In Bai Qi's private underwater laboratory, built for Octavius.
Octavius, who was conducting an experiment, looked up and saw Bai Qi standing opposite his desk. He jumped in surprise, almost dropping the test tube he was holding.
Bai Qi didn't finish his sentence. He first sized up Octavius and said, "You kid, you should go out and get some fresh air sometimes. Don't lock yourself in here doing experiments all day, looking like neither man nor ghost."
It wasn't that Bai Qi was being harsh; Octavius's current appearance was truly striking.
Perhaps it was Octavius's Doc Ock genes acting up.
When Bai Qi built the laboratory for him, Octavius had insisted it be constructed at the bottom of the deep sea, claiming it made him feel secure. Bai Qi had agreed without much thought back then.
Now, it seemed the guy was a complete shut-in tech nerd.
Due to prolonged exposure to the deep sea, his skin was pale. His thin, long hair was tied back in a ponytail to keep it out of the way, and he wore a pair of deep red, round glasses. At first glance, he was the epitome of a mad scientist.
Bai Qi couldn't understand it. Apart from himself, there was no one else in this lab, and his only companion was an octopus kept in a fish tank.
With no one to talk to and being in the dark depths of the sea, any ordinary person would have gone mad, let alone conduct research. How had this guy managed it?
"I just felt it was a waste of time, boss. As you know, my research has reached a critical stage, and I'm too busy to leave."
Bai Qi waved his hand and said, "Forget it, forget it. Stop your work and show me the results of your research these past few days."
Upon hearing that Bai Qi wanted to see his research findings, Octavius's spirits immediately lifted.
After all, as a scientist, the greatest hope was to have their creations recognized by others.
Moreover, the other party was his biggest and only benefactor; the funding for his research came from his pocket.
However, these were not the most important things. The most crucial was that the other party had offered him something he absolutely could not refuse: knowledge.
Bai Qi had obtained all the technology of a starfaring civilization from Karl. Upon returning, he had divided it into several parts and handed some to Octavius for research.
But this was, after all, the technology of a starfaring civilization. Now, it was being given to a scientist from a pre-nuclear civilization. Even if it was only a portion, the knowledge it encompassed was still beyond ordinary imagination.
For the first half a month after receiving it, Octavius had studied and researched almost non-stop.
He was like a sponge, desperately absorbing knowledge to fill himself up.
Fortunately, Bai Qi had visited later and stopped him, using the magic of the Horse Talisman to treat him. Otherwise, the guy might have worked himself to death.
"Boss, please come this way."
Led by Octavius, they arrived at a room resembling a warehouse.
As the metal door opened, rows of three-dimensional metal tanks appeared before Bai Qi.
"Boss, please come in."
Inside these metal tanks were humans, animals, mutated creatures, bio-mechanical constructs, and even extraterrestrial beings.
That's right, after dividing the data, Bai Qi had given Octavius the parts concerning biology and genetics.
Octavius first walked to a tank containing a mutated creature. He picked up a tablet from the table, turned it on, and handed it to Bai Qi.
Taking the tablet, Bai Qi saw Octavius walk to the tank containing a goblin and say, "Boss, by applying external stimuli to the goblin's brain, I successfully increased its mental coverage area by 15% and its knowledge storage capacity by 10%."
"Mm."
Bai Qi nodded and looked at the tablet in his hand.
As Octavius spoke, all the corresponding information appeared on the tablet simultaneously.
Then, Octavius moved to the adjacent tank containing an electric eel and said, "And the electric eels, the latest improved electric eels, their power generation efficiency can be increased by 45% compared to before."
"And this... this, and this..."
Octavius cheerfully reported and introduced them to Bai Qi one by one.
Soon, after finishing the introduction of mutated creatures, Octavius moved to the human section.
"Who is this guy..."
Looking at the brown-haired Caucasian man immersed in the tank, Bai Qi felt a sense of familiarity, but couldn't quite place it.
Seeing this, Octavius quickly introduced, "Boss, this is a clone I cultivated using Spider-Man's genes. I call him Scarlet Spider-Man."
"Scarlet Spider-Man? How does he compare to the original Spider-Man?"
Octavius hurriedly replied, "In all aspects, Scarlet Spider-Man surpasses the original Spider-Man. Also, please look."
As he spoke, Octavius operated the panel in front of the tank.
A current was released from the tank, directly affecting the clone.
*Swoosh!*
A bone spur, about two palms long, shot out from Scarlet Spider-Man's wrist.
"Compared to the original, Scarlet Spider-Man has extremely durable bone spurs on his wrists, and he also possesses extremely strong regenerative abilities."
Next, Bai Qi saw many clones of superheroes and villains in other tanks, such as the Fantastic Four, the founding members of the Justice League except Superman and Green Lantern, and in the Avengers, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor, Hulk, and so on.
Of course, for beings like Hulk and Thor, Octavius's abilities were not sufficient for a complete clone. In fact, these were clones created by recombining gene samples collected from many mutants, superheroes, villains, and even animals.
For example, Thor was based on a mutant with electrical abilities, with his physical strength and durability enhanced, and a special material hammer given as a weapon.
"Mm."
Looking at the various clones and duplicates, Bai Qi said, "Alright, release one of them in the next few days to test the waters. Have them eliminate the original and take their place. Oh, and don't forget to install a backdoor in all of them. I don't want to end up with a bunch of uncontrollable toys."
"Yes, I'll go do it right away."
"Wait."
Bai Qi stopped Octavius and said, "There's no rush for this matter. You can take your time. This."
Bai Qi placed a test tube of blood sample on the desk and said, "I need you to cultivate a clone from this blood sample. Here is her information."
Taking the information from Bai Qi's hand, Octavius glanced through it and then looked at Bai Qi with a puzzled expression and asked, "Boss, this is just an ordinary human girl with no superpowers. Is it really necessary to clone her?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Octavius regretted it, wishing he could slap himself.
The boss had given an order, and he should just do it, why all the questions.