Chapter 12: Countdown [II]

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"The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong."

-Carl Jung

Word Count 1171

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[5 Days Remaining to K-Day]

"The day Trespasser brings ruin and destruction upon San Francisco Bay is nigh." I concluded before turning my utmost attention to the petri dishes, test tube racks, and all other laboratory apparatuses.

To the other side of the workbench, were incubators meant to preserve some samples of tissue culture.

I know you might be wondering what I was dabbling in... right?

Anything that I simply had my eyes on would surely be something very interesting.

During those past months, my work hours and entire focus hadn't been only on the production of giant robots.

After I was introduced into the world of [Advanced Genetic Engineering], I just couldn't keep my curious hands and avidity at bay.

I had wanted to mess around with biology.

"Biology is life and life is biology." I murmured nearly incomprehensibly to myself.

See? I had already entered the sage mode.

Biology encompassed everything on the planet.

We breathed in biology and at the same time, breathed it out.

What nonsense am I on about?

Anyway, my research in the futuristic laboratory facility had been centered around the biological immortals of nature - the invertebrates.

How could I resist such scientific mysteries that awaited my able hands to work on them?

From the cnidarians especially the Hydras to the Immortal jellyfish... My humble laboratory now had them.

When you talk about immorality what comes into your mind? It's Jellyfish, right?

Humans or almost multicellular organisms are subject to cellular aging and that also included me.

The immortal jellyfish had a unique type of immortality that involved age regression like some typical Manhwa regressor-type of main characters.

They could cheat apoptosis but the True Death-kun is who? They could still die from other factors such as predation from other hunters.

They were heavily favored by nature to be able to perform selective reversion - trans-differentiation.

Their cellular behavior made me randomly think about a certain blue slime.

Anyway, the Immortal jellyfish wasn't the true undying overlord when it came to avoiding the shiny scythe of the grim reaper.

We have another guy named the Hydra.

The name itself made me think about many things.

First, I thought about the Nine-Headed Hydra in the Greek Mythology that Hercules fought with.

The other one was the Alien terrorist from space, the God King of Titans, the true Alpha predator, the one who predates nature itself - King Ghidorah.

King Ghidorah's physical appearance looked similar to those of a Nine-Headed Hydra except for the bat-like wings.

King Ghidorah also had the ability to regenerate its heads incase of decapitation.

And he was biologically immortal like all other titans. Those guys could casually stay alive from the mesozoic era to the modern day.

I knew I wasn't the first one to dabble in experimentation and research about these oddities of nature.

Dr. Curtis Conners from Marvel after losing an arm tried to look for ways to recover his amputated arm and in the process, he put all of his energy on researching the reptilian DNA.

Poor guy used himself as the first test subject of the supposed successful serum, only to turn into a big lizard.

Learning from the mistakes of these genius scientists, I didn't rush in my experimentation especially when the results of my findings might truly turn me into a hybrid or a hideous monster.

I had all types of reptilian and arthropodic organisms harvested over the course of the 10 months to act as my referential specimen.

Something like immortality was going to be a long-term project and could not be blindly rushed.

But there was a project that I was able to finish in no time and that was the replication of spider silk threads that are stronger than steel itself.

I had collected a cluster of golden orb weaver spiders around millions of them just to farm those silk.

Honestly, it was a pointless endeavor that would prove unhelpful to me since I was a walking bulletproof. Even plasma lasers could barely penetrate my defense. But a nuke could ultimately vaporize me.

With the increase in my stats to superhuman levels, I could effortlessly react to hypersonic bullet attacks from my battle drones model.

My urge for sleep became negligible; maybe due to my superhuman endurance levels or elevation of biological functions.

I took one of the corked test tubes from the rack and lifted it to my eye level.

"T-308..." I confirmed the label on it.

T-308 was a T-Virus variant that I had developed from its progenitor.

I had bioengineered the serum to maintain most of its positive effects like how Umbrella Corporation did during Project Alice but... there were still a little bit of side effects.

Saying it was only a little bit was an understatement.

It was a big problem.

The test subjects I had once used aka rats didn't provide me with what I needed.

They couldn't handle the potency of the variant strains. They would just burst 'poof' like balloons.

And... I had to resort to human subject experimentation.

I had no qualms or an inhibitory factor like morality to stop me from my further studies.

When it came to my knowledge acquisition, humans were no different from pigs.

But I didn't choose children or the elderly since their immune systems weren't eligible for such torturous experimentations.

The sudden disappearance of men and women from all over the world aged between 18-35 would forever remain a mystery to the people.

"It's truly sad that most of them couldn't survive. And those capable of survival all retained 24-hours normalcy before undergoing cellular necrosis and bleeding from all their orifices." I sighed in disappointment before putting the test tube back on the rack.

"Was biological research always this stressful? It truly doesn't compare to the world of binary and physics that I mostly like."

"The T-308 would have to be modified again." I crossed my arms while having a contemplative look.

Chemical formulas and equations at a cellular level danced around in my mind as I tried to come up with a solution.

"Oh silly me, I still don't have a shirt on." When I failed to arrive at the correct formula, it was then that I realized I was still shirtless.

I probably looked weird with only a white lab coat and casual pants covering my body.

I returned the lab coat on its hanger as I immediately summoned a shirt from the inventory and started wearing it while leaving the lab.

I needed to calm my mind. Maybe take a high speed ride around the city with my new wheels - A nuclear-powered Harley with an arc reactor for engine.

This baby was a natural speed demon!

A last tour of San Francisco wouldn't hurt, right?

And maybe… just maybe I would be inspired to devise new working theories that would help me in the long run.

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End Note:

You can throw Powerstones at me.(I am an... M)

also send me your reviews on the story.