Ren Yuanyang shook his head. "My body is just special. Don’t any of you dare try this!"
Xin Wan was even more surprised. "So that’s how it is!"
"Alright, let’s hurry up and pull this octopus out!" Ren Yuanyang ordered.
Everyone worked together and pulled the octopus out of the water.
"It’s huge!" Qin Haonan’s eyes widened in amazement as he stared at the octopus, which was piled up like a small hill.
"Chief, can we tame this thing as a pet?" Yu Ren asked immediately. "Just like that electric eel."
Ren Yuanyang glanced at the octopus’s size and shook his head. "My Mental Energy isn’t strong enough to tame it yet."
At present, Ren Yuanyang’s Mental Energy had a range of less than forty meters, while the octopus before them was nearly fifty meters long.
"So, we have no choice but to butcher it?" Yu Ren licked his lips. ’Meat from an evolved octopus like this has got to be delicious!’
The octopus was only stunned, not dead. If it were to wake up, it would pose a threat to the base.
The electric eel couldn’t keep discharging electricity without rest, which made the downtime rather dangerous.
Eating Evolutionary Animal Meat also helped increase Mental Energy, so Ren Yuanyang nodded. "Yes. Put it out of its misery before it wakes up."
"Alrighty!" Yu Ren produced a chainsaw from out of nowhere and fired it up.
Qin Haonan froze for a second. "You came prepared for this, didn’t you!"
"A body this big means it’s highly evolved. This is a great chance to boost our Mental Energy. Don’t tell me you’re not tempted?" Yu Ren retorted as he started sawing off the octopus’s tentacles.
Qin Haonan nodded immediately. "Of course I am!"
"Then stop thinking and start doing! Let’s get this thing carved up. We’re having an octopus feast tonight!" Yu Ren urged.
Qin Haonan nodded, grabbed another chainsaw from one of the other ships, and started helping to carve up the octopus.
Seeing that they had already removed all the octopus’s tentacles, Ren Yuanyang left, reassured. He let them handle the rest of the work.
Naturally, Xin Wan stayed behind to supervise the butchering. When it came to matters of food, she was the real expert.
The Aircraft Carrier Base and Peach Blossom Base weren’t the only ones to be attacked by marine creatures. Other bases, fleets, and even scattered survivors were all under assault.
The regional channel lit up with discussion.
"What’s going on? Are all the sea creatures rampaging at once?"
"I know, right? The ocean is massive now. Why do they have to pick on my little boat?!"
"Damn it, my boat’s been breached! Somebody, help me!"
"Even if someone could rescue you, they wouldn’t make it in time! You have to save yourself! Patch it up and try to survive this wave!"
"The sea creatures keep attacking! I can’t finish the repairs! I just can’t keep up!"
"Thankfully, I made it to the Aircraft Carrier Base. With the help of their patrol team, I finally fought off the marine creatures attacking me. A huge thanks to the base for their protection and help!"
"You’re that lucky? I’m too far from the Aircraft Carrier Base. I don’t have the strength to row all the way there!"
After seeing the discussion, Wang Jun thought for a moment, then immediately made an announcement: "The Aircraft Carrier Base is now recruiting personnel specializing in aerospace. If you have this expertise, you can contact our base directly. After confirmation, we can dispatch a team to escort you here! These professionals and their families will be provided with food and housing at the Aircraft Carrier Base!"
Time was tight and the mission was critical. To develop a spacecraft within five months, they needed to gather all the aerospace talent they could find. This marine creature uprising was an opportunity.
"Holy shit, those benefits are incredible!"
"I regret it so much. Why didn’t I major in aerospace?!"
"Are you kidding me? It’s the end of the world! Are they still so obsessed with academic credentials?"
"If not their credentials, then what do you suggest they look at? The Aircraft Carrier Base is obviously trying to build a Cosmic Spaceship. You want them to get farmers to build it?"
"What? You look down on farmers?"
"You’re great at changing the subject. When did I say I look down on farmers? We’re discussing whether you need credentials to do scientific research!"
"I have a master’s in aerospace, I’m going to the Aircraft Carrier Base!"
"For real? That’s my major too! Requesting Captain Wang to send a team to pick me up!"
"Don’t even think about lying. The Aircraft Carrier Base will conduct interviews. You can imagine the consequences if you try to deceive them!"
