Ancient Coin

Half an hour later, every iron tool on the Sea Wolf, including all the iron nails and hoops on the hull, had completed its "Mechanical Insect" transformation. Even the remains of the Black-Haired Person Nie Yun had encountered were gone, leaving not a single bone behind.

"Hmm, very good!" Nie Yun stood on the beach, looking at the Sea Wolf, which was shimmering with silver light from the inside out, and wore a satisfied smile. However, the next moment he felt troubled. It certainly looked intimidating, but it was a bit too flashy!

If he sailed this boat out, it would probably be impounded by the coast guard in a matter of minutes, right?

"If only I could change the color." Nie Yun frowned and pondered.

Then, the next moment, a miracle occurred. The silver Mechanical Insects on the boat suddenly reverted to the original colors of the tools. The Sea Wolf before Nie Yun's eyes seemed to have been Photoshopped; it changed styles like a screen refresh, transforming from a high-tech silver vessel into a decrepit, worn-out fishing boat. Its prestige plummeted to the bottom, as if it had fallen from the clouds back to the mundane world.

"Uh... this..." Nie Yun stared at this scene with his mouth agape, unable to believe his eyes.

After he came to his senses, he burst into wild laughter. "Haha, well done, my children! This even saves me the cost of paint! But it seems there is still a lack of communication between father and sons! Come, come, let Father properly develop your potential!"

With a thought, he extended his palm. A silver-white sphere the size of a fist suddenly bulged out from the middle of the Mechanical Insects that were frantically devouring the shipwreck. It then launched itself toward Nie Yun like modeling clay, landing accurately in his hand with a slight weight.

Nie Yun then acted like a child who had received a novel toy. The small silver ball in his hand would turn into a frying pan, then a delicate small knife, and he even kneaded it into various shapes just like playdough.

At the same time, following Nie Yun's commands, the color of the ball would turn pitch black, then pure white, and then multicolored.

"Haha, fun! Turn into a long sword for me!" Nie Yun was getting addicted, wanting to indulge in a bit of youthful whimsy.

However, this time, the Mechanical Insects showed no movement. A query even echoed in his mind: "What is a 'long sword'?"

Nie Yun gestured for a long time, describing a long sword as a long thing with a handle, but the Mechanical Insects remained confused, rolling back and forth in his palm.

"Uh, can't change into it? Could it be that you can only transform into things you've eaten?" Naturally, there couldn't be such a thing as a sword in the cabin of the Sea Wolf.

After Nie Yun communicated with the Mechanical Insects for a long time, he finally understood what was going on.

Mechanical Insects are not just a repair fluid; they are individual ultra-micro robots. This means they possess storage units. Although the storage limit of a single Mechanical Insect is extremely low, as the number of Mechanical Insects continues to expand, the storage capacity also increases exponentially.

When the Mechanical Insects consume an object, they store its virtual model. This is the reason they can use themselves as material to reconstruct items; the principle is similar to 3D modeling.

Based on the models of the objects the Mechanical Insects have consumed so far, they occupy less than one ten-thousandth of their total storage capacity. It is imaginable that as the number of Mechanical Insects continues to increase, their storage limit will reach an astronomical figure. As long as there is a physical template for them to consume, theoretically, there is nothing the Mechanical Insects cannot replicate and simulate!

"Holy crap! That's insane! Doesn't this mean if I feed you an aircraft carrier, you can build me an aircraft carrier?!" Nie Yun was shocked. With his imagination, which was set on becoming a glorious fisherman, this kind of thing was even more stunning to him than encountering alien artifacts!

At least until today, he had mostly treated the Mechanical Insects as a tool or a toy for repairing the Sea Wolf.

Suddenly, he realized: Holy crap, my old man's son is about to hit the jackpot!

Such a discovery finally made him understand what kind of creation the Mechanical Insects he had obtained really were!

The wonders of an advanced cosmic civilization—even the residue of its spacecraft repair fluid—were not something a poor, weak fisherman on Earth could imagine.

Of course, there was also the factor of the Mechanical Insects fusing and mutating with Nie Yun, though he didn't understand that at all.

However, a surprise was just a surprise. Nie Yun only wanted to guard his Sea Wolf and live his own little life. As for using the Mechanical Insects to do something? Nie Yun expressed that he had absolutely no concept of that.

After the "father-son communication" ended, Nie Yun had nothing to do. Watching a foodie eat, eat, eat can sometimes be an enjoyable thing, especially when the other party is a beautiful woman, but watching a pile of Mechanical Insects eat, eat, eat was not an interesting thing at all.

Nie Yun yawned, feeling a bit bored, so he lay on the deck to bask in the warm sun, intending to take a nap.

For some reason, he liked basking in the sun more and more; it seemed that he felt uncomfortable all over if he left the sun.

"Could this be the so-called 'people who live together for a long time become more and more alike'?" Nie Yun glanced at the Mechanical Insects beside him and let his mind wander.

Then, his eyelids grew heavier and heavier. Nie Yun had a dream, dreaming that he had turned into a six-legged Mechanical Insect, running wildly with countless brothers and sisters who looked exactly like him...

It wasn't until the sunset dyed half the sky red that Nie Yun woke up, rubbing his sleepy eyes. He clutched his head and muttered, "What a super embarrassing dream! At least wear some clothes!"

Mechanical Insects: "..."

He looked around. The Mechanical Insects had gnawed the shipwreck to bits, and the hull exposed above the water was completely gone.

The total number of Mechanical Insects seemed to have increased again. Just then, a cluster of Mechanical Insects rolled in front of him, their surface still wet, clearly having just finished underwater operations. Then, the Mechanical Insects unfolded, revealing a coin wrapped inside!?

Holy crap, an antique! Nie Yun's mind cleared instantly, and he grabbed the coin and threw an appraisal skill at it!

The coin looked quite old, its surface dull and lusterless. He didn't know what kind of metal it was, but it definitely wasn't iron. If it were, it would never have reached his hands! Nie Yun was one hundred percent certain of this.

"Looks like a silver coin." Nie Yun rubbed the coin and examined it closely.

On the front of the coin, the four characters "Guangdong Province Made" were written at the top, and "Kuping Weight One Tael" was at the bottom. On the left and right sides were bat patterns, and in the middle was "Guangxu Yuanbao." Turning it over, the back was cast with a double-dragon pattern.

"Guangxu? Sounds like an emperor from some dynasty. Song Dynasty? Or Ming Dynasty?" Nie Yun racked his brains trying to figure out which dynasty Guangxu belonged to, but with his meager historical knowledge, he soon gave up the effort.

Knowing it was an antique was enough; it must be worth a lot of money. Nie Yun, who was now penniless, instantly saw the dawn of braised pork.

He happily put the coin away. This feeling of having someone send him treasure as soon as he woke up was really not bad!

He looked up and down at the location of the shipwreck. The bottom was filled with a large amount of mud and sand; the Mechanical Insects must have found the coin there. If not for that, it would never have been Nie Yun's turn to pick up a bargain.

Nie Yun discovered that as the number of Mechanical Insects increased, their intelligence seemed to be gradually improving. Now they even knew how to turn in the spoils of war; it was simply unimaginable. Could this be the wisdom of the collective?

In fact, what he didn't know was that the two, having fused with each other, were not simply one side affecting the other; this influence was mutual!

Nie Yun felt that he was becoming more and more like the Mechanical Insects, and the Mechanical Insects were also being influenced by Nie Yun, becoming more human-like! More "Nie Yun"!