Chapter 224: Alternate Dimension Research Camp

It was really true that whitewashing weakened one by three points, while turning dark strengthened one by ten times.

When Klein asked that sentence, it truly startled Li Yu quite a bit.

"Princess, why do you say that?" Li Yu fell silent for a moment, but he didn't answer directly.

"Was it Horus...?" Klein similarly didn't answer Li Yu's question, but continued asking.

"Princess, since you're asking this, you must already have the answer in your heart." Li Yu continued to deflect.

That Old Schemer Horus, who knew if he had left some kind of surveillance method here? Li Yu wasn't going to out himself.

"I just want to be sure," Klein emphasized. She slowly walked over, her strapless long dress revealing her exquisite collarbones perfectly, while a faint fragrance wafted into Li Yu's nose.

Li Yu's brows twitched rapidly. Klein's transformation before and after was way too drastic. Just how did Horus comfort her?

"Princess, there are some things that aren't good for anyone to delve deeply into." Li Yu continued his deflection, simply refusing to speak.

Why do you want to trust me? We've only met a few times! Didn't I just scold you last time? Why hold such a grudge?

Li Yu grumbled in his heart, but on the surface, he nodded. "Princess, of course you can trust me."

"That's good." Klein nodded, but she didn't continue speaking along those lines. It seemed she really was just asking casually.

"What do you think of my previous behavior?" Klein shifted her inquiry.

The leap in topic was so large that even Li Yu couldn't quite keep up. After pondering for a moment, he said sincerely, "Filled with utmost affection and kindness, truly admirable."

Based on the experiences of many big shots from his past life who had turned to the dark side, no matter how severely they blackened, their past experiences would always be the softest spot in their hearts.

They could hack and slash at it themselves without any problems, but if someone else even slightly touched upon it, there was only one result—death!

So Li Yu would never say Klein was wrong under any circumstances.

"I want to hear the truth." Klein's tone grew slightly heavier; she clearly didn't believe Li Yu.

After turning dark, her IQ has clearly increased. I even pretended to think for so long, and she still didn't believe me.

Li Yu shook his head solemnly. "Princess, you seem to have misunderstood one thing. Your act of saving people and the betrayal of those you saved have no causal relationship."

"His mistake has nothing to do with you. On the contrary, there are many innocent people who have truly received your kindness." Li Yu looked at Klein and said sincerely:

"Better to err on the side of justice and execute the wrong person than to let a guilty one go, and better to save the wrong person than to let one slip away. I can't do that, but I admire those who can."

Hearing this, Klein's expression trembled slightly, and she looked thoughtful. Besides Horus, there was almost no one around who taught her.

She wanted to hear different words, words from someone other than Horus, which was why she wanted to meet Li Yu.

Klein's gaze toward Li Yu softened for a long time. Over these fourteen days, she had gone through a complex mental struggle and ultimately chosen a path she had never envisioned before.

But just as Li Yu thought, many of the things from the past were the softest spots in her heart. Whether it was friends or saving people, she didn't believe she was wrong. Li Yu made her firm in this belief, and even... changed some of her thoughts.

"We will arrive in the Guixing Territory soon. After that, I will make you my 'Friend,' although my 'Friends' are a bit too common nowadays," Klein mocked herself.

Klein calling them "Friends" was just her own term. In reality, the official title of the Return Star Civilization was the Talent Support and Development Program.

It involved recruiting individuals with potential from within their own civilization or even from other civilizations, cultivating them, providing corresponding benefits, and requiring them to shoulder corresponding responsibilities.

It wasn't just the Return Star Civilization; other civilizations had similar programs.

Not all civilization Citizens would unconditionally serve their own civilization; they also needed sufficient benefits and interests.

For a top-tier cosmic civilization like the Return Star Civilization, their Talent Support and Development Program was actually quite strict, requiring multiple layers of screening.

However... who asked Klein to have friends all over the world and possess a relatively high status? This led to her raising many people who took the money without doing the work.

Even though quite a few were weeded out every year, many new ones were also added annually.

"It is my honor," Li Yu didn't echo Klein's self-deprecation but said solemnly instead.

Klein stared at Li Yu, pursed her lips, and said, "You may leave."

"Goodbye, Princess." Li Yu nodded, turned his head, and left the place.

Klein watched the back of Li Yu leaving, pondering something. Not long after, she raised her arm and waved her hand. A Holographic Screen appeared in front of her, and a command was about to be issued.

"Eliminate all outsiders in the Lower Hold except for Li Yu's group."

She thought for a moment and modified it to, "Upon entering the Guixing Territory, find a Life Planet and drop off all outsiders except for Li Yu's group. Eliminate those among them who are guilty."

Click send.