"Ah! There’s an interview?! Never mind then. I just went to a vocational school and learned how to operate an excavator!"
After weeding out the survivors who were just trying to take advantage of the situation, Wang Jun and his team actually found some real aerospace talent.
Wang Jun immediately arranged for teams to retrieve them and assigned them all to the laboratory.
Seeing the Aircraft Carrier Base’s move, other bases quickly began to follow suit.
For a while, all the bases were scrambling to recruit aerospace talent.
But most of the talent still chose the Aircraft Carrier Base. After all, the other fleets were complete unknowns; people didn’t even know if they’d be able to get a proper meal there.
The Aircraft Carrier Base seemed more reliable. After all, they didn’t confiscate cell phones, and most survivors’ reviews of it were positive.
At Peach Blossom Base, Xin Wan supervised Qin Haonan and Yu Ren as they butchered the octopus, a task that took them the entire night to complete.
The next day, after their morning lessons, Ren Yuanyang had Qin Haonan deliver the newly enhanced dizzy fish grass seeds to Dawn Base, along with the Poison Fish Vine.
Of course, this also included meat from the giant octopus harvested the day before—ten kilograms in total.
That morning, Xin Wan had cooked some of the octopus meat on an iron griddle. It was tender with a pleasant, springy texture, and was exceptionally delicious.
After eating the octopus meat, Ren Yuanyang distinctly felt a warm current spreading from his stomach to every corner of his body.
’This giant octopus meat really works wonders!’ Ren Yuanyang remarked, then immediately began his Cultivation.
Sure enough, the rate at which his Mental Energy increased had jumped up another notch.
Qin Haonan soon arrived at Dawn Base. He handed the seeds and herbs to Long Zhan, and finally presented a large package of meat. "The Chief asked me to bring you this octopus meat."
"Octopus meat? You caught an octopus?" Long Zhan asked curiously.
Qin Haonan replied with a smile, "It attacked us while we were salvaging supplies, but we managed to take it down."
Long Zhan paused, stunned, then immediately opened the package. He glanced at the chunks of meat inside and exclaimed, "This piece of tentacle is thicker than my torso! Just how big was this octopus?"
"It wasn’t small, that’s for sure. Yu Ren and I spent the better part of last night just breaking it down," Qin Haonan said with a slight nod.
"An octopus that big... how did you manage to catch it?" Ji Yizhi asked curiously.
After all, when the Aircraft Carrier Base and Dawn Base had been attacked by marine creatures, they had only been able to repel them, not actually kill one.
To hunt and kill an evolved marine creature of that size was no feat for an ordinary base.
"It was mainly thanks to the Chief’s pet electric eel. It stunned the octopus, and we just dragged it up and butchered it before it could wake up," Qin Haonan explained.
"What kind of electric eel can stun an octopus that massive?" Ji Yizhi’s eyes widened. "That eel must be no ordinary Evolutionary Form!"
"Of course not. To be our Chief’s pet, an ordinary Evolutionary Form wouldn’t be worthy," Qin Haonan replied matter-of-factly. "I remember the Chief mentioning it once. I think he said it can discharge two hundred times per second, with a maximum voltage of ten thousand volts."
"Ten thousand volts!" Ji Yizhi exclaimed. "No wonder it could stun an octopus that big!"
Looking at their astonished faces, Qin Haonan gloated inwardly. ’I just love seeing you guys look like you’ve never seen anything like this before.’
But he had to feign modesty.
"It’s not that amazing. The main limitation is the duration of each discharge, and it needs time to recover afterward."
Long Zhan exclaimed in awe, "Forget about the limited duration! A single discharge of over ten thousand volts is enough to solve almost any problem!"
Qin Haonan nodded. "That’s true. The Chief said that eating this octopus meat is good for increasing Mental Energy. You should eat it and then go into Cultivation. The effects are very noticeable."
Hearing this, both Long Zhan’s and Ji Yizhi’s eyes lit up.
"Understood! Thank you, Minister Qin, and thank our Master!" Long Zhan and Ji Yizhi said in unison, cupping their fists.
Qin Haonan waved his hand. "Don’t thank me. It was the Chief who was thinking of you."
Long Zhan nodded slightly, remarking with renewed emotion, "Master is truly too good to us."
"As long as you understand. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be heading back," Qin Haonan said. "Be sure to get those fish-repelling plants to the Aircraft Carrier Base quickly."
"Right away!"

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