Rob sighed.
He had come out of the deep ocean because something sad was happening.
The brain rejuvenation surgery had a limit.
The limit is around 100,000 years, but it could be less. For Rose, the limit was 83,000 years.
The doctors tried their best, but the elixir couldn't work. Too many of her brain cells died, and the remaining ones wouldn't be able to sustain her anymore.
If it were an advanced civilization, they could have uploaded her brain to a computer, trained an AI with her brain, or even grown new brain cells. However, with the limit of modern technology, those options were impossible.
...
In a hospital room, a woman with beautiful red hair was lying. She was beautiful and young.
At the moment, she is still capable of thinking and walking, but she occasionally passes out for no reason, so she resides in a hospital nowadays.
There was no cure for it, as the cause was insufficient brain cells.
Doctors had already done all they possibly could to prolong her life, and now there is no other way.
A knock came on the door.
"Come in," Rose said.
She had been having lots of visits from her longtime friends recently. Everyone knew she might die at any moment.
Rob opened the door and came in.
Rose smiled sweetly upon seeing him.
The secret of Rob becoming a ghost is a secret nobody knows.
Even though most ordinary people believed he had become a ghost, his close friends never believed it.
When he stayed at the bottom of the sea, he left a soul split in his body, so nobody noticed his absence.
From Rose's perspective, he had always been there.
"Rob! How are you!" she stood up and greeted him warmly.
But then, she lost consciousness.
Fortunately, before she dropped to the ground, Rob caught her.
He put her back on the bed while sighing.
As a Ghost, Rob has ways to help her.
He could help sustain her with his energy.
One needs a brain to survive because the soul is not strong enough to control the whole body alone; the brain acts as a medium between the soul and the body.
If Rob strengthened Rose's soul, she wouldn't need a brain to survive.
With enough SP, she could directly control her body using her soul. But, it would cost at least half an SP every year.
It was not sustainable at all. Rob could only get a single SP yearly at the deep sea. He couldn't give half of all his yearly income to Rose.
As for absorbing other souls, it would have grave risks.
Even though he liked Rose, he was unwilling to go this far for her.
As for fixing her brain with soul magic, he couldn't do it at all. His use of SP was not skilled enough for such detailed actions; it is far more likely that he would blow up her brain in the process.
Supernatural abilities had long disappeared in this dream world. Some people with supernatural abilities were still on Alex's side, but none were left here.
The only person with supernatural ability is Rob. Unfortunately for Rose, Rob is not going to help her.
After a while, she woke up.
"What happened?" she asked.
Rob said, "You lost consciousness."
Rose looked around and sighed.
Honestly, she had been tired of living. She didn't commit suicide only because of her strong will.
Some of the wealthiest people in the world, billionaires, committed suicide tens of thousands of years ago despite being able to live much longer.
But still, the thought of dying is scary to her. Her willpower is unyielding, so even after this long, she still doesn't have any idea of taking her own life.
"What happens after death?" Rose asked curiously.
Rob closed his eyes and sighed, answering honestly, "There is nothing after death! It's like before you were born. You won't think, see, hear, feel, or care about anything. It's total silence."
This is, of course, ROB's view. As for the truth, different people have different views.
Alex III, for example, thinks that after death, one would be born again but won't remember anything of the past life. It concerns his thoughts about dream worlds and the scarcity and reusability of dream energy, which is too complicated for ordinary people to understand.
Rob is not that deep into learning about dreams and isn't hoping to be born again; he wants to live as much as possible as Rob, not as anyone else.
Rose took a deep breath and said, "I don't want to die!"
She started crying.
Rob sighed again; seeing a friend like this is difficult.
Lately, he has become more compassionate toward his old friends.
After some struggle, he decided to do the best he could do aside from keeping her alive.
He would devour her soul.
His research on souls is not deep, but he believes that after death, souls would dissipate.
Therefore, letting her soul dissipate is like letting all her memories die out and vanish.
However, if he consumes her soul, he will absorb all her knowledge, thoughts, memories, etc.
He could then create a soul split with Rose's memories, which would not differ from the real Rose.
Swallowing souls is dangerous, but Rob is now a mighty ghost. His SP is higher than 80,000. He could devour one weak soul without a problem.
At most, organizing all her vast memories would take a few years; he must be careful to keep her memories separate from his own.
It would cost a few SPs to keep the memories of those devoured separately; as such, he couldn't do it en masse.
But he could afford it in the case of his best friend.
Already deciding what to do, he comforted Rose, waiting for her to die before consuming her soul.
After a month, Rose went into a coma.
Doctors checked on her and shook their heads. She would never come out of this coma.
