Emotion Harvester

"Stop, stop, stop." Yu Lei felt thoroughly overwhelmed. "Luo Yu, sentimentally speaking, the island naturally wants to help you fulfill your ghost pet beast's obsession and make things convenient for you. "However, you know the island's current situation. In particular, the Tide Zombie Cataclysm is drawing near, and we're being targeted by the Screaming Pirate Crew. For the short term, you'll have to rely on your own efforts." Yu Lei took a drag from his pipe and looked out the window, laying bare Jingyue Island's current predicament. "If you have any good entrepreneurial ideas, the island will do its best to offer policy support. But money... "Right now, funds must be prioritized for dealing with the crisis." Luo Yu nodded. With war looming, resource allocation naturally had priorities; he understood that. Yet what if he said his next project was the arms trade? Antivirus Master Water Demon Beast: *Are you the so-called zombie tide?* "By the way, Director, what happened with that Alliance investigator? Did you tell the guardian deity about the matter?" Luo Yu asked. The director shook his head. "What right do I have to see the guardian deity? I've already reported it to the Island Master, who serves as the Divine Envoy. As for the guardian deity, it should still be cultivating, and the Island Master can't easily disturb it. We can only wait until the guardian deity awakens during the Jingyue Festival to speak to it. "Still, there's no need to worry. The Great Deity Jingyue is an Abyss-rank existence! If a true crisis befalls the island, it will certainly take action. Let us first take care of what we can do." *The guardian deity really is an Abyss Species!* Luo Yu thought. "Director," Luo Yu prompted. "What is it?" Director Yu Lei blinked in surprise. "Do you still remember my parents' primary research focus?" Yu Lei naturally remembered. "The evolutionary path of the Water Demon Beast, of course. What about it?" "Then do you remember my promise back then that within a year, I would produce a major research breakthrough regarding inkfish?" Director Yu Lei fell into contemplation before saying, "Isn't that major breakthrough the medical inkfish?" "No," Luo Yu shook his head. "It's the method to evolve an inkfish into a Water Demon Beast! "In truth, my parents had already discovered the method to evolve it into a Water Demon Beast. They were merely lacking some luck and key conditions. Right now, I'm continuing to work in the direction of their research. "Recently, I've already felt noticeable progress. I anticipate it won't take long—a month? Two months? "In any case, before the Tide Zombie Cataclysm arrives, I should be able to evolve a Water Demon Beast." Listening to this, Yu Lei's mouth fell slightly open. His emotions surged violently, his grip squeezing the pipe stem flat. In the next instant, invisible emotional energy was absorbed by the Empress. Luo Yu was slightly taken aback... However, the director quickly calmed himself down. "Are you telling the truth?" Luo Yu gave a wry smile. "I can't say for certain, but the probability is high. "I believe that if I can discover the Water Demon Beast's evolutionary method before the Tide Zombie Cataclysm, a Monarch-tier Water Demon Beast might become a pillar of Jingyue Island's defense against the zombie tide! "So, please be thrifty with the island's resources and save a budget for me. In case I really evolve a Water Demon Beast, I'll need to apply for military funding from the island to cover the daily expenses of a demon beast legion." Yu Lei wiped away his sweat and snapped, "You brat, feeding me empty promises! As if I'd believe you! Stop making fun of me." A moment later, he murmured, "Are you really confident?" Luo Yu nodded. "Seventy to eighty percent, but it will take time. "Furthermore, based on my parents' research, I have new experiments and ideas. The evolved Water Demon Beast might end up even stronger than originally envisioned." Seeing that Luo Yu did not appear to be lying, Yu Lei knitted his brows tightly. *Could this kid actually be serious?* *Could Scholar Luo Shui and his wife really have found the critical opportunity for the inkfish's evolution?* *How could that be possible? So many scholars from major regions were powerless... But what if?* "...I understand. The military funds wouldn't be spent all at once anyway; a portion will be reserved," Yu Lei said. "If you can truly evolve a Water Demon Beast, I'll give you..." "Give me what?" Luo Yu asked. "What could a lowly director like me offer? If you can truly evolve a Water Demon Beast, no one would object even if you wanted to take my place as director. "Even the guardian deity, who never pays attention to outsiders and can't even be bothered with a director like me, would personally grant you an audience and reward you handsomely. "When that time comes, you can have whatever you want. "After all, there are only two circumstances under which the guardian deity is pleased: one is eating something delicious, and the other is the island making noticeable progress and development. "Still, right now it's all just blank checks from you, and I don't dare believe a word. If not for your past research achievements, I'd suspect you were using empty promises