The blue and white Giant Dragon flew over the city. The protective barrier glowed faintly under the night sky, becoming one of the countless streams of light in the Tarlonde metropolis. Gwen stood between Melita's shoulder blades and looked at the huge steel structure not far away, which was used to support some kind of sky garden. He could not help but ask, "Where are we going?"
Melita's low voice came from the front. "We are starting from the starting point of a Giant Dragon — a centralized incubation center."
"Incubation …" Gwen was stunned. He felt that he had heard a term that he had never thought of before. "Incubation center?"
"You can also call it an incubation factory, or a dragon egg incubator. These are more common names," Melita said casually. At the same time, she began to descend. "Do you see the pillar-like facility in front? That's Agundor's incubation factory. Stand firm, we are about to land. "
Gwen subconsciously adjusted his standing posture, and at the same time, his eyes involuntarily fell on the front. He had seen the huge 'factory'. It was like a huge pillar, with numerous gas-canister-like ancillary facilities, a large number of pipes, and support beams clustered around a cylindrical body. There were also lights extending from the waist, outlining a dozen light belts in the air to guide the landing.
Gwen also saw a circle of landing platforms in the middle of the huge facility. Many of the platforms had Giant Dragon taking off and landing. The occupied platforms were surrounded by red lights, and the vacant platforms were marked by eye-catching white halos. Melita and Noretta, who was flying together not far away, were approaching one of the vacant platforms.
But just as Melita was about to descend, a gust of wind suddenly came from another direction, and then a black Giant Dragon flew from the night sky and rushed in the direction of the platform that Melita had just chosen. There was a roar and anxious roar in the night sky. "I'm very sorry! The dragon egg that I claimed has hatched in advance! "
"Snatch your * ss … I wish your baby be safe!" Melita, whose position was snatched, was just about to curse when she heard the roar from the other side. Then she suddenly flapped her wings, adjusted her direction, and said to Gwen a little awkwardly, "I'm sorry to show you a less civilized side … Please understand, it's not easy to get an incubation permit these years. That's just an anxious father."
Gwen was speechless.
He seemed to be numb to all the unexpected things about Tarlonde. He was even too lazy to complain.
After this little twist, Melita and Noretta finally found an idle landing platform. The two Giant Dragons landed smoothly on two adjacent platforms. Before they landed, the lights around the platforms had turned red, and the entire platform was covered by a layer of translucent barrier after they landed. It was not until Gwen, Amber, and Veronica jumped off Melita and Noretta's back respectively, and the two Giant Dragons also turned into human form and left the platform area that the platform's "temporary control" system switched back to idle mode. All of this seemed to be automatic.
This should be Tarlonde's unique "traffic control system", which was a little eye-opening.
In front of a door that led to the interior of the incubation factory, Noretta, in a white dress, led Amber and Veronica to Gwen and Melita. Then Amber looked up at the door, which was much more magnificent than the city gate. "Wow …"
Veronica, on the other hand, looked at the deep and long corridor behind the door, at the cold steel, flashing lights, and lifeless polymer windows and conduits. After a long time, she whispered to herself, "I never thought … dragons were born in such a place … I thought even if it was not a nest in a hot spring, it should at least be by its parents' side …"
"It was like that a long, long time ago," Noretta, who was in human form, said softly. "It was really a long, long time ago …"
"I've got the access. Omega will open the gate on the route. You can just follow me in." Melita looked at Gwen and the rest. "After you go in, don't touch anything you don't know. Other than that, there are no other requirements. The dragon eggs are closely guarded, and normal visits will not affect the incubation."
Gwen and the rest nodded. Then, under the lead of Melita and Noretta, they crossed the wide gate and entered the incubation factory.
What Gwen saw next was exactly the description of the facility — a factory, a factory used to incubate dragon eggs.
