Small Mecha

Small Mech

Source of Flexibility Enhancement.

Repeated enhancements to the body's flexibility could promote blood circulation, strengthen muscular explosive power, improve agility, make footwork and movement techniques smoother and more fluid, increase attack speed, and more. The mutated cat's temporary control over its muscles to stop its bleeding had been one of the basic effects.

After Mu Xiao killed the mutated cat, absorbing its 'Source of Evolutionary Force' directly increased his genetic resonance twice. At the same time, he gained additional energy from a pure source, and it had also produced a 'Flexibility Enhancement' source. Combined with the primal source extracted from the mutated cat, it was highly likely to push his physique to the threshold of a breakthrough—perhaps even allowing him to directly surpass the physique of an old human.

"As expected, the stronger the monster, the richer the rewards. But the level of telekinesis I used in that battle just now completely drained my body's food energy." Mu Xiao felt hunger fill every inch of his flesh and cells, and an uncontrollable urge to devour any flesh and blood arose within him.

He even desperately wanted to swallow the raw meat of that blood-soaked mutated cat corpse.

However, Mu Xiao retained enough rationality not to do something that would frighten even himself. Rather than absorb the 'Flexibility Enhancement' source first, he rummaged through his backpack for stacks of thick jerky and several nutrient solutions, then began wolfing them down.

"After every battle, I have to replenish food. Doesn't that make me a glutton?" Mu Xiao chewed the fairly tasty jerky while considering that his physical strength was only barely sufficient to use one of the traits of Mind Force. If he had used Mind Force directly instead of telekinesis just now, his hunger level would probably have increased severalfold.

He ate half the food in his backpack, and his body returned to a state where it no longer felt hungry. Yet he did not feel full in the slightest—he merely felt neither hungry nor full, just as usual.

While eating, he had absorbed the 'Flexibility Enhancement' source and used all the sources to enhance his physique.

Mu Xiao's muscles gained flexibility enhancement, truly acquiring a resilient force that could loosen and tighten. Compared to before, both the flexibility and explosive power of his muscles contained an added force. He could even make several muscles bulge like the mutated cat's, concentrating their power into a heavy strike.

However, enhanced bodily flexibility was also part of the physique system, which was effectively like adding experience points to his physique. Even with the double-source boost, his physique had strengthened by another degree, yet it was still just short of breaking through his old physique and welcoming the strength of a new one.

In truth, the mutated cat's combat power had been greater than this. It had merely encountered Mu Xiao, who possessed invisible telekinesis. Its agility and nimbleness had had no chance to shine, as they were restrained and countered by that invisible telekinesis, leading to its death at Mu Xiao's hands.

However, if he encountered someone with powerful combat instincts or exceptionally keen mental power, telekinesis would not necessarily remain invisible. They could sense its disturbances in the air, evade it, and counterattack.

Mu Xiao had once seen powerful individuals fight like this. They had directly exhausted those who used telekinesis to death, while some were even instantly killed after being approached. Mental power was the nemesis of invisible abilities like telekinesis, provided one's mental power was stronger than the opponent's and could sense changes in the air and identify the source of danger. Of course, it would be a different matter once Mu Xiao cultivated Mind Force.

Part of a mutated beast's flesh was non-toxic and highly nourishing. Long-term consumption could help strengthen the body's blood and vitality, increase the strength of bones and muscles, and thereby achieve comprehensive physical enhancement.

Mu Xiao had no idea how many times he had carved prime meat from prey in the past. In just a few swift motions, he dismembered the mutated cat, extracting over twenty high-quality blood beads and cutting out more than thirty pieces of prime meat in varying sizes.

"Dinner has some good ingredients now." Satisfied, Mu Xiao found an iron box and packed away the prime meat. This meat was rich in nutrients, so it would not stink, spoil, and become inedible merely from being stored for a while. He then put away the twenty-odd high-quality blood beads, shouldered his luggage, and continued exploring below.

Not long afterward, Mu Xiao discovered an armory and an intelligence room among the secret chambers on the first and second floors.

Most of the armory stored C-grade electric batons, C-grade heated military blades, C-grade high-explosive grenades, a small number of B-grade laser guns, B-grade high-vibration electromagnetic military blades, B-grade cluster bombs, and an A-grade Thunderbolt Cannon. The rest consisted of sets of neatly arranged black-armored defensive suits.

Besides weapons, there were also crates of energy blocks below B-grade. But with all of Earth's machinery paralyzed and temporarily beyond repair, having energy blocks was useless.

Mu Xiao did not take many weapons. He merely filled an entire backpack with grenades before leaving the armory. As for the intelligence room, he did not bother checking it. It was full of documents. Even if there were some earth-shattering secret inside, could it possibly be bigger than the secret that the moon had turned Earth into a testing ground?

Moreover, such a world-shaking and inhumane secret would never be kept in this intelligence room. If it truly existed, someone with selfish motives would certainly have leaked it, triggering fierce resistance from humanity across the globe. Even the staff of the law firm would not have died in such numbers.

Of course, the intelligence room still had some use. It might reveal other secret federal facilities, allowing him to obtain the legacies left behind by those institutions, just like this law firm. But now was not the time to dig into it. Mu Xiao would leave it alone for the moment and properly examine the intelligence within after successfully taking over the law firm.

