Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In Gao Peng’s vision, the Voracious Golden Toad had a total of 37 evolutionary pathways. The required materials for each were different, and so were the final evolutions.
“Come look at this,” Director Chen waved his hand and beckoned Gao Peng over. He then took out a black-colored opaque glass case, which contained a small amount of translucent liquid.
“I extracted a bit of Voracious Golden Toad skin and combined it with various fire-attributed materials in order to find out which materials had high affinity with the Voracious Golden Toad,” said Director Chen excitedly. “I’ve found out that its flesh has high affinity with Fire Orchid Vines. The flesh showed no signs of rejection when Fire Orchid Vine extract was introduced to it.”
When talking about his experiments, Direction Chen seemed as though he transformed into another person. He became much more energetic and excited.
“But just relying on Fire Orchid Vines is insufficient. Fire Orchid Vines have a very gentle fire attribute. If we relied on it to change the attribute of the toads, we would need the toads to grow in an environment covered with Fire Orchid Vines, and constantly feed them the Vines as well. Such a process would take far too long and would require decades, or a few dozen generations before a mutation could be induced,” said Director Chen with a hint of regret in his voice.
Gao Peng nodded. He had respect for this elder who displayed such commitment to his research.
“Sadly, time is something we are currently lacking,” Director Chen sighed.
Gao Peng glanced at the 37 evolutionary pathways again. Coincidentally, there was one pathway that also required Fire Orchid Vines. Except that in this methodology, the Fire Orchid Vines were only a supporting ingredient and not the main ingredient.
Director Chen had invited Gao Peng over mainly because he was still young, and that youth meant that he had a wealth of imagination and creativity. He had even previously created a ghoul-type monster. This meant he definitely had extraordinary creativity. Gao Peng would definitely be able to provide some new ideas or even surprise him with some.
Gao Peng muttered, “Director Chen, perhaps we could approach this from a different angle.”
“Please speak.”
“We can view the Voracious Golden Toad as the main food ingredient, and the Fire Orchid Vines as a seasoning. The Voracious Golden Toad has a strong flavor of its own; hence the flavor of our seasoning is not permeating into the toad yet. At this point, we shouldn’t simply rely on the seasoning. It would waste too much time to infuse the toad with it.
“We could consider a using a stronger ingredient instead. Essentially, cooking the meat under strong heat before adding in the ingredient and other neutralizing supporting ingredients.” Gao Peng tried his best to make his explanation relatable and easy to understand.
Director Chen nodded. “That’s true. I have considered such an option. But the appropriate strong ingredient is hard to find. If we are not careful, we could cause a good deal of harm to the Voracious Golden Toads,” Director Chen smiled bitterly.
“Harm can’t be prevented. No pain, no gain. Heaven is about to confer a great office onto this toad, and it must be spiced up a bit more.” After finishing, Gao Peng frowned and clutched his belly.
The mention of spiciness made him think of chili oil noodles, and Mala cold noodles. His stomach started rumbling.
He had rushed over to the Monster Breeder Association without having breakfast. He was truly so blinded by the prospects of getting the electric-type commander tier monster core crystal that he forgot to take his meals.
“Spice things up more? Do you have any suggestions?” Director Chen furrowed his brows and seriously considered which fire-attributed chilies could be used as an ingredient.
“The penetrating ability of chili spiciness is strong, so that could be a possible stimulating ingredient.”
“You mean using a Red-Faced Demon Chili?” Director Chen’s eyes lit up. Consuming this type of chili would leave a fiery burning pain in the mouth. Humans were basically unable to eat it raw, or else there would be burns left on the mouth and lips. Only monsters were able to consume this type of chili.
This was because there was an enormous amount of fire element in this type of chili. Upon consumption, the fire element would go out of control and explode. It would be as though there was lava erupting in one’s mouth. Without any resistance to fire, one would be seriously burnt.
“Yup, that’s right. Please feel free to try it out,” said Gao Peng with a nod.
“Alright. Little Zheng, if I recall correctly, there’s still a batch of Red-Faced Demon Chilies in the Association’s warehouse. Go bring it over,” said Director Chen to one of the lab technicians in a white coat.
In less than ten minutes, the Red-Faced Demon Chilies were brought over. They were entirely red, like bright burning flames. The surface of the chilies was slightly wrinkled and somehow wrinkled into the figure of a demon; hence their name, the Red-Faced Demon Chili.
Director Chen used a machine to mash the chilies into a juicy pulp. Gao Peng watched this without saying a word. Based on the data table that he saw, this step of the procedure required the addition of a few more ingredients.
But he could not say anything yet. At least not before they had failed once. Otherwise, his actions would seem too deliberate.
Director Chen took a look at the large portion of viscous, bright red liquid in front of him and muttered to himself for a moment. Then, using a pipette, he took a small portion of it and placed it into a petri dish, before adding a few other mild neutralizing ingredients.
He did not know what would denature the original properties of the Red-Faced Demon Chilies, so he did not hastily add too many ingredients.
For some unknown reason, after the cataclysm, humans were unable to use electron microscopes or optical microscopes to observe strands of DNA or the various cell organelles within the cell anymore. It was as though the world’s creator had abandoned these settings after the cataclysm.
All that could be seen were different colored balls of various elements.
Suddenly, everything in the world seemed to follow the laws of Yin and Yang, the five elements, the four forms, and the eight trigrams.
This led to everything becoming much simpler and less complex than the world before.
The Red-Faced Demon Chili solution with added ingredients was added into the piece of Voracious Golden Toad flesh.
Under the microscope, they could see that the prepared solution quickly invaded the flesh, causing the flesh to mutate. The yellow was soon taken over by the red, causing the entire piece of flesh to finally turn red.
Bang!
The flesh exploded into tiny pieces, breaking the microscope in the process.
From the side, the others could see that after the addition of the red solution, the piece of flesh had expanded continually as though it were absorbing energy from the solution. It had turned redder and redder before eventually exploding with a bang.
The fire attribute was one associated with a very violent energy.
Director Chen felt that the result was regrettable, but such a result was still within expectations.
The technology that existed before the cataclysm seemed unsuitable for this new world. The laws that governed the world seemed to have changed. Technology such as missiles and nuclear weapons did not decrease in their efficiency, but it was as though some sort of magic had eternally frozen them. No amount of research could result in any breakthroughs. It seemed as if the progress for this route had been blocked off, and that the power of such weapons would forever remain at their current level.
In order to progress, the only way was to work on Monster Trainers.
This was the exact reason various countries across the world put such heavy emphasis on developing Monster Trainers.
In the first two years after the cataclysm, the main focus of every country’s development was still on pre-cataclysm technology.
After all, the world was used to this direction of development that had brought it through the past couple of centuries. It was practically impossible for a shift to happen in a mere one or two years.
But humanity is, in essence, a highly adaptable life form. Even without the potential of the technology that they possessed initially, are still be able to forge out a new path of development.
“It’s a failure. Little Zheng, come test the blood samples of the flesh to find out the reasons for the failure.”