Biological Equipment

"Damn, now I finally understand what it means to spend money just to suffer."

Black and blue, Gu Qi returned home from the Trial Space once again.

Because of Sage Mali's secret technique, Gu Qi had no choice but to fight Po again.

Though Po went a little easier on him this time for the sake of the ramen, he still beat Gu Qi until he was clutching his head and fleeing.

"Looks like I'll have to keep training." Gu Qi sighed and took a long swig of Secret Brew, hoping to drown his sorrows.

Actually, with the help of explosives, it wasn't impossible to beat Po. But Gu Qi felt that winning that way would be dishonorable.

So he gave up on the idea.

Besides, with Po's agility and speed, it would be very difficult to pose a threat to him unless Gu Qi set a trap beforehand.

"Forget it. I'd better build a good relationship with him first!"

Shaking his head, Gu Qi opened the lab door and went inside.

He went over to the cultivation tank and checked on the test subject he had been carefully raising.

Looking at the test subject, which was finally beginning to take shape, Gu Qi felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.

It had taken fifteen generations of careful cultivation to get the test subject to this point.

He estimated that after three more generations of adjustments, it should meet his expectations.

If this experiment succeeded, Gu Qi would begin work on his next breeding project.

"What kind of dumpling is this? How come I've never seen it around Jade Valley?" Po asked as he ate the glutinous rice balls Gu Qi had brought from Konoha.

"These are a specialty from where I come from. They're made with glutinous rice," Gu Qi replied, dark circles under his eyes.

"They're not as good as my dad's fresh soup noodles, but they're still delicious." Po ate the last rice ball and let out a satisfied burp.

Hearing that, Gu Qi tentatively asked, "Is your father a goose?"

Po burst out laughing. "What are you talking about? My father's obviously a panda!"

Gu Qi stroked his chin. He had already considered the possibility that this was either an independent world or a virtual space.

Now he was leaning more toward the former.

If that was true, then the scroll's purpose was obvious.

If Gu Qi's guess was right, there was no need for him to unlock the scroll just yet.

Besides, he couldn't beat Po anyway.

"Finished eating? Let's keep going!" Po performed a kip-up and landed steadily in front of Gu Qi.

At Po's words, Gu Qi couldn't help trembling. "Um, do we really have to?"

"I don't mind, but don't you want to go home?" Po said that he didn't mind, but the expression on his face gave him away.

Gu Qi was speechless. This guy was the kind to pull up his pants and forget about you. He'd eaten so much of Gu Qi's good food, and now he was kicking him out without a second thought.

But since Gu Qi couldn't beat him, he decided to forgive him.

"Bring it on!" Gu Qi stood up with the look of a man facing certain death, like a soldier about to march off to war.

"Hi-yah!"

Smack!

"Come visit again soon, Gu Qi!" Po waved eagerly just before Gu Qi disappeared.

"Why does this guy always have to hit me in the face? Oh, right. He must be jealous because I'm so handsome. That's definitely it."

Gu Qi had failed another challenge. Rubbing his sore face, he muttered to himself.

This was his fifteenth failed challenge that month. Accordingly, it was also the fifteenth time he'd been beaten black and blue.

Fortunately, over the past month, Gu Qi had managed to get along pretty well with Po by bringing him good food.

Whenever Gu Qi was on the verge of losing, Po would go a little easy on him. Otherwise, he'd be in much worse shape now.

"It's about time. The test subject should be ready, too."

After taking a sip of Secret Brew to recover from his injuries, Gu Qi checked the time and suddenly remembered that the test subject was due to mature today.

At once, he eagerly opened the lab door.

"Finally! It's finally done!" Gu Qi took the test subject out of the cultivation tank, overjoyed.

Even so, he didn't let his excitement get the better of him.

First, he extracted ten samples of DNA from the fully matured test subject to use in future breeding.

After placing the samples in the refrigerator, Gu Qi embedded the prepared Mithril Alloy into the test subject.

After disguising it with a few finishing touches, the biological equipment he had crafted was finally complete.

Next came the test.

So Gu Qi took the equipment and headed outside.

"Why are you going out so late?" As luck would have it, Gu Qi had barely stepped outside when he ran into Kakashi.

"Uh," Gu Qi said glumly. "What about you? What are you doing at my place this late?"

"Why can't I come by? You're the one who closes the curtains every time you come home. Are you up to something you don't want people to know about?" Kakashi asked suspiciously.

"Hmph, that's none of your business!" Gu Qi sneered.

"Hmph. Want me to beat you up?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"..." Gu Qi decided that once he was strong enough, he'd teach Kakashi a thing or two about how to behave.

"I'm just doing an experiment. I'm going to test my test subject," Gu Qi said helplessly, resigned to telling the truth.

"Oh?" Kakashi said with interest. "What kind of equipment? I'll come take a look."

Kakashi had a favorable opinion of the strange equipment Gu Qi made.

For one thing, the **** and explosives had saved him quite a bit of effort on missions.

Gu Qi took out the test subject and showed it to Kakashi. "Here. This is it."

"Shoes?" Kakashi stared blankly at the open-toed shoe in Gu Qi's hand.

The biological equipment Gu Qi had made this time was essentially a pair of super-elastic shoes, made by modifying a slime.

Slimes were magical creatures that appeared in all sorts of novels and games.

As single-celled organisms, they had next to no combat ability.

What Gu Qi had his eye on was their incredible malleability and bouncy texture.

That gave him the idea of reshaping a slime into a shoe and using an adjustment device to increase its jumping ability.

After eighteen generations of repeated improvements and adjustments, the slime had finally changed from a lump of flesh into the shape of a shoe.

But no matter how much he adjusted it, a slime was still a soft-bodied creature, so it remained squishy in his hand.

That was when Gu Qi thought of adding a supporting frame to the slime shoes.

After considering his options, he ultimately chose Mithril Alloy, with mithril as its core, as the material for the supporting frame.

Mithril had excellent energy-conducting properties. And since slimes were living creatures, they also had a natural ability to conduct chakra.

Together, the two would make these springy shoes exceptionally efficient in their chakra use.

Don't underestimate that small reduction in chakra consumption. It might save your life when it mattered.

"That's right, they're shoes! But they're not ordinary shoes," Gu Qi said.

Kakashi sighed. "So, at the end of the day, they're still just shoes."

"...Right. They are shoes," Gu Qi admitted. He couldn't deny it.

Kakashi asked, "So what makes these shoes special?"

At that, Gu Qi said proudly, "They increase your jumping ability and reduce chakra consumption. Does that count?"

Kakashi stroked his chin. "If that's true, then they're certainly a rare and valuable item."

"But," Kakashi continued, "hearing you talk about them isn't enough. Show me."

Without another word, Gu Qi handed him the shoes. "Don't take my word for it. Try them out. And give me some feedback while you're at it."

Kakashi stared at the small shoes Gu Qi had handed him, then looked at Gu Qi for a long time.