They entered the factory through a bridge suspended high in the air. One end of the bridge was fixed to the outer wall of the factory, which was a thick metal shell with flowing lights and busy machines running around. The other end of the bridge was connected to a 'standpipe' at the core of the factory. After entering the standpipe, Melita began to introduce the various facilities along the way to Gwen. After a while, Gwen saw the dragon eggs in the incubation state —
They were placed individually in a large transparent 'greenhouse'. The shape of the greenhouse was like a slightly distorted ellipsoidal pressure chamber. The dragon eggs were placed on a soft tray in the chamber. They were about one meter in diameter and had a pale yellow shell with black or brown spots. Bright lights shone on them from many directions. There were also mechanical probes of unknown purpose that occasionally dropped down to illuminate and inspect the surface of the dragon eggs. The entire 'greenhouse' was placed on a circular metal platform. The platform's base was lit up and connected to each other by pipes.
Hundreds, or even thousands of incubation devices were neatly arranged on both sides of the circular corridor. Many pipes hung from the ceiling, connecting to the 'integrated ports' behind the incubation devices. They seemed to be used to supply energy, or perhaps they were just for data collection. Gwen looked up and tried to find the place where the pipes converged or came from, but he could only see a vague darkness. The dome of the incubation factory was extremely high, and the ceiling was dim. The pipes eventually converged into the depths of the darkness as if there was a dark abyss in the sky, swallowing all the gazes.
He retracted his gaze and looked again at the neatly arranged incubation devices like a production line. A dragon egg was lying quietly in the incubation pod closest to him, being carefully cared for by the machines and growing strictly according to the schedule.
Amber had also come to the front of the incubation device. She stared at the scene in front of her and was unusually quiet. She was no longer laughing or panicking.
"So this is how newborn Dragons are born," Veronica said softly. "What kind of development does it take to walk on this path?"
"There are many reasons why Tarlonde became what he is today, and the incubation factory is just one of them. And … the incubation factory is just an ancient technology for us." Melita shook her head and said slowly.
Noretta took over the topic. "You should have heard of a saying — the more powerful a creature is, the harder it is to reproduce. This is the 'balance' imposed on all living beings by the law of nature. As the most powerful individual among the mortal species, the difficulty of reproduction for the dragon race is even more extreme …"
"There is such a saying." Gwen nodded. "And it's not only the bards and playwrights who said so, but also the experts and scholars. Although they can't study the Dragons' samples, most creatures in nature follow this law."
"That's right, this rule is correct. At least, it's correct for us dragons. Dragons have poor reproductive ability, and the gestation period is long and difficult to hatch. But this is only limited to natural conditions. "Melita's mouth curled up." So, we have the technology of incubation factories and a huge supporting industry a long time ago. We use biochemical technology to collect and catalyze the 'green eggs', and use biomass factories to mass produce blank dragon eggs. We use genetic engineering to edit the genetic factors of parents, or the genetic factors of single father and single mother, and use factories to hatch them in batches. These technologies are very effective.
"Technology can change a lot of things.
"Dragons have difficulty in reproduction and are few in number? This is just another misunderstanding. In fact, thousands of years ago, we began to actively control our population. Otherwise … how could Tarlonde accommodate such a large number of people? "
As Melita spoke unhurriedly, Gawain was gradually dumbfounded.
This finally exceeded his imagination.
The mysterious and ancient image of the "Giant Dragon Race" at the top of the magical and fantasy world in his mind had been shattered multiple times today. And now, it finally fell apart, collapsing into a cold wreckage.
But he suspected that the wreckage was far from the limit of collapse. It would continue to collapse until it saw the real "Tarlonde," the "Cradle of Eternity" under the protection of the gods.
And beside him, Melita continued to explain.
