Chapter 81

Chapter 81: A Sea of Memories

'Gulp—pfft!'

Lan's vision blurred abruptly. He instinctively swallowed some liquid, but the choking sensation in his throat forced him to spit it out violently.

The colossal starship, as vast as a megacity, vanished. He was back in the small, medieval-style inn.

Arya's anxious and fearful face was right in front of him, her small hands clutching a bottle of [Enhanced White Honey].

Lan's hands were braced against the wooden floor, a drop of black blood falling from his nose and sizzling like acid as it hit the ground.

The witcher's eyes were vacant.

"Emperor's…..Children?"

The stark contrast between the scenes he had just witnessed and the reality of his current surroundings, along with the immense disparity between his physical capabilities and those in the memory, left him momentarily disoriented.

He murmured the last impression from the memory.

"Sir? Sir! Drink this, your face is still deathly pale!" Arya shook Lan's shoulders urgently, pressing the glass bottle to his lips.

Lan didn't resist, taking the [Enhanced White Honey] from her. But as he held it, he couldn't help but feel—

Given the residual toxicity in my body, it seems like... it doesn't matter whether I drink this or not?

"Mentos, what's going on with my intuition?" Lan shook his head, downing the potion while questioning the AI.

Although he felt that his tolerance for potion toxicity had significantly increased, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Your intuition is correct, sir. While the implantation of the gene seed hasn't yet produced significant physiological effects, it has begun to efficiently coordinate your body's hormone secretion and adjust the functioning of your organs. As a result, your toxicity resistance has increased by approximately 50%."

This was a staggering achievement. If an ordinary person could increase their toxicity resistance by 50%, they might even be able to consume some of the low-toxicity potions designed for witchers!

And this was a 50% increase on top of a witcher's already formidable resistance!

Lan estimated that he could now drink both [Enhanced Thunderbolt] and [Enhanced Blizzard] simultaneously and remain in a low-toxicity state.

In other words, until the potions' effects wore off, his body wouldn't suffer any toxic damage.

This meant that as long as he had enough potions, Lan could maintain his 1.5x combat speed indefinitely!

After three strikes, even if the opponent blocked with a shield, the shield would be shattered!

And this was just the immediate effect of the gene seed implantation.

From the brief memory he had experienced, Lan also knew that the final product of the gene seed-based enhancement process was something called a "Space Marine."

These were powerful warriors created through nineteen surgical procedures. Each procedure added a powerful artificial organ to the Space Marine's body.

The gene seed was merely the foundation; the additional organs were the true "weapons" of their strength!

"What a pity..." Lan sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Just implanting the gene seed alone pushed me to my limits."

The remaining surgical steps required artificial heart, lung, etc...

Even the most advanced laboratories from his home world would be utterly outclassed by this level of technology. Not to mention a college student stuck in a medieval fantasy world.

No way. He should be grateful just to have the gene seed.

As Lan tried to console himself, he waved at Arya to signal that he was fine and attempted to stand up. But when his gaze fell on his left hand, which was still braced against the floor, his eyes narrowed.

Huh?

"The proportions of the left hand's finger bones are slightly off, which not only ruins the aesthetics but also hampers precise sword handling. If I can bypass the second ligament of the left ring finger and slightly grind down the base of the finger bone, I can significantly improve the situation. At the same time, I can use [Swallow] combined with standard nutrient solution to perform ligament tear training. This combination would allow me to achieve maximum ligament stretching within a week without compromising combat effectiveness."

A strange analysis popped into his mind.

What "ligament"? What "nutrient solution"?

This wasn't Mentos's doing. Lan had been with the AI long enough to tell the difference.

This was his own thought.

As he pondered, his hand instinctively reached for his medical tools. He really wanted to adjust his finger bones.

His hand was halfway there when it suddenly stopped, then abruptly reversed course and slapped Lan across the face.

'Smack!'

Arya let out a small gasp, remembering that Lan needed to remain calm for the rest of the night. After the gasp, she simply gave him a look that said, "Are you okay?" without making a sound.

Lan, after slapping himself, stared at his hand with a strange expression.

To be precise, he was staring at this body that now felt unfamiliar to him.

This impulse for perfection...

This inexplicable, almost instinctive knowledge of medicine and biochemistry... What's going on?!

Lan felt that even without Mentos's anatomical diagrams, he could now easily perform open-chest surgery on himself.

"Mentos, any ideas?"

Faced with this situation, Lan wisely refrained from trying to figure it out himself and instead turned to the AI. The biological AI, derived from the microscopic compilation of his own brain cells, naturally had the ability to monitor brain activity.

Lan thought that such a complex reaction, involving at least subconscious habits and neural memory, would take Mentos a great deal of effort to analyze.

But to his surprise, the AI's response was almost immediate. As if it had been waiting to report this.

"I think I know what's happening, sir."

For the first time, Lan detected something in Mentos's tone that sounded like... exhaustion?

"The gene seed we installed... it contains too many memories! This thing is a hereditary enhancement organ, and the memories of every previous bearer have been accumulated within it."

"And there's a mysterious energy within the gene seed. It just completely transferred the memories stored in the flesh into your neural network, which is why you experienced that vision earlier... In this process, not a single memory from the gene seed was lost! This technology, or rather this energy, is absolutely terrifying!"

When Mentos mentioned "mysterious energy," Lan suddenly recalled the freezing reaction of the golden lid when he opened the high-strength container.

Freezing an object without changing its temperature... Such an absurd power couldn't be simple.

Mentos continued its report in an exhausted tone.

"My computational capacity is limited by my permissions, so with my current capabilities, I can only roughly block the vast majority of the memories to prevent them from overwhelming your personality and causing a shift."

"These memories span at least ten thousand years. Even in the Federation, they would be considered priceless treasures!"

"Earlier, you were lamenting that the remaining nineteen surgeries couldn't be completed. Now, I have both good news and bad news for you."

"The good news is: Among the ten thousand years of memories from the Space Marines, many individuals held the position of 'Apothecary,' and their technical skills were quite advanced. It seems that this gene seed has a particular affinity for biochemical knowledge, making it easier to learn."

"Their memories contain not only the detailed procedures for the nineteen surgeries but also an upgraded version."

"But the bad news is: I can't filter or selectively search through these ten thousand years of memories. My computational limits are already stretched to the breaking point just maintaining the memory firewall."

"And even if we release the memories in small, indiscriminate batches, we must carefully consider your mental stability and brain capacity to avoid damage."

*****

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