The "mad scientist's" expression was more serious than ever. "Your Douzai carries the genes of a mutated Plush Beast. Those artificially mutated ones were created by ingesting these very medicines. If my tests are correct, the medicines used for the mutated Plush Beasts were only semi-finished products. This batch you managed to retrieve is the complete formula."

Seeing Ziye’s relatively calm expression, he continued, "In the past few days, I tested over ten different animals. Three couldn't withstand it and died, but the rest," he paused, "the rest all mutated successfully—their bodies doubled in size, muscles enhanced, combat power doubled. They were practically forged from steel."

"The Three-Tailed Fox I just killed was one of them. The test results are ready; I’ll send them over for you to see shortly."

Ziye nodded silently. "Thank you."

The mad scientist slowly sat down, suddenly overcome with a desire to chat, feeling a touch of melancholy. "Do you remember when you first arrived at Silver Talisman Star?"

Ziye nodded. "Why?"

The mad scientist narrowed his eyes. "When I first saw your Douzai, I felt like I'd seen it somewhere before. This time, after getting the medicine, I dug up your medical records. I compared your blood sample slightly with those of the mutated animals, and I discovered..."

Ziye's heart gave a violent lurch; a bad premonition struck her. "What are you going to say?"

The mad scientist spoke slowly, word by word: "The medicine you ingested is the progenitor of this entire batch!"

It felt as if a heavy weight had slammed into Ziye’s core. She staggered back several steps, collapsing onto the floor. Her face instantly drained of color, and she stammered, "How could this be?"

The mad scientist started to reach out to help her, but seeing her utterly defeated, pale under the glare of the lab’s shadowless lamp, consumed only by terror, he shook his head and sighed. "In my entire life, this old man couldn't even synthesize a drug capable of inducing such a mutation. The person who made this drug is not only powerful but also incredibly persistent—they actually succeeded!"

Ziye felt waves of ** pang in her abdomen. She desperately clutched Little Sprout, trying to draw a sliver of strength from it, lest she collapse entirely.

The mad scientist hadn't expected such an intense reaction. He turned, pulled out two pills from the storage cabinet, handed them to G438, and motioned for it to feed them to Ziye. He then ordered G520 to pour a cup of warm boiled water and help her drink it.

The warm liquid trickled down her throat, granting Ziye a thread of comfort. Finally, her trembling body gradually calmed, and she muttered, "What do we do? What are we going to do?"

The mad scientist tried to soothe her. "Don't worry, 95% of the toxins in your body have been cleared. It won't affect your daily life." He had never comforted anyone in his life, especially not a patient.

In his eyes, Ziye was his patient.

He was silent for two seconds, then added, "I’ll pack up tomorrow and head to the asteroid where I grow roses. I’ll cultivate more Black Roses that can clear this type of toxin; perhaps they’ll come in handy."

Ziye gripped Little Sprout tightly, her face ashen.

The mad scientist spread his hands, pulled out the rarely used W-series butler from the storage room, and instructed it to carry Ziye back to her own room, also telling G438 to carry Douzai along.

This hurdle, Ziye had to cross by herself.

That night, Ziye had no idea how she made it back to her room or how she managed to fall asleep, but she was subjected to the nightmare she could never escape from before.

Those vivid, terrifying scenes replayed in her mind again and again until she jolted awake, unable to control herself.

Her skin felt as if it were being pricked by needles; her body trembled involuntarily. She could only hug the quilt tightly, curling into a ball...

In the darkness, it felt as if someone’s gaze was coldly prying at her, laden with contempt, disdain, and malicious cold laughter.

It wasn't immediately close, yet in the dream, she could sense that malice—a malice that caused her pain.

She didn't know how she could possibly control the fear and hatred churning inside her.

Humiliation, anger, pain...

It was as if all light and beauty had abandoned her, leaving only darkness and sin.

She was lost in fear, utterly helpless.

Little Sprout, disturbed by her tossing and turning, woke up and sent a weak electrical pulse toward her.

Zzzzzt—

A current flashed across her skin, making every hair stand on end. Ziye shivered and abruptly sat up.

Little Sprout smacked her hard on the head, complaining irritably, "You little dummy, you can’t even sleep properly! You woke this venerable one up!"

Ziye stared blankly at it for a long moment, then suddenly reached up to wipe the sweat from her brow and smiled. Her face was still pale, but she had managed to step out of the nightmare. "Good boy, don't sleep. Stay up and keep me company for a while."

Her quilt was damp and wrinkled; she didn't feel like sleeping anymore. She climbed out and took a hot bath.

The steamy water completely soothed her nerves; being submerged in it felt like a gentle embrace.

She let out a breath, then plunged Little Sprout into the water and scrubbed it vigorously. Finally, achieving a sense of calm and comfort, she declared, "This is so peaceful. Let’s just stay up, shall we?"

Little Sprout looked at her with an expression of utter bewilderment. "Stay up? It’s past midnight... half-past!"

Ziye waved it off. "It's fine, fine, it’ll be morning soon enough."

—She absolutely wouldn't admit that she was afraid to sleep.

Because she was terrified of returning to that dreamscape.

