Chapter Summaries

Cheng Qi confronted Lord Pig after discovering that he had taken a mechanical dog associated with Xiao Qiong and hearing that E Luo had killed her mother. When Lord Pig attacked, Cheng Qi unleashed the First-Generation Muon Catalyst at 60% power.

• E Luo and Lord Pig tried to recruit Cheng Qi, while Lord Pig threatened to take his valuable scavenged finds.
• Cheng Qi spotted a damaged mechanical dog with blood on its head inside Lord Pig’s pouch and asked where it came from.
• E Luo taunted Cheng Qi about Xiao Qiong and her mother, and Xiao Qiong arrived saying, “They killed Mommy.”
• Cheng Qi activated the First-Generation Muon Catalyst as Lord Pig sent ten mechanical tentacles stabbing toward him.
• Cheng Qi’s powered armor and support arms braced him as he formed a massive blue particle beam and swung it down.

Cheng Qi killed Lord Pig and E Luo with his muon beam and Extreme Warrior Armor, then offered E Luo’s underlings a chance to work for him. He proposed buying technological trash from scavengers, but told them they would have to provide the starting capital themselves.

• Cheng Qi’s muon beam vaporized half of Lord Pig’s body and carved a vast trench through the trash, killing Lord Pig.
• E Luo begged Cheng Qi for mercy, but Cheng Qi struck him with the Extreme Warrior Armor, leaving him impaled on scrap metal to die.
• Cheng Qi took Xiao Qiong’s hand and reassured her after the battle.
• E Luo’s underlings and several Nanny Robots knelt before Cheng Qi, who offered them work and promised to pay thirty percent of the original value for technological trash.
• Monkey asked Cheng Qi for starting capital, but Cheng Qi said the scavengers would have to front the money themselves.

Cheng Qi waited for Mo’s promised Gene Catalysis Agent while the Scavenger Alliance investigated a mysterious, devastating blast nearby. Mo delivered seventeen doses of black-market agent, and Cheng Qi’s system confirmed their authenticity while warning that they were highly dangerous.

• Cheng Qi returned to his shack, where Xiao Qiong slept, and worried about finding them a better shelter and getting money.
• The Scavenger Alliance investigated a huge trench and concluded that a Higher-Grade Gene Bearer had used an off-world weapon; a hooded leader questioned why she had not been notified.
• Hana visited Cheng Qi to ask about the Higher-Grade Gene Bearer, hoping to discuss the scavengers’ food shortages, but Cheng Qi denied knowing anything.
• The Alliance questioned Cheng Qi and eventually left without solving the mystery.
• Mo sent four transport containers carrying seventeen doses of black-market Gene Catalysis Agent, and Cheng Qi’s system confirmed the agent was genuine but warned of lethal side effects and an extremely low success rate.

Cheng Qi sold Mo 410.23 grams of high-entropy alloy for over 34 million credit points and learned that Earth had been locked down, making future deliveries a dangerous smuggling operation. After arranging to trade the remaining value for Gene Catalysis Agents, Cheng Qi kept the transport boxes and black scale as the boxes tried to return to Mo.

• Cheng Qi offered Mo four pieces of high-entropy alloy, and Mo transferred him a ten-million-credit deposit before valuing the 410.23 grams at about 34.55 million credit points.
• Cheng Qi requested obsolete equipment and muon technology in exchange, but Mo said Earth had been locked down and warned that bringing goods in now counted as smuggling.
• Cheng Qi kept the deposit and asked Mo to exchange the alloy’s remaining value for Gene Catalysis Agents, prioritizing cheap, low-quality supplies.
• Cheng Qi identified the transport boxes as miniature biological-powered devices that could evade most detectors and decided to keep the boxes and black scale.
• Cheng Qi put the alloy into a transport box as all five boxes prepared to depart, and Foolish Boy pinned the empty boxes down.

Cheng Qi rewarded Monkey and the scavenger boys for gathering matching technological scrap, giving them capital and putting Monkey in charge of purchasing. He then demonstrated a scanning scale that priced equipment, revealing that Bear’s beloved mechanical arm was worth only 12 Credit Points.

• Monkey and Bear brought Cheng Qi matching technological scrap and explained that they had spent all their money because they trusted him and wanted his protection.
• Cheng Qi transferred 200,000 Credit Points to Monkey, assigned him to lead the purchasing team, and reaffirmed their 30-percent commission.
• Monkey warned Cheng Qi that sellers were demanding inflated prices for the scrap, so Cheng Qi showed the group a scale that scanned materials and calculated their value.
• The scale valued Mo’s nanoscale biomaterial box at 53,200 Credit Points.
• Bear asked Cheng Qi to scan his mechanical arm, and the scale valued it at just 12 Credit Points.

