"What are you reading? Why don't you head inside and sit down?"
"Speaking of which, what do you think of the name 'AAA God Pet Supply Merchant Fleet'?"
Beneath the Radiant Crystal Lamp in the institute's inner courtyard, Chen Bo was hunched over, studying intently under the glow. Luo Yu hadn't come up with a catchy name for his fleet yet, so he figured he might as well check on Chen Bo first.
"Luo Yu? You're finally back! What do I think of what?" Seeing Luo Yu, Chen Bo felt a deep pang of heartache.
*Seriously, man... how do you already have a new research project?*
*We're both sons, so how are you making progress so ridiculously fast?*
By now, Chen Bo had already learned the reason behind his father "Luo Zhuo's" complete about-face in attitude. Still, he had no intention of changing his own surname to become Luo Bo. A father was a father, and a son was a son—what did any of that have to do with him?
"I meant, why are you staying out here?"
"It's a research facility—how could I just barge in wherever I please?" Chen Bo said.
"You're quite proper... Are those research notes?" Luo Yu glanced at the small black notebook in his hands.
"Yeah, notes my dad gave me." He handed them over. "Didn't you ask me to come help out earlier? These are his findings on human evolution. Maybe they'll be useful for our research project."
"Our research project?" Luo Yu pondered.
"Except I brought you here to feed fish... Ah, whatever, being a test subject for the needle-stinging method works too." Luo Yu took the notes. Either way, Yuwan was feeding the fish now.
Research on human evolution...
Currently, there were three mainstream research directions across the entire biological community:
1. Research on how to make mutated beasts evolve.
2. Research on how to make humans evolve.
3. Research on the nature of the mysterious torrential downpour.
All other academic branches, large and small, branched off from these three.
Chen Bo's father, Chen Zhuo, primarily researched how to use the power of mutated beasts to grant humans greater enhancement and evolution.
That was also why the director had said he and the Honey-Water Bee training method were professionally aligned.
"Let me take a look."
Luo Yu flipped through the pages. Most of it focused on "lifespan"—specifically, how to use the power of mutated beasts to extend human life!
Seeking longevity, huh?
*If I were the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang, I'd invest in this on the spot!*
This research direction was undeniably ambitious. After all, the greatest bottleneck for human progress lay precisely in the upper limit of the individual lifespan!
Many ordinary animals gained drastically extended lifespans after mutating. For instance, a worm originally had a lifespan of only one or two years, but after mutating, as its life level climbed, it could easily live for several decades—a dozens-fold increase.
Humans, however, could not. No matter how much they cultivated, living to around a hundred was already considered a long life. The difference in lifespan between a Trainee Beast Master and a Calamity-rank Beast Master didn't even reach double.
Consequently, many Beast Masters found themselves approaching the end of their natural lives while their pet beasts still had vast lifespans ahead of them. A prime example was Bai Ling, the first island lord of Jingyue Island, and her pet beast, the Jingyue Giant Croc.
Of course, for a subject of such paramount importance to humanity, Chen Zhuo's institute certainly hadn't produced any massive breakthroughs with its current equipment.
"What was your mutated beast again?" Luo Yu asked Chen Bo.
"Did you forget? I told you before," Chen Bo said. "A Thunderbolt Shrimp... named Great General."
With that, he summoned his pet beast. It was none other than one of Jingyue Island's three mid-tier starter species—a large lobster with a shimmering golden shell. Arcs of electricity crackled across its body from time to time, looking every bit as imposing as a general.
"A Thunderbolt Shrimp?" Luo Yu was taken aback.
Logically speaking, given Chen Bo's family background, obtaining a decent High-Rank Species wouldn't have been difficult at all. Why had he contracted a Thunderbolt Shrimp?
[Species]: Thunderbolt Shrimp
[Attribute]: Electric
[Species Rank]: Mid-tier Common Species
[Life Level]: Level 7
[Species Ability]: Electric Discharge
[Individual Talent]:
1. Light Element Affinity (Advanced Talent: Possesses the aptitude to comprehend and master light-attribute abilities.)
2. Clean Freak (Ordinary Talent: Loves cleanliness far more than ordinary individuals.)
A light-element talent—that explained it.
Moreover, it was a dual talent.
*Still, why does your pet beast have the Clean Freak talent, just like that Teacher Wang!*
Luo Yu had assumed it was an exceptionally rare talent.
Fair was fair, though; the name Chen Bo had given his pet beast sounded pretty domineering, making July seem somewhat overshadowed by comparison.
"My dad went out of his way to buy it from the captain of the Thunderbolt Fleet. It's the offspring of the fleet leader's own Thunderbolt Shrimp that possesses light-attribute aptitude. Not long after it hatched, it awakened the light ability 'Flash' all on its own. Its potential isn't inferior to a High-Rank Species..." Chen Bo said with evident satisfaction.
Light was a rare attribute, after all. Combined with electricity and the fact that a Thunderbolt Shrimp could naturally operate in the ocean, its overall potential truly wasn't inferior to a High-Rank Species with mediocre talents.
Even so, Luo Yu suspected none of those were the deciding factor.
Because... he glanced back at Chen Zhuo's research notes. Sure enough, there were records on "lightning body-tempering"...
Well, then. Making his son contract an electric-type mutated beast was just so the beast could shock him, wasn't it?
A model of filial piety and paternal affection, truly.
Beyond that, Luo Yu guessed there was probably another reason...
Lobsters possessed nearly "ageless" cells. While most creatures suffered organ decline and declining fertility as they grew older, lobsters were an exceptional marine species. The older they grew, the larger their size, the greater their strength, and the stronger their reproductive capability became. They did not weaken with old age, nor did they naturally die of old age; death almost always resulted from predators, disease, or exhaustion from failing to molt.
