A series of liquids flowed past me once again. This time, instead of light, darkness accompanied by a red glow flooded my vision. I tried my best to suppress my shock and calm my body—a crucial process I had discovered during my last cryostasis session. However, the blaring sounds were incredibly distracting. This was why I detested cheap equipment and bleeding-edge technology; they were rough around the edges.

"What's up?" I groaned as I woke up from my chamber. Instead of finding myself in a cozy hospital bed, I was still in my sleeping tube. Had they mistaken my waking time? What incompetent scientists.

"Well, thanks to your friend, our service has been banned by the government. We are now closing down!" Mr. Jack replied, sounding irritated. "Oh, you're lucky. I hoped you would die, but you ended up surviving instead. The others weren't as fortunate. Only two others made it. Damn it."

"Hmm? So, you're shutting down the service? Is that why I woke up? And what's with the red light?" I inquired.

"This is an emergency protocol. Now that you're awake, I trust you'll help me as an eyewitness?"

"Sure, just give me a minute to call my lawyer. Where's Mr. Bradley? Do you guys have any phones?" I groaned as I struggled to get out of bed. It was a horrifying experience. Unlike last time, I could somehow still move my arms. Was I getting used to it, or was it simply the sudden waking process that stimulated my muscles? Despite this, my disease had returned; the pain in my heart and abdomen had intensified.

"Hey! Throw these bodies into the incinerator. Only those who survived and supported us may live," Mr. Jack shouted orders. "Hurry up! Do you want to go to jail? The FBI has already begun searching the top floor. It won't take them more than three hours to find this bunker!"

"FBI? Oh yeah, this whole cryostasis thing was an illegal human experimentation. So, somebody snitched on his illegal play, and he accused me?" I muttered as I gathered my thoughts. Watching Mr. Jack and his henchmen toss the bodies into the nearby incinerator, I felt relieved that he spared me. In villain and mad scientist movies, he usually killed all of us. But it was such a waste to see those cryostasis tubes being dismantled.

"Alright! I think I have my mind back. Could I get a rundown on what happened? Oh, and greetings, fellow sleepers. My name is John," I addressed Mr. Jack from my wheelchair in a white room with two others—a man and a woman in their teenage years. They seemed so young; I was curious as to why they slept here. But that could wait. We had a more pressing matter to attend to.

"Hello, my name is Anna, and he is Bob."

"Hello. I am Bob."

"Okay, I have already instructed my scientists to enact Protocol 66, and now, about you guys. You guys are my only concern. You guys will support me, right?"

"Yes, of course. I will lie as long as the lie will not put me in a vulnerable position," I answered.

"We will too."

"Alright, for Mr. John. Here is the cover story: You are under extensive rehab and thus have room 402 here in the underground for yourself. You rarely leave the room, and even then, you didn't visit nor contact your family. Is that clear? Can you make excuses about why you didn't contact them?"

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Yes, I rarely contacted them to begin with. I have to come up with more elaborate excuses, though, as to why I never contacted my company."

"Now, Bob and Anna. You are James and Luna now. Your parents faked your death and hid you in these chambers because your granduncle wanted to kill you. You ran away with fifty kilograms of gold bars and have been here for twenty years. Your parents are dead, and to prevent inheritance disputes, they asked me to hide you here. That's why you two have no identities. Is that clear? Remember, these are not your identities but your parents'. You underwent plastic surgery before sleeping. But don't let those facts slip. A fingerprint test will reveal everything. Don't let them take it. These stories are what you must tell the FBI, okay?"

"Yes, we understand," Bob and Anna replied in unison.

I tilted my head at the plot holes in these stories, but I also knew that the FBI would be suspicious if the cover story were too perfect. I smiled at the couple's backstory—they had skipped a generation. I wondered if I could have such a backstory if I slept long enough.

"Alright, Mr. John, that way, please. Bob… I mean James and Luna, you go that way. Ah, you guys have met each other. Just make up some story about these kids scrawling around while you had your rehab, okay, John?" Mr. Jack instructed.

"Alright."

"Ah, Mr. John, if you could do me a favor, you run a tech company, right? Could you allow me to evacuate this data temporarily into your office?" Mr. Jack whispered.

"Hm? This data is about the cryostasis experiment, right? It's quite huge, 100 TB. How are you going to transfer it to my server in two hours? Wait, won't the FBI raid my company too when they find out you have transferred your data to my office?" Most of these data were boring videos of the cryostasis chamber, but a small portion included vital data such as cryostasis theories and their mechanics, essays and hypotheses, cryostasis chamber schematics, and charts about our cryostasis.

"There is no data. We don't keep logs here. So, don't worry. The files were in the cloud; we could transfer them from my cloud to yours and then delete all the logs. The FBI is looking for physical evidence, so they shouldn't investigate my cloud server. But I need to do this just in case. You can be trusted, right?"

"Alright," I nodded. He could trust me to keep the data safe and return it to him when needed. However, I would copy the data for myself later for sure.

Soon after, the FBI came into our room. Mr. Jack greeted them and introduced me. My haggard face made them reluctant to question me, but they still questioned me regardless. The questions were basic: my name, ID card, and what disease I had and its treatment. I bullshitted my way through, but I insisted that it was my own will. I told them the sob story about why I wanted to prolong my life, even for a few more years—for my daughter and her wedding. The only mistake I made was when I called Mr. Jack "Doctor Jack." Even though he had hundreds of hospitals, how come he didn't have a medical license?

At the very end, the FBI left me alone with a note stating their suspicion of illegal human experimentation within the company. No matter how convincing my sob story was, illegal activities couldn't be overlooked.

"Mr. John!" Mr. Bradley finally arrived. Where were you when I needed you the most, you bloodsucking lazy lawyer? Your only job was to keep these bureaucratic police off my back, and yet you failed?

"Where were you, Mr. Bradley? How could you let these feds disturb my sleep?"

"Well, apparently, Karen and Kevin tipped off the feds. They raided the hospital after Mr. Jack showed Karen the cryostasis chamber."

"I see. It's Mr. Jack's fault, then. How could he become rich when he's so naive? Well, I guess I'll have to help him build another cryostasis chamber. I only have like six months left, maybe he won't finish it. With all the feds on his tail, will he get imprisoned?"

"No, I don't think so. There wasn't any evidence."

"I see."

"But the feds will certainly put him on their watch list. He won't be able to do much for at least three years."

"What should I do about Kevin now? He has ruined my plans. How long has it been? Three years, right? I won't be able to attend Jennifer's wedding at this rate."

"Jennifer will have their wedding in two months if you want. They've been talking about speeding it up due to her early unwanted pregnancy six months ago. I could call them right now."

"What? I see. So, I could see my grandson and my daughter's wedding? Excellent! I am truly blessed. Hahaha." I chuckled at the fortune before me. All of my dissatisfaction with Kevin went out the window. I couldn't gain immortality, but at least I could have what I wanted.