The Eternal World

Kid, they finally got rid of you.

[You just threw up everywhere, do you remember now?]

[Can you feel the pain? I didn't touch your pain inhibitors.]

[Hello, can you hear me? Can you hear my voice?]

Meteor remained motionless, kneeling beside the stone steps at the alley entrance. Filth spilled from his mouth and nose, and his stomach lingered with spasmodic pain, having almost emptied its contents.

My head was buzzing, with [Hot Wind] chattering incessantly and intense tinnitus.

The VENOM device on the arm displays the words "E-ink Screen," indicating the standby state of carbon. Nanomechanical components aggregate various values, including physical fitness, mental state, and local time, among others.

[Synchronization rate: 13%]

[Physical essence: 77%]

[Spiritual Essence: 31%]

[Psionic Essence: 14%]

[Electrolyte material: 0]

[Hui Stone Currency (within term): 0]

These values flowed through the pale muscles of his right arm, eventually returning to the small hexagonal box, where the bright red glow of Rose Shining Stone could be seen in the core area.

"What the hell is wrong with me? What the hell is wrong with me?"

Meteor forced himself to stand, feeling a surge of intense rage within him—an emotion that didn't belong to him.

--You know, in all these years of fighting in the north and south, encountering injustices and battling scum and scoundrels, people always see tears on his face, but never impatience or madness.

But at this moment, A Xing could sense that his physical body was acting abnormally and that he was losing control of his mind.

Many complex thoughts raced through my mind, seemingly urging the meteor to take revenge!

[Kid! You're finally awake?!]

Meteor: "Who the hell are you?"

My name is [Hot Wind], and I live in your arm, inside that VENOM device.

Meteor looked at the arm in surprise. Although it wasn't the first time she had seen this arm, the pale muscles and exposed fascia made it all look very strange and terrifying.

"Damn it, it was someone from Shinto City who performed the surgery on me?!"

[No, no, no! No! Kid! Venom doesn't need surgery. You can eat, drink, and even breathe in this city and it will grow.]

Meteor suddenly looked up and around, his anxious eyes sweeping across the streets and alleys.

Where am I?

[Ninety-Nine Mile Beach.]

"Don't talk! Let me calm down. Why can't I concentrate?"

Meteor covered his head, feeling his eyelids drooping, a nameless anger rising within him, and a dull ache in his heart as he breathed.

You're too tired, kid.

[VENOM's modifications to you are ongoing. The nanomechanics are adjusting your energy circulation system, and your liver, kidneys, and digestive system are undergoing drastic changes. Do you see that electrolyte material?]

Meteor raised his arm--

--[Electrolyte material: 0]

[This is what we eat: a 400ml bottle of electrolyte solution that can keep you active for 48 hours, more efficient than any other form of eating, requiring no human organ involvement—nanomechanics work in conjunction with your cellular mitochondria to supply the energy.]

Meteor was horrified. "I've turned into a monster?"

Don't be so nervous, don't call yourself a "monster." This is the body so many people dream of. You don't need to go to the toilet, you don't need to worry about dental problems, and most of your digestive tract and blood vessels, the organs that convert food into energy, are unnecessary burdens.

Meteor: "This is against all reason! Hot Wind! Turn me back!"

[Kid, this isn't something I can do, and I don't want to do it.]

Meteor crossed his right arm, his mind a jumbled mess.

He slammed the skinless arm against the wall, staring intently at the hexagonal box, his gaze fixed on VENOM.

"I don't believe your nonsense! I want to be a human being! I still want to be a human being!"

"My mother is waiting for me to come home! So is my loved one!"

"You can't turn me into a monster that's neither human nor ghost!"

"Hot Wind!"

Since the Hot Wind" is used in Japanese, "meteor" should also be shouted in Japanese.

"Let me go! Or I'll cut off this arm!"

[Kid, this isn't something I can decide.]

[It's not up to me to decide how you become.]

[But if you want to survive in Kanto, you have to accept this kind of transformation; there's no food for ordinary people here.]

The meteor looked around and quickly found a vending machine.

He thought the electronic ghost was talking nonsense, but the vending machine only contained electrolyte solutions of various flavors and energy densities, as well as some basic modules. There were no food or drink items for normal people at all.

He felt utterly lost, and his mental state almost collapsed at that moment.

A Xing transformed from a human into a non-human, his [Madness Index] soared. He slowly retreated step by step, finally staring wide-eyed and mouth agape in astonishment, before sitting back down on the stone steps.

He could see the orange-yellow light emitted by the xenon headlights beneath his buttocks, the skyscrapers piercing the dome beyond the alley entrance, and the eerily quiet city streets despite the bustling traffic.

Further away, there is a colossal tower connecting heaven and earth. That tower is extremely beautiful. It is an earthquake-resistant pillar built from the earth vein support of Ninety-Nine Mile Beach in the Kanto region, towards the dome. There are fifty-one such towers in the entire Shinto City, used to resist the intense geological activity around the Pacific Ocean.

