HBWnovel Chapter 106 Super Evolution
Chapter 106 Super Evolution
so close!
A huge sum of money was almost flushed down the drain.
"Did you do this on purpose?"
The little monster grinned, stuck out its tongue, licked its non-existent lips, and even yawned in a human-like manner.
"It was intentional, you spendthrift! Luckily, I was quick enough to salvage it..."
While rinsing the red diamond under the tap, Qi Te cursed irritably.
The little monster ignored him completely, shrank back behind Qi Te along the collar, and went into hibernation in less than three seconds.
Chit picked up the two bones the little monster had left behind, still covered in a paste. It wasn't plaster, but a gel-like synthetic substance often used to seal in mineral powders with trace amounts of radioactivity or things containing toxins.
It is rarely used in biological experiments, but it is used more in pharmaceutical research and development. The Department of Pharmacy at Ocean University of China has it.
Visual perception can reveal the distribution of venom sacs and glands within an organism, but it cannot directly identify toxins. Therefore, Zit did not know whether the bones of these abnormal organisms or clones contained toxins.
However, he had no intention of secretly testing it.
To acquire experimental equipment, Liu Baichuan begged the dean and the mayor. To secure research funding for his courses, he sold data, published books, sought sponsorships, and gave lectures. He exhausted all his resources, yet he remained penniless.
Even so, Lao Liu still refused Oasis Company's offer, not because he was willing to be a poor, uneducated teacher, but because it was his bottom line.
The world's three leading biotechnology companies have made many outstanding contributions to this era.
Countless drugs have been developed based on biological research. Many incurable diseases, including cancer, AIDS, and ALS, have already been conquered. Diseases such as diabetes and leukemia have also been effectively treated.
Oasis developed limb reconstruction technology ten years ago. It extracts gene samples for cloning and printing, and combines them with nerve implantation surgery. The rejection rate of reattached limbs is extremely low, and most patients who have undergone the surgery say that they are no different from their own limbs.
The breeding of endangered species, genetically modified seeds, environmental governance, and biocatalysis to reduce industrial energy consumption all rely on the foundation of biological science to achieve vigorous development.
However, there are both advantages and disadvantages.
As far as Liu Baichuan knows, one of the research areas that Oasis places great emphasis on is "immortality".
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, many companies are testing the feasibility of uploading consciousness. This is no longer just a concept, but is being tested in real-world experiments using living people.
Oasis is not dedicated to researching consciousness uploading, but rather to developing a cutting-edge technology that allows telomeres to regenerate indefinitely, thus enabling humanity to maintain eternal youth.
There's a paradox with consciousness uploading: even if the data can perfectly recreate the uploader's thought process, is it an algorithm or a human soul? In other words, is it still the original person?
In comparison, Oasis's regenerative technology is more like "physical ascension" from movies and novels. It's certain that it's him.
Therefore, this research received strong support from many foundations.
A reporter revealed that Oasis has made a breakthrough, with many retired high-ranking federal officials, who were originally very old, taking turns to look younger in the past two or three years.
As a biologist, Liu Baichuan insists that the premise for science to benefit mankind is that it must never violate the laws of nature.
Illnesses can be cured, and prolonging life appropriately is fine. But if those who linger at the top of the pyramid all become immortal monsters, then this world is utterly doomed.
When the elderly stop growing old, the children stop growing up.
In addition, during times of disaster, humanity paid a heavy price to survive, and based on the natural fear of ferocious beasts, major biotechnology companies have been researching unusual creatures.
In recent years, the three major biotech giants have engaged in a hellish arms race-like competition.
Every winter break, the three companies hire a large number of mercenaries and bounty hunters to hunt down a large number of unusual creatures in various border areas around the world.
Liu Baichuan collected samples to better understand the types of anomalous organisms and the changes that occur each year. The three major companies, of course, had more than just research as their objective.
What exactly is Oasis doing? Liu Bochuan has neither participated in it nor is he interested in finding out.
As a student, it was even less likely that Qi Te would have access to the deeper secrets.
Although he could use empathy to control the little monster's tentacles and enter the laboratory in Zone 1 to take a look, he wouldn't do something so foolish as to invite disaster just to satisfy his curiosity.
In short, avoid getting involved in things that don't concern you.
..............................
Five days later, with the help of two capable assistants, Qi Te and Ding Xiang, the biological samples collected were successfully tested.
As always, Qi Te compiled all the data, categorized it, and organized it clearly and concisely.
As Liu Baichuan looked at the dense data, his brows furrowed deeper and deeper, and his expression became so solemn that his old face almost froze over.
"Teacher, is there a problem with which part of the data?"
Liu Baichuan shook his head, manipulated the holographic image with both hands, and split the complete projection in two.
Qi Te glanced at it quickly, then his eyebrows shot up.
