Chapter 20
Turing — the name seemed familiar.
When Si Chen got home, he clicked on Ji Chuyao’s network data card.
Ji Chuyao, online name: Turing.
Because Si Chen was obsessed with his studies, he usually didn’t use social network platforms.
But he has heard that some people like to be addressed by their online names. They even call it a ‘circle name‘ or something…
Unexpectedly, Ji Chuyao was an old otaku.
As Si Chen was lost in his musings, the other party sent a message.
Ji Chuyao: [coordinates] [coordinates] [coordinates]
Ji Chuyao: These three places are all near Jiangchuan. According to the readings, Space Folds may occur there this coming week. The degree level is A. If you’re interested, you can go and have a look.
All the coordinates were located in the uninhabited areas between Jiangchuan and other districts. This large area of no man’s land is commonly known as the Wild Zone.
On the official website, people often refer to going to the Wild Zone to open up the wasteland as “Entering an Instance”.
[Ji Chuyao: Military academies select their graduate students based on the candidates’ ability to survive in a Space Fold and their ability to use machinery. In short, though you may not be mechanically transformed, you must know how to use mechanical weapons.]
Mechanical weapons include powered suits, prosthetic body parts, small firearms, light weaponry and other such things.
For most ordinary people, mechanical weapons are their only means of dealing with high-dimensional creatures.
For a fifth-class citizen like Si Chen with little money to spare, their only chance to ever hold mechanical weapons is during military training in university.
Additionally, holographic games like “Mechanical Ascension” produced by large companies can also be used as a supplement to training.
Entertainment belongs to the rich.
While in school, he was an academic drone and in work, he’s a corporate drone. Si Chen spends all his time eking out a living. Despite all these years, he hasn’t even registered a single game account.
[Ji Chuyao: My family has a private training ground. Equipped with all the mechanical weapons that are currently on the market, there are even some that aren’t on the market~]
Si Chen:.
His shameful heart actually skipped a beat.
Ji Chuyao: Will you come over?
Ji Chuyao: [sticker]
The sticker was of a mechanical dog wagging its tail. Si Chen zoomed in on the picture and looked at it. To him, it didn’t look much like a dog. It looked more like it’d been modeled after a wolf.
Si Chen: I’ll go.
He admitted that Ji Chuyao’s little trick had tempted him.
Ji Chuyao: [Coordinates]~~~~~
After making an appointment to meet up, Si Chen closed the social networking app. He headed out to take a shower.
After just a couple of days, the cordon of Room 6604 next door was removed. After a while, a new tenant will move in.
A capsule apartment where a murderer lived should be much cheaper than normal apartments. But this is the Safe Zone. As soon as it is published on the rental site, the room will immediately be snapped up.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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The first time he arrived at Jiangchuan, he’d been shocked by the tall buildings, the unreachable skies. In this steel jungle, everyone is so small they can be swallowed up.
There is civilization, order and etiquette.
This is a sight that can never be seen in the Disaster Zone.
But the glamorous high-rise buildings weren’t his. This narrow coffin room where it was hard even to breathe, was. In here, he can’t fry anything because otherwise the choking smell of oily smoke will remain forever. He can’t turn over while sleeping or he might fall off the bed. He can’t use the table when it’s raining because it’s on the uncovered balcony.
“You ask me what kind of life I want to live?” Si Chen narrowed his eyes. He was momentarily silent. He pointed to the city’s tallest building with the lit cigarette between his fingers. “I’m climbing up, to the very top. That is the life I want.”
He has no ideals, no interest in changing this era. Base and vulgar, it really isn’t worth mentioning.
Si Chen crushed the cigarette and threw it into the trash can. He then turned around and walked into his room.
Today, he was going to resume classes for the Eternal Life Abyss.
But having already experienced yesterday’s pain, the Eternal Life Abyss, even at risk of death, refused to come out to study.
Si Chen spent a long time searching on his phone using keywords like “What to do when your child doesn’t want to study”. When he saw the first search result, he couldn’t help sneering. “There’s a problem with the parenting method? Are you kidding me?”
He even took off the prosthetic eye and tried to pull the Eternal Life Abyss out of his body. But no matter how much he searched, he couldn’t find where it was.
Si Chen had no choice but to give up. After reading a scientific paper for a while, he went to bed.
