Self-Repairing Material!

"Not selling them anymore?!" Upon hearing the report from his salesman, Sindisen, who had been sipping tea while leafing through a newspaper, froze on the spot, his hand pausing over the page. Standing beside the desk, the salesman gave a helpless nod. "Yes, sir. We went to the Boulder City militia's forward outpost and asked the commander about buying the fruiting body remains. But they wouldn't even hear our offer. They shut the door right in our faces—" "Their reason?!" Sindisen interrupted urgently, gripping the armrests of his chair as he fumed with righteous indignation. "Don't they know that leaving those fruiting body carcasses unattended will cause a catastrophic plague?" "Th-that... I don't know," the salesman said timidly, glancing nervously at his boss. "The reason they gave was that the Alliance authorities have taken custody of the fruiting bodies." Sindisen stared in utter bewilderment. *The Alliance authorities took custody?* *What could they possibly want with that stuff?!* In the decadent, hedonistic Bugra Free State, the Sindisen Trading Company was merely a tiny, insignificant firm whose sole business was supplying raw materials to the Free State's processing plants for synthetic food and organic fertilizer. In previous years when the Tide broke out, he would send people to Qingquan City to acquire a batch of goods. Transporting them back and reselling them yielded hundreds of millions of Bugra dollars in profit. Those fruiting body remains were practically free for the taking. In any case, the impoverished masses of the Bugra Free State didn't care where their food came from, and the food processing plants cared even less about the source of the nutrients. Boulder City happened to need a way to dispose of the fruiting body carcasses anyway, making his trade an undeniable win-win for everyone involved! Hearing that the Tide following a warm winter would be fiercer than usual, Sindisen had gone all in this year. He borrowed money from the bank to lease over thirty heavy-duty trucks, hired a hundred-man escort, and even personally led the team south to Dawn City, poised to make a fortune. Yet right as he was reveling in ambitious dreams of striking it rich, the news brought back by the salesman he sent to the front lines stopped him dead in his tracks. He had already lined up buyers. And now the Alliance was telling him the fruiting body carcasses weren't for sale?! What kind of sick joke was this?! Although his fingers trembled with rage, Sindisen quickly regained his composure. As the saying went, an arm could never overpower a thigh. Against a behemoth like the Alliance, a puny trading firm was nothing more than an insignificant grasshopper. He certainly didn't want to watch the business he had spent years building go bankrupt from breach-of-contract penalties and defaulted bank loans, but Sindisen knew full well that head-on defiance was out of the question. He would have to find another angle! Fixing his gaze on his salesman, Sindisen asked, measuring each word carefully: "Where are those fruiting bodies now? How does the Alliance plan to deal with them?" The salesman swallowed hard and whispered, "I heard they were all gathered by the Alliance authorities and transported to Qingquan City's eastern district... As for what they're actually doing with them, I have no idea." *Transported to the eastern district?* Sindisen's brow furrowed tightly. As he recalled, wasn't the eastern district an urban area swallowed by forest? What were they sending them there for? Unable to make sense of it, Sindisen pondered for a moment before looking at his subordinate. "Tomorrow morning, take me to the eastern outskirts of Qingquan City to see for myself." The salesman nodded hastily. "Right away, Boss!" ... Early the next morning, Sindisen rose before dawn. While the sky was still dim, he took his salesman and a few bodyguards and left the inn. Departing Dawn City to the east, the party trekked over a dozen li before finally reaching the edge of Qingquan City's eastern district. Yet the moment he laid eyes on the scene before him, shock paralyzed him. It took a long while before he could squeeze out a single sentence. "...What the hell is that?" Gnawers were pushing wheelbarrows piled high with fruiting body carcasses, moving from a mountainous heap of corpses toward a half-collapsed building nearby. Through the pitch-black windows, scarlet fungal plaques could be seen pulsating slowly—bearing the distinct shape of an incubation chamber! The guards beside Sindisen instinctively gripped their rifles, their index fingers flipping off the safeties as every nerve tautened in wary watch over the incubation chamber. Gnawers were indeed nothing to fear. However, throw in a Crawler or even a Tyrant, and things would turn catastrophic... In such complex terrain, not even veteran mercenaries could claim a certain victory. In fact, there really were Crawlers and Tyrants present. Not far from the incubation chamber, beside an abandoned concrete high-rise, four-legged Crawlers were scaling the slime-mold-covered walls vertically, carrying tall stacks of bricks or thick bundles of rebar on their backs. They hauled the bricks to damaged sections of the wall, where slouching gnawers waited to receive them and neatly stack each brick into the breaches. "Are they... laying bricks?" the salesman asked, staring in shock. Beside him, the guards looked as if they had seen a ghost. "Great Horned Deer God above..." "Since when did those mushrooms learn how to build houses?!" Sindisen said nothing. Swallowing hard, he pulled a pair of binoculars from his coat and trained them on the midsection of the concrete building to get a closer look. What he saw next was a sight he would never forget for the rest of his life. The bricks were not being laid with mortar, but atop a layer of pale red creep. The creep seemed alive, its tiny cilia wriggling. The instant it made