The Martial Unity

Soon enough, it was time for his appointment. 

[Doctor Greniluo

Virologist

31st main road, 42nd crossroad, L-342]

Rui quickly found the location of the office of the doctor that he had an appointment with. He had arrived before a humble but sizable professional building.

KNOCK KNOCK

“Who’s there?”

“I am Squire Falken, I believe I booked an appointment with you through the Church,” Rui said.

The door suddenly opened and a short bald man stood before Rui. “Ah, Squire Falken, welcome! It is an honor to be consulted by a Martial Artist.”

He uttered something that was typical of the religion Rui’s experience, but Rui also was able to judge that this individual was not sincere in his expressed deference to Rui, which suggested that he truly wasn’t committed to the faith, but played along for whatever reason.

(‘Probably to avoid getting into trouble,’) Rui mused. (‘As one of an intellectual field, he must have a hard time dealing with all of this nonsense.’)

“Now then,” The man began. “What is it that you wished to consult me about, Squire Falken?”

Rui paused for a moment, before starting. “I wanted to consult you regarding Herenal’s Disease, and its effects on Martial Squires like myself, how detrimental is the disease to the effective physical prowess of the Martial Artists infected with the virus?”

“Interesting question,” The man furrowed his eyebrows. “Herenal’s Disease is a disease that causes hyper muscle hypertrophy very rapidly, increasing muscle volume and density, subsequently increasing energy consumption to such a degree that it causes death to the organism. Death by exhaustion. The exact mechanism by which the virus functions is not known, but we suspect that it affects a gene that is related to the regulation of muscle mass. However, there has been no empirical data proving this.”

(‘Not bad, that’s actually close to the mark.’) Rui applauded him mentally.

Later on after his initial education back on Earth, he had increasingly familiarized himself with human anatomy and physiology which became increasingly more relevant when he created the VOID algorithm. This gave him a pretty decent background in biology, one that had been rejuvenated when his mind’s ability to recall grew significantly in his second life.

(‘The Herenal’s Disease almost certainly is one that messes with the MSTN gene that is centered around the production of myostatin, a protein that halts the growth of muscles.’) Rui mused.

One of the breakthroughs that he had made as a researcher was discovering the optimal weight class, in the UFC, of an MMA fighter based on their myostatin count which told him how much muscle they would be able to build easily.

Someone with too much myostatin production was not suited to bulking for the heavyweight division. Conversely, someone with too little myostatin production was not suited to the lightweight division.

There was even a condition known as Myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy that gave someone twice as much muscle mass as they would normally have.

Here in this fantasy world, it appeared that there were even fewer limits as to how far this could go in this world. After all, patients with Herenal’s Disease rapidly came to resemble a certain green rage monster whose name he could not utter due to copyright.

(‘And with the Martial Body whose limits far surpass that of the normal human body, I cannot imagine how much power I can gain from it,’) Rui narrowed his eyes. (‘I just need to make sure that it is safe.’)

“I see,” Rui replied. “I believe that one of the treatments for the Herenal’s Disease is a constant supply of nutrition sustenance to the body.”

“Correct,” He nodded. “We insert tubes into the bloodstream and supply large amounts of all the necessary nutrients and compounds to sustain the massively increased energy consumption rate.”

“However, I believe during this time, the patient retains the increased muscular output, correct?” Rui asked.

“That is correct, yes,” The man nodded, furrowing his eyebrows.

He was no doubt quite confused as to why a Martial Squire randomly booked an appointment to consult with him, only to ask him questions about a rare disease.

“I wish to gain your input on a hypothetical,” Rui continued. “Let us say a patient infected with the disease possesses an excess of the compounds and nutrients that are normally needed by the human body. Let us say by a factor of ten, how would you project the rate of deterioration of the condition of the human patient in these circumstances? Will the timeframe leading to death also be increased by a factor of ten?”

The doctor frowned as he considered Rui’s words. “It’s hard to say in such a hypothetical, but it is quite likely that the timeframe leading to death would substantially increase in such circumstances, as for whether it would increase by a factor of ten, that’s a bit hard to say. Frankly, it depends on many variables, but generally the greater the amount of time the patient is alive, the greater the hypertrophy of muscles. Thus the consumption also increases as time passes, though the rate at which it increases would also decrease.”

“Presumably due to the elastic limits of fascia holding the muscle together,” Rui remarked. “It would serve as a powerful counter-balance to the muscle hypertrophy caused by the Herenal Virus.”

“Indeed, the research on the matter is-” The doctor suddenly, paused doing a double take, glancing at Rui with confusion. “I’m sorry, you are a Martial Artist, correct?”

“Very much so,” Rui replied, deep in thought.

The doctor stared at Rui with confusion. For a moment, he felt as though he had been discussing with a peer of his as opposed to a Martial Artist, who was probably illiterate to a certain degree as they usually were in his experience. But Rui so seamlessly kept up with him even when he was talking about his field of expertise that it threw him off for a moment, he forgot who he was talking to.