Back from the Dead

"Frank, how's your recovery?"

At an undisclosed medical facility in the outskirts, Frank was undergoing rehabilitation.

Using the latest equipment Harry had given him, he had gone through his first real combat test. The superhuman fighting style had still taken a toll on his body.

While wearing the suit, it could continuously inject him with stimulants to offset the symptoms, but taking it off came with certain side effects.

But now, it seemed there were no problems at all.

"Ready for the next operation at any time."

"Actually, the operation is already over. The Hand and Harmony Society handed over the Secret Medicine. That's what I wanted to tell you."

Harry's words struck Frank like a thunderbolt. He dropped the barbell in his hands, his body trembling slightly.

The Secret Medicine—meaning his wife and son had a chance to come back to life.

Before long, Frank's wife and son were both carried into the laboratory.

Seeing the bodies of his wife and son, Frank felt fortunate that he had met Harry Osborn.

After joining Osborn, he had used the money to hire an excellent funeral company for his wife and son, even having their bodies preserved.

The bodies had been kept in relatively good condition—for people who had been dead for more than ten months.

But Harry still wasn't optimistic about this operation. Even though he had replaced many parts of the bodies with artificial prosthetics, they were, in a sense, already cyborgs, just like RoboCop.

After all, the people resurrected by the Hand and Harmony Society hadn't been dead for very long, and their bodies had remained fairly intact.

But Harry didn't mind giving it a try. The materials handed over by the Hand and Harmony Society were enough to resurrect three people anyway.

This was a secret experiment. Only Norman, Harry, and Frank knew about it.

"Father, we can begin."

Inside the sterile laboratory, the two bodies were immersed in the medicinal solution, and everyone watched the center of the room with bated breath.

One minute...

Two minutes...

Five minutes...

Splash!

Two arms suddenly shot out of the liquid at the same time!

Frank was about to rush forward and grab their hands, but Harry stopped him.

"Maria! Frank!"

The hardened man shouted their names. The two crawled out of the medicinal solution like Zombies, coughing as though they were about to vomit up their organs before collapsing weakly to the side.

"Harry, their vital signs are weakening!"

"What?" Frank was stunned. Were his wife and son going to die again right after being resurrected?

"Inject the Active Enhancer. See if it can keep them alive."

The two injections worked. The livor mortis on their bodies gradually faded, and their breathing and heartbeats slowly stabilized. But judging by their eyes, they didn't seem to have regained consciousness!

[Host has successfully completed the resurrection surgery. Task issued.]

[Task: Soul Summoning]

[Description: Help the resurrected regain their consciousness.]

[Reward: Theory: Psionic Induction]

"...All artificial organs are functioning normally. There are no problems with the nerves or capillary fluid. The MRI... this is practically magic. Their brains have been fully restored... but there seems to be rejection in some areas?"

Norman sounded uncertain as he continued.

"The rejection isn't coming from the artificial parts... We need to prepare for another surgery."

Seeing this, Harry let go of Frank.

"Maria? Frank? Can you hear me?"

The two were like vegetables, showing no response whatsoever.

"Frank, I have to say... congratulations. At least we succeeded in the first step."

Harry was equally shaken—knowing that the stuff could bring people back to life was one thing, but actually seeing people who had been dead for months return to life was another.

"What's wrong with them? Why aren't they responding?"

"They were dead for too long. Although their bodies have come back to life, it looks like their consciousness will need other means to be restored." Harry patted Frank on the shoulder.

"But first, we need to remove every part of their bodies showing rejection."

The second round of surgery began immediately, but this time they had to call in Doctor Connors.

"Doctor, do you remember the surgery I had you perform some time ago?"

Connors looked at the two people before him, now restored to life. Of course he remembered those two bodies—he had asked Harry about them at the time, but Harry had said it was an experiment involving a new type of prosthetic!

"What happened? They..." Looking at the two bodies that had once been corpses, Connors vaguely felt his entire worldview beginning to collapse.

Harry shook his head. "Doctor, don't ask too many questions about this. Right now, we need to remove the necrotic tissue from their bodies. Can you do that?"

Doctor Connors nodded with difficulty. Of course he could. The organs from corpses were what he had used to complete the replacements.

Naturally, Strange could not be brought in to perform this operation again. But with a precedent now established, Doctor Connors could carry out this kind of surgery himself.

The operation was conducted in secret. Other than Norman, no one left the place.

A week later, both of their bodies had been fully repaired, and their vital signs were returning to normal.

But the price was that they now had entirely new appearances.

"Are they... all right?" Frank stroked his wife's cheek. A large portion of it had been replaced with artificial materials.

"Don't worry. This is only a temporary solution. Once they regain consciousness, we can try replacing it with skin again," Doctor Connors reassured him.

"The problem now is their consciousness." Harry walked over to Frank. "This may have to depend on you."

"Normally, for patients like this, all we can do is care for them attentively and hope that one day they regain consciousness."

"But I have something else now."

Harry closed his eyes under their gazes, and a strange emotion spread through their minds.

"You're about to feel angry."

As Harry's words fell, an actual urge rose in their minds!

"What is this? Some kind of... Super-sensory Science?" Doctor Connors thought for a moment before finding a term to describe it.

"More or less." Harry took out a stack of documents. "Frank, you need to follow the cultivation method written here, learn this skill, and then awaken your family."

Frank accepted the documents and nodded heavily.

"But before that, my experiments have shown that people with Superhuman Senses find it easier to complete this cultivation."

"And I happen to possess a surgery that can give you Superhuman Senses."

Psionics were more likely to appear among those with superhuman senses, especially those with extrasensory perception—or rather, a Sixth Sense. People like Harry had an extremely high chance of mastering psionic abilities.

Ordinary people did not have Matt's innate conditions, but they could enhance their abilities and improve their senses through Bio-modification surgery.

"However, this modification surgery does not have a one-hundred-percent success rate. It may lead to Parkinson's disease, Fletcher Syndrome, blindness, and many other problems. So I need to ask you: are you willing to undergo the modification?"

"...If I don't undergo the modification, how many years will it take me to learn this skill?"

"I don't know. One year, two years... or perhaps forever."

Harry was not lying.

According to the records of Psionic Theory, there might not even be one Psionic among ten million ordinary people.

"I'll undergo the modification."