Klein stood frozen in place, quietly lost in thought. Her eyes were slightly unfocused; she had still been pulled back a bit by someone.

On the other side, Horus raised his hand and glanced at the command on his Smart Terminal. His pupils contracted slightly. Why was it a bit different from what he had expected?

Was it because of Li Yu? Did he have such great magic?

Forget it, it wasn't a bad thing. At least it saved him some effort. It was just that this Li Yu seemed to require further attention.

Li Yu opened Return Star's Interstellar Network and found this Talent Support and Development Program, specifically looking at the B-Tier cultivation standards.

"...Provides 100 tubes of B-grade Gene Development Potion annually... Nutritional Potion subsidies... living subsidies... automatic promotion to Return Star Level 3 Citizen..."

"...Equipped with a professional team for quantitative training standards. If there is hope of stepping into an A-Tier Lifeform, the civilization will fully assist after evaluation..."

"...Cannot refuse when the civilization issues a mandatory conscription. Mandatory conscriptions will not exceed ten times a year... If there are extra missions, you can also assist and there will be rewards..."

"...If mandatory conscription is refused, you will be removed from the cultivation program... In case of death..."

There were dozens of pages in total, with quite a few clauses. Most of them were notes, warnings, and compensations.

How should he put it... After reading it, Li Yu's heart remained unruffled. After all, carrying fifty billion Star Coins, the total annual benefits added up, when converted to Star Coins, were only around five hundred million.

Equivalent to exchanging five hundred million Star Coins for ten missions, it was somewhat of a loss for a B-Tier Lifeform.

However, the most crucial thing was the A-Tier Advancement channel. The A-Tier Advancement channels of all Cosmic Civilizations were tightly controlled.

Apart from Espers, it was almost impossible for wild A-Tier Lifeforms to appear.

These large civilizations' talent support programs were practically the only channel to advance to an A-Tier Lifeform.

But the civilization review noted in the support program was extremely strict and not easy to pass, involving issues of Loyalty.

However, Li Yu wasn't too resistant to it because of a very crucial matter: his Identity.

Besides Return Star, it was difficult to find another civilization qualified to contend with the Star Glory Empire. If he wanted to obtain enough resources, Return Star was also a good channel.

In interstellar space, there were many things that couldn't be bought even with money; one had to have high-end channels.

Returning to the Lower Hold, Li Yu went straight to knock on Peyton's door. During this period, under Li Yu's instructions, Peyton had been exceptionally low-key and almost never left his room.

Plopping down on the bed, Li Yu asked, "What kind of A-Class Gene Chain should I fuse?"

"Has your Gene Chain Development Progress reached its limit?" Peyton was somewhat surprised.

"Not yet, it's about 40%. But the Gene Chain Development Progress isn't the issue. It's better to prepare early," Li Yu shook his head. The B-Tier was not a threshold for him. Without Drug Resistance, he drank Gene Development Potions like water.

"Hmm..." Peyton pondered for a moment. "There are many choices for an A-Class Gene Chain. Furthermore, after reaching the A-rank, unless you have a systematic Gene Chain combination, you don't need to consider compatibility issues."

"Because the rest of the foundational Gene Chains will all have to be replaced."

"All replaced?" Li Yu only had a superficial understanding of this and wasn't too clear.

Peyton nodded. "Exactly. Although the foundational Gene Chains are constantly amplifying, they still have their own limitations. If you want to continuously evolve, you must replace the foundational Gene Chains."

"Is that the reason why Dark Star kidnapped you?"

Peyton thought for a bit and explained, "Dark Star's Gene Chain combination is rather special; it's unprecedented and created by himself. Therefore, while ensuring the structure of the Gene Chain, replacing the foundational Gene Chains with higher-level ones becomes quite difficult."

"Oh ho, Big Brother Dark Star is a trailblazer," Li Yu couldn't help but tease.

"Although his Gene Chain structure is quite special, it isn't overly outstanding," Peyton didn't continue discussing Dark Star, but instead said:

"You don't have a systematic Gene Chain structure, so you don't need to consider too much. As long as the Gene Chain is strong enough, it'll do."

"Is a systematic Gene Chain structure stronger than one without a system?" Li Yu pondered for a while and asked Peyton.

"Not necessarily..." Peyton entered lecture mode. "The reason for forming a systematic Gene Chain structure is to make up for the lack of strength in individual Gene Chains."

"For example, the declining Ice River Nobles. The Ice River Gene Chain combination they formed using Frost Rabbit—Ice Direwolf—Frost Hunting Lizard—Cold Flame Mountain Beast—Magic Ice Tyrannosaurus is not very strong."

"As long as a single Gene Chain is strong enough, it can smash everything, right," Li Yu looked thoughtful.

