DBMEP CH91

Chapter 91: Walking Ophiuchus. 

Xiang Nanli happily swallowed the grand empty promises Liszt painted for him and provided the address of Eternal City.

Currently, the base had no location pin on the map, and he was worried the delivery person wouldn’t be able to find it.

Delivering it to Eternal City was fine; Xiao Fu could just haul it back later.

Humming a tune, Xiang Nanli tightened the final small screw on the chest harness of the leash.

This was the leash made for Sirius, and it was a one-piece suit.

With the Human Alliance having developed for so long, there was someone making every kind of idiotic clothing imaginable. Xiang Nanli found a similar blueprint online and then modified it based on his own understanding.

The left side was for Sirius to wear, resembling a vest uniform, which perfectly solved the issue of Sirius’s upper body being naked.

The right side was for Ophiuchus, a hollowed-out fishbone ring with an overall cylindrical shape.

Both sides had built-in conductive devices. When necessary, it could let Comrade Holy Spirit experience what it means to “shatter the darkness with a thunderbolt.”

Xiang Nanli was quite satisfied with his design. Carrying over thirty pounds of metal, he arrived at the underground incubation pool.

Sirius was already very familiar with what time he arrived every day. The moment Xiang Nanli stepped out of the stairwell, the deformed snake-human collective slowly crawled out from the cave entrance.

Sirius rubbed his head against Xiang Nanli’s arm, while Ophiuchus on the side looked extremely reluctant but had no other choice.

“Alright, alright.” Xiang Nanli pushed him away, “Don’t be so clingy.”

[He’s clingy because you taste good,] Xiao Zhi supplemented faintly.

In Ophiuchus’s olfactory system, Xiang Nanli probably smelled delicious.

After a period of feeding, the Holy Spirit’s physique had increased slightly.

Xiang Nanli took a rough measurement; including the tail, Ophiuchus was now 12 meters long.

Xiang Nanli poured the mushy feed from the bucket into Sirius’s feeding trough.

The main ingredients of the feed were imported nutrient paste, mutant animal organs, mutant meat, and fungus meat.

Ophiuchus adamantly refused to eat the fungus, but Xiang Nanli discovered that if he boiled the fungus together with the other ingredients, it couldn’t recognize it at all. So, he boldly and confidently passed off inferior goods as premium ones.

The poor Ophiuchus was being toyed with in the palm of a cunning human’s hand.

Both heads ate with a slurp slurp sound. Xiang Nanli stroked Ophiuchus’s head, deep in thought: “In the wild, I’m raising a lizard-tailed macaque, and underground, I’m raising a cold-blooded reptile pet. So my true profession should be a zookeeper?”

Xiao Zhi: [A zookeeper refers to a professional responsible for feeding animals, cleaning their enclosures, observing their conditions and behaviors, and reporting them promptly. You are only responsible for the feeding part, and even the feed is cooked with the help of the cafeteria chef. You have not fulfilled the responsibilities of a zookeeper.]

[In summary, I believe your relationship with Sirius, Ophiuchus, and Ezekiel leans more toward an owner and free-range pets, rather than a zookeeper and protected animals.]

Xiang Nanli: “…”

Great analysis; please don’t analyze next time.

Having two heads meant eating was fast; in less than three minutes, the trough hit bottom.

Xiang Nanli strapped the homemade chest harness onto the two-headed snake, adjusted the size, and then dressed them in their respective outfits over it.

Xiang Nanli didn’t attach a leash rope. He felt that would make it look too much like walking a dog, which wasn’t very respectful to the Holy Spirit.

Besides, the Holy Spirit’s main body was over ten meters long. Where was he supposed to find a rope tens of meters long that was also lightweight and sturdy? It was unnecessary.

Xiang Nanli was very satisfied with its outfit: “It just happens to be night now. Let’s go; we’ll take a stroll on the surface.”

Ophiuchus let out a string of “hissing” calls.

Although Sirius’s half of the body was infinitely close to human form, the abdominal cavity lacked internal organs. It was merely a lump of flesh resembling a human exterior.

According to scans, the only human organ it retained was its brain.

