Chapter 628: This Bad Idea Might Actually Work

Chapter 628: This Terrible Idea Might Actually Work

[

ID: Chu Guang

Gene Sequence: Administrator (Phase Six)

Level: LV.40 → LV.50

— Basic Attributes —

Strength: 45 → 60 (+15)

Agility: 35 → 45 (+10)

Physique: 40 → 50 (+10)

Perception: 39 → 50 (+11)

Intelligence: 40 → 53 (+13)

]

[-

Talents: 1. Primal Instinct: Awakens primal instinct under extreme conditions, boosting all attributes by 10–15% for its duration, with fatigue accumulation rate increased by 20–30%.

2. Mental Deterrence: Exerts psychological pressure on fully conscious lifeforms weaker than oneself, weakening their will to resist.

3. Swarm Mind: Shares 3–15% of intelligence attribute with fully conscious lifeforms weaker than oneself, granting them inspiration and a boost in thinking speed. This effect is influenced by factors such as distance, number of individuals, and receptivity, with a maximum range of 10m.

4. Victory Cry: Vibrates the vocal cords at a special frequency, infusing shouts with courage, instilling an unyielding resolve in those who resonate.

5. “Unanalyzable.” (New)

]

Vault 404, Medical Bay.

Sitting on the scanning bed, Chu Guang stared at the blade he had twisted into a spiral in his hand, his eyes filled with disbelief.

Last night, he had just returned to the vault from Xizhou City, and soon after lying down, he had a vague, indistinct dream, waking up drenched in sweat.

Following his usual routine, he left the task of washing the sheets to Xiaoqi and immediately contacted Heya to schedule a physical examination.

As expected, his gene sequence development had broken through yet again!

To be honest, Chu Guang had some awareness of his own physical condition, but he never imagined it had reached the point where he could crush a blade into a spiral with his bare hands.

A tiny cut had opened on the skin of his palm, the blood on the blade still not dry, yet the cut was already nearly invisible.

It wasn’t just strength.

From the keratinocytes on the skin’s surface to the capillaries and muscle tissue beneath the dermis, and even the organs and bones inside his body—everything was evolving in a direction beyond ordinary humans.

Even though the macroscopic structure and outline of his body hadn’t changed significantly, in reality, it had been replaced by something else entirely.

In Heya’s words, an average person’s DNA typically has only 2% expressed normally, and that is essentially the limit a human organism can endure.

But because his DNA was meticulously designed, the proportion of selectively expressed genes in the entire gene pool had reached 4%, or even higher!

To use an imperfect but vivid analogy: ordinary people are like commercially available cars—four wheels and an engine, with performance varying by brand and model, but perfectly fine for driving on the road.

Awakened individuals are like F1 race cars—still four wheels and an engine, but anyone can see they’re a completely different beast from regular cars. Even if they could drive on the road, no one would give them a license plate.

Chu Guang’s case was even more extreme.

His F1 engine wasn’t even a standard gasoline engine; the four wheels and one engine had been swapped out for four plasma thrusters and a controllable fusion reactor! While others ran on wheels on the road, he was practically flying just above the ground!

This could no longer be considered a car at all—it had become something entirely different.

And indeed, that was the truth.

A 1.1-ton power armor felt on him like wearing a down jacket.

Others relied on the energy provided by nuclear fusion batteries to drive their armor, while he could move freely in power armor using sheer physical strength alone.

Chu Guang figured that if he were to travel back to his original world in the flesh, he’d probably be studied as an alien.

But that didn’t seem wrong either.

After all, just looking at this exaggerated attribute panel, he felt there wasn’t much difference between himself and an alien.

An average person’s base strength value is 5, and a punch’s force is about 50 kilograms. His strength attribute was 60—twelve times that, meaning 600 kilograms?

Of course, that’s just the force of a punch.

Based on a simple momentum formula, the actual impact force from an average person striking a target might be around one to two times that number, while a trained person could reach three to five times.

In other words—

According to rough calculations, he could deliver a punch with a force of one ton?!

At that thought, Chu Guang suddenly grew curious, wanting to test just how powerful a full-force punch from him would be.

But as soon as he clenched his fist, a sharp cough interrupted him.

“Don’t you dare.”

Looking at Heya, who was staring at him warily, Chu Guang paused for a moment, then smiled sheepishly and relaxed his fist.

“I’m just a little curious.”

“Curious how many minutes it would take to demolish my lab?”

Heya made a helpless expression and continued.

“I can tell you the conclusion directly: a punch from you now is about the same as being hit by a truck. It’s not just ‘twelve times the strength’—your muscle fibers and bones have actually become a different ‘material.’ But I still advise you not to actually pick a fight with a truck. Even if you absolutely have to try, it’s best to install a titanium alloy skeleton first. No matter how unbelievably hard your bones are, they’re still bones.”

“I’m not that idle… By the way, what’s that ‘Unanalyzable’ at the bottom?” Chu Guang suddenly noticed the last line of the attribute panel and looked at Heya.

