Chapter 1744: Chapter 1742: Here of All Places! (Evolution Halted Again by a Stomachache)

The data in front of him was still so intricate, and Fang Zheng stared at its content, his brows tightly knit.

"So... this isn’t just a single substance, right?"

"Yes, Master."

Nymph nodded from the other side of the screen.

"This is quite interesting."

Fang Zheng moved his gaze and glanced at the sample beside him. He hadn’t lied to Misaka Mikoto and Saten Reiko; Fang Zheng was indeed researching how to grant abilities to non-ability users. Of course, he initially undertook this research for Riko. But now, Fang Zheng suddenly discovered that he seemed to have found another strange thing.

That thing is some mysterious chemical substance within Riko’s cross.

Initially, Fang Zheng became interested because this substance emitted some energy that affected Riko, enabling her to use abilities. But during the research process, Fang Zheng made an unexpected discovery—this mysterious substance, although seemingly inanimate, appeared to possess a certain degree of cognitive ability. This finding shocked Fang Zheng, prompting him to quickly contact Nymph.

After carefully studying the data and experiments, Little Angel also reached a similar conclusion.

"What is this then? A non-carbon-based life form? Is that right? I really can’t figure this thing out..."

Fang Zheng scratched his head, feeling a bit lost. His understanding of such existence wasn’t deep, and indeed Fang Zheng hadn’t encountered many similar races. So even if he wanted to research it, he didn’t know how to proceed. After all, his knowledge in this field wasn’t deep, but it didn’t matter, with Little Angel around, right? Fang Zheng didn’t need to handle everything himself.

But at least the effect was confirmed. Through analyzing and comparing samples from Riko, Frenda, and Reiko, this substance indeed could release a strange energy activating a hidden part of the genes in these three individuals. However, for now, it’s only possible to obtain this clue, as for what changes this energy will ultimately bring to them, that remains unknown.

Riko can use abilities, but for Reiko, it’s hard to say.

But it’s no problem; when encountering a difficult issue, just check the answers.

Since even Little Angel couldn’t determine what this thing was, Fang Zheng said no more and directly summoned "Ratziel". I refuse to believe the Omniscient Angel can’t deal with some ghost substance!

"Magic Mirror, oh Magic Mirror, who is the most handsome, elegant, charming, unrivaled, brilliant, beloved by all, making flowers bloom wherever they go... hmm, no need to ask, I know it’s me. So, Magic Mirror, oh Magic Mirror, please tell me what this substance is."

Saying it casually, Fang Zheng confidently awaited the Omniscient Angel’s answer.

However... after five seconds, the page remained blank.

After ten seconds... thirty seconds... a minute later...

"Are you kidding me?!"

Staring at the blank page, Fang Zheng was dumbfounded.

This little thing, I can’t investigate it?

So the priority of this ghost substance is higher than mine?

Are you kidding me?

But just at this moment, Little Angel suddenly spoke.

"Master, I found matching structured material in the Heavenly Dao Palace’s database."

"Oh? We have this thing in the Heavenly Dao Palace?"

Hearing Little Angel’s reply, Fang Zheng was surprised, and Little Angel nodded.

"Yes, preliminary scan determination shows that the unknown substance in your possession has a 99.9% structural overlap with sample number 312 in the Heavenly Dao Palace’s database."

"312? What’s that?"

"It’s the nano aggregate we previously salvaged from the seabed..."

"Oh... that thing!"

Upon hearing Little Angel’s description, Fang Zheng remembered it. Back in the Main World, when Fang Zheng was short on Spirit Crystals, he went to the seabed to dig and encountered some bizarre nano-assembled thing. Fang Zheng wasted a chance using Malthael to no avail, later asking for Stone Village’s help to lift the entire seabed vein, had Yoshino freeze it, and tossed it into space.

And then... Fang Zheng never concerned himself with it again.

"So what you’re suggesting is that this substance is actually the same thing as that nano bug?"

"Yes, only this part deviates structurally by 0.1% from the sample number 312. If I guessed correctly, this part should be the information processing segment of the nano aggregate."

"So you’re saying it’s a relic from the Goddess of Creation, right."

Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng suddenly realized. At the time, the part they found in the seabed only acted on instinct, which Fang Zheng later heard more about from Little Angel. However, since this thing was not inherently important, Fang Zheng just shoved it to the back of his mind.

