"Before I resigned, I made an effort to contact her every day, but once I quit, I stopped." Yuwan thought it over. Luckily, she had resigned when she did; otherwise, she would have been worked to death by such repetitive tasks. Placing an unanswered call every day on schedule... how eerie.
"My uncle probably gave up too. When you can't reach someone for so long, looking on the dark side, maybe something happened to her. Archaeologist sounds like a high-risk profession, after all..."
Hearing even the grand diviner put it that way, Luo Yu nodded. "Fair point. Come to think of it, how were you getting in touch with her? By letter?"
Yuwan said, "We tried every method—letters, Communication Conches... She once published her frequency. Oh, or maybe both our conches were too low in grade and exceeded the contact range? If she had already left the Alliance Waters, that is..."
A Communication Conch...
Luo Yu walked back into his room, brought out a white sea conch, and asked, "Like this?"
Yuwan froze, rubbed her eyes, and exclaimed in disbelief, "How do you have one of those?!"
Even she couldn't bring herself to buy such a conch!
The one she had used belonged to official channels, allocated to the director's office by the island!
Could it be... left behind by Researcher Luo Shui?
"July reeled it in while fishing..." Luo Yu shrugged.
Yuwan was dazed. "What do you mean 'reeled it in'? In other words, you just picked it up?"
"You could put it that way."
"???" Yuwan was crying tears of envy. All the savings from her years of work weren't enough to buy a Communication Conch, yet Luo Yu's brief words dealt a massive critical strike to this corporate slave.
For her next pet beast... she absolutely had to find one that knew how to fish.
"What was that archaeologist's number? Let me give it another shot." After finding the conch, Luo Yu had yet to place a successful call, and now the whim struck him again.
"315040203..." Yuwan recalled with a tired sigh. After all, dialing it once a day made it hard to forget even if she tried.
Luo Yu attempted to tap out the corresponding frequency.
Seeing this, Yuwan shook her head. But a moment later, as a "Beep—beep—" sounded, her mouth fell open slightly.
It went through? What the hell! How did it connect the second Luo Yu dialed!
A moment later, a very young female voice came from within the Communication Conch. No, "young" wasn't even the word for it—it sounded childlike, perhaps under ten years old. Yet it likely wasn't her actual age, but rather a unique vocal timbre.
"Who is it?"
Luo Yu was also astonished. It actually connected? He quickly handed the conch to Yuwan for her to speak.
"Is this Scholar An Yao, graduate of Canglan Ocean University?" Yuwan fumbled as she took it.
"That's me. Who are you?" the woman on the other end asked.
Yuwan immediately introduced herself. "I'm Yuwan, secretary to the director of the Jingyue Island Beast Management Bureau..."
Wait, why had she become the secretary again?
Yuwan gave a faint, mournful look before continuing, "It's like this: an Ancient Grotto containing extensive traces from the dinosaur era was unearthed on Jingyue Island. I read your interview in the *Star Ocean Times*, and I was wondering if Scholar An Yao might be interested in coming to Jingyue Island to conduct an investigation?"
"I've been trying to reach you over the past few months, but I was never able to get through..."
On the other end of the Communication Conch, the biologist An Yao fell silent for a moment before saying, "My apologies. Some time ago, I was kidnapped by a gang of pirates who wanted me to explore an undersea ruin. I only just escaped."
Yuwan gasped, "What about the pirates?"
An Yao said, "The ruin was extremely dangerous. They were entirely wiped out there. I spotted the danger ahead of time and managed to survive."
"..."
"Jingyue Island, right? Let me pack my things, and I'll head out right away."
"Alright..." Yuwan hadn't expected someone who had just escaped death to be so dedicated to her work.
After both sides ended the call, Yuwan stared speechlessly at the conch and muttered, "Somehow I've ended up working again. Am I going to have to handle the follow-up coordination too? No way, I have to hand this off to someone else."
Luo Yu, having listened beside her for quite a while, remarked, "Hearing what she's been through, she's clearly someone capable... We've got the right person."
Presumably, she could uncover more secrets from the Ancient Grotto... as long as she didn't get Jingyue Island wiped out too.
"At least I've finally finished a task that was left hanging," Yuwan sighed. She was definitely demanding overtime pay from the bureau for this!
"Are you going to report to the director first, then?" Luo Yu asked.
Yuwan looked at the conch. "Don't we have a Communication Conch right here? Lend it to me again. I'll just call the office directly so I don't have to make the trip in person."
She made a good point; Luo Yu had no reply to that.
In the next moment, Yuwan dialed Director Yu Lei's dedicated Communication Conch.
