Wang Zhen saw the Alien Queen's head twitch slightly. He guessed that because the Zerg base it was halfway through transforming into had been burned to a cinder by his Lightning Transmutation Circle, it had fallen back out of its evolved state.
But what good would waking up now do?
It would only get to experience being strapped into an electric chair and sent to the afterlife!
It would have been better to drift off into eternal slumber in the bliss and ecstasy of its evolution. That would have been one of the rare moments of comfort and peace in an Alien's life!
What a pity the Alien Queen wasn't so lucky!
It had actually woken up at a time like this!
The moment Wang Zhen noticed signs that the Alien Queen was coming around, he poured all his strength into driving the Lightning Transmutation Circle. More and thicker white-hot bolts of electricity than before roared from its charred, carbonized lower body and surged toward its upper body...
The Alien Queen's lower half no longer had any scent of fresh flesh, so it couldn't attract the white-hot electric serpents. They raced to burrow into its upper half, which still reeked of flesh and blood. The serpents were made of plasma heated to 30,000 degrees. Wherever they passed, flesh rapidly lost its moisture, dried out, burned, and carbonized, as if the white-hot serpents were devouring the abundant flesh of the Alien Queen's upper body.
"Raaagh..."
It was an excruciating process. Though it happened quickly, having its flesh swiftly devoured and transformed into dry, carbonized matter was enough to make the Alien Queen, whose consciousness had only just returned, let out an uncontrollable, agonized roar.
But the Alien Queen had no way to fight back. It had only just fallen out of the state of evolution and transformation. Although its consciousness had returned first, its body couldn't quickly withdraw from that state.
All it could do was watch helplessly as its body went through the same process at a visible pace: losing moisture... drying out... burning... carbonizing...
A few minutes later, the Alien Queen, which had already begun its journey of evolutionary transformation, had done nothing to resist because of its ill-timed awakening. Wang Zhen had easily refined it into a dried, charred sculpture, as if he were pounding a stake into the ground!
And because the Alien Queen had been in the middle of evolving into a Zerg base, its lower half had become a Zerg base while its upper half still retained the form of an Alien Queen. Its overwhelming feelings of humiliation, unwillingness, regret, rage, fear, and pain were almost tangible!
Judged as a work of art, this Alien Queen statue was an exceptionally rare masterpiece!
Unfortunately, Wang Zhen might have had cheat-like powers, but he was too poor to even own a storage space. So, although he really wanted to bring the statue back to his private space as a testament to his growth—and to show off by placing it at the entrance to his courtyard—he couldn't.
Only after the Alien Queen's last trace of life had faded did Wang Zhen move his trembling hands away from its charred, dried body.
"It's finally over!"
"Damn it! When I get back, I'm going to make sure I squeeze every last bit out of the Gate of Truth! I've figured it out: the more knowledge I get from the Gate of Truth, the higher my Transmutation Circle's success rate and the greater its power!"
"As expected, exploiting the Gate of Truth is the way to go!"
His arms hurt as if they were being pricked with needles. Wang Zhen slowly raised his still-trembling hands and could clearly see forked lightning-shaped patterns of electricity stretching from his arms to his fingers, flickering with a faint glow.
This was the Lightning Transmutation Circle Wang Zhen had developed based on what he remembered. It was clearly still incomplete. Although it worked, it also caused some backlash against him.
Gritting his teeth and enduring the ongoing shocks in both arms, Wang Zhen lightly tapped his hands together. A thick metal rod rose from the ground in front of him. He then gripped it tightly with his trembling hands.
At the same time, fine threads of electricity sprang from Wang Zhen's arms and lit up along the metal rod. They raced down its densely inscribed patterns before quickly dissipating into the metal floor beneath his feet.
"Motherf—! The Lightning Transmutation Circle really is incomplete! Still, it's lucky I used it, or I wouldn't have noticed for a while. Better to catch it early and fix it early! It hurts, but it was worth it!" Wang Zhen felt the piercing pain vanish along with the electric current. Though he was still shaken, he was quite pleased!
After all, the Fullmetal Alchemist anime had served as a model for the Flame, Ice, Metal, and Explosion Transmutation Circles, so they hadn't been difficult to use. At most, he'd needed to think through the techniques a little more. But he had developed the Lightning Transmutation Circle himself. There was no anime to guide him; it was a Transmutation Circle that truly belonged to him.
For that reason, even though Wang Zhen had suffered the most serious injury he'd sustained since becoming a State Alchemist, he was still very happy with himself!
Wang Zhen clapped his hands casually, then folded his arms across his chest. The metal plate beneath his feet slowly rose and slanted upward. As he stepped forward, one step after another appeared beneath him at just the right moment, as if invisible hands were building a staircase in the air so he could climb straight into the clouds.
"Magneto really knows how to put on a show! When it comes to showing off, Magneto is in a league of his own!"
"I've decided! I'll take Magneto as my master and learn how to make showing off part of my bones, so I can do it smoothly and effortlessly anytime, anywhere!" In a fantastic mood, Wang Zhen imitated the old Magneto's showy style and found it utterly exhilarating!
The only thing that disappointed him a little was that there was no audience to scream, "666!"
So Wang Zhen decided that display only deserved a nine out of ten!
After leaving the Alien nest, Wang Zhen didn't feel like looking for Zheng Zha and Zhang Jie. With Zheng Zha's protagonist halo, the mission to save Ellen Ripley shouldn't be difficult. After all, he figured the hardest part of the mission was finding Ripley aboard the maze-like spaceship within an hour!
Wang Zhen found a clean spot and used a Transmutation Circle to make a recliner perfectly suited to his build. He lay down in a comfortable position, casually picked up a piece of metal debris he'd found in the Alien nest, and began analyzing it with Alchemy...
Wang Zhen was simply killing time. Since he didn't want to help Zheng Zha and Zhang Jie, he had to find something else to do.
"These metal fragments feel a little strange. They're also an alloy made of several metallic elements, but they're clearly different from alloys on Earth." The metal fragment wasn't difficult to analyze. Wang Zhen figured out its composition in just a few minutes, but the result still took him by surprise.
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