Only that, in the middle of the night, he was suddenly awakened by a strange feeling.
A day ago, he had eaten that food delivered to his door. Now, he had finally fully digested the food.
He felt so good, like floating on a cloud. His body felt warm, as if he’d returned to his mother’s womb.
Si Chen’s breathing turned heavy. This was followed by a strong and exhilarating sense of pleasure.
At that moment, he understood how some people could become addicted to dopamine tablets. It truly was difficult to resist this pleasure with willpower alone.
But the sense of pleasure his brain was inducing was simply a way to mask the pain in his body.
There were masses of flesh surfacing all over his skin. They looked like the mouthparts of the Eternal Life Abyss. Under his pale skin, blood black as pitch surged like a torrential river.
The stabbing pain hit instantly.
“Ugh–”
Si Chen let out a short and harsh cry. He bit down hard on his lower lip; his breath turning moist with vapor.
His body had become a container filled with excess fluid. His body was like an old computer overloading, teetering on the brink of collapse.
Si Chen’s metal prosthetic eye flashed with an inorganic cold light. He lowered his head and saw the bulging tumors on the back of his hand.
These strange things appeared not only on his hands, but also on every inch of his body.
If Si Chen had an experienced senior by his side, his senior could have told him that this was an inevitable “assimilation” phenomenon among the biologically transformed after absorption of a foreign entity.
This “assimilation” is the most important part for most biologically transformed Evolutionaries.
However, he had no such guide by his side.
So Si Chen was very confused about what was happening to him.
He took out his mobile phone and read all the information related to Eternal Life Abyss on the official website. He tried several keywords and managed to find some bits of clues here and there
Even on the official website, most information was blocked. Latecomers can only cross the river by feeling the stones.
Therefore, he needed a “mentor”. Ji Chuyao was taking the path of mechanical transformation and his experiences cannot apply to Si Chen.
Si Chen pulled out the knife hidden under his pillow. His eyes widened like a wary animal.
“Little Abyss?” There was a panic in Si Chen’s tone that he didn’t realize he had.
Fear of the unknown is always the greatest fear.
And Si Chen has found himself in the unknown.
Eternal LIfe Abyss: “Squeak, squeak!”
Si Chen couldn’t understand Eternal Life Abyss’ words, but he could sense the comfort in the little monster’s tone.
His tense nerves relaxed a little. There was unbearable pain from the black blood spilling from his ruptured veins.
Because of the high temperature and blood loss, Si Chen’s consciousness turned hazy.
His surroundings felt so cold.
It shouldn’t be. Although the coffin room was small, it did have centralized heating to control the temperature, keeping the entire complex at a spring-like temperature year round.
Si Chen stabbed himself in the leg; he didn’t want to lose consciousness. But the expected pain didn’t come.
He felt the knife go in, like it was sinking into a dollop of cream.
Almost as soon as he pulled out the knife, the wound that went so deep you could see the whites of his bone, began to heal at a visible rate.
The Eternal Life Abyss, who’d been hiding who knows where, finally came out. Its slender tentacles wrapped around Si Chen’s wrist, preventing him from harming himself again.
It was much bigger than when Si Chen first saw it. It was now at least as thick as a 50 cent coin was round.
It had split into an “x” shape. In addition, an eye grew on its tentacles. The round eyes and round mouthparts, big circles and small circles, created dizzying and suffocating sight.
Looking at its size alone, it was absolutely impossible for the Eternal Life Abyss to fit back in through Si Chen’s eye socket.
Because of its newly grown eyes, it could now see.
The Eternal Life Abyss’ tentacles curled up, making its way to Si Chen’s waist, fumbling for the castoff that Si Chen hid in his pocket. This had been a part of its body.
As an Eternal Life Abyss evolves, it sheds its skin. This will then be eaten and put back into its stomach.
The Eternal Life Abyss tore open the packaging bag and then wriggled with the castoff to the sink. It struggled to turn on the tap and using its two tentacles, it scrubbed the dried shiitake mushroom like it was washing clothes.
Si Chen taught it that food needed to be washed before eating. Although the Eternal Life Abyss didn’t quite understand why.
It rolled along the floor and climbed back to the bed. Where Si Chen was lying asleep was drenched with sweat and blood.
