Epoch of Twilight

Recently, there were two major events that happened to Cui Weichuan’s household.

The first one was that after two years of extensive learning, he had finally passed the beginner electromagnetic engineering examinations and joined the internships of one of the electromagnetic research laboratories.

The world was different than how it was before. The demand for engineers was increasing every day even to the point where passing the beginner’s examinations meant nothing. A couple of years ago, one could be promoted to the rank of an assistant engineer after working for a year a so and the job was quite relaxed. Those days were over. Without outstanding results, it would be impossible for one to be an assistant engineer.

However, though he was just an intern, his salary had increased by a significant amount. His lifestyle improved and most importantly, whenever he spoke of his job, people would exclaim and some were even jealous of him. In a world where researchers were the main priority, all resources would be poured into research. So, as long as one landed a job in the research field, it was considered to be a step up in society. Not only were they eligible for better benefits, they also had a better status, which was something money could not buy.

The second event was that his wife had finally given birth to his son. However, he had mixed feelings about it as his son neither looked like him nor his wife. His wife had tanned skin but his son was fair. His wife had single eyelids but his son had double eyelids. Although he was born not too long ago, he was a beautiful baby.

The difference in appearance alone was terrifying enough for him. It had only been half a month and his wife was no longer able to keep up, not having sufficient milk to nurse the baby. The doctor suggested for them to substitute milk with porridge. Fortunately, his son had a digestive ability that was beyond imagination so he was able to adapt to eating porridge. Three months later, his son started speaking and not long later, started to walk.

Though his son’s outstanding performance was unbelievable and was beyond his wildest dreams, he wondered if he is still considered a normal child.

While he was deep in thought, he arrived home.

"Daddy, is that you?" His son cheered as he opened the door.

His wife was cooking so Cui Weichuan put down his suitcase and smiled, "Have you been a good boy today?"

"I am a good boy! You can ask mommy."

His wife was placing the dishes that she prepared on the dining table. She then carried her son and kissed his cheek, "Yes, you’re always a good boy! He had learned more than 100 words today. Give him a couple more days and he’ll be reading a book on his own."

"Mommy, I’m already reading storybooks on my own. It’s just that there were some words that I don’t know." The son was unsatisfied.

Chui Weichuan was stunned when he heard what they were saying. He snapped out of it and said with concern, "He is learning too fast. I don’t think it’s good for him. He’s still so young after all."

His wife did not mind what he said, she was proud of her genius son, "What’s so bad about that? My son is a genius! I just need to teach him once and he’d remember it! He will be a great scientist in the future."

He was just a four-month-old baby, how could my son be such a genius? Chui Weichuan wanted to say that but he decided to hold his tongue.

"During the last visit to the hospital, the doctor said that the government might be coming up with baby classes. Do you think we should send our son there?" His wife did not care about the baby’s struggle as she carried him before placing him on the chair.

Chui Weichuan was upset. Ever since his son was born, his wife had given all her attention to their son. He knew that it was ridiculous that he was jealous of his own sun.

"I think the minimum age for the baby class would be three years old. There’s still a long way to go!"

"It’s not too early, the baby class is supposed to cater to children like our son who was born with the new technology. They’re allowed to join as early as six months old. If we don’t let him, he’ll be left out!" His wife said in excitement.

"Alright then. We’ll send him to the class. No matter what happens, he cannot be left out." Chui Weichuan knew his wife very well. Once she had decided on something, there was no way she would change her mind. She was just asking for his approval.

Perhaps all the children that were born using the new technology had genius level intelligence. He was uncomfortable with the idea but the longer he worked in the field of research, the more he understood how important intelligence was. Ordinary people like him with a mediocre level of intelligence would not go far no matter how much he tried. It would not be a surprise if being an assistant engineer was the peak of his career.

When these genius children grew up, perhaps the older generation would be gotten rid of.

...

10 test flight later, the mothership had made it above to venus. The view of earth was no different than other stars one could see with the naked eye. The collection of the interstellar creature’s carcass had begun. Many engineering robots were already at every corner of the creature like ants. Most of its skin was ripped off, exposing its strong muscles.

Its gigantic body was just slightly smaller than the mothership. Compared to the emergency spacecraft that was parked five kilometers away, the spacecraft was just one-thirds of its size.

Compared to the first collection of an interstellar creature’s carcass where much of the work was done with manual labor, the collection operation this time around was much more advanced. There were no people at the collection site and the only things present were the unmanned robots that were controlled from afar. They were like bees flying all over, the engineering robots were going to and fro from the carcass to the emergency spacecraft. Each of the robots were more than 10 meters tall. They were efficient and were equipped for interstellar flight. Their immense strength allowed them to cut open the creature’s body easily and complete the mission perfectly.

...

In the engineering command center in the emergency spaceship, with the help of nuclear magnetic resonance and x-ray technology, clear pictures of the interstellar creature’s insides were shown on the screen in the middle. Experts from different fields were analyzing the images one by one. The size of the creature was so big, making it impossible for them to fit the entire carcass into the spaceship. It was only after they cleared the material reserves and resources they used the past couple of years, the most the spaceship could carry was only 100,000 tons of the interstellar creature’s flesh. It was not even 1% of the total mass of the interstellar creature.

To prevent themselves from missing out on its crucial body parts, it was of utmost importance that they analyzed the interstellar creature’s body structure.

"Its mutation had caused most of its organs to shrink. However, some of the organs were strengthened. For instance, the heart!" A plump middle-aged man who was a biologist exclaimed. Before the apocalypse, he was working on research related to mutated creatures so he was quite experienced.

"Based on the images sent by the engineering robots, we can see that there are countless tumors on the heart. The evolution of each body parts has to make sense so these tumors must have some unique function."

"I think it’s very possible. However, mutated creatures are different from evolved creatures. We have to consider the genetic changes so we need to collect samples and conduct preliminary studies on the creature. It’s too early to come out with a conclusion now." Another biologist thought out loud.