Chapter 199 The Spirit Moth
"Sorry. Can't help you." Professor Lume said.
"Huh? Why not? The college should have enough power and influence to remove all of these articles."
"It does…but it won't. You do realize that there hasn't been a young planner as anticipated as you. There are new beast-tamer geniuses every year that appear at the national competition. However, you and your gift are one of a kind. The more publicity there is about you, the better the school looks. I've heard the last couple days the Chancellor has been holding gatherings to play Warlords."
Warlords is an ancient strategy game comparable to Go and chess back on Earth. It's not that popular among the younger generation, but it is a common pastime for elderly nobles.
"From what I heard he's even invited the Chancellors of the other four major colleges, likely to rub it in that he has something that they do not—or someone. Of course, none of them have come. However, everyone among the higher-level staff from what I've heard has been able to tell that his mood has been great lately…"
'Seriously?! That's why the school hasn't taken down all of these articles?!'
"Sigh…well I'm afraid that he'll have to be disappointed then." Kain began while feigning a sad expression.
"What?"
"Well, all of this attention to me and my family has made me very uncomfortable…I'm not sure I'm in the correct frame of mind to continue with research. I am a really shy person you know, so all of this attention has made me so uneasy for my and my family's safety that I'm thinking about just retiring from research altogether."
Kain exited Professor Lume's office while trying to conceal his smug smile after he'd received his confirmation that the college would more closely moderate the types of articles that could be published.
And the college truly did work quickly. Within a couple hours, all reports about the orphanage and Kain's contract were pulled. However, it didn't seem like the college could pull all of the articles related to Kain—or maybe they just didn't want to.
There were still many annoying gossipy articles about his work as a planner, his discovery of the evolutionary form, his school-life, and even his supposed dating-life (?).
'Who the heck is she? Since when do I have a single ex, much less 5?!' Kain thought while staring at a tabloid article with the pictures of 5 attractive women that he'd never seen before in his life but had supposedly been romantically linked to him in the past.
However, it was much better than the uncontrolled media attention of before.
Just to make sure, Kain called the director and Milo to further confirm that any reporters sniffing around their home were now gone.
On the Brightside though, Kain had been notified of the amount of copies of the evolutionary plan that had been purchased so far, and the value of the first settlement of money he could expect to receive in a few days. The amount was several times the amount of money Collin had quoted him for starting the business.
Therefore, Kain could now take a break from crazily completing clients and instead focus on some of his more personal pursuits.
However, his desire to cut back on the amount of clients he took seemed to have only increased people's desire to work with him, and suddenly Kain was reading a new news article with an interview from a noble in the southern region who quoted a ridiculous price in order to convince Kain take their case.
'Ahem…maybe I can take on a couple more cases before school starts on Monday. What is the name of this person? Let's see if they've sent me a message…'
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Thankfully, within a few days, most people had moved onto gossiping about another topic and interest in Kain was no longer so high.
Kain visited the newly built factory that, with the help of spiritual creatures did not take nearly as long to build as it would have on Earth.
With the help of Eve, the crops needed were also fully matured and the first batch of beer to be shipped out went into production.
With Kain's increased income from the patent, he also agreed to Collins idea of hiring a big-name marketing firm for the company. Once the first batch launches, complimentary samples have already been arranged to be delivered to celebrities and individuals with influence.
However, before the first batch is finished, there was something that Kain needed to perform but hadn't been able to due to being so busy. Stay updated with m-v le-mpyr
Although the knowledge about microorganisms in this world is clearly not widespread, it doesn't mean that someone won't try to mix the beer that they produce into their own batch to produce their own spiritual beverages.
Since the Aetherbrew Yeast doesn't have any special growth conditions and only needs a beverage with spiritual power, a small sample of the yeast can continue to divide and produce descendants that aren't controlled by Kain, but by a competitor.
To combat this, Kain was reminded of one of the frowned-upon business practices of biotechnology companies back on Earth—Terminator genes.
While usually used in plants to prevent people from regrowing their patented seeds, Kain didn't see why such genes couldn't be used on the yeast Aby as well?
The very universe seemed to be pushing him in this direction too, since one of the latest pieces of lab equipment given to him by the System allowed him to extract the genes of one spiritual creature and put it into another. Therefore, all Kain needed to do was find a spiritual creature with the trait that met his needs.
In addition to his hectic schedule while preparing for the re-ranking, Kain had also been using his free time to do research on such a creature, and he finally found it.
The Spirit Moth is a spiritual creature that upon hatching imprints on the first item that it consumes, typically a spiritual plant since it is an herbivore.
When it reaches adulthood and it's time to reproduce, it must once again consume the same item before an egg can be laid. It is believed that it is due to the first item being consumed being associated with a feeling of safety, a feeling that they need before reproducing.
With this gene, Kain could completely control not only the Aetherbrew Yeast's future descendants, but also control what material would be used to unlock the ability to reproduce.