contact with a brick, countless micro-cilia gripped the block firmly, after which pale red husks sprouted outward from the crevices, dehydrating to lock the brick securely into the damaged wall. Sindisen was stunned by the spectacle. The sun had truly risen in the west! This slime mold was actually repairing human architecture! What astonished him even more was that the building repaired by the slime mold wasn't ugly at all. Instead, it possessed a unique, organic aesthetic. At the very least, it looked far better than the crumbling ruins surrounding it! The pale red creep looked neither grotesque nor out of place. Spreading across the damaged breaches on the wall, it resembled an artistic mural, recording the scars inflicted by the war two centuries ago in a distinct style. Now, the only question was whether a building repaired by slime mold was actually habitable. Sindisen knew that he wouldn't dare live in it. Perhaps the destitute wretches of the Bugra Free State wouldn't care about their living conditions, but he had no desire to soak in musty spores day in and day out. The salesman standing beside him clearly shared the sentiment, shaking his head as he watched the building's scars slowly mend. "I'd never live in a place like that... It feels like some kind of trap. The second someone walks inside, it'll swallow them whole like a pitcher plant." The guards exchanged glances and nodded in agreement. "Same here..." "Not unless they pay me." "Can people really live in a house like that, though? They didn't even use cement." "Whether people can live in it or not, at least I finally know what the Alliance intends to do by hoarding all these fruiting bodies." Lowering his binoculars, Sindisen cursed sourly under his breath, helpless against the reality before him. He had no clue what method the Alliance used to make those slime mold fruiting bodies work so obediently, but that was their business. He had previously toyed with the idea of a "five-finger discount"—slipping in under cover of darkness, loading up a few trucks of fruiting bodies, and speeding north. The eastern district of Qingquan City was vast, and the Alliance might not even notice. Now, however, that plan was dead in the water. These fruiting bodies acted as though they possessed individual consciousness; they certainly wouldn't stand by and watch people haul their kin's corpses onto trucks. While Sindisen was wallowing in dejection, the roar of engines echoed from nearby as two motorcycles cruised down the adjacent street. Sindisen's group turned their heads immediately. Alliance flags fluttered from the motorcycles, and the emblem of the First Corps was emblazoned on the front fairings. Four soldiers dismounted, eyeing the unfamiliar party warily as they marched over. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" Sindisen hurried to reply. "I'm a traveling merchant passing through. May I ask what's going on here? Why are there so many slime mold fruiting bodies—" "None of your business," the soldier cut in coldly, his face expressionless. "The area ahead is a restricted military zone. Unauthorized entry is forbidden. Leave immediately, or we will take coercive measures." Currently, the Alliance's Ecological Reserve was closed to the public. While what went on here was hardly a state secret, any unauthorized individuals besides shelter residents would be forcibly expelled if they stepped foot inside. After all, the public still harbored deep suspicions toward slime mold. If someone came to harm in this zone, it would be nearly impossible to prove Yu's fruiting bodies were not responsible. Seeing only four soldiers, a young bodyguard behind Sindisen sneered contemptuously. "Coercive measures? With just the four of you?" The soldier didn't take the bait. He simply gave him a measured look. "Care to test that?" The survivors of River Valley Province were fierce by nature, and those around Qingquan City even more so. The soldier had seen plenty of hotheads who thought a rifle slung over their shoulder made them invincible. The bodyguard's brow twisted, and he was about to spout some tough words when his employer yanked him back with a furious glare. Sindisen wished he could slap the idiot across the face. He was here to make money, not to invite trouble! Plastering a deferential smile across his face, Sindisen softened his tone, apologizing profusely to the four alert soldiers. "My apologies, gentlemen. We're newcomers and didn't know the rules... We'll leave right away." With that, he pulled out a few banknotes, attempting to slip them to the leading officer, only for the man to brush them away with visible disdain. "Put your money away and leave. This is your final warning." "Yes, of course, right away!" Sindisen nodded repeatedly, hauling his salesman and the still-defiant bodyguard along as they scurried away from the trouble zone. The First Corps soldiers shadowed them from behind until they had completely cleared the urban sector. Glancing back toward the two motorcycles parked at the other end of the street, the salesman beside Sindisen wore an indignant scowl and couldn't resist asking, "Boss, are we really just letting this go?" "Letting it go?" Sindisen's eyes narrowed slightly, and he chuckled coldly. "How could we possibly let it go?" Hearing this, another bodyguard who had remained quiet hesitated, then lowered his voice. "Boss... the patrols here are too tight. We were spotted the moment we arrived. Sneaking anything out won't be easy." "Steal? Hah," Sindisen glanced at him, curling his lip in disdain. "Am I the kind of man who needs to steal?" Just moments ago, a brilliant idea had occurred to him. Not only might it force the Alliance to spit out this scalding potato, but he might even be able to get his hands on several live specimens to take back for research. A batch of fruiting bodies capable of working on an assembly line... At the thought, a fiery excitement surged through Sindisen's