The porter said it was a discounted price, but what he quoted was an outright black price. The ticket for a first-class carriage on the light rail was only 350 credit points, and it also came with a food coupon, which could be used to dine in restaurants at stations along the way or directly exchange for pre-prepared meals on the train. And this truck in front of him, which had no service at all and required him to squeeze in with the goods, actually cost 500?
It was obvious that the porter knew he was in a hurry, so he asked for a high price.
"This is really a discounted price. If you don't believe me, you can check it online yourself. The cost of transporting a truckload of furs here is tens of thousands. Since you are on this truck, you are naturally considered to be transporting our goods. Five hundred is not too much, right?" A very inappropriate smile flashed across the porter's honest face.
"Five hundred is five hundred." Ishikawa Teru was about to take out his information terminal to pay, but he changed his mind. If he was wanted, then his payment records would become clues for the security team to track him down. When the time comes, they can find the porter and ask him about his trip to the East Tenth District... If he hasn't found a hiding place in the East Tenth District by then, he's afraid that he will be caught by the security team in a matter of minutes...
He knew the nature of the people in the slums very well. If the guards told them that they could get paid by simply providing the whereabouts of a stranger, those people would sell themselves out without mercy... and might even take the initiative to lead the guards.
The saying that people in the slums are hard to catch only applies to the local "natives", but outsiders like him, in the first few months after arriving, were undoubtedly as eye-catching as a light bulb in the dark night... He also heard that there was a special profession in the slums called "stalking", and these people were particularly attentive to the "new faces" that appeared in their territory. If someone tracked them down here later, these "stalkers" would be happy to exchange the whereabouts of the new faces for supplies or credit points as long as the price was right.
In addition to the criminals wanted by the authorities, those who have fled to the slums include debtors, gang members being hunted by their enemies, and unlucky people who accidentally offended someone they cannot afford to offend... These people of all kinds are pouring into the slums in large numbers every day, and the idle "stalkers" make a living by reselling the information of these people. If they meet someone with "high net worth", they can make a fortune.
Ishikawa Teru thought about it and realized that his current identity was just a member of the return faction organization with no criminal record, so he shouldn't cause the guards to make a big fuss for him, but it's better to avoid trouble that can be avoided.
Ishikawa Teru took his watch, handed it to the porter, and said, "I just realized that I seem to have forgotten to bring my information terminal. This watch will be used to pay for the fare. The extra money will be considered a tip for you."
"Watch?" The porter flipped through the watch and said, "I don't know how much it's worth. Besides, it looks like you've worn it for quite a while, and there are so many scratches on it... Can it be worth five hundred?"
"This is a Seiko mechanical watch. It cost me more than 3,000 credit points when I bought it. It should be worth at least 1,000 now. What? Are you planning to send it for appraisal?" Ishikawa Teru frowned and said unhappily.
"More than three thousand?" The porter swallowed greedily and quickly put the watch into his pocket. "For an upper-class person like you, the one you wear must be genuine. No need to authenticate it. No need to authenticate it. Please find a place to sit down. We will leave in five minutes."
The porter turned around and was about to close the door when he added, as if he remembered something: "Oh, by the way, there are a few things I need to make clear to you. This is a truck and we won't stop on the road, so the carriage won't open again until we reach the terminal. It may be a bit stuffy after a long time, so you have to bear with it. Also, the road may be a bit bumpy, so be careful. We are not responsible if you get bumped into anything... After all, trucks are not allowed to carry people in principle. I am already risking violating the rules and making an exception for you. I hope you won't do anything that would embarrass us."
"I understand." Ishikawa Teru replied casually.
With a bang, the car door was closed and the carriage was plunged into pitch darkness.
Fortunately, Ishikawa Teru was not a stout man, nor did he have the big belly common among middle-aged men. Although the 30-centimeter-wide gap was not spacious, it was not enough to trap him. He groped his way to a relatively clean plastic box, put the bag of bread aside, and took out the information terminal from his pocket.