Xiang Nanli opened the cellar door, letting Sirius crawl out along the stairs.

Having been locked underground for over half a year, this was its first time breathing the fresh surface air tinged with faint radiation. At this moment, it couldn’t help but look around curiously.

In the darkness, its snake pupils reflected a bit of light, its forked tongue unconsciously flicking in and out.

Xiang Nanli reached out his hand and sighed: “It’s snowing.”

They were located near the colosseum, still a short distance from the main city district. The gravel-paved road was desolate, surrounded by sparse trees.

On the city walls, a row of cannon barrels pointed outward.

Ophiuchus had these things in its inherited memories.

Just like the fungus, it had been harmed by things resembling this shape.

And the “peas” shot from these barrels were inedible.

It was already dark, yet Ge Gen was still working overtime. To echo the theme of the “Harvest Festival,” Ge Gen and the others were decorating the city gates and cannon barrels with ears of wheat.

Ophiuchus scanned the area, making a rough judgment of the external environment. There was a certain level of threat, but it seemed manageable.

That man who filled it with fear was not present.

Xiang Nanli wasn’t wearing his mechanical exoskeleton today either.

Ophiuchus’s mind became slightly active.

It quietly followed behind Xiang Nanli, its massive body crushing the stone slabs on the ground, letting out a teeth-grinding “crack-crack” sound.

“Xiao Fu, let’s just take a walk around the inner city. This is where you currently live, called Eternal City. Let me introduce you~”

As if showing a guest around his own home, Xiang Nanli introduced the city’s school, city hall, park, monument square, and the commercial street that was about to be completed!

The scale of the commercial street wasn’t large. Security booths were set up at the intersections to prevent theft and commercial disputes.

On both sides of the street were some flat platforms built with cement, all uniformly arranged by the city.

This year was Eternal City’s first time holding the Harvest Festival, so none of these stalls charged rent.

Citizens simply had to fill out their business type and submit a written application; upon approval, they would receive temporary usage rights to a small stall.

The commercial street hadn’t opened yet, but stall owners had already begun decorating their spaces. Colorful ribbons were tied to signboards, or simple line drawings were painted with pigments to tell customers what category of goods they were selling.

With his hands clasped behind his back, Xiang Nanli strolled along, envisioning the future with Sirius: “Actually, I hope the stalls on the commercial street can become permanent, but Eternal City’s own foot traffic isn’t enough. Besides, we are currently a collective economy and don’t have that many material needs. But if we want to become prosperous, commerce is absolutely essential.”

He wanted to hold the Harvest Festival not because he had too much money to burn, but because he hoped for an influx of fresh blood from other settlements.

In more official terms, the Harvest Festival could boost the citizens’ cultural confidence and promote the superiority of the base.

If he could achieve this goal, Xiang Nanli was willing to take a small loss.

“I had Haili prepare a lot of extra work point vouchers; for now, we don’t need to worry about inflation. After the Harvest Festival, we’ll provide some Human Alliance goods to recall the vouchers in the citizens’ hands. While stabilizing prices, it can allow the economy to further prosper…”

Xiang Nanli began muttering to himself, exuding a beauty that completely disregarded whether Ophiuchus lived or died.

Ophiuchus stared at his back, its pupils turning into vertical slits. It, too, fell into deep thought.

Several times, Ophiuchus wanted to launch itself and bite the back of Xiang Nanli’s neck.

With Dongfang Qingdi absent, this might be its best opportunity to leave.

It was the noble Holy Spirit; it shouldn’t be locked in the pitch-black underground like livestock.

The food Xiang Nanli provided only guaranteed it wouldn’t starve to death; Ophiuchus remained in a constant state of being only thirty percent full and weakened.

But…

If it wanted to leave, it inevitably had to render Xiang Nanli unconscious. Too light, and Xiang Nanli wouldn’t faint; too heavy, and the fragile human would die.

The thought of no longer being able to smell the faint sandalwood scent emanating from Xiang Nanli in the future made Ophiuchus feel a bit regretful.

