Chapter 2631: Strange Human Body
The child who had undergone surgery last night had passed the critical period and could now be handed over to others for care. Gao Ming, who hadn't slept all night, got up early the next morning, strapped on his backpack, and woke Xu Huo and the Painting Woman, intending to head toward the canyon again.
"Don't you need to rest for a while?" Xu Huo asked with concern.
"Although I'm not a player, I've taken the evolution agent developed for ordinary people, so my body is in good shape," Gao Ming said. "You don't need to worry."
Without waking the young player, the three of them left the village before the sky was fully bright.
"Doctor Gao, if I'm not mistaken, you used Spatial Evolution power to treat the child. You're not a player—can a few doses of evolution agent really trigger a secondary evolution?" Xu Huo was genuinely seeking advice. "If it's inconvenient, you don't have to answer."
Gao Ming waved his hand. "There's nothing I can't say. It's not a secret."
"My situation is quite special. I suppose heaven took pity on me. When I left my homeland because of the war, my wife was severely injured. But at that time, all the medicine and surgical tools were lost. No matter how hard I tried, it was futile."
"It was then that I suddenly felt my fingers could touch some strange power. It could flow, it could cut—like the knives and threads used in surgery."
"At the time, I didn't even know that was Space Power. I could only gamble."
"We were lucky enough. The surgery actually succeeded." Gao Ming smiled, but soon sighed. "Unfortunately, after that, my wife's health never recovered. She died of illness within two years."
"My condolences," Xu Huo said.
"Time has passed, and I've let it go," Gao Ming said. "Besides, living in a world like this isn't necessarily a good thing."
"Is the world after death good?" the Painting Woman asked curiously.
Gao Ming casually plucked some herbs from the grass and put them into his backpack as he spoke. "No one knows what death is like. But I've seen what the game world is like. There's nothing worse than this."
"A district is originally like a person that can be reborn multiple times. No matter how the body deteriorates—whether from illness or external attack—as long as the district isn't destroyed, this 'person' can regenerate."
"But after the game appeared, an excessively powerful external force could easily break this cycle. The 'person' loses the possibility of rebirth."
"Before the game emerged, people dreamed of achieving immortality and crossing the universe. When these things became real, they realized that before they could become immortals themselves, the immortals from afar would become a disaster."
"But then again," he paused and turned to look at Xu Huo and the Painting Woman, "perhaps a district is just one cell in the 'person' that is the universe. The destruction or existence of a district doesn't affect the universe's ability to regenerate."
"From a macro perspective, whether humans live or die, they exist within this universe—like a floating speck of dust."
"Compared to the universe, humans are indeed insignificant," Xu Huo said. "But the universe is far away, while life is right in front of us."
"Exactly." Gao Ming smiled. "So I'm just hoping to see a miracle one day."
"I can indeed use Space Power to perform surgery on people, but that's all," he returned to the previous topic. "The object of my Space Power can only be humans. I can't control other objects like other evolvers, nor can I gather power for other uses."
"If you're trying to figure out why I'm so special, I can't give you a reason either. Perhaps there are strange cases like mine in the game."
Xu Huo nodded slightly. When he first saw the use of Space Power for surgery, he was indeed shocked. But thinking about it, he had seen such special existences before. Bai Kou's mother was also an ordinary person, yet Bai Kou said no one could kill her. Perhaps she had the same kind of miraculous encounter as Gao Ming.
"In your perception, what is Space Power like?"
"Like invisible scalpels and threads," Gao Ming said. "But the threads formed by Space Power can't stay in the human body for long. So when tools are available and the situation isn't particularly critical, I still use surgical thread for suturing. In critical situations, I can slightly alter the Space Power already present in the body to help fix the wound."
"The Space Power inside the human body can actually change position?" Once the Space Rays inside an object are controlled by an external force, the usual outcome is disintegration. The same should apply to humans. That's why the game developed the "Spider Lock" to restrict player movement—it only immobilizes them. If someone forcibly disrupts the Space Power inside a human body, the consequences would likely be dire.
"It's possible within a small range," Gao Ming said. "Making tiny changes without affecting organ function won't leave sequelae."
"Is the Space Power inside the human body all the same?" Xu Huo asked. "A person is a whole, but the Space Power contained within is extremely complex, seemingly very different from ordinary objects."
"You know quite a lot," Gao Ming said without holding back. "A person is indeed a whole, but the state of a body varies. The complexity probably comes from the fact that it's not as uniform as other objects, so the Space Power inside the human body also has subtle differences."
"I don't know if it's because players have passed through multiple wormhole points, but the distribution of Space Power in their bodies is more complex than in ordinary people. However, those subtle differences are hard to distinguish. If you're just borrowing Space Power for simple surgery, you don't need to make such complex distinctions. But if you're using the body itself to suture wounds on the spot, you have to be careful to differentiate."
"After all, the human body is constantly renewing itself. Over time, these tiny misalignments might tear apart or return to their original positions, causing secondary damage."
Why the Water Cube and that special strand of Space Power thread were connected to his heart was probably because they were intertwined with the Space Rays inside his body. The sensitive part was that they happened to be attached to his heart, greatly increasing the risk of trial and error. With Xu Huo's current abilities, even if he went to the Chaos Space to borrow a Space Power venue, he might not be able to solve it.
The timing of Gao Ming's appearance was too coincidental—a pillow arriving just as he felt sleepy. But while Space Evolvers are easy to find, someone like Gao Ming, who can use Space Power to perform surgery on people, is a rare encounter.
It wasn't necessarily that meeting Gao Ming was a trap, since Xu Huo had decided to come to this district on a whim. What worried him was whether Gao Ming could remove the Water Cube and the Space Power thread from his heart—especially the Space Power thread, which belonged to a dimension completely beyond any known Space Power. If he wasn't careful, he might die the moment external force intervened.
And as for Gao Ming himself, he might not be trustworthy either...
"Boom!" Just as he was hesitating, a loud explosion suddenly came from the distance.