Her body is healthy, but she is practically brain-dead. They could keep her alive for years in this state, but there is no point in doing it.
Rose has no close family. She had friends but no children. Her children died long ago.
In her consent form to the hospital, she gave Rob total control over medical decisions.
Rob decided to let her body die. Nobody protested as everyone knew she wouldn't wake up from the coma.
As such, on the year 20,024 of the new calendar, Rose, once the prime minister of UISEC, died.
...
Rob looked at the body in front of him.
It was naked, on a table, in a room completely isolated from the outside.
The soul would remain in the body for between 24 to 96 hours before starting to decay. Now, it had been 3 hours since her death, so the soul is intact and complete.
Closing his eyes, Rob abandoned his physical body and appeared in his ghost state.
His ghost state looked exactly like his human face when he was born, with a few extra features, like a pale face.
After pondering and concentrating, he opened his mouth, and a suction force came.
An illusory light, which faintly looked like Rose, slowly came out of her body. She was not a ghost, so her soul couldn't walk freely like Rob.
Souls couldn't even think and act without a physical body.
The illusory figure had closed eyes and an expressionless face; it looked like her original face when she was young.
With a hand gesture, the soul quickly moved toward Rob's mouth, which was wide open. It was so vast that one could put a TV inside. It was like something out of a horror movie.
The soul, completely unconscious, was wholly swallowed by him.
He closed his eyes and concentrated.
This room is safe in the middle of nowhere, so he can concentrate here as long as he wants.
His soul split is outside so that nobody would be suspicious of his absence. Even if anyone does get suspicious, who cares? At the moment, he could defeat the entire world just by himself.
To begin with, nobody could harm him in his ghost form.
...
Rob continued his concentration for one year.
He preserved all the memories, personality, and details of Rose's soul.
He managed to avoid any spillover. His soul didn't influence Rose's memories, nor did Rose's memories affect him.
It cost 20 SP, far more than he had predicted, but it was worth it. He only has a few friends but doesn't want to let them disappear.
"It's done," he smiled happily.
Then, he used his soul-split ability to split a piece of his soul.
He didn't put any of his memories in it. Instead, he put the well-preserved memories of Rose in the soul split.
The soul split, which looked like Rob, gradually changed shape and became like Rose.
As its name implies, soul splits are souls, not ghosts. So, they couldn't act alone and needed bodies.
Fortunately, Rob has prepared quite a few bodies for Rose.
Bodies could be preserved for up to 5 years in a special state.
He took the soul split and came before a big container.
There were 9 naked female bodies and one naked male body in the container.
The male body is for himself; his last body is rotting right now, so he needs a new body.
The female bodies are for Rose. He brought 9 because he needed to determine the most compatible one. Strictly speaking, any of the bodies would do the job, but it's best to use the most compatible body.
Getting these bodies was easy, as he had many soul splits in important positions throughout the world.
After examining the split soul's details, he chose the 7th body out of 9.
He wore the male body prepared for him, took it out, and carefully injected an activation solution into it. After the activation solution, the body could only last a day. With the activation solution, its heart began beating.
Rob closed his eyes, took the split soul, and placed it in the body. This step must be done extremely carefully, as any mistake could lead to disasters like paralysis or insanity.
Fortunately, it went well.
"Now it's time to wait!" Rob thought.
The soul split must be harmonized with the brain. The brains of these bodies are blank and would absorb memories of the soul split.
It could take a few years.
This is the most energy-efficient way of making clones. It's possible to inject energy and allow the soul to control the body directly, but that would cost a lot.
These bodies have been made with Rose's DNA, but not exactly hers. She was a famous figure and had already died; Rob couldn't use a body that looked exactly like her last one.
If one looks, they might think the body is her child. It can be a backstory. Rose had a secret child that returned after a few years.
With it done, Rob took her body to another room and placed her in a white sticky liquid. This is called preservation liquid and is a new invention.
It can protect the body from muscle deterioration after the brain rejuvenation surgery, so after the surgery, there is no need for physiotherapy.
Now, Rob uses it to preserve Rose's body when her brain adapts to her new split soul.
The liquid would provide all the materials for survival, so there is no need to worry about anything.
After this, Rob went back and looked at the 8 remaining bodies.
These bodies are made based on Rose's DNA, so he couldn't allow anyone else to use them.
With a thought, he wanted to use his SP and burn them all to ashes directly, but he restrained himself. SP is precious, so wasting it like this is not good.
He could burn them with standard fuel, so why use precious SP?
He went out, gathered lots of wood, lit it on fire, and threw the bodies on it.
After a few hours, all turned to ashes.
Then, he went back to the room and closed his eyes. He plans to wait for 'Rose' to wake up.