Chapter 269: New Spirit Beasts
Meng Chao thought about it for a while, but he could somewhat understand it. “Yes, when you put it that way, I feel a little terrified as well, and I wonder whether I can continue keeping my Sword-toothed Hunting Dog at home as a pet. Even if it’s a biochemical pet modified by another company, it still contains the possibility of going out of control, and it’s the same as me putting a ticking time bomb at home. Though I have to say, it’s not actually modified by another company and was modified by Spirit Creations.
“If this creates a ruckus, it will be bad news to all people who are in the monster modification business in Dragon City, and many citizens will even begin wondering whether we should really continue down the path of using monsters in our civilization.
“Agricultural University is known as Monster University, and many of the research projects in the university are related to biochemical modifications. A lot of our alumni work in this field, so we share a relationship where if one of us enjoys success, all of us will enjoy success, and if one of us falls, all of us will fall. This is indeed not something that concerns just Spirit Creation.
“But I don’t understand. Since the matter is so bad, why did they ask us to go and observe it? There are other experts in this field from Agricultural University, right?”
Ning Shewo agreed. “It’s precisely because the matter is so serious and it involves all sorts of complicated interests that the university doesn’t want anyone to have a chance to get blackmail on the university.
“Right now, the matter is still a highly cla.s.sified case. The news media and the other media outlets aren’t involved, so it hasn’t spread through the entire city, but I heard that the other party is very unyielding in this, so we might not be able to settle this matter on friendly terms.
“Agricultural University doesn’t want to get any blame, but they don’t want the matter to get worse either. So they hope that we can keep it down and settle the matter appropriately. Hence, it’s impossible for the experts who are officially in this field to take care of the matter, and that’s why they looked for me.
“I’m a guest lecturer in Agricultural University and one of the shareholders of Spirit Creation. I have a rather flexible status. As for you, as a freshman of Agricultural University who shares a pretty good relationship with me and also has a pretty positive image on social media platforms, you have a lot of room to solve the problem, and you can be flexible in your methods too.”
Meng Chao thought about it for a moment before he frowned and said, “Elder Ning, are you thinking about using our skills to cover up or change the examination results?”
“Of course not. The amount of shares I have in Spirit Creation isn’t so great that I’d gamble away my entire lifetime’s reputation,” Ning Shewo said sternly. “If the final results of the examination show that something really went wrong with Spirit Creation’s biochemical modifications, even if the company goes bankrupt and the related personnel are sent to court, it’s only natural. After all, three people died because of this!
“But the creators of Spirit Creation promised that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the company’s biochemical modifications. They used well-developed modification technology to modify the three biochemical pets, and they have used the same technology on thousands of pets. Such malicious cases have never appeared before, so the creators suspect that there’s something else going on. We have to be on guard.
“In any case, we have to keep our eyes open this time. We must make sure that no one does anything to the pets during the process of injury examination and inspection of the carca.s.s. We also have to find the reason behind why the biochemical pets became violent. That is all.”
As he spoke, they arrived at Nine Sands Advanced Biotech Development Area, which was not far away from Agricultural University.
They went in a direction that was filled with the pungent and moist scent of earth, and soon, they found a building called Spirit Creation Creatures, which was located at the center of a Giant Sandworm farm.
Giant Sandworms were the first monsters that humans domesticated and modified.
They looked like earthworms magnified a hundred times. Their heads seemed to have been split open, and they had rows of fangs all over their mouths. This made them look monstrous, but in truth, they were pretty gentle creatures that did not take the initiative to attack humans. Instead, they feasted on snakes, insects, rats, and ants in the earth, along with the garbage created by humans.
They could crush st.u.r.dy rocks with the fangs all over their mouths and digest as well as absorb all sorts of garbage that was difficult to degrade. Then, once humans modified their excretion, they could turn it into high-grade natural fertilizer. Giant Sandworms were a “model monster”, and during the most difficult times in Dragon City, they helped humans.
Now, Giant Sandworms were one of the biochemical monsters Dragon City could not live without, and there were three main reasons for it.
First, they could be used to dig underground s.p.a.ces, create asylums, subways, tunnels, hornet nest-shaped underground cities, and mine crystal mines.
Second, they could be used to get rid of trash. There were tens of millions of people in Dragon City, and they lived in an area spanning thousands of square kilometers. The amount of trash they created as they went about their daily activities was astronomical. If they did not have the Giant Sandworms continuously eating the trash and excreting fertilizer, the city would have long since been buried under trash. Not only would it stink, they would also suffer from plagues.
Third, certain breeds of Giant Sandworms could be modified in unique ways so their meat would turn really juicy and rich. It would not lose to the legendary crab meat, and they could produce a lot of it. It was also very easy to rear this breed, so it was really good emergency food.
Ning Shewo introduced the place. “Spirit Creation’s. .h.i.t product are certain types of Giant Sandworms. You can see them when the city deals with its trash and digs tunnels.”
They had relied on Giant Sandworms to open the market, then gradually moved to the modification of middle-sized and small beasts of labor and pets.
As Meng Chao expected, when he walked into Spirit Creation, he saw two large monitors to his left and right playing the company’s promotional clips. They had really adorable Golden Retrievers opening doors for their masters, picking up items, leading the blind, and even ma.s.saging them. They were all cheerful and peaceful sights.