The Eternal Life Abyss crawled its way in front of Si Chen. It spread out the piece of dried shiitake mushroom and estimating the size of Si Chen’s lips, thoughtfully tore the dried shiitake mushroom into thin strips.
In his semi-conscious state, Si Chen smelled this irresistible aroma.
The Eternal Life Abyss successfully stuffed the dried shiitake mushroom strips into its mother’s mouth. The other’s sharp teeth even nipped the tip of its tentacles, squeezing out a bit of juice.
On the surface of Si Chen’s body, the blood-red tumors subsided, replaced by fine, dense black scales. It looked soft but it was the strongest armor of the Eternal Life Abyss race, although the Eternal Life Abyss in Si Chen’s body has not yet grown up.
The new scales also disappeared quickly. For a Low Dimensional creature, maintaining these scales is a great burden on the body.
…
As a race driven by “appetite”, for the Eternal Life Abyss, eating part of each other’s bodies is the highest way to express love.
Mom ate it up.
The Eternal Life Abyss held its own dark face and felt very very happy.
…
Si Chen got up late the next day. It was already nearing mid-morning.
He grabbed his phone and checked the time, it was 10:30. He was late for work. Damn it.
But there as the saying goes, ‘the more debt, the less worry’. After a brief moment of annoyance, Si Chen calmly asked the team leader for half a day off.
Team leader: OK, all right.
Team Leader: Is half a day enough? Won’t you rather take the whole day off?
The team leader has become more and more amiable recently.
Si Chen: It’s enough. Thank you, team leader. [well behaved.jpg]
He got up and stood in front of the sink.
He had a momentarily feeling of unfamiliarity with the person in the mirror.
Si Chen lifted up his pajamas and found that there were many inexplicable red marks on his skin; especially on his upper body.
These marks were slightly raised, like he had seafood allergy.
Suspicious, Si Chen touched it. It didn’t hurt.
Most importantly, another cave opening had opened in his body.
According to the official website, he has reached the “Second Step”. Become a Tier 2 Evolutionary.
Now there was an eyeball in this opening. But it was still pretty empty and needed to be filled with other things.
Although he hardly knew any Evolutionaries, Si Chen felt that his progress seemed to be ridiculously fast.
He thought for a while, turned on his phone and asked Ji Chuyao, “How long did it take you to get to the Second Step?”
Ji Chuyao: 3 hours
Ji Chuyao: But I’m a special case!
Si Chen: How long would it normally take?
Ji Chuyao: My cousins took around two to three days. Someone with mediocre qualifications would take about a week.
Ji Chuyao: The strength between each Step increases exponentially. We are in a Fourth Dimensional universe, so the first four Steps are actually quite weak.
Ji Chuyao’s words were actually full of ignorance, to the level of “then let them eat meat“.
First of all, progressing through mechanical transformation is inherently much faster than the other types of transformation. It is a well-known shortcut.
So long as you allocated enough points to your Technology Tree, then evolution is just a matter of course.
Secondly, Ji Chuyao’s surname is Ji. The people around him were either surnamed Ji or Chu. They were all direct descendants of Great Families. From a young age, they were bathed in top-grade evolution fluids, they washed their feet with gene medicine and used energy stones as marbles.
Given that kind of nurturing, starting on the road of evolution, “reaching the Second Step in a week” did indeed indicate a mediocre aptitude.
Si Chen: “…Oh.”
Excuse me, looks like I’m the actually the clown here.
fun fact, humans are the only animals that cook their food!
ty for the chapter 🙂
Turing: a real serious cyborg BOSS that is ~interested~ in Si Chen
Ji Chuyao: robo doggo wagging his tail into a flower every time he sees Si Chen because of ~love~ and stuff
Si Chen: evolved into a foodie that only perceives the world in the categories of ‘can eat that’ and ‘cannot eat that’
Little Abyss: Mom, hungry, eat~
Also, Ji Chuyao is so adorable. He’s hilariously misinformed due to his upbringing, but his temperament and, well, the power of his family make it impossible for Si Chen to get angry at him. It’s fun~ ^__^
Thank you for the chapter ❤
that is the gap between ridiculously rich and kinda poor/normal there
Don’t worry, SC i am the clown too!
Thank you for your translation 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
“…Oh.” 🤣🤣🤣
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣
I wonder if our little baby Abyss is going to be a yandere for “Mommy”