"I can’t seem to find anything special in the composition... Where are your research notes? Let see them, ow."
After recording the data, Haibara ow unceremoniously extended her small paw toward Indigo, who was still clinging to Sherwin leg.
Eager for Sherwin and the others to join them imdiately, Indigo didn’t hesitate for a second. He leaped up from the floor and dashed toward the staircase at the far end of the flower bed.
"Please wait a mont! I’ll go get them for you right away!"
Accompanied by the "puji puji" sound of his footsteps, Indigo rushed into the laboratory upstairs. Amidst a series of clatters and chaotic noises, he quickly ran back clutching a stack of manuscripts and placed them before Haibara ow.
"These are the records I made while developing SIQ, along with observation logs of several experintal subjects that showed excellent evolutionary directions. The remaining logs for the other subjects are a bit nurous if you’re interested, you can go to my lab later and look through them at your leisure."
In truth, Indigo, like Shiki, did not believe a small kitten like Haibara ow could actually discern anything from them, but...
Those top-tier research facilities and materials obtained from Punk Hazard were simply too enticing!
Therefore, even though he didn’t think Haibara ow could understand his research notes, Indigo showed no impatience or contempt. Instead, he put on an act of being a humble student seeking guidance.
Perhaps because his "studious" expression was too realistic, Haibara ow felt inclined to offer so pointers while flipping through the notes.
The kitten skillfully took out her Panda brand gold-rimd glasses and put them on. She flipped forward a few pages in the research notes she held and pointed at a section of text.
"You were trying to further enhance the strength and aggression of the subjects here, right, ow? Replacing the Hot Kiss Fruit with Twilight Flowers would yield better results. As for the side effects of the Twilight Flowers, you only need to add a small amount of Umbrella leaves, ow."
Before Indigo could recover from the shock of Haibara ow easily understanding his research notes, he heard the optimization plan she provided.
As soone whose scientific capabilities were not lacking, he only needed to think for a brief mont to realize there was no issue with her proposal, and furthermore...
It was indeed more brilliant than his own thod.
"..."
Indigo, already shaken by Link ow, was struck once more—this ti in the domain of his professional pride, a far heavier blow.
As Haibara ow casually pointed out several more areas for improvent and imdiately provided superior alternatives, Dr. Indigo fell into a profound silence. The comical grin that usually defined his face had long since vanished.
Maybe... maybe I should actually defect to the Hunter...
The thought suddenly sprouted in Indigo mind.
After all, Sherwin side possessed top-tier equipnt, the knowledge reserves of the World Governnt and Vegapunk, and a scientist whose abilities far exceeded his own. Even in terms of combat power, the Felyne Investigation Team was clearly superior...
The legendary Great Pirate Shiki and the Flying Pirate Crew he had once dedicated his life to suddenly lost their luster.
While Indigo wrestled with the idea of jumping ship, Haibara ow finished scanning the SIQ developnt notes and the observation log of a high-performing experintal subject.
She carefully returned the research materials to their place, and then...
"Crude, inefficient, and most importantly... the fundantal research direction of this SIQ is utterly moronic, ow!"
(︶︿︶)
The kitten wore a look of pure disdain, launching a rciless verbal assault.
"Wh-What?!"
Having his twenty years of life work dismissed so contemptuously, even a wavering Indigo couldn’t help but explode in rage.
"I admit you are highly skilled in pharmacological research, but you cannot simply belittle my life work like this!"
Shiki expression beside them was equally unsightly, considering he had been the sole benefactor of this research for years.
If Haibara ow truly was just an inexperienced child acting out, as he had previously assud, it wouldn’t matter. But seeing Indigo current state, there was no way her critique was re child play.
That made the situation even worse.
Did this imply that his nearly twenty years of patience and effort were all for naught?
No, that wasn’t right. The strength of those evolved beasts was real, so his work couldn’t be called useless. It likely just failed to et the expectations of Sherwin—or rather, this little kitten nad Haibara.
Even so, the outlook remained grim. Shiki had originally intended to use this research to entice Sherwin into an alliance, but if Sherwin actually deferred to this kitten opinion, wouldn’t the plan for a union fall through?
As a great pirate who had weathered countless storms, Shiki quickly suppressed his irritation. He forced a smile a kindly as possible and asked Haibara ow, "Can you tell why you say that? What exactly is wrong with Indigo research?"
"Guiding animals to evolve toward higher combat power isn’t inherently an issue ow, but sacrificing their sanity just to boost that strength is simply too stupid ow."
┑(￣Д￣)┍
Her interest piqued, Haibara ow didn’t mince words. She spread her tiny paws and pointed out the fatal flaw of the SIQ drug with piercing accuracy.
"Mister, you are the captain of a pirate crew, so let ask you: which would you choose ow? A group of subordinates who follow orders but are slightly weaker, or a group of uncontrollable beasts who are only marginally stronger?"
Despite his face turning a shade of iron blue, Shiki answered honestly, "The first kind."
Even though his primary goal for these beasts was destruction, controlled destruction was always more efficient, even if the raw power was slightly lower.
"Exactly," Haibara ow shook her head helplessly. "Setting aside the fact that ordinary animals can be trained to follow simple commands, given that IQ has the property to intervene in the direction of evolution, it shouldn’t be difficult to create an animal army with sufficient intelligence ow, right?"
Shiki and Indigo both knew that Haibara ow speculation was not nonsense, because they already had a successful case—a sowhat lecherous gorilla that, aside from being unable to speak, was essentially no different from a human.
Precisely because of this, the expressions of the two n beca even more unsightly. Why had they never considered this issue in nearly twenty years?
"I... I just wanted to increase the combat power of those animals as much as possible..."
Indigo still wanted to struggle, forcing an explanation to Haibara ow.
However, the kitten just curled her lip in disdain. "If you could enhance their strength significantly by doing this, it wouldn’t be a problem ow. But this power you traded their sanity for only increased by about 13%, didn’t it? In this situation, a combat force that maintains its sanity and can follow commands would only be stronger ow."
"No... it was only about 8%, with the highest one reaching 11%."
Indigo replied sowhat dejectedly.
"Oh..."
Haibara ow imdiately understood. "It seems your purification equipnt and technology here are also quite diocre ow."
"Puji, puji."
Dr. Indigo clutched his chest and staggered back a few steps.
This wasn’t over yet Haibara ow continued, "Furthermore, you could completely manufacture sothing like berserk potions and place them on those animals. When you need them to go berserk and increase their power, you could activate them remotely. This way, the gap between the two would shrink further, or perhaps even be overtaken, and it would be much more flexible in terms of tactics ow."
Once this proposal was brought forth, it essentially invalidated nearly all of Indigo hard work over the past decade. His body swayed slightly before all strength seed to drain from him, and he collapsed onto the ground with a heavy thud. The expression on his face was a distorted mask, sowhere between a smile and a sob.
It was clear that this unlucky fellow had been pushed into a state of ntal trance by Haibara ow devastating critique.
...
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