Turning on the screen, he took one last look at his mailbox and found that he had not received any email from the security team asking him to surrender, which meant that he had not yet been included in the wanted list.
Ishikawa Teru breathed a sigh of relief, took out the chip from the information terminal, and broke it with a "click" - although the information terminal he used was claimed to be anti-tracking and anti-positioning, since it was an information terminal, it would inevitably have to be connected to a communication base station. When the guard team wanted to determine his location, they only needed to see which district's communication base station his information terminal was connected to.
Accompanied by a burst of alarm bells, the freight train began to slowly accelerate and drove out of the station. The inertia at the start caught Ishikawa Teru off guard and he bumped his head on the box opposite, and a big bump appeared on his forehead. Compared with the advanced light rail with built-in cushioning devices and adaptive seats, the structure of this industrial freight train is so simple that it can be described as rough.
But it's also true that for this kind of cargo transportation, as long as it is fast, strong enough and has a large carrying capacity, other issues are not even within the scope of consideration.
Although he had been mentally prepared, the uncomfortable feeling when the carriage started to shake still made Ishikawa Teru feel miserable... During the two and a half hour ride, he felt as if half of his life was shaken off. He vomited four times along the way. Not only were the floor and plastic cargo box in the carriage covered with vomit, even his expensive windbreaker was not spared.
When the porter opened the door of the carriage again, the look he gave Ishikawa Teru was full of disdain and disgust, but fortunately he did not say much, nor did he ask Ishikawa Teru to stay and clean up - probably because he was afraid that Ishikawa Teru would regret redeeming the Seiko watch, so he just started waving a rag and cursing to drive him away.
After being driven out of the East District 10 freight transfer station, Ishikawa Teru did not stay for long and walked quickly towards the black market - this was not his first time in the East District 10. Before this, he had been to the black market in the East District 10 many times in order to purchase the raw materials needed for the experiment. This black market was located right in the center of the slums.
As soon as he entered the slums, he saw two idle little boys sitting on the side of the road. They were playing with metal parts that looked like they were removed from a machine, but their eyes were scanning every person who passed by - Ishikawa Teru knew that these two little boys were the so-called "stalkers".
Guys who can become "stalkers" all have certain talents. The two most important points are sharp eyes and good memory... Seeing the two little boys looking at him, Ishikawa Teru quickly raised the bag he was holding to cover his face.
Through the entrance is the "shantytown" that occupies two-thirds of the area of ​​the slum. This was originally reserved construction land, but because the development value of this area is not great, it has been left vacant. Over time, it was naturally "taken over" by the people in the slum.
There were a large number of shacks on the open space, with all kinds of old clothes placed on racks outside the shacks, and garbage and feces everywhere on the ground - this scene was a bit like the "Hooverville" during the Great Depression in the old era of America (Note 1).
Ishikawa Teru does not have to worry about himself looking out of place in such an environment with his fancy clothes - many upper-class people often come to the slums. Some of them, like him before, want to buy things that can only be bought on the black market; some come to recruit cheap labor, bodyguards and thugs; and others come to "have fun."
After all, the slums can be considered the "no man's land" on the Ark. Here, even if you commit a serious crime like murder or rape, as long as you have money, you can easily settle it. Not only will the guards not come to your door, but you won't even have a criminal record.
Ishikawa Teru did not stop. He walked straight through the shantytown and came to an abandoned RV that was blocking the intersection. He raised his hand and knocked three times on the middle window on the left side of the RV.
With a creak, the car window was pushed up from the inside, and a wrinkled woman's face appeared behind the window. When she opened her mouth, an unpleasant odor wafted out from her yellow-toothed mouth: "Buy or sell?"
"Both." Ishikawa Teru said in a low voice.
"You're lucky. There's a trade fair going on right now. Come in." After the old woman said that, the rear door of the RV opened.
This RV is actually welded to the ground. At the bottom of the RV is a passage leading to the underground space, where the black market is located.
