Silver Soul

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Chapter 16: Silver Soul

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That's not much in Silver's ridiculously imaginative mind as he was seeking something far far higher than that, but it was a first step.

"Hmm, I feel it," Silver murmured as he approached the rat, lifting his hand to manifest a Silver Effect, instantly attracting the infected rat's attention, staring at him blankly, 'The connection is there, a fleeting connection, that is... Not enough.'

What he failed to mention was that he can control each and every Silver Effect in the rat's body as if it was an extension of his body. If he so wishes, he can kill the rat instantly, but that's not the kind of connection he desires now. It's useful, but he was more interested in the idea of the Hive Mind.

"Not enough," Silver said, "We should expand the testing about tenfold. We will also start isolating other human cells from my cells to observe the differences between them." That's a lot of work.

Silver turned his attention to Natalia, noticing the smirk on her face, "Your face tells me that the clone project is a success?"

"It is... Beyond my expectations, and maybe beyond yours," Natalia nodded as she led him to a chamber to the side, passing by the large containers on the way, "In the containers are some of the confusing failures. I'm still studying why they failed."

"As you said before, usually, zombies never evolve and don't look much different from humans because of a shortage of energy. In fact, the infected cells usually prey on other cells, so zombies usually lose weight before going to hibernation... We didn't face this problem." Natalia explained on the way.

Silver of course knows why, the Silver Effect. It's the only reason why any of these experiments are possible. Speaking of which, his Silver Domain had already allowed him to see through everything in the facility, but he still needed to know the process, something he wasn't present for.

"The cloning project was way easier than expected due to the specialty of the T virus. We started with several silver cells, and as per your calculations, it took about 455 minutes for a single cell to become a clone..." Natalia stated.

Indeed, it took approximately 7.6 hours for a single cell to divide to the point where a was formed, meaning a single cell multiplied into roughly forty trillion cells.

Silver wasn't surprised, not a single bit. It was simple math. If we have a single cell that can divide every 10 minutes and its offspring can also divide independently at the same rate, we can calculate the time it would take for there to be 40 trillion cells.

"It's just that... Well, the first cells we used weren't stable at all. They were old generation T cells, which ended up creating deformities, sometimes just large clumps of flesh. Without exception, all the first experiments were a failure." Natalia further added as she opened the chamber's locked door.

Beyond it was a chamber akin to an interrogation room with bullet-proof glass isolating them from the experimentation subjects which were tied to testing tables, three subjects in total.

"These are the most stable clones, all born out of the cells of Larrious," Natalia explained, and while the once deformed monster Larrious was a very good sample as he was the first monstrous zombie Silver had met, it still wasn't up to Natalia's standards considering there is a better sample right beside her, "The results would've been a thousand times better if we used your stable cells."

"No," Was Silver's simple answer, "My cells will be used only for the rehab project." And he offered no explanation for that as he eyed the three clones through his domain.

They all had about 50% to 80% similarities to Larrious, especially with their monstrous stature, being more than 8 feet tall, not having a single hair on their bodies, and their monstrous nature very similar to that of Larrious.

"Ah, I see," Silver suddenly released a smile, "The virus is becoming more and more like a miracle."

"Have you noticed it?" Natalia's eyes lit up as she passionately started explaining, "Normally, constant division of cells would only continue to make them bigger and even more deformed, but while the division continued, at a certain point, the growth of the clone stopped... The child cells started devouring the mother cells, rinse and repeat."

"Getting rid of the waste, that's what it feels like," Albert commented, "And it seems to be working as the clones' physical readings clearly say that they're just about ten times stronger than a normal human being."

"They're evolving," Silver couldn't help but stroke his chin as he curiously asked, "Did they show any abnormal behavior? Violence? Hunger?"

"None at all," Albert shook his head, "The time we spent setting up all those emergency protocols seems to have been a waste."

"Keep in mind that we used the new stable cells from the rehab project, so that might have something to do with it," Natalia added.

"They only act when they sense danger, an instinct out of self-preservation," Albert continued, "However, they don't respond to our instructions or actions otherwise."

"What we have just done... It's a miracle, a miracle we can't control just yet," Natalia let out a sigh.

"Yet," Silver shook his head, "We need to inject them with a new instinct, an instinct to listen to my commands."

"Easier said than done," Albert shook his head before side-glancing at Silver with anticipation... He was losing himself in research and its beauty, "Unless you have a way?"

"Dogs are typically trained using positive reinforcement techniques, which involve rewarding desired behaviors to encourage their repetition. What the clones desire most is energy, and I can cut it off entirely," Silver responded.

The good thing about smart people is that Silver didn't need to say much for them to understand as Natalia mumbled to herself like a maniac, "We can show them videos of the action we want them to perform and reward them with energy if they do... No, we can do so much more..."

"Is that really good enough?" Albert couldn't help but ask, "They won't be able to perform complex tasks, which if we need manpower is what we need them to do."

"It's enough for now," That might've been something that would've brought a headache to his mind, but Silver just found a way... The Hive Mind, it's an interesting idea.

Now that Silver came back, especially since he brought with him so much manpower and resources, work moved a lot faster, and he locked himself in the labs.

The recent tour around the surrounding towns and villages brought Silver a lot of other benefits that made research that much easier. After all, he had to clean up a lot of zombies amidst the tour.

[Awakening]

[Name: Silver]

[Physiology: Human]

[Physique: 10]

[Soul: 1000]

[Endurance: 100]

[Energy: 11100/11100] (1110*10)

[Awakening Points: 0]

[Awakening Ability: Silver Effect: Unknown Silver energy with unknown effect]

If Silver already had access to his soul before, albeit low-level access, then now as his soul broke through the 1000 mark, his control over his soul felt as natural as his control over his body.

Ah, the feeling of seeing, feeling, sensing your soul, Silver couldn't describe it even if he wanted to, a fascinating experience wouldn't do the experience justice.

And well, Silver being Silver, he started with experimentation on his soul right away, doing something he wanted to do long ago, protecting his soul.

Silver going on a tour all about wasn't out of confidence but out of necessity. He was, in reality, very much afraid of many things. Silver has many fears, and dying is one of them.

So here comes a problem, with so many abilities out there, wouldn't there be mental abilities, maybe abilities that can read his mind or even change it? Silver considers that to be death, so he was always cautious of such things despite his strong soul.

The recent control over his soul allowed him to finally deal with that problem. As Silver discovered, the soul compromises of the soul core at the very center, the inner layer that protects the core, and the outer layer.

Silver assumed that awakeners with mind abilities must have to follow some logic in how they work, needing to interact with other souls to affect them, so what would happen if he put another barrier protecting his soul core... Let's say, for example, the Silver Effect.