Chapter 4668: Successful Pursuits

The two girls had a lot to catch up on. Though Ria was mostly inquiring into what her friend had been up to, since they both knew what Ria had been doing for the past six months. Surprisingly, Misha expressed a modest amount of enthusiasm as she described what she had been up to, which meant that she was extremely excited.

"I recently received approval for an original research project that I have pioneered," Misha informed Ria with a tinge of pride in her otherwise monotonous voice, something that was very unusual for the older girl. "I have also received a generous grant and stipend and have gained permission to access most of the research laboratory facilities in the biotechnology department of Greater Tekvoria."

"Wow," Ria said, raising her eyebrows. She was not familiar with the world of academics and research, but that did sound like quite the accomplishment for someone as young as Misha. In the world of Gaia, where longevity was not unusual, competition in academics and research for resources and funds was extremely intense and ruthless. The fact that a young hybrid managed to break through and get her own funded research project was commendable.

"What are you researching, out of curiosity?"

Misha had been waiting for the question. "Do you remember the macrobes that we ran into in our first infected world, Pinky?"

Ria nodded. She could never forget. It was a shame that they had to be destroyed; she liked Bob the macrobe that she had met there. But unfortunately, she didn’t have much of a choice, especially considering the dire circumstances they were in. But they had collected a lot of samples and research data, and evidently Misha had put them to good use.

"I used the insights I gained from them and pioneered a new field of hemotechnology," she explained with an unusual eagerness. "I leveraged the organic carbon-carbon compression and the electromagnetic gaussian gaseous diffusion systems that I observed in the macrobes and am aiming to synthesize human hemoglobin that is much more volumetrically efficient than existing hemoglobin in any of our species."

Ria hadn’t the faintest idea what she was talking about. She was knowledgeable on biology, as many modern Martial Artists were thanks to the introduction of the neural inlay and enhanced learning capacities, but she still had no idea what her friend was talking about.

"...all that to say, that blood will become stronger in the future."

Ria felt into thought. "Looks like the hemosapiens are going to get stronger. Aunt Arastia will surely be very happy."

She felt sad that her aunt wasn’t here. She was still on the front lines, fighting the arakai Web of War head-on.

"Not just the hemosapiens," Misha corrected. "But all races and pathwalkers. Everybody has blood and needs blood. Most likely, this will enhance future Martial Bodies, potentially up to fifty percent, depending on how well my research pans out."

That made Ria raise an eyebrow. She knew that modern Martial Bodies were highly engineered biotechnological products that were the result of cutting-edge biotechnology. To be able to enhance them by half was game-changing. Future Martial Bodies would be far stronger than they were in the past.

She knew that this was normal, of course. Martial Bodies always grew stronger and stronger. Modern Martial Squires were far stronger than Martial Squires of her father’s generation, closer to olden Martial Seniors in power. Her Martial Body had long grown outdated, even though she had access to the best of the best technology thanks to her status as princess.

"You must be excited."

"I am," Misha nodded. "If I succeed, I will be honored for my contributions. I might even get locked in for a professor role at the biotech department in the Tekvorian Institute of Technology. I’ll have access to all facilities and laboratories in the entire continent free of cost. I’ll have access to grants galore."

"Do you really need grants?" Ria raised an eyebrow. "You still have stock from EsoQuest Solutions. You know we’ve made trillions at this point, right?"

Misha heaved a sigh. "I know, but we’ve also become extremely targeted. We’ve decimated entire industries in just half a year. The infection hunting industry is dead. The complementary sectors and markets corresponding to it are also dead. We’ve earned the ire of many powerful people. You are the princess of Kandria and daughter of the Emperor of Water. Not to mention a powerful Martial Sage. But I’m nobody. I will be hunted alive if I try to sell those shares in the market or use my share of the large sums of revenue, since I’ll have to disclose where the income came from."

"Then how about we have EsoQuest Solutions sponsor your research?" Ria asked simply. "It shouldn’t be too eye-drawing, since we have a rich R&D department, though it’s mostly a red herring. I don’t think people will go out of their way to antagonize Greater Tekvoria, especially since Lord Argenton broke through to Transcendence, just to kill a researcher who got some money from our company."

Misha hadn’t considered that. "...That can work, actually. We should set that up."

"We should."

"We can do that later. Enough about me, tell me about you." Misha turned towards Ria with expectation in her cybernetic eyes. "I want to know what kind of worlds you’ve visited and what kind of alien life you saw. In the future, they may inspire new projects once I’m done with the current one I just started."

An hour passed as Ria enthusiastically shared with Misha the many stories she had on her. It caused the hemosapien tekvore to look conflicted. Although she certainly didn’t regret the choices she had made—leaving the party and focusing on research—she would be lying if she said she wasn’t moved.

Ria’s tales were almost fantastical, but Misha knew that they were real. She only regretted that she wasn’t strong enough to keep up with Ria, which had been the reason she chose to drop out. The helplessness she felt against the guardian of the manifold tree on Planet Pinky had made her realize that she was not up to the task.