"Deeper beneath our feet is the sorting center and preprocessing center of the incubation factory. The dragon eggs transported from the 'mother factory' are sorted and eliminated there. The defective eggs are destroyed, and only the healthy dragon eggs with potential are sent to the Life Stasis Workshop. They will temporarily stop developing there until a Giant Dragon that has obtained the incubation permit comes here and claims one of them …
"The adopters of the dragon eggs could be a pair of parents, or it could be a single father or mother. He, she, or they have to apply and prepare in advance. Other than a bunch of forms and a long review period, the claimant has to submit their genetic factors. This genetic factor will be injected into the blank dragon egg and used to synthesize the embryo, becoming his, her, or their real 'child.' And the completed embryo will be sent here … to this incubation workshop.
"The machines will take care of these little ones that are still in their shells. The incubator is as safe and warm as the nest carefully built by the Giant Dragon parents in ancient times. Most of the work here is done by the machines, and the overall controller is Omega. That is why we only saw a few 'staff members' along the way. The main task of those 'staff members' is to monitor the status of the machines and receive the new parents who claim the dragon eggs.
"This is a boring job that doesn't require much skill, but it is also one of the few real jobs in Tarlonde. If you can get a job in the incubation factory, it is equivalent to entering the 'Upper Tarlonde.'"
Gwen listened to Melita's explanation in silence. And at that moment, an incubation device near them suddenly hummed and flickered.
Many of the detectors that were patrolling nearby immediately moved closer. Some of the mechanical arms that moved along the tracks came to the corresponding incubator. Gawain was just about to ask what was going on when Melita took the initiative to explain as she walked over. "Quick, come here! It's hatched! We are just in time for a little one to hatch! "
Gwen quickened his pace when he heard that. He, Amber, and Veronica quickly came to the incubation device that was humming and flashing. And almost at the same time, the dragon egg that was lying quietly in the polymer 'greenhouse' began to sway slightly.
Under the unblinking gaze of Gawain and the others, they saw a crack suddenly appear on the surface of the dragon egg. Then, the crack rapidly expanded, and a broken eggshell fell off. The baby dragon was stronger than Gawain had imagined. The whole process of breaking out of the egg did not take long. In just a few seconds, the seemingly sturdy eggshell was completely broken, and a gray, unprepossessing "little" guy staggered out of the egg.
It was a baby dragon, and it did not even have scales on its body. They could not tell its specific species, and could not tell its gender. From Gwen's perspective, he even thought that the baby dragon was a little … ugly, like a huge, featherless turkey. But in the eyes of the Dragons, the baby dragon was probably quite cute. Melita and Noretta's eyes were shining as they looked at the newly hatched baby dragon with a happy smile on their faces.
Amber was finally surprised again. She exclaimed and was about to ask something, but suddenly there was another movement in the 'incubator'. Many small mechanical hands reached into the cabin from above and below and grabbed the newly hatched baby dragon in an extremely agile and fast way. The baby dragon just wanted to struggle, but it stopped moving as if it was quickly anesthetized by something.
Then Gwen saw that the mechanical hands began to move quickly. They seemed to have opened a small opening at the back of the baby dragon's head where the spine was connected, and then some kind of shimmering thing, which was only the size of a human fingertip, was implanted in it. Then a few other mechanical hands moved forward and injected something into the baby dragon. That might be the 'booster' that Melita often mentioned. After the injection, other devices entered the cabin, collected the baby dragon's skin fragments, blood samples, and quickly scanned it …
All of this happened so fast that it was dazzling.
Before Gwen could react, all of this was over. He blinked, and then heard a mechanical voice broadcast. He could not understand the broadcast, but soon he heard Melita whispering beside him.
She was whispering to translate the broadcast in the factory:
"Baby Dragon No. 1335, healthy. Average intelligence potential, expected adaptability to implants: X, S, EN and general implants. There are no positions available for assignment at the moment. Recommended — ordinary citizens in Downtown. "
The mechanical hands and probes retreated.
The baby dragon in the incubator woke up.
He/she opened his/her eyes curiously, as if observing the world in amazement. He/she used his/her wings and tender limbs to get up shakily. Then, he/she finally noticed a few figures standing outside.
The little guy cried out cheerfully.
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