Then, the scenes changed. When Dragon City was invaded by monsters and houses collapsed, the Golden Retrievers all unhesitantly revealed their fangs and fought against the invading monsters. They also used their heightened senses of smell and powerful claws to dig around the rubble to save their trapped masters.
Meng Chao gasped in amazement when he saw this, and he asked Ning Shewo softly, “Can they really produce pets that have all the functions mentioned in the promotion?”
“Spirit Creation is ambitious. They want to create a new generation of even more intelligent pets and think that the term ‘biochemical beasts’ carries negative connotations. It’s not suitable for them to use this term to promote their creations in the market, so they’re prepared to unify the standards of the new generation of intelligent petes and call them spirit beasts. They would be great helpers that cannot go missing from human civilization.
“Right now, their creatures have definitely not reached the standards of what they promote, but this is what they’re working on. They want to gather the advantages of guide dogs, hearing dogs, emergency relief dogs, police dogs, and even military dogs into one, and this creature would then possess the intelligence of a ten-year-old child. That way, they would be able to serve humans even better.”
“Is that so?” Meng Chao fell into deep thought.
Together they went into a reception room with a French window that looked onto the rearing pond of Giant Sandworms. In the room, they met one of the creators of Spirit Creation Creatures, Xie Xiaolei.
He was a middle-aged man in his forties with elegant air, but his eyes were intense, and he was full of life.
His clothes were casual and seemed to be randomly picked, but the texture of the materials was pretty good.
Even if the company was facing a major crisis, he still smiled nonchalantly, as if victory was in his hands.
He was the type of person that anyone would be able to tell that he was one of the creators of a high-tech company.
“Elder Ning, I’m really sorry for bothering you again.” Xie Xiaolei retained an elegant air as he apologized to Ning Shewo. Then, he extended his hand to Meng Chao and said with a smile, “Meng Chao, h.e.l.lo. Recently, your story has been circulating among the alumni of Agricultural University.
“I heard that you led the freshmen of the alliance of the five universities and won against those arrogant geniuses from Dragon City University, which allowed Monster University to feel proud of itself. As your senior, I have to thank you.”
Meng Chao blushed a little. ‘It’s no wonder why his business is so successful. His ability for praising others is amazing, and he does it so subtly too!’
Of course, he also sensed really powerful spirit energy ripples surrounding Xie Xiaolei, especially around his hands and brain. His vitality magnetic field was full of life, and he was a typical supporter-cla.s.s superhuman. He might have already reached Heaven Realm as well; otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to have the ambition of unifying the standards of the new generation of intelligent biochemical beasts.
The three of them sat down, and Ning Shewo said, “Xiaolei, why don’t you tell us what is going on? I immediately came over after I heard the news, so I still don’t know the details. Just how did this happen?”
“Two days ago, three cases of biochemical pets attacking their owners happened one after another in Blessed Paradise, and it ended in a tragedy of three people dying and one person being wounded. The wounded went through great shock, so their mental strength index fell. This person is currently being treated in the hospital,” Xie Xiaolei said briefly.
Ning Shewo and Meng Chao looked at each other.
Blessed Paradise was a pretty high-grade commercial housing area. Even though it was not as lavish as Dragon City No.1, it was not a place where normal people could live.
The families there usually had a certain degree of economic power. They were the pillars of their units or fighting squads and had a lot of connections, so they could influence various areas to overturn Spirit Creation.
Ning Shewo thought about it and said, “Two days ago? You haven’t performed the corpse inspection?”
“The victims were all inspected. It’s already been verified that they were killed by the three biochemical pets. The three biochemical pets were killed by the neighbors and security guards who heard the ruckus. Their carca.s.ses are a mess, which has been frozen and preserved. We haven’t performed a thorough examination on them. We asked you and Meng Chao here as witnesses to ensure that nothing goes wrong with the inspection of the biochemical pets,” Xie Xiaolei said.
When Ning Shewo heard this, his gaze became sharp. “Xiaolei, tell me honestly. Are there any problems with Spirit Creation’s creatures? I heard that you’ve tried a lot of extreme modification methods to create a new generation of spirit beasts. If this is really a problem with the company, then admit it honestly. If you have to be punished, accept it. Even if you go bankrupt because of it, this is still the best outcome.
“If you have ulterior motives and think that Agricultural University or I can save you, I will tell you straight away that even G.o.d won’t be able to save you. At that time, it’s not the police or court who will come to your doorstep, but the adjudicators from the Supernatural Tower, and you won’t even have the time to cry!”
“No way.” Xie Xiaolei defended his innocence. “Even though we’ve tried all sorts of rather advanced modification methods on the new generation of spirit beasts, these three biochemical pets who became violent are old generation models that were modified using well-developed methods. Nothing could have happened to them! There must be someone behind this!”
“Oh? Since you haven’t dissected the biochemical pets before, how can you be certain that someone may be scheming against you?” Ning Shewo asked.
“Because among the three deceased, one of them is from Heavenly Works, a compet.i.tor of Spirit Creations,” Xie Xiaolei said. “Right now, Spirit Creations and Heavenly Works are competing for a major project. Spirit Creation’s capital, time proposed for the project, energy consumption, and effect to the environment have all won out. But now, at this critical moment, a member of the middle-rank management was killed by one of the creatures from Spirit Creations. There’s no way such a coincidence can exist!”