A few seconds later, an incredibly unbelievable scene unfolded.
Within seconds, the tiny seed sprouted, grew, and blossomed into a large, red zinnia in the mud.
And just as the flower seed was rapidly growing and blooming, the monitor showed that all the pollutants in the glass box were being purified at a visible speed. The air inside the box became clear, and the sticky sludge and accumulated pollutants bubbled as they transformed back into natural soil.
Soon after, a white mouse was placed in the terrarium. Just as Karen had expected, it ran around energetically inside.
Hayden stared in astonishment at the scene unfolding on the monitor.
"This is a genetically modified magic flower that I discovered, extracted, improved, and personally formulated from those sewers."
Karen's tone was calm, but her voice gradually filled with a solemn and dignified quality.
"Hayden, do you know what it means for you to witness this now?"
073: You gave me a peach in return
Karen asked Hayden if he knew what it meant to witness this scene.
That's a really good question, because it means so much.
First and foremost, of course, is the significance of this genetically modified magical flower itself.
It is no exaggeration to say that this flower has the power to potentially change the world.
It was invented by Karen in her own private laboratory, meaning that even if the cost is high, it won't be exorbitantly priced, and it has the potential for mass production.
And this is a plant—a plant! A magically genetically modified flower seed that will immediately grow and bloom once planted, absorbing pollution and purifying the earth!
A magical flower with high-speed environmental purification capabilities that can be mass-produced industrially.
Its potential was enough to astound Hayden.
Some might wonder, upon hearing this, isn't the purifying power of these flower seeds ultimately Angela's doing? Hayden certainly knew this too. He still remembered the scene from six months ago when Angela fought the Vajrapani in the underground of the abandoned industrial zone. Because her left arm was damaged, the circulating fluid dripped into the sewers, purifying the filth and toxins in the earth's water and air, causing various flowers and plants to grow rapidly.
If this hadn't happened, Hayden and his group probably wouldn't have realized that they couldn't defeat the Vajra God by using the power of the earth's vein essence.
If that's the case, why is Hayden so surprised? Karen probably just picked up the flowers and plants that Angela conjured up on the battlefield and used them as a base to develop the current magical flower seeds, right?
However, that's exactly why Hayden was surprised.
Karen actually accomplished something even Hayden couldn't—mass-producing and replicating Angela's mysterious powers!!
Angela was always bouncing around in Hayden's house, and Hayden couldn't analyze her power or replicate her energy properties. He could only use her as a perpetual motion machine through brute force. The potions he developed using Angela's aura were basically things that only Hayden himself could make.
His ideal, his goal, is to develop a healing potion that anyone can afford, anyone can use, and that can be mass-produced. Angela's power is currently just a black box and cannot meet Hayden's requirements.
As it turns out, Kallen simply picked up some flowers and plants that Angela had conjured in the sewers, analyzed them, and replicated magical flower seeds with purifying powers, even being able to mass-produce them. How could Hayden possibly accept this?!
Although Hayden didn't have as much money as Karen, nor did he have such advanced and expensive research equipment, he was still furious and ashamed when he thought about it!
hateful!
On the other hand, Karen surprisingly didn't hide this new technology from Hayden. Although it was a chance encounter, she showed Hayden the magical flower seed without hesitation. Honestly, Hayden knew he couldn't have trusted her to do the same. Even if he saw a miraculous new technology, he wouldn't so readily share it with his friend.
It's important to understand that this magical flower seed, capable of purifying nature and even being mass-produced, is not a new technology that should be ignored, even by those high-ranking corporations. Angela could influence the entire North American market simply by breathing into the ley lines of New Seattle. While Karen's magical flower seed may seem far inferior to Angela's in scale and output, it is both mass-producible and a plant, making its significance and uses entirely different.
If such new technology and such secrets were to come to the attention of those large companies, even though Kallen is a god, they would probably find it difficult to live in peace afterward.
However, she simply showed the flower seeds to Hayden.
More precious than gold—that's an understatement! A new technology powerful enough to impact the global energy market—and Karen just casually showed it to Hayden!
Hayden could say he felt honored, but this went far beyond mere honor; the trust he showed far exceeded that of a normal friend.
Karen just asked him, "Do you know what it means for you to witness this now?"
Therefore, Hayden could only answer in this way:
"Hmm, you want to recruit me?"
