If anyone besides those "people of insight" fretting over humanity's fate was furious about the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study's latest research breakthrough...
It was probably the executives and shareholders of SpaceX and Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals.
Since the middle of the previous year, NASA had given them a substantial amount of money to research cryogenic hibernation. Yet just as their clinical trials revealed that extracts from X-0172 bacteria could protect animal cells through the "dangerous temperature range," the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study had already developed the complete cryogenic hibernation technology...
At his headquarters in Silicon Valley, California, Musk stared at the newspaper in his hands, his stiff expression twitching.
"New breakthrough in cryogenic hibernation: a whole new landscape for treating terminal illnesses!"
He had originally thought that as long as he focused on projects where his side had an advantage, or where the other side showed less interest, and avoided competing directly with Starry Sky Technology as much as possible, SpaceX's decade-plus of accumulated research and development capabilities would keep it from doing too badly.
Yet despite all his calculations, he had never anticipated that someone close to that man would get cancer-and incurable, late-stage cancer at that...
For fuck's sake, why couldn't he have gotten cancer himself?!
But no matter how much Musk cursed inwardly, it was too late to change anything.
Starry Sky Technology now held cryogenic hibernation technology. Unless something unexpected happened, they would once again have to trail behind that detestable Professor Lu and pick up his leftovers...
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
Musk called for the visitor to come in, and his secretary entered.
"Mr. David Lawrence would like to schedule a meeting with you."
Musk paused at those words, lowered the newspaper in his hands, and gave him