Chapter 545 — I Have a Billion Dreams

Before long, Shi Jin, having tidied himself up a bit, set off with Emperor Kong for the Canglan Realm's Cosmic Disaster Research Institute. The Cosmic Disaster Research Institute was an official institution similar to the Environmental Protection Association, present in every first-tier realm. For the powers of Realm King Star, starry-sky voyages were routine, and so encounters with all manner of cosmic disasters were inevitable. How to avoid and resolve these disasters was precisely the research topic of the institute's many researchers.

Generally speaking, when many major powers undertook interstellar voyages, they would hire one or two disaster researchers to accompany them, lest accidents occur.

Emperor Kong and the director of the Canglan Realm's Cosmic Disaster Research Institute were friends. The reason Zi Lan and the other four had so smoothly encountered a Starry Sky Storm with only one death while the other four escaped the calamity was, apart from good luck in being at the disaster's edge, also that they had obtained a great deal of emergency equipment from the Cosmic Disaster Research Institute before setting out.

…………

In Canglan City, within a cluster of white buildings brimming with a futuristic feel, Emperor Kong and Shi Jin were waiting outside the door. Shi Yi was sprawled on Shi Jin's shoulder, glancing this way and that, while Lin, transformed into a wristband, kept a constant watch on the surroundings.

It knew that if it wanted to be enhanced next, the opportunity might well lie right here—perhaps even the mechanical materials needed to remodel itself into a starry-sky mechanical life form could only be purchased in full here. Over at Lingxiao City, and after checking the Environmental Protection Association's channels, Lin had been less than fully satisfied.

"Wang Kong———" They did not have to wait long. Soon, from within the institute's buildings, a middle-aged man in a white lab coat with a brown handlebar mustache came striding out. With a hearty laugh, he said: "Old Wang, what's brought you to my place all of a sudden?"

"Old Lei, can't I just come see you?" Emperor Kong smiled and said: "I hope I'm not disturbing you."

"Of course not. But you surely aren't here just to see me, are you?" The middle-aged man with the Western face, called Old Lei, looked at Cen Yu and said: "Is this the junior you contacted me about before, the one you said you'd send to my institute to study for a while?"

"That's right." Emperor Kong said: "His name is Shi Jin."

Shi Li: "Greetings, Academician Lei Yan."

Lei Yan smiled and said: "Hello. Tell me, Wang Kong, didn't you say he'd come over on his own? How did it turn into you bringing him here?"

Emperor Kong said helplessly: "Plans can't keep up with changes..."

"Let's talk inside." Lei Yan invited them in. "I've prepared drinks and snacks."

"Good." Kong Di nodded, and the three of them headed deeper into the institute, where they settled into a lavish reception room and resumed their conversation.

"It must be more than ten years since we last met. And who might this be to you?" Lei Yanshi sat with one leg crossed over the other, sipping magma water as he looked from Kong Di to Shi Tang.

"Drink up, both of you. Have plenty of magma—it's good for the body."

Shi Qi glanced at the unidentified red liquid on the table. He was fairly certain it was not magma as he understood it. Presumably it really was drinkable?

"A talented junior I brought over from the mother planet," Kong Di said.

Lei Yanshi said in surprise, "So you actually succeeded."

"But young man, what made you think of coming to the Disaster Research Institute to study? Studying here is no easy matter."

Shi Jin said stiffly, "Well, Lei Yanshi, I've been a restless sort since I was small—always fond of traveling everywhere, with a dream of seeing every corner of the world. After leaving the mother planet, my curiosity about the cosmic starry sky became boundless, and I wanted to set out on new journeys across it. But the universe is far too dangerous. I understand that recklessness without a proper foundation is no different from courting death, so my dream became this: to first become an outstanding cosmic disaster researcher—yes, together with my beast."

Kong Di fell into thought beside him. So that was why Shi Jin wanted his beast to study the starry-sky storm? As an archaeologist, Shi Jin did indeed have to travel everywhere for his digs. Perhaps Shi Jin had seen a Qilin prodigy die in a starry-sky storm, and that was what planted the idea of understanding cosmic disasters first?

So that was it. Kong Di actually felt a little gratified. At least Shi Jue was not the sort of reckless fool who charged ahead regardless of danger—knowing to fear the universe was excellent, and it would greatly raise one's chances of survival.

"Haha, I see." Hearing Shi Ying's dream, Lei Yanshi laughed too. "Because you love to travel everywhere, because your curiosity about the cosmic starry sky is boundless, you want to first become an outstanding cosmic disaster researcher? I have to say, your thinking is sound. We cosmic disaster researchers are indispensable members of the cosmic fleets of every realm."

"All right, Old Wang, I'll do you this favor. He can stay here and start as an apprentice disaster researcher. But I can't guarantee I'll be able to teach him—how much useful knowledge he ultimately gains will still depend on his own efforts."

"No problem. But ideally, Old Lei, you'd take him under your wing personally and open up higher data and research clearance for him. I know you're busy, and I know it breaks the rules, but he truly has talent—one of the most gifted mechanics on my mother planet. In any case, name your terms." Kong Di smiled and began bargaining on Shi Jin's behalf.

"Uh..." Lei Yanshi was taken aback, a troubled look crossing his face. Even if he and Kong Di shared a bond forged in life-and-death, this sort of thing really did bend the rules. The data was one matter, but some high-level research clearances could not simply be touched at will. If there was an experiment accident, never mind a junior like Shi Tan—even god-level beings like themselves would die!

"No. This is a matter of principle," Lei Yanshi refused.

"Unless."

"The mechanical beast he contracted possesses transcendent-grade super-tier intelligence."

Kong Di was startled and looked at Cen Yu. Shi Jin had contracted a mechanical beast—that much he knew. But whether Shi Ying's mechanical beast possessed transcendent-grade super-tier intelligence, Kong Di did not know.

He did know, however, that the founder of Blue Star's mechanical school, the legend known as Z, and the second mechanical legend, Shen Yuan, both commanded super-tier intelligence that was still one step short of transcendent grade. So the odds of Shi Jin having it... were probably slim.

Mechanical-intelligence-type skills were extremely difficult to improve in proficiency—far harder than combat-type or support-type skills of the same rank. Only the Time-type school was harder to advance. After all, such skills brought their contractors so much help, and applied to every trade and profession. Moreover, the mechanical school had no innate races; everything had to be cultivated from zero.

Thus, transcendent-grade super-tier intelligence was as rare in the universe as a quasi-divine skill.

Intelligence at the quasi-divine-skill level was already comparable to a genuine divine skill of high proficiency in other functions.

And a mechanical life form possessing perfect god-level intelligence would not be much inferior in status on Realm King Star to super-god-level life forms of other schools.