Chapter 16
Si Chen slept all night and by the time he woke up, it was almost noon.
As soon as he woke up, he felt a peculiar sense of hunger.
The Eternal Life Abyss shouted, “Mom! Hungry.”
Si Chen frowned and asked, “Is your stomach a black hole? Why are you hungry again?”
“Very hungry~”
Si Chen had the impression that the Eternal Life Abyss seemed to have become a little smarter. For example, it was actually used an adverb.
“Bear with it.”
He stood in front of the sink and washed his face with cold water. As he wiped and rubbed, he felt his left eye go a little loose.
The Eternal Life Abyss pushed against the prosthetic eye, creating an exaggerated bulge. It drilled out from the gap between the eye socket and the prosthetic eye and wrapped itself around Si Chen’s wrist.
Its fine fur had fallen out. Thin and dense scales now grew on its surface and a small lump of flesh was growing out of its abdomen.
According to the information on the official website, the Eternal Life Abyss in its second stage will grow a second head. At that time, the host will also be promoted to the Second Step.
Just judging from appearance alone, it was impossible to tell where the head of the Eternal Life Abyss was. It was simply a pure black strip and its physique didn’t seem to have changed much.
Just as Si Chen was thinking so, the Eternal Life Abyss jumped into the sink.
It expanded like a sponge after absorbing water. There were many ring-shaped mouths on its surface. It looked like a piece of octopus tentacle sashimi that had escaped from some seafood platter.
The Eternal Life Abyss twisted about happily. “Mom, look!”
This kid grew up and became even uglier.
Fortunately, it was still quite sensible and after quickly squeezing out the water from its body, the Eternal Life Abyss returned into Si Chen’s body.
Within Si Chen’s body, it existed in a very special state, between “existence” and “non-existence”. But High Dimensional creatures themselves couldn’t be explained by science, so Si Chen still felt quite fine.
Si Chen started to make breakfast. He soaked a bowl of soybean milk powder and took out semi-processed meat eggs from the refrigerator, throwing it directly into the hot water.
Meat eggs were literally meat eggs. It’s made using the same ingredients as nutritional creams, but with a little more seasoning. It’s was also 30% more expensive. It’s made to look like an egg; egg whites with pork stuffing. It’s kind of like a chicken lollipop. Cook it in water for a few minutes and it’s good to go.
Because food is expensive, the most popular meal replacement nowadays is durian-flavored dried earthworms. At other times, all kinds of semi-processed dishes are used to make ends meet. With genes having changed several times already, no one really cared. It was fine so long as they could keep on living.
While cooking, his mobile phone beeped with a reminder. He was to report back to work at the laboratory today.
Si Chen had signed a one-year employment contract with the company and the contract was set to expire in November this year. The employment contracts of his colleagues started at five years and went all the way to a lifetime.
It was precisely because of this short contract period that Si Chen was only able to be a research dog at the bottom of the food chain in the Serpent Staff Group’s laboratory; doing more and getting less.
These days, ordinary employees had no power to negotiate with their companies. Resignations were unheard of. The labor laws formulated by the Alliance protected the interests of the company.
Si Chen’s team leader had granted Si Chen’s half-month leave partly because he’d encountered a force majeure High Dimensional invasion and partly because the research projects in the lab basically depended on Si Chen to progress. If he doesn’t come to work, his colleagues can only stare incomprehensibly at the data.
Si Chen dismissed the reminder. Ji Chuyao had also sent a message yesterday morning, asking him if he had arrived home safely.
Si Chen replied on his way to work. “I’ve made it back home.”
Ji Chuyao replied quickly, “It’s good that you’ve made it back. Did you see the notice? Registration for the postgraduate examination begin next month.”
Si Chen: “I know. (Smile)”
Ji Chuyao: “Are you going to take the exam?”
Si Chen: “I will.”
Si Chen was a firm believer that learning can change one’s destiny.
It might not elevate his condition, at least it won’t make it worse.
What’s more, he was now an Evolutionary. If he wants to continue to evolve, he will need a lot of resources. His current job and educational background simply wouldn’t be able to meet his needs.
Ji Chuyao: What major?
Si Chen: Gene Biology
The chat app showed that Ji Chuyao was currently typing.
Ji Chuyao: “Would you consider a military academy?”
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.
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While Si Chen has only just started. At 25 days, he was on the First Step.
