Chapter 1: The Mysterious Prison

<p>Sewage flowing in rivulets, bacterial colonies sprawling.</p><p>Deep inside an abandoned prison...</p><p><em>Smack!</em></p><p>A clump of cells wrapped in a membrane surprisingly separates from the surface of a corpse.</p><p>The cell cluster is only the size of a human fingertip, its macroscopic appearance like a dollop of white snot.</p><p>This cell clump seems to possess an independent thinking ability and the power to act.</p><p>However, due to the imperfection of the nervous system, it has no five senses.</p><p>But when it comes into contact with external objects, it can obtain basic information about the substance by a special method, namely 'intercellular signal transfer'.</p><p>The separated cell cluster does not stay for long, and begins to move.</p><p>Transcription and translation.</p><p>Generation of actin.</p><p>This fingertip-sized cluster of cells begins an extremely slow 'migration movement', roughly equivalent to the moving speed of a snail.</p><p>"No... It's not perfect, not what I want."</p><p>The cell cluster seems to willingly discard this seemingly complete and strong body, continuing its search throughout the prison...</p><p>If there were a torch providing illumination at this moment.</p><p>You would find that in this gigantic cell, the numbers of bodies discarded by the cell clump reaches hundreds.</p><p>...</p><p>The cell cluster was not formed autonomously.</p><p>It has its own name - Han Dong.</p><p>An overseas Chinese, an associate professor at the Life Science College, University of Florence, he was exactly 31 years old before he became this cell condensate.</p><p>On July 21st, 2018, he died from lung cancer on the sickbed of Florence Central Hospital.</p><p>The hospital room was filled with fresh flowers, however, these flowers were from his students, not family.</p><p>At the moment of death, the torturous illness dissipated, Han Dong instead felt relieved.</p><p>No ascension to heaven or descent into hell, no drinking of the soup of Meng Po, no crossing of the Bridge of Helplessness, or experiencing the so-called cycle of rebirth.</p><p>What greeted him was only endless darkness.</p><p>However, his consciousness persistently existed within this process.</p><p>"Am I dead or not?! After a person dies, the brain continues to maintain activity for five minutes...but it has been an hour since I died, right?"</p><p>Han Dong's sense of 'time' is extremely strong, his conscious breakdown allows him to clearly understand how long it has been since his 'death'.</p><p>Han Dong slowly tries to sense his 'body', who knew, surprisingly, the image of the cell clump appeared in his consciousness.</p><p>Only two things could be done.</p><p>First, from intercellular signal transmission, it can sense the detailed information of the object it touches.</p><p>Second, by generating actin and gaining the ability to move.</p><p>It was then, when Han Dong synthesized actin in a cell for the first time and performed related activity, that a system prompt echoed in his mind.</p><p>"Please select a 'suitable' body from within the prison, the current maximum Load Value is [100].</p><p>If you're not quite satisfied with the selected body, you can send the body to the processing room for cell separation.</p><p>Under a non-cellular state, one cannot move or transfer other prisoner bodies."</p><p>The prompt ends.</p><p>In Han Dong's cognitive layer, a floor plan of the prison is generated.</p><p>Single-storey structure.</p><p>A total of 204 cells.</p><p>The floor plan indicates with light dots and notes, marking every prisoner in each cell, accompanied by the words 'already dead'.</p><p>In addition to that, in the central area of the prison, a red-marked room appeared, named [Administration Room] and it was locked.</p><p>The room where Han Dong was currently was the [Processing Room].</p><p>"A foreign prison? Rebirth after death? What in the world am I?"</p><p>These questions did not perplex Han Dong for long.</p><p>Being at the frontiers of scientific development for a long time, his ability to accept new things is extremely strong.</p><p>In a short time, he realizes that he is an independent group of cells with a protective membrane, yet unclear how such a bunch of cells can sustain life and bear consciousness.</p><p>Cells are the fundamental units of life, sufficiently indicating that he has not died yet.</p><p>"So-called death transmigration happened to me? Moreover, it turned me into a cluster of cells? How ironic."