With the Gray Storm approaching, Cheng Qi decided his shack was too unsafe and used his synthesis ability to create the Earth Dragon King, a powerful underground construction machine. He sent it to build a spacious, expandable shelter beneath the shack, promising Xiao Qiong they would soon have the best shelter on Earth.

• Monkey offered to take Cheng Qi with the others to a safe shelter, but Cheng Qi refused and sent them ahead without him.
• The Scavenger Alliance announced that the Gray Storm would sweep through regions B12-B69 in four hours.
• Cheng Qi spotted a blade of grass by the shack and decided to build an underground base to protect his supplies and companions.
• Cheng Qi synthesized Bear's damaged geological detectors into the Earth Dragon King, an expandable underground construction vehicle.
• Cheng Qi ordered the Earth Dragon King to survey the ground and excavate a two-hundred-square-meter space beneath the shack.
• Xiao Qiong woke as the Earth Dragon King began drilling, and Cheng Qi reassured her that they would soon have Earth's best shelter.

Cheng Qi used the Standard Template Construct to create an advanced electronic assistant and connect it to his First-Generation Muon Catalyst, discovering a new way to excavate. With the gray storm approaching and the Earth Dragon King delayed by a deep layer of metal waste, he tested the catalyst on its borehole and found a smooth, scorched passage descending into the ground.

• Cheng Qi synthesized discarded electromagnetic auxiliary modules into an Ink-Blue Marz Edition Superconducting Electronic Assistant.
• The Earth Dragon King encountered a 170-meter-thick metal-waste deposit, increasing its estimated drilling time to seven hours.
• Cheng Qi attached the electronic assistant to the First-Generation Muon Catalyst and unlocked a controlled energy-beam protocol.
• Cheng Qi fired the optimized catalyst into the Earth Dragon King's borehole, triggering a blast of steam and heat.
• Cheng Qi inspected the widened, smoothed passage and wondered whether the catalyst had made the bunker excavation possible.

Cheng Qi discovered that Muon Technology had transformed the underground waste into a glass-lined tunnel leading to a vast, beautiful spherical cavern, which he chose as a shelter from the approaching Gray Storm. He then synthesized a powerful transport platform to move his belongings and prepared to relocate.

• Foolish Boy cooled the tunnel, concealed its entrance with a scrap-covered door, and led Cheng Qi inside to reveal walls of glass encasing technological waste.
• Cheng Qi reached a huge spherical cavern with a smooth metallic dome and found the expanded Earth Dragon King maintaining oxygen and a comfortable temperature.
• Xiao Qiong slid down into the cavern, admired its beauty, and agreed to help Cheng Qi move before the Gray Storm arrived.
• Cheng Qi synthesized his biological-material transport boxes into the K443 Integrated Transport Platform, nicknamed Iron Mom.
• Iron Mom autonomously sorted and loaded Cheng Qi's possessions, including the Quantum Repair Cluster, with remarkable precision.

Cheng Qi moved his supplies into the underground shelter and waited out the Gray Storm while preparing to improve his genes. He synthesized the failed gene serum into a stronger batch, but its success rate remained only 11.23%.

• Iron Mom transported Cheng Qi’s belongings into the shelter, where the Standard Template Construct rejected his underwear as having too little technological content.
• Foolish Boy reinforced the shelter entrance, and Cheng Qi, Xiao Qiong, and Foolish Boy took refuge inside as the Gray Storm swept across B43 Zone.
• The Gray Storm tore through the surface, destroying exposed scavengers, while the shelter remained nearly undisturbed underground.
• Cheng Qi discovered Xiao Qiong had urinated in his teapot, then turned his attention to the seventeen vials of failed Black-Market Gene Serum he had obtained from Mo.
• Cheng Qi synthesized the serum twice, producing eight vials of High-Quality Black-Market Gene Serum with an 11.23% success rate, then four vials of Premium Black-Market Gene Serum.

The Scavenger Alliance’s president chose his eldest daughter, Hongyun, to take a risky black-market gene serum so she could become a D-Level representative for upcoming Galactic Alliance negotiations. As Hongyun prepared for the procedure, she reassured her worried sister Hana and vowed she would succeed.

• During the Gray Storm, the president revealed the Alliance’s top-grade black-market gene serum and announced that Hongyun would receive it instead of Hana.
• The president explained that a Galactic Alliance combat squad would arrive within forty-eight hours and that the Alliance needed a D-Level representative to seek aid.
• Hana protested that she was also an E-Level gene-enhanced human, but the president said she lacked the negotiating skills required.
• Hongyun told Hana she would protect her from danger and promised to fight for her share of any future gene serums.
• When staff called Hongyun to begin the procedure, Hana worried that failure could make her a Defective, but Hongyun reassured her that she would succeed.

