Chapter 370: Critical Hit Crab

Unfortunately, the defensive measures the Undersea Base took such pride in were, in the eyes of the Heaven-Swallowing Pelican, no different from a primary school student's math problem.

It very easily bypassed the Undersea Base's scans.

And it told Ye Bai about this result.

"Very good. I didn't expect a spatial storm to let you reach this level of attainment in space."

"If a few more come, you'll be able to generate a spatial storm with a single thought."

Ye Bai said admiringly.

The Heaven-Swallowing Pelican's brows curved, and its eyes shimmered with a star-blue light.

"I need to find a place to rest for a while."

"It would be best if there's a place with a network interface, so I can hack into the internal network and acquire more data."

This base was like a giant labyrinth, with every area heavily guarded by people.

However, this was not a difficult task for Ye Bai.

Because the researcher card in his hand possessed most of the permissions.

"Heaven-Swallowing Pelican, let's leave here."

A star-blue light flashed in the Heaven-Swallowing Pelican's eyes, and it instantly teleported to a remote restroom.

Outside the restroom, there was even a "Under Maintenance" sign hanging.

"Considered finding a remote restroom. Heaven-Swallowing Pelican, you go back first; I'll go out and take a look."

Ye Bai walked out swaggeringly.

Outside, many Pet Beasts were patrolling; from time to time, they would stop someone and use the barcode scanner in their hands to scan that person's Bracelet.

Only after confirming everything was correct would they let the person go.

However, Ye Bai could tell that these Pet Beasts seemed not to dare to take action against him; researchers held an extremely high status in the Undersea Base.

At this moment, a rich, fragrant aroma wafted over.

Ye Bai happened to be hungry, so he followed the aroma to the cafeteria.

"Welcome, Dr. Iijima."

"I haven't seen you in a long time. Is it the usual three items today?"

A middle-aged woman with a face full of smiles said to Ye Bai.

Ye Bai nodded: "The usual."

Although Ye Bai did not know what the "usual three items" were, he felt they should be quite delicious.

"Alright, please wait a moment."

The middle-aged woman walked away smiling.

Ye Bai found a seat and sat down.

Not long after, the middle-aged woman walked over carrying a tray.

On it was a steaming bowl of noodles, a dish of fish grilled to a charred yellow, and some sliced pickled radishes on the side.

He used a spoon to sip a bit of the soup.

The soup was very fresh and went down very smoothly.

The noodles were very chewy, making a *pop-pop* sound when bitten in the mouth.

These noodles seemed to be made of pure fish meat, and one could even taste a hint of fish fragrance.

"Haha, Dr. Iijima, has your recent research been going smoothly?"

"I just love seeing you bury your head and eat; it gives me a lot of motivation to cook."

"Haha, this soup is fresh, right? It's a soup made from boiling the fish bones of Earth Fish. As long as you char the fish bones and then pour boiling water over them, you can make delicious fish bone soup."

"Even these noodles are fish noodles I made using the fish meat scraped off the fish bones."

"I also put dried squid inside, so it tastes very chewy and makes a *crunch-crunch* sound."

The middle-aged woman's smile became increasingly warm.

"Keep up the hard work on your research. As long as you like it, I will always make these usual three items for you."

"Supplies are a bit scarce now, but I can still manage to make the usual three items."

"I'm going to get busy."

The middle-aged woman slowly stood up, then suddenly turned her head and smiled.

"Today's pickled radishes are ones I just pickled; you can try them."

Ye Bai picked up a piece of pickled radish and put it in his mouth; sure enough, it was sour, sweet, and delicious, very appetizing.

The middle-aged woman seemed to have also sprinkled a layer of plum shavings on the radishes; the slightly salty plum masked the pungent smell of the radish and instead brought out its crisp sweetness.

"This taste is really quite good."

At this moment, Ye Bai noticed a staff member wearing white-rimmed glasses bringing Professor Wang here. They waved at the middle-aged woman and then ordered a few small dishes.

"Sigh, this project on the mechanization of Exotic Beasts just won't progress. I always feel like some key step is missing."

"Du Lu Si, are you deliberately hiding some content?"

Professor Wang said with dissatisfaction.

"Keep your voice down. We cannot leak research topics. If someone hears us, I will be disciplined."

"You have to know, I took a huge risk just to bring you out."

"Those compatriots of yours are still only able to stay in their rooms and cannot come out."

"In a moment, I'll go find you a researcher who specializes in Exotic Beast studies so you can research it together."

At this time, after Du Lu Si saw Ye Bai, a sharp glint suddenly appeared in his eyes.

