Chapter 1794: A Wise Man Knows When to Yield
Dr. Deng's expression shifted several times under Xu Huo's emotionless gaze, finally settling on unease. He asked cautiously, "You're joking, right?"
After a long two seconds, Xu Huo's expression relaxed slightly, a hint of a smile appearing. "I am joking right now. But you'd better not make me feel that spending nearly a hundred million white notes was a waste."
Building the laboratory itself didn't cost too much. It was the medical equipment Dr. Deng used for his potion research—especially the large-scale medical instruments needed for the Perfect Potion—that was extremely expensive. This wasn't something a few machines could solve; it required very precise material separation instruments. Generally, such instruments couldn't be manufactured in a district; they could only be purchased through official channels from advanced wormhole points. And they came as a complete set. Want to buy just the most important one and assemble the rest yourself? Sorry, that's impossible.
And even this was an older model.
However, considering the other necessary instruments plus the laboratory construction costs, the total didn't seem particularly outrageous. After all, the water maker Xu Huo had obtained from an instance had sold for that price.
"The water maker is different," Dr. Deng said. "Don't think the Game Government's propaganda about long-term consumption of water from self-made water makers leading to premature degeneration is just fooling people. But a player's degeneration should be inseparable from the environment."
"The Game Government hasn't managed to create a Perfect Potion yet, and this might be one of the reasons."
He sighed as he spoke. "Sometimes I feel this might be the rule of evolution. If taking large amounts of evolution agents had no side effects, this world would be too terrifying."
"You mean degeneration is like an incurable disease. When a person's lifespan is long enough, the toxins accumulated in their body reach a certain level, leading to mutation," Xu Huo said.
"Something like that," Dr. Deng said. "But the water makers developed by the Game Government can filter out most impurities from the air. However, the possibility of completely stripping out unstable factors from the environment is not very high. If they really figured all that out, there shouldn't be a bottleneck in potion development now."
"At least before I left, the latest version of the evolution agent's drug experiment published by the Game Government still had problems."
"You know inside information like this?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. "I remember you were fired."
"Everyone has a few friends." Dr. Deng quickly waved his hand, indicating he didn't want to continue this topic.
It had been so long, and aside from saying he was fired by Stellar Pharmaceuticals for lack of contribution, expressing dissatisfaction with some of Stellar's medical experiments, and mentioning a document related to the Perfect Potion, he hadn't revealed much else. The occasional small details he brought up were mostly lies.
As for the document on the Perfect Potion he had, it wasn't much. And now that Xu Huo had obtained the P4S version of the Perfect Potion, he had no urgent need for the potion. But he felt Dr. Deng should still have more information.
"By the way, about that Perfect Potion I gave you earlier..."
Before he could finish, Dr. Deng hurriedly interrupted him. "You really can't blame me for that. How many experiments can such a small vial of potion do? Let alone developing a better version. Unless Dr. Wu were here..."
"But don't worry too much. You're still young, far from degeneration. Technology advances every day. By then, there will definitely be a way to solve the degeneration problem!"
Xu Huo let out a derisive laugh, completely unconcerned by the empty promises. "So you're saying you wasted a vial of Perfect Potion?"
Dr. Deng muttered, "Medical research... how can you call it a waste..."
Xu Huo didn't pursue the whereabouts of that potion but left some leeway. "You'd better make me feel the effort wasn't in vain."
Dr. Deng glanced at his expression and swallowed the words, "If only we could get more Perfect Potions."
But he quickly perked up, showing off his latest research—an antidote specifically developed to deal with the pathogens on Yu Guo's hands. "Although it can't completely eliminate the pathogens and pollutants, it can slow down the infection rate, buying time for rescue."
To be fair, the Yu Guo pathogen was no longer the highest-level pollutant Xu Huo had encountered. But in terms of transmission conditions, it had the fewest requirements. It could grow rapidly even under extremely harsh conditions. Some high-level antidotes could work, but their effectiveness couldn't keep up with the pathogen's growth rate. Before the pathogen was completely eliminated, the person would die first.
"Antidotes in the game aren't too finely categorized. As long as you're not hit by a very tricky pollutant or toxin, the higher-level the antidote, the better the effect. High-level antidotes not only kill bacteria, viruses, and destroy toxic proteins but also have a strong activating effect on the human body, allowing the immune system to become active and self-rescue."
"Of course, ordinary people can't withstand this activation, but players are fine. They might not even feel it."
"Developing antidotes specifically for highly contagious pollutants like this isn't really necessary. Like the toxic fungi you brought back before—many have strong reproductive abilities. Once they parasitize a human body, they're hard to eradicate. Developing a suitable antidote for each one would cost an enormous amount of manpower and resources, and the audience would be very small."
"You just need to buy good enough antidotes. They'll let you move freely in the game."
Dr. Deng felt Xu Huo's insistence on developing antidotes for pollutants was completely unnecessary.
"Very small audience?" Xu Huo paused, then said, "True. By the time the antidote is developed, most people will already be dead. So the audience is indeed very small."
"But what you said makes sense."
He adjusted his posture, turning to face Dr. Deng. "No progress on the Perfect Potion. No results on the toxic fungi. You think categorized antidotes are unnecessary. Now I feel this laboratory is unnecessary too..."
"I think it's very necessary!" Dr. Deng said with a serious expression. "You're right. Even if it only saves one person, the research has value. The new pollutant you gave me—I will definitely develop a targeted antidote!"
"Don't force yourself," Xu Huo said indifferently.
"Not forcing myself at all." Dr. Deng straightened his clothes. "I am also a medical doctor. I have respect for all life."
"Make more of these antidotes. Tell Mr. Dong if you need anything." Xu Huo finished speaking and left the laboratory.
After coming out, he was in a bad mood. Seeing the Painting Woman and Xiao Yuan playing on the first floor, he went up to the second floor to check on Meng Cun.
The swelling on Meng Cun's head had subsided considerably. Apart from the necessary daily treatments, he could temporarily be free of the instruments at other times.
"How's the rest?" Xu Huo asked.
"Very good." Meng Cun put down the book in his hand. "I think I can increase my daily workload."
(Chapter End)