Era of Disaster Chapter 163: Other Developments

Chapter 163: Other Developments

Bai Yi started to recall the data that Yeye recorded about the Hypersomnia Stage of other evolved lifeforms.

Normally, evolved lifeforms would only sense the existence of the soul during the LV1-3 Hypersomnia Stage and naturally wanted to sleep to balance their bodies with their souls. From the start, Bai Yi’s team had gradually entered deep level sleep so as to undergo this kind of balancing. Thinking about it, all this was still thanks to the vast quant.i.ties of data collected on the experimental subjects in the research facilities. If not for the data gathered from them, there would probably be a lot more evolved humans that fell into the berserk state at this time.

One must know that, according to the numbers from the research facilities, 90% of evolved humans lost control of themselves in the Brutal Phase and fell into the berserk state permanently!

There were probably close to a million evolved humans still surviving in New Zealand, but there were only slightly more than a hundred thousand evolved humans in New Christchurch. Adding in the northern half of New Zealand and the evolved humans randomly dispersed throughout the entire country, there were probably only around three to four hundred thousand evolved humans left that still retained their minds. This number was already three to four times greater than the numbers achieved at the research facilities, and it was all thanks to the data gathered from the experimental subjects.

After Bai Yi released all this information, the large number of evolved humans remaining had started to study and doc.u.ment the changes in their bodies, consolidating everything into a series of ways to relax their tense nerves, relieve stress, and diminish their brutal urges. It was only through all this that such a result had been achieved.

Although there weren’t many of them left, there were still quite a few experimental subjects that had escaped from the research facilities in New Zealand. These experimental subjects had all a.s.similated with the activated cells a step earlier than most of the lifeforms in New Zealand. Hence, people had already discovered some patterns and conditions regarding the Hypersomnia Phase from these experimental subjects.

Hypersomnia Stage: Other than looking for food and eating, Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms would basically spend all their time sleeping. These lifeforms weren’t too threatening, but they were all similarly dangerous.

Although these lifeforms loved to sleep, their sleeping states weren’t good, and it was extremely difficult to enter deep level sleep. They would be easily awakened by things like nightmares, which were basically the result of the incongruence of the body and soul. Hence, Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms would be extremely hostile to anybody that woke them up from their sleep, and possessed a disposition that implied ‘I’ll kill your whole family if you wake me up’.

Bai Yi felt that they shouldn’t find it hard to fall asleep like normal Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms, but would rather sleep like a log. Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms usually spent more than 90% of their time asleep. It wouldn’t be a problem if they were easily woken up, but if they really slept without any awareness of their surroundings, it would probably be extremely dangerous for them during this period of time.

Bai Yi pondered over the information they had regarding the Hypersomnia Stage, and slowly walked outside. He had already thought about how to get his team through the Hypersomnia Stage. They wouldn’t stay in the city, as there were too many people there. That was normally a positive attribute, but now, on the contrary, it made him worried. Although Bai Yi had a high reputation in the city and the few other factions had so far tried to maintain friendly relations with him, the human heart wasn’t something so easily grasped.

They were going to leave this city soon, so Bai Yi casually put on a cloak and headed into it.

In a year, New Christchurch had changed greatly through the efforts of all the evolved humans. Its buildings had been reconstructed on their old foundations to fit the new scale of evolved humans, and the general architectural style of New Zealand now gave the city a fantastical and strange feeling. Still, it was precisely such a city that Bai Yi and the rest had built with their own hands.

Bai Yi slowly walked along the street toward the core of the city, observing its newborn appearance. He had on a wide, hooded cloak that covered even his face, so he didn’t have to worry about being recognized by other people. Along the way, he noted that although it couldn’t be considered as bustling, the city was still quite lively. Many evolved humans had gathered together and made the city seem full of life.

Unknowingly, Bai Yi walked all the way to the food market. Looking at the crowd squeezing upon itself, he couldn’t help but laugh. Was it the chef genes in his body that had made him walk all the way this place?

There had already been more than ten types of vegetables discovered in New Zealand by now, and that was basically sufficient for ma.s.s consumption. Other than those, various types of mutated evolved lifeforms and plants made the food available in the market both wide in variety and uncertain in properties. Some gluttons had suddenly felt that they were incredibly fortunate after New Zealand stabilized. There were so many ingredients that they had never encountered before, and they were definitely in for a treat now. However, among all these new ingredients, there were a lot of them that could be fatal if they were handled improperly.

Although chef wasn’t listed among the three big professions of New Zealand, it was still a very popular job. Food is the G.o.d of people1, and no matter what, filling up the stomach was always the most important thing.

Although Bai Yi was himself a chef, he hadn’t cooked in a long while. Practically every minute of his time was spent on learning and acc.u.mulating knowledge.

Suddenly, Bai Yi found an ingredient that looked like a giant python, but it was actually a plant that was still wriggling around. Evil Vine! It was a carnivorous plant that had plenty of barbs on its surface and was as large around as a human’s thigh. It could either photosynthesize for energy or absorb nutrients from hunting other lifeforms—it could wrap itself around a human and consume a person directly.

