In a luxuriously decorated conference room, twelve men of varying temperaments sat silently in their respective seats. Everyone was staring expectantly at the youth in the first seat.
A solemn atmosphere slowly filled the room.
At this time, the youth in the first seat suddenly spoke.
“Most of you should already know each other, so I won’t waste time on introductions.”
The youth pointed at himself. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Chen Chen and I’m from Mainland China. I’m the one who organized this gathering and I’m also... The spokesperson for God’s Forbidden Zone.”
“I’d like to ask, what exactly are the intentions of God’s Forbidden Zone in inviting me here?”
However, before Chen Chen could finish, a Middle Eastern man with a white scarf wrapped around his head interrupted impatiently. “People like us have very limited time. If it weren’t for your technologies, I believe no one would be sitting here.”
“Your Highness Prince Zayed, at least wait for me to finish speaking, hmm?”
Chen Chen spread his hands in a powerless gesture. “As for God’s Forbidden Zone, I’ve explained it in great detail in the invitation letters. There’s no need to go over that again. The reason I’ve asked everyone here is actually very simple — I want to invite all of you to join the organization. After all, we should bring all our forces together.”
Everyone remained silent as they waited for Chen Chen to go on.
“First, please take a look at this information.”
Chen Chen clapped lightly and a few employees walked in instantly, delivering eleven documents with blue covers to each person.
When they opened the file, many of them could not help but inhale sharply.
Leo opened the file too. It turned out to be a report that was more detailed than the one before. Not only that, the report also contained a completed plan for extending the lifespan of humans.
The meticulous nature of the plan was truly breathtaking.
“I wonder if everyone has heard the concept of the ‘escape velocity for humanity’s lifespan’?”
Suddenly, Chen Chen broke into their surprised mutterings with this inquiry.
They all shook their heads.
Seeing this, Chen Chen smiled gently. “In that case, let me introduce what it is. What you’re seeing now is the specific implementation plan for this project.”
With that, the large screen behind Chen Chen gradually lit up and the words “Mankind Anti-Aging Plan” appeared.
“The goal of God’s Forbidden Zone is to break the Hayflick limit of the human body and acquire the right to longevity that has been exclusive to gods. To this end, we’ve launched this mankind anti-aging project. The first step of the plan is to delve into the study of stem cells.”
As he spoke, the screen behind Chen Chen started to display pictures of experiments.
“I believe you’ve already understood from the invitation that, through hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cell transplantation, the body may be effectively restored to a younger state. Plus, unlike other stem cell therapies that treat the symptoms but not the cause, our technology will first kill the stem cells in your body, which are then replaced by the cloned stem cells.
“The external result of this — the human body’s hematopoietic function, muscle function, bone function, liver function, and other body functions can be miraculously restored, and aging is thus reversed!
“This is the ‘age-reversal treatment project’. With this method, everyone here will gain an additional twenty to thirty years of life.
“However, here’s the question.”
Chen Chen’s tone shifted suddenly. “Why just twenty to thirty years? After the hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells are replaced, it’d be as if we had returned to our teenage years. We should still have forty, fifty years ahead of us. Isn’t that so?”
Everyone raised their heads in unison, waiting silently for Chen Chen’s answer.
“Now I’ll tell you the answer — it’s because of our organs.”
Chen Chen pointed to his chest. “Besides differentiating into muscle cells and bone cells, mesenchymal stem cells can also differentiate into cardiomyocytes and liver cells, which serve to repair the heart and liver. However, this doesn’t take care of our lungs, kidneys, and intestines, and other important organs.
“If a human body is compared to a wooden barrel, then the ‘Age-reversal Treatment’ will increase the height of some wooden staves, but not all.”
As he spoke, the big screen behind Chen Chen automatically displayed an animated image of a wooden barrel leaking continuously.
“Research on success would often use this wooden barrel analogy. Extending human lifespan is the same. Simply increasing the height of a few staves won’t cut it. Only by increasing all of it, will human lifespan be extended.”
Chen Chen looked at his audience who was growing more absorbed and pointed to the files. “Now, please turn to the second page.”
There was the sound of pages being flipped in the room.
“See? This is how we’ll raise the height of the other wooden staves.”
Chen Chen spread his hands. “This is the second project of our plan —’cloned organ transplantation’.
“As we all know, for now, there’s no organization in the world that has the ability to develop cells into complete organs, not even our God’s Forbidden Zone.
“Therefore, we shall simply bypass this technical limitation and start directly with cloning.”
With that, pictures from the cloning laboratory were displayed behind Chen Chen.
“What everyone is seeing now is the human cloning laboratory of our experimental center. The five fist-sized fetuses are clones, cloned from the somatic cells of local villagers. Moreover, those five villagers each suffered from severe liver cirrhosis and pneumoconiosis.”
Chen Chen continued to explain, “We’re now trying to birth the five fetuses by injecting hormones. The experiment has essentially succeeded. It’s expected that the five cloned fetuses will be catalyzed to the biological age of fifteen within a year.”
When everyone heard this, there was a flicker in their expressions.
“What follows next is easy. Human organs are basically mature at the age of fifteen. Even if they’re not fully matured, this wouldn’t affect things much. Transplantation can be carried out directly because there’s a near-hundred-percent matching rate. To everyone, this is the best source of human organs.
“In this way, the shortcomings of the remaining organs are also accounted for.”
Just then, a middle-aged man raised his hand and asked doubtfully, “But any sort of human cloning will not be accepted internationally. Surely this technology can’t be openly popularized?”
“If you’re talking about popularizing the cloned organ transplantation project, then don’t worry.”
Chen Chen explained, “These technologies will only be used on members who join our God’s Forbidden Zone for the time being. After a buffer period of twenty to thirty years, the technology will slowly be shared with the world. I believe that by that time, the technology to generate complete organs from stem cells should already exist.”
Everyone caught on immediately.
Chen Chen grinned. “In other words, the current users of the mankind anti-aging project are just the people here.”
At this moment, a young man in his early twenties from the Wilson family suddenly giggled and asked, “What if, after we custom-make our clones here, these clones grow up and escape, and we’re exposed in an ugly scandal?”
Upon hearing this funny question, a burst of laughter broke out in the room.
However, Chen Chen replied with a straight face, “There’s no need to worry about that. We’ve developed a targeted, inhibiting serotonin. This serotonin will inhibit the human brain in the embryonic stage, causing their brains to shrink completely. But this won’t affect the cerebellum and brain stem.
“This means that no matter how much those clones grow, their brains would always remain in a shrunken state. They would not even have consciousness. Thus, the plot of The Island will never happen.”
Everyone chortled again after hearing this.
At this point, the initially heavy atmosphere of the room had gradually become more relaxed.