</p><p>Han Dong, dedicated his life to the study of cellular biology, published a paper titled 'Activating and regulating cells through gene encoding' on the international top-level journal Cell half a year ago.</p><p>Han Dong, who was promoted to an associate professor because of his paper, was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer during the teachers' physical examination at the school. His brilliant future was devastated by the relentless growth of cancer cells.</p><p>He who should have passed away and lost consciousness has instead been reborn in the form of a cell clump.</p><p>...</p><p>Without much hesitation and considering that the cell group also needs energy supply for normal activity, the current priority is to find a 'proper' body as instructed by the mysterious system.</p><p>Following the directions on the map.</p><p>Han Dong, using an extremely slow 'crawling' method, heads to the nearest prison cell.</p><p>Moving at a speed almost the same as a snail, it took him an entire day.</p><p>Matching the map in his consciousness to the small light point symbolizing 'himself', he migrated along the shortest path to the adjacent prison cell, coming into contact with a prisoner's corpse for the first time.</p><p>"Thankfully there's a map to guide me, it would have been troublesome otherwise, with the loss of all five senses."</p><p>The moment he touched the corpse.</p><p>A complete human body cross-section diagram surfaced in Han Dong's consciousness, with detailed text annotations that can be viewed at the conscious level.</p><p>Campbell Frank (an underground boxer before death)</p><p>[Head] Inferior, Load value required: 5</p><p>[Left Arm] Common, Load value required: 11</p><p>[Right Arm] Superior, has 'Quick Punch' skill, Load value required: 23</p><p>[Body Trunk] Common, Load value required: 13</p><p>[Left Leg] Common, Load value required: 11</p><p>[Right Leg] Common, Load value required: 14</p><p>A series of data information is fed back to Han Dong's conscious layer.</p><p>"It seems that the prisoner underwent some 'special treatment' before death, which kept the corpse from decomposing and let me take over and control it.</p><p>As per the previous instructions, if I am not satisfied with the body, I can discard it in the 'Processing Room' and choose another one.</p><p>There are many bodies to choose from, it makes sense to use one to understand the current situation."</p><p>"Would you like to acquire 'Campbell Frank's' entire body? Required load value is 77."</p><p>"Yes!"</p><p>In a blink of an eye.</p><p>The cell clump enters the prisoner's body through a 'hole' on the body surface, activates the full body in a short time, and restores vitality.</p><p>First, a buzzing sound resonates in his mind.</p><p>Then, the cold sensation of stone spreads across his body.... indicating that the entire nerve system is connected.</p><p>The simplistic prison cell made of black rocks and steel bars comes into view, vision restored.</p><p>Just as Han Dong was about to investigate and analyze the mysterious prison, to reason why he was reborn, and to delve into the secrets hidden in the prison.</p><p>Buzz! He suddenly freezes.</p><p>Han Dong leans against the wall with one hand, gritting his teeth and letting out a roar!</p><p>"Wow… This guy is an idiot!"</p><p>Han Dong feels very unpleasant after completely taking over [Campbell Frank].</p><p>As a result of the recovery of the five senses that provided environmental information, when he wanted to further process complex data through the brain, there was a serious problem!</p><p>Han Dong, the host consciousness, is the youngest associate professor at the reputable Life Science College, University of Florence, an academic prodigy.</p><p>But consciousness is just consciousness. When consciousness collects data from the senses, formulates related processing formulas, and wants to involve the brain in processing, there is a great problem!</p><p>It's like buying a top-level Eye 2080ti graphics card, yet installing it into a host computer with an old version of the I3 processor CPU.</p><p>What's worse, this processor has been water-damaged!</p><p>As a result of the large amount of introduced data, the system nearly crashes.</p><p>Han Dong can only close his eyes, silently chanting Buddhist scriptures, minimizing the intake of external information and trying to clear his mind as much as possible!</p><p>Otherwise, this idiotic brain will 'burn out' due to the massive influx of data.</p>