Even if he were to take the exam, he wouldn’t be able to pass no matter how hard he tries. Si Chen has always been ruthless on himself but he had no interest in challenging the impossible.
Ji Chuyao: “The treatment in the military academies is much better. And they don’t just look at what Step you are on Heaven’s Stairway. I think you have a chance.”
Military academies adopt a mentorship system. Once admitted, mentors choose their students. The reverse — students choosing their mentors — is also possible.
He felt that Si Chen needed to build social connections. This way, at least his seniors could protect him. Otherwise, he would always be bullied.
Ji Chuyao admitted that he may have a bit of a white knight complex. He was more prone to pitying the weak than other people.
Si Chen replied politely, “Thank you, I will consider it.”
Just then, his bus arrived.
Si Chen turned off his phone and thus he wasn’t able to read Ji Chuyao’s next words.
“It just so happens that I’m currently on leave from school to recover. Shall I come to Jiangchuan to see you?”
…
…
The laboratories of the Serpent Staff Group in Jiangchuan District are housed in three buildings. Each building has 30 underground floors and 30 aboveground floors. The higher or lower the floor level, the more confidential the experiment.
As an ordinary employee, Si Chen worked on the underground 5th floor.
Si Chen swiped his employee card on the access control and entered what was called the apex of research institutes.
Because of the confidentiality agreements signed by the employees, any communication tools may be confiscated during work hours.
Si Chen changed into protective clothing in the locker room and while he was there, dropped his phone into the safe lest he be unable to pass through security in a while.
Since he wasn’t coming in during normal working hours, there were only a few people at the security checkpoint. Usually, there would be a very long line.
Si Chen took his place in line. While there, a group of security guards in uniform, passed by him, carrying a huge water tank.
This water tank appeared very strange. The water inside was dark green and abnormally murky.
Out of curiosity, Si Chen took a second look, never thinking that immediately after, a blood-red meaty blob stuck itself to the edge of the glass.
The blood-red blob was like a piece of flattened cake with countless fine thread around its edges. There were a few strangely colored eyes growing on the meat blob. None of them had irises; the seemed to only be composed of the nearly gray whites of the eyes.
At this moment, the Eternal Life Abyss inside Si Chen became the most excited it has ever been. “Mom!! Want eat!!”
The eyeballs stuck to the glass were bloodshot and they turned slowly in a circle.
On the glass, the otherworldly vertical pupils were fixed on Si Chen’s face, looking at him like a starving jackal seeing a fat lamb tied by the roadside.
Si Chen instinctively felt a chill down his spine.
It wasn’t until the workers carried the water tank through the special passage that that scorching gaze completely disappeared.
“What was that?” Si Chen asked softly.
The Eternal Life Abyss’s tone held undisguised craving. “Meat. Mom, hungry. Delicious. Smells yummy.”
But the Eternal Life Abyss wasn’t the only one who answered him.
The colleague standing in front turned his head. “Oh, it’s Xiao Chen. You’ve been on leave for more than half a month. I finally get to see you today.”
This was Lao Wang from the research group next door. “You don’t know? Last week, Jiangchuan’s outer suburbs encountered a High Dimensional invasion. Danger level 5A. It was a chaotic civilization from the Eighth Dimension universe… Tsk. Fortunately, it had happened in the suburbs. Seven or eight hundred people died. Right now, the company’s salvaging things left in the Space Fold area.”
Si Chen was very surprised. “There was a Space Fold in the outer suburbs?”
“Sigh,” Old Wang let out a hearty laugh, “Safe Zones just mean that the frequency of High Dimensional invasions is less than 1, that’s about one in a thousand chances. It doesn’t mean it’s completely impossible… But, I have lived for more than ninety years and I’ve only encountered one once. Time and space is still very stable in our Jiangchuan.”
“But the Space Fold this time was simply evil.” Lao Wang lowered his voice, “You know, most High Dimensional invasions can actually be detected before they happen. After all, there are signs from the energy fluctuations of the sunspots and the like. But this time, there was absolutely no warning. It was like the channel had been forcibly opened. And the Space Fold lasted so briefly too; only 124 seconds.”
“2 minutes.” He held up two fingers. Having been a lab researcher for so long, his fingers were now crooked, with numerous bumps. “Everyone who got caught in the Space Fold died. And there had even been several Evolutionaries on the Third and Fourth Step. Just what could that have been?”
Si Chen’s face showed just the right amount of worry and alarm.
