Fusion (Revised)

In the South China Sea, a dilapidated wooden fishing boat was working under the scorching sun.

This fishing boat looked like it had seen better days; the original white paint was reduced to mottled patches, and the hull was covered in scars from past collisions, crudely patched together with a few wooden planks and nails.

As the sea breeze blew, the rigging creaked and the hull swayed incessantly, looking as if it might capsize at the slightest sign of rougher waves.

On the boat, a teenager of only seventeen or eighteen was gritting his teeth, struggling to haul up a fishing net from beneath the surface. The veins on his arms were bulging, and his dark skin, tanned by years of exposure, was drenched in sweat. His undershirt was soaked through, leaving white salt stains that baked under the intense sun.

Due to his life of fishing, the boy's muscles were well-defined, though he still appeared somewhat lean.

His name was Nie Yun, and this decrepit little boat was the only property his old man had left him. The old man wasn't his biological father; he was an orphan who had been adopted by the man since he was a child.

Coming from a poor family, he had only finished primary school before following in his father's footsteps, naturally becoming a glorious fisherman.

As for why a fisherman was "glorious," it was because his alcoholic father had told him: "The *** said that the working people are glorious, and fishermen are working people, so fishermen are glorious!"

Thus, when his teacher asked him about his future ambitions in primary school, he had proudly replied: "My ambition is to become a glorious fisherman!"

This was followed by roars of laughter from the entire class, and it wasn't until much later that Nie Yun finally learned the truth.

In the time since the old man passed away, Nie Yun would still occasionally bring this up at his grave, cursing the old man for being dishonest, before falling asleep on a stone with tear tracks still on his face.

"Whether we eat like kings or eat scraps tonight depends on this haul!" Nie Yun shouted a nonsensical chant, putting his back into it until he finally hauled the net up.

He then stared blankly at the few tiny shrimp in the net. After a long while, he sighed, smacked his lips, and muttered, "It's fine, it's fine. Millet porridge with shrimp soup—the radio said this is called healthy living!"

After hypnotizing himself for a while and banishing thoughts of braised pork and fatty intestines from his mind, Nie Yun checked the sky and began to pack up the nets, adjusting the sails to head back. His movements were incredibly nimble, showing off his masterful boat-handling skills.

The best time for fishing had already passed, and he knew full well that since he was in coastal waters, continuing to fish would just be a waste of effort.

The little fishing boat also had an ancient diesel engine. In the words of Nie Yun's old man, their "Sea Wolf" was a high-end hybrid fishing boat!

However, to save that precious bit of diesel, Nie Yun usually relied on a natural, pollution-free energy source—wind power—as his primary means of propulsion.

"How much of a contribution do I make to the country's energy conservation and emission reduction every year! How many people in all of Zhonghua are as hardworking for the country and the people as I am?" Nie Yun would boast arrogantly.

The little fishing boat, Sea Wolf, drifted slowly toward the mainland. Yes, it was truly "drifting." At this speed, he would probably arrive by dusk...

Once Nie Yun had set the course, he lay down on the deck at the bow, chewing on a squid tail while watching the clouds. As he began to feel sleepy and let out a yawn, a streak of light suddenly flashed across the corner of his eye.

Nie Yun froze. He looked toward the light and saw a silver fireball, like a meteor, descending from the distant sky. Judging by the trajectory, it was heading straight for his little boat.

The silver fireball whistled terrifyingly as it rubbed against the air, its size gradually shrinking due to the intense combustion. By the time it reached a few hundred meters above him, it was only the size of a fingertip.

"Heh, I always hear on the radio that if a person is unlucky enough, they can get hit by a meteor just by stepping outside. I shouldn't... be that unlucky, right?" Cold sweat broke out across Nie Yun's forehead as this thought flashed through his mind.

Then, the next moment, with a "whoosh," and before Nie Yun could even react, the silver streak of light pierced directly through his abdomen, punched a hole through the poor Sea Wolf, and plunged into the deep sea.

"Cough, cough!" Nie Yun coughed up a clot of blood mixed with internal organs and uttered his final words: "Holy crap!"

His eyes rolled back, and he passed away instantly at the age of seventeen years and ten months!

Perhaps even the heavens felt that Nie Yun's life was too tragic, and the Goddess of Fate finally favored this unlucky kid at this critical moment.

On his blood-soaked abdomen, where a large hole had been punched through, a speck of silver-white stardust clung to the wound—likely a fragment of the meteorite from earlier.

When these silver-white specks touched Nie Yun's blood, they acted like a thirsty sponge. The bloodstains vanished at a speed visible to the naked eye, while the silver-white stardust seemed to gain energy, proliferating wildly and spreading until it formed a silver circular patch that finally seeped into Nie Yun's body along the blood trail.

On a level invisible to the naked eye, if one were to magnify the tiny silver particles, they were actually ultra-micro robots a million times smaller than a nanometer, with precise, complex structures etched with intricate patterns.

After wandering the universe for hundreds of millions of years, this unknown entity, whose energy was nearly exhausted and on the verge of extinction, had finally found a host. To gain a chance at survival, it actively initiated a fusion with the host!

The silver-white substance raced rapidly up the blood vessels, reaching the heart, and then flowed through the circulatory system to the entire body. Everywhere it passed, everything turned silver-white!

The endocrine system, respiratory system, digestive system, and even the nervous system—a miraculous fusion and parasitism were occurring rapidly within Nie Yun's body.

Ten minutes later, Nie Yun, whose lower body was soaking in seawater, suddenly opened his eyes and sat up. He gasped for air, as if he had just faced some immense terror.

He looked down in a daze at his smooth, flat abdomen with eight-pack abs exposed beneath his torn undershirt. He reached out a finger and pressed against it; it was still as bouncy and elastic as ever—definitely his original equipment!

But his torn clothes and the hole punched through the Sea Wolf clearly told him that what had just happened was no dream. What on earth was going on?

Wait, the Sea Wolf with a hole punched through it?

Holy crap! Finally remembering the fact that he and the Sea Wolf were slowly sinking, he didn't have time to ponder this bizarre event. He scrambled into the cabin to haul out a pile of wooden planks, clothes, and anything else he could use to patch the hole. At the same time, he painfully turned on the diesel-powered water pump to bail out the water; otherwise, he and his "brother" would be feeding the fish before he could even finish repairs.

Because the old man had treated the Sea Wolf better than he treated him when he was a child, often saying, "The Sea Wolf is my own flesh and blood, you were just picked up—can they be the same?"

Consequently, Nie Yun and the Sea Wolf had called each other brothers since they were young, and Nie Yun regarded the Sea Wolf as his own flesh and blood, the only family he had left! Seeing the Sea Wolf suffer such irreparable damage, how could his heart not ache?

Half an hour later, Nie Yun finally managed to patch the hole, though water was still seeping in around the edges. He had to keep turning on the pump to bail out the water.

At this point, he didn't care about clean energy anymore. Nie Yun pushed the diesel engine to its maximum power, and it chugged toward the mainland, belching black smoke...