Sizzle…
Powder flew in splatters.
The Blackfoot Loli’s slender yet strong fingers gripped the dental drill, carefully tracing a thin line over the bulging part of the Pearl without directly cutting out a “lid.”
Ashley held a probe between her fingers, staring intently at the dashboard measuring supernatural fluctuations.
If the inside of the Pearl contained supernatural materials, that would be fine, but if it was a living thing—one that could survive in a Monster Lolita’s stomach environment—that would be too terrifying.
“It’s still too thick; I can’t see clearly. Let’s shave off another layer.”
Little Black Feet said as she placed the material into the circulating water for rinsing, grinding and flushing it while shining a light inside.
“Did you see it? There’s a mass of black unidentified substance inside. It seems to be fluid.”
“Sesame dumpling~” Ashley joked.
“This isn’t normal. Do you think a fluid could form a pearl?” Little Black Feet’s tone grew serious.
“Could it be…”
As the two discussed, Little Black Feet’s wrist suddenly jolted violently, nearly causing her to lose her grip. At the same time, a teeth-grinding cracking sound echoed from the windowed surface of the Pearl!
The pointer on the supernatural fluctuation monitor slammed to the bottom!
“Damn it!”
Little Black Feet cursed and, with the reaction speed of a bomb disposal expert, tossed the Pearl into the prepared pressurized canister! She then slammed the lid shut and secured the latches!
The next second, the Pearl exploded like a grenade! The shrapnel struck the metal walls of the canister, bulging out sharp protrusions one after another!
The canister was blasted into the air with a muffled boom, then clanged back to the ground, trembling nonstop.
When it finally stopped, Ashley exhaled and blinked her eyes. “What happened… Is it over?”
“The canister’s material is highly corrosion-resistant metal; the fluid creature shouldn’t be able to drill out… Wait, no! It’s using tools!”
Little Black Feet screamed midway through her sentence!
The canister wall vibrated at high frequency as the fluid lifeform from the Pearl used the shattered shell fragments to try drilling a hole!
“Huh?!” Ashley’s face filled with disbelief.
“What kind of monster is your friend exactly?! Why would she stuff something like this into her mouth!”
Little Black Feet shouted hysterically, grabbing the liquid nitrogen freeze gun and cranking the valve to maximum, focusing intently on the pressurized canister.
“What is that? A symbiont?” Ashley asked nervously. At that moment, none of the abilities in her cartridge chamber were suitable, and she had no idea how to deal with this bizarre, unknown fluid lifeform.
“It’s probably a Super Intelligent Body, similar to the Blood Buds inside Demon Crows, but its intelligence level and supernatural intensity are on a completely different scale.”
Little Black Feet made a quick judgment and continued,
“Since it can use tools, it can certainly use weapons. We absolutely cannot let it drill into the warehouse.”
The two stood ready. As soon as the Super Intelligent Body drilled a hole through the metal canister wall, it was hit with a blast of liquid nitrogen. Even so, its movements only slowed slightly as it continued struggling to break out!
Little Black Feet picked up tweezers, snapping off whatever protruded and dropping it into a liquid nitrogen insulated container. In this way, she fragmented it into dozens of granular pieces and froze them.
It seemed that for dealing with fluid lifeforms, the most effective method was to cut them into small pieces, store them separately in containers, and freeze them. If that didn’t work, reduce the fragment size further and lower the temperature.
Ashley clapped vigorously. Little Black Feet was such a reliable partner—everything about her was great except for those pitch-black feet.
After Little Black Feet’s explanation, Ashley gained a general understanding. In her terms, the Super Intelligent Body was like applied artificial intelligence: it could accept commands to a certain degree, use tools, solve specific problems, and so on, but it was still far from true sentient life.
In that light, the Blood Buds inside Demon Crows were like autopilot AI, while the black fluid was basic mechanical AI.
The latter’s functionality might not surpass the former, but the supernatural power it contained was utterly terrifying.
“Super Intelligent Bodies have two main applications,” Little Black Feet said. “One is fusing with a Cadaver to upgrade it into a controlled or even autonomous biological weapon. The other is crafting combat-assist Bio Armor, like the Tribunal’s Metal Lifeforms.”
With that, Little Black Feet suddenly thought of something and asked,
“Do you still have that bottle of Youth Version Immortality Drug?”