She put on her clothes, slowly dried Little Sprout’s garments, turned on the living room light, sat down cross-legged, propped her chin on her hand, and began reviewing the meticulously organized competition proposal drafted by Bo*.

It had to be admitted, Bo*'s capabilities were impressive, especially when it came to organizing language and compiling materials.

The materials that the four of them couldn't coordinate were straightened out by him in a few words, appearing simple and clear at a glance.

Any sections that were illogical or contained errors had also been circled.

A true talent, absolutely a talent.

Ziye gave him a silent thumbs-up, then flipped to the section detailing her responsibilities to plan the next steps.

The proposal listed traditional materials for the armor fabrication requirements: Tritanium alloys, Fan Crystals, Jesper polymer, and so on. She hoped for a greater breakthrough in materials and performance, wanting to introduce some new concepts, but she had no idea what materials to use. Her knowledge of advanced materials was too limited.

Ziye pondered for a moment, then poked the little creature snoring on her lap. "Hey, what material do you think we should use?"

Little Sprout squinted its eyes and replied in a breathy voice, "Why not just test them one by one? If we don't have the materials, we can go find them in the asteroid belt ourselves."

Ziye flicked its forehead in dissatisfaction.

Easy for him to say!

Although there were countless asteroid belts in space, most of them already had owners. If they just went looking for materials, they’d probably get wiped out before they found anything. Furthermore, the nearby asteroid belts were already heavily developed; mining sites were scarce, with most leased out to farmers like the mad scientist for growing flowers, vegetables, and grass.

If they wanted to search on their own, they’d have to venture out to remote, barren star systems.

Sigh...

Ziye let out a long sigh and temporarily abandoned modifying or refining the section she was responsible for, moving on to Li Chunyu's design schematics.

His section was extensive and intricate.

The blueprints alone numbered over a hundred sheets.

Li Chunyu had said he felt nauseous just looking at them and couldn't possibly evaluate every single detail objectively to see what was sound and what was flawed, begging her to look them over when she had time.

The mechs Ziye had built previously generally followed Tang Shan's established template, mainly due to her relative weakness in creating detailed design drawings. However, she had studied Tang Shan’s thousands of blueprints so thoroughly that she could deconstruct even the final complete schematics step-by-step, let alone this.

So, she readily agreed to help Li Chunyu.

First was the mech model.

Li Chunyu had initially envisioned a design resembling a long spear or a heavy machine gun, aiming to break away from the humanoid mech form. However, after dedicated, in-depth research and testing, they discovered that using this configuration made weapon placement disadvantageous in combat.

They were striving to make this mech the essential gear for any pilot, whether for travel, relaxation, or violent enterprise. This test result was quite disheartening.

Ziye started scrutinizing the drawings from the first sheet. By the seventh, she suddenly noticed a spot that felt awkward, though she couldn't pinpoint why immediately. She hurriedly poked Little Sprout. "Look, doesn't this part feel a bit off?"

Little Sprout, having just fallen asleep, was woken up again and jumped up irritably. "If I call you stupid, you’re stupid. This is the crucial part for adjusting the proportions. Whatever overall ratio you want, you change it here, then adjust the tail thrusters."

Ziye’s eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands. "Right! How did I not think of that!"

Little Sprout shook its head. "This little dummy is hopeless."

Waking up three times in one night, Little Sprout lost the desire to sleep. It flapped its wings and flew over to Douzai’s nest, poking the creature awake. Seeing Douzai’s bewildered eyes, it felt unexpectedly satisfied.

Hmph, if this venerable master can’t sleep, why should the little one?

It spread its wings to scoop up Douzai, intending to carry it out, but as it reached, it sensed something was wrong.

It pulled its wing back to look—

"Ahhhh! Douzai pooped!"

Ziye was modifying a copied blueprint when the shout nearly made her ruin the entire sheet. She looked up crossly. "If you make any more noise, I'll seal your mouth shut!"

Then she buried her head back into her work.

"Douzai pooped!!" Little Sprout shrieked louder, flying over and using its clean wing to swipe away her light screen.

Ziye glared at it angrily.

"Douzai pooped!!!" Little Sprout repeated for the third time, then thrust the feces-smeared wing right in front of her face. "It’s just one blueprint; I’ll help you with the rest later. But first, you have to clean the mess off my wing, or I’ll go roll around in your bed!"

Ziye sighed in resignation and temporarily abandoned her study of the mech blueprints. She stood up and walked toward the incubation tank, deliberately trying to annoy it. "If I’m cleaning anything, it’s Douzai’s mess first. There’s barely anything on your wing; you can wait."

Little Sprout gave her a wronged look, but out of consideration for its ‘son,’ it didn't press the issue.

Ziye reached the incubation tank and gasped when she saw the entire interior smeared with droppings. "Douzai finally pooped?!"

Little Sprout hit its head against the wall in exasperation.

What a delayed reaction time!

Ziye had indeed heard that Douzai had pooped, but she hadn't processed the full significance.

It was only now that she realized: Douzai defecating was a monumental first—like a young woman stepping into her bridal sedan!

-RS