How Many Molecules in a Drop of Water

Huang Si immediately understood what he was looking at.

Those spheres must be atoms.

The slightly cyan ones were hydrogen atoms, and the slightly yellow ones were oxygen atoms.

The blurred edges of the spheres were caused by the probability distribution of the electron clouds.

Electrons appear around the atomic nucleus in a probabilistic manner, so the whole thing formed a blurred existence at the microscopic level.

Where the three spheres connected, that blur also extended slightly, creating a sense of unity on the outside.

This must be the chemical bond between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms, manifested as a partial superposition of electron clouds!

Huang Si never expected that he would become the first human to observe the form of an atom with the naked eye.

After watching for a while, Huang Si thought: How do I exit this microscopic state?

As soon as the thought arose, the surrounding scenery shifted, and in an instant, Huang Si found himself sitting at the table again.

This is really interesting; to think I can see water molecules. Huang Si couldn't help but try again.

This time, he entered even faster. As long as Huang Si focused his attention on the water and formed the thought, he saw the structure of the water molecules directly.

Huang Si found it amusing, then tried to move backward in the microscopic world to get further away, retreating halfway.

The water molecules gradually shrank in his line of sight, slowly merging into a vast white expanse, then becoming smaller and more distant.

He used his intent to bring himself closer again.

The water molecules became clear once more.

At this moment, Huang Si thought that since he could create things, he could also create water molecules, right?

These were the most fundamental particles of all things; surely he couldn't mess up creating them?

Thus, Huang Si attempted to guide the power within his body while in the microscopic world.

This time, Huang Si clearly felt his power become extremely vast and robust; as it surged up, it almost swallowed all the water molecules. Thinking about it, this was normal, as his current perception was commensurate with the microscopic world.

He separated an extremely fine thread from his power.

This ability to separate power now felt as natural to him as breathing.

In fact, this was also normal, as this power to create things originated from his own body, and now it was as flexible and free as his own limbs.

Then, Huang Si used this fine thread of power to envelop the nearest water molecule, sensing its state.

Next, he copied this state in his consciousness and created.

A triangular water molecule instantly appeared beside Huang Si. It floated easily, and before long, it merged into the army of water molecules, becoming impossible to find again.

Huang Si was very happy. The fact that the water molecule he created could blend into the main group meant that the two were identical.

He immediately followed suit, again separating a thread of power to envelop a water molecule, copy, and create.

Another brand-new water molecule was born.

However, isn't the efficiency of creating molecules this way too low?

Huang Si fell silent. Was he being stupid? A drop of water likely contained trillions of water molecules. If he kept creating them one by one, he would probably die of thirst before he even created a single drop of water.

Thinking of this, Huang Si felt that he was indeed a bit thirsty.

Recalling that he hadn't drunk any water since getting off work, it was true.

He exited the microscopic world, took the glass to the kitchen, and poured the water from the thermos to drink.

Shaking the thermos, Huang Si muttered, "There's only a little bit left, maybe half a cup's worth."

Huang Si tried the kitchen faucet again, but there was still no running water.

In other words, there was no water or electricity at home, and his phone had no signal. If he didn't think of a way, he would likely just sit and wait for death.

Thinking of this, Huang Si filled the cup with half a cup of water, took it to the living room, and continued to study how to create water.

This was a major matter concerning whether he would die of thirst.

Huang Si stared at the water and fell into the microscopic world once again.

This time, he stayed a little further away from the water molecules and tried to use his power to envelop three water molecules at once.

Create.

Three new water molecules appeared instantly and then slowly drifted away.

Although he could create three at once, the efficiency was still very low...

Huang Si frowned, thinking: If only I could mass-produce them. I could find a place to record the blueprint and then use it for mass production...

As soon as this thought occurred, Huang Si suddenly "saw" the Book of Creation in his consciousness.

The book flipped open by itself with a rustle, and then, a pattern condensed on the second page.

The image vanished, and Huang Si hurriedly exited the microscopic world to look at the Book of Creation on the table.

The Book of Creation was not spread open; it remained closed, and the light had not dimmed in the slightest.

Huang Si flipped open the cover of the Book of Creation and turned to the second page.

A pattern of three interconnected spheres appeared on its surface, identical to the water molecule he had just seen.

An invisible connection formed between the Book of Creation and Huang Si. At the same time, Huang Si felt that he could use the patterns in the book to directly manufacture large quantities of water molecules.

"Record?" Huang Si felt information welling up in his memory. Although it was only a single word, it seemed to carry a massive amount of data. Regardless, he would just have to try it out.

Huang Si remained in the physical world, then focused his power within the glass.

The power within Huang Si felt as convenient as a tentacle to him. As he used his power to directly condense water, a strange, indescribable sensation washed over him. His power seemed to split into countless tiny fragments, faintly echoing the Book of Creation.

"Splash!" A large mass of water fell from the air into the glass, filling it perfectly.

Huang Si was surprised to find that with the help of the pattern on the Book of Creation, condensing such a mass of water felt effortless. The consumption of his power seemed much lower than when he had created bread or paper.

He picked up the glass, sniffed it, and then stuck out his tongue to take a lick.

Hmm, it tasted just like ordinary water.

"That makes sense, I suppose. After all, these are water molecules I created directly; they're purer than purified water."

Huang Si felt he had nothing to fear.

He tilted his head back and downed the water in the glass in one gulp.

The water had no particular taste, and it was quite thirst-quenching.

