Baptized by Fire

Nie Yun, who had always been thick-skinned, quickly accepted reality. It was just being parasitized by alien Mechanical Insects, right? He had already cheated death, so what else was there to fear! Every day he lived from here on out was a bonus!

Nie Yun looked at the Mechanical Insects and muttered while rubbing his chin, "Since this is alien spaceship repair fluid, repairing the Sea Wolf should be a piece of cake, right? The technological gap is so massive, I wonder if these Mechanical Insects can fix an ancient antique ship like this?"

His heart rate quickened slightly at the thought. He tried to command these tiny, invisible creatures, and to his surprise, the mass of silvery-white Mechanical Insects actually stirred.

At the same time, a signal flashed in his mind: "Command confirmed. Unranked civilian sailboat detected within the planet. Repair sequence initiated!"

Just as Nie Yun was stunned, he heard the creatures making a "rustling" sound, much like ants gnawing on food. They chewed a large hole into the wood where they had been placed. Before Nie Yun could even feel bad for his "brother," the silvery-white swarm slowly crawled toward the keel of the Sea Wolf. Like a lump of modeling clay, they wrapped around the fracture, followed by another round of "rustling."

Nie Yun stared intently at the splintered wood of the broken keel and was pleasantly surprised to see the fracture actually showing signs of slow repair. In less than a minute, about three centimeters had been mended, and the newly "grown" keel surface was incredibly smooth—it was reflective enough to see his own face in!

Nie Yun reached out and tapped it. "Clack! Clack!"

As someone who frequently had to buy lumber for ship repairs, Nie Yun was naturally an expert at judging the quality of wood. Just by the sound, he could tell this material was extremely sturdy—far superior to any ordinary wood he had ever purchased!

He grabbed a small knife from nearby and gave it a scratch. He took a closer look and—damn! There wasn't even a mark!

Nie Yun was overjoyed. He hadn't expected the repair to have a strengthening effect as well! He would have believed it if someone told him this material was metal! This cosmic-grade spaceship repair fluid was truly black technology!

Then, seeing the damage the Mechanical Insects had caused while gnawing, he hurried back to the cabin to grab some wood scraps, sprinkling them over the insects. He was worried that if they ran out of material, they might start eating his "brother" again!

In the blink of an eye, the wood scraps were broken down by the Mechanical Insects into raw material to continue repairing the hull.

However, the speed was still a bit slow. A thought struck Nie Yun. He went back to the ship, grabbed a pile of scrap metal like angle irons and iron nails, placed them on top of the Mechanical Insects, and immediately ordered them to self-replicate!

The next moment, the angle irons seemed to melt. Within a minute, they were completely devoured by the Mechanical Insects, and the palm-sized swarm slowly expanded in area as if it were stretching.

"Self-proliferation complete. If further proliferation is required, please provide more material!" a clear consciousness echoed in his mind.

With just a bit of scrap metal, the number of Mechanical Insects had nearly doubled, and the repair speed had increased accordingly. There was nothing left to say; Nie Yun dumped every piece of iron he didn't use in the cabin onto them.

Proliferate! Proliferate like crazy!

But after the number of Mechanical Insects doubled again, they suddenly stopped moving. Then, the consciousness of the Mechanical Insects sounded in his mind: "Energy insufficient. Please replenish energy!"

Nie Yun was dumbfounded. There was a setting for this? Still, he had heard of the law of conservation of energy. What was he supposed to do now?

What kind of energy do you need? Nie Yun asked in his mind.

"Solar energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, thermal energy, nuclear energy, energy crystals, antimatter annihilation energy..."

Stop, stop, stop! Nie Yun hurriedly interrupted the Mechanical Insects. Fine! Anyway, once it got to nuclear energy, he couldn't understand a single word after that.

He looked up at the sky. It was the middle of the night; where was he supposed to find solar or electrical energy? Sorry, but the Sea Wolf was an antique, meant to be kept as a collectible. How could he possibly perform an electrical refit!

Nuclear energy? Did they expect him, a fisherman, to use a nuclear-powered fishing boat?

Huh? Wait, that sounded pretty badass, didn't it? Maybe try it in the future? As Nie Yun thought about it, his mind drifted far away... Wiping away his drool, Nie Yun hurriedly shoved the wild idea of a nuclear-powered fishing boat into the depths of Loch Ness!

Chemical energy? Did that mean fuel? Nie Yun ran to the stern, hauled over the empty diesel drum, and managed to pour out the remaining dregs at the bottom, dripping them onto the silvery-white mass of Mechanical Insects.

As soon as the diesel touched the Mechanical Insects, it vanished as if absorbed by a sponge. The insects immediately resumed repairing the hull at full power, and the speed was even faster than before.

It seemed the Mechanical Insects had just been starving, relying only on the solar energy they had accumulated during the day. Diesel power was indeed effective, and more importantly, it was clean and pollution-free—no emissions! He was still a staunch environmentalist after all!

However, he didn't even get to be happy for three minutes before the Mechanical Insects, which had just doubled in number again, stopped! Energy insufficient!

Damn it, they were such energy-guzzlers. Couldn't they contribute a little to the national GDP energy consumption targets?!

But he also realized that the energy required for the Mechanical Insects to proliferate seemed much higher than when they were simply repairing the hull. Furthermore, the later they proliferated, the more the numbers rose exponentially, and energy consumption naturally climbed along with it!

Although Nie Yun didn't understand what an exponent was, he knew simple math like 2×2×2×2×2... This proved that his elementary school math was indeed taught by a math teacher!

What to do? Nie Yun went over the list again. For some reason, his memory seemed to have improved quite a bit. He could still clearly remember the long list of energy types the Mechanical Insects had mentioned. If it were before, he would have been confused after ten minutes.

He would never admit that his memory was so notoriously bad that his old man had been frustrated enough to make him drop out of school to become a fisherman.

In his old man's words, "You're just not cut out for books! Get out there and cast your nets!"

Come to think of it, where was his old man actually from?

But those were minor issues. The important thing was that he finally remembered there was still thermal energy to choose from!

Thermal energy? He was good at that!

He grabbed a pile of charcoal, dumped it directly onto the Mechanical Insects, and found some wood shavings to start a fire.

In a corner of the dark Dongwan Pier, a spark ignited, illuminating the surrounding dozen meters and looking rather lonely.

Uncle Liu, in the distance, happened to see this scene and sighed. He could even picture a lonely youth sitting in front of a stove, hugging his knees in solitude.

"What a miserable child," Uncle Liu sighed and returned to his cabin.

However, what he didn't see was Nie Yun dancing a lively samba around the bonfire, beaming with joy.

"Bump-cha-cha... bump-cha-cha..."

Under the bonfire, the silvery-white light shimmered and writhed in the flames, as if it were about to break out of its cocoon and be reborn from the fire!