Cheng Qi synthesized Valente Fantasy Drug, a gene-optimization medicine with a 99.9% success rate, and drank it to test his potential. After collapsing, he woke as Foolish Boy and Xiao Qiong prepared to burn his body, then instinctively dodged the fire without wearing his armor.

• Cheng Qi synthesized Valente Gene Drug and then used the final synthesis to create Valente Fantasy Drug, which replicated advantageous gene segments.
• Cheng Qi drank the drug, felt no immediate effects, and collapsed after spitting blood.
• Foolish Boy and Xiao Qiong mistook Cheng Qi for dead and prepared to cremate him with diesel fuel.
• Foolish Boy ignited the fuel, and Cheng Qi instinctively leaped several meters clear of the flames.
• Cheng Qi realized the Extreme Warrior Armor had been removed and that he had dodged without wearing it.

After waking from a forty-eight-hour coma, Cheng Qi discovered that his genes had rapidly advanced to C-Level, transforming his abilities and appearance. He finished cleansing his body of accumulated toxins and marveled at his renewed strength and clarity.

• Foolish Boy and Xiao Qiong welcomed Cheng Qi after he woke from the Gray Storm, and Xiao Qiong noticed that his eyes had changed.
• Cheng Qi saw a blue ring in each pupil and realized he had become an E-Level gene bearer.
• Memories of his DNA changing resurfaced, and Cheng Qi's genes advanced first to D-Level and then to C-Level.
• Cheng Qi began expelling black toxins from his body, complained about the process, and showered in the Earth Dragon King's living quarters.
• After the shower, Cheng Qi saw his improved appearance and felt energized as he reflected on the impact of genetic differences.

Cheng Qi received 82 failed batches of Black-Market Gene Serum from Mo and went aboveground to retrieve Mo’s shipping crates after the Gray Storm. His genetic evolution made him so fast that he exceeded the Extreme Warrior Armor’s speed limit, and he realized he had gained an exceptional speed advantage.

• Mo told Cheng Qi that twenty biotech crates were entering Earth’s atmosphere and warned him that the Gray Storm could throw them off course.
• Cheng Qi equipped the Extreme Warrior Armor, whose core performance had increased by 284%, and left the shelter to find the crates.
• Cheng Qi’s reconnaissance system spotted the crates, several of which were veering toward a collision.
• Cheng Qi sprinted toward the crates and discovered that his speed had surpassed the armor’s upper limit.
• Cheng Qi leaped nearly twenty meters to reach the falling crates and concluded that his evolution had given him an extraordinary boost in speed.

Cheng Qi synthesized his failed Black-Market Gene Serums into increasingly rare gene drugs, ultimately creating the Tree of Life - Balanced Sequence Liberation Drug. It offered a 67.7% chance to transform him into a silicon-based lifeform while preserving his human gene sequence, leaving him stunned by the prospect of becoming a dual gene sequence organism.

• Cheng Qi spotted what appeared to be a badly mutilated person crawling through the dust but returned to the underground shelter without investigating.
• Iron Mom arranged the transport crates and failed serums, and Cheng Qi synthesized the serums into High-Quality and Premium Black-Market Gene Serums, Valente Gene Drugs, and Valente Fantasy Drugs.
• Cheng Qi synthesized the Valente Fantasy Drugs into two Life Sprout - Gene Sequence Liberation Drugs, which could transform a carbon-based lifeform into a silicon-based one but carried severe risks.
• Cheng Qi synthesized the two Life Sprout drugs into one Tree of Life - Balanced Sequence Liberation Drug, which raised the success rate to 67.7% and allowed a successful user to retain their original gene sequence.
• Cheng Qi realized the drug could make him a dual gene sequence organism and was astonished.

Hongyun emerged from the failed genetic enhancement gravely injured, but planned to deceive the Interstellar Alliance’s arriving combat team with a biological contact lens to win support for the scavengers. Meanwhile, Cheng Qi drank a mysterious serum and his body shattered into triangles, leaving his fate unknown.

• Hongyun collapsed after the genetic serum failed, and the physician told the president that she was severely weakened and could no longer bear children.
• A Scavenger Alliance member reported that two Hawk-Class transport Starships had arrived with at least two thousand Interstellar Alliance troops.
• Hongyun put on a biological contact lens that imitated a second genetic ring and insisted on using it to seek military support.
• Cheng Qi examined the clear serum, judged its 67.7% success rate worth the risk, and drank the entire dose.
• Cheng Qi saw geometric patterns spread through his eyes and body, then shattered into countless triangles and vanished.

