Under the gazes of a few guards who wore black sunglasses and hid their vitality magnetic fields, the two of them got into a rusty elevator.
Against their expectations, the elevator did not go up. Instead, it went underground.
Clanging sounds reached their ears, and the elevator trembled a little. The journey did not seem to have an end. Meng Chao reckoned that they had gone at least one hundred meters underground.
The door opened, and outside the elevator was a dark, winding path.
Based on the mottled walls on both sides of the tunnel, it was part of the underground defense system that had been under Dragon City since Earth. It was as complicated as a maze.
It was designed to fend against nuclear weapons so that some of the lucky ones could stay inside for decades or even more than one hundred years. When the dust outside had settled, they could go out.
Hence, the place was crude, sturdy, and cold, militarized.
Under Lu Siya's lead, the two of them went through three doors that were more than half a meter thick. The area ahead of them finally lit up.
The iron walls on both sides of the tunnel were replaced by reinforced glass.
Through the glass, they could see that there were labs with monsters locked inside.
The first lab was a 3D maze that spun slowly. A small mouse that was as white as jade was moving about in the maze.
The maze was rather complicated.
Even humans might not be able to find a way out.
There were also researchers who controlled the bifurcations in the maze. They would randomly open and close the partitions in the maze to change the shape of the maze.
But the white mouse could remember each path. Every time, it would choose the correct path without hesitation, reach the end, and enjoy the delicious food.
The second lab was filled with a faint blue liquid.
Floating in it was a colorful octopus that kept changing its appearance like a chameleon.
It was doing Sudoku.
Meng Chao blinked and found that he was not mistaken.
The octopus was indeed using its tentacles to hold a marker that could be used underwater. It was focused on doing Sudoku on a huge whiteboard.
In the third lab was a monster that looked like the amalgamation of a sloth and an anteater.
It was curled up in a corner lazily and snoring in a rhythmic manner.
Meng Chao listened carefully and realized that it was not snoring. Instead, it was chanting in a strange tone. "The moon shines in front of my bed, and I suspect that it is frost on the ground. I look up at the moon, and when I lower my head, I think of my home."
Meng Chao looked at Lu Siya in shock.
"He's just parroting."
"It can't truly understand the meaning of the poem. It's just a simple stimulation from the nerve electricity. Speaking of which, imitation is also an important method of learning. Who knows whether it will have an epiphany after being stimulated endlessly and understand the beauty of the poem?"
There were no monsters in the fourth lab.
There was a lone human standing there, and he stared at Meng Chao with a gloomy expression.
Meng Chao was just about to ask Lu Siya what was going on and why she locked a human here.
He suddenly felt that the facial features of this "human" were a little strange. His eyebrows and eyes were very stiff, as if he was wearing a human skin mask.
The mask imitated Meng Chao's own appearance.
At this moment, the "human" suddenly blinked and became transparent. His entire body collapsed and turned into a ball of sticky paste.
It was trembling and sticky, like an extra large jelly.
Meng Chao could tell.
The monsters locked up here were not normal monsters.
Perhaps their fighting strength was far inferior to the Hell Beasts and Apocalyptic Beasts.
But they had outstanding intelligence or all sorts of strange abilities.
Meng Chao met Ye Xiaoxing again in an office at the end of the corridor.
The office was not very spacious to begin with, but it was now filled with materials that had been sealed for years. It looked like a warehouse that had just been ravaged by a tornado.
Ye Xiaoxing was curled up in a pile of old papers. He wore two sleeves, and he did not look like the powerful fighter he had when he fought against the Ultimate Sandworm. Instead, he looked like an old accountant who did not care about what was happening around him.
"Meng Chao, we meet again."
Ye Xiaoxing closed a notebook filled with monster information and removed his sleeves. He sighed in relief and smiled. "First of all, I'll tell you a piece of good news. We fully support Superstar taking over the rest of Spirit Creation Creatures' business, technology, and personnel.
"On the way here, Siya should have told you that we don't want this matter to blow up endlessly and cause a new round of internal conflict between the biochemical modification faction and runic symbol machines faction.
"More importantly, your fight under Raging Waves and your persistent investigation into the case of the murderous pets in Blessed Paradise have convinced us that you're a loyal warrior who fights for Dragon City and human civilization.
"Unfortunately, the explosion of the Red Radiance Jade mine has destroyed most of the traces of you, Siya, and Qin Hu fighting underground. Besides, the White Spirit's case is still in the confidential investigation stage, so we can't reveal the entire truth to all the citizens and give you the glory you deserve.
"But we won't let heroes suffer losses either. We're more than happy to see a company like Superstar, which is controlled by heroes, grow stronger and become a pillar of support for Dragon City.
"You don't have to worry about whether Spirit Creation Creatures will take over because you don't have any talent in business, and you're busy cultivating and fighting. With the abnormal beast research department protecting you, I believe that Xie Xiaolei, who has already made a mistake once and is a smart person who has his weakness in our hands, will definitely not seek his own destruction."
