The New Humans Project

Lu Zhiyu sat at his computer, organizing his thoughts. When he had used serum to make simple changes to his pets' fur and eye colors, he had already come up with a new idea for the human template in the Maria World.

Since he couldn't replace large sections of genes, making small changes to the original genetic template shouldn't be a problem. But such minor adjustments alone couldn't fully satisfy what he had in mind.

"What if, instead of making only small changes, I added different abilities to the genetic inheritance?"

"For example, I could give the eyes the abilities of an eagle, or add an adrenaline surge, dynamic vision, a sage's composure, incredible speed, or immense strength. I could load these abilities one by one into the ancestral templates passed down through the generations. Then, depending on the conditions for inheritance, each individual could freely awaken different abilities, just like someone with supernatural powers. From a genetic perspective, these abilities would simply be ones their ancestors had possessed, now awakened in them!"

Lu Zhiyu stood up, brimming with excitement. It was as if a whole new path of thought had opened up before him.

"It's not just special abilities or physical modifications. Skills and knowledge can be passed down, too. People's ancestors could pass on their skills, imprinting that information deeply into their genes. If I embedded swordsmanship, craftsmanship, marksmanship, and other special skills into their genes, their descendants would inherit those abilities. I can treat them like plug-ins and load them into the genes."

Standing in the middle of the room, Lu Zhiyu closed his eyes. "Ordinary people, or those in poor health, definitely wouldn't be able to withstand these physical modifications. I'll have to set an awakening condition and create a checkpoint in their genes. Only when their bodies have been trained to the human limit will their brains unlock this access, activating the physical modifications or inherited memories. Only then will their bodies' powerful blood circulation be enough to let their brains withstand the extreme physical changes!"

The more Lu Zhiyu thought about it, the more it reminded him of the knights in novels. Once their bodies had been trained to a certain level, they would awaken and gain special abilities. Those were Blood Knights.

"That's it! This is the new kind of human I want: a unique people belonging to the Maria World, not copies cast from the same mold as us!"

Back in his study upstairs, Lu Zhiyu immediately activated the Dimensional Gate and reappeared inside the Space Castle. Only a few days had passed in the outside world, but more than a hundred years had gone by here. As a dimensional world embedded in the Maria World, the Space Castle's time flowed in sync with the Maria World.

By now, all the Ant-Men he had made at the beginning had died. Their lifespans had been short. After completing their task of caring for the first generation of the Beastmen Race as they grew up and returned to the Maria World, their mission had come to an end.

The Ant-Men currently here had all been made later by Lu Zhiyu, and there were only a handful of them. Their main duties were looking after the Space Castle and keeping it clean. Lu Zhiyu had also come in from time to time to check on the changes in the Maria World and keep observation records. Now he returned to his room and found the Universe Scroll.

Using the Universe Scroll to observe the entire Maria World, Lu Zhiyu saw that many Beastmen Race tribes had sprung up across the Alan Continent. After a hundred years of reproduction, they had gradually formed distinct groups and begun spreading along the rivers across the continent.

He also noticed that the Beastmen Race had begun developing its own language and showed the early signs of forming city-states. It wouldn't be long before the first city belonging to the Beastmen Race rose on the Alan Continent. The seeds of Beastmen civilization had begun to sprout.

The earliest city-state had been established by the Rat-kin. They had their own culture and language and had begun to trade and interact with one another. They had nurtured the flower of civilization in the Maria World. The other tribes and races still had too few members; a tribe of a thousand was already considered very large. So far, only the Rat-kin had exceeded ten thousand, putting them in a position of overwhelming strength. However, their combat abilities were poor, and the world was vast. Even when conflicts occurred, they remained small-scale, with nothing to spark a large-scale war.

"No, I have to speed things up. If humans appear too late, the Beastmen Race will crush them!"

Feeling the pressure, Lu Zhiyu immediately headed for the laboratory on the fourth floor, ready to begin the next phase of his experiments: "The New Humans Project!"

"Squeak, squeak!"

"Chirp, chirp, chirp!"

Lu Zhiyu watched as several monkeys in a large cage bared their teeth at him. The cage was spacious, with plenty of food and water, as well as climbing frames and nests he had built for them. Each monkey had a number written on it, making them easy to tell apart. These dozen or so creatures would be the ancestors of the New Humans. Whether the people of the Maria World would accept that in the future was beyond Lu Zhiyu's control.

"Monkeys, you should be proud. You're going to be the ancestors of the humans of an entire world. Do you know how many lifetimes' worth of good fortune it would take to earn that? Don't worry, I'll let you go soon. I won't take your lives!"

Lu Zhiyu's research into modifying monkey genes had been going smoothly. He had loaded a human template into their genes, then added various talent plug-ins for physical modifications. After that, he had extracted traits from other species and loaded on a huge number of them, all for free. These included traits from animals and insects. It had taken Lu Zhiyu about a month to design forty-eight talent plug-in templates and create the first New Human embryo.

It was currently developing inside the belly of monkey number 0582, and its growth was going very well. All Lu Zhiyu had to do was wait another eight or nine months, and he would see the first human in the Maria World!

After successfully creating the first New Human embryo, Lu Zhiyu had also begun a plan to modify his own body. The success of the New Humans Project had given him renewed confidence in modifying his body. He wouldn't alter the genetic template or make sweeping changes. He would simply load a few talent plug-ins onto selected gene fragments. That should be completely safe.

Lu Zhiyu called this plan the Evolution Serum Project. Its research overlapped with the New Humans Project in many respects, so he decided to work on both together.

After checking on the New Human embryo, Lu Zhiyu immediately left. Several Ant-Men stayed behind to look after the monkeys. He had to admit, these Ant-Men assistants had helped him a great deal. Without them, the plan couldn't have gone so smoothly.