Ishikawa Teru walked down the stairs. Hundreds of people had gathered in the underground black market. Some of them were sitting on the side of the road with some garbage in front of them that they had picked up from somewhere and called "treasures" by themselves. More people were strolling around leisurely, stopping in front of a stall for a few seconds from time to time, asking a few questions, and then continuing to wander around.
Except for those "old brands" with fixed stores, the transaction volume of ordinary mobile vendors is very small.
Ishikawa Teru ignored those street stalls and went straight to a purchasing house with a storefront and pushed the door open and walked in.
"What do you want to sell?" The boss of the purchasing company was a middle-aged man in his forties, who was sitting behind the counter playing games. When he saw Ishikawa Teru come in, he looked up at him and continued to focus his attention on the screen and the handle.
"This piece of clothing I'm wearing," said Ishikawa Teru. "You can sell it or exchange it."
He was sure that his face was not recorded by the "stalkers", but this piece of clothing would definitely be remembered by them. If he wanted to hide his identity, changing his clothes was a top priority.
"It's a Burberry cashmere windbreaker... It seems to be a winter model from 1998. It's a bit old and worn out... Tsk, the most important thing is why there is so much dirt on it... I say, you didn't steal this coat, did you?"
"Don't purchasing agencies never ask about the origins of things?" Ishikawa Teru frowned.
"I just said it casually. It's up to you whether you reply or not." The boss waved his hand. "The item is OK, but I have to pay for dry cleaning, maintenance, and repair... This is another large sum of money. I'm afraid you won't be very satisfied with the price... As for the exchange, what do you want to exchange for?"
"A set of clothes of the same size, a laptop, and a set of standard chemical experiment equipment."
Extra Chapter: "Black Technology"
"Chemical laboratory equipment?" After hearing this word, the boss paused the game and looked up. "Are you a pharmacist?"
In the black market, "pharmacist" is a very important profession... The "pharmacist" here does not refer to someone who knows how to mix various medicines, but rather represents a "jargon" for an illegal profession.
To put it simply, nine out of ten people who can be called "pharmacists" in the black market are actually "drug makers."
People who have this skill are quite popular...but on the other hand, such people often mean "trouble".
The boss looked outside the door warily, then waved to Ishikawa Teru and said, "Let's talk in the back."
The boss led Ishikawa Teru to the inner room, took down a suitcase made of engineering plastic that was placed on the top of the cabinet, and carefully pushed it in front of Ishikawa Teru.
"This is a set of standard instruments that can support all Class B or lower experiments... Of course, if you don't care so much about the standards, then you can use this set of instruments to prepare some... 'that thing'... That's totally fine too." The boss lowered his voice and said to Ishikawa Teru.
Ishikawa Teru reached out and wiped off the thick layer of dust on the suitcase, revealing a trademark - it was an instrument produced by "Precision Industry". In addition to manufacturing weapons, this company also dabbled in high-precision glassware. The only drawback was that the products were priced too high, and it was difficult for ordinary people to afford their products.
"How much?" asked Ishikawa Teru.
"Twelve thousand credit points, or something of equivalent value in my opinion." The boss answered decisively.
"I don't have that much money..." Ishikawa Hui frowned, "Can you find me a cheaper set of equipment?"
"It's okay, it's okay. I don't ask you to pay it all at once." The boss waved his hands repeatedly and said, "You can pay a deposit first, and then use the medicine produced by this set of equipment to exchange for the remaining difference. After the difference is paid off, it will belong to you."
Ishikawa Teru was stunned for a moment, but he quickly understood what his boss meant. It turned out that this guy wanted him to help him prepare those banned drugs for profit... Although Ishikawa Teru was not very disgusted with this kind of business in the gray area of ​​the law, the problem was that he was not a real pharmacist.
"Boss, you may have misunderstood me. I'm not the kind of pharmacist you think I am..."
This time, it was the boss' turn to be stunned: "You...you can't make that kind of thing? That's weird. If you can't make medicine, what do you need this set of things for?"
