"What are you looking at? Why aren't you sitting inside?"
"By the way, what do you think of the name AAA Divine Pet Supply Merchant Fleet?"
Under a Radiant Crystal Lamp in the research institute's inner courtyard, Chen Bo was studying hard by its light. Luo Yu hadn't come up with a good name for the fleet yet, so he decided to check on him first.
"Luo Yu? You're finally back! What do I think of what?" Chen Bo's heart ached at the sight of Luo Yu.
Come on, man... How do you have another new research project already?
We're both sons, so how are you making progress so fast?
By now, Chen Bo knew why his father Luo Zhuo's attitude had taken a complete about-face. Even so, he wasn't going to change his surname and call himself Luo Bo. A father was a father, and a son was a son. What did it have to do with him?
"I mean, why are you staying out here?"
"How could I just barge into a research facility?" Chen Bo said.
"You're pretty particular... Research notes?" Luo Yu looked at the little black notebook in his hand.
"Yeah, my dad gave me his research notes." He handed them over. "Didn't you ask me to come help before? This is his research on human evolution. It might help with our project."
"Our research project?" Luo Yu pondered.
"But I asked you to come feed the fish... Forget it, you can be a test subject for the injections too." Luo Yu took the notes. Yu Wan was feeding the fish now, anyway.
Research on human evolution...
There were currently three major mainstream fields of research in biology.
1. Research on how to evolve mutated beasts.
2. Research on how to evolve humans.
3. Research into the nature of the mysterious torrential rain.
All the other disciplines, large and small, branched off from these three.
Chen Bo's father, Chen Zhuo, mainly researched how to use the power of mutated beasts to further strengthen and evolve humans.
That was also why the director had said his specialty was a good match for the Honey Water Bee training method.
"Let me see."
Luo Yu gave the notes a quick look. Most of the research concerned "lifespan"-specifically, how to use the power of mutated beasts to extend human lifespans!
He wants to live forever.
I, Qin Shi Huang, am investing in this project!
It was indeed an ambitious field of research. After all, the greatest obstacle to humanity's development right now was the upper limit on individual lifespans!
Many ordinary animals gained much longer lifespans after mutating. A bug, for instance, might originally have lived only one or two years, but after mutating and raising its life level, it could easily live for decades, multiplying its lifespan dozens of times over.
Humans, however, couldn't do the same. No matter how they cultivated, living to around a hundred was considered a long life, and the difference in lifespan between an apprentice Beast Taming Master and a Cataclysm Level Beast Taming Master didn't even come close to twofold.
As a result, many Beast Taming Masters were nearing the end of their natural lives while their pet beasts still had many years ahead of them. Bai Ling, the first island lord of Mirror Moon Island, and her pet beast, the Mirror Moon Giant Crocodile, were one such example.
Of course, given the current resources at Chen Zhuo's research institute, this research, which was so important to all of humanity, certainly hadn't produced any major results.
"What was your mutated beast again?" Luo Yu asked Chen Bo.
"You forgot? I told you before," Chen Bo said. "A Thunderbolt Shrimp... Its name is Great General."
As he spoke, he summoned his pet beast. It was indeed one of Mirror Moon Island's three Mid-Rank Species: a large lobster with a golden shell. Electric light flickered over its body from time to time, making it look as imposing as a general.
"A Thunderbolt Shrimp?" Luo Yu froze.
Given Chen Bo's family circumstances, getting a somewhat better Superior Species shouldn't have been a problem at all. Why had he contracted a Thunderbolt Shrimp?
[Species]: Thunderbolt Shrimp [Attribute]: Lightning [Species rank]: Mid-Rank Ordinary Species [Life level]: Level 7 [Species ability]: Discharge [Individual talents]: 1. Light Element Affinity (senior talent, aptitude for learning and mastering light-attribute abilities.) 2. Clean Freak (ordinary talent, cleaner than ordinary individuals.)
A light element talent. Now I get it.
And it has two talents, too.
But why does your pet beast have the Clean Freak talent too, just like that Teacher Wang's?!
Luo Yu had thought it was a fairly uncommon talent.
That said, Chen Bo had given his pet beast a pretty domineering name. It made July's seem inferior.
"My dad bought it especially from the captain of the Thunderbolt Fleet. It's a descendant of the Thunderbolt Fleet leader's Thunderbolt Shrimp, the one with an aptitude for the light attribute. Not long after it was born, it awakened the light-type ability Flash on its own. Its potential is no worse than a Superior Species..." Chen Bo said with satisfaction.
Light was a rare attribute, after all. Add lightning to that, plus the Thunderbolt Shrimp's natural ability to move about in the sea, and all things considered, it really was no worse than some Superior Species with ordinary talents.
Even so, Luo Yu suspected none of that was the deciding factor.
Because... he looked at Chen Zhuo's research notes again, and sure enough, there was research on "tempering the body with lightning" in there...
Well, well. He had his own son contract a lightning-type mutated beast just so the beast could electrocute him?
What a loving father and filial son.
Besides that, Luo Yu guessed there was probably another reason...
Lobsters had cells that were almost "ageless." As many creatures grew older, their organs failed and their reproductive abilities declined,
but lobsters, among the most unusual marine creatures, grew larger, stronger, and more capable of reproduction with age. They didn't grow old and frail, nor did they die naturally from "reaching the end of their lifespan." Most died from predation, disease, or exhaustion after failing to molt.
