Chapter 191
[Gain the characteristic ' Standardization Meme ']
Chapter 191
The world collapsed, Wen Jing returned to the material universe, his figure appearing on a barren planet.
After devouring the Factory World, in addition to her special abilities, her Skill Points skyrocketed to 21,429, gaining nearly 10,000 Skill Points —the most she had ever gained from any civilization ruin she had ever explored.
"Truly a relic of industrial-age civilization..."
However, even with all that, it still wasn't enough for her to undergo a major evolution.
Forget about reviving the teacher, it's not even enough to continue upgrading the splitting ability.
After all, Wen Jing's ability to Clone is very special. It's not about how many bodies she can create, but rather about the concept of 'life' in the dark. Even if most of her Clone die, as long as one Clone is still alive, she can create new clones.
Although it will result in the loss of one's spiritual body, it is negligible compared to death.
As for the ability to revive a teacher, that's even more demanding.
Because Wen Jing's resurrection is not about creating a life that replicates the teacher's appearance and memories from a biological perspective, but about truly bringing the teacher, who had no material remains, back to life.
When attempting to evolve, upgrading the splitting ability had some vague impact, while the resurrection ability seemed to disappear without a trace.
But no matter how much is needed, she will not give up.
If the relics of the industrial age aren't enough, then it'll be the information age. The stronger she is, the faster she'll gain Skill Points.
Bringing his thoughts back, Wen Jing focused his attention on the newly acquired characteristic [Standardization Meme].
This characteristic is unique; in a sense, it touches upon the power of the 'rules' she is currently seeking.
Just like the name 'meme', this characteristic allows Wen Jing to use herself as a template to impart her abilities to targets who are her templates in a viral-like manner.
The so-called ability refers to the characteristics she possesses.
Moreover, this infection is different from the [Ability Printing] she had obtained before. The process requires her to consume energy to maintain it, and it is a temporary blessing that will disappear when the energy is exhausted.
[Standardization Meme] are truly bestowed, requiring no additional energy consumption from Wen Jing to release; they are a kind of authority.
Of course, this characteristic doesn't make you invincible; it only infects targets that meet certain conditions, and it also has some limitations.
This ability is special. Even though Wen Jing can instinctively sense its effectiveness and use it, the upper and lower limits of its potential still need to be tested experimentally.
"The most basic requirement is that the person being infected must be based on myself."
The planet she was on was located in a barren star belt, with no atmosphere, no rivers, and no trace of life that had ever existed. Its crust was mainly composed of iron-nickel alloy and silicates, simple and hard.
Wen Jing manipulated the gravity, and the stones on the ground instantly shattered into pieces of various sizes, which then floated up.
"Swish, swish, swish!"
The insect's limbs flashed through the air a few times, and the stones of various sizes were transformed into different stone insect sculptures, which landed steadily on the ground.
Wen Jing used the controlled variable method, and each insect carving was different in size and detail. Some were a one-to-one replica of her Wilderness Body, while others were similar to the basic outline of her Wilderness Body. The one with the lowest precision was a whole circular strip without even limbs.
[Standardization Meme]
She infects the insect sculptures of varying sizes and shapes in front of her with her different characteristics.
The next moment, everyone except the one without limbs was successfully infected.
"It seems that I don't need a perfect 1:1 replica of my appearance. Instead, like those mechanical swarms produced on the assembly line in the Factory World, the requirements are more lenient. As long as the basic structural outline meets the standards, it will be fine."
"Basic structure..."
Thinking of this, Wen Jing suddenly had an idea and began carving again.
This time, she wasn't sculpting her current Wilderness Body form, but rather her humanoid appearance combined with her original primitive insect form that could only flick its tail.
The infection of the humanoid statue failed, but the infection of the original insect form was successful.
"Only insects can be infected, and specifically, arthropods with legs; otherwise, those long stones could be considered worm-like."
The three consciousnesses resonated, and they felt that the scope of this judgment was somewhat subtle.
"And this infection effect..."
Of the stone sculptures in front of her, each infected with a different characteristic, only two showed clear effects.
One was a stone sculpture infected with the [Myriad Transformation Furnace] property. Its surface changed from grayish-white to a blurry, pitch-black color similar to Wen Jing's body, indicating that light was being absorbed. The stone sculpture also sank slightly into the ground, and all its contact surfaces with the outside world were slowly consuming matter.
At the same time, its molecular structure is gradually becoming more compact, and its mass is also increasing.
The other is a stone sculpture infected with [Ice Domain].
There is no scientific explanation for this; the low temperature and cold air simply keep emanating from the stone carving.
