Elder Wu was still in that small building, and the two young men were received in the same room as the last time.
With a friendly smile, he gestured for them to sit down and didn’t say much. He opened a drawer and took out something very familiar, the pouch from the brains of mutated beasts.
“You’ve probably seen this thing before, haven’t you?” Elder Wu had lived for so long that his ability to read people was impeccable. As soon as he took out the pouch, the two young men’s faces showed a subtle reaction, indicating they were well aware of its purpose.
“We’ve seen it,” Yue Zheng said without hesitation. Almost all mutated animals now possessed supernatural abilities, so there was no way they didn’t know about it. Besides, there was no need to lie, as the base had the necessary resources and equipment to figure it out even if they remained silent.
Elder Wu breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, asking, “Do you know how to use this thing to upgrade yourselves?”
He quickly added, “Don’t worry, we won’t ask for your information without giving something in return. If you can help our scientists with their research and produce results, we’ll promote your squad by one rank.”
Whether they got promoted or not didn’t really matter to the two men. The current base system was still far from perfect, and the primary benefits of promotion were reduced expenses and greater ease of operation. The rest of the matters…
Elder Wu seemed to understand what was on their minds and said with a smile, “I know that promotion might not mean much to teams like yours. However, once your squad reaches B-rank, you’ll have access to some classified information.”
“Remember, we still rely on satellites for a lot of data, and they can scan things from above. For example, the distribution of mutant animals, the condition of buildings in certain areas, and closer cooperation with the authorities will be established. If you need anything, we’ll do our best to help.”
So, it wasn’t entirely without benefits. Building a good relationship with those in power could be advantageous at any time.
Seeing Yue Zheng nod slightly in agreement, Xu Song understood his intentions. He looked at Elder Wu and asked, “Should we discuss this now or wait for the experts to arrive?”
Elder Wu hesitated for a moment, not expecting this young man to be the one to speak. In their previous interactions, it was mostly Yue Zheng who handled external communication, and Elder Wu thought he might not be interested in these matters or making decisions.
“Let’s wait for a moment. The scientists from the research institute will be here soon.”
The group relocated to a room that resembled a small conference room. Xu Song didn’t need to consult with Yue Zheng to know which information to share and which to keep to themselves.
He provided a brief explanation, “When we first encountered these pouches, it was during our last collaboration with the military…”
“How did you upgrade before you got these?” A man with eyes that resembled the bottom of a bottle asked suddenly.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“We upgraded by killing monsters,” Xu Song paused and continued, “We encountered many mutated animals along the way, and by killing them, we unexpectedly leveled up. As far as we know, the captain of the Panlong squad had a similar experience.”
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“First, we punctured them directly. Although they dissipated immediately, we believed there was a special energy inside that could enhance the absorption of energy by nearby people and mutated animals, thus promoting the evolution of supernatural abilities.”
“Second, we wore them. We noticed that the pouches we obtained earlier gradually became smaller over time, and the contents inside slowly dissipated. Since we leveled up previously by killing monsters, we assumed that when we killed monsters, the ones with diminished life force would release their original energy, and we, standing nearby, would absorb a small amount of it, thus upgrading our supernatural abilities.”
“Therefore, the function of these pouches should be similar, whether they are worn or punctured near us.”
A group of heads came together, and a buzz of discussion followed. After a while, another man in a white coat raised his hand, “Can we ask what level your supernatural abilities are now?”
“Level three.”
There was an audible gasp from the audience. Level three… currently, the highest level in the base was level two…
Yue Zheng’s supernatural ability was relatively easy to conceal, but Xu Song’s fire-based ability had corresponding external changes with each level increase, making it impossible to hide.
On the spot, a small golden flame burst out, and the scientists below couldn’t hide their eager fascination, as if they wanted to dissect him right away…
Yue Zheng moved closer to Xu Song and put his arm around his waist, finally allowing Xu Song to relax his tensed body.
“…When you puncture these things, it does release energy instantly, but the dispersed energy dissipates too quickly, and the human body has limited absorption…”
“…And there’s no way to extract it, even if you dissolve them in a new type of aqua regia, it would dissipate rapidly.”
“…Once injected, the solvent directly breaks down the biological material, so how can it be used on supernaturals?”
“…But the direction is correct, that’s for sure. We just haven’t found an alternative method for now.”
“…Such a large amount of energy could completely replace electrical power!”
“…But you have to be able to retain it first.”