For such an extraordinary marine creature, Chen Zhuo, as a biological researcher, undoubtedly felt contracting it held greater potential than arbitrarily contracting a High-Rank Species. After all, it tied directly into "longevity research."
"Nice pet beast." Luo Yu returned the notebook to him. "Welcome to the Luo Yu Research Institute. Starting today, you're an employee here."
"For now, take charge of the institute's sanitation..."
"All right... Wait, what do you mean, take charge of sanitation?" Chen Bo blinked in confusion.
Luo Yu smiled. "I mean your pet beast will be responsible for sweeping the floors. Pet beasts around here don't get to loaf around, and I'm sure your Thunderbolt Shrimp is up to the task."
"Uh, well..." Chen Bo hesitated for three seconds, then decided it made sense. If he had to work, why should his pet beast get to lounge about in comfort?
"Oh, right. My mom told me to give you this as a greeting gift. She said doing research all the time ages a person, and young men need to take care of their skin too." Chen Bo produced another box.
Luo Yu looked at it, question marks practically floating above his head.
*Superior Anti-Aging Facial Masks... Is this one of Researcher Chen Zhuo's research achievements?*
"I'm only fifteen. What would I need this for? Don't people know men get more charming the older they get?"
"Whatever, hand it over. I'll give it to our institute's female employee. There's one who's almost thirty; she can probably use it."
***
That evening, Lin Li took charge of cooking, and the four staff members of the Luo Yu Research Institute gathered for their very first group meal.
"Cheers! Cheers!"
The nearly-thirty Yuwan held up a cup of iced honey fruit juice, looking thoroughly delighted—mostly because the institute finally had a dedicated cook.
"Delicious! So good!" Chen Bo buried his head in his bowl, wolfing down the food. The dining atmosphere here was far more relaxed than at home, free from the constant pressure of his parents.
"Don't rush, there are more dishes cooking..." Lin Li glanced toward the kitchen from time to time, flustered as she introduced the dishes to everyone.
At the dinner table, Luo Yu, in his capacity as the institute's director, assigned everyone their duties.
Yuwan's primary post was security, with a secondary role feeding the more than two thousand inkfish, ensuring every single inkfish received sufficient nutrition to grow. The feed was already prepared, supplied directly by the island's feed processing plant.
Lin Li's primary post was Honey-Water Bee manager, with a secondary role as chef, responsible for managing and feeding the Honey-Water Bees. The honey used to feed them was supplied by her family, with designated staff delivering it daily.
Chen Bo's primary post was test subject and research assistant, with a secondary role in sanitation. He was responsible for taking the needles while Luo Yu recorded various experimental data; having only Luo Yu as a sample was simply too limited.
At the same time, as a trained researcher, Chen Bo was more qualified than the other two, so he could be tasked with researching combinations of bee venom with other substances to see if they could formulate potent concoctions that provided even stronger enhancements to living organisms. Of course, testing such mixtures directly on humans was dangerous, so the ordinary-talent inkfish in the courtyard could serve as test subjects...
As for Luo Yu himself, he would oversee the big picture with his forward-looking vision, taking charge of breeding and crossbreeding both mutated beast species.
And so, after the four of them had worked together as colleagues for two days... the director sent someone once again to invite Luo Yu to his office.
"Director, it's only been a couple of days. The project just barely assembled its team; there aren't any results yet." Luo Yu had only just finished pairing up the advanced-talent Honey-Water Bees.
Compared to inkfish, Honey-Water Bees actually laid their first egg much faster.
A single female bee could mate with multiple drones in midair, storing all the sperm and freely selecting the genes for her offspring.
Afterward, she would lay an egg in at most three days. Three days later, it would hatch into a larva, and after seven days of metamorphosis, it would mature into a full Honey-Water Bee. In other words, the entire cycle took less than half a month.
At peak efficiency, Luo Yu could determine the offspring's talents in as little as three days.
Unfortunately, unlike inkfish that could lay a massive clutch of eggs all at once, these bees laid them one by one.
A single egg at a time, followed by three or four days of rest, then the next egg, another rest, and another egg... A single mating session allowed them to keep laying eggs continuously for a long time, sometimes spanning several years. In this regard, they inherited the trait of ordinary bees, which mated once and laid eggs for life.
Naturally, that was provided nutrition was abundant. During the egg-laying period, female Honey-Water Bees did not participate in gathering nectar or brewing honey. They remained extremely frail throughout, requiring several times the nutrition needed for mere survival, which the colony provided under the queen's direction. If food was scarce, shelter was poor, or the reproductive environment was unfavorable, she would abandon egg-laying altogether, even though expanding the colony was vital to the queen.
The ordinary worker bees already had shorter lifespans than the queen who had given up her reproductive capacity; forcing reproduction under poor conditions would only accelerate their deaths.
"I'm not asking about your research results..."
"A breakthrough came from the Ancient Grotto!" Yu Lei said gravely.
"A Drowned Chicken that hatched inside the grotto came into contact with a special kind of rock in the cavern—and evolved!"
"Preliminary testing with a Bloodline Stone suggests it evolved from a Lower Common Species into a Mid-tier Common Species."
A Bloodline Stone was a specialized marine gemstone that could roughly gauge a mutated beast's species rank through color changes.
"I wanted to mention this to you earlier. After undergoing the needle-stinging training, both your body and your Ground Penguin's seem comparable to some Junior Beast Masters. It looks like you won't need to wait for a breakthrough to withstand the harsh environment inside the grotto."
"Do you want to give it a try..."
"And see whether your Ground Penguin can also evolve using that special rock?"
Chapter 39