15: They're really good at having babies.

"Are these Cockroach eggs?"

The two leaned in closer to observe.

They felt that the general shape looked like a pill, but also somewhat like a bean pod.

"I just don't know how long the incubation period for a Cockroach is!"

Zhang Liang wondered aloud.

Ye Tian smiled slightly.

"Won't we know if we just look it up?"

As he spoke, Ye Tian tapped open his phone.

He typed in the question.

Soon, he put down his phone.

"Cockroach eggs. Scientific name: ootheca. Normally, one ootheca can hatch about 20 Small Cockroaches. However, the incubation period seems a bit long. Depending on temperature and humidity, it's about a month."

"A month? Then won't we have to wait a while?"

Zhang Liang felt a bit of a headache.

"The good news is that the Cockroach's ovulation cycle is short. An adult Cockroach can lay eggs once every two days. So as long as we get past that first month of incubation, the snowball will roll fast after that."

"In other words, if we have this one for a month, it'll be about 15 oothecae. That can hatch 300... then we wait for them to grow up and lay eggs. A few months later, it becomes tens of thousands. My god, at this speed, Brother Tian, if you want to reach the 1 billion scale that my uncle mentioned for a primary scale, it would take at least many years..."

Ye Tian, who was initially somewhat happy because of the short ovulation cycle, was suddenly dumbfounded when he heard this calculation.

Many years? By then, the opportunity would have long passed! These cockroaches really aren't living up to expectations.

What happened to the promised super-fast reproduction speed?

What happened to the claim that every household can't kill them all off?

I'm all ready for this, and this is all you give me?

For a moment, the two looked at each other, both somewhat silent.

No wonder Zhang Liang's uncle felt powerless.

Even if one had the strength to use other methods to speed up the scaling process, the time and cost invested versus the generated benefits were completely disproportionate.

As if sensing the disappointment in Ye Tian's heart...

The Ten Strong Cockroach on the table moved again.

Its antennae and tail shook for a while.

Slowly, another Cockroach ootheca was expelled by it.

"Huh?"

The two men's eyes widened.

"Brother Tian, is this what you call once every two days? I'd say it hasn't even been 20 minutes!"

"How should I know? The encyclopedia on Qiandu said two days."

A look of joy appeared on Ye Tian's face. After a moment of hesitation, he gave the Cockroach a command in his mind again.

"Keep laying eggs!"

But this time, the Cockroach didn't start shaking.

Its antennae just swayed slightly, showing a posture of identifying directions.

After a moment, it crawled down the table, came to the trash can by Zhang Liang's bed, and crawled inside along the rim.

Then it crawled onto a finished apple core and began to eat.

"Still eating? Hungry again so soon?"

Zhang Liang said, somewhat speechless.

Ye Tian, however, seemed to realize something.

He quickly began to rummage through the dormitory.

Before long, he found several intact apples under Zhang Liang's bed.

By now, the Cockroach had also quickly finished the apple core.

Sensing Ye Tian's summons, it happily crawled back onto the table.

What greeted it was the apple skin that Ye Tian had quickly peeled off.

Under Zhang Liang's puzzled gaze, Ye Tian cut off the flesh and gave a piece to each of them.

The remaining apple core, which still had quite a bit of flesh on it, was placed in front of the Cockroach by Ye Tian again.

And so, as if to complete a mission of creating trash...

The two humans and one Cockroach finished four apples in a row.

The Cockroach stopped.

It performed its trembling act again in front of the two of them.

Soon, a third ootheca appeared.

"Awesome! Brother Tian, this Cockroach of yours is truly incredible. It can give birth to babies just by eating! It's so freaking amazing."

Zhang Liang was full of excitement, and then he also seemed to be inspired.

He rushed to his wardrobe.

With a clatter, he brought over a large pile of snacks.

He tore open the packaging and, without even taking a single bite himself, poured them directly for the Cockroach.

The latter wasn't polite either. Faced with such complete delicacies, it ate with a ravenous noise.

However, after finishing most of the snacks this time and producing another ootheca...

It didn't eat anymore.

Its movements had also slowed down considerably. It had likely reached a certain limit.

"Is it at its limit?"

Ye Tian asked, seeing its listless state.

The Cockroach's antennae bobbed up and down a few times, indicating that he was correct.

Ye Tian didn't give any more commands.

He turned his gaze back to the four oothecae.

As for the issue of reproduction quantity, after the experiment just now, there was basically no need to worry too much.

What he needed to know now was the quality.

Would the descendants of the Ten Strong Cockroach be ordinary cockroaches, or would they inherit the superior traits?

This point was incredibly crucial.

If they could inherit them, that would be absolutely wonderful news.

However, this couldn't be rushed; he could only observe after they hatched.

"Brother Tian, since our little roach is so prolific, can we start working on large-scale breeding?"

Ye Tian thought for a moment and nodded slightly.

"We can start the preparations. But our dorm definitely won't work. The place is too small. If others see it, it'll be hard to explain."

"That's easy to fix. I'll go look for a suitable house nearby tomorrow. We'll rent one and set it up."

"Alright, then you take care of that."

Ye Tian didn't refuse. In fact, in his heart, he was eager for Zhang Liang to get involved. Because from the time he entered university until now, he had really received too much care from Zhang Liang.

Previously, he didn't have the ability or the strength to repay him.

And Zhang Liang had never thought about Ye Tian repaying anything, to the point where Ye Tian didn't even know where to direct his efforts.

Now this good brother finally had something that could pique his interest. Naturally, it was better to strive together.

Seeing Ye Tian nod without any hesitation...

Zhang Liang also appeared very happy.

After all, this unique secret technique, if handled well, really had great potential.

Ye Tian's willingness to let him join without hesitation proved that this friendship was well worth it.

For a moment, he was filled with motivation, not even wanting to wait a single night.

He put on his clothes and said he was going out to look for a house first. Anyway, it was the holidays, and he might as well do something while he was free.

Ye Tian shook his head with a chuckle.

How could he not see that the other party didn't ask him to come along for the house hunting because he didn't want to waste Ye Tian's precious part-time work time.

Thinking of work, Ye Tian couldn't help but look at the time.

Then his heart tightened.

He was so focused on studying the Cockroach that he didn't even realize his evening shift was about to start.

In a frantic hurry, Ye Tian changed his clothes and prepared to head out.

After a moment's hesitation, he also brought the Cockroach and the tackle box with him, and conveniently grabbed a stick of insect gathering incense.

Because the place where he worked at night was a food stall.

At restaurant food stalls, the oil smoke is naturally heavy. With heavy oil smoke, it's naturally easy for cockroaches to breed.

The food stall owner usually treated Ye Tian quite well. This time, Ye Tian planned to help clean up the cockroaches while he was there.

Making money was secondary; the main goal was to quickly catch all the cockroaches needed to synthesize the Money Gu.

He sped off on his bicycle and soon arrived at the South Gate Night Market.

The two owners of the food stall were currently carrying out their handover work.

Why the handover?

Because the owners were hardworking enough.

During the day, this place was a restaurant. At night, it sold late-night snacks as a food stall.

The two owners were actually a married couple. To earn more money, the wife looked after the restaurant during the day, and the husband stayed up late to continue running the shop at night.