chest, and he could hardly wait to put his master plan into motion. Seeing his boss's supremely confident expression, the salesman caught on immediately and leaned in close. "Boss... what are your orders?" Sindisen smiled faintly and whispered into his ear: "We aren't the only ones who came here from the Bugra Free State to haul goods; there are other traveling merchants... Track down their bosses and send each of them an invitation. Tell them the owner of the Sindisen Trading Company wants to invite them for a drink to discuss a matter of great import." Pausing, he turned to the bodyguard standing nearby, beckoned him closer, and whispered: "In a bit, take a detour back to where we just were and snap a few photographs... I have great use for them." ... While the Bugra merchants were scheming in secret, Chu Guang happened to be inspecting the Ecological Reserve. After yesterday's hands-on trials and accumulated experience, his players had grown increasingly adept at ordering Yu's fruiting bodies around. Especially the lifestyle-class players. In order to earn back the silver coins spent on purchasing fruiting bodies, they had racked their brains and exhausted every conceivable avenue. Some used them to fell trees, some went hunting, others used them to build houses, and some had even taken contracts from the industrial zone to sort garbage. With their efforts, this Ecological Reserve—which had previously contained nothing but slime mold and woods—was gradually revealing its economic value. What Chu Guang found most astounding was that his players had actually unleashed their wild imaginations to deploy slime mold fruiting bodies on construction sites. Previously, building construction required erecting scaffolding and coordinating cranes and other heavy machinery before work could begin. Now, the creep blanketing the walls served as natural scaffolding, and the Crawlers capable of climbing straight up and down walls became natural bricklayers. Not only did they save on labor for hauling bricks, but they had even upgraded the construction materials themselves. Specifically, using slime mold fruiting bodies in place of cement as the bonding agent between bricks. When Chu Guang first heard about this from Xiao Qi, he was utterly flabbergasted by the players' bizarre stroke of genius. Slime mold could actually be used like that?! "Replacing cement with creep... Is this material's structural strength really sound?" Chu Guang stared at the high-rise repairing itself at a visible speed, unable to hold back his question after a long pause. A cheerful cry chimed over the communication channel: "Ee-woo!" Dangling her little legs from Chu Guang's shoulder, Xiao Qi translated cheerfully, "Yu says this is an adhesive fungal strain it created using DNA harvested from the 'Decayed Knight' evolved organism! When spread into creep and dehydrated, it produces an effect similar to cement. Not only is it incredibly sturdy, but it can even self-repair!" Self-repairing concrete? No— Could this even be considered concrete anymore? A bio-composite building material? Chu Guang couldn't recall where he had read it, but ancient bridge-builders used to cultivate oysters beneath bridge piers to ensure their stability. Because oysters grew rapidly, reproduced prolifically, and possessed remarkable cementing properties, they could bind underwater stones into a solid, cohesive mass on riverbeds—a technique known as "anchoring foundations with oysters." Inspired by the players' wild brainstorming, Yu had applied this approach to repairing high-rise buildings left behind from the Era of Prosperity. The creep filled between the bricks possessed adhesive strength on par with cement, and on top of that, it could self-repair whenever damaged! While this construction method sounded extraordinarily avant-garde, under the players' direction, the results appeared surprisingly impressive. Right then, an even more avant-garde idea flashed through Chu Guang's mind. "Can this type of strain... survive in a vacuum?" Yu: "Ee-woo?" Xiao Qi: "Mm... Yu says it hasn't tried, but the very first broodmother it consumed had experience surviving in near-vacuum conditions. With minor modifications, it shouldn't be a problem... Master, where are you thinking of applying it?" "On starships!" Chu Guang said without hesitation. Not just Yu, even Xiao Qi froze. "A st-starship?" Did the Alliance even have such a thing? "That's right!" Chu Guang said, a cheerful grin spreading across his face. "Though starships are still a bit premature for us, so we can test it out on the Heart of Steel first." Self-repairing armor! If that concept could actually become reality, it would be utterly phenomenal! Thinking of the absurd evolved organisms produced by the downtown broodmother, he felt this wild idea wasn't entirely outside the realm of possibility. The more Chu Guang thought about it, the more excited he became. Just as he was about to set things in motion, Xiao Qi, perched on his shoulder, spoke up. "Master, a researcher from the Academy sent a message asking to meet you in person. Would you like me to schedule a time?" "A researcher from the Academy?" Halting the brewing thoughts in his mind, Chu Guang turned his head toward Xiao Qi. "Which researcher?" Xiao Qi continued: "That Class-B researcher named Yang Kai. He wants to represent the Academy in discussing a partnership with you..." Hearing Yang Kai's name, Chu Guang registered a flicker of surprise. He wasn't surprised by the man's identity, but rather that Yang Kai—who always remained aboard his research vessel and appeared only as a holographic projection—was actually willing to talk face-to-face this time. Having a fair guess as to what the man wanted to talk about, an amused smile formed on Chu Guang's lips. "Schedule it for today... No, tomorrow at noon. Have him wait for me in the conference room at the Alliance building." Full of energy, Xiao Qi chirped back: "Understood!"