The left half is the summary report he just compiled, and the right half is the data that Lao Liu collected from samples over the past ten years.
"How could this happen?"
Zite blurted it out, then immediately thought of a possibility.
"Rapid evolution?!"
Liu Baichuan nodded and said, "From the appearance, most of the abnormal creatures have not changed much in terms of body shape, but the data does not lie. The abnormal creatures in the border area are evolving rapidly."
"I've always had this hypothesis that these products, which combine two or even more genes, shortened the evolutionary process, compressing tens of thousands of years into a hundred years. Now, I can be fairly certain that my hypothesis is correct!"
Rapid biological evolution is usually driven by the need to adapt to the environment. For example, insects have evolved resistance to pesticides, and bacteria have developed extremely high resistance to antibiotics.
Species that adapt quickly will inevitably occupy new ecological niches, change the structure of the food chain, exert competitive pressure on other species, and may even lead to the extinction of the latter.
Under extreme conditions, there is a high probability that unprecedented abilities will evolve.
The shortened evolutionary process led to a rapid accumulation of genetic differences, which meant that new species would inevitably be born.
No.
Zite immediately realized that perhaps a new species had already been born!
"Some species that were quite common in the border area more than a decade ago have disappeared by last year. This year, due to unforeseen events, the number of samples collected is limited. However, through images captured by monitoring satellites, I can confirm that three unusual creatures that were originally more numerous in the animal tide have decreased significantly."
"In just over a decade, species have gone extinct and declined in number. At this rate, it won't be long before more perfect organisms that have completed three stages of evolution appear."
Liu Baichuan said in a deep voice, "Something big is about to happen!"
That golden salamander lives in the border area outside Haicheng. The mountain range where Whistle Valley is located is not too far from the buffer zone, but it has never been discovered.
Looking back now, there are only two possibilities.
Firstly, before this winter hiatus, the golden dragon salamander was a large, beast-king-level black dragon salamander. Therefore, the monitoring satellites did not capture images of the perfectly golden creature.
Secondly, although the surveillance satellites captured the images, neither the authorities nor the major companies that own the satellites made any public announcement.
Having his body controlled by the rampaging little monster, and witnessing firsthand the scene of beasts bowing down in submission, Qi Te knew better than anyone that the little monster had become the new king of that borderland.
The previous overlord, the Golden Salamander, lay dormant in the underground cave, partly during its winter rest period, and partly to fully incubate its dragon eggs.
If this incident hadn't happened, how terrifying would the golden salamander have been when it had fully recovered and was in its prime next spring?
The beasts obey Daenerys's call. What would happen if Daenerys attacked human cities?
Hu Zizai manually constructed a reactor, using a unique shockwave attack to break through its defenses. Even so, if it weren't for Sequence 0, Daenerys wouldn't have been able to kill her.
The defensive towers of the buffer zone were utterly useless to Him.
Under the intense heat of nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius, the tower defense system exploded on its own, rendering it completely ineffective.
Of course, this is just the worst-case scenario.
As of now, as ordinary people, we have no way of knowing how many perfect creatures have completed three stages of evolution worldwide.
"If anomalous creatures evolve rapidly, won't humanity be doomed?"
Teaching assistant Ding could easily foresee the worst-case scenario, but Liu Baichuan shook his head and said, "Humans are also evolving!"
Ding blinked in confusion, while Qi Te suddenly widened his eyes and looked at his mentor.
"Erythema?!"
Thirty-seven years ago, a terrifying incurable disease swept the globe. Those afflicted shared two common characteristics: first, they were all individuals with supernatural abilities; second, a strange red spot appeared in the fourth ventricle of their brain.
Because it happened so suddenly, even the authorities were unable to collect the exact earliest onset time in time. As for how long it takes for the supernatural abilities to completely spiral out of control after the onset of the illness, the data varies across different time zones.
Back then, Liu Baichuan was just a student and couldn't access that level of knowledge. He only gathered information from group members all over the world in a private chat room, the authenticity of which could not be determined.
The death toll that year was no less than 60 million. According to Long County statistics, the shortest onset time was three days, and the longest was seven days.
However, this data is almost useless for reference, because the time when the lesion in the fourth ventricle is discovered is not necessarily the time when the patient has just become ill.
The most valuable piece of news is that a very small percentage of patients who developed the disease did not experience complete loss of control and survived.
Although there is no data or information to confirm that erythema is contagious or recurrent, Liu Baichuan firmly believes that no large-scale disease can occur only once.
Large-scale disease outbreaks can objectively have a "selective" effect on humans.
This perfectly aligns with the "survival of the fittest" mechanism in the process of species evolution.
If this is true, then erythematous lesions are undoubtedly a prelude to humanity's entry into super-evolution.
However, if this disease were to strike again, how many people would be able to survive the effects of evolution?