Second Extraction, Miracle Whitening Drug

In the outskirts of Sea City, on the third floor of a rather old residential complex.

Three middle-aged and elderly men stood in an empty unfinished apartment, staring at one another.

They were the three former shareholders of Sanqing Pharmaceutical.

The three of them had finally found the time to inspect the apartment in the outskirts of Sea City that they had traded 20% of their shares for.

They had originally thought that although the apartment was in the suburbs, it was at least not far from the outer ring road, with a subway station less than a kilometer away. It was also fairly spacious, over a hundred square meters. The transportation was convenient, and the location was quite good.

Sea City's housing prices were notoriously high. Even an apartment in the suburbs had to be worth at least fifty or sixty thousand per square meter.

Yet they never expected that when the door opened, what lay before them would be a long-abandoned unfinished apartment.

It was an old building too, at least a decade or two old.

The residential complex was also run-down, with a garbage incineration plant nearby. Standing in the drafty living room, they could still catch a faint chemical stench.

No wonder no one lived here. This was probably some old apartment taken as debt payment back then.

It was such a dump, and the environment was so terrible. No one would buy it unless the price was slashed drastically.

Looking at the dust-covered concrete walls, the three men were instantly enraged.

"Bastard!"

Old Liu jumped up in fury, then quickly clutched his chest and staggered against the wall.

The other two panicked and fumbled to pull emergency medicine from his pocket, placing it beneath his tongue.

Old Liu took a deep breath, veins bulging on his face as he said bitterly, "That little bastard Wei Kang is truly black-hearted. Damn it, he even set us up? What the hell is he? I really misjudged him!"

Although Old Chen was older and usually kept his emotions under control, his nose was crooked with anger now, and he kept gasping for breath.

"The Wei family has always been known for being honest. How did they produce such a treacherous scoundrel? If Old Wei and his wife saw what that brat had become, they'd probably be so furious they'd jump out of their coffins."

The remaining Old Wang was red-faced as well, cursing nonstop in rage.

The three men flew into a fury, venting their anger wildly.

However, a phone call soon interrupted their roaring.

Old Liu answered the phone. "Hello, it's me. What is it?"

His voice suddenly rose several octaves.

"What? Sanqing Pharmaceutical developed a New Anti-Cancer Drug that works in three days?"

"That's fucking impossible. We were shareholders. How could we not know about something like that?"

"What? The trial video has already gone viral across the internet?"

"What? You're asking whether I want to sell my shares? Who the fuck are you?"

"You're congratulating me on getting rich? You're fucking evil! Congratulations my ass!"

With a smack, Old Liu viciously hurled his phone away.

The phone traced an arc through the air and slammed into the concrete wall, its screen cracking instantly.

Old Liu stared blankly ahead, his face frighteningly pale. Only after a long while did he manage to force out a sentence.

"He did it on purpose! We spent our whole lives hunting geese, only to get our eyes pecked out by one. Damn it, that bastard screwed us over completely."

Old Chen and Old Wang were still utterly confused as they listened nearby.

Old Liu waved a hand, telling them to search for the video and trending topics online themselves. Then he collapsed dejectedly onto the floor without saying another word, completely shutting down.

After watching the video on his phone, Old Chen's hands began trembling uncontrollably. He muttered, "How could he? How could he do this to us?"

Old Wang clenched his fists and cried out in anguish, "It's a miracle anti-cancer drug that works in three days! With a drug like this, they'd be making money hand over fist. They could lie on a mountain of gold for the rest of their lives—no, their children and grandchildren could lie on a mountain of gold too!"

He stomped his foot hard. "No! We're going to settle the score with that little bastard!"

The other two immediately had a flash of inspiration. Coming back to their senses, they exchanged a glance.

Old Liu jolted upright. "That's right. This drug must have been developed before we sold our shares. This is fraud, a scam! We should sue him and demand our shares back. They belong to us!"

The three men were instantly invigorated. Without wasting another second, they rushed out of the apartment.

Wei Kang himself knew nothing about the public reaction caused by the new drug.