Meng Chao's mind raced.
The abnormal beast research department knew that regardless of whether they were investigating the White Spirit or Gao Ye, they would definitely be related to the person in question. Hence, the abnormal beast research department decided to treat Spirit Creation Creatures as a huge piece of cake and send it to its mouth so that it would be full of benefits. It would also be able to do its best during the investigation.
In Meng Chao's memories from his previous life …
Even though the abnormal beast research department was not very big right now, it was not a big organization.
However, it would soon expand rapidly and become an organization with real power that could compete with the Adjudicator Court. In some fields, it would even be able to cover the sky with one hand.
Meng Chao wanted nothing more than to be able to tie himself to this sort of golden coattail.
He nodded and said readily, "Thank you, Captain Ye."
Ye Xiaoxing waved his hand and said with a grin, "You're not an official member of the abnormal beast research department, so you don't have to call me captain. It's like this. The abnormal beast research department has formed a temporary group to target the White Spirit and Gao Ye's cases. They've also invited some experts and powerful fighters from society to research them. I'll be in charge for the time being. You can call me Old Ye or Captain Ye.
"Honestly, Meng Chao, you've really given me a difficult problem. You have to understand that you usually have to receive more than half a year of intensive training in the abnormal beast research department and pass multiple tests before you have the right to enter this place.
"But you're in close contact with Lin Chuan, the White Spirit, and Gao Ye. Even after Gao Ye turned into the Sandworm Professor, he sent his experiment logs to you, so you had to participate.
"I believe in your loyalty to Dragon City, but I have to give you a reminder. What you'll come into contact with next will be core secrets of the highest level. You'll also include countless past events that have been sealed in the dark era. If any of it gets out, it might threaten Dragon City's safety and cause countless innocent people to die.
"So, you can fail, you can quit, and you can even use the fiercest opinions to oppose us, but you can't easily leak the secrets. Do you accept this?"
"Of course," Meng Chao said.
"I know the gravity of the situation. I won't easily leak the secrets."
After all, who knew more secrets than him in all of Dragon City?
"Alright, then let me introduce the abnormal beast research department to you. I believe that you already know from Siya that we're a newly formed organization that specializes in dealing with highly intelligent monsters. But you must have a lot of questions. I will answer them as long as it's within the scope of my authority."
Ye Xiaoxing paused for a moment before he said, "Meng Chao, do you think that the Monster War will end just like that?"
Meng Chao was a little stunned, and he wanted to laugh.
Anyone else, even the strategists with the greatest foresight would find it hard to answer this question.
But he was the only one who knew the correct answer.
"It won't."
Meng Chao shook his head slowly. "Even though we managed to get rid of the Apocalyptic Beasts in Raging Waves through the northern offense and a large group of superhumans' fighting strength increased, the monsters around Dragon City might not be able to launch organized and large-scale attacks against us.
"But I don't think that Dragon City will be able to relax and wait for the final victory to fall from the sky."
Ye Xiaoxing exchanged a glance with Lu Siya in slight surprise. He did not expect that Meng Chao would be so calm, and he could not help but ask curiously, "Why do you say that?"
Meng Chao smiled faintly and said, "It's simple. If the Monster War could be won so easily, there would be no need for us to form the abnormal beast research department.
"I saw a lot of abnormal beasts on my way here. Their fighting strength is nothing special. In fact, they can't even compare to Nightmarish Beasts, but they have great intelligence and the ability to pretend to be humans.
"This is what I'm thinking. Monsters without a tight social organization are bound to not be the humans' opponents in a head-on battle. After all, it's impossible for their bodies to grow endlessly. No matter how strong their bodies are, they can't withstand one hit from Huge Dragon's Might Cannon.
"But Dragon City is small, and it's densely populated. It's filled with skyscrapers, so it's actually a very vulnerable target. It's very easy for it to suffer endless terrorist attacks.
"If there's a monster with intelligence comparable to humans and a deep understanding of human civilization's strengths and weaknesses, then it can control or imitate humans, it can sneak into our side without us noticing and detonate bombs, create earthquakes, assassinate important officials, specialists, and scholars. It can do anything to throw Dragon City's order into chaos.
"This sort of fighting strategy might not be able to achieve victory in one go, but it can create chaos and panic at the highest level. It will cause Dragon City to continuously lose blood.
"Besides, as long as it's smart enough, it can lurk in places like Golden Tooth Lair and use thousands of innocent citizens as shields and hostages. It'll be very difficult for us to find it. Even if we can accurately locate it, the cost of capturing or killing it will be so high that we can't bear it.
"As long as there are a lot of these highly intelligent monsters, even if we win the Monster War in the end, we might end up suffering heavy losses. It'll be very difficult for us to go on the journey of colonizing the Other World in our best condition.
"In other words, the Monster War has entered its second half, and we're facing a brand new war. If we're the slightest bit careless, we'll run the risk of losing everything!"
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