"How many reward points it takes to repair a body depends on the circumstances."
Wang Zhen wasn't disappointed by the Main God's answer. According to the novel, the costs for restoring a body, fully repairing it, and fixing specific damage really were different. Naturally, a full-body restoration was the most expensive, but also the most effective, as it completely repaired the body at the genetic level. A body repair was a scaled-down version, mainly used for severe injuries involving missing body parts. The last option, fixing specific damage, was the simplest. Of course, it required the person directing the repair to accurately identify the injured areas and missing organs. With so many restrictions, it also cost the fewest reward points.
After confirming the information, Wang Zhen went over his upcoming plan again. This sort of glitch exploit was extremely dangerous; one mistake could get him killed, so he had to plan every step as carefully as possible.
By now, he had realized that the person he'd possessed and been reborn as was Li Xiaoyi, a bit-part character from the Original Infinite Space who had survived the first story world. Everyone else had already returned to their rooms. Thanks to that sly old fox Zhang Jie's deliberate prompting, Zheng Zha had cluelessly created Loli, the source of all disasters. The two of them were probably testing the limits of the God of 404 right now. Zhan Lan, meanwhile, had been angered and had returned to her room as well. That left Wang Zhen alone in the God Hall!
"Copy my memories, set my physical abilities to the human limit, and create an artificial human with Selene's appearance from Underworld," Wang Zhen said silently.
In the blink of an eye, Selene appeared beside him, wearing a black leather bodysuit beneath a long black leather coat. She had black hair, icy blue eyes, sharply defined features, and the confident, dashing air of a mature woman. Of course, Wang Zhen knew this was only an artificial human who looked exactly like Selene—not the Death Dealer Selene, who had lived and fought for hundreds of years.
"Main God, I want ten sets of materials: thirty liters of water, twenty kilograms of carbon, four liters of ammonia, 1.5 kilograms of lime, 800 grams of phosphorus, 250 grams of salt, 100 grams of saltpeter, eighty grams of sulfur, 7.5 grams of fluorine, five grams of iron, and three grams of silicon," Wang Zhen said with great seriousness.
This was the highest taboo of Alchemy in Fullmetal Alchemist—the Human Transmutation Circle. It was also the sacrificial ritual for contacting the Gate of Truth. Only by committing the highest taboo of Alchemy, Human Transmutation, could one contact the Gate of Truth and open the gateway to the will of the great universe, which contained infinite knowledge, thereby gaining access to that boundless knowledge.
Only after performing Human Transmutation and completing the sacrificial ritual to contact the Gate of Truth could an Alchemist gain knowledge from it and escape the restrictions of Transmutation Circles. Then, all they had to do was casually clap their hands together to use their own bodies as a foundation, form a circular Transmutation Circle, and transmute matter!
Only then could a State Alchemist become a true weapon of mass destruction!
"One reward point."
Wang Zhen had Selene set the ten sets of materials aside, placing them separately rather than mixing them together. On the floor beneath the Main God, he drew a huge, intricate circular Transmutation Circle with an inscribed hexagram, five meters in diameter. Then he carefully arranged one set of materials at its center.
"Selene, watch my vital signs. If I'm on the verge of death, pull me away from the Transmutation Circle immediately, then have the Main God repair my injuries! Make sure you get the timing right—not too early, and not too late! I'm counting on you!" Wang Zhen solemnly explained what she needed to do. "Whether we feast on meat or make do with chaff is up to you!"
Begin... Human Transmutation!
Wang Zhen pressed both hands against the circular Transmutation Circle and used his spirit body to activate this highest taboo of Alchemy. In an instant, the circle glowed blood-red. The materials at its center began to melt, while Wang Zhen's body outside the circle started dissolving into ash, beginning with his feet. At the same time, the vague mark in his consciousness once again became the Gate of Truth. Then the gate... slowly began to open!
Wang Zhen could clearly feel all kinds of knowledge surging through the opening in the Gate of Truth like a rising tide. It was nothing like the gentle trickle he'd experienced before. This time, the torrent of knowledge really was like a raging flood, pouring into his memories. Just as he was being submerged by wave after wave of knowledge, the gate suddenly closed!
"Main God, repair Wang Zhen's missing body," Selene said calmly.
When Wang Zhen regained consciousness, he found himself standing beneath the Main God with his entire body restored. The Human Transmutation Circle beside him had vanished, and something like a maggot was wriggling where it had been.
"A Homunculus? Its abilities are unusual, and with a Philosopher's Stone, it's practically immortal. But I don't have a Philosopher's Stone right now, so I'll have to keep this thing in storage until a suitable opportunity comes along." Wang Zhen picked it up and examined it for a moment, then told Selene to take it to Room Four, marked on the door, and seal it in a low-temperature cell.
