Apocalypse: Last Traveler

"X-17 Strain Plan Practical Manual..."

Lu Xi'an murmured the name of the book.

Unexpectedly, this person had such a book with them. In that case, the questions he originally wanted to ask this person could be understood from the book instead.

Lu Xi'an opened the book and skimmed through it. The book was somewhat incomplete, a mess, with some pages having lots of scribbles, others completely torn out, and some pages half torn off.

Fortunately, among them, there were still intact pages with some written records.

Those written records had a lot of markings, but it was unclear if they were made by the deceased person?

But why were all these records marked with circles and question marks?

Lu Xi'an first glanced at the first page, but only half of it remained, the lower half was missing.

As for the content of the upper half, it read:

[Overview]

This plan was originally named the "Fungal Evolutionaries" plan, now formally renamed to the "X-17 Strain" plan.

The plan ultimately utilized the "X-17 Strain" to complete gene editing, resulting in several evolutionary lineages. After experimental screening, four stable lineages have been confirmed, including the final feasibility scheme.

There might have been more detailed discussion further down, but it was torn away, and Lu Xi'an couldn't see it.

On these two paragraphs, Lu Xi'an noticed two circles and several question marks.

One circle was around the word "strain," another was around "four," while "X-17" was a question mark, "gene editing" was a question mark, "lineage" was a question mark, and "scheme" was a question mark.

The circles were probably to highlight the key points, but the question marks seemed too arbitrary, and Lu Xi'an couldn't understand what the main focus was.

Yao Wei also leaned in to look, and furrowed her brows.

"What?"

Lu Xi'an asked.

Yao Wei said, "Some of it is hard to understand."

"It's okay, take your time to ponder."

Lu Xi'an said.

He stood up and said to Yao Wei, "This might be related to the Fungus Stone and the Neo-Humans.

"I just looked at the beginning, and can only guess that we Neo-Humans might indeed be related to the Fungus Stone, or to this strain.

"And as for the 'four' mentioned in the overview, could it refer to the four types of Neo-Humans: Type A, B, C and D?"

"Is that so?"

Yao Wei's thoughts seemed to expand, "So aside from us, like this person, like Luo Ping, there's another type?"

Lu Xi'an said, "I don't know. We'll go back to the car and slowly figure it out."

Yao Wei nodded and said, "Alright, I'll drive, you read the book."

She just glanced at the text on the book and felt it was difficult to understand.

She wasn't confident about researching such obscure things, so she thought it would be better to let Lu Xi'an focus on the research while she handled the driving.

Lu Xi'an was so formidable, he must be able to understand it.

Lu Xi'an did not refuse.

The two got into the car, having also cleaned up the wolf carcass to use as food reserves.

Lu Xi'an settled into the passenger seat, and packed away Gou and the drone, letting Gou charge the drone.

After this incident, Lu Xi'an felt that his power anxiety wasn't actually a problem, but rather served a positive purpose, so he was content to let himself be anxious and seize every opportunity to charge the drone.

Having done all this, he continued reading the book, flipping ahead to the fifth page.

The content on this page started a new section, delving into the finer details.

First was the gene editing mechanism, specifically described as—

The "X-17 Strain" achieves genetic recombination by releasing the CRISPR-Cas12k enzyme complex, and its gene fragment library includes:

1. Tardigrade anhydrobiosis genes (TDP protein gene cluster)

2. Deep-sea tube worm ferredoxin metabolic chain

3. Electric eel sodium-potassium pump polarization genes

4. Cephalopod chromatophore control neural network

This paragraph indeed had several question marks.

Lu Xi'an confirmed that everything that wasn't understood in the book was marked with a question mark. This Neo-Human, or whoever owned this book, probably couldn't make heads or tails of it.

However, Lu Xi'an felt he wasn't much better off, but could roughly understand that these gene and protein clusters within the strain influenced human evolution.

Perhaps the four directions for Neo-Humans were distinguished from these four listed features?

Which ones pertain to him and Yao Wei? And which ones relate to Luo Ping and the deceased Neo-Human?

But perhaps not...

There was evidently more content after this, but it was torn away, leaving him unable to see. Maybe there were even numbers 5, 6, and 7?

Moreover, the book didn't specifically explain the connections between them.

Thankfully, the evolutionary classifications were clearly laid out.

Turning to the back of this page revealed the second piece, discussing evolutionary lineages.

Lu Xi'an continued reading—

The currently stable evolutionary lineages are categorized as A, B, C, and D, with a 15% gene sequence variation among the types:

Type A (Basic Enhancement Type)

Significant increase in striated muscle density, significant increase in fast-twitch muscle ratio, tendon using carbon fiber bio-weave structure, titanium-honeycombed trabecular structure, joint cavity with magnetorheological fluid lubricating layer, iris with variable-focus lens structure, enhanced dynamic vision, cochlear infrasound filtering membrane structure, sound localization precision enhancement, automatic noise cancellation

...

Reading this, it seems that he and Yao Wei probably belong to Type A, the Basic Enhancement Type. Although he didn't quite understand the specifics, judging from these descriptions, it seems to imply great strength, with excellent vision and hearing.

Unfortunately, the latter content was unreadable again, as the page was torn off halfway here.

Lu Xi'an, in a muddle over the scattered question marks, turned the page to the back, finding it said—

The enhanced structures of this type are special, and most cannot bear them, potentially leading to incomplete evolution, resulting in overly rapid metabolism, high consumption rates, imbalance, and malformation, hence exclusion.

"Exclusion?"

Lu Xi'an suddenly frowned.

There was another large question mark following this piece, and Lu Xi'an felt those questions were almost pounding into his mind, leaving him entirely bewildered.

"What's wrong?"

Yao Wei asked.

Lu Xi'an said, "I see, it's talking about us like Type A: Basic Enhancement Type, enhancing strength, body robustness, vision, and hearing.

"But then it mentions a string of issues, saying it was excluded..."

"Excluded?!"

Yao Wei also didn't comprehend it initially.

Lu Xi'an thought for a moment, and said, "Don't overthink it, I'll keep reading. These are old writings, who knows the context in which this was written?"

"Mm."

Yao Wei nodded, though not understanding much, she also leaned in to look.

Next was Type B (Near-Death Evolution Type).

Reading this, it indeed seemed to align with Luo Ping.

As for the description of the Near-Death Evolution Type, it was much simpler than the Basic Enhancement Type:

The mitochondria possess a reverse electron transport mechanism, initiating a hibernation-like state after cardiac arrest, ATP production efficiency increases by 400% within 3 hours post-hibernation-like revival

Then there was another piece of text:

The hibernation-like state consumes too much energy and does not fit the current environment, lacking adaptability. Hence exclusion.

Hence exclusion...

Another exclusion...

And question marks...