Lao Wang laughed and shaking his head, he stepped through Security. “The dark ages is coming soon upon our world. Sooner or later, High Dimensional creatures will descend and they won’t even have to go through a Space Fold. Fortunately, I’m old and I won’t live to see that day .Good luck to you youngsters though.”
Si Chen returned to his research group. Upon his arrival, all the team members expressed appropriately warm sympathy for what he’d gone through. It was as if they had caught sight of their own father.
Especially their research group’s team leader.
“Xiao Chen, I haven’t seen you in half a month. I missed you so much!” Their team leader was extremely enthusiastic, “You kid, did you run into trouble in the Space Fold?”
Si Chen wore a gas mask on his face. Of his entire body, only his eyes were visible. “I’m fine, Team Leader.”
He has beautiful peach blossom eyes and even when he doesn’t smile, his eyes appear very soft. His voice was even warmer and gentler.
The team leader coughed. “By the way, some time ago, someone surnamed Ji from top management came to ask after you… Xiao Chen, why didn’t you tell me earlier that you knew the Ji Family?”
As soon as these words came out, the ears of the other members of the team perked up.
There were many people with the surname Ji, but since the team leader mentioned it specifically, then it can’t be any other ‘Ji’ but the Machine Core Group’s ‘Ji’.
For ordinary people, the world of the Great Families was like the Space Folds; they’ve heard of it but they might not necessarily have seen it.
It would be a lie to say that they weren’t a little bit curious.
Si Chen was wearing a mask, even though the corners of his lips didn’t tick up even the slightest bit, his eyes looked as though they were smiling warmly. “I met Xiao Ji in the Space Fold. Xiao Ji, he…”
Si Chen pursed his lips and trailed off. The exposed part of his ears were a little red.
He left the rest for the others to use their imaginations to fill in.
The team leader thought of Si Chen’s face and also of the courteous manner of the Ji Family member who had asked after him. He was convinced he had the answer.
He’d checked online and Si Chen’s evolutionary path was mechanical transformation. With how much mechanical body parts cost nowadays, could Si Chen have afforded it himself? It must have been the Ji boy who provided the money. And how could anyone be nice to others for no reason?
In the past, the head of the laboratory of the18th underground floor often invited Si Chen out to eat. But Si Chen was always indifferent, making it difficult for him to get a chance.
The team leader thought Si Chen must be some sort of blockhead, turned out he simply hadn’t yet found a suitably high branch.
“Alright, alright. The first time you got here, I already thought there was something about you.” The team leader said with a smile on his face. “Go get to work. We’re already both Evolutionaries. Say, you should take the postgraduate exam. Our floor has one spot for the paid studentship. I already went ahead and submitted your application for you.”
Si Chen nodded, feeling disinclined to talk nonsense with him. “Thank you, Team Leader.”
He turned around and headed to his work station.
After not coming to work for half a month, his trash team members have left a half-meter-high pile of experiment data for his verification.
But his team members weren’t completely to blame. After all, except for Si Chen, the rest of the team have only obtained a high school education. Since they’ve never learned some of these things, naturally, they wouldn’t know what to do.
The scientific research institutes under the Serpent Staff Group are divided into different major fields. Each field has several laboratories under its jurisdiction and the laboratories lead several research groups.
Each research group has 5 to 10 people and they are allocated the relevant instruments and workstations. For some expensive equipment, these are shared by multiple research groups.
Si Chen’s research group was under ‘the manufacture of medicine from Longevity Species (plant type); specifically, ‘using vine-type Longevity Species as medicine’.
He picked up a pen and quickly wrote down the calculation formulas and data on the margins. He then handed them back to the team.
Half an hour later, the team members pitifully came crowding over, saying quietly, “Si Chen-ge, there’s something wrong with my data.”
“This frozen section seems to be inactive! The field of view isn’t quite right. Can you come and see what’s going on?
“Ge, on which page should this chart be inserted in? Why can’t I understand it?”
Si Chen: “…”
Stay away from him; he was allergic to good-for-nothings.
Si Chen took a deep breath.
If he doesn’t go to work…
He won’t have a free apartment to live in and monthly rent prices have now reached five figures.
He also won’t have a salary. Although his monthly salary is only 30,000 credits, at least it does include enrolment in the five insurance plans and in the housing fund; it also come with board and lodging.
Most importantly, he hasn’t saved enough for his tuition fees. It would be best if the Serpent Staff Group’s foundation could give him some money.