Currently, Wen Jing is located on the sunlit side of this planet, where the surface temperature is over 100 degrees Celsius. However, the temperature of the stone sculpture has been strangely altered, plummeting to below -60 degrees Celsius. This temperature difference of nearly 200 degrees Celsius has caused cracks to form in both the surrounding rocks and the stone sculpture itself.
The strength and characteristics exhibited by the two stone sculptures are far inferior to those of Wen Jing himself.
Moreover, the material itself has not changed; it still retains the strength of the stone.
In particular, the cracked stone carvings, after falling apart and losing their shape, directly lost the characteristics of the Ice Domain, and the infection effect disappeared.
As for the other stone sculptures that were enhanced with active properties, Wen Jing could clearly confirm that they had been successfully infected, but from the outside, these stone insect sculptures showed no abnormalities and their material composition had not changed at all.
"It is infected, but there's no port to release its power because the stone sculpture can't move at all." She immediately understood the reason.
"Perhaps if I actively evolve a self-destruct ability, it might work?" This thought was quickly rejected by Wen Jing: "The power of a self-destruction depends on the material composition; it's very inefficient."
After a moment's thought, the three consciousnesses began to move rapidly, continuing to work on the stone carving.
Soon, Wen Jing added a projectile structure to the mouthparts of the infected [Frost Vein Silk] Stone Carving Insects, and made the hind leg and wing joints of the infected [Phase Jump] and [Flight] Stone Carving Insects movable structures.
Next, she released Gravity Control, providing an initial force to these newly added moving structures.
The next moment, something magical happened--
"Whoosh!"
A much weaker frost Frost Vein Silk shot out from the projectile structure of the [Frost Vein Silk] stone carving. It was clear that there was nothing inside the projectile structure carved by Wen Jing, not even any energy.
However, the stone sculpture's head exploded due to the low temperature, losing its properties.
[Phase Jump] The stone sculpture appeared to be 'doubled' for a moment, but in reality, it flashed by less than one millimeter.
[Flight] The stone sculpture took off from the spot, its wings stopped flapping, but it inexplicably maintained a floating state that was visually indistinguishable from being close to the ground.
After several more experiments, Wen Jing finally understood it completely.
Most of her characteristics allow her to release Memetic Infection, but the effects she can achieve are limited by the material and capabilities of the infected entity itself.
For example, can Wen Jing enhance the stone sculpture with her [Spatial Cutting] ability? Yes.
However, to make it achieve the effect of cutting through space, it needs to be able to move. Whether it's creating a limb that can be waved or throwing it directly at people, this characteristic can be utilized.
But this is clearly a meaningless 'invalid infection'.
Because of its low material content, the stone-carved insect can hardly create any Spatial Cutting effect. More importantly, it will destroy itself before the Spatial Cutting effect is produced.
Before it can even attack the enemy, you'll see it Disintegration and vanish.
Similarly, there are various passive resistances. When applied to an immobile stone sculpture, you'll get a stone sculpture with resistance to electricity, poison, high temperatures, and low temperatures...
Of course, each infected entity is not limited to infecting only one of Wen Jing's characteristics.
However, this infection effect seems to require time to 'infiltrate,' somewhat like ability slots in a game, where more are unlocked over time. She can also actively consume energy to speed up the unlocking process.
Furthermore, since Wen Jing is a template, during the use of her special ability, she is unable to enhance her own attributes, just as she was previously locked into the Factory World.
And the power and characteristics of her infection will, at most, be limited to what she can unleash herself; there will be no breakthrough.
In addition to these limitations, the biggest limitation is the scope of infection.
Memetic Infection is like a 'halo', radiating outwards from the Wen Jing itself; only infected individuals within this radius can be infected by its properties.
Conversely, once they are outside the designated area, they lose their extraordinary properties.
However, the radiation range will gradually expand over time. As long as Wen Jing does not make any spatial jumps during this period, the aura range will not be 'closed' and will not refresh back to its original size; it will continue to expand over time.
Even so, Wen Jing certainly wouldn't keep a Clone around to 'AFK' and expand the aura's range.
Not to mention that her three Clone each have their own goals in order to accumulate power and grow stronger, doing so is tantamount to locking in their own attributes, and more importantly, it limits their ability to execute.
To Memetic Infection, she must also possess infected individuals that meet specific criteria. Furthermore, Memetic Infection does not grant control over infected individuals, limiting the scope of her ability to manipulate them in combat.
Currently, Wen Jing's 'reference answer' for utilizing this characteristic is actually to imitate the Factory World, producing mechanical swarms under its control and endowing them with special properties.
However, besides this, her other consciousnesses were also considering other possibilities.
What if it's an infected organism?
If you can infect the Krik People, you can hire them as your temporary army. Since you can take them back at any time through the characteristics given to them by memes, it doesn't cost you any training, and there's no loss if they betray you.