Gradually, an enormous humanoid figure appeared on the island.
At first, the figure was blurry. Its skeleton and internal organs could be seen automatically taking shape, but slowly, it became solid, as though a Phantom had transformed into a real creation.
After Hawkins completed the rough framework, his Curse Power was completely depleted. He rested for several hours before continuing to adjust the body.
"No, this body doesn't need to maintain a human shape. Besides, a human brain is far too small for me. Its brain capacity must be increased, and it doesn't need strong mobility... Forget it. I'll use the old body template instead!"
Hawkins had initially planned to directly create a giant clone, but after thinking it over carefully, he realized there was no need for it to be humanoid. It could take another form entirely.
Although the human form suited his aesthetic preferences, it had many unreasonable aspects. Once it grew to a certain size, the human body would also develop countless flaws and problems.
A day later, a gigantic, bizarre, indescribable golden creature brimming with metallic texture floated above Yazhong Island.
The creature possessed countless eyes, mouths, arms, and tentacles. Blazing light shone through the gaps between every cell. Its very existence seemed to twist space and time, directly carving out a portion of Eternal Space. Even without consciousness inhabiting it, it radiated a terrifying aura.
Hawkins gazed at the creation before him with some nostalgia. This was one of the bodies he had used while drifting through the universe in the past.
This body combined countless superior genes and advanced organs. Alien lifeforms had once bestowed upon it the name of God, while Hawkins had called it the Mother, because this body carried the wisdom of countless civilizations. Every cell contained unimaginable genetic information.
"All right. I hope my guess is correct."
Hawkins felt a faint stir of emotion, then slowly walked toward the Mother.
One of the Mother's abilities was to accept other lifeforms and assimilate them into itself.
Once Hawkins approached the Mother, his body transformed into countless cells and was completely absorbed by it, while his consciousness swiftly transferred into the Mother.
The Mother's previously closed eyes opened one after another, and its bodily functions began operating.
Although he had not used this body for tens of billions of years, Hawkins still skillfully controlled the operation of every organ. He extended an arm and lashed at the air. The trace amounts of hydrogen in the atmosphere were instantly dragged together and then ignited in a fusion nuclear explosion.
Looks like I haven't gotten rusty. Unfortunately, ninety-nine percent of this body's cells are made from elements within Eternal Space, so it can't leave Eternal Space. Hawkins looked at the massive crater blasted into the ground and thought to himself.
However, the facts proved that the curse on him had indeed been neutralized.
In the Mother state, his thinking ability was trillions of times greater than in his human state. Problems that originally required lengthy contemplation could now be answered in the blink of an eye.
He realized that the curse had weakened because its calculation method was based on the number of cells, after which the curse's effects were distributed among them.
Thus, the larger the body, the weaker the curse.
The Great Path was simple at its utmost.
In truth, the principle behind the curse was extremely simple. It was only that no one in this world had devoted themselves to researching it.
Hawkins adapted perfectly to the Mother. After all, he had personally designed this body. For tens of billions of years in the past, he had wandered the universe using it. The experience had long since been engraved deep within his consciousness.
After confirming that there were no problems with the body, he immediately activated his ability—Splitting and Proliferation!
Within that massive body, the atoms decomposed from Hawkins rapidly reassembled. In the end, they became Hawkins again. He was spat out of the Mother, and in an instant, he recovered.
The same atoms, the same molecules, the same cells—but Hawkins had in fact been completely reconstructed. He was no longer Pirate Hawkins, but Mother Hawkins.
The Mother's thinking ability was trillions of times greater than a human's. Let alone multitasking, it possessed countless eyes, countless arms, and countless mouths. It could process all kinds of tasks on countless lines at once; even ten thousand distractions at once were nothing to it.
Hawkins turned back to glance at the Mother, then carefully sensed the changes in his body and confirmed that all its functions were operating normally.
Although the Mother possessed all manner of powerful and miraculous abilities, Hawkins's own body had not grown stronger. His ability values were exactly the same as before, and even his genes had not changed in the slightest.
The only difference was that even if Hawkins were killed, his consciousness would not die.
After all, his main consciousness was now within the Mother, not within Hawkins's body.
Of course, every advantage came with a disadvantage.
Although the Mother's existence guaranteed Hawkins's life, it also reduced his combat strength.
Originally, Hawkins could cover his body with Curse Power at any time. Now, however, he needed 0.01 seconds to react. That was equivalent to having a tiny opening. If an enemy were strong enough and could seize that opening, Hawkins's body might be destroyed.