"Look, he is that researcher who is proficient in Exotic Beast studies. Usually, his experiments take quite a long time."

"I'll ask him if he has any urgent projects lately; if he isn't busy, I'll have him help with the experiment."

Du Lu Si walked toward the direction where Ye Bai was.

"Dr. Iijima, long time no see."

"May I ask if you have been researching any projects recently?"

"I have a small matter here and would like to ask for your help."

Ye Bai looked Du Lu Si up and down, hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded.

"Sure, what is it you need my help with?"

Ye Bai also wanted to take this opportunity to exchange a few words with Professor Wang.

"However, if you come to the Laboratory to provide guidance, you won't be able to leave for the time being. That's not a problem, right?"

Du Lu Si knew that Dr. Iijima's research was also very important.

"No problem, my experiment just finished not long ago."

"If there's anything you need me to guide, just say it quickly."

"Otherwise, I'm going to go do my next experiment."

Ye Bai pretended to stand up, intending to leave, but was grabbed by Du Lu Si.

"Wait, don't go, let me introduce you to someone."

"This is Professor Wang from the Yan Country, an authority on mechanical dynamics. We spent a 'great price' to 'invite' Professor Wang over."

"This is a rather famous Exotic Beast expert in the base; he is very familiar with the physiological structure of Exotic Beasts."

"He should be able to help you."

Professor Wang looked Ye Bai up and down; the person before him had a face full of thick whiskers, but his eyes were clear and bright.

He must be very focused when conducting experiments.

Soon, Professor Wang began chatting with Ye Bai using professional terminology.

No matter what question Professor Wang asked Ye Bai, he was able to respond quickly.

Moreover, having read the notes left behind by Zhubinuo Boshi, Ye Bai knew very well in his heart the blind spots in Professor Wang's experiment.

Seeing Ye Bai point out the errors in his experiment with pinpoint accuracy, Professor Wang also knew clearly that Ye Bai was indeed quite capable. "Alright, let's conduct the experiment as soon as possible."

Professor Wang hastily ate a few bites and dragged Ye Bai straight to the Laboratory.

Du Lu Si rubbed his rumbling stomach and had no choice but to pack some food and chase after them. His life was bitter.

Ye Bai walked into the Laboratory; this Laboratory was filled with technology and hardcore gear.

The burrowing rats used for the experiment were placed in a corner of the Laboratory.

They had all been sprayed with sleeping gas and were sleeping quietly.

"Take a look at these notes."

After obtaining Du Lu Si's consent, Professor Wang handed the notebook to Ye Bai.

Ye Bai knew at a glance that the key steps inside had been erased by Zhubinuo Boshi.

With these plausible but misleading notes, the main direction was wrong; how could the experiment possibly succeed?

Zhubinuo Boshi was clever in that his notes were made to look the part, appearing just like the real thing. Moreover, in the field of mechanical dynamics, he was unrivaled; even Professor Wang could not distinguish the true from the false.

If Ye Bai didn't have the complete notes in his hands, he really would have been fooled.

However, Ye Bai truly could not let the experiment succeed, otherwise, this technology would be learned by the people of the Beautiful Country.

Zhubinuo Boshi resented the Beautiful Country and naturally did not want them to learn it.

"I don't know much about mechanical dynamics."

"So I don't understand these notes."

After putting down the notes, Ye Bai said vaguely.

"However, I think, shouldn't we proceed step by step?"

Proceed step by step?

Professor Wang and Du Lu Si thought about it carefully.

Something flashed vaguely in their minds, but they didn't grasp it.

"My meaning is, is the speed of the experiment too fast?"

"Do we need the nanorobots and the Exotic Beast to reach a symbiotic relationship first?"

"Wait until the Exotic Beast adapts to the nanorobots, then gradually increase the number of nanorobots until the Exotic Beast is transformed into a steel Exotic Beast."

Ye Bai gave a plan.

Of course, whether this plan could pass, Ye Bai actually had no bottom line in his heart.

He was mainly stalling for time.

"Using this plan will consume a lot of time."

"I'm not needed here anymore, I'll go back to my room to rest first."

In fact, Ye Bai hadn't found a port yet and hadn't stolen the data from the internal network; he really didn't know where his room was.

He was just retreating to advance.

"Sorry, Dr. Iijima, I mentioned to you just now that due to the confidentiality of the experiment, you must remain in this Laboratory."

"There is a bedroom for resting in the Laboratory; you can sleep there."

"Unless the experiment is concluded, you cannot leave here for the time being."

Du Lu Si had an official, business-like air.

