Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“If you have the conscious to do the job, there’s no need for the money then,” Director Chen’s joyous laughter came from the other side of the phone.
Gao Peng’s face went blank.
“Haha, I was joking. Look at you, you money-grubber. Come here soon. Your training should have ended by now, right?” Director Chen said.
Gao Peng always thought Director Chen was way too well-informed. Why was he always able to give him a call whenever he finished his training?
A vivid image appeared in his mind of a 30-year old male staring at the video clip on his phone intently.
As the wilderness training ended prematurely, when he arrived home it was still early.
After taking a short break, Gao Peng settled down the few familiars at home. He brought Stripey downstairs. During the past few days, it was the two familiars, Stripey or Dumby who rotated their “shifts” as the parking space was not big. It was too crowded for the space to accommodate both familiars at the same time. So, Gao Peng simply used a rotating shift system.
Today it was Stripey, and tomorrow, it would be Dumby. They were lined up, and everyone had a turn.
He took a cab to the Monster Breeder Association. With his previous experience, the receptionist lady was already very familiar with Gao Peng, she guided him with a smile.
They walked forward along the passageway. It was the same underground experiment base.
Director Chen saw Gao Peng arrive, so he quickly walked forward. “You’re here, huh? Come here quickly and take a look.”
In the glass containers of the underground experiment base were several big and fleshy earthworms. They were Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworms. They were exactly the giant earthworms that appeared in the valley.
These giant earthworms lay lazily in the containers, moving ever so occasionally to indicate that they were still alive.
Gao Peng suddenly felt that there sure were a lot of incidents lately…
It was the Gray Devil Spider first, and immediately after that was the swarm of Dead Leaf Locusts from the north, and then there were these Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworms.
“It’s fine once you get used to it. In truth, one of the main responsibility of us from the Monster Breeder Association is to assist the government in researching the weaknesses of these monsters. From that, we find methods to deal with them,” Director Chen said with a smile.
Gao Peng looked at the busy laboratory staff. “Is it always this busy?”
“You don’t feel that these recent periods are a little irritating, are you?” Director Chen could see the suspicion in Gao Peng’s eyes. He could not help but laugh in silence.
“These problems always existed. Monsters are always restless, they are not like monsters in games where they will only stay in an area and not stray outside. Although most monsters have a fixed range of domain, there are still some monsters that are more mobile that causes problems and disturbances to base cities. Sometimes, some monsters would also flee to other areas after losing their territorial battles in search of new territories. During these times, these monsters are very likely to create conflict with human city bases. For example, these Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworms.”
Director Chen crouched down in front of a glass container to observe the Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworm inside.
As if detecting fresh flesh and blood, the Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworm that laid quietly in the container suddenly shook its head. It stuck its head on the glass container wall, and its top suddenly expanded, and mouthparts the shape of chrysanthemum petals appeared. It constantly swayed towards the glass wall and left light yellow liquid on the glass wall.
“Originally, these Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworms lived in the Dali Desert around 100 kilometers northeast of Chang’an City. Due to the Cataclysm, the surface of the planet expanded and it caused the distance between the Dali Desert and Chang’an City to increase. Now it is over 200 kilometers. These Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworms are a kind of territorial creatures. They would not leave their territories lightly,” Director Chen said as he sighed.
“It looks like some new type of powerful monsters appeared in the Dali Desert. Otherwise, the earthworms would never have just left their territory.”
As he finished, Director Chen stood up and said to another laboratory staff, “Little Wang, is the salt resistance result of the Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworm out?”
“Teacher, the salt resistance result is out. The Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworm’s resistance to salt and its related products is much higher than imagined. It would be difficult to rely on salt, as a mineral, to cause it to experience dehydration,” the laboratory staff called by Director Chen as Little Wang answered.
Gao Peng looked at the busy experiment laboratory and suddenly fell silent.
There was no such thing as good years, there were only other people doing the heavy lifting for you. The world was no longer as glamorous as it appeared to be on the surface.
Many outsiders even believed it was a chance for humanity to rise up. The peace and relative stability gave them those kinds illusions.
Even Gao Peng thought like them once, but now, it was only because there were people who had devoted themselves behind the scenes.
“The laboratory has all the experimental equipment from the outside. If you lack anything, just let me know. There are several Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworms inside the container. You can choose any one for your experiment,” Director Chen said to Gao Peng as he walked towards him.
Gao Peng nodded and did not say anything extra. He took out and wore the tools he needed from the experiment table. While Gao Peng was wearing his gloves, he suddenly asked the director, “Director Chen, why…? Uhm… Why do you take extra care of me?” Gao Peng asked the question that he held in his heart for a long time.
He did not think he was that charming.
He also believed that Director Chen was not gay.
“There’s no such thing as taking extra care. You are talented. That is why I take care of you. Although you’re a bit too practical, what we, the Monster Breeder Association, values most is talent,” Director Chen said with a laugh.
“I know that kids your age love to imagine things. The monster breeder profession values talent more than any other profession, after all, we are all relying on talent to explore on this path…”
At that moment, the sound of the elevator operating could be heard. The elevator located at the lobby of the underground experiment laboratory sounded with a “Ding!” The elevator door opened slowly, and a man emerged from within.
Gao Peng was startled as he found out that he actually knew that person. It was Chief Instructor Chen.
Chief Instructor Chen strode forward and furnished a USB drive from his pocket before handing it over to Director Chen. He nodded and hesitated for a moment. “Hurry up and produce some result as soon as possible. The thing that appeared in Dali Desert… Things don’t look good.”
Chief Instructor Chen, Director Chen…
Gao Peng’s gaze shifted between the two adults. It was then that he discovered that the two actually looked similar, it was only that Chief Instructor Chen seemed a bit younger.
Chief Instructor Chen turned around and stopped as he saw Gao Peng as if he had recognized Gao Peng.
He nodded to Gao Peng and said, “Keep it up.” He left after he finished speaking.
Although in Gao Peng’s eyes, the weakness of the Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworms already appeared, he could not simply produce results immediately. The processes were important for these sorts of things. Gao Peng also used it as practice to train his familiarity with the equipment.
During the experiment, Gao Peng asked, “Director, do you know why even when the planet expanded, the cities did not split open? Based on the theories, when the area expanded, the buildings built based on the previous foundation would have crumbled. Moreover, if the volume of the planet increased, gravitational force should have also increased. However, I believe there has not been any substantial change. Isn’t this unscientific?”
Textbooks basically did not mention any of those things. They were taboo.
“This question of yours really does put in the spot,” Director Chen laughed. “Truth be told, I don’t know too. After all, the world has become like this, and you’re still talking about science? However, on your first question, there is one theory.”
