From Abyssal Invasion to Bursting Stars with a Single Sword-Chapter 259 - 212: Preventing the Proliferation of Superpower Potion Ahead of Time

First came the addiction.

Once injected, no Superpower User could refuse the euphoria the potion provided.

Not to mention, the temptation of significantly enhancing Combat Power was difficult to resist.

In fact,

before the side effects became apparent, humanity experienced a period when Superpower Users, with their soaring combat prowess, managed to push back the mists of confusion.

As the Superpower User community as a whole increased their combat capabilities under the effect of the potions,

more users began to venture into the mists to hunt Abyss Creatures and close Cracks.

For a time, this led to the phenomenon of pushing back the forbidden zones of the mist.

During that period, there were even Superpower Users who called out slogans, vowing to completely eradicate the mist from the continent.

The overwhelming power they wielded gave these Superpower Users an immense sense of confidence.

But, such good times didn't last.

As the side effects of injecting superpower potions became increasingly apparent, those who had used the potions gradually realized they had developed a dependency on them.

And this dependency arose both psychologically and physiologically.

Going too long without an injection of the superpower potion led to severe withdrawal reactions.

Some power users even began resorting to any means necessary to obtain the potions.

Therefore, following the short-lived push against the mist came the darkest period.

Superpower Users started fighting each other viciously, even committing murder, all to secure a dose of the superpower potion.

Even many once-powerful Superpower Users fell during this dark period.

At that time,

Lu Heng had just Awakened when superpower potions were beginning to proliferate, and the side effects had not fully manifested.

When he first awakened, his Source Energy Level was too low.

Lu Heng had even considered purchasing a superpower potion to quickly elevate his level.

At that time, the price of a superpower potion had fallen to 100,000 per dose, which his family could barely afford if they pinched pennies.

Fortunately, Lu Heng was cautious; having seen the wild behavior of power users after injection, he always felt there was something not quite right about these superpower potions.

Sure enough, the side effects began to manifest half a month later.

There were many conflicts among power users, all fighting over the superpower potions.

Lu Heng had even witnessed a power user in agony on the ground due to dependence on the potion, rolling in pain.

That scene would remain with Lu Heng for the rest of his life.

That power user, in an attempt to alleviate physical and psychological pain, had scratched open his own skin, letting blood ooze out as if this physical torment could ease the pain in his mind.

Lu Heng saw with his own eyes that power user tearing all the skin on his body to shreds until it was a bloody mess, then grabbing Lu Heng's foot, begging Lu Heng to end his misery quickly.

The sight was so horrifying that it had even caused him to have nightmares.

...

Because of the memories from his past life,

Lu Heng's understanding of superpower potions went well beyond this.

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He even knew how these superpower potions were produced.

Technically speaking, the technology needed to produce superpower potions was very simple.

That was also why superpower potions were able to flood the market.

If the production technology were more complex and the output couldn't keep up, they wouldn't be able to proliferate so widely.

The method for producing superpower potions was simple: using animals as carriers, feeding them substances imbued with Demon Energy, Energy Crystal Cores, Demon Blood, or even Abyss Ore.

Any material that could provide energy was fed to the animals.

After consuming these energy-containing substances, the animals would mutate and then produce Source Energy within their bodies.

Afterward, Source Energy was extracted from these animals to make superpower potions.

The production process of superpower potions was that straightforward, requiring some technical know-how, but not much.

With the current level of human technology, they were easy to produce.

The superpower potions produced had various quality grades.

The grade of a superpower potion depended on the type of energy material the animal carrier was fed.

If fed on Energy Crystal Cores, the resulting superpower potion would be first-grade.

If fed on Demon Blood and flesh, the potion would be second-grade.

If fed with rubbish materials like Abyss Ore slag, the resulting potion would be of the lowest grade.

Compared to others, the higher the quality of a Superpower Potion, the milder the side effects.

And the most rampant ones on the market are actually the lowest grade.

After all, with a price tag of 100,000 for a dose, it's naturally the worst kind.

In fact, Lu Heng was aware of another level of Superpower Potion, which was extracted from the blood of Superpower Users.

And the Superpower Potion that Alex Austin used was exactly this kind.

Since this Superpower Potion was extracted from the body of a Superpower User, the side effects were lighter, and it also had a higher compatibility with the human body.

However, if Source Energy was obtained externally, it eventually led to addictive properties and irreversibly suppressed the human body's Source Energy Synthesis.

In his past life, Lu Heng had delved deeply into the principles of how Source Energy was produced in the human body, so he had a profound understanding of why Superpower Potions were addictive.