Karen immediately retorted, "That's a really harsh thing to say."
But she still turned around and looked intently at Hayden.
"In order to become independent from the company and from the family, I need strength, especially the strength of talent. Juliet and the others are talents I found from college graduates who have skills but are being pressured by their families to get married. Although they are useful, they have their limitations."
Hayden scratched the back of his head: "Simply put, you can only recruit generic generals, so you want to recruit me, a rare free agent?"
"Do you have to describe it this way?! Have you been playing games all day lately?!"
But that's really how it is.
Hayden sighed, somewhat annoyed.
It's embarrassing to say, but he's the kind of person who'll repay kindness tenfold. Someone who gives Hayden a hundred dollars for free rarely ends up not getting at least a hundred and fifty dollars back from him.
"Give me a peach, and I'll repay you with a plum." Karen had practically given him a live demonstration of what it means to trust a friend. Shouldn't Hayden reciprocate with something wonderful?
Moreover, Karen's genius and wisdom, and the magical flower seeds she developed, may contain the power to realize Hayden's ideals, or even to change the world and the lives of everyone in the world!
Isn't the realization of his dream already within reach?
Karen had done everything she could to press the "trust" button on Hayden. Shouldn't Hayden do the same?
But on the other hand—despite Karen's trust in him, could Hayden trust her in the same way? Could he reveal all his secrets to Karen?
Can't you do it? At least not right now.
This may sound heartless, but... she is, after all, a god.
Karen is a god with the purest bloodline, even more advanced than Alicia and others.
Even if she is rebellious now, even if she now has pity and goodwill towards the common people, wasn't Mithra originally the hero who liberated the world from the feudal enslavement of the old gods?
One must be wary of enemies, but even more so of friends.
Moreover, Hayden knew very well that if he collaborated with Karen to research and develop this purifying flower, Angela, who was currently hiding behind him, would be exposed sooner or later.
Kallen has even successfully analyzed a small portion of Angela's power. If this world-changing power falls entirely into the hands of the gods… well…
Karen had no idea what Hayden was wondering about at that moment.
"Speaking of which, after seeing what happened to Boss Soch recently, I was thinking that human lifespan is just too short. Without the potion of rejuvenation, it's only a short hundred years."
As she was speaking, she suddenly looked away from Hayden.
"...You're thirty years old this year after all, so I thought I'd give you special employee treatment. As long as you come here and help me now, I'll cover your rejuvenation potion expenses from now on. Otherwise, when you're seventy or eighty and want to ask me for the rejuvenation potion, the cost will be even higher, right? At that time, I'll have to ask you to give me half of your wealth as an offering..."
Hayden stopped.
He turned to look at her, his expression starting to look a little strange.
...Something about what she said just doesn't sound quite right?
“Miss Karen, don’t you think that sounds a bit like, uh…”
Karen did not answer.
Her expression suddenly changed. As if in a daze, she stared intently at the monitor on the wall, ignoring Hayden.
Following Karen's gaze, Hayden was also stunned.
It's unclear when it started, but the little white mouse in the terrarium has stopped jumping around. It huddled in the corner of the box, trembling slightly and coughing incessantly. And with each cough, the trembling of the little white mouse's body became more and more violent.
“It’s turned into this again…” Karen murmured, her face turning pale. “This problem should have been solved already…”
The next instant, accompanied by a violent vomiting sound, the white mouse vomited everything inside its stomach.
Everything literally, including its own internal organs. For some reason, all the internal organs it vomited up turned green. After vomiting everything out of its body, the white mouse was left with only its collapsed, flattened body and limbs still trembling.
Karen, her face ashen, slammed down the red button on the control panel. A dazzling flame immediately erupted inside the eco-box, brief yet intense, instantly reducing everything inside, dead or alive, to ashes.
A terrifying silence fell over the entire laboratory. Hayden didn't dare breathe and stood motionless.
"...Is that poison?"
After a long pause, he finally couldn't resist his curiosity and asked,
"That's some kind of magical poison reaction, isn't it?"
Karen's face immediately turned even uglier.
"Correct."
But she still answered, her tone very steady.
"Out of ten genetic modifications, probably one or two will turn out like this. Technology that is still under development is bound to fail, but obviously it cannot be put into practical use like this."
If, during actual use, things suddenly turn out like they did just now, would people walking on the land purified by the flowers also be poisoned like the white mice, vomiting out their internal organs and dying?
