Beijing City.

Accompanied by Vice Chairman Liu Yiwu, Shen Cong came to the National Research Center to inspect the Academy of Sciences' infrastructure.

As the new government's research body, the Academy of Sciences, led by its president Tao Zhongyang and vice president Zhao Yang, had already taken shape. As many as thirty thousand people worked directly at the National Research Center, and as many as a hundred and twenty thousand more were spread across the cities, serving the Academy's branch institutions.

The gate of the Research Center was twenty meters tall, so that more and more outlandish battle-trucks could pass through.

On the left pillar, in bold, flowing cursive: "Out with the old and in with the new, turn waste into treasure, build a community of shared destiny for Earth."

On the right pillar, in the same bold, flowing cursive: "Embrace the ancient and the modern alike, forge iron into steel, open up the road of future biological evolution!"

Inside, the Research Center was very busy.

Parked vehicles were everywhere: passenger vans, cargo trucks, battle-trucks, special-purpose vehicles.

Evolved beasts of every kind were calling out in a jumble of voices. Some evolved beasts were kept in cages, some strolled around just like the humans, and some simply served as guards.

The buildings were very tall and large, but most had only one, two or three floors. None had more than four. This was for earthquake protection. The destructive power of the several great earthquakes had left the government afraid to build anything high-rise. Everything was low buildings or underground bunkers.

The Research Center covered a huge area and was bustling with activity.

What was most eye-searing, though, were the humans hurrying about.

Most of them were ordinary people under two meters tall, since everyone was evolved now. Of these evolved people, some had finished the Lv4 — Nebula Era. Others had become evolved people through injections of the Spilled Water Serum, and for now they still kept the evolved people's telltale outward feature: a jin core.

Those with a jin core were artificial evolved people; those without were Super-Powered Warriors.