chapter 4: Death
Creak—
As the door to the experimental area closed once again, Baishi, as usual, opened his eyes.
Unlike the previous few days, this time, there was less restlessness in his gaze and more calmness.
"System, show my status," Baishi silently thought.
Immediately, a familiar translucent panel appeared:
**[Host: Baishi
Age: 2/61 ↓
---- Basic Attributes ----
Strength: 0.1
Agility: 0.1
Constitution: 0.1 ↓ (0.2 ↓)
Intelligence: 0.6 (3.0)
---- Special Enhancements ----
Cell Adaptability: I (62.2%) ↑
---- Abnormal States ----
Warning 1: Unknown drug is active, Foreign cell activity reduced by 80%, estimated duration: 9 days 13 hours 45 minutes 20 seconds!
Warning 2: Foreign cell erosion is at (57.3%), estimated loss of control time: 15 days 2 hours 31 minutes 16 seconds!]
Looking at the estimated loss of control time calculated by the system, Baishi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Previously, he had been pondering how Hashirama cells, with such strong eroding properties, had allowed Yamato to survive. Now he had the answer – the secret lay in that unknown drug.
"Ha~, first he spent a year cultivating all the children's [Cell Adaptability], giving them a foundation to resist the Hashirama cells.
Then, inject the Hashirama cell extract liquid, and once the erosion reaches a certain level, he administer the inhibitor to suppress the aggressiveness of the Hashirama cells, giving all experimental subjects a chance to breathe.
This way, a tug-of-war forms between the Hashirama cells and the subjects' own cells.
During this time, the subjects' cell adaptability will continue to strengthen.
As long as their qualifications are enough, or they have good compatibility with the Hashirama cells, there is a possibility of successfully merging before the Hashirama cells completely go out of control.
What a great method!"
Baishi finally understood Orochimaru's plan. With this, he could be certain that the suppressive agent for the Hashirama cells would likely not run out in the short term.
Currently, he could evolve once a day, improving his [Cell Adaptability] by 1.2% each time while also reducing the foreign cell erosion by 0.2%.
Based on the records from the past few days, without the suppressor, the foreign cell erosion would increase by around 6% daily.
Now that there was a suppressor, the daily increase in erosion would drop to about 1.2%.
Subtracting the effects of each evolution, that value should be reduced to 1%.
Thus, as long as the suppressor could keep coming, Baishi wouldn't have to worry about losing control for at least one and a half months.
What he needed to do was to increase the level of [Cell Adaptability] during this time; only then could he survive longer.
With this thought in mind, Baishi stopped wasting time and focused on [Cell Adaptability], initiating a new round of evolution.
A familiar cool sensation enveloped him as Baishi's cells began their adaptive evolution once more.
When the energy was depleted, the evolution came to a halt, and a sense of emptiness soon followed, causing Baishi to fall into a deep sleep as expected.
After a few rounds, Baishi had realized that what limited his evolution speed was the lack of energy within him.
Although one might think that sharpening the knife doesn't hinder the cutting of wood, and logically, he should develop the ability to absorb energy quickly first, the reality was that the conditions didn't allow it.
In his current environment, it seemed that before he could finish sharpening the knife, the wood would be gone. So, he could only make do, as survival was the top priority.
······
In the dimly lit experimental area, where day and night were indistinguishable, Baishi could only rely on the time recorded by the system to know that another ten days had passed.
As he had expected, Orochimaru indeed continued the injection of the suppressive drug for everyone.
When the door to the experimental area closed once again, Baishi opened his eyes.
A thought crossed his mind, and the familiar translucent panel appeared:
[Host: Baishi
Age: 2/61 ↓
---- Basic Attributes ----
Strength: 0.1
Agility: 0.1
Constitution: 0.1 ↓ (0.1 ↓)
Intelligence: 0.6 (3.0)
---- Special Enhancements ----
Cell Adaptability: I (74.3%) ↑
---- Abnormal States ----
Warning 1: Unknown drug active, foreign cell activity reduced by 80%, estimated duration: 9 days 14 hours 03 minutes 17 seconds!
Warning 2: Foreign cell erosion is at (68.4%), estimated loss of control time: 14 days 13 hours 27 minutes 31 seconds!]
Compared to ten days ago, the erosion degree of the Hashirama cells had increased further into him.
Though it was not as dramatic as the first ten days, where it spiked by tens of percentage points, it still increased by 11.1%, reaching 68.4%. Even the estimated loss of control time had shrunk by several hours.
Once the predicted loss of control time diminished to below ten days, it was possible that he would not receive the next dose of the suppressor in time and would lose control first.
Now, Baishi was racing against time, racing to see whether the Hashirama cells would lose control first or if he could boost his [Cell Adaptability] level first.
At present, his cell adaptability was at I (74.3%), and he just needed to last another twenty-five or so percent to level up.
When that time came, the situation should improve.
After giving one last look at the panel, Baishi wasted no time and initiated another round of evolution.
To his surprise, this evolution actually reduced the erosion level of the Hashirama cells by 0.3%.
Seeing the effects of enhanced [Cell Adaptability] starting to show, Baishi felt satisfied and drifted into sleep.
······
Time passed quickly, and another ten days went by.
Unbeknownst to him, the experiment had been ongoing for a month, and Baishi had also received the injection of the fourth cell inhibitor.
Thanks to the increase in [Cell Adaptability], the erosion of Hashirama cells only increased by 10.2% in the past ten days.
However, with the erosion reaching 78.6%, it still inflicted significant harm to his body.
The most obvious impact was on his constitution attribute, which dropped directly from the initial 0.3 to 0.1, and his lifespan limit also decreased by a year.
It's even foreseeable that this number would continue to grow.
On the other hand, the intelligence attribute, no one could tell if it was due to physical development or the influence of Baishi's soul, increased by 0.1, reaching 0.7.
Additionally, after ten days of evolution, his cell adaptability also improved a bit, reaching I (86.4%), drawing him closer to the upgrading threshold.
Although the predicted loss of control time had shrunk a bit again, given the current progress, it was sufficient for him to complete a transformation before going out of control.
"Keep going!"
After motivating himself in his mind, Baishi began a new round of evolution.
······
Days passed by like this.
Baishi successfully received the injection of the fourth cell suppressor. Although the erosion of foreign cells increased by nearly ten percentage points again, his [Cell Adaptability] reached the critical point for promotion.
Just when he thought he would smoothly pass through this dangerous period, merely a day later, this tranquility was shattered.
Crash—
Accompanied by the sound of glass shattering, an experimental subject lost control.
Twisted vines erupted from that child's body, breaking through the cultivation tank, and within moments, the area of several meters around was filled.
On the forty-second day of the experiment, the first instance of death appeared.
Sensing the rapidly weakening life force, Baishi felt a chill in his heart and secretly muttered, "If it weren't for the 'system,' I wouldn't last long before meeting the same fate."
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