Knowing Chu Guang would ask this, Heya casually pulled up a chair and sat across from him, tapping her finger to open a holographic image and pushing it gently in front of him.

The DNA helix image unfolded in the display, accompanied by rows of pale blue labels.

These graphical markers indicated the selectively expressed gene fragments, the messenger RNA transcribed from them, and the protein chains formed under ribosome processing.

Although the entire biological process was presented intuitively in this report, Chu Guang was still completely lost, understanding none of it.

Clearly aware that this was beyond his knowledge, Heya didn’t keep him in suspense and explained succinctly.

“Unanalyzable means exactly what it says. Your body has undergone some changes, starting to synthesize proteins I’ve never seen and can’t determine their specific functions. I don’t want to start a lecture from the basics of ‘how genes influence biological traits,’ but you can understand it this way… A human body is like a construction site, and on your site, some oddly shaped bricks have appeared, and they’re building a structure whose purpose I can’t figure out.”

“There’s no precedent in the vault’s database, so I can’t infer the possible results of this change based on existing samples. I’ll just have to observe for a while and see.”

Chu Guang was slightly astonished.

“An enhancement even you can’t identify?”

“That’s perfectly normal—I’m a researcher, not a prophet. But don’t be so sure it’s definitely an ‘enhancement.’”

Heya suddenly curled her lips playfully, leaning in closer with a mischievous smile. “What if it’s some genetic disease? For instance, two heads suddenly sprouting from your shoulders—that’s not entirely impossible.”

Though the likelihood was low.

After such a long period of research, Heya could already conclude that his genes were not naturally formed, but rather seemed designed using knowledge she didn’t understand.

Most of the residents of this vault were the same.

Their very existence is a "singularity-level" technology, or at least one foot is already planted on that singularity beyond common sense.

However, she had only meant to scare the guy a bit, to keep him from always relying on his good health to roam around recklessly, never taking his own safety seriously.

But unfortunately, Chu Guang was clearly not intimidated, and just chuckled at the ambiguous statement.

"If it were really something like that, you wouldn't be telling me in such a joking tone."

Hera, leaning back in her chair, pouted listlessly.

"True enough. Next time I'll practice the tone of a terminal diagnosis letter."

Chu Guang smiled.

"Anyway, we'll have to wait and see what that change actually is, right?"

Hera nodded and said curtly.

"Exactly. I suggest adjusting the checkup frequency from once every seven days to once every three days, and once every two days would be best. Frankly, I'm very interested in the changes happening in your body. Being able to observe the entire process of your physiological changes would greatly help my ongoing research."

Feeling a bit uncomfortable under her intense, gleaming gaze, Chu Guang cleared his throat lightly, flicked his finger to close the translucent holographic screen, and buttoned up his jacket.

"After the wave passes, I'll consider it, but I'm afraid I won't have that much time recently."

Watching Chu Guang rise from the scanning bed, Hera suddenly thought of something and spoke up.

"Oh, speaking of the wave, there's something I need to tell you."

Seeing Hera put on a serious expression, Chu Guang also dropped his joking demeanor and grew earnest.

"What is it?"

"Sia."

Hearing the unfamiliar name, Chu Guang frowned slightly.

"Sia?"

Hera nodded, her expression grave as she continued.

"A new mother has emerged in the city center. According to clues provided by Xiaoyu, its name seems to be Sia. Our researchers sampled the spores active in Qingquan City and discovered a mutant strain different from before among a large number of samples."

"Mutant strain?" Chu Guang was taken aback. "Hasn't that happened in previous waves?"

Hera explained patiently.

"Of course it has in previous years. The wave itself is the way the mutant slime mold expands its colony, and in the process, it also undergoes new evolution. But this year is different from previous ones."

Chu Guang said nothing, waiting for her to continue.

Hera paused for a moment, then tried to explain in simpler terms he could understand.

"According to the data I've gathered from Boulder City, although the mutant slime mold undergoes group evolution during the wave every year, it usually evolves in directions like rapid reproduction, rapid healing, and tougher armor."

Gradually sensing something was off, Chu Guang asked cautiously.

"And this year?"

"This year, it's fire resistance."

What the hell?!

Chu Guang was stunned.

"Fire resistance?!"

Seeing his shocked expression, Hera nodded gently.

"It sounds unbelievable, but based on what we've observed, that's the case."

"Wait... are there carbon-based organisms that fire can't kill?"

"It's not that they can't be killed, but this new mutant slime mold's spores exhibit physiological traits we haven't seen before. For instance, when encountering unbearable high temperatures, the macromolecular carbon chains inside the spore sac rapidly combine with surrounding oxygen molecules under the action of biocatalysts, the volume expands quickly, and eventually the sac bursts, releasing a large amount of carbon dioxide."

"After completing this process, the spores die quickly, but the air in the entire area is also rapidly depleted. According to the biological research institute's computational simulations, under standard atmospheric pressure, when the spore concentration index reaches 500, it can reduce the oxygen content in the area from 20.95% to 10.1% within half a minute, at the cost of consuming 80% of the spores themselves. If the spore concentration index reaches 800, this process can be completed in just ten seconds."