"Looks like this glitch exploit works. The Main God's rapid repairs really do let me contact the Gate of Truth repeatedly and gain knowledge from it, rapidly increasing my strength! After all, in the anime, Alphonse, who lost his entire body and was left with only his soul, was incredibly powerful. I can't wait until I'm reduced to just a soul before getting my body repaired, but I can contact the Gate of Truth over and over. I'm sure it'll like being offered sacrifices repeatedly." After briefly looking through the knowledge he'd received, Wang Zhen realized the glitch exploit really worked. His only regret was that Li Xiaoyi had only earned 1,000 reward points for completing the Resident Evil story world, and this first Human Transmutation had already cost 200.
"Well, I can do this four more times at most. That'll make five times in total. Hopefully, contacting the Gate of Truth five times will help me earn more reward points in the next story world." Wang Zhen was still uncertain, but he knew the next story world was Alien I, an old science-fiction horror film. Its technology wasn't at the level of advanced sci-fi, and it had no supernatural elements like gods, ghosts, or demons. So, as long as he prepared properly, things shouldn't be too difficult.
Wang Zhen drew a Human Transmutation Circle in the same spot again. Since this was his second time, he was faster and more precise than before. Once it was finished, he had Selene toss a set of materials into the center of the circle, then pressed both hands against it and activated it once more!
Wang Zhen contacted the Gate of Truth again and gained a great deal of knowledge from it. When his body had dissolved as far as his kidneys and liver, Selene immediately pulled him away from the circle and had the Main God repair his missing body.
Wang Zhen endured the agony of being cut in half four times in total, contacting the Gate of Truth over and over and gaining a vast amount of knowledge. Even the mark of the Gate of Truth had changed from vague to clearly visible, as though the Gate of Truth had projected itself into his consciousness, waiting for his next sacrificial ritual.
With the appearance of this projection, Wang Zhen even felt that in the future he wouldn't need to draw any Transmutation Circles—not even the Human Transmutation Circle. Next time, he'd only need to set the materials on the ground and clap his hands to perform Human Transmutation and contact the Gate of Truth. Of course, at Wang Zhen's instruction, Selene also placed the three Homunculi in the low-temperature cell for safekeeping.
"Snap!"
Wang Zhen raised his right hand and snapped his fingers with a flourish. A basketball-sized orange-red fireball suddenly appeared ten meters away in midair, then slammed into the ground and scattered countless orange-red sparks. He raised his left hand and snapped his fingers again. A sharp icicle, a meter long and as thick as a baby's arm, appeared in the air ten meters away. It shot down like a javelin and shattered against the ground, scattering into countless tiny ice crystals...
After that, Wang Zhen also tested instant transmutations without a Transmutation Circle, conjuring wind, earth, water, steel, explosives, and more. He could practically pass himself off as a spellcaster now. As long as he kept quiet about it, he doubted anyone would realize he was actually an Alchemist.
The glitch exploit had succeeded spectacularly, and Wang Zhen's confidence soared. He was now ninety percent certain he could make it through the next story world, Alien I, and he even thought he could earn a large number of reward points and side-story rewards. His Good Luck Cheat was incredibly powerful; the very first mystery box had sent him soaring. But in a place as messed up as Infinite Space, who would ever complain about having too many trump cards?
Wang Zhen and Selene returned to his room. He then designed a series of realistic settings resembling theme parks, with cities, countryside, forests, islands, grasslands, deserts, and all kinds of terrain. He had two goals. First, he wanted to avoid getting tired of the same surroundings; once he'd had enough of one environment, he could switch to another. Second, he wanted to familiarize himself with as many different kinds of terrain as possible. That way, he wouldn't be caught off guard by an unfamiliar environment in a story world. The effect might not be great, but Wang Zhen had survived from the age of ten, when he entered the business, to eighteen without a scratch because he paid special attention to details like these. He'd escaped death countless times, and most of the trouble he'd encountered had come from details that were easy to overlook.
Infinite Space was a multiverse that connected to story worlds inspired by all kinds of movies. Many films had similar settings, yet tiny differences between them. If he got careless, the odds of making a fatal mistake would skyrocket.
"I don't like failure! Especially now that I've got a cheat, I can't afford to fail." Wang Zhen lay on the three-meter-wide bed, closed his eyes, and prepared to meet Duke Zhou in a dream for a game of chess.
The sheer amount that had happened today surpassed everything Wang Zhen had known in his eighteen years of life. But having grown up in an organization of assassins and survived to the age of eighteen with his body and mind intact, he had very strong emotional resilience. Although the day had been full of twists and turns, he was still very happy, eagerly looking forward to tomorrow.
"I hope tomorrow's meeting goes smoothly!" Wang Zhen hurriedly made a wish before falling asleep.
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