Chapter Ninety-Three: Dividing the Spoils

“What, I’m going too?” An Chan paused as if she had not quite caught on, then immediately let out a faint snort.

“Yes,” Ji Cheng said firmly.

“Once you’re inside, go straight to the experimental conclusions. See how much knowledge is in there, record everything, and do it as fast as you can. Go on.”

Even if they found nothing else this time, just the priceless knowledge alone would already have been worth the trip.

“Oh.” An Chan answered coldly without thinking, her tone clearly carrying a trace of feeling.

Obeying Ji Cheng’s orders and being used by him did not trouble her, but since she had not received much attention or enough time with him, she felt a little let down.

After An Chan went in as well, and another ten or so seconds passed, Xia Na reported first:

“There are the most experimental conclusions related to biological genetics. They mainly concern the production and fabrication of various gene progenitors, along with some conclusions in mechanical control and materials science.”

Just as he had guessed. Ji Cheng suppressed his excitement and urged them on.

“Hurry and record all that knowledge. Xia Na, you handle the mechanical control material. An Chan, you take the materials science and biological genetics.”

The storage capacity of a data-ether body was practically limitless, but point-to-point transmission within a cluster intelligence was rather poor.

“Stupid human, how are we supposed to learn so much knowledge all at once?” An Chan refused to take it seriously at all.

Ji Cheng nearly choked on his own anger.

“I’m not asking you to learn it right now. How could you learn it right now? Just record it first. Record it. We can digest it slowly when we get back.”

To master first-tier knowledge, one had to have enough zero-tier knowledge as a foundation.

Just as one had to learn addition and subtraction before one could understand multiplication and division.

This kind of essential knowledge was called framework knowledge.

Other formulas, theorems, and conclusions that were not commonly used were called applied knowledge and were not necessities.

The experience bars on Xia Na and the others’ visualized status panels actually represented their mastery of this level’s framework knowledge.

Each level had a limited amount of framework knowledge, while applied knowledge was virtually endless.

But once all the framework knowledge for a given level had been mastered, learning any knowledge of the next level would be completely unobstructed.

“Hurry up and save and record all these experimental conclusions. When we get back, we’ll study and digest them slowly, and infer some zero-tier framework knowledge from them.”

Ji Cheng kept urging them.

Higher-level applied knowledge could certainly be used to infer part of the lower-level framework knowledge.

He did not have complete confidence in anything else, but at least in the biological genetics section, those applied experimental conclusions should be enough to infer a great deal of zero-tier framework knowledge.

“Understood. Xia Na will be good and listen to you,” Xia Na said.

“Mm.” An Chan replied.

After tapping at the light screen and making a show of it for a while longer, Ji Cheng quietly asked, “Done yet, Xia Na?”

Very quickly, she gave a soft laugh and replied, “We’ve finished recording. Among all the experimental conclusions, the biological genetics-related content is the most abundant. I took a rough look, and if we digest and learn everything, the experience bar for biological genetics should reach over eighty percent.”

“And the rest?” Ji Cheng asked in his mind as he tapped a few times on the keyboard.

“The other two categories of experimental conclusions are plentiful as well. Mechanical control probably covers about half of the framework knowledge, and materials science is about the same.”

On the surface, Ji Cheng still wore a grave expression, his fingers never stopping as they struck the light-screen keyboard, but inside he was already delighted beyond measure.

Though he had come from a rather remote planet, he was still a true-blue imperial citizen, born of proper stock and not some foreign barbarian or low-born prisoner of war.

According to the provision in the Galactic Empire Scientific Research Act that permitted even the common folk to advance to the first tier, he was qualified to study first-tier knowledge. That was not illegal. So aside from using it to infer zero-tier framework knowledge, he could also have the two of them learn these first-tier experimental conclusions and then put them to use.

“Tsk, tsk. In two or three months, this should all be digested. A huge profit.”

Maybe in the future he could even produce some gene progenitors himself and sell them. That was all a path to making a fortune.

“Not bad, not bad. What about An Chan? Why isn’t she saying anything?”

“She may be feeling a little wronged right now. I can tell,” Xia Na analyzed for him in an exceptionally considerate tone. “Recently you’ve been using me all the time, so she’s been neglected. Nothing is worse than your lack of interest in her and your indifference.”

“Such a manipulative little schemer.”

Xia Na continued to expose An Chan. “Don’t let her cold, glamorous appearance fool you. In truth, she wants you to use her even more than I do~”

“Fine, I’ll use you more next time,” Ji Cheng soothed An Chan. “All right, stop sulking and let’s finish up.”

“Mm.”

Xia Na laughed softly, then said tenderly, “Then shall I extract these ten gene progenitors for you?”

“No problem.”

Ji Cheng glanced sideways at several gene vats wrapped around the carnivorous magnolia, then asked, “Do these gene vats still have the radioactive material needed to remove the gene lock?”

“The one on the far left still does,” Xia Na said as she operated.

——Research Supervisor Wei Changshun has requested ten second-tier gene progenitors.

——Request approved.

With a click, a semi-transparent storage box slowly rose before Ji Cheng, each edge faintly flickering.

An icy-blue light reflected in Ji Cheng’s retinas, forming a perfect cube.

This instantly drew everyone’s attention.

The bio-recognition system had long since failed and shut down, so the storage box opened by itself, revealing the gene progenitors inside.

“One, two, three, four… There are ten here!” someone exclaimed from behind.

“How the hell did he do that?”

“He really got the gene progenitors out of there!”

“Ji Cheng…”

“Quiet, quiet.” Ji Cheng pulled a briefcase from behind his waist and took out the inner box, the one containing the eight gene progenitors they had found earlier.

“The spoils are being divided. Everyone gets one!”

...

Inside the main nest chamber, the air was muggy and searing, and grains of sand on the floor popped and danced with heat, making one want to strip off their clothes and press their head against an air conditioner.

Yet at this moment, not a single person even dared to breathe too heavily.

A total of eighteen gene progenitors were laid out before them. The scene was truly staggering.

Under normal circumstances, not to mention so many, even a single second-tier progenitor would have had everyone fighting tooth and nail for it. But now, with this many placed right here, not one person moved.

“Eighteen gene progenitors, and we only have thirteen ability users. Let’s give everyone one first.”

Looking at the needles laid out before him, left for him to distribute as he pleased, Ji Cheng could not help but feel a little wistful.

Things that had once required people to fight over them now amounted to one per person with extras left over, and the last ten had even been carefully selected from among more than a thousand progenitors.

Life was unpredictable. Today felt wonderful.

He deliberately took one out with a calm air, studied Liu Fangjian for a moment, and handed it over. “This one’s for you.”

Only the wrong given name, never the wrong nickname.

Liu Fangjian, nicknamed Green Lamp, lived up to his name; the first-tier gene progenitor he had injected was a firefly.

Injecting the carnivorous magnolia as a second-tier choice was not bad at all. Nothing else could be guaranteed, but at the very least the path had not been cut off. There would still be a chance to advance to the fourth or fifth tier in the future.

“Thank you…” Even though Liu Fangjian was as taciturn as ever, he still forced out a few words. “This time, it was all thanks to you. The rest of us actually didn’t contribute much. Really, thank you…”

“All right, I understand.” Ji Cheng stopped him from going on.

Anyone could tell he was not the sort who was good with words. What was the point of just saying thank you? It would be better to sing him a song.

If Lu had been here instead, there would definitely have been a double blow of rainbow praise and sworn brotherhood.