21st Century Necromancer

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Many people think of Japan as a small country, but in reality, its land area even surpasses Germany, and in terms of territory length and coastline, it is one of the few countries at the top of the world.

Traveling from Kumamoto in Kyushu to Tokyo by plane is roughly equivalent to flying from Beijing to Shanghai.

The reason we feel Japan is not large is simply because China is too big.

In Japan, every administrative division or slightly larger city has an airport, and together with the Shinkansen, conventional railroads, and highways, Japan's transportation is among the most advanced in the world.

Therefore, even traveling from Kumamoto to Tokyo, Inomata Naoki only had to leave in the morning to arrive in Tokyo around noon, just in time for lunch.

Of course, this so-called "just in time" refers only to the timing, not that he could actually join Chen Yu and Kohinata Kaori for lunch.

After all, to get from the airport to the Tokyo University Medical School Hospital, where Chen Yu was, would take about two hours by car, and if there was traffic, it could take even longer, possibly more time than it took Naoki to travel from Kumamoto to Tokyo.

Nevertheless, Naoki still took out his phone and called Chen Yu to let him know that he had arrived in Tokyo.

But the call did not go through.

This puzzled Naoki, but thinking that Chen Yu might be in surgery, he then called Kohinata Kaori.

The call went through smoothly this time.

"Hello, Kaori? It's Naoki here! I've just arrived in Tokyo," Naoki told Kohinata Kaori as he boarded the airport shuttle.

"You're already in Tokyo, Naoki? That's great. Chen and I were supposed to pick you up, but there was a little incident with the experiment at my sister-in-law's, so we both came over to help, and couldn't get you," Kaori conveyed her warm welcome to Naoki over the phone, but also explained the situation.

Hearing Kaori say this, Naoki found a seat on the airport shuttle and asked curiously, "I'm over thirty and not exactly inexperienced with travel. Why would I need a pick-up! But what about my sister-in-law's experiment? The Artificial Womb experiment? Did something go wrong?"

"Yes, the baby's due date moved up, and Chen and my sister-in-law are now preparing for the delivery. Ah, I can't talk anymore, they've started!" Kaori exclaimed over the phone before quickly hanging up.

Faced with the busy tone on the other end of the phone, Naoki felt somewhat helpless, but didn't really mind too much. He just thought about the historic experiment that Yu Chen and Hiromi Jounouchi were conducting at the moment and couldn't help feeling a bit envious. If he hadn't gone back to his hometown to raise horses, could he now be at the scene as well?

In fact, given Naoki's relationship with Yu Chen back in the day, plus the fact that he was also a graduate with a Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo's Medical School, he would certainly have been part of the experiment if he had stayed in Tokyo.

But because of a tumor, and to suppress the cancer, Naoki had secretly taken the medicine that Yu Chen was using for the experiment, and with no face to confront Yu Chen, he had returned home and taken over the family ranch.

A doctor, once destined for greatness, was now just an obscure ranch owner. Sometimes, fate is indeed so strange.

However, Naoki himself didn't care, feeling only a touch of regret. If he had chosen to stay in Tokyo rather than returning home, what a joy it would have been for him, Yu Chen, and Kohinata Kaori to be together, just like in their school days?

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As Naoki thought about Yu Chen and Kohinata Kaori, the two of them were busy, one inside the lab and the other standing in front of the viewing window outside the lab, continuously filming with a handheld camera.

Besides Kaori, in the observation room outside the sterile lab, at least a dozen high-definition cameras were constantly filming the scene inside the lab. NHK and the five major private TV stations were all broadcasting live, and even the legendary Tokyo TV Station was no exception this time.

Inside the lab, the fetus immersed in the culture tank was moving restlessly, as if eager to come into this world.

Yu Chen and Hiromi Jounouchi had already put on protective suits and were getting ready to open the culture tank of the Artificial Womb.

"How are the fetal life signs?" Hiromi Jounouchi asked somewhat nervously as she looked to Nakagawa Susumu monitoring the data from a device beside her.

"All normal, fetal life signs stable," Nakagawa Susumu looked at the data and quickly reported to Hiromi Jounouchi.

Seeing Hiromi Jounouchi looking nervous, Yu Chen quickly reassured her, "Don't be nervous, Hiromi. Take a deep breath, relax. This is much simpler than delivering a baby from a pregnant woman. You just need to open the tank, take the fetus out of the amniotic sac, and then cut the umbilical cord."

With that, Hiromi Jounouchi looked back at Yu Chen, almost unable to suppress a laugh, but she quickly steadied her emotions.

As Yu Chen had said, this was indeed much simpler than dealing with a screaming pregnant woman. After all, her role was just to open the culture tank and extract the fetus wrapped in the amniotic sac.

Taking a deep breath, Hiromi Jounouchi looked at the others in the lab and the dozen cameras focusing on her outside, and said in a firm voice, "Then, I shall begin."

Her voice, transmitted by a microphone installed in advance, immediately made everyone outside tense up as well.

The birth of the first human fetus successfully developed outside the body in human history was about to take place, an event significant enough to be recorded in history and included in school textbooks.

Everyone felt as though they were witnessing history, staring unblinkingly at Hiromi Jounouchi's actions inside the lab, not wanting to miss a single detail.

The Artificial Womb was designed from the outset to be non-hermetically sealed; its top cover could be opened at any time, but normally, it was locked with a latch to prevent contaminants from reaching the fetus inside the culture tank.

Hiromi Jounouchi, feeling the sweat on the palms of her gloved hands, still reached out and calmly took hold of the first latch.

Immediately, a series of camera shutters sounded outside the laboratory. Everyone with a camera was incessantly capturing the moment, fearful of missing this historic occasion.

"Click." The first latch was undone.

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