Source Energy was an energy substance produced by the human body, emerging only after the Abyss Descent.

In terms of production principle and method, Source Energy was very similar to another substance in the human body: endorphin.

Endorphin was a synthetic hormone resembling morphine, secreted by the pituitary gland.

When endorphin bound to morphine receptors, it could produce pain relief and a sense of pleasure similar to that of taking illegal drugs.

Simply by injecting endorphin, humans could easily achieve a sense of pleasure.

Why, then, would humans prohibit the abuse of such a drug?

Because injecting endorphin-like substances would lead to a reduction in the endorphins secreted by the human body.

This meant that without further injection of endorphin-like substances, a person would not feel pleasure due to reduced endorphin secretion.

To achieve pleasure, one had to continue injecting endorphin-like substances. The more one injected, the less their body would secrete endorphins on its own.

Under this vicious cycle, humans became dependent on endorphin-like substances, suffering without ongoing injections.

Interestingly enough, Source Energy shared similar properties.

When injured, directing Source Energy to the wound could produce a pain-relieving effect similar to that of endorphins.

Source Energy was synthesized in the energy factories of human cells.

These cellular energy factories were the mitochondria.

Not just in humans, but most animals on Blue Star had mitochondria in their cells.

After humans Awakened into Superpower Users, absorption of energy, movement, eating, and other actions could all synthesize Source Energy in the mitochondria.

In other words, only Source Energy that passed through the mitochondria belonged to the body's energy.

The mitochondria had a set of mechanisms that complied with the body's energy needs.

For Power Users with a low Energy Level, the speed and total amount of Source Energy transformed by the mitochondria were naturally lower.

As the Energy Level increased, the efficiency of the mitochondria's transformation of Source Energy continued to improve.

That is to say, there was a bodily mechanism controlling how much Source Energy the mitochondria could transform.

A change to this Source Energy transformation mechanism would trigger a chain of reactions.

What were the effects of injecting Superpower Potion?

Once the Source Energy from the Superpower Potion entered the body, the body's mechanisms sensed a high internal concentration of Source Energy.

With high Source Energy levels in the blood, the body's mechanisms would think there was no need to continue the transformation, halting mitochondrial activity.

Over time, the mitochondria's efficiency in transforming Source Energy degraded.

This meant that Superpower Users who injected the potion, but did not sustain injections, would experience a continuous decline in internal Source Energy and a significant drop in Combat Power.

Plus, the addictive nature of Superpower Potion naturally made Superpower Users dependent on it.

Ultimately, it led to Superpower Users fighting viciously over the drug.

Lu Heng didn't need to explain the principle of human Source Energy synthesis to those leading researchers at the Academy of Sciences.

Ever since the emergence of Superpower Users, scientists had never ceased researching Superpower Users and Source Energy.

This principle of Source Energy synthesis was not a challenging research topic for those scientists at the Academy of Sciences.

By the end of September, after the Abyss Descent, the theory of Source Energy synthesis had already been thoroughly researched.

Now, Lu Heng had also reported information on the addictive properties of Superpower Potion.

The combination of these pieces of information made the true nature of the Superpower Potion not difficult to analyze.

What came next was beyond Lu Heng's control.

To prevent the proliferation of Superpower Potion, state-level power was required.

The efforts of one man were simply not enough.

Lu Heng had done what he could; now it was time to see how this turmoil would unfold.

After the Abyss's tenth month began, Lu Heng received a message.

Some conglomerates were starting to invest in Da Xia, preparing to mass-produce Superpower Potion.

Lu Heng received this message because Lin Zeyu had been approached with a partnership offer by a transnational conglomerate.

After all, Da Xia was Blue Star's largest industrial nation, and if one wanted to mass-produce a certain product, investing in Da Xia was a common strategy.

Since word about the Superpower Potion had already spread in upper circles, with a current price tag of tens of millions per dose, even more expensive than Gold, many domestic companies accepted investment from transnational conglomerates and started pouring money into factories to produce Superpower Potion.

However, just as these cross-border partnerships were getting started, the Da Xia government suddenly issued a red-letter document, ordering the prohibition of the production and sale of Superpower Potion by domestic enterprises in any form.

The government also officially classified Superpower Potion as a banned drug.

After seeing this news, Lu Heng felt some emotion; the ban on Superpower Potion had come nearly two months earlier than in his previous life.

This could perhaps prevent that dark period from occurring.

However, the classification of Superpower Potion as a banned drug worried certain upper-class groups, as there were already many wielding old-age capital who had injected the drug.