Accumulation 2

For the past few days, Wang Yiyang had been conducting experiments around the clock, testing things like a madman. His mind had become a complete fog.

Now that he had finally stopped, his whole body felt weak and sore.

Twist's anatomical expertise had given him an astonishing sense of flexibility and an uncanny precision when it came to dissecting living things.

But as soon as he stopped, Wang Yiyang checked the time and realized he was only a day away from his third identity synthesis.

"...Have I been here for three days straight?"

He leaned against the cold wall. The success of Source Silver had given him a glimmer of hope of breaking out of this deadlock.

As long as he could draw on outside forces that weren't originally part of the situation, he might be able to break the stalemate.

Besides, Source Silver had uses beyond implanting artificial organs...

Once he had a chance to rest, all sorts of novel ideas suddenly surfaced in Wang Yiyang's mind.

The specialized knowledge he had gained from handling so many medical instruments had been especially important in sparking his inspiration.

"Machines can become flesh and blood... so there must be some reversible reaction that can turn flesh and blood into machines. If I could control the process at will..."

Wang Yiyang immediately thought of the steel-based superpowers in certain movies: when necessary, you could briefly turn parts of your body into hard metal to withstand attacks.

After battle, the body would return to flesh and blood, and its natural ability to heal would rapidly mend any injuries.

Think about it. Steel could be dented by a massive blow, but once it returned to flesh and blood...

The dented flesh could regain its elasticity after a few massages.

Even injuries like severe bleeding could be handled by stitching the wound shut, then rapidly metalizing the skin and muscles to hold it in place and greatly reduce blood loss.

With all these possible applications, one could practically mass-produce superhumans like steel men.

Bang, bang.

The heavy pounding on the door interrupted Wang Yiyang's train of thought.

He looked toward the entrance. Two soldiers wearing exoskeleton rigs were using a cutting machine and a ram to force open the laboratory door.

"It's time to go." Wang Yiyang stood and headed for the door.

Cleaning up the mess was no challenge for Wang Yiyang. With his credentials, a single appeal to a higher security classification could shut down every question.

After leaving the laboratory, he immediately followed the procedure to use the instruments to manufacture each of the organs required for the Experimental Martial Artist from the Source Silver he had produced.

Source Silver was a remarkable substance. When exposed to radiation at different wavelengths and intensities, it would irreversibly transform into different kinds of bodily tissue in a single step.

Skin, bones, internal organs—except for teeth, it could become anything.

It completely upended every established theory in modern medicine.

Once he had recovered somewhat, Wang Yiyang quickly mixed the Source Silver with metal and shaped it into models of five different organs.

Then he had surgeons from different specialties take the organs into the operating room.

All that remained was to wait.

Physically and mentally exhausted, Wang Yiyang stayed at the underground base. After checking on his subordinates through his chip and phone, he began mobilizing his people and waited in silence.

Two hours later.

The operations were a success.

The surgeons who had taken the artificial organs into the operating room emerged one by one, looking dazed and hungry. They seemed unable to believe what they had just accomplished.

Before they had been brought in, they'd been told that their task was to perform organ transplants using organs from a newly identified donor.

So they had been prepared for the need to find compatible matches.

But the organs they'd received were what they couldn't believe: they all looked as though they'd just been removed from a living body, warm and strong, with abundant cellular activity. Some were even faintly pulsing.

The operations themselves were even more astonishing.

The transplanted organs fit the patients as though they'd always belonged to them. Even the connections to the blood vessels and nerves matched perfectly.

It was unbelievable...

After the operations were declared successful, the surgeons were quickly taken away to be sworn to secrecy.

Wang Yiyang rose from his seat in the corridor.

"Start testing for rejection."

Modern medical technology already had ways to accelerate rejection testing.

After running a simulation on the equipment...

Half an hour's simulation covered three weeks. The senior researcher operating the machine walked up to Wang Yiyang, clutching the report in stunned disbelief.

"Unbelievable... even the most advanced artificial organ transplants available today couldn't achieve healing this perfect!"

The report left every researcher in shock. Meanwhile, the area around the base had already been completely sealed off by the Yanhu Sect, who had gotten the news in advance, along with Jian and his elite subordinates.

"Keep this secret. Everyone stays here under lockdown for a month."

Before the others could recover from their shock...

Wang Yiyang took the remaining Source Silver and left the base with his people. Back in the city, he returned to his rental apartment, collapsed onto his bed, and fell into a deep sleep.

If nothing went wrong, this time he would most likely succeed in bringing outside forces to bear.

Now that he knew how to make Source Silver, and they'd seen the benefits of turning machines into flesh-and-blood organs, the Yanhu Sect would be unlikely to hold back their support.

Of course, they might also become greedy when they discovered that the transplanted organs were stronger than the originals and try to force him to reveal how to make Source Silver.

But they had no idea how many critical steps the process involved, or whether they could reproduce the technology in the short term. They might run into hidden technical complications and cause serious problems during the actual procedure.

