Holding Humanity’s Future in His Hands

"Boss, Mr. Johnson’s serum has a very special formula. I think it can help us recreate Dr. Erskine’s formula."

When Simmons saw Old Wang arrive, her face flushed with excitement. She clenched her little fists, her big eyes sparkling. "I think I’ve taken another step closer to the truth!"

"Congratulations, Simmons."

Old Wang smiled and praised her. "I’ve decided to give you a huge reward."

"Ah? This is all what I should be doing. Achieving results in scientific research is already my greatest reward. Of course, it would be even better if I could win a Nobel Prize. That’s my biggest dream."

Simmons asked, "Boss… what reward are you planning to give me?"

"A reward worth tens of billions of dollars." With a wave of Old Wang’s hand, nearly a ton of plants filled half the laboratory.

Looking at the flowers and grasses before her and smelling their strange scents, Simmons was bewildered. "Boss, are you planning to switch careers and open a flower-and-bird market? Where are the birds?"

She looked around, but she really could not see any birds. Forget big birds—there were not even tiny ones.

"This is Silverleaf."

"This is Peacebloom."

"This is Kingsblood and Earthroot."

"This is Khadgar’s Whisker, Arthas’ Tears, and Gromsblood."

"This is King’s Wrath Hair… I named it myself. Eating it raw makes all the hair on your body grow rapidly. It can grow nearly a meter long. Made into a potion, it can cure baldness, and it works better than any hair-growth product on the market."

"This is Grave Moss, Briarthorn, and Dreamfoil."

"This is…"

Old Wang introduced more than a hundred distinctive World of Warcraft herbs one by one before saying somewhat strangely, "You want birds? All right, I have many kinds of birds here, both big and small. But not living ones. They can only be dead."

He waved his hand again, and dozens of bird corpses filled the other half of the laboratory.

"This is a Moonkin. You can call it ‘coo-coo’ or ‘Damengde.’ Cute and adorable, right? Actually, it was ferocious when alive. It only became quiet after death."

"This is a White Riding Bird. You can call it a ‘white chicken.’ It’s not very good for riding."

"This is a raven, a descendant of Raven God Anzu. It’s very fast."

"This is a Blazing Firehawk, a descendant of Sun God Rukhmar. It naturally possesses Elemental Fire and Sunfire."

"This is…"

After introducing them all, Old Wang said, "Study them slowly. These plants and animals are all very special. Maybe they’ll help with your research into the Super Soldier Serum. I hope the Super Soldier Serum you develop will surpass Dr. Erskine’s version in every way… Captain America? Too weak."

The only people who dared say Captain America was weak were Mr. Stark and you, Boss… Simmons did not know what to say.

Where had all these plants and animals she had never seen before come from?

Could they have come from the legendary K’un-Lun?

She crouched down and touched the Moonkin, only to find that it seemed to have been dead for a long time. Its corpse was already stiff and cold, which disappointed her somewhat.

For scientific research, the fresher the corpse, the better. She wanted soft, fluffy big birds, not hard ones.

"Prioritize solving Carl’s problem. The physical one," Old Wang said.

Simmons gave an "Mm."

The mental issues could be solved directly by altering her memories. As for the physical issues, they could only rely on themselves.

That would not be difficult. It would be easy to solve.

Researching these inexplicable plants and animals was what would truly be difficult!

There were more than a hundred kinds of plants and dozens of bird species. Even basic research alone would probably take months, or even a year. Not to mention detailed testing and analysis—it might take a lifetime.

Then she would spend a lifetime on it! Simmons clenched her fist to encourage herself, filled with motivation.

"If that’s not enough, tell me. I’ll get you a few thousand more kinds," Old Wang added, somewhat regretfully.

This room was still too small. It was already full after he had brought in only this tiny amount, less than one percent of Azeroth’s unique creatures, and that did not even include the more famous powerful creatures.

Of course, there was no need to bring them all over. He could exchange for them whenever they were needed.

Simmons: "…"

I thought this was all there was. There’s more?

Like a deflated balloon, she thought of several thousand species of plants and animals weighing on her shoulders, waiting for her to study them, and her heart filled with despair.

Boss, when exactly is that scientist you mentioned going to arrive?!

"Oh, right. This should work even better."

Old Wang thought for a moment, exchanged for a Red Dragon Whelp corpse, and tossed it in front of Simmons.

Red dragons were dragons of life, and their constitution was incredibly strong. Old Wang knew that better than anyone.

Since they represented "life," their blood, tissues, and cells should have immense research value. They would definitely be useful for the Super Soldier Serum, which primarily enhanced physical abilities.

"This is… a dragon?" Simmons swallowed unconsciously.

First it had been an Eastern dragon, and now it was a Western dragon.

Boss, shouldn’t K’un-Lun be Eastern? How does it even have Western dragons?

"Combining East and West makes for better results."

Old Wang tapped the Red Dragon Whelp. "The Dragon Bone of the Immortal Dragon and the tissues and blood of a red dragon—combining two legendary creatures should raise the Super Soldier Serum to a new level. Simmons, you can consider developing different versions of the Super Soldier Serum. They could grant different abilities after use."

The Celestials had created the Eternals and Mutants, while the Kree had created Inhumans. All of them were enhancements to the human body, all directions of human evolution. The Eternals were relatively stable, while Mutants and Inhumans were not stable enough—

But it was precisely because they were unstable that they held more possibilities.

The Super Soldier Serum was undoubtedly also research into enhancing the human body. It shortened the time evolution required.

The gap between humans and those renowned races in the universe, such as the Kree and Asgardians, was not merely a small one. It was a gap of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years. Perhaps scientific methods could shorten it.

This tiny laboratory and this young scientist represented humanity’s future.

And that future was held in his hands.

Simmons: "…"

Boss, either you’ve gone crazy, or I have!

"Keep at it. You can do it."

Old Wang spoke without feeling the strain and placed great hopes on Simmons.

He had to place great hopes on her.

The variety of animals and plants in World of Warcraft was clearly far greater than that of metallic elements, and they were much more precious as well.

Although he had only exchanged for a little over a hundred varieties, with only one of each, it had still cost nearly 5 grams of Azeroth Blood, worth 50 billion dollars—fifty times what Fitz’s side had cost.

That dragon whelp corpse alone had cost nearly 1 gram of Azeroth Blood. Flesh really was much more expensive than bone.

With such a high investment, if it did not yield even a little return, he would truly be taking a colossal loss.

After arranging everything, Old Wang returned to the Physical Engineering Laboratory and personally watched over Carl.

Seven hours later, Carl’s brain mapping was complete. Then came the more troublesome memory modification.

Because it was delicate technical work, it required even more time.

The Winter Soldier only needed a tiny bit of memory altered so that he would feel favorably toward Old Wang. That was very simple. But Carl needed twenty years of memories altered, with all mental hazards eliminated. That was relatively difficult.

Twenty years of memories—even if it was only part of them—could require an extremely long time, which gave Fitz a headache.

Old Wang still had a solution. He told Fitz to directly delete most of the painful memories and disguise it as sleep. Though the brain consciousness would still be active, there would be no real impression of it, right?

The workload instantly dropped by 99%.

The next afternoon, Old Wang was drinking tea when his brows suddenly rose.

Inside the virtual helmet, Carl opened her eyes.

There would be another update after midnight, an extra chapter for this month’s monthly votes.

Thanks to "Speeding Guoba" for the 3,000 reward.