Darkness Hidden Beneath the Light

Twenty years have passed, and the Protoss have gained 20,000 newborns. The Daelaam population has officially exceeded 100,000, which is much slower than the human reproduction rate. Shen Jun is not satisfied, but there is nothing he can do to solve it.

The main population base is too small, so the growth rate naturally cannot increase.

He can only grind it out over time.

He Xi returned to the small wooden house she built in Aiur and continued her previous routine.

Shen Jun warped to a secret research base, located 5,000 meters underground in Daelaam. Not only was the location secret, but it could also shield all detection.

The main color scheme of the entire base was black and red, obviously in the style of the Tal'darim. Although the Tal'darim's technology mainly relied on plagiarism, after Alarak took office as Highlord, the Tal'darim began to actively develop their own technology.

The Tal'darim are not short of highly intelligent talents. Otherwise, they would not be able to create modified versions of the stolen spaceships. It would be impossible to do so without superb technological skills.

Therefore, what the Tal'darim lacked was only the attitude of actively studying technology, after all, they were just fanatical followers of Amon in the early days.

However, precisely because of this, the Tal'darim look down on all Protoss in a certain technology.

Gene technology.

More precisely... Hybrid technology.

Shen Jun entered the experimental area of the underground base. The experimental area was divided into many areas, and the most central one was a large experimental field. However, in Shen Jun's eyes, whether in terms of shape or function, this experimental field looked more like a colosseum... The entire experimental field was surrounded by walls made of high-strength Psionic Energy alloy material. This was to prevent the experimental subjects from escaping. The walls were specially made to be transparent to facilitate observation of the situation inside.

With the experimental field as the center, the other areas were also tightly blocked by Psionic Energy alloy, forming thousands of separate compartments, but these were not transparent, so it was impossible to see the situation inside.

The research base was divided into two floors. The experimental area occupied the space on the first floor, and the real research area was on the upper floor, with a gap of 50 meters between the two floors.

The structure of the research area was not so complicated, with only one large and one small partition. The large partition occupied 80% of the area, but Shen Jun's destination was the small research area at the deepest point.

"Gaius, how is the progress?"

Shen Jun walked into the dimly lit laboratory and asked in a deep voice.

A standard Tal'darim Phase-smith was analyzing a gene map. His name was Gaius, a Tal'darim who was older than Alarak. Unlike the other two races, the Tal'darim did not have awe for knowledge in their hearts, nor did they have the concept of life first. They would even use their own people to do experiments.

Although under the influence of Artanis, Alarak has become more and more concerned about the lives of his people, and the Tal'darim have changed slightly, but some habits are ultimately engraved in their bones, that is, contempt for other lives.

Therefore, the research in the underground base can only be handed over to the Tal'darim.

Because the experimental subjects in the thousands of closed compartments in the experimental area on the first floor are none other than the original owners of this planet, the Elephant Men!

The Elephant Men have a population of at least one million. Although they can all be killed, it is too cruel and unnecessary. It is better to keep them as objects for certain experiments.

For example, Super Gene.

The reason why Alarak fought with He Xi was not entirely because of a momentary impulse, but also to obtain He Xi's gene sample. No blood was needed, just a strand of hair was enough. Losing a few strands of hair in battle was nothing, and the Angel's Super Gene code was not so easy to crack.

Therefore, this underground research base came into being, led by Gaius, the most experienced Tal'darim, to research and crack the Angel gene, and try to create a Super Gene suitable for the Protoss.

At the same time, in order to obtain more accurate data, these Elephant Men were also subjected to mandatory genetic modification, so that they had at least 85% or more Protoss genes. Such high-intensity genetic mutations without any protective measures caused a large number of Elephant Men to be unable to withstand it and die. In the end, only hundreds of thousands remained.

There are two main experiments in the underground base. Super Gene is only one of them, and it only occupies a small part of the research area, while more research is to restart the Hybrid.

There are as many Alien Beasts on Aiur as there are stars, but only Dehaka is worth cultivating. Therefore, mass breeding of Dehaka and manufacturing other types of Alien Beasts and Dehaka into Hybrid Alien Beasts is the best choice. Don't forget that the information stored by Rohana is not only from the Protoss, but also from humans and Zerg.

Human technology is relatively useless to the Protoss, and there is no need to spend time reproducing it, but they can learn from each other's strengths and absorb some of the human technology to supplement the Protoss's technology tree, while the value of the Zerg's biotechnology is very different and must be utilized.

Zerg biotechnology is not only applicable to Zerg, but also to many creatures. Aren't so many Alien Beasts natural perfect experimental subjects?

This behavior is very inhumane and does not align with the Protoss' moral values, but it is necessary. Therefore, many Protoss high-ranking officials are aware of this matter but remain silent.

Hearing Shen Jun's question, Gaius was stunned for a moment. He had been working continuously for five days, and no one had disturbed him during that time. For a moment, he almost thought he was hallucinating.

After taking a closer look, he confirmed that Shen Jun had indeed returned.

"Archbishop, you're back."

Gaius's voice was gloomy and hoarse, with a hint of coldness.

Although he used "you," there was not a trace of respect in his tone. Shen Jun didn't mind; this was Gaius's personality. He spoke to Alarak in the same way.

In fact, most Tal'darim had this cold demeanor.

"The decoding of the Angel Gene was completed ten years ago, but it is very unstable when trying to integrate it into the Protoss Gene, and the research has reached a bottleneck."

Gaius reported truthfully, his emotions barely fluctuating, like a robot.

"The gene map I'm looking at now is the result of the latest injection of the Super Gene experimental type into an Elephant Man. After implanting the Super Gene, the Elephant Man's physique has significantly improved, with a great increase in strength and speed, and even the degree of brain evolution has increased by eight percent."

"But for some reason, each batch of Elephant Men does not live for more than two hours. This is very different from the data we calculated. From ten years ago to now, we have tried no less than 20,000 experiments, but unfortunately, we have not found a solution."

Gaius shook his head, finally showing a bit of a puzzled expression, and said, "This problem has plagued us for a long time. Until it is resolved, the research on the Super Gene can only be stalled."

Gaius pointed to the latest gene map and explained countless technical terms to Shen Jun. In short, the Super Gene was not successfully developed.

However, the creation of the Hybrid has made unexpected progress.