More importantly, even if it successfully escaped, if it hurt Xiang Nanli, that petty man would definitely come for revenge.

Ophiuchus’s expression was unpredictable; fortunately, it was just a snake head. For a snake head to display human-like emotions was still a bit too difficult.

The muscles in its abdomen tensed—the posture a snake takes when preparing to hunt—then relaxed. After repeating this several times, all the way until they walked back to the entrance of the incubation pool, it still couldn’t make a decision.

Forget it.

Ophiuchus thought to itself; the best opportunity had already passed. They were too far from the city gates now; knocking Xiang Nanli out and sneaking out of the city without causing a commotion was unrealistic.

At this moment, Xiang Nanli turned around, his expression beaming: “I’m very happy, Ophiuchus.”

“Previously, Xiao Qing told me that you could never be tamed, and he wanted to just kill you. But I felt that you, or rather Sirius, demonstrated a certain degree of intelligence; the base should give you guys a chance.”

“With Xiao Qing absent today, I believed it was the best time for a test. Therefore, inside the equipment I installed on you, right at the back of the neck, I built a mechanical device. It’s a launchable injection needle filled with highly concentrated alkaloids, controlled by an artificial intelligence. The moment you initiate an attack on me, the needle will automatically fire, injecting the alkaloids into your brain.”

Well… the poison was actually accidentally created by Beichen during an experiment.

Beichen said he was too bored being alone in the research institute, so he tried fusing the mycelium with various Mutants.

Specifically, he transplanted active spores onto Mutant corpses.

Controlling humidity, light, and temperature, supplemented with a prepared nutrient solution. After a certain period, if successful, new varieties of fungi would grow on the corpse.

The Mutants came from the specimen jars in Gospel No. 1.2.6’s seed vault.

Because they were non-renewable resources, Beichen only sliced off a tiny amount each time.

The interesting thing was, even with the same category of Mutant, slightly altering some objective conditions would cause the germinating mycelium to exhibit different traits.

Rumor had it that Liszt also contributed his fair share of effort during the experimental process.

Both of them were walking further and further down the path of mad scientists.

Beichen had originally intended to neutralize and dispose of the toxic fungi.

However, after reading the experiment report, Xiang Nanli proposed a plan to utilize the waste.

Thus, in the previous airlift, the extracted poison was delivered along with other items.

Xiang Nanli pulled a meat patty wrapped in oil paper from his pocket and tossed it out of habit.

Ophiuchus clearly wasn’t accustomed to this feeding method. It watched helplessly as the meat patty fell to the ground, taking a moment before reacting.

Its body formed a hook shape as it lowered its head, sniffed, and caught a rich aroma of food.

The meat patty was only the size of an adult man’s fist. It bit the patty and swallowed it into its stomach.

Savory juices exploded in its mouth. Evaluated by human senses, the taste was akin to a mouthful of rich, freshly cooked crab roe.

Ophiuchus swallowed it in one gulp and couldn’t resist sniffing around Xiang Nanli. It even extended its long tongue, licking over his coat pocket once.

Unfortunately, it was empty inside.

Xiang Nanli: “I sent some Fungus Cow samples back earlier, and the laboratory developed an improved new breed.”

The new breed had higher nutritional value and tasted better. The downside was that it grew much slower than the original Fungus Cows and was smaller in size. The base had currently only cultivated one, and worrying it might be secretly eaten by Ezekiel, they kept it isolated in the chicken coop behind the cafeteria.

To differentiate it from the previous fungal strain, the new breed was dubbed the “Fungus Chicken”!

Ezekiel hadn’t even gotten to eat it yet, and the very first one produced ended up as a cheap treat for Ophiuchus.

Xiang Nanli stroked its icy skin and opened the door leading to the incubation pool, then said: “Alright, head inside for now. I’ll let you out to play again during the Harvest Festival in a couple of days.”

“If you act like a good baby, I’ll feed you a patty every week.” Xiang Nanli’s voice was full of bewitchment.

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Author’s Note:

Ophiuchus: Thanks for the invite. Was forced to move from a wealthy household (Divine Court) to my current home (Base). Ate my fill of empty promises.