They are tall and large, forming a three-dimensional land, and traces of civilization can be found not only on the ground but also in the sky.

I don't know how to comfort you, kid.

You seem very sad.

"What are you? Why?" Meteor didn't understand; he didn't know what to do. "How can you know my thoughts? You..."

Human emotions, thoughts, vision, taste, hearing, touch, and so on—all of these are neural activities, electrical impulses. I can understand your thoughts by observing changes in blood flow to the brain, oxygen distribution, and electrical signals.

Meteor tensed up. "Are you changing my body? Influencing my mind?"

This time, Hot Wind remained silent, as if the question was difficult to answer and its thought model struggled to handle such an extremely sharp contradiction.

[If I don't do this, you won't survive.]

Meteor: "Why?"

[The executioners from Stone Hill Town brought you to the [The Eternal World], which, according to your understanding—that's the administrative office of Shinto City. In their eyes, a life form without a VENOM is a beast, an infant.]

[In my opinion, the term "the Eternal World" represents the netherworld, the place where the dead and rare people go. It governs people's birth, aging, sickness, and death. If nothing unexpected happens, your brain will become a piece of data, enter a database, and then be exiled to an electronic space, like a museum or zoo.]

Meteor: "Extreme Bliss Space?"

[Yes, like hell and heaven in religious mythology, it's roughly equivalent to death.]

Meteor: "So?"

[I was originally a piece of data, a nanomechanical device on the executioner's high-frequency execution sword. I fell into your body, and because I recognized the Rose Shining Stone meme, following the Hot Wind's thought model, I used your carbon, your bones, your flesh, and your essence to reshape your right arm and create the VENOM mechanism—I was just born, and I don't want to die with you.]

Now it was Meteor's turn to fall silent.

If what this cyber ghost says is true--

--The ghost named [Hot Wind] did indeed save his life.

[How was it, kid? I did a pretty good job, didn't I? At least I didn't cause you any more trouble, right?]

Meteor: "Anyway, I have to thank you."

Have you calmed down yet?

Meteor: "It's a bit cold, but I can't calm down."

[That's true, you need time.]

"Hot Wind, is there any chance for me to turn back?" Meteor hunched over, examining his right arm.

This arm had no skin to protect it, and the bones of the Five Fingers were exposed, with no nails visible. In addition, he could feel the pain of displaced organs, and his stomach kept rumbling.

He is no longer human; the physical essence can determine the form of the spiritual essence.

The physical body can influence a person's character and change their soul; this is what Meteor cares about most.

He had undergone B·Side's transformation and knew what that meant—to become a completely different person, inside and out.

If he cannot return to human form and become human again, Bu Liuxing will disappear from this world, and in his place will be an android that looks a lot like a meteor.

This is a change that cannot be resisted by spirit or soul; simply thinking about it won't bring back a lost arm.

I don't know, kid.

[There's no precedent for this. You should understand—cell phones have impacted people's lifestyles. Would anyone willingly put down their phone and return to a life without it?]

[Perhaps a substitute can be found, and perhaps a very small number of people can escape VENOM's control. I don't want to be so absolute; this world is diverse and full of wonderful possibilities.]

[But if I were you, I wouldn't have these worries. What can possibly be difficult for us? We're the fearless Red Stone People!]

Meteor: "Ha, you're Red Stone People too?"

[That's right! So your Venom is me, and you should be thankful for that—the standard Venom model uses blackstone, but you and I are both redstone.]

Meteor: "What should I do now?"

[If I gain control of this body, I will walk a few steps to the right front of the alleyway and climb to the second platform. See carefully, I've shown you the directional lines.]

Before the words were even finished, streaks of light appeared in the meteor's eyes.

That's an illusion created by nanomechanical structures, applied directly to the optic nerve signals.

The bright red footprints guided the meteor's path. He followed the footprints all the way up the steps and found an insulated box.

The insulated box has the "Night Patrol" logo and six barcodes.

[The people on Night Patrol entrusted by the Eternal World left you here with six bottles of supplies. You can open them and take a look.]

Meteor picked up the insulated box and searched for a long time but couldn't find where the lock was.

[Place your right hand on the [Night Patrol] logo. This is a biometric DNA identification device. You are now a legal citizen of Shinto City; no one can take your things.]

Following the instructions from the Hot Wind, Meteor placed her skinless palm on the incubator.

A cloud of cold air emerged from it, and six bottles of electrolyte solution lay in the groove.

[Good job, kid! Now we have 6*48 hours of activity time. During this time, you won't have to worry about food or drink, and you'll be full of energy.]

Meteor took out one of the bottles of electrolyte solution; it appeared to be entirely blue and was a transparent liquid.

"Can I really survive on this thing?"

[If you don't like drinking it, you can try sprinkling it on your right arm.]

[I will assign nanomachines to absorb these solutions and recharge your body.]

Meteor was skeptical, so she only took a tiny bit and applied it to the muscle fibers of her right arm.