That's a bit terrifying to think about. It would be even more terrifying if this happened after the whole world was covered in these purifying flowers. That would truly be a world-changing force.
So Hayden quickly said, "We can solve problems slowly. It's not unusual for new drug development to take ten or twenty years, especially since this is a technology that can change the world."
These words did not seem to improve Karen's mood. However, she still turned around and said solemnly, "That's precisely why I wanted to ask you to help me with my research."
Hayden ruffled his messy hair: "I'm not a professional in magical plants, so my level in this area is miles behind yours."
Karen shook her head: "It's not just a matter of professional skill. Let me be frank—I value your intuition highly. Even back in college, your intuition was adept at skipping the process and getting straight to the answer. I've always suspected you have a talent for prophecy."
Is this considered a compliment? You gods shouldn't treat people like charlatans.
But in any case, Hayden would find it difficult to directly refuse this trust and this request.
However, when Karen saw that Hayden remained silent for a long time, she understood what was going on and finally sighed.
"Alright, let's call it a day. It's not in a rush anyway, we'll contact you later."
Hayden was thus ushered out of the lab. Hayden considered whether he should talk to her a little longer, but Karen didn't even try to fake a smile.
After leaving the flower shop, Hayden stood at the entrance for a while, feeling a mix of emotions.
Now, the question Hayden needs to ask himself is no longer anything else, but whether he knows Karen well enough to predict her actions and thoughts, and whether he can trust Karen to make choices and act in the future.
Since he has been frequently stunned by Karen's actions lately, the answer is obviously "no".
Ultimately, Hayden didn't really understand Karen that well, nor did he truly trust her, at least not at the moment. It was similar to how he didn't fully understand or trust his old classmate Adam. A year ago, how could he have imagined that Adam harbored such thoughts?
By the same token, Hayden cannot fully trust Karen's methods, nor can he fully trust the technology she has developed. Of course, this doesn't mean Hayden suspects her of evil, but it's not simply a matter of good and evil…
In short, Hayden still has many questions about Karen now, and he wants to understand her better. This will take some time.
On another note, Hayden felt something was off about the mouse's reaction. It looked like it had been poisoned, with a strange magical toxin, but why would it be poisonous? The plants grown from Angela's aura purification obviously wouldn't release toxins; otherwise, Hayden and Yolanda would have been dead, if not the War Gods.
Could it be that Karen made a mistake when she was copying those flowers and plants?
Hayden couldn't figure out the answer on his own right now, but it wasn't a good time to stay any longer. The young female shop assistants had probably already gossiped about his identity and were watching him from afar, whispering amongst themselves. Hayden quickly turned and left, casting a spell to fly home.
Angela already knew Hayden had gone to see Karen, and she was quite happy to see him return: "Welcome home! Did Master and Miss Karen get along better today?"
I really don't know why she cares so much about this.
Even the usually cheerful Angela frowned after hearing Hayden recount what he had witnessed at the flower shop: "Poison?"
Hayden nodded: "Do you have any clue about this? I really find it hard to imagine why your aura would cause this result."
He had conducted countless experiments using Angela's scent over the past six months and had never encountered anything like this before.
Angela thought hard for three minutes, then shook her head: "I'm sorry, but I can't think of anything. I can't possibly cause any poisoning reaction."
Impossible?
"Even reasons like drug-toxicity homology or excessive absorption are impossible?"
Out of curiosity, Hayden asked this question.
But Angela still shook her head firmly: "Impossible. This is not something my power can cause."
That sounds really strange.
However, since Angela had said so, Hayden decided to believe her for the time being. If that's the case, could it be that Karen added new elements to the plants produced by Angela's aura, leading to the strange result?
Considering Karen's ability to mass-produce these flowers, the answer should be the latter. How could she possibly mass-produce products imbued with Angela's aura out of thin air without her own analysis and modification? The fundamental materials are completely different, aren't they?
Just to be on the safe side, and also out of curiosity, Hayden sent Karen another message to sound her out:
"By the way, although it's not ready to be used yet, have you named that purifying flower?"
A name is power, and therefore a name can be used to glimpse the essence of things. Karen certainly wouldn't give this flower a completely irrelevant and awful name. That would only diminish its magic.
Sabnikoff
Karen quickly replied on her phone with these words.
Sabnikoff?