Apocalypse Forecast

Chapter 739: Chapter 599 Bright Future_1

”Name?”

”Holiness!”

”...Age?”

”Holiness!”

”Race...?”

”—Holiness!!”

On the laboratory table, the Steel Crows spread their wings, excitedly hopping around, responding to all of Huai Shi’s questions with the same answer, like a parrot on loop.

It was only after Huai Shi noticed there were still seven or eight pages of the standard Border Variant intelligence assessment questionnaire that he wisely chose to give up.

”Fine, let’s skip the intelligence part...”

He sighed, tossed the questionnaire into a corner, and massaged his forehead.

There was no helping it. After the crows evolved into Version 2.0 and underwent a major update, their behavior became inexplicable and challenging to comprehend with common sense.

Even Huai Shi himself didn’t know what code he had written. To figure out what had happened, he would need to check everything from the beginning.

Although the questionnaire was of little use, based on Huai Shi’s experience, their intelligence had likely grown to the level of a seven or eight-year-old child—clearly, they had developed considerably from speaking in broken sentences to speaking fluently now.

They were essentially mature parrots.

It felt like going to Hell was like visiting a wholesale market. He hadn’t brought anything back but had bought over a thousand parrots instead.

What a loss!

As his mind was filled with a mix of emotions, his fingers drummed the pen, waiting for the lab’s environment to finish changing. A giant Wind tunnel device was temporarily allocated from underground and rose inside the room.

”Alright, let’s have a couple of flights.”

He picked up one of the Mechanical Crows, feeling its hefty weight—almost fifty pounds each, nearly too heavy to lift. If it were like before, with his body covered in them, Huai Shi felt he would have fractured his bones.

The heartache of parents realizing they can no longer carry their grown children must be similar to what Huai Shi was feeling now.

The door of the Wind tunnel opened, and Huai Shi stretched out his hand, throwing the crow into the chamber. As the equipment operated, a hurricane roared from within, creating a constant airflow.

Amidst the hurricane, the crow skillfully spread its wings and began to fly up and down. Several jets on the iron wings allowed them to maneuver with great agility, enabling them to perform various flashy actions in the Wind tunnel.

Flying was an old trick for them.

It seemed there was no problem.

Now, for the top speed—

Huai Shi began to increase the wind force level and soon obtained effective results from the monitor’s parameters. After accelerating over a long distance, the top speed was 240 meters per second.

But it couldn’t be maintained for too long.

The regular speed was around 90 meters per second, but the physical condition of each crow varied—some were faster, and the chubbier ones were slower.

An average would suffice.

As for strength...

Huai Shi began to scratch his head.

—How do you measure the strength of a crow?

The mere sight of those alloy steel claws gave Huai Shi goosebumps. They could easily rip through ordinary steel plates.

The crows now basically weighed around thirty kilograms, with a wingspan reaching two meters. They could be considered Monsters in a low-budget horror movie.

Based on their weight and speed, a casual dive from them could shred a typical Shield like paper, even causing effective damage to reinforced concrete structures.

Their destructive power was not to be underestimated.

But the problem was... force is mutual.

The steel body wasn’t meant to be played with this way. Damaging the opposition meant potential self-damage. Even if the machines had a degree of self-repair, they probably wouldn’t be able to fix themselves if the damage exceeded a certain level.

Maintenance was still Huai Shi’s job.

After researching all night, Huai Shi still hadn’t made any new discoveries. Seeing the sky gradually brighten outside, he put down his notes and went home for breakfast.

In the moist and chilly air of early morning, the Ivory Tower was already teeming with life.

In fact, this place was lively twenty-four hours a day.

These were Sublimators, after all, each one a practitioner of immortality. Staying awake for forty-eight hours was like child’s play to them. During crunch times, like for a thesis project, some would even take drugs and stay up for a month. Quite a few ended up with insomnia and had to recuperate because of this.

Students, early risers, or night owls, greeted Huai Shi respectfully as they saw him on the way. The more courageous ones even wanted to come over to take pictures, but Huai Shi tactfully declined each request.

”Next time for sure, next time for sure.”

After skillfully turning down the request from the female students for a group photo, Huai Shi hurried toward his home.

Recent rampant gossip had already caused him enough trouble. He dared not mingle with the ladies outside. Since returning to the Ivory Tower, his life had been a loop between the classroom and home. Aside from that, he didn’t step out the front door or cross the secondary door, as proper as a young lady from a reputable family. He certainly didn’t dare to wander about outside recklessly.

”Young master, welcome back.”

Uncle Fang poked his head out from the kitchen. ”Miss Yuan and Mr. Lin will arrive shortly. You can start after breakfast.”

”Okay.”

Huai Shi yawned and collapsed onto the sofa, looking around and feeling that something was missing. ”Wait, where’s Tong Ji?”

”Ms. Tong Ji just went out, apparently busy with something. However, she made a reservation for dinner tonight.”

Huai Shi scratched his head, paused for a long while, then his eyes widened in sudden anger.

”Where has that wild woman run off to again!” Huai Shi scolded angrily. ”If she doesn’t obey the curfew next time, I’ll break her legs!”

Enjoying his authoritative rant to its fullest, Huai Shi had his fill of playing the lord.

At such times, Uncle Fang could only stifle his laughter in the kitchen and pretend he hadn’t heard anything.

