Matrix Survival: I Get A Random Chest Every Day

Chapter 1047 - 749: Confusion

"Great news!" Li Zheng clapped his hands forcefully and praised.

Lin Fengjiao was once swallowed by a mutated creature from Nihong Country’s Fudao Island, which was living a miserable little day, and almost got eaten.

Li Zheng happened to rescue her just in time, though he arrived a bit late. By then, Lin Fengjiao had already been swallowed alive by the creature; although she was saved later, her skin was almost completely dissolved by the highly corrosive gastric acid.

Not only her skin, but even some of her muscles were melted away at the time.

Xiao Siyuan spent considerable effort to heal her. Later, through various means, he finally managed to regenerate the missing muscles, but the skin was too severely corroded to be repaired; they had to temporarily replace it with artificial skin.

Now Xiao Siyuan says he has finally developed something that can regenerate skin, so restoring Lin Fengjiao’s original appearance should no longer be a problem.

"By the way!" Li Zheng remembered something and asked, "I remember her wounds have actually healed, right? The artificial skin is just a layer covering the ugly scars. If she wants to regenerate skin again, wouldn’t that mean..."

"Exactly." Xiao Siyuan nodded: "She needs to peel off a layer of flesh from her already healed body, like breaking misaligned bones to reset them; only then can her newly grown skin adhere to the flesh."

"Hiss!" Li Zheng gasped: "You’re letting her do it herself?"

"No, it was her own request." Xiao Siyuan said: "I was worried she wouldn’t dare to, so I wanted to help, but she insisted on doing it herself, so I let her."

"Wow!" Li Zheng marveled: "If she really has the nerve, Lin Fengjiao will definitely achieve great things in the future!"

The process of peeling off her own flesh would entail immense pain and psychological pressure.

Many might think lightly of it, yet they need significant mental preparation to even prick themselves with a needle.

Lin Fengjiao, a thin and weak little girl, with such courage, Li Zheng couldn’t help but admire her.

Anyone who can be so ruthless with themselves will hardly be troubled by anything in the future.

"Whether she achieves greatness is another matter; her skin repair isn’t complete healing." Xiao Siyuan sighed: "Let’s not forget her facial features are damaged to varying degrees, especially her nose and half an ear; these two areas contain cartilage. I have researched skin regeneration, but when it comes to bones... it’s beyond my ability."

Bones are different from flesh; flesh can regenerate more robustly, whereas bones, whether hard or soft, cannot regenerate like flesh.

For an average person, a flesh wound could heal in days or weeks.

But broken bones, when reset, require steel pins for alignment and months of bed rest.

The difference between the two is substantial.

Xiao Siyuan was vexed by this; he hadn’t found a way to regenerate Lin Fengjiao’s damaged bones, and could only resort to using cosmetic surgeons to fill in her facial features with prosthetics after her skin grows back.

This would make her face appear very artificial, as no prosthetic, no matter how finely crafted, could compare to original, natural facial features.

"Step by step." Li Zheng said: "You’ve achieved several miracles by healing Lin Fengjiao to this extent already; I believe you can create more miracles."

"Miracles..." Xiao Siyuan smiled bitterly: "Hopefully."

The technology for skin regeneration is supported by extensive medical knowledge, and most credit doesn’t go to his exceptional medical skills but to the inspiration he received from some tools acquired from Matrix.

Items like ’Blood and Flesh Regeneration Powder’ and Lin Fengjiao’s ’artificial skin’ facilitated Xiao Siyuan’s research.

But as for bone regeneration, even in Matrix, a place with peculiar rules, it’s a challenge; otherwise, Yan Guang wouldn’t have had to replace her upper arm with a mechanical one back then.

"I almost forgot to ask." Xiao Siyuan smacked his forehead and said, "Did your attempt to clone Yan Guang using her body succeed?"

Yan Guang was one of their circle, so Xiao Siyuan naturally cared about her. However, after coming to Outer City, he was too busy and just remembered her.

"Her..." Li Zheng smiled: "We were lucky to find residual active cells in her bone marrow, and cloning is already underway. But the cloned Yan Guang will likely lose her previous memories; whether Phoenix Mountain can reunite with her depends on his own skills."

Strictly speaking, a clone and its original are completely independent entities, resembling each other only genetically, and are not the same person.

Without memory backups implanted into the clone’s brain, it would be like a newborn, a blank slate.

"Hmm?"

Li Zheng suddenly became thoughtful as inspiration struck him: "Old Xiao, I have a medical question for you."

"Ask away, but I might not understand."

"If we liken Spiritual Bodies to souls, and the original soul remains within the body or has died, where does the clone’s soul come from?" Li Zheng pondered: "Also, if someone’s soul disappears from their body, could it be possible to cultivate a new soul with original memories using the memory cells stored in their hippocampus?"

"Huh?" Xiao Siyuan was stunned before replying, "I’m just an orthopedic doctor, and you’re asking me about neurology... wait, isn’t this metaphysics?

If it were possible, wouldn’t countless people in vegetative states have been cured by now?"

"True..." Li Zheng contemplated, feeling he had grasped something crucial but lacked the theoretical knowledge to connect and organize it in a comprehensible way.

This feeling was strange, as if he was suddenly aware of something entirely in his blind spot, existing in a superposition of understanding and not understanding.

Pondering further but unable to make sense, Li Zheng decided to focus on matters he could handle.

He bade farewell to Xiao Siyuan and led Mirel and Mudala to District 3 to purchase more Memory Release Devices, accumulating more memories of battle techniques.

Feng Yue followed him voluntarily, never leaving his side.

Professor Rothschild requested Feng Yue record every detail while Li Zheng was away from the research institute to analyze any changes in Li Zheng’s body afterward.

This would greatly assist Professor Rothschild in refining the training plan.

Though Li Zheng thought his body’s data would likely remain stable this time.

District 3 was more lively and bustling compared to other districts, with people jostling at the Teleportation Gate.

Li Zheng and the others finally squeezed out from the crowd, marveling: "Truly one of the top three districts; more people go to the Wilderness and Sin Domain here."

Residents with lower activity levels would be relocated elsewhere; District 4 was a case.

The two receptionists here were extremely busy, like traffic cops directing the flow of people into and out of the Outer City.

Under their guidance, Li Zheng and his group managed to leave the vicinity of the Teleportation Gate, escaping the congested crowd.

They entered a shop selling Memory Release Devices together.

Led by a enthusiastic shop assistant, Li Zheng looked at the various Memory Release Devices on display, suddenly resolving the confusion he felt earlier.