After finishing the water, Huang Si felt the urge to use the restroom.

Once he had finished his business, he casually generated another mass of water in the air to flush the toilet clean.

He had no idea where the sewer led—into the darkness outside? Regardless, the water hadn't overflowed, so as long as it drained away, it was fine.

With this, he had managed to survive, at least initially, in this room without water or electricity.

Next, Huang Si felt he should solve the problem of food.

Although he had just finished dinner and wasn't hungry, he didn't know when he would be able to leave the room, so finding a way to secure a constant supply of food was vital.

He looked at the refrigerator in the kitchen. Since he rarely cooked at home, he didn't have much food stored.

Now that the power in the room was out, the refrigerator was nothing more than a decoration. To prevent the food from spoiling, it was better to eat it as soon as possible, while also taking the opportunity to study how to manufacture actual edible food.

Huang Si took all the food out of the refrigerator and took inventory of his stock.

In total, there were:

Two potatoes, not very large.

One carrot, which seemed to be left over from a few days ago and was no longer fresh.

Half a plate of stir-fried greens, left over from last night.

One stick of ham (the kind in plastic packaging from the supermarket), unopened.

He also found the following in the kitchen:

A bag of flour.

Half a pack of pasta.

Various seasonings.

Two bottles of blended cooking oil, distributed by his workplace.

There was also a zongzi, also from his workplace, but it was a red bean paste zongzi. Huang Si didn't like sweet zongzi, so he had left it untouched. It was vacuum-sealed, so it should have been fine at room temperature, but it had been over a week now, and he didn't know if it had gone bad.

After moving his food reserves to the living room table, Huang Si sat to one side and wondered which one he should replicate first.

After trying for a while, Huang Si felt the question should be changed to: which one could he replicate?

Because he had failed at everything.

Potatoes and carrots, being biological organisms, were simply too complex for him.

As soon as Huang Si sank into the microscopic state, he was shocked by the complex structure of the plant cells.

Moreover, he was completely blocked by the translucent cell walls and couldn't get inside to observe the interior of the cells at all.

There were tiny pores on the cell walls, and even smaller substances were moving in and out near them.

Huang Si mused that to replicate this, he would likely need to analyze and record the structure of the entire cell.

It was terrifying; he couldn't even get past the cell wall. Observing from the outside, he could at most zoom in to the atomic level of the cell wall, seeing a long string of connected spheres—he assumed they were cellulose molecules.

Fine, Huang Si gave up. This stuff was too complex for him to grasp.

Setting aside the vegetables and meat—things with cells—Huang Si began to study the remaining items.

He first took out a little flour and observed its microscopic structure.

As soon as he looked in, Huang Si felt it looked familiar. A complex, long string of spheres—wasn't this still cellulose?

No, the color was different.

Huang Si thought for a moment; this must be the starch fibers in the flour.

He tried to envelop one of the starch fiber molecules with his power, memorized its structure, and then manufactured it.

However, the molecular chain of this starch fiber was simply too long, and its structure was far too complex.

During the manufacturing process, Huang Si was slightly inattentive, and it went awry.

The newly generated starch molecule existed for only a fraction of a second before it rapidly collapsed, splitting into a pile of atoms.

Huang Si refused to admit defeat and tried again.

This time, the starch molecule collapsed in seconds as well. The main issue was that Huang Si's control was too poor; generating one or two hundred atoms simultaneously while managing the chemical bond connections between them was difficult just to think about.

However, Huang Si was still quite clever.

Starch molecules are a type of polysaccharide, which means they are composed of multiple monosaccharide molecules. I should first analyze and memorize the molecular structure of a monosaccharide before attempting to replicate starch.

This content was all taught in junior high school chemistry, and Huang Si was very happy that he still remembered it clearly even after being out of school for so many years.

He went to his bedroom to look around and dug out a bag of wedding candies; he had forgotten which colleague had given them to him.

However, the whole candy looked too large and hard, making it inconvenient to observe. Huang Si simply created a glass of water, dropped a hard candy into it to dissolve, and then poured out a single drop, spreading it onto the table.

Huang Si's consciousness drew close to the water's surface. Because he was very familiar with water molecules, he quickly picked out the sugar molecules from the army of water molecules.

Looking at the symmetrical structure before him, which resembled two hexagons joined together, Huang Si knew he had found a sucrose molecule.

Sucrose is a disaccharide; one sucrose molecule is formed by the connection of two monosaccharide molecules. Huang Si enveloped the sucrose molecule with his power, familiarized himself with its composition, and with a single thought, initiated the creation.

The sucrose molecule appeared. Then, Huang Si incidentally created a monosaccharide molecule as well.

It seemed that as long as he knew the composition, he could create things out of thin air without needing a reference object.

After creating the monosaccharide and sucrose molecules, he didn't even need to refer back to the starch. With a shift of his intent, Huang Si had already generated a long starch molecule near himself.

The subsequent steps were very simple. Huang Si recorded the manufacturing methods for monosaccharides, disaccharides, and starch molecules in the Book of Creation, then retreated to the macroscopic world to mass-produce them with a single command.

A glass of glucose water, a glass of sucrose water, and a cup of ordinary starch.

Huang Si tasted the sugar water he had made. The glucose water was a monosaccharide and wasn't very sweet, while the sucrose water was very sweet—in fact, because he had created too many sucrose molecules, it was cloyingly sweet.

The starch was just ordinary; Huang Si took a sniff and choked, causing him to sneeze.