Ye Bai had no choice but to reluctantly stay in the Laboratory.

"Then I'll rest first; if there's anything you need, call me again."

Ye Bai followed the instructions and walked into the room; he scanned it once, and sure enough, there was an internal port in the room.

Without a second thought, he closed the door, then took out a laptop from his Pet Beast Space.

After connecting to the port, Ye Bai tapped rapidly on the computer a few times.

A progress bar popped up.

He was hacking into the base's firewall.

Using a bug in the firewall, Ye Bai successfully stole quite a bit of data.

The research conducted here was on par with the Undersea Base.

However, the subject matter was slightly different; they were researching gene combinations between different Exotic Beasts.

Thereby creating powerful Exotic Beasts.

There were quite a few successful cases so far, but the researchers soon discovered a problem.

That was, these Exotic Beasts created through gene combination had a fatal flaw: they could not reproduce the next generation.

Just like the ligers and tigons of the real world.

Furthermore, their lifespans were very short, not exceeding ten years at most.

The people at the Undersea Base saved these experimental records, intending to mass-clone the most ferocious Exotic Beasts inside to use as disposable consumables.

This way, when a major war occurred, they could minimize their losses.

Ye Bai smiled.

"Let me add some trouble for you, so you have something to do."

"Which Exotic Beast should I clone?"

Among the photos of Exotic Beasts, Ye Bai chose the Critical Strike Crab and the Shark Wolf.

The Critical Strike Crab was a crab covered in a hard shell and filled with ferocious muscles.

It moved very quickly and was skilled at using its fists to teach enemies a lesson.

Ye Bai took a liking to this guy because it was skilled at using Brute Force, and its temper was extremely explosive; it would start fighting at the slightest disagreement.

As for the Shark Wolf, it was an Exotic Beast combined from a Deep Sea Demon Shark and a Shadow Wolf.

It possessed the sharp teeth and developed muscles of a Deep Sea Demon Shark, as well as fish gills that allowed it to breathe in water.

Due to the influence of the shark, the Shark Wolf did not like environments that lacked water.

Therefore, it would desperately leap into the sea, and any Exotic Beast that blocked it would be torn into shreds.

After selecting these two types of Exotic Beasts, Ye Bai pressed the manufacturing switch.

In the Central Laboratory, the researchers were all busy.

They were conducting various experiments.

Without anyone noticing, the cloning equipment turned on.

One by one, the eggs frozen in the cold storage began to grow crazily under the influence of the machine.

Not long after, a Critical Strike Crab punched through a Culture Dish, and it crawled out of the Culture Dish, soaking wet.

Several yellow-skinned researchers suddenly looked up, and after seeing this fierce and menacing Critical Strike Crab, they quietly retreated a few steps.

"Boss, let's hurry up and slip away."

"When a Critical Strike Crab gets angry, it's no joke."

"We are all unarmed, and there's no point in staying here."

"I still want to return to Yan Country; I don't want to die in a foreign land."

One of them muttered.

"Don't be afraid, let's lie down; I've calculated it, the Critical Strike Crab cannot bend over."

"It won't attack anyone shorter than its body."

The three of them quietly lay on the ground.

By the time others discovered the Critical Strike Crab, it was already too late.

The robot responsible for security was directly headshot by a punch from the Critical Strike Crab.

And one after another, other Critical Strike Crabs rushed out from the Culture Dishes.

"What on earth is going on? Close the Culture Dishes for me."

"The entire program was clearly locked; why did it still turn on?"

"Hurry up and close the program."

The person responsible for guarding the Central Laboratory summoned a Jujian Mantis.

This mantis brandished its blade-arms and charged up.

With just two swipes, the Critical Strike Crab's double claws were severed at the root.

Before the Jujian Mantis could be happy, a sound of breaking through the air arrived.

The Jujian Mantis was directly sent flying by a punch.

It slammed heavily into the wall, creating spiderweb-like cracks.

An exceptionally large Critical Strike Crab walked out.

It was the one that had just struck.

"Terrible, they actually cultured an elite Critical Strike Crab."

The guard began to get a bit anxious; this thing's combat power was terrifying.

"It's no good, the equipment is out of control and is continuously manufacturing Shark Wolves and Critical Strike Crabs."

The researcher supervisor on the side wiped away cold sweat; he was actually unable to shut down the cloning equipment.

"Trash, what use are you all?"

"Quick, cut off the supply of the culture medium."

The guard shouted loudly.

Since the equipment could not be stopped, cutting off the supply of the culture medium was the only logical course of action.

(End of chapter)