Chapter 94: Question Marks And Circles

“「X-17 Strain」 Plan Practical Manual…”

Lu Xi’an murmured the book’s name.

He hadn’t expected this person to be carrying such a book. If that were the case, he could learn about the questions he originally wanted to ask this person from the book.

Lu Xi’an opened the book and skimmed through it. The book was incomplete and messy, with many drawings on some pages, entire pages torn out, and some page numbers half-torn.

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

Those written records also had many markings; he wondered if they were made by the deceased person?

It’s just that these records are all circles and question marks?

Lu Xi’an first looked at the first page. Only half of the first page remained; the bottom half was missing.

As for the content on the top half, it read:

【 Overview】

The original name of this plan was the “Fungi Evolver” Plan, now officially renamed the 「X-17 Strain」 Plan.

The plan ultimately utilized the 「X-17 Strain」 for gene editing, and has now formed multiple evolutionary lineages. After experimental screening, four stable lineages have been determined, including the final feasible plan.

The rest was probably a lengthy discussion, but it was torn away, so Lu Xi’an couldn’t see it.

On these two paragraphs, Lu Xi’an saw two circles and several question marks.

One circle was on the characters “Strain,” another was on the character “four,” then “X-17” was a question mark, “gene editing” was a question mark, “lineage” was a question mark, and “plan” was also a question mark.

The circles should have been used to mark important points, but the question marks were too arbitrary, and Lu Xi’an couldn’t figure out what was the main focus at the moment.

Yao Wei also leaned over to look and frowned.

“What is it?”

Lu Xi’an asked.

Yao Wei said, “I can’t quite understand some of it.”

“It’s okay, we’ll ponder it slowly.”

Lu Xi’an said.

He stood up and said to Yao Wei, “This should be related to Fungal Stones and New Humans.”

“I’ve just read the beginning, and can only guess that we New Humans might indeed be related to Fungal Stones, or this so-called strain.”

“Also, about the ‘four’ mentioned in the overview, four stable lineages, could it refer to four types of New Humans: Type A, Type B, Type C, and Type D?”

“Is that so?”

Yao Wei’s thoughts spread out, “So, besides people like us, and this person, and Luo Ping, there’s another type?”

Lu Xi’an said, “I don’t know. Let’s get back in the car and look at it slowly.”

Yao Wei nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll drive, you read the book.”

After glancing at the text in the book, she found it very difficult to understand.

She didn’t have much confidence in researching such obscure material, so she thought it would be better to let Lu Xi’an focus on studying it while she drove.

Lu Xi’an was so capable, he would surely understand it.

Lu Xi’an did not refuse.

The two got into the car, and the wolf corpse was also packed up to be used as food.

Lu Xi’an sat in the front passenger seat, and gathered the doggy and the drone back. He had the doggy charge the drone.

After this experience, Lu Xi’an felt that his battery anxiety was not a problem, but rather had a positive effect, so he felt relieved to let himself be anxious and seize every opportunity to charge the drone.

After doing all this, he continued reading the book, turning to the next page, which was already the fifth page.

The content on it started a new section, discussing finer details.

First was the gene editing mechanism, with specific description:

The 「X-17 Strain」 achieves gene recombination by releasing CRISPR-Cas12k enzyme complexes. Its carried gene fragment library includes:

Tardigrade cryptobiosis gene （TDP protein gene cluster ）

Deep-sea tube worm sulfur iron protein metabolic pathway

Electric eel sodium-potassium pump polarization gene

Cephalopod chromatophore control neural network

This passage, as expected, had several question marks.

Lu Xi’an confirmed that anything in the book he didn’t understand was marked with a question mark. That New Human, or whoever the owner of this book was, was probably completely confused.

However, Lu Xi’an felt he wasn’t much better. He could only roughly understand that these gene clusters and protein metabolic clusters were components of the strain that would affect human evolution.

Perhaps the four directions of New Humans were distinguished from these one, two, three, and four?

Which one pointed to him and Yao Wei? And which ones pointed to Luo Ping and this dead New Human?

But maybe not…

There was clearly more content after this, but because the pages were torn, he couldn’t see it. Maybe there were 5, 6, and 7?

Moreover, the book didn’t specifically explain the connection between them.

Fortunately, the evolutionary classification was finally explained.

Turning to the back of this page, it was the second topic, discussing evolutionary lineages.

Lu Xi’an continued to read:

The currently stable evolutionary lineages are differentiated as Type A, Type B, Type C, and Type D, with each type having a 15% genetic sequence difference:

Type A （ Basic Enhanced Type ）

Significantly increased skeletal muscle density, significantly increased proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers, tendon structure utilizing carbon fiber bio-weave, trabecular bone structure with honeycomb-like titanium composition, joint cavity containing magnetorheological fluid lubrication layer, adjustable iris lens structure, enhanced dynamic vision, cochlear infrasound filtering membrane structure, enhanced sound localization accuracy, automatic noise reduction

Looking at it this way, he and Yao Wei seemed to be Type A, the Basic Enhanced Type. Although he didn’t understand the specifics, judging by these descriptions, it felt like it was talking about powerful strength, and excellent vision and hearing.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t see the rest of the content, as the bottom half of the page was torn off.

Lu Xi’an randomly looked at the question marks everywhere, then turned to the back, where it was written:

This type of enhanced structure is special, and most people cannot tolerate it, or may not evolve completely, leading to issues like excessive metabolism, high consumption intensity, and imbalanced deformities, thus it is excluded.

“Excluded?”

Lu Xi’an immediately frowned.

After this paragraph, there was another big question mark. Lu Xi’an felt the question mark was about to hit his head, and his mind was full of confusion.

“What’s wrong?”

Yao Wei asked.

Lu Xi’an said, “From what I read here, we seem to be Type A, the Basic Enhanced Type, which is a comprehensive enhancement of strength, physical strength, vision, and hearing.”

“But at the end, it lists a bunch of problems and then excluded it…”

“Excluded?!”

Yao Wei also didn’t understand for a moment.

Lu Xi’an thought for a moment and said, “Don’t overthink it, I’ll keep reading. This is a very old book, who knows what context this content was written in?”

“Mhmm.”

Yao Wei nodded. Although she couldn’t understand much, she leaned over to look.

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

Looking at it this way, it does match Luo Ping.

The description of the Near-Death Evolutionary Type was much simpler than the Basic Enhanced Type:

Mitochondria possess a reverse electron transport mechanism, enter a hibernation-like state after cardiac arrest, and ATP generation efficiency increases by 400% within 3 hours after revival from hibernation.

Then there was another paragraph:

The hibernation-like state consumes too much energy, is inconsistent with the current environment, and lacks adaptability. Therefore, it is excluded.

Therefore, excluded…

Excluded again…

And question marks…