"Uncle, it's me."
"The Communication Conch was fished up by Luo Yu's penguin."
Yu Lei: "???"
"Xiao Wan? I haven't even asked anything yet, why are you answering in advance?"
"Then again, do I look senile to you? You can fish up one of these things?"
Yuwan said, "That's not important. What matters is that the archaeological scholar who graduated from Canglan Ocean University, the one you asked me to contact earlier, has finally been reached."
"She expects to arrive at Jingyue Island in about half a month, barring any surprises."
...
With this matter temporarily settled, while Luo Yu waited for the island to capture Ground Penguin test subjects, the inkfish with advanced talents acquired from Wang Defa finally laid their eggs after a month following their mating.
The first pair... Danger Sense paired with Spirit Overload: seven eggs, no surprises.
The second pair... Dark Affinity paired with Gu King: no surprises.
Several pairs in a row brought no surprises, all offspring being ordinary individuals.
Among all these pairs, only the Mercy-with-Mercy groups—due to inbreeding and both parents possessing the exact same talent—purified their bloodlines, producing many offspring that also possessed the healing talent. That at least gave a solid result for the medical breeding work.
Among them, there was also an Ice Element Affinity paired with Ice Element Affinity group. Those two had lacked any libido and only finally mated at the very end, but since they mated last, they hadn't laid eggs yet.
Aside from that, the pair Luo Yu had modified was one of the few pleasant surprises.
This group had originally been Mercy paired with Super Antibody. Later, however, because the first-generation Breeding Exemplar produced a second batch of offspring that yielded an individual with the dual talents of Mercy and Breeding Exemplar, Luo Yu broke up the pair once the egg hatched.
He paired the Super Antibody with that dual-talent individual instead. With Breeding Exemplar involved, their egg-laying speed was accelerated, allowing them to lay eggs at the same time as the main group.
It had to be said that whenever Breeding Exemplar was involved, the quality was exceptional.
Out of twelve eggs, only five were ordinary, while seven possessed advanced talents.
Among them, six carried the Mercy talent, and one astonishingly mutated into a brand-new talent!
[Individual Talent]: Antivirus Master (Advanced talent. The bearer's supernatural abilities deal colossal lethality to Virus-attribute mutated beasts!)
Evidently... this was an inkfish mutated specifically to counter zombies.
If this thing were raised up, the Tide Zombie Cataclysm would no longer pose a threat...
In addition, the "Nursery Expert" produced by inbreeding the dual-Exemplar group had also grown up by now. This meant that the Luo Yu Research Institute would soon witness an explosive population boom of the inkfish species.
Mass-producing an army of Water Demon Beasts was now just one step away.
However, before Luo Yu could test the accelerated incubation ratio of the "Nursery Expert," he was summoned to the director's office once again.
Inside the office, besides the director, sat a one-armed man with withered, straw-like hair.
"Director, did you catch the Ground Penguins? That fast?"
If so, it seemed they could carry out the Ground Penguin evolution experiment first...
"No," Director Yu Lei said. "Didn't Researcher Bai Dong... mention Qianyan Island earlier?"
"Oh, I remember." Luo Yu nodded. "She said Qianyan Island might possess methods to develop Rock-attribute talents, right?"
"Mm," the director said. "We've already communicated with Qianyan Island. They do indeed, and quite a few methods at that."
"Qianyan Island is rich in elemental ores. Among them is a type of rock-element gemstone that enhances the wearer's Rock Affinity, known as the 'Heart of Rock.'"
"Besides that, there is another method: beast milk."
"The rock sheep, a creature that inhabited the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau before the apocalypse, is one of the rare non-marine mutated beasts that survived after the end times. It didn't evolve a Water attribute; instead, it underwent extreme evolution in the Rock attribute."
"It is a Rock-attribute Mid Common Species. Rock sheep's milk is precisely what we need. It can significantly enhance other creatures' Rock Affinity and is considered the premier rock-attribute nutritional supplement in the Alliance Waters."
"Most importantly, it's said that the Heart of Rock and food like rock sheep's milk can be used together in synergy..."
"They've already agreed to sell us a few Hearts of Rock and several rock sheep..."
The director smiled. "The reason I called you over this time is actually because I want you to make a trip to Qianyan Island to oversee the selection of the rock sheep..."
"Me?" Luo Yu was taken aback.
Even if selecting rock sheep required a sharp-eyed breeder or researcher to pick out healthy, well-developed specimens, why him?
Luo Yu had no desire to go. The sea was so dangerous! He was still a total rookie!
Better to let Researcher Chen Zhuo go instead...
Chapter 47