First Mating

"The weather is nice." Outside the Beast Management Bureau, Luo Yu watched the blue sky and white clouds after finishing his exam, feeling exceptionally refreshed. "Come out too." He pushed his bicycle and summoned the little penguin. July stood in the bike basket, and as soon as it emerged, it suddenly pointed in one direction and called out. "You sure have boundless energy..." Luo Yu distractedly looked over, only to see on the bridge an old man leaning against the railing fishing, the fishing rod beside him already bent into a tight arc. Fishing? And it looked like a fish was already on the hook. Boom!!! The old man gripped the fishing rod and exploded with power. The lake water surged. His strength was astonishing—most likely he was a Strength-type Beast Master—a huge fish, under his pulling, broke out of the water, was directly flung into the air, sending water droplets flying everywhere. "A Strange-Scale Fish..." Luo Yu scanned it. 【Race】: Strange-Scale Fish 【Attribute】: Water 【Species Rank】: Lower Common Species 【Life Level】: Level 5 【Species Ability】: Sharpened Scales 【Individual Talent】: Delicious Flesh (ordinary talent; flesh tastier than ordinary individuals.) Damn, top grade! Luo Yu's eyes turned green. The big fish emerging from the lake drew passersby to stop and watch. The old man's expression was serious; the next moment, a "Wave Dog" appeared beside him at some point, instantly lunging onto the lake, its shadow like surging water waves. Plop! The splash vanished in an instant. It bit the Strange-Scale Fish's vital spot hard and fell into the lake along with the fish... "Muwuji!!" In the blink of an eye, the coordination between the fishing old man and the Wave Dog made July's eyes shine, its wings constantly flapping against the basket, its gaze fixed on the fishing rod that had landed the big fish, as if it had seen some divine artifact. This... humans and pet beasts cooperating to fish... this new era style of fishing made Luo Yu slightly interested. In his previous life, he occasionally went fishing with friends, but his luck was terrible; he basically couldn't catch anything good, not a matter of skill, just terrible luck. So seeing this old man bring in a catch, he felt a little envious. Delicious Flesh talent... how fragrant would that be? Definitely ten thousand times tastier than zombie fish. "Interesting, but fishing in this world seems pretty dangerous, right? Without a pet beast's help, catching one would be suicide." Luo Yu didn't linger long—after all, he still had business to attend to—but July's gaze kept looking back at the old man's fishing rod. In the basket, the little penguin's "fishing gene" deep in its bloodline memory seemed to awaken. After all, going back over a hundred years, ground penguins still ate seafood, not the underground bugs they ate now... A moment later, the Strange-Scale Fish was dragged ashore by the old man's Wave Dog, and only then did July withdraw its gaze. "Interested in fishing?" Luo Yu sensed the little penguin's mood and asked. "Muwuji!!" July nodded repeatedly. "Then once we have money, I'll get you a custom-made premium fishing rod." Luo Yu didn't extinguish July's interest. Becoming stronger and training were bound to be dull; cultivating a hobby for the little penguin to relieve stress was a good thing. Even if it was an interest as absurd as penguins using fishing rods... Of course, for an ordinary penguin it was absurd—they didn't have the ability to hold a rod—but for a mutated Ground Penguin, it seemed not impossible. Due to changes in living environment, the ground penguin's original fins had degenerated in swimming function and mutated into digging and grasping abilities; though nothing was visible externally, the joint structure inside the fins had completely changed. So theoretically, it could pick up a fishing rod. It was just that, judging by July's size, even a normal fishing rod wouldn't work. They'd have to find someone to custom-make one. "You're a newly hatched baby penguin—why are you interested in an entertainment method middle-aged old men use to relieve stress?" …… Not long after, Luo Yu returned to the research institute. After returning, the first thing he did was check whether the two pairs of inkfish had changed during the half day he was gone. "They're mating! They're mating?!" It seemed they had returned right on time. Although the Dark Octopus and Eight-Blade Style Octopus hadn't moved much, the Breeding Exemplars truly lived up to their name—full of charm. That Mercy inkfish was extending its long arm, inserting it into its partner's mantle cavity, releasing spermatophores wantonly. Octopuses had the ability to mimic and change color, allowing their body colors to shift; now this seemed to have become their flirtation method, changing their body colors with very strong rhythm. Luo Yu hid by the doorway peeking, not daring to breathe loudly. The little penguin squeezed its body, wanting to crowd forward to see what was happening, but Luo Yu withdrew it into the Beast Taming Space. "Firmly protect the inkfish's privacy." "Go keep sleeping. By the time you wake up this time, training will