With a thought, Hawkins returned to his laboratory and picked up the blowgun.
This time, he did not cover his hand with Curse Power, so the instant he picked up the blowgun, his body gained another curse.
The blowgun's curse had never been particularly powerful, and now that the Mother was sharing the curse, Hawkins discovered that it was utterly insignificant. Even if suffocation struck, it could last at most 0.001 seconds.
In other words, he was practically immune to the blowgun's curse. After all, unless the timing was exquisitely calculated, not breathing for 0.001 seconds could not possibly cause harm.
"The Mother needs to become even larger. Only by becoming larger can it bear more curses!"
Hawkins tried breathing. In the blink of an eye, the air in his mouth was compressed. Then he gave a light exhale, and a huge crater was immediately smashed into the wall before him.
However, using it this way was truly like using a priceless treasure to chop firewood.
Curse Power flowed into the blowgun, and a small bubble appeared at its tip. Hawkins tried compressing the air inside the bubble, gradually compressing it into liquid. He continued outputting Curse Power to compress it further, and the liquid air gradually became solid.
Yet even then, he continued pouring in Curse Power.
As long as there was enough Curse Power, the blowgun could keep compressing air. This ability was simply terrifying.
Under Hawkins's persistence, the small bubble began to tremble, and the surrounding matter was affected as well. However, the Mother released enough Curse Power to smooth away the disturbance.
When the air was compressed to its limit, all matter in the laboratory was instantly torn apart by immense gravity. Hawkins's body was destroyed in the blink of an eye, and even light was sucked into the bubble.
However, the instant the black hole formed, the Mother released Curse Power and stopped the process. Then all matter returned to its original positions, and Hawkins's body rapidly reassembled.
Since air could be compressed to the limit and turned into a black hole, atoms could naturally be compressed into fusion as well, thereby triggering a nuclear explosion.
Hawkins summoned the Eternal Sea Chart and tossed the blowgun into it. He closed his eyes as a stream of Curse Power spread from his arm. When he lashed at the air, he instantly compressed the hydrogen in it to the limit and triggered its nuclear fusion, using the exact same method as the Mother.
In an instant, dazzling light engulfed the entire island, and his laboratory was reduced to ashes.
In fact, he had thought of this method long ago. Without the Mother, however, he would not have casually courted death, because he could not be sure whether dying in Eternal Space meant truly dying.
But now, with the Mother guaranteeing his safety, he could freely experiment with every possibility.
Just as the explosion was about to spread to the sea, the Mother directly halted the nuclear explosion process. In the blink of an eye, it was as though time had flowed backward. The mushroom cloud rapidly shrank, until everything returned to normal.
This kind of attack was not particularly meaningful. He had never intended to use nuclear weapons against the Seven Seas.
He merely wanted to know just how miraculous Cursed Relics could be. A Fine-grade Relic possessed an ability that sounded mediocre—Air Compression—but once supplemented with knowledge, it could wield the power to destroy the world.
If the abilities of other Cursed Relics were developed further, would even more wondrous abilities emerge?
Hawkins, who had just revived, was filled with plans to court death...
Eternal Space—House Town.
Because the land was vast and the population sparse, everyone owned a house of their own.
At this moment, Mark crouched in front of the toilet in his home, carefully scrubbing it. He would not wash anyone else's toilet, but luckily no one was competing to wash his own.
In order to earn more Exchange Points, Mark now split every bowel movement into three trips. That way, he could wash the toilet three times and earn three Exchange Points.
From initially being utterly resistant to cleaning toilets to now treating it as commonplace, he felt that he had matured considerably.
"I wonder whether little sister Jennie has taken a dump yet?" Mark stopped what he was doing, raised his head to look at the glowing toilet, and could not help muttering to himself.
Thinking of the girl he liked doing the same thing as him, he was once again filled with motivation and continued wiping the toilet's rim.
At that moment, someone suddenly @'d him in the Chat Group. He opened it and saw Hawkins telling him to prepare himself. Next came the all-out assault on Black Market Island.
"There are quite a few pirates on Black Market Island. Maybe I can do some missions too." Mark stopped what he was doing, submitted the toilet-cleaning mission, and thought to himself.
But then his expression changed. Oh no, he had not finished taking a dump yet.
Just now, in order to do the toilet-cleaning mission one more time, he had forcibly pinched off his shit. Two-thirds of it was still waiting to come out!
He hurriedly took off his pants, sat on the toilet, and wore an expression of bitter hatred and deep enmity.