The point isn't the LOC. If you've never even touched C, you're not just going to have to learn that, you're going to have to learn how to write an optimizing compiler (because frankly if you've never touched C I'm skeptical you have any experience in this). And not just that: you're going to have to learn how to write the world's most optimizing trace-based JIT compiler for a dynamic programming language.

Mike spent 10 years designing LuaJIT and it is in a league of its own, not paralleled by anything else. Do not expect this inane project of yours to be solved by looking at 25,000 lines of C code. Especially if, point of fact, you do not even know C. Expect it to be 'solved' after a decade of research and hard work at minimum.

I'm not sure what paranoid reality you live in where you think this is feasible, or even desireable given your original post (frankly even though a port isn't needed Rust would be an awful choice for a 'port' due to the fact it's simply not got as good availability, the compilers and tools are less mature), but when I said see you in 15 years, it wasn't a joke - it was a conservative estimate.