Ashley nodded. The Tribunal had originally wanted it back, but after she became Letisia’s disciple, no one dared mention it.
“Combining the two could produce a Metal Lifeform. However, the amount of Undying Potion is limited, so it won’t make full-coverage Bio Armor—maybe a quarter at most, depending on your choice,” Little Black Feet suggested. “If you don’t need either, you could keep it or sell it.”
Ashley thought for a moment. Fusing with a Cadaver would waste the black fluid’s potential since its motility would be overridden, whereas a Metal Lifeform would greatly enhance her mid-to-close-range combat ability, which she desperately needed.
Upon hearing they were making a Metal Lifeform, Little Black Feet’s eyes lit up. She seized the opportunity to suggest, “In that case, we’ll need a Biological Computer. Fusing the two requires flesh-editing tech, and making the supernatural intelligent fluid obey you needs neural programming to create a system driven only by your consciousness pulses—if anyone could use this Metal Lifeform, it’d be stupid fighting over it in battle.”
“We…” Ashley mulled over the word.
“Aren’t you setting up a private lab? We can share it.”
Little Black Feet pulled out a neatly copied list and urged,
“It only costs 300 value points to get this setup from the second-hand market. We split it half and half.”
Ashley glanced at the tidy directory: power cell clusters, artificial valve pumps, Kells base organics, nano-polymer frameworks, artificial neural bundles, artificial organic conduits…
“So you’re a Scavenger…”
However, Ashley wasn’t a fan of scavenging junk like this. Plus, 150 value points were Little Black Feet’s entire savings—it was too much of a gamble, equivalent to a C-grade relic or three D-grade ones. Even for her, handing over that sum hurt.
Of course, this was priced at the cheapest relic rates; normally, C-grade relics premiumed to 300-1000 points based on quality and rarity.
“Please…” Little Black Feet pleaded with teary eyes.
“About that foot-washing thing…” Ashley wouldn’t miss a chance to capitalize. She lowered her gaze to the loli’s slender, delicate toes, which shyly huddled together into elegant tips.
The Blackfoot Loli’s expression turned strange, her eyes widening round.
“Miss Veronica, you wouldn’t want your dream shattered, would you?” Ashley said, holding back a laugh.
“Wu…”
The Blackfoot Loli’s face twisted in misery as she let out a shameful whimper.
–
Veronica clearly hadn’t planned this for just a day or two. She quickly gathered the junk and assembled it into a biological host submerged in orange life-sustaining fluid, just as she’d simulated countless times in her mind.
So this was it…
Ashley leaned down to observe the bizarre, frenzied organ cluster in the glass tank—pale-skinned flesh matter, tightly adhered gel masses, bundled organic conduits, and fixed branch-like and bowl-shaped bone frames…
“Truly amazing,” she muttered.
“The bulk of this host’s value lies in these monkey brains. Their powerful computing power is the foundation of research. Processed with supernatural materials for preservation, they won’t rot for decades,” Little Black Feet said, her face beaming with wish-fulfilled bliss.
In the glass tank, fist-sized monkey skulls had their top bones removed, exposing half-brains. The walnut-like cerebrums glistened translucently, with star-like highlights flowing along the brain folds. There were twenty in total, displayed in a tower-shell-shaped hollow bone casing like a fruit basket filled with grotesque fruits.
“What do you think?” she asked excitedly.
“What ancient god is this?” Ashley quipped.
“I’ve wanted a Biological Computer since I was little. Today, my dream comes true! I’ll make your Metal Lifeform right now!”
Little Black Feet brimmed with energy, deftly connecting the workshop’s existing equipment to the computer.
First, she made tissue slices of the black fluid and observed them under the microscope.
Soon, she discovered that these cells were larger and more complex than some single-celled organisms. Their surfaces bristled with dense mouth cones, stinging threads, and tentacles, containing nail-like organelles and toxin vesicles—fierce and vicious. Once near other cells, they unleashed everything to shred and devour. Moreover, their crawling speed was dozens or hundreds of times faster than typical single-celled life, making them absolute monsters in the microbial world.
The Tribunal’s Undying Potion was equally potent, metallizing fused cells and granting high editability.
Thus, they needed to test samples first, or rejection would cause heavy losses.