"Do some... uh, more important things." Ishikawa Teru said vaguely. In the black market, everyone has their own secrets. If the boss were to dig into the details, it would be considered that he was being tactless.
"You're really not a pharmacist?" The boss's expression suddenly turned cold. "You want this thing... not to make 'medicine'?"
"No." Ishikawa Teru shook his head.
"Then how much can you offer?" The boss rolled his eyes at Ishikawa Teru in annoyance and put the box back on the top of the cabinet.
"I don't have any money on me." Ishikawa Teru said, "I'll exchange something."
"Oh? What can you take out? Don't tell me it's only that set of tattered clothes... The value of this thing is far less than a set of experimental instruments." The boss looked up and down at Ishikawa Teru.
Ishikawa Hui felt around his body, then pulled out a ring from his finger, put it on the table, and asked, "How much is this diamond ring worth?"
This is the engagement ring between Teru Ishikawa and his girlfriend, but for Teru Ishikawa now, this diamond ring is not as important as a glass beaker.
"It's worthless." The boss shrugged with disdain. "Only the fools of the old era and those stupid women in the upper class who pursue a sense of ritual would regard carbon as a valuable gemstone... In this day and age, which diamond is not mass-produced on an industrial assembly line? As for the cut, that kind of added value is worthless to me... If this were an industrial diamond drill, maybe you could exchange it for something... Diamond rings, humph, only the silver ring at the bottom can be sold for some money by weight, and as for the 'glass slag' on top, it's too hard to feed to a dog."
Ishikawa Teru thought about it, took out his information terminal, and placed it on the table: "How much is the latest terminal worth?"
"Hmm... this thing is of some value. Is there any personal information in it? Is the identity clean? Do you have a criminal record?" The boss picked up the information terminal, looked through it, and asked.
In this era, there are two ways to sell information terminals. One is to sell only the machine, which is equivalent to selling mobile phones in the old era; the other is to sell the identity information in the terminal together. This transaction is just like people selling ID cards in the old era. People will only resort to this desperate measure when they are desperate.
"I took the chip away, leaving only the machine." Ishikawa Teru emphasized, "This is a top-of-the-line model from Snapdragon Technology, with an anti-tracking function."
"I know, I know... But the problem is, you know, electronic products... Every year they are left idle, their value drops a lot. Your top-of-the-line machine is hard to sell here... Let me tell you this, I buy terminals, but generally only those with identity information. Whiteboard machines are likely to be a big loss, so I'm not really interested in them."
"But..." the boss changed the subject, "I have a set of incomplete equipment here. If you don't mind, I can..."
…
…
Thirty minutes later, Ishikawa Teru walked out of the acquisition company.
He changed his clothes. His original crisp cashmere windbreaker was replaced by a work cotton jacket with quite a few mildew spots and stains, his wide-brimmed hat was replaced by a gray woolen beanie, and his pants were replaced by a pair of thick washed denim jeans. Only the pair of leather boots on his feet were not replaced because the boss couldn't find the right size.
But now he has perfectly blended into the crowd, and judging from his clothes alone, he looks like a native of the slums.
He held the bag of cold bread in his right hand and a green plastic box in his left hand. He looked around on the street for a while, then walked towards a hotel whose sign was so crooked that it was about to fall to the ground.
Ishikawa Teru still had a few coins in his pocket - that was the "money" that the owner of the acquisition shop gave him after he sold all the things that could be sold. People without information terminals cannot use credit points. For security reasons, the Ark official has never transplanted the facial recognition payment technology that was already very mature in the old era to credit points. Without the information terminal, even if there are hundreds of millions of points in the account, they cannot withdraw them (implantable miniature information terminals were not popularized until 370 years after the new era).
These coins are "limited currencies" that can only be used in this black market. They are issued by the power behind the black market, which is a "financial alliance" composed of four large consortiums. They are powerful enough to endorse this limited currency... Unfortunately, except for formal bonds and shares, the Ark government has never recognized any currency issued privately by these consortiums.