"If I get the blood of an A-Tier creature, and I mean an undiscovered creature, can you concoct a Gene Chain?"

"Undiscovered?" Peyton frowned, seemingly finding it troublesome. "If it's undiscovered, I would need a massive amount of experimental data to support it before I could concoct it into a Gene Chain."

Pausing for a moment, he added, "Such research doesn't hold much value."

Li Yu faintly felt that Peyton wasn't very interested in such research because no matter how much he researched, the final result was merely concocting a Gene Chain.

Peyton hadn't finished speaking yet. "Moreover, such research requires a Laboratory, a super-large Laboratory."

Hearing the word "Laboratory," Li Yu immediately pulled a bitter face and tested the waters, "Is fifty billion... enough?"

An inexplicable color flashed through Peyton's eyes. "To build a Laboratory of that level, fifty billion Star Coins... is far from enough."

"Say no more..." Li Yu felt his flesh twitching with pain.

"I remember that the Bio-Virus ravaging the Return Star Civilization was spread from you, right?" Peyton said pointedly.

"Fuck!" Li Yu jolted up. Seeing that he had already set up defensive measures around the room and wasn't afraid of being monitored, he breathed a sigh of relief and praised his own quick wit.

"You can't just say things like that casually in the future; you have to take responsibility."

"What I mean is, do you have a solution?" Peyton's tone carried a hint of anticipation as he stared intently at Li Yu.

"I know what you mean..." Li Yu knew what Peyton wanted to say. "Using the solution to demand benefits from the Return Star Civilization. I've also considered this possibility, but there just hasn't been a suitable opportunity."

"We don't have enough weight to negotiate any terms with the Return Star Civilization."

Trading a single Amethyst Core to the Amethyst Civilization took all of Li Yu's effort, let alone dealing with Return Star.

"You really have a solution?" Peyton suddenly lunged forward. Li Yu almost instinctively blasted him away, but fortunately managed to stop himself.

Peyton grabbed Li Yu tightly, his eyes burning with passion. "To be able to research a virus with that kind of evolutionary speed, and also research the corresponding antidote, as well as a pill that triggers Superpowers without side effects, it must be one of those top Laboratories."

"Is it the Abyss Institute? Or the Black Blood Laboratory?"

"Let me go in and take a look! Let me go in and take a look!"

Damn it! He was set up by this kid. He wasn't thinking about getting benefits from Return Star at all; he was just testing him!

"Calm down, calm down..." Li Yu helplessly pushed Peyton away. "I haven't even heard of the places you mentioned."

"Is it the Savior Ark?" Peyton tossed out another term.

"Huh?" Hearing this name full of plot holes, Li Yu retorted, "I'm even an Alternate Dimension Exploration Camp."

"Alternate Dimension Exploration Camp?" Hearing this, Peyton frowned deeply. "I've never heard of this name. Are they active in an Alternate Dimension? They're hidden so deeply. What's their main research direction?"

"Is it the evolution of lifeforms, the controllable awakening of Superpowers, or the rise and fall and origin of the Universe?"

Li Yu was completely speechless and continued to bluff. "We mainly research Alternate Dimension creatures. Have you ever seen a Glove that can wipe out half the creatures in the Universe with a Finger Snap? Have you ever seen a quantum creature that can control time?"

Peyton's eyes went blank. He held it in for a long time before finally uttering a single sentence: "Do Alternate Dimensions really exist?"

This kid actually seemed to believe it. Li Yu hadn't expected this, but thinking about it carefully, the items produced by the System indeed caused a massive shock to Peyton.

So it didn't seem strange that he believed in a place like the Alternate Dimension Camp.

He originally wanted to explain, but Li Yu suddenly thought, wasn't this a perfect opportunity? If he conned Peyton now, he could use the Alternate Dimension Camp to make him work for him in the future.

According to his estimation, there was a high probability that he would need to obtain the flesh and blood of powerful lifeforms from the System in the future to develop Gene Chains. Having Peyton research them wouldn't even count as deceiving Peyton.

After all, Peyton was a technical talent. He couldn't just forcefully suppress him with kicks and punches; he had to make him honestly work for him without thinking about so many unrealistic things.

Immediately, he said profoundly, "Of course Alternate Dimensions exist."

"Let me go in and take a look... let me go in and take a look..." Peyton fell into a fanatical state again, the desire to explore the unknown deeply engraved in his marrow.

"The Alternate Dimension Camp is extremely strict. I only became their product tester by chance." At this point, Li Yu's tone shifted:

"But you are the most genius person I have ever met. As long as you show your brilliance by my side, they will definitely notice you."

Looking at Li Yu, Peyton gradually calmed down. Suppressing the desire in his heart, he nodded heavily and said solemnly, "I understand."