"Then everything is left to you." Miki leaned against her chair back and turned around, looking at the little fellow in the cage in front of her. She reached out to open the drawer and took out dozens of floppy disks.
Standard 3.5-inch floppy disks.
The capacity of one disk was about the size of three books.
"What is this?" Orochimaru asked.
"Study materials." Miki glanced at Orochimaru with surprise. Was this guy too busy to the point of stupidity? Did he really need to ask about such things?
"I know they are study materials," Orochimaru said. "But what is in front of you? It's not an ordinary wild kitten, is it?"
"Of course..." Miki nodded. This was a Ninja Cat she had obtained from Naori.
The little fellow in front of them was still a cub.
It was one of the offspring of Naori's Ninja Cat, used by Naori for intelligence gathering.
Meaning, buying information with money.
This one was also obtained through a transaction.
A cat trade mediated by Naori.
Compared to ordinary cats, Ninja Cats had the advantage of higher intelligence, the ability to walk upright, the freedom to use their paws for ninja tools, and the ability to perform hand signs.
The disadvantage was their low Chakra levels, and their bodies had significantly fewer cells compared to humans.
Right now, Miki had already completed the infection process on it.
And the troubling issue was...
"A Ninja Cat from the Uchiha Clan?" Orochimaru said. "I've heard they have a complex intelligence network in the Ninja World and know most of the things that happen in the Ninja World."
In the Ninja World, whether it was dogs, cats, snakes, or toads, these animals were all excellent at spying.
And among them, the Ninja Cat clan possessed the most sophisticated intelligence network.
They had all sorts of gossip, true or false.
And they made a living from it.
Their main big client was the Uchiha Clan.
Based on this, even the Uchiha would guard against intelligence gathering by Ninja Cats.
Naori rarely used her Ninja Cats.
"They aren't as formidable as you imagine," Miki said. "If you were to pee in the wild and a passing wild cat saw it, the Uchiha Clan might just find out about it."
Assuming someone was bored enough to pay money for that intelligence.
"Is that so..." Orochimaru asked, "What do you plan to do with this Ninja Cat?"
"This is your practice prop," Miki said. "Your assignment is to perform large-scale cloning without killing her."
"I see," Orochimaru said, licking his lips. "What if I accidentally kill her?"
"I will lock you up with Jiraiya and deploy a lethal dose of sex pheromones," Miki said, looking at Orochimaru. "Don't ask stupid questions that make me angry."
"I understand," Orochimaru whispered. "I guarantee she won't die."
"It's just taking blood samples for cloning. If she dies from that, I will assume you are intentionally trying to piss me off," Miki warned coldly. "Don't use that strange brain of yours to come up with any unnecessary, weird ideas."
"Understood..." Orochimaru's eyes darted around.
Honestly, he was extremely interested in a Ninja Cat that could speak human language.
"Absolutely do not kill her," Miki warned again.
When Naori handed it over to Miki, she had repeatedly instructed her to take good care of the little kitty and absolutely, absolutely not let her die.
Otherwise...
"After large-scale cloning, what are you going to do?" Orochimaru asked curiously.
Previously, Miki hadn't learned cloning technology. The main reason wasn't that the technology didn't exist on the market or that it required a lot of study to develop.
It was because it wasn't necessary.
Cloning is asexual reproduction, which can also be understood as copying an individual.
Miki's insect swarm reproduction ability was extremely powerful; there was simply no need to use this technology.
But mammals like cats were different; their reproduction was inefficient.
This was the key to Miki's problem.
And the insect swarm was oviparous, and the current Queen Insect could not produce insect eggs the size of a cat.
She needed to use cloning to cultivate prototype ancestor bodies on a large scale, perform genetic mutation transplantation, and then follow the process Miki was familiar with.
First, what Miki needed to do was convert viviparity to oviparity.
This required a large number of experimental subjects.
Which meant creating new heteromorphic insects.
Similar to the Zergling in StarCraft, a raptor.
After comprehensive consideration, Miki chose the Ninja Cat, a natural-born killer.
Compared to humans/cats, Miki was more interested in the monkeys from the Sarutobi family.
But there was no opportunity.
She couldn't just rob them, could she?
"Can't you say?" Orochimaru probed.
"It's not that I can't say," Miki said. "I'm creating a new beast-type insect."
As a front-line land assault unit.
"A Ninja Cat?" Orochimaru couldn't quite imagine what kind of insect that would be. He asked, "Does she have a name?"
"Autumn Tiger Elephant," Miki said.
Project codename: Beast-Man Insect Alien, Autumn Tiger Elephant.
"A strange name," Orochimaru said.
When autumn temperatures cool down, "Autumn Tiger" implies an abnormal heatwave.
And this was an abnormal insect.
As for "Elephant," compared to the insects Miki currently had, a cat's size was sufficient to be called an elephant.
Finally, "Mother Tiger" also referred to a person.
Ninja Cat, beast, high intelligence, can walk upright, can use weapons and tools, possesses the ability to release Chakra and Ninjutsu, can collaborate in teams, and can autonomously execute complex tasks.
Scaling its size to human height would make it a natural beast-man.
It saved Miki the effort of turning humans into insect-kin.
In fact, Miki did have the human genome, which was Miki's own genes.
"Can I observe and learn? The process of you creating insects?" Orochimaru looked at Miki with a thirst for knowledge. Recently, his transformation and development of snakes had also reached a certain stage, and he was in urgent need of some development ideas.
"You can. Once you finish the cloning work on your hands, we can start the development experiments," Miki agreed.
"Thank you very much," Orochimaru thanked her in a rare display of gratitude.
Miki didn't mind this 'tsundere' attitude and handed the cage to Orochimaru.
The Ninja Cat inside was sleeping soundly.
Without a shred of defense.
"Then I'll leave it to you, Orochimaru."
Miki looked at the slacking White Fang.
White Fang was startled at first, then immediately dragged the mop on the floor twice. Then, changing his movement, he lifted his foot as if to leave, but after one step, he quickly stopped and pretended to look at the scenery elsewhere.
Several fake moves in a row, smooth as flowing water.
It seemed he had settled into his new role well, developing a natural sense of fear towards Miki, his boss.
"Heh..."
Miki didn't look at White Fang again.
She really wasn't a devil.
If he wanted to slack off, let him slack off. What was the big deal?
Miki tidied up the things on the table and then stood up to leave the laboratory.
She would leave work whenever she wanted to leave work.
As soon as White Fang saw Miki leave.
He threw away the mop.
Based on experience, once she left like this, she wouldn't come back today.
So, it was time to get off work.
The entire laboratory was left with only Orochimaru.
In the experimental area, a large group of Orochimaru, divided into several batches, were nervously carrying out the work at hand.
Regarding Shadow Clones, Orochimaru already had special experience in using them.
When pushed to the edge, people will jump over walls and exert subjective initiative.
If it was repetitive, boring work with no learning value, Orochimaru would throw it to a type of improved Shadow Clone to do.
These Shadow Clones would not return memories and experiences of the work after their Chakra was exhausted.
The work of determining the gene map was being done by these clones.
Similarly, the Shadow Clones responsible for experimental records and assisting were the same.
However, the Shadow Clones that were studying remained unchanged.
Orochimaru was working hard at full throttle in the brightly lit laboratory.
In a corner of the workbench, the cold instant noodles emitted a familiar aroma.
A different recipe, but still that same taste.
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