It was just too bad that not even the all-capable Beelzebub would dare to stick his head out at this moment and say, ”Master, Ms. Tong Ji has been locked in your basement for three years already,” prompting Huai Shi to ask her, ”Do you regret it now?”

Besides, he always felt that even if that black-hearted woman were locked in the basement, she’d still find a way to swindle his money...

This world was just too unsafe.

After hurriedly eating breakfast, Huai Shi finally sobered up a bit.

Once the two students arrived, he began to review their progress over the past couple of days.

Yuan Yuan had made pleasing progress. Her violin skills had improved significantly, and she had progressed remarkably in just a few days.

Lin Nineteen’s performance lagged behind. His ’Beheading’ was lackluster, and to this day, he had not mastered Huai Shi’s fancy decapitations. But Huai Shi didn’t have high expectations for him. If he was incompetent in combat, it was enough to prevent others from fighting him. If he couldn’t win a fight, at least he should be able to run away.

At worst, he could hold another concert in a few days to give Little Nineteen some extra tutoring and train his survival skills.

However, when it came time to hand in homework, Lin Nineteen slyly passed on a notebook, hinting, ”Teacher, I’ve learned everything written in here, and several techniques have inspired me. Do you have any new material for me to look at?”

It almost felt as if they were exchanging some provocative books between master and apprentice.

It was the draft version of ”Guide to Hell Kitchen Demon Beginnings” that Huai Shi had written in his spare time.

Finally, he was starting to teach according to his student’s abilities.

For the Lin family, being naturally sensitive to various negative Source Substances and the aura of disasters, they were particularly suited for meddling with Alchemy, Curses, and poisons.

Wasn’t Lin Yu, Lin Nineteen’s cousin, an outstanding example of this?

Anyway, Huai Shi had realized clearly now that the Abyss Kitchen Devil was just a framework into which all sorts of random things could be stuffed. He figured it would be better to just teach him the basics and let him figure out the rest on his own.

Little Nineteen seemed to have a knack for learning all the wrong things at a rapid pace.

If he couldn’t conquer an enemy’s heart, then he should at least conquer their stomach, and he really took to this approach.

There was actually no need for such sneaky behavior, but there was no choice; Uncle Fang wouldn’t allow it.

For the old man, Huai Shi could do whatever he liked, but he was particularly averse to Huai Shi messing around with those things at home, puffing out his beard and glaring each time he saw it.

Huai Shi could only secretly take Lin Nineteen out for their lessons.

The effect, however, was surprisingly good.

After a brief period of study and practice, Lin Nineteen could already innovate, boiling up multicolored black porridge and vibrantly colorful white rice. And it seemed likely that he would combine them with his family’s Witchcraft and come up with new creations...

Perhaps after a few more years, by the next elimination round, getting a Hell Kitchen Demon certificate would not be a problem.

This eased Huai Shi’s mind. After all, how is a chef not the most stable source of livelihood? With this skill, no matter how badly I fare in the future, at least I won’t starve.

Yuan Yuan became the Disastrous Musician, you became the Hell Kitchen Demon, and I became the Prince of Paradise; all of us in this lineage have a bright future ahead.

Doesn’t that sound good?

Reviewing their progress, offering guidance, and then assigning homework.

By the time he finished, it was approaching noon.

”Stay for lunch later,” Huai Shi offered. ”I plan to do some casting later; do you want to come and watch?”

Lin Nineteen readily nodded his head in agreement while Yuan Yuan thought for a moment, then did not say anything.

Seeing her vaguely lost expression, Huai Shi couldn’t help but shake his head and ruffled her hair. ”Practicing the violin is useful with lots of practice, but you should at least take a breather occasionally, right? Come be my assistants this afternoon. Consider it community service.”

It seemed she took being captured by Ivy Vine last time as a blunder due to her own inadequacy and was extremely dedicated to practicing the violin. According to what her aunt said, she hadn’t gone out much in a long while, which was somewhat worrying.

Huai Shi didn’t quite understand it.

Was it just a capture? I myself enjoyed my time in Ivy Vine’s prison. Were you worried about bringing shame upon our master?

Furthermore, they looked after you well, with food and drink. Why treat it like failing a semester course and needing a makeup exam?

Pushing yourself too much can also backfire.

For someone as laid-back as me, balancing work and leisure is the essential philosophy of life. If I can’t even slack off anymore, what’s the point of living?

He stroked his chin, pondering.

Perhaps I should buy a few movie tickets and find an excuse to take Yuan Yuan out for some fresh air? Stewing at home isn’t good for anyone.

But oddly, why do I always get an ominous feeling of Death Perception whenever I consider that option?

Life truly is hard to understand.

At 2:10 PM, Huai Shi brought his students to the Alchemy Equipment Management Center, ’Taiyi Academy,’ within the school.

The name was Taiyi Academy, but it actually had nothing to do with Taiyi from the Heavenly Kingdom Genealogy, nor the Taiyi from the cartoons.

Rather, it was a term from within Alchemy.

Rising from Hell, descending from the Heavenly Kingdom, thus accomplishing the miracle of Taiyi.

This Taiyi referred to the principle that everything originates from the same Source Substance. To put it plainly, it’s as unimaginative as the names ’A Certain’ restaurant and Dragon Gate Inn. One can tell this was a name casually picked by Luo Su; he obviously didn’t put much thought into it. Ultimately, the issue is a lack of creativity!

Huai Shi silently criticized.