Chapter 101: Absorption, The Chip’s Changes
Dias squeezed back the way he came from and ordered his men to start with an aggrieved look on his face. This wasn’t going to be an easy place to perform mining. When Dias thought that they had so many so-called technical professionals, and yet none of them could match up to a dim-witted cat, he could not help but sigh on the inside. As for Cillin, he and everyone else had always thought that the guy was born with the ability to s.h.i.+ft his bones and physical appearance however he wanted to.
Cillin went further inside after the gray cat, and Dias did not stop him. There was no harm to have someone follow after the cat and get a grasp of the situation.
As the one man and a cat walked deeper inside, they reached a point where even the thinnest normal person might not necessarily be able to squeeze through the gaps successfully. Many times, Cillin would slip through the narrow gaps by dislocating his bones before relocating them back to normal. If Dias and the others knew that Cillin could ‘play’ with the bones inside his body like a jigsaw puzzle, their jaws would probably hit the ground in shock.
“Aha, this is the place!” Not far away, the gray cat cried out from the front.
Cillin s.h.i.+fted a couple more steps forwards, and he abruptly discovered that there were no more trees from thereon out. The ground here was covered in a layer of rock, and it looked about the same as the rocks from other areas. Cillin took out a blade and stabbed the ground with it, finding that the rock layer was so tough that he could dig for half a day and not get anywhere with it. He might even snap the blade itself if he tried to force it.
According to the gray cat, there was another stratum layer beneath these rocks, and the red-and-black energy ores were right beneath them. Even Cillin could sense that this place was different from others, since a certain factor inside his body was starting to grow restless.
If this area was the heart of the red-and-black energy ore deposit, then it was hard to imagine why the strength of the energy field in this vast jungle and its surroundings would be almost identical to each other. The fact that the strength of the energy field generated by the ores was so even over such a wide area only further exemplified its uniqueness.
This area of rocks was hidden from its surroundings. Overhead, there were densely packed tree branches that concealed this place completely, which was why the orbiting satellite probes failed to capture a picture of this place.
There was a dug hole at the center of this area of rocks. It was the gray cat’s handiwork. Cillin walked to the edge and looked inside. The stratum was about 15 meters deep, and the red-and-black energy ores were supposedly started after that depth. But that was just what Cillin had gleaned from the cave walls. In this particular hole, the gray cat had annihilated the energy ores between fifteen to thirty meters beneath the ground singlehandedly.
Right now, the cat had jumped into the hole and began its meal yet again, chewing on the ores like it was chewing on ice. If Cary saw this he would probably fall into another bout of wors.h.i.+p. Even the most intelligent animal in the world would not be able to eat energy ores as food, and with such crunching ease no less, would they?
Cillin jumped into the hole and touched the red-and-black walls with his fingers.
When the gray cat had spat that small piece of red-and-black energy crystal into his palm earlier, Cillin did nothing to the crystal since there were plenty of watchful eyes around him. In reality, a series of internal changes had occurred inside his body the moment he came in contact with the energy crystal, seemingly desiring to absorb the energy inside the crystal completely into his body. If Cillin hadn’t forcefully repressed the change, the fingernail-sized crystal would probably have shrunk to the size of a rice by the time it fell into Dias’ hands.
Cillin could feel the desire for this energy from the agitated factors inside his body. He did not know what would happen after he absorbed it, but he knew that it could only be beneficial to him.
When he touched the red-and-black energy ores on the cave, the icy cool touch on his fingers did not last long before it was replaced by a rebounding, scorching heat.
Cillin felt as if his body had transformed into a whirlpool that was sucking frantically at the energy contained inside the red-and-black energy ores.
The energy caused the chips inside his body to awaken and stimulate the metabolic cycle in his cells. Cillin could sense acutely that the information transcribed by his DNA was different every time even though his original genetic information remained unchanged. This meant that his genetic information would automatically recompile themselves so that the final transcribed information was different during each transcription. The whole process felt like an experiment of sorts, powered by the energy he just absorbed. At the same time, the chips used the energy as a point of contrast so that each experiment result would reach closer and closer to the golden ratio of the energy. Then they compiled it into the chips so that certain recessive zones inside his genes could be stimulated to begin their expressions as well.
Right now, Cillin felt like he was being ‘painted’ again and again as the paint seeped into his body. But it wasn’t just his skin that was being ‘painted’, but also his internal organs, his tissues and his cells. The strengthening experiment was conducted throughout his body again and again until that optimal point could finally be found.
The gray cat who was clinging onto a wall and chewing at energy crystals suddenly sensed something amiss and turned its head.
Holy mother of cats!
In that instant, the gray cat was so shocked by Cillin’s condition to the point that it slipped and fell off the cave wall. Luckily, it was a cat, so it simply twisted its body in mid-air and landed steadily on four limbs. Then the gray cat immediately ran near Cillin, but did not approach him. This was because Cillin’s entire body had turned red-and-black in color, and there was a strange aura surrounding him. Moreover, the color was deepening to the point where it was nearly indistinguishable from the energy ores.
The gray cat circled around Cillin twice before lying down helplessly. While holding itself upright, the gray cat stared unblinkingly at the red-and-black Cillin, who was touching the wall with one hand and closing his eyes with a frown.
Where Cillin’s fingers touched, the wall began to depress inward. Then, the hole slowly grew bigger and bigger as it spread towards the surrounding. The gray cat knew that the phenomenon was due to Cillin absorbing all of the energy inside the energy ores. But even the gray cat itself could only eat the ores first before digesting and absorbing them into its body. Its own absorption rate was pretty fast too, but even then it wasn’t nearly as fast and efficient as this guy, was it? What happened to him? Why was he using so much energy?
After staring at Cillin for some time, the gray cat gradually fell into deep contemplation. Or at least, that was what it thought it was doing. By Cillin’s standards, it was no different from daydreaming.
Pain. Intense pain. Cillin felt as if every cell in his body was being torn apart and rebuilt once more.
Cillin had always thought that he might need to improve his physical capabilities or genotype to Rank A in order to activate the remaining chips inside his body, but there was one thing that he overlooked all this time. It wasn’t just a matter of increasing his strength in order to activate the last and the most important part of the chips; he also needed a huge amount of energy.
But the kind of energy that could stimulate the activated chips to begin their ‘experiment’ on their own and upgrade their host to the most optimal point must be anything but ordinary. At least, every energy ore had come into contact up to this point except the red-and-black energy ores Cillin, be it the excellent ones or the inferior ones were all unqualified.