Ishikawa Teru used two fifty-credit-point coins to open a room. As soon as the hotel waiter who led the way left, he immediately locked the door, then quickly checked the privacy of the room. After making sure there were no cameras or eavesdropping devices, he placed the bread bag and box on the table.
Ishikawa Teru did not rush to open the box. Instead, he took out the paper and pen he carried with him from his pocket, put them on the bedside table, and then climbed onto the bed without taking off his shoes.
That familiar feeling came over him a few minutes ago, which was why he was so anxious to find a hotel.
Ishikawa Teru adjusted his breathing, and as soon as he closed his eyes, he fell into a dream.
He was extremely familiar with the scene in the dream... He had had similar dreams more than once. Whenever that familiar feeling of palpitations appeared, he knew that he was going to have a similar dream again.
Ishikawa Teru's consciousness did not fall into a daze like an ordinary person's dream, but instead became more and more clear. In his dream, he was in an extremely spacious laboratory, and the table was filled with countless experimental instruments - some of them he recognized, but for most of the experimental instruments, he had never even seen them, let alone named them.
Next to the table was a refrigerator more than three meters high with a transparent door. The refrigerator was neatly filled with glass tubes containing reagents. Some of the glass tubes were soaked with things that looked like biological tissues.
There were many people busy in the laboratory. Some were conducting experiments, while others were walking back and forth between the lab tables...but to Ishikawa Teru, these people were just blurry grey shadows. He couldn't see their faces, their clothes, or even how many arms they had.
Ishikawa Teru had this dream many times. He knew very well that these blurry figures would not have any intersection with him... They could not see Ishikawa Teru's existence at all, and there would be no response when Ishikawa Teru tried to communicate with them. Once, Ishikawa Teru even planned to have "physical contact" with one of the figures, but his hand went straight through the figure's body... These figures seemed to be just a shadow.
Of course, in a dream, this kind of thing is completely normal and there is nothing to be surprised about.
In the dream, Ishikawa Teru was like a passerby, a bystander... but it seemed not entirely like that. The laboratory table in front of him seemed to be prepared for him. No one had ever occupied this laboratory table, and no one would touch the things on the laboratory table.
There is another point that can make Ishikawa Teru convinced that this laboratory table is "exclusive" to him - he cannot pick up or touch things on other laboratory tables. Only the things on this "exclusive" laboratory table can he interfere with. The other laboratory tables are like those human figures, he can see them but cannot touch them.
The first few times he entered this dream, Ishikawa Teru would look around like a curious child, but now, he seemed to be very familiar with it and directly picked up a notebook on the table and started to read it.
The notes were written in a language he had never heard of, but the amazing thing was that Ishikawa Teru in his dream could completely understand this language. But when he woke up from the dream and wanted to retell the language, he couldn't write it down at all... Only the content of the notes remained in his mind.
"Sure enough... So this is how it was solved... It can also be solved this way..."
As Ishikawa Teru read, he sighed repeatedly - every time he entered a dream, there would be more content in his notes, and the extra content could just solve the difficulties he encountered in the "experiment".
Ishikawa Teru eagerly read the extra content in the notes several times, and then started to practice on the laboratory bench - he skillfully cut open the abdominal cavity of a little white mouse, took out the internal organs, then fished out the biological tissues soaked in another glass jar, stuffed them into the vacant positions, and then connected the nerves and blood vessels... His movements were clever and precise, and his ten fingers were able to operate several scalpels, scissors and tweezers at the same time. He did not look like a linguistics professor at all, but more like a senior surgeon who had been immersed in clinical practice for decades.
The mouse's body, which had been gradually cooling down, suddenly moved. Then, its limbs began to move slowly - the tissues that Ishikawa Teru had "filled" into it seemed to have given the dead mouse a new life, allowing the body to move miraculously.
"It's true... As long as we can cultivate the 'seeds'... humans can achieve immortality... This theory can be fully applied to humans... Those materials... Those materials can be replaced on the Ark..."
