Chapter 322: Section 321 - Discovery Award
Knock, knock, knock! Knock, knock, knock!
The door of the office of the general manager at the Aircrew Base resonated with the urgent sound of knocking, exerted forcefully.
"Come in!"
Hanna Gagel, who was reviewing the company's financial statements, paused her work and looked toward the door.
Just who was the reckless one who, without making an appointment, came knocking so anxiously.
"Report, report, I'm the biological group's Ruan, Ruan Er Song!"
A biological researcher, holding a tablet and a stack of paper documents, took a deep breath outside the door before striding in.
Hanna Gagel asked, puzzled, "What's the matter?"
She generally limited her communications with the technical staff of the biological group to digital work reports. The two biological researchers of the Aircrew Base usually buried themselves in the laboratory doing their assigned tasks, seldom coming out in their free time, only making a fleeting appearance when needed, and thus they weren't very conspicuous.
"Discovered, discovered something important."
Despite being mentally prepared, Ruan Er Song immediately became nervous upon seeing his one-eyed boss.
"Sit down first, take it slow," she said.
Hanna Gagel pointed to the chair in front of the large desk and then tidied up the financial documents.
Controlling a company, the most important aspects were money and people, i.e., finance and human resources. For other matters, she delegated authority to the duty managers and team leaders of various units. The responsibility of a boss wasn't to micromanage but to formulate strategies and oversee the processes. Being overly busy indicated that there was a problem with corporate operations.
"Yes, yes, yes!"
Ruan Er Song quickly came forward and sat down, first passing over the paper documents.
Paper products could not produce themselves and entirely depended on external supplies; only important documents would be specially printed, while other documents were generally transmitted electronically.
"Hmm! A chip?"
Picking up the paper document, Hanna Gagel saw a complex circuit diagram at first glance and then looked at the biological researcher across from her, exclaiming, "It's a biological chip!"
Biological chip technology was primarily used for live implantation. Many magical beasts living in human society had specific biological chips implanted in them, or, like Pure Light Sparrow Xiao Jiu, wore an external biological recognition device (leg ring) for not only positioning but also identity verification.
Besides, some special or precious animals and plants also had biological chips implanted for growth protection and identity verification to avoid forgery.
To discover a biological chip inside a mutant killed in a desolate wilderness might spark a significant uproar.
To breed mutants, that mysterious "Water Bear" organization had even gone to this extent.
It was unknown whether the source of the biological chip could be found because, across the entire Blue Star, only a few industry giants and laboratories had the capability to manufacture such specialized chips—it wasn't something any makeshift workshop could produce.
However, according to Hanna Gagel's guess, the likelihood of tracing back to the source via connections was minimal; the "Water Bear" organization was highly secretive and tightly secured, leaving no clues on the biological chips.
After reviewing the paper documents in hand and having Ruan Er Song explain the related technological analysis on the tablet, she then said, "Organize the report and samples properly, I'll report this to the Joint Defense Committee."
At this moment, the Blue Star Global United Defense Committee was the only body capable of handling this new discovery; it was inappropriate for Jiu Defense to keep the information for selling intelligence.
Ruan Er Song excitedly said, "No, no problem!"
Having said that, he bolted, charging toward the laboratory. He had a premonition that this time, his bonus payout was going to be substantial.
The sooner he completed the report, the sooner he could get his bonus.
This time, it was all thanks to "Rookie" Chen Fei's sharp eyes for discovering the biological chip within the flesh; otherwise, it would have almost ended up in the belly of a wolf, eventually turning into wolf excrement, leaving nothing behind.
Of course, the bonus definitely included a share for Chen Fei, the discoverer, netting him an unforeseen fortune.
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Just as Boss Hanna picked up the financial statements again, Chen Fei was standing at the mouth of Rabbit Valley, sighing at the sight of the heavily torn open steel wire net wall.
All the hard work, completely washed down the drain.
No need to guess, it definitely was the doing of those mutants.
These fierce mutant creatures, mostly carnivorous, naturally targeted valleys like this one, which harbored a large number of rabbits.
Even Teacher Shen Fei's mountain area primary school had suffered furious attacks from the mutants, let alone the defenseless Rabbit Valley.
He ran his hand along the fragmented wire mesh wall, activated the "Metal Shaping" skill, and the broken wires reconnected with each other, quickly returning to their original form.
Fortunately, the mutants did not consume metal; the damage to the wire mesh wall was merely physical and not a single ounce was missing, making restoration not at all difficult.
"Howl!~"
A long wolf howl came from a distance.
About a dozen wolves trotted along the ridge.
Looking at their necks, they all wore collars.
