Chapter 138: Active Metals and Composite Biomaterials

Shouting out attack names during a fight is already awkward enough; it feels like something out of an anime world.

Even worse, there could be bizarre scenes where people have to chant slogans to move. Imagine someone shouting, "Left step! Right step! One-two-one, one-two-one..."

It’s so damn brutal that Wu You doesn't even want to think about it anymore. Although it won’t be that exaggerated, it would definitely be incredibly embarrassing for him as the creator and for anyone who uses it in the future.

To avoid the awkwardness of having to shout for every movement, nerve conduction can be considered perhaps the most critical link.

He jotted it down in his notebook and underlined it.

Alright, those are the three key issues for now. Let’s give it a try.

He raised his hand and summoned the Colorful Coral Worms. Two mushroom-sized flashes of black light appeared on his palm, revealing two delicate Coral Worms. The little creatures had very short feet; they seemed to crawl when moving slowly, but took little hops when they moved quickly.

The Colorful Coral Worms are the most successful example of breeding Wu You has had so far. He hadn't even issued a breeding command; they had taken the initiative to reproduce themselves to increase work efficiency.

He placed them on the table and issued an order: "Create a piece of metal skeleton."

The two Colorful Coral Worms immediately began to move on the table, huddling together. They began to spit out a sticky substance from their mouths while secreting the same material from their body surfaces. Soon, the secretions formed a small lump of silver material clinging to the two worms.

Once it reached this stage, the two Colorful Coral Worms twisted and squeezed themselves out of the mass, crawling to the side. The hole left behind in the still-soft silver substance gradually closed up, forming a somewhat irregular cylinder.

"Sizzle, sizzle..."

A faint sound, like oil sizzling on a grill, drifted up. At the same time, Wu You caught a faint, scorched smell.

"Damn, my computer desk!"

On Wu You’s desk, beneath the secretions of the Colorful Coral Worms, the wooden surface had been scorched black. The two worms stood to the side, looking at their master with a somewhat innocent expression. The raw emotion in Wu You’s curse made them look a bit terrified.

"It’s not your fault," Wu You waved his hand.

The desk didn't matter; that was just an instinctive reaction.

Wu You hadn't felt much heat from the secretion on the desk, so it was clear that the material on its surface possessed a certain level of corrosiveness. Whether it was acidic or alkaline, he couldn't tell. This seemingly soft secretion was actually a metal-like substance. Soon, the surface of the secretion would dry out, at which point it would no longer corrode anything else.

The Mountain-Range Tree would be completely unfazed by something like this, but Wu You’s computer desk was just ordinary wood and clearly couldn't withstand it. In truth, Wu You’s own skin could ignore this level of corrosion, but he simply found it a bit disgusting to touch right now.

After about ten seconds, the secretion had turned into a silver-bright cylinder, and the wooden plank of the desk had been eaten away into a small pit. However, only the surface had dried; the corrosive substance remained inside.

He squeezed it twice; the silver cylinder was still quite soft. Wu You knew this was a metal alloy substance, and it was alive—it was infused with the cells of the Colorful Coral Worms. These cells and the metal material could even be described as being in a symbiotic relationship. They could influence and alter the shape of the metal. Once the internal secretions were nearly dry, the metal would quickly set into its final shape and become extremely sturdy.

As long as the external environment provided heat, radiation, humidity, or other energy sources, these special cells—which had deviated from organic life—could theoretically live forever. In a sense, the system’s evaluation of the Colorful Coral Worms was severely underestimated.

If scientists were to test the composition of this metal’s alloy elements, the results would likely be quite strange. It might not even consist of the conventional elements found on the periodic table. Wu You felt that their properties resembled the metal-infused, sharp organs of high-level alchemical creatures, like the claws of a Azure Dragon or the skin of a Lion-Faced Vajra, though perhaps they lacked the same level of durability. This also explained why the cells of the Colorful Coral Worms could survive inside the metal.

Depending on what metal the Colorful Coral Worms chewed on, the resulting living metal would also change. When it needed to be reshaped, these internal cells would secrete a small amount of the original substance, and the metal would soften, allowing it to change shape again. The cells within the soft metal could also receive commands, but if their parent worm wasn't nearby, the commands they could understand became quite simple, and they couldn't grasp overly complex principles.

A few seconds later, the metal cylinder had transformed into a square metal sheet, two millimeters thick and ten centimeters long and wide. The color was a metallic silver-white but with a soft luster, making it appear somewhat mysterious.

"Ding, ding, ding..."

Wu You tapped the metal sheet with his finger, gradually increasing the force.

"Thud... thud..."

By the end, the force of his flicking finger was like a hammer striking a metal plate.

The metal sheet did nothing but vibrate at a high frequency; it didn't even leave a dent. He bent it left and right, and as he increased the force, the metal sheet almost bent into a ninety-degree arc, but it showed no signs of breaking. Wu You was essentially a human hydraulic press; the force he exerted was not insignificant.

He nodded, feeling that the metal’s strength, toughness, and plasticity were all excellent. It was very suitable as the primary defensive component for armor, but not suitable for joint areas. Perhaps keeping the joint areas internally softened at all times could work.

However, it was clear that this metal could only increase defense; it couldn't provide the user with extra strength. On the contrary, while it wasn't particularly heavy, it was still a metal substance and would increase the burden on the user. It was also not conducive to command transmission.

Actually, this metal would be better suited for the defensive materials of large-scale biological mechs in the future. Well, at least this was good news—the Colorful Coral Worms and their secretions were bound to shine brightly in the future. And that time wouldn't be too far off.

Although the potential of the Colorful Coral Worms wasn't high, their current stats were at the Black Iron level, and they were still marked as "cultivatable." It was likely they could at least reach the high level of Black Iron; if he was lucky, reaching Bronze wasn't impossible. By then, although the living metal probably wouldn't generate power, its material performance would surely rise to a new level. If it could reach the level of the Lion-Faced Vajra’s exterior, that would be fantastic.

But right now, he wasn't trying to build large-scale biological mechs; he needed to develop individual biological equipment. He had already made up his mind. Trying to get one single creature to meet all the requirements might be difficult and might not even yield satisfactory results. However, he could combine several different creatures.

He hoped to achieve a level of composite biological equipment, and it might even perform better than his original vision. He would use a certain plant-based muscular creature as the core, the living metal as the outer shell, and a nerve-sensing creature for head or skin-level sensory input. He could use nerve meridians to connect cells throughout the armor, or perhaps simply use ultra-clear consciousness wave amplification for transmission.

"The road is long and the burden is heavy, comrade," Wu You encouraged himself in his heart.

This would be his primary goal for the near future. Of course, if the research process turned out to be time-consuming, he would also have to find time to cultivate and upgrade the Silver-level creatures he already had, just to ensure he wouldn't be caught off guard by the Abominations.