In the subsequent period, Mercer led the Spark Team to quietly develop again after a long break.
The Adcardans stealthily transported biotechnology equipment under the guise of delivering building materials, assembling them in Mercer's ground-floor workspace, but left them idle without operation for the time being.
This unexpected joy brought, apart from the quick cloning machine and its accompanying equipment that Mercer had longed for, also a drug synthesizer and an advanced molecular analyzer.
Additionally, a truckload of production materials corresponding to the equipment was entirely packed and brought over by the Adcardans.
Yet Mercer cautiously refrained from randomly starting experiments—the main reason being the raw materials needed for rapid cloning technology are specially made for biotechnology, not sold externally.
Upon researching the equipment materials, Mercer found that the batch of raw materials he had on hand would basically be exhausted after using the machine for cloning approximately ten times.
After getting the equipment, Mercer thoroughly studied the technical composition of this machinery and the materials and procedures needed for cloning, hence he largely abandoned the idea of making raw materials himself to repetitively clone using the equipment.
Although rapid cloning technology exists only as marginal technology of other cloning projects in the biotechnology database, its technical content is indeed extremely high.
One could say it is an integrative product embodying cloning technology accumulated by biotechnology companies over the decades.
The workflow can basically be understood as—first, introduce biological DNA sample cells into the rapid cloning machine.
If there are no active sample cells, it necessitates using the corresponding cell cultivation machine, making use of the DNA blueprint replication technology therein to replicate your DNA information and cultivate a live sample cell.
Subsequently, the rapid cloning machine performs dedifferentiation on the live cell, using a miraculous technology to reverse the state of adult cells, making them 'rejuvenate' back to a state similar to that of a totipotent stem cell like a fertilized egg.
The totipotent stem cell then redevelops inside the rapid cloning machine, until it reaches the embryonic stage, at which point the rapid cloning machine needs to be injected with a catalyst that induces the embryonic cells to undergo frenzied division.
This catalyst lasts for about three months, and when its effects come to an end, the cells' rapid division state stops, and by this point, the embryo reaches approximately the physical state of a 22-year-old human.
At this moment, the clone's cells enter a stable phase, and after observing for a week without genetic collapse or other issues, it can be considered cloned successfully.
The entire process requires two special raw materials: one is a cell catalyst, and the other is a super-concentrated nutrient solution, with the former promoting rapid cell division and the latter ensuring cells are well-nourished during rapid division.
Does it seem simple?
But in reality, based on the materials Mercer acquired from biotechnology, there are far too many potential failure points in the entire plan.
First, during the embryonic stage, the cell may die or develop malformations.
Second, after injecting the catalyst, the cells may undergo mutation during division or fail to fully metabolize the catalyst, causing the cells to divide rapidly all the time, ultimately only cloning a diseased individual or a short-lived person not living a year.
Third, even if everything proceeds smoothly, the cloned being could still be physically inferior or mentally lacking in potential.
Because this rapid technology inherently does not perfectly reproduce your original DNA, but converts the DNA you provided into an embryo for redeveloping anew.
Much like identical twins exhibiting significant differences, even though the body is redeveloped through your DNA, it cannot replicate your original body identically.
Such circumstances compelled Mercer, initially eager to clone himself first, to suppress his thought and plan to first find a cost-effective guinea pig for testing.
This guinea pig... what he envisaged was none other than Johnny Silverhand.
He intends to use Johnny Silverhand's DNA with rapid cloning technology to check for any other hidden dangers in the technology, ideally allowing him to directly revive into this body via Relic, and then see if he encounters any problems.
If problems emerged, he could attempt utilizing the Soulkiller Program for another extraction—this way, he would accomplish the Soulkiller Program's experimentation concurrently, wouldn't he?
Achieving this, however, proved very demanding, as who knows where Johnny Silverhand's DNA is still available, Mercer pondered if nothing else works, Johnny may just have to settle for a randomly cloned body not hoping for an original version.
Therefore, Mercer simply packed away the instruments, stored the materials into insulation boxes, and temporarily stifled the idea of cloning, instead focusing on learning related technology from biotechnology in hopes of reducing the number of failures.
Apart from learning, Mercer put all his energy into cracking the Soulkiller program and researching Relic.
Time flew by quickly, the Adcardans took less than half a month to expand Mercer's original base by another 500 square meters of ground space.
With this, he decisively moved everyone's dormitory upstairs, leaving the underground purely for storing various precious equipment, and spent over a million Euro on upgrading the server.