Those were all difficult problems.

So the simplest and most direct option for them was to work with Wang Yiyang.

Wang Yiyang had long been prepared for the possibility of being forced to cooperate with violence.

Making Source Silver required tremendous precision and perfect timing.

Since he had destroyed all the data, outsiders would have a hard time reproducing the process even if they got their hands on a sample.

And if someone tried to force him to reveal the method, they would also have to contend with Jian and the other bodyguards controlled by chips. They would also have to get past the automatic defense system in his Bio-chip.

When faced with a mortal threat, the chip would destroy itself in an instant and release a powerful knockout pulse. For a short time, it could knock even an elephant unconscious, let alone a human.

Of course, if the chip couldn't stop them, then they'd be so powerful that there'd be no need for all this roundabout maneuvering.

They could simply storm in, eliminate Mister's current chairman, and force him to reveal a heap of Mister's classified secrets. Then the whole corporation could be crushed and driven into bankruptcy the next day. The profits would be much greater that way.

After all, Mister possessed an enormous amount of classified technology.

A faction of that caliber wouldn't waste so much time dealing with Wang Yiyang.

After collapsing onto the bed, Wang Yiyang had never realized just how comfortable sleep could be.

He lay there, drifting in and out of consciousness, his mind a pitch-black void. He slept for more than ten hours straight.

A phone alarm finally jolted him awake.

Smack.

He fumbled for his phone under the covers, swiped the screen, and turned off the alarm. Then he opened his eyes blearily.

The sliver of window between the curtains was still pitch-black.

"Is it time?" Wang Yiyang had set the alarm for 11:50 p.m.

There were ten minutes left until midnight.

He got up and checked his phone.

There were no calls, only a pile of text messages. Most were from An Yuxi.

The girl had come around and sent him a ton of questions about what had happened that night.

Wang Yiyang casually opened one.

'I heard from Xia Ying that something happened to Zhao Wei's family. After he went back, no one saw him again. I think I heard he moved away early.

Actually, when I went back that night, I was really scared. I was afraid Zhao Wei would come after me. But what happened afterward proved I was just overthinking it.'

Wang Yiyang opened another message.

'Are you there... Are you going to the International Digital Exhibition tomorrow? I'm really scared... so scared...'

The message was from several days ago.

Wang Yiyang had still been in the laboratory then, so of course he hadn't gone. An Yuxi had sent several more messages asking how things were going.

She hadn't received a reply, but the girl had been persistent, sending him messages every day without fail.

Wang Yiyang shook his head, closed An Yuxi's messages, and checked the others.

There was also a message from Xia Ying asking whether Zhao Wei's situation had anything to do with him.

But Xia Ying was pleading with him to spare Zhao Wei, saying that what had happened that night had been nothing more than an argument and shouldn't involve their families.

Setting those messages aside, he found one from Li Ran, too. It just asked, 'Are you there?'

Wang Yiyang thought for a moment. He couldn't be bothered to deal with An Yuxi or Xia Ying, but he sent Li Ran a reply.

'I've been working these past few days and didn't see this. If you have something to say, just say it. Don't ask if I'm there.'

He had just replied and was about to put his phone away.

To his surprise, she replied right away. The phone buzzed, and a new message came in.

'Nothing.' Just two words, and that was it.

Wang Yiyang waited a little, but no other reply came. Li Ran had probably fallen asleep too, so he put away his phone, sat quietly, and waited for the new identity.

About five minutes later...

The second hand on the wall clock ticked past twelve.

The data in the lower-right corner of Wang Yiyang's vision began to change again.

A jumble of incomprehensible characters flashed rapidly, then legible text appeared.

'Initialization complete. Generating Bronze Rank identity...'

Two seconds later...

'Identity generated. Beginning to load...'

Then every character in the lower-right corner vanished instantly.

About two minutes later...

A low electronic voice slowly sounded in Wang Yiyang's ear.

'On the surface, you are merely an ordinary director at Mister, one among the common masses.

But no one knows that you secretly hide another mysterious identity—Hypnotist Finn Katerina.'

'As a member of the Heart of Indulgence, you possess an exceptionally rare and powerful talent for hypnosis.

You were once able to hypnotize anyone in a single second with ease. To you, ordinary people in groups of ten or fewer were like walking lambs, tender and helpless.'

'You were once a favored guest of many powerful figures who operated in secret. You helped them resolve their psychological issues and interrogated people for them. In the underworld, your business card was worth its weight in gold.'

'But all of that is in the past. Your arrogance offended another powerful hypnotist in the Heart of Indulgence—Red Hypnotist Balai.

He shattered all your psychological defenses, destroyed the core of your subconscious, and ruined your Hypnosis.'

'You became an ordinary person again, weak and powerless. But Red Hypnotist didn't let you go.

He hypnotized you and made you develop a severe drinking addiction. He intended to destroy you completely and kill you without a sound.'