Ishikawa Teru looked at the little white mouse crawling on the table with some excitement and spoke incoherently - at this moment, he suddenly woke up from the dream.
He jumped up from the bed, grabbed the paper and pen that had been prepared on the bedside, and started to write down quickly.
But what Ishikawa Teru didn't notice was that in the corner of the room, a person had appeared and was sitting quietly in the shadows, staring at him.
The friction sound of the pen tip and paper stopped abruptly. Ishikawa Teru suddenly turned his head and met that sinister gaze. He stuffed the paper into his mouth, turned over and jumped to the other side of the bed, stared at the other person warily, and asked: "Who are you? What are you going to do?"
The other party looked at Ishikawa Teru deeply, and then said: "I am... the same type of person as you."
"The same kind of people, what do you mean?" Ishikawa Teru frowned. He had already made up his mind that if the other party made the slightest movement, he would immediately swallow the paper ball in his mouth.
"I also have the same dreams that you often have... Those dreams have given me knowledge that does not belong to humans, and asked me to use this knowledge to change humans." The other party said slowly.
Extra Chapter: "The Immortal Society"
"How do you know the content of my dream?!" Ishikawa Teru was shocked and subconsciously reached for his pocket, but found nothing.
"Are you looking for this?" the man took out the small box that Ishikawa Teru treasured and asked.
"Give it back to me!" Ishikawa Teru shouted.
"Okay." The man did not embarrass Ishikawa Teru and threw the small box to him very readily. Ishikawa Teru took it and immediately opened it to check. Inside were more than a dozen memory cards the size of a fingernail, none of which were missing, but the traces left by Ishikawa Teru on each memory card were destroyed. It was obvious that the other party had read all the contents of these dozen memory cards.
After the initial panic, Ishikawa Teru slowly calmed down. He put away the small box and looked at the other person - this was a young man who looked to be only in his early twenties. He was wearing a pullover sweatshirt that was very common on the streets, a pair of baggy overalls, and white canvas shoes covered with colorful graffiti... This outfit made him look a bit like a hip-hop youth hanging out on the streets. If he had a shoulder bag around his waist with a few bottles of spray paint cans stuffed in the bag, it would be even more like a hip-hop youth.
"You just said...you have also entered...a similar dream?" Ishikawa Teru asked tentatively.
"That's right, but the content of your dream is slightly different." The young man nodded. "Your dream is mainly about studying the cultivation of living tissue that can replace the internal organs of organisms. The vitality contained in this living tissue is hundreds of times that of Earth's creatures. Even mice that have been dead for more than half an hour can miraculously come back to life after being implanted with this living tissue... Even permanent and irreversible damage to the brain caused by lack of oxygen can be repaired... If this technology is leaked, it will inevitably cause a stir in the academic community... To be honest, I'm a little curious, why don't you choose to contribute this technology? This thing can bring you a supreme position and wealth that you can't use up in several lifetimes..."
"This technology is incomplete, and the most critical difficulty has never been overcome." Ishikawa Teru said. He was basically sure that the other party only took a quick look at the contents of his memory card and did not read it carefully. "The theories and formulas provided in the dream are accurate. I have also done experiments in reality and they are completely feasible... But there is a 'black box' in the experiment. If I can't crack this 'black box', I will never be able to replicate the experiment in the real world."
"What black box? Tell me about it." A hint of curiosity appeared on the young man's face. "Maybe I can help you."
"Black box" is a term originally used in the computer field. It refers to treating a certain program as a black box that cannot be opened. All tests and operations must use the "black box", but in this process, the "black box" is considered to be a complete and indivisible entity. Only the part outside the black box can be observed and modified. As for the things inside the black box, they cannot be moved.
"A material called 'Blood of God'." Ishikawa Teru said truthfully, "The composition and origin of this material are unknown. Even its role in the experiment is unclear. However, every experiment requires it. Without it, the experiment cannot proceed."
