Chapter 106 Island People

Professor Li Guoming felt terrible, a sense of powerlessness akin to taking a graduation thesis that he had worked on for ages, pouring his heart and soul into, only to have it come back with a one hundred percent plagiarism rate.

All the hypotheses he prided himself on, the arrogance he held as a biological geneticist, were shattered by the file codenamed "Shadow" on the display screen...

Professor Li Guoming couldn't believe it; how could anyone in this world have discovered these things before him?

After Zhou Yan arrived at the biological laboratory, he discovered that the level of detail in that file far exceeded his imagination.

The file described everything from the origin of the Shadow to its parasitic mechanisms and even its weaknesses in extreme detail.

This organism was composed entirely of a highly adaptable gelatinous substance, which allowed them to change their appearance at will.

Upon skin contact, they would rapidly liquefy and penetrate, subsequently hijacking the host's nervous system. During combat, they would supply their own energy to the host while simultaneously draining the host's own energy and vitality to engage in "overdraft" combat, such as secreting excessive adrenaline and strengthening muscle contraction...

This organism lived in symbiosis with nitrifying bacteria inside its body. During combat, it would increase its metabolic efficiency while volatilizing hydrogen sulfide, which was the source of the rotten egg smell.

Strictly speaking, this organism was a mutated invertebrate...

The reason it looked humanoid was because a battle had once taken place on the ocean. In that war, "humans" had slaughtered their race. They simply concluded that humans were the most powerful life form in this world, so they would disguise themselves as humans to intimidate other creatures.

Its imitation strategy was quite successful; after all, when Zhou Yan first discovered it, he thought he had seen a ghost...

In other words, so many people outside had been beaten like grandsons by an invertebrate?

Since when were invertebrates so badass?

Furthermore, why did the screen display detailed information about this monster after it was sent to the laboratory?

"Could this ship really be a product of future technology?" Zhou Yan had thought the system had stolen it from a parallel world!

Professor Li Guoming, standing beside Zhou Yan, was very nervous. If this ship contained all the data on mutated organisms, and even detailed introductions to all human Superpowers, then his only purpose would vanish...

He carefully observed Zhou Yan's expression, fearing that one "slip" might let Zhou Yan realize that he had lost his "usefulness."

In reality, Zhou Yan had no time to think about such things.

Because a much bigger problem lay before him...

If The Ark was truly a product of future technology, and these monsters had been studied so thoroughly, it meant that these "troubles" were not even considered "troubles" in the future.

It wasn't like Zhou Yan hadn't watched movies or read novels.

He had never fantasized about being some chosen one...

If this ship had been "stolen" by the system from a parallel world, Zhou Yan would use it with peace of mind...

If this ship was truly a product of future human technology, then that would be fucked up!

There were two possibilities: either future humans had not only defeated these monsters, but human technology had not been affected by the apocalypse, and instead, had begun to develop rapidly under the extreme conditions of the apocalypse!

But if humans had developed to that extent, there was no reason to go back and interfere with the "past." That didn't make sense!

The greatest possibility was that some extremely serious disaster had occurred in humanity's future, so serious that... future humans no longer had a solution and could only try to start from the past...

"Damn it..." Zhou Yan realized instantly.

This system was not some pie falling from the sky for him...

If things went wrong, this was a massive pot falling from the sky...

Professor Li Guoming gently patted Zhou Yan's arm and pointed at the [Shadow] file on the screen, remaining silent.

Zhou Yan took a closer look.

"How many?"

"What the hell, is it a pig? Eight in one litter?"

Zhou Yan was astonished. He had originally thought that when this kind of monster produced offspring in humans, it would be at most one or two per litter.

But the file stated very clearly that some "person" had conducted experiments. During the experiment, in the most extreme case, it had produced eight embryos in a single human, and they had successfully bred...

Zhou Yan frowned slightly, looking at the screen and falling into deep thought.

This file could be used as a reference, but it could not be completely trusted, because this ship could still potentially be from another "parallel world," and the monsters here might not be exactly the same as the monsters in that world...

"If, I'm just saying if! Of course, it's just a hypothetical... Next time someone who doesn't know better offends you, could you trouble yourself to send them to the biological laboratory?" Professor Li Guoming rubbed his hands, somewhat excited.

"Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth... If we could have an experiment, that would be even better..."

Professor Li Guoming paused, then advised Zhou Yan: "You don't need to be nervous, because the file says that after the Great Flood, an Ice Age will soon arrive. Because this monster has a special gelatinous structure, it can barely survive independently in extreme cold environments, so... this Shadow monster should go extinct very soon..." Professor Li Guoming pointed at the file and spoke eloquently.

Zhou Yan's face darkened: "You don't seem very sensitive to the words 'extreme cold'..."

"What's there to be sensitive about? After which Great Flood on Blue Star was there not an Ice Age? This is certain! Although I'm not in geography, I remember this seems to be middle school geography knowledge..." Professor Li Guoming mused, his fingers tapping gently on his arm.

Zhou Yan: "..."

"By the way! Can we catch some mutated fish? I think I've found a way to upgrade Superpowers!"

Professor Li Guoming spoke a bit embarrassedly, because saying it this way sounded a bit like he was "giving orders."

Xiao Rou had already proven the boosting effect of the bead in the human brain on Superpowers. If Professor Li Guoming could obtain a large number of "beads," finding the path to upgrading Superpowers would just be a matter of time!

Zhou Yan nodded; this was exactly what he was planning to do as well.

"Next, do you have any thoughts on where we should steer this ship?" Professor Li Guoming leaned against the laboratory bench and asked, looking at Zhou Yan.

"West!"

Zhou Yan gave the answer without even thinking.

Professor Li Guoming pondered for a moment, then spoke with some hesitation: "Although the terrain to the west is higher, have you considered the sharp drop in temperature after the flood? I have been observing the temperature for the past two days, and since half a month ago, the temperature has been continuously dropping..."

"The Ark is a survival ship built to handle extreme cold marine environments, so you don't need to worry about that..."

Professor Li Guoming nodded and said nothing more. In fact, he had many thoughts, but he didn't know how to express them to Zhou Yan without causing any "taboos"...

He was better at scientific research than at social nuances...

"Big Brother?"

Wu Yang stood at the laboratory entrance, leaning against the glass door, and shouted anxiously.

"What's wrong?"

"There's a ship outside that keeps circling the Warship, and it even approached us once!"

Zhou Yan came to the cockpit and, through the magnified electronic display screen, saw that ship...

It was a quite luxurious white catamaran, looking like a retro luxury boat model that only old money in America would buy.

"Japanese people!" Wang Zeyu pointed at the woman standing on the bow of the ship and shouted excitedly.