"Plus, most conventional combustion processes themselves consume oxygen, and the fruiting bodies' release of spores is a continuous process, further lowering the oxygen content in the area, thereby weakening or even completely stopping the ongoing redox reaction."

Most combustibles in daily life, when ignited, will be extinguished when the oxygen content drops below 14%.

If this mutant spore really can lower the oxygen content to 10.1%, it might affect not just incendiary bombs but also some synthetic oil engines and generators, causing them to stall.

Fortunately, the minimum oxygen content for hydrogen combustion is 5.9%, otherwise the Alliance's hydrogen-burning air batteries would also be in trouble.

Chu Guang's expression finally changed.

To deal with this wave, the Alliance had prepared nearly a thousand tons of incendiary bombs and about 300,000 tons of fuel for making napalm.

And now his researcher was telling him they might not be needed?!

"Don't the slime mold's fruiting bodies need to breathe?"

Hera said gravely.

"That's exactly what puzzles me. If those slime molds create a large 'oxygen-free zone' in Qingquan City, their own life activities would obviously be affected. I can only speculate that the fruiting bodies produced by the new type of mother nest have a higher tolerance for anoxic environments, after all... they themselves came from the sky."

Chu Guang was silent for a moment, pressing his index finger to his brow.

"At least it's good to spot the problem early... I don't believe there's a creature in this world without weaknesses."

"I agree with you. Maybe in actual combat, the performance of incendiary bombs won't be as pessimistic as the calculations suggest. And we're also thinking of other solutions... By the way, you didn't just prepare incendiary bombs, did you?" Hera looked at Chu Guang with concern.

"Not at all. We don't pin all our hopes of victory on a single weapon," Chu Guang shook his head and sighed. "But honestly, incendiary bombs play an irreplaceable role in fighting mutant slime molds. They have the best cost-effectiveness and can clear away large amounts of corpses. If incendiary bombs can't achieve the expected effect, this war will be tougher than we anticipated."

Was it because they used too many incendiary bombs?

It seemed that way.

Previously, when Boulder City dealt with the wave, they always used the tactic of saturating the area with incendiary bombs and then sending mercenaries to charge in and dismantle the structures.

The Alliance had done the same before, even purchasing a few more efficient big ones from Boulder City.

Chu Guang couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

If they let those slime molds keep multiplying, it would eventually become a bigger problem.

"We need to eliminate the threat in Qingquan City's center once and for all."

Just then, a thought struck him, and he spoke up.

"By the way, what about letting the mother nest devour the mother nest?"

This wasn't his own idea; he remembered seeing someone discuss it on the forum. Some players even urged Luo Yu to take Xiaoyu out and see if it could eat the opponent.

He recalled Hera once saying that there is an "intraspecific competition" relationship among mutant slime molds. Fruiting bodies belonging to different hive consciousnesses often attack and even devour each other to compete for sunlight, land, and organic matter.

Hearing Chu Guang's question, Hera was momentarily stunned.

"Letting the mother nest devour the mother nest... well, it's not impossible. Theoretically, mutant slime molds with significant DNA differences can indeed devour each other. It's one of their ways to acquire genetic information and strengthen themselves. But there's no precedent for a mother nest devouring another mother nest."

Not only had the Alliance never encountered such a precedent, but even the Corporation, whose tentacles stretched across the entire eastern part of the Central Continent, had never seen it either. Due to a previous research agreement between the Alliance and the Corporation on mutant slime molds, the data and materials from the Corporation and its allies' observations and studies over the past two hundred years were mostly open to the Alliance. Yet she had scoured all records and found no such extreme case.

And most crucially, Xiaoyu's main body was in the B6 level of the shelter, occupying the entire server room. It couldn't even fit in the elevator, let alone leave the room.

In the future, it might even merge with the entire B6 level.

How could they make it devour something?

It was even more unrealistic to put that "Xia" into the shelter; one misstep and the entire shelter would repeat the fate of B6 level.

Watching He Ya, who stood frozen, Chu Guang's eyes flickered slightly as he continued.

"What if we let shelter residents carrying biological prosthetics actively inject their prosthetics into the Mother or the Hive?"

If this method could directly eliminate the Hive, he could even consider loading players into shells for a "surgical" precision strike on the Hive.

Of course, this wasn't aimed at the newborn Mother.

It was aimed at the Hive in the city center!

Though it was a bit unfair to say so, having just survived a winter and birthed a huge mass of "little lives," that thing should be quite weak, right?

There couldn't be a better opportunity than this!

He Ya opened her mouth, and after a long while, squeezed out a sentence with a strange expression.

"This... whose idea was it?"

Chu Guang sighed.

"Doesn't work?"

"No..." He Ya shook her head, her expression subtle. "I think the opposite—this lousy idea might actually have a chance."

Chu Guang: "!!!"

Holy crap?

It actually works?!