“Blood of God…” The young man chewed . “It seems that the civilization that imparted knowledge to us is a civilization full of religious atmosphere… Obviously, the level of technology is much more advanced than that of human civilization, but they believe in gods… It’s really interesting.”
"What did you say...what civilization that taught us knowledge?" Ishikawa Teru asked in confusion.
"Have you ever thought about the origin of these dreams?" the young man asked.
"I've thought about it, but I can't come to any conclusion..." Ishikawa Teru sighed , "If God really exists in this world, then I'm afraid I can only attribute it to God's revelation."
"God doesn't have time to play such boring tricks..." The young man laughed dryly, "Don't you think that this form of dream is very similar to the 'dream' in the legends of the old era?"
"Dream...? Now that you put it that way, it does seem a bit..."
"Did you know? In fact, with the technology on the Ark, it is already possible to send dreams artificially. Just last month, Dream Technology officially launched the Dream Customization service. This service is especially popular among those who are rich and like to pursue excitement. The reservation quota has been booked for two years later."
"Dream customization?" Ishikawa Teru was stunned. He had never heard of this service. Although he was considered a rich man, at best he could only be considered a "middle class" on the Ark. There was still a huge gap between him and those truly wealthy people.
"They stimulate the human brain through trace electric currents and magnetic fields, and combine it with hypnosis technology to allow customers to enter customized dreams... It is said that the success rate is over 75%... Don't you think that our experience is very similar to this dream customization business?"
"It's very similar... But that kind of service requires a lot of instruments and equipment to complete? It shouldn't be possible to put me into a customized dream without knowing it, right? Moreover, every time this kind of dream is about to appear, I will have obvious palpitations... I will deliberately check the surrounding environment before entering the dream, which can basically ensure that my dream has not been disturbed by the outside world. Moreover, I can enter that dream in this small hotel, does this make sense?"
"Your ideas are limited to the technological level of humans... What if the one interfering with your dreams is an alien civilization with a technological level far superior to that of humans? You know, the knowledge and technology we come into contact with in dreams are also things that humans never possess... Then why can't it be an alien civilization manipulating our dreams?" There was a hint of excitement in the young man's tone.
"Alien civilization... You mean, aliens?!" Ishikawa Teru was slightly surprised. "But, what is the purpose of the aliens doing this?"
"I don't know. If they were willing to communicate with us, they would have already communicated with us." The young man shook his head. "But it seems that they want to help us... Not only do they not show any malice towards us, they also teach us various advanced technologies... No matter how you look at it, they should not be the enemy of mankind."
"By the way, what kind of knowledge did you come into contact with in your dream?" asked Ishikawa Teru.
"Human body modification." The young man said, and suddenly took off his pullover, revealing his upper body.
At least one-third of the exposed torso alone was made up of artificial parts. Through the transparent silicone skin, Ishikawa Teru could see the young man's internal organs and various machines and pipelines perfectly fitted together. Bright red blood was surging in the polymer tubes, and a titanium alloy piston pump replaced the original heart, pressing the blood to every corner of the body... Even the lungs had undergone drastic modifications, with the surface covered with silver metal foil, and countless tiny wires connected to the metal foil.
"Human body modification... this is against..." Ishikawa Teru got stuck in the middle of his sentence. He hesitated for a while, then changed the question, "How did you solve the rejection problem?"
"As long as the human immune system is completely blocked, there will be no rejection problem," said the young man.
"But... in that case, the human body will completely lose its immunity, just like a patient in the late stage of AIDS. Any bacteria or virus in the environment can take your life?" Ishikawa Teru looked shocked.
"As long as the entire body is replaced with a cyborg prosthesis and only the brain is retained, and the brain is placed in a completely sterile environment, wouldn't this problem be solved?" The young man shrugged. "As for the topic of shielding the immune system, I am still in the trial stage... Actually, I lied to you just now. I haven't been able to solve the rejection problem at all."
After saying that, he took out a syringe, stabbed it into his neck, and pushed all the medicine inside into his body.
