Jiang Ming soon received news that Kakuna successfully evolved into Beedrill.
With everything now in place, he began devoting himself wholeheartedly to preparations for Zhengming Company’s upcoming press conference.
He also gave Lin Chengfeng and Yao Shirui special instructions to start training with their Pokémon as soon as possible.
At the very least, they needed to be able to get their Pokémon to follow commands reliably so they could perform live demonstrations during the press conference.
Lin Chengfeng had absolutely no objections to this arrangement.
Thanks to the large quantities of Energy Cubes Jiang Ming had supplied, his Beedrill had emerged from its cocoon with strength approaching that of a Tier Two mutant beast.
If he could get it to master its moves properly, Lin Chengfeng believed it would be able to go toe-to-toe with a Tier Two mutant beast.
Yao Shirui, on the other hand, was completely bewildered.
Wasn’t she supposed to be nothing more than a Pokémon caretaker?
How had she suddenly become a Trainer in Jiang Ming’s eyes?
Unfortunately, she was the only person at the company besides Jiang Ming whom Butterfree had accepted as a companion.
That meant she was the only suitable candidate for the job.
In the end, Yao Shirui couldn’t resist Butterfree’s pitiful little expression.
Gritting her teeth, she picked up the training manual Jiang Ming had given her and began studying it diligently.
With these two capable assistants at his side, and the concept of evolution now introduced, Jiang Ming felt confident that he could face Haisheng Company head-on, no matter what it unveiled.
Meanwhile, inside Haisheng Company, several senior executives were delighted to learn that Zhengming Company’s press conference would proceed as scheduled.
“Hahaha! I knew it! Young people really aren’t afraid of tigers! How could President Jiang possibly admit defeat so easily?”
He Ruiming, Haisheng Company’s owner, laughed heartily, the gloom that had hung over his face in recent days finally lifting.
To be honest, He Ruiming had developed quite a favorable impression of Jiang Ming.
It might have sounded a little superstitious, but Haisheng’s breakthrough had indeed occurred only after Jiang Ming announced his own press conference.
If possible, He Ruiming didn’t want to do anything that might hurt his lucky star.
Seeing that his boss still seemed somewhat conflicted, Xiao Liu tactfully asked, “Mr. He, then what should we…?”
He Ruiming considered the matter for a moment before answering decisively.
“Hold it! We’ll hold our own press conference too! People have to learn to adapt to the times. Besides, we’ve long since passed the era when a good product could succeed simply by sitting quietly on a shelf and waiting for customers to find it.”
With that, He Ruiming stood up and strode out of his office.
“Come on. Let’s go check on my little treasure again.”
Quite a few major events had taken place in Coastal City recently.
It had all started when the owner of a small local company called Zhengming and his wife were attacked and killed while traveling outside the city by a mutant beast suspected to be Tier Six.
Under ordinary circumstances, this wouldn’t have been particularly unusual. Get faster updates on g.com.
Given the state of the world, humanity was no longer the undisputed ruler of Earth.
Leaving the city was dangerous, but even those who stayed inside could encounter a mutant beast horde attacking the city walls.
People died all the time.
A few years earlier, nearly an entire squad of Awakened fighters had been killed in Coastal City.
Among them had even been a Tier One Evolver.
As for ordinary people, their deaths were even more commonplace.
But this particular incident was different.
Although the two victims had been ordinary people, their son certainly wasn’t.
As one of Coastal City’s only seven Tier Six Evolvers, Jiang Zheng couldn’t possibly do nothing after both his parents had been killed.
In the days that followed, Jiang Zheng first brought his younger brother, Jiang Ming, back from District Two before his university graduation so he could take over the family business.
After arranging a simple funeral for their parents, he led several trusted subordinates to obtain a patrol expedition assignment from the City Guard’s commander-in-chief and then left the city.
Anyone with any sense could guess what Jiang Zheng intended to do on this expedition.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have arranged such a simple funeral for his parents.
In the relatively conservative atmosphere of Coastal City, Jiang Zheng’s actions won the approval of the overwhelming majority of residents.
Jiang Ming and Zhengming Company benefited greatly from the goodwill that followed.
Just as everyone thought the matter had temporarily settled down, Jiang Ming—the younger brother of Jiang Zheng and the current general manager of Zhengming Company—suddenly made a major announcement.
He had cultivated an entirely new genetic organism.
This was quite a reversal.
Back when Jiang Ming had failed to inherit his older brother’s talent for absorbing spiritual energy, plenty of people in Coastal City had privately made fun of him.
Yet now, he was displaying astonishing talent in the field of genetic-organism cultivation.
As the saying went, what goes around comes around.
But the story didn’t end there.
Less than a month after Zhengming Company introduced Sunkern, Jiang Ming announced that he’d cultivated yet another genetic organism—and boldly declared it a revolutionary breakthrough.
The announcement sent shock waves through the city.
After all, Coastal City was also home to Haisheng Company.
Even after its first genetic organism had been introduced, Haisheng hadn’t managed to develop a second one for years.
Nevertheless, with Sunkern already standing as proof of his capabilities, people couldn’t simply dismiss his claims outright.
All they could do was wait patiently for Zhengming Company’s next press conference.
Then, just when everyone was waiting, the long-quiet Haisheng Company suddenly announced that its second genetic organism had been successfully developed.
It would soon hold a press conference to introduce the creation to the people of Coastal City.
With Haisheng entering the picture, the entire affair grew dramatically more heated.
Just as Jiang Ming had predicted, more and more people who’d initially shown little interest began joining the excitement.
The number of people following the developments soared.
Perhaps it was simply human nature.
Besides, Haisheng Company had once been the pride of Coastal City.
In terms of public support, it still overwhelmingly outclassed Zhengming Company.
Those who continued supporting Zhengming despite the circumstances were mostly people with a direct financial interest in the company—or people who had personally interacted with Sunkern and discovered just how intelligent it was.
Of course, the word intelligent was relative.
Sunkern’s intelligence wasn’t being compared with that of humans, but with that of other genetic organisms.
As the old saying went, wild nature is difficult to tame.
Most genetic organisms cultivated around the world could, at best, achieve intelligence comparable to that of a chimpanzee.
Anything beyond that was probably still confined to laboratories and had yet to reach the stage where it could be mass-produced.
There was another important factor: Haisheng’s timing was simply too convenient.
It was so convenient that most people found it difficult to believe the company had only happened to develop its new genetic organism at precisely this moment.
Even though that was exactly what had happened.
The mere suspicion that Haisheng might have deliberately withheld its breakthrough from the public had cost the company a considerable number of supporters.
Some had even switched their support to Zhengming Company.
They weren’t necessarily convinced that Zhengming was the better company.
They simply wanted to make things difficult for Haisheng and teach it a lesson.
As various factions throughout Coastal City watched the situation unfold, both Zhengming Company and Haisheng Company announced their press conference dates.
And, by an extraordinary coincidence, both events were scheduled for the very same day.