Work to do

After most of the people had left the hall,the hall returned to its original state.Allen sat in the hall,Observing his digital watch.He had been doing it for quite some time.

There were two main reasons behind that.First one was to see if his sister had sent any message.

He had enrolled his sister to the Austin institute and was planning to return soon to accompany his sister.This was her first day so he thought he would take her into the Austin institute.

But due to the abrupt situation he was in right now,that did not seem quite possible. He had told her in advance that if he got delayed then she should not wait. Afterall it was not a necessity for him to go along with her.He had just wanted to see her new study environment.

Because even if it was rumored to be the city's best,he would still get peace of mind if he found it satisfactory.

So he sent her a message that he would not be able to come,And briefly explained the reason.But there wasn't a reply despite waiting so long.

The second reason was that the time to enter groups by one's own initiative was gonna end soon.And remaining people were to be assigned randomly.

He did not know anyone here.As the people who had joined the institute had mostly come from outside Austin city.And they were not its residents.

So Allen thought instead of joining a group by his own volition,he would rather join a randomly assigned group.As if the people he formed a group with did not turn out to be up to par,at least he will feel less regret if the decision to join them wasn't his.

He closely watched the group making.The criteria to form a group was that its members could not be less than 4 and more than 7.After most people had voluntarily joined their preferred groups,there were only about 10 people left.The A.I. started making random groups.And he was surprised at the results.

The group he was in had four members including him while the other group got 7 members.If A.I. was functionally normally then it would have one group get 6 members and other 5.Not that much unbalanced.

Random group making as stated by the President was without doubt random in its truest sense.It was like a lucky draw and theN۔I۔ was only stating its results.

He was not anxious about his new group mates and just slightly curious.So he started seeing which three members were assigned to the same group as him.

The first member was what made him speechless, it was the one and only M. Luke.

The second member was the man who had tried to talk to him before the institute's test results were out.

The third member was surprisingly the person who had stated his analysis to Steven and was promoted to five stars as a result.

He only had an impression of Luke from all of them.He had very low E.Q.The first impression that he had given to Allen was of a hard worker.A true hard worker on whom the quote "Success is 9 part hard work and 1 part talent" Suited .

Otherwise all other people he had seen up till now were hard workers mostly in name.

If they had worked triple or quadruple times more hard, would they have really failed?"

So Allen had a little respect for him even though he very much didn't want to partner with him right now.But it has already been decided. So he would just have to endure and somewhat fix that attitude of his. And it might prove to be better.

And the only person he had a headache about was the same person who was promoted to five stars. By his slightly haughty attitude he could guess he didn't want a peaceful atmosphere.

And the third person...he seemed amicable at first glance but who knows.

Anyways Allen would not really mind them as long as they fulfilled their quota.

Though it was not mentioned officially but they did need a leader to manage their tasks.Allen didn't want to trouble himself with the duty.So he was fine if someone else became the leader.

They first gathered outside the hall.The four of them announced their identity one by one.After all only Luke in them had worn his uniform.

After they had discussed among themselves they had decided upon the slightly haughty one as the leader.As Allen didn't want to,Luke couldn't ,an amicable man wouldn't.

The haughty one's attitude did not seem bad.His name was Timothy.Tim for short.

The amicable one's name was Yushin. He said they could also call him Yusin.

The quota of their group was already assigned to them.It was to make 10 small successful experiments or 1000 failed experiments.

The quota changed with change in total members of the group. 4 member groups would get the aforementioned quota.5 member groups would need to submit 1500 failed experiments plus the same number of successful experiment.6 member groups would need to submit 2500 failed experiments plus 20 Small successful experiment.7 member groups would need 4000 failed experiments and 1 medium sized successful task.

It was not 1 + 1 when calculating quota.But more like multiplying them.But it was not necessarily more difficult for large groups as they could divide their work into more parts.

The leader would then submit the team's experiment data and their task would be considered accomplished.And they would get merits equal to the standard of their submitted work.

Allen with his other group members first went to the department.They wore their new uniforms and started heading towards the main centre of the institute together.They were gonna apply for a separate research area for their group of four members.

Afterall it was hinted along with their first assigned quota that they could apply for a separate research place at the main centre that could accommodate people equal to researchers in a group.It would be a pity to not use this privilege.

This time the person sitting there was not Sam.And someone whose uniform's colour was Green.