But, could this thing be eaten?

“Evil Vine?” Bai Yi questioned.

“That’s right! Selling it for only 500 Devil coins right now! You want it?” The enthusiastic stall owner asked. “This is something my team hacked off an Evil Vine with great effort! Although this vine is only as thick as a human’s thigh, the Evil Vine that we hacked it from was more than ten meters in diameter, and its vines covered the sky and earth! If not for my team being strong enough, we wouldn’t have even dared to approach it.” This guy saw that Bai Yi was interested and started introducing his product incessantly.

“This thing can be eaten?” Bai Yi couldn’t help but ask.

“Huh?” Bai Yi’s question apparently stumped this guy.

“You don’t say? If it can’t be eaten why would we bother to catch it? Don’t we normally stir-fry vegetables and meat together when we cook? Let me tell you, carnivorous plants contain nutrients from both vegetables and meat, and with these two components fusing together, the taste is much better than just eating simply either vegetables or meat alone. You probably aren’t a chef, right? To think that you could ask something like this.” This guy gave Bai Yi a disdainful look.

“Let me remind you: you can look around if you aren’t a chef, but you must not buy any strange things you see. Otherwise, don’t blame anybody else if the food you cook ends up killing someone, because it'll just be that you don’t know how to prepare the ingredients.” This guy seemed to not be a bad sort, as he actually still reminded Bai Yi to refrain from purchasing strange ingredients.

“Is that so? Thanks a lot then.” Bai Yi nodded.

“But how do I prepare this Evil Vine so that it’s edible?” Bai Yi asked again.

“I don’t know either, I’m not a chef. The chef on my team doesn’t know how to handle this thing either. But I ate this once at Devil’s Cuisine House. There’s a dish there that is precisely this Evil Vine, and the taste isn't bad either.” This guy saw that he didn’t have much business anyway, and started chatting with Bai Yi.

“As I think about it, ever since New Zealand stabilized, everyone realized that the variety of food increased many times over, but of course the danger of the food increased by many times as well. Generally speaking, ingredients that can be prepared normally—meaning that no matter how you cooked it, it would at least be edible and not poisonous—would be considered typical ingredients. Those ingredients that would be inedible or fatal if prepared incorrectly would be called special preparation ingredients.” It had always been a part of human nature to like to lecture others, and this guy started to talk incessantly after he saw Bai Yi sit on a rock beside him.

“Special preparation ingredients!”

“That’s right, special preparation ingredients. A normal chef would never be able to handle them. Things such as the h.e.l.l Pool Poison Lizard, Evil Vine, Seven-colored Mushroom, Spiked Blowfish...” This guy really knew quite a lot of things, and Bai Yi listened with great interest as well.

Bai Yi only now realized that the professions that had developed weren’t just the Medicinal Makers, Weapon Armor Makers, and Hypnotists, but that chefs were also developing and changing. Regretfully, Bai Yi had been seriously putting 100% of his focus into studying biology over the past year, and he wasn't even aware of the developments in his original profession as a chef.

“Then how can I find out the way to prepare these ingredients?” Bai Yi asked. Although Bai Yi had been forced by life’s circ.u.mstances to become a chef back in the day, he personally didn’t dislike the profession and actually rather enjoyed it. Since even culinary arts had developed and changed, Bai Yi of course wanted to learn about these preparation methods as well, even if this was something developed by countless people.

“Difficult, very difficult!” This guy shook his head.

“It’s easy to understand why. Normally, these special preparation methods would definitely be treated as a secret by people, and they wouldn’t tell you unless you were somebody close to them. In addition, many of the preparation methods can’t be used unless you have the prerequisite level of strength and ability. However, I do know of a place that is very skilled in preparing these special ingredients.”

“What place?”

“Didn’t I mention it just now? Devil’s Cuisine House! That place basically doesn’t sell any ordinary food, but the prices there are really expensive. My team leader brought us there to eat once, and we almost went broke from ordering just two dishes. You should've seen it then, my team leader’s face at that point in time could only be described as miserable.” This guy’s face was full of teasing smiles when he talked about his team leader. Apparently, this was a very happy and harmonious team, and the team leader definitely must have been a very easy-going person too.

“It’s so expensive?”

“Of course, what they're selling is style. They don’t sell any ordinary food, and other people don’t know how to handle special ingredients either. Do you think it wouldn’t be expensive?”

“Then where is this Devil’s Cuisine House? I want to take a look,” Bai Yi asked, as his interest was already greatly piqued.

“Do you have enough money? The cheapest thing on the menu is at least 2000 Devil coins,” This guy asked good-heartedly.

Bai Yi nodded. “En, should be able to eat a few dishes.” How could the number only be a few dishes? With Bai Yi’s status now, how was it possible that he would be lacking in money? Although Bai Yi usually didn’t use much of it, it would be a ridiculous joke to say that he couldn’t even afford a meal there.

Devil’s Cuisine House—Bai Yi started to walk toward the place mentioned by that guy with great interest.