Now it seems... this thing might have been blown into two parts, the head here in this world, and the body tossed onto the planet in the Main World?

If it’s something from the Goddess of Creation, then it’s normal not to find any clues.

But now, well...

"Connect me to the Goddess."

Fang Zheng still had a goddess by his side, wasn’t it for times like this to help?

Soon, Nymph connected the line to the Goddess of Creation, and Fang Zheng explained his discovery to her. However, after hearing Fang Zheng’s explanation, the Goddess of Creation seemed very surprised.

"So it got thrown there!"

"Hmm... What? Wait, what do you mean by thrown here?"

"You should know that planet was originally a prototype for a refuge, right?"

"Yes, I know this."

From the information provided by the Golden Nightmare King earlier, Fang Zheng had already figured out that this coordinate point was obviously used by the Goddess of Creation as an experiment for building a refuge. Before the star exploded into five worlds, its form was almost identical to the Main World’s planet. However, as it was only a prototype, it had external defenses that were somewhat flawed or, to put it another way, not quite perfected compared to the Main World.

In fact, from the previous coordinate points, it could also be seen that the Goddess of Creation had always used them as test sites. For example, at the first coordinate point, the Golden Fairy World, the Goddess of Creation tried to reverse the influence of the Chaos Corruption Entity using the Star God — which ultimately failed.

And at the second coordinate point, the EVA world, the Goddess of Creation created Adam and Lilith, experimenting with the evolutionary path between singular entities and groups — if Fang Zheng hadn’t intervened, it would probably have ended in failure.

As for this third coordinate point, the Goddess of Creation used it for research and creation of a refuge — unfortunately, it ended up exploding.

Still, it wasn’t a complete disaster; at least it’s still alive.

"So what exactly is this thing?"

"Ah... Um... This..."

Unexpectedly, when faced with Fang Zheng’s question, the Goddess of Creation seemed a bit reluctant to speak.

"Actually... this is... um, it’s nothing major, just..."

However, the very next moment, the Goddess of Creation’s expression changed, and she shouted.

"... Alright, no need to say more, I get it."

Fang Zheng surrendered helplessly.

"I don’t really want to know why this thing got split in two..."

"It was a moment of excitement, besides, back then my prototype was also... shut up, sisters, beat her to death! ... Hahaha, you can’t kill me, acting all pure and uncontaminated by worldly affairs, but deep down you’re all the same... Oh, you’re really hitting me, I’ll fight you!!"

Soon, the image of the goddess on the screen began to distort, forming into a giant light orb. From inside came sounds of "bang bang" and "thud thud" and "clang clang." A moment later, the goddess reappeared in front of Fang Zheng with an icy demeanor, adjusting her gold-rimmed glasses.

"Please don’t take her nonsense to heart. In fact, this is a highly malleable intelligent material. My prototype once tried to use it as the control core at this coordinate point... Later on, due to some accidents, part of the material core was lost and couldn’t be used, so my prototype abandoned the rest."

So all this time, that seabed was just the Goddess’s casually discarded junk.

"So, you mean this material is actually a core component?"

"Indeed, although I don’t know the exact situation in that world, you could try extracting data from it using your Order Seal interface."

I see.

Fang Zheng nodded; he had to admit, this development really surprised him. Originally, Fang Zheng thought the clues of this world were those Superpower Users, but unexpectedly, it turned out to be this mysterious substance inside an inconspicuous cross... Looks like his time travel to this world and appearing before Riko wasn’t just a coincidence.

Thinking of this, Fang Zheng asked again.

"By the way, can this thing give people superpowers?"

"Since it’s something the Goddess once used, it’s quite normal for it to affect mortals."

After saying this, the glasses-wearing goddess nodded at Fang Zheng.

"Well, I have other matters to attend to, so I’ll take my leave first — sisters, let me do it, this time I’ll make sure she can never speak again!"

Leaving these ruthless words, the goddess once again returned to "standby" mode, while Fang Zheng silently closed the communication.

Although the glasses-wearing goddess said so, considering the mercenary goddess never lied and particularly liked to expose her shortcomings... Hmm, Fang Zheng decided not to think about this problem anymore.

Some things are better left unknown forever.