He had read from the manual he got with the map that ranks were separated into four main divisions.The fourth division they were in had clothes that were coloured Blue,it was the lowest division.The third division would have red coloured clothes as their uniform.The second division would have green uniform and the first division would have pure white uniforms which were coated with a material that would keep it safe from blemishes and splashed water.

The design would not get more elegant or beautiful with increase in division.But it will get a more solemn feeling.

So from this information Allen figured that the person was at a lower ranking than Sam.And Sam was only doing duty here till all newly admitted researchers had arrived.

They were now in front of a researcher who was superior to them in rank.So they greeted him first as a show of politeness.

The man was also more hospitable than Sam and did not take long to ask them of their purpose here.Tim filled some forums and fulfilled some other formalities and they got a Research area for them.

They had fulfilled their purpose here,and they could not go out of their institution so they just went to check the research centre.

After they arrived at the research area given to them,they all were somewhat taken back.The research area given to them was not composed of a couple of rooms but a whole building.

They entered after verifying their identity.The inside was spot clean and not even a speck of dirt could be seen.It felt like that robots had just come here and cleaned it.

The research area was surprisingly mostly empty and there were no tools to be found.It did contain some necessary faculties but nothing much.

Tim reached the main centre about it.And he got an answer that the research area was customizable.They just needed to send a list of required research tools and they would be delivered by robots ASAP.

The main centre had a variety of products on its site.Hell there were even household and military products.What were they doing here?

All research tools they could see were available for free in a limited quantity.If they wanted more they could get them for credits.

He had read about the credit system from the mail sent to him by the institute a week ago.It stated that all new researchers would start with zero credits.

But seeing 100 credits in his account,it seemed this time,there was an exception.

Tim listed the tools they needed after discussing with the group and sent the list to the Main centre as was adviced.

Allen also bought things with his own credits.He had also bought some things for his sister.And had sent them by parcel.

The four man group did not do much on the first day other than some planning.After it got late they scattered.He went to see some of the areas he had clearance to as he was a 3 star researcher of fourth division.And 5 star researchers would have clearance to only cafe and such.

He returned to his sleeping quarter in the department.Some groups had chosen shared rooms to increase their interaction with each other

But he was quite happy if he could get a room to himself only.So he chose a single person room.

He thought back to the things that had occured today and soon sleep caught him.

The next morning he woke up after taking his complete fill of sleep.He had slept deeply last night and had no dreams.

He watched the time on his digital watch and it showed 9:00 Am.

After a long yawn he took a short bath,opened the wardrobe,took the uniform from it and wore it.

The wardrobe also had some spare clothes for his size which must have been delivered here yesterday.

He left his department and headed towards their research area.He saw no one at the entrance.So he took the lead and entered the building.

Yesterday the group had collectively decided that they would meet here at 10 Am.He had nothing much to do,and was also interested to see the new tools they had ordered from the institute.So he had arrived relatively early considering the meeting time.

But he saw that he was not the first one to arrive but in fact the last.The others too could not hold back their curiosity.

Afterall it was the latest technology dreamed of by the scientists of this age .And some of the tools they had seen on the website of the institute were not even listed in public books.

There could be various reasons for that.One would be to keep confidentiality and the other because they were solely property of the Institute and people did not even know they existed.

He did not go to check the tools first but instead approached the group.

Tim, seeing that all members have arrived, said"Even though we have arrived earlier,we will still start carrying out experiments at 10 Am.In the meantime you can get familiar with tools you have not known about before."

Everyone agreed and they separated.A small part of the building had been customized by them and now looked like an appropriate research site.The rest of the building might be converted when they had more group credits.

In addition to personal credits,group credits were also allocated to all groups.The starting group credits varied by the amount of people they had.This was written in the information about group balance.But he did not know by how much they varied.

Tim had purchased research tools with most of the credits and the rest were spent to make sleeping quarters.They might need to sleep here often after all.

The credits could be earned again,so they spent the starting group credits and now their group credits were zero.

Allen checked the machines here and there and was a little mesmerized by them.He only came to himself when Tim called him.He saw on his digital watch that it had already struck ten.

He neared the group.Tim asked him"Are you done familiarizing yourself?"

Allen replied"Mostly"

Tim said"Then good.We will all work as was planned tomorrow."

Tom entered a large cubicle like space which was his workplace from now on.The others also followed suit and entered a different cubicle.They only had enough credits to fill this area with technology they bought.So they joined their working place in star like shape.The working areas were separated by a solid glass wall.The glass wall had soundproof shutters and even something that would cover the see through glass to make it non-transparent.

They all had soundproof shutters on but not the substance that would make glass non-transparent.