The gray wolves intimately nuzzled Chen Fei's shins, nearly licking his shoes.
He hadn't expected these creatures to have survived, not being devoured by the savage mutants.
It appeared that the wolf pack's ability to endure the harsh conditions of the Xingdu Kush Mountain Area and maintain their numbers indicated they were quite capable.
A pat on the head was all it took to send one wolf scurrying away.
After all, wolves are not dogs; they aren't clingy. These gray wolves had come merely out of respect for Chen Fei, the current Wolf King, to greet him and show closeness and obedience before swiftly running off without looking back.
Past the wire mesh wall and into Rabbit Valley, the ground was riddled with holes, here and there, posing a real risk of twisting an ankle if one wasn't careful.
A few short-eared rabbits cautiously peeked out of their burrows, bringing Chen Fei a pleasant surprise.
Rabbit Valley seemed not as badly affected as he had feared. The mutant tide had not wiped out all the rabbits; quite a number had evidently eluded capture, and their numbers seemed substantial.
Given the rabbits' breeding capabilities, just a pair of Adam and Eve rabbits would soon populate the entire valley with rabbits. Explore more stories with My Virtual Library Empire
The sound of weathered rocks rolling down a steep cliff reached him; looking in the direction of the noise, he saw several rock goats standing on narrow footholds like acrobats, uncertain whether they wanted to enter the valley or were on their way out.
With their climbing abilities, rock goats indeed could evade most mutants, which could only envy their skill and feel powerless.
After walking around the valley, Chen Fei estimated he saw about a hundred rabbits, including numerous young ones. However, not a single bird, such as wild chickens, had survived.
The terrible destruction wrought by the mutants was still evident.
"I need to buy rabbits from Teacher Shen's students again."
To reach the desired rabbit population in the valley, Chen Fei would have to resort to the old method of manually introducing rabbits, which naturally meant spending money for convenience.
If he didn't do this, relying solely on the current population to naturally multiply would take at least half a year to return to its original state.
He visited a local school at the mountain area, where he left five thousand Star Yuan in cash with Teacher Shen to purchase five thousand live small animals, primarily rabbits.
The amount destined for the purchase might seem modest, but for the local Patan people, who had just survived a nightmarish brush with mutant calamity and generally had very meager annual incomes, this sum was undoubtedly a timely rain, enough to alleviate their dire economic straits significantly.
Teacher Shen Fei undoubtedly welcomed this, and the students cheered. The money divided among each one was substantial.
Chen likely gained even more favor from the locals, making him feel that his bitterly earned role was timely indeed.
The Blue Star Global United Defense Committee's assessment of Chen Fei was spot on; what kind of lunatic fences off an entire valley to raise rabbits was beyond understanding.
Compared to the speechless extent of investing resources to forcibly cultivate a Pure Light Sparrow to Third Rank Human Order, raising rabbits seemed almost trivial.
The Blue Star Global United Defense Committee responded swiftly. On the tenth day after receiving the biological chip sample and report submitted by Jiu Defense Company, a mid-sized Sky Patrol Ship belonging to the committee arrived at Aircrew Base 911, bringing the reward requested by Hanna Gagel to extend and modernize the main runway according to Third-Level standards.
The original 1500-meter runway was extended to 2000 meters, and new upgrade components for the Magnetic Catcher were included. This main runway not only retained magnetic arresting capabilities but also gained magnetic launch capabilities. Through technical means, its effectiveness was enhanced to match a 4000-meter runway, allowing even advanced jets to land and take off smoothly. If the runway's load-bearing capacity could be further strengthened, even large transport planes would have no issues.
Soon after reporting to Boss Hana, the Earth Element User accompanying her began working.
Extending over thirty more meters at the end of the main runway was a steep slope. Working together, two High-Rank Earth Element magicians gathered thousands of tons of soil and rock from the surroundings. They forcibly built a robust and thick mountain ridge as the necessary foundation for the runway extension.
Pairs of force field generators were erected symmetrically alongside the runway, each pair spaced about 150 meters apart. The rectangular force field projected from each pair intersected precisely above the runway's width, with fifteen pairs distributed over approximately 1800 meters of the runway.
Although Hanna Gagel converted all the rewards this time to upgrades for the landing runway at Aircrew Base 911, there was no reduction in rewards for the involved personnel.
Not only did Chen Fei and the two Biological Researchers receive bonuses, but Squad Leader Yamada of the Z-9 armed helicopter and Sister Takada also received their shares as witnesses to the projects. Everyone benefitted equally.
Boss Hana was always generous in her dealings; penniless Chen Fei nearly burst out laughing seeing the extra 200,000 Star Yuan award on his paycheck.
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