The safety lock lasted eight hours. Now, there were only two hours left. No matter what, Li Kaihao felt he must go check on them. First, due to Lei Zhongyuanâs plea and the fact that Xiang Ning was indeed a prodigy. The matter required careful handling.
Second, investigations showed that Alia was a refugee who had started working with Dong Qianyi of the Twelve Great Prodigies right after she entered Marsh City. She was the one that conducted thorough research on the berserk factor from the Octoviolet Silversnake, even formulating the antidote. Both of them were rare prodigies!
There were already more than ten soldiers surrounding the front of the research laboratory. When they saw Li Kaihao, they straightened their backs and saluted. He returned the salute and said, âYou all wait in the corridor, Iâll deal with this.â
âYes, sir!â The soldiers left to wait in the hallway.
Li Kaihao stepped forward and placed his hand on the screen, which scanned his palm. The system informed him that the door couldnât be opened yet, which was no surprise. However, he tapped on a phone symbol on the side.
Within the lab, a ringtone sounded from the request for communication. Xiang Ning and Alia looked at each other.
âAnswer call.â In the end, Alia made the decision.
âIâm Li Kaihao, commander of Fortress Three. I wish to talk to you two. Donât worry, Iâm alone.â He thought he would have to wait a while, but he didnât expect the door to open immediately. Li Kaihao was surprised, but hurried in to see Xiang Ning in a soldierâs uniform and an exhausted Alia. He didnât speak, surveying the entire room. He was looking for the beast core to find out what they were doing with it.
When he saw the metal tube standing within a sterile glass enclosure, his chest tightened. His gut told him the beast core was inside, but the tube looked like a storage compartment for a weapon. Did they really.... âYou two made a bioweapon?â He trembled.
âNo,â Xiang Ning blurted without thinking.
Li Kaihao smiled. âXiang Ning, youâre sixteen. You broke into a military facility, hurt a soldier, and stole a valuable item. Do you know how long youâll be locked up for those crimes?â
âI bled for the Federation, and Iâve made many contributions to the Federation.â Xiang Ning looked determined, as if he had no fear of authority, like Li Kaihao had forced him into a corner.
Alia stood next to him and covered her mouth, laughing. When she saw Li Kaihao entering alone, she wasnât worried, because if he really wanted Xiang Ning arrested, it would have been a group of soldiers bursting in to capture him instead.
âAlright, alright. You two ought to tell me what the hell youâre doing, alright?â Li Kaihao suddenly realized he couldnât do anything with them. The two people standing in front of him had indeed made major contributions to the Federation. Each of them was equivalent to five people. That didnât mean they were powerful, being able to fight many people at once. Instead, they possessed great minds that helped advance humanity.
Take Alia, for instance. She obviously wasnât able to fight as well as those seasoned veterans on the battlefield. In a stampede, a martial artist could kill ten, or even a hundred beasts. However, she was the one that invented the antidote to the berserk factor. How many beasts had she dealt with with that one invention? Not just a hundred, thatâs for sure!
Furthermore, one could only imagine the value Xiang Ning had created with his participation in dimensional storage research. They could be used by civilians, industries and the military; that was the magnificence of such a cutting-edge invention.
âI want to go train myself.â Xiang Ning solemnly said. He didnât think he was lying. If he went out looking for Fang Rou, he would definitely encounter many beasts that would greatly advance his cultivation and earn him many Fury Points. Calling it training wasnât wrong.
âTrain all you want, whyâd you have to make a bioweapon for it? And you broke in without telling us.â Li Kaihao widened his eyes. While he couldnât do anything to the kid, he could scare him a little.
âDid I? No, I didnât. Thatâs not true. Miss Alia was the one who brought me in. How could you say I broke in?â Xiang Ning would deny every accusation to the end.
âHehe, do you think Iâm blind?â Then, he played a video. Xiang Ning watched himself knock a soldier out without a single expression. At that moment, he had activated Disguise so he was already the king of actors. Li Kaihao wouldnât be able to tell!
âNo, I think thereâs a problem with the cameras. Thatâs not me. Iâm a good student with excellent academic results. You can check if you donât believe me. I, Xiang Ning, would never do such a thing.â Xiang Ning waved, denying it. What choice did he have? If he admitted to anything, he would be sent to jail for years! What would his sister do without him?
Li Kaihao wasnât the only one who felt his mouth twitch. Even Aliaâs face twitched. This brat was shameless! Even a tier nine Beast King would surrender in the face of such thick skin.
Li Kaihao didnât know what to do with Xiang Ning. Youâre the prodigy, so youâre the boss. Everything you say is right. I canât do anything even if you admitted to it.
Many people would say Xiang Ning was no boss... but he was a major contributor to the invention of dimensional space storage technology. So if he wasnât a boss, who was?
âFine, fine, fine. I donât care if you want to go out and train, but youâve got to leave that here.â Li Kaihao pointed at the metal tube.
âMr. Commander, I think you wonât believe us if we say anything else, so Iâll tell you this: other than Xiang Ning, no one can control the bioweapon.â There was no point in fabricating more lies, so Alia spoke up.
âHuh?â
âYou should know that in order for a bioweapon to function, we must insert the userâs DNA during or after the creation process. Other people might be attacked if they tried using it.â It was called a bioweapon because it was alive. Take it as a guard dog for someoneâs house. Would it growl at its own owner, or at a stranger?
Xiang Ning looked at Li Kaihao, struggling to make out the words. âIâll exchange the Kaiser Aurumsaurâs carcass for this, alright? Making a bioweapon with a beast core is very difficult, we were just lucky.â
Fury Points +66
Li Kaihao felt like he might not be able to hold back any longer. What the hell?! Youâre acting like YOUâRE the one losing out on this deal. When we first asked you to pick, you picked the carcass!
Since Li Kaihao was still leaking hostility, Xiang Ning thought for a moment. This was the commander of Fortress Three after all, and Li Kaihao didnât trouble him despite all that had happened. âAlright, the next time I get a beast core, Iâll give it to you.â
Fury Points +111
Doge & Chacha's Thoughts
he really stole a weapon from a gov facility asdfhjksjk but it's pretty funny he was like 'uh well its bluetooth is paired permanently to me so like ya wat r you gon do bout it' -doge