Cheng Qi experienced an explanation of silicon-based life and its inherited genetic information, then returned to awareness as the Genetic Serum entered his mouth. He discovered that his right arm had transformed into a dazzling, crystalline limb.

• Cheng Qi saw human DNA and a larger, rhombic dodecahedral structure identified as silicon-based DNA.
• A silicon-based lifeform appeared and described its crystalline body, electromagnetic senses and communication, and resistance to heat and radiation.
• The voice identified itself as genetic information that passed essential knowledge to each new silicon-based lifeform and told Cheng Qi, "For you."
• Cheng Qi regained awareness in the underground shelter as the Genetic Serum fell into his mouth.
• Cheng Qi saw that his right arm had become a dazzling, diamond-like crystalline arm.

After successfully becoming a silicon-based lifeform, Cheng Qi discovered that he could communicate with and control machines through strange blue connections. The chapter ended with him making Foolish Boy dance against his will.

• Cheng Qi found crystalline armor and spikes growing across his body, while the XXX-01 Extreme Warrior Armor had detached itself.
• Cheng Qi realized that the serum had succeeded and he had become a Dual Gene Sequence bearer.
• Cheng Qi saw blue ribbons connecting him to Iron Mom, the Earth Dragon King Expansion Dock, and Foolish Boy.
• Cheng Qi used his thoughts to move Iron Mom and adjust the Expansion Dock’s lights.
• Cheng Qi concluded that silicon-based lifeforms could resonate with one another and control machines with silicon chips.
• Cheng Qi made Foolish Boy dance while he was playing cards with Xiao Qiong.

Cheng Qi discovered how to switch between his carbon-based and silicon-based forms, then found he could selectively make parts of himself silicon-based. After synthesizing Mo’s biological transport containers into new platforms, he tested an S225 Atomic Transport Platform and wondered what further synthesis would produce.

• Cheng Qi switched back to his human form and realized Xiao Qiong had seen him naked after his armor detached during his transformation.
• Cheng Qi examined the changes in his eyes and concluded that silicon-based genes had levels that could advance.
• Cheng Qi synthesized the twenty biological transport containers into ten biomass material containers, five K443 platforms, and three S255 Atomic Transport Platforms.
• A fragment of silicon-based DNA fused with Cheng Qi’s carbon-based DNA, giving him diamond-like eyes and the ability to make parts of himself silicon-based.
• Cheng Qi used one S225 Atomic Transport Platform to shrink and load another, then wondered what the platform would become if he kept synthesizing.

Cheng Qi discovered that the X14’s removable modules functioned as miniature Directional Star Gates, then detected a slow-acting toxin in the drink Mo had given him. He connected the toxin to a Gene-Completion Agent developed by Song Dayi and decided to travel to Kyoto to search for a way to help Mo’s family.

• Cheng Qi tested the X14’s Directional Transmission Modules and found that they could transmit objects and people between modules while shrinking cargo.
• Cheng Qi scanned the High-Energy Protein Extract Mo had gifted him and learned that it contained a rare, slow-acting toxin designed to kill its victims.
• Cheng Qi realized the poisoned drink might be part of an attempt to eliminate Mo’s family and that Mo was unaware of the danger.
• Cheng Qi recalled that Song Dayi had developed a Gene-Completion Agent that might neutralize cellular fluid toxins, and connected Song Dayi to Professor Huo Linzhong’s recording.
• Cheng Qi decided to travel to Kyoto to search for Song Dayi’s research and help Mo’s family.

After the Gray Storm, Cheng Qi left Foolish Boy and Xiao Qiong at the shelter and learned that the Milky Way Interstellar Alliance Combat Squad was searching Garbage Earth for something important. In Kyoto, he tested his silicon-based body against toxic gas and radiation, then prepared to measure his C-Level carbon-based speed against Killer Rats.

• Cheng Qi gave Foolish Boy and Xiao Qiong instructions to stay near the shelter and carry a Miniature Directional Stargate when they went out.
• Cheng Qi spotted two Alliance Starships and learned from Crow that their squad was searching for something valuable.
• Cheng Qi traveled with Crow to Kyoto and walked toward Muon Research protected by his armor's life-support system.
• Cheng Qi removed his armor and found that his silicon-based body was unaffected by Kyoto's toxic gas and radiation.
• When Killer Rats appeared, Cheng Qi returned to his carbon-based form, entered his armor, and prepared to test his speed against them.