Modification Plan

Besides cautiously exploring, observing, and hunting, Roy had spent the past few days designing sketches.

The first sketch he completed was drawn using his own hands as a reference. In it, Roy made the shape of his entire palms larger and more ferocious, making them look as though they were encased in a bony shell covered in messy, nail-like protruding bone spurs. He lengthened and sharpened the nails at his fingertips, giving them the curved shape of Claws and a metallic gleam.

Roy's initial definitions for this modification were: [Steel Material], [Flexible].

Yes, this was Roy's first Body Modification plan: to create a pair of hands with Steel Claws for himself!

This was only a preliminary idea. In Roy's vision, if he had enough souls in the future, he also intended to modify his nails into [Adamantium], achieving indestructible destructive power while extending the modification across his entire arms.

The idea naturally came from Wolverine's Claws. However, Roy guessed that the quantity and quality of souls he currently possessed might not be enough to reach Adamantium in one go, so for now, turning them into ordinary Steel Material would be sufficient.

With such sharp Claws, the advantage in battle was obvious. Even against opponents with powerful defenses, he could easily tear through their protection. And since these weapons came from his own body, he would never have to worry about running out of ammunition.

As for the second modification plan, it concerned Roy's tail.

Because his body structure was now different, Roy could no longer walk fully upright as he had when he was human. He could stand, but he could not straighten his body completely and remained slightly hunched. So far, the arrow-like tail behind him only served to maintain his balance while standing. Other than that, it was not particularly useful.

Not only could it not help Roy fight, it had instead become one of his weaknesses—sensitive and fragile, and any injury to it brought intense pain.

So, to eliminate this weakness, Roy's second modification plan targeted his tail. He drew a long tail like an Alien's, extending from the spine to the tailbone. It appeared segmented, thick at the base and sharp at the end, with an overall sleek, beautiful curve. At its tip, Roy designed three Bone Blades that could open and close. When spread open, they could grab objects; when closed, they formed a tri-edged blade capable of easily piercing thick steel plates.

According to Roy's design, after this Alien-like long tail merged with his body, blade-like bony protrusions would also rise from his spine, making him appear even more imposing and ferocious.

He had no choice. He had already despaired of this world where looks mattered everywhere! Even the Demon World judged by appearance. Here, good looks meant being strong, terrifying, savage, and fearsome. If your appearance had no intimidating presence and could not make others afraid, then even ordinary Demonic Creatures would dare test you...

Now that Roy had become a demon and lost his human form, he might as well completely let himself go and unleash his imagination. He would modify himself however he wanted.

Roy was quite satisfied with the design of this tail. Its definitions were: [Bone], [Flexible], [Regeneration], [Steel-hard].

And if he had enough souls later on, Roy also intended to turn this tail into [Adamantium], making it a true steel tail.

The third modification plan was also the last one Roy had designed recently. This plan did not target a specific part of his body, but... his entire body.

In the third drawing, Roy had sketched an Injection Gun and a Test Tube that matched it.

This Test Tube was quite interesting. Both ends were sealed in silver-white metal, while the middle consisted of two separate spiral tubes intertwined with each other. Inside the tubes was a blue reagent.

It looked familiar, didn't it? That was right, because Roy's first definition for this reagent was [T-Virus]!

Since it targeted the whole body, the first thing Roy thought of was a strengthening agent. And when it came to strengthening agents, the first things that came to mind were the T-Virus and Super Soldier Serum.

However, Roy remembered what the T-Virus looked like from movies, but he had no idea what the Super Soldier Serum looked like. Of course, he could simply draw a Test Tube, create some reagent, and define it as a strengthening agent. That would work too. But Roy figured that creating a concept out of thin air would likely require far more Soul Consumption than using a concept already formed in his memories.

Just like the revolver he had created before, drawing its appearance had already given the picture basic definitions—size, volume, and so on. The additional Text Definition merely refined it. But for an item imagined from nothing, the definition would have to be much more detailed, naturally consuming more souls.

So Roy ultimately chose the T-Virus. The T-Virus already had an established concept: completely optimizing and evolving Genes to strengthen the body and eliminate disease. This concept came from movies, novels, and games. Moreover, compared to more advanced viruses such as the G-Virus or Veronica, the T-Virus was the most basic form of enhancement. It was very suitable for Roy's currently weak body, without any risk of overdoing it.

However, because he was worried about its stability and whether his demon body could adapt to the virus, Roy added two more definitions to the T-Virus: [Perfect Fusion], [No Side Effects]! That way, he would not have to worry about turning into a demon zombie...

If Roy's current souls could materialize the T-Virus, then after injecting it, he could become stronger, sturdier, and more powerful. If he was lucky, he might even evolve some kind of superpower. It was practically killing several birds with one stone.

Three modification plans and three drawings had produced three materials. Now it was time to see which material had the lowest cost.

Roy currently had one Lower Demon soul and four Demonic Creature souls. In the system's evaluation, all five were "complete low-grade" souls, differing only in size and numerical value. So Roy began testing the materials one by one.

After the hand and tail modification drawings were placed on the Main Page, their patterns automatically changed size to match Roy's body. The T-Virus did not need to be matched and could be materialized directly. Yet after Roy tested them one at a time, he discovered that among all the materials, the only one his current souls could fully materialize was the tail!

That surprised Roy greatly, because the tail had the most Defined Attributes. According to the rule that more Defined Attributes meant greater consumption, why was the tail the exception?

Of the three materials, only the tail could reach 100%. The hand modification could only reach 20%, while the T-Virus was even lower at just 5%!

In other words, to modify his hands, Roy needed at least five times as many souls as he currently had. To materialize the T-Virus, he needed twenty times more!

What the hell was going on??

After studying it carefully for a while, Roy suddenly realized that the reason the hands had fewer Defined Attributes but cost more was probably because he had defined their material as steel.

They had to be transformed into metal while retaining the flexibility of a living organism. Naturally, that made it far more difficult. Only a biologically active metal could achieve such a modification. In contrast, although the tail had many definitions, its material was still bone. In other words, it could be completed through the proliferation of Roy's own bone cells. The Steel-hard definition merely strengthened the bones. Overall, materializing the tail was far easier than modifying his hands.

As for the T-Virus, Roy understood that even more clearly. After adding those two definitions, the T-Virus had become the most perfect strengthening agent. Its sharply increased consumption was only natural.

Since that was the case, Roy's modification plan was more or less decided. He could either modify his tail directly, or alter the definitions for his hands before modifying them. As for the T-Virus, he could forget about it for now.

After thinking it over one last time, he still chose to modify his tail first. He would eliminate his own weakness before anything else...

After merging the Alien Tail with his own Main Page and choosing to save and materialize it, a numb, itchy sensation suddenly spread through his entire spine. It was so unbearable that Roy wanted nothing more than to press his back against the ground and rub it hard to relieve the discomfort. But he knew very well that he should not move, so he forced himself to endure it...

He did not know how much time had passed. Just as Roy's consciousness began to grow hazy, the numb itch finally vanished, replaced by a strange Sense of Power...

I uploaded a cover today. I think it fits the protagonist's image I'm planning for later on, so everyone can take a look.