begin..." After observing for a while, Luo Yu withdrew, deeply moved; his efforts over this long period hadn't been in vain—he'd gotten them a room. "Under suitable environmental conditions, a normal female inkfish lays eggs thirty days after mating." "I wonder if the Breeding Exemplar individuals will be any different... could it be faster..." Laying eggs would take about a month, and hatching would take another month. So at minimum, Luo Yu would need two months to obtain preliminary breeding experiment results. This was why he hadn't chosen to breed his own first pet beast—too much time, too hard to wait. Of course, some bred fast, but he couldn't very well contract fruit flies or aphids, could he... But if he was lucky, his Data Eye might be able to tell the little octopus's talent just by looking at the eggs—referencing penguin eggs. Still, even if he saw it, it would be useless; they ultimately had to wait for them to hatch before converting into true breeding results. Worth mentioning was that although ordinary octopuses only reproduce once in their lifetime and die after reproducing, because of bloodline mutation, the inkfish's situation was very different. As long as nutrition kept up and the environment was suitable, mutated inkfish could mate and lay eggs multiple times—already a different species from ordinary octopuses. Compared to ordinary octopuses that could lay many eggs at once, the number of eggs laid by mutated inkfish had sharply declined; each time they could only lay fewer than ten tenacious-vitality eggs, a certain weakening. Luo Yu held Researcher Luo Shui's various research materials on inkfish, studying them frame by frame; he could no longer view these mutated creatures by the old biological common sense... …… That day. Beast Management Bureau, a meeting room. Five people of different ages and genders sat before the table, but they had one thing in common: everyone wore white lab coats. Click. The meeting room door opened, and Beast Management Bureau Director Yu Lei entered, taking the head seat. "Everyone, long waited." After setting down the materials, Director Yu said, "Before we begin this meeting, there is one thing you all already know, right?" "Scholars Luo Shui and his wife unfortunately encountered a maritime disaster and have passed away." The five researchers present silently nodded; they had already heard the news. "However, their child, Luo Yu, has applied to the Beast Management Bureau, hoping to inherit his father's research institute and continue inkfish research." "For this, he took the Breeding Qualification Examination, and the result was excellent, so I agreed to his application." He looked at the heads of several biological research institutes on Jingyue Island present and asked, "One interesting thing is that Luo Yu has contracted a Ground Penguin." The several researchers did not show expressions of incomprehension like ordinary Beast Masters; instead, they fell into thought. "A Ground Penguin... does he know something?" an elderly female researcher spoke. She was a researcher on Jingyue Island who specifically studied pet beast hybridization. "When they discovered that grotto, the couple wasn't on Jingyue Island; logically, they had no chance to tell their child," an elderly scholar followed up. The old scholar mainly studied the origin of the rainstorms—whether the rainstorms that caused Earth's aberration were the work of an alien civilization or a natural product of the universe—always a topic explored by many scholars. "Chen Zhuo, you had the best relationship with Scholars Luo Shui; was it you who leaked it? By the way, your son also took this Breeding Qualification Examination, right—didn't pass?" a thin, pale middle-aged researcher asked one person; he was a scholar who studied zombie sea beasts. "I signed a non-disclosure agreement—how could I leak it? Even with my own son, I didn't tell him." Researcher Chen Zhuo, who looked seventy percent like Chen Bo, spoke indifferently and ignored the latter question. Chen Zhuo was a very mainstream researcher studying the relationship between humans and mutated beasts—what enhancements humans could produce in mutated beasts, and what enhancements mutated beasts could produce in humans, concerning human evolution. "Could it just be a coincidence?" the last, mature female researcher spoke; she specialized in marine ecology. "It should just be a coincidence; maybe he simply discovered that the Ground Penguin's talent was extraordinary," Director Yu said. "In any case, he's inherited the research institute now, so logically he can join that research project. Do any of you have objections?" The five shook their heads, seeing that the Director intended to cultivate this young man. "Since none of you have objections, I'll have Yuwan responsible for explaining this matter to him in detail." Director Yu laughed heartily: "From now on, he's just like you all—a head of a research institute. At the next meeting, you may have to report research results together. You're all seniors; remember to be tolerant of the newcomer, and even if his interim research results are rather elementary, give him more recognition..."