"I have to inject immunosuppressants every four hours, otherwise I will die suddenly..." the young man said to Ishikawa Teru, "but my body is gradually developing drug resistance. A month ago, I only needed to inject once every twelve hours, then it became eight hours, and now... it's four hours."
"and you……"
"Yes, I am gradually dying... When the immunosuppressants are completely ineffective on my body, that will be my death. Before that, I only have two options. These are my only ways to survive... Of course, their probability is not 100%." ​​The young man raised two fingers, "The first option is to replace all the body parts with cyborg prostheses as I said, and only keep the brain. The second option is that I need your help. As long as the living tissue you cultivated can be implanted into the body, even the most serious problems can be solved... What you are studying is the seed of miracles, a miracle that can revive the dead and turn bones into flesh!"
"But my experiment is stuck, and I don't know where to get the 'Blood of God'! Unless the things in the dream can be brought into reality, but this is impossible! I can't even bring out my notes, let alone the 'Blood of God'! I can't save you..." Ishikawa Teru said a little frustrated, "You are really brave... You dare to apply those technologies to yourself... For experiments in reality, I am basically still in the stage of verifying the theory... As for cultivating that kind of living tissue, I haven't even started to try it in the real world..."
As he spoke, his voice couldn't help but become lower: "It's useless to try. Without the 'Blood of God', it's impossible to succeed..."
"Do you think I want to transform my body into this?" The young man smiled bitterly. "I have a rare disease, a disease that is more difficult to treat than cancer... With the existing medical technology, my disease cannot be cured at all... Even if it can be cured, I can't afford the astronomical treatment fees. I can only try to save myself... Those dreams may be just an adventure for you, but for me, it is salvation in despair..."
"Who performed the surgery on you?" Ishikawa Teru asked again, "Your level of body transformation cannot be accomplished by one person... Someone must have helped you. You told others about your dream, right?"
"Besides you and me, there is indeed a third person... But I didn't tell him about the dream. He came to me on his own initiative. He called people like us the 'chosen ones'... There are millions of people on the Ark, but only we have been favored by that alien civilization. We are special, we are different from others... We should be called the leaders of mankind - that's what he told me."
"He... that third person, has he also entered this kind of dream?" Ishikawa Teru asked in surprise, "Who is he? How did he find you?"
"He was a doctor at an underground clinic. At that time, I tried to make some simple cyborg prostheses and asked him to implant them in my body. He saw at a glance that the technology of those prostheses was the same as the things in the dream, so he told me everything... and he successfully made a prototype with the knowledge he gained in the dream."
"What is it?" Ishikawa Teru asked.
"He called it the 'Coffin of Eternal Life'. This thing is a bit like a hibernation chamber, but unlike a hibernation chamber, the 'Coffin of Eternal Life' can preserve the human body while keeping the human consciousness awake at all times..."
"Isn't that true immortality?" Ishikawa Teru's mind moved. "If I combine it with your technology, I can preserve the human body in the 'coffin of immortality', and then create a body composed entirely of cyborg prostheses, and control this body through consciousness..."
"We have also thought about this operation, but the Coffin of Eternal Life has a fatal problem - people who enter the Coffin of Eternal Life can never come out again. Even if they only lie in it for ten minutes, their bodies will age rapidly after they come out, and they will die within a day. We have thought of many ways, but have not been able to solve this problem... For this, six people have been 'wasted'." The young man suddenly stared at Ishikawa Teru as he spoke, "So, you know how important your research is to us, right?"
"Indeed... According to what you said... the technology I obtained in the dream can just fill in the gap of this 'ring'... But the problem is back to the starting point. I don't have the 'Blood of God'. All my technology is based on the 'Blood of God'... Without this thing, my knowledge is just a pile of waste paper."
"Perhaps, there is a fourth person... The technology he obtained in the dream is to create the blood of God." The young man said, "But before we find that fourth person, I hope you can join our organization."
"organize?"
"Yes... Since our purpose is to study 'eternal life', the name of our organization will be - 'Immortality Society'."