Chapter 42 Second Life

The order had been issued, and no one could stop it anymore.

Under the gaze of everyone in the Command Center, and under the monitoring of countless cameras and sensors, Academician Wang sat calmly on a fixed chair in the center of the laboratory and extended his arm.

His eyes held not a trace of fear or hesitation, only a kind of pilgrimage-like piety and anticipation for witnessing history in the making.

The Head of the Medical Team, wearing a heavy protective suit, personally operated the precision robotic arm, holding the silver-white syringe, and slowly approached.

"Academician Wang, are you... really ready?" The voice of the Head of the Medical Team carried a trace of imperceptible trembling.

This might be the most tense and most sacred injection it had ever performed in its life.

"I have waited for this day my whole life." Academician Wang smiled, the wrinkles on his face, which looked a bit younger after initial treatment, smoothing out. "Come on, child. Do not be afraid, history will remember you."

The Head of the Medical Team took a deep breath and hesitated no longer.

It operated the robotic arm, steadily and precisely inserting the cold needle into Academician Wang's vein.

Then, it slowly pushed all of the silver liquid, which resembled liquid starlight, inside.

"Injection complete."

The robotic arm retracted.

The entire laboratory, and even the entire Command Center, was quiet to the extreme.

Everyone stared fixedly at Academician Wang, wanting to see even the slightest change on his face.

"How... do you feel?" Chen Weiguo asked nervously over the communicator.

"Hmm..." Academician Wang closed his eyes, carefully feeling the changes in his body, and said slowly, "There is a... very warm feeling, starting from my arm, spreading throughout my whole body. It doesn't hurt, and it's not uncomfortable; it's just like... soaking in a hot spring, very comfortable."

Just as he finished speaking, the instruments monitoring his vital signs suddenly emitted a shrill alarm!

"Beep-beep-beep-beep—!"

On the screen, the curves representing Academician Wang's heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate began to fluctuate wildly and irregularly, like riding a roller coaster!

"Oh no! Heart rate has exceeded 200! Blood pressure has soared to 250!"

"Brain waves are abnormally active! Hormone levels are in instant chaos!"

"Quick! Prepare the defibrillator! Epinephrine!"

The people of the Medical Team were suddenly flustered, scrambling to begin emergency treatment.

"Everyone stop!"

Just then, Academician Wang's clear and powerful voice suddenly rang out.

He still had his eyes closed, but there was not a trace of a painful expression on his face; instead, he wore a look of... enjoyment.

"I'm fine... I feel... great!"

Everyone was stunned.

When they looked at the screen again, they were surprised to find that those wild curves, after reaching a terrifying peak, had actually begun to fall back rapidly and steadily.

The heart rate fell back from 200 to 180, 150, 120... and finally stabilized at a strong 75 beats per minute.

The blood pressure also dropped all the way from 250 and finally stabilized at a perfect 120/80.

All the vital sign data, after experiencing a brief "storm," had stabilized at a... a textbook-perfect healthy level belonging to a thirty-year-old man in his prime!

"This... how is this possible..." The Head of the Medical Team looked at the perfect curves on the screen, muttering to itself, feeling that its decades of medical knowledge had been completely overturned.

However, this was just the beginning.

More incredible, visible changes occurred.

Everyone saw that Academician Wang's face, which originally still retained some wrinkles, was becoming smooth and firm at a slow but clearly visible speed.

His gray hair began to be rapidly replaced from the roots by a healthy, jet-black color.

The crow's feet at the corners of his eyes and the forehead wrinkles were fading bit by bit, until they disappeared.

Even his back, which was somewhat hunched from years of desk work, slowly straightened up.

The whole process lasted about ten minutes.

Ten minutes later, when all changes stopped.

A brand new "Academician Wang" appeared before everyone.

He no longer looked like that seventy-something-year-old, frail old man.

Instead, he was a middle-aged scholar of about forty, energetic and bright-eyed. Although his face still carried the scholarly elegance and the sedimentation of time, his body was full of strength and vitality.

"Hoo..."

Academician Wang let out a long breath. The breath was long and steady.

He slowly opened his eyes.

Those eyes, which were originally somewhat cloudy due to cataracts, now became clear and bright, like the deep starry sky.

He raised his hand and placed it before his eyes.

It was a pair of hands with firm skin and distinct joints, no longer having age spots or wrinkles. He could feel waves of explosive power coming from his palms.

He tried taking off the reading glasses he had worn for nearly fifty years.

The world before his eyes instantly became incomparably clear.

He could see everything clearly: the tiny data on the distant screen, the texture of the tiles on the wall, and even the dust floating in the air that was almost invisible to the naked eye.

"I..."

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

As a result, two lines of hot tears could no longer be controlled and gushed out from his youthful eye sockets.

He cried.

Not because of sadness, nor because of pain.

But a kind of... a kind of tremendous ecstasy of being reborn, which could not be described in any language!

He felt as if he had broken free from shackles that had been heavy for decades.

That sense of ease, that freedom, and that infinite hope rekindled for the future made this old man, who had experienced the storms of more than half a century, unable to control his emotions any longer.

"I... I feel... I can work for the country for another hundred years!"

While crying and laughing, he roared into the communicator.

At this moment, all the elderly experts in the Command Center, looking at Academician Wang on the screen who seemed thirty years younger, also followed suit and shed tears of excitement.

What they saw was not just one person's "rejuvenation."

What they saw was themselves, this group of old folks who had burned their whole lives for this country, a brand new future full of infinite possibilities!

They would have enough time to solve those mysteries from the stars and the sea.

They would be able to see with their own eyes the dream they had fought for all their lives—the great dream of letting the Daxia civilization stand tall in the forest of cosmic nations—finally realized!

Chen Weiguo's eyes were also wet.

Looking at the high-spirited Academician Wang on the screen, what welled up in his heart was an excitement and relief stronger than obtaining any super weapon.

He knew that from today on, Daxia civilization would possess a most precious treasure that no other country could compare with.

—An immortal scientific legion composed of the country's top, never-withering brains!

And Lin Yuan, lying on his hospital bed, watching all this through the screen, was also filled with deep emotions.

He thought of his father, who had been sick all over from years of hard work and passed away in his fifties.

If only this thing had existed back then...

He shook his head and cast these unrealistic thoughts aside.

Looking at the crying and laughing Academician Wang on the screen, and the surrounding old professors who were uncontrollably excited, he suddenly felt that the risk he took this time was worth it.

It was fucking worth it.

Being able to let these old men who worked for the country and the people live for a few more decades made him feel happier than being given a billion.

At this time, Academician Wang, who had completely recovered, finally walked out of that sacred laboratory after going through layers of disinfection.

His first act was to rush to the Command Center, and through a huge piece of glass, he bowed deeply toward Lin Yuan's hospital room in the medical area.

"Comrade Lin Yuan!"

His loud and powerful voice spread through the broadcast across the entire base.

"Thank you!"

"I represent myself, and I represent all the old folks just like me, thank you!"

"Thank you for giving us... a second life!"