Afterall that would only protect privacy.They were all in the same boat and would get the same amount of credits so there was no need to worry of research being stolen.

Sometimes experiments might prove to be fetal,in those cases they could also help each other at a moment's notice.Though the task they had right now was not dangerous.But mishaps can always happen.

They were gonna keep the layout until they got any more credits.And they made cubicles join in such a way that in future if there were more members they could also easily fit in here.

Though it was not really their intention,it just turned out that way as the space is too much for them.

They had decided to aim for the small successful task.But they would also store data of failed experiments for future use.And they could also be submitted to gain credits in addition to their small successful task.

The data of failed experiments need to be detailed or it would be rejected.It was mainly done to prevent neglect of duty and exploiting loopholes.

An experiment is not simply mixing up of materials.It needs careful planning.And for a successful task you need to make many adjustments.A rational person would not repeat the same mistakes over and over again as also said in the quote.

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result"

The materials required for experiments were also provided for free in a limited quantity.However one month's research materials are something that can't be finished in even a couple of months.

The limit is only to prevent smuggling of research materials.

They had enough materials and enough time on their hands.So they started the experiments patiently.Yesterday the planning was mostly about division of duties.

The individual would obviously plan his experiments himself.

The task their group was assigned was to produce a rabbit having three different qualities than the already present species.It was a small task as it was a small animal.the medium difficulty task would be to modify genes of a larger animal like deer or the sort.He did not know about higher difficulty task though.But going by the trend it should be elephant or Apes?.

The difficulty mainly describes how difficult and time-consuming it would be.As a larger animal will usually take more time to be modified.

Due to great progress in technology they had become able to attach different properties to a single cell.In the past a bacterium cell was used to produce single insulin.

But now it could create several proteins .Or it could also be used to create insulin in greater quantity.A single cell could produce 6 times more insulin than the past.The dividing time of a bacterium cell had also not differentiated much.

A cell would contain more quantity of a single protein than if different proteins were attached.Though the collective quantity of proteins would be more than an individual protein.

One of the group of four would extract proteins from another organism.Then attach it to bacteria.Two of them would then harvest the said proteins,purify them and then inject said proteins to the rabbit.

The process of transferring genes was more difficult after all.The last one would have various duties to perform.One of them would be to monitor the process.The duty was given to Yushin.

Allen was the one who had to attach the genes.One of the tests taken by institute tested one's talent in this.There was a training course that taught how to do that arranged by institute.It did not last months but only a few days.

The basics were taught by them,they had demonstrated real time and also given many practical videos for reference.

So Allen and the others only needed to try it for a while and they got the hang of it.They were not geniuses for show.

Though the task was not finished but only the beginning.

Attaching two proteins to a cell is a different matter altogether than attaching one protein.The difficulty multiplies.And they had to attach three proteins.

They could not just take genes from lion,snake,monkey and attach to the rabbit haphazardly.The reason was compatibility.They need to be synchronized.Otherwise the cell might become unstable.The cell needs stability.So genes should be balanced out by some means.

Instability might result in a mutation or destruction of a cell.And the mutation would not be preferable normally.

The common mutation would result in a plague like virus in the body.After all cells reproduce fast.In most cases the host would become disabled.

Normally the virus could be easily contained in a quarantine zone.There were special measures to stop the outbreak.

Judging by the rate their progress was coming along, it might take more than 10-20 days for any successful results.

After 9 days had passed,they had finally accomplished their task.With time they had gotten more professional in their task so they completed it earlier than planned.

It was a welcome change though.Tim submitted their task at the main centre and they acquired the award for the task.They had also submitted data of their 1011 failed experiments.And not even one of them got rejected by the A.I. because they were backed by sufficient reasoning.

Their modified rabbit was more active due to the addition of iron,had stronger bones due to calcium and had better vision due to Vitamin A.

They received a total of 160 credits which were divided among them equally.And same amount of group credits.They bought some replenishments for now and stored the leftovers for future use.

They did not need many new tools for now as they were gonna continue their research on rabbit DNA.If they could attach a total of four qualities to it,their credits would rise drastically.So they did not accept any side tasks.

But the difficulty of attaching more proteins to a single cell would obviously rise exponentially.Though even if they fail,the data and experience acquired would surely aid them in the future tasks.So there was only benefit in it for them.

By the way, how were the group going to keep these new experiments going, ones that they had limited exposure to before? You only need the institute's personalized A.I. for that(though it can't accomplish the main task)