Chapter 692
Chapter 692 - 678: Limit
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7 min read
"...Slime, huh? It’s quite a subtle answer."
Unlike most people’s fantasy of exotic realm exploration, with its thrilling individual adventures and solo killing sprees, the reality of "Exotic Realm exploration" is not something that can be accomplished by an individual from the start.
Individuals have limited abilities and limited exposure to "surfaces." In the large-scale development of exotic realms, even the strongest of decree peaks can only serve as powerful combatants at best.
Of course, you can also break the rules and take things by force... but in a law-abiding society, that would only mean cutting off your own escape route. What’s worse is that in many relatively primitive societies, you wouldn’t even know how to plunder, let alone digest what you’ve taken.
Reality is not like a game where monsters drop items upon defeat. Even with raw materials, professional skills are needed for identification, and accumulating knowledge in identifying treasures is the highest requirement. It is quite common for ordinary battle-professionals to leave treasure mountains empty-handed.
Doing tasks for the local NPCs and getting help from others? Consider the chaotic era without order, and how outsiders were swindled and deceived by the locals. Being deceived is the norm, and being able to save your life from a tough situation is quite impressive... Sometimes, professional negotiators, intelligence agents, politicians, and social scientists are more valuable than high-level researchers.
"...If there aren’t any experts here in this field, can we at least study these slimes? We have professional Beast Tamers on our team who have already tamed a large number of local beasts..."
In a team, the voices of the powerful matter the most. In a power composed of scattered teams, the final say always goes to the more potent, performance-oriented, and successful members.
In the internal small conference, Lu Ping’an spoke first, requesting the management rights to the mines and slimes.
Lu Ping’an’s words were a bit excessive, as everyone knew how valuable the slimes were at this point. However, considering the "functionality"... it seems only Lu Ping’an’s team could study them now, so giving them the management rights seemed reasonable.
"By the way, can you lend a hand? We need more materials for the radio tower. Considering the coverage requirements, the equipment here might not be enough..."
Most of it was actually enough, but these "toys" were the results of the Aus people’s years of research and could operate for a long time. Dismantling them into parts seemed uneconomical.
"...If you could, please use the trucks here to bring back some scrap metal from the camp. There should be plenty of damaged vehicles and electronic facilities over there..."
With the radio tower and mining slimes, the research team already had the technology, and thus naturally had the projects. The "subsidiary" of the group with major projects would naturally have a stronger voice.
At this point, it was Lu Ping’an’s turn to issue orders as the "helmsman" of the major projects.
With the technology and team at his disposal, he held even greater sway than Wang Xier, the nominal leader, when the entire group had to rally behind his projects.
So, under everyone’s watchful eyes, Lu Ping’an used the banner of "consolidating research" to make the crucial slimes disappear cleanly in front of everyone.
As a result, if others don’t want to leave empty-handed, they need to ensure the safety of Lu Ping’an and even his entire team... Just by virtue of their "functionality," Lu Ping’an gradually gained control of the team’s discourse.
In this way, even though their overall strength was still relatively weak, Lu Ping’an and his party no longer had to worry about being used as cannon fodder because they were considered outsiders.
Lu Ping’an himself wasn’t particularly interested in controlling the discourse... But such control, if not wielded by him, would be handed to someone else. When someone wanted you to act as cannon fodder, would you go or not? If not, wouldn’t you inadvertently become a rejected member of the large team?
These seemingly insignificant tactics could sometimes carry the weight of life and demand the steep price of blood.
At this point, Lu Ping’an and his team once again projected their "scholarly" image, successfully positioning their team as a functional, logistical group and naturally gaining the "protection" of armed forces.
This does not prevent him from wielding his combat abilities; on the contrary, being willing to help is a plus.
Of course, this still made some other members of the team a bit uncomfortable, but Lu Ping’an didn’t mind. After all, he and Chris were both quite interested in these slimes.
"Slimes are not an individual species among demons, but rather a large category, similar to mammals. Ninety-nine percent of ’slimes’ are actually artificially created lifeforms, consisting of countless single cells bonded together like slime molds in nature... The earliest demonized slimes were created from demonized mucor culture mediums."
Damao was quite interested in this because it was the product of several years of research by a Rule-level Healer team.
Although these small creatures might seem simple, the technical content and challenges involved require years of grinding, repeated trial and error, and a step-by-step process of cellular cultivation. Hard work is inevitable...
"...After taking over, we’ll start directly from their end-point, which means we have a high likelihood of producing results."
Some people might have forgotten, but Damao was not only a primary Beast Tamer but also a top-notch Healer. This combination of two fields made such creations particularly valuable to her... Especially since this creation seemed to be the key to unlocking the treasure of the "Ancient God Bones."
In Damao’s view, there was still potential to be unearthed in these creations, and the previous team had already helped overcome the most basic and time-consuming initial work.
Lu Ping’an was interested in these things, not because of academics, but because both Little Flame and Zhi Xi instinctively craved the "bones" before them.
Their biological instincts told them that these things were "treasures" that offered the possibility of further evolution... but neither of them could do anything with them, not even chipping off a bit of bone powder.
"If they were made into soy sauce ribs, it would probably taste delicious." Zhi Xi looked at the huge bones with a face full of longing and regret.
Little Flame was even more straightforward, staring at the bones, occasionally gnawing a bite or two, only to lose its teeth... Even though they could regenerate, this was likely an uncontrollable instinct.
It was evident that these bones were exceptionally high-level "biomaterials," but their extraction was impossible through normal means.
Lu Ping’an doubted whether he could fully "digest" the bones, even if he managed to break a small piece off with a Rule-level mace.
"Slimes could do it..." Damao, however, gave an unexpected answer.
"Slimes are the common name for ’single-celled aggregates of indefinite form’ in the Beast Tamer industry, often the product of individual cell types being slime mold-ied and linked in a group consciousness. They share the same origin as those divine bones, and can draw out the residual somatic cells within them through their natural ’linked’ nature, eventually forming crystals. But this is actually wasteful..."
As a former Quasi-God level Healer and Beast Tamer, Damao had her own ideas for solving the problem just by quickly examining the available data and findings.
"...Using them as carriers and mediums to harness the power of the divine bones is the more promising answer. Unfortunately, reaching the ’Bone Slimes’ stage should be the limit for that eighth-tier Healer... Why not try controlling the slimes that can control divine bones instead? That’s the problem-solving approach for Beast Tamers and Healers... No, Life-professionals."
— End of Chapter 692 —