From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 671 Lifespan Crisis
"Wait, what are the fragments of time-space afterimages?"

After hearing Saleh say this term he had never heard of before, Amber couldn't help but be stunned for a moment. Coupled with her previous sentence, saying that her psychic power strength had broken through to the middle stage of level six, Amber was even more confused, because he hadn't felt any breakthrough in psychic power strength recently.

Saleh picked up a strange-looking instrument on the workbench that was full of the style of the Forerunner civilization and walked to Amber. He scanned him up and down while answering:

"Time-space afterimages. This thing is a derivative of a study on 'time' by us Jeram people. Individuals who obtain time-space afterimages can gain a kind of ability similar to 'foreseeing the future' for a very short period of time under certain circumstances. However, this ability is very uncontrollable, and often when these individuals see the 'future', the 'future' will also be changed."

As Saleh described, the instrument in her hand beeped several times in succession, and a light group above the instrument flashed for a while and finally turned blue.

"The pattern is blue, and it is definitely a fragment of the afterimage of space and time."

Saleh frowned as she looked at the results displayed on the instrument in her hand. Her delicate eyebrows couldn't help but wrinkle. It seemed that she had never seen Amber in such a situation before.

After a moment, she raised her head and looked at Amber again and asked:

"So how long have you been experiencing this symptom?"

"Bah bah bah what are symptoms"

Amber replied unhappily, and then immediately thought of two similar situations he had encountered a long time ago. One was in the battle of Rubion V, where he saw the Imperial Army detonating a nuclear bomb in the city and annihilating all the ground troops. The other was after discovering the Forerunner's refining facilities, he saw a certain "dark future".

Thinking of this, Amber no longer hid it and directly told Saleh about her two experiences, including the fact that after the explosion of Alpha Serpens, this kind of "foreseeing the future" began to become more and more frequent.

"So these symptoms appeared so long ago?" Saleh raised his hand and pinched his delicate chin, thinking.

Amber: "No, do you have to use the word 'symptoms' to describe it? It sounds bad!"

"Because time-space afterimages are indeed a disease for us Jeram people."

Saleh's tone became serious. She raised her hand, and a large number of auxiliary robotic arms descended from the laboratory. Under her control, these robotic arms quickly surrounded Amber and began to scan him with various instruments at the front.

During the scanning process, a virtual screen also appeared next to Saleh. She looked at the lines of data on the screen with complicated eyes and continued:
"As I just said, 'Time and Space Afterimages' are a derivative product of our Jeram people's research on 'time'. I can't go into detail about the specific content of this research. I can only tell you that it is related to the 'Time and Space Expedition'. Once 'Time and Space Afterimages' appear in our Jeram people's bodies, although we will gain a short-term ability to 'foresee the future', our spiritual energy and physical functions will also be greatly overdrawn in the process."

Amber's heart skipped a beat, and she asked uneasily, "You mean, if a 'time-space afterimage' appears, one will not live long?"

"Yes, the average life expectancy will be reduced by 70% to 80%." Saleh nodded, and the cruel figures came out of her mouth. "No, it will be reduced by so much???"

Amber was really panicking now. He had finally established the Atlas Group and had finally beaten the number one enemy, the Federation, to death. It could be said that he had been walking on thin ice since he came here. Now it was finally time to relax a little, enjoy a good life, and eat the fruits of victory, but suddenly he was told that he would not live long.
Saleh: "It is true for the Jerram people, we have a lot of data to support this, there is no doubt about it, but"

"But what?"

"But we have never found that 'time-space afterimages' will appear in humans, so I don't know what effect it will have on you humans, nor do I know how much of your lifespan it will affect."

Saleh answered with some uncertainty, and it was obvious that this was the first time she had encountered such a situation.

Amber knew that if even Saleh, the Forerunner Think Tank deacon, didn't know about this situation, then most likely no one else would know about it, so he asked helplessly:
"So what should I do now? And will there be any impact if I suddenly break through to the intermediate level of level six? Why don't I feel anything?"

"I don't know exactly what to do, but to be on the safe side, I will start looking for ways to extend human life for you. As long as you can extend your lifespan, the impact of the 'time-space afterimage' can be reduced to some extent."

Saleh snapped her fingers, and the circle of machines surrounding Amber also retracted. After looking at the data on the virtual screen, she continued:

"As for the sudden breakthrough, judging from the current data, it has no effect on your body. I guess it was the explosion of Alpha Serpens that affected the depths of your brain, or helped you break through the shackles of increasing your psychic strength. Theoretically, this is indeed possible. We Jeram people used to use supernova explosions or directly detonate planets to regularly help high-level psychics break through in batches."
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After leaving Saleh's laboratory, Amber's joy over the success of the Stonehenge defense zone operation also disappeared.

After all, if other people suddenly knew that their life span might be shortened significantly, they would not be able to be happy, especially when they already have a wealthy family and a large business.

However, Saleh's words just now also reminded Amber that finding a way to increase her lifespan is also a kind of "last-ditch effort". However, the most common way to prolong life in human civilization now is actually to transform the body.

The durability and maintainability of mechanical prostheses that are transplanted in large quantities are naturally greater than that of the physical body. Important organs such as the heart, lungs and internal organs, as well as the most important cell vitality, are also transplanted regularly through the method of cultivating cloned organs.

Not to mention that this method of body modification will eventually cause the same problems as the "Ship of Theseus".

Even if a thorough transformation is completed, the longest life extension record is only 120 years, because in the later stages, even the cloned internal organs, blood, and cells will begin to become incompatible or even rejected.
"Damn it. Why did this 'lifespan crisis' suddenly appear again!"

Amber murmured to herself in annoyance, and Lilith's voice also sounded in her ears.

"How about you also transform into a 'digital life'? Then you don't have to worry about your life span. Even if the 'time and space afterimage' that Ms. Saleh mentioned has an impact on you, it won't affect the virtual world, right?"

(End of this chapter)