novelraw Chapter 710: Hulk King
Chapter 710: Hulk King
I intend to cultivate Hulks, these Dark Creatures, as public buses and other forms of transportation. For now, I don’t plan to offer them for delivery. Later, when their numbers increase, I also plan to sell them to the wealthy as their personal modes of transport.
Before the apocalypse, you had your Mercedes-Benz and BMW; I had my Maserati and supercars, and there were even custom-made ones—the higher the price, the more prestigious. After the apocalypse, you have bicycles and old-fashioned cars to show off burning fuel and charging, while I’ll have a Hulk that only consumes a handful of insects for a hundred miles.
Before the apocalypse, there were 4S shops that were money pits. After the apocalypse, surely I should set up a Hulk brand maintenance shop to properly maintain and service our beloved transport, right?
Then, the thorny problems arose.
The cultivated Hulks were almost uniformly and profoundly unintelligent. This was a common affliction among many Dark Creatures: their evolution had programmed them only to eat. Every organ in their bodies was geared for survival, and their brains had likely been consumed by their own bodies.
Therefore, training them like horses simply wouldn’t work. It would already be great if they could be led with a rope to control their destination. Even if each Hulk was paired with a driver, the problem was how the driver would communicate with the Hulk. Jing Shu tried training them for several days, but the Hulks were completely unaffected by the ropes. Unlike horses, which would move forward when pained by the pull, they had no sense of pain or awareness at all.
Attempting to manipulate them to reach their destinations through external commands and the like was futile.
The biggest issue was that Hulks, being a mucilaginous species, only knew how to eat. They’d eat anything and even had a taste for human flesh. It wouldn’t be surprising if they consumed humans. If they ended up eating passengers or drivers... that would be a mess. Without absolute safety, Jing Shu dared not let the Hulks out.
However, the Hulks Jing Shu cultivated did listen only to her. If she commanded them to go east, they would never head west. Moreover, they followed orders precisely, just like the rotten mermaids—extremely useful. Jing Shu guessed this was probably because her space had absorbed too much green energy, which in turn influenced her. If such energy has a commonality, it would be like my Spiritual Spring.
For creatures without intelligence, if I bring them into the space and feed them Spiritual Spring for a period, they become completely obedient.
But what’s the use of that? Jing Shu was just one person. If Hulks were to become a mode of transportation in the future, it wasn’t feasible to rely on her to direct them here and there. As their numbers grew, one person would be far too busy to manage them all. So, this is no solution at all.
To make Hulks into excellent, obedient tools, Jing Shu was so troubled that she thought about it day and night, even in her sleep, eventually formulating some ideas.
Whether serving as a bus or a cargo carrier, a Hulk’s job is simple: swallow the ’passenger’ or ’cargo’, then head for the destination. Buses have specific routes. The routes for cargo Hulks, however, can vary, and routes rented by wealthy clients will also be unpredictable.
Consequently, having me act as the chief transportation coordinator for Hulks to follow fixed routes is impractical because Hulks can’t adapt.
For now, the map of Wu City is irrelevant, as an imminent migration is about to take place. With the growing number of Hulks, they’ll be capable of much more during the move, such as hauling goods and people. Once we reach the new location, it might be feasible to have a few fixed routes for them to transport people.
I’ve invested so much; the sooner they’re operational, the sooner I can earn money. Therefore, as long as it relates to transportation, Hulks can be utilized.
So, traditional training methods are useless. And having them listen to just anyone and go wherever they’re told... that’s not really feasible either. So, when ordinary people and Hulks can’t communicate, how can Hulks take on the responsibility of transportation? The key is that I need to be hands-off!
There needs to be a bridge for communication and an entity to oversee the entire operation. Most importantly, what form should this take?
Ideally, passengers will pay, state their addresses, and Hulks will head to the destinations. Clients will pay for cargo to be transported, with Hulks first picking up the goods. All this needs to happen without me having to worry about it.
Jing Shu felt as though she was heading down a dead end. Sometimes I even think, perhaps it wouldn’t be impossible for me to directly control all the Hulks. I could just set up a simple fixed route and work a bit harder when transporting goods...
That was the kind of thought she had.
It wasn’t until Jing Shu logged into the official website of her own Insect Cake Factory that a sudden epiphany struck. It’s the apocalypse now! The only currency is Virtual Coins, and even they are virtual. Payment can be done with just a face scan—more convenient than a POS machine!
An electronic network APP could save a lot of trouble! It could serve as an intermediary. If each Hulk has a command receiver and GPS installed inside, and several dozen routes and commands are predefined, then a central hub could disseminate orders to the Hulks...
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a clever human like me acting as the central intermediary. A Hulk King could be chosen as the creature to issue commands! Although its intelligence won’t be very high, it should be able to handle a few fixed patterns.
It doesn’t matter if a Hulk’s intelligence is low, as long as it can execute commands.
Moreover, under the King’s supervision and commands, they could promptly report situations and wouldn’t devour passengers. In case of an accident, the King could be contacted quickly, and then the supervising staff could handle any emergencies.
Once the broad direction was clarified, the smaller challenges seemed almost trivial. Jing Shu even thought, I could even equip each Hulk with a mobile phone, or fit them with a number locator. Scanning a QR code could reveal the passenger’s location and their assigned Hulk. Orders could then be placed directly from a mobile phone by selecting the intended destination.
This would require cooperation with the Township Government, since it involves positioning and network authorizations.
And with this system, services like hauling cargo, picking up people, dropping off people, and making appointments could be offered. Even in an apocalypse without competition, the quality of service still matters, right?
Of course, this would be a rental model, available by the day or month. It could even include services to help with migration, like having Hulks follow a convoy—those would be relatively simple tasks. As for the bus model, that’s even simpler and can be considered later.
Jing Shu’s mind raced with numerous ideas for the future development of the Hulks. For now, however, she steeled herself and decided to use the green crystals to cultivate a Hulk King.
This part is relatively easy; just infuse it with energy. Even fat chicken, originally so foolish, became intelligent after being fed Spiritual Spring. If push comes to shove, I might even consider using the Spiritual Spring to cultivate an intelligent Hulk King.
In just half a month, Jing Shu successfully cultivated a Hulk King. After it devoured a large amount of green energy and its own kind, a 5-meter-tall mucilaginous being appeared before her.