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Last Embryo Volume 3 Chapter 1 Part 4

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

「Sucks to be you then, but I guess a damage report is going to be necessary, and angering Director Weser by hiding it wouldn’t be a wise move at all. Say, Chief Edward? Do you also have difficulties dealing with him, or is it just me?」

「I wouldn’t go as far as to call them difficulties, but he is an old subordinate of mine who seems to be thinking that I died, don’t ask me why because I don’t know and to be honest I do not care about it. Right now he seems to be enjoying his life after he got hooked up with a nicely-looking mistress from one of Everything Company’s Keiretsus (TL Note: Keiretsu is a conglomeration of businesses linked together by cross-shareholdings to form a robust corporate structure.) That being said I am also quite content with the current relationship we are having, and I do not intend to poke the snake out of the bushes unless I will have no other choice.」

「Hahaha. Seems like the relationship between the two of you is much more complicated than I initially imagined.」

「It is complicated indeed. Now before I will go make my report, there is one more thing that I would like to ask about.」

「Of course. What is it?」

「It’s about what you said before.Can you tell me what would the conditions for a human body to withstand the B.D.A be?」

Hearing that question, Homura raised his eyebrows while face-palming internally. He thought it was obvious from what he said up until now that using B.D.A on human test subjects was an absolute no-go, but apparently he underestimated the idiocy of his audience.

「I can’t believe that you are seriously asking about that. I thought it was perfectly obvious that at the current stage of the Star Particle Bodies development process using B.D.A on not only humans, but also any kind of living organism was absolutely out of the question. If we attempted to test it on humans, it is more than likely that they would end up spontaneously combusting like the plant we saw in the video with the experiment recording, but the power and the scale of the resulting explosion would probably end up being much greater than that. No, before we move to testing Star Particle Bodies on animals and humans, we first have to move forward with the progress of B.D.A itself, because what we currently have is clearly not enough by a long shot.」

「I asked that under the assumption that any such hurdles have been already dealt with, since it will be my job to write the report with as much details as possible, which I recommend all the more so if we are going to use that report as a base for the planning of our budget for the future. Also, there are certain rumors flying about saying that by combining B.D.A with the power of Star Particle Bodies it would be possible to greatly prolong the average human’s lifespan, and that would be a great addition for fishing out more potential sponsors. Don’t you agree, Your Highness?」

While his brows were still furrowed from listening to Edward’s speech, Kalki still ended up nodding his head in agreement, if only ever so slightly.

At that point, Homura finally understood why His Highness Kalki, who was the son of one of the Star Particle Bodies research investors was sent here.

「………」

Despite being quite calm, Edward Grimnir’s voice radiated a strong will and clearly communicated that he won’t tolerate any arguments in that matter. But that was to be expected. After all, R&D is not a charity work where people did their best for something as meager as the benefit for humanity. It was, is and always will be primarily about achieving results that the sponsors demanded. And this time it could be said that the demands were especially high.

Longevity. Elongation of human’s natural lifespan. Perpetual youth. He didn’t know where he got that information from or who handed it to him, but he had to admit that it was true that those were some of the ultimate goals that their research was aiming to achieve. Since the Star Particle Bodies can interfere with the 「Definition of One Second」 , they wouldn’t stop at just sustaining the natural youthfulness of the cells, but by continuously altering the passages between their outer and inner spaces they could grind the process of aging itself to a halt, or at least that was Homura’s personal hypothesis. And no matter the times, there will always be hedonists driven by their selfish desire for eternal life who would be tempted to use such experiments to claw at every chance at reclaiming their youth, no matter how small of a chance that would be.

If the results they would have probably laughed them off and backed off with all of their funding money, but in this case they must have heard about the role Star Particle Bodies had in dealing with 『The Bull of Heaven’s』 virus and once the word of this experiment’s results inevitably spreads, a lot more researchers from pretty much all of the major companies will undoubtedly make their moves.

What’s more, a lot of funds were invested in the research of Star Particle Bodies to begin with.

Homura had no doubts that this was Everything Company’s biggest project to date where both their entire fortune and reputation were at stake. If they manage to successfully develop the Star Particle bodies in their entirety, their position at the top of the scientific, economical and financial worlds will be as good as guaranteed. With that much on the line it was no surprise that the Company higher-ups would want to have as much explained to them as possible in order to snatch even more investors and their money for the project, but what they would need to understand is that with the way it is now, the B.D.A should not be used in experiments involving human test subjects at all costs.

「Mr. Edward, Your Highness. If you really insist on adding my comments in the reports no matter what, then please, include the following statement: right now, using B.D.A. on the current generation of humans is absolutely impossible due to the risks of rejection being too high.」

「Oh? Completely impossible to be used on humans you say?」

「No. I’m saying it’s impossible to use it on humans in general, but rather on the current generation of humans.」

Amazed by the way Homura phrased that thought, Kalki, who was listening to his explanations in silence up until now began to clap his hands and nod his head.

「Ah, I see what you’re getting at. You are essentially saying that what you need right now to make more progress is to raise a new generation of humans who would be compatible with Star Particle Bodies without risking them suffering any of the side effects you are dealing with now?」

「Yes. To begin with, if we want to even start thinking of using Star Particle Bodies for the purposes of prolonging human life, we would have to find a way to make the minimal required number of blood passageways inside of our bodies to be able to approach and then break the speed of light, and pulling something like that off would be absolutely impossible to achieve unless at least 10% of the total amount of blood vessels in the host’s body would be fully transform by Star Particle Bodies so that they could accommodate themselves and safely multiply in them.」

「I see. Are there any other conditions that would have to be met aside from the ones you just mentioned?」

「The Star Particle Bodies possess the ability to adapt themselves to the structure of the cells of the host they are parasiting in and to alter them further if need be, and I think it would be safe to say that the smallpox-like virus that was emitted by 『The Bull of Heaven』  was the side effect of abusing that particular quality of theirs. Though the overwriting of cells accelerates with each successive generation of new Star Particle Bodies made through their parasitic multiplication, the overall variable in that process should be no more than 1%. That is why the barrier of 10% of them reaching the speed of light is outside of our grasp with only one generation, and also why by my estimates it is too unrealistic, or even straight-up greedy to be thinking about using the B.D.A on human subjects within the next millennium.」

The barrier of 10% of Star Particle Bodies-enhanced blood vessels reaching the speed of light. That was their current goal, and at the same time a milestone that kept staying just outside of their reach.