decreased TOR activity
may lead to accelerated aging of the hematopoietic system.

  Simply put, at a cellular level, inhibiting TOR may deceive the body and in turn, slow down the aging process of the human body. However, the hematopoietic system required TOR activity to sustain itself.

  Too much inhibition of TOR directly contributed to the aging of the cell niches in the bone marrow, which led to the aging of hematopoietic stem cell function. It was simply a 'd*mned if you do, d*mned if you don't' situation.

  In truth, Chen Chen had once considered modifying sirolimus or using a combination of drugs to counteract its side effects to procure a specialized drug for prolonging lifespan.

  Later, Chen Chen realized the greater potential in the stem cells sector and how much more impact it had on the human body compared to sirolimus. Therefore, he gave up on the idea of using sirolimus and shifted his focus onto stem cells, which finally led to the birth of the age-reversal treatment project.

  Now, facing the problem of immunosuppression, Chen Chen once again thought of this fabled drug. It was Groundhog Day all over again.

  Over the next half month, Chen Chen selected a clone which he provided with sirolimus, cyclosporine A, and FK506 daily. The three drugs used in combination soon completely suppressed the immune system of the clone.

  After the immune system of the clone had been compromised, Little X extracted the clone and put it on a stretcher.

  This time, the clone was no longer injected with T-002. After two past failures, it was now injected with a newly modified T-003.

  As expected, despite the clone having its immune system completely suppressed, it easily broke the previous record of three hours and twenty-eight minutes set by the previous clone. After being injected with the virus, it remained alive for a whole six hours.

  Apart from that, as there were monumental changes ongoing inside the clone's DNA, Little X was continuously injecting great amounts of nutrients such as glucose and carbohydrates into the clone. This was to prevent the clone from dying from lack of nutrients before it could even succumb to the T-virus.