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After playing a little prank on Foolish Boy.

Cheng Qi turned his attention to himself.

The combat capabilities and adaptability of his current Silicon-Based Life body still needed testing.

The only certainty was that it was dazzling.

I can't go out looking like this. I'd stand out way too much.

"Since I have dual gene sequences, I should be able to switch between the two."

"How do I do that?"

Cheng Qi frowned. He strongly suspected he might be the only human with dual gene sequences, and it was entirely possible that no one knew how they worked.

"Switch..."

Cheng Qi murmured the word, and at that very instant, he felt the space around him go dark.

He had once again entered a dim world with no sense of space.

And once again, he had become a bodiless consciousness.

Before him were two brilliantly glowing sets of DNA.

The double helix representing carbon-based organisms.

And the rhombic dodecahedron representing Silicon-Based Lifeform.

At that instant, the two sets of DNA moved. They swapped positions in a flash, completing some kind of exchange and trailing faint streaks of light.

The double helix burst into brilliant light, filling Cheng Qi's vision.

With a shudder, Cheng Qi returned to the underground shelter.

He raised both hands and turned them over to inspect them.

He found that his body had returned to human flesh and blood, and his sense of control over it had become much more familiar.

Cheng Qi's eyes widened slightly. The feeling was dreamlike.

"Cheng Qi, do you really like running around naked that much?"

"Why do you adults never listen?"

Xiao Qiong drifted quietly past, shaking her head and looking straight ahead.

Cheng Qi froze.

He had put on the Ultimate Warrior Powered Armor with nothing underneath, and when he became Silicon-Based Life, the Ultimate Warrior Powered Armor had automatically detached. So now he was naked again!

And Xiao Qiong and the others had not noticed his transformation into a Silicon-Based Lifeform. They had only seen the result.

"..."

Cheng Qi quickly dressed, then equipped the Ultimate Warrior Powered Armor again.

In his Carbon-Based Life state, the assistance of the Extreme Warrior Armor was indispensable.

Afterward.

Cheng Qi fetched a palm-sized mirror and gazed into his own eyes.

His eyes now looked fantastical and captivating.

Within his pupils, three blue rings shone with a mysterious, noble light.

And inside the innermost ring, the dark brown of a human pupil was gone.

In its place was a geometric pattern seemingly composed of triangular crystals, magnificent and intricate, glowing faintly gold.

Cheng Qi opened his eyes a little wider.

The magnificent geometric patterns in his pupils expanded slightly, and a faint purple glow seeped through the gaps.

"Whoa..."

Cheng Qi was a little awed. "This is ridiculously cool. These gorgeous eyes of mine could make anyone fall for me!"

The changes in his pupils were clearly a miniature reflection of his Silicon-Based Lifeform form.

But for now, they only covered the innermost ring.

Cheng Qi considered this.

That meant Silicon-Based Life genes had levels too!

Just like the rings in the eyes of carbon-based Higher-Grade Gene Bearers, the higher the genetic level, the more rings there were.

Likewise, the higher a Silicon-Based Lifeform's genetic level, the more rings it would cover.

"No wonder it's called a gene sequence."

"It's also a system you can advance through."

Cheng Qi let out a soft breath.

At that moment, he felt that the road ahead was long, yet full of limitless possibilities!

Then.

Cheng Qi's gaze fell on the twenty biological transport containers on the floor.

Each one was actually worth over fifty thousand credit points, enough for a scavenger to live comfortably for several years.

And Mo had just given them away.

Boss Mo sure is generous.

Inside a Starship hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, Mo suddenly sneezed.

He was puzzled. Given his genetic level, a strange physiological reaction like that should not have occurred.

But why haven't my biological containers returned yet?

Could they have gotten lost in Earth's storms again?

Cheng Qi glanced at Iron Mom, parked quietly at one side of the shelter.

What kind of equipment would Iron Mom become if he synthesized all twenty containers into it?

I can't let Boss Mo's generosity go to waste.