Moreover, although these colleagues of his were all noobs, they were at least obedient.
Knowing that his family background and health weren’t good, they give him a few bottles of gene medicine as bribes every now and then.
Therefore, after a short silence, Si Chen smiled and said, “Well, this is a third-year university subject so it’s understandably a bit difficult for you. Don’t worry, let me take a look.”
His team members were moved to tears.
Si Chen worked intensely for 7 hours and managed to process half of the documents.
Taking a look, it was soon to be nine o’clock in the evening; time to get off work.
Si Chen’s apartment wasn’t far from the company but he didn’t like working overtime. And so, he locked his computer and folders and prepared to head to the locker to change his clothes and time out.
But before he could even take a couple of steps, the team leader stopped him. “Si Chen!”
The team leader came to him, his protruding belly making him look as though he were carrying a baby. “Are you getting off work? Just now Chief Xie called me and said that their experiment will use our group’s experiment material.”
By experiment material, he was referring to the vines their group was growing in the incubators.
“Can you take the materials over there? Chief Xie probably wants to ask about the data and you know, the others won’t be able to answer.”
Chief Xie was 54 years old this year. He had a 14-year old child whose mother had just passed away 2 years ago. He was the head of the laboratory on the 18th underground floor of their research institute.
When Si Chen first entered the workplace, for a period of time, Chief Xie pursued him with great fanfare only to be met with failure.
Although Chief Xie wasn’t their direct superior, he was a key employee of the company and was three ranks higher than their team leader.
Simply put, their team leader didn’t want to offend him.
Si Chen showed hesitation on his face, “But Xiao Ji is waiting for me to have dinner…”
Unbeknownst to him, Ji Chuyao actually was outside their lab building, waiting for him to get off work.
But this didn’t stop Si Chen from using him as an excuse.
The team leader whispered, “Great Ancestor, just drop the materials there. There’s still more than ten minutes before the end of your shift. With so many people there, how could he stop you from leaving?”
Seeing that Si Chen was unmoved, the team leader had no choice but to say, “You asked for half a month’s leave. You shouldn’t be paid your performance bonus this month but do me this favor and I’ll help sort it out for you.”
Si Chen roughly estimated how much his performance bonus should be this month.
He’d just completed a project this month so it should be around 43,000.
So, he nodded. “Deal.”
Serpent Staff Research Institute for Gene Biology.
The 18th underground floor.
Xie Yunyang walked out of the laboratory, his body slightly stiff.
The research flunky he brought with him hurriedly stepped forward and in a very obsequious manner, said, “Chief, you’ve been so hard at work. What is that High Dimensional plant you brought this time? It looked very strange.”
Xie Yunyang opened his mouth, his voice came out a little hoarse, “It is a highly active marine plant and it has great potential to be used as medicine. If we manage to crack its genetic code, it may be a substitute material for level 7 gene medicine… It’s been a long time since I’ve performed an experiment on my own. It took me a little longer than I expected.”
The research flunky was overjoyed. “That’s really great! You’re amazing.”
Xie Yunyang patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t hurry off work just yet. Come into my office, I have a task for you. Tell the others not to leave as well.”
Xie Yunyang was wearing goggles, so the research fluky didn’t notice that his respected leader’s eyeballs had already gone cloudy. Signs of liver mortis was even beginning to appear on his skin. Time of death was 2 to 4 hours ago.
A few thin red threads in the shape of roots crawled down Xie Yunyang’s arm and like a creeper, it crawled onto the research flunky’s back.
On the back of the hand resting on the research flunky’s shoulder, a gray eyeball forcibly squeezed out from his flesh.
The eyeball rolled over, revealing a pupil like a vertical slit; strange and cold.
“Bam.”
The office door closed.
Translator’s note: Next updates are on Wednesday and Friday. These three chapters are a bit longer than usual so I have to spread it out to manage my schedule and stockpile. orz
Thanks for the chapter! Here I was wondering what his next meal would be, and I’m thinking it’s this new thing!
The baby is finally going to get some food!
Thanks for the chapter!!
Well that is ominous
So far, three out of four readers are thinking of how well baby will be… lmao! Hahahaha! Thanks for the update! 🤣❤️🤣❤️🌱👀
*well fed…
oooh he got parasited (is that even a word in english)
I think the word you’re looking for is parasitized.
Abyss should also going at office work
Thank you for your translation 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚
Baby is going to have another delicious meal 🍴😋