“…Should we have supernaturals carry them at all times? Over time, it should have an effect, much faster than the current rate.”
“…I heard someone secretly ate one of these, and it exploded!”
“…But someone’s supernatural ability did upgrade because they ate it!”
“…But they won’t allow us to bring in the supernatural who supposedly succeeded in upgrading for research! Without seeing it in person, who can confirm its authenticity?!”
Watching the chaos below with their mouths agape, Xu Song and Yue Zheng exchanged glances.
Elder Wu coughed several times in a row, but no one paid any attention to him. He could only look at the two of them with a bitter smile, shrugging, “That’s how they are. Once they get into research topics…”
“So, does that mean they’ve already discovered that these pouches contain energy but can’t extract it?” Xu Song asked curiously.
Elder Wu nodded, “Not to mention extraction, they can’t even retain the energy inside.”
Yue Zheng thought for a moment and suddenly said, “Before coming to City B, I once saw something that was supposed to be delivered. Besides a stone tablet, it seemed to have a bag of something like shattered glass.”
Xu Song was slightly surprised; was he suggesting handing over a crystal? No, he wouldn’t say it like that if he intended to do so.
“Shattered glass? Oh, yes, I saw that in the reports.”
Yue Zheng smiled and said, “I don’t know what that thing is for, but… maybe with a different carrier, it could protect the energy inside the pouch?”
His voice wasn’t loud, but it happened to be heard by one researcher who was slightly distracted. He suddenly stood up and said, “Right, a carrier? A carrier! Glass… No, I need to go back and experiment!”
Other people heard it and rushed out as well. Some remembered something related to what he said and hurriedly went to their research rooms. The entire conference room was left with only Xu Song and Yue Zheng, and, of course, Elder Wu, who sat there alone.
Three days later, Elder Wu’s secretary, known as “Agent N,” visited again with fantastic news – “diamonds.”
“Diamonds?” Xu Song asked in surprise. “How do we use that, and can we still find diamonds now?”
Agent N, with a smug smile, pushed up his glasses. “Experiments have shown that synthetic diamonds work just fine for this purpose. They can retain the energy for a longer time than the pouches, but there is a slight loss of energy during the extraction process.”
Seeing the two men’s astonishment, the secretary explained further, “However, we haven’t figured out the exact method of using this substance yet. The experiments have shown that most of the lab mice injected with it explode, except when we reduce the dosage – that is still under study.”
“Also, it seems that energy of different colors can’t be used interchangeably, it may cause problems. Elder Wu wanted me to tell you that to prevent any accidents. Furthermore, the base is working on carriers to preserve the energy. When they are ready, they will provide you with a batch, and those should be reusable.”
After expressing their gratitude to Elder Wu, and once the secretary had left, Xu Song shrugged, “So, in the end, they didn’t promote our squad. Just as I thought, they were trying to deceive us!”
Yue Zheng laughed and hugged him, “The experiments haven’t yielded results yet. No need to rush.”
At the very least, they should wait until the researchers have thoroughly figured out how to harness the power within the pouches, whether by injecting it into supernaturals or the human body, before their squad can receive recognition and rewards.
Xu Song blinked, “I was just thinking that if they find a method, we can upgrade our mom and Abu as well.”
Everyone needed to grow stronger for the squad to become truly formidable. Otherwise, if they continued to develop their abilities while their family members couldn’t keep up, it could create an imbalance within the team.
– Someone completely unaware that his own mother and Abu had already become quite formidable.
Before the base had discovered how to upgrade supernaturals, on December 5th, Mother Xu and Abu upgraded themselves while still half-asleep in the early morning.
“Indeed, even just carrying the pouch has an effect!” Xu Song’s eyes lit up as he circled his mother, completely fascinated.
Mother Xu, feeling dizzy from all the spinning, reached out and tapped his forehead, “You’re making me dizzy!”
“Mom, can you do it again?” Xu Song rubbed his forehead and strongly suggested that his mother try again.
Mother Xu, somewhat reluctantly, and partly proud, raised her hand, and three purple energy orbs appeared simultaneously above her head. At Level 1, she could only release one energy orb at a time, but now, she could produce three in one go. With some research and practice, she might even discover new applications for her abilities, like her son.
Unfortunately, unlike Xu Song’s fire-based ability, her ability, which was lightning-based, didn’t show any external changes in color as she leveled up.
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🌳🦮🦔🦗🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