Closer to Revealing My True Self-Chapter 812 - 520: The Gaze of the Gods

After Councilman Eli left, Schroeder drank alone for a while, stood up to check his surroundings, and then headed for another hidden passage.

This passage did not lead to the secret laboratory; his recent experiments there had not yielded satisfactory results. This was a fact.

He was on his way to a place only he knew about, a place that was even more secretive and central.

It was also where he hid his greatest secret.

These collaborators and allies of Councilman Eli knew only of his hidden laboratory, but not of the more precious thing that he had been concealing, behind the "eye" logo of the pharmaceutical factory.

Decades ago, when he was a young apprentice, his teacher dispatched him to serve as an assistant elsewhere, to learn knowledge and skills while also collecting some precious materials and information.

One day, his teacher excitedly declared that he had obtained a very precious "gift from God," which could make people stronger!

The young Schroeder was very curious at the time, but he was busy with work, and his teacher had given him other tasks. Moreover, due to his limited conditions and insufficient experience and knowledge, he was not included in his teacher’s first research team.

However, he kept up with the events and maintained contact with his teacher. He was one of the teacher’s most valued students, a confidant, and was sure to be a member of the next expansion of the research team.

But Schroeder was still anxious.

He wanted to participate in the "gift from God" project as soon as possible.

What exactly was the "gift from God"?

Where did it come from?

Schroeder knew that his teacher’s research team had always been conducting live experiments using humans as research materials.

Individuals of different races, sex, age, and physical conditions were all used in those experiments. Old people, youths, pregnant women, infants... all were merely consumables in the project.

At that time, wars erupted in many parts of the world, and even in places without war, public security was not good; the disappearance of a few or even dozens of people in a place did not attract attention.

Then one day, his teacher told Schroeder that their secret project appeared to have been targeted by someone.

Their communications became even more secretive.

Until one day, the teacher’s hidden research base was destroyed.

Schroeder rushed there immediately.

He followed the secret codes left by his teacher to see if any precious research material had been preserved.

Unfortunately, most of it had been completely destroyed, all living specimens, materials, and samples with complete cells seemed to have been ruined.

But fortunately, there were oversights amidst the destruction.

He searched the area where Venus flytraps were planted.

The teacher had scattered some special seeds into the gaping maws of the Venus flytraps.

The area where the Venus flytraps were planted was burnt, but within one plant, inside the charred traps, the seeds survived.

The miracle survivor was a seed of the century plant.

...

Schroeder, recalling past events, arrived at his own secret area and opened the door to the hidden chamber.

Inside, an artificially created excellent growth environment with light sources, temperature and humidity, soil, and wind levels, all these were matched according to the natural growing conditions of the plants.

Here, some century plants were growing.

And among these century plants, there was one that was particularly conspicuous and massive.

It grew from the seed he had planted years ago.

Its genes contained some very magical fragments.

These magical gene fragments made it not of the same class as other century plants.

No, it should be said, it did not look like it belonged to the same dimension as other creatures!

In the experiment files, there were some photos taken in the tenth year after the seed was planted.

The century plant had only two leaves.

In those photos, the control group of other century plants looked like the twin ponytails of a two-dimensional character.

But it, as if from an alien world, was wild, uninhibited, and fierce.

Next to it, the control group looked like little pitiful beings, suppressed.

Those in the control group had grown from normal seeds and, even with the use of optimal cultivation methods, their growth was not of the same level.

Over the years, Schroeder had been researching it. Or rather, he had been delving deeper into those wondrous genetic fragments that had surfaced within its genes.

Even when probing the periphery, Schroeder could feel how massive the project his teacher called "God’s Gift" truly was!

And in his deep research into genes, Schroeder made an astonishing discovery—

"Biological age, over the course of a life, need not only increase in one direction!"

Whenever he thought of the precious experimental materials that had once been destroyed, Schroeder felt regretful, unwilling, and furious.

During his teacher’s era, the world situation was unstable, wars raged frequently, electronic information wasn’t as advanced as it is today, and many records could hardly be preserved in the wake of destruction by mysterious figures. One could hardly imagine everything that the experimental base had gone through back then.

From the coded message left by his teacher, and from a few fragments of coded language found amidst ruins, Schroeder could only translate a short passage that didn’t form a complete logical chain and was rather disjointed.

It was evident that the recorder had been panicked, or rather confused, and moreover, the level of destruction was so severe that there were missing words and omissions.

But one sentence had been restored. freeweɓnovel.cѳm

Schroeder looked again at the sentence that had been stuck on the wall next to him for decades:

[I feel the gaze of God]

This was a sentence left by his teacher, and it was one that Schroeder found quite challenging to empathize with, incredibly puzzling.

Within this sentence, lay much confusion, or perhaps excitement?

Schroeder gazed at the wall, lost in thought.

Back then, to conceal his laboratory, he had established this pharmaceutical factory, and the eye-like logo he designed represented not only the hidden, unpublicizable events of the past but also reflected this coded phrase.

What exactly was the gaze of God?

And what sort of feeling was it?

Schroeder actually didn’t believe in the existence of God.

If he believed in ghosts, sanctity, reincarnation, or judgment by fate, he wouldn’t have acted so unrestrainedly.

He and his teacher, as well as the other staff on the same research project, didn’t adhere to traditional notions of good and evil; they harbored not the slightest guilt or remorse over the many lives lost in the experiments.

But he was convinced that behind it all lay secrets unknown to others.

A secret that was beyond ordinary thinking, indiscernible with mere mortal logic!

Schroeder took another look at the century aloe planted here, left with a heavy heart, and headed towards the secretive laboratory hidden beneath the pharmaceutical factory’s facade to check if there had been any pleasing progress.

In the study of those wondrous genetic fragments found on the remaining century aloes, many drugs had been developed. He would select some, and through grey-market channels, discreetly introduce them to the market to observe more "experimental targets."

Richer data aided his research.

This work had always been clandestine, and drug misuse was, in fact, quite common. Particularly in impoverished, chaotic neighborhoods, restive nations, and communities isolated from modern life --- any incidents would at most cause a small ripple and then quickly subside.

This time, he was indeed anxious to test the new drug, driven by multifaceted pressures. But he had no regrets.

Initially, the new drug would give the user a feeling of soul awakening.

This was not just a feeling but a thorough "awakening" from the inside out.

The physiological changes were initially positive, maintaining for a substantial period, perhaps several months, or perhaps even longer.

But gradually, it began to reverse.

Like a boomerang thrown out, it would come back to strike with deadly toxicity.

"If only I could quickly produce a stabilizer!"

If he could produce a stabilizer, the positive physiological changes could be maintained for an extended period, perhaps even indefinitely, achieving a reversal of biological age!

Schroeder looked at his own aged reflection in the laboratory’s glass door and slowly revealed a resolute smile.

He needed to make several preparations, and his allies should also exert more effort.

And as for the Ancestral Factory...

He had always believed that the founding team of the Ancestral Factory must have stolen some precious experimental materials back in the day.

Thinking of Feng Yi, and the tall, strong bodyguard by Feng Yi’s side.

Schroeder looked displeased.

"Is it so hard to get a sample?"

He should probably give them another push. His own teammates were so useless.