At that moment, he was sitting in the laboratory, grinning from ear to ear as he stared at the system panel.

Because the system had finally notified him that he had enough points to level up.

He opened the system panel.

Level: lv2

Host: Wei Kang

Points: 120

A notification blinked slowly.

100 points can extract a drug side effect once.

Wei Kang carefully read the system description.

Every patient who used the drug added one point, while the beginner's gift pack had included a one-time triple-point acceleration reward.

That meant forty patients had used the New Anti-Cancer Drug so far.

Wei Kang nodded. The pace was acceptable. During Phase II, fewer than ten patients had participated in the trial.

It seemed that more than thirty patients had already joined the Phase III trial. Things were progressing steadily, and if the number continued to increase, his points would keep growing.

His goal for Phase III was at least one thousand participants. He was still far from that and had to keep working hard.

Maybe it was because Sanqing Pharmaceutical was only a small pharmaceutical company with little name recognition, so not enough patients were signing up at the hospitals?

After all, it was understandable for patients to have doubts when they saw a new drug they had never heard of before.

It looked like he needed Zhang Bo's side to spend more money recruiting more trial participants.

But that would create major financial pressure, since every trial participant had to be paid several thousand yuan in compensation.

Besides, CRO companies did not have as many patient resources as hospitals.

He still needed to make more money first!

Fortunately, he now had enough points to extract another side effect.

He had to make good use of it and create a health product that would be especially popular—one that would ideally sell like crazy.

Muttering to himself, Wei Kang began digging through his database of discarded prescriptions again.

Last time, he had already organized it once and collected some potentially useful formulas separately.

Now, he carefully searched through those formulas.

Very soon, his eyes lit up, and a certain formula amused him.

"This improved Dermatitis Cream ointment doesn't work any better. Instead, it easily causes itching. Damn, this is reverse improvement. Patients buy dermatitis cream to stop itching, but this makes them itch even more after applying it."

"Still, it doesn't have many side effects and won't cause patients any other adverse reactions. It simply feels absolutely awful to use. Haha, whoever developed this formula is quite the talent."

"Let me see what other side effects it has. It can also cause dry, peeling skin. Huh, it can inhibit the production of skin melanin, as well as break up and decompose melanin deposits in the deeper layers of the skin."

Wei Kang's eyes immediately shone.

"This side effect is impressive. Although its concentration in this ointment is very low, if it's extracted separately, it can be made into a Whitening Drug and freckle-removal medicine."

"Whitening medicine should be popular with women, right? Probably..."

Wei Kang was not entirely sure. As a textbook straight man, he had never understood women very well.

But when he thought back to his mother's obsession with skincare and beauty products, the impression was vivid.

All kinds of bottles and jars filled her entire vanity, and she frequently went to beauty salons as well.

The amount she spent each time left both him and his father dumbfounded. It was casually several thousand or even tens of thousands of yuan, several times every month.

Quite a few of them were whitening and freckle-removal products.

His mother was not particularly interested in other kinds of indulgence, but women's concern for their appearance had kept her immersed in the dream woven by beauty products for years.

As people aged, they would inevitably grow old. Beauty products could only slow the process somewhat; they could not truly preserve youth forever.

Wei Kang had looked at the ingredient lists on his mother's bottles and jars. They were all chemical components, plant extracts, and the like.

To a pharmaceutical professional like him, they were completely ordinary. He could not see anything particularly miraculous about them.

But ordinary people could not understand them, so they always seemed impressive somehow.

No matter what, cosmetics should be a highly profitable industry.

All right, I'm investing in this whitening product.

Time to extract it.

Very soon, a formula capable of inhibiting melanin production while decomposing and breaking up melanin appeared on the system panel.

Wei Kang quickly made a sample in the laboratory.

This time, however, he made a topical ointment.

After thinking about it, he decided to test the effects on himself first.

So he applied a thin layer of ointment to the back of his left hand.

He would see how it worked after a few days.

Suddenly, his phone rang.

He glanced at the screen. It was actually Jian Lianyun calling.

He answered at light speed.

A tired woman's voice came through.

"President Wei, your drug has gone viral."