As a biology researcher, Chen Zhuo must have thought contracting such an extraordinary marine creature held more potential than contracting just any Superior Species. After all, it concerned his "research into longevity."
"Nice pet beast." Luo Yu returned the notes to him. "Welcome to the Luo Yu Research Institute. Starting today, you're an employee here."
"For now, you can be in charge of keeping the institute clean..."
"Okay... Wait, what do you mean, in charge of keeping it clean?" Chen Bo froze.
Luo Yu smiled. "I mean, your pet beast will be responsible for cleaning the floors. The pet beasts here can't sit around doing nothing either. I'm sure your Thunderbolt Shrimp can handle it."
"Uh..." Chen Bo hesitated for three seconds, then decided there was nothing wrong with that. If he had to work, why should his pet beast get to sit back and enjoy itself?
"Oh, right, my mom asked me to bring you this as a gift. She said research tends to age you, and boys should take care of themselves too." Chen Bo took out a box.
Luo Yu looked at it, question marks appearing over his head.
Excellence Anti-Aging Face Masks... One of Researcher Chen Zhuo's results?
"I'm only fifteen. What do I need these for? Don't you know men get more attractive as they age?"
"Forget it, give them to me. I'll pass them on to a female employee at our institute. There's one who's almost thirty; she should have a use for them."
That evening, Lin Li was in charge of cooking, and the four employees of the Luo Yu Research Institute shared their first meal together.
"Cheers, cheers!!!"
Yu Wan, who was almost thirty, held up her chilled honey fruit juice, looking delighted. The main reason was that the institute finally had a dedicated cook.
"Delicious, delicious." Chen Bo buried his head in his food and wolfed it down. The main reason was that the atmosphere at meals here was much more relaxed than at home, where his parents pressured him all day.
"Don't rush, there are still more dishes cooking..." Lin Li glanced toward the kitchen from time to time, flustered as she introduced the dishes to everyone.
At the table, Luo Yu, as the institute's director, assigned everyone their duties.
Yu Wan's primary position was security guard, with a side job feeding over two thousand Ink Fish and making sure each one received enough nutrition to grow. The feed was ready-made and supplied by the island's feed mill.
Lin Li's primary position was Honey Water Bee caretaker, with a side job as cook. She was responsible for managing and feeding the Honey Water Bees. Her family supplied the honey they were fed, with someone delivering it every day.
Chen Bo's primary positions were test subject and research assistant, with a side job as cleaner. He was responsible for receiving injections while Luo Yu recorded the various experimental data. Having Luo Yu as the only sample was still too little.
At the same time, as a researcher, Chen Bo had more expertise than the other two, so he could be put in charge of researching combinations of "bee venom" and "other substances."
They could see whether he could concoct a potent mixture with an even greater strengthening effect on living things. Of course, testing it directly on humans would be a little dangerous, so they could use the ordinary-talent Ink Fish in the courtyard as test subjects...
As for Luo Yu himself, he would use his forward-looking perspective to oversee the whole operation and handle the mating and breeding of the two kinds of mutated beasts.
And so, after the four had worked together as colleagues for two days... the director sent someone to invite Luo Yu to his office again.
"Director, it's only been a few days. We've just assembled the staff for the project; there aren't any results yet." Luo Yu had only just assigned mates to the Honey Water Bees with senior talents.
Compared with Ink Fish, Honey Water Bees actually laid their first egg sooner.
A female bee could mate with several males in the air, store all their sperm, and freely select the genes of her offspring.
Then, in at most three days, she would lay an egg. Three days after that, it would hatch into a larva, and after another seven days of transformation, the larva would grow into a fully developed Honey Water Bee. From start to finish, it took less than half a month.
At the fastest, Luo Yu could find out the talents of their offspring in just three days.
Unfortunately, unlike Ink Fish, which could lay many eggs at once, these lousy bees laid them one at a time.
They laid one egg, rested for three or four days, laid the next, rested again, then laid another... A single mating let them keep laying for a long time; sometimes it was common for them to lay continuously for years. In this respect, they had inherited the trait of mating once and laying eggs for life.
Of course, that depended on having sufficient nutrition. Female Honey Water Bees didn't gather nectar or make honey while laying eggs. They were very weak throughout the process and needed several times the nutrition required to stay alive. Under the queen bee's coordination, the colony had to provide them with food. If they couldn't eat their fill, stay warm, or had poor conditions for laying, they would give up on laying eggs, even though expanding the colony was important to the queen bee.
Ordinary Honey Water Bees responsible for work already had shorter lifespans than the queen bee, who had "given up her reproductive ability." Forcing them to reproduce would only hasten their deaths.
"I'm not asking about your research results..."
"It's the Ancient Grotto. The research there has produced results!" Yu Lei said gravely.
"A Waterfallen Chicken that hatched inside the grotto evolved after coming into contact with a special kind of rock in the cave!"
"According to a preliminary test with a Bloodline Stone, it appears to have evolved from a low-rank ordinary species into a mid-rank ordinary species."
A Bloodline Stone was a special ocean gemstone that could roughly assess a mutated beast's species rank through changes in color.
"I've been meaning to tell you: after your injection training, you and your Earth Penguin both seem physically comparable to some Junior Level Beast Taming Masters. It looks like you might be able to withstand the harsh environment in the cave without waiting to level up."
"Do you want to give it a try..."
"See whether your Earth Penguin can evolve using this special rock too..."