The feeling of touching my own muscles is strange. When my fingertips on my left hand come into contact with the strands of protein, it feels like stroking a warm rubber band. The feeling in my right arm is even stranger. Without the protection of skin, it is both dull and sensitive.

The dullness is because some of its pain receptors have disappeared.

The sensitivity comes from the fact that it transcends the senses of touch and pain; when you press your fingers against a muscle, you experience a tingling, electric shock-like sensation.

The VENOM's nanomechanicals, resembling a black mist, gathered on the right arm. They caught the electrolyte solution and immediately seeped into the deeper blood vessels and bone, rapidly delivering energy to all parts of the body.

Meteor's mind cleared instantly, and the feeling of energy flowing through his body was like a clear mountain spring pouring into parched soil in summer.

His mind immediately became clear, his concentration improved, his eyes were able to focus quickly, and his eyes found a sense of distance, as if the surrounding street scene had become much cleaner.

[How about it?]

Meteor exclaimed in surprise, "Holy crap! That's fucking awesome!"

I don't like your adjectives, but I like your emotions.

"Hahahaha!" Meteor burst into laughter, not knowing why he was laughing so hard, "I rarely swear, hahaha! Sorry!"

[Perhaps influenced by me, I was a troll in my past life, always ready to criticize anything I saw—kid, you can try this now, drink the whole bottle of electrolyte solution. It's more effective internally than applied topically.]

Meteor tilted his head back and drank the electrolyte solution in one gulp.

He tasted a sweet flavor—just like the instructions in the insulated box indicated that the electrolyte solution was mint and green apple flavored.

The moment the solvent entered his mouth and slid down his throat, Meteor felt his whole body brimming with power, and a crackling static crackling emanated from his right arm.

His body was rapidly transforming; the physical transformation he had missed over the past six years seemed to be catching up with him in the blink of an eye.

His thin shirt ripped open on both shoulders, revealing bright red muscle lines that first bulged through the skin and then burst through the seams of the white shirt.

His vision blurred again, but when he took off his glasses, Meteor suddenly realized that his eyesight was perfectly fine again!

One hole after another appeared in the pants, and the calves and thighs bulged, almost tearing the waterproof military pants in two.

[Hahahaha! Hahahaha!]

The Hot Wind was laughing wildly, and the shooting star had no idea what the AI was so happy about.

[Hahahaha! Kid! You're so strong! You've got a great body! Hahahaha!]

Meteor stared in astonishment at the changes in his body. In that moment, he seemed to have transformed into a Super Saiyan, going from emaciated to tall and strong, all with just a Little Blue bottle.

[The electrical currents from nanomachines can stimulate your muscles and shape your limbs according to your wishes, but it's not a panacea. If I can't find that muscle memory in your brain, I wouldn't dare to arbitrarily modify your physical body. It seems this body is the form you're most satisfied with.]

Meteor raised his right arm again, and the various data within the VENOM mechanism changed.

[Synchronization rate: 20%]

[Physical constitution: 112% (overgrowth)]

[Mental constitution: 115% (hyperexcitability)]

[Psionic Essence: 81%]

[Electrolyte material: 5]

[Hui Stone Currency (within the term): -4500 (see medical insurance for billing details)]

"This is amazing!"

Meteor was speechless for a moment. Compared to Universal Elixir, these nanomachines were practically divine creations.

[Kid, feeling better now?]

Meteor: "Better than ever before"

He examined his strong right arm, the shirt now in pieces. In contrast to the pale muscles, the other components still appeared to be characteristic of Homo sapiens. It seemed that the Hot Wind had been quite polite, simply taking away an arm as a necessary component for installing the VENOM.

[Then I have a question for you.]

Meteor: "Go ahead and ask?"

[Who are you?]

Meteor picked up the insulated box and suddenly froze.

He didn't know what the Hot Wind was asking—was there some deeper meaning in that question?

If everything is as Hot Wind says, this powerful electronic ghost could easily retrieve memories from the cerebral cortex and already know Meteor's backstory and personal information.

[Don't be so nervous. I know your name is Bu Liuxing, and you have a good brother named Jiang Xueming. I know, I know everything.]

[Your first crush was on your personal golf instructor because she had big breasts.]

[My second crush was a rock climbing safety officer. She was always above me, securing my safety rope. She had a beautiful backside, especially during intense suspension bridge situations. In those life-or-death moments, seeing her always made me feel safe.]

[You're the third one]

Bu Liuxing: "Shut the fuck up!"

Okay! I won't say anything more!

[But we still need to maintain a sense of ritual.]

[Who are you?]

Bu Liuxing: "My name is Bu Liuxing."

[Great! Meteor! I don't have to call you 'kid' anymore! We're finally officially acquainted. We'll become friends, we'll go on adventures together, and we'll write a new story.]

[As for whether you can turn back into a human?]

Meteor clenched his fist.

"It should work, right?"

I like your drive. I'll still praise you until you discover you're 4,500 yuan behind in your bank account, which will help you temporarily forget about this frustrating situation.

I will encourage you, Shooting Star! Remember--

A determined mind can overcome anything; human will can conquer nature.