Bella was actually somewhat tempted. This stuff really was excellent! It promoted brain cell regeneration and delayed brain aging.
Should she buy some for Charlie? After sixteen years of bachelorhood, Charlie had been in good health with a full head of hair. Recently, after marrying his beautiful wife and laboring day and night, he was visibly going bald.
The Golden Apple only contained knowledge about cloning humans, not cloning sharks! The Isu hadn't studied shark physiology. Even if they had, it would only be stored in Apple No. 4 or No. 5, which recorded scientific knowledge. Her Apple No. 3 had limited technology.
Rather than starting from scratch, better to purchase finished products from Victoria Hand.
Even someone like her, who possessed cloning technology and a secret laboratory, felt the urge to buy. Needless to say, the other guests were all interested.
Currently, the world's most expensive drug treats spinal muscular atrophy—a genetic medication costing about $2.1 million per dose! Take it or leave it! The remaining drugs treating hereditary angioedema, hereditary blindness, and T-cell lymphoma ranged from five hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand dollars each.
Bella's black-market clinic charged ten million just for a cloned organ deposit!
Medical profits were simply enormous!
Victoria Hand's shark brain platinum wasn't cheap either. An injectable medication—sixty-five thousand dollars per shot! No discounts!
The steep price couldn't dampen the guests' enthusiasm. Only sixty-five thousand? Cheap! Buy! They'd buy even if they had to chop off their hands. You take five doses, I'll pre-order ten.
Even Bella bought two doses, planning to take them back for Charlie and Samantha to try.
Over forty million in income in the blink of an eye. Clear joy showed on the female agent's face.
She led everyone to the laboratory's core area.
This resembled a water tank with the center hollowed out, connecting directly to the seawater below.
Lab personnel used pheromones to lure sharks into the trap. Then a mechanical arm suddenly grabbed the shark, administered an anesthetic to reduce the massive creature's resistance, after which Victoria Hand wielded a fifty-centimeter-long needle and extracted brain proteins from the shark's frontal lobe region.
Bella had quite a conscience. Victoria Hand had helped her considerably, so now she stepped forward slightly. If danger appeared, she could rescue her promptly.
The shark had been given an anesthetic, but when the needle gradually penetrated deep into its brain, it still trembled slightly on the mechanical arm.
This wasn't the first brain protein extraction. Victoria Hand's hands were steady.
Drawing on rich experience, she inserted the needle into the shark's brain, patiently observed for several seconds, then began extracting.
Milky white, paste-like substance was slowly drawn out. The shark's resistance amplitude increased. Frank Castle administered another anesthetic injection.
The two-hundred-milliliter syringe nearly filled. Victoria Hand carefully withdrew the needle, treated the wound, then released the shark back into the ocean. This on-site brain platinum extraction task concluded smoothly.
Victoria Hand and her assistants raced against time, performing cell cultivation on-site to have the protein strengthen brain nerve cells, then promote the birth of new brain nerve cells.
"Good! The cell membrane is strengthening!"
"Activation has begun! Look, the brain nerve cells' permeability is increasing!"
"One second! Two seconds! Six seconds! Seven point three! Better results than last time!"
Several people excitedly reported observation results. Bella and the other laypeople could only watch from the side. Watch what? Sorry, truly no idea.
They only knew the results were good.
Brain cell activation time wasn't long—just a short six or seven seconds, and not many brain cells would be spawned. But for elderly people aging daily with memory deteriorating day by day, this was like a second lease on life.
In those short six or seven seconds, brain nerve cells would be reborn in small portions for the brain's use.
Restoring to youthful condition was definitely impossible, but escaping Alzheimer's disease—that could be achieved. As long as you were willing to spend money, sixty-five-thousand-dollar injections—one per month—could maintain memory indefinitely, until death.
As long as there was money and the lab had enough sharks, Victoria Hand, leading her research team, had essentially conquered Alzheimer's, this world-class medical challenge.
A crowd applauded happily, congratulating Victoria Hand on her achievement.
Some wanted to invest in her laboratory. Some simply wanted to buy out the entire facility.
Never just a pure scientific researcher from the beginning, Victoria Hand wouldn't be so short-sighted. She smiled while handling everyone, neither agreeing nor refusing.
She was weighing the pros and cons. Once interests grew too large, she couldn't resist capital groups through personal power alone. How much were connections worth per pound? Now she had to fly S.H.I.E.L.D.'s banner high.
She looked toward Director Fury standing in the shadows. He nodded lightly, indicating agreement.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had invested three hundred million in this project alone. For an organization like S.H.I.E.L.D., three hundred million wasn't much, but it definitely wasn't little either. Now that results had emerged, they couldn't let outsiders pick the fruit.
Experimental data couldn't be covered by just one or two items. Various calculations and comparisons proceeded for most of the day.
The evening sea breeze grew strong. The guests prepared to rest here overnight. Tomorrow they could observe further cultivation reports. With nothing to do, Bella stayed as well.
The experimental base's rooms were somewhat crude. Though she always claimed to be poor, this crude environment still made Bella uncomfortable. She tossed and turned, only falling asleep in the early morning hours.
But just as she'd fallen asleep, someone knocked on her door.
Groggily putting on outerwear, she opened the door to meet Victoria Hand's urgent gaze.
"The sharks escaped. I need your help. Right now."
The female agent had lost her usual probing, circumspection, and composure. Her words were simple and direct.
Bella froze. The sharks escaped?
Thinking this was a good chance to repay favors, she immediately agreed. "Alright, no problem."
Following Victoria Hand to the conference room, several notable people were already inside.
Director Fury, Frank Castle, and the somewhat deranged Dr. Erik Selvig were anxiously discussing something.
Along the way, Victoria Hand briefly explained the current situation.
Sharks were already smarter than ordinary fish. After using genetic methods to strengthen their frontal lobe cells, shark brains had increased in weight and size to five times their original!
In other words, the sharks had gained considerable intelligence. Now several sharks had fooled the monitoring personnel, bitten through the barriers, and rushed into the ocean.