Chapter 209: 209, Courtesy requires reciprocity

When Ren Xiaosu fought those two officers, he clearly saw the silver glint of their veins. Normal blood vessels should appear blue from the outside, yet at that moment, it was evident that some extraordinary force was surging within them, causing the light to radiate outward.

At that time, Ren Xiaosu was wondering if it might be nanobots, and now, seeing it with his own eyes, it was indeed so.

He watched as the silver radiance within their bodies resembled streams converging into a river, growing denser on their skin’s surface. Ren Xiaosu cautiously approached, hesitating whether to claim this unknown power.

For the unknown, he had always been cautious.

"Just finished saying superstition can't be trusted, and now I'm using it myself—doesn't that seem a bit inappropriate?" Ren Xiaosu felt a toothache.

Earlier, during a physical examination at the barracks, he had discovered that the nanobots were being manipulated to connect with his consciousness. Now, without anyone controlling them, he suddenly realized he had a natural mastery over them.

Nanobots had no consciousness; machines were machines. Previously, they couldn't be deployed militarily because their individual size couldn't support overly complex programs.

After the breakthrough in neuron interface technology, the human brain became their processor, while the nanobots merely served as execution terminals—a tool in its purest form.

But nanobots required DNA matching before use. Each person's DNA was like a unique key, aligning with their own nanobots.

They would determine operability through permission verification. Once matched, the nanobots functioned like a password-protected safe—without the key, they would cease operation and reject foreign consciousness.

Thus, the two officers couldn't control each other's nanobots, nor could anyone else.

However, when Ren Xiaosu's consciousness touched them, he initially felt they were all in a "dormant" state, as if some barrier was blocking his access.

Yet when his consciousness swept over them, the typewriter in the palace suddenly typed out line after line of small characters.

"Reloading program..."

"Restoring factory settings..."

"Clearing online programs..."

"Matching successful."

Then... Ren Xiaosu found he could control these tiny things.

He saw the silver river flowing across the snow toward him, finally converging into his hand. The nanobots extracted from the two officers combined were only the size of a fist.

No wonder they were so weak—turns out there were so few inside the body?

After losing their master, the nanobots reopened their ports, awaiting rematching. Normally, this required returning to the factory, but the palace bypassed all steps, using the reopened ports to reprogram the nanobots for Ren Xiaosu.

Without the reopened ports, the palace probably couldn't have done this.

The silver liquid metal sphere shifted into strange shapes in Ren Xiaosu's palm, and in an instant, it covered his hand like a metallic gauntlet. Yet once interfaced with neurons, it felt as natural as part of his body.

He punched the off-road vehicle's body, and the steel let out a creaking sound before collapsing, while the nanogloves on his hands remained unscathed.

Before, when Rao Lan mentioned nanobots, Ren Xiaosu had looked down on them, but now he was slightly more impressed.

If he could get a full-body nanobot exoskeleton, would he no longer need to use shadows to block bullets? After all, it hurt.

Of course, that was just a slight change in perspective. Whether it actually worked, Ren Xiaosu felt he needed to extract more nanobots from the Li family descendants to find out...

Two Li family descendants had disappeared during patrol—this kind of thing would surely be investigated. He didn't know if the investigators had nanobots on them.

Ren Xiaosu commanded the shadow to place the two corpses in the car, carrying them toward the lake he remembered, making sure to destroy the evidence carefully. Otherwise, next time no one would send him nanobots.

He hadn't used a knife when killing them, fearing bloodstains, and now he was even more careful, afraid of leaving any traces.

As he walked, Ren Xiaosu asked, "Old Xu, do you think their nanobots are many or few?"

"Synchronization rates vary, so the number of controllable nanobots must differ too, right?"

"Do you think the next people will be stronger? That would be good—maybe they have more nanobots..."

"You're still shy—why aren't you talking..."

People say details determine success, so to avoid exposure, Ren Xiaosu decided to rename the shadow as Old Xu...

Before throwing the vehicle into the lake, Ren Xiaosu stripped the two officers' uniforms and tossed them into storage space—who knew if they'd be useful later? This was Li family military attire, after all.

After loading the car with stones and sinking it, he returned to the outpost. The students gathered around and asked, "Class leader, how did it go?"

"Done," Ren Xiaosu replied succinctly. "Go back to sleep. We have to rise early tomorrow."

At that moment, he saw the Wolf King standing atop a distant peak. He thought for a moment and walked toward the mountain.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu didn't know why he wanted to communicate with the Wolf King. Walking along the mountain path, he suddenly felt that being with wolves was sometimes more relaxing than being with people.

He hadn't gone far when he saw the Wolf King slowly descending from a ridge. He had intended to chat with the Wolf King, but upon seeing him, he didn't know what to say.

The other side simply watched him calmly. Ren Xiaosu thought back to a year and a half ago when the Wolf King had chased him across the wilderness.

He suddenly remembered what the students had said about reciprocity. Ren Xiaosu broke the silence: "Um... you've given me a rabbit and a sheep. Should I give you something too?"

The Wolf King didn't respond, but Ren Xiaosu could feel its muscles slowly relaxing, indicating it was gradually lowering its guard.

Seeing no reply, he probed, "You can't talk either, so I'll give you a few gift options. You're always alone on the mountain—being a king is lonely, I understand. How about I send you the Kunshan Wolf King to keep you company? You're both Wolf Kings; maybe you'll have something in common..."

For some reason, at that moment, Ren Xiaosu felt this Wolf King could understand him!

Because when he mentioned the Kunshan Wolf King, the other's face showed clear disgust—he even doubted how the wolf had managed to make such an expression!

First Sequence

First Sequence