The door slid open automatically, and Feng Lin was surprised to see the golden-haired OL woman already standing outside—it was the HR manager, Isabella.
Seeing Feng Lin looking energetic, she gave a charming smile. "Looks like you rested well yesterday. Today is your first day on the job, so I'll show you around the company!"
Feng Lin nodded.
The two walked one after the other into the company interior.
Isabella moved with a seductive grace, her long legs striking and captivating, her hips swaying in a perfect S-curve as she walked, exuding the alluring charm of a mature woman.
Feng Lin, however, didn't notice this. He kept his head down, deep in thought, feeling something was off.
Isabella, as the HR manager of a major company, was personally receiving him—a mere intern geneticist. Wasn't that a bit too much attention?
Feng Lin didn't think he was some extraordinary genius who stood out at first glance, worthy of such regard.
He hoped he was overthinking it.
Descending the escalator, Feng Lin followed Isabella deeper into the company.
In the distance, the rumble of machinery grew louder as they approached.
"First, let's visit Giant Pharmaceutical's nutrient solution manufacturing plant!" Isabella said with a light laugh, leading the way. As they stepped out, a bustling industrial scene unfolded before them.
Machines hummed, and intelligent robots moved among them, handling everything from raw material processing to finished product output in a fully automated assembly line. Without human labor, production was efficient and costs were drastically reduced.
In fact, with current technological advancements, industrial production had long been fully automated, requiring no human workers except in a few fields like gene potions and energy.
Gene potions required manual preparation, so human involvement was essential.
The energy sector had its own reasons.
Humanity's universal energy source was a technological creation called the Tros Super-Pressure Closed Circuit Coil, which stored vast amounts of electricity in a superconducting closed loop. It had a long lifespan, charged quickly, and was clean with no pollution.
The downside was that manufacturing it generated massive electromagnetic waves that interfered with machine operation.
Industrial robots capable of shielding against these waves were prohibitively expensive, each costing a fortune, making them unaffordable for smaller companies.
As a result, many small companies and family factories relied heavily on cheap labor.
If Feng Lin hadn't escaped his family, he might now be working in their energy factory, producing those Tros coils.
Giant Pharmaceutical's factory produced ordinary nutrient solutions, so there were no such complications. It was fully mechanized, churning out batches of about 500 bottles in less than half a second.
To Feng Lin, these weren't just nutrient solutions—they were gleaming star coins.
What was a surefire profit?
This was it!
A low-grade nutrient solution cost 1 star coin per bottle, a mid-grade one dozens of star coins, and high-grade ones hundreds, sometimes even over a thousand.
By Feng Lin's estimate, this factory could produce at least 1,000 low-grade, 100 mid-grade, and 1 high-grade nutrient solution per second.
In a single day, the earnings would be incalculable.
This wasn't producing nutrient solutions; it was printing money.
But that wasn't all. For Giant Pharmaceutical, a monopoly in the solar system's gene potion market, nutrient solutions had too little added value—they were just a basic industry.
The real money came from producing gene potions.
"Over here!" Isabella said with another mysterious smile, leading Feng Lin past the nutrient solution plant to another factory workshop.
Amber-colored transparent potions were being produced, with various bizarre materials crushed into powder and refined into liquid, then bottled into vials.
Finally, tiny needles injected a bit of silver, sand-like substance into each bottle, stirring it evenly.
That was spirit sand!
"This is life potion production!" Feng Lin recognized it and said instinctively.
"Good eye!" Isabella praised. "No wonder you're a genius geneticist at such a young age!"
She didn't stop, continuing to lead Feng Lin forward until they reached a factory that resembled a large laboratory.
Feng Lin saw a group of people in white lab coats focused on mixing potions with handheld tools.
The difference was that their potions weren't entirely handmade. Parts that didn't require spirit substance were mechanically synthesized into semi-finished products. Only the final step—"spirit sensing," which machines couldn't handle—was done manually to adjust the potion's spirit content to its optimal state.
It was undeniably a clever approach.
But after watching for a while, Feng Lin realized this method had its pros and cons.
Since the earlier stages were mechanized, without hands-on work, it was hard to gauge the potion's properties accurately. The spirit-sensing adjustment would be less effective, reducing potency. However, it boosted production efficiency by at least five times.
The quality of individual potions dropped, lowering their price, but the surge in output significantly increased total value.
In short, it was a smart yet slightly underhanded tactic.
Feng Lin also noticed that everyone in white lab coats was a geneticist. He couldn't help asking, "Is this where I'll be working?"
Isabella shook her head with a smile. "No! Feng Lin, after yesterday's interview, all five interviewers agreed that your knowledge of mythology and gene theory is solid. Though your potion-mixing technique is a bit rough, your calm demeanor makes you a rare, high-quality talent. The lead interviewer was Frank, the head of our gene potion R&D department, and he specifically requested you! So after a quick tour of the company, I'll take you to the R&D department to join a research project they're working on!"
"R&D department!" Feng Lin was surprised. This was the core of a high-tech company, and he was being valued enough to join such an important team right away.
Though he didn't know why, being valued at a new company was a good thing.
"What exactly does the R&D department do?" he asked, curious.
"You seem eager. Let's go now and meet your new colleagues!" Isabella chuckled, walking ahead. "Follow me!"
As they walked, she briefed him on the R&D department. "To stay competitive in the market, we must constantly develop new products. So the R&D department mainly studies new gene potions, tests them on lab mice, and once the potion is stable and finalized, we mass-produce it and release it to the market for profit."
Feng Lin nodded along, finding her explanation reasonable and seeing nothing wrong.
A heavy metal door slid open silently, and Feng Lin followed Isabella into a new space.
The walls were made of high-strength alloy, seamless and monolithic.
Geneticists moved about frantically, immersed in intense research. The air was thick with a focused atmosphere.
This was the company's core tech department. If he wanted to learn systematic knowledge about geneticists, the R&D department was the place to be.
Feng Lin nodded, satisfied with the job.
But as his eyes swept the room, he noticed something wrong.
Around the R&D department were sealed glass chambers filled with red liquid. Each contained a naked person floating inside, with masks over their mouths and noses supplying oxygen.
Thin tubes were inserted into their bodies.
The geneticists mixed various bizarre gene potions and injected them into the subjects through the tubes.
The people's faces immediately twisted in pain, their bodies convulsing like lab mice.
Feng Lin's heart sank. He finally understood what Isabella meant by "lab mice."
"Human experimentation!"