Prologue for the Immortality Project

	What is immortality to you?
	Would you say it is merely a figment of one’s own fantastical imagination that originated from Greek mythologies and fabled legends? Would you say it is a fool’s delusion to live forever, granting him a lifetime of folly and demise? Would you say it is some whimsical dream many once crossed and pondered on it? I will not tell you that you are wrong. I am not one to judge anyone for their views on different matters. When one contemplates their own mortality, or when one daydreams, or even on their deathbed, everyone has crossed the thought before at their own time.
	Many pathways and trials that promised the godlike status were heavily sought out throughout the ages. There is the example of callous 13th century alchemists roaring with laughter as they drowned themselves in their shoddily-crafted elixirs and potions. Imagine, cities after cities, where these glorified scholars ran amok, their brew bottles jingling with glee, test subjects from poor mice to poorer peasants being sapped and split open. Clever had they been, for not what was in the bottle, but how they evaded their divine comeuppance from the Royal Family for such heresy by the very thing that they try to conquer: death, or at least exile. Another favourite example is religious leaders embracing their pious followers and encompassing them to “love their lord and live forever as a collective body” as their chests get ripped apart by sharpened daggers and whatnot in their rituals. A life for another life? To kill is to live? For someone who spoke of holiness, he was tainted with the sinful belief of becoming holy, of being immortal, of becoming a living ‘God’. For those who bathed in blood, theirs ran still when the time came for them to leave this mortal plane. Even the rituals of adopting simplistic lifestyles took a stab in the name of preservation, from consuming certain types of food, getting fit and so on, so forth. Of course, none of them ever lived to tell the tale to the generations that came afterwards, so that shifts the viability of such toys into perspective, doesn’t it. All caught up with their beliefs, all fuelled by a singular drive…
	Nonetheless, it became a glamorized fantasy that falls off short for any discussion. Indeed, many theoretical standpoints can be grounded on the topic, whether it be mythological, philosophical, practical, about how it could be potentially and dangerously synthesized by man, about how it is a gift from the Gods, about how it seems trivial to the public eye etc. One side may say that living forever means nothing to them as they resource their points of existentialism from many admirable philosophers. Level with them for a second and imagine this: your monetary value you penny-pinched and scraped each day is deemed useless when you can cash in and out anytime, your social circles were scorched and incinerated to ashes as time burnt through their lifespans, even you start to wonder what to do when you did everything in your bucket list, if your bucket list had any worth right then and there. What then could the man live for? On the other hand, many would argue about how it grants the person the potential to become a God, to be capable of learning everything, to become anything and to stand out amongst the crowd. Isn’t this greedy and selfish dream what we once wanted, fuelled by the power of our own personal reasons? Either way, many would look down on it and see it as a fleeting puff of smoke wafting out of the room. That was, until the project went underway.
	Back then, in the year 2049, technological and scientific advancements were already posing so much benefits to our society. Robotic prosthetic augmentations that grants the user unparalleled abilities compared to your average human being, proficient environmental sustainability in the sake of nature conservation and human living, refined warfare that flexes each country’s respective military strength and much more. The biotechnology field was simply the cherry on top in this whole revolutionizing age. Genetic engineering had never met such a peak before in its own time. Countless strands of DNA were laid before them to be tampered with, broken down, built up, modified over and over, like a sculpture awaiting its magnanimous master piece. The DNA was their canvas, the modified individual was their piece of art. With over millions of different combinations, pinned with many more of different proteins and bacteria that associates with DNA, we can literally craft up whatever we want from whomever we want. Whatever traits you want and they shall bestow it on you. No more defective spinal discs or degenerative bones and muscle tissues, no more ‘dried’ and dull minds that cannot spark their imagination, no more of any negative characteristics. Imagine yourself being the best version of yourself, wouldn’t that be a dream everyone wishes to have? Of course, legislative debates were hurled across the countries to determine the benefits and detriments of such concepts. One side argued against it, claiming that it advocates genetic discrimination, the loss of human dignity and violates human ethical rights. The other side argued for it, claiming that it is for the promising advantages we could tap into medical-wise and for the mere sake of transhumanism, about how human dignity not found by our human genes but in what we could become. With that, favouring genetic engineering, projects went underway.
	Of course, one project that went underground and was handled with utmost discretion became the turning point of our history.
	I must be boring you with all this backstory, but I guess I will start entertaining you now. My name is Joanne, I’m just your average high school girl, I love video games and snooping into people’s business. If you were to ask me what is immortality to me, I’d simply answer you with this: my great grandfather. He should be dead, but is now having me at gun point, and no, I wish I was pulling your leg here.