Ignoring the intelligence room on the first floor, Mu Xiao found the door leading to the first basement level.

When he opened the metal door, a staircase leading underground appeared before him. Mu Xiao descended and soon entered a crystal corridor that resembled metal. With the electrical lighting gone, the place carried an icy, chilling air.

Mu Xiao's body had already surpassed that of ordinary people by far, but his eyes did not yet possess the ability to see in the dark as clearly as in daylight. He could only barely make out objects in the gloom, enough to avoid being completely blind. However, he had mental power for detection, and it functioned like his eyes, allowing him to clearly perceive what was around him.

After walking roughly seventy or eighty meters, he found rooms on both sides of the corridor. A scan with his mental power revealed neither danger nor anything particularly valuable.

"So they're both rest rooms." From the furnishings and daily necessities in the rooms, Mu Xiao could tell that the people living there had likely been secret personnel who worked underground for extended periods and never showed themselves in the law firm.

Mu Xiao quickly gathered every bit of food from the rooms, leaving nothing behind. Aside from five or six ordinary weapons, there was nothing else of value.

Before long, he found another room along the corridor, several times larger than the previous two.

When his mental power swept inside, Mu Xiao immediately realized that the room contained a large amount of machinery. Upon entering, he found that they were all large intelligent computers, though they had already fallen into paralysis.

"This should be the law firm's surveillance room or control room, right?" Mu Xiao examined the machinery and reached a conclusion. "If these devices can be repaired, the law firm probably has a decent defense system."

Mu Xiao felt that his next step should be finding the ability of Mechanical Mastery. Only then could he set up a safe residence.

Mu Xiao found quite a few weapons in this control room, but he had no use for them now and could only leave them where they were.

He had finished exploring the first basement level, but at the very end of the corridor stood another door. It was clearly the entrance to the level below.

Mu Xiao continued downward without hesitation.

The moment he opened the door, shadows moved in the stairwell. Mu Xiao released his mental power to investigate and found three or four zombies wandering inside. These zombies wore clothes different from the guards' uniforms—dark-blue work clothes, like those worn by mechanical maintenance workers.

Mu Xiao could not be bothered with close combat. He directly used telekinesis to control his military blade. Like an arrow, it streaked through the air as a black line, one slash after another piercing through the heads of several zombies. Mu Xiao quickly dealt with the low-level zombies, recalled the military blade, and then used telekinesis to extract several blood beads from the corpses. The experience he gained, however, was negligible.

"I wonder if there are any more zombies below." Mu Xiao had thought the zombies throughout the law firm had been drawn up to the fourth floor. He had not expected a few stragglers to remain.

Upon reaching the second basement level, Mu Xiao likewise found three rest rooms and collected everything edible.

A moment later, he arrived at a large room of over three hundred square meters and was surprised to find all kinds of large mechanical equipment inside. At its center stood a small mech connected to countless cables.

A small mech was armor worn on the human body. It was more agile and faster than a large mech. Wearing one practically turned a person into a man of steel. If the mech was equipped with weapons, it could fully rival a new human with supernatural abilities.

During the great evolutionary era Mu Xiao had once lived through, many new humans had enjoyed fighting with small mechs or large mechs. Some mechs possessed abilities not much weaker than supernatural powers, such as mental power-like functions including self-concealment, scanning, sensing, and detection.

It was simply that the energy consumption of mechs and large mechs was not something ordinary people could afford.

"There's actually a small mech here! And it looks like S-grade quality, a fifth-generation mech..." Delight was impossible to hide from Mu Xiao's face.

Sharp armaments such as mechs and large mechs were generally S-grade or above. The difference between models lay in their serial numbers—the larger the number, the more comprehensive rounds of optimization the model had undergone.

The serial number of this mech was: UC-S005.

UC represented the model type, while the rest indicated that it was an S-grade fifth-generation mech.

But when Mu Xiao stepped closer to inspect it, his joy quickly faded.

It turned out this small mech was only a semi-finished product. Simply put, it was still being optimized and couldn't be used at all. Unless Mu Xiao had a large number of "Mechanical" intelligences evolve abilities, he would be unable to take over the final optimization work on this unfinished mech.

"Being able to look at weapons and mechs but not use them is seriously messing with my head!" Mu Xiao turned away in frustration, unwilling to spare them another glance as he continued searching the room for anything valuable. The room contained many metal parts and machine components, as well as quite a few high-grade energy blocks. There was also a cabinet full of weapons, all intended to be equipped on that unfinished mech.

Among a pile of raw materials, Mu Xiao found a fire-ignition chemical agent. The moment it came into contact with **, it would generate extreme heat; it was dangerous enough to melt metal.

"Mm, this will be perfect for disposing of the bodies." Mu Xiao put away two or three bottles, intending to return to the fourth-floor stairwell and incinerate that heap of horrific corpses.

Mu Xiao left the large room on the second basement level and walked to the end of the passage, where he discovered another large metal door.

However, this metal door differed somewhat from the previous two. Its metal was exceptionally hard and heavy, and even mental power had difficulty penetrating it. It was also fitted with a sophisticated optical brain system. Unfortunately, now that every optical brain had become useless, no matter how precise this metal door's systems were, it was merely a relatively hard and sturdy door.