to swindle funding." Director Yu Lei stubbed out his pipe. "All right, get going." Luo Yu shrugged and left the Beast Management Bureau. *** This trip to Qianyan Island had taken only eight days. Inside the research institute, apart from several new batches of bee eggs, not much had changed. The batch of third-generation Breeding Exemplars had not yet laid eggs after mating with individuals possessing Command and other talents; that would likely take another two or three days. Upon his return, Luo Yu immediately checked the talents of the bee eggs. Unfortunately, the pairings he cared most about—such as Rock Element x Water Enhancement, Many Offspring Brings Many Blessings x Flower-Plucking Thief, and Void Power x Cleverness—had produced no notable results. Rock Element x Water Enhancement was intended to mutate into a Rock Element Enhancement. Many Offspring Brings Many Blessings x Flower-Plucking Thief was meant to produce more Flower-Plucking Thieves. Void Power x Cleverness aimed to birth offspring possessing both talents, thereby increasing the probability of a Honey-Water Bee learning spatial abilities. Aside from those, crossbreeding between other Honey-Water Bees with advanced talents had yielded no high-quality progeny either. Yet after a thorough inspection, Luo Yu discovered that two Honey-Water Bees with ordinary talents, to which he had paid little attention, had produced an extraordinary offspring! Among the eight hundred Honey-Water Bees Luo Yu had brought back, aside from those with ordinary enhancement talents, some possessed other ordinary talents. For instance, the Cleverness talent made individuals smarter than average. Higher intelligence held clear value for mutated beasts, as it influenced the efficiency of learning special abilities. Another example was Diligent, which made ordinary individuals work harder. This talent could be combined with enhancement talents; if an individual with the dual talent of Enhancement + Diligent was born, capitalists would love such hardworking and capable workers. However, to Luo Yu's surprise, while Diligent and Enhancement had yielded nothing, and Cleverness and Space had produced nothing, the pairing of Cleverness and Diligent had mutated into something extraordinary. [Individual Talent]: Heaven Rewards Diligence (Advanced talent: Effort will always yield a return.) *Talk about absurd!* "Once it hatches, I'll pair it with a Honey-Water Bee that has a space talent. "Space talent combined with Heaven Rewards Diligence is far better than space talent paired with Cleverness. "Learning a spatial ability is already an extremely low-probability event. But coupled with a talent where effort always yields rewards, it means mastering a spatial ability is guaranteed. In fact, even if it develops far more ridiculous spatial abilities, as long as it invests enough effort, it will achieve results." Luo Yu felt that while other attributes could wait, he definitely had to secure a space-attribute retainer for the Empress in the future... That way, the Empress would also be able to wield the power of space... *Wait!* A thought suddenly struck Luo Yu. *Doesn't the Empress possess the ability to empower insect species?!* Empowerment didn't refer only to combat strength. Learning capability, comprehension, and reproductive capacity were all abilities! That meant it should also be able to help awaken and strengthen inherent talents! He swiftly walked over to the Honey-Water Bee with the space talent and said, "Empress, try and see if you can unearth the hidden talent within it." *Bzz, bzz, bzz...* The Bee Empress flew out from Luo Yu's eye. Following Luo Yu's request, it issued the command for Talent Awakening to the Honey-Water Bee before it. In the next moment, the Honey-Water Bee whose potential was being unlocked underwent a sudden surge in body size, as though mutating! *Bzz!* Immediately afterward, its entire body turned ethereal, as if concealing itself within an alternate space, completely untouchable! The spatial ability, Phasing, had awakened! Seeing this, Luo Yu's mouth fell slightly agape in utter shock. *Is this the power of a top-tier talent?* An individual with only an infinitesimal chance of mastering spatial abilities had mastered one in an instant under its empowerment! Beside him, the Empress took a draft of Luo Yu's shock, snapping him back to reality. "Why are you feeding on me too..." *Come to think of it...* Back in the director's office, it seemed to have absorbed Yu Lei's emotional energy as well. When Luo Yu stated he could evolve the Water Demon Beast before the Tide Zombie Cataclysm, the director had experienced shock, disbelief, skepticism, and hopelessness—his emotions surging and dipping in waves. "I understand now." Luo Yu suddenly realized how to rapidly cultivate the Bee Empress. Once he truly developed the evolutionary method for the Water Demon Beast, he would harvest an immense surge of intense emotional fluctuations. When that happened, the Empress's level would skyrocket. Beyond that... with so many people attending the Jingyue Festival, it was a stage not to be missed. He could have July, an apparently frail Lower-tier Species, suppress formidable zombies to reap the emotional fluctuations of the festival crowd!