No sooner thought than done!

[Similar technological creations detected]

[Beginning synthesis]

[Breaking down into raw matter]

[Biomass Material Transport Container] ×10!

[K443 Integrated Transport Platform] ×5

Iron Mom's official equipment designation was the K443 Integrated Transport Platform. Cheng Qi now owned six Iron Moms!

If their compulsive tendencies all kicked in, it would probably be a terrifying sight.

Keep synthesizing!

[S255 Atomic Transport Platform] ×3!

[A revolutionary upgrade over the previous-generation K443, with significant improvements in all performance metrics. Added Atomic Contraction Technology: a specialized ER force field reduces the spacing between an object's atoms at the microscopic level, shrinking its volume at the macroscopic level and greatly increasing storage capacity.]

"Atomic Transport Platform?"

Cheng Qi was surprised and skeptical. "It shrinks things?"

Compared with the previous generation, the S255 Atomic Transport Platform before him had not changed much in appearance. It still resembled a pitch-black shipping container, but its size had been reduced by fifty percent.

It could shrink other objects, then store them inside itself?

When he read the final note from the Standard Template Construct.

Cheng Qi nodded in understanding.

-[This technology originates from a level 2.4 civilization.]

Cheng Qi was very curious about this technology that reduced the spacing between atoms.

Instinctively, he stood up to look for the S225 Atomic Transport Platform's control panel.

But his vision suddenly went dark.

He entered that dim world again.

Directly ahead, the two sets of Carbon-Based Life and Silicon-Based Life DNA floated quietly.

A crisp sound of separation rang out.

A diamond-shaped fragment resembling purple crystal suddenly split from the dodecahedron representing Silicon-Based Lifeform. Its densely patterned surface carried a vast amount of Silicon-Based Lifeform genetic information.

Click.

This beautiful genetic fragment traced an elegant arc and attached itself to the double helix representing carbon-based life.

Light surged, and the two fused into one.

He shook his head sharply.

Cheng Qi's consciousness returned to his body, and he felt an inexplicable strangeness in his eyes.

He blinked.

A crisp but faint clicking sound suddenly came from his eyeballs.

He hurriedly found the mirror and discovered that his eyes were now covered in dazzling diamonds, radiating magnificent light.

As he looked ahead, those ethereal blue ribbons appeared in his vision again.

One end of a ribbon connected to the S225 Atomic Transport Platform.

The other connected to the spot between Cheng Qi's brows.

Cheng Qi stared in astonishment.

He suddenly recalled the Standard Template Construct's notification-possessing the advantages of both gene types, with each compensating for the other's weaknesses.

I can partially undergo Siliconization?

Now that's user-friendly. Five stars!

This trait could spare him the vast majority of the hassle.

Not only would it keep him from attracting too much attention, but it would also let him use his abilities in secret.

"Brilliant!"

Cheng Qi immediately issued a command.

He ordered one S225 Atomic Transport Platform to load another S225 Atomic Transport Platform of equal size inside itself.

Under normal circumstances, that would be an absolute troll move.

But the current situation was precisely the opposite, because shrinking and loading were the S225's core functions.

The S225 slowly opened its hatch, revealing an interior space of about fifteen square meters.

Some kind of small force-field generator seemed to be installed above the hatch, emitting a pale yellow, rippling force field.

The other S225 was completely enveloped by the force field, and its body began to resonate.

An astonishing sight unfolded. A phantom-like outline suddenly appeared around the S225 enveloped in the force field. That outline grew indistinct, then dissipated.

The S225 revealed beneath it was indeed a size smaller.

And that was only the first reduction. As three force fields were released in succession, the S225 shrank twice more, ultimately becoming a full seventy percent smaller than before.

The mechanical arm moved with the same precision as before, easily loading the shrunken S225 entirely inside the other S225.

Cheng Qi watched, dumbfounded.

"Absolutely terrifying."

"What if I keep synthesizing?"

"What would the S225 upgrade into?"