Nie Yun had always been thick-skinned, so he quickly accepted reality. So what if he'd been parasitized by an alien Mechanical Insect? He'd gotten his life back, so what was there to be afraid of? Every day he had left was a bonus!
Nie Yun looked at the Mechanical Insect, rubbing his chin as he muttered, "If it's a repair fluid for an alien spaceship, fixing up the Sea Wolf should be a piece of cake, right? The technology gap between them is so huge. I wonder if the Mechanical Insect can repair an antique ship this ancient?"
His heart beat a little faster at the thought. He tried ordering the tiny creatures he couldn't see with the naked eye, then was delighted to discover that the silver-white swarm of Mechanical Insects really did react.
At the same time, a message came through in his mind: "Command confirmed. Unclassified civilian sailing vessel detected on planet. Beginning repairs!"
While Nie Yun was still stunned, the little creatures began making a rustling sound like ants gnawing away. They chomped a huge hole into the wood where they'd been, but Nie Yun had no time to mourn for his brother. The silver-white swarm slowly wriggled over to the Sea Wolf's keel, wrapped itself around the broken section like a lump of putty, and began rustling again.
Nie Yun stared at the splintered end of the keel, then was thrilled to see it slowly being repaired. In less than a minute, about three centimeters of it had been restored, and the surface of the newly "grown" keel was so smooth it reflected light!
Nie Yun knocked on it with his hand. "Thunk, thunk!"
Since he often had to buy timber for boat repairs, Nie Yun knew exactly how to judge the quality of wood. Just from the sound, he could tell this material was incredibly sturdy—far stronger than the ordinary lumber he bought!
He picked up a small knife nearby and slashed at it. He took a closer look and blurted, "Damn! It didn't even leave a scratch!"
Nie Yun was overjoyed. He hadn't expected the repairs to strengthen the material, too! He'd believe it if someone told him this stuff was metal! This really was cutting-edge technology—the repair fluid for a spaceship from outer space!
Then he noticed the damage nearby where the Mechanical Insects had chewed through the wood. He hurried back into the cabin, grabbed some wood shavings, and sprinkled them over the Mechanical Insects. He was worried that if they ran short of material, they'd start feasting on his brother again!
In the blink of an eye, the Mechanical Insects broke down the wood shavings into materials and continued repairing the hull.
But they were still moving too slowly. Nie Yun had an idea, returned to the boat, and fetched a pile of scrap metal: angle iron, nails, and the like. He piled it on top of the Mechanical Insects, then immediately ordered them to replicate themselves!
The next moment, the angle iron seemed to melt. In less than a minute, the Mechanical Insects had devoured it all, and the palm-sized swarm began to spread out, slowly expanding in area.
"Self-replication complete. To replicate further, please provide more materials!" A clear message came through in his mind.
With just a little scrap iron, the number of Mechanical Insects had nearly doubled, and their repair speed had doubled accordingly. What more was there to say? Nie Yun dumped every iron object he didn't use regularly from the cabin into the swarm.
Multiply! Go on, multiply like crazy!
But after doubling their numbers once more, the Mechanical Insects suddenly stopped moving. Then their message sounded in his mind: "Insufficient energy. Please replenish power!"
Nie Yun was dumbfounded. They had a setting for that, too? Still, he'd heard of the law of conservation of energy. What was he supposed to do now?
What kind of energy did they need? Nie Yun asked inwardly.
"Solar energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, thermal energy, nuclear energy, energy crystals, antimatter annihilation energy..."
Stop, stop, stop! Nie Yun hurriedly cut the Mechanical Insect off. All right, once it got to nuclear energy, he hadn't understood a word of the rest.
He looked up at the sky. It was the middle of the night—where was he supposed to find solar power or electricity? Besides, the Sea Wolf was an antique, meant to be treasured as a collectible. There was no way he'd retrofit it with electrical equipment!
Nuclear power? Did it expect a fisherman like him to use a nuclear-powered fishing boat?
Wait, that sounded pretty awesome! Maybe he'd try it someday? Nie Yun's thoughts began to wander... He wiped the drool from his mouth and hurriedly shoved the wild idea of a nuclear-powered fishing boat into Loch Ness!
Chemical energy? Did that mean fuel? Nie Yun ran to the stern and brought back the empty diesel drum. After a lot of effort, he managed to pour out the little bit of leftover liquid at the bottom and dripped it onto the silver-white puddle of Mechanical Insects.
As soon as the diesel touched them, it vanished as if absorbed by a sponge. The Mechanical Insects immediately went back to repairing the hull at full speed, moving considerably faster than before.
It seemed the Mechanical Insects had been running on the solar energy they'd accumulated during the day, and they must have been starving. Diesel power really packed a punch. More importantly, it was clean and pollution-free, with no emissions at all. He was still a committed environmentalist!
But before he could celebrate for even three minutes, the Mechanical Insects—which had just doubled in number again—stopped! Insufficient energy!
Damn, they were energy hogs! Couldn't they do something to reduce the nation's energy consumption per unit of GDP?
He had, however, figured out that replication seemed to consume far more energy than simply repairing the hull. And the further they went, the number of new Mechanical Insects increased exponentially, so their energy consumption naturally skyrocketed!
Nie Yun didn't understand what "exponential" meant, but he knew simple calculations like 2×2×2×2×2... That proved his elementary school math really had been taught by his math teacher!
What was he supposed to do now? Nie Yun went over the options again. For some reason, his memory seemed to have improved. He could still remember the entire list of energy sources the Mechanical Insect had just rattled off. Before, he'd have started to forget after ten minutes.
He absolutely refused to admit that his memory had been so awful it had driven his father up the wall and made him send Nie Yun straight out of school to become a fisherman.
As his father put it, "You just ain't cut out for studying! Get out there and haul in the nets!"
Come to think of it, where was his father from, anyway?
But that was a minor issue. What mattered was that he'd finally remembered there was another option: thermal energy!
Thermal energy? That was right up his alley!
He brought over a pile of charcoal and dumped it directly onto the Mechanical Insects, then gathered some wood shavings to start a fire.
A tiny spark lit up one corner of the dark Dongwan Pier, illuminating the area for a dozen or so meters and lending it a lonely air.
Uncle Liu happened to catch sight of it in the distance. He sighed, and could almost picture a lonely boy sitting by the fire with his knees hugged to his chest, utterly alone.
"That poor kid!" Uncle Liu sighed and went back into the cabin.
What he didn't see was Nie Yun dancing an exuberant samba around the campfire, grinning from ear to ear.
"Boom cha-cha... boom cha-cha..."
Beneath the campfire, silver-white